Something Illusory

"​When is the owner coming back? Is he seriously running this café just for fun?" Kiana Kaslana complained as she looked at the empty café and the sign outside announcing that it was closed for business. What she didn't know was that she had inadvertently voiced Su Qing'an's true thoughts.

The girl wore a white hooded sweatshirt beneath an apron, with a peach-pink plaid pleated skirt reaching halfway down her thighs.

Kiana sat on the metal, flower-carved café table without a trace of elegance. The rag she used to wipe the windows and tables lay beside her. With nothing else to do, the girl swung her slender legs, wrapped in 60D stockings. The expanse of fair skin between the stockings and pleated skirt was especially eye-catching. The bright afternoon sunlight fell across her body, making her innocent, charming appearance all the more alluring.

Su Qing'an had been very busy these past two weeks, like an office worker who left early and returned late. He had even been gone for an entire week.

Was he really comfortable leaving a stranger he'd known for only a few days in his shop? Even Kiana, who was somewhat lacking in common sense and rather scatterbrained, found it utterly absurd. The boy had even handed her the key to the front door without the slightest hesitation.

It was as if... as if they had met before, talked before, and even become friends. That was why he could trust her without question.

But how was that possible? What a strange person.

"Kiana, I've already ordered ten different takeout meals for you over the next few days. They'll be delivered to the shop around eight in the morning, noon, and six in the evening. I might not come back during this time, so just close the shop while I'm gone.

"Mm, help me clean the shop. If you get bored, you can go to the room next to yours. There's a computer, a TV, and a PS4 in there. The game discs are on the left side of the second shelf of the TV cabinet. Don't worry about the save files—I've already given up on those games."

"Ahem, I seem to be rambling a bit. Anyway, the shop will reopen after a while. I'll teach you how to make coffee then."

Recalling Su Qing'an's long-winded manner, Kiana suddenly remembered the times her father had lectured her. They were clearly two completely different people saying completely different things, yet the warmth that welled up in her heart was equally comforting.

Even though she couldn't understand the boy's kindness, the fact that someone cared about her was conveyed unmistakably to her heart.

It was a kind of concern different from Siegfried Kaslana's—more tangible, and more reassuring.

Siegfried Kaslana's love for Kiana Kaslana was real.

Whether she was his original daughter or the clone known as K-423, he had shown her genuine affection.

But although the girl didn't know the truth, her innate intuition and sensitive heart hidden beneath her sunny exterior had sensed it.

Memories that did not exist before she was eight.

Her father's self-destructive drunkenness when she was young.

The grief that sometimes surfaced in his expression when he looked at her face.

That gaze was almost as if he were looking through her and remembering another girl—someone Kiana knew nothing about.

Kiana thought that if such a person really existed, she must resemble her very much. Otherwise, why would her father show such an expression?

But sometimes Kiana would tell herself that person was probably her mother. Her father truly loved her mother.

So she worked very hard. She did her best to bandage Siegfried's wounds after he returned from battle, did her best with the housework, obeyed him, and tried to be a good girl.

Because her father was already suffering so much. The cold of winter could be warded off with thick cotton clothes, and strong liquor could warm the body. But how could a frozen heart begin beating again?

Neither cotton clothes nor vodka could do that.

The girl couldn't do it either. But she still tried her best. Until one day, when she disobeyed her father for the first time and fought the Honkai Beasts he faced every day.

She wanted to understand, to know what her father was dealing with, whether it was the alcohol he loved to drink or the Honkai.

But she was still too useless. If her father hadn't arrived in time, she probably would have died.

That was the first time she had seen her father panic. She actually felt a little happy, because it proved that he cared about her. But she also felt guilty. How could she be happy after making her father worry?

"Today's your birthday, isn't it? I've never properly celebrated it for you. I'm such an unfit father. Let's buy a huge cake and celebrate properly! Come on..." Holding the girl amid the snow-covered mountains in winter, the man said, "Kiana... my daughter, the one I'm most proud of. Kiana Kaslana."

That day, she received the greatest birthday present of her life from her father.

Her name—Kiana Kaslana.

From that moment on, it was as if her life had finally begun to turn.

She became more cheerful and carefree than she had been as a child, and she became certain that her father's love for her was real.

But... but for some reason, whenever she recalled the way her father had looked at her that day and silently repeated her own name—Kiana Kaslana—there would be a moment when everything felt unreal, as if she had stepped into empty space.

It was as if she wasn't Siegfried Kaslana's daughter, and her name wasn't Kiana Kaslana. She was merely a helpless, unnecessary passerby who should never have existed in this world.

Kiana hated—absolutely hated—that feeling. So whenever she faced a Honkai Beast, she liked to shout her name: "I'm Kiana Kaslana!"

Yes, she was Kiana Kaslana.

She confirmed it again and again, because after her father left, it was the only thing by her side that she could hold tightly in her hands.

The girl faced the Honkai with all her might, because her father must also be facing the Honkai somewhere in the world. Doing so gave her the illusion that she was fighting alongside him, as if she had grown a little closer to that man again.

And now, this fifteen-year-old girl who had already seen countless battles had finally wandered to Changkong City, a place with relatively little war and Honkai. Having followed her father's footsteps to this city, she finally had a rare chance to stop and rest.

Facing the boy's approach and concern—unrelated to her name, and even unrelated to her appearance—she had no idea how to respond to them. Yet, in her helpless silence, she had undeniably gained a sense of existence from the boy, as if he had suddenly pried it open like a lever finding a fulcrum.

She wasn't sure how long she would stay here.

But since you've paid such thoughtful protection fees, Su Qing'an, I'll stay a little longer.

The girl thought this with a touch of tsundere pride. She would stay until the day she left the city. Hmph, she'd eat him out of house and home sooner or later.

"Jingle~" The wind chime swayed, its sound crisp and clear. The newcomer set a musical instrument case of unknown contents on the table and asked in confusion, "Kiana, what are you spacing out here for?"

"I-I-I, I was wiping the table!" The startled girl's face flushed pink. Her expression, as if her thoughts had been exposed, was swiftly hidden. Then Kiana continued, speaking with righteous confidence.

"All right, all right. You've finished wiping it now, right? Want to play a game? Two-player Honkai Impact 3rd."

"Sure! I'm really good, you know. These past few days, I've already broken all your records, Su Qing'an. By the way, do you not have any friends? You don't have a single record in two-player mode." Proudly showing off her results, Kiana once again began mocking how narrow the boy's social circle was.

"Yeah, I'm bad at games and have no friends. After we finish the two-player mode, we can play versus." Sorry for having no friends, you idiot Kiana.

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." Kiana wore an adorably smug smile.

"Then I'll thank you in advance, Miss Kiana."

Su Qing'an wore a gentle smile on the surface, but inside, he was thinking about how to use the State of Still Water to beat Kiana until she questioned her entire life. At heart, he was just as unwilling to lose—and just as childish—as Kiana.