Cold. Shivering.
In the boundless darkness, Kevin's consciousness felt as though it had been dragged into the depths of the sea. Pressure and piercing cold came crashing over him in waves, suffocating him.
Then, at some point, a voice—half real, half dreamlike—suddenly rang out by his ear.
"You're awake. You're a Valkyrie now."
The instant those words sounded, a violent chill swept through Kevin's entire body. His consciousness was yanked out of the darkness, and he snapped his eyes open.
He found himself lying on a soft sofa. Looking around, he realized the surroundings were not all that unfamiliar.
As Mu's best bro, Kevin had been here many times before.
"This is Mu's house... huh?"
Kevin suddenly noticed that his voice seemed... off. So he started to sit up to check himself.
The moment he moved, something fell to the floor beside him. Following the sound, he looked down and saw an exquisitely made mirror lying there quietly.
Apparently, it had been resting on top of him, and he had knocked it down without noticing when he got up.
Kevin glanced at the mirror out of reflex—
And froze.
Reflected in the glass was a white-haired, blue-eyed girl.
Her eyes were like finely polished sapphires, shining with a clear azure glow. Her long white hair flowed all the way down to her waist, yet instead of looking messy, it gave her an aloof, almost untouchable air.
The only thing marring that beautiful face, with its graceful contours, was a trace of bewilderment—one that lent her a sort of innocent purity.
Yet the two qualities did not clash at all. If anything, they felt perfectly natural together.
What struck him most, however, was her appearance. He could swear he had never seen this girl before in his life, and yet she gave him an overwhelming sense of familiarity.
He remembered Su once saying that deep in every man and woman's psyche, there existed a most perfect image of the opposite sex modeled after themselves—an anima, or animus.
And in that moment, Kevin had to admit that if he really did possess such an inner anima, then it would probably look exactly like the girl in the mirror.
Under ordinary circumstances, encountering a girl like this would have been a delightful thing.
But right now, Kevin only felt as though the worldview he had built up since childhood had been smashed to pieces by reality itself. A profound sense of absurdity welled up inside him.
Because the person in the mirror—
Was him!!!
Kevin instinctively reached downward. Then his whole body seemed to lose all strength, and he collapsed back onto the sofa, as though a marshmallow-like soul had drifted out of the corner of his mouth.
"It's gone... it's really gone..."
He—or rather, she—had today bid farewell to the little brother that had been with him for more than ten years.
She had turned into a girl!!!
"Calm down, calm down! Maybe this is just a dream." Even with the absurd truth already right in front of her, Kevin stubbornly clung to denial. "When I open my eyes again, everything will go back to normal. Everything will go back to normal..."
Close eyes.
Open eyes.
The same familiar surroundings were still there.
And with that, Kevin's last shred of hope finally died.
"Heh... heh..."
Lying limp on the sofa, she let out a series of meaningless sounds.
Only now did she have the mental room to sort through what had happened to her. The memories from before she lost consciousness began surfacing one by one.
Because of a schedule change, Eden—the brightest singer of the current era—had moved her concert from Mu Continent to the Far East. As Miss Eden's fan, Kevin had originally planned to go with Su to try and get tickets.
But before she could even leave the house, Mu had asked her out. Then came their conversation at the dessert shop... and finally, that injection Mu had driven into her neck right before she lost consciousness.
Thinking of that, Kevin instinctively reached up to touch her neck, then sucked in a sharp breath. The stinging pain from the needle was still there—but clearly, that was no longer the important part.
Putting all the information together, it was easy to arrive at one conclusion.
Her turning into a girl was absolutely inseparable from whatever Mu had injected into her.
"Mu! You bastard... what the hell did you do to me?!"
Grief and anger surged up together, driving Kevin to prop herself up and go confront Mu.
But she had only just gotten off the sofa and had yet to get used to her brand-new body when she heard the sound of a door opening.
Kevin turned toward the entrance and saw that the one coming in was indeed Li Mu.
He was carrying a stack of unopened clothes, with what looked like a document pouch resting on top. When their eyes met and he saw Kevin glaring at him, he looked a little surprised.
"Huh? Bro, you woke up that fast?"
The moment Kevin heard that, all her anger exploded. She lunged at him—
Only to immediately crash to the floor, her unfamiliar new body failing her. Then, thanks to the smooth floor and sheer momentum, she slid all the way to Li Mu's feet.
Li Mu had just started to reach out to help her up when Kevin suddenly sprang to her feet, grabbed his shoulders, and demanded,
"Mu, did you do this to me?!"
Li Mu was not remotely surprised by the accusation. In fact, he was calm to the point of absurdity.
He nodded. "Yep. I did."
Kevin flew into a rage and shook him violently by the shoulders.
"Give me my little bro back!"
"Isn't your bro right here?"
"I mean the other little bro!!!"
"Sorry. That one's beyond my capabilities."
"Genetic restructuring serum. Made by Professor Mobius, the most famous biologist of the century. That stuff already smashed apart and reassembled the Y chromosome in your body."
"So, my good bro—now you're a genuine Valkyrie."
"Who the hell understands anything you're saying?!" Kevin's now delicate little face twisted wildly as she kept shaking Li Mu by the arms, as though trying to mix him evenly. "Turn me back right now!"
"...I can't."
Kevin didn't know who this Mobius person was, but from Mu's explanation, it was clear enough that she probably wasn't ever turning back.
A wave of bleak despair washed over her heart.
More unbearable than anger was betrayal.
"Mu, I thought we were best friends! I never thought you'd do something like this to me!"
Hearing Kevin's accusation, Li Mu looked deeply surprised, even innocent.
"But Kevin, I already asked you beforehand."
"When did you ever ask me?"
At that, Li Mu took a voice recorder out of his pocket. Kevin's own voice played from it—the conversation they had earlier at the dessert shop.
"Just do it!"
"Even if he ends up hating you for it."
"As long as you believe what you're doing is right!"
Hearing her own voice come out of the recorder, Kevin fell silent.
She let go of Li Mu's shoulders. Boundless regret brewed in her heart—and in the end, she slapped herself across the face.
Then she pointed at her own face and glared at Li Mu through gritted teeth.
"So the 'friend' you were talking about... was me?"
"Of course," Li Mu said as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Hearing that, Kevin raised a hand, ready to slap herself again.
But this time she didn't succeed, because Li Mu had already grabbed her wrist in advance.
"Don't, bro, don't. How about you at least hear out my reasons first?"
Seeing Li Mu stop her, some of the fire in Kevin's chest eased a little.
But then he promptly added, "You can keep slapping yourself after I finish explaining."
Kevin was so mad she almost laughed. She threw a punch straight at Li Mu's face, only for him to dodge it with ease.
Li Mu caught Kevin's arm in one hand, used her unsteady footing against her, and with a deft motion tossed her right back onto the sofa.
Kevin let out a cry of pain, but after all that flailing, the rage inside her had gone down a fair bit.
Li Mu knew it.
Now was the perfect time to reason with her.
So he sat down on the sofa opposite Kevin, leaned forward over the table, interlaced his fingers before his chin, and spoke with a seriousness Kevin had never seen from him before.
"Bro, I know what I did was underhanded. So as compensation, I'm going to tell you my deepest secret."
It seemed to be the first time Kevin had ever seen Li Mu look this solemn, so she asked instinctively,
"What secret?"
Li Mu fell silent for a moment. His gaze grew unfathomably deep, as though it held a sorrow that could never be erased.
"I went to a future so far away it was almost beyond imagining, and there I went through all kinds of extraordinary experiences."
"In the end, only after paying an enormous price did I finally get the chance to return to the present—to the beginning of the story—and change this era, which is destined to be erased by Finality."
"And by doing so... save all of you."
"Put in terms you can understand, Kevin—"
"I'm someone who was reborn."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 120)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 100)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 100)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter89)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter86)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter63)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter75)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 53
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 57
From Junkman to Wasteland 35
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 26
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 27
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 26
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 26
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