Nina's focus seemed to be on a very subtle point, but for Shirley, it was a good thing.
She had already regarded this innocent and ordinary girl in front of her from the bottom of her heart as a subordinate of a certain sub-space shadow, and a subordinate of the kind of daughter - the less negative impression she had in front of this subordinate, the higher her chance of survival in front of the elder would certainly be.
Nina had no idea how much was hidden under Shirley's awkward and stiff smile. The girl was surprised and a little excited because she had never been in such close contact with a real supernatural being (going to church doesn't count), and her understanding of this aspect was limited to Ben. In her eyes, Shirley, who used some kind of "supernatural illusion" to sneak into the school to investigate the incident, seemed to have been shrouded in a mysterious and powerful aura.
She even forgot the other party's little "deception" to her for a short time, and instead focused all her attention on the extraordinary life and adventures of the extraordinary people - even though these adventures were basically made up by her own mind: "Where do you usually live? Do you have your own secret base or something? Or is there a very mysterious organization
"Do you usually hide in caves? Or sewers or something like that? Is there a warehouse-like place to store various ritual items
"Are you born with special abilities? Or do you have some powerful supernatural item? Are you the legendary "secret wizard"? I heard that there is such an ancient profession. Secret wizards can cast spells without relying on any gods. It is said that their power comes from their blood...
"What do you usually eat? Do you often drink herbs or strange animal blood? Huh? You also eat normally? Really?"
Nina's questions came one after another, crackling and seemingly endless. Shirley was halfway through answering them when layers of tears appeared on her forehead.
She broke into a cold sweat—not because she couldn't answer the other person's question, but because there was a Duncan next to her!
Duncan had been watching Shirley silently from the beginning, with a gentle and kind smile - on the surface, he looked like a child at home.
It's like a parent showing up to entertain classmates when they visit.
Simple, friendly, and harmless to humans and animals.
But whenever he laughed, Shirley would break out in a cold sweat.
"You seem to be very afraid of my uncle." Even though Nina was slow to react in this regard, she could still notice Shirley's strange behavior. Recalling her reaction at the museum before, she couldn't help but ask, "What happened between you two?"
"Nothing... nothing! Really!" Shirley almost sat up straight with a start, shaking her hands vigorously. What... what could happen between me and your uncle? I'm still a child..."
Duncan felt something was wrong when he heard this. He knew he couldn't let the two girls continue to talk freely, so he coughed twice to interrupt Shirley before she could say anything nonsense: "It's nothing, she just evaded the fare and I happened to catch her."
"Just because of this?" Nina looked at Shirley in surprise, "It shouldn't leave such a big shadow... But uncle is right, evading the ticket is not good.
Shirley was about to cry: "I really won't evade tickets anymore, okay?"
Nina nodded, and then seemed to remember something, and couldn't help but look at Shirley seriously: "Then...
...Can you tell me what you are investigating? You are my friend because of your "investigation"? Shirley's body was straightened and her eyes began to drift to the side, but halfway through she met Duncan's calm gaze.
See.
"I'm investigating the fire that happened eleven years ago," Shirley suddenly lowered her head slightly, as if she had figured something out or simply given up on something, and said in a low voice, "It's the factory leak incident in Block 6 mentioned in the official records..."
"The fire eleven years ago?" Nina's eyes widened, and her tone was filled with astonishment. "Wait... you also...
You know about the fire eleven years ago?! "… You know about it too?! Shirley was actually surprised. She stood up from her chair. You also experienced that fire?"
"Of course I know. My parents died in that fire. I was six years old that year, and Uncle Duncan rescued me," Nina said hurriedly, gesturing with her hands subconsciously. "But everyone has always said that I was drowned by the toxic smoke on the street. They all said there was no fire at all. Even the newspapers later said that there was only an accident in a factory..."
