A silhouette stepped out.
Silent, and sharp.
The figure halted just inside the light, then took one small step back, the lost gray eyes lifting to him with an unmistakable look of accusation.
As if saying:
You dare dump this on me?
"Can you stop playing around?" her voice was cool, clean, without ripples, like water touching stone.
"I'm playing around?" Wang Xiao blinked, absolutely unapologetic.
"Yes," she said, tone flat. "Stop playing around with children."
Her gaze slid briefly toward the girl who had left moments before.
"That woman was not human," she continued. "She's a spy, and not from this universe."
"…Oh." Wang Xiao nodded. "That explains why she asked me to teach her."
Yuriko closed her eyes for half a breath, the kind of exhale one gives when the world insists on being stupid.
She stepped fully from the mist.
Tonight she wore no bamboo hat.
