Yuan Qing followed Mizuho out of the room. Raven took flight and landed on Yuan Qing’s shoulder, scattering feathers to cast a disguise.
“OWL!” Raven let out an exaggerated sigh of relief after using the illusion through his feathers. “Phew… all right. Now, in the eyes of others, you’re a pair of siblings who look so much like Mine Mizuho that you’re quite eye-catching!”
Yuan Qing protested casually, “I’ve earned so many Popularity Points; couldn’t the disguise look a bit less like her?”
“No,” Raven said self-righteously. “It’s not like you’re the one maintaining the OWL illusion, yet here you are complaining.”
With that, Raven patted Yuan Qing with his wing.
Mizuho shook her head. “It is what it is. At least it’s better than no disguise at all.”
She regretted it.
The two of them walked out of the apartment building, the afternoon sun a bit blinding. Mizuho put on her sunglasses, and Yuan Qing squinted his eyes as they walked toward the subway station side by side.
They hadn’t gone far when two young women carrying shopping bags approached them. They glanced at Yuan Qing, then at Mizuho, and then stopped.
“Eh — ” one of them covered her wide-open mouth and turned to the other. “She looks like Miss Mine, doesn’t she? The one who fought Miss Kazama before.”
The other nodded vigorously. “She really does! Especially the position of her eyes and that mole!”
The two stood there, staring intently at Yuan Qing and Mizuho. Yuan Qing continued walking with a blank expression, and Mizuho remained calm. After they passed each other, whispers drifted from behind.
“That boy looks so much like Miss Mine…”
“His sister too! Could they be relatives?”
“Post it, post it! This will definitely go viral!”
Yuan Qing quickened his pace. “Raven.”
“What?” Raven poked his head out from a gap in Mizuho’s bag.
“What would happen if you increased the power of OWL?” Yuan Qing complained.
“I’d die of exhaustion,” Raven retracted his head. “Besides, strengthening it wouldn’t help. This is just how you two look fundamentally. No matter how you disguise yourselves, you can’t hide that resemblance. Just make do with it.”
The two entered the subway station. It was the quiet afternoon period, so the carriage was empty, with only a few passengers sitting scattered about. Yuan Qing and Mizuho found a corner seat and sat down side by side. Of course, they still kept some distance between them.
Mizuho wore her sunglasses and looked down at her phone, while Yuan Qing leaned against the backrest and closed his eyes to rest. After two stations, a group of high school students got on. They chatted busily as they found seats. One of the girls accidentally glanced at Yuan Qing and froze.
She tugged hard on her classmate’s sleeve. “Hey, hey, look at that person…”
“Which one?” The classmate looked over too.
“That boy who’s sleeping! Doesn’t he look like Mine Mizuho?”
Several girls’ gazes shifted over simultaneously.
“He really does…”
“Oh my god, his profile is practically identical!”
“The lady next to him looks like her, too!”
“Quick, take a photo!”
Yuan Qing had his eyes closed, but he wasn’t deaf. He could hear those whispers and the faint sound of phones being raised. He continued to pretend to sleep. Mizuho kept her head down, her sunglasses covering most of her face.
The train arrived at a station, and the group of high schoolers got off, still looking back as they left. The doors closed, and the carriage became quiet again. Yuan Qing opened his eyes and looked at the empty seats opposite him. Mizuho was still looking down, but her phone screen was dark; she wasn’t actually playing anything.
“Are you used to it?” she suddenly asked.
Yuan Qing asked back, “To what?”
“Being treated as Mine Mizuho,” Mizuho looked up, her eyes behind the sunglasses meeting his. “Being stared at, photographed, and talked about.”
“…” Yuan Qing thought for a moment. “It’s fine. Anyway, the one they’re discussing isn’t me.”
Mizuho didn’t say anything more. The train continued forward, the tunnel walls outside retreating rapidly. Mizuho looked at her own reflection in the window glass, then at Yuan Qing’s reflection beside hers.
