Evening fell over Arc City.
The setting sun stained the windows of the Old District's apartment buildings a blinding orange-red.
The stairwell still carried that familiar damp, musty smell.
Kiana pushed open the security door, its paint peeling in patches.
The hinges let out a dull creak.
No one sat on the living room couch clattering at a keyboard, grumbling about code errors.
No smell of instant noodles drifted from the kitchen.
Even Chongchong—the odd-eyed kitten who liked to tear around the apartment and claw at the couch—had been sent to stay with Pardo for the time being, since there was no one left to look after him.
The whole rented apartment stood empty, so quiet she could hear the tick of the old wall clock's second hand.
Kiana tossed her keys onto the shoe cabinet by the entrance.
Without even changing out of her shoes, she walked straight to the living room and dropped heavily onto the worn fabric couch.
Her chest heaved once, and she let out a long, weary breath.
In the corner, the old standing air conditioner hummed along, its vents breathing out dry, cool air that slowly chased away the lingering summer heat she'd carried in from outside.
But no amount of cold air could blow away the sour lump lodged in her throat.
She curled onto her side, drawing her legs up, burying her face in a couch cushion.
Beside her sat the huge HOMEI plush toy.
It was the prize she, Su Yu, and Griseo had won together at the amusement park, from some baffling quiz event Elysia had cooked up.
She reached out and pulled it tightly against her chest.
Its plush fur brushed against her cheek.
It had been a long time since that Spatial Rift collapsed.
Because the Reality Anchor connection still held—
she knew. He wasn't dead.
But the moment she closed her eyes—
her mind kept spinning out the worst possibilities, over and over, no matter how hard she tried to stop it.
That world's Kevin Kaslana.
How had Su Yu even faced down that monster?
Even if he'd borrowed the rules of the Imaginary Tree, even with all the messy trump cards the System had given him—
against power that absolute, that overwhelming—
he must have been badly hurt.
Or.
Had Kevin dragged him back to that Honkai-ravaged world by force, locked him away in some underground cell belonging to the World Serpent?
And Mei.
Squad Monitor Fenghuang's last words before the connection cut out sliced through her mind again and again, like a blade.
Mei had been in that Rift too.
Su Yu—that idiot who always threw himself in front of everyone no matter what—had surely drawn every ounce of hatred onto himself just to protect Mei.
Kiana buried her face deeper into the plush toy.
Back when she was training in Tai Xu Sword Qi within the Mount Taixu illusory realm—
she had been apart from Su Yu before too.
But back then, every day, she could hear Squad Monitor Fenghuang relay news of his daily life.
She knew he was right out there, typing away in the living room, eating takeout.
Later, with the founding of miHoYo Studio and the training at Starfire Base, he often didn't come home for nights on end.
But whenever she opened her phone—
no matter how late—
'Su Yu, I'm hungry again.'
a reply would light up the screen within half a minute.
'There's frozen dumplings in the second drawer of the freezer, cook them yourself. And don't blow up the kitchen.'
Or.
'Doing extra training at Starfire Base. I'll have delivery bring you fried chicken later—no picking out the broccoli and tossing it, either.'
That sense of security—even through a screen, feeling the other person's presence, knowing he'd always come home—
all of it was gone now.
She fished the phone out of her pocket.
Its light seemed harsh in the dim living room, stinging her eyes.
The chat window was still open from two days ago.
Only her own green message bubbles lined the right side.
'Su Yu, I'll wait for you.'
'Su Yu, I ate dinner alone tonight! I made the dumplings myself, and none of them split open!'
'Su Yu, I went to the studio by myself today! After work I even took a cab alone to the Anti-Entropy lab and helped the doctors run some tests. Pretty impressive, right?'
'Su Yu, I can sleep alone at night now! Even without you around, I can manage just fine, can't I!'
Her finger scrolled up the screen, mechanical.
The most recent message.
'Su Yu, when are you actually coming back?'
