Chapter 44 The Walkman
The sun rises.
Night Lan and Night Star, two Lolis, wake up from bed, accidentally kicking out EyPar who was residing in Night Lan’s body.
“Uh~ Good morning, Night Star and Night Lan~”
“EyPar… you always just jump into Night Lan’s body without my permission…” Night Lan grumbled, feeling quite bothered by it.
Although she felt nothing while sleeping, the thought of having a ghost enter her body made her skin crawl.
EyPar laughed nervously, “Hehe~ It’s fine! I only occupy someone’s body for sleep. Since Night Star thinks it’s not right to keep watching over me, why don’t you let me sleep with you too? And the only way I can do that is by entering Night Lan’s body.”
“If that’s the case, why don’t you possess some random stranger’s body instead?” Night Lan muttered but didn’t really get angry.
She already sort of agreed on EyPar’s behavior.
As long as it was during sleeping hours, everything was fine.
Otherwise, if EyPar was the only one awake at night with no one to talk to, it would feel lonely and depressing.
To avoid leaving EyPar alone, Night Lan had to let her use her night body, no matter how inconvenient it was. As long as EyPar didn’t cause any trouble, she could handle it.
“Argh, Night Star actually wants me to possess other bodies? But I don’t want to sleep in some stranger’s body.”
“If you don’t want to go, then stay!”
Night Lan ignored EyPar and got ready to wash up. Today was another packed day, and both Night Lan and Night Star were going to slack off at different places—Night Star to the Night Watcher Base and Night Lan to the Rising Sun Theater. Both locations were pretty important.
Another day, EyPar would stay back and watch the home. She had been turned into a dedicated house-sitting ghost.
It couldn’t be helped; she just couldn’t sit still anywhere else.
…
Night Lan arrived at the Night Watcher Base, heading to Zero Meow’s room like usual, where she met White Fish and Zero Meow.
“Zero Meow, did you finish your drawings?”
“Grrr~ Just barely sent them over.”
Zero Meow seemed rather proud, clearly excited about barely meeting a deadline.
Deadlines always had that effect on people.
Night Lan never experienced that feeling. She couldn’t master the art of slacking before, or she might have been doing everything just before the last minute.
No sooner had Night Lan sat next to White Fish when Zero Meow’s voice rang out.
“Hey, you guys heard? The Tragic Shadow Theater added a new member yesterday! And guess what—a real headache!”
Hearing this, Night Lan stiffened but showed no other reaction.
“A new member, huh? Is it another Star Eclipse?”
“Mmhmm, seems so.”
Zero Meow flicked through screens to show the Night Watcher website, landing on the Tragic Shadow Theater page.
“Behold, the new member’s name! It’s…”
Night Lan and White Fish leaned in to see the screen.
The original members were the Group Leader, Gentleman, and Fraudster. Now there were two new faces: the Puppet Master and Audience Performer.
White Fish wasn’t too interested in this news, so this was the first time she was seeing such information.
“Are they all Star Eclipses?”
Zero Meow nodded solemnly, “Yes, very dangerous ones indeed.”
White Fish tilted her head, unconvinced by the threat. Her first encounter with a Star Eclipse was her mom, who wasn’t dangerous.
She had also interacted with two other Star Eclipses, Night Lan’s friends—definitely not dangerous.
So, weren’t Star Eclipses always dangerous?
It depends, she figured.
Zero Meow continued, “The new members are the Puppet Master and Audience Performer. Legend has it the Puppet Master is the same ultra-powerful Supernova Star Eclipse who caused a mess in Shanghe City. Scary, they say, it took many Night Watchers to deal with it.”
At that moment, something clicked in White Fish’s mind. Was her friend from the Night Watcher Base also a Puppet Master, perhaps?
Zero Meow then moved on to the next topic.
“And the Audience Performer… for some reason, it says ‘Mascot’ at the end. This seems significant to the Tragic Shadow Theater. Not sure how the Star Eclipse ability works, though. Also, it’s said to be a silver-haired twintail Loli. Wonder what she looks like.”
Silver-haired twintail Loli…?
This detail sparked something in White Fish’s memory. That sounded a lot like Night Star, the other part of Night Lan’s twin.
Night Lan had told her about their one-soul-double-body situation after their visit.
She didn’t have sisters; she had another self named Silver-haired Night Star.
Could it be that the Puppet Master and silver-haired Audience Performer being recruited in the Tragic Shadow Theater meant they were Night Star and Lianhua?
White Fish blinked, realizing she might know something big here.
She looked back at Night Lan, catching her gaze. Night Lan’s eyes gave away the hint. Looks like she guessed correctly.
Hmm, she’d help keep this secret safe for Night Lan then.
Who EyPar and Lianhua were didn’t matter.
Zero Meow seemingly remained engrossed in the website, oblivious to their sneaky exchange.
“Speaking of which, thank goodness we didn’t get close. They say the Tragic Shadow Theater beat up the Night Watchers so bad that nearly everyone was wiped out. If not for their inexplicable retreat, it would have been disastrous.”
Zero Meow felt extremely relieved.
If they’d been near and got caught up, she would’ve been out of her mind.
Or, put another way, maybe she was smart enough to avoid it!
“Hmm…”
Night Lan didn’t respond to Zero Meow, engrossed in the website.
So, there were only five members in the Tragic Shadow Theater now?
Seemed correct, Night Lan counted in her head.
Group Leader, Gentleman, Fraudster, Puppet Master… and herself, yes, exactly five.
Adding some never-met Announcer, that would make six.
But something felt off.
Night Lan tried to recall what happened.
The Gentleman and the Fraudster got upset when she got hurt and started mowing down the defenseless Night Watchers…
Wait, when did those Night Watchers lose their powers?
Which of her theater member friends could weaken Night Watchers like that?
Night Lan felt like she was forgetting something, but couldn’t place it.
“…Mm-hm,” she murmured.
Just then, Night Lan felt something in her pocket, pulled it out, and found a Walkman.
Did it record music?
Curious, she slipped on headphones and waited for the tune to play.
Oddly, there was just static noise.
—
