Honkai Impact 3rd: My Days as a Captain in Schicksal

"Uh...it's nothing...I was just asking casually..." Mei seemed to have thought of something and stammered a little.

"Hmm?" Kiana grinned mischievously, holding up her ten fingers. "Mei, you're not telling the truth, huh?"

"Ahahaha... Ahahahaha it tickles so much, no... Hahahaha stop it..." Mei laughed so hard she was doubled over as Kiana kept attacking her ticklish spots. She tried to get rid of Kiana's pursuit, but Kiana seized the opportunity to hug her from behind and kept attacking the ticklish spots on her waist.

"Hahahaha, I said... Stop it, I said hahahaha..." Mei finally couldn't withstand Kiana's tickling onslaught and begged for mercy.

"Actually... it's nothing serious..." Mei's words were still somewhat ambiguous, but upon seeing Kiana reveal her nails again, she reflexively shrank back. "Um... it's just that..."

"What I'm trying to say is... what's something everyone wants to do?"

"I'm not talking about that... well, I mean, what would we be doing right now if there hadn't been a Honkai?" Mei sat quietly on the head of the mutine, her arms wrapped around her knees, gazing absently at the distant sunset.

In the Ruins of Desolation, time seems to have no concept. Time is forever frozen at the moment of sunset, with crimson clouds stretching from the horizon to the top of one's head, like a bride's wedding dress.

"As for me... of course, I want to be all sweet and loving with Mei every day~" Kiana hugged Mei and snuggled even more happily.

Mei's face flushed slightly: "Okay, okay, stop being so cute... I know, I know..."

"What can Mei do?" Kiana asked, as if she had just remembered something.

“…I’ll probably inherit my father’s company.” Mei stared blankly at the ever-shining red sun, as if touched by a memory, her eyes filled with reminiscence. “Father… he was always very strict, and he was never home… I rarely had the chance to spend time with him…”

"But I gradually got used to it..."

"I'm used to going to school alone, coming home alone, eating alone, all by myself..." Mei's eyes visibly dimmed as she said this. "No matter how hard I try to be better, he won't even glance at me..."

"The car that took me to and from school was like Cinderella's magic carriage, so beautiful and dreamy, but..."

At this point, Mei's eyes showed obvious sadness: "But only Cinderella sitting inside knows how terrible this carriage is."

"The carriage was a pumpkin that would break at the slightest touch, the coachman was a rat that crawled out of the gutter, and even Cinderella herself had to escape that beautiful castle before midnight."

"Because she's a liar. She deceived the prince. She's not as wonderful as she seems. She's just a penniless liar who only appears glamorous because of her godmother's illusions..."

“But Cinderella had a godmother, and what do I have… In truth, we are all the same… We all have nothing.”

"Maybe other classmates think I'm too cold... I know that..."

“But…” Mei sighed deeply, “I still feel sorry for the other classmates around me at the time… because I really didn’t have the energy to please them anymore.”

"I'm really... so tired..."

……

"Hey!"

"Huh?! Kiana, what are you doing? Put me down!" Mei, who was hugging her legs, suddenly felt a pair of hands wrap around her from behind and then gently lift her up.

In a princess carry.

"Hmm...no way!"

"What are you doing... Stop messing around... We're still on a mission..." Mei's eyes were still filled with panic, and she was groping her face with one hand, as if she was anxiously checking if her tears had fallen.

"Mei isn't without anything, you still have me!" Kiana puffed out her cheeks, looking sullen.

"Yes, yes, I still have you, so please put me down..." Mei thought Kiana was just being coquettish, and she shifted her body uncomfortably, as if trying to break free from Kiana's princess carry.

"No! I haven't finished speaking yet!" Kiana, contrary to her usual behavior, ignored Mei's words and stubbornly refused to let go.

"Can't you put her down first before you say anything..." Mei was extremely embarrassed, "Bronya is still watching..."

Kiana's expression stiffened for a moment, as if she didn't know what to say next.

Seeing Kiana's reaction, Mei breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, okay, I know Kiana-chan is the best, please put me down, it's the first time someone has ever held me like this..."

Mei's voice trailed off at the end of her sentence: "I feel so embarrassed..."

"Mei, do you think you possess me?" Kiana suddenly asked Mei a question out of the blue.

"Huh?" Mei was clearly taken aback by Kiana's question and didn't know how to answer for a moment.

have?

But Kiana didn't dwell on the first question; instead, she asked the second question earnestly: "So, Mei, do you feel like you possess me?"

To be owned?

This question is clearly more difficult to answer than the first one.

It's also even less reliable.

For a moment, the leap in thinking between these two questions left Mei's mind somewhat unable to process the information.

"If one day you achieve great success and the whole world is your domain, but when you return home, open the door and say 'I'm home,' there's not a single person in the huge house, only the echo of your voice in the corridor..." Kiana's eyes seemed to be staring at Mei, and also seemed to be looking through Mei's eyes into an indescribable distance, "Even if you possess the whole world, at this moment, will you be happy?"

"If your cat suddenly ran out of the house and happily rubbed against your legs, would you feel happy?" Kiana asked softly.

Mei didn't speak, but her eyes told Kiana her answer.

"So, does it feel happy too?" Kiana continued, as if she were digging into a series of profound questions.

