Honkai Double Traverse, Bringing Cyrene to Honkai Impact 3rd

"This strike—"

"Leveling Heaven and Earth!"

An even more scorching roar swept across heaven and earth. Unparalleled light and heat seemed ready to replace everything in the world, and even the blackness high above appeared to be driven back a little.

Even those more grotesque and terrifying bugs had their outermost shells scorched by the extreme heat.

They showed no fear.

They grew more excited.

Buzzing, they charged again. Jiang Cheng planted his foot, twisted his waist, and threw a full-force haymaker—meeting their sharp horns without the slightest fear.

"Crack—!"

He threw punch after punch. His bones shattered, his skin was torn apart, and none of it mattered!

So what if he died here?

Once he knew that kneeling and running away wouldn't bring him a chance to survive, there was only one thing left to do—fight!

He fought until the scorching flames seemed ready to burn away his reason, until explosions drowned out the Swarm's buzzing, until even the last scrap of his strength had been wrung out of him—

"—Cheng-kun, were you having a nightmare?"

Jiang Cheng's eyes snapped open. A pair of eyes, as brilliant and magnificent as thunder in the heavens, was the first thing he saw.

There were no bugs crawling everywhere, no disgusting buzzing, and none of that nauseating feeling of limbs crawling inside his body.

The only person standing before him was Raiden Mei.

"Hah..."

He let out a long breath, and his relentlessly pounding heart finally began to settle.

In the end, he hadn't managed to kill those bugs.

Thinking back on it, he felt a little regretful.

"I had a pretty unpleasant dream," Jiang Cheng said softly.

He didn't ask why Raiden Mei had been the first to come to his room. After all, normally, Cyrene should have been the one to wake him first.

If he asked now, he could probably expect a flustered expression and a shy blush from the girl.

But he simply stayed where he was and steadied his breathing. As she greeted him gently, he took the towel she carefully offered, letting its just-right warmth and comforting softness drive away the last of his tension.

"Don't worry."

Jiang Cheng reassured her without thinking. He could see the deep concern in her eyes.

"It was just an insignificant nightmare. It doesn't have much to do with my prophecy."

"..."

Raiden Mei watched him silently, her face weary. Without a word, she dipped her fingertips into the basin and let the cool water envelop her slender, pale fingers.

—Her emotions were plain to see.

Jiang Cheng knew how unconvincing it was for a prophet to say that a nightmare really had been just an ordinary dream.

"There is some bad news, to be honest. But we can overcome it." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "My prophecies are based on what happens if I don't get involved. Once I do, the future I've predicted accurately becomes chaos. Before, when I was just a weak, ordinary person, getting involved made things worse. It's like..."

"—Please don't say that."

Her voice was gentle, but it cut him off without yielding an inch.

Jiang Cheng met her unwavering gaze and shut his mouth without hesitation.

Just as he couldn't put himself down in front of Cyrene, it seemed he couldn't do it in front of Raiden Mei, either.

"...Anyway, I'm strong now. At the very least, I'm on par with the strongest S-rank Valkyries. If you and I work together, we'll have few rivals in this world. All my foresight is based on me being an ordinary person, powerless to stop a tragic ending."

He quickly changed tack, raising an index finger. "Now that I've suddenly gained such powerful abilities, I can surely push things in a better direction. A bad ending often comes about because something falls just a little short at a crucial moment, starting a vicious cycle. After all, the forces of inevitability in this world have already been ended. Everything is connected."

"Of course, if I simply insist for no reason that the future will definitely be good, you probably won't believe me. You might even worry that I'm pretending just so you won't fret. Everyone knows what forced smiles are. Compared to the nightmare I had last night, anything I say now will sound like an excuse. So whether I can give you a definite answer depends on how we do in today's tests."

"I'll do my best."

There was resolve in Raiden Mei's voice, fierce as thunder flashing through the clouds.

Her deep purple eyes remained fixed on him.

"I believe in you."

"I've always believed in you."

All Jiang Cheng could give the girl in that moment was a natural smile.

—That was all.

At Raiden Mei's prompting—or rather, her persistent insistence, to the point that she refused to blink unless he agreed—Jiang Cheng changed into more formal clothes. Nothing particularly amusing happened, but it did help dispel some of the heavy atmosphere.

He put on a pair of disposable wooden clogs.

Jiang Cheng had worn flip-flops that hooked between his big toes before, so he didn't find them too uncomfortable.

He opened the door.

Outside, he saw Kiana coming out of her room as well, stretching and yawning. She was still wearing yesterday's school uniform, though the buttons had been replaced.

And standing in front of him, short enough that he had to lower his head a little to see her, was Cyrene. He had no idea how long she'd been waiting outside his door.

"Ahhh..."

Kiana's yawn stopped halfway, turning into a sleepy, mumbled exclamation.

"That felt so good! I haven't slept this well in ages! The place looks so old-fashioned, but the furniture's pretty modern~"

She held her slender waist and arched it like a cat, stretching adorably.

"Mmm..." After stretching, she let out a long, drowsy sigh. Her movements as she woke gradually shook off her languid, soft air and made her look more alert.

Her eyes were still misty with sleep, but that didn't stop her from looking over at him right away.

