Xia Yu opened his eyes to a dim, murky darkness.
He shook his head uncomfortably, feeling a dizzying whirlpool in his head. Reaching out, he realized there was no blanket covering him. 'Ah, no wonder it's so cold.'
Enduring the vertigo and the ringing in his ears, he forced himself to think. 'Did I catch a fever because I kicked off the covers?'
Out of habit, he reached toward the side for the water glass that usually sat on his nightstand, but his hand met nothing. No, not just the cup—he couldn't even feel the nightstand itself.
Or rather... was he even in a bed?
This anomaly forced a sliver of clarity through the overwhelming dizziness. He began fumbling around for his phone. But instead of his soft mattress, his fingers brushed against a cold, hard floor. The damp moss and gritty dust felt incredibly harsh against his skin, and he even splashed a puddle of water—with his phone sitting right in it!
The icy sensation sent a shiver down his spine, instantly washing away the vertigo. He was wide awake now.
Everything happened so fast it was surreal—as if one moment he had been freezing in the blizzards of Antarctica, shivering and wishing for seven or eight more layer of coats, only to suddenly appear in a scorching desert smack dab in the equator. The contrast was impossible to process at once.
After a two full second stuck in a daze, Xia Yu braced his hands against the ground to sit up, only to feel a sharp tug at the back of his head.
He reached back blindly, and a lock of ice-blue long hair entered his vision. He gave it a subconscious tug; a slight pulling sensation came from his scalp. Very clearly, this thing was growing out of his own head.
No.
No!
Something was terribly wrong!
When the hell did his get hair this long?
Following the strand downward, he looked at her hand.
White gloves adorned with elegant gemstones. Above that were blue sleeves. Judging by the fabric's texture alone screamed that it wasn't ordinary.
Seeing this, she frantically freed her hair from where it was trapped under her backside and scrambled to her feet, looking herself over.
'Is this me? No, this definitely isn't me!!!'
She was, at the very least, a dignified seven-foot-tall man! Look at these clothes—blue and white as the primary theme, a coattail behind that could almost brush the floor, with her legs completely bare!
Most importantly, hanging at the waist was a large blue gemstone with a very familiar pattern! Even without seeing her face, through these details, she finally realized where this familiarity came from...
'Isn't this my dearest, silly Furina?!'
'Hey, I like Furina, sure... But liking her doesn't mean I want to BECOME her!!! I'm not that much of a pervert!'
And it wasn't just the appearance.
The moment she noticed the Vision at her waist, an indescribable feeling surged into her chest. It felt as though he could see another world layered atop reality—elements flowing through heaven and earth, each serving a purpose.
And if he willed it, that azure element would answer his call, transforming into terrifying tidal waves that would swallow her enemies whole...
'Enemies?'
'What enemies?!'
'Killing people is illegal—'
…Oh. Right.
Xia Yu slapped his forehead. His mindset haven't properly adjusted yet. Heaven knows where he was; If he'd turned into Furina and even came with a matching Vision, then anything could happen and it wouldn't be strange at all.
Illegal?
Who knew if this place even had laws—or what those laws were?
This Vision might very well be his lifeline. God knows what kind of world this was, but it definitely wasn't his cozy little apartment.
Look at the environment: dark, damp walls covered in moss, flickering dim lights... this was clearly far from wholesome!
Xia Yu sat there, lost in thought. 'All I did was take a nap? At most, I played through some Genshin impact quests and re-watched "La Vaguelette" before bed. As a lore fan, that's perfectly reasonable, right?'
'How did this lead to transmigration? I live on the twelfth floor—what kind of "Truck-kun" could have hit me up there?'
Xia Yu was utterly baffled, but he also knew now wasn't the time to obsess over the "why."
She looked down at her familiar yet unfamiliar body. Her hands instinctively moved toward an action she once would have despised (envied).
Exactly what Tachibana Taki and Miyamizu Mitsuha first did when they swapped bodies in Your Name, she reached toward the small "peaks" on her chest...
Hold on.
She wasn't a pervert!
Before making contact, she suddenly snapped to her senses and reigned herself in at the cusp of no return.
'The priority was finding out where I am! That kind of thing... I'm really not a pervert, how could I...'
With that thought, she immediately took action. She checked her phone; it seemed fine and turned on, but the battery was at a critical level. There were no mysterious new apps, so she turned it off and tucked it into her shirt.
Surveying the surroundings, she found some stone chips from a half-collapsed wall. After a moment of thought, she tapped into the Vision's power. A ball of water condensed in her hand, swirling the stone chips inside.
She had once seen a video on how waterjet cutters work—besides water pressure, the abrasive particles was key.
She actually didn't know how much power this would actually have, but it was better than nothing.
