Chiba Academy.
The cicadas outside had gone quiet.
Kiana lay sprawled across the second-to-last row by the window, cheek pressed to the desktop.
Her white braided pigtails drooped lazily beside her arm, the tips brushing a smear of ink she hadn't cleaned properly yesterday.
The teacher kept droning on. It was the kind of lecture that made sleep feel righteous.
She slid a hand into her desk drawer. A faint glow lit the cramped space.
On her phone, the group chat sat open on the input box.
Kiana's thumb hovered. She typed a few words, deleted them, typed again—then finally hit send.
"Do I really have to do this?"
The reply popped up immediately.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: Of course.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: You're just asking Raiden Mei to walk home with you after school. It's not like I'm telling you to rob a bank.
Kiana buried her face in her arms, leaving only one bright blue eye peeking at the screen.
Her fingers flew over the keyboard so hard her fingertips went pale.
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: But in her eyes right now I'm a weirdo!
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: Yesterday's pose… and that line…
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: So what?
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: Use your advantage—shamelessness. Stick to her.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: In this world, as long as you aren't embarrassed, the embarrassed one is everyone else.
Kiana puffed her cheeks at the word shameless.
She sat up; the chair squeaked.
[Rin Tohsaka]: I hate to admit it, but thick skin really is a talent.
[Rin Tohsaka]: Most people can't pull off what you did yesterday. I'm talking about that Phantom Thief "declaration."
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: Stop talking about it!! You all made fun of me for that all night!!
Kiana clawed at her hair, making her already-loose braids even messier.
Her eyes lingered on the word talent for two seconds—
Then she wilted and let her chin thump back onto the desk.
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: I've had someone cling to me before.
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: It was insanely annoying.
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: …But I still couldn't stop checking LINE.
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: Does it actually work?
Kiana stared at the phrase couldn't stop checking.
She smacked her cheeks with both hands—啪!—sharp and loud.
"No, no. I'm Kiana! I'm supposed to save Mei! I can't give up! Walking home together is only step one!"
And then—
She got an idea.
A good idea.
Heart to heart, sincerity to sincerity—why not just tell Mei the truth? Tell her they came to save her!
Kiana peeked down at her phone again.
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: Then let's keep it simple!
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: I'll just rush up and stop her!
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: I'll tell her I'm here to save the world and we need her power!
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: It sounds crazy, but sincerity is a guaranteed finisher, right?!
The chat exploded—several messages arriving almost at once.
[Rin Tohsaka]: …
[Rin Tohsaka]: Do you want her to call the police, or do you want the psychiatric van to come pick you up?
[Rin Tohsaka]: If a stranger ran up and told me that, I'd blast them with gemcraft. No—I'd call the cops.
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: Um…
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: Psychiatric evaluation fees are expensive.
[AAA Customer Service Saki]: If you get detained for harassment, you'll have a record. Finding work becomes hard. Please stay calm.
[Legendary Fireproof King]: Saving the world is a noble mission, but declaring it without guidance of grace… sounds more like the onset of Frenzied Flame.
No way!
Her carefully crafted plan—rejected by the group!
Kiana slammed her forehead into the desk.
At the front, the teacher seemed to hear the noise and turned slightly.
Kiana immediately sat up straight, chest out, face solemn—I am listening very hard.
Once the teacher turned back, she slid her phone out again.
Kiana lowered her head and pressed her lips together.
Yesterday, during their offline meet-up, they'd talked for a long time. Bai Qian had drawn out the Third Honkai in detail—not a simplified version, not something brushed over in a few lines.
She'd seen Mei being isolated.
She'd seen Mei alone.
She'd seen Mei sitting blankly in her seat.
Mei had been treated unfairly—over and over.
And today after class, Kiana didn't act the way she usually did.
She watched.
She watched Mei reach toward a scrap of friendliness, trying to rejoin people—only to be mocked as stupid and pathetic.
She listened.
She listened to the whispers and the malice that had clearly been going on for a long time.
They were here to save the world, weren't they?
So Kiana finally typed what she really meant.
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: But I don't want it to be like this.
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: After today, Mei and I won't go back to Chiba Academy, right?
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: I want to tell those people—Mei isn't the same as them!
[Want Some Campus Springtime With Mei]: I want to see Mei hold her head up again!
Kiana held her breath.
Her chest pressed the edge of the desk; her heart hammered.
Everyone else was here to help—she shouldn't be piling extra requests on top.
The simplest solution, the brutal solution, the one she didn't even dare think about—
was just "solve Mei" and be done with it.
Would Bai Qian agree?
Would he allow it?
