I’m Lu Yanxin. I have a hearing disability, and I’m the orphan of a hero who cleared mines.
War took my father, my voice, and the meaning of my name, Yanxin.
Then, at a street corner on a rainy night, I met a bleeding green mushroom.
He said he would be my human hearing aid, my translator, and my guardian.
He said he would weave beautiful dreams for me with lies, and fill my silent world with his thoughts.
But I discovered that all his tenderness was a disguise.
“Master, my mind-reading ability is only for you.”
“That’s the price of a single contract: your world can only have me in it.”
I knew he was lying.
But it didn’t matter. I had lost my hearing, yet he was the one person I could hear.
We met many people and saw many places along the way. We were all waiting for someone to sail on the bonds between us and redeem the selves imprisoned by numbers. And hidden in Lu Ai’s lies was the one truth: an existence that vanished a hundred years ago was awakening, and I was the “Witness.”
I asked through tears, “Do you regret giving up the chance at eternal life for me?”
Lu Ai folded away his arm blade. Behind him stretched a sea of baby’s breath, where we had walked together. For the first time, he told the truth:
“Master, my kind spend their whole lives searching for someone worth drawing our blades to protect.
Being able to hear all of you, and only you, for the time I have is what finally makes my world whole.
So...”
He bent down until his red eyes were level with Yanxin’s green ones, then gently wiped away her tears with his finger.
“Don’t cry.”
Content warnings:
1. First-person narration. 2. One contract only, no capture balls. 3. Original fictional world and social order. 4. Stream-of-consciousness writing. 5. The spirits can take human form.
The story is very nuanced. The first-person perspective might deter many readers, but I feel that it actually makes it easier to feel the changes in the relationship between the two girls, from their initial "purpose" to their "true feelings." Yan Xin and Lu Ai also come to understand each other better. The setting only extracts the creatures of Pokémon, and the rest of the world view is very novel, opening up a new path in the generally original world or school settings.
It's pretty good. Unlike other dark Pokémon stories based on the original Pokémon world, it feels more realistic. The first-person perspective is also quite novel.
This book is so good, so good it makes me want to cry, so good it brings a pang of heartache. Wang Xing deserves it. It's five stars, I made a mistake.