Joining MiHoYo, the Savior Me Was Targeted by Elysia

Having lost every source of support, Himeko was like a tuft of cotton in a raging fire, liable to vanish at any moment as it drifted away.

"Himeko!"

The burning ceiling came crashing down, about to crush Himeko to pieces.

Ye Ming, who had just arrived in this timeline, immediately rushed over and tackled Himeko aside.

"Huh?"

Only after being physically struck did Himeko come back to her senses, but her first instinct was still to crawl toward her father.

"Murata Ryusuke is already dead! Wake up and face that fact!"

Ye Ming grabbed Himeko, who was crawling toward death's door, and used the cruelest words to restore her reason.

Himeko had even lost her only family member. She was so miserable! Sob sob!

It was because she had lost her family that Himeko cherished her time at St. Freya even more.

Because she understood the pain of loss, she wanted to leave something behind for Kiana.

The more I think about it, the more heartbreaking this gets!

Class rep, get out of here! We don't need your summary! Sob sob!

It was not only the comments that mourned for Himeko. The pain in Ye Ming's eyes was especially evident as well.

Just like not long ago, when BT had told him of Himeko's death, Ye Ming had felt the same way.

At that moment, he understood Himeko's feelings better than anyone.

"Give me your hand!"

Ye Ming pulled Himeko to her feet and forcibly held her as they moved through the sea of flames.

After smashing through several burning obstacles in succession, he finally rushed out of the laboratory with Himeko.

"Everything... is gone..."

Though she had been saved, Himeko felt no joy at having survived. Instead, like a broken doll, she knelt on the ground and trembled without stop.

"It's all right, Himeko. It's all right now."

Ye Ming embraced Himeko, gently stroking her red hair as he said softly, "I know you're devastated, but I hope you can calm down and leave everything to time."

Ye Ming knew that it was because of this incident that Himeko had decided to implant Artificial Stigmata and become a Valkyrie.

So he had to dispel that thought from Himeko's mind now, before it was too late.

"Until time has soothed the pain, don't act on impulse. Don't do anything foolish. Don't make any decisions because of grief."

"No... I can't do it..."

At that moment, Himeko's mind was filled with extreme thoughts. She tried to relax, but she could not control the sorrowful thoughts flooding through her head.

"It's fine if you can't do it alone. I'll be by your side. I'll help you..."

Using BT's tone, Ye Ming said, "Trust me, Himeko."

Feeling the comfort Ye Ming brought her, Himeko's mind was finally freed from its extreme emotions, and the pain slowly began to drain away.

That night, Himeko cried in Ye Ming's arms for the entire night, and Ye Ming stayed with her all the while.

In the past, Himeko had faced this sea of fire head-on. It was like facing the scorching sun itself, the pain searing deep into her bones.

But now, Ye Ming's embrace stood between Himeko and the sea of flames...

Like the moon, he transformed the excessively blazing fire into gentle light that shone into Himeko's heart.

By the time her tears had run dry, dawn had hidden the moon away, yet Himeko had already begun to find herself unable to leave Ye Ming.

"This is good enough..."

After that, Ye Ming remained by Himeko's side, never leaving her.

Whether she woke from nightmares in fright or wiped away tears by herself...

He did not leave with peace of mind until the light of longing for life once again shone in Himeko's eyes.

By then, Ye Ming had already been rejected by this spacetime and could not remain any longer.

Otherwise, he would have wanted to stay by Himeko's side a while longer.

"With this, the future should change."

Returning to the Time Corridor, Ye Ming let out a long breath.

As long as Himeko did not become a Valkyrie, the tragedies that followed would not happen.

Once he returned to reality, the incident of Kiana becoming the Herrscher of the Void would happen again. At that time, he would take the God-Slaying Spear and bring her back.

"What... is going on...?"

But just as Ye Ming believed his work was complete and prepared to leave the Time Corridor, he discovered that the scenes around him had not changed.

Himeko was still active on the front lines against the Honkai as a Valkyrie.

"Nothing changed... None of it changed..."

Ye Ming kept moving forward. Until Himeko died, almost everything she experienced had remained unchanged.

Though he had no idea what had happened, Himeko had still become a Valkyrie and walked toward her fated death.

"Something must have gone wrong. I'll try again!"

