Honkai Double Transmigration, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

Fury.

An irrepressible fury burned within his heart.

"--I am not your judge. The only one qualified to torment you is Raiden Mei herself, the one you bullied!"

"Cocolia, I have never looked up to you from the very beginning. Being weak may not be a reason for death, but stupidity certainly is—especially when you are as stupid, arrogant, and ignorant as you are."

"You're just a lucky brat who stumbled upon power!" the target on the screen shrieked at the top of her lungs. "What do you know! Do you have any idea what kind of great cause I am undertaking?"

"Heh." He let out a cold sneer. "Do you know that a Herrscher could wipe you and all your mechs off the face of the earth with a single slap?"

"Impossible!" Cocolia roared in denial.

Jiang Cheng looked at her with pity, seeing how she believed her defeat was merely a miscalculation or a stroke of bad luck.

Then, he withdrew his gaze for a moment, precisely locating that unforgettable purple figure amidst the wasteland, which was as pockmarked as the surface of the moon.

Explosions, shouting, the sound of the wind.

A chaotic mess of sensations surged toward her all at once, yet they felt as distant and indistinct as if they belonged to another world.

A violent, irrepressible headache struck. Arriving simultaneously was a sense of powerlessness that seemed to start from her fingertips and toes.

Is it because of the blood loss?

I feel like I can't even hold my sword anymore.

If I die like this, what would Cheng-kun think?

Can I, Raiden Mei, remain in his heart for a lifetime? For a few decades, perhaps?

If, if only I could do it all over again.

This journey...

"I really did want to say I'm sorry to you."

The last shred of strength drained from her fingertips, and the katana in her hand shattered the moment it hit the ground. The ordinary steel had done everything it could to hold out until now.

"I'm here."

An overly familiar voice arrived in an incredibly steady tone, devoid of any excitement or fluctuation.

"Raiden Mei."

Is it Cheng-kun? Did he choose to give up? As a prophet, if he were willing to abandon me, he certainly wouldn't have encountered any danger.

Ah, how wonderful.

It would have been even better if he could have called me Mei at the end.

As if the thing she had been clinging to until now had been drained away, her magnificent deep purple eyes gently closed.

"You can relax now. It's over."

Out of thin air, an inexplicable force emerged, instantly filling her entire body like a warm spring current, driving away all the exhaustion that had accumulated within her.

And then.

"Mei."

The intimate address she had imagined was finally spoken.

Though they were simple characters, they felt like velvet coated in the richest honey, capable of drowning a person within them.

"I'm so sorry I'm late."

The moment she heard the voice beside her ear, Raiden Mei's body softened and leaned backward involuntarily. There was no reason, no cause; she simply fell backward, cradled by trust.

Until that broad, warm embrace completely enveloped her cold body, which had been losing its warmth.

--No need to look up. There was no need to look up.

She could already feel him.

The heat, the urgency, and the trepidation of his heartbeat.

"I'm sorry, my plan fell apart in the end," his voice drifted softly from behind her. "They call me a prophet, but my strength is lacking; I'm nothing more than a laughingstock. I didn't actually help you at all—on the contrary, I held you back."

Her long purple hair was too messy, and her ponytail had come undone at some point, making it impossible to see her face clearly.

Only her voice remained—

"Cheng-kun, do you know how she broke her promise?"

Raiden Mei spoke in a soft, gentle tone as she lay in Jiang Cheng's arms, recounting the latter half of the story—

"Back then, she only needed to perform a very simple action to obtain everything she had ever dreamed of."

"I waited for half an hour that day, and finally, she arrived. She was wearing a clean skirt, and her hair had been carefully styled. She didn't look like the classmates who bullied me."

Actually, there wasn't any difference at all.

Jiang Cheng thought to himself.

Yet Raiden Mei continued to speak, her long eyelashes drooping slightly, masking the flickering light in her eyes.

"When she walked toward me, I stood up immediately and picked up my fully loaded crepe, but she stopped three steps away from me. Like those who loathed me, she stood there, face cold, looking down at me from a position of superiority:"

"Speak--"

"Why must you appear by my seat? Don't you know you always have a strange smell on you?"

"Then... there was no then. That one sentence was enough. What followed was her joining the others, her smile just as mocking as theirs."

"--Did she not come to find you in private?"

Jiang Cheng furrowed his brows. This story was clearly not that simple; he feared something even more shameless was about to follow.

