Chapter 88: Performance (One)
"Bro, you’re Blue Arc, right?" Su Zimai said.
Facing his sister’s intense gaze, Ji Minghuan rolled his eyes and slowly replied,
"Let me guess—did you lose a round of truth or dare to your teacher?"
Before Su Zimai could respond, he looked away nonchalantly, glanced around at the surrounding Japanese people, and muttered,
"First it’s Exorcists, now it’s ‘I’m Blue Arc’... If the Japanese folks could understand us, they’d probably think we’re a bunch of lunatics doing a team-building exercise. Might even call the cops on us."
Su Zimai stared straight into his eyes and said in a low voice,
"You still haven’t answered my question."
"Aren’t you bored of this already?" Ji Minghuan looked into her blazing eyes and replied helplessly, "I’m not Blue Arc. Happy now?"
"Then..." Su Zimai looked down, thought for a moment, then looked up again, still refusing to let go. "Swear it to me, bro."
Without a second’s hesitation, Ji Minghuan rattled off a string of curses: "If I’m Blue Arc, may Big Bro step on dog sh*t tonight, fail every college exam, never graduate, and even if he does, never find a job!"
Su Zimai frowned and pressed on,
"What’s that got to do with Big Bro? I want you to swear for yourself."
"Big Bro isn’t me?"
Ji Minghuan dropped the topic and turned away from his clingy sister to look at Ke Qirui.
He sighed, put his hands together in a prayer pose, and dragged his words out pleadingly: "Please, have mercy. I just came out for a free meal. Did she really have to torture me like this?"
"I’ll be a better man. I’ll never accuse you of being into girls again."
As he rambled, the waiter came over with a steaming bowl of ramen and placed it in front of him.
Like he was turning sorrow into appetite, Ji Minghuan picked up his chopsticks and dug in, ignoring the other three.
Seeing "Gu Wenyu" not responding anymore, Su Zimai looked conflicted, her eyes glimmering.
After a moment of silence, she exchanged a glance with Ke Qirui; Xu Sanyan remained quietly watching the television above them.
"This is serious..." Xu Sanyan said casually, his gaze fixed on the TV broadcasting the news.
Hearing that, Ji Minghuan slurped noodles while following Xu Sanyan’s line of sight.
On the TV, Tokyo News was live-streaming a sudden incident in Shiba Park—
the serial killer "Winged Man" was in a standoff with the Japanese Reality-altering Esper "Sakurabu" on the Tokyo Tower exhibition platform.
A small helicopter carried a reporter and cameraman, broadcasting the scene to Tokyo’s public. The rotor blades buzzed in the night air.
Sakurabu was a Dragon-level Esper working for the Japanese Esper Association.
She was a tall young woman wearing a kendo uniform, with a sword sheathed at her waist and a katana in her hand. The blade shimmered faintly pink, the sheath reflecting bits of moonlight from above.
Her ability could turn anything she touched into cherry blossoms, while retaining its properties. She used it in her swordplay—
transforming the katana’s blade into countless sharp sakura petals that could shred opponents invisibly.
Meanwhile, standing ten meters from her, the "Winged Man" looked bizarre—
A balding middle-aged man in a yellow raincoat, with a metal rod growing from his skull, connected to a rotor blade like a helicopter. He was like a grotesque fusion of human and industrial machinery.
"Winged Man," a serial killer.
His Esper ability allowed him to turn his body into a helicopter rotor, letting him abduct victims from crime scenes and kill them horrifically in unreachable places.
At that moment, he was pressing his right hand’s fingers to the neck of a female hostage.
"Don’t come any closer!" he barked.
"If you kill her, you’ll have no way out," Sakurabu said slowly, enunciating each word.
She quickly mimicked the tone of a well-known figure, "Black Cocoon":
"Think about it. If she dies, which one of us ends up worse off?"
"Tell your people to back off first," Winged Man growled. His yellow coat flapped in the high-altitude wind.
His right hand's fingers twisted together, transforming into a small helicopter blade that began spinning rapidly.
"Ah—!" the hostage screamed, knowing that rotor could easily slice her throat open.
The camera feed was expected to cut off at any moment.
But just then—out of nowhere—a black shadow slithered behind Winged Man, striking like a snake.
Black straps extended from a sleeve, pulling his arms wide and snapping tight around his wrists.
Then the shadow gave a gentle push, toppling the hostage toward Sakurabu.
Sakurabu blinked in surprise, then leaped forward to catch the hostage, looking up with a startled expression.
In the ramen shop, as the black Binding restraints appeared on the TV, Ke Qirui raised her brows.
She couldn’t help but smirk and said, "Our collaborator sure is active."
"Big fluttering moth..." Su Zimai frowned at the shadow on screen.
Black Cocoon’s figure slowly came into focus. He wore sunglasses and crouched like a black cat on the Tokyo Tower railing, the Binding restraints swirling around him like flowing water.
"Who the h*ll are you?!"
Before Winged Man could react, the restraints coiled around him, bundling him up like a black dumpling in seconds.
"Let me go, d*mn it!" Winged Man growled.
With a deafening hum, the rotor on his head spun wildly, trying to use its torque to break free and escape into the night sky.
But the next moment, the restraints glowed strangely—
his rotor suddenly shrank and transformed into sparse hair on a shiny bald head.
The exposed scalp was tragic, almost moving.
"Why? WHY?!"
Winged Man clutched his nearly bald head and roared in disbelief.
"Who knows? Sir, it’s my first time seeing someone pay for using their powers with hair loss.
Maybe the heavens couldn’t bear to see you keep humiliating your pitiful hair and took your powers back."
Black Cocoon shrugged, mocking him as the restraints tightened around his throat, bringing him to the ground and yanking him into unconsciousness.
Released, Winged Man collapsed like a puddle of mud.
Watching the scene unfold, Ke Qirui speculated,
"Do his restraints suppress Esper abilities too?"
Xu Sanyan puffed his cigarette. "Looks that way. Otherwise, no way his powers just cut off like that."
Su Zimai let out a rare sigh of relief and begrudgingly acknowledged Big Fluttering Moth’s strength:
"Okay… maybe he’s useful… even if he’s still just a sh*t-stirrer."
"Just a big fluttering moth,"
Ji Minghuan muttered through the Binding Restraint Clone, propping his chin in his hand with a lazy tone.
Meanwhile, the helicopter’s cameraman zoomed in on Black Cocoon.
Sitting on the Tokyo Tower railing, he turned toward Sakurabu behind him and said,
"Take the poor hostage to the hospital. She’s lost too much blood to last much longer."
Sakurabu still had questions, but seeing the hostage’s condition, she let them go. Carrying the woman, she leaped into the moonlight and vanished from the frame.
Now only Black Cocoon remained on screen.
He retracted the restraints, slowly sat on the outer railing, hunched down, and lowered his face.
Then, turning to the helicopter’s camera—he waved.
It seemed… he was about to put on a show.