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"Just because of this little thing? You caused me to lose face so spectacularly?"
Raiden Ei was almost laughing out of anger. She had naively believed that her sister had gotten married and had a child, yet it turned out to be nothing more than the other party's fear of looking foolish. And what of it? As someone who watched Ei grow up, what was wrong with seeing a few embarrassing moments? If others could see them, why couldn't she, her own sister? If the Fatui Harbinger hadn't arrived, Raiden Ei wouldn't even have been able to look Su Ran in the eye right now. Ei had gone too far this time.
"So... about that Dango Milk?"
Since the Dango Milk was prepared as a gift for little Ei, could she, as the original Ei, have some?
Raiden Ei's eyes turned fierce, instantly killing any such thoughts in her sister. While her power far exceeded her own, Ei had no defense against her sister's dominance. A single look was enough to silence her.
"Sigh, but Su Ran already said he would take good care of you just now..."
Raiden Ei felt a headache coming on. Things had escalated to the point where they were even calling each other sisters. What was she supposed to do about Ei? Should she wait a while and claim it was all a misunderstanding? Could she truly not entrust Ei to him? Entrusting her was fine, but what about adopting her as a foster daughter? However, she currently lacked the courage to face Su Ran again.
"With you here, I don't need him to take care of me!"
Having Raiden Ei back made her want to abandon everything. She even considered returning the position of Inazuma's Electro Archon. Being a carefree shadow warrior was far better than being an Archon, wasn't it?
"Sigh... if only you could take care of yourself, I wouldn't have such a headache."
Raiden Ei felt helpless regarding her sister. Ei had always been this way. She had hoped that during the five hundred years she was gone, her sister might have matured, but it seemed nothing had changed.
"This is a dream, an eternal dream. No one will leave, and no one will disappear, including you, Ei!"
It was precisely because of her faith in this eternal dream that she wasn't worried about her sister vanishing from her side. If anyone truly tried to cause such an outcome, she would show no mercy.
---
"Dottore, why are you everywhere?"
Su Ran looked at the eyesore before him with utter impatience. He had thought that by leaving Snezhnaya, he wouldn't have to see this idiot again. He hadn't expected to run into him here in Inazuma, too. But it was understandable. After all, having split himself into so many segments, it was unlikely he had to gather them all in one place to get things done. If his intelligence were really so low that he had to do that, then killing him would just dirty Su Ran's hands.
"To cause such a stir in Inazuma and not notify us—as a colleague, I'm truly hurt."
Even knowing that Su Ran despised him, Dottore had nothing else to do if he didn't seek him out. This was a dream, not reality. Even if it possessed a high degree of similarity to the real world, it could never surpass it, meaning all of his experiments had ground to a halt. There was no possibility of innovation within a dream. Nothing unproven could ever manifest here unless the master of the dream chose to add the result.
"Do you want me to help you end your suffering? Death does not exist in this dream, but I can certainly create it."
The dream was, after all, Su Ran's own creation. He possessed absolute authority. He could alter everything: the environment, the outcome of any action, or even the consciousness of the lifeforms that entered the dream.
"Do I truly disgust you that much?"
"It's not just that I find you repulsive; I find you sickening. You're nothing but a self-important idiot craving attention."
Su Ran's disdain for Dottore was never about his pursuits, but about the consequences those pursuits wrought.
"How am I supposed to interpret your hatred for me?"
"The instinctual revulsion of a genius for a fool."
Even with such a simple explanation, Dottore found it harder to comprehend than ever. "If I am a fool, then what does that make the others?" He had once been a scholar and a recognized Genius in his own right! His research results had been branded heresy, but no one had ever denied his capabilities! Yet, even so, in the eyes of this person, was he nothing more than a fool? It left Dottore with a shattered sense of conviction. He wouldn't have cared if someone attacked his character—he knew exactly what he was. But to deny his competence and his talent? That was something he could not accept.
"You're just a mortal. It might hurt to hear this, Dottore, but in my eyes, you're not even as valuable as a farmer tilling the fields. At least their labor and harvest result in a net gain. You, however, are a net negative."
Scorn? Belittlement? Contempt? Dottore had never been on the receiving end of such a gaze before. Yet, today, he had finally seen it.
"I'm beginning to question another thing now: in this dream, are you truly the most powerful existence?"
Being constantly looked down upon had finally ignited his temper. Usually a calm man, he couldn't stop himself from feeling the heat of rage.
"Oh? You want to lay a hand on a genius?"
He had lost his cool this easily? Su Ran felt a flicker of surprise. In the original plot when facing Nahida, Dottore had always maintained an air of having everything under control. Had he really been broken down by just a few words?
"Fine, then. As you wish. Though I am a genius, I know a thing or two about brawling."
---
A thunderous crash echoed from Tenshukaku. The onlookers only saw a dark silhouette plummet from the heights of the tower. Dottore slammed into the ground, drawing a ragged breath.
"In this dream, not only is my power perfectly replicated, but my sensory feedback is, too?"
After being kicked, he felt as if his internal organs were in agonizing pain, to the point where his senses began to fail. Perhaps the pain had reached such a threshold that he would have blacked out long ago.
"Just as he said, death truly does not exist in the dream..."
He looked up at the figure descending slowly from above. Behind Dottore, a group of Fatui members arrived from the city. With a Harbinger in trouble, they could not simply act as if nothing had happened, even if The Doctor himself didn't require their assistance. But as they caught sight of who The Doctor was facing, they were stunned into silence. The Third Harbinger and the Second Harbinger were fighting? Which side were they supposed to take?