—Was it an illusion?
Or had a perfectly timed shadow just covered Cyrene's face, creating an unfamiliar atmosphere without her realizing it?
"Miss Cyrene, what you said..."
"You can't call him A-Cheng. You. Can't."
The smile she raised was as bright as spring sunshine, making it impossible not to imagine the gentle warmth of sunlight breaking through thick clouds.
And yet—
"A-Cheng is a name that belongs only to me."
She smiled as she looked at Raiden Mei, whose gaze had gone blank.
"Really..."
"—You can't!"
Raiden Mei had not even gotten the third syllable out before Cyrene vehemently rejected her—
"Not even just a little..."
"—You can't!!"
"But that's just a way of address, so..."
"—I said absolutely, absolutely not~!"
Her voice had softened considerably this time. She was no longer as agitated as before, and there was almost a playful hook in her tone.
But Raiden Mei, faced with that seemingly friendly, natural gentleness, found herself swallowing her words almost instinctively.
"...I understand."
The young lady, who had just been so fierce, drooped her head in dejection once more, like someone who'd had their 拼好饭 stolen.
Watching this, Kiana scratched her head.
She felt like her brain wasn't up to the task.
[Raiden Mei's signal disappeared at the school?]
[—Out of thin air?]
"Yes."
The silver-haired girl with long, curled twin tails gave a slight nod.
Her delicate, adorable face was as lifeless as a doll's. There was not even a hint of confusion.
"The Third Herrscher's Subject, Raiden Mei, just disappeared from inside Chiba Academy without warning. A Maybach S-Class disappeared with her."
[Seal off the surrounding roads.]
[I don't believe she can sprout wings and fly away.]
"Understood, Mother."
The girl bowed her head like a puppet on strings, her silver eyes as cold as a machine's.
[Also, have Xing search the city with the Titan Mechs. Make sure Raiden Ryoma hasn't left a safe house for his daughter.]
PS:
Cyrene's feelings are actually quite intense. Setting aside the forty-minute storyline from her younger days in Aedes Elysiae, and the unreserved, direct affection she shows in As I Have Written, just look at the expression she wore after the Trailblazer confirmed that Oronis was done for. She was the only one who didn't want to lose you, the only one who didn't want you to misunderstand her... All I can say is, no wonder she's capable of freezing the universe.
10. How high is your Honkai Energy resistance? (Revised)
At least this time they had someone who actually knew how to drive. Kiana had traveled all over Europe before making her way to the Far East. There was no way she'd covered all that distance on foot.
With that guess in mind, Jiang Cheng invited Kiana to take the driver's seat without hesitation.
"----?"
"I just joined your group, and you're already comfortable letting me drive? Aren't you afraid I'll take you to prison? You're dangerous criminals, after all."
Kiana looked at them with suspicion.
"I can't drive," Jiang Cheng said calmly.
"I can't either!"
Cyrene quickly raised her hand as well. Her round little face showed no embarrassment.
Kiana's brows knitted tightly as she looked at Raiden Mei in the driver's seat. Then—
"I can't either."
The dejected young lady nodded without hesitation.
"Heh—"
Kiana was practically laughing with irritation.
"So none of the three of you has ever even touched a car? Where did you get the nerve to drive on the streets?!"
"Well, desperate times call for desperate measures..."
Jiang Cheng did his best to maintain a calm exterior and keep his toes from punching through the soles of his shoes.
"Forget it. I'll do it."
Kiana lifted her chin and puffed out her chest, letting her northern European heiress's bearing shine through without restraint.
She looked down at Raiden Mei, who fled the throne—the driver's seat—as if escaping for her life.
Kiana plopped into the still-warm throne—the driver's seat.
—Ignition.
She slammed her foot down on the accelerator.
The engine responded with a thunderous roar, like a dragon taking flight and a tiger bellowing. With no car door to block it, the deep growl rang clearly in their ears.
Even Cyrene sobered up, her small body pressed against the seatback as she stared intently at the white head in front of her, bracing herself for impact—
Then—
"Do you know where the sidewalk is?"
The white head suddenly turned around, revealing a pair of blue eyes that looked silly at first glance.
