The rain at night had stopped at some point.
Su Yu lay on the floor bedding with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling for a long time.
Beside him came Kiana's steady breathing.
She was asleep—truly asleep.
That rigid, tightly wound state had finally eased. She was curled up under the blanket like a small animal that had finally found a safe corner.
Chongchong was nestled by her feet, tail draped over her ankle.
Su Yu turned his head and, by the faint light filtering through the curtain gap, looked at the sleeping figure on the bed.
…So what now?
He asked himself in his heart.
The system pop-up had been quiet all night—maybe it had finally learned to read the room.
But Su Yu knew that thing would show up again sooner or later.
Bind a high-quality Valkyrie.
If his guess was right, Kiana was that "high-quality Valkyrie."
But the problem was—then what?
After binding, what tasks would the system give him? Have him take Kiana out to fight monsters and grind levels? This world didn't even have Honkai energy. What monsters was he supposed to fight?
Su Yu rubbed his temples.
He remembered the nonsense prompts the system had thrown at him at the beginning—"copywriting life," "grand and thrilling," "reach the pinnacle of life."
Copywriting.
The word made him pause.
He was a transmigrator.
In his head were memories from his previous life, including everything about the game Honkai Impact 3rd—its full story, characters, and settings.
What if…
What if he turned all of that into a game?
A game modeled on Kiana.
Telling her story—her battles, her losses, her growth.
Let the people of this world "know" her.
Let countless players "see" her.
Su Yu didn't know what that would accomplish.
But he vaguely felt it might be the only way out.
Kiana didn't "exist" in this world.
No one could see her. No one could touch her.
Only him—somehow—had become her sole "anchor."
If he could make more people "recognize" her…
Would that change something?
He had no answer.
But at least it was a direction.
Su Yu closed his eyes and, in his mind, sketched out a rough plan.
Tomorrow—no, this morning.
First, he'd explain everything clearly to Kiana.
Then he'd figure out how to deal with that damned one-meter limit.
After that… he'd take it one step at a time.
The next day.
Kiana opened her eyes.
An unfamiliar ceiling.
Instinctively, she reached for her gun—only to grab a warm, soft lump.
It was Chongchong.
At some point, she'd crawled under Kiana's blanket.
"…So it wasn't a dream."
Kiana watched as Chongchong stretched, tiny paws blooming open like a flower. Those heterochromatic eyes—just like Kiana's—looked over.
Their eyes met.
"Meow."
A happy little trill.
Kiana cautiously extended her hand, but Chongchong rubbed her head against Kiana's palm first.
Warm, fluffy, faintly ticklish.
It dulled Kiana's vigilance quite a bit.
"Awake?"
A male voice came from behind. Kiana's body tensed on instinct.
She turned her head. Su Yu seemed to have just woken up too—hair messy, but eyes clear.
Everything from last night replayed in Kiana's mind.
She opened her mouth.
"I know you have a lot of questions," Su Yu said. "Eat breakfast first."
Kiana wanted to refuse.
However…
"Guu…"
Her stomach shamelessly betrayed her.
The sound was unusually clear in the morning quiet.
"…"
The pale face of Kiana flushed red at a visible speed.
She bit her lip, suddenly seized by the urge to find a crack in the floor and crawl into it.
"Milk and bread, okay?" Su Yu didn't comment, only calmly changed the subject.
Kiana didn't answer.
"I'm going to move," Su Yu said.
"Ah…"
Su Yu took a few steps. As the distance between him and Kiana grew beyond a meter, that familiar choking sensation surged back into Kiana's chest.
Only then did she realize the 100cm—so full of "malice"—hadn't been a dream either.
She followed him closely.
Su Yu went to the bathroom and washed up properly.
But because of the one-meter limit, Kiana stood right at the bathroom doorway, those eyes fixed on him the entire time—vigilant.
Su Yu felt like he was being watched by some large feline predator, like if he moved wrong, she'd pounce and pin him down.
Pressure: enormous.
After all, this was Kiana—an authentic Valkyrie.
But whatever. Su Yu had plenty of confidence in himself.
Even if she punched him a hundred times, he'd only grunt at the first punch. The other ninety-nine? Not a sound.
