Cold. Shaking.
In the boundless darkness, Kevin's consciousness felt like it had been swept into the deep sea. Pressure accompanied by bone-chilling cold constantly surged in, making him feel suffocated.
Until a certain moment, a voice that seemed both real and illusory suddenly sounded in his ear.
"You're awake. You're a Valkyrie now."
The instant this voice rang out, Kevin felt a sudden chill sweep through his entire body. His consciousness instantly pulled away from the darkness, and he abruptly opened his eyes.
Kevin found himself lying on a soft sofa. He looked around at his surroundings—the environment wasn't too unfamiliar.
As Lucius's good friend, Kevin had come here many times before.
"This is Lucius's place... Hm?"
Kevin suddenly realized that his voice seemed somewhat wrong, so he prepared to get up and check.
Just as he sat up, he heard something fall to the floor. Following the direction of the sound, he looked down and found an exquisite mirror lying quietly on the ground.
It seemed this mirror had originally been placed on him, but he hadn't noticed it when getting up and knocked it over.
Kevin instinctively looked toward the mirror's surface, then froze.
In the mirror was a white-haired, blue-eyed girl.
Her eyes were like carefully polished sapphires, radiating an azure luster. White hair cascaded down to her waist, not giving an impression of messiness but rather conveying an aloof temperament.
It was just that her beautifully contoured face bore a hint of confusion, giving off a sense of pure innocence.
But the combination of these two qualities didn't feel jarring—instead, it felt as it should be.
What concerned him most was the person's appearance. He could confirm he had never seen this person before, yet still felt a strong sense of familiarity.
He had once heard Su say that in every man and woman's psyche, there exists an idealized opposite sex based on themselves, called the anima or animus.
At this moment, he had to admit that if his psyche also had such an anima, it would probably be this girl in the mirror.
Under normal circumstances, encountering such a girl would surely be a delightful thing.
But right now, Kevin only felt that the worldview he had constructed since childhood had been shattered by reality. A sense of absurdity involuntarily welled up in his heart.
—Because the person in the mirror was himself!!!
Kevin instinctively reached downward, and then his entire being seemed drained of energy. He collapsed back onto the sofa, as if a mochi-like soul was floating out from the corner of his mouth.
"It's gone, really gone..."
He—or rather, she—had said goodbye today to the little brother who had accompanied her for over ten years.
—She had become a girl!!!
"Calm down, calm down! Maybe this is just a dream right now." Although this absurd reality had already occurred, Kevin stubbornly deceived herself. "When I open my eyes again, everything will return to normal, everything will return to normal..."
Close eyes.
Open eyes.
What met her gaze was still the familiar environment. In contrast, Kevin's suspended heart finally died.
"Hehe... hehe..." Collapsed on the sofa, unintelligible sounds came from the corners of her mouth.
At this moment, she finally had the capacity to review what exactly had happened to her. Memories from before losing consciousness began surfacing in her mind.
Eden, the most dazzling singer of this era, had changed her schedule and moved a concert originally planned for the Mu Continent to the Far East. As a fan of Miss Eden, she had originally planned to grab tickets together with Su.
But before even leaving home, Lucius had asked her out, followed by the conversation at the cold drink shop, and then the injection Lucius had jabbed into her neck before she lost consciousness.
Thinking of this, Kevin instinctively touched her neck, then immediately gasped. The stinging pain of the syringe needle piercing her neck still existed, though this was obviously no longer important.
Putting all the information together, it was easy to reach a conclusion.
Clearly, her transformation into a girl was absolutely inseparable from what Lucius had injected her with!
"Lucius! You bastard... what exactly did you do?" Grief and anger surged in her heart, prompting Kevin to prop herself up to find Lucius and demand answers.
But just as she got up from the sofa, still not adapted to this brand new body, she heard the sound of a door opening.
Kevin looked toward the entrance and found that the person entering was indeed Lucius.
