Honkai Double-Crossing, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

"Then let us tear up the alliance agreement."

Its words were calm, delivered without a hint of haste.

"You..."

Cocolia instinctively wanted to snap back.

But the moment she opened her mouth, the icy gaze fixed upon her forced her tongue to retreat.

To be precise, it was an almost instinctual choice to shut her mouth.

Even if her own strength was not inferior to the other party, there was no need to let their relationship deteriorate over a verbal dispute.

"...Since that is the case, I will take that male with barely passable Honkai Energy resistance, as well as that little girl from the Kaslana family, without hesitation."

"Clang, clatter—"

What appeared to be a stalemate had already turned into a one-sided attrition.

Or rather, this could no longer be called a battle; it was pure torture and humiliation.

It was not just an insult to Raiden Mei, but an insult to the "Thunder Queen" herself.

[How much longer are you going to wait?]

The leaking power spoke for the first time.

[How much longer, exactly, are you going to endure this level of humiliation?! How much longer will you suffer it?!]

...Ah, as expected.

The minds of shonen manga protagonists are always crowded with more than one person; I wonder if I'll eventually have enough to fill a mahjong table.

[You don't actually think that if you keep pandering to them, they will one day have a change of heart and stop out of mercy, do you?]

[The way to make them say "I'm sorry, I was wrong in the past, please forgive me, I promise I won't do it again" has never been to wait!]

I know, but so what?

[You should unleash my power, you should accept the power within you; isn't that what every shonen manga protagonist does?]

But...

I have already done that.

Deep within her inner world, Raiden Mei finally closed her eyes with a sense of relief—

[--If you go to a professional medical facility now, there might be a way. Perhaps you could live for another ten years. Perhaps.]

[--Three years.]

[It was ten years just a moment ago, but after enduring the Erosion for longer and fighting with Honkai Energy, you have at most three years left to live, and you would have to replace most of your organs with machinery.]

Facing that seductive voice whispering in her ear.

That which enticed the things within her heart.

Disgust and rage, originating from the depths of her soul, surged and overflowed like boiling water, and things she could not control emerged from the depths of her consciousness, almost by instinct.

They carried an absolute, erosive quality, painting the depths of her heart, bit by bit, with an indelible, malicious color.

Her inner self seemed to have completely broken down, "bubbling" with pitch-black froth.

All that could be vented was rage—

A hollow, empty rage—

A rage that felt as if it would swallow, tear apart, and incinerate her entirely, desperate to be unleashed; if there was nothing left inside, then she would vomit out her bile, her very organs, everything.

"He came to save me."

"He is the person who came to help me."

"--He believes in me."

She shrieked, as if trying to roar her very self into existence.

"But I... I can't do anything! Aside from bringing suffering to those around me, I can't do anything at all!"

"My body is being eroded, my organs are being excised, and every single moment I feel pain like being sliced to pieces—"

"How could he possibly say that he believes in me?!"

[...]

[If you keep going like this, you will die.]

"But if I accept this power, he will die—die in an incomparably miserable way."

Recalling the cases Kiana had once mentioned, Raiden Mei's voice gradually deepened.

"You..."

Like an ultimatum, her tongue pressed hard against her upper incisors, and the girl asked, pausing between every word.

"--Another Me, do you want Jiang Cheng to die?"

And so, the battle continued.

Swing, miss, take a hit, defend, fail to defend.

It was as if she were repeating the same set of operations over and over again.

Raiden Mei initially wanted to regret that she had stopped training after her father was imprisoned for financial fraud.

But then she thought, such swordsmanship meant for humans was truly useless against machine constructs, and besides, her teacher at the time, the Homu Sword Saint—no, her father—was already in prison.

Truly, she had nothing left.

Thinking about it carefully, the life of the one named Raiden Mei was written with failure at every turn.

As a young lady of status, she was a chuunibyou.

As an honor student, she was bullied at school.

Having finally become the protagonist of a shonen manga, she didn't even dare to go berserk in the end.

If I were a manga protagonist, the person writing this story would surely be a failure, right? How could anyone create such an incompetent and contradictory character?

I really am a failure.

But in the end, if there could be one person who cared, surely this life wouldn't seem entirely boring.

"..."

