How should she describe it?
It felt… so smooth.
"Beautiful!"
Mei clapped her hands, her eyes filled with admiration and light. "Kiana, you really are a genius."
Kiana had been personally taught by her, and Mei was certain that Kiana had never studied swordsmanship before.
In that moment, she suddenly understood how her past opponents must have felt—those who had lost to her, who had seen her quickly grasp their sword style, surpassing decades of training within just a short time.
But instead of jealousy, all Mei felt was joy for Kiana—and a sense of natural satisfaction, as if this was exactly how things were meant to be.
"It's all thanks to Mei's teaching."
Kiana hadn't expected that she'd be able to execute the strike so smoothly. The feeling it left behind resonated deeply within her. As she savored that sensation, she seemed to understand why Mei, despite being so skilled, still practiced swordsmanship day after day.
That sense of fulfillment and accomplishment… felt amazing!
"Be confident, Kiana. You are a genius—one in a million. I believe you'll soon reach the level of menkyo kaiden."
Kiana shook her head decisively and boldly declared, "I don't want menkyo kaiden. I just want Mei to teach me swordsmanship."
"I'm sure Kiana will catch up to me soon," Mei said sincerely.
After sheathing her blade, Kiana took a few steps forward, inviting with a smile, "With such an amazing teacher like Mei, success is guaranteed! But I think, on the path to mastery, sometimes we need to balance work and rest."
Work and rest?
Mei looked at Kiana in surprise.
Kiana didn't visit the shrine every day—only about twice a week.
Even though she would stay for the entire day, her actual training time was about four hours at most. And during that time, Kiana talked a lot.
In truth, her training volume wasn't very high.
But Mei didn't want to dampen her enthusiasm. Instead, she smiled and asked, "So, where would Kiana like to go to relax today?"
"How about that new food street? It just opened yesterday. I heard some people talking about it—it's supposed to be really good!"
"That food street, huh?"
Mei knew exactly which one she meant. After thinking for a moment, she nodded. "Alright, I'll go change clothes."
Ever since her father disappeared and she inherited the shrine, Mei had devoted all her time and energy to managing it and investigating the truth behind his disappearance.
Her old hobbies—like shopping or wandering around—had long been forgotten.
But Kiana had changed that.
Kiana was also her only friend now, so taking a day off to accompany her outside didn't seem like a bad idea.
"You look beautiful as you are."
"I should still change into something more fitting for going out."
"Of course—but Mei looks beautiful no matter what she wears," Kiana said with a grin.
"Kiana is beautiful too."
Kiana put away her training gear, wiped off her sweat with a towel, and waited by the door.
Before long, Mei appeared at the entrance in her casual clothes, greeting her with a soft smile.
"Let's go."
Kiana quickly moved forward to take Mei's hand. "Let's go, let's go! I'm so hungry right now I could eat a whole cow!"
Hearing such an exaggerated statement, Mei couldn't help but laugh.
Whenever she was with Kiana, she always felt happy—her worries seemed to fade away.
"No matter how many times I look up, it still feels strange."
This world was wonderful in every way, except for one thing—the sky. There was a black sun hanging in the heavens, one that gave off no light. Although this world wasn't dark, the light it had was never bright enough.
Its color tone felt… a little oppressive.
"Izumo has always been like this," Mei said calmly. To her, it was nothing strange—after all, it had been that way for thousands of years. But hearing Kiana's remark, she patiently added, "You came from another world, so it's only natural that you find it unfamiliar."
Kiana had told Mei long ago that she came from another world. But this was the first time she had heard the name of this planet.
"Izumo… so that's what you call this planet?"
The name sounded oddly familiar.
She was, quite obviously, undocumented—an "illegal immigrant." After crossing into this world, she had to fend for herself, working part-time jobs and earning money to create a legal identity. She really didn't dare to activate her system.
For the past few months, she had been working tirelessly—sometimes taking shifts at convenience stores, sometimes delivering food thanks to her exceptional physical abilities, or accepting small commissions to earn extra cash.
Life was busy, but it was fun.
The technology here was somewhat similar to that of Earth. Once she discovered Raiden Mei, she became convinced that this was a parallel world of Honkai. During her free time, she devoted herself to "strategizing" Raiden Mei.
The reason…
Part of it was love at first sight.
But the other part was that she genuinely didn't know what else to do. She was too afraid to use the system that had brought her here.
And since she was so busy working to secure an identity, she hadn't even bought a phone—so her understanding of this world was actually quite limited.
A modern city, and Raiden Mei—those were enough for her to assume that this was simply a parallel world of Honkai. As for the differences in the sky?
That was normal. Parallel worlds had their own variations—how many bubble worlds had Honkai Impact 3rd already introduced in its events?
"You didn't know?"
"I haven't really paid attention to that," Kiana said sheepishly, scratching her head. She really didn't care much about such things. What mattered more to her was that Raiden Mei had inherited the shrine and become a shrine maiden.
"We're in a place called Izumo."
"Izumo…"
It sounded so familiar.
She had definitely heard that name somewhere before. Was it from an event? No, that didn't seem right…
"If you're curious, we can find a place to sit later, and I'll tell you the story of Izumo."
"Let's save that for another time." Kiana shook her head, more interested in enjoying her outing with Mei. Pointing across the street, she said, "We're almost at the food street! Let's not talk about that when there's food waiting for us!"
"Alright then… that's fine."
Raiden Mei decided she'd look through Izumo's historical records once they returned to the shrine. She planned to share the information with Kiana later to help her better understand this world.
But after hearing Kiana mention it, and then glancing again at the bustling, peaceful streets around them, Mei couldn't shake the unease forming in her heart.
Was the world they lived in—this nation of Izumo—really as simple as it appeared?
Her father… and the Kami…
After her father's disappearance and her inheritance of the shrine, Raiden Mei had secretly been searching for the truth behind his vanishing.
But she had found very few clues.
Oni and Kami.
Her investigation had led her to ancient legends. From the scattered traces she uncovered, it seemed that Izumo was far less peaceful than it appeared.
But beyond that, she knew nothing more.
"Mei, Mei! Try this!"
Kiana's cheerful voice pulled her back from her thoughts. Mei smiled and accepted the oden Kiana handed her. "Thank you."
"And over there—look, it's so lively! I think there's a show going on. Let's go watch it!"
"Alright."
No matter what Kiana said, Mei always responded. Just as she'd thought before—
Whenever she was with Kiana, her heart felt lighter, and simply being by her side made her happy.