Fortunately, Kiana's ridiculous question earlier wasn't because she couldn't drive at all. Most of the roads she'd traveled before were highways or nothing but icy wasteland. She hadn't driven since arriving somewhere crowded. According to her, a traffic cop she'd passed had confiscated her license.
"Minors aren't allowed to have a driver's license."
Even now, she was indignant whenever she brought it up.
"I worked hard to cheat on the test and get that license. How could he take it away over something so trivial? The Far East is so boring."
"..."
As a native of the Far East, Raiden Mei didn't dare say a word.
Outside the car window, Nagazora's streets slid past like frames of faded film.
Kiana held the steering wheel with one hand, while the other rested lazily on the window frame, propping up her chin. Her gaze drifted through the rearview mirror toward the boy in the back seat, who was trying to shrink into the shadow of the seat.
More precisely, she was watching his left hand.
He kept it hidden at his side, doing his best to bury it in the shadows. But her eyesight was good enough to make out the ominous purple patterns peeking between the folds of his clothes near his wrist, creeping inward inch by inch.
"Hey, Mei-senpai, Jiang Cheng," Kiana said, apparently offhandedly. "Do you know about Honkai Sickness?"
"—What's that?"
Though she was the daughter of an executive, Raiden Mei knew nothing about the Inner World. She stared back blankly.
"It's a terrifying disease, worse than any illness humanity knows. AIDS, cancer, leukemia... They're nothing compared to it. Once you contract Honkai Sickness, there's practically no cure. Purple patterns appear somewhere on your body and spread upward."
"Wherever they reach, the Erosion is severe. Layer after layer of skin, flesh, and nerves gets burned away until it turns to dust. It hurts more than having your nerves sawed through. In the end, your whole body turns to ash amid unbearable pain, leaving not even a corpse behind."
Kiana deliberately played up the horror, while glancing toward the back through the rearview mirror from time to time.
Jiang Cheng remained unmoved.
That was all the expression she could see.
If she hadn't clearly seen the signs of Honkai Erosion, Kiana might even have thought the person behind her was fine.
Meanwhile, Cyrene, whose body showed no signs of Erosion anywhere, grew increasingly worried. She bit down hard on her lower lip.
"If I'm not mistaken—"
Her voice paused strangely. "Jiang Cheng, your Honkai Energy resistance isn't high enough to let you act recklessly, is it?"
She didn't turn around, but the pair of bright blue eyes in the rearview mirror had locked precisely onto Jiang Cheng. It was as direct as pointing at him while speaking.
"It's pretty low."
Jiang Cheng answered casually, doing his best to make it seem like no big deal.
"You know that?" she pressed. "Then do you know what level of Honkai Energy usually surrounds a Herrscher?"
"It should be even worse, I guess."
"And you still dared to get involved in something like this?"
"The Honkai Energy around a Herrscher is at least a thousand times the amount in the air, even before they awaken."
Kiana raised an eyebrow, her expression caught between "Are you an idiot?" and "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
The other two pairs of eyes immediately focused on him as well, but Jiang Cheng's expression remained unchanged.
"It's not a big deal. I just need to keep track of the time."
"How much do you know about the aftereffects of Honkai Erosion?" Kiana pressed without hesitation.
Jiang Cheng didn't answer.
"Do you know that nerves Eroded to that extent won't fully recover, even if you develop resistance later?"
He still didn't answer.
"Do you know you might only have—"
Her voice paused strangely, but in the end she didn't say the exact number.
"—If you go to a proper medical facility now, maybe they can still do something. Maybe you could live another ten years. Maybe."
Kiana finally turned around.
The face that had been lively, cheerful, and full of energy just a second ago, as if nothing could faze her—
Now—
Was as untouchable as her snow-white hair.
"You might not have long to live."
She was blunt, her voice devoid of warmth. "Even at this stage... there'll be serious aftereffects. At the very least, half your body would need to be removed immediately."
"----!"
Cyrene's pupils contracted sharply, and her fingers clenched without her realizing it, like a drowning person reaching for a piece of wood floating on the surface. The emotions she had been desperately suppressing, trying to keep from spilling over, had filled her to the brim and were on the verge of breaking through.
But Jiang Cheng remained calm.
Before you continue