"So... what were your thoughts when that child was created?" Joachim's expression turned cold. He lowered his voice, waiting for Shu's answer.
My thoughts?
My thoughts were: 'Why the hell do I suddenly have a new—'
Ahem.
Tossing aside his derailed train of thought, Shu knew exactly what answer Joachim was looking for. He could easily recite the perfect, textbook response right now, satisfy Joachim's moral sensibilities, and end the conversation on a high note.
But...
He refused.
Shu took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
"My thoughts were actually quite simple. I felt that I needed to do more. Just a little bit more.
"I hoped that I could provide a better world for them. I hoped that everything they would experience from then on would be beautiful. I hoped they could live in a world where kindness and compassion aren't seen as weaknesses...
"I wanted to handle everything for them in advance. To prepare everything so that when they finally felt ready to step forward, they could do so on their own terms.
"I wanted to walk the hardest, most grueling parts of the path for them, so they could sprint freely behind me without stumbling.
"I hoped they could see the things I am blind to, imagine the things I cannot conceive. I hoped that one day in the future, they could completely overturn everything I stubbornly clung to, and then...
"Tell me that the absolute best life in this world isn't about golden hoes and white steamed buns... but about the Red Tide, a civilized metropolis, and the sea of stars..."
Shu paused, turning his head to look earnestly at Joachim, who was left slightly stunned by the monologue.
"You asked me what I was thinking the moment she was born..." Shu solemnly repeated Joachim's question before officially delivering his answer.
"I thought, 'They are just children.'" Shu said, shifting his gaze back toward the arena.
Down below, the girls had finished celebrating Bianka's victory and were now staring directly up at the two men in the stands.
"Shu!!" Kiana flashed a wide, pearly-white grin, waving excitedly at him. "Come down and try it out! It's seriously super fun!"
Shu waved back, his eyes softening like a calm autumn lake.
He repeated his answer one final time, with a slight modification.
"They... are all children."
"And what about you?" Joachim countered. "Do you consider yourself the only adult in the room? Is that why you believe you must naturally shoulder every single burden?"
His second question bordered on outright provocation.
But he truly couldn't suppress his curiosity.
The "children" in Shu's eyes weren't just Bianka. They included Kiana, Mei, Bronya, and everyone else.
Perhaps, right now, even Joachim himself was nothing more than a child in need of protection in Shu's eyes.
Was he?
Joachim wanted an answer.
"Every household needs a pillar to hold up the roof, doesn't it?" Shu smiled, gracefully accepting Joachim's provocation. "And right now, I'm the tallest one here. If not me, then who?"
"As long as I can hold up the sky, then it's my job to hold it."
"But you can't hold up the sky forever. Eventually, you have to..." Joachim frowned. He suddenly felt that the man standing before him was somewhat incurable.
"That's not how a savior operates. You can't possibly block every single disaster by yourself."
The Honkai was a cataclysm that required the entirety of human civilization to face together. Any form of individual heroism would inevitably be taught a brutal lesson by the Honkai.
To eradicate a civilization, the Honkai needed to destroy its culture, its consciousness, its population, and its hope.
But if the Honkai wanted to kill a single person... it only needed to wait.
Wait for time to erode their resolve, wait for a new Herrscher perfectly tailor-made to counter them, wait for a single moment of carelessness or fatigue.
Across an infinite timeline, the Honkai's margin of error was practically boundless. But a human being... they couldn't afford to lose even once...
Joachim's breath hitched.
Can't afford to lose... right?
In this world, the vast majority of people couldn't afford to lose. Because you only have one life. Once you die, you lose. There are no second chances.
Some people were incredibly lucky. Through various means, they could crawl back up, place their chips back on the table, and say, "That round didn't count, let's go again."
But that still fundamentally meant they couldn't afford to lose... Perhaps that phrasing was too harsh.
Put another way:
Humans must win.
The world never gave humanity the option to "lose." A person's margin for error in life is built entirely on the premise that they don't immediately die from their mistakes. But if death is on the table...
But... the man standing before him. Shu.
Did he truly have nothing to lose?
Joachim wasn't asking if Shu had some miraculous method to revive himself and try again.
He was asking...
"Shu, are you afraid of losing?" Joachim felt his own voice waver.
Shu just smiled. His smile grew brighter and brighter.
It was a smile filled with gratitude, joy, and absolute purity.
"I'm not afraid," he answered effortlessly, even stretching his arms above his head in a relaxed yawn.
The next moment, he vaulted over the railing and dropped down into the arena, walking leisurely toward the girls.
Only Joachim remained in the stands, clutching the control laptop, meticulously chewing over Shu's answer, unable to snap back to reality for a long time.
Unafraid of losing?
This guy never planned on winning in the first place, did he.
Is this my punishment for overstepping my bounds?
An answer so unimaginably heavy to an outsider, yet delivered with such effortless ease by Shu himself.
"What a truly unexpected answer..." Finally, a conflicted Joachim sighed, swallowing the entire conversation whole and burying it deep within.
"Shu! Shu! Big sis is seriously super strong, isn't she?!" The moment Shu landed in the arena, Kiana ran up to him, excitedly dragging Bianka along.
"She really is." Shu smiled, glancing over at the massive glacier that occupied half the training ground. He raised a hand and lightly tapped the surface of the ice.
Fine cracks immediately spiderwebbed outward from the point of impact, expanding into massive fissures until the entire glacier shattered in front of everyone.
Before the broken ice crystals could even hit the ground, they rapidly sublimated into vapor, revealing what had been sealed inside.
The moment the construct was freed, it immediately attempted to reconsolidate and create distance.
But the scattered nanomachine units—still fragmented from Bianka's initial punch—had barely regained mobility when they were caught in an overwhelmingly powerful gravitational pull.
Completely helpless, the nanomachines were forced to clump together in front of Shu's raised hand.
It tried to struggle, but it was utterly futile. An invisible, crushing force pinned it firmly in place, leaving it vibrating at high frequency as its only form of defiance.
Wait, you can solve it like that?!
Bianka watched Shu's actions, her eyes lighting up.
She could tell that Shu hadn't used much of [Wish] at all—the energy expenditure was something even she could easily afford. She just genuinely hadn't thought of handling the situation that way.
Note taken! I'll definitely put that to use in the next battle!