Chapter 23: Lu Leiji

After those ominous words Jiao Zihua had uttered, the two quickly round back to where they had broke into pairs. The two Zhang siblings had come into sight after they settled on the ground, almost cisibly bickering about something. Jiao Zihua laughs, "Fourth Martial Brother is kore annoyed than angry most of the time."

So they did have a bond. Leiji hadn't been wondering, but good to know.

"-really stupid!" Zhang Binghua sighs harshly, rubbing the space between her eyes. She turns to Jiao Zihua and Leiji and asks, "Well? Found it?"

"I think so." Leiji says. Jiao Zihua had suddenly gone a bit pale, he asks, "Should we really go?"

"We accepted this mission..." Zhang Binghua raised a brow, casually holding her brother and putting a hand over his mouth. Zhang Xuanhe struggles, but no one seems to be paying attention to the flailing boy. "It's in the mission description. We haven't encountered anything more dangerous than the random wild animal, so it should be fine."

Jiao Zihua sighs. "It's just that..."

Leiji finishes for him, "You have a supremely bad feeling about this. You are also rather well known for having an accurate intuition."

Zhang Xuanhe finally got out of his sister's hold and yells out, "If Third Martial Brother doesn't think we should do this then we should go back!" After seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he huffs and turns away.

Jiao Zihua's eyes follow him and Leiji has the sudden inkling that there is something between these two. Zhang Binghua scoffs, then tells them, "If you want to chicken out then at least stay near the array or something. We'll search it."

"No, no," Jiao Zihua looks at her, an odd look to him. "I'll go with."

"Good," Zhang Binghua says, looks at the sky for a second, then kicks her brother a little too lightly for it to be taken seriously. "We'll go tomorrow, where are the overnight supplies you idiot?"

Zhang Xuanhe bares his teeth in a scowl but still takes the mentioned supplies out of the...Space-enchanted bag, as Leiji knows it, but some kind of pouch for this world. Two fairly sized tents and four blanket-like pieces of cloth that Leiji would call a sleeping bag. Zhang Binghua watches him, looking like she was going to stab someone to death.

Jiao Zihua laughs and stage whispers to Leiji, "Fourth Martial Brother is doing the tents wrong."

Leiji snorts. Jiao Zihua laughs shortly before falling silent again.

"The sun is about to set." Leiji looks at the sun, wondering if it had really been a whole day. From Zhang Binghua and later Jiao Zihua suddenly joining, to talking to Ling Fengbao this morning, to meeting up and preparing and coming to this abandoned city...it hasn't been that long. "I'll go and start setting up a fire."

Jiao Zihua nods absentmindedly, looking at the ground. The Zhang siblings were bickering again and Leiji doesn't look back.

In the back of their mind, Lu Leiji whispers about which pieces of wood were the best for fire. The needed rocks and how people find it hard at first only to see it as supremely easy after succeeding once. They appreciate the advice, they really do, but...Leiji could simply use their lightning elements to make a fire.

After setting the fire, Leiji once again sits on the ground, watching said fire. Moments later, Jiao Zihua mutters quietly, "I lied, you know."

Leiji doesn't pause, asking hin without any cues in their voice, "What did you lie about?"

A pause. "You aren't mad?" He asks as if in wonder. Zhang Binghua apparently had had enough of her brother and angrily sits down in front of them. Leiji replies, "Why shoukd I be mad."

"None of us are hurt. We still found the tenple. Everything is going smoothly, why should I be angry?" Leiji factually states. Jiao Zihua bows his head and continues, "I knew the actual direction we all should have gone but I still chose to make us split up, making it riskier for us if we encounter a threat."

"You're right." Leiji says quietly back after a moment, because what he had said is true. The four of them are in unknown territory and he had made them split up...no, "made" is the wrong word choice. Leiji just couldn't find a word other than that and "manipulate".

"But you could have made it worse by saying you didn't have any idea where and make all of us go alone to scout out all thr sections." They reason back.

Another pause. Zhang Xuanhe finally finishing the tents properly and plopping down beside his sister with full intentions of bickering with her again. Leiji wonders why he does that when there is a very empty seat beside Jiao Zihua.

Said boy talks again soon enough. "Actually, I just wanted to be alone with you."

"Fourth...Zhang Xuanhe would have agreed, even if it took a while and Zhang Binghua couldn't care less about the pairings as long as the power balance stats true. "I..." Jiao Zihua falls silent again, bringing his knees up and laying his head on it. "I just wanted to know whether you would ask about my name or not."

"Your...name." Leiju repeats, mostly incredulous rather than anything.

Jiao Zihua laughs, small and pathetic. He almost visibly swallows, "Yeah. My name."

Zihua, meaning purple flower. Leiji was...unaware of it being an odd name in this world. "Is there something wrong with your name?"

"...not in the demonic arts community." He murmurs, eyes trained on the fire. Leiji spots his hands clenching his sleeve and feels...angry, oddly. "There's nothing wrong with my name in out community, everyone thought I was going to be biologically female because of how small I was compared to my brother so they named me Zihua. There's...nothing wrong."

"But that's not true." Leiji cuts in before he could continue. "You feel upset because some other people think it's wrong for someone biologically male to be named that, right? Your sect is known for being a sanctuary for 'righteous' cultivators who run away."