"That year... I was also six years old, and my parents died in the fire. I remember it clearly," Shirley looked straight into Nina's eyes, "but people around me also told me that there was no fire at all... No wonder Agou said he smelled a familiar scent on you...
As soon as she finished speaking, Duncan's voice suddenly came from the side: "So, it was Agou who guided you to approach Nina.
You sneaked into the school and you didn't know why you did that, so after hearing what Nina said just now, you
So surprised."
Facing Duncan's calm gaze, Shirley nodded quickly, while Nina looked a little puzzled: "Agou? Who is Agou?"
"Agou..." Shirley said, but hesitated the next second. She looked at Duncan, then at Shirley. "Agou is my friend. He is right beside me, but he may look a little scary..."
Shirley said this, but she felt very strange in her heart - because there was clearly a Warp Shadow who was countless times scarier than Agou sitting next to her, and this Warp Shadow was with Nina day and night. As a result, she had to follow the "personal hobby" of the old man and pretend that Agou was the scariest existence here, and she had to treat the old man as an ordinary human being...
To be fair, she usually uses Agou's camouflage ability to move around, has dealt with cultists, sheriffs, and even pastors in local churches, but all these experiences combined are not as thrilling as sitting in this antique shop for ten minutes.
In her eyes, this ordinary shop was almost on the same level as the entrance to the subspace.
Nina just looked around curiously, searching for the figure of "Agou" beside Shirley. After looking around for a long time, she asked curiously: "Then let "Agou" come out to see me. Since he is your friend... what is there to be afraid of me?"
Shirley was still a little hesitant, and Duncan suddenly knocked on the table and said to Nina: "Then you have to be mentally prepared. I have seen "Agou" and it is really ugly."
"Then I'm even more curious," Nina became even more curious after seeing Uncle Duncan and Shirley's reactions. "I really want to meet Mr. 'Agou' and want to know why Shirley's friend has such a strange name.
"Well, since you want to see it," Duncan shook his head and looked at Shirley helplessly, "let Agou come out and say hello. After all, he is also today's 'guest'.
Under normal circumstances, Shirley would never expose the secret between herself and Agou, because in the orderly city-state, traveling with the dark devil is itself an extremely taboo thing. Even if the priests of the Deep Sea Church just sensed a little bit of the dark breath, they could directly put the eight-pound cannon and six-barrel machine gun in front of her.
However, now, a Warp Shadow-level being asked her to summon Agou.
oh.
She nodded, then slowly raised her arms. The next second, in front of Nina's surprised and slightly nervous eyes, dark flames and thick smoke suddenly rose up around Shirley!
Chains extended from the flames, and at the end of the thick smoke and black flames, the figure of a dark demon condensed.
The Deep Hound appeared in the flames, and within a second, it quickly shrank into a ball, hugged its head with its front paws, hid its most frightening eye sockets, and greeted Nina in a muffled voice in a cloud of black smoke: "Good evening, Miss, I am Agou, Shirley's friend and guardian dog. My appearance does not conform to the mainstream aesthetics of humans, but you can look at it with an abstract and tolerant eye, so that I am just a pile of cleverly stacked bone fragments and a ball of slightly strange colors.
Duncan glanced at Shirley calmly and said, "To be fair, I have never seen a dog that can act on its heart like this in my life... In terms of personality, it's quite cute."
Nina on the other side was stunned. She looked at Agou in amazement for a long time before she finally cried out: "Ah!
Shirley quickly said: "I told you that you might be scared..."
Before she could finish her words, she heard Nina add the second half of her exclamation: "This is also amazing!
Shirley: “…?”
"Hello?" While Shirley was stunned, Nina began to greet Agou tentatively. "Mr. Agou? Um, are you a "Mr."?"
"The Deep Devil has no gender, but you can call me that if you want," Agou answered sullenly, seeming a little surprised, "You... are not afraid of me?"
"It's okay, although it does look a little scary," Nina thought for a moment, with a bright smile on her face, but I'm still pretty brave~"