He was holding a stack of unopened clothes, with what appeared to be a document envelope placed on top. Seeing Kevin's glaring gaze, their eyes met, and he seemed somewhat surprised.
"Oh? Good brother, you woke up this fast?"
Hearing Lucius's words, anger instantly flooded her mind. Kevin lunged up, about to pounce at Lucius.
But she clearly hadn't familiarized herself with this new body. Just as she launched her charge, she tripped and fell to the ground, then slid to Lucius's feet due to the smooth floor and her momentum.
Lucius was about to reach out to help when he saw Kevin suddenly spring up and grab his shoulders to question him.
"Lucius, is my current appearance your doing?!"
Faced with Kevin's interrogation, Lucius showed no surprise—in fact, he was calm to the extreme.
He nodded. "I did it."
Kevin flew into a rage, violently shaking Lucius's shoulders. "Give me my brother back!"
"Aren't I right here?"
"I'm talking about my other brother!!!"
"Then sorry, that's impossible."
"Gene Remodeling Serum, created by Professor Mobius, this era's most famous biologist. This thing has already shattered and recombined the Y chromosome in your body."
"So, good brother, you're now a true Valkyrie."
"Who understands any of that?!" Kevin's now delicate face was extremely contorted. Her hands gripping Lucius kept shaking, as if trying to mix him evenly. "Change me back right now!"
"...I'm powerless to do so."
Although she didn't know who Mobius was, Lucius's words had made it clear that she would probably have a hard time changing back.
Kevin felt a wave of desolation surge in her heart—it was a betrayal even harder to accept than anger!
"Lucius, I thought we were best friends, but I never imagined you'd do this kind of thing to me!"
Hearing Kevin's accusation, Lucius appeared extremely surprised, his face showing innocence.
"But Kevin, I already asked you beforehand."
"When did you ever ask me?"
Upon hearing this, Lucius pulled a voice recorder from his pocket. Kevin's voice came from it—it was their previous conversation at the cold drink shop.
"Go ahead and do it!"
"Even if you'll be hated for it."
"As long as you believe what you're doing is right!"
Hearing the voice coming from the recorder, Kevin fell silent.
She released her grip on Lucius's hands. Infinite regret brewed in her heart. Finally, she gave herself a slap.
Then, she pointed at her own face and glared at Lucius through gritted teeth.
"So the friend you were talking about was me?"
"That's right!" Lucius said matter-of-factly.
Hearing his words, Kevin reached out again, preparing to give herself another slap.
But this time she didn't succeed, because Lucius had already grabbed her wrist in advance.
"You mustn't, good brother, you mustn't. Why not hear my reasons for doing this?"
Seeing Lucius reach out to stop her, the anger in Kevin's heart diminished slightly.
But then she quickly heard Lucius say, "After I finish explaining, it won't be too late for you to slap yourself."
Kevin felt like laughing from anger. She threw a punch at Lucius's face, but he easily dodged it.
Lucius grabbed Kevin's swinging arm and, taking advantage of her unstable footing, used a skillful force to toss her onto the sofa.
Kevin cried out in pain, but after all this commotion, the anger in her heart had diminished considerably.
Lucius knew that now was the best time to reason with her.
So he sat on the sofa across from Kevin, leaning forward with his hands crossed under his chin, his expression unprecedentedly serious.
"Good brother, I know doing this wasn't right, so as compensation, I will tell you my deepest secret."
Kevin seemed to be seeing Lucius show such a serious expression for the first time, so she instinctively asked, "What secret?"
Lucius fell silent for a moment. His eyes became extremely profound, as if hiding some indelible sorrow.
"I traveled to a time far, far in the future and experienced all sorts of adventures."
"In the end, only after paying an enormous price did I have the opportunity to return to the present, to return to the beginning of the story, to change this era that will ultimately be erased by Finality."
"Thus, to save all of you."
"In terms you can understand, Kevin—I am a regressor."