He takes in several breaths, "It's probably bad that I wish our sect isn't like that."

Leiji tilts their head, arranging words to make them seem...actually understandable. "If your secy wasn't like that then you won't be the person you are now." It doesn't come out as they want it, but it should be good enough?

Several moments of silence pass again. Jiao Zihua suddenly stands up, jovially initiating conversation with Zhang Xuanhe. Leiji watches him for a while after that and sees nothing out of place. Zhang Binghua had moved to sit next to Leiji and is watching the two boys with an odd look.

The rations are given out to the three who made it and they start talking about the lookout shifts, it ending with a Leiji having the third shift. Then there's the tent placement which ended with Zhang Binghua and Jiao Zihua in one tent while Zhang Xuanhe and Leiji is in the other.

Zhang Xuanhe has no intention of sleeping, despite the fact that his body needs it. He stay sitting up, the sleeping bag swaddled around his form. Before Leiji could ask why he was not going to sleep like his sister obviously wanted him to do, he tells them, "Big sister and Third Martial Brother have the first shifts."

"I know that." Leiji shoots back. "But the three of you sleeping is the reason we set this up."

He sneers, "Of course, but big sister hates asking for help."

"That is not a valid reason." Leiji continues. "I mean, even if she hates asking for help, I doubt any of you are heavy sleepers. That and I will be meditating; don't try at being sacrificial when you know you'll need that sleep tomorrow."

"But registering, waking up and coming to will take enough time for someone to die!" He whisper-shouts. Leiji shakes their head, "You are underestimating everyone."

What is Leiji, the group's therapist? They really felt that way right now.

Zhang Xuanhe grumbles, but slowly settles down and lies on the ground. Leiji peeks outside, sees Zhang Binghua sitting on the ground and taking care if her sword and comes back inside. They take off the ribbon still binding their hair in a low ponytail and starts loosely braiding it.

Light would braid it tightly, grousing about being unable to stand hair as straight as the hair in this world. Something about straight hair being a beauty standard here and how beauty standards make no sense and therefore should not be followed or something.

It's odd, especially when Leiji thinks of how Light is centuries years old.

"What did you and Fourth Martial Brother talk about?" Zhang Xuanhe asks when Leiji us half finished with the braid and struglling not to pull some strands taut enough to hurt.

"The gall of society for making assumptions when it collectiveky shares one brain cell." They reply drily. Zhang Xuanhe huffs, wraps himself tighter with the sleeping bag and looking like a catterpillar without antennae or fuzz and asks again, "Did Third Martial Brother ask you about why you didn't ask about his name?"

"And where did you hear that from?" Leiji asks. He wilts then, and says, "I heard."

Leiji raises a brow, continuing the braid and wincing occasionally when accidentally pulling too hard. It seems that Jiao Zihua and Zhang Xuanhe are working together to make them the counselor of the group.

Zhang Xuanhe sighs. "I hear a lot of things. Even when I'm not supposed to hear it, or probably shouldn't..."

It's after a beat of silence that Leiji gets it and prompts, "Why is that?"

Only the sound of even breathing answers them. Leiji peeks outside again and Zhang Binghua is staring at their tent with something unreadable in her eyes. They exchange a look. She nods with sonething like gratefulness and returns to listening for anything out of place, content with the knowledge that her brother is asleep at least.

They lay down and quietly drift into the mindscape—where Lightning had won another bet about something they forgot and is watching another one of Lu Leiji's memories. Leiji themselves wince as the opponent on the...screen? Yeah, screen, snags a lucky hit and practically mutilates Lu's leg. The man himself snorts, as if it was amusing and lies down. He grins something unsettling at Leiji, "We were thinking you would never come here. Brat."

"Leiji," a voice calls and Leiji practically whips around to see Zapfino. The tall woman smiles at them, says the phrase, "we need to talk." Like it wouldn't make anyone nervous.

"Is there something you needed?" They ask and hopes they don't sound as nervous as they are. Leiji can't help it. Zapfino is way too tall—give Leiji some of that tall damnit!—and the aura she makes simply...there isn't a word for it that Leiji knows yet.

Instead of saying anything more, Zapfino conjures up a piece of paper—how she does that is scarily reminiscent of how Light does it, with Creation elements, but that's kind of impossible??—and gives it to them. Leiji, upon receiving it, immediately thinks.

How is it possible for someone to have such weird handwriting?

Zapfino does not wait for an answer, just leaving somewhere and disappearing like always. Leiji has long learnt to stop questioning it.

Lightning takes one look at them before continuing to watch Lu Leiji's ass get handed to him by some unknown opponent on screen. Lu Leiji seems bored of it and asks Leiji, "Oi, brat, you going to use a surname at some point or not?"

About that, "I was thinking about taking mother's surname but..."

"Don't worry about it," He waves something away. "I'll...use Jin. If you use Lu, that is."

There's something about what he said that seems to stir something in their gut. It isn't a bad feeling, but it isn't a good one either. Lu Leiji almost seems sad, but then he says, "It's not like you'll be using it for long anyway! Isn't that Ling kid still waiting for you?"

Leiji is taken by the sudden desire to kick him.