"You're pretty strange," Kiana suddenly said, breaking the comfortable silence.
"What?" Lee blinked, startled.
"You should know that. Your behavior in general is pretty strange."
Lee felt heat creep up the back of her neck. "Uh… thanks?"
Kiana tilted her head. "I mean—was that rude?"
Lee shook her head quickly. "No. It's fine. It's just been… a long day."
"Do you want to just walk quietly?"
Lee made a face. "That would be awkward."
Kiana laughed softly. "Then you can ask me some questions about me. You know, conversation?"
Lee thought grimly, Yeah, right. I know more about you than you know about yourself.
"You might not be interested though," Kiana continued. "You haven't asked a single question about me so far, not even my name."
Lee blinked. She noticed that? For someone she'd mentally written off as a walking disaster, Kiana was surprisingly observant. The mental image she'd built of Kiana as a single celled organism was starting to fall apart.
Lee opened her mouth before her brain caught up. "You don't actually seem as stu—" she bit off the rest of the word and clamped her mouth shut.
Kiana raised an eyebrow. "…As what?"
"Never mind."
Kiana leaned in slightly, clearly intrigued. "No, go on. What were you going to say?"
Lee turned her head away, pretending to focus on the sidewalk. "It doesn't matter."
Kiana hummed, clearly amused but letting it drop.
Then, for appearances…
Lee said slowly. "What's your name?"
Kiana straightened proudly, almost as if she'd been waiting for this moment. "I am Kiana Kaslana, knight of the Kaslana family!"
Lee stared at her for a beat, then said, "You know the female version of a knight is called a Valkyrie right?"
Kiana tilted her head. "So?"
"So, since you're a girl, you'd be a Valkyrie of the Kaslana family, not a knight."
"You're the first person who hasn't commented on how weird that introduction was, or just skipped right past it," Kiana said with a satisfied grin.
"So you are aware of how strange it sounds," Lee said.
"Not as strange as you!" Kiana shot back. "I don't go wandering down random alleys with no personal possessions at all and then start screaming at the heavens! Who even is Yaoshi anyway?"
"Don't say that name out loud!" Lee said sharply, grabbing Kiana's hands without thinking. "Okay, maybe you can say it, but definitely don't say it in a prayer-like way, not when you need help, and definitely not if you want something!"
"Okay! Okay! I get it! No need to yell!" Kiana yelled back, ignoring the hypocrisy.
Noticing she was still holding Kiana's hands in her own, she quickly let go.
[System: Alert! Kiana's feelings toward you increased by 2 points! Current score: 75. ❤︎]
Thanks for being so useful. If Kiana were to become a pathstrider of abundance, who knew what direction the story might take. It would be a disruption of the highest degree possible, if she prayed, Yaoshi would almost certainly respond. But since things had already started changing a little bit, maybe it was better to leave a bit of safety net in case of disaster.
"Okay, please promise never to pray to them," Lee said, tone more serious now. "Unless it's a real emergency. Like, 'I am bleeding out and dying in ten seconds' kind of emergency."
Kiana's curiosity was practically glowing. "Okay, I promise. But who are they, anyway? That's what I wanted to ask in the first place."
Lee sighed, "Well, they aren't really a god, well, not in the traditional sense. If you pray to them you will get a response, no matter who you are, but that response almost never turns out good, there are almost always negative consequences. Like praying for immortality and becoming a mindless abundance creature with unlimited life but only animal instincts, or praying for food while starving, and your entire house being flooded with food and crushed or something similar." Lee explained.
"If you prayed to them, what are your negative consequences?" Kiana said, being surprisingly perceptive.
"I don't know yet, it hasn't been that long." Lee answered.
Kiana's eyes narrowed. "If you knew about the consequences, why did you do it?"
Lee hesitated for a long moment, then exhaled slowly. "…I was dying. Maybe not right on the spot, but not long enough to get a cure."
Kiana's tone softened. "Dying of what?"
"I don't really want to explain right now."
Lee glanced at the map overlay in her HUD and saw they were almost at Kiana's apartment. She opened her mouth to say so — then shut it again. There was no way she should know that.
[System: Alert! Kiana's feelings toward you decreased by 3 points! Current score: 72. ❤︎]
Well good thing I don't actually care.
Silence stretched between them for the rest of the walk.
"We're here," Kiana finally said, stopping in front of a tall, utilitarian-looking apartment building.
The exterior was as generic as they came — a cheap concrete block with peeling paint and a flickering entry light. Lee didn't comment.
They stepped inside, the sound of their footsteps echoing off the narrow hallways. The elevator creaked as it carried them to the second floor. Neither of them spoke.
Kiana pulled out her phone, tapped the screen, and the apartment door clicked open with a soft electronic chime.
"Come in," she said simply, stepping inside first.
Lee followed her, quietly taking in the small space.
The apartment was small, just two rooms, with a narrow kitchen that looked barely used, attached to a living room furnished with only a couch, a TV with a HOMU Box 3 sitting on the floor, and a narrow desk with an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair. The door to the bedroom was open, and another door, presumably, led to the bathroom.
It wasn't exactly dirty, but it wasn't clean either. The trash can was full of disposable cup noodle containers, and the air had that faint, stale quality of a place that was lived in but rarely cared for.
The walls were bare, except for a single slightly crooked poster for Kallen Fantasy VI.
A half-open suitcase sat in the corner, clothes spilling out of it as if Kiana had been living straight out of it rather than unpacking. The bed wasn't made, and a few shirts and socks were scattered on the floor. The whole place felt… temporary, as though Kiana was ready to move out at a moment's notice.