Two identical faces were reflected side by side on the glass. But people only discussed one of them. Mine Mizuho had instantly become the person everyone talked about, but that person wasn’t herself.
This feeling… was very strange.
The train reached their stop. The two walked out of the station and through a few streets before Mizuho stopped in front of a shop. Yuan Qing looked up. It was a women’s clothing store.
“…What did you bring me here for?” Yuan Qing had a bad premonition.
“Go shopping with me, of course,” Mizuho said as if it were obvious.
Yuan Qing raised his voice slightly. “Didn’t you say we were going somewhere?”
“This is the place,” Mizuho replied, also raising her voice slightly.
Raven poked his head out of the bag, glanced at the store name, and began to stifle a laugh.
“Wait,” Yuan Qing said. “You’re not thinking of…”
“Since you helped me earn so many Popularity Points,” Mizuho’s smile was brilliant and quite devilish, “I naturally have to repay you well. For example, by helping you pick out some clothes that suit you.”
“I have clothes.”
“Those are men’s clothes.”
“I’m a man.”
“Exactly,” Mizuho blinked. “So I’m curious to see what you’d look like in women’s clothing.”
Yuan Qing: “…”
Raven increased the power of OWL to mask his laughter. Just then, the shop door was pushed open, and a young girl wearing an apron poked her head out.
“Welcome… eh?”
The girl froze. Yuan Qing also froze.
Sakuma Seidai.
She was the apprentice Magical Girl who had been busy at the tea party, getting pushed aside several times, and who could only stare blankly as Hifumi left. She was wearing a shop assistant’s apron and holding a freshly organized dress, her entire body stiffening in place.
“Miss Mine?” Seidai’s eyes widened. She looked at Yuan Qing, then at Mizuho, then back at Yuan Qing. “And… another Miss Mine?”
Mizuho reacted extremely quickly, immediately flashing a standard idol smile. “Hello. We’re siblings. Because we look like Miss Mine, people often mistake us for her.”
Seidai looked at Mizuho and then at Yuan Qing. His numbness formed a sharp contrast with Mizuho’s idol smile. Suddenly, Seidai remembered something and bowed abruptly. “Welcome! Please, come in!”
Thus, Mizuho and Yuan Qing walked into the store. Other shop assistants, hearing the commotion, had already gathered their gazes and were whispering about the “siblings.”
Seidai followed behind them, her hands nervously clutching the hem of her apron. “Um… Miss, what type of clothes would you like to see?”
Mizuho looked around, and then her gaze landed on Yuan Qing.
“Pick some for him,” she said.
Seidai’s eyes widened instantly. “For this gentleman?”
Yuan Qing sighed. “Sigh… I knew it.”
Seidai looked at Yuan Qing, then at Mizuho, then back at Yuan Qing, her brain clearly struggling to process this information. Yuan Qing opened his mouth to speak but then closed it. Mizuho had already ducked into the clothes racks.
“How about this one?” She picked up a beige knit sweater.
“Men’s?” Yuan Qing asked.
“Women’s,” Mizuho answered honestly.
“Then no.”
“What about this?” A pair of deep blue wide-leg pants.
“Men’s?”
“Women’s,” Mizuho remained honest.
Yuan Qing fell silent. Seidai whispered from the side, “Actually, the cut of these pants is very neutral. Many customers buy them to wear as casual pants…”
Yuan Qing looked at her. Seidai immediately took a step back, but her eyes were still shining with expectant light.
“See,” Mizuho struck while the iron was hot. “Even the clerk says so.”
Yuan Qing took a deep breath. ‘Whatever, I’m already here.’
“I’ll try them,” he slowly let out that breath, “but I’m not buying.”
Mizuho’s face lit up with joy. “Great!”
She quickly picked out several items, stuffed them into Yuan Qing’s arms, and pointed toward the fitting rooms.