Shu didn't slam the door shut because he knew getting your hand caught in a door hurts a lot.
But Kiana was pushing her luck!
Taking advantage of his moment of kindness, she started forcefully squeezing her entire body into the gap, her hands gripping the frame, her shoulder pressing against the door panel, even pushing her face forward—
She was going to pry this door open!
Honestly, with her strength, if she really pushed, Shu wouldn't be able to stop her.
The superhuman strength of the Kaslana family was no joke. She was fully capable of tearing this annoying door right off its hinges, along with the Shu bracing it from behind, and carrying both of them inside.
But she didn't.
She just squeezed, inch by inch, trying to stuff her existence into the crack like a normal girl would.
Her grip on the doorframe was perfectly controlled—enough to keep the door from closing, but not enough to yank it off, creating just enough space without sending Shu stumbling backward.
Ultimately, however, her Kaslana physique was unstoppable.
After some "effort," she finally managed to squeeze her face into the gap.
Her long white hair spilled out from both sides of the door, and one side of her cheek was squished against the frame. At this moment, Kiana was giving a perfect demonstration of the principle "cats are liquid."
The box is too small, the cat is too fat, but the cat doesn't care. The cat will get in.
Kiana was very happy right now.
Extremely happy.
So happy that she didn't care in the slightest how ridiculous she looked.
She'd been searching all day! On an empty stomach! Exhausted! She'd even fallen asleep in a stairwell!
And the moment she opened her eyes, she saw Shu! Even though he ran as soon as he saw her, she had the door blocked now! He couldn't get away!
Perfect!
Through the crack, she tried her best to peer inside, wanting to get a clear look at Shu's face.
Unfortunately, the angle was too awkward. She could only see the profile of half his face.
But it didn't matter. She was sure.
It was Shu.
That scent, that feeling, those eyes—
It was definitely Shu.
She grinned, but because her cheek was squished, her smile looked a bit strange.
"Shu, Shu, Shu!" she chirped. "I finally found you!
"Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?! All day! From morning till night! On an empty stomach! I'm so tired! Right now, I'm hungry and tired and sleepy and dirty!"
As she spoke, her tone naturally slid towards "complaining."
"Did you know, everyone in this city has black hair! I couldn't even describe which one was you!
"Asking for directions didn't work either; they all said my description was too vague!
"I said 'a young man with short black hair, half a head taller than me, and pretty handsome.' How is that vague? It's super specific, okay?!
"But they all looked at me like I was an idiot. Do I really look that stupid?"
"And that snack street!
"Do you know how awful that snack street was?! Grilled gluten! Griddled squid! Takoyaki! They were all wafting right in front of me! And I could only watch!"
"I ended up falling asleep in the stairwell because I was so tired. On a concrete floor! It was so hard... By the way, do you live here? Why do you live in a place like this?! Do you have a sofa? A bed? Even just a patch of floor to sleep on would be fine, I just want to get some good sleep..."
She said she wanted to sleep, but anyone could see she was getting more and more worked up, her pretty face puffing in and out of the door gap as if she were trying to pour out a whole day's worth of grievances.
But as she was talking, she suddenly stopped.
Through the crack, those azure eyes blinked.
Then, she smiled, her eyes curving into crescent moons again:
"But it's okay."
"I found you."
"As long as I found you, it's okay."
Her voice softened, filled with a contented and reassuring tone.
Inside, Shu braced the door, listening to Kiana's rapid-fire monologue, a storm of question marks swirling in his head.
Who is this person?
Why is she acting like she knows me so well?
How does she know I live here?
Why—
His brain spun at high speed, trying to retrieve any information from his memory that matched this face.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
In his twenty-seven years of memory, this face had never appeared.
Long white hair, azure eyes, pretty as a doll, talks like a machine gun—
If he had ever met someone like this, he would be impossible to forget.
Yet she was speaking with a tone that clearly said, "We're close."
So close that she could complain about being hungry all day, about sleeping on a concrete floor, and say "as long as I found you, it's okay" to him.
Shu fell silent.
He looked at the face squished in the door gap, still smiling foolishly, and a sense of absurdity washed over him.
What in the world was going on?
He took a deep breath and cleared his throat.
Then, he spoke:
"Um..."
Kiana blinked, waiting for him to continue.
Shu cleared his throat again.
"Who... are you, exactly?"
Kiana froze for a second.
Then she answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world:
"Me? I'm Kiana!"
Shu: "...?"
Shu: "Kiana?"
Kiana nodded frantically, her face rubbing against the door gap. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Kiana! Kiana Kaslana! That Kiana!"
Shu was silent for two seconds.
Then he spoke, a hint of uncertainty in his voice:
"The one from... Honkai Impact 3rd... Kiana?"
Kiana nodded like a maniac. "Yes, yes, yes! That's me!"
Shu: "...Hiss..."
He felt like his brain was short-circuiting.
He paused, then asked:
"Are you... cosplaying?"
Kiana froze. "Cos-what?"
"Cosplaying," Shu repeated. "You know, dressing up as a game character... Your hair... it's a wig, right? It looks pretty real."
Kiana: "???"
She glanced at her own white hair hanging down, then looked back at Shu, utterly bewildered.
"A wig? It's not a wig! This is my own hair!"
Shu: "...Really?"
Kiana: "Of course it's real! Feel it! Feel it!"
She tried to squeeze her face further into the gap, attempting to stick her head through so he could touch it.
Shu instinctively took a step back.
He looked at the eager face in the door gap, the question marks in his mind multiplying.
He finally asked the most crucial question:
"Then... how do you know my name?"
Kiana blinked.
"Your name? Shu! Of course I know!"
Shu's brow furrowed. "How do you know?"
"Because we know each other! We're really close!"
I think you're the only one who thinks we're close!
"How can you prove we know each other?" Shu was starting to lose his patience.
From the very beginning, this person who looked like Kiana... no, who was identical to Kiana, from her voice to her appearance, from her personality to her habits... this "Kiana," who shouldn't know him, had been talking at him nonstop.
The familiarity she displayed even made Shu question whether he had amnesia.
Clearly, he didn't... at least, it wasn't that severe yet.
By now, even someone as dense as Kiana could tell that something was off with Shu.
This Shu... seemed to not know her at all?
No, that wasn't quite right. He knew her name, and he knew she was connected to Honkai Impact 3rd... which meant... did Shu not have any memories from after he "transmigrated"?
No, the priority right now was to get inside and sle— no, the priority was to prove that she and Shu really did know each other!
"Uh..." She scratched her head, her gaze shifting around. "Well... it's a long story..."
Shu watched her evasive eyes, his suspicion deepening.
He pressed on.
"Where did you meet me? Have we met before? In this city? In the past? When?"
Kiana felt a little dizzy from the barrage of questions.
"Wait, wait, one at a time—" She raised her hand to stop him, but since her hand was outside, it could only hit the door, making a thump-thump sound.
Shu didn't stop.
"Why do you know I live here? Did you follow me? Or did someone tell you? Who are you, really—"
"When you were seven, at the kindergarten arts festival, you went on stage to perform but got nervous and forgot your lines, so you stood there for a long time before finally blurting out 'I forgot' and running off stage crying!"
Shu: "—?!!"