"It's just a letter, so why did you rush all the way to this country? And that guy even sent you a bomb," Miku Izayoi said with a bit of frustration, looking at Tohka as they sat on an international flight.
Right now, they were on an international flight, and she really couldn't understand why Tohka, after receiving that explosive package, immediately rushed off to China. She had to admit, though—capitalism was terrifying. Tohka gave instructions in the morning, all the visas were processed in the afternoon, and by evening they were on the plane. The efficiency made Miku Izayoi start to doubt reality.
"Mm, well, I also just wanted to go and see for myself." But unlike before, Tohka didn't show her usual clueless expression—on the contrary, she looked a little dazed. After all, in her previous life, she'd been from here, even if it wasn't exactly the same world, and she still felt some connection to the place.
"..." Miku Izayoi fell silent, watching Tohka's somewhat complicated expression. She thought maybe she'd only understand if she ever returned to her own country. But she didn't say anything—she just quietly accompanied Tohka.
"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" As soon as they got off the plane, Miku Izayoi noticed that Tohka had fallen into a strange state of excitement. Compared to how she'd been on the flight yesterday, she was like a completely different person.
"Peking duck in the capital… Ooh, I'm coming for you…" But Tohka didn't care about any of that. She didn't even hear Miku Izayoi speaking. Instead, she grabbed her by the hand and sprinted forward at the speed of a hundred-meter dash. Then she randomly flagged down a taxi out front and climbed right in.
"Take me to XXX Peking Duck Restaurant—fast as you can!" She spoke in perfectly fluent Mandarin to the driver.
"Sure thing." The driver had been about to ask where she was from, but after hearing her speak, he didn't bother. With such natural fluency, it was obvious she wasn't any ordinary foreigner. Besides, with her long straight black hair, she looked no different from a local.
"..."
Miku Izayoi stared wordlessly at Tohka, but this time she didn't say anything. After all, her language skill was in English, not Chinese—she couldn't understand a word Tohka was saying. She could only sit there dumbfounded as the taxi sped away and soon arrived at an elegant, delicious-smelling old-style building. Then she got dragged inside.
"Ten portions of your best Peking duck—as fast as possible!" As soon as they walked in, Tohka barked this at the waiter. They were then led into a private dining room.
"By the way, Tohka, where exactly is this, Dragon Valley? Are you really going to have some kind of duel with him like in a novel?" Once they were alone, Miku Izayoi finally asked about the note's contents. It all sounded absurd to her. Normally, any sensible person would have ignored such a ridiculously chuunibyou invitation. As for the magical bomb ring—she had more or less ignored that part by instinct. "And what if that guy has an ambush waiting?"
"Well, it's fine. If my guess is correct, he wouldn't bother setting up an ambush here." Tohka wasn't just guessing blindly. The fact that he dared to invite her meant he was absolutely confident. Also, their fight was likely to be even fiercer than the one in New York—since last time there hadn't been any real opponent to match her. She'd just been brawling with her other self-high in the sky, so the collateral damage hadn't been too big. But this time, facing an evenly matched enemy, she couldn't guarantee what would happen to the surroundings. As for henchmen, she didn't think the guy had anyone under him strong enough to even participate.
"..."
Miku Izayoi looked at her and almost said something, but stopped herself. Honestly, she still felt like Tohka had probably read too many novels. Why else would she be acting so fired up? Actually, she wasn't wrong—Tohka had indeed been influenced by fiction in her past life. For some reason, she'd started feeling all fired up herself.
"Hello, ladies—here's your food." Because it wasn't a mealtime, the place wasn't crowded, so Tohka's order arrived very quickly. Several servers carried everything in at once.
"Mm, thank you. Enough talk—let's eat." Seeing the fragrant, steaming roast duck, Tohka stopped thinking about anything else. She rolled up slices with scallions and sauce and started eating.
"..."
Miku Izayoi watched Tohka eat without a care in the world and felt speechless. How did she have such a big heart? Didn't she care about anything? What she didn't know was that Tohka had already asked the Reverse Tohka about it. As long as she had the Kabbalah Tree of Life in her body, the enemy would have to either blow her into atoms or use some kind of conceptual erasure—like some big-shot who could obliterate even a person's cause-and-effect—to actually kill her. So even if she lost, she wouldn't really die. As for conceptual erasure—that required some kind of causality, like if her ancestors were erased from history she'd get paradoxed out of existence… But since Tohka didn't have any ancestors here, she wasn't worried at all. Of course, that didn't mean she was truly invincible—after all, this world also had sealing techniques. After all, there was still the matter of sealing—just like that other eternal counterpart who was sealed away.
"Eat up, eat up. When we're done, we'll hang around here for a few days. That guy already told me the location—when the time comes, I'll just fly straight there." She said this casually to Miku Izayoi, then happily continued stuffing her face. Seeing Tohka looking so relaxed, Miku Izayoi thought she must have absolute confidence—so she didn't say anything else and joined her in eating.
It had to be said—maybe it was the influence of the world itself, but in this version of China, everything was unusually peaceful. At least, Tohka never had any reason to act. But after a few days of exploring, she took Miku Izayoi and left the big city to head inland.
"..." Looking out the window, Tohka felt dizzy. You couldn't tell in the city, but out in the countryside, it was nothing like she expected. Actually, she didn't realize that in Marvel's lore, China was basically portrayed as a kind of idyllic utopia. Under the indescribable powers of this world, the scenery looked like a literal painting.
"What's wrong, Tohka? Though I must say, this country's landscapes are truly beautiful." Miku Izayoi gave her a puzzled look. She really didn't understand why Tohka had been acting so weird these past few days—like she'd been shocked by something.
"It's nothing. Once the train arrives, I'll go straight there—you can just wait on the outskirts."