He pointed to the next character profile.
Raiden Mei
Identity: Student at Senba Academy, daughter of ME Corporation president Raiden Ryoma, bearer of the dormant Third Herrscher, the Herrscher of Thunder.
Personality: Gentle yet strong, empathetic and perceptive, exceptionally skilled in cooking. Bears tremendous pain and loneliness due to her Herrscher power, and yearns to be accepted.
Abilities: Control over lightning. In Herrscher form, possesses destructive power of catastrophic scale.
Mei's gaze settled on her own name and description. A flicker of surprise passed through her violet eyes, which quickly gave way to something quieter and more thoughtful.
She read slowly over the words "gentle yet strong," "bears pain and loneliness," "yearns to be accepted."
Then she glanced at the sketch beside Arthur's draft, the outline of a purple-haired girl whose eyes held both melancholy and quiet resolve.
Unlike Kiana, she didn't make a fuss. She simply tilted her head and looked at Arthur, her voice soft but clear. "Arthur, you're more than welcome to use my likeness. If the Raiden Mei in this story can help even one person feel a little warmth or strength, that would mean a lot to me."
No talk of copyright, no conditions. Just a simple, genuine yes.
Kiana pressed her lips together and muttered beside her. "Mei, you are way too easy going..."
Arthur gave Mei a quiet nod. "Thank you, Mei."
Then his finger moved to the third name. The sketch beside it was rougher than the others, showing a small, slight girl with silver-gray hair twisted into spiral drills, her eyes vacant and cold.
A note scrawled in the margin read: Childhood? Test subject?
---
Bronya Zaychik (Childhood / Related Setting)
Identity: Assassin, codename "Silver Wolf of the Urals," bearing an early connection to Project Bunny.
Status: Emotionally absent. A weapon built for combat.
---
The moment that sketch appeared alongside those sparse notes, something in the room shifted, subtle but real.
Bronya, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, set her pen down.
Her pale blue eyes fixed on the whiteboard, locked onto that childhood sketch and its flat, clinical description.
Her expression didn't change. Mei let out a soft sound, her gaze moving back and forth between the Bronya in front of her and the small figure on the whiteboard described as "emotionally absent" and a "weapon," her eyes full of quiet curiosity and a barely concealed ache.
Kiana leaned in for a closer look, tilting her head. "Wait, is this also Bronya? She looks... off. Like a tiny robot. And Silver Wolf of the Urals? Okay, that's actually a cool name. But what does 'weapon' mean?"
Dan Heng pulled his attention away from his screen, looked at the whiteboard, and pushed his glasses up. His expression was thoughtful but unreadable.
Stelle and March 7th exchanged glances, both clearly confused, looking back and forth between the real Bronya and the figure on the board.
Arthur could feel Bronya watching him with that steady, precise attention of hers.
He took a slow breath and explained. "In the world of Honkai Impact 3rd, Bronya Zaychik has a complicated and painful history. This childhood version is where her character arc begins. It's the foundation for understanding how she becomes who she is, someone who searches for what it means to have a family, and who is still learning to feel. The contrast is there to give her depth and make her story feel real."
He looked directly at Bronya, his tone sincere. "And to be clear, none of this reflects on the actual Bronya standing here. It's a fictional construct, built for the story. But within that story, her growth and everything she works through will be one of the most important threads running through it, and one of the most moving."
He paused. "I need your permission to use the name Bronya Zaychik, and to draw on certain... surface-level traits."
Silence settled over the room for a few seconds.
Bronya's gaze shifted away from the whiteboard and back to her screen.
She was quiet for a moment. Just when Arthur thought she might say no, she spoke, her voice perfectly even. "Fine."
Then she added one more line, without looking up. "Silver Wolf of the Urals. Not a bad codename."
She didn't ask why her character had been written that way. She didn't push back on any of it. She simply accepted a version of herself that looked nothing like who she was now, and somehow managed to sound almost approving of the cold, sharp name that came with it.
Mei opened her mouth slightly, then stopped. She held her gaze on Bronya's profile for a long moment before finally letting out a quiet breath.
Kiana, never one to dwell, clapped her hands together. "Okay, okay, the name stuff is sorted! So what's next, Captain? When do we actually get to play it? Wait, we have to build it first, right? I cannot wait to see how the brightest light saves the world!"
Stelle and March 7th snapped back to attention and dove right into it. "We've got the main cast now! Does that mean we need villains?"
Dan Heng's steady voice cut across the noise. "Based on this framework, Arthur, I'm going to need more specific technical parameters. Estimated complexity for the combat modules, scene interaction logic, data flow management for real-time character switching..."
Just like that, the quiet tension that had settled over the room was gone, replaced by energy and momentum and everyone talking at once.
The unspoken questions were set aside for now. Curiosity and drive were what mattered.
Arthur looked at the group around him, all of them shifting gears almost immediately, and felt something settle in his chest.
He knew the questions around young Bronya hadn't really been laid to rest, least of all by Bronya herself. But maybe that was exactly the thing that would keep pushing the story forward, and push all of them toward a deeper understanding of what they were actually building.
For now, the first real step had been taken.
Arthur pulled everyone back on track.
"Alright. Now that character licensing is more or less settled, we move into actual prep. Dan Heng, here's the initial technical requirements list you asked for." He held out a sheet of paper covered in close, dense handwriting.
"Kiana, Mei, here are the expanded personality breakdowns and early visual keywords for your characters. I need concept sketches by end of day."
"Stelle, March 7th, don't just sit there buzzing. Where is your market analysis? First draft by noon."
Tasks hit the room like a wave, and with them came a sense of momentum that was hard to ignore.
The road ahead was still long. But the ship had already set sail.
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones