This is not the date I wanted.

"..."

Shidou felt like his emotions were on a roller coaster.

Meng Yue chuckled happily, waved her hand and explained.

"It's just a meeting with a girl I know. It's not like I'm going on a date to feel at ease."

Hearing that the target was a female, Shidou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and smiled bitterly at the way the girl teased him to express her little emotions.

"Mengyue, do you have a date with a girl in your class?"

"No, Shidou, you should be more familiar with this girl than I am."

Meng Yue glanced at a thick photo album on her bookshelf, and the corners of her mouth curled up in a strange smile.

11 A Gentleman's (?) Deal

==============================

October 9nd, 59: am.

Meng Yue sat on a public chair near the Ba Gong statue in Tiangong City. She was now wearing a neutral outfit of jeans and an autumn shirt, a cap on her head, and her brown hair was combed into a single ponytail. She looked like a delicate tomboy.

"Well...it's about time."

Meng Yue raised her head, watched the seconds on the clock on the clock tower gradually approach the whole hour, and spoke slowly to herself.

When the hour rang, not a second faster or a minute slower, Meng Yue saw a girl wearing the uniform of Laichan High School, with short light-colored hair that reached her shoulders and looked like a doll, walking towards her from the other end of the street.

"Wow, it's as punctual as a news broadcast. Tobiichi Origami."

Meng Yue waved to Yuan Yi Origami in a friendly manner. However, compared to Meng Yue's friendly attitude, Origami was obviously a little wary.

"How did you know my email address? Liang Yi Meng Yue."

Origami stared into Mengyue's eyes and questioned.

"It's nothing strange. I just asked Shidao about your email address." Meng Yue shrugged and replied, "Don't worry, I didn't deliberately hack into a magician's information and then deliberately tell him something that looks like a provocation. I still want to live a peaceful life."

Origami frowned and stared at Mengyue for a long time, but did not see any physiological reaction from Mengyue's expression when she lied. After confirming that there were no signs of intrusion on her computer and room, she slowly put down her hand on the gun.

"So, did you bring the thing mentioned in the email?"

"of course."

Meng Yue chuckled and took out a package from her backpack. Although it was sealed tightly, it was obvious that the contents were quite heavy.

After seeing the shopping bag in Mengyue's hand, Origami, who usually had a blank expression on her face, suddenly had a fiery light in her eyes.

To be honest, the reason why she, who regarded the elves as enemies, did not ignore the text message sent by Mengyue but came to the appointment specially was undoubtedly that the thing in Mengyue's hand was so important that Origami could temporarily ignore these problems.

"The goods are in here. Do you want to take them out and check them?"

"There are too many people here. There's a chance we might be targeted midway."

There was a hint of urgency in her eyes, but Origami still controlled her excitement and shook her head.

From the beginning, I could vaguely feel a lot of eyes looking in this direction. Meng Yue obviously noticed this and put the package back into her backpack.

"That's true. I don't think anyone can take this stuff away from you and me, but if the stuff inside is taken away by some cat or dog or blown away by the wind, I will find it back even if I have to tear apart the entire crust of Tiangong City."

Rarely, Origami actually nodded in agreement with Meng Yue's words.

But in fact, the passers-by around were just attracted by the sight of two rare beautiful girls. However, the two people who were not aware of this obviously did not realize this.

"There's a comic book cafe nearby that has private rooms. Let's go there."

"How about confidentiality?"

Origami asked, somewhat worriedly.

“I’ve been there, no problem.”

Meng Yue patted her chest and assured.

Then, Meng Yue took Origami to a private room in a comics cafe. Inside the room, there were several high-configuration large-screen computers on the table, various comics magazines on the bookshelf, drinks in the refrigerator, and perfect soundproofing.

"How is it? How is it here?"

"Yes, Not Bad."

Origami nodded. Although she was not interested in comics or surfing the Internet, and didn't care about food as long as she could get enough calories, it was a good place for confidential conversation.

"Then you can take that thing out now."

"Hey, don't be impatient."

Seeing the impatience hinted in Origami's tone, Meng Yue curled her lips and revealed a cunning smile like a profiteer.

Mengyue took the package out of the backpack again and handed it to Origami.

Holding the goods in his hands, Origami's eyes lit up, and he took out the Swiss knife he carried with him, carefully cut open the package from the edge, and then took out the contents - it was a collection album filled with cute photos of a young boy wearing women's clothing.

