A gentle breeze brought a hint of coolness, and the air was filled with the fragrance of the earth.
The sound of dripping water from the eaves, intertwined with the occasional sound of cars driving in the distance, formed a beautiful nocturne. On a night like this, everything seemed so peaceful and serene, drawing one into its tranquility.
Mei couldn't find the words to describe her feelings at this moment. She gripped her dagger tightly, her voice almost a moan as she instinctively asked, "Let Bronya go? You... you're willing to?"
"What's there to be willing or not willing about? She's just a little burden to have around anyway. Instead of letting her interfere with our escape, it's better to let her go early and get her out of the way."
Fuli turned his back to her, propping his head up with his hand and deliberately avoiding the sight of the girl's tear-streaked face. He pouted, "Something big is about to happen in Nagazora City. Anti-Entropy's defense network will surely be thrown into chaos then. We'll seize that opportunity to leave."
The impending Third Eruption was undoubtedly a catastrophe for ordinary people, but it was far from that for the A-Rank Bronya.
Not to mention that a freed Bronya would surely go and rendezvous with her godmother Cocolia, who commanded a significant force. Even if she didn't, as long as she didn't run into a critical-level moving natural disaster like an Emperor-Class Honkai Beast, the girl could still strut around the chaotic Nagazora City.
Fuli wasn't blind. He could see the escalating conflict among the main trio.
Instead of forcefully suppressing the seeds of unrest only to have it blow up in everyone's faces, it was better to separate and give each other some time to cool down.
There are always more solutions than problems! Who knows, maybe the situation will have changed drastically by the time they meet again!
They were still young, and the future was long.
Speaking of the future—
"After leaving Nagazora City, if you and Kiana still want to go to St. Freya to seek refuge with her aunt, I'll take you there. If you want to stick with me, we can continue our invincible trio, get an aerial battleship, and fly all over the world, getting involved in whatever interesting things we come across."
The young man, fantasizing about the future, said with a smile, "We might still face pursuit from Cocolia and the others, but she's chasing a lot of people anyway, a few small fries like us won't make a difference. Besides, Anti-Entropy isn't a monolith. There's open and secret strife between the reformist and conservative factions, and the different Enforcer factions are a whole other mess of ugliness..."
To be ashamed to say, Mei didn't actually hear most of what he said.
The moment she heard Fuli 'abandon' Bronya and 'choose' her, the girl's heart seemed to stop.
Her entire being felt as if it were being gently held by something. Even her heavy breathing became faint and indistinct. Her mind was empty, as if she were floating above the clouds, a gentle breeze caressing her face, the warm sun embracing her, and the whole world smiling at her.
[He chose me. He doesn't want Bronya, he wants me. Hehe~]
It was PUA, but neither the active nor the passive party was aware of it.
And the effect was, without a doubt, outstanding.
"Fuli!"
"What's up?"
The speaker, who had been interrupted in his eloquence, looked over.
"Your head... doesn't it hurt?"
Mei knelt down beside the boy and moved the Mikazuki Munechika he was using as a pillow to the side.
Fuli didn't react at first, until a familiar, firm sensation once again touched the back of his head.
"Tell me a bedtime story. This can be your reward."
The girl, offering the boy the boon of a lap pillow, lowered her head and looked down at the two large mounds in front of her with a troubled expression. "I can only see a little bit of your face. You'll have to adjust your position yourself."
Was it comfortable?
Not really.
As Fuli had said before, compared to the feel of a pillow, Mei's lap pillow was far inferior in every aspect.
But the meaning behind it was on a completely different level.
Remembering his reason for returning, he subconsciously glanced towards the area under her skirt. After catching a glimpse of the familiar Thunder Stigmata pattern, he quickly averted his gaze as if he had committed a crime.
"A story?"
Looks like the Stigmata was copied, not stolen.
Relieved, Fuli fixed his gaze on his nose, and his nose on his heart.
"Yes, a story."
Her fair hand tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, and her crystal-clear pupils reflected a captivating light.
"Just like you used to do for Kiana."
She smiled, the corner of her eye catching the scene outside the window, and her smile widened.
The rain had stopped.
...
The night sky, washed clean by the thunderstorm, was always pristine. The scattered stars adorning the quiet horizon, when gazed upon for a long time, would create a sense of profound, distant depth, and would also elevate one's thoughts as if through an epiphany.
But no matter how much he epiphanized or elevated, Fuli couldn't understand why Mei's girlish heart had suddenly accelerated from a pitiable, wronged little thing into a full-blown mudslide.
"Just like I used to do for Kiana?"
He repeated blankly.
