As Long as Mei Is Here

"It's you, Little Void. It's been a long time." Yaqing rubbed Little Void's head.

"Long time no see, Brother Yaqing." The ash-gray-haired boy had his hands in his pockets.

"Brother Yaqing." The black-haired boy looked more composed.

"Lyle, Adam." Yaqing nodded and rubbed both boys' heads.

"It's Teacher!" Little Void looked delightedly at the woman who had just entered, wearing a baseball cap and black mask that covered her from head to toe. She waved. "Bye, Brother Yaqing!"

Although Little Void looked gentle and soft-spoken, the moment she left, both boys followed right behind her, with Lyle looking thoroughly unconvinced.

"Are they children from Aponia's orphanage?" Mobius had never visited the orphanage Aponia had founded, so she had no impression of those children.

"Yes." Yaqing smiled.

Elysia, seated on Mobius's other side, was happily chatting with Eden.

Kevin held Mei's hand as they sat in the last row.

Mei sat beside Eden.

Kevin waved at Su. "Come sit here, Su."

Su's mouth twitched. He was painfully clear-headed about this—those in the last row were either couples, lesbians, or caught in some ambiguous relationship. What was a single guy like him supposed to do there?

So Su ignored Kevin's wave and sat three rows ahead of him, beside the sisters Sakura and Ling.

Sitting in one of the front three rows, the best seats for watching the movie, Kiana kept turning around, quickly drawing Mei's attention. Mei asked in confusion, "Kiana, what are you looking at?"

Mei wanted to turn around too, but Kiana stopped her.

"Shh, Mei, don't look back." Kiana looked nervous.

Mei was even more confused.

Bronya once again displayed her extraordinary hacking skills. She kept tapping out code on her phone and easily pulled up Mobius's publicly available online information.

"Mobius, director of World Serpent Technology Co., Ltd., graduated from Chiyu Academy, obtained four doctoral degrees during university, and possesses exceptional expertise in biology and chemistry. Based on her identity, she should be Yaqing's senior." Bronya spoke in her distinctive, flat tone.

"Senior? Doesn't feel like it." Kiana wore a hilariously strange grin.

"Are you talking about Mobius?" Little Knowledge suddenly joined the conversation.

"Yeah, Little Knowledge. Do you know what's going on?"

With Raiden Mei sitting between them, Little Knowledge irritably knocked Kiana on the forehead. Ignoring Kiana's cry of pain, she raised her head proudly and said, "Don't call me Little Knowledge. Call me Sister Little Knowledge!"

"Ugh..." Kiana rubbed her forehead.

"I heard it somewhere, okay?" Little Knowledge wore a mischievous expression as she said, "I remember hearing someone mention that when they were in university, Mobius launched a fierce pursuit of Yaqing."

"Really?" Even Fu Hua was curious now.

Everyone looked at Little Knowledge.

"It's true. I can testify to that." Su's voice suddenly rang out, startling everyone.

"You are?" Mei asked.

"I'm Su, and I was also Yaqing's university roommate."

"Oh, oh, hello, Uncle." Kiana scratched her head.

"Pfft." The sisters Sakura and Ling couldn't hold back their laughter.

"It's Su, not Uncle." Su's face darkened, but he still began recounting their university days.

A gleam of wisdom flashed through Kiana's beautiful eyes. She carefully took out her phone, secretly snapped a photo, and sent it to Loving Family.

Pufferfish Queen: "Brainless Idiot, what kind of photo is this? Since when did you start moonlighting as a paparazzi?"

Moonsea Fishy Cat: "Sirin, don't call me Brainless Idiot! I heard it somewhere, okay? That pretty green-haired big sister supposedly pursued Stinky Uncle."

Pufferfish Queen: "Huh? What a pity. She went blind at such a young age."

Snowfield Flower: "Really? That's wonderful."

☆An-Utu: Drawn Blade: "That really is... so cool! Little Brother Yaqing is incredibly charming."