Jiang Cheng wanted to deny this self-destructive behavior; he wanted to reject this choice of Raiden Mei's.

But precisely because of that, he could clearly realize that the other party's current predicament stemmed entirely from him—

It was because he existed that she dared not unleash her authority, and why she felt suppressed at every moment.

She could unleash the Great Honkai in the city because there was no one left in the world she needed to care about; those who died were merely numbers—that was the prerequisite for acting recklessly.

...Herrscher of Thunder.

This isn't free or unbridled at all!

The problem is I have a way out, but you don't! I can go to the Elysian Realm, I have a safe place, but you...

...You only have this place.

PS:

Agent? Pretty Cure? No, both!

Xingyong Yujiu, an unlucky middle school student who claims to live a life full of chaotic situations.

But thanks to her agent talent in dreams, she becomes the invincible agent "Tapir" whenever she falls asleep!

She embarks on an adventure in the dream world to save her childhood friend who has fallen into a deep nightmare.

However, the weirdo Nightmare, who attempts to bind others with "nightmares," appears in this dream world!

Yujiu uses the mysterious red capsule and driver obtained in reality to transform into Cure Zeztz!

"Impact!"

"Stream!"

"Recovery!"

"Wonder!"

Make your dream come true. Good luck!

She must break the shackles of the Nightmare who attempts to imprison her best friend!

Entrusted with her best friend's smile, Yujiu's dream mission as Cure Zeztz officially begins!

23. Shall I call you, Cheng-kun? (Revised)

"Even though I haven't achieved anything, even though I'm being cared for, I find it difficult to even realize that fact."

"If it weren't for Kiana, I'm afraid... I really would have continued to run away."

"Running away from the care of others, running away from the attention of others."

"Because I have already lost the ability to do so."

Even though they were in the middle of a battle, where she had to struggle with all her might just to find a gap to breathe—

The young girl started chatting instead.

She spoke with that gentle tone, as if she were telling a story.

"Do you know? When I first started being bullied, someone once reached out a hand to me."

"To be precise, she had reached out to me a long time ago. Back when I was still a young lady, everyone flattered me, giving me all sorts of exquisite and luxurious gifts, grand birthday parties, luxurious necklaces, precious gems... However, the one that left the deepest impression on me was the little girl in the shadows. She only gave me a crepe; it was something you could buy at a street stall, very cheap."

There was no such thing as emotion; as a doll who only knew how to execute orders, Bronya would not stop her attacks because of such behavior.

The long spear swung out, and solid shells were fired from the chamber, followed closely by a handgun as the young girl pressed the trigger—

Fire.

Bright red blood splattered, yet Raiden Mei's voice remained completely unchanged, still as captivating as if she were flipping through a book and telling a story.

"To me at the time, those were no different from necklaces or jewelry; many were just a bit more novel, so I specifically went over to take a look. I had intended to confirm it and leave once I received them, but she got stuck in that moment and suddenly grabbed my hand..."

"Mm... it gave the people around me quite a scare at the time. The security guards almost kicked her out, but I was already practicing swordsmanship then. Seeing that she looked quite well-behaved and didn't have the nerve for anything else, I wanted to ask what she was trying to do."

"She said she would become my only friend, that she wouldn't treat me like those other people, and that true friendship didn't require money."

"Very inexplicable, right?"

"That's how I felt at the time, and later... after Father was imprisoned, I felt the same way."

"So, when my classmates all started looking at me with disgust, I sought her out and bought a crepe."

"Even though I was being shunned by everyone back then and had fallen from grace, I still dressed the way I used to, hoping to fulfill the promise of being good friends with her. In truth, I was still quite wealthy at the time; Father had left me several villas, a few sports cars, and an unlimited black card."

"Without knowing that Cocolia was coveting what I had, she only needed to become my friend to obtain a life of luxury she couldn't have dreamed of before. After all, I had never lacked such things since I was a child."

"It's just that..."

—She broke her promise.

That sister, that best friend, had broken her promise.

Jiang Cheng wearily closed his eyes, letting the darkness swallow the world. Perhaps he was imagining that scene, or perhaps he simply did not want to look at the tragedy before him.

"Drip—"

What exactly was that substance on the ground?

It was a liquid like a water droplet, but why... did the sound of it make one feel so annoyed?