Ye Ming tried to reenter the day of Himeko's birthday, but the moment his hand touched the image, the timeline and his body violently repelled each other.

The searing pain felt as though he had been struck directly by high-voltage electricity, so intense that Ye Ming nearly thought his hand had been pierced through.

"Only one chance...?"

Even without an instruction manual, Ye Ming quickly grasped the situation.

BT's power was not all-powerful. So-called spacetime power could not be treated as some cheat that let him travel through time at will.

"Calm down... There's still a way..."

Ye Ming continued searching through Himeko's fragments, hoping to stop her when she underwent the Stigmata transplant.

Yet he discovered that the entire Time Corridor contained no such scene.

—I understand now. This is not the power to travel through time, but the power to interfere with time.

Because it was BT rather than the system that had caused this distortion of time, she had needed some time to understand the situation as well.

—To interfere with time, there must be a target. This time, the target is Himeko, so her memories are the medium.

"Then why the Stigmata... Ah."

Before the system could answer, Ye Ming understood on his own.

During the Stigmata transplant surgery, Himeko had been anesthetized. Naturally, she would have no memories related to it.

"In any case, I'll start from the beginning of her Valkyrie career and find a way to make her retire."

There was something else Ye Ming could not understand.

The girls who received Artificial Stigmata transplants were, bluntly speaking, all unfit to become Valkyries. Either they had nowhere else to turn, or they were driven by some obsession...

Only then would they accept a surgery that was practically suicide, forcing themselves to become Valkyries.

When he had left Himeko, she had already become much more cheerful. At the very least, she was no longer shrouded by the grief of losing her family.

Why would someone like that still choose this path?

Murata Himeko: I Will Become You

"How's your body? Are your injuries serious?"

"I'm fine. Just some scrapes on my skin. Looks like they'll leave scars."

"You care so much about your skin. Are you looking for a boyfriend?"

"Haha, when would people like us ever get the chance to fall in love?"

In the Valkyries' lounge, the young girls chatted about meaningless gossip while checking on their companion's condition.

Just then, an aggressive-looking young man appeared before them, startling the girls into immediate screams.

"W-What's going on?!"

"Why is there a man here?!"

Ye Ming's appearance gave the Valkyries a fright. Screaming, they hurriedly put back on the clothes they had just taken off.

"Is he some kind of pervert? Watch me deal with him easily!"

"Wait... Don't you think that kid is kind of cute?"

"I-It does seem that way..."

Though they were brave warrior goddesses on the battlefield, they were also young maidens sheltered away from the world.

They were at the age when their hearts first stirred with romance, yet their identities denied them any chance at love. Seeing Ye Ming suddenly appear, they could not help but feel a little flutter in their hearts.

"..."

Unfortunately, Ye Ming had no interest in fooling around with these beautiful girls.

He did not even spare the exposed skin a second glance.

"Excuse me, is Murata Himeko here?"

"Huh? Himeko?"

"You came looking for Himeko?"

"Wow, is he her boyfriend?"

The girls immediately erupted into a commotion, and Himeko, who had just returned from her bath, was instantly surrounded by her companions.

"Himeko! When did you get a boyfriend?"

"You actually kept it from us!"

"Boyfriend? Where would I..."

Before Himeko could finish, she spotted Ye Ming in the distance. In that instant, her heartbeat sped up severalfold, and even the Stigma on her abdomen reacted.

"I have something to tell you."

Ye Ming walked straight over, took Himeko's hand, and led her into an empty corridor.

"Eek!!"

Behind them came the girls' cheers and screams, as though they were watching a romantic movie.

"You, you are..."

Himeko looked at Ye Ming, her eyes full of surprise. He seemed familiar somehow, yet she could not remember where she had seen him.

What unsettled Himeko most was that she clearly knew the boy before her was extremely important to her, and her heart ached with longing for him.

But she could not remember why she missed him, or what had happened between them.

"I see. After leaving that timeline, memories become scrambled?"

Ye Ming was not overly surprised upon learning this. This was his first time interfering with the target timeline.

The exact rules, and whether there might be a way to strengthen this ability later, were all unknown.

"I'm sorry, I really..."

"That isn't important, Himeko."

Ye Ming interrupted Himeko and said bluntly:

"I hope you'll leave the Valkyrie Assault Squad and live on as an ordinary person."

"That won't do."