P.S. If the person who carried him all the way here, running while shielding him from harm, had been Bronya, he would have done everything in his power to help her repair Project Bunny.
He could have gone to Grey Snake right away, too. He wouldn't have cared if repairing it cost ten times more than making a new one.
But unfortunately, Bronya wasn't that person. She was still an enemy—the enemy who had hurt Raiden Mei and Kiana.
—So he didn't care at all.
39. Kiana, You Won't See Your Father
With the Kaslana Family bloodline, the holy blood refined by the Schariac Family, the Core of the Void lodged in her body, and talent on the level of Sirin's perfectly inherited—
Kiana had beaten Bronya to her knees and planted her foot squarely on the head of those curled twin tails, mouthy little Roman rolls!
"Ahahahaha—!"
The girl really wanted to laugh out loud and brag about her victory.
But the moment she raised her head, she saw Raiden Mei, her whole body shimmering with lightning. Cool purple patterns coiled across her pale skin, and she wore a uniform transformed by her authority. Behind her was a single lightning wing, not made of feathers but constructed of energy, an extension of the patterns on her body. With a wave of her hand, she had torn apart the entire sky.
Kiana lowered her head again and looked at herself, disheveled and wearing nothing but a battle-damaged school uniform.
Large sections were cut away, exposing her alluringly pale skin.
The heat had flushed her skin a faint pink, and wisps of steam rose from her abdomen and chest. Paired with her tattered clothes, she didn't look like a warrior at all. She looked more like one of those women on the posters she'd once glimpsed on the edges of street corners—women who didn't bother to dress properly and had strange blushes on their faces...
All in all, it was awful. Super awful!
Especially now that she'd seen the Herrscher of Thunder's power and remembered saying she'd kill her.
—Gulp!
Please don't look at me, Miss! Better yet, just forget I'm here in this corner, and never think of me again for the rest of your life!
Jiang Cheng watched the girl's quiet prayer from afar. Back when he'd heard Kiana declare, "I—Kiana Kaslana—will kill her!" he'd already wanted to see the look on her face afterward.
Some inexplicable force seemed to appear out of nowhere, tugging him forward and pushing him along, urging him to go enjoy the show—this little moment of social death that wasn't even hysterical, but still sure to delight everyone.
"Wait, don't touch my butt!"
Jiang Cheng clutched his butt in alarm.
[Aha!]
It was as if that laughter really had sounded beside his ear, a voice that existed and didn't exist, lingering there.
"Ahahaha!"
Jiang Cheng dashed over at full speed.
Kiana was still lost in the embarrassment of the moment before, staring blankly and not realizing what was happening—
Then that face, beaming with utterly genuine delight, barged into her view.
"So? So? Isn't Mei super—strong?"
He leaned in so close that Kiana could see the reflection of her blank expression in his golden eyes.
"...I..."
The words she'd planned to use to act tough had already risen to her throat.
But her gaze only shifted slightly, past that irritating grin and toward the distant battlefield—
The air still warped faintly from the lingering energy.
The earth had been carved into deep trenches, and lightning roamed between heaven and earth like a living thing. Every flash proclaimed a terror beyond human reach.
But if I admit that Mei-senpai is terrifying and I don't dare face her, won't that make me look like a paper tiger?
I'll look super pathetic if all I can do is talk big!
Kiana's cheeks puffed up like a balloon, and her toes curled in embarrassment.
"Okay, okay. Don't think about all that nonsense."
Jiang Cheng's voice suddenly softened, like a breeze flowing straight into her muddled thoughts.
"I believe in you. You can definitely do it, right?"
"Huh...?"
The air went out of Kiana's puffed-up cheeks.
Her azure eyes blinked in disbelief, then fixed suspiciously on Jiang Cheng's face.
"But."
Jiang Cheng met her gaze, speaking one word at a time.
"When that time comes, you absolutely won't defeat her because you want to kill a Herrscher or put an end to the Third Honkai."
His voice seemed to drift away on the wind. "You'll do it to save the people you love, the people you care about. You'll act and strive for that reason—"
"You'll definitely defeat the Third Herrscher, and maybe even..."
"Defeat the whole world."
The wind across the wasteland paused for a moment. The lightning still roared in the distance, but it seemed as if those sounds had been shut out.
Kiana opened her mouth.
A whole pile of rebuttals instantly crowded into her mind, but she couldn't utter a single one. Every word melted beneath his certain gaze.
"...Seeing the future, huh."
What slipped from her lips was a sigh just like one from a certain purple-haired girl.
"That's... kind of cheating."