'Wait...' She stared at the rapidly spinning water sphere in her hand, falling into thought. 'Why am I so practiced at this? I have zero experience using a Vision... I just wanted something for self-defense in a strange environment, and this felt like an instinct...'
Admittedly, holding a high-speed spinning water ball with stone chips blurring into shadows made Xia Yu feel much better.
As everyone knows, horror movies are scary because the protagonist can't fight back. But give them a gun, the truth lies in their hand.
Prepared, she moved stealthily out of the damp tunnel, cautiously scouting ahead.
★ ★ ★
"I must have a fever. My stomach problems are back too, but no one will give me medicine."
A slender hand, enduring both a headache and stomach pain, willed a pen across a notebook.
"Kleish was in so much pain she couldn't sleep all night. Compared to her, this is nothing."
Writing this, the person holding the pen let out a weak, self-deprecating laugh.
"To those people, the value of a test subject... as long as they are consumed before they die, it doesn't matter, right? The humidity here is so heavy. I gave her my blanket."
She looked at her companion beside her, whose condition was worsening, body shaking with fever. Then, the piercing cold made her hands tremble so much she could barely hold her grip.
Still, she used her last ounce of strength to continue.
"So cold, so cold, it's really so cold... Just hold on, and everything will pass."
Aurelie could only comfort herself through words.
"Hard work will always be rewarded. I used to love saying that to them. But the one who couldn't endure… is me.."
At that line, her hand froze completely. The pen slipped from her fingers and fell to the ground.
She started at it.
Then at her companion, whose condition was still worsening by the second. Finally, she could only hug her notebook tightly to her chest and curl into a ball.
'I still have so much to write... the evils of this place... I have to leave evidence for Fontaine... Everyone can't die in vain... Everyone in the troupe... My script isn't finished yet... They are all waiting for me...'
'But... I can't hold on much longer...'
Aurelie dragged her trembling body to Kleish's side. The two of them curled together in the corner of the cell, the omnipresent cold gnawing at their flesh and spirit.
'Ah, am I really going to die here?'
'Furina, my Queen, my idol, my God... do you know there is such an vile place in your kingdom?'
'O Archon... Aurelie thought despairingly, Save your people...'
In her despair, she suddenly heard light footsteps.
Tormented by cold and illness, she could no longer distinguish these steps from her captors. In a daze, she instinctively shielded her unconscious companion.
'It's not mealtime. They must be here for the next test subject. The last girl must be dead. I can't let them take Kleish!'
Only then did she raise her head toward the bars—
And saw that the figure outside was not one of those thugs.
It was a familiar figure.
Even though Xia Yu was being careful, the footsteps were impossible to hide given her surrounding. In a tight corridor, sound was amplified.
She could only slow down, inching forward ever so slightrly.
Amidst the silence, she suddenly heard the sound of something hitting the ground. It was so faint that it might have gone unnoticed outside, but here, it was clear as a bell.
Xia Yu's spirit lifted. His biggest fear was being trapped in a deserted underground ruin. If there were people, things would be easier—friend or foe, he could at least figure out the situation.
At the corner of the passage, she cautiously peeked her head out and saw a prison cell sealed with iron bars. Two young girls were huddled together inside. Her eyes locked directly with the one who seemed somewhat conscious.
How should she describe it?
This was the first time in Xia Yu's life that she had truly seen hope in someone's eyes.
The girl initially had a worn-out look of defiance, but upon seeing her figure, her eyes instantly filled with disbelief, followed by joy, then hope.
Her eyes ignited with life, bursting out of a cruel reality.
Even though Aurelie had been praying in her heart, she never truly imagined that the Hydro Archon would actually appear outside the cell.
The figure peeking out from the wall cautiously.
That face...
Aurelie would never forget it for as long as she lived. That was the person she admired most, the God she believed in.
"Lady Furina..." she murmured to herself. "Ah, is this a hallucination? Am I so sick that I'm losing my mind? Or are you really here to save us?"
To this, Xia Yu was lost.
Good news: They recognized her, so this was likely Teyvat.
Bad news: They were prisoners, meaning things were about to get messy.
Xia Yu was about to offer some words of comfort, but the girl's murmurs seemed to trigger a chain reaction. In the row of cells nearby, voices filled with infinite hope began to ask:
"Furina... has Lady Furina come?" "It really is Lady Furina, right there!" "Oh, my Archon, have you come to save us?"
Xia Yu stepped forward. She really wanted to explain: I'm not Furina, there's a reason for this appearance.
But looking at the hope in the eyes of these girls—seeing how they were reduced to skin and bone by cold and illness, yet still holding onto that light—she found she couldn't say it.
"Yes," she said. "I have come to save you."