Su Yu didn't think he'd ever ridden that beat-up Aima this fast in his entire life.
Throttle wide open, the wind blowing his hair into a Super Saiyan silhouette, the streetscape on either side smearing into blurred ribbons of light.
Only one thought in his head:
Faster. Faster.
Kiana.
Gun.
Wanted criminal.
Sure, she was Kiana — a Valkyrie from that other world.
But staring down the black hollow of a gun barrel. Facing the kind of gunpowder weapon that only needed one pulled trigger to snuff out a life.
As an ordinary human being, Su Yu simply could not stay calm.
He knew Kiana was capable. Incredibly capable.
But what if?
"Screeee—!!"
The little e-scooter carved a long skid mark in front of the Police Station entrance, nearly smoking.
Su Yu flung his helmet aside, didn't even lock the bike, and bolted straight through the lobby doors.
And yet.
The instant he shoved open that glass door —
A crack rang out, sharp and clear enough to stop a heart, and the entire station lobby plunged into dead silence.
"Smack!"
Su Yu's feet locked in place.
A short distance away.
Captain Lewis — the Devil Instructor of the SWAT unit, legendary for being able to hoist two grown men overhead with one arm — stood there with her chest heaving violently, eyes bloodshot, like a lioness who had been pushed to fury and was now drowning in terror.
And in front of her.
Carole was covering her face, completely stunned.
That face, usually bright with an energetic grin, was now written over with pure disbelief, a vivid red palm print blooming rapidly across her left cheek.
"Did I ever — did I ever tell you not to act on your own?!"
Lewis's voice was trembling.
She was afraid.
That particular fear of someone who had nearly lost a person they loved more than anything.
Lewis grabbed Carole by the collar, yanked her daughter up to her face, and screamed until her voice cracked:
"That was an armed robber! A killer! Do you think this is playing house?!"
"Do you have any idea — just now, if that bullet had shifted even one centimeter — even one!"
"What I'd be looking at right now would be your corpse!!"
Lewis's hands were shaking.
She stared at her daughter's familiar face while her mind replayed the gut-wrenching moment from the security footage on a loop.
The bullet grazing past her scalp.
Just a hair's breadth away.
Truly just a hair's breadth — and she would have lost this daughter of hers forever. The one who always gave her headaches. The one she treasured more than anything.
"I — I was just trying to help you!"
Carole finally snapped back to reality.
Grievance, fear, and the burning pain blazing across her cheek collapsed all at once into a flood of tears.
She cried out, voice thick with sobs:
"I wanted to help you catch the bad guys... I wanted to make you proud... I wanted to prove I could be a cop too... what did I do wrong! Waaaah..."
"And now you're talking back!"
Lewis raised her hand — it looked like she might strike again.
But looking at her daughter's tear-streaked face, that hand froze in mid-air and simply could not come down.
At last, she let it fall limply to her side, turned away, and slammed her fist into the nearest table.
"Get out of here... just get out of my sight and think about what you've done!"
"Waaah — Mommy's a big meanie!"
Carole shoved Lewis away, covered her face, and ran out of the Police Station without looking back.
Brushing past Su Yu, who had just walked in.
Su Yu stood in the doorway, so awkward his toes could've curled into a three-bedroom apartment.
This...
Was this storyline a little too explosive?
He'd only come to pick up one kid — how had he walked straight into a family drama of this caliber?
He instinctively looked toward the corner of the lobby.
There was a row of benches there, for family members and people filing reports.
Kiana was huddled in the very last corner seat, clutching the not-yet-finished bag of chips to her chest.
Her whole aura was... small, pitiful, and helpless.
The picture was almost beautiful in its own way.
Like when you go over to a classmate's house to hang out, all set for a fun gaming session — and then their mom suddenly storms in and beats them to a pulp right in front of you.
You can't leave. You can't stay.
All you can do is shrink into the corner of the sofa, pretend you've turned invisible, and — just to cover up how awkward you feel — you reflexively shove a chip into your mouth.
"Crunch."