Silence.
The screen stayed frozen on that image. No new notification ever popped up.
Exhaustion.
The kind that comes after days and nights without sleep, when nerves stretched to their absolute limit finally snap.
It surged in from every direction like a tide, drowning her completely.
The phone slipped from her fingers and fell onto the carpet.
She closed her eyes.
Her consciousness began to sink.
Fragments of a dream pieced themselves together in the dark.
She heard the sound of rain.
Heavy, cold rain.
It was the first time she'd come to this world.
She stood in the stairwell of a run-down apartment building, like a homeless ghost.
Carrying the guilt of having caused Teacher Himeko's death, she felt like even breathing was polluting the air.
She stood at the edge of the stairs,
watching the dark, heavy rain outside.
Thinking she might as well just disappear, right there, in this cold world where no one could see her.
That was when—
footsteps sounded from below the stairs.
Splashing through puddles.
The pace a little sluggish.
She leaned against the wall, the corner of her mouth twisting into a bleak, wry curve.
Just another person who wouldn't be able to see her, she thought.
Then.
A young man in a short-sleeved shirt, carrying an Unmodeled Kitty Set, stopped right in front of her.
His gaze didn't pass through her body.
It landed squarely on her face.
Full of shock and disbelief.
The instant their eyes met—
the gears of the dream began spinning wildly.
The awkward silence behind the convenience store shelves, forced to change clothes back-to-back because of the time limit.
The first steaming bucket of instant noodles he'd handed her after they got back to the apartment, the steam rising as a plastic fork lifted the noodles.
That first night, he'd laid out bedding on the living room floor, a full meter away from her.
His voice, in the dark, had carried a note of helpless resignation.
'I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere.'
The images sped up, flickering past.
The first time she walked down Arc City's commercial street, dazzled by the flickering neon lights.
The teasing at the phone shop that made her ears burn, when the front desk lady there mistook them for a couple.
In the cramped fitting room of a clothing store—
when her Absolute Freedom Time ran out and she nearly faded into transparency entirely.
He'd steeled himself and squeezed in, the two of them crammed into a space barely wide enough for one, listening to each other's ragged breathing.
And that most awkward stretch of days—
every time she used the bathroom, through the door left ajar, his cracked, off-key voice would punctually recite the Chu Shi Biao from outside—an absurd little ritual.
'The late emperor had not accomplished half his great undertaking when he passed away midway...'
The scenes in the dream began to brighten.
He'd slapped that rough business proposal down on the table, eyes burning as he looked at her.
'Put your life in my hands.'
At the milk tea shop on the corner—
he'd just talked Griseo's eyes red with some airtight nonsense logic,
then turned to meet her questioning glare with that punchable, palms-up shrug.
'It was all for you, Kiana!'
At Eden's concert—
on that towering rooftop—
he'd clamped down on her slipping wrist with the last inch to spare,
the veins on his arm nearly bursting.
'I will absolutely, absolutely never let you die!'
'Screw fate! Get your ass up here—!!'
All these memories tangled together.
His smile. His grumbling when she stole the last piece of fried chicken. His sarcastic complaints whenever the System dumped a quest on him. His silent endurance at Starfire Base, training until he coughed up blood without ever making a sound about it.
All the images finally froze on one peaceful afternoon.
Sunlight spilled through the balcony's security grille onto the carpet.
Chongchong dozed beside a pair of slippers.
She lounged on the couch, scrolling through mindless short videos.
He sat at the computer, typing code, the crisp clatter of the keyboard echoing in a steady rhythm.
She suddenly set down her phone, looking at his back.
'Su Yu, tell me.'
Her voice must have been very soft that day.
'What does it feel like, to fall in love with someone?'
His fingers stilled on the keyboard.
He turned around,
and looked at her, a little puzzled,
as if wondering why such a question would come out of her mouth.
'I guess it's like this.'
