"Yae Rin... is she someone Senior Kallen knows?" Natasha asked, observing the strange expressions on Himeko and Fu Hua. She was just being thorough.
Of the people present, Kallen, Himeko, and Fu Hua had all seen the original story. Even Kallen remembered it clearly, because she knew how important the "intelligence" within was.
But... did she really need to make a special effort to remember her relationship with "Yae"?
Kallen's face scrunched up like a bitter gourd. "If you're asking if I know her... I really don't. But if you're asking if we're related... uh..."
For a rare moment, she looked a little embarrassed. Himeko and Fu Hua knew it wasn't shyness, but a deep-seated suspicion of this "fated" relationship.
Because no matter what, she and Yae Sakura were strangers in this world. Let alone Yae Sakura's younger sister, Yae Rin?
Her relationship with Yae Rin could only be attributed to a rather ridiculous answer—
Fate.
This was by no means the kind of "fate" that was an inevitable trend. It was a rogue development that dragged a person's life onto a bizarre path, disregarding their personality, choices, and decisions, and even fundamentally denying their soul!
It just used a series of coincidences to build a castle in the air. A slight breeze rustling the fragile "past" would be enough to collapse the future that countless people had fought and died to create.
"Fate" has never respected anyone. And those who believe in this kind of "fate"—
Have never respected the weight of a soul from the very beginning.
The reason epics are romantic is precisely because they are chosen and written by humans. From beginning to end, humanity is always at the core, not a mere appendage to the development of events.
And for them, becoming an appendage was not the scary part. What they feared was that if this outcome was true, it meant that many things would follow a "predestined" track.
And what was the most terrifying and grandest thing that could happen next?
The descent of the Honkai.
They were not afraid of the monsters that were supposed to be born appearing again. But they could not accept that those who had already died once were destined to die again.
If this kind of fate truly existed, then what was the reason for them gathering here?
They were here to shatter this "fate."
Everyone present was a little silent. The situation with Kallen and Yae Rin had touched upon their deepest taboos. Kallen, Himeko, and Fu Hua were even silently looking at Chen Tianwu, who had come with Ana.
If the relationship between Kallen and Yae Rin was the pull of "fate," then the situation with these two could be said to be two heads being pushed together by a big hand called fate.
These two "cause and effect reversal" arguments almost confirmed this fact, making them feel as if a heavy stone was pressing on their hearts.
"Actually... there's another possibility." Just then, Joachim, who knew nothing of the so-called "original story," spoke up, proposing a third hypothesis.
"If I remember correctly, Senior Kallen, when the work Alahato was being filmed, you were the suit actor for Alahato, right?"
"...Huh? Was I?" Kallen blinked. "But I don't remember filming Alahato."
"Because the original proposal for Alahato was titled Kallen Fantasy," Joachim lowered his head slightly, letting his non-prescription glasses reflect a cool glint of light that obscured his eyes.
Kallen's eyes widened.
She didn't know about Alahato, only that it was a particularly good tokusatsu show.
But if it was Kallen Fantasy, she knew it all too well!
Because the day Otto took her away from Future City, she had listened to his non-stop muttering on the plane!
"Future City doesn't care about individual ideas at all. The Zeroth Sequence is just a mechanical clunker. Kallen Fantasy is a masterpiece of creation, it could have become the fourth great miracle of Future City, a next-generation game on par with Peach Blossom Spring... and they rejected the resource allocation..."
So Alahato was a spin-off born from the scrapped project Kallen Fantasy?!
No wonder Otto's face had turned so red when he saw Alahato. And she had thought he really liked it, and even spent the money she had saved for a big meal to buy him a super expensive model...
"But... if it's just that, it seems... huh?"
Kallen's voice trailed off as Joachim silently lifted a suitcase that had been at his feet all this time.
Inside the suitcase was Joachim's Alahato suit armor!
"To be honest, in the time since I left Future City and arrived in the Chinese mainland, I've spent a long time appearing as Alahato." Whether it was an illusion or not, everyone heard a hint of showing off in Joachim's words.
"And the main director, editor, and post-production for the entire Alahato series... is none other than myself."
The only response Joachim got was silence. There was a sense of powerlessness, like being forced to eat fish in West Lake vinegar because you didn't want to eat arsenic.
Maybe we should go back to discussing that "inevitable" fate... Alright, neither answer seemed like something a human would come up with.
But at least, the meeting of a scrapped project and its final product was easier to accept than "fate."
"What about you two? What's the relationship between you?" The four of them pinched their noses and temporarily accepted this answer. Then, everyone turned in unison to look at Ana and Chen Tianwu.
Chen Tianwu also turned to look at Ana, his eyes filled with the purest thirst for knowledge.
Of course he was confused. Before today, he didn't know this person at all. He didn't have an online romance, no pen pals, and no distant relatives.
Other than his younger sister, Chen Tianwen, he was practically "detached from the world."
So what reason did this person have to appear beside the "unselectable" him?
"I... I..." Ana stammered. Seeing that she could neither bluff nor escape, she simply closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I saw him after the Honkai erupted!"
"What?" Chen Tianwu was the only one who reacted. He pointed at himself in disbelief. "You really saw... wait, didn't you say the Honkai erupted in the afternoon? You saw me in the future?!"
Does that even count?!
Of course it did. Everyone present, except for Chen Tianwu and Ana, nodded, fully accepting this answer.
