Fuli got rejected!
The reason: He was a total scrub!
"Dammit!"
Fuli slammed his fist on the floor as he watched his teammates vote him out.
"Hahahahaha! Scrub! Fuli's a scrub!"
Kiana taunted him from the side, wiggling her hips and sticking her tongue out, looking every bit the taunting little brat.
"But it doesn't matter!"
Bronya's expression was as firm as someone pledging allegiance. "The Blank siblings are two halves of a whole. With my brother helping with strategy, the Bronya will be as fearless as Yuma with Astral by his side!"
[Then why were you just trying to get Mr. Fuli to team up with Miss Durandal to drag her down? So 'Blank' only combines forces when necessary, but otherwise, you act independently like the three sworn brothers from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Is that it?!]
The feigning Ana was roasting them internally.
"Speaking of Yuma and Astral, it reminds me of Xyz Summoning from the fourth Yu-Gi-Oh! series," Fuli reminisced, filled with emotion. "When I first started playing, I didn't know any better and put Xyz Monsters in my main deck to use as Level 4 monsters. Good thing my opponent didn't know any better either."
And so, after some chaotic shuffling, the battle lineup was as follows:
Sixth Serenade (Green Hat Connector) / Herrscher of Reason (Savior of Light) / Herrscher of the Void (Metal Gear Bronya)
VS.
Deicide (Schicksal Idol Ai-chan) / Cecilia (Golden Saint Big White Goose) / Azure Empyrea (Guardian Phoenix of Shenzhou)
A 3v3 no-holds-barred brawl. The IDs were on the inside, the character names on the outside.
After selecting their characters, the fake Blank siblings exchanged a look.
Fuli: "Your master-disciple trio against our master-disciple trio! Come on, Bronya, show 'em what you got!"
Bronya: "WTF! GO! IGNORE!"
The battle was white-hot from the very beginning!
Yes, this was a clash of titans!
With everyone already intimately familiar with their opponents' fighting styles, there was no room for probing attacks. Every move was aimed to kill!
Unexpectedly, the first one to break the stalemate was Bianka, who was up against Green Hat Connector.
It was as if her very bloodline was his natural counter, or perhaps her mother's spirit was possessing her from the great beyond. Of course, it was also possible that the sheer degree and variety of cuckoldry she represented simply dealt a crushing mental blow.
Before Green Hat Connector could even react, the Sixth Serenade he was controlling was down to less than 1% health!
"Damn you, Cecilia! Are you going to interfere with me even in death?!"
Far away in Schicksal, Otto flew into a rage and was about to ban Bianka's account.
Permission denied!
He looked up and cursed venomously at the six-winged, golden-haired woman floating nearby. "ELLA—!"
"Listen here, old man," Ella, who was lying down, sneered coldly. "If you suck, practice more. If you can't handle losing, don't play."
She continued to pilot her character, the newly released Deicide, in a fierce battle against Savior of Light's Herrscher of Reason.
And in that brief delay, Bianka, while fending off attacks from the other two, finished off Sixth Serenade.
"KALLEN!!!"
Otto collapsed to his knees, the light in his eyes fading.
He muttered to himself, "I will resurrect you, even if I have to make an enemy of the Imaginary Tree itself."
"No one would doubt your resolve."
Amber appeared in a flash, smiling. "But before that, shouldn't the Overseer be punished for sneaking off to the warehouse to play games during work hours?"
"NO!!!"
As a BGM of "Xue Hua Piao Piao" began to play, the situation instantly shifted from an even 3v3 to a 3v2. [T/N: A song that became a meme, often associated with dramatic despair.]
Anyone who's played similar games knows that when stats are equal, having an extra person is a game-crushing advantage.
"That Green Hat guy!"
Bronya gritted her teeth in frustration. She thought picking the #1 ranked player would be a free carry, but he turned out to be a massive liability!
As the sages of Shenzhou once said: Misfortunes never come singly.
K.O.!
"Savior of Light!!!"
Following Green Hat Connector, the Savior herself also fell in battle!
"Dammit!"
In her dorm at St. Freya, Fu Hua angrily threw down her controller.
Compared to Otto, who was completely steamrolled by Bianka, she at least managed to take out the player controlling Azure Empyrea and even blasted away half of Ella's HP.
"I've done all I can!" the girl, her hands wrapped in bandages, muttered as she stared intently at the screen. "Metal Gear Bronya, How Dare the Director's Hand Hold Hers... the future of the multiverse is in your hands!"