(Shidou: "——Haqiu!")

There are photos of Shidou wearing women's casual clothes when he first dated Yumezuki, photos of him at Miku's concert, and various photos of Shidou wearing women's clothes intentionally or unintentionally afterwards.

"Shiori wearing a princess costume... I don't have that impression at all... How did you get a photo like this?"

Looking at the photo on one of the pages, the boy looked like a beautiful lady, with a shy and bashful expression, and Origami's breathing became a little rapid. Origami suppressed the urge to take out the photo and rub and lick it, and looked at Mengyue with unbelievable eyes. After all, in her impression, Shidao had never worn a Japanese princess dress, let alone showed such a girlish expression.

In fact, this is the Orihime mode of Shidou that appeared in Mengyue's Extraordinary Date in the computer world not long ago. Fortunately, the data explosion of Maruna at that time did not affect these data. So Mengyue restored these pictures to photos and developed them.

However, Origami no longer had these memories, so Mengyue smiled mysteriously and covered it up by saying it was a business secret.

Origami flipped through the photo album with a bit of reluctance. There were a few photos that Origami had similar to hers, but other than that, most of Shiori's photos were ones Origami had never even seen before.

"This, this is!"

When he saw the last page of the album, Origami's eyes widened as if he had witnessed a miracle, and his hands couldn't help but tremble.

"Hehe, I knew you would definitely notice this photo. Please let me know first, this is not modified in any way. It is a 100% real photo that happened in reality."

Seeing Origami's reaction, Meng Yue smiled smugly.

That's right, on the last page of the album, there was a photo of Shidou dressed as Nanashi during the Nanashi riot a few days ago, where Nanashi, who was dressed as Shidou, dodged Shidou in women's clothing. For Origami, who was not at the scene at the time, it was definitely an unexpected killer.

Shidao x Shiori. This was something that was absolutely impossible to happen in reality, but it happened because of various coincidences. To be honest, it was Meng Yue, and the only word to describe it was "miracle".

Thank you - Master Qi Sin! Every time I see this photo, Meng Yue can't help but express her sincere gratitude to Qi Sin, who is now somewhere unknown.

"call--"

Slowly closing the album, Origami closed his eyes. After a long time, he finally calmed down from the excitement in his heart. He opened his eyes and looked at Mengyue, and said very seriously:

"What will it cost me to get it?"

"Oh? You're quite sensible, Tobiichi Origami." Hearing Origami bring up the topic so straightforwardly, Meng Yue raised her eyebrows, nodded and said, "In fact, you have more than one album in your hands. For me, who has the original materials, the edible version and the collector's version, these are not things that I cannot give away. But at the same time, they are not something that can be given away easily. You should understand what this means, right?"

Well, I gave Meijiu a copy as well, Meng Yue added secretly in her heart.

Origami was not surprised to hear Meng Yue's words, but a little hesitation appeared on her face. After all, even Origami herself didn't know what to use to exchange such a precious treasure.

It would be fine if she had to exchange it with a specific amount of cash, Origami would just have to spend a little more effort to buy a mask that wouldn't be captured by the camera and some necessary weapons. But if the other party proposed some unreasonable conditions that Origami couldn't possibly fulfill, such as breaking up with Shidou or becoming good friends with Tohka and the others, even Origami would have to back off.

"Tell me your conditions first. I will agree to them as long as I can."

The plan succeeded. After hearing Origami finally say what she expected, Meng Yue chuckled and nodded.

"Don't worry, it's just a simple condition. I believe you can do it."

12 The gap that cannot be crossed

==============================

"Haha~ What a great harvest! What a great harvest!"

It was already getting close to evening, and the fiery red sunset had painted the sky a dim yellow. Meng Yue sat on a public chair to take a short break. Looking at the shopping bag beside her filled with game discs and peripheral products, a happy smile appeared on her face.

"Thanks, Origami. I just found out that I don't have enough pocket money when the new game is released. I'm worried about that."

"What on earth do you mean by this? Liang Yi Meng Yue?"

In front of Mengyue, Origami looked at Mengyue with a somewhat puzzled and confused look, and asked doubtfully.

Today, Origami, at Mengyue's request, took a bus with Mengyue to Akihabara, and went to various stores to search for various games and peripherals as Mengyue asked. Origami also paid for Mengyue.

It wasn't that Meng Yue's conditions were difficult. On the contrary, they were too easy.