There was a grey steel case sitting on the counter in the kitchen, a gun case, presumably holding the twin revolvers Kiana used to defeat Honkai zombies and beasts whenever she had to. On the Desk there was a writing mat that was unaligned with the edges of the desk, and an open backpack with several papers shoved inside of it not in any folder, they would surely soon be consumed by the depths of the backpack.
Lee raised an eyebrow, "Nice… Place."
"Thanks," Kiana said, almost sarcastically, as she walked in and swung open a random empty kitchen cabinet. She grabbed the gun case from the counter and slid it inside like it was no big deal.
"While I do have a card that my stinky dad left me before he ran off," Kiana said casually, closing the cabinet, "I have no idea how much is actually on it. So, I needed a place I could still afford if it ran out. And this place? Tiny deposit. I can leave anytime if I need to."
Lee nodded. "Makes sense. I can help you clean if you want." Her hands twitched slightly at the state of the room.
Kiana blinked at her. "Huh. You really didn't question that at all."
Lee thought for a second before answering, "I'm staying here thanks to your charity. I'm not in any position to question your personal life."
Kiana tilted her head, smiling faintly. "You're weird."
Then, without another word, she crossed to the dresser, grabbed the top set of clothes from the pile, and headed toward the bathroom.
"I'm gonna wash up," she called over her shoulder — and then, just as she reached the door, she added, "Only walk in if you want to."
Lee froze mid-step, utterly speechless, as Kiana shut the bathroom door with a soft click.
[System: (〃ﾟ3ﾟ〃) Oho~ Suggestive line detected! Romance potential unlocked!]
Lee pinched the bridge of her nose. "I hate you," she muttered under her breath.
Lee stood there for a moment, stiff and uncertain, before realizing she had absolutely no idea what to do with herself. After 20 seconds of awkwardly shifting her weight, she sat down on the couch and pulled out her phone, only to realise she didn't know the Wifi.
"Great," she muttered.
She stood, walked over to the bathroom, and hesitated for a second before knocking.
The door cracked open almost immediately — and Kiana was very much shirtless and topless.
Lee froze for half a second, brain short-circuiting, before quickly forcing her eyes back to Kiana's face. "Uh — Wi-Fi. What's the Wi-Fi name and password?"
Kiana blinked, then shrugged like it was no big deal. "It's just the default one. Router's in the closet in my room. Knock yourself out."
"Thanks."
"Mm-hm."
Kiana shut the door again.
Lee stood there in stunned silence for a moment longer before forcing her legs to move. She crossed into the bedroom and opened the closet. Inside, there wasn't much, just another long metal case, a box of shotgun shells casually shoved to one side, and the router sitting on the floor.
"…Normal," Lee muttered, crouching to check the back of the router.
She crouched down, read the SSID and password off the sticker on the back, and typed it into her phone. The connection pinged online immediately.
Almost at once, a notification popped up from one of the news feeds she'd subscribed to earlier. Her eyes widened as she skimmed the headline:
Breaking News: ME Corp Executive Raiden Ryoma Under Investigation
3.4 Billion USD in Funds Misused Under Cover of High-Frequency EM R&D Project
Lee's stomach dropped. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. It's happening. It's all starting now! I am not prepared at all! I thought I would have at least a few more days!
She gripped her phone tightly, panic rising, before another thought hit her like a slap. If the Ryoma scandal was surfacing, that meant Kiana already knew Mei. More than that, she definitely had a crush on her at this point.
So why in the world was her romance score so high?
Lee pulled up the glowing system panel. The number 72 pulsed at the top, alongside a chibi Kiana illustration holding hands with two stick figures. Beneath it, the caption read:
"Only kids make choices. Real adults choose both!"
Lee stared flatly at the screen. "…She's not an adult. She's sixteen."
[System: Correction! You are physically sixteen as well. (≧▽≦)]
Lee froze. "Excuse me?"
[System: Your blessing from Yaoshi restored you to a younger, healthier body. Your official physical age in this world is sixteen! Isn't that great?]
Lee pinched the bridge of her nose again. "That is not the main issue here."
She paused for a few seconds, staring at the news notification still glowing on her screen. "That's really not the main issue here. Everything's about to go down!"
Lee sat back on the couch, staring at her phone for a long moment. The smart move, the only move, was to not go to school tomorrow. If she stayed out of the way, things would unfold just like they were supposed to, without her accidentally derailing half the timeline.
She clicked her phone off just as the bathroom door opened.
Kiana stepped out, steam curling behind her, towel slung lazily around her neck. "You want to take a shower?"
Lee glanced at her own hands, then down at her clothes. They were just as spotless as when she'd first woken up earlier that day. Not a speck of dirt, not a stray hair. She frowned slightly.
…Of course. It had to be the abundance blessing.
Even so, she hesitated. It would be weird not to. And I really, really want a minute to myself right now.
"Sure," Lee said, standing.
Kiana opened her dresser and started digging through it one-handed before tossing a small pile of clothes into Lee's arms. "Good thing we're the same size everywhere," she said casually, before turning back to grab a top and underwear and adding it to the stack without hesitation.
[System: Achievement Unlocked! "Intimate Logistics" — Obtained the underwear of a potential romantic partner as a gift! +200SP]
Lee blinked at the glowing notification in complete silence.
Kiana noticed her standing there frozen. "Uh… you good?"
"Nothing!" Lee said too quickly, clutching the stack of clothes to her chest like her life depended on it. "I'll, uh, be right back!"
And before Kiana could say anything else, Lee all but ran for the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.