But despite her words, the situation on the field was looking extremely bleak.
After all, Fuli was just a glorified accessory—a cushion and backrest—offering every kind of support except actual help. The real heavy lifting had to be done by the little girl herself.
A dozen seconds passed. Her Herrscher of the Void was cornered by Ella's Deicide and Bianka's Cecilia. A brutal beatdown was imminent.
Kiana, watching this unfold, suddenly realized the gravity of the situation!
If they lost this game, Fuli would be dragged away by Durandal to "discuss swords"!
"Go, Bronya! You gotta pull through!"
The girl shot to her feet, cheering loudly for her friend.
As if in response to Kiana's desperate plea, the spatial power within her, which she still couldn't control perfectly, activated without a sound!
It wasn't intentional cheating; it was more like the instinctual reflex of a knee-jerk.
The effect was minor, just a slight tremor in the space around Bianka.
"Eh?"
Even so, the sudden jolt was enough to completely ruin the knight princess's follow-up attack.
She could only watch as her Cecilia, already low on HP, was combo'd into oblivion by the Herrscher of the Void, who then charged triumphantly toward Deicide.
"Wait!"
Realizing what had happened, Bianka shot to her feet, but the space around her was still distorting.
In her haste, she lost her footing and stumbled, falling directly toward the Blank siblings!
"Nice one, Bronya! Blank really is invincible!"
The boy was cheering with his hands in the air when he suddenly felt something fragrant fall toward him.
He glanced over curiously.
Oh, it's Bianka. Nothing to worry about.
He turned his head back to the screen.
Wait a second! It's Bianka?!
Shocked, he looked again.
And so, their images in each other's eyes grew clearer, closer...
For a moment, the only sounds on the bridge were the clicking of Bronya's controller and the grunts of the characters on screen.
A few moments later, having completed a clutch comeback with a sliver of health left, Bronya stretched lazily.
"Hmph."
Even for her, achieving something like this was incredibly satisfying.
The first thing she wanted to do was boast to her dear brother, but she found the atmosphere on the bridge was a little... off.
She tilted her head cutely. "Bro?"
"It's nothing."
Fuli's face was a little dark, and his lips were a bloody red. "Next time Bianka comes over, you two are forbidden from messing with her drinks."
Damn it all, that was so spicy it nearly killed me!
Bianka's eyes were also red-rimmed.
Compared to other girls her age, the straightforward knight princess had almost never fantasized about kissing someone.
But that absolutely did not mean she didn't care!
He must have tasted everything that was in my mouth just now, right? Will he think I'm gross for not rinsing? Why did it have to be now? Dammit, I even brushed my teeth multiple times before I came!
And as for the culprit who had orchestrated this whole mess, Kiana was frozen solid on the spot.
She still remembered the time she and Fuli had lost their first kiss. During the Third Eruption, she had fallen from the sky and landed right on top of the boy, who had just saved Theresa.
But that had been a fleeting touch, and with the final battle against the Herrscher of Thunder looming, they'd had no time to dwell on it.
But just now, she had seen it clearly:
At first, the two of them weren't going to hit each other. A coincidental lip-to-lip collision? That kind of thing is a heart-fluttering, dramatic development the first time. A second time is just the author running out of ideas.
However, in the middle of the fall, both Fuli and Durandal had instinctively sought a better angle, moving their faces closer to each other in perfect sync in less than half a second!
The passionate kiss that followed was basically a public declaration that they were the ones made for each other. And her, Kiana's, role had suddenly shifted from fiancée to Setsuna Ogiso, watching Touma Kazusa and Haruki Kitahara kiss at the airport. [T/N: A famous, heart-wrenching love triangle scene from the visual novel/anime "White Album 2".]
Suddenly, she felt a certain poem perfectly captured her mood: "When the wind blows, the grass bends to reveal the grazing sheep."
She wasn't the sheep, but it felt like the grass they were eating... was growing right on top of her head.
"Th-that's!" Kiana suddenly shouted, "It looks like Mei needs me for something, so I-I'm gonna go!"
Without waiting for a response, she turned and fled through the door.
Feeling guilty about cheating?
Bianka, snapped out of her daze, raised an eyebrow, about to say something.
"Yeah! Anyway, we won the game!"
"With Bronya and Bro working together, no enemy can stand before us!"
Fuli and Bronya high-fived gleefully.
