Deep Sea Embers

Nina's focus seems to be on the subtle side, but for Shirley, it's a good thing.

From the bottom of her heart, she has regarded this innocent and ordinary girl in front of her as a subordinate of a subspace shadow, and it is the kind of relative of a daughter-in-law-the less negative impression she has in front of this subordinate, the less she will be. Of course, the chance of surviving in front of the boss will be higher.

Nina didn't know how much was hidden under Shirley's awkward and stiff smile. The girl was surprised and a little excited now, because she had never been in such close contact with a real extraordinary person (usually going to church is not counted). The understanding of the matter is limited to books, and in her eyes, Shirley, who used some kind of "supernatural illusion" to sneak into the school to investigate the incident, seemed to have been shrouded in a mysterious and powerful aura.

She even forgot the other party's little "deception" to her for a short time, and instead focused all her attention on the extraordinary life and adventures of the extraordinary - even though the adventures were basically made up by her own brain "Where do you usually live? Do you have your own secret base or something? Or is there a very mysterious organization?"

"Do you usually hide in a cave? Or a place like a sewer? Is there a place like a warehouse where various ritual items are stored?

"Are you born with special abilities? Or do you have some powerful supernatural items? Are you the legendary 'mystic'? I heard that there is such an ancient profession. Mystics can cast spells without relying on any gods. It is said that their power comes from their blood...

"What do you usually eat? Do you often drink herbs or weird animal blood? Huh? You also eat normally? Really?"

Nina asked one question after another, and there was no end to it. Shirley broke out in layers of cold sweat on her forehead halfway through coping - not because she couldn't answer the other party's question, but because there was Duncan next to her!

Duncan has been watching Shirley silently since just now, with a gentle and friendly smile—on the surface, he looks like a parent who shows up to entertain his children when their children invite their classmates to visit.

Simple, kind, harmless to humans and animals.

But if he had fun, Shirley would break out in a layer of cold sweat.

"You seem to be very afraid of my uncle," no matter how slow Nina was in this regard, she could still notice Shirley's weird behavior, and recalled the other party's reaction in the museum before, which made her endure I couldn't help asking, "What the hell happened between you two?"

"No...it's nothing! Really!" Shirley almost sat up straight all of a sudden, shaking her hands vigorously, "I...what can happen to your uncle, I'm still a child..."

When Duncan heard this, he felt that something was wrong. He knew that the two girls could not continue to play freely, so he hurriedly interrupted Shirley with a few coughs before running the train with his mouth full: "Actually, it's nothing, it's just that she evaded the fare by car." , was caught by me just once.”

"Just because of this?" Nina looked at Xue Li in surprise, "That shouldn't leave such a big shadow... But uncle is right, fare evasion is bad."

Xue Li was about to cry: "I really don't want to evade fares in the future!"

Nina nodded, and then seemed to think of something, and couldn't help but look at Shirley seriously: "Then... can you tell me, what are you investigating? You are my friend because of your 'investigation'?"

Shirley's body was tense, and her eyes began to drift to the side, but just halfway through the drift, they met Duncan's calm gaze.

"I'm investigating the fire that happened eleven years ago." Shirley suddenly lowered her head slightly, as if she had figured something out or simply gave up, and said in a low voice, "It's mentioned in the official records. The leak at the factory on Sixth Street..."

"The fire eleven years ago?" Nina's eyes widened immediately, her tone filled with astonishment, "Wait...you also know about the fire eleven years ago?!"

"...you know too?!" Shirley was also surprised, she stood up from her chair directly, "You also experienced that fire?"

"Of course I know, my parents died in that fire—I was six years old, and Uncle Duncan rescued me," Nina said in a hurry, gesticulating with her hands subconsciously, "But all this time Everyone said that I was confused by the poisonous smoke in the street, and they all said there was no big fire at all, and even the later newspapers said that there was only an accident in a factory..."