The snap of a chip breaking apart rang out startlingly loud in the dead-silent lobby.
Kiana went rigid.
She looked at Su Yu standing in the doorway, a little bit of chip dust still on her lips.
Those mismatched eyes of hers were shouting: "Help! Su Yu, you're finally here! This place is terrifying!"
Su Yu looked at her, utterly pathetic like that, and the heart he'd been holding in his throat finally dropped heavily back into his chest.
She could still eat chips.
She could still be a coward.
That meant no missing limbs. No traumatized stupor.
She was alive. That was enough.
Really — that was enough.
He walked over quickly.
The Absolute Freedom Time had only a few minutes left on the clock, but fortunately home wasn't too far from Arc City Police Station — and Kiana had called Su Yu from the car on the way there.
Otherwise he definitely wouldn't have made it in time.
Kiana watched Su Yu approach and instinctively pulled her chin in, tucking the chip bag behind her back.
Like a grade schooler who'd done something wrong, waiting for the scolding.
She'd just listened to Captain Lewis explain the criminal's background.
Two counts of murder on his record. A real gun in his hand. He'd even had a homemade pipe bomb.
Only now did Kiana feel a twinge of belated fear.
Not that she doubted her ability to take him down.
It was more that — if she'd carelessly gotten herself hurt, after swearing up and down she was fine, on her very first time going out alone —
She really would've had no face left to show Su Yu.
"Um... Su Yu."
Kiana's head was down, fingers twisting at the hem of her shirt, her voice so small it could've been mistaken for a mosquito.
"Did I... did I do something wrong?"
"I shouldn't have gone in for the reward money... no wait, for justice! I shouldn't have been so reckless..."
She closed her eyes and braced herself for the lecture.
But.
The anticipated scolding never came.
A warm, large hand settled gently on top of her head.
Applied a little pressure. Ruffled that white hair into a mess.
"You're okay. That's what matters."
Su Yu's voice was soft, carrying a tremor that was easy to miss if you weren't listening for it.
No blame. No lecture.
Only the relief of something nearly lost found again.
Kiana's head snapped up.
She saw the red threading through Su Yu's eyes. Saw the windswept mess of his hair.
This idiot...
He'd been riding at full speed the whole way here, hadn't he?
"Su Yu..."
Kiana sniffled, her eyes going hot.
She wanted to say something breezy to ease the tension — something like "As if anything could happen to me" — but the words reached her lips and turned into a choked-back sob instead.
Just then.
Over on the other side, Lewis had finally pulled herself together.
She took a deep breath, wiped at the tear tracks at the corners of her eyes, and turned around.
The sharp, decisive SWAT Devil Instructor from before looked, in this moment, like she had aged several years all at once.
She walked over to Kiana.
That tall figure cast no pressure over anyone now.
"Kiana."
Lewis looked at this girl — barely older than her own daughter.
Her expression was complicated.
Gratitude. Lingering fear. And something like admiration.
"Thank you."
Lewis's voice came out hoarse.
"If you hadn't stepped in when you did... that idiot Carole might've really..."
She paused, as if unable to finish that sentence.
"But!"
Lewis's tone snapped suddenly stern.
"You were way out of line too!"
"Hand-to-hand and firearms are two completely different things! That was a gun! Not a fire poker!"
"No matter how skilled you are, no matter how fast your reflexes — what if? What if it had hit you?"
She looked at Kiana the way she might look at another disobedient daughter.
"You kids... why do you always treat your own lives like they mean nothing?"
"Playing the hero looks great. But if you're dead, what's the point of any of it?"
When she finished.
This instructor who was famous throughout the force for being "iron-blooded" — this formidable woman who had drilled countless new recruits until they were crying for their mothers —
In front of Su Yu and a full room of officers.
Bowed deeply to Kiana.
"Thank you for saving my daughter."
"Truly... thank you."
In that moment.
She was no longer a captain. No longer an instructor.
She was only a mother who had almost lost her child.
Kiana stared blankly at Lewis bowing in front of her.
