By the way, sister, why aren't you wearing sunglasses, a mask, or a hat this time?
Furina asked Focalors curiously as they walked.
The two little ones following behind, perhaps because they were cute, or because Kimimaro was special, or due to their clothing, attracted a nearly 100%回头率 (turn-around rate) from passersby.
Although they received many strange glances, the two little ones were still full of interest, admiring the never-before-seen beautiful scenery everywhere.
They were also particularly interested in the passing mechanical security guards.
"Because it's no longer necessary," Focalors smiled mysteriously.
"No longer necessary?"
Furina froze, turned her head to look around, and then noticed many passersby gathered together, discussing something.
Their voices were quite loud. If she listened carefully, she could hear clearly.
"Did you hear? Chief Justice Neuvillette personally issued a public announcement. It turns out there have always been two Hydro Archons."
"I heard. One visible, one hidden, guarding Fontaine."
"Why are they suddenly revealing themselves now? Have they achieved some goal?"
"Look over there! It's the two Lady Hydro Archons! So they're twins!"
...
"Hmm..."
Listening to the various whispers, Furina paused for a few moments.
"Neuvillette made the two Hydro Archons public?"
"That's right. There's no longer any need to deceive the Heavenly Principles," Focalors smiled, her expression showing a sense of relief.
Never mind that the ancient dragon's authority had returned to its place; Momoshiki alone was enough to crush everything.
So there was no longer any need to hide. Even if it was made public now, the Heavenly Principles wouldn't do anything.
"Okay."
Furina shrugged helplessly. She didn't understand why it was suddenly being made public, but since it was Neuvillette's decision, he must have his reasons.
So she didn't ask any more questions.
The two little ones followed obediently, occasionally looking at the flowers in the roadside greenery, finding them particularly attractive.
Before long, they darted over, admired them for a bit, and then ran back.
The four of them slowly made their way to a familiar place.
Chiori's Boutique.
At the entrance of this shop, a girl with a face and clothing design similar to Inazuma's style, adorned with a Geo Vision, was conversing with a customer.
Focalors didn't interrupt, waiting quietly for a while, and then the customer left.
"Hello, everyone. Do you need me to design any clothes?" Chiori waved at the group, her tone slightly flat.
Chiori naturally recognized the two Hydro Archons at first glance, but seeing their expressions clearly indicated they didn't want to attract too much attention, so she simply pretended not to know them.
Moreover, Chiori herself didn't like trouble, and didn't like speaking in a tone appropriate for meeting important figures.
"Yes, we'd like to commission a few outfits."
Furina nodded, pulling the two little ones forward.
Chiori leaned down and carefully scrutinized Haku and Kimimaro. She frowned slightly, not saying anything.
"Come with me."
Leaving this sentence, Chiori turned and entered the shop.
The group quickly followed.
Upon entering the shop, the two little ones were immediately captivated by all sorts of exquisite clothing.
Although these two little ones usually didn't pay much attention to clothing, or rather, were too lazy to look, the never-before-seen styles in front of them were simply too beautiful.
Chiori brought out some incomprehensible instruments and rulers, and adjusted a few things.
"Alright, you two stand here. I'll take your measurements."
Chiori's tone remained flat, showing no emotion, but her heart was a little dazed.
To be honest, although Chiori's eye for detail was very sharp, at first glance at the two little ones, she also fell into a state of left-brain-right-brain conflict.
Was this a boy or a girl?
The two little ones stood obediently. Chiori measured their waists slightly, and the answer immediately became clear.
They were actually boys!
"Do you have any specific requests for your outfits? If not, I'll design them according to the current popular style, or their most suitable attire," Chiori said calmly.
"Just design their most suitable attire."
Focalors smiled gently, trusting the shop owner's eye.
"Okay."
Focalors paid a portion of the deposit, then quietly whispered something to Furina, and the two sisters exchanged a mischievous smile.
"Boss, we'd like to commission another outfit."
...
In a certain wilderness in Fontaine, Toneri arrived, his Tenseigan activated.
He seemed to have seen something, and a meaningful smile curled on his lips.
In his vision, Momoshiki, possessing Furina, descended from the sky, making a grand entrance.
Above them stood a girl whose clothes were almost entirely black, with red decorations on her back, and her entire body exuded an aura of death.
The two were at odds, and in just a moment, they exchanged several blows.
These were clearly not events that had happened. Toneri also hadn't seen the future.
It was simply because the timeline had gone awry.
"Self-defining the concept of death? Interesting. This world is much more interesting than I imagined."
Toneri crossed his arms. The scene in front of him disappeared. Then he looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through something.
High above the starry sky, in a space surrounded by starlight.
On a strange large tree sat a beautiful girl.
She closed her eyes, muttering to herself.
Her voice was very strange. It wasn't just that it was unclear; the sounds she made were almost completely different from the current time period.
These sounds seemed to come from the past, and also from the future.
Just as she was muttering, the space behind her seemed to be forcibly torn open, and the black-clothed girl from before walked over, frowning.
"Isthar, you never told me that fate would deviate this much. You clearly said Momoshiki would eventually set everything right."
The black-clothed girl immediately questioned Isthar as soon as she appeared.
"Don't be so anxious, Ronava."
Isthar said in an innocent and pure tone.
If one didn't understand her abilities, just her appearance, resting her chin on her hand and spacing out, would probably make people think she was silly.
"I need a reasonable explanation."
Ronava's brows were still tightly furrowed. She crossed her arms and slowly spoke, "You know, he doesn't belong to this dimension. Although I can't set my state to death, my authority also cannot pronounce his death."
"This is extremely dangerous and uncontrollable. There's no room for error."
"I understand." Isthar slowly opened her exquisite eyes, her tone still relaxed and completely stress-free.
Her slender, articulated fingers gestured twice in the air, seemingly erasing something.
To others, nothing seemed to have happened, but in a slightly earlier timeline, the scene of Momoshiki and Ronava fighting beside Toneri disappeared.
"But I also said that after he appeared, everything changed. Fate went from predetermined to unobservable, and the probability of the new fate I spoke of appearing was only 55.6%."
Isthar's sleepy tone was tinged with a hint of grievance, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
"That's not enough."
Ronava wasn't interested in watching her time manipulation performance. She just frowned and said, "Do you have any other methods to increase this probability now?"
"Fate won't tell me the answer."
Isthar finished speaking, then slowly leaned against the large tree, closing her beautiful eyes.
Her beautiful face seemed to fall into slumber, and her body became illusory.
"So mysterious."
Ronava, with her worker-bee personality, clearly also hated riddlers, especially when a slacking teammate was being a riddler.
Looking at Isthar's sleeping body, she felt the space-time projection that didn't belong to the current stage, and forcibly suppressed the urge to lecture her colleague.
"To actually put her body in the future, her vigilance is truly strong."
After complaining, Ronava snapped her fingers and returned to the rift, her figure disappearing.
As she left, this calm and beautiful space instantly became eerie.
The sky was stained blood-red, a giant eye appeared out of thin air, and all order began to fall into chaos.
This boundless space died.
Half an hour later, Isthar opened her eyes, as if she had expected it, and took a deep breath.
"Ronava really hasn't changed at all."
A faint smile curled on her lips. She brought up the timeline with her finger, slowly sliding it back to a year ago.
Space instantly returned to its usual state.
Isthar didn't turn off the timeline. Instead, she copied a projection and dragged it to the moment Ronava left.
As expected, Ronava first waited for a suitable opportunity, then appeared to attract Momoshiki to the wilderness, seemingly wanting to negotiate something.
But Ronava truly had no talent for negotiation. After just a dozen sentences, the conversation broke down.
Momoshiki directly unleashed stellar power. Ronava used code to edit this power's existence in Teyvat into death.
It was like playing a card duel: you kill, I dodge. Neither could kill the other.
Finally, Momoshiki saw something. His eyes turned into Rinnegan, and he created a strange portal out of thin air, then instantly cut space and threw Ronava into it.
"Is that the Honkai: Star Rail universe that strange mask mentioned? Losing home-field advantage, huh."
Isthar shook her head with some regret.
There was no need to watch the subsequent scene. Ronava no longer had Teyvat's editing backend. Besides the concept of death itself, she had no other power.
She was probably going to be severely bullied.
Thinking this, Isthar pulled the main timeline back. The moment Ronava was about to be thrown into the portal, she reached through time with her hand and pulled her back, then ended the timeline.
"I should have said more than once that you're not very good at negotiating, shouldn't I?" Isthar said in a sleepy tone.
Ronava didn't speak, but her expression was very ugly, biting her teeth with her head down.
The moment she touched the portal, Ronava felt that she had lost the power to define death.
This was a symbol of certain defeat.
"Never mind, I'll clean up this mess."
Looking at Ronava's expression, Isthar didn't say much, just shook her head.
She brought up the timeline again, marked a keyframe at the moment Ronava left, and then dragged it all the way to when the portal appeared.
She selected this area, clicked copy, and then reversed the copied new time segment.
Then she dragged the two time segments, making them overlap, successfully achieving a 1-1 state.
Because 1-1=0, this was a basic law of the universe, so this time segment was completely erased.
"It's been cleared," Isthar said slowly, resting her hand on her cheek.
"Predetermined fate cannot be changed even by deleting the timeline, but when it involves creatures that do not belong to this universe, even fate needs to make concessions, so there are infinite possibilities."
"Next time, if you want to negotiate, let me set the keyframes first. That way, you can reload and start over, without so much trouble."
"Erasing the timeline consumes too much of my energy. I need to sleep for 25 hours, 41 minutes, and 53 seconds."
"Oh, right, someone's been watching you."
After speaking, regardless of Ronava's expression, Isthar once again leaned against the large tree, her feet resting on a branch, her hand cradling her cheek, looking like a sleeping beauty.
"Understood."
Ronava's face remained ugly. Her figure gradually disappeared, as if she had never appeared.
In the original battleground, nothing seemed to have happened here, only Toneri, who witnessed everything with his Tenseigan.
"What are you looking at?"
Ronava's projection glared at him with a resentful expression.
Looking at the densely packed eyeballs in the sky, Toneri was slightly surprised.
"Didn't Lord Momoshiki kill you?"
Clearly, Isthar, that troublesome teammate, forgot to delete the timeline after entering the portal. This led to Toneri retaining this memory using his Tenseigan, but he forgot the battle process, only remembering that a battle had occurred.
"Alas..."
Ronava sighed.
"As a creature not of this world, I will no longer inflict death upon those around Momoshiki, so forget everything you've seen."
As she spoke, Ronava also cursed Momoshiki fiercely in her heart.
Couldn't he just follow the plot obediently? He had to make so many changes, messing with predetermined fate, you villain!
...
"Achoo!"
Momoshiki, who was reading a novel in the Kamui Dimension, inexplicably sneezed.
Strange, why was an Otsutsuki body sneezing again? That shouldn't be right.
Who exactly was talking about him?
Rubbing his nose, Momoshiki always felt like he had forgotten something, and yet also felt like the forgotten thing had never happened.
Was he getting confused from reading novels?
===
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