Right at that very moment—
A hand reached out.
It pierced through the mire, through the darkness, through that twisted, suffocating sludge, and grabbed "Shu" by the wrist, yanking him upward with tremendous force.
The tiny figure, who had already been mostly swallowed by the mire, was forcibly dragged out of the abyss by that hand.
The black sludge traced arcs through the air before splashing back down to the ground. As if having lost its target, it slowly began to dissipate.
The world froze in that instant.
"Shu's" face was a mixture of bewilderment, a trace of lingering terror, and a hidden sliver of hope.
The person who had arrived stood against the light, their face obscured.
"Shu" could only see that their hand was still tightly gripping his wrist, refusing to let go.
Then, the person spoke.
Their voice was very soft, very steady, and carried a bizarre sense of absolute certainty.
She completely denied everything that had just occurred here, denied all those vicious words born of malice.
"You're actually just worried about your sister, aren't you?"
"Shu" froze.
And the person continued speaking.
"You don't hate your sister at all. You never asked 'why' her, and you certainly never harbored any thoughts of 'what makes her so special,' right?"
"You're just worried that she'll end up completely alone on her path forward, aren't you!!"
The figure merging with the light fired off three consecutive questions. Or rather, they were rhetorical statements. They didn't even need "Shu" to nod and admit to them, because she was so utterly certain of the answer.
She had simply come here to correct a mistake.
"You're worried that in the future, even you won't be able to communicate with her. You're worried that you won't be able to understand your own sister's thoughts. What you're actually worried about is just—"
She paused.
"That in the future, you won't be able to understand your own sister's pain?"
"Shu's" lowered eyelids twitched upward, his pupils slowly contracting within this frozen world.
He was... worried about his sister?
Was that it?
"Shu" didn't know the true answer. But "Shu" saw the figure, whose form was gradually becoming clear within the light, bloom into a radiant smile at him.
"Actually, you think so too, don't you?"
...
Right.
She thought so, too.
...
The scene before her slowly faded, like peeling away a layer of duckweed to reveal the true state of the water beneath.
The same room. The same desk. The same desk lamp.
The young Shu sat there, those two silver certificates laid out before him.
He stared at them for a very, very long time. Then he lifted his head and looked out the window.
The moonlight fell upon his face. There was no imagined agony on it, no resentment toward himself, and certainly no hatred toward anyone else.
There was only a sorrow and worry that transcended time and space.
I'm so useless...
What's my sister going to do in the future?
The scene froze, then gently shattered into pieces.
Kiana opened her eyes as those tiny, incoming fragments washed over her.
A familiar ceiling.
Morning light filtered in through the gap in the curtains, painting its signature across the floor just like yesterday.
She blinked her moist, stinging eyes, scrunching her features as she forced herself to wake up.
Then, she took a deep breath.
Phew—
It felt like a breath she had been holding in her chest for a very, very long time had finally been exhaled, leaving her whole body feeling incredibly refreshed.
Yes, it was a very... vindicated kind of comfort.
She suddenly thought of a specific idiom.
Shu wasn't awake yet, nor did he possess the ability to read minds. Otherwise, he absolutely would have corrected Kiana's misused vocabulary.
The phrase was "having a grievance redressed," and it wasn't exactly appropriate to use here.
Kiana turned her head to look at Shu, who was still sound asleep under the same covers as her.
This had to be a rare, deep sleep for him. After all, he had been so tired yesterday—how could he function without a good night's rest?
Thinking about this, Kiana felt her own eyelids growing heavy again.
The call of a morning nap was beckoning her.
Still groggy, Kiana turned her head back, wiggling her body to adjust herself into a more comfortable position.
But the moment Kiana's eyes closed, she suddenly recalled the scenes from the dream—
"Shu" being swallowed by the mire, his face twisted in agony, his eyes bursting with hatred...
The Honkai really plays dirty.
How could Shu ever make that kind of expression, or say those kinds of things...?
Kiana grumbled inwardly about the dream. Then, she suddenly realized something.
This was the second time.
The second time she had a dream like this.
The first time was last night, the very first time she and Shu slept together. The second time was last night... er, when she also slept together with Shu.
Could there really be such a coincidence?
Kiana kept her eyes closed, but her muddled brain started turning its gears as she seriously pondered this question.
Even though everyone called her an idiot, she wasn't actually dumb.
On the contrary, she was quite smart—
Having this happen two nights in a row, with a perspective clearer than any normal dream, and a perfectly coherent, continuing narrative... was this really just a dream?
Who remembers dreams this clearly?
Even a Kaslana couldn't do that.
She only had to think about it for a second to recall all the intricate details—details filled with a massive sense of unfamiliar novelty.
The arrangement of the room, the angle of the lighting, the color of the clothes, the expressions of the people—it wasn't like she hadn't experienced her own mind filling in the blanks of her memories before. She knew exactly what self-repaired memories felt like.
Those were real.
Plus, when she was playing through the story yesterday, she had seen a part where she was dragged into a dream by Sirin, and that dream turned out to be a massive foreshadowing for the later plot.
Wow, the buffs are practically fully stacked! It feels like a massive disaster is going to break out right beside me at any second!
Kiana pressed her lips together into a thin line, solemnly opening her eyes to stare at the ceiling.
No, the more she thought about it, the stronger her sense of foreboding grew. Kiana felt she couldn't afford to be this decadent anymore.
Time to get it together, Kiana!
As the saying goes, a year's plan starts with spring... no, wait, a day's plan starts in the morning!
Kiana, you have to lock in starting right now!
After giving herself a fierce mental pep talk, Kiana immediately determined her primary objective for the day.
I'm sleeping in this bed again tonight, or I'm going to keep sleeping together with Shu.
If the dream appeared again, it would prove she was right—this wasn't an ordinary dream.
And if it didn't appear tonight... well, she'd just have to sleep there another night to verify.
Yep.
It was decided.
She rolled over, ready to get out of bed.
Hm?
Why was there another person in her bed?
Someone is actually night-raiding ME?! I'm the only one who night-raids Mei...
Wait!
This wasn't her bed!!
She was currently under Shu's covers. One of her legs was thrown over Shu's waist, pressing down on the sleeping Shu so hard he had a pained expression on his face.
Kiana's brain bluescreened.
If I'm in Shu's bed, where's my bed?
She abruptly looked down—her blankets had apparently taken flight last night and had now crash-landed onto the floor.
At that moment, Kiana suddenly remembered Shu's warning from last night.
"Don't kick the blankets off."