The rain fell harder and harder, the mist blurring the streets outside the residential buildings.
Clutching the wound on her arm, Kiana ran aimlessly down the cold, wet street.
Her stamina was draining fast; the hunger in her stomach attacked her in waves, accompanied by the stinging pain of her injuries.
The shock in that man's eyes earlier had given her an illusion—she felt as though she had finally returned to reality.
She walked into a 24-hour convenience store lit by white incandescent lights.
The air conditioning inside was blasting, blowing against her soaked jacket and making her shiver.
Kiana walked to the checkout counter, staring at the rice balls and bread on the shelf, her throat moving involuntarily.
"Um... please give me one of these."
She pointed at a tuna rice ball, her voice somewhat hoarse.
The clerk stocking the shelves gave no reaction.
Kiana thought the other person hadn't heard clearly, so she raised her volume slightly. "Hello, I would like to buy this rice ball."
The clerk straightened up, their gaze passing directly through her body to look at the curtain of rain outside, then lowered their head to continue organizing the chewing gum on the shelf.
Kiana reached out, attempting to slap the counter to make a sound.
But her palm struck the wooden surface and produced only an extremely faint, muffled sound, as if separated by thick cotton. She went to pull at the clerk's sleeve, but her hand passed straight through it.
The fear of being abandoned by the world surged into her heart once again.
She retracted her hand with self-mockery. It turned out that the man just now was merely a hallucination, or perhaps she really had become a ghost.
Earlier, Kiana had tried to make contact with people on the street, only to find that no matter what actions she took, she received no response whatsoever.
She didn't know if she had truly become a wandering spirit, which was why she couldn't interact with these people.
But the pain and hunger in her body felt incomparably real.
Could it be that after people die, they still need to eat and can still get hurt?
Just as she was preparing to turn and leave, to sink back into that cold darkness, the automatic door of the convenience store opened with a ding-dong.
Su Yu rushed in, gasping for breath, holding a black long-handled umbrella.
His pant legs were completely soaked. His gaze swept around the store, finally locking dead onto the thin figure standing by the shelf.
"Finally found you." Su Yu didn't care to wipe the rain off his face, staring straight at Kiana.
Kiana froze.
When Su Yu approached her, coming within just one meter, she felt a certain solidified barrier in the air shatter.
At the same time, footsteps came from behind the checkout counter.
The relief clerk, who had been busy in the back storage room, walked out.
"Welcome, what can I get for you?"
The voice was cool and peaceful.
Kiana subconsciously turned to look.
The moment she saw the other person's appearance, her pupils constricted abruptly, and her originally dim eyes instantly ignited with a violent rage.
Fu Hua.
Although the other party was wearing a plain convenience store apron, sporting black-rimmed glasses, and had her long hair tied simply behind her head, looking just like an ordinary college student...
That face, that calm and unruffled demeanor, was exactly the same as the person in her memories who had personally pushed her into the abyss... the monitor who executed the so-called "plan"!
"Fu... Hua..."
Kiana's teeth ground together loudly.
The pain of betrayal, the anger of being deceived, and the despair of losing Teacher Himeko surged into her heart like toppling mountains and overturning seas.
Disregarding the wound on her arm, she lunged a step forward. Her right hand instinctively tried to condense Honkai energy, even though there was absolutely no reaction.
Even if the current her was so weak she could barely stand, she still stared dead at the girl before her, like a violent little beast.
"Why are you here? Why must you still appear in front of me?!"
She questioned sternly, her voice twisted by agitation.
"Answer me! Why did you betray me back then!"
Fu Hua, who was preparing for the shift change, was obviously startled. She pushed up her glasses in bewilderment, looking at this girl who was covered in blood and full of hostility toward her, and asked in confusion, "Miss, do we know each other?"
This attitude of "being strangers" completely ignited Kiana's last shred of reason.
"You traitor!!"
Kiana made a move to rush over the counter.
Just then, a warm and large hand tightly clamped her wrist.
It was Su Yu.
"Calm down, she isn't the person you're looking for."
Su Yu forcefully pulled the girl back a step.
He felt the violent trembling of Kiana's body.
He knew clearly.
If Kiana took action here, the order of this world would be completely broken, and she would utterly lose her place of refuge.
"Senior Su Yu?"
After seeing Su Yu's appearance clearly, the confusion in Fu Hua's eyes grew even stronger.
"Is she... your friend?"
Fu Hua was a junior student a few years below him, and also a tenant of the Golden Courtyard. She usually worked diligently at various part-time jobs to pay for her studies.
It just so happened that one of the convenience stores where she worked part-time was not far from his home.
So Su Yu would often go there to say hello to her.
"The situation is a bit complicated. Anyway, Ah Hua, please keep this a secret."
Su Yu revealed an apologetic smile to Fu Hua.
"Let me go!" Kiana struggled, her eyes staring dead at Fu Hua, that hatred almost condensing into substance.
"Look around, Kiana!" Su Yu shouted in a low voice by her ear. "There is no Schicksal here, no Honkai. She is just a student working part-time. Look closely at her eyes!"
Kiana froze.
Fu Hua stood behind the counter, her eyes holding only helplessness regarding the sudden situation and a faint wariness.
That was an expression belonging to an ordinary person, lacking the vicissitudes and coldness of having lived through a millennium.
Su Yu blocked the space between the two, smiling apologetically at Fu Hua. "Sorry about that, Ah Hua. She's been under a lot of mental stress lately and mistook you for someone else."
"Um... trouble you to get her two rice balls, and also a bottle of warm milk."
Fu Hua nodded, a trace of inquiry in her eyes, but after seeing Su Yu's apology-filled smile, she sighed.
"If you run into any trouble... and it's inconvenient to tell me, telling Senior Kevin is also okay."
Saying this, she quickly put several rice balls and the warm milk into a takeout bag.
After Su Yu transferred the payment, he looked at Kiana behind him, who seemed to be in a daze, and sighed.
"Ah Hua," Su Yu said. "Does the store have a medical kit? Could I trouble you to help clean her wounds?"
"Don't let her touch me." Kiana's voice sounded beside Su Yu, seemingly carrying a trace of pleading. "Please... I'm sorry..."
"But..."
"I can do it myself..."
"Alright."
Fu Hua handed the medical kit to Su Yu and led the two to the employee break room behind the convenience store.
As the door closed, Su Yu's voice came from outside: "I'll be right outside. Just call out if you need anything."
Kiana hugged the medical kit. On a chair not far away lay some clean, dry clothes—Fu Hua's change of clothes. She instinctively had an impulse to refuse, but when she saw the concerned look in Fu Hua's eyes...
She ultimately didn't speak.
"What exactly is going on... She is clearly Fu Hua, clearly the Squad Monitor, that liar who betrayed me..."
Kiana hugged the medical kit, sliding down the cabinet to sit on the floor.
Like a deflated rubber ball, her face took on the colors of confusion and pain.
"But she... she is clearly just an ordinary person... why is it like this?"
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