The awkwardness returned quickly.
This time, it was Su Yu who needed to pee.
Thankfully, men had one advantage: you can aim and shoot.
So the door could be shut properly.
Even so, the sound of "firing" water was ridiculously loud—Su Yu had never realized it could be that loud…
And it was very obvious the chill at his back had increased by several degrees.
When Su Yu opened the door, he saw Kiana biting her lip, glaring at him. After a moment—
"I also…"
She didn't finish, but Su Yu understood immediately.
And so, on what should have been an ordinary calm morning, Su Yu relived his high school days.
Today, he recited the latter half of the Memorial to the Throne again.
He had never felt time drag so slowly.
With the sound of water…
At last, it was over.
The bathroom door opened. Su Yu didn't turn around.
He walked toward the kitchen. Behind him, Kiana paused—then followed right after him.
A wordless awkwardness spread between them.
During breakfast prep, Kiana still had to trail behind Su Yu like a tail.
He had to constantly keep her within one meter, so her gaze was basically locked on him the entire time.
It was torture.
Su Yu heated milk, watching the water in the pot gradually come to a boil.
Kiana watched him.
Footsteps sounded outside the front door.
Su Yu could clearly feel Kiana's body tense.
"It's the neighbor," he said.
The footsteps quickly faded, followed by the heavy slam of a door.
Only then did Kiana ease slightly.
But the look she gave Su Yu remained vigilant—full of suspicion and mistrust.
"Gurgle—"
The water boiled.
Su Yu hurriedly tossed in the frozen dumplings he'd prepared.
"Give it a bit. We can eat soon," he said.
Kiana didn't answer.
A few minutes later…
Su Yu and Kiana sat facing each other at the dining table—this distance was just right, not exceeding a meter.
"Eat," Su Yu said, sliding the milk toward her. "After we eat, we'll talk."
Kiana cradled the cup. Steam fluttered her lashes.
She took a sip. The warm liquid slid into her stomach, loosening that tightly wound nerve a little.
Then she picked up her chopsticks, grabbed a dumpling, and took a bite.
She was really, truly hungry.
The gaze that had been locked on Su Yu finally moved away, and he couldn't help exhaling in relief.
Even more oppressive than last night.
Last night, Kiana's body and mind had been at their limit.
But after a night of rest, though she still had dark circles under her eyes, she was clearly in better shape—meaning she had more energy to think.
For example: where this place was.
And who Su Yu was.
After breakfast…
"Where… is this?" Kiana looked at Su Yu and asked the question.
Su Yu fell silent for two seconds, deciding not to beat around the bush.
"Sky City."
Kiana's hand trembled. The milk in her cup rippled.
"Sky City? But…" She raised her head, scanning the quiet street outside and the distant high-rises untouched by war. "It doesn't look like it."
"Right. The name is the same, but this place is in another dimension." Su Yu met her eyes, keeping his voice as steady as he could.
"There's no Honkai energy here. No Schicksal. No Anti-Entropy. This is a peaceful parallel world."
Kiana froze.
A peaceful world? No Honkai?
For a moment she couldn't process what he was saying.
A peaceful world without Honkai.
How could that be?
But then an even bigger, far more terrifying question surged up in her mind.
If this was a parallel world…
Then how was she supposed to go back?
"Then I… how do I go back?" she demanded urgently, leaning forward.
"I have to go back! I still have… things I haven't finished!"
Kiana stared at Su Yu, trying to read something from his expression.
Su Yu avoided her gaze, eyes dropping to the faint wood grain on the tabletop.
He knew the truth was cruel.
But he had to say it.
"You might not be able to go back."
The air seemed to congeal.
"…What do you mean?"
"It's too far," Su Yu said softly.
"How far?" Kiana pressed, her voice trembling into a choking sob. "As long as I'm alive, no matter how far, I can—"
"Fifty thousand years."
Those three words hit Kiana's heart like a sledgehammer.
Su Yu looked up at the girl whose face went deathly pale in an instant.
"If you measure it by time, it's about that far."
"If you measure it by dimensional barriers… it's a distance even light can't cross."
The cup in Kiana's hand slipped and clanged onto the table.
