Chapter 133: Snow Day
—
The lightning was lovely here. Lanterns floated between pagodas and banners snapped in air that wasn't really air. Somewhere above, a dragon‑shaped cloud slid between towers like it was late for a meeting.
We walked straight into a wall of people. Mortals from Earth in mixed robes and street clothes, cultivators in ridiculous outfits with more accessories than sense. Semi‑corporeal spirits drifting through bodies like fog, and vendors yelling over each other. Drums in the distance. A floating ox cart cut between platforms.
Three seconds of that, and our group came apart.
The crowd surged from a side alley, bodies pressed between us like a tide. Someone's shoulder clipped my ribs. I reached out on instinct and closed my hand around the nearest wrist that felt familiar.
"Hey," I said.
Luna looked up, startled. Then she saw it was me and let out a breath.
"We just got split," I said. "You okay with being stuck with the alien?"
"You're famous and hard to kill," she said. "I'll take my chances."
"Romantic," I said.
We let the crowd carry us sideways until we squeezed between a noodle stall and a rack of cheap swords, spilling out onto a slightly clearer side street.
Behind us, the main flow rolled past like a river. I squinted and searched. No sign of Charmcaster's hair, Amadeus' tablet, Kwannon's bored eyes, or Lin at all. Collen was probably lost as well.
"Think they'll notice?" I asked.
"Your Kwannon will," Luna said. "Amadeus will look up in half an hour and scream. Illyana already knew this would happen."
"Comforting."
We stood there for a second. The air smelled like pepper oil, smoke, and incense. A vendor a few steps away slapped meat on a grill and the sizzle almost drowned the drums.
I looked up.
There were balconies stacked on balconies, each with its own lanterns, talismans, and tiny shrines squeezed into corners. Roof tiles etched with runes that glowed if you stared too long. Floating bridges connecting towers that shouldn't physically stand.
If you'd handed this to twelve‑year‑old me on a game screen, I'd have thought it was overdesigned. In person, it worked.
"Wow," Luna muttered. "It's like ten drama sets mashed together."
"You grew up in Seoul," I said. "Haven't you seen this aesthetic before?"
"CGI and cardboard, mostly," she said. "This place has real flying dragons."
Another serpent of light glided overhead. People barely glanced up.
"Point," I admitted.
A girl in a hanbok walking past us froze. Her eyes landed on Luna, grew huge.
"Seol Hee‑ssi?" she blurted, in quick Korean.
Luna's posture flipped instantly. Shoulders back, smile bright. It was her image of 'perfect,' I realized. "Annyeonggg," she said, giving a small wave. "You made it up here too?"
The girl let out a sound halfway between scream and hiccup, giving her a quick hug. It seemed like an old friend of Luna. The girl's friends didn't seem like they knew Luna personally though, and they stared like they couldn't process what they were seeing.
"You're– you're Luna Snow," one of them managed. "From the Busan show?! I– can you– autograph?!"
"Of course," Luna said smoothly. "What's your name?"
"Minji."
Luna took the crumpled paper Minji dug out of her bag and scribbled something, then did the selfie routine. She did a quick lean, head tilt, and a practiced V sign. By the time she finished, a few other heads were turning, whispers starting.
One guy near me squinted. "Is that really…?"
"Yup," I said. "Live and unrendered."
He opened his mouth to ask who I was. I smiled kindly and turned away. Luna didn't take too long, she rejoined me a minute later, still smiling, but it wasn't the idol smile anymore. A bit softer.
"Come on, you threw a crowd at me."
"Does that happen everywhere?" I asked.
"Sometimes," she said. "Less in other dimensions, but apparently K‑Pop travels."
"Multiversal streaming," I said. "Very fun."
She laughed. "It pays," she said. "Food?"
"Now we're talking my favorite subject," I said.
****
The food street was overstimulating but somehow it worked. Stalls lined both sides every few steps, and there were steam baskets, too. Skewers, and massive flat pans full of dumplings frying in rings.
