By the time Xin Yu snapped out of his daze, Theresa was already using Judah to prop herself up, grabbing Kiana by the corner of her shirt and demanding to know if she had any idea what she was doing.
"Of course I know what I'm doing. I'm just expressing the feelings in my heart."
"But... but that's no reason to just kiss someone out of the blue! There should be a proper distance between men and women! That doesn't just mean men can't randomly touch women; women can't just randomly touch men, either!"
"I'm so sorry, Cecilia, I've failed to teach your daughter properly! I'm an unqualified guardian."
Xin Yu first glanced at the floor that had been smashed through by Judah. He sighed, pulled Judah out of the ground, and repaired the damaged floorboards.
Only after doing all that did he turn to look at Kiana, who had been staring at him the entire time. Their eyes met.
"Kiana... are you still yourself right now?"
"I've always been myself."
"...It seems you're serious."
"Of course. Xin Yu, I love you."
The words Xin Yu had been about to say caught in his throat the moment he heard her utter those three. He stared into Kiana's sky-blue eyes and saw the sincerity, the genuine love shining through.
He truly saw the same look in her eyes that he had once seen in Sakura's.
Kiana stepped forward and gently hugged Xin Yu, pressing her face against his chest, wanting to listen to his heartbeat. But Xin Yu had no heart now, so Kiana listened for a long time and heard nothing.
"Why don't you have a heartbeat?"
Kiana immediately lifted her head to look at him, her expression one of undeniable shock.
"I can't really be considered human anymore. Forget a heart; I don't have a brain or any of the other internal organs a human has. Right now, aside from my outward appearance, which I maintain because I want to, my inner self has no connection to a human's whatsoever."
"Even if you're a monster like that, you're willing to..."
Before Xin Yu could finish, his words were cut off by Kiana's lips.
"Even if you're a monster, you're the best monster, and the monster I love the most."
"Alright, alright, so can you let go first? You've been hugging me tighter and tighter since just now. I'm not going to vanish inexplicably like I did before, don't worry. I won't leave without a word."
Kiana reluctantly released her embrace. How to put it? When she was leaning her entire body against Xin Yu, the sense of peace she felt was unprecedented. It was a feeling of security, as if so long as she was in his arms, nothing in the world could ever harm her. It was truly intoxicating.
But of course, Kiana wouldn't act like some little girl who couldn't let go just because she was addicted to the warmth of his embrace. He was hers, anyway. In the future, she could hug him for as long as she wanted. There was no need to be greedy for a fleeting moment.
Raiden Mei stood off to the side, feeling a little envious of Kiana. Whether in the past or now, that personality of hers—daring to love, daring to hate, willing to speak her mind—was something Mei truly admired. Sometimes she, too, wanted to say what was on her mind, but every time the words reached her lips, they got stuck.
She was still that coward, not the Raiden Queen of the past.
Xin Yu looked at the timid and shrinking Raiden Mei opposite him, who seemed not much different from before.
As for Bronya, after witnessing the kiss between Kiana and Xin Yu, she left with Seele without saying a word.
"Raiden Mei..."
"Just call me Mei."
"Er, alright, Mei. There's no need to dwell on what happened in the past. At the time, you couldn't control yourself. You didn't intentionally want to hurt me, so you don't need to feel remorseful over it. As for the things you did after becoming the Third Herrscher... if you're willing, trust me, a change is definitely coming."
Raiden Mei was a bit stunned by Xin Yu's words. At first, she didn't understand what he meant by "a change is coming." She had killed so many people; no matter what, that was a fact. How could a change possibly come...
Wait... could it be... but this... how is this possible?
Raiden Mei looked at Xin Yu in disbelief. In the Far East, where ACG culture was popular, people's speculations about things often had a bit of a wild streak.
If, one day, you suddenly remembered that you had met someone you only recently encountered for the first time when you were very young, and this memory appeared so abruptly that it made you wonder if you were hallucinating or if it was a lingering remnant of a dream...
...then some people with wild imaginations might suspect that the person you met could be a time traveler, able to journey from the future back to the past to meet you.
While an ordinary adult would certainly not think this way, Raiden Mei herself was a girl in the midst of her chuunibyou phase.
So, by some fluke, she had discovered the truth of the matter.
As for Kiana, who had heard this, she frowned. She had received enough information from her future self, so she naturally knew that Xin Yu truly possessed the ability to go back in time and change history.
She reached out and tugged on the corner of Xin Yu's shirt. She said nothing, only using her eyes to look at him, confident that he would understand her meaning.
"Don't worry, Kiana. It's alright. It won't be like it was before."
Xin Yu had naturally seen the worry in Kiana's eyes. She was worried that he would suffer a severe backlash from making a massive change to the history of the Third Honkai Eruption.
While doing so would indeed come at a price, he now had tens of millions of years of lifespan. He could afford to be extravagant.
Theresa had already recovered from her daze. When she saw the two of them acting for all the world like a couple that had been together for ages, she breathed a sigh of relief. At least her niece hadn't actually turned into a female rogue.
Just as the Principal was about to lament the floor she had just smashed through, she was stunned to find that the spot was completely undamaged.
"Auntie! Mei and I are taking Xin Yu for a tour of the school."
Kiana grabbed Xin Yu with one hand and Raiden Mei with the other, leading them out of Theresa's office.
Theresa reflexively answered with an "okay," then continued to stare at the floor, wondering if she had been hallucinating just now. But she had clearly used a lot of force, how could the floor be completely fine?!
"Weird. Judah itself is heavy, and I slammed it down with force. The floor shouldn't just be damaged; there shouldn't even be a dent... Am I dreaming... Ouch! That hurts!"
Himeko, who had just walked into the office, saw her old friend pinch her own cheek hard, then crouch down in a defensive posture. She was a bit confused. She hadn't been drinking, had she?