He leaned back in his chair, his gaze drifting to the healthy-looking pothos plant beside her.
'There's this moment—'
'when you feel like it would be nice if you and that person could just stay in this exact moment forever.'
Kiana remembered.
The sunlight that day had been a little too bright.
She'd mumbled something back, only half understanding,
and buried her head back into the couch cushion.
But she never told him.
In those ten silent seconds, her heartbeat had skipped.
She'd watched the side of his face, listened to Chongchong's soft snoring.
She'd truly thought—
if time could just stop forever, right here in this shabby rented apartment—
if they could go on like this forever, bickering every day over what takeout to order, threatening each other over who got the bathroom first—
that would really, truly be nice.
Crack!
The sound of a mirror shattering.
The peaceful afternoon collapsed in an instant.
The warm sunlight turned into the cold glare of searchlights at the abandoned recycling plant.
Massive slabs of collapsed concrete.
The Anti-Entropy search team's scanner, its shrill beeping reading zero vital signs.
Kevin's hands, caked in dirt and blood, digging through the rubble in despair.
Eden's voice, straining to stay composed, trembling faintly over the comm.
Bronie standing in the server room, biting clean through a lollipop stick, blank with shock.
That suffocating sensation—as if the entire weight of the world had pressed down on her lungs at once, wringing every last drop of oxygen out of her—
swallowed her whole again.
'Kiana.'
A voice, cold and haughty, but now laced with deep disappointment and resentment, echoed from the depths of her mind.
The Herrscher of the Void, Sirin.
'Once again—'
Sirin's voice echoed through the empty apartment.
'Once again, your laughable incompetence has cost you someone precious.'
This Queen who had once regarded humanity as mere ants now carried, in her voice, the anguish of someone who'd lost her most cherished toy.
'Why did I ever hand this power to you in the first place?'
'You truly disappoint me.'
Kiana's eyelashes trembled.
The rain in her dream began to fall again.
'Do you really understand, Kiana?'
Sirin let out a cold laugh.
'Everything you have now—your identity, your sense of safety—he gave you all of it.'
'If not for him, you'd have already rotted away in this world's rainy night, along with all your pathetic guilt.'
'You keep saying you want to protect him.'
Sirin laughed coldly again, the sound thick with bleakness.
'But what have you actually done?'
'Your head's full of your own mission, your duty to protect the world—'
'You want to go back to that Honkai-ravaged world to save your Mei, to pay off sins you can never fully repay!'
'But—!!'
Sirin's voice suddenly rose sharply.
'Then who is going to save that foolish human, hm?!'
Kiana bit down hard on her lip.
The taste of blood spread through her mouth.
She wanted to argue back.
Her whole body trembled. She wanted to scream.
She wanted to say that Su Yu had made a pinky promise with her.
He'd said that if it came to it, he'd go with her to that world, to fight against that damned fate together.
'Haven't you realized it yet?'
Sirin gave her no room to breathe.
'Even if that bastard survives this by sheer luck, you and he will still end up apart in the end.'
'Because of your stupidity and stubbornness, you're doomed to jump right back into that mire.'
'He chose to pull you out of the Abyss, out of his own safe, ordinary life.'
'But you're fated to abandon him for the sake of your worlds, your responsibilities.'
'Heh.'
That cold laugh gradually faded from her mind.
'How utterly laughable, Kiana.'
A cold, damp sensation touched her cheek.
Tears slid down the bridge of her nose, soaking into the HOMEI plush toy's fur.
'What am I even...'
She pressed her face hard into the toy.
'...supposed to do?'
Just then—
a faint sound of a door opening came from the entryway.
And right after—
a current of warmth drifted slowly closer along the edge of the couch, somewhere the AC's cold air couldn't reach.
Her nerves, strung taut to the breaking point these past few days—
the raw, bleeding pain Sirin's words had carved into her—
eased, almost miraculously, the instant that achingly familiar presence drew near.
