The sky was bright and clear. There was