"Yes," the girl smiled faintly, then suddenly her willow-like brows furrowed. "What? You're willing to tell Kiana a story, but not me?"
Mei's coquettish tone made Fuli's bones almost go numb. He racked his brain for any memories related to the tags [Kiana] and [story]. After a long time, he finally found a clue in an inconspicuous corner.
Every confident yet insecure, lost adolescent boy has a dream of becoming a writer.
The sixteen-year-old General Fuli, not yet out of the tides of puberty, was no exception. When he shared the fantastical characters and events created by his own hand with others, an unparalleled sense of satisfaction would always well up inside him.
And a naive young man always wants to show off his 'awesomeness' in front of the girl he likes. Thus, Fuli would often call out to Kiana as she passed by, or actively seek her out, and share with her the brilliant ideas and plots he had come up with, his face full of joy.
Unfortunately, when one person dislikes another, no matter what they do, it will only be met with impatience and irritability.
'Yes,' 'right,' 'uh-huh,' 'oh' became the bullets the girl fired back at the boy, one after another. Even so, the clumsy boy, who had not yet given up hope, still tried to please the girl in this way.
Little did he know that all of this was being overheard by another girl who was at a low point in her own life.
"I like Fuli's stories. Every time I hear one, I escape from my unhappy reality and wander through the joys and sorrows of fantasy and dreams... but when I think about how these are told exclusively for Kiana, I feel like a thief who has stolen someone else's treasure."
Mei said seriously, "So, even if it's just once, I want Fuli to tell a story just for me!"
Her exquisite and beautiful face shone with a stubborn light. The girl lowered her head, troubled by the magnificence of her chest, which was not an uncommon problem.
This thing not only caused shoulder pain but also blocked her view of the boy.
But it was a good thing she couldn't see, otherwise, if the dazed and slightly embarrassed expression on Fuli's face had entered her line of sight, she probably would have burst out laughing and given him a nice, fragrant facial cleansing.
Fuli, on the other hand, was unaware that he had just missed such a fragrant fan service. Instead, he was surprised by Mei's sudden change.
The reason was simple: from the lap pillow to the coquettish complaint, this whole development was like someone had slammed their foot on the accelerator, taking the narrative pace from a leisurely thirty miles per hour to supersonic speeds.
If Fuli were a reader in front of a screen, as an old bookworm, he would definitely realize that he had clearly embarked on Raiden Mei's conquest route and had accumulated a considerable amount of favorability.
After all, for someone as conservative as Mei in matters of the opposite sex to do something as intimate as a lap pillow, it could only mean she had already made some kind of resolution and no longer cared about such trivial matters.
One could only say that when Mei had previously tried to play the role of Sekai Saionji and matchmake Fuli and Kiana, she had already set up a flag. And what happened later between Sekai Saionji and Makoto-kun... well, those who know, know. And for those who don't, there would surely be kind-hearted big shots in the comment section to help educate them. (yes educate them!)
Unfortunately, Fuli was just a participant.
The missing omniscient perspective and the exhaustion of a full day and most of a night made it impossible for his brain, which desperately needed to recharge, to piece together the fragmented information.
He was too tired.
Besides that, there was actually another reason why the boy couldn't concentrate.
[By my hard-as-steel Cousin Hua! Why can this Raiden Mei person always so nonchalantly bring up the dark history that I was planning to hide for a lifetime!!!]
He even used 'I' (in a shy, cutesy way). It was clear he was truly embarrassed.
Putting himself in her shoes, no matter how thick-skinned Fuli was, acting cool and showing off in front of the whole class during his chuunibyou phase... that was definitely the darkest of dark histories.
Fantastical?
Heh!
Joys and sorrows?
Heh heh!
A man must die, but not from social death.
Putting oneself in another's shoes, how many people in real life procrastinate and are reluctant to attend class reunions, precisely because they would be embarrassed to the point of digging a three-bedroom apartment under their feet when their past childish antics are brought up?
Fuli had thought that with his entry into the Honkai world, all these irrelevant things had been sealed away in the depths of his hippocampus, never to be brought up again.
He never thought that just two days after his rebirth, the little angel Mei would stir things up like this, digging out all the dark history he had sealed deep in his brain!
But speaking of stories—
"If you want to hear one, I do have one."
Recalling the past, Fuli's tone carried a hint of nostalgia. "Although it's not an original."
"If it's not an original, I won't listen!"
Mei pouted, but then the corners of her picturesque eyes curved up. "Alright, I know it's difficult for you. This time, I'll make a special exception and allow you to get by with a story you heard from someone else~"
"Zha! Thank you, Master Mei, for your grace!"