"Jiang Cheng—you're up too? And Mei-senpai!"

Though she'd been tricked several times the day before, Raiden Mei was still grateful to Kiana for acting as her wingman at first. She didn't give Kiana a sour look, instead greeting her warmly with the poise particular to a young lady from the Far East.

"Good morning, Kiana."

"A-Cheng, good morning~?"

Another gentle voice followed, like a spring breeze sweetened with honey, softly brushing past his ear.

"Are you managing all right without me waking you up?"

Cyrene gently tugged at Jiang Cheng's clothes. When he lowered his head, she struck the familiar pose:

Her head tilted slightly, blue-green eyes looking up at him, eyelashes fluttering, lips pursed into a tiny, adorable pout. She looked cute enough to make his heart explode.

"I'm not quite used to it."

As soon as Jiang Cheng spoke, everyone present looked his way. But he seemed not to notice at all, simply rubbing his stomach.

"But Mei helped me a lot, too. And after fighting for so long yesterday, I'm hungry. Let's eat breakfast first."

"Then I'll—"

"If I'm not mistaken, breakfast should be ready by now. Let's go to the dining room together."

Raiden Mei cut off Cyrene before she could finish, then walked over as if it were the most natural thing in the world—

Gently and perfectly reasonably, in a way nobody could fault, she took Jiang Cheng's hand.

Then she turned around.

As Cyrene's eyes narrowed slightly, the girl pulled him forward without hesitation. Before Jiang Cheng could react, an inexplicable force dragged him along behind her.

Her pace was a little slow. Her fingertips even swept up a lock of hair, as though she meant to show something off.

And so—

His gaze drifted down behind the girl without his meaning to.

Her long purple hair swayed naturally with each step, revealing the elegant line of her shoulders and neck. Her fair skin gleamed like pearls in the morning light, and her shoulder blades rose and fell gently as she walked.

Her clothes fell like silk cascading down a waterfall, though they could barely conceal her swaying, generously rounded backside. Beneath her fitted skirt, slender calves wrapped in silky black stockings traced an elegant curve with each step, like a crane's.

Only now did Jiang Cheng suddenly realize that Raiden Mei had changed out of yesterday's severely battle-damaged uniform.

Her current clothes weren't especially ornate. They looked like the kind of dress that the "standard noble young lady in a two-dimensional light novel" would wear.

"..."

Sensing the faint gaze behind her, the swan-white nape of her neck flushed slightly.

Raiden Mei bit her lower lip. Her soft, pale cheeks had already taken on the blush of roses.

As the gaze seemed to settle on her nape like something tangible, she unconsciously tightened her hold on Jiang Cheng's hand. She cradled the heated thing in her palm, wrapping it tightly—and almost too carefully—with her slender fingers.

The sound of her footsteps against the floor was clear, but the girl didn't hurry, as if she wanted this stretch of time to last a little longer.

"Tap, tap, tap—"

Footsteps pattered behind them as a girl ran to catch up. Pink hair bounced in a playful arc through the air.

"Wait for me~ A-Cheng~!"

Cyrene hurried after them in quick little steps, soon catching up to a spot just behind Jiang Cheng and Raiden Mei.

Kiana immediately set off too, striding over to their other side on her impressive long legs.

"If we're going to eat, let's hurry—Mei-senpai, your family doesn't have a bunch of weird rules, does it?"

"No."

Raiden Mei gave a small shake of her head, but had to quicken her pace, leaving Cyrene—who was naturally at a disadvantage with her shorter legs—a few steps behind.

Even the long, winding corridor didn't take them long to reach the end of.

The dining room appeared before them.

It still had a distinctly traditional Japanese design. The table was low, with only cushions—or rather, kneeling pads—beneath it. There were no chairs or anything like that.

But as someone who was eighty percent modern, Jiang Cheng certainly wasn't going to follow all those weird rules. No chairs? Then he'd just sit cross-legged on a cushion.

He plopped down, as casually as if he were sitting on the sofa in his own living room.

A few servants were already in the dining room.

One of them saw this and their eyes flickered. They started to step forward, but before they could say anything, Raiden Mei stopped them with a look.

"Miss...?"

"No need."

Her reply was brief.

But even before she could say anything more, the shameless white-haired bundle had already claimed the spot at Jiang Cheng's right.

Kiana plopped down, exposing her long, ivory-colored legs to the air without a care. She herself seemed oblivious, simply looking around the dining room curiously.

And on his left, Cyrene sat cross-legged too, making her intentions even more obvious than Kiana's. Her willow-slim waist immediately leaned toward Jiang Cheng.

Raiden Mei's expression gradually turned unfriendly.

"Mei-senpai, hurry up and have the food served." Kiana had already picked up her utensils and couldn't help urging her on.

"Right~ A-Cheng's hungry, isn't he?"

Cyrene tilted her head and gently brought her fingertips together. Her eyes curved like crescents as she looked at Raiden Mei warmly.

Her smile was flawless in its brightness.

"...Have the food served."

After a brief silence, Raiden Mei nodded slowly.

Mealtime began. The servants brought out dish after dish, setting them down with elegant grace.