Li Wu let out an "Mhm" and didn't try to find another topic. Instead, he slid down against the cold wall and sat on the floor.
He had neither the heart nor the energy to sort out his feelings about Raiden Mei right now. He urgently needed rest to adjust his mental state.
"Li Wu, Sato Yuno, you two are the last group." The teacher's voice rang out at that exact moment.
With no other choice, Li Wu had to put on the protective gear, pick up a wooden sword, and walk onto the mat.
His opponent was a timid girl wearing glasses.
In the plot, her only significant role was becoming a Pseudo-Herrscher after the Third Honkai Eruption and creating a new crisis.
But right now, she was just an ordinary, unremarkable high school girl.
"Li Wu-kun, please treat me well!"
Sato Yuno adopted a non-standard stance, her breathing erratic.
Just as Li Wu expected, she had no real technique. Her posture was stiff, her strikes hesitant, and her force weak.
Relying on his strength and reflexes as a boy, he could end this quickly.
Li Wu stepped forward, his wooden sword chopping down from the upper right.
Sato Yuno flusteredly raised her sword to block. With a clack, the two wooden swords locked together.
"Do your best!" Raiden Mei shouted from below the stage.
Kiana walked over and asked curiously, "Not acting anymore?"
"Acting what? I don't really understand what you mean. Cheering for my Li Wu isn't acting, you know."
"I hope so."
Just then, perhaps due to nervousness, Sato Yuno's wrist trembled. Subconsciously following the momentum of her block, she thrust her wooden sword forward. The tip landed lightly but precisely right on the hollow of Li Wu's left shoulder.
That spot...
"Ugh!"
Li Wu's entire body shuddered, and the strength in his arm was instantly drained.
It wasn't psychological; it was genuine weakness. His body instinctively lost control over his muscles.
Clatter!
The wooden sword slipped from his hand and hit the wooden floor, making a dull, abrupt sound.
The noise in the entire dojo seemed to pause for a second.
Li Wu immediately bent down and snatched up the wooden sword with his left hand in a rush. Then, he forced a smile at the still-stunned Sato Yuno and said calmly, "It's fine, my hand slipped."
Sato Yuno adjusted her glasses in a panic and whispered a small "Sorry."
The sparring continued. Two minutes later, it ended with a score of 13:9. Li Wu won the match, salvaging a shred of dignity for his dismal academic performance.
The dismissal bell rang at 4:45 PM, slow and dragging out a long tail.
Under the teacher's supervision, Raiden Mei was taken to the student counseling room to pick up a spare uniform, temporarily separating from Li Wu.
Inside the classroom, students left in groups of threes and fives.
On the duty roster, two names were written side by side: Li Wu, Kiana Kaslana.
Vermilion light spilled in through the window, dividing the classroom into two halves—one bright, one dim.
Li Wu flipped the chairs onto the desks one by one. The sound of wood hitting wood was exceptionally clear in the silence.
Kiana wiped the blackboard meticulously from left to right. Chalk dust drifted down like snowflakes, dusting the ends of her silvery-white hair with a faint layer of gray-white. Occasionally, when she couldn't reach a spot, she would stand on her tiptoes, pushing the eraser up with just her fingertips.
The two had no interaction, tacitly dividing the physical labor and the detailed work between them.
Time slipped away quietly amidst the falling dust. The system provided no narration, and Li Wu didn't initiate conversation.
How should he put it...
Ever since their first meeting, he had this indescribable feeling.
Excellent grades, serious personality, exquisite kendo skills, no arrogance, yet unwilling to initiate communication with others—the contrast with her game character's personality was extreme.
If not for their identical appearance, Li Wu simply wouldn't believe they were the same person.
In the comic, everyone just treated Kiana as a lively, energetic, ordinary transfer student. Cleaning duty and classes were treated equally.
But the Kiana before him had never hidden her identity. As the eldest daughter of a major house, obviously no one would proactively assign her cleaning duty.
So, the only possibility was that she had put herself on the duty roster, and today just happened to be her turn.
As a maintainer of discipline, Kiana was stricter with herself than with anyone else.
Li Wu didn't think much more of it.
Since they wouldn't have much interaction for now, this cleaning duty would likely pass in tacit silence, just like class during the day.
"Somatic Symptom Disorder. Have you heard of it?" Kiana suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. She didn't turn around, still facing the dark green blackboard as she wiped it repeatedly with a cloth.
Li Wu was moving a desk that was slightly stuck. He paused for a moment upon hearing her.
"I've heard of it, barely. Why ask about that all of a sudden?"
Kiana turned around, rinsing the dirty cloth in the bucket of clear water. As she wrung it out, she spoke.
"It's a neurological sequela. Usually, due to overly profound psychological trauma, a conditioned pain memory is formed. When symptoms flare up, the body experiences temporary muscle weakness. It's very common among people who have been on a battlefield."
"You know quite a lot. I only know the condition exists, but I don't understand the principles behind it."
Kiana wrung the cloth dry and wiped the edge of the podium, her voice steady. "I saw it when I was little. But today, I saw it again."
The air fell silent for a few seconds, save for the sound of balls hitting the ground from the playground downstairs.
Kiana finished wiping the podium and walked to the back of the classroom, checking for any missed trash.
The two occupied different sides of the room, silently doing the tasks at hand. The sun sank lower, and the molten gold light slowly shifted between them.
"Sometimes I have dreams. Very long dreams. I can't even tell if they are dreams; even after waking up, they still feel real."
After a long silence, Kiana started a new topic.
Her movements didn't stop. The podium was soon wiped clean, the detailed work efficiently handled. Kiana unreservedly came over to help Li Wu adjust the chairs and desks.
Li Wu didn't understand what Kiana was trying to express, so he simply replied perfunctorily, "I think that's not particularly unusual. Everyone has had long, realistic dreams to some extent. But what did you dream about? Is it okay to say? I'm actually quite curious."
"An infinitely looping road."
"A looping road?"
Kiana nodded. She walked to the window and extended a hand.
Li Wu looked in the direction Kiana pointed. It was a few boys shooting hoops on the basketball court.
"It might sound strange to you, but I get a sense of déjà vu about many things, as if I've experienced them before."
"Oh?" Li Wu's interest was piqued. "Then can you guess who will make the next shot?"
Kiana shook her head. She turned around, wrung out the cloth, and put it back in its place. "I don't have the ability to predict the future, so how could I possibly guess that? It's just a sense of déjà vu. The 'looping road' was just a metaphor. In fact, I can't find a suitable object to describe it."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Actually, I just don't want to tell you."
"Class Representative, this is the first time I've seen you lie. I don't have a big mouth; I definitely won't tell anyone."
"It has nothing to do with whether you'll tell anyone. I simply don't want to tell you, just like you won't tell me... how you and Raiden Mei got together, right? With a girl as awful as her, I don't think the taming process is something you can say out loud. So even though I'm curious, I won't ask. Even if you proactively told me, I would interrupt you, because I don't want to hear those things from your mouth. I don't want to listen, and I'm unwilling to listen."