Kiana folded her arms and leaned against the streetlamp beside the bench.
It was nearly seven in the evening. The only light illuminating the dim space came from the streetlamp. Even in such a dark, deserted place, the girl's expression remained calm, as if she had already experienced countless things darker, gloomier, and more terrifying than this.
That was why she could calmly face the darkness around her. She had long since witnessed things far more profound than this, so naturally, she could remain unmoved.
"Ah, that's wonderful. Kiana really came." A delighted girl ran over from the darkness, holding something resembling a brocade pouch in her hands. "This is a gift for you, Kiana." Asakura Miyuki was slightly out of breath, but her smile was radiant.
"This is a sachet called Three-Year Cherry Blossom. It's recorded in the ancient Japanese text Kono Hana Sakuya-hime's Miscellaneous Tales." The girl held the sachet in both hands as if it were something precious, slowly explaining its origins.
"If there is a girl of marriageable age who wears the cherry blossoms of a single tree as an ornament at fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, she will receive divine protection." — Kono Hana Sakuya-hime's Miscellaneous Tales
"If a girl of marriageable age uses petals from the same cherry tree to make a sachet over the three years from fourteen to sixteen, then Kono Hana Sakuya-hime, the god of Mount Fuji, will bless her love."
"I made this Three-Year Cherry Blossom over the course of three years. I'm giving it to you now, Kiana." The girl handed the Three-Year Cherry Blossom she treasured dearly to Kiana, her smile pure and harmless.
Kiana remained unmoved. She did not take the sachet.
"Did you give them to those missing girls too? But none of them accepted you, so you killed them all." Kiana stated the unbelievable truth indifferently as she looked at the harmless-looking girl before her, whose appearance resembled that of a forest fawn. Her gaze was complicated.
Huh? What is Kiana talking about? How could I...
That bewildered thought flashed through her mind for only an instant. Then Asakura Miyuki suddenly understood.
She had found the reason for where she had begun to break.
The thoughts she had instinctively and subconsciously refused to consider began to turn, as if gears had been set into motion.
Ah. The moment she was rejected, her mind had broken.
Why did everyone have to reject her?
Why did everyone have to reject her?
Why did she have to be hurt like this? What had she done wrong?!
What a joke. What a joke. What a joke.
Why? Why? Why?
Die. Die. Die.
When her consciousness cleared, the girl's fair, graceful neck had already been snapped by her own hands.
The girl's corpse looked like an angel with broken wings. Realizing that she had killed someone, Asakura Miyuki's face flushed.
At that moment, the girl whose life had fallen into an abyss completely broke down.
Asakura Miyuki remembered everything. The whites of her eyes had been stained with a bizarre hue, the corners of her lips had lifted into an exaggerated arc, and her smile was terrifying.
She looked at Kiana.
Ah, you're going to reject me too? I won't allow it.
She lunged forward, just as she had done to the girls she had once "loved."
Her nails grew long and sharp, while the bizarre whites of her eyes and the purple markings emerging on her cheeks made Kiana understand that the girl whose mind had been twisted by Honkai Energy had begun transforming into a Zombie.
The process of transforming into a Zombie was like having one's soul dragged into an endless hell.
There's no saving her. Kiana sighed, but her expression was as cold as if she were looking at something she had seen so often that it had become utterly numbingly familiar.
"Click." It was the sound of the safety being released.
"Bang." It was the same gunshot as yesterday.
Kiana had not lied to Satou Yunona. She really had gone to pick up the "delivery" first.
The girl fell to the ground, blood gushing out in a pool, vivid and painfully glaring.
How weak. She was practically about to become a Zombie, yet she still couldn't withstand even one shot.
Such a weak, gentle, and kind girl had no place in this world.
"Kiana... I'm sorry..." Just before death, the soul of Asakura Miyuki was temporarily freed from Honkai's distortion. That timid, kind, and beautiful ordinary girl returned to the shabby shell of her body.
"And thank you." She placed the Three-Year Cherry Blossom in Kiana's hand, her smile pure and relieved. Then she closed her eyes forever.
What was she relieved about? She had been treated this way. Even while alive, people had continued to look at her with malicious eyes. Even at the end, the bastards who had driven her to this state had still refused to let her go.
She was relieved by her own death, relieved to have escaped.
Kiana understood. Until the very end, the girl had remained so timid that it made one want to laugh, yet so gentle that it made one ache.
Even after seeing so many tragedies like this, I still can't get used to them.
The girl gently stroked her forehead and said, "You don't have to thank me."
"And good night, Asakura Miyuki."
This world, threatened by Honkai, was truly hateful. But for Asakura Miyuki, what had driven her to this point—was it this world, or the ugly, demonic humans?
Asakura Miyuki should have had an ordinary life filled with peace and happiness. Instead, she died here, after suffering terribly throughout the final period of her life.
Why had such a tragedy befallen a fifteen-year-old girl?
Kiana did not understand. But she would not stop fighting against Honkai.
From a long time ago, her reason for fighting Honkai had no longer been merely to learn and follow in her father's footsteps.
Years of wandering had allowed her to witness hell on earth. The war between humanity and Honkai was happening constantly. Because of Honkai Infection, parents lost their children, children lost their parents, and wives lost their husbands.
This world was unreasonably hateful, with so many tragedies that she could no longer count them.
But she hated tragedies and could never grow accustomed to them, so she could only change things.
One day, Kiana had made up her mind long ago.
She would turn this world into the kind of world she hoped for.
--Scene Break--
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Small party cannons burst open the moment Kiana entered, scattering colorful strips all over the floor.
"Happy birthday, Kiana." She saw the boy holding a party popper, his face wreathed in smiles.
"Kiana! Happy birthday! You came back way too late!" Satou Yunona waved the identical party popper in her hand and spoke with a grin.
"...How did you know today was my birthday?" The girl was speechless for a moment before asking somewhat stiffly.
"Huh? The manager told me a few days ago. Today is your birthday."
"Enough about that for now. Put this on!" Su Qing'an took a crown from the box on the table and placed it on the girl's head.
It was an exquisite crown, a ring of interwoven silver and white gold set with rows of obsidian and diamonds.
"Kiana's the birthday girl today, so you have to wear this. But you came back so late, so you must be hungry. Satou and I made lots of dishes. Sit down first."
The coffee shop was decorated with lights and banners. Copper-wire lights shone in alternating colors, and a silly banner hanging up high bore German words:
"Happy birthday to Kiana•Kaslana.
You two idiots. I stopped celebrating birthdays a long time ago.
Kiana stubbornly thought that, yet she suddenly recalled that winter day surrounded by snowy mountains.
"Today is your birthday, right? I never gave you a proper celebration before. I'm such an incompetent father. Let's buy a big cake and celebrate properly! Come on..." That man had said, "Kiana... my most beloved daughter, Kiana•Kaslana."
For some reason, that scene overlapped with the serious expression on the boy's face as he placed the crown on her head.
At that moment, Kiana found herself completely unable to put on her usual aloof, tsundere act.
She nodded firmly, her smile blooming as she said, "Yes. Thank you."
Kiana took Su Qing'an's hand and hurried over to the table laden with dishes. "Wow, Su Qing'an, you made so much food! But I'll definitely be able to finish it all."
"The manager made you a cake herself!"
Amid that warm, everyday conversation, Kiana•Kaslana and Su Qing'an simultaneously made the same resolve.
They would protect this kind of daily life in this broken world.
And at the same time, they would protect the friends who mattered most to them.
Before you continue