Although the total amount of these things is indeed a bit scary for a high school student, it is nothing for Origami who has been working at AST and living a simple life. You know, when she was promoted to the second year of high school, in order to prevent the situation of not being assigned to the same class as Shidao, she prepared enough funds to change the teacher's mind.

"Well, don't look at me like that. Actually, my living expenses have been a bit tight lately. I have to buy ingredients for cooking practice, and I have to buy concert tickets and albums for my favorite idols. Recently, Miss Ryougi's wallet has been very thin. For the latest release of "Fairy Dream 3", I have no choice but to sell faith."

Having said that, Meng Yue sighed helplessly, looking at the sunset with slightly sad eyes.

"Don't try to fool me with that kind of talk. Liang Yi Meng Yue."

A photo album of Shiori can make Origami ignore many things and do anything. Even if Mengyue wants to take all of Origami's property, Origami won't even blink an eye. Origami doesn't believe that Mengyue won't understand this.

Seeing that Origami didn't believe her, Meng Yue gave a helpless smile.

Indeed, if she was really short of money, Mengyue would just have to ask Kotori. You know, Ratatoskr's actions always prioritize the feelings of the elves. However, Mengyue didn't like being treated specially because of her status as an "elf", so she only asked Lingyin for pocket money that was about the same as a high school student's every month.

"Well, it's true that it's a little hard for you to imagine. But actually, that's all I asked for. You're right, if you insist on saying that there's another purpose..."

After a moment's silence, Meng Yue smiled gently and asked Origami with a somewhat complicated tone.

"Origami, can you tell me what I am like today in your eyes? In the eyes of a magician like AST?"

Origami frowned slightly, not understanding what the other party was up to.

"…a homegirl addicted to games."

"Um... it hurts a little. In a sense..."

The corner of Mengyue's mouth twitched, and then she sighed.

"But, it's not an elf, right?"

"........."

After hearing Meng Yue's words, Origami was speechless. The other party was the worst natural disaster for mankind, and the most dangerous elf to mankind - Hacker. Although Meng Yue no longer caused space shocks, the faces of the magicians now all turned blue when they heard Meng Yue's identification name.

However, while discussing the quality of Shiori's photo album with Mengyue and running around Akihabara with Mengyue, Origami actually forgot for a moment that Mengyue was an elf.

"In fact, the original purpose of holding Shiori's album today was to ask you to abandon AST and join Ratatoskr."

Meng Yue shrugged and confessed readily.

Origami didn't seem surprised to hear Mengyue say the name Ratatoskr. After all, she had vaguely noticed that Yatogami Tohka and the others could study in high school normally, which meant that there must be some powerful force behind them to support them.

"So, what now?"

The other party actually said "originally", which means that Meng Yue has given up this idea.

"Sa, after hearing what happened between Kotori and you a while ago, I understand now. There is no way you can join Ratatoskr."

Meng Yue sighed with a wry smile.

A girl who is determined to die because her parents were killed by elves, and an organization whose ideal is to save the elves. These two sides can be said to be completely incompatible.

If there is one thing that is the most terrible force in the world, it is hatred.

It was as if all her bones and flesh were set on fire. In just five years, an ordinary little girl has become AST's trump card. Under Origami's seemingly cold expression, how deep is the flame of hatred?

As time goes by, this sharp knife will one day be sharpened by hatred.

"But, as I said. Not only me, but Tohka, Yoshino, Yakuya, Yui, Miku and the others have never intended to harm humans. They just want to live an ordinary life as an ordinary human. I just want you to understand this. Although I won't ask you to give up your hatred, please be sure to..."

Must? Must what? Meng Yue looked at the completely indifferent Origami, and the words she wanted to say were stuck in her throat.

Give up revenge? Let Tohka and the others go? What right did he have to say such things?

Origami was forced to give up her normal life because of the elves. She was asked to treat Tohka as a normal person. If she said that, Meng Yue would hate herself.

Rather, as an elf, I have no room to talk to Origami. There is no need for communication.

But imagine that, even though it is still far from being what it is now, one day, Origami will become a magician even more terrifying than Alan. Then, like the Grim Reaper, he will kill all the elves.

On the other hand, if she fails, Tobiichi Origami will also collapse and go to destruction.

Mengyue knew that no matter what the outcome, someone would be hurt.

"Please... don't do anything that would make Shidou sad."