Fuli made a strange bowing gesture, thinking to himself that what he was doing was actually quite unauthentic.
Because the story he was about to tell was one he had heard from Mei.
Yes, the Raiden Mei from the previous timeline, two years in the future.
"Let me think."
Fuli, resting his head on the girl's fragrant thigh, organized his words, recalling what had happened before the Mei from the previous timeline told him that story, after he had broken through thirty-seven of World Serpent's branches.
...
Previous timeline, 2017 AD, after the Lament of the Fallen incident, in the Rub' al Khali desert of the Middle East—
The sun blazed high in the sky, and the sand stretched out boundlessly. The golden grains of sand shimmered dazzlingly under the sunlight.
There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The azure sky formed a sharp contrast with the golden earth, and the air was dry and scorching, as if every breath was an assault of heat.
It was in this extreme environment, where all traces of human life had vanished, that a man and a woman stood on opposite sides of a sand dune.
"Idiot, idiot, idiot! Fuli, you big idiot!!!"
Her Tengan-tsu easily captured the numerous injuries, both light and severe, all over her dear friend's body. Mei, who had just sent Raven away, was so heartbroken that tears were about to fall.
This was very, very rare. The girl had thought that after that night of the Lament of the Fallen, she, who had transformed into the Herrscher of Thunder and severed her past, would no longer stop for anything.
But she had forgotten that, perhaps to her, Kiana's safety was more important than the entire world.
However, in this world, there were also people who had always cared about her.
"Idiot?"
The handsome young man with black hair and crimson eyes casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb and carefully sized up the girl in front of him.
Her eyes, as magnificent as a starry sky, were filled with tears. Her beautiful, magnificent purple hair was tied into a ponytail, glowing with a faint light like a flash of lightning.
The time apart had made the already developing Mei's figure even more curvaceous. Her long, slender legs were clad in white thigh-high stockings, which made the small sliver of pristine white absolute territory incredibly alluring.
"It seems the intelligence I received was wrong. You weren't forced to join World Serpent."
Fuli, who had just single-handedly kicked in thirty-seven of World Serpent's branches in the Middle East and fought a fierce battle with the legendary mercenary Natasha Cioara, also known as [Raven], spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm.
"Good that you weren't. Then I'm leaving."
The twenty-four Trailing Shadow Swords surrounding him dissolved into the air. He pulled out the shattered Key of Domination 0017 from the battle and tucked it behind his waist, muttering, "Dammit, what kind of shit Divine Key is this! I knew the intelligence from that two-dimensional bratty AI was unreliable!" He then took out a motorcycle, styled after Project Bunny, which he had asked Bronya to help him configure, and sped away on it.
A crimson bolt of lightning suddenly struck, instantly paralyzing Fuli, who was riding in mid-air.
"Did I say you could leave?"
The girl's resentful and somewhat mysteriously emotional, mournful cry poured into his ears.
Even in his exhausted state from three days and nights of non-stop fighting, and under the control effect, Fuli couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"S-Rank?"
"Yes, the S-Rank you've been dreaming of."
Mei, who had appeared beside him, carefully scooped him up in a princess carry and turned into a flash of lightning, escaped away into the distance.
Before long, the two arrived at a relatively clean civilian house.
Mei carefully made the bed and, like a little wife, placed Fuli on it.
After tucking him in thoughtfully, she leaned down and stared at his tired eyes, saying seriously, "Stay here obediently. I'm going to get medicine. I'll be back soon."
The distance between them was no more than ten centimeters, so close that they could smell each other's breath.
With that, the girl stood up and instructed the hidden Kurikara to guard the boy well before reluctantly leaving.
Fuli was quite obedient this time, showing no intention of forcing himself to leave.
The difference between an S-Rank and below an S-Rank was like the difference between a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a non-permanent member.
At first glance, it might seem like Ukraine could fight Russia for two and a half years without a clear winner, but in reality, once the massive blood transfusions from Europe and America were cut off, it wouldn't be long before it had to raise a Gallic military salute.
Fuli was not arrogant enough to take on an S-Rank, whose hard power was comparable to the sum of a medium-sized faction, all by himself. So, he just stared at the ceiling and questioned his life while waiting for Mei to return.
She was weaker than me the last time we met, always muttering 'I can't do anything' like a little crybaby. How did she become an S-Rank in just a few months?
It was the same with Bronya before. Dammit, are you all secretly using cheats while I'm not around?
Where did you buy the cheats? Are you sisters still selling them? I'll buy them, even if I have to go broke!
...