"That year... I was also six years old, and my parents also died in the fire. I remember it clearly," Shirley looked straight into Nina's eyes, "but people around me also told me that at that time There is no fire at all... No wonder, no wonder Agou said he smelled a familiar smell on you..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Duncan's voice suddenly came from the side: "So, it was Agou who guided you to get close to Nina before you sneaked into the school—and you didn't know why you did this, so you heard what Nina said just now Then you looked so surprised."

Facing Duncan's calm gaze, Shirley nodded quickly, while Nina showed some doubts: "Agou? Who is Agou?"

"Agou, it..." Shirley said, but hesitated for a second, she glanced at Duncan, then at Shirley, "Agou is my friend, it is by my side, but its appearance It can be a little scary..."

Shirley said this, but she felt extremely strange in her heart—because there was obviously a subspace shadow sitting next to her that was countless times scarier than Agou, and this subspace shadow was still getting along with Nina day and night. She has to cooperate with the boss's "personal hobbies", pretending that Agou is the scariest existence here, and treat the boss as an ordinary human being...

In all fairness, she used Agou's disguise ability to move around on weekdays, dealt with cult members, dealt with sheriffs, and even dealt with priests in small churches in the area. Sitting in this antique shop for ten minutes is a tense thrill.

In her eyes, this ordinary shop was almost at the same level as the entrance of the subspace.

Nina just looked around curiously, looking for the figure of "Agou" beside Shirley. After looking around for a long time, she asked curiously: "Then let 'Agou' come out to meet me, since it is yours. Friends...what am I afraid of?"

Shirley still hesitated, but Duncan suddenly tapped on the table and said to Nina: "Then you have to be mentally prepared, I've seen 'Agou', it's really ugly."

"...Then I'm even more curious," Nina became even more curious when she saw the reactions of Uncle Duncan and Shirley, "I really want to meet that Mr. Dog, and I want to know why Shirley's friend wants to Such a strange name..."

"Well, since you want to see it," Duncan shook his head and looked at Shirley helplessly, "Let Agou come out to say hello, after all, he is also today's 'guest'."

Under normal circumstances, Shirley would never reveal the secrets of herself and Agou, because in a city-state of order, walking with the ghost demon itself is an extremely taboo thing, even if the priests of the Deep Sea Church only noticed a little Even with the breath, the eight-pound gun and six-barreled machine gun can be smashed directly in front of her.

Now, however, a being of the shadow level of the Warp asked her to summon Gou.

"……oh."

She nodded, then slowly raised her arms.

In the next second, under Nina's astonished and slightly nervous gaze, pitch-black flames and thick smoke suddenly rose around Xue Li!

The chains extend from the flames, and at the end of the thick smoke and black flames, the silhouette of a ghostly demon is condensed.

The deep hound appeared in the flames, quickly shrank into a ball within a second, hugged its head with its front paws, hid the most terrifying eye sockets on its body, and greeted Nina in a muffled voice in a cloud of black smoke : "Good evening, Miss, I am Agou, Shirley's friend and guardian dog. My appearance does not conform to the mainstream aesthetics of human beings, but you can look at it with abstract and tolerant eyes, so that I am just a bunch of clever Stacked bone fragments and a flame with a slightly strange color..."

Duncan glanced at Shirley indifferently: "In all fairness, I have never seen such a heart-moving dog in my life... In terms of personality alone, it is quite cute."

Nina on the other side was dumbfounded, and after looking at Agou in astonishment for a long time, she finally exclaimed: "Ah!"

Shirley hurriedly said, "I told you that you might be scared..."

As a result, before she finished speaking, she heard Nina pick up the second half of the sentence after the exclamation: "This is also amazing!"

Shirley: "...?"

"You... how are you?" Taking advantage of Shirley's dazed moment, Nina tentatively began to greet Agou, "Mr. Agou? Uh, are you a 'Mr.'?"

"Youyou Demon has no gender, but you can call me that if you want," Agou replied in a muffled voice, and seemed a little surprised at the same time, "You...are you not afraid of me?"

"It's okay, although it does look a little scary," Nina thought for a while, with a bright smile on her face, "but I'm quite brave~"