"Little Kiana, I came to pick up some documents. Are you done with class?" Yaqing asked with a smile. He held the documents in one arm and reached out with the other to pat Little Kiana on the head, but Kiana dodged.
"Stupid Uncle, I'm all grown up already." Kiana sounded annoyed.
"Alright, alright." Yaqing helplessly spread his hands and looked at the two girls beside her. "You're Raiden Mei and Bronya, right?"
"Hello, Yaqing..." Mei truly did not know how to address Yaqing. Calling him Brother would make Kiana seem like a generation younger for no reason, but she could not directly call him Uncle like Kiana did either. "Uncle Yaqing."
Uncle was the most suitable form of address Mei could come up with after racking her brains.
"Brother Yaqing." Bronya did not overthink it like Mei did and simply called him Brother. Given the relationship between the two of them, there was no need to be so particular.
"Bronya!" Kiana was extremely displeased. As her best friend, calling her uncle Brother was practically taking advantage of her.
What Kiana had not expected was that Yaqing did not refute the address. He did not even find it inappropriate and accepted it gladly instead.
"Bronya, long time no see. You're not getting lost at amusement parks anymore, are you?"
Bronya's pretty face reddened.
"Wait, wait, wait." Only then did Kiana react. She asked in surprise, "Bronya, you know Stupid Uncle?"
Bronya nodded.
"Alright, I still have things to do, so I won't chat with you any longer."
Kiana grabbed Yaqing, who was preparing to leave.
Yaqing looked puzzled.
"Stupid Uncle, you're going to see Aunt, right? I happen to be getting my snack box too, so let's go together," Kiana said.
"Will you share some with me?"
"Get lost!"
When Yaqing and Kiana arrived at the office, Shigure Kira was still wallowing in despair. Yaqing was a little confused. When he had left, that woman had been pretty fired up. Why had she wilted so quickly?
"Kira, the work is done. We should get going."
Yaqing called out.
Shigure Kira was still sitting on the sofa with her knees hugged to her chest.
"Uncle, who is this?" Kiana, holding her snack box, had already impatiently opened a bag of chips and started eating. In an act of great generosity, she even gave Yaqing a few chips.
"Mm." Shigure Kira raised her head and forced out a smile. "You're Little Kiana, right? I held you when you were little."
The familiar line made Kiana glare at Yaqing. From that one sentence, she already knew who this person was. She had to be a Destiny employee—either one of her uncle's subordinates or one of her mother's teammates.
"Theresa, what did you do to her?"
"I didn't do anything." Theresa spoke while drinking bitter melon juice.
"Kira, if you don't want to go shopping, I'm going back to work."
"You go ahead. I'm not in the mood to shop anymore." Shigure Kira sank deeper into despair.
Yaqing was helpless. Before leaving, he reminded Kiana that if she did not have enough spending money, she should send him a message.
Back at the company building, Yaqing took out his phone and called someone across the ocean.
"Hello, this is..."
The call connected, and a pleasant voice came through.
First of all, thank you, brothers and sisters, for all your support. I have a clear understanding of my own writing style and prose, and I'm truly grateful that you're willing to keep reading.
Since the author is currently in the internship period of university studies, I may not have much time to write, so mass updates will be difficult. I won't be opening any reward goals, but I can still guarantee one update a day.
Honestly, I still can't believe it myself. This book goes premium tomorrow. When I started it, I was only giving it a try. The later plot should connect to the Honkai main storyline, ending with "From Dusk, Girl, and Battleship to Betrayal Is a Silver Smile," which will be the second movie.
I won't ramble any further. I can only ask my brothers and sisters for more support. Please give me some face and subscribe on the first day tomorrow.
Anti-Entropy's New Script
A few years ago, Destiny's Oceania Branch had assigned a young woman there. Some people in the branch relied on their seniority and refused to take the person in charge sent down by headquarters seriously. In their eyes, she was merely a young, timid little girl.