At those trembling shoulders.
Lewis's words from a moment ago echoed in her ears —
"Do you know how close you just came to dying!"
Suddenly.
The scene in front of her began to blur and overlap.
The harsh fluorescent white of the Police Station seemed to shift into the warm amber of a St. Freya Academy sunset.
Lewis's face — furious and terrified all at once — became another familiar face.
"Kiana! You idiot! Who told you to charge in like that?! That was an Emperor-class Honkai Beast! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
That was... Teacher Himeko.
That was one mission, when she'd wanted to prove "I can do this" — wanted to make everyone sit up and take notice — and she'd ignored orders and thrown herself into the middle of the monster horde.
The mission got completed in the end. She'd only come back with minor injuries.
But when she returned, Teacher Himeko had been furious beyond anything she'd ever seen.
That was the first time she'd ever seen Teacher Himeko that angry.
And what had she done back then?
"I'm fine, aren't I? And I wiped out the Honkai Beasts! Teacher Himeko, you're such a nag! I'm not talking to you!"
Back then she'd thought Teacher Himeko was being unreasonable — that she simply didn't understand how capable she was.
So she'd stormed off in a huff.
Leaving Teacher Himeko standing there alone, watching her walk away, her eyes full of disappointment and... worry.
And then what?
Then, for the sake of pride — for the sake of a laughable thing called self-respect.
Until the end...
Until that moment.
Until Teacher Himeko, dragging her broken body, drove the Godslayer Lance into her own chest and smiled as she said those words — "Raise your head. Keep moving forward."
"I'm sorry."
"I know I was wrong."
"Thank you for worrying about me."
All of it had rotted, forever, in the pit of her stomach.
And never had the chance to be said.
Kiana's fingers gripped Su Yu's hem with white-knuckled force.
Her heart felt like an invisible fist had closed around it and was squeezing — squeezing until she couldn't breathe.
So that's how it was...
So that's what Teacher Himeko had been feeling all along.
It wasn't that she wanted to scold her. It wasn't that she looked down on her.
She was just... afraid of losing her.
Exactly like Captain Lewis right now.
That slap landed on Carole's face — but the pain was in the mother's heart.
And her past self...
Hadn't even earned a single slap before Teacher Himeko protected her with her life until the very end.
"...Su Yu."
Kiana's voice was thick with a heavy nasal quality.
She tugged at Su Yu's hem like a child who'd done something wrong and was trying to make it right.
"I want... I want to go check on Carole."
"Is that okay?"
She didn't want Carole to end up like her.
She didn't want that mother and daughter to spend the night wrapped in misunderstanding and resentment.
Because some things — if you didn't say them now, while you still could —
Might just... truly run out of time.
Su Yu looked down at her.
At the girl's slightly reddened eyes. At that gaze full of pleading.
He didn't ask why. He just gave a quiet nod.
"Okay."
Su Yu turned and looked toward Lewis, who was still collecting herself.
"Captain Lewis."
"Kiana has something she'd like to say to Carole — do you have any idea where she might have gone?"
Lewis paused.
She looked at Kiana, and something in the girl's eyes seemed to tell her everything she needed to know.
She was silent for a few seconds, wiped at the corner of her eye, and pointed toward a small hill visible through the window in the distance.
"The observatory. When she was little, if she'd had a hard day, I'd take her there to look at the stars. It's... her secret base."
"Understood." Su Yu gave a nod. "Leave it to us."
He took Kiana's hand and walked back out of the Police Station.
The night breeze was faintly cool, dispersing the stuffy heat of the room behind them.
The little e-scooter was still parked alone by the roadside.
"Get on."
Su Yu swung a leg over the seat and held the helmet out to Kiana.
"Hold on tight."
Kiana put on the helmet and wrapped her arms firmly around Su Yu's waist.
Her face pressed against his back.
This time, she didn't feel the least bit embarrassed.
Only a kind of urgency — to get there faster. Faster.
Carole.
Don't run too far.
Don't be like me... and only learn to regret it after you've already lost them.
____
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