"Awake? You were sleeping soundly, so I covered you with a blanket."
A familiar voice came from beside her ear. Only then did Ayaka notice that a blanket had appeared on her body at some point.
Kamisato Estate was located halfway up a mountain, with a cliff just outside its walls.
Although it was mid-summer, it wasn't very hot at Kamisato Estate; in fact, it was a bit cool, especially now that it was already six in the evening.
"Mmm… I only slept for three hours, but why does it feel like I slept for decades?"
Ayaka threw off the blanket, rubbed her eyes, and stood up from the chair.
"By the way, are you done drawing?"
Ryougi shook her head gently at the question. "Only the front. I'll continue drawing the back after dinner."
"Is that so…"
Ayaka's eyes drooped slightly. It was just a dream after all.
"Shiki, I just… had a dream."
"Oh? What did you dream about?"
Shiki said as she took out another piece of paper and drew the outline of a body.
"I dreamed… we got married, and we even had a child named Mina."
"We lived a happy and fulfilling life, embracing each other in our last moments and dying in each other's arms."
Listening to the girl's soft words, Shiki's hand paused, then she put away her pen and asked,
"The Mina you mentioned, is she a little girl with white hair?"
"Eh? How did you know?"
Now it was Ayaka's turn to be surprised. How did the other person know about the character who appeared in her dream?
And the next second, the girl's words shocked her even more.
"Because… I also dreamed of her," Shiki said faintly.
"I dreamed of my parents, and then I saw a white-haired girl who called me 'Mom'…"
"What? Shiki also dreamed of her parents?" Ayaka asked subconsciously.
She hadn't known until she said it, but it was startling. Their two dreams had too many similarities.
The same deceased parents, the same white-haired girl—such obvious features indicated that in Shiki's dream, the other half was also her…
Ayaka carefully recalled the events in her dream, but the dream was being forgotten at an extremely rapid pace. Except for some relatively important plot points, she could no longer remember the rest.
"In my dream, the Kamisato Clan didn't suffer any misfortunes… Wait, it seems that in the dream, our family wasn't in Teyvat at all."
"There were no Seven Archons there. It was a unified country, and strangely, Shiki had a dual personality."
Hearing that it wasn't Teyvat, Shiki immediately thought of Earth, but the unified country made her dismiss that thought.
Because the Earth she was on was not unified. There were more than two hundred countries on the small planet, and the world situation was controlled by five major powers.
Her country was the foremost among them, possessing the most developed military power globally, and throughout history, it had always been the strongest country in Asia.
It was quite miraculous, actually. Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, this nation began its decline, and the Qing army was about to enter the pass.
But then, a fierce individual suddenly emerged, directly defeating the Eight Banners so thoroughly that not even their flags remained, then gave the imperial court a beating, and finally changed the dynastic title to Tian.
After the situation stabilized, the scope of Tian began to expand outwards. Places like Neon and Goryeo directly became provinces of Tian.
Moreover, dual personality… Shiki couldn't help but wonder if the existence within her body could truly be considered her own personality?
Furthermore, she herself wasn't the true Shiki; she merely happened to cosplay Root Shiki at a comic convention. She didn't have a dual personality.
But despite thinking this, Shiki still asked, "Two personalities? So in your dream, I'm a schizophrenic patient?"
"It's not quite like that…"
"Your two personalities are still very similar, just with slightly different tones of voice when speaking," Ayaka said after thinking for a moment.
"Then, what do you think? Which personality am I like now?"
"…Neither."
"Neither?"
"Yes!" Ayaka nodded vigorously. "Shiki is more like… a combination of those two personalities."
"The two personalities, Yin and Yang, Shiki and Ori."
'Perhaps I dreamed of a dual personality because my subconscious included Shiki from the festival…'
Ayaka thought this, but she wouldn't have imagined that her fleeting dream was a product propelled by Shiki.
People are good at filling in the blanks. Ayaka found a suitable explanation for her dream, but Shiki's expression was very strange now.
She strongly suspected that both her and Ayaka's dreams were caused by [Her].
Unlike Ayaka, Shiki had a complete 'Kara no Kyoukai' in her mind. After establishing a connection, what she knew, [She] definitely also knew.
'But why would she make us have such dreams? And I feel like she's been appearing more and more frequently lately?'
Shiki felt that [She] had appeared more times in the past few days than all the previous times combined.
