When Kiana opened her eyes, she found herself drifting peacefully on the surface of the ocean, bobbing gently with the current.
The moment she regained full consciousness, her body immediately lost its buoyant equilibrium. As she began to sink, Kiana frantically began treading water, kicking her legs and sweeping her arms to keep her head above the waves.
Where is Shu?
Alarmed, Kiana whipped her head around, desperately searching the water for any sign of him.
But all she saw was endless blue ocean, rolling with gentle swells, under a blue sky dotted with white clouds that looked identical to the environment she had just left.
There wasn't a single island in sight. There were no birds in the sky. The only things performing here were the waves and the wind, weaving an oceanic symphony.
After a full 360-degree sweep yielded no sign of Shu, Kiana finally realized that the surrounding environment was completely different.
So... did I actually get out?
Kiana's brain was starting to scramble. The place she had just left and the place she was now were extremely similar, but this place lacked the surreal, dreamlike quality of the illusion.
So did I make it out or not?
Realizing she couldn't reach a conclusion purely through analytical deduction, Kiana turned to her trusty intuition.
Her intuition told her that this was reality.
Then what about Shu?
If she had successfully escaped that world, where was he?
Did Shu not make it out yet? Or had something gone wrong after she left? Had he met with some sort of accident?
Kiana absolutely refused to believe that Shu would suddenly change his mind, break his promise to her, and choose to stay in that world.
She and Shu had made an agreement. Since he had entrusted his absolute faith to her, Kiana was going to return that absolute faith in kind.
However, while she trusted that Shu wouldn't break his word, she had less faith in his...
Luck.
She distinctly remembered that before they entered that illusion, they had been on some snowy wasteland—she wasn't even sure if it was the North Pole or the South Pole. Now, they were in the middle of the ocean.
Who knows? Maybe Shu would wake up in some barren mountain wilderness.
Then what do I do?
Kiana treaded water, keeping herself afloat, but she was starting to feel incredibly dumbfounded.
She was still wearing the simple school uniform she had worn during the idol performance. Forget survival gear; she didn't even have her phone.
If Shu had popped back into reality in a completely different location than her... did that mean she had to just... swim all the way back?
Kiana took another look at the boundless, empty ocean surrounding her and swallowed hard.
Even for her... this was asking a bit much, wasn't it?
Navigation is easy enough; the sun is straight overhead right now. Stamina and swimming speed shouldn't be an issue either. I'm Kiana Kaslana, after all! I have confidence in that much.
Food might be tricky, but I can try diving to catch some fish. The biggest problem is fresh water...
Kiana began to seriously mentally prepare herself for an epic solo swim back to civilization. As for Shu, who she had been worried about a minute ago...
Yeah, she wasn't worried about him at all anymore.
Shu was different from her. She needed the Key o to access her "borrowed" strength. But Shu? His power was the literal accumulation of solidified, physical Expectations.
Even if Shu spawned back into reality directly inside a dragon's den or a tiger's lair, Kiana had absolute faith that nothing could threaten him.
Unless, of course, the ordeal had somehow turned Shu into an ordinary human...
Kiana suddenly decided she should definitely be worried about Shu after all.
Never mind, I need to worry about myself first.
Feeling a bit depressed, she began to doggy-paddle across the surface. The vast, empty expanse of water made her feel dizzy. Her normally nonexistent patience ran out in less than a minute.
"How long am I going to have to swim..."
After giving a mandatory, dramatic wail of despair, Kiana ducked her head and prepared to enter "serious swimming mode."
But in the next second, Kiana stopped. A strange feeling washed over her, and she whipped her head around to look behind her.
The rolling, churning ocean behind her had completely flattened out. It was a perfect, mirror-like plane, completely devoid of waves—exactly like the place she had just left.
Of course, it was only the water in her immediate vicinity. In the distance, the ocean still heaved with the wind and the currents.
She didn't know if the water was being "controlled," or actively "re-defined" to look like this, or if some invisible pressure was simply forcing it flat.
Kiana remained floating in the water, even though she felt entirely confident she could just press her hands against the flattened surface and stand right up on it.
Because standing directly in front of her on that flattened surface—one knee resting on the water, leaning on a hand—was Shu. And draped over his shoulder was the white, heterochromatic cat. He was holding his free hand out to her.
Exactly like she had held her hand out to him on that moonlit windowsill.