[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Yeah. You two are way together.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Kiana—have you ever been hung on the moon?
"Huh?"
In the dorm room, Kiana had been wriggling on her bed in a manner that could only be described as shameful. The moment that message popped up, her movements froze mid-wiggle.
She was stuck in a bizarre pose—hips raised, face buried in the pillow—her long silver hair splayed messily across the bed like a pile of exploded sugar threads.
The glow from her phone lit up her blank, stunned expression.
"Hung… on the moon?"
Kiana flipped over and sat cross-legged on the bed, brows knitted tight as if she were solving a math problem that would decide humanity's fate—though for her, that usually meant two-digit addition and subtraction.
She understood each word separately.
The moon—the round pancake in the sky.
Hung—like hanging dried fish or sausages.
Put together…
Hang herself on that sky-pancake like a sausage?
"Ah! Wait—so that means!"
She slapped her thigh so hard the sound cracked through the quiet dorm room.
Her eyes lit up like someone had flipped a switch.
Of course it wasn't literally hanging like dried fish! Lao Da was obviously using some kind of advanced metaphor!
Wasn't it written in books that the moon represented one's heart?
"Hung on the moon" meant her love with Mei had blasted past Earth, straight into outer space—turning into stars and moons, forever hanging up there for everyone to envy!
What a heavenly script!
That was so romantic it should be illegal!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Hahaha, you could've just told me Mei and I are together forever!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Why use metaphors? I thought it meant Mei and I would never meet again—like I'd really get hung on the moon or something.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: …
[Image: Star-crossed lovers]
That ellipsis sat there like a row of dead pixels, lodged at the bottom of the chat.
Kiana remained cross-legged, that grin—wide enough to split her face—still stuck in place… but her eyelid twitched.
She blinked. Fast. A little too fast.
There were no fireworks emojis.
No flower-sprinkling stickers.
No one chiming in with wow, youth!
The chat was silent like stagnant water.
"Um…"
Kiana's finger hovered above the screen. The edge of her nail was chewed up—old habit.
She wanted to type, but her thumb just swiped meaningless circles through the air.
The dorm room air suddenly felt thick and sticky. The heat from her earlier rolling-around hadn't even faded yet, but now a chill crawled up her spine.
The screen lit again.
[AAA Customer Service Xiao Xiang]: Pardon the question. I'm not good at literature, but hanging someone on the moon sounds like it would hurt.
[Tohsaka Rin]: Uh… I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, but from a magus's perspective—if it were purely metaphorical, you'd usually say "beautiful like the moon" or something. Using the verb "hang," and specifying a literal location…
[Pointy-Hat Lady]: That's just a statement. Only someone whose cerebral cortex has fewer folds than a walnut would think it's a figure of speech.
Kiana's throat bobbed. A dry gulp.
She grabbed the pillow beside her, kneaded it viciously, then hugged it to her chest with her chin resting on its edge.
"T-this can't be right…"
Her voice was so small she almost couldn't hear it herself.
"Are you saying I'm really going to get hung on the moon?"
No no no no no!
Panic surged through her. She released the pillow, grabbed her phone with both hands, and started typing furiously.
The cursor blinked like her heart—up, down, up, down.
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Hey! Lao Da! Say something!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: What do you mean "hung"?! Isn't it about how moving our love is?!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Don't just send ellipses! You're freaking me out!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: It's not a metaphor?! Right?!
By the time she hit send on that last line, her fingers were shaking.
[Dragon Sis Is Dragon]: In Ursus, traitors and criminals get hung from dead trees as public warning. The moon is far away, but the nature might be similar.
[Legendary Fireproof King]: Even demigods cannot reach that full moon. But if it is exile… it may be an eternal imprisonment.
Kiana tossed the phone onto her blanket.
"W-what the heck…"
She sprang off the bed barefoot and paced up and down the narrow dorm aisle like a husky that couldn't find the exit.
After two laps, she stopped, snatched the half-finished cola from her desk, and chugged a huge mouthful.
The carbonation exploded in her mouth. The sting cleared her head a little—only enough to shove the fear back by an inch.
If they weren't together… if they really couldn't meet…
If "hung on the moon" meant it was only her—alone, all by herself—
Kiana jerked her head hard, flinging the image out of her mind. Her silver braids whipped through the air and slapped her cheek—it hurt.
She dove back onto the bed, grabbed her phone, and stared at the screen like she wanted to burn through the glass.
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Lao Da, talk to me!!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Where's the happy life you promised me and Mei?!
"…I really hate to break it to you."
Watching Kiana still clinging to her fantasy, Bai Qian couldn't help sighing.