One that caught my eye was bowls of noodles held together by chopsticks that hovered on their own. Spirit fish swimming in big clay pots, seasoning themselves in real time.
Little charms flared over some of the more luxurious-looking stands, promising their customers "PURE, NO DEMONS" or "DRAGON‑BLESSED RECIPE." Others had nothing but a hand‑painted sign and a line.
Luna homed in on a stand where a bent old lady was pulling noodles by hand into a bubbling pot.
"This one's the real deal, American boy," Luna said. "You can tell by the smell."
"This the part where you flex five thousand years of food history on me?" I asked.
"Only a couple hundred," she said. "My grandma used to make something like this."
We joined the line and I patted my pockets out of habit even though I knew the answer. No money. I saw people buy things with jade or something called heavenly tokens, but I had neither. I did have my wallet but the currency wouldn't work here.
The old lady glanced up as we reached the front. Her eyes flicked over Luna, paused, then warmed. "You again," she said in rough Mandarin. The Omnitrix translated the tone easily. It was fond. "Cold noodles?"
"Please," Luna said. "Two bowls."
"Now, how should I pay her, Luna?"
"How?" Luna laughed. "You don't have local coin, do you?"
I didn't give her a reaction. "...We kind of skipped the part where you exchange money at the door," I said. "Entered through a secret passage, remember?"
She giggled which soon turned into a bigger laugh. "Ben Tennyson, Hero of Mutants, and you came to a heavenly flea market broke," she wheezed. "Amadeus at least tried to trade away junk tech. You just brought your smile."
"I brought the ability to win this tournament, too," I said. "Not as tradable as you'd think."
She handed the old woman jade tokens with a bright, "Kamsahamnida," and turned back to me.
"I've got you," she said. "You can pay me back in entertainment."
"So that's your rate?" I asked. "Food for jokes?"
"Food, jokes, occasional life‑saving," she said. "Normal Tuesday for you, no?"
We took our bowls to a low bench wedged against a wall. I took a bite. The broth was deep and fatty with some spice I couldn't place. The noodles had just enough bite. Steam hit my face and cleared out tension from my shoulders I hadn't realized was there.
I made a sound that surprised me too. This thing was good!
"So?" she asked.
"This might beat Grandpa's chili," I said. "If you ever tell him I said that, I'll deny it."
"That good?"
"No, his chili is trash. This is good. He puts pickles in it sometimes," I said. "Don't ask."
She giggled, then slurped noodles with zero concern for idol image. "So?" she said again, but there was more in it this time. "Heaven match your American movies yet?"
"I've read more novels on this rather than watching movies. And honestly?" I looked around. "The food's better. Less random young masters begging for a beating."
"You read those too?" she asked.
"Oh yeah," I said. "Cultivation webnovels, dungeon stories, the works. Half their heavenly cities looked like this in my head. This one has fewer exclamation marks."
"And more real consequences," she said.
"Yeah," I said quietly.
We finished in mostly comfortable silence. When we were done, Luna stood and stretched, arms up, back arching. My brain registered it as my eyes swam over the curves. I'm not proud. I'm also not sorry.
"You're staring," she said.
"Multitasking," I said.
She rolled her eyes. "Come on. You need a souvenir."
"I have an Omnitrix," I said, holding up my wrist.
"Stop bragging about your weapon already, big boy," she corrected.
****
We drifted through trinket stalls.
My eyes caught spirit beads, wooden charms painted with little cranes, and swords that hummed when we passed too close. And… uh… bottled clouds, too? But the "authentic dragon scale" was definitely just lacquered turtle shell.
Luna stopped at a stall full of plants.
Not Earth plants, at least not from the mortal plane. Some glowed faintly. Some had leaves that spun in slow circles without moving air. One vine curled toward my hand as I passed then recoiled like it had been burned.
The sign above it read in old characters the Omnitrix helpfully labeled [Auspicious Herbs And Influences].
The vendor had no eyebrows and too much smile. Bad combination.
"Looking for luck?" he crooned. "Fortune? Courage? Warmth in the bed?"