What was the criterion for this connection? After they had stated their locations and relationships, it was already obvious.
Among them, the most obvious was Natasha. Her connection was "Heliopolis Life Sciences Pharmaceutical." More accurately, her only connection was to the Heliopolis in ARC City.
The Heliopolis in Sapphire City had practically no connection to Natasha, yet she had appeared at its Sapphire City branch.
From this, two important pieces of information could be deduced: their arrival points were restricted to Sapphire City, and Natasha's connection had been "grafted" from the Heliopolis in ARC City.
So, in this "connection," the unchanging element was the source point. Since the Heliopolis side had clearly changed, then... Natasha was the one who determined this connection.
Therefore, it was very reasonable for Ana's connection to determine her appearance near Chen Tianwu.
But one point still needed to be confirmed... What was the relationship between Ana and Chen Tianwu? None of them had any memory of Chen Tianwu, which meant he had probably never joined Fire Moth...
He might have already died in the Honkai.
"Can you tell us what happened after you met Chen Tianwu?" Natasha said. "If you just saw him briefly, then it's not reasonable."
Ana opened her mouth, but her eyes involuntarily drifted to Chen Tianwu.
Could she... say it?
Did she dare to say it?
To say that when the Honkai erupted, she had abandoned him out of fear and self-preservation, to the point that she had a six-month memory blackout?
Ana clenched her fists. She didn't dare.
Senior Kallen, Senior Himeko, Senior Natasha... Everyone here was fighting on the front lines, risking their lives for the future of humanity, for the safety of others.
Compared to them, her act of evasion was... nothing but despicable.
A coward should not be laughed at, but a coward will feel ashamed when facing the sun.
She, like Chen Tianwu, wanted to be one of the heroes in this disaster. No need for songs, no need for worship, no need for remembrance. She just wanted to be a hero who... she would be proud of whenever she remembered.
Having grown up in the Schariac family, next door to the Kaslanas, among rising suns, she also wanted to be one of the stars in the sky.
But compared to those naturally shining stars, she was just a firefly, willing to hide her own faint light that might be laughed at.
And this time... she had finally found a starless night. She didn't want to miss this chance too.
So, she didn't dare to speak. She was afraid of being disliked, of being ostracized by these suns. She was like a wounded little animal, desperately trying to hide her flaws, to maintain her "useful" appearance, in order to continue to survive in the group.
So...
Please don't ask anymore...
This was a plea Ana could only cry out in her heart. But all she showed was her trying to shrink herself, to disappear from their sight.
It was useless, because everyone was watching her.
But not entirely useless.
Natasha, Himeko, Fu Hua, and Kallen watched as Ana twisted and turned, looking like she was "about to speak but holding back." Another very familiar figure unconsciously popped into their minds.
Hiss... isn't this how Shu usually acts?
Although the form of expression was a bit different, when they asked Shu questions, he was indeed in this state.
But Shu could at least squeeze out an answer.
The four of them, with their "rich experience," calmly exchanged a few glances. Then, Fu Hua spoke.
"Ana, you just need to answer us, is Chen Tianwu very important to you?
"Or rather, did he, or something that happened because of him, have a deep impact on you?"
Answering this question was much easier than the previous one! Ana let out a huge sigh of relief and then nodded seriously.
"Then it's clear," Himeko nodded. "With that, this matter can be confirmed."
Then, she looked at Joachim, waiting for him to summarize.
Joachim took a deep breath, his expression a little grave.
"I think... you haven't traveled through time, but have entered an illusion... or rather, you've entered a piece of stagnant [time], and have touched upon a piece of [causality] that is independent of your world."
Everyone... including Himeko, was stunned when they heard Joachim's words.
"Wait, that's too big a leap. I didn't follow," Kallen raised her hand and touched her head, making sure her brain was still normal.
"Can you explain why?" Fu Hua looked at Joachim calmly and asked.
Joachim didn't look well. She had seen this expression before.
Back when Shu was showing them the "original story," when they learned they might be "just a story, a character in a game," everyone had had such an expression.
When a person suddenly learns that they are "fake," that they have been deliberately "created," anyone would have a moment of unease.
This was a worse development than "fate."
"Because of [tendency]," it could only be said that Joachim was worthy of being the next leader of Future City. His face recovered as quickly as Otto's had back then. "Your appearances all carry a strong [tendency].
"This [tendency] is reflected in the fact that it only focuses on you. In an objective world, there shouldn't be this kind of [tendency].
"One hypothesis—there really is such an ethereal thing as [fate] in this world. It's a fundamental rule of how this world operates, and it ultimately produces this effect for you...
"But this hypothesis has a fatal flaw," Joachim sighed, his eyes a little dim.
"Since [fate] is an irreversible, inviolable fundamental rule of the world, why would it be restricted to Sapphire City?
"According to what you said, you all entered the ruins of the Sapphire Pearl at the same time, but you appeared scattered throughout Sapphire City. Your connections should have been more dispersed, yet they were concentrated in the small city of Sapphire...
"It's too deliberate, as if a clear consciousness is manipulating your landing points."
"So, our time travel wasn't an accident?" Now, even Kallen understood what Joachim meant.
"We were deliberately sent here by some entity? And even the places we appeared were carefully chosen by that entity?"
Joachim nodded heavily, making Kallen gasp.
"And this entity... is most likely the [Herrscher] you described."