Honkai Double Traverse, Bringing Cyrene to Honkai Impact 3rd Chapter 47

Even though he was dealing with someone who had brought it all on herself, he still nagged at her like a father, reminding her of one thing after another.

"..."

She couldn't help wanting to chase after warmth.

Like a moth with no regard for its life, she flew toward the light.

"..."

How could she describe this feeling? Maybe even Kiana herself couldn't put it into words.

She simply opened her eyes, just as she had in that lonely little cabin in Siberia in her memories, and, wrapped in warmth from head to toe, slowly looked at the world.

It felt as if she had returned to the past.

—But this time was nothing like that day!

Kiana blinked. Tears blurred her vision, but she could still make out the person before her.

Jiang Cheng's hair was a mess, as if a storm had just battered it. Dust covered the new clothes he'd changed into not long ago. Even the way he held her was nothing like the picture-perfect pose of a hero saving a beauty. He'd simply caught her legs in a hurried embrace, his other hand against her back, holding her half off the ground.

With Jiang Cheng's current strength, saving someone from beneath a truck's wheels should have been easy.

—He definitely wasn't in such a sorry state because he couldn't manage it.

For some reason, Kiana was certain of that.

Then why was he like this?

...Ah.

She saw the lingering panic in those golden eyes, and heard the breath he let out softly.

—He was just too nervous.

He was so nervous that even something this simple had left him flustered.

He was so nervous that even though he was playing the handsome hero saving a beauty, he still looked utterly disheveled.

—That was more than enough.

A smile spread across her face without her realizing it. She gazed at the light in the snow as it slowly brightened in his dazed eyes.

"Next time, don't rush in like that. It's not like getting hit would've done anything to me."

"Your truly is amazing, you know. Even a Titan Mech can't beat me. A truck is no big deal."

She didn't want to move and make Jiang Cheng realize she didn't actually need to be held. She wanted to cling to this warmth. Even so, Kiana proudly lifted her chin.

Hmph. She was like a haughty little white kitten, acting as if she were the greatest person in the world.

Jiang Cheng merely lowered his head and said softly,

"You must be exhausted, Kiana."

His voice was gentle, like a soft feather brushing against a wound that had long since scabbed over.

Kiana's pupils trembled.

"You've walked such a long way all alone. The wind must have been cold, and the road steep. You could leave your cat with someone you knew, but you had no choice but to keep searching for Siegfried."

"You couldn't find him in any country, couldn't find him anywhere. You searched at random, then followed your memories... It must have been such a hard, long journey. You really, truly did amazingly well to make it this far."

Jiang Cheng spoke with great sincerity. Every word seemed to have been weighed over and over for a long, long time.

Kiana stared at him, stunned.

Her tears glistened and spilled over, like a pond muddied by a mischievous child. Jiang Cheng's blurred face was reflected in the rippling water, but even his outline was hard to make out.

The hurt she'd buried deep in her heart, the hurt she'd faced alone for who knew how long while wandering in the past, the hurt that should have been easy to resolve with just a little release, had somehow been stirred up by those simple words.

She couldn't... couldn't hold it back anymore. No matter what, she couldn't brush it aside so carelessly again...

...This was all your fault.

"Wah..."

Her tears finally broke free.

They slid down Kiana's cheeks like pearls and fell to the ground, stirring tiny ripples that were almost impossible to see.

"Wah... sob..." She buried her face in Jiang Cheng's chest, her shoulders shaking violently.

Everything from her past, all at once, right at this moment—

All of it, all of it—

—came pouring out.

Jiang Cheng carefully used his energy to support Kiana's body, but when he was done, his now-free hand stiffly hovered in midair.

—What should he say?

He definitely wanted to comfort her, but he had no idea what to say. Those words just now had already used up all the emotional intelligence he had.

He'd managed to tell that something was wrong with Kiana in the heat of the moment, and, while stopping the truck, connect it to their earlier discussion about Siegfried. Pulling off that whole chain of thought was a miracle brought on by The Hunt's blessing. Without its keen instincts, he never would have figured out that Kiana was on the verge of an emotional breakdown and might give up on herself at any moment.

As for what to do next...

The manual didn't say!

"System, if you call yourself the Valkyrie Strategy System, you should have a strategy guide, right?"

[Due to severe energy deficiency, this function is unavailable. Please provide energy as soon as possible.]

[The only thing that can be confirmed is that Kiana urgently needs tenderness—from Raiden Mei or anyone else.]

Jiang Cheng suddenly understood why Raiden Mei and Kiana had such a deep bond. Back then, when Kiana grabbed Raiden Mei's hand as she fell from the building, Raiden Mei had also caught her as she teetered on the edge.

In the end, all he could do was clumsily, carefully place his hand on Kiana's head, as if petting some little cat that had puffed up and then turned pitiful.

Her hair was silvery white, cool as the moon, yet not the least bit distant. It was as if the whole expanse of moonlight, cool and glazed, lay within reach.

Every strand sparkled in the sunlight, yet felt impossibly soft beneath his hand.

...So smooth.

