"Wèi is... happy for your acceptance~" the Dark Voice, now firmly back in control of Kirihito's body, spoke the words like dark silk slid over a blade.
His tone was mature, a flirty, velvet baritone that clearly signaled: I am not only happy, I am darkly satisfied.
Wùji watched the shameless, pale man. The dancer was grinning as if cooking something in his head—and it was clearly not food. Wùji couldn't help but think: Childish earlier, and now bold? Interesting... this guy really is something. And I will not let go until I find out what are you .
Hidden under a veil of invisibility, Xio hissed, his voice dripping with smooth jealousy. "Just one wrong move again, Wèi... those hips are going to lose their edges."
Xio genuinely hated how the other dancers had been touching Kirihito earlier. It was almost like making love on stage through layers of cloth. Not quite fully, but the intent hung heavy in the air.
However, the entertainment-hungry crowd didn't care about Xio's jealousy. They were demanding the spectacle continue.
"The same song from where we left it! Please continue!!"
"Wùji Kùmsūn will join too? It's going to be even more fun!!"
"Start from Dance the Days and Night Away!!"
The adoration made the Dark Voice smirk proudly. He dramatically brushed back his long ponytail and whispered to himself, "I have already made my own tiny insect fan base!~"
Then, Kirihito's real soul yelled from the depths of his mind. "Wèi has the credits too! It is Wèi's body!!"
The Dark Voice's expression fell slightly, looking instantly bored.
" And no touching Wèi's hips again by your stupid friends!!" Kirihito warned.
"Shut up, kid... you have no permission to speak of your older brothers like that~" the Dark Voice replied internally. Outwardly, his covered eyes seemed to have noses of their own, smelling the crowd—and Wùji.
"They are not Wèi's brothers!! They are not even friends!" Kirihito yelled.
"Shh, shh, shh... shut up. Forgot what you promised?~ This half of the stage is mine now... and this violet insect is mine to play with. You have already eaten up my temper with your flirting."
"What does... farting mean?" Kirihito asked, confusing the word entirely.
The Dark Voice struggled not to laugh like a cawing crow. His internal voice choked with mirth. "I will answer you later, kid... but know two things. First... it is flirting, not farting. And second... what you did is related to the first stage of your birth."
He had gone too deep. He had literally implied that Kirihito's parents might have flirted before making him.
"What do you... mean?" Kirihito asked, deadly confused.
"Later! Now, let me feed my pride and these insects before I actually kill them later~" he purred.
"No killing! Butterfly said!" Kirihito warned sharply.
"Whatever, duh~ My mission should stay clear... the others aren't main characters. Don't worry, kid... kids shouldn't worry this much." The Dark Voice teased him, silencing the baby soul as if giving him candy.
Kirihito huffed but didn't speak back.
The Dark Voice smirked wider, stepping into his position to dance. His ribbon-wearing friends—the entities possessing the other dancers—stood beside him. He positioned himself side-by-side with Wùji... too close. Deliberately invasive.
It made Suji stare as if he were having a waking nightmare.
"Dear Earth God... what more will you show me..?" Suji mumbled, his cheeks flushing innocently. He acted as if Wùji was the one embarrassing him, while Wùji was actually crossing his own boundaries to catch the clever curse, his instincts screaming that this dancer was the core of the problem.
"How is Kansai, Suji? Is the Làn Qīngyè still new, or did it get old?" Wùji suddenly spoke, not moving his head, his eyes fixed forward.
It wasn't a casual question. It was a needle designed to pierce his brother's armor. I know what you hide behind this silver-blue robe... and that stubborn pride.
He asked specifically about Kansai, not only because that member was hurt by Kuradome, but because the Làn Qīngyè was the silver-blue gem Suji had bought for Kansai but had never been able to give him.
He grabbed the exact point to embarrass him back.
Suji's face heated up instantly, betrayed by his own embarrassment. His eyes widened as if his robe had fallen open in front of everyone. "S...Shut up! He is fine, and I don't know anything about the gem you are talking about!!" he stubbornly answered, crossing his arms and looking away.