But facts soon proved them wrong. Speaking softly did not mean she had a weak personality, and headquarters would not assign useless people overseas.
"Teacher, you haven't called me in a long time." Her jellyfish-like shoulder-length hair faded from black to green. She wore a white blouse on top and a fitted mermaid skirt below, exposing only a patch of snow-white skin at her ankles. A pair of pale green high heels swayed on her delicate feet.
"Wendy, how have you been lately? Do those old fossils in Oceania still dare to target you?" Yaqing asked with his usual concern.
"Teacher, I barely even had to use the tricks you taught me before they collectively gave in," Wendy said with an amused smile.
"Those old fossils are exactly the same as the ones at headquarters—a bunch who bully the weak and fear the strong." Yaqing shook his head with a smile, but his gaze was unusually fierce, like a beast before a hunt.
"Teacher, those old fossils have been deeply entrenched in Oceania for decades. I can't completely uproot them overnight. Give me one more year..." Wendy's eyes turned fierce, and the weak aura rumored by outsiders completely vanished. She looked like another Yaqing copied from the same mold.
"Don't put pressure on yourself, Wendy. They're the ones who should feel pressured."
"I understand, Teacher." Wendy asked, "Teacher, did you call because you have instructions for me? Or did the headquarters board cause trouble again?"
Yaqing teased, "What? I can't call my adorable disciple unless there's something wrong?"
"Teacher!!!" Wendy's cheeks flushed.
"Alright, alright, enough of that. I really do have something to trouble you with." Yaqing's tone gradually turned serious.
Wendy silently straightened her attitude and sat upright.
"The division I'm in charge of has officially been confirmed. We're entering the entertainment industry. I assume you've already watched that newly released movie?"
"Yes, Teacher. The President sent emails to every branch, giving all employees time off to watch the movie. Destiny headquarters covered the expenses." Wendy's eyes curved into crescents.
"How come I didn't know about that?" Yaqing was stunned. If it had gone to every branch, why had he not received it? Could it be because Theresa was still in charge of the Far East Branch?
"Teacher, you didn't know?" Wendy was confused.
"That isn't important. Since you watched it, you should know the plot. I used real people as prototypes for this animated movie," Yaqing said.
Worthy of being Yaqing's student, Wendy immediately understood what he meant. She asked in delight, "Teacher, does that mean there's a character based on me?"
"Yes, that's right." Yaqing briefly explained Wendy's storyline to her.
Wendy went from delight, to silence, to a frown, and finally to speechlessness.
"Teacher, you wrote me so tragically. Fine, I don't care that you made me a villain. I don't even care that you wrote me to die."
But Wendy returned to the point. "However, whether in reality or in the plot, I'm Bronya's senior, right? Why would I still call her Big Sister?"
"Maybe Bronya's tiny body made you feel a long-lost sense of love?" Yaqing casually replied.
Wendy restrained her temper and said, "Teacher, send the voice acting script to my email. I'll make time to go to the recording studio. What's the latest you need it?"
"No rush. After Christmas."
"Alright. Goodbye, Teacher."
"I..."
Wendy hung up without caring whether Yaqing had finished speaking.
Yaqing was not angry either, because he knew the girl had been emotionally wrecked again. His mood immediately improved. He stood up and stretched, then removed Wendy from the character art Patrick had drawn.
"Now that the mid-stage villain has been decided, then the final villain of this movie... Cocolia?"
"Another headache."
Yaqing now had two troublesome issues.
The first was how to make Cocolia accept this script. After all, the plot portrayed her as a villain who would stop at nothing and even experimented on children.
The second difficulty was that as long as Yaqing wanted Cocolia's character to appear in the movie, he would have to spend a huge amount of money.
People who controlled the money but refused to spend it were rare. Anti-Entropy had Cocolia, and Destiny had one too: President Otto's secretary, Amber Apocalypse.