"I thought... I didn't feel sad anymore..."

Her voice came in broken sobs from his arms, along with a muffled, nasal accusation.

"Bad Jiang Cheng... stupid Jiang Cheng... you big idiot!"

Kiana's thin shoulders trembled in his arms like a butterfly on the verge of being swept away by a storm. No matter how warmly he held her, he couldn't quiet her shaking.

"You weren't even part of any of it... so why do you know everything? Why can't I hide anything from you...?"

"Why did you come running over... why did you only come now... why...?"

One question after another.

One sob after another.

For the first time, the girl didn't wipe away her tears. For the first time, the cold wind didn't freeze them on her cheeks.

—She wept without restraint.

"Let it all out however you want," he whispered in Kiana's ear.

"At least today, you can cry in my arms. And at least... I believe in you."

"I'm not good at saying moving things. All I can say is that I'll believe in you without reservation. Kiana, if you need me, I'll give it everything I've got, as long as it doesn't put Cyrene or Mei's lives at risk. Of course, the enemies who'll hurt you in the future are already my enemies. I'll treat them as enemies no matter what. The moment you took a bullet for me, you'd already suffered all the hardships meant for you." Jiang Cheng's voice was calm. "So you don't need to worry about anything anymore."

"Wahhh..."

"Sniff... sniff... waaahhh... waaaaaaaaaah..."

Kiana didn't stop crying. As Jiang Cheng's gentle voice reached her, she only cried harder, as if she wanted to shed every tear she'd held back over the years.

"Why are you... so kind...?"

"Kind?"

"...How is this not kind?"

Kiana clutched his clothes tightly, soaking them with her salty tears. Jiang Cheng tried turning around, but she held on so tightly that she seemed unwilling to let him move even a little.

Jiang Cheng wanted to say that he wasn't being kind.

He was only doing what anyone should do.

Even setting aside his perspective as a player, Kiana had saved him more than once.

He was simply returning, without reservation, the kindness he'd received from Kiana. He hadn't expected just those two sentences to make her cry like this.

How starved for affection was this girl, who had never met Raiden Mei and hadn't even entered St. Freya?

—This was supposed to happen in the future.

In that unrealized timeline, she would shed tears like these only after killing Himeko, the teacher who cared about her, and wandering through Nagazora City, where she would see Himeko's phantom.

But what difference did it make?

Was she really just carefree?

She'd later received Theresa's promise that she only needed to become an S-rank Valkyrie to get Siegfried's location, yet the three years she spent honing herself had only turned her into a Paramecium.

On the surface, she seemed naturally innocent and simple. But Void Drifter had always existed.

Only after the illusion shattered could the girl's true nature be seen.

Had she really not cared that her father would serve her burnt pizza, even though he was the very father she'd searched for alone across the world for so long? Or was it...

—Had she already given up hope?

Had she shut her heart away because she'd lost all hope? Had she stopped wanting to think, stopped wanting to know the world?

"If I did something wrong without realizing it, and that's why you left without a single word, then—"

"Then I'll stop thinking about it."

As long as she didn't think about it, she couldn't be wrong.

As long as she didn't feel the world, she wouldn't suffer.

Sadness was a luxury. Long disappointment only wore away the heart until it grew numb.

What kind of long journey had it taken to turn that clever Nordic young lady, that Void Drifter, into someone who seemed so vacant and silly?

Perhaps being carefree simply meant not caring about anything in the world. If she didn't care, then she could be careless, and she could do everything sloppily.

...It didn't matter anyway.

But Jiang Cheng didn't care about any of that. Even if he could know, he wouldn't care; even if he could understand, he wouldn't try to. The only thing he cared about was—

"Kiana."

He looked at Kiana and spoke earnestly, his voice steady. "I'll tell you the whole truth."

"I thought the truth would hit you too hard, so I decided on my own not to tell you yet. I planned to wait until the day I thought you could handle it."

"But the moment I made that choice, I put myself above you. The question is, do I really have the right to do that? Do I really have the right to dangle a carrot in front of you on a stick, make you run around and around until you're strong enough to eat it...?"

A soft fingertip gently pressed against his lips.

It was almost like a curse. Every time he tried to say something, he was interrupted.

Jiang Cheng lowered his gaze to the source of that softness. Kiana had raised a finger to his lips. Though she was about to learn the truth, she was the one who stopped him from speaking.

"Am I really not in the right state to hear the truth?"

Her voice was low and hoarse, as if she'd swallowed every sob.

"..."

"—Don't lie, Jiang Cheng."

Kiana stared straight into his eyes. She spoke each word carefully, one syllable at a time.

"You're not."

He shook his head and answered without hesitation.

"I said before that Mei was the hero of a hot-blooded manga, but actually, you're the real one, because only the protagonist gets the most chaotic, strange, twisted backstory. I want to tell you about your origins and everything related to Siegfried. I can also promise that I don't want you to walk the same turbulent path I saw, a story full of loss at every turn. But the reason I didn't tell you before is that you absolutely couldn't handle the truth yet. I swear..."