Laying It All Bare

"..."

"..."

Silence.

For a full dozen seconds and more, no one spoke.

Xingsu was not all that surprised. After all, he had discussed this serious issue with Peruere before. But...

He looked at Peruere, his eyes seeming to ask whether it was really all right to tell Clervie so openly.

Pepe answered him with her eyes as well: she knew what she was doing.

"Um, P-Pepe, you're joking, right...? Haha, you must be joking, right?" The smile froze on Clervie's face. Though she appeared to be smiling, she looked worse than if she were crying.

"Clervie, there's something only you can do." Peruere made no attempt to hide her thoughts.

"No, don't... I, I just, I can't do it. Please, Pepe, Xingsu, y-you must think this joke isn't funny either, right?" Clervie's tear-filled eyes finally turned to Xingsu, as though clutching at her last lifeline.

"Sorry, Clervie, but..." Xingsu hardened his heart too. He knew that if all of them were to survive, Crucabena had to die.

"We're running out of time," Peruere finished for Xingsu.

Clervie knew. In truth, Clervie had known all along. Ever since Xingsu had spoken to her last time, she had understood everything.

But just as she was unwilling to draw her blade against her companions, she was also unwilling to break with her mother.

So she had kept burying her head in the sand like an ostrich, pretending she could not see it, not daring to look at the two of them either.

Unfortunately, today that thin veil had been torn away completely.

"There'll be a way. There has to be a way... Please, don't do this..." Clervie shook her head, looking into their eyes as she backed away step by step.

"Clervie, we don't need you to do it yourself. We only want you to..."

Peruere reached out, wanting to take Clervie's hand, but Clervie turned away and dodged her.

"No! Please, stop talking!" Unable to bear the pressure any longer, Clervie burst into tears, turned, and ran out.

"...She ran away," Xingsu said to Peruere, his arms folded.

"I know." Peruere's expression remained calm, as though this outcome did not surprise her.

"What are you planning to do? Kill Crucabena with those two bare paws of yours?"

"How many steps do you think it takes to kill Crucabena?" Ignoring Xingsu's sarcasm, Peruere turned and asked him a question.

"Hmm... First, we'd need to find the right opportunity, and then..."

"One."

"One?"

"Drive a blade into her heart."

"The greatest truths really are the simplest."

"Whether it's a frontal assault or a sneak attack, whether the opponent has a Vision or not, even if they're a god, as long as you can strike a vital point, whoever he is, he'll die right there."

"So after all that, what you're saying is that as long as we can kill Crucabena, Crucabena will be killed?"

"...Yes."

"Sigh..." Xingsu held his forehead and sighed. He really had no idea what to do anymore.

"...I can do it."

"All right, I believe you." Xingsu did not look at Peruere. He sat on the ground and gazed up at the starry sky, his thoughts unknown.

"...Fine, that really wasn't very convincing."

"..."

Peruere sat cross-legged beside Xingsu.

"What are you thinking about?"

"You."

Peruere jabbed Xingsu hard with her elbow.

"Can't you ever be serious?"

"..." Xingsu did not banter with Peruere. He simply sat there, gazing at the stars.

"Don't you have anything to say?" Peruere asked, watching Xingsu continue to stare blankly at the starry sky.

"Don't you have anything to say?" Xingsu asked in return.

"Don't answer a question with a question."

"You're hiding something from me."

"Then what do you want to know?"

Xingsu turned his head and looked into Peruere's eyes. "Your eyes, your hands... If I'm not mistaken, it's some kind of curse, isn't it? Can you tell me about it?"

"Sorry, I don't know anything about my origins either. But I can indeed feel the curse you mentioned." Peruere held her hand out to Xingsu. The black curse had already covered her entire hand and was beginning to spread toward her forearm. "There's a power inside my body that doesn't belong to me. It's powerful and dangerous. Normally, this curse is quiet, and its changes are almost imperceptible to the naked eye. But whenever I use that power, the black curse spreads wildly through my body. And I can feel that if the curse reaches my heart, something bad will happen to me."

"Something more than just death, right?"

"...Perhaps something worse than death. That's all I know. What about you? You don't look like you're from any of the Seven Nations."

"My origins...? Actually, I know even less than you do."

"Heh, trying to get something for nothing?"

"I... don't know. I only have memories of what happened after I appeared on that snowfield in Snezhnaya. And a doctor or scientist from the Fatui examined me. According to him, I was no different from an ordinary person. Then... I came to the House of the Hearth."

"Are you saying you made it out alive from under Dottore's hands?"

Peruere's shock was written all over her face.

The Second of the Fatui Harbingers, The Doctor-Dottore-single-handedly accounted for half the House of the Hearth's dark side. Familiar with that dark side, Peruere knew Crucabena had ongoing dealings with Dottore.

Nearly all the children written off as "acceptable losses" had entered Dottore's laboratory. What awaited them was life as experimental guinea pigs. These children, branded "unfit" by Crucabena, ultimately became fit consumables in Dottore's laboratory.

Yet Xingsu had been studied by The Doctor and had even emerged from there completely unharmed. This could not have been a sudden burst of kindness from Dottore. It was more likely that...

"The Doctor has his eye on you." Peruere stared at Xingsu with an utterly serious expression. "And he's very interested in your origins."

"What an honor, to have two Fatui Harbingers set their sights on me one after another." Xingsu sighed and asked, "Pepe, do you think our past and origins matter?"

"Our bloodline, our origins, our birth-we can't choose any of them. Since the marks of the past have already been engraved, we should accept them gladly. All they can determine is our starting point."

"Heh, that was suddenly very philosophical, Pepe." Xingsu gave a self-deprecating laugh. "I'm nothing more than a grain of sand swept along. Your path ahead looks clearer than mine."

Peruere stood and walked in front of Xingsu. The starry sky reflected her figure, casting it over him. She held out her hand to Xingsu. "At least for now, we're both fighting for the same goal, aren't we?"

Looking at Peruere's resolute eyes and the cursed hand she held out to him, it was as though she had raised the banner of the oppressed rebelling against fate, inviting him to join her. Xingsu's lips parted slightly, and he froze for a moment before quickly coming back to himself.

"Yeah!" Xingsu took the hand she offered to pull her up and stood once more. At least for now, let's fight for our own tomorrow!

Meanwhile, caught in the conflict between her closest friends and her closest family, Clervie collapsed onto her bed, drawing her legs tightly against her chest and curling into the deepest part of the bedding.

The turmoil and anguish that had built up in her heart could no longer be suppressed. Tears kept streaming down uncontrollably, soaking the sheet beneath her.

"I'm sorry, Pepe... I'm sorry... Xingsu, I'm sorry, Mother... I, I'm a cowardly child..."

"I'm sorry..."

"I'm sorry..."