Poor, innocent child.
miHoYo's writers had no hearts.
He shook his head, but his fingers were painfully honest as they moved across the keyboard.
"But it's better to rip the bandage off."
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Marriage? A happy life?
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Well… how do I put it.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Your future IS pretty explosive.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: First—because you're an idiot who's basically trying to get yourself killed—Mei has no choice but to join a villain organization. World Serpent.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Then, on that rooftop in Nagazora City—the one full of memories—
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: she pins you down and beats the crap out of you.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Literally. A physical beating. The kind where you can't even crawl afterward.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: It's famous. "Sinner's Requiem." Also known as the rooftop domestic violence scene.
The cola can fell from Kiana's hand with a clang.
Brown soda splashed across the carpet, but she didn't even notice.
She stared at her phone, pupils shaking like an earthquake.
D-domestic violence?
Mei… hits me?
To save me, she joins villains?
"This script is wrong!"
Kiana slammed the phone into her pillow, grabbed her already-bird's-nest braids with both hands, and made a whimpering sound like a drowning puppy.
"How can it go like this?! Normally it should be us fighting side by side to save the world, then embracing dramatically under the sunset! Why is it her beating me up on a rooftop?!"
She didn't believe it.
Even if you beat her to death, she wouldn't believe it.
Mei was so gentle—she'd even carefully catch bugs and release them outside. How could she possibly pin Kiana down and beat her? And join some edgy name like "World Serpent"?
Lao Da had to be lying again!
Kiana lunged back for her phone like she was grabbing a life buoy.
Her fingers flew. Typos everywhere. Pure momentum.
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: You're lying! Mei would never do that! She likes me the most!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: And even if—even if it was to save me, why would she hit me?! That's so weird! Can't we just sit down and talk?!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: And "World Serpent" is such a stupid name! Sounds like some third-rate manga villain mob organization!
After firing that off, Kiana flopped onto the bed so hard it squeaked in protest.
[Tohsaka Rin]: I haven't met this "Mei" person.
[Tohsaka Rin]: But if this is true, then you must have pushed her to some kind of limit.
[Tohsaka Rin]: "Had no choice" usually means someone was too stupid to listen to an explanation—so the only way was to reboot their brain with fists.
[Legendary Fireproof King]: …
[Legendary Fireproof King]: Violence in the name of salvation?
[Legendary Fireproof King]: Not uncommon in the Lands Between. Sometimes, to make a lost soul stop running, you need the resolve to break their legs.
[Legendary Fireproof King]: Miss Kiana… perhaps you should reflect on what you did, to make a gentle woman raise the blade.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Don't jump yet. I'm not finished.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: To save the world—to seal the Honkai completely—you end up having to stay on the moon.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Mei returns to Earth.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: The two of you are separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Maybe you see each other once in a while, but most of the time, it's just chatting online.
"I—I didn't even do anything…"
"I just… wanted to protect everyone. I wanted Mei to be happy…"
"I'm not trying to get myself killed! I value my life, okay?!"
Damn it—was my happy life really slipping away?
The phone buzzed again.
That ID she loved and hated.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Because you're the Herrscher of the Void.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Or rather—inside you lives the queen who destroys the world.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: It's like you've got a time bomb in your stomach, and you're cheerfully grilling meat next to it with a lighter.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Mei joins World Serpent to bargain with the world. In Nagazora City she becomes the Herrscher of Thunder, and she trades her fall into darkness for your chance to live.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: That's why she hits you—because you always shoulder everything, always trying to sacrifice yourself to save others.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: She hits you because she doesn't want to watch you die.
The dorm room went silent.
Only the cicadas outside the window, and the soft psst of soda bubbles dying in the carpet.
Kiana's arms loosened around her plush toy.
She stared at those lines.
Each word felt carved into the screen.
Herrscher of the Void.
Time bomb.
Fall into darkness.
Trading herself… so I can live.
A story this heavy—this suffocating—really was something Mei might do, wasn't it?
If it was true…
If it was true, then—
"Th-then doesn't that mean…"
Kiana slowly sat up straight. The pouty grievance in her bright blue eyes faded, replaced by a light of pure, stupidly sincere emotion.
"Doesn't that mean Mei is willing to become the enemy of the whole world… for me?!"
She snatched the phone up, not caring whether her hands were sticky with cola, and slammed the voice button. Her voice burst out, half-sobbing, half-laughing—excited, even a little proud.
"Lao Da! You're right! It really is a god-tier script!"
"I knew Mei loves me the most!"
"Even if it's domestic violence—if it's domestic violence, it's love domestic violence!"
"Hehe, hehe… becoming a villain queen for me is so cool…"
The chat fell into a brief dead silence.
