Honkai Double Transmigration, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

"Then wait until you believe I can handle it before you tell me those things."

Kiana blocked his assurances from leaving his throat once more, flashing a brilliant smile. Her eyes, clear as the sky after a rainstorm, reflected him standing just inches away.

"I..."

"Don't look at this young lady like that. I'm not that stupid. A decision made by a prophet like you must have been considered far more carefully than anything someone as clueless as me could come up with."

It was the polar opposite of her tears from before.

Seeming to have reverted back into a Paramecium, Kiana lifted her head with boundless energy and pointed a thumb at herself.

"No need to worry about this young lady anymore. That's enough. After that long-overdue cry, all the sorrow I'd been bottling up has been completely cleared out."

"There was always someone watching over me from behind, feeling sad for my actions..."

She blinked rapidly.

"--That kind of thing, I feel the pressure too, you know."

"Alright." Jiang Cheng nodded.

"That is our promise. The second promise."

As long as everything he did from now on did not go against his own heart, then he--would never regret it.

He turned around, not putting Kiana down from his arms to prove his innocence, but instead walking step by step in the original direction.

This girl had held him when he was at his most vulnerable and had shielded him from the incoming air gun; he could not bring himself to let go easily.

This scene fell clearly into Raiden Mei's eyes, causing her fingertips to entangle themselves involuntarily.

--There was nothing left to say.

The girl who had spent the entire morning arguing with Xilian over who would feed Cheng-kun now ignored Jiang Cheng as he approached, Kiana still in his arms.

Even Raiden Ryoma, who stood the furthest away and possessed the greatest disparity in gender, age, and status, could feel this endless, twisted, and extreme bitterness spreading outward.

"Mei?" He turned his head, looking at her with concern.

"I'm a little envious," she said softly.

"..."

Raiden Ryoma's brows furrowed tightly, his eyes inevitably filled with worry--

For Raiden Mei, who stood paralyzed in her jealousy, her hands tightly intertwined, yet unable to take a single step forward; she was a complete contradiction.

This was by no means normal. No one would choose to keep watching while feeling miserable; even if they couldn't approach for some reason, they would at least choose to leave.

"If I had acted like that from the beginning, perhaps I would be the one being held by Cheng-kun like this, hmm..."

"Though, Cheng-kun probably couldn't have carried me back then."

"But I finally understand why Kiana stood before me and said those things, even though it should have been of no benefit to her... even though she was completely uninvolved..."

"Do you know?"

She seemed to be asking, or perhaps just talking to herself.

"For a rat in the sewer, even catching a glimpse of someone else's happiness through a crack in the door is a luxury."

"It seems..." Xilian bit her lower lip, pressing hard enough that the tip turned a faint red. "My empathy for Kiana earlier wasn't actually wrong, was it? She doesn't have the pain of an arranged marriage, but because of that, she lost the reason to believe her father loved her."

Jiang Cheng finally arrived before the girls, his arms still cradling Kiana's soft, limp body.

--His gaze met the eyes of the girls.

"Xilian, Mei, I'm sorr--"

"Let's go first. I am not someone who forgets a favor; Miss Kiana helped us a lot before."

Raiden Mei interrupted everything he wanted to say, her eyes fixed on Kiana in his arms.

"Testing our strength is what matters most. Besides, are you really going to shamelessly stay in Cheng-kun's arms forever?"

"..."

The white-haired ball buried herself deeper into his embrace.

Raiden Mei narrowed her eyes, but...

--It didn't feel strange.

If it were her, she would have chosen to play deaf and dumb at this moment, continuing to covet the warmth of Cheng-kun's embrace, even if her father were standing right in front of them.

Therefore, she walked straight up and, as naturally as stroking a stream, grabbed Kiana's hair. The fine, silvery strands slipped through her fingers, and then...

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Senior Mei--"

"Let go, I'll get down from Cheng-kun's arms!"

"----!"

The girl's soft, silvery long hair was pulled without a shred of mercy by Raiden Mei's fingers. The roughness made Kiana, who had been curled up in Jiang Cheng's arms like a newborn, soft kitten, stiffen instantly. She could only let Raiden Mei force her away from the embrace, her long, slender legs flailing in the air as she tried to find the stability of the ground again.

Confirming that the other girl had finally separated from Jiang Cheng, she looked at the girl who was clearly unhappy.

Raiden Mei finally released her hand, letting the hair, clear as a stream, slip from her palm.

"If there's nothing else, don't burden Cheng-kun."

"I know, I have my own pace. I'll only be here for another three to four minutes at most," Kiana said, patting her chest. "This is also good training for little Cheng."

"Your clothes... are dirty."

Raiden Mei's peripheral vision casually fell upon the damp circle on Jiang Cheng's chest.

Tears? Or...

"What do you mean by 'little Cheng'?"

Her gaze shifted back to Kiana.

Even after returning to the ground, the girl didn't immediately revert to her usual silly demeanor. Instead, she carried a bit more of the seriousness from their first meeting.