"Looks like you'll have to wait until next week to arrest me, Bianka."
The boy shot Durandal a triumphant look, his clean face grinning like a clever wildcat, his upturned eyelashes a taunt in themselves.
He was completely oblivious to the fact that it was Kiana's foul play that had saved him from the "tragic" fate of being dragged back to Schicksal to become her plaything.
At the same time, looking at Fuli's playful, provocative, bratty grin, Bianka was suddenly seized by the impulse to pin him to the sofa and enact justice on the spot.
It was as if a little black Cecilia and a little white Cecilia were hovering by her ears. The black one brandished a knife and fork: "For a little brat who dares to provoke you, you should just pin him to the sofa and have your way with him!"
The white one nodded vigorously: "Yeah, yeah! Go for it, little Bianka!"
Unfortunately, her feminine modesty, her wariness of that unnamed S-rank, her commitment to her promise with Fuli, the fact that this was Raiden Mei's territory and she could easily be countered... due to all these reasons and more, Bianka ultimately suppressed the urge.
"Yes, you won."
A graceful loser, she stood up. "I'll be better prepared next time."
Seeing that Bianka was about to leave, Fuli panicked.
"Don't go! It's still so early!"
He quickly grabbed her arm. "What kind of host lets their guest come and go in such a rush? I told you I'd treat our S-rank Valkyrie to a feast the next time we met. If you leave now, it'll look like I'm a terrible host, won't it?"
As for a feast... I suppose I've already tasted it.
Bianka thought, staring at the boy's moving lips.
She nodded. "Alright."
"Okay, and then..."
Fuli glanced sideways at Ana, who had been playing dead on the sofa this whole time.
The future Herrscher of Ice trembled, "waking" from her "dream" and sitting up properly.
The blanket covering her legs fell to the floor, revealing a pair of luminous white legs and delicate, lotus-like feet in slippers, their toenails a tender pink.
"Bro, I'm going to catch up on sleep."
Seeing that they were about to discuss serious business, Bronya, not wanting to get involved in the messy affair, stood up and gracefully floated away.
Only after the elevator doors swallowed her figure did Fuli sit down opposite Ana.
"So, the newly appointed Fifth Councilor of the Senate has graced us with her presence. Is there something you wish to command of our humble, little-known crew?"
"Command..."
His velvet-gloved, iron-fisted attitude caught Ana completely off guard.
The girl gave a wry smile. "Mr. Fuli, you can just call me by my name."
Just a moment ago, he was trying to recruit me to the Hyperion, and now he's acting all high and mighty and ignoring me. Hmph! Men are all pigs!
Bianka chimed in, "Don't bully Ana. She's just an unlucky pawn pushed forward by those silver-tongued devils. The one who issued the warrant was someone else."
"But Ana represents the Senate now," Fuli said, unusually firm. "If I were to soften my stance and act all magnanimous just because they sent a super cute girl, it would just prove that I'm a good-for-nothing who loses his head at the sight of a pretty face."
Being called a "super cute girl" by the boy made Ana's heart flutter. After all, who doesn't like being complimented?
Right, all you handsome readers out there?
But since Fuli had put it that way, Ana cast aside her initial shyness and tried her best to adopt a more serious and earnest demeanor.
"I am here today on behalf of the twelve High Councilors of the Senate to invite Mr. Fuli to join Schicksal's Lower House."
Similar to the British cabinet, the Senate was composed of the Upper House, made up of the twelve High Councilors, and the Lower House, with its numerous members.
Compared to the Upper House, which consisted of industry leaders and heads of ancient families, the Lower House was a much more motley crew.
It was created by Schicksal after observing Anti-Entropy's recruitment model, designed to attract neutral parties.
Members enjoyed symbolic voting rights and numerous benefits, were given priority in dealings with Schicksal-affiliated organizations, and it also served as a networking platform. After all, anyone invited to join must have had some quality that caught the eye of Schicksal's upper echelon.
The price, however...
Fuli shook his head. "I don't want someone breathing down my neck in a critical moment."
Joining an organization inevitably meant being bound by its rules, and the Master of the Hyperion clearly didn't want to be told what to do.
Otherwise, he could have just had the Hyperion join St. Freya, right? A whole school of beautiful girls was waiting eagerly for a male presence to help propagate the next generation of Honkai-resistant warriors.
"That's precisely why it's an Honorary Councilor position!" Ana said eagerly, leaning forward so far that her fair collarbones, deep enough to hold a pool of water, and the top half of her chest were exposed.
