Sin Mal simply waited by the gate, watching Kiana and the others walk out to confirm her hypothesis.
It had only taken her one second to arrive at a certain conclusion. The only reason she was hesitating was out of sheer disbelief in her own logical deduction.
Not everyone could blindly trust their instincts without any logical basis like those Kaslanas. When it came to rational deduction, even if you successfully eliminated all the impossible answers, the remaining answer could still feel utterly absurd.
The next second, Kiana, who was still walking toward the gate, suddenly seemed to activate some kind of internal radar. Her head snapped unerringly in the direction of the figure standing by the road.
Beside her, Mei and Bronya seemed to have "auto-follow" enabled. The moment Kiana turned her head, their eyes tracked the exact same target, perfectly synchronized.
"Shu?" The last remaining vestiges of Kiana's school-induced exhaustion vanished. She murmured his name, her gaze slowly drifting from the unfamiliar face down to the cups of milk tea in his hands.
There was no point looking at the face. There was a zero percent chance Shu would leave the house without equipping [Mosquito Breath]. You just had to trust the vibe.
Mei and Bronya didn't doubt Kiana's radar for a second. The three of them shifted their gazes downwards in perfect unison, locking onto the milk tea.
"It is Shu," Mei nodded, a knowing smile appearing on her face.
"It is definitely Shu," Bronya added an extra word, as if they were playing some kind of word-association game.
Beside them, Sirin and Bianka had also locked onto Shu's location almost immediately. The others were half a beat slower, but it didn't take them much longer to figure it out.
Shu, standing by the school gates: "..."
Did I forget to silence my footsteps or something? How did they all instantly spot me the moment they walked out?
Feeling a bit paranoid, Shu glanced down at the [Mosquito Breath] pinned to his chest. Then, he began to wonder if holding an excessive amount of milk tea made him too conspicuous.
"Shu!" Having received visual confirmation from her teammates, Kiana raised her hand and waved enthusiastically.
Shu raised his hand slightly in response, and was immediately surrounded by the group of girls.
He was a little surprised. He thought Kiana would have just charged him the moment she saw the milk tea. Was she actually starting to care about her public image?
He handed the cups out one by one. Finally freeing his hands, Shu let out a relaxed sigh, shook out his wrists, and waved at Sin Mal, who was still watching from the sidelines.
"Huh? Me too?" Sin Mal, who had been preparing to leave after watching the show, froze. She raised an eyebrow and hesitated for two seconds.
Seeing that everyone's eyes were about to follow Shu's gesture and turn toward her, Sin Mal quickly decided she didn't want to be the center of attention. She waved her hand dismissively and strode over as if she had just arrived.
As soon as Kiana got her milk tea, she stabbed the straw through the seal, took a massive gulp, and let out a satisfied, purr-like sigh that sounded remarkably like Rice Cake.
Mei, however, took a closer look. Seeing the logo printed on the plastic seal, she paused, slightly adjusting the position of her straw before taking a sip.
As she tasted that familiar flavor, Mei suddenly felt as if she had been transported back in time, back to the days before the Great Eruption.
"Did you make these, Shu?" she asked, a hint of confusion in her voice.
"Huh?" Having just handed out the last cup, Shu turned around, looking at Mei in confusion.
According to Otto, the milk tea counter in the video store had been operating for quite some time. And in Shu's memory, Mei had been a regular customer at the store.
Yet, based on her reaction, she seemed completely unaware of the counter's existence?
"Sister Mei, this is from the cafe counter inside Shu's video store," Bronya interjected smoothly. With practiced ease, she pierced a small hole near the edge of the seal for her straw, casually dropping the truth bomb.
"Oh..." Mei immediately understood.
She did remember Shu having a small counter in his video store that he planned to turn into a cafe area. She just hadn't realized it was actually up and running...
Shu nodded in confirmation. Half a second later, his eyes widened in horror.
"Wait... what do you mean my video store?!" Shu stared at Mei and Bronya, his voice trembling in disbelief.
"Hmm?" Bronya tilted her head up, the straw still in her mouth, and raised an eyebrow.
As Bronya slowly pulled her lips away from the straw, the sense of impending doom in Shu's heart skyrocketed.
"Wait, isn't that store, [Home Random Play], the one where Shu cross-dressed as..."
"Okay, I get it!" Shu slapped a hand over his eyes, his voice trembling slightly. He raised his other hand to violently interrupt Bronya before she could finish that sentence.
Are you kidding me?! We're just throwing out doxxes like it's nothing now?!
He knew he couldn't keep this a secret forever. Even ignoring Otto—who was currently operating on pure chaos and actively trying to drag everyone down with him—there was no way he was getting past the Book of Time of the Fire Moth.
Because of that, Shu didn't even bother trying to deny it. The Book of Time was the ultimate doxxing weapon, recording every single detail with terrifying accuracy.
Even if Shu grabbed his Scepter, marched into the Imaginary Space, and held a knife to the Book of Time' throat demanding a rewrite, the Book of Time would uphold the utmost journalistic integrity. Not a single word will be changed!
You, Shu, cross-dressed. Not only did you cross-dress, but you also callously deceived innocent young girls...
"When did you find out?" Right now, Shu's only hope was that they hadn't found out too early. Preferably, sometime after that disastrous fan meet-and-greet event.
If his true identity had been public knowledge before the fan event, did that mean Mei and Bronya had been coming to the store every day and looking at him like he was some kind of massive pervert?!
Wow. The Honkai really plays dirty.
If that was true, the social life of the entity known as "Shu" was officially over.
Bronya instantly saw right through him and knew exactly what kind of psychological comfort he was desperately seeking. The corner of her mouth twitched upward in a remarkably cruel smirk.
"Take a guess when Bronya found out."
Shu fell silent. He stared at Bronya for two agonizing seconds before slowly shifting his gaze to Mei, who had wisely kept her mouth shut and watched the drama unfold.
"Ahem... you don't need to worry, Shu. Everyone actually found out about your identity... roughly around... the time Kiana came back." Seeing Shu looking at her, Mei knew she couldn't pretend she hadn't heard him. She gave him an honest answer.
Of course, the exact timeline of when they 'found out' versus when they 'started suspecting' was a completely different conversation.
But Shu had specifically asked when they knew for sure, and she had answered truthfully. No one could fault her for that.
Mei thought to herself, feeling only slightly guilty.
Shu let out a massive sigh of relief, pinching the bridge of his nose as he accepted the answer.
Immediately after, he shifted his gaze to Kiana, who currently looked as if her entire world had just collapsed.
So... the culprit who doxxed me to everyone was Kiana, wasn't it?