“What did you say?! How is that possible?!”
While Salome, like her other sisters, typically held Cassandra’s words in high regard—primarily because Cassandra could achieve the most divine form of precognition through the power of Lihantian—her recent pronouncement was simply too much for Salome to accept.
“Come on, even if I did feel like Mom wasn’t quite the same as the one in my memories when I first saw her, I immediately used my gene analysis nerve to investigate, you know,” Salome stated. “You wouldn’t doubt that, would you?”
“Of course I believe it.” Cassandra nodded.
As one of the “gifts” of genetic science, the sisters not only possessed their own unique talents and extraordinary abilities, but also shared certain common traits. The gene analysis nerve was one such example: this specialized, miniature organ, located above the amygdala, could roughly analyze anything consumed that contained genetic material. While it couldn’t perform a complete and thorough genetic analysis directly, it could, given a pre-recorded genetic profile of a target, confirm whether genetic information originated from a specific individual.
Therefore, when Salome had first encountered Shirley and the others, she hadn’t thrown caution to the wind and directly kissed them out of a sudden blossoming of sapphic affection. Rather, it was for two other primary objectives: one was to examine and analyze the genetic material in the epidermal cells of their oral cavities, thereby confirming that the carefree, seemingly innocent JK before her truly was their mother who had escaped to another world…
And indeed, that proved to be the case.
“But, what I mean is, this current Mom might no longer be the same person, in terms of personality, as the Mom we swore to ‘repay’ in the past.”
“Huh? Now that you mention it, Mom has indeed been saying that,” Salome shrugged. “She claims she can’t remember anything from her past and believes she’s seventeen, a high school student…”
“Then, isn’t this ‘Mom’ completely different from the Mom of the past?” Cassandra asked. “If Mom remembers nothing of her former life, then her life has essentially begun anew. Although I deeply, deeply resented the old Mom, if she remembers nothing and is just an ordinary JK…”
“It’s an act! It’s all an act!” Salome exclaimed, a hint of agitation in her voice. “Mom lies as naturally as she breathes; her talent for disguise is unmatched, and you know this! Based on my deduction, her school must be an elite academy. Her reason for enrolling as a high school student is undoubtedly to ensnare the daughters of powerful families, using them as stepping stones to climb higher in the future, preparing to seize control of that world and indulge her whims!”
“Uh…” Cassandra shook her head. “I don’t think—”
“I’m telling you, that’s exactly it! Cassandra, you don’t know, but when the spatiotemporal distortion ended, and I first found Mom, she was with four other girls! And those four girls were actually fighting over her!” Salome’s expression twisted with profound disgust. “Clearly, she must have used ‘that ability’ to turn those girls into her puppets and tools for her wicked desires! Who knows how many other victims she has in that school?!”
“Er… but isn’t it quite normal for girls in an all-girls school to develop some sweet, innocent feelings for each other and do some rather shy things? Especially when they’re sixteen or seventeen, high school students, precisely when their hormones are most active…”
“But our dearest Mom isn’t like that! That ancient hag has no ‘vague teenage yearnings’!” In her overwhelming fury, Salome even bit her lip as she spoke. A trickle of blood ran down the corner of her mouth, yet she seemed utterly oblivious. “Her soul is stuffed with lies! Just think of our father! Think about how Mom, who countless times declared him ‘most trustworthy’ and ‘most reliable,’ was disposed of like trash in a garbage can?!”
“But what if she really has amnesia…”
“Amnesia? I say she fabricated that after realizing she was back, out of fear of confronting us! The Human Revival Council has attempted to send personnel to other parallel worlds hundreds, even thousands, of times. Some suffered ruptured intestines, others died on the spot, but no one ever exhibited symptoms of amnesia.”
“But… I saw…”
“You saw a premonition?!”
“Yes, I did. Though it was as blurry as ever, I saw you typing on a screen with a huge smile on your face, and the content was all ‘I love Mom,’” Cassandra explained. “While other details weren’t clear, still…”
“Oh, yes, of course, we all love Mom the most,” Salome scoffed—Cassandra’s premonitions, though fragmented and obscure, and though she herself couldn’t pinpoint when or where they would occur, had one undeniable certainty: anything she “saw” would, for at least a fleeting moment, become reality. “So rest assured, I will definitely keep her alive… After all, if only the two of us were allowed to love her, that would be terribly unfair to our other sisters, wouldn’t it?”
Cassandra said no more, merely staring silently at the monitor screen behind Salome, lost in thought.
