Long Time No See

Another quiet morning. Ye Li, as usual, ate a simple breakfast and headed to class.

Seeing the classroom still sparsely filled even as class time approached, Ye Li shook his head and sighed. "Kids these days, can't even get out of bed. Not like me—early to bed, early to rise every day..."

Right. Tell that to the guy who spent all last night as a ghost on the forums.

But to be fair, ever since Honkai Impact 3rd started serializing, the rate of student tardiness had shot up quite a bit.

The school board found this a real headache.

They could ban phones on campus, but they couldn't stop students from using them at home.

What made it worse was that it wasn't just students—even some teachers were guilty.

Take Mr. Welt Yang, who taught physics to the upper grades, or Ms. Murata Himeko, repeatedly voted Teacher of the Year...

And the one that baffled the board the most? Even Principal Theresa had been caught slacking off in her office, sneaking peeks at Honkai Impact 3rd videos.

First it was reading Houmu comics in the office—fine. Now it's watching short videos in there!

The board members, hoping to crack down on school discipline, could only look to the heavens and sigh:

"Times have fallen, the world's gone wrong! Your ministers are ready to fight to the death—why has Your Majesty surrendered first!"

On the other side, after a busy morning of study, the morning classes officially came to an end.

Students could finally relax, pairing up in twos and threes as they filed out of the classroom.

Ye Li, after enjoying the post-class afternoon for a bit, got ready to leave as well.

This had been his habit for years at school.

Not the first to arrive, but always the last to leave.

No other reason—just to keep a low profile.

Today, though, something unexpected happened.

Just as Ye Li was about to head out, he noticed Fu Hua, sitting in the front-row center seat, hadn't left yet.

"Normally, with Fu Hua's habits, she'd be long gone by now. Did something happen?"

Thinking this, Ye Li forgot all about keeping a low profile. He stopped in his tracks and turned toward Fu Hua.

Meanwhile, though her eyes were on the textbook in front of her, Fu Hua's mind was nowhere near it.

Her head was completely filled with unfamiliar memories.

It even made her wonder if she'd been studying too hard lately.

It was just a fictional video—so why did she take it so seriously? Why was she even making connections?

"Am I really that tired?"

Just as Fu Hua was lost in confusion, a gentle voice came from above her.

"Class monitor Fu Hua, is something wrong?"

Fu Hua looked up at the sound. Maybe it was the backlight, but the outline of the person before her seemed dazzlingly bright.

After focusing her vision carefully, she finally made out who it was.

Just as she was about to say she was fine, the rampaging unfamiliar memories in her mind made her blurt out instead:

"Ye Li... long time no see."

"Class monitor Fu Hua, what are you talking about?" Ye Li looked puzzled. "Didn't we just see each other two days ago—"

!!!

As if realizing something, Ye Li froze completely.

Holy crap!

It was already shocking enough that Raiden Mei remembered him.

But Ye Li never expected there'd be someone even more impressive!

Even Kiana—whose late-stage combat power rivaled an Emanator—still hadn't recalled her memories of him. And yet Fu Hua could?

Sure, as the absolute protagonist of the Honkai universe, Kiana faced far stronger world suppression than anyone else.

But Fu Hua shouldn't be far behind.

Was it because Fu Hua had once undergone the Divine Key Project?

Or maybe because she'd spent the most time with him?

After all, aside from that era in the Previous Civilization, he and Fu Hua had spent over five thousand years together in Shenzhou.

At this thought, Ye Li's usual carefree expression softened, and a trace of weariness crept into his eyes.

"Hua..."

"Hua?"

Hearing that name, the memories in Fu Hua's mind surged once more.

If before, the memories in her mind were like an old movie at 480p, now they were a 4K HD theater release.

As her memories revived, a familiar power began to flow slowly into Fu Hua's body.

"Ye Li, you..."

Fu Hua looked up at her past-life friend, but suddenly she seemed to notice something, and the joy of reuniting with an old friend on her face twisted into shock.

"Ye Li!"

Fu Hua shot up from her seat with a jolt, the force even snapping off a corner of the desk.

"Your body... why..."

Though to ordinary eyes, Ye Li at this moment was just a handsome but low-profile male high school student.

What Fu Hua saw, however, was the fragile, crumbling soul beneath that handsome face.

Ye Li's condition was terribly wrong.

He was supposed to be a Flame-Chaser who led humanity to victory against the Honkai, the acknowledged strongest of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers...

But now he looked just like an ordinary human, without a trace of the extraordinary.

Fu Hua couldn't begin to imagine what kind of brutal battle could have inflicted such a level of damage on Ye Li.

And what bothered her most was why she had forgotten Ye Li before, forgotten every moment spent with him.

A hero who protected the world and saved civilization, now forced to hide in a forgotten corner, licking his wounds in silence—just thinking about it was heartbreaking.

Watching Fu Hua stare at him with a guilty expression, Ye Li was a bit baffled.

What's up with this kid?

Why's she looking at me all pityingly?

Could it be...

Could it be she remembered how inhumane it was of me to push her to pay the class dues earlier?