“Probably…” Mei said hesitantly.

"Mei, having something won't alleviate loneliness." Kiana lowered her head and looked intently into Mei's eyes. "Only being possessed can."

"Huh?" This sentence, from any perspective, was enough to make Mei's brain short-circuit in surprise.

"When you own that cat, you are also owned by it; when you care for it, you are also taken care of by it."

"It is because it sees that the person who owns it has returned that it happily comes over and rubs against your trouser leg; and you, who own it, feel so at ease when you see it."

"For all who do not possess are prodigal sons."

"Only when you are owned do you truly own a place to live; only by that person's side can you truly call home."

"Otherwise, that empty shell is just your house."

"So, Mei, I'm willing to be possessed by you, so are you willing to be possessed by me?" Before Mei could even react, Kiana stared into Mei's eyes and slowly uttered the next sentence, completely disregarding the fact that Mei's face was already redder than the sunset clouds.

"So I'm saying, can you guys take care of this single dog?" Keng Huo's weak voice rang out from the public channel, "As a lonely person watching you two act out an idol drama, my feelings are really complicated."

Mei, as if waking from a dream, blushed and pushed away the grinning Kiana: "Seriously...where did you learn these kinds of things..."

Fortunately, Keng Huo's sudden disruption gave the shy Mei a chance to back down.

"Actually, it's not that sad. I'm really happy to be with Kiana and Bronya now." Mei sat down next to the other two, opened her arms and pulled them into her arms. The three little heads huddled together, as if they wanted to whisper something very secret.

"If I had to say what home is, then you are my home. Since I met you, I have been truly, truly happy..."

The shadows of the three people sitting side by side in the sunset stretched infinitely long by the setting sun.

"So how about we eat hamburger patties when we get back?"

"Good good."

"Then I want to drink spicy soup too!"

"Good good."

"Then I want Mei to kiss me too!"

"What a load of rubbish!"

"Recharge Bunny Mode..."

"Waaaa, Bronya, what are you doing! Tell the Heavy Bunny to put down the cannon! Friendly fire! It's friendly fire! We're family!"

Those who have walked hand in hand all along will surely continue to walk hand in hand, as always.

The hardships and sorrows experienced will eventually become fleeting memories, buried deep in the heart but no longer tormenting one's nightmares. When, many years later, the wound in one's heart has been filled with warm and beautiful memories, this dark scar will be nothing more than a memory.

It's like a medal symbolizing growth.

———————————————————————————————————

But only Keng Huo kept those words in mind.

"Many of my students... have quite a few psychological problems..."

He knew that Raiden Mei's father, Raiden Ryoma, was the former president of [ME Company], and that [ME Company] was a subordinate organization of [Anti-Entropy], the arch-rival of [Schicksal], and one of the main channels for [Anti-Entropy] to obtain funds from the secular world.

Ever since Raiden Ryoma was imprisoned for alleged economic crimes, but was secretly imprisoned by Anti-Entropy, Raiden Mei has never seen her father again, nor has she heard any news about him whatsoever.

Keng Huo smiled slightly, turned off his private communication with Kiana, and his expression became increasingly strange.

"As expected, she only remembered the first sentence..."

"She didn't remember the example I gave her, the one from 'The Little Prince'..."

"In the end, I still had to teach her word by word..."

"Even though I taught you sentence by sentence, you still got the order wrong..."

"But why does getting the order wrong and omitting a few sentences actually achieve the desired effect?"

"And why should I teach my female students how to pick up girls?"

"Is my life really going to go further and further down this indescribable, strange path...?"

--------------------------------

As if injected with a powerful stimulant, the three of them moved with the ferocity of tigers in subsequent operations. Their teamwork gradually became more proficient in actual combat, mistakes decreased one after another, and the expected effects of the originally planned tactics gradually became apparent.

The expected training and combat results paid off, and even Keng Huo couldn't help but smile.

He shook his somewhat muddled head, trying to dispel the fatigue and confusion he felt after eighteen consecutive hours of focused command and intelligence analysis.

Although he felt as if he had forgotten something important, the gratifying harvest in front of him made him, to some extent, ignore this growing unease.

After eighteen hours of continuous combat, they had captured six ruined crystal mining areas. The mule's storage space was almost full. Once they finished collecting the last of the crystal ore, they could begin preparations for their return teleportation.

Keng Huo pursed his dry lips; his throat was so parched he couldn't squeeze out a drop of moisture. The prolonged, high-intensity mental activity had almost completely exhausted his physical strength. For such a long time, he had maintained a standing posture, wearing a heavy, airtight protective suit, and was completely focused on analyzing all the information transmitted back by Dandelion. He even stopped using the automatic mode for the mining mule, instead using remote control himself, all to minimize all uncertainties.

This was St. Freya Academy's first Abyss Descent operation, and he didn't want anything to go wrong, whether it was for the three Valkyries or for the benefits this operation would bring.

But all he wanted to do right now was rest; he was just too tired.

But he didn't even dare to sit down, because he knew that once a person who has been in a state of fatigue for a long time takes a breath, he will immediately be immersed in that kind of exhaustion, which is irreversible. Even if he forces himself to cheer up, he will be in a much worse state than before.