Wùji smirked faintly and proudly—as always.
Even in that tiny moment, Xio chuckled faintly from his invisible perch. "That guy never changes... Wùji Kùmsūn is right..." Xio shifted, trying to sit comfortably while remaining an unseen force. He hissed lightly, the lingering pain from Kuradome's guqin attack stinging at his arm.
Then, the performance finally began again.
The music swelled—slow, heavy, and intoxicating.
"I know you're holding your breath,
Wǒ zhīdào nǐ zhèng zài bǐngzhe hūxī,
我知道你正在屏着呼吸,~"
The Dark Voice sang, a mesmerizing mix of his own deep timber and Kirihito's youthful clarity. As he sang, he lowered his head deliberately onto Wùji's shoulder from behind, shameless and fluid like water.
Wùji, who looked as if he possessed no emotions at all, silently turned his eyes to the face resting on his shoulder. Silent. Close. It was so real. So hot that it felt like it could burn down a whole clan.
Both Suji and Xio choked on their own breath. Well... that was unexpected.
The Great Grandmaster Wùji could burn the stage without even properly starting the dance!
"Ridiculous..." Suji whispered, wearing a weird, amazed, yet thoughtful look.
"Impossible..." Xio whispered, tilting his head to get a proper look.
The crowd went crazy at the move—this was not something regular to see, certainly not with the untouchable Wùji.
And the Dark Voice... he was somehow over the moon, barely containing his excitement.
Across the stage, Lìngxiāo was standing silently, watching them. His expression was unreadable, but inside, a war was raging.
The Black Ribbon entity possessing him mumbled through Lìngxiāo's thoughts. "Look at him... how he is grinning... do as you want... I just want my one-night stand, which will not be the one." His voice was low but surely jealous, hating that he couldn't dance there, stuck keeping Lìngxiāo possessed while the Dark Voice had all the fun.
Yes, it was all their cat-and-mouse game. The plan was to use Lìngxiāo to confuse Wùji.
Lìngxiāo's hand trembled again, fighting to regain consciousness. He spoke to the intruder in his mind. "Whoever you are... get out of my body... or it is not going to be good for you..." Lìngxiāo warned. His voice was soft as always, but sharp at the edges.
The Black Ribbon chuckled like a predator. "Shut up, little smiling exorcist..." he purred. "Time will say for whom it is not going to be good..."
And then Lìngxiāo was suppressed again. The hand stopped shaking.
The song continued. More charged. More intimate.
The Dark Voice's every move pushed Wùji's boundary further. He spun around Wùji, his body brushing against the Grandmaster's robes, but Wùji still couldn't pinpoint exactly what was off. All he could feel was curse energy everywhere—which was confusing, because Lìngxiāo (possessed) was radiating a massive amount of curse energy nearby.
Kirihito came closer to Wùji's face... deliberately. A tiny, breathless space remained between them.
The Dark Voice could smell the faint scent of Lavender coming from Wùji.
And Wùji could smell something between blood, wine, and something uniquely Kirihito.
Suddenly, the Dark Voice felt the Yokai body he was inhabiting heat up. The biological vessel was racing, reacting to the proximity, confusing the thrill of the dance for the instinct of mating.
Damn this body! But the Dark Voice wasn't as shameless as an animal. He played with desire; he didn't let it claim him. But that faint pulse on Wùji's neck... the scent... it made him want to leave a bite right on the man's Adam's apple.
His voice turned husky, dropping an octave as he sang:
"Tiny heart pounding like a drum—
Xiǎo xīnzàng / xiàng gǔ tān bēngzòu—
小心脏 / 像鼓摊崩奏——
Echoing like Wèi's jewels in your throat.
Xiàng Wèi de zhēnzhū / zài nǐ hóulóng dǐngxiǎng.
像魏的珍珠 / 在你喉咙顶响.
Is it singing "touch me touch me touch me"?