Luna coughed. "We're just looking."
"Young couples always are," he said.
"We're not cou–" she started.
"We're browsing," I cut in. "What's that one?"
I pointed at the least obnoxious thing. It was a small pale flower with thin white petals tipped in silver.
The man plucked it up with care. "Moon‑Tipped Orchid," he said. "Calms the mind. Softens hard hearts. It encourages open conversation, you can say," his smile sharpened. "Good for clearing the air between two people getting to know each other..."
Luna made a small noise. "So it's therapy in plant form," she muttered.
"Better marketing than 'aphrodisiac,'" I said under my breath.
She snorted. "It can't be that, come on."
The vendor leaned forward. "For you, special price," he said. "First‑love discount."
He really needed to retire that line. Luna looked at me. "What do you think? My bet is that it's not aphrodisiac, and probably would just make us a little high."
"Eh, sure. Let's try it. But if it turns us into giggling teens, I'm blaming you," I said.
She paid before I could talk myself out of it. We left with the orchid wrapped in thin paper and tucked into a little pouch at her belt.
We walked.
K'un‑Zi shifted from open market chaos to narrower streets. The lanterns hung lower here, mostly white and blue instead of festival red. The noise dropped a notch. The air felt… cooler, but my skin felt warmer.
I chalked it up to the crowds at first. Then I realized we weren't in a crowd anymore.
Luna's fingers brushed mine once. Neither of us pulled away immediately. Her hand was cool against the weird warm buzz in my palm.
The smell from the pouch at her belt was faint. It reminded me of snow, something floral, a clean sweetness.
Okay, I thought. This is probably already doing something.
"Is it just me," Luna said quietly, "or is it getting hot?"
"A little," I said. "I think I was right and you wrong."
She huffed. "Figures."
We'd drifted into a side alley without noticing. It wasn't dark or creepy, not really, but narrower. A few lanterns hung over doorways, casting soft light. And someone had left out a bowl of rice and fruit in front of a tiny shrine at ankle height.
We stopped.
I could have stepped back then. Logical Ben would have said, "Oh well, since we're under mild influence, let's just retreat and regroup."
Instead, we just… looked at each other.
"My body's warming up, Ben…" Luna said.
"Yeah," I said. "That'd be the sketchy flower we bought instead of reading the label."
"Typical," she muttered. "I survive idols, stalkers, and supervillains, and I get taken out by mood incense. Should have listened to you…"
We were close enough now that I could see the faint color in her cheeks, the way her eyes kept dropping to my mouth and snapping back up. There was a beat where I could have stepped back. I didn't.
"This is stupid," she said quietly.
"Isn't it?" I agreed.
She exhaled, sharp and shaky, then grabbed my shirt near the collar and kissed me. Hard.
The first thought that hit me wasn't smart or noble. Luna Snow. Top‑tier idol. My brain supplied headlines that I didn't ask for, fans screaming into pillows, entire forums melting down.
God help me, that only made it better.
Her lips were cooler than I expected, a sharp contrast against the heat crawling under my skin. It felt like a cool breeze in the heat of the summer, addictive and wrong in the best way. She tasted faintly of broth and mint, and something else that made my thoughts blur around the edges.
My hands found her without a meeting or a vote. One arm slid around her waist, yanking her in, while the other drifted lower until my palm pressed against the curve of her ass. She sucked in a breath when I squeezed, fingers tightening in my shirt like she'd decided not to pretend anymore.
She stepped closer, crowding me until her body was flush against mine, hips brushing in a way that was definitely not accidental. Luna's hand slid up the back of my neck, nails dragging just enough to make my spine light up, fingers threading into my hair and tugging when I deepened the kiss.
It got sloppy after that.
Our teeth clattered together and we breathed into one another. Her mouth opened under mine with a soft sound that went straight to my head, and I responded without thinking, kissing her harder, messier, as if I wanted to keep her all for myself.
I backed into the wall without meaning to, the stone cool against my shoulders while everything else burned. The alley shrank until there was nothing but warm air, her body pressed into mine, and the way her perfume mixed with that faint snow‑flower scent and sank right under my skin.