It wasn't until Bianka cleared her throat that the young It wasn't until Bianka cleared her throat that the young councilor, noticing her wardrobe malfunction, hastily straightened her messy collar, her face flushing crimson as she sighed internally.
Fuli retracted his gaze. "Honorary Councilor? Never heard of it. Explain."
He was merely trying to use his sharp, eagle-like gaze to search for a potential Ice Stigmata on Ana's body, definitely not taking advantage of the young girl.
It was true. Fuli swore on the Kiana who had just run away.
"Ah, right."
Ana recalled the lines she had worked so hard to memorize. "An Honorary Councilor is—"
To put it simply, it meant enjoying all the benefits of the Lower House without any of the responsibilities. This included mutual assistance among members, discounts and priority for exchanging skills and equipment, the ability to call for aid from nearby Schicksal troops in a crisis, and receiving a monthly stipend corresponding to one's rank, among other things.
Finished, Ana stared expectantly at the boy, who was a year her senior, awaiting his answer.
"I see. That sounds pretty good."
Fuli rubbed his chin, then suddenly struck a JoJo-esque pose. "But I refuse!"
"I know you're eager, but hold your horses and hear me out."
He cut off the anxious Ana. "Actually, if the Honorary Councilor position is really as you described, I wouldn't be against becoming one. After all, even though the Senate put a warrant out for me, it didn't really have any tangible effect. Picking a fight with Schicksal, one of the world's three great powers, over it would be unwise."
"Then why?!"
"Because this matter doesn't just involve me; it also involves Theresa."
Fuli spoke seriously. "The only reason Schicksal's warrant had hadn't affected me much was, in the end, because Theresa helped bear the pressure. If I only considered my own interests and hastily agreed without seeking her opinion, wouldn't that be a form of ingratitude?"
"Well said!" Bianka, who had been listening quietly, shot the boy an appreciative look.
That was exactly right. Someone sticks their neck out for you, braving all the pressure to help you, and then for your own benefit, you don't even bother to ask before turning around and making a deal with the enemy.
A backstabber? An ingrate?
Both words would fit such a person perfectly.
"So that's why..." Ana slumped back into her seat, crestfallen.
"Therefore, I need to ask for the Principal's opinion."
"Hm?"
The girl's head shot up.
"Don't worry, just explain everything to her. Don't stammer, speak boldly." Fuli winked at her. "Theresa isn't the type to give juniors a hard time. Once she understands your situation, she'll go deal with those guys directly."
Following his lead perfectly, Bianka had already initiated a satellite call to St. Freya.
"Good afternoon."
The Principal on the other end of the line looked like she had just woken up. Her white pajamas were slightly disheveled, and her world-class cute face was still hazy with sleep.
She rubbed her drowsy eyes, a few strands of hair clinging playfully to her smooth forehead, swaying gently as she stretched.
"Yawn... What is it?"
"Sorry to disturb your nap, Principal Theresa."
Bianka silently snapped a few pictures, planning to trade them with Rita for some goodies later.
She looked at Fuli and patted the spot next to her, gesturing for him to come over.
The boy naturally scooted closer. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the white-haired girl on the screen, letting out a lazy yawn.
She's not Kiana, she's not Kiana...
After once again reminding himself that thinking of her as a replacement was wrong, the now-composed Fuli began to explain the Senate's "Hey! Can we make up?" proposal.
After hearing him out, Theresa let out a sinister cackle. "They think they can fob off my fian—cough!"
She shot a guilty glance at Fuli, but seeing his confused expression, the Principal breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "In any case, you don't need to worry about it. I'll talk to those bastards when I return to HQ to report on my work."
"This time, I'm going to fleece those guys for all they're worth!"
Her fingers traced the hem of her pajamas, a playful smile gracing her lips as if she were plotting some mischievous prank.
"Anything else?" Theresa asked.
"No more serious business, but don't forget about that thing."
"I know, I know. I'll bring Himeko and the others along."
Hm? 'The others'?
The plural put Fuli on high alert. Just as he was about to press for more details, the mischievous little white furball hung up.
"'That thing'?"
Bianka picked up the conversation, her eyes sparkling, on the verge of shouting, "Little Li, Little Li! I'm so curious!"
Fuli answered honestly, "We're going to celebrate Mei's lunar birthday."
The look of anticipation on the knight princess's face vanished in an instant.
...