Zài chàng "mō wǒ mō wǒ mō wǒ" ma?
在唱"摸我摸我摸我"吗~~"
With a fluid, snapping motion, he pulled away. His own lyrics were making his head spin and his heart pound with charged feelings. He was both hating and loving it, and only the gods knew why.
The stage, the dancers, and the crowd felt like they faded away—leaving them alone on this cold yet electrically charged floor.
"Dear Love God, don't write my love interests kindly... I am not a human," he whispered to himself, sliding into a move where he turned his back, hands covering his eyes, and then slowly slid down. His hips moved slowly, like decelerated sea tides. Smooth. Flawless. Lethal.
Wùji was a little overwhelmed, confused, yet still on track to find a clue. He noted something tiny.
Kirihito's skin was gleaming more silver than before. It was almost like silver silk—softly wet and shiny, like he was sweating liquid moonlight.
To be sure, Wùji smoothly moved closer, blending the investigation into the dance. His small spin felt slow and soft, like a falling cherry blossom, his long violet hair fanning around him.
The Dark Voice kept singing, the voice split between himself and Kirihito:
"Wèi is sad to say—
Wèi yě hěn nánshuō—
魏也很难说——
I'm an innocent venom,
Wǒ shì wúguān de dú shā,
我是无关的毒砂~
A silk sin nobody owns.
Shì méirén néng zhǎn de sīzhī zhī zuì.
是没人能占的丝织之罪~
Because Crimson Heart needs nobody…
Yīnwèi hóngxīn bù xūyào rènhé rén…
因为红心不需要任何人…——"
The song cut off abruptly. The last line felt like a lie to himself, because Wùji was right in front of him.
Wùji had lowered his stance, hands hovering near the dancer's hips, his face dangerously close to that glossy, silver-sweating neck. His lips and nose were barely an inch away from the skin.
"I can't take it anymore," both Xio and Suji whispered simultaneously, locking eyes from across the space. Suji hid behind his group, blushing furiously.
Xio was gripping his own ponytail tightly with both hands, like it was a rope, his own anger slipping out.
But here, on stage, the Dark Voice's breath hitched. A sudden, biological response to Wùji's smooth, deadly move.
Goddammit, he will at least find out that this is a Yokai! It is reacting like it wants to eat him right here and now!! The Dark Voice screamed internally. His face flushed, and his lips pressed into a thin line, fearing to make any sound that might betray him.
And there...
Wùji found it.
A sweet, wet smell. Pheromones mixed with magic. It was a scent that only came from a First-Class Cursed Type Special—specifically when in mating mode.
Inside Lìngxiāo, the Black Ribbon's eyes widened. "That guy lost it!" he hissed.
"Found you... clever Yokai..." Wùji suddenly said.
It wasn't a question. It was a sentence. A dark smirk curled Wùji's lips, and his violet eyes glowed with a predatory darkness that made the Dark Voice's skin go from hot to freezing cold in a second.
The Dark Voice froze. Then, panic set in. He tried to move away, his chest rising and falling with ragged breaths. The desperate move made his hair fall free.
Snap.
Wùji reached out with impossible speed and grabbed the red ribbon binding Kirihito's eyes and hair.
"What the fuck—" the Dark Voice hissed, his voice dropping all pretense of playfulness. He slapped one hand over his exposed eyes and buried the other in his messy hair.
Xio's blood ran cold. "I'm gonna get caught!" he hissed, springing to his feet, ready to attack.
"O-oh..." The Black Ribbon muttered inside Lìngxiāo. "This is bad."
He abruptly abandoned ship, leaving Lìngxiāo's body in a swirl of shadow.
Lìngxiāo gasped, his brown eyes snapping back to normal, regaining full control instantly. He saw the scene—the curse energy spiking from Kirihito.
He announced loudly, his never-leaving smile darkening into the expression of a serious exorcist.
"This is actually a Cursed Type Yokai! Something was holding me back from telling you all!"
The music dropped into silence.
The crowd began to panic.
And the dance turned into a hunt.