Abyss Flower: "..."

The lights in the screening room went out.

"The movie's starting!"

If Mei Is There

The movie opened with a giant screen on a building. Large, scarlet letters read AIR RAID as countless unmanned fighter jets flew across the screen before it went black.

Familiar words appeared against the pitch-black screen: 2 years, 5 months, 16 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes, and 26 seconds since the outbreak of the Third Honkai Eruption.

When the screen lit up again, Kiana, dressed in a tight combat suit, walked into frame. As the Bluetooth communicator urged her on and a fighter jet exploded together with Honkai Beasts, her supple body leaped high into the air and flipped.

"Neko Charm!"

Kiana raised her long, slender leg high, and the enormous phantom of a feline leg suddenly appeared in the air, smashing viciously into the unmanned fighter jet.

After a battle sequence practically stacked with flashy special effects, Kiana boarded a new drone under Himeko's arrangements. After taking care of the incoming airborne Honkai Beasts, Kiana knelt on one knee atop the drone and saw a massive steel battleship through the clouds.

"Himeko, I've driven off the Honkai Beasts. I can see the Moonlight Throne now!"

"Received. Kiana, prepare to board!"

"Starting off this intense really is Yaqing's familiar style." Kevin smiled.

"Yaqing's style? What kind of style is that?" Mei looked lost.

"Explosion at the beginning → calm in the middle → insanely hype battle → tearjerking afterward." Kevin teased.

"Kevin, if it were really that easy for you to predict, why would I still be a screenwriter?" Leaning against his seat, Yaqing spoke with a half-smile.

Tearjerking afterward?

I'll make the entire movie a tearjerker later.

It was just a pity that this movie...

Yaqing shook his head, genuinely regretting that Welt had not participated in the movie's production.

Kiana and the others sat in the front rows, and Mei looked at Kiana with a strange expression.

"Mei, why are you looking at me?" Kiana was still immersed in her own cool battle scene in the movie and could not understand why Mei was suddenly staring at her.

"Kiana..." Mei found it somewhat difficult to say. "In the movie, it looks like you smashed one of Schicksal's unmanned fighter jets."

"So what? Isn't Schicksal the villain in the movie? Besides, President Otto in the movie is the murderer who killed Mom. 'I' definitely can't coexist with him." Kiana did not care at all. She held two huge tubs of popcorn in her arms, looking so happy she nearly buried her face in them.

"Idiot Kiana, you clearly didn't properly read the character and setting descriptions." Bronya once again wore her little expression as she said, "In the story, St. Freya Academy is Schicksal's Far East Branch. As a student there, you are also a B-rank Valkyrie under Schicksal."

"Huh?!" Kiana was stunned.

"Only a B-rank Valkyrie..." Fu Hua murmured.

"Doesn't seem as good as Class Monitor." Bronya said.

"How can you compare them?! In the story, I'm just a girl under twenty. How am I supposed to compare to an ancient monster like Class Monitor, who's lived for fifty thousand years?!" Kiana panicked.

Ancient monster...

"Pfft."

Himeko, seated one row ahead, could not help laughing out loud.

The veins on Fu Hua's forehead bulged.

Little Knowledge was the only one laughing the loudest.

However, everyone in the screening room knew Little Knowledge and understood her personality, so no one said anything.

Mei hurriedly covered Kiana's mouth. "Class Monitor, children don't know any better."

Realizing she had said the wrong thing, Kiana quickly nodded.

In the last row, Yaqing watched Mei and Kiana's interaction ahead of him and could not help smiling. Mobius noticed his smile, and even the way she looked at him became somewhat strange.

"What are you laughing at?" Kevin asked curiously.

Yaqing answered readily, joking, "I'm laughing because the main Kaslana bloodline is probably going to die out. So, Kevin, any thoughts? You're also a Kaslana. As long as you give the order, Schariac will surely support you in ascending to the main family line."