Kiana's eyelashes fluttered violently.
Half asleep, half awake—
her senses blurred at the border between dream and reality.
'Su...'
Thick with a stuffed-up murmur, the sleep-talk slipped from between her lips.
'...Yu...'
Without thinking, she let go of the tear-soaked HOMEI plush in her arms.
Her hands groped and clawed blindly at the empty air,
desperate to grab hold of even the smallest something solid, proof that this wasn't an illusion.
Her fingers brushed against fabric.
The instant she felt it—
a burst of strength she hadn't even known she had exploded out of her.
She lunged forward.
Her hands clenched hard around the fabric.
And then—
she slammed bodily into a warm chest.
'Hiss—'
A sharply indrawn breath, held back, came from above her.
'This girl.'
The voice carried obvious exasperation, and a note twisted by pain.
'What have you been eating? You've got way too much strength.'
Kiana's chin knocked against something hard—a bone.
A lock of short hair, carrying a faint trace of dust, brushed across the tip of her nose.
A little prickly. A little ticklish.
That scent.
Vivid. Real.
Solid. Undeniable.
Not an echo from a dream.
Not distorted static from a comm channel.
Her tears burst past every restraint in an instant.
Great heavy drops welled from her tightly shut eyes, streaking down her cheeks and smearing across the gray hoodie he'd gotten from who-knew-where.
The body that had, until a moment ago, been trying to wriggle free of an embrace tight enough to crack ribs—
after hearing the choked sob catch in her throat—
went completely still.
'Su Yu.'
She buried her face deep into that chest, still faintly damp with sweat.
Her arms locked around his back like two iron chains.
She was terrified that if she loosened her grip by even a millimeter,
this warm body would turn back into cold scanner readings, just like in that dream.
'Don't go...'
The plea came out blurred, soaked through with tears.
Time seemed to stop completely in that moment.
Su Yu stayed in the position he'd been yanked into—half-kneeling at the edge of the couch.
His face was pressed against Kiana's tangled white hair.
At his chest, through the thin summer hoodie—
he could feel, clearly, the shudders wracking her body from her violent crying,
and the scalding tears quickly soaking through his shirt, plastering it to his skin.
By touch alone, he could tell how terrifyingly tense every muscle in the body he held had become.
It was the body's self-protective response after several sleepless nights in a row, right on the verge of collapse.
How on earth had this idiot—normally so loud and boisterous, always fighting him over the last dish at dinner—made it through these past few days?
Su Yu sighed inwardly.
The surprise script he'd planned—kicking the door open, bellowing 'I'm back, Hu Hansan rides again!' and maybe conning her into treating him to a big meal—
was torn to shreds in the face of those scalding tears.
He didn't try to pry Kiana's hands off his back.
Nor did he attempt any joke to lighten the mood.
He simply shifted his half-kneeling position slowly, letting his weight settle fully down,
and wrapped both arms completely around the small, curled-up form on the couch, pulling her fully into his embrace.
He rested his chin lightly on top of her head.
'Okay.'
His voice sounded through the quiet living room, mixing with the hum of the air conditioner.
'I'm not going anywhere.'
He closed his eyes, letting the tears go on soaking his chest.
As those words settled,
the body in his arms, tensed to its very limit, finally, after a few seconds, began to loosen, little by little.
Su Yu took out his newly bought phone, logged into his account, and sent a message in the group chat.
[Su Yu: Hey kids, I won the comeback match. Spot me fifty bucks and I'll walk you through my grand plan to save the world.]
[Fu Hua: ?]
[Ma Feima: ?]
[Cheng Lingshuang: ?]
Su Yu paid no attention to the group chat instantly blowing up. He simply turned off his phone and gently patted Kiana's back.
Once. Then again.
As if soothing a kitten the whole world had abandoned.
This fourth midterm exam
quietly drew to a close, here in this shabby rented apartment that held just the two of them.
____
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