Milk splashed out, dripping over the table edge onto the floor.
But she didn't react.
She couldn't go back?
Fifty thousand years?
Then everything she'd done up to now—
All the struggle, all the pain, all the persistence… and the chance Teacher Himeko had bought with her life…
Had it all become a joke?
If she couldn't go back, if she couldn't atone…
Then what meaning was there in barely surviving in a world so peaceful it almost hurt to look at?
No. No, that's not right. Not right, not right, not right—!!!
"You're lying! You're one of Otto's people—you're a fraud he sent! You want to awaken the Second Herrscher inside me again, don't you?!"
Kiana's furious stare speared into Su Yu. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hoarse voice filled with hatred.
"And that so-called 100cm—was that part of your plan too?! To keep me from running, to—"
Even without Honkai energy, if she wanted, she could still subdue this man instantly and force him to cough up Otto's plan—
"I didn't lie."
But Su Yu's gaze was calm as water.
The pressure radiating from Kiana seemed to weigh down the very air.
It was a presence far beyond what ordinary people understood—something forged only by fighting Honkai beasts in life-or-death battles in that extraordinary world.
And Su Yu, less than 100cm from her, understood it better than anyone.
Yet not a flicker of panic showed on his face.
Kiana stared at him. In his black eyes she seemed to see her own current, violent self reflected.
Her voice cut off abruptly, as if fate itself had grabbed her throat.
Kiana wasn't stupid.
Even if everyone called her an idiot.
But in this moment, an idea rose in her heart—absurd, and yet terrifying.
This man named Su Yu…
Wasn't lying.
"How can that be… how can that…" Kiana slumped back into the chair, as if all strength had been drained from her at once.
A world from fifty thousand years ago. A world with no Honkai. A world not even on the same dimension as hers…
She didn't understand all the wording.
But she understood one thing perfectly—
She wasn't going back.
The instant she truly realized it—
That voice.
That sharp, venomous, endlessly mocking voice seemed to echo from the deepest part of her mind.
"Poor Kiana. You lost everything, trapped in a strange world."
It was the Herrscher of the Void's voice.
Sirin.
"Where do you think you can run to? Fifty thousand years into the past? A world without Honkai?"
"But you can't escape."
"Because you are Honkai itself."
"Wherever you go, destruction follows."
"Look. Look, Kiana! That man's gaze—don't you find it familiar?"
"Knowing you're a Herrscher, knowing you're the root of calamity, and still willing to reach a hand out to you…"
"It's exactly like that stupid red-haired woman."
"Sooner or later, the man who saved you will die because of you."
"Just like Murata Himeko."
Kiana shot to her feet and screamed, hysterical.
"Shut up!!!"
Agony and chaos surged like magma, drowning her reason.
She swung a fist on instinct—trying to smash the voice in her head, trying to smash this hopeless reality—
Boom!
A thunderous crack.
Su Yu didn't even see her move before the solid wooden dining table exploded into fragments.
Wood chips flew everywhere. The glass cup of milk shattered from the shock; shards cut across Su Yu's cheek, leaving a thin line of blood.
The living room fell dead silent.
Only the wreckage of the table continued to make faint cracking sounds.
Su Yu sat frozen on the sofa, heart hammering.
If that punch had been even a little off and landed on him…
Kiana panted harshly, blood dripping from her fist—punctures where wood splinters had pierced her skin.
As her mind cleared, the pain made her lift her head.
She stared blankly at the mess, then at the blood on Su Yu's face.
"Ah… ah…"
Kiana staggered.
Monster.
Kiana Kaslana.
So you really are a monster that brings nothing but harm.
Even the only person in this world who'd reached out a hand to her had been hurt because of her.
Of course. Of course. Someone like me—
A tidal wave of self-loathing swallowed her whole.
Even in this peaceful world, she was still a bomb that could lose control at any time.
"…I'm sorry."
She took a step back.
"I shouldn't be here… I shouldn't be alive…"
She turned sharply and lunged toward the entryway.
If she just died, if she just vanished, fewer people would suffer misfortune.
"Kiana!"
Ignoring the cut on his face, Su Yu sprang up and chased after her.