She didn't look directly at anyone when speaking, her eyes fixed solely on Jiang Cheng from beginning to end.

"It's the nickname I gave Jiang Cheng," Kiana said, shrugging naturally as if it were all perfectly reasonable. "Don't you all have one too?"

At first glance, the request seemed reasonable. If others have it, then I should too. It's only fair.

However.

"--No."

Raiden Mei's voice was icy.

She flatly rejected Kiana's request without any preamble, even as the girl puffed out her cheeks like a pufferfish.

"--No."

She repeated, her words sharp.

The confrontation between the two girls, one forcefully refusing, made the scene feel like a replay of the past--

Humans can never truly empathize with their past selves. And in this moment, this young lady, known as the Thunder Queen, stood in Xilian's place. Her seemingly calm solemnity was like the roaring thunder in the sky, allowing no room for doubt.

"Why not?"

Kiana finally withdrew her gaze, albeit reluctantly.

She also wiped her eyes with her small hand, clearing away the tears before meeting the thunderous gaze with her own clear sky-blue eyes once more.

--The two girls stood opposed at this moment.

"If I want to give little Cheng a nickname, do I need your permission? You didn't ask Xilian for permission either."

"Can that be compared?"

She almost blurted out the words.

The confession she had made at the cost of her life at that time could never be denied by anyone, at any moment.

In contrast, Kiana had almost been hit by a truck, and Jiang Cheng had heroically saved her.

There was no mutual effort or touching moment.

To arbitrarily give Cheng-kun a nickname was as inexplicable as a hot-blooded manga protagonist suddenly gaining a new form after a nap.

--Of course, she didn't say this.

If she didn't explain, it would seem hypocritical, but if she did, the confrontation would likely escalate to a more brutal level.

Raiden Mei was still a young girl, having only left school two days prior. She hadn't yet been enlightened into a master of palace intrigue.

Therefore, she could only shift her gaze to Xilian.

As the guardian of Cheng-kun, she was an observer who knew everything. Let her make the judgment.

Let's see who is more reasonable: the one who selflessly protected Cheng-kun and confessed during the duel with Bronya; or the one who was about to recklessly run off, nearly get hit by a truck, and needlessly cause trouble for Cheng-kun.

Thus, the two girls turned their heads...

Xilian, inexplicably caught in the eye of the storm, received special attention from two gazes--

However, no matter how much she appeared and acted like a little girl who loved to cling to Jiang Cheng and act spoiled, she was never as weak as she seemed.

If she could, she would have crossed her arms and declared that no one could, no one was allowed, only she could have a special nickname, only she could call A-Cheng.

--Unfortunately, she couldn't.

At the beginning of this story, A-Cheng abandoned the comfortable and peaceful life of his village to come to another world, encountering Raiden Mei amidst the Honkai Energy erosion, all because he wanted to gain more power to protect her and the village.

Under such circumstances, what right did she have to deny the girl who protected A-Cheng and who rightfully deserved to enjoy the fruits of her labor, barging into A-Cheng's side?

So, she could only look away.

Of course.

The understanding, well-behaved, and gentle girl--or rather, guardian--would absolutely not pass the trouble onto Jiang Cheng.

She simply looked at Raiden Ryoma--

As the only mature adult present.

"----!"

I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die!

Raiden Ryoma felt a cold sweat about to break out on his forehead.

Even if one of the parties was his daughter, and his daughter was involved in what could be called a bloodbath, he absolutely did not want to get involved at this moment!

As the purest bystander, he saw much more clearly than Jiang Cheng, and he could feel the sensational wind pressure, the terrifying, extreme sense of oppression, as if an iron-blue sky had covered the world. If he dared to intrude even slightly, that horrifying low-pressure zone would tear the intruder to shreds!

Surely!

Definitely!

If he didn't favor anyone, he would be hated by everyone—especially his daughter Mei.

—He couldn't imagine that scene!

But if he favored his daughter Mei—he always felt an inexplicable sense of crisis, as if something was crawling up his spine. His sixth sense warned him constantly, as if making a biased judgment with the authority of an adult would absolutely trigger something terrifying and horrifying.

"Let's go to the testing room first. I've prepared a chamber that can withstand a Honkai fusion missile with a yield of over 100 million tons. It will definitely test all of your strengths."

Raiden Ryoma carefully raised a finger.

"----."

The expressions of the three girls did not change in the slightest. Under their gazes, which were so sharp they might as well have been stabbing needles, he could only nervously change the subject.

"Also, that Otto guy is really bad. I didn't expect Siegfried to defect from Schicksal to stop him from experimenting on Kiana. I didn't know Kiana was less than seven years old at the time. How could he experiment on a seven-year-old child? Does he really have no shame at all?"

"Father..."

"Uncle Ryoma..."

"Mr. Ryoma..."

It seemed like he hadn't changed the subject at all. This time, even the honorific for Raiden Mei was missing the word "adult."