Su Yu's finger hovered over the Enter key, but he didn't press it.
The afternoon sunlight had slipped behind the clouds at some point, dimming the light in the room by several degrees.
Kiana lowered her head, her white bangs obscuring most of her face.
Chongchong seemed to sense that her mood was off; the cat kneaded her knees uneasily, letting out soft, low whimpers.
"That story... might make the peace we have now look a bit glaring."
Kiana's voice was very soft, her fingers unconsciously tightening their grip on the cat's spine.
"Are you sure you want to write it into the game?"
"Write it."
Su Yu answered crisp and decisive.
He closed the previous document titled "Campus Light Comedy" and created a new one.
"If you are willing to tell it, I will be responsible for recording it. Whether good or bad, it is a part of your life."
Kiana raised her head, her gaze drifting past Su Yu's shoulder, seemingly casting her mind back to that day.
"The Three-Year Sakura. It is a legend circulated in the Far East."
"If a young maiden, during the three years between the ages of 14 and 16, makes a sachet using petals from the same cherry blossom tree, then Konohana Sakuya-hime of the Divine Tree of Mount Fuji will bless her love."
"A very romantic legend, right?"
Su Yu didn't speak.
The Three-Year Sakura.
As a veteran player of the Honkai series, he was naturally no stranger to this story.
Following Kiana's intermittent narration, that story filled with the early brutal aesthetics of miHoYo slowly unfolded within this cramped rental apartment.
On the screen, lines of text lined up like black tombstones, arranging themselves into a suffocating past.
"That year, a strange thing happened at school."
Kiana's voice turned low.
"Several girls went missing."
"At first it was one, then two, three... all disappearing bizarrely from their dormitories."
"The police investigated for a long time but found no clues. They couldn't even find a single trace in the dormitory surveillance footage."
Her fingers threaded through Chongchong's fur.
"During that time, the entire school was in a state of panic."
"No one dared to walk alone at night; everyone traveled in groups after school."
"And you?" Su Yu asked.
"Me?" Kiana froze for a moment. "I still came and went alone as usual. After all, this young miss has never lost a fight—that's what I thought at the time."
She paused, seeming to organize her words, but soon spoke again.
"Then, I met Asakura Miyuki."
"Asakura Miyuki..."
Kiana pronounced the name, her voice becoming very light.
"I didn't know her before. I only found out later that she was also a transfer student, but her reputation at school was... not good."
"The first time I saw her was in a small alley."
"That night, as I was passing by a secluded alley, I heard some noises."
Kiana tried her best to keep her tone calm, but recalling that scene even now, she still felt a bit distressed.
"It was a few boys."
"They had a girl surrounded and were... bullying her."
She didn't describe it in detail.
But from her expression, Su Yu read the things left unspoken.
It wasn't something that could be summarized by a simple word like "bullying."
"I rushed in and beat them up."
Kiana's voice turned cold and hard.
"One of the boys pulled out a gun and aimed the muzzle at me."
Gun.
Su Yu's brows tightened. The story of The Three-Year Sakura indeed had such a segment.
"Where did the gun come from?"
"I don't know." Kiana shook her head. "During the time I entered Nagazora, the city itself was already unstable."
Su Yu knew she was referring to the omens before "The Third Eruption."
And.
The matter with Cocolia.
"Anyway, I am a well-trained Kaslana after all; I'm a natural hand with guns."
Kiana's tone relaxed a little, seemingly not wanting the atmosphere to be so heavy.
"I snatched the gun with my bare hands, pointed the muzzle at him, and then pulled the trigger—"
"Of course, I didn't shoot him, but he was scared into fainting by me."
"I told the girl to leave quickly, threw the gun down, turned around, and left."
Kiana glossed over this part lightly. After all, for someone living in a Honkai world, disarming someone bare-handed was just child's play.
Especially when the opponent was just an ordinary person.
Su Yu asked, "What about that girl? Did she say anything to you?"
"She..."
Kiana fell silent for a moment.
"I didn't know how to comfort her."
Her fingers tangled together, showing some unease.
"Her look at the time was extremely helpless, terrified, just like..."
Kiana seemed unable to find a suitable word for a moment, so she eventually gave up.
"What happened later then? How did she find you?"
Su Yu continued typing on the mechanical keyboard. Although he couldn't bear it, this conversation had to continue.
Not for the sake of so-called "rising to fame" or "fame and fortune."
But so that Kiana could live in this world with the identity of a normal person.
"Uh..."
When speaking of this, Kiana's expression became somewhat... embarrassed.
"That, I, um... do I have to say it?"
Looking at the girl who had suddenly become embarrassed, Su Yu thought for a moment.
"It doesn't matter if you don't say it."
Anyway, he knew it was because Kiana tried to act cool while saving the damsel in distress, only to end up leaving her student ID behind.
"But didn't you say the more detailed the better?" Kiana blinked, looking at Su Yu with some confusion.
Su Yu was left somewhat speechless.
"Heh, alright, I know you just don't want to make me feel awkward."
But Kiana suddenly chuckled lightly, like a little fox whose scheme had succeeded.
"What, only you are allowed to joke about me every day, but I'm not allowed to crack a joke too?"
Looking at Kiana, who had become somewhat sly before him, Su Yu held his forehead. Was this really something Chongchong would say?
However, compared to that, he felt more relieved.
This was the first time Kiana had joked with him.
Everything was developing in a good direction.
Kiana continued, "Anyway, during the fight, I carelessly left my student ID behind, and then the next day I appeared at school as a transfer student again."
Su Yu was curious. "But hadn't you already met Raiden Mei before that?"
"Actually, on the first day of school, I got scolded by the Dean for being late." Kiana scratched her head. "Because I arrived really too late, the Director said there was no way to process my transfer paperwork, so he told me to come earlier the next day."
"Then you met Miyuki that night."
"Mn."
"Meeting two female guests in a single day—it seems Miss Kaslana's charm is indeed great."
"...Knock it off."
She retorted, then continued narrating the story.
"From then on, Miyuki started appearing around me frequently."
Kiana's tone became somewhat complicated.
"During breaks between classes, she would stand at the classroom door waiting for me. After school, she would follow behind me. Sometimes when I turned around, I could see her standing not far away, looking at me and smiling."
"Did you think it was strange?"
"At first, I didn't." Kiana shook her head. "I thought she was just afraid of being alone and wanted to find someone to rely on. After all... she had experienced that kind of thing."
Her voice became low.
"But later, I realized something was wrong."
"What was wrong?"
"Her eyes."
That look.
That look which crossed the boundaries of friendship, and even exceeded the scope of gratitude, becoming viscous and fanatical.
That was a kind of... twisted love that wanted to devour the other person whole and merge into one.
Kiana took a deep breath and looked up at Su Yu.
"Do you know that feeling? Being stared at with that kind of look makes your back go cold."
Su Yu didn't speak.
Kiana continued, "I started investigating those missing persons cases."
"You?"
"Mn." Kiana nodded. "My mission was originally to investigate abnormal data. The timing of those disappearances correlated with Honkai energy fluctuations, so I suspected someone had been corrupted by the Honkai."
"I asked around the school for information and accidentally heard things about Miyuki's past."
"All the missing girls shared one common point."
"What common point?"
"They had all been confessed to by Miyuki."
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