On the light screen, the blood-red [Warning: Distance Limit!] flashed wildly. The countdown jumped like a death warrant.
Kiana was fast, but Su Yu burst into reaction speed he'd never had before.
At the entryway he grabbed her arm. Momentum slammed them both hard into the shoe cabinet.
"Let go!" Kiana fought like a madwoman, that Valkyrie strength making Su Yu feel his bones might snap. "Let me go! Let me disappear!"
"Are you insane?! If you go beyond one meter you'll die!" Su Yu clamped down on her wrist, practically hanging off her, trying to drag her back with his body weight. "Do you want to die?!"
"What's so bad about dying?!"
Kiana turned her head. Those mismatched eyes were full of shattered tears—so desperate it made your blood run cold.
"Why are you stopping me?! If you know who I am, you should know what I've done!"
"I killed so many people… I'm a Herrscher! I'm a disaster!"
"What right does someone like me have to live?! Do you want to become like them too?! Do you want to die too?!"
Su Yu clenched his teeth. Veins stood out on his forehead. She jerked him off-balance and he slammed into the wall, pain twisting his face—yet he still didn't let go.
"I WANT TO KNOW WHY TOO!"
He roared, and the shout seemed to freeze Kiana for an instant.
"Maybe it's because my brain's full of water! Maybe it's because I'm a fucking idiot! Yeah—I'm a fucking idiot!"
"But what do you want me to do?! Watch a living person vanish into thin air right in front of me?!"
"Do you want me to just stand by and let you die?!"
"Fuck—!!"
The living room was a disaster. The shoe cabinet toppled. A vase shattered.
Chongchong—who'd been hiding under the sofa—let out a terrified "mraow" and bolted into the bedroom.
Su Yu felt his strength draining.
Kiana was "weak" right now only by Herrscher standards.
To an ordinary man like him, her strength was impossible to resist.
But after his torrent of words, Kiana stopped struggling.
"Hah… hah…"
They could both hear the other's ragged breathing. Su Yu's arms were still locked around Kiana's waist, his whole chest pressed to her back.
If he didn't hold her like this, he couldn't stop her at all.
The man's heat and presence from behind seemed to seep right through the fabric, finding every gap.
In some distant memory, only the embrace of the man she called "father" had ever felt this warm, this broad…
But—but—
None of it mattered anymore.
A self who couldn't go back, a self who couldn't do anything, a self who couldn't even atone—there was no place for her in this world.
"…Enough…" Kiana's voice was so hoarse it was frightening.
"Don't… bother with me anymore…"
Su Yu could clearly feel her body go limp, as if every last bit of strength had been pulled away. She sagged against him like melted wax.
"Just let me… die…"
The light in the girl's eyes dimmed further and further, as if it might go out entirely.
But then—
BANG!!!
A crash even louder than the table.
The front door was kicked open from the outside.
"SU YU! ARE YOU TRYING TO DIE?!"
A furious woman's voice—thick with alcohol—stormed in.
"Dismantling the house first thing in the morning?! If you're fighting with your girlfriend, can you consider your big sister's situation for once?!"
A woman stood in the doorway.
A red silk robe hung loosely, revealing大片 of pale skin.
Her long crimson hair was a mess like a bird's nest. In her hand—half a bottle of whiskey.
She was clearly dragged out of a hangover by the noise, her whole face screaming I'm pissed, and consequences will be severe.
Himiko.
Su Yu's landlady, who lived across the hall—an older single woman who taught at a university.
She'd probably been out at some singles mixer drinking all night again.
"Do you know I'd been asleep for less than two hours?!" Himiko raked a hand through her messy hair, squinting her booze-heavy golden eyes as she glared at the two tangled in the living room.
"Believe it or not, I'll raise your rent—"
Su Yu was about to explain, but he felt Kiana move in his arms.
Kiana lifted her head.
She stared blankly at the woman in the doorway.
That red hair.
That expression—drunk and pissed from being woken up, but still forceful and forthright.
Even if the vibe was completely different, even if the outfit was nothing alike—
That face…
That face was carved into her soul—the face that made her wake up sobbing in the deepest of nights.
"…Teacher Himeko?"
-------
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