"She did."

Just as expected.

She nodded gently, her calm gaze rippling with a flicker of light at this moment.

"When I was alone at night, she sought me out again, saying she had been forced into it during the day, that others had compelled her to act that way, and she hoped I could forgive her. But back then, I still knew how to fight back. After I broke her bones, she never came to find me again."

"----?"

This was completely different from what he had anticipated.

"After all, I couldn't just let the swordsmanship I had just learned go to waste, could I?" Raiden Mei closed her eyes peacefully.

"It is such a simple story, nothing special, which is why I didn't speak of it back then."

"You witnessed my victory and therefore placed your trust in me, which actually makes me feel at ease. Rather, when you said you trusted me completely for no reason at all back then, I was actually terrified. I was so scared that I turned into a coward and pretended to be an ordinary person."

"Rashly taking on the burden of another's life—that is a fatal thing for anyone."

"Not to mention, the life I am bearing is yours—the only one who has ever cared for me."

"You were never going to fail," Jiang Cheng said in a low voice.

Raiden Mei, however, pouted her lips, casting a flirtatious, silk-like glance, her eyes brimming with feigned reproach.

"Failure, you say... I, you know, have never actually seen what my own victory looks like~ To make me believe completely that I could win with just a few thin words..."

"Cheng-kun is so bad, always picking things for me to do that I can't handle~"

"...Do you really not feel that I'm holding you back? I know your expressions when you're unhappy all too well."

Jiang Cheng recalled the stories concerning Raiden Mei.

"That really is cheating."

Raiden Mei remained as relaxed as ever; the pallor from her injuries only added a touch of languor, a unique and distinct elegance.

She took a deep breath, gathered the last of her strength, and stood up from his embrace. Her slender fingertips naturally brushed through her silver strands, weaving her loose hair back into a ponytail.

In the process, her flushed, soft earlobes were exposed to the air, radiating wisps of heat.

Her neck, as slender as a swan's, was also revealed before him.

Despite being a powerful Herrscher Subject, she now looked as if a single gentle squeeze could snuff out her life.

PS: Begging for votes.

36. Herrscher of Thunder--Born!

After finishing all this, she turned around.

She faced him completely.

Even though she was just fixing her hair, her eyes were flirtatiously silk-like.

"Cheng-kun, even though it was our first meeting, you wore such a sorrowful expression. You are deep-scheming and do not trust others easily, yet you still believed in me..."

Raiden Mei seemed to be lamenting something, or perhaps she was savoring something sweet.

When she realized that moment, it was already...

--Unconsciously, she smiled.

"Sure enough, in your eyes, you, I, we have already met countless times. The person named Raiden Mei has already lived for countless years in your eyes."

How should one describe such a smile?

A radiant smile? A smile like the clear sky?

Jiang Cheng could only see his own reflection in those eyes, clear as the sky after rain.

He felt at a loss for words.

"And also--"

He shook his head to temporarily banish the emotions from his mind and pulled over the floating virtual screen--

Most of Cocolia's face had been covered by black adhesive and boiling molten iron in a destructive manner; only her dull, golden hair remained to prove her identity.

"I spared Cocolia's life. She is now pinned to the wall like a specimen. How you wish to torture her depends entirely on you. My power will sustain her life; no matter how she is tortured, she will continue to linger on in agony."

"Let's not talk about such ominous things." Raiden Mei used her electromagnetic force to swipe the screen away without hesitation.

Her deep purple eyes seemed to hold the thunder of the high heavens at this moment, bright lightning flickering within her gaze.

Her beautiful eyes darted about.

As a young lady of high status in the past, she must have seen countless gifts and received endless goodwill from others every single day.

It would only be natural for her to have grown weary of everything, and natural for her to have abandoned the pursuit of those countless hands reaching out toward her.

Yet, at this very moment, she focused tightly on only one person.

"..."

Perhaps Jiang Cheng would have hesitated a few minutes ago.

In such a short span of time, a mutual affection had been easily cultivated.

To him, it felt a bit too fast.

Cold, decisive—

He had already embarked on his path, becoming one of the countless madmen and lunatics traversing the stars.

He might pause, he might judge.

But he would never hesitate.

Since the girl had revealed such an expression, it was only natural that he should return the sentiment with equal weight—

Jiang Cheng opened his arms without a moment's hesitation—

—and embraced her.

Warm jade, pulled into his arms.