First, she improved the kimono and earrings, then she made her master the language and writing of Enkanomiya, and finally, Ayaka's dream.
Basically, she appeared every other day. Could it be that she wasn't going to sleep anymore?
Shiki was a bit puzzled, but she didn't know that [She] appeared far more often than she thought.
It could be said that Shiki was deceiving both sides, hiding many things.
For instance, Shiki still does not know that "she" changed Ayaka's clothes at the festival, and Ayaka does not know that Shiki is already aware of the existence of [her].
"But what I'm more curious about is how we could have a child. We are both girls, after all!"
"This... I can't quite remember..." Ayaka said weakly. "But I still vaguely recall that it was I who gave birth to Mana..."
Shiki: "..."
Alright, things have started to take a turn for the magical. Two girls having a child—she simply couldn't wrap her head around it.
But then again, she is no longer human now. Does the biological system of mortals even apply to her anymore?
Shiki fell into deep thought.
Perhaps she and Ayaka really could have a child? After all, there isn't even reproductive isolation between Archons and mortals, so pregnancy and childbirth between people of the same sex should be a given... right?
Upon thinking of this, an image of Ayaka with a big belly suddenly appeared in Shiki's mind, and she immediately shook her head.
'Sinful, sinful. Ayaka is still a minor!'
That's illegal; it's truly "handcuff-able." This "prison-bound" life is right before my eyes!
"...Why did you suddenly shake your head?"
Ayaka looked confused. She had only just mentioned that she was pregnant in her dream; why did the young girl go from gloomy to bright in an instant? And then shake her head at the end?
"Uh... it's nothing. I just suddenly thought of something regarding dreams..."
Shiki would never admit that she had imagined the image of the young girl being pregnant; that would be too illegal.
Ayaka didn't suspect anything; after all, this dream was truly peculiar, dreaming of her entire life in just three short hours.
"Then let's go eat; it's just about time for a meal."
"Mn."
Shiki nodded in agreement, then tidied up the papers on the table, finally placing the fountain pen in a relatively prominent position.
At this moment, Shiki was still wearing the furisode kimono named "Spring," and her hair was not let down.
The hair ornament pinned to her hair swayed gently with the girl's movements. In a trance, Ayaka seemed to see the scene from her dream again.
At that time, she was inconvenienced by her pregnancy, and the other person was also tidying up things at home just like this.
Both times, the hair was pinned up, but in the dream, it was because they were already married, while in reality, it was because of her coquettishness.
'But... this isn't half bad, either...'
If possible, she would quite like to recreate the scene of getting married and having children from her dream in reality.
"Shall we go?"
Shiki said softly in the young girl's ear, pulling her thoughts back to reality.
"Mn..."
If one knows it is a dream, why wake? It cannot compare to a true meeting...
After dinner, Shiki drew all the acupuncture points and meridians on her own back. At this time, there were still two hours left until the midnight appointment with Sangonomiya Kokomi.
"Shiki, there are two hours left. Are you planning to start creating the immortal technique now?"
Ayaka sat beside Shiki. This time she wasn't asleep and had witnessed the entire process of the young girl drawing the meridian map.
"No, one must balance work and rest to achieve twice the result with half the effort." Shiki shook her head.
"Drawing the meridian map is an extremely mentally draining task. I don't have the energy left to create an immortal technique right now."
This wasn't her wanting to slack off; she truly didn't have the energy to continue.
A normal human's meridian map is a headache to look at, let alone hers.
Within the same area, the internal structure was several times more complex, and the acupuncture points had increased exponentially. Coupled with multitasking the entire time, her mental state had currently reached its limit.
"It seems Shiki is very tired. In that case, shall we go soak in the hot spring?"
Ayaka smiled sweetly. Although it was a question, she had already taken the young girl's fair, delicate hand and was walking toward the hot spring area.
The Kamisato Clan has its own private hot spring, so if one wants to soak, there is naturally no need to run to Inazuma City.
Moreover, given their status, going to a bathhouse in Inazuma City to soak would actually be inappropriate; after all, this world has never been short of perverts.
"Eh?"
Before Shiki could react, she was led all the way to the bathroom by Ayaka.
Gurgle, gurgle...
The sound of surging spring water reached her ears, but it looked like it was an artificial hot spring.
Simply put, it was filling it with water and then heating it. As for how it was heated, she imagined it relied on the pipes on the ceiling.
"Ayaka, tell me, when did you have them prepare the hot spring?"
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