Would he still help her?
The chat scrolled.
Saki and Rin—who'd been roasting her nonstop—didn't answer this time.
A few seconds later, the avatar with the mask lit up.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: I see.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: Then I get it.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: We're partners, right? If you're asking for it, how could we not help?
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: Listen carefully, Kiana.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: Go to her and ask her only one question.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: "If you had a chance to save the world, would you choose to go?"
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: You don't need her answer.
[Heart Thief Crew Boss]: The rest… leave to us.
The phone's light reflected in Kiana's eyes.
Those words felt warm, as if they carried weight and heat.
She stared at leave to us and slowly loosened the white-knuckle grip she'd had on the desk edge, leaving a pale red imprint in her fingertips.
The boulder in her chest turned feather-light in a single breath.
Kiana buried her face deeper into her arms.
If someone lifted her bangs right now, they'd see it—those blue eyes shining dangerously bright, and a smile she couldn't force down no matter how hard she tried.
So good.
Even though they'd only met once, even though they didn't know Mei—
they were still willing to do the "unnecessary" troublesome thing, just for her.
Boss… I've decided. Because of that line, I'm really joining the Phantom Thieves.
The bell cut through the teacher's monotone.
Then came the scrape of chairs against the floor, the thump of books shoved into bags, and the sudden tide of laughter and noise.
Class was over.
Kiana snapped her head up.
Her chair screeched across the marble tile as she stood, loud enough to make a few girls in the front row glance back.
She ignored them and ran out.
She wasn't in Mei's class, so if she wanted to see her, she had to go after class.
In the hallway, Kiana's eyes pierced through the crowd.
And immediately—she saw her.
Raiden Mei sat alone at her desk.
Long hair draped by her cheeks as she packed up slowly. Around her, it was like an invisible vacuum bubble: the classroom's noise reached her and then detoured away.
Kiana inhaled air that tasted of chalk dust.
Then she walked.
Down the aisle between desks.
Each step heavy.
Kiana planted a hand on Mei's lonely desk, her shadow falling over it.
Mei looked up—surprised.
Kiana stared into those violet eyes and spoke fast, without pausing.
"Raiden Mei."
"If you had a chance to save the world… would you choose to go?"
A few girls nearby stopped gossiping mid-sentence, their eyes swinging over like searchlights.
Mei's pupils tightened. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something—
Kiana didn't give her time.
The moment the words left her mouth, Kiana yanked her hand back and turned, running straight back to her own classroom.
So fast it looked like she was fleeing.
She didn't feel ashamed.
Why should she?
She said what she wanted to say.
She wanted to help Mei.
So even if people said things, she would still do it.
Maybe she was a weirdo too.
Then weirdos should stick with weirdos—so you don't have to be alone.
Only Mei remained frozen, holding half an eraser.
Soon, the next bell rang.
Kiana sat stiffly, both hands death-gripping the fabric of her skirt.
She stared at the classroom's closed floor-to-ceiling window and forgot to breathe.
The whispers buzzed like flies.
Weirdo.
She's acting crazy again.
One second.
Two.
Whrrrk—
Not the door.
A hand.
A bony, decisive hand dragged open the sliding glass window at the side of the classroom—roughly, violently.
Not from the hallway…
But from outside the third-floor window where nothing should be.
Wind flooded in. Test papers fluttered and lifted.
Every head snapped around.
A figure stood on the window frame, backlit by the sun.
Purple long hair whipped backward in the wind, a crooked hat perched on their head.
"Found you."
Bai Qian waved at Kiana.
Tallulah followed—one hand on the window frame—flipping into the room with brutal ease, her sheathed sword banging the edge with a hard clack.
Then the twin-tailed girl in red climbed in, dusting her skirt and complaining about something.
Behind them drifted the pink-gold-haired, half-ethereal woman—supporting a blue-haired girl who looked terrified, like she wanted to die but still had to show up for her shift.
The eyebrow pencils in a few girls' hands slipped and clattered to the floor.
The classroom went so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Bai Qian didn't spare the stunned faces so much as a glance.
He walked straight to Kiana, snapped his fingers.
The sound cracked through the dead air.
"Kiana. Let's go."
Kiana shot up so fast her chair toppled over.
No hesitation.
Under the whole class's blank stares, she sprinted past desks like a bird breaking out of a cage and slammed to a stop beside Bai Qian.
"What do we do now?" Her voice trembled with excitement, eyes shining like stars.
Bai Qian turned, his gaze sweeping the faces in the room.
"We're going to tell these people…"
"…that Raiden Mei was never from the same world as you."
-------
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