[AAA Customer Service Xiao Xiang]: ?
[AAA Customer Service Xiao Xiang]: Is this… the brain circuit of someone in love?
[AAA Customer Service Xiao Xiang]: Even if your legs get broken, as long as it's "for me," it's acceptable?
[AAA Customer Service Xiao Xiang]: I don't understand. But I'm deeply shaken.
[Tohsaka Rin]: …
[Tohsaka Rin]: This one's beyond saving.
[Tohsaka Rin]: Recommend burying immediately.
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: What?! You guys don't think that's romantic?!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Mei's willing to carry the whole world for me!!
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: You're absurd.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: You don't ask why you have the Herrscher of the Void inside you. You don't ask why Raiden Mei becomes the Herrscher of Thunder. You don't ask what happens in Nagazora City.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: All that tragedy, the pain of "salvation that requires harm," the weight of fate—I said it all, and you absorbed none of it, huh?
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: I know you're a Kaslana, but "as long as Mei hits me I can accept it—and maybe I even like it"—what is that? Are you some kind of M?!
Kiana stared at the unfamiliar term.
"M"… she didn't know exactly what it meant, but based on the context, it definitely wasn't praise.
"I don't know what weird stuff you're saying!"
She muttered, rubbing her burning cheek into the pillow.
"But if it's Mei…"
She rolled onto her back.
On the ceiling were a few glow-in-the-dark star stickers she'd secretly pasted up when she first moved in.
Back then, she'd thought: If I could lie here with Mei and count stars together, that'd be perfect.
Now the plot sounded a bit more exciting than star-counting.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Forget it. I shouldn't try to understand an idiot's logic.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Bottom line—following the original script, you die. She becomes a bad person to save you. And you two will probably have one, maybe several, true fights to the death.
[Heart-Thief Crew Lao Da]: Still think it's cool?
Die.
Fight to the death.
Those two words finally pierced the pink filter and stabbed straight into Kiana's nerves.
I die.
We fight to the death.
That wasn't right.
That wasn't the future she'd rehearsed in her head a thousand times.
In her script, she became an amazing Valkyrie, protected Mei, and they lived noisy, happy days until they turned into two old grandmas.
"But the future hasn't happened yet… right?"
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Wait! Lao Da!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: If you know all this, then you definitely have a way, right?!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Like in a game—if you pick the right options, you can get the Happy End, right?!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: I don't want that ending!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Even if Mei does it to save me, I still don't want to see her suffer! If saving me means she turns into that… then I refuse! I absolutely refuse!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: It can be changed, right? Huh? It can be changed, right?!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Tell me why I'm the Herrscher of the Void, why Mei becomes the Herrscher of Thunder, why Nagazora City gets destroyed!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: As long as Mei doesn't become that, I'll do anything! I want Mei, I want everyone… I want us to have a happy life together!
[Want Campus Springtime With Mei]: Please… change my life!
-------
Enjoying the story? Support the author and get access to early chapters by joining my Patreon!
Find me at My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (400 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (140 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (158 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (400 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (172 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (200 Chapter)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (200 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (96 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (140 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (160 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (165 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (180 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (160 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (130 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (90 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (160 Chapter)
Naruto: Tsunade's Deskmate (130 Chapter)
I Just Want to Live a Normal (50 Chapter).
Genshin Impact: A Hundred Confessions? It's Just a System Task (70 Chapter)
OnePiece : Starting as a Veteran of the Roger Pirates (60 Chapter)
Uma Musume : I Have Special Horse Taming Techniques (180 Chapter)
Uma Musume : My other self is a Horse Girl (110 Chapter)
Jujutsu Kaisen : All Affection Stats Maxed Out (190 Chapter)
Satou Kazuma's Decision to Live by Swindling, Starting from Re:Zero (60 Chapter)
Bleach : Ichigo! Take Over the Soul Society (78 Chapter)
Crossover Anime: The Master of Plagiarism with a 'Love Obstacle (130 Chapter)
Arknights Succubus Nurturing System, But I'm a Quiet Office Worker (80 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: Using My Personas to Break the Hearts of Players (50 Chapter)
One Punch Man : i am King? (140 Chapter)
Genshin: My Stats Are Irresistible (50 Chapter)
Naruto: Master of Dream Fulfillment! (60 Chapter)
Why Are All My Chat Group Friends Spin-Off Characters? (80 Chapter)
Arknights : Batman System (30 Chapter)
Chat Group: Swapping Bodies with the Bad-Ending Herta from the Start (33 Chapter)
Losing Money on Uma Musume...What Do You Mean You Actually Won? (40 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it