Chapter Eight: I Heard You Can Sing

“Let’s start with a summary of the situation.”
Lian Shi Yu opened his notebook.
“First, Gongsun claims he encountered a girl on the street whom only he could see?”
Gongsun Ce crouched on the floor, clutching the hem of his friend’s jacket with both hands, replying nervously and rapidly, “Exactly! That girl was dressed unusually, sang beautifully, and her thoughts were clearly different from most people’s. I could interact with her normally, but not a single passerby noticed her.”
Shi Yu regarded him with a gentle gaze so cold it sent shivers down the spine, like a doctor gazing upon a terminal patient beyond all hope.
The young man in the suit scribbled a few words in his notebook, then said to the imperious young lady glaring at them from a few steps away, “Is it possible that Gongsun’s simply been watching too much anime lately... you know, those popular stories where a beautiful girl falls from the sky, or a guy finds a pretty girl on the street... He’s been exhausted these past weeks. Maybe, during his recovery, he just...”
“Do I look like an idiot who can’t tell fiction from reality?! And that kind of opening isn’t even popular anymore, that’s a cliché from over a decade ago!”
Lian Shi Yu hesitated, at a loss for words.
“Um, well... sorry, I don’t usually consume that sort of media.”
Oh please.
Why does your gaze seem even kinder now?
The refined gentleman asked again, “What did Qin Qianbai see?”
The young lady’s voice reminded him of the biting cold from more than two months ago, near the end of winter.
“Ce was hugging a scantily clad girl and used his powers to lift her skirt.”
“...”
Shi Yu closed his eyes and silently shook his head.
“Don’t give up on me, Shi Yu! Think of justice and righteousness! I haven’t done anything wrong, yet I’m being driven into a corner—doesn’t that strike anyone as strange?!”
“Gongsun, maybe you should apologize first.”
“Why?! Why should I apologize to someone who’s trying to kill me?!”
Step, step, step.
Expressionless, the young lady walked over step by step, while the psychic braced himself for a real fight.
“Calm down, Qianbai,” Shi Yu said, tapping his notebook with his pen, “This whole story is full of suspicious details, and more concerning than this incident itself is your reaction. Chasing Gongsun all over the place because of this—it seems a bit much, even from a friend’s perspective, doesn’t it?”
“...Fine.”
Miss Qin’s actions halted abruptly, stiff and awkward.
The young man in the suit curled his lips in a mischievous, triumphant smile.
“What would bystanders think? From my perspective, it’s almost like—”
Almost like what?
The island youth deliberately dragged out his words, but before he could finish, the young lady turned her head sharply and denied it flatly, “Absolutely not.”
Why are you turning away now?
The gray-haired youth fell into serious thought. Was Shi Yu suggesting she was acting like an overbearing senior disciplining her junior? That would easily make passersby mistake her for an older woman, targeting her sensitivity about age—a calculated, targeted blow...!
Which would force her to stop and deny it, lest her actions be seen as confirming everyone’s suspicions!
What a righteous and open-handed strategy.
Impressive, Shi Yu. Truly a brilliant tactician!
The suited young man clapped his hands with a light chuckle, “Alright, let’s try to untangle the cause and consequence of this event together. Don’t worry, Gongsun isn’t the type described by Cardassia. Unless it’s a truly special situation, he’d never approach a random woman on the street.”
“...True enough,” the young lady replied, one hand on her hip, “Fine, come out, I’m not fighting you anymore.”
The psychic came out, face drawn with misery.
“How did I become so pitiful? Seriously, why such a huge reaction? Even if I did chat with a random girl, is this the treatment I deserve?!”
“I can’t let Ce turn into a womanizer.”
The gray-haired youth covered his face and sighed.
“You really need to update your knowledge database. Don’t get too close to Cardassia, don’t buy into her nonsense, and stop watching weird stuff at her place, alright? If this keeps up, next time your grandfather visits, I’ll have to tell him, ‘Your granddaughter’s been exposed to a lot of unsavory knowledge lately, I can’t keep up and it’s wearing me out.’”
“At that point, I’ll copy Ce’s computer data and browsing history and post it to the school forum.”
This morning’s middle-schoolers were far too innocent.
The so-called “Demon” himself blushed in shame.
You’re the real devil here.
Just then, he saw Cardassia in the distance, leading a pink-haired girl and carrying the things Miss Qin had just bought.

“Ah.”
As if only now remembering she’d left her belongings behind, Qin Qianbai hurried over.
The gray-haired youth asked his friend in confusion, “So why did she react so strongly? Is it a powerful sense of moral responsibility instilled by her family’s traditions? Did she mistake me for a scoundrel and deliver righteous punishment?”
Lian Shi Yu smiled softly as he closed his notebook.
“Gongsun, you’ve always had a sharp mind—why not think about it yourself?”
“Normally, people only ask questions when they can’t figure out the answer.”
The suited youth turned away like a magician after a show, his tone becoming as mysterious as a storyteller, “Sorry, I haven’t figured it out either.”
·
Since their club had yet to be officially formed, they had no fixed meeting place on campus. Visiting the fast food place again would be awkward, and the girl whose name was still unknown didn’t seem suited to a coffee shop...
Thus, half an hour later, the four of them—plus their new member—ended up in Gongsun Ce’s apartment.
Spacious as it was for a personal residence, even the living room felt a bit crowded with five people inside. The psychic offered the two sofas to his guests, floated over a chair from his desk, and personally poured four glasses of water, his face grim.
He said to the golden-haired woman who always looked the other way in a crisis, “None for you. If you dare touch Shi Yu’s cup, you can leave through the front door.”
Cardassia pulled down her lower eyelid and made a face at him, which instantly lifted the psychic’s mood.
The pink-haired, twin-tailed girl wobbled on the sofa, “Who am I, really?”
Good question—we’d all like to know.
Gongsun Ce pushed up his glasses, “Let me confirm: Not only have you forgotten your abilities, you can’t even remember where you usually live?”
Nod, nod.
“I strongly suggest you seek help from the authorities.”
“No! I want to stay with you!”
Kira leapt off the sofa, only to be pulled back by the young lady with one hand.
“Why do you want to stay with Ce?”
“If I don’t have Gongsun Ce, I’ll be stuck in that place forever!” she replied earnestly. “No one could see me, no one could feel me, even if I sang, nobody would listen—it felt terrible... I have to stay close to him... If I don’t, I’ll never find myself!”
Lian Shi Yu picked up the questioning, “If we insist on handing you over to the authorities, what will you do?”
The girl grinned slyly.
“Who exactly is it you’re handing over~?”
“I mean...”
But before he could finish, the suited young man paused.
Gongsun Ce watched his friend bow his head in thought, then suddenly asked, “Gongsun, what was I just saying?”
What a peculiar question.
Was he double-checking his own words?
“You were talking about handing her over to the authorities.”
Shi Yu’s elegant brows knit together.
“So just now...” he continued, his speech slow, as if recalling something half-forgotten, “Who was I speaking to?”
Cardassia looked baffled, “Wasn’t it Gongsun Ce?”
The psychic pointed to the sofa beside him, and Kira obligingly grabbed a lock of her own hair.
“No, Shi Yu wasn’t talking to me—he was talking to this young lady.”
The pink-haired girl swayed from side to side. Her shoulder brushed the girl next to her, but this time the young lady didn’t react at all.
That was odd.
Given her character, she should have stepped in.
Cardassia folded her arms, her face full of suspicion, “What nonsense are you spouting?”
“...Qin Qianbai,” Lian Shi Yu turned to the silent girl, “I have a strange question for you. Please tell me your first thoughts as soon as you hear it, alright?”
“Mm.”
The suited young man folded his hands.
His question took the psychic completely by surprise.
“How many people are in this room?”

“Four.”
After answering, Miss Qin paused a moment, then added in confusion, “I remember there are only four of us, but... hmm...”
So that’s it.
The girl’s flat reply finally let him pinpoint the source of the discord.
Qin Qianbai had used “us” to refer to the four people present—she would never count a stranger she’d only just met today in that group.
Judging by the other two’s reactions, it seemed that, aside from himself, everyone else was ignoring Kira’s existence.
They hadn’t just become blind to her presence—they’d erased her from their memories as well.
Just like the passersby on the shopping street, who walked past the girl without noticing her at all.
But such a “blunt” alteration couldn’t be completely without traces.
They could sense that something was off, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t put their finger on the “mistake”...
A hypothesis began to form in the psychic’s mind.
“Come out now, Kira,” Gongsun Ce said, pushing up his glasses. “Otherwise, I won’t talk to you anymore.”
The pink-haired, twin-tailed girl leapt into the center of the living room and flashed a peace sign by her eye.
“Ta-da! ☆ Here I am~!”
A split second of silence, then a certain blonde woman’s shriek rang through the apartment.
“Huh?! Where did you come from—my god! How could I possibly forget you?!”
“Hehe, looks like I can control this ability now—wait, ah?!”
Without a word, Qin Qianbai tackled her onto the sofa. Her hands rapidly swept over the pink-haired girl’s body, and the twin-tails let out a string of melodious shrieks as she was subjected to a forceful security check.
“No... not so rough... let me go...!”
“Don’t stop, Qian! I want to see what trick she’s using!”
“Mm, I’m checking.”
The three girls piled together in a heap by the sofa. The two young men, on their own initiative, retreated to a corner and turned their backs, beginning a serious discussion.
“Hallucination, memory alteration, or something more direct—cognitive manipulation?”
“The last seems most likely. Hallucinations wouldn’t scramble our memories, and memory tampering wouldn’t let us overlook a person right in front of us. If it’s a disruption of human perception, that would explain most of the anomalies so far. Except for one thing—you said your powers inexplicably failed once...”
Lian Shi Yu circled “power failure” in his notebook. He clearly saw this as a key point, and the gray-haired youth agreed.
He was certain it hadn’t been an illusion—at their first meeting, his telekinesis had genuinely failed to affect her. Yet afterward, he’d been able to influence the girl as normal...
“Let’s treat that as an exception for now. Could it be impermanence?”
Shi Yu shook his head.
“Too early to say. From experience alone, I doubt it.”
Gongsun Ce narrowed his eyes, watching the commotion among the girls grow louder.
“A person no one can see, drifting at your side. Can you guess what I’m thinking?”
“A ghost?”
The gray-haired youth pointed, and with a psychic command, froze all three girls in place.
“A singing ghost. All we need is a touch of science fiction and our club activities will be complete.”
Lian Shi Yu groaned.
“You’re joking, right?”
“I am. But it seems someone doesn’t think so.”
He released his psychic hold, and Cardassia picked up the red guitar from the floor.
“Hey, Kira~~~” she called with a wicked grin at the amnesiac girl, “I hear you can sing?”
The street idol answered joyfully, “I sing really well!”
Lian Shi Yu bowed his head with a sigh, and Gongsun Ce patted his friend’s shoulder.
“Looks like we’re in for a busy few days.”
“Have mercy...”