****
“Welcome to our temporary stronghold!” Carefully pushing open the aluminum alloy grille at the end of the ventilation duct, Shijō Yurizumi addressed her companions. “While the environment isn’t ideal, its advantage lies in abundant supplies; with careful use, they can last a long time.”
“That’s certainly true.” Shirley glanced around, nodding her head—unable to return to the dormitories, Yurizumi’s hiding spot was in the kitchen beneath the school cafeteria, adjacent to a cold storage room. Although the city’’s main power grid had disconnected from the school, the emergency power system was still operational. Consequently, the emergency lights remained on, and the cold storage hadn’t completely shut down.
Normally, the school’s cold storage would hold four to five days’ worth of food ingredients. Even during the holiday, with most students gone, the food inside was still enough to feed one person for about a thousand days. This meant they wouldn’t have to worry about meals for the time being. However, just as Shirley, who had been hungry for nearly a day, began to contemplate what to eat, a pair of terrifyingly soft spherical objects suddenly struck her face.
“Ugh—wah!”
“Shirley-chan, you’re finally here! Do you know how scared Alice has been all day?! When Alice saw the monsters outside, Alice thought everything was over!”
“Ugh… Mmm…”
“Even though Alice found a safe place for now, Alice can’t contact anyone outside and doesn’t know what’s happening to everyone else! Last night, Alice cried herself to sleep! Because in her dreams, Alice saw Shirley-chan die three times! Oh my goodness, Alice truly wishes she could switch places with Shirley-chan! Without Shirley-chan, Alice’s world would be nothing but darkness!”
“Gurgle… sniffle, sniffle…”
“Thank goodness, Shirley-chan, you finally found Alice safely! Now Alice won’t have to spend her life veiled in black, weeping as a widow until she dies alone! See, surviving such a terrifying and desperate disaster, and reuniting with Alice again, means everything was predetermined! This must be God’s will! As soon as this is all over, let’s go to the church and exchange rings! Then we’ll grow old together… Eh? Shirley-chan? What’s wrong? Are you alright?!”
“Gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle…” (Sound of foaming at the mouth)
Finally released by Alice, Shirley, like a fish gasping for air after surfacing from oxygen deprivation, began desperately gulping fresh air. There were countless ways to die in this world, but to be suffocated by F-cup-sized masses of fat—surely, throughout history, there would be no other such case!
“Alright, alright, you all must be hungry, right? Don’t worry, we don’t have much else here, but there’s plenty of food, so let me treat you all properly.” Seeing the atmosphere grow a bit awkward, Yurizumi quickly interjected.
“Um, our resident chuunibyou, can you cook?” Ji Bingyao asked curiously.
“Are you kidding me? Of course I can! Are you doubting the culinary heritage passed down from my ancestors, Fujiwara Ason Shijō Yurizumi, who were both cultured and martial, and quite handsome to boot?”
“Family heritage?”
“My family’s heritage is the Paoding Dao! The Paoding Dao! It was utterly unique among all the court nobles of its time, without equal!” Yurizumi walked to the cutting board and retrieved a pre-thawed ribbonfish. “Now, let me show you my family’s proud, ancestral skill!”
The moment she finished speaking, Yurizumi gripped the ribbonfish with a pair of chopsticks, forcefully tossed the unfortunate carnivore into the air, then brandished the incredibly sharp fish-killing knife in her hand. For a moment, blades flashed, silver lines crisscrossed, transforming into blurred afterimages. By the time the ribbonfish fell onto the cutting board, it had already been expertly sliced into a pile of fish chunks mid-air.
“Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh! Amazing!” Everyone applauded—it seemed their chuunibyou friend wasn’t joking after all. That display… it was quite impressive as a juggling act.
“How about that? Being able to debone a fish completely without touching it with your hands is the essence of my family’s technique,” Yurizumi explained proudly. “Centuries of tradition can’t be easily challenged by just any common cat or dog. Now, look forward to what’s next!”
After collecting the sliced fish chunks, Yurizumi gathered some other ingredients and busied herself in the kitchen. About ten minutes later, she returned to the group, carrying a ceramic tray upon which a silver lid was solemnly placed. “Now, feel honored! The magnificent culmination of centuries of skill from the Shijō-style Paoding Dao is not something just anyone gets to taste!”
“Ah… er… thank you!” After Yurizumi lifted the lid, Shirley, out of politeness, said, “It… it looks very… delicious… right?”
“Right? See, I told you! Hurry up and eat!” Yurizumi urged, completely oblivious to the beads of cold sweat forming on Shirley’s forehead.
Naturally, the others present were in the same predicament.