"Stop joking. I've told you several times already. I may be named Kaslana, but I have no relation to Schicksal's Kaslanas. It means nothing to me." Kevin rubbed his forehead helplessly.

"That's a good answer." Yaqing nodded, seemingly lost in thought.

"Hmm~" Elysia poked her head out from the seat on Mobius's other side and asked curiously, "Kevin, do you appear in this movie too?"

"I don't know. You'd have to ask Yaqing. Anyway, I didn't do any voice acting." Kevin shook his head.

Yaqing did not answer the question, merely smiling.

After Kiana boarded the Moonlight Throne, Himeko asked her to report the situation through Bluetooth communication and issued an order. There were thirty minutes until the battleship crashed, and they had to seize control of it before then.

The moment she heard Himeko mention her teammate, Kiana immediately became excited.

"Mei! You mean Mei, right?! I can meet up with Mei soon, right?"

"Calm down. Stop having nothing but 'Mei, Mei' on your mind."

After ending the call with Himeko, Kiana planned to enter the battleship from the deck, but she was attacked by Honkai Beasts again. After dealing with them, a communication from Raiden Mei arrived.

"Kiana, this is Mei. I have safely arrived in the target area."

The moment she heard Mei's voice, Kiana's tone became noticeably more joyful.

"Mei! That's great! I'm coming over to you now!"

"Ah, wait, we should follow the operation plan—"

Kiana did not care about any battle plan. She only wanted to stay with Mei, even reading "twice the result with half the effort" as "half the result with twice the effort" before ending the call with Mei.

"Argh! I can't endure even one more minute! I haven't seen Mei for 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 38 seconds!"

Kiana seemed as though she had been injected with adrenaline. The Dead Soldiers and Honkai Beasts along the way were either wounded the moment she touched them or dead the moment she struck them. It was even more exhilarating than mowing down enemies in a musou game.

"Annoying Dead Soldiers and Honkai Beasts, don't stand in my way of seeing Mei!"

On the upper deck, the first thing to appear in the shot was still a perky butt, black shorts so short they could not be any shorter, an armor skirt that was completely useless, and blue-violet hair hanging down to her waist.

Kiana ran forward.

Just as the audience thought the teammates were about to embrace, Kiana kicked away a Dead Soldier attempting a sneak attack, then promptly threw herself onto Mei's back.

"Mei! With Mei here, it's like having the strength of a hundred people!"

"The strength of a hundred people... I'm not some kind of superhero..." Mei's tone was exceptionally indulgent.

"No! As long as Mei is beside me, it already feels like I've gained a hundred times the strength."

Mei smiled gently. "That really is something only Kiana would say."

Of course, the audience could see that Kiana in the movie had different feelings for Raiden Mei. The orange atmosphere was practically about to burst through the screen. Probably only an idiot could fail to see it.

Noticing everyone's looks, Mei was so embarrassed she wanted to bury her face in the chest size that the headmistress had spent her entire life chasing. Half of it was because of Kiana's blunt words, while the other half was because the character model in the story was simply too difficult for someone like her, who had received a refined education since childhood, to accept.

Kiana's face was also slightly red. Unlike the Kiana in the story, she had been raised by Cecilia. She definitely would not be like that... probably.

"Stinky Uncle, if you film something like this, what if Stinky Dad and Mom see it..."

Kiana was still worried that Cecilia and Siegfried might not accept girls dating girls.

The truth proved that Kiana was overthinking it.

On the other side of the sea, Siegfried and Cecilia were also in a movie theater in Canghai City, Shenzhou. When they saw this scene, Cecilia wore a delighted auntie smile, while Siegfried had simply come to terms with it himself.

Mobius, seated in the last row, watched the screen. She felt that the way "Kiana" and "Raiden Mei" interacted seemed strangely familiar. She glanced at Elysia, who was leaning against Eden's shoulder.

Mobius understood where that sense of déjà vu came from.