If I'd been thirteen, I'd probably have exploded from sheer teenage wish fulfillment. K‑Pop idol, ancient sky city, and magical aphrodisiac. Wasn't this someone's fanfic cliché bingo? And–
The Omnitrix pinged.
A tiny vibration happened on my wrist, and a soft holo line appeared at the edge of my vision.
[Airborne Agent Detected – Mild Neuromodulator Present].
Moon Orchid. Right. The kiss wasn't intentional from either side, we were being influenced. So was it really anything to brag about…? I eased off the kiss, letting it taper instead of snapping away. Our foreheads rested together for a second, both of us breathing a little harder.
"We've got cheating on the field," I said quietly.
"What?" she asked.
"The flower," I said. "It's hazing your brain, but snap out of it. Omnitrix says it's tickling our brains. Nothing major, but…"
"…but it's not just us," she finished, closing her eyes for a heartbeat. "Oh, great. Fell for the old incense trick."
"Could happen to anyone with a nose," I said.
She leaned her forehead into my chest with a little groan. "I'm never telling anyone about this," she said. "Amadeus will write a paper."
"I'll make something up," I said. "Tell him you punched me for trying to copy your choreography."
She laughed against my shirt, then stepped back enough to look up at me.
"You're calling it?" she asked. There was no accusation in it, just checking.
"Yeah, sure," I said. "We keep going and we'll both wonder later how much was us and how much was herbal meddling. I've got enough bad decisions on my record, so I'd like at least some of them to be fully my fault."
She exhaled, then nodded. "Big man," she said softly.
"I have flashes," I said.
She unhooked the pouch from her belt and dropped it into my hand. The wrapped orchid pulsed faintly with light from inside the paper, like it was smug.
I flicked a tiny spark from my fingertip. The paper caught, edges curling in a slow black line. The scent spiked, then thinned as smoke curled up and away. We watched until there was nothing left but ash.
"Goodbye, expensive mistake," Luna said. "You were fun for five minutes."
"Call it tuition," I said. "Next time we buy mystical plants, we bring a chemist."
"We have one," she said. "Amadeus."
"Preferably a girl," I said.
"You're terrible."
We stepped out of the alley.
The noise hit us again like a wave. The sound of drums, chatter, and vendors calling. The strange heat in my veins dropped back to a manageable buzz. Luna walked beside me, not quite touching, but not keeping distance either.
"Just so it's clear," she said after a bit, "that was still… good."
"Yeah," I said. "No refunds."
She smiled, cheeks a little pink. "Good," she said. "And I'm counting this as a date. A new shiny hero in the market, and Luna Snow already marked him early. Sounds like a fun headline a few years later."
"If we live, we'll renegotiate the label," I said.
She bumped my shoulder.
We found our way back to the upper tier by feel more than map, we followed the crowd uphill and looked for our guesthouse's dragon‑infested roofline.
Kwannon was sitting by the door when we arrived, arms folded, looking like she'd been there for hours and also like she hadn't worried at all. "Separated," she said, eyeing us.
"We found food," I said. "Acquired life lessons. Didn't get mugged."
Her gaze flicked between us, taking in the slightly messed hair and the way Luna's mouth was a bit too red. "Hn," she said, and then followed with a sigh, "You know she's an Idol right? Since you want to avoid leaking your identity to the public, it's best not to date an idol. For her too, Korea and its Idol culture is terrible for dating."
"Relax~ we aren't dating, he's just fun to hang around with," Luna hummed a tune under her breath and pushed the door open.
"Yeah, what she said," I agreed. I took one last look at the insane, beautiful city spilling down the mountain, lantern light turning the air into something almost tangible.
Heavenly Cities was weird.
But that wasn't entirely a bad thing.
**
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Author Note: It's another sunday guys! I managed to fulfil the promise of 3-chapters last week, and this week too I'll fill that. Throw some spare stones since its another week! A lot of old readers might get reminded if they see the story in the top rankings
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