Unlike Anti-Entropy, Cocolia had the authority to reject Chairman Welt Joyce's decisions. But in Destiny, Otto had the final say. Let alone Amber, even the board of directors and the three great families together could not overturn Otto's decisions.
The price was that every time Otto left behind a huge mess, Amber had to clean it up. Whenever Yaqing saw that the dividends he was owed had decreased in his account, he knew President Otto had started causing trouble again.
"Looks like I'll have to find Old Yang again."
Yaqing took a sip of coffee.
Far away in North America, Walter Yang suddenly sneezed.
"Yang, did you catch a cold?" the lobster-headed doctor asked with concern.
Walter Yang rubbed his nose and said, "No. I just have this feeling that someone is talking about me behind my back. By the way, Tesla, what is your new script about?"
"It's..." The moment her new tokusatsu script was mentioned, Tesla became extremely excited.
After hearing Tesla's script, Walter frowned. It was not that there was a problem with the story itself, but Anti-Entropy Entertainment did not have that many actors. Tesla's tokusatsu script was almost entirely male characters.
After all, in the previous Ahalato production, aside from Joyce personally playing the lead role, the team members had been Tesla and Einstein. Anti-Entropy was desperately short on money. Special effects were expensive, and they had almost no money to hire actors.
"Tesla, innovation is a good thing, but we don't have that many people," Walter Yang said helplessly. With how Cocolia valued funding more than her life, how could she possibly approve more money for actors?
"Then what should we do?" Tesla became dejected.
"Let's finish filming season nine of Ahalato first." Walter Yang had no other choice.
On the top floor of the company building at Destiny Far East Branch, Yaqing turned on his computer and looked through the comments. Today marked the end of the movie's theatrical run, and it had also launched on online platforms. There were surprisingly many comments.
"Great! Hurry up and release the second movie!"
"Cecilia... I cried so hard. Can someone like that really exist in real life? She entered the battlefield without hesitation just to save people. When Otto told her missiles were about to be launched, the first thing she worried about wasn't her own safety, but that she hadn't saved more people. She really... I cried so hard."
"If there really is a sequel, who will be the protagonist?"
"Definitely Theresa!"
"I don't think so. I feel like it's more likely to be Little Kiana. Look at the post-credits scene—the bastard Otto has already started researching Kiana's genes!"
"What? There was a post-credits scene?!"
"What? He used Little Kiana's genes?!"
"Poster above, you're behind the times."
"Why doesn't anyone think the protagonist of the second movie will be Ziegfried?"
"I admit Ziegfried was very cool when he drew the Heavenly Fire to protect his family, but I have a feeling he'll be written out in the second movie."
"Shut up! How dare you!"
"Can you release the second movie faster? I can't wait anymore!"
Yaqing noticed that the comments fell into four categories.
One group was urging them to release the second movie as soon as possible.
One group was cursing Otto from the story.
One group was praising the writing.
The last group was... cursing Welt.
I Held You When You Were Little
"Stupid Uncle actually told me to come to the company. I really don't want to go..." Kiana pouted, looking thoroughly unwilling. If Yaqing had not told her on the phone to bring Himeko, Mei, and Bronya along, she definitely would not have gone by herself.
Himeko drove, with Bronya in the passenger seat.
Mei and Kiana sat in the back.
Bronya searched the movie cast list on her phone and guessed, "Perhaps the second movie will have characters based on us."
"Huh?" Kiana could not help leaning over the back of Bronya's seat. "Really?! Then this young lady will definitely become the strongest Valkyrie!"
"No, you're just a Brainless Idiot." Bronya's signature expression appeared once again.
"Bronya!" Kiana ground her teeth in anger. If Himeko were not driving right now, she would have climbed into the passenger seat already for safety's sake.
"Mei, look at her!" Kiana curled into Mei's arms.
Mei looked at the clingy Kiana in her arms with helpless amusement. Her gentle expression suddenly changed, and she blushed as she slapped away Kiana's wandering hand.
Before you continue