He'd never even met me, and yet he could so easily act as if he already knew me inside out. And somehow, in so many ways, he really was an old acquaintance. Eyes that see the future...
—Wait!
Her expression shifted visibly from blankness to ingratiating friendliness—so quickly and smoothly, it was as if she'd rehearsed it a hundred times.
"Hehehe—Jiang Cheng~"
Her pale hands rubbed together unconsciously in front of her chest, and even the way she referred to herself had dropped from "this miss" to "I."
"Look, I... I carried you all this way. Even if I didn't earn a merit, I put in a lot of hard work, right?"
"I'll remember it and repay you for sure." Jiang Cheng nodded solemnly, deciding to play along.
"You don't have to remember it, really~!" Kiana waved a hand as if she didn't care, but she edged closer to Jiang Cheng without realizing it. Her azure eyes were full of longing, shining so brightly they could almost burn someone.
"Right now, I just have one little favor to ask you. It's really, really simple!"
"What is it?"
"It's... um..."
Her voice suddenly dropped, taking on a touch of careful hesitation, as if she were reaching out to touch fragile morning dew.
"You can see the future, right? Could you... could you look and tell me where Stinky Old Man will show up?"
Worried that Jiang Cheng might find it troublesome, Kiana then slapped her chest with an air of carefree confidence and promised, "You don't have to catch him for me! Just tell me where he is, and I'll go get him myself! I absolutely, absolutely won't give you any trouble!"
Those eyes should have been carefree, their bright blue as radiant as sunlight breaking through clouds.
Or, when she was calm, they could be as cool as the moonlight reflected on dark water, broken into shimmering fragments—a silvery stream connecting heaven and earth.
But they shouldn't have looked so frightened now.
"I can tell you." His voice was gentle.
"But—"
His abrupt pause dimmed those eyes, which had only just cleared like a sky lit up by the sun.
Perhaps she already knew what he was going to say. The bright daylight went out completely in that azure gaze.
—Leaving only an empty night sky.
"You won't be able to find him."
"..."
Silence.
A silence heavier than the one before.
Kiana lowered her head. Her silver-white hair fell forward, hiding her expression. Only her faintly trembling shoulders betrayed her feelings.
P.S.:
Kiana's emotions in this part may feel a little too much like her early characterization, so a lot of people might not really understand her.
You can see it by looking at the early manga storyline and the Void Drifter period.
This girl was never just a brainless ball of energy. Her liveliness is real, but so are the delicate feelings beneath it.
Does anyone think this part is out of character?
40. Two Noisy, Utterly Foolish People
"Hey."
Jiang Cheng's voice turned soft, carrying a deliberately provocative edge. "You're not going to just give up like this, are you?"
"You created a Herrscher with humanity and defeated the leader of Anti-Entropy's extremists. You've accomplished all that, and you have plenty of power you can draw on. Make the most of it, and finding Siegfried should be super easy!"
"This situation is completely different from the crisis I faced before, and you're not powerless like I was, either. So why have you become just like me back then? Getting all gloomy out of nowhere—"
He crouched down, dipped a finger in the dust, and used The Hunt to smear a black streak across the girl's face.
"Dummy Kiana~ A dummy's face needs makeup to match! I think a big turtle would look perfect."
"E-eh—?!"
Kiana jerked her head up. The sadness she hadn't managed to hide was still on her face, but Jiang Cheng's nonstop scribbling had left her stunned.
"W-what are you doing?!"
"Drawing a turtle. Shouldn't a dummy have a big turtle on her face?"
Jiang Cheng waggled his dust-covered finger, his grin just the right amount of infuriating.
"Who are you calling a dummy?" She tried to recover her swagger.
"Isn't it obvious? Then let me ask you—" Jiang Cheng tilted his head with an innocent expression. "Whoever has a turtle on their face is a dummy."
"You... you stinking Jiang Cheng!"
"See?"
He opened his hands slowly, speaking as if he were announcing the answer to a math problem.
"You can't even deny that you're a dummy with a turtle on her face, can you~~"
"You..."
Kiana clenched her teeth in exasperation, and a blush spread across her pale face right before their eyes.
"You did that on purpose!!!"
"But you admitted it, didn't you? You're the only one here with a big turtle on your face. A big dummy turtle on Dummy Kiana's face—it's a perfect match, isn't it?" Jiang Cheng stroked his chin, pretending to think it over. "Then I'll call you Paramecium from now on~ Yeah, yeah, it perfectly fits your intelligence. It's only right and proper~~"
"This miss is done putting up with you! You think I'm some helpless little kitten?!"
Before you continue