Chapter 261

【Please select a character to replace; characters available for replacement include: Mouri Ran, Shinichi Kudo, Yukiko Kudo, Sharon Vineyard.】

Does this even need a choice?

Get lost, Washing Machine!

Space twisted.

Akaso Kaze felt a slight dizziness.

Opening his eyes, he was no longer in his own room, but in a speeding car.

Yukiko Kudo was driving in front, and Akaso Kaze was sitting in the back.

Mouri Ran was wearing a coat, leaning on his shoulder, sleeping soundly.

Seeming to feel something different, Mouri Ran opened her eyes in a daze, saw the scenery outside, and immediately sat up excitedly.

"Wait a minute, that place isn't the Statue of Liberty!"

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

She reached out her small fist and pounded Akaso Kaze's shoulder hard.

"From the Brooklyn Bridge to here to watch the night view of Manhattan, that was an itinerary I had planned for a long time!"

Ran pouted and kept complaining.

"It's all your fault for wasting most of my time sleeping."

Akaso Kaze was actually confused.

He was familiar with this scene; it was the incident where Mouri Ran encountered the Silver-Haired Serial Killer in New York.

But what role am I playing?

I couldn't have become Yukiko's son, could I?

If that were the case, it would be interesting...

"Alright, you two, don't show off your affection; I, this auntie, am going to get jealous."

Sitting at the very front, in the driver's seat, Yukiko Kudo pursed her lips and smiled.

"Youth is so good; lovers all over the world dream of coming here for a date, and with such beautiful scenery right in front of you, you two are still flirting; it's really enviable!"

Oh, so that means my identity is Mouri Ran's boyfriend?

It seems very appropriate.

Akaso Kaze's lips curled slightly, and he reached out to wrap his arm around Mouri Ran's small waist.

Mouri Ran immediately turned into bean eyes, secretly pulling at Akaso Kaze's hand.

She silently conveyed information with her mouth: Don't~

Unfortunately, she was afraid Yukiko would notice and didn't dare to use force; of course, she couldn't pull it away.

"Thanks to you having extra tickets for the Phantom of the Opera, I can finally see the musical I've been looking forward to for so long!"

"Oh my, terrible, time is almost up, you two sit tight, I'm going to accelerate."

Yukiko Kudo, who had been driving leisurely, suddenly looked at her watch, stepped hard on the gas pedal, and sped toward their destination.

She said to Ran in the back row: "Akaso-san, Ran, you better hold on tight."

"Okay."

Akaso Kaze simply pulled Ran onto his lap.

Ran was shy beyond words.

She just wanted to struggle, but the car suddenly accelerated, and a strong suction force squeezed the two together.

This car was actually modified; Yukiko didn't know what button she pressed, but the four exhaust pipes in the back started puffing out black smoke.

Mouri Ran's small face was slightly red, and she could only lean into Akaso Kaze's embrace.

Akaso Kaze looked ahead with his Eye of Space; there were quite a few police cars, so he silently cast the Water Mist spell, and the license plates in front and back immediately became blurry.

The car stopped smoothly at the theater entrance.

A woman with a devilish figure walked over.

"Sharon Vineyard? Why are you here?"

Yukiko Kudo asked in surprise.

"I was just chatting with a fan, he's a police officer, and later I received a radio report that a silver Jaguar with no visible license plate was driving in this direction at a crazy speed. I guessed it was you, so I found a way to send him away."

Sharon looked at the license plate in front and was a bit surprised.

"What did you do? Why is the license plate covered in a cloud of mist?"

Akaso Kaze moved his mind, and the mist immediately dissipated.

Sharon Vineyard widened her eyes in surprise.

Yukiko Kudo winked at Akaso Kaze and extended her slender hand to introduce him:

"This young and handsome gentleman is not an ordinary person; he is a very powerful Onmyoji, just like a god. Those mists just now were his magic."

Akaso Kaze's heart stirred; did my profession and abilities also carry over into this point in time?

For some reason, when Sharon Vineyard heard Yukiko's words, the smile on her face disappeared.

Just at this moment, sparse raindrops drifted down.

"Does God really exist in this world?"

Sharon Vineyard said faintly, while taking an umbrella out of her handbag and opening it.

"If there really were any gods in this world, then we people who live so hard wouldn't have misfortunes."

"At least I can be sure that it's impossible for an angel to show me a sincere smile."

"Not even once!!!"

Sharon Vineyard's words were deeply imprinted in Mouri Ran's mind, making her mood sink immediately.

At this moment, a large hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a warm embrace.

Her melancholy mood was immediately dispelled.

"Akaso-san~"

Mouri Ran pushed back shyly.

Akaso Kaze wouldn't let go.

He hugged Ran and smiled slightly, saying to Sharon Vineyard: "Of course there are gods, but he only favors those who believe in him."

"I am the Onmyoji Akaso Kaze; for those who believe in me, I am their god!"

Although Akaso Kaze's smile was very faint, it carried a magical power that made Sharon Vineyard feel a tremor in her heart.

Sharon Vineyard pursed her lips, staring intently at this man with a peculiar charm.

She said gloomily: "Perhaps, but in my life, I have never felt the arrival of a god even once."

"When I risked my life to get on the big screen, my parents died in a fire; the day after I won an Oscar, my husband died of illness."

Speaking of this, a smile appeared on Sharon Vineyard's face that was hard to tell if it was mockery or extreme sadness.

"My daughter even took the opportunity to promote herself when she debuted; my life is simply worlds apart from Chris's!"

"Look, you're doing it again; actually, in your heart, you are very proud of this daughter, right?"

Yukiko Kudo had heard these words many times, but she felt that as a mother, there was no one who wasn't proud of their children.

"Hmph, I stopped considering that child as my daughter a long time ago."

"Can you believe it? That child, when I was offering flowers at my husband's tombstone, actually dressed up as my husband and stood behind me. Don't you think this kind of joke is going too far?"

Sharon showed an angry expression; clearly, for her, this couldn't be explained by a simple "it's just a joke."

Watching the woman, not knowing if it was a genuine expression or an immersive performance, Akaso Kaze frowned slightly.

She said these words with such sincerity that it didn't seem like a fabrication at all.

However, considering Sharon Vineyard's superb acting skills, the title of Thousand-Faced Witch, and the plot he had seen before, Akaso Kaze had to be suspicious.

What is the real situation?

Are the mother and daughter actually played by the same person?

Akaso Kaze's eyes flickered, and an idea came to his mind.

"Hurry up and park the car in the parking lot; I'll take you to see the backstage."

Sharon Vineyard seemed not to want to continue.

"Oh my, we should have come earlier so we could have had a good chat with those actors."

— Author's Notes —

Thanks to Xingchen no Umi for the tips and urging for more; adding a chapter today, if I don't add more, I won't be able to get the urging tickets...