"After we got to know each other, Kiana and I wandered around Nagazora City for a while. During that time, Kiana was always protecting me. She protected me very well..."
Shu's story ended there. After a moment's pause, Shu's eyes lowered slightly and he repeated.
"She protected me really well."
And Siegfried nodded very hard at Shu, expressing his approval of what he had said.
But Siegfried's mind inevitably began to compare Shu's words with the version Kiana had told.
Shu said that Kiana had protected him very well during that time, and he seemed to care a lot about it.
And what did Kiana say?
Oh~ she said that she had relied on Shu to feed her during that time... Shu had taken care of Kiana's three meals during that period.
Then it seemed that Shu's contribution was greater at that time! Siegfried quickly made a judgment in his mind about who was more important between Shu and Kiana at that time.
If it were any other time, he would have already reached out and patted Shu's shoulder, praising him for his actions.
But the situation was special, so he should let Shu continue to speak first, right?
"Later, Kiana saved Bronya, and the three of us went to Chiba Academy. We met up with everyone there, and I also got to know Otto and everyone else..."
The subsequent events were more or in less line with Kiana's account. The process of how they got to know each other, the night they spent at Chiba Academy, the appearance of the Honkai Beasts, the evacuation process of everyone...
The versions told by the two of them diverged again here.
"I fainted during the Honkai Beast attack and narrowly escaped. When I woke up, I was woken up by Kiana. She took me to the injured Fu Hua. The next day, Mei and Bronya also found us.
"After Kiana found some medicine for Fu Hua, we took the medicine and were lucky enough to find the seriously injured Himeko and Theresa. We relied on Bronya to control Himeko's injuries.
"At night, the Honkai Beasts attacked again, and everyone could only flee. If it weren't for the appearance of Otto and Kallen, perhaps none of us would have escaped."
In the story told by Shu, everyone played their part. Although his story was not very detailed due to the length, Siegfried could already imagine how Shu and the others had spent that time.
Actually, Kiana had also told all of this, and the biggest difference was... in Kiana's account, Shu, who had almost led the entire team, was like a witness who went with the flow in his own words.
The only role he seemed to have played was to explain to everyone what the Honkai was?
In Kiana's version, she had deliberately described the decisions Shu had made. Among them, on the morning they arrived at Chiba Academy, Shu's emotional request to avoid the station was repeatedly emphasized by Kiana several times.
The emphasis was so strong that Siegfried couldn't help but ask "why."
Because according to what Kiana had said, Shu, who had always been a good person, had suddenly become very emotional that morning and had requested that they avoid the station. It was so abnormal that it was like he was having a fit.
But when Siegfried had asked, Kiana's reaction at that time seemed to have suddenly frozen. Then she just kept trying to change the subject and didn't answer Siegfried's question at all.
Siegfried didn't really care. He had just asked casually. Then he continued to listen to Kiana, and when she mentioned that Shu had shown that abnormal emotion again in the morning in the sports equipment room, Siegfried didn't ask again.
But Siegfried remembered these two times very clearly, along with the already very prominent plot in Kiana's version where Shu was featured.
If it were him, he would have probably blown these decisions up to be something grand. But he didn't expect Shu not to mention a single word.
Something's not right. This Homu is as fishy as Alahato...
"...And then, under Otto's leadership, we escaped to the station. After Kiana and the others defeated the few Honkai Zombies in the station, we took that self-powered train, which is now the Hyperion, and left Nagazora City."
The first stage of the story came to an end here. Siegfried looked at Shu, who had closed his mouth, and raised an eyebrow.
Shu's storytelling was becoming smoother and smoother. The pauses between his sentences, or rather, the time Shu spent thinking, was gradually shortening. And the stories he told were changing from carefully crafted to off-the-cuff.
He could clearly feel that Shu had finally developed a little... interest in storytelling?
Siegfried glanced at Shu and found that Shu was also looking at him. The two of them looked at each other, and Siegfried instantly understood the meaning in Shu's eyes.
Shu wanted to continue!
Nice! It's the desire to share!
Although Siegfried didn't know that the interest that had been aroused in Shu was a desire to share, it didn't stop him from knowing that Shu's enthusiasm and initiative had been mobilized.
"And then?" He also showed that he was very interested in the next story... alright, it wasn't an act. He was really very interested in what happened next.
Shu's breathing quickened slightly. When he spoke again, Siegfried even felt that Shu was a little impatient.
"Next, we stayed on the Hyperion for a few days. Through the cross-sea bridge between the Far East and Shenzhou, we arrived at the second stop of our journey, Sapphire City.
"The supplies on the train were relatively abundant, but because Fu Hua and Himeko were still injured, we were in urgent need of medical supplies and some equipment for self-defense.
"So we temporarily stopped at the train station in Sapphire City. Kiana, Mei, and Bronya, with me as one group, and Otto, Kallen, and Fu Hua as another, we split into two groups and entered Sapphire City to gather various supplies."
Siegfried tried his best to maintain a serious listening expression. In just a few minutes, he felt that his expression was about to break.
That's not right... he questioned in his heart.
Didn't Kiana say that Shu had been seriously injured at the station in Nagazora City? She had said that compared to Fu Hua and Himeko, Shu had almost been dragged back from the brink of death by Otto.
Kiana had told it vividly, so it was unlikely that she was lying. But Shu hadn't mentioned a single word here. Instead, he had talked a lot about what had happened on the train, with all the details.
And... Siegfried remembered that in Kiana's squad, Shu was the captain, right?
How did it become Kiana and her two good friends taking Shu with them?