[Digimon 06] Purple

The curry in the pot is bubbling "gurgling", and the unique aroma spreads leisurely in the kitchen.Zi was holding a long-handled round spoon, and just as she was scooping up a spoonful of curry to add to Udou's rice, the boy Xiaowu who was slumped on the chair quickly raised his head, and began to point fingers at the right time, "Sister, Give me more chicken! Also, no carrots!"

"Yes, yes, yes..." Zi pretended to agree in his mouth, but on the other hand, he unceremoniously picked a few more carrots from the pot, and pressed them directly on Youdou's rice.

So when he saw his curry rice covered with carrots delivered to him, Uto gave Zi a hard look.The latter looked like he didn't see anything, folded his hands together and said softly, "I'm starting."

One of the few family rules of the Ruoye family, the food that has been placed on the plate must be eaten.

Yuto poked the red vegetables on the rice with a spoon in disgust, and had to pile them up on the edge of the plate, intending to finally deal with this extremely painful existence for him.

Both parents are busy with work and are not at home, which makes the dinner at Luo Ye's house a bit deserted.

Fortunately, the siblings have already gotten used to this atmosphere.

"Hey, Youdou." Zi suddenly said, "What did you do?"

No wonder she was surprised.If you want to make a positive list for all the members of the "going home department", then her younger brother is ranked first, not the kind of child who "forgets the time to go home because of being playful"; although he is not introverted , There are quite a few friends in school, but his specialties are all items that "you don't need to exercise too much while sitting", so club activities have always been missed for him; The originally clean white shirt was now covered with dust in several places - it was only when his parents were away that he dared to sit at the dinner table in such dirty clothes.The combination of these doubtful points, combined with the fact that he returned late, makes it hard for people not to wonder what Youdou did outside today.

In the face of Zi's question, Yuto pawed at the rice emotionally - this depression should have nothing to do with carrots.After a while, he said, "I'm going to the library, with my classmates."

"Library?" Zi stopped, "So long?"

"Yes." Youdou threw away the spoon and suddenly changed the subject, "Sister, do you know the 'Ronin Jiangchuan' in the library?"

Purple nodded.Because of her mother's work, she felt that Youdou's question was really superfluous.

The young man named "Jiang Chuan" is said to have been a student with excellent grades at the beginning and determined to be admitted to Dongda University.However, I don't know whether it was because of too much study pressure or other reasons, which caused him to fail in the college entrance examination.Since then, he has been living in the library and studying hard, just to get the admission letter from Dongda University.Who knows that God's will tricks people, he misses "qualification" every time.But the stubbornness in his heart and his persistent pursuit of Dongda University made Jiang Chuan go on the road of repeating his studies year after year, and it has been the fifth year until today.

As long as people living in this town, almost everyone has seen this thin young man wearing glasses in the corner of the library.He often sits in a corner, surrounded by various examination reference books piled high.

Ruoye Shizhi once inadvertently talked about Jiang Chuan in front of her family, her tone was full of sympathy and helplessness.

Thinking of all the rumors about "Wonder in Jiangchuan", Zi couldn't help feeling a little depressed.She unconsciously put away her relaxed expression, and unconsciously scraped the remaining rice on the plate with a spoon, that frosty and indifferent face once again became her best shield to hide.Uto looked at Zi with a cold face, as if he had seen his past sister, he lowered his head guiltily and took a piece of carrot into his mouth.

"Sister, have you ever thought about taking the entrance exam to Dongda University?"

As soon as the words came out, even Youdou himself was stunned for a moment.Then he closed his mouth remorsefully, not knowing where his brain went wrong to ask such a stupid question.

Since her sister experienced the serious accident a year ago, the word "before" has tacitly become a taboo in Luo Ye's family.Since Zi didn't want to think about it, they wouldn't take the initiative to mention it either.But today, I don't know if it was affected by the incident of "Wonder in Jiangchuan", or if the annoying piece of carrot stuck in his throat disturbed Youdou's nerves. blurted out.

Zi stopped the unconscious movements in her hands, she slowly raised her head, and looked at Yudou in confusion.

"I..." She replied uncertainly, "Maybe, I haven't thought about what will happen after so long."

Annoyed, Uto stuffed another carrot in his mouth, as if punishing himself.

"Then what about after that?"

Yudou frowned and chewed the carrot in his mouth in pain, the soft touch after cooking and the inherent weird taste of carrots were really his greatest enemies in this life.So when Zi tapped the rim of the plate with a spoon impatiently and repeated her question a second time, Uto came back to his senses with a bitter expression on his face.

"I'm asking you, what is the connection between 'Langren Jiangchuan' and your late return today?"

"Ah, uh..." Yuto's face became a little strange when he mentioned what happened in the library in the afternoon.He painfully swallowed the food he hated the most in his life stuck in his throat, and then slowly began to narrate, "It wasn't that guy Xionggo at first, he told me 'Rangren Jiangchuan', maybe it has become' Monster'. And..." Reluctantly clenched the handle of the spoon in his hand, Uto reluctantly squeezed out his opinion, "I... also... think so."

Zi's ​​eyes widened in disbelief, and the silver spoon in his hand fell into the plate with a "ding".You Dou actually admitted the existence of urban ghost talk?Is this still her younger brother, the scientific atheist Yuto Wakaba?

"Is it because of what Mr. Xiongwu said?" Zi took the lead in throwing out a guess that even she herself didn't quite believe.

It is unbelievable to say that birds of a feather flock together, but Youdou is a negative example.His best friend at school, Yugo Kojima, turned out to be a guy who would spend his entire life searching for urban legends.Despite such a social circle, Yuto, who kept his original nature, did not join his supernatural research association because of Yugo's strong persuasion, and still went his own way, expressing his contempt for his best friend who always chased after "supernatural".

"...Or did you get any definite evidence?" This is still more likely than the former.

"Actually," Uto put down the spoon.He lowered his head and said sullenly, "I saw it with my own eyes."

In Yuto’s narration, the incident started when Kojima Yugo-kun told him about the weirdness he discovered about "Ronin Jiangchuan": I don’t know when, Jiangchuan no longer always buried his head in the corner of the library Instead of studying, he sat in the seat that was often occupied by him on weekdays, staring at everyone passing by him with gloomy eyes. When he heard topics like "examination" or "Tokyo University", He will step forward and stop the other party from saying something that will make people angry.

"There are two girls in our class who were stopped by Jiang Chuan who behaved strangely last week. And that night, both of them had very strange dreams. The content of the dream was that they were in a maze full of exercises. Here, the one chasing after them is Jiang Chuan who keeps forcing them to study..."

"Pfft." Although it was inappropriate to do so, Zi still couldn't help laughing out loud.Noticing Uto's expression—he was clearly dissatisfied with Zi's behavior—Zi coughed twice in embarrassment, trying to hide her uncontrollable smile, "Okay, let's talk. If it's just a strange dream If so, you probably wouldn't be making such a fuss, would you?"

Uto lowered his head, and choked out a sentence, "Student Onodera, one of the two girls, she is missing."

"Huh?" Zi smiled at the corner of her mouth.Across the dining table, she looked seriously at her younger brother who had seldom shown weakness in front of her in the past, "Just because of the things you said, you can't implicate Onodera's disappearance with 'Ronin Jiangchuan' at all..."

"But Yoshino-san, that is, another girl, she said that before she disappeared, Onodera-san was still having that strange dream every day. That man woman has the same temper, and she actually wanted to go directly to the library to ask Jiang Chuan to question?! As a result She just... never came back."

As if he knew what Zi was going to ask, Uto hurriedly answered before she could speak, "Of course Yoshino told the police about these things, but there is no definite evidence, how could those adults take our words seriously? Something? It’s said that we children think too much.” Speaking of this, Youdou gave a disdainful cut, “That’s why we thought about going to Jiang Chuan by ourselves.”

"You went to find Jiang Chuan yourself?"

"Well," I don't know what to think of, Youdou shuddered, "Then I saw that guy Jiang Chuan, it seems that he has really become a little less human..."

"That guy's left eye hidden behind the lens... how should I put it, it's not so much a human eye, it's more like a light from a machine, it's red..." At this time, Uto was deeply frustrated by his narrow vision The vocabulary, he wanted to try his best to describe to Zi the eyes of Jiang Chuan he saw, like the warning lights leaking from the cracks of broken machinery, the tone is warm, but the unknown meaning hidden in it will only make people feel chills .

Rather than Yuto's description, it's the younger brother's expression that really made Zi feel uneasy.Although she didn't speak immediately, in her mind, there was a vocabulary she had just come into contact with, which also lit up like a warning light.

"Xiongwu and I were also a little impulsive," Youdou rubbed his messy hair habitually, trying to use an understatement tone, "otherwise the library would not have been closed early."

"Did you fight?" Zi looked down.

If my mother knew that if Youdou was fighting with others in the library, she would die of anger.

Huh... wait?

Zi slapped the table with nothing, and stood up abruptly, "Youdou?" She forgot to control her volume, and her brother who was sitting across the table shrank back in fright because of the involuntary increase in volume, "You said What? The library closed early today?"

"Yes, yes," Youdou stammered stiffly on the chair, "After all, what happened to Jiang Chuan was already very uncomfortable, but in the end, I don't know who called the police today, He was taken away..."

"But," Zi's mind went blank, she looked in the direction of the corridor in a trance, as if she saw her mother saying goodbye to herself in the evening, "but my mother said that she will replace Miss Jingshan on the night shift tonight..."

"How is it possible?" You Dou waved his hand, "I saw the door locked by the curator himself today... Hey, sister?" Before he finished speaking, he saw Zi leave his position at some point, striding past him skimming.

She found Miss Jing Shan's phone number in the phone book, and quickly dialed the number.

Yuto, who also started to feel uneasy, followed to the corridor, with a bewildered expression on his face, listening to the call between Zi and Ms. Jingshan.

"Is it Ms. Jingshan? Hello, I'm Wakaba Zi. Yes, that's right, Wakaba Shiori is my mother. Yes, I want to ask you about tonight's shift arrangement? Is it? Then I would like to ask you Did you contact my mother today? Yes, yes, I see, thank you very much."

"Maybe so, sorry to trouble you, thank you."

The short call ended, Zi ended the call with a cold face, and then dialed her mother's mobile phone number.

"Sure enough..." The waiting process made her anxious, during which Zi kept tapping the table with her fingertips, "Miss Jingshan said that she didn't call mom at all today, and the night shift was canceled because of your business." It's..."

"No, can't it?" Youdou couldn't believe it, the plot that he only saw in TV dramas in the past actually happened to him today, and the object was his mother, "Mom really didn't go to Aunt Xingu Did the florist help?"

A busy tone on the handset confirmed that no matter how many times I dialed, I got the same result.

"How is it possible..." Zi dropped the phone impatiently, and Zi replied as she hurried up the stairs, "Didn't I tell you? When I came back, I met my mother who was going out. She told me that I would replace her tonight." Ms. Jingshan is on duty."

Pushing open the door of her own room, Zi suddenly turned to face her younger brother who was too shocked to follow her mechanically.

"Youdou, listen to me." Zi spoke extremely fast, but still organized, "I'll give you 1 minute to get the necessary things, including your mobile phone. Then we will split up. I'll go to the library , you go to Dad's office. If I don't contact you within 20 minutes after we parted—that is, the time you arrived at the office, let Dad call the police, saying that something may have happened to Mom and I. "

"But..." Youdou seemed to want to say something, but was interrupted by Zi before he could speak.

"The most important thing now is to confirm mother's situation, understand?"

Yudou looked at her in a daze, for a moment, he even thought that his sister who disappeared completely with that accident a year ago had returned.

"What are you in a daze for? Move quickly!" Seeing Yudou who was still standing there, Zi scolded dissatisfiedly.

"Uh...uh!"

Seeing Yudou running towards her room, Zi heaved a sigh of relief helplessly.She turned around and went back to the room, and quickly packed out the necessary items such as mobile phone and wallet from her schoolbag.Just as she was about to leave, Zi's eyes fixed on the XrosLoader that she stuffed on the bottom floor for some reason.

Then, by a strange coincidence, she reached out and grabbed the dark green machine, and put it in her pocket together.

If Zi still had the leisure to look at her computer at this time, she would immediately find out that Selene, who had been silent for a long time before, sent her a message at this subtle and just right time.

Selene: Zisang, the reason of "inappropriate" cannot prevent the "inevitable" from happening.