Shu finished the small amount of food he had gotten in just a few bites. He was the first to put down his chopsticks, while across from him, the large plate was already more than half empty.
Rita was still elegantly taking small bites. Azhar, who apparently didn't know how to use chopsticks, was struggling to shovel food with a spoon. Susannah was stuffing her face with the same gusto as Bianka.
Ana sat ramrod straight. Unlike Rita's elegance, Ana's posture was like the perfect embodiment of rules, every movement as steady as if it had been measured.
It gave a very rigid impression.
"Hmm? You're not eating anymore?" Bianka peeked her head out from behind the small mountain of food on her plate and asked curiously, seeing that Shu had already put down his utensils.
Shu shook his head. "I've had enough."
Enough?
Bianka blinked, then recalled the amount of food Shu had gotten... it probably wasn't even a single mouthful for her!
"Are you in a bad mood?" After a moment of thought, that was the only reason Bianka could come up with.
Shu hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
He wasn't in a good mood right now... Nothing that had happened recently had gone his way. Otto wanting to disband his team, the nightmare he'd had on the train, and the mystery of Ana and Chen Tianwu...
Nothing was within his control. The feeling of not being able to influence how things developed... was very unpleasant.
"Hmm..." Bianka's cheeks were puffed with food. She looked at the worry creasing Shu's brow and thought for a moment.
Shu felt something being pushed in front of him. He looked down, puzzled, and saw a not-so-exquisitely-wrapped piece of fruit candy.
"If you're in a bad mood, eating something sweet will make you feel better."
Shu: "?"
Great. One more thing that was out of his control.
Seeing Shu's silence, Bianka thought he didn't believe her. "Senior Sushang and Azhar told me so, and I've tried it myself. It really works."
But this wasn't a question of whether it worked or not... If the things he was worried about could be solved with a piece of candy, he'd eat himself into a cavity.
"Thanks," he said, taking the candy and thanking Bianka.
After a while, with Susannah struggling to swallow her last bite, the dinner finally came to an end.
The sky was beginning to darken. The group walked out of the base area.
"I have already decided on the content of the assessment," Rita said, gently pushing Bianka from behind. "It's just a simple game of hide-and-seek, right here in Sapphire City."
"Lady Azhar, Lady Bianka, I'll have to trouble you to hide together," Rita said with a smile, looking at Azhar. "You two will have ten minutes to hide. After ten minutes, the others will use all means necessary to find you."
"And the seekers not only need to see you, but also make contact to be considered to have caught the fugitives."
With that, Rita gave Azhar a playful wink. "If you get caught... you might just lose."
Azhar tensed up and nodded vigorously.
"Then, everyone, please wait a moment. You two, the game begins now," Rita said with a smile to Bianka and Azhar. Azhar was startled and was about to say she wasn't ready when her perspective was irresistibly lifted upwards.
Bianka had swept Azhar up into a princess carry and, with a push of her feet, shot off into the night like a cannonball.
Before Azhar could even struggle, the sudden pressure of the rush forced her to curl up, shrinking into Bianka's arms.
"Slo... slow... slow down..." a trembling whimper sounded in the night, scattered by the whistling wind, unable to reach Bianka's ears.
The others stood in place, watching the two figures quickly disappear into the night.
After a minute, there was no trace of them in sight.
Shu retracted his gaze. He was probably the one among them who understood Bianka's power the best. Ten minutes... if Bianka ran in a straight line, by the time they started, she would probably be out of Sapphire City.
And if Bianka resisted...
Although Bianka would certainly follow the rules of the game and limit her movements to Sapphire City, besides himself using [Hope]... could Susannah and Ana really catch her?
Shu quickly calculated. The conclusion was that it would be difficult, but not impossible.
---||---
Five minutes later, Bianka finally stopped, with a thoroughly shaken Azhar in her arms.
"We've run so far, they probably won't be able to catch up right away, right?" Bianka looked back, estimating the distance she had covered. Azhar's legs trembled as she was set down, and she almost fell to her knees.
She barely managed to stand by leaning against a wall. She tried to speak, but almost threw up the dinner she had just eaten.
Fortunately, she only dry-heaved a couple of times before stopping.
"I say... you... next time, could you... give me a little warning?" Wiping the drool from the corner of her mouth, even the good-tempered Azhar was a little annoyed, and her temper wasn't actually that good to begin with.
"Uh... I'm so sorry..." Bianka also saw Azhar's miserable state. She scratched her head awkwardly and walked over to help her catch her breath.
"Forget it, forget it..." Azhar waved her hand dismissively, accepting Bianka's sincere apology. She surveyed the place where they had landed, then looked at Bianka. "So, how are you planning to hide now?"
Bianka put on a thoughtful expression. "Since we're playing hide-and-seek... shouldn't we just find a place to hide here?"
"Of course not!" Azhar shook her head. "Senior Rita said that those three can use all sorts of methods to find us. Just hiding definitely won't work!"
"Why won't it work?" Bianka didn't mind Azhar calling her by name and Rita with the "senior" suffix. She just looked at Azhar, confused.
Hide-and-seek... wasn't it just hiding and seeking? Were there some rules she didn't know about?
"We just saw Senior Ana's powers, right? And all that equipment she has... she might have thermal imaging, trackers, radar, or something. There's no way we can hide from all that!"
In reality, Ana had none of the things Azhar mentioned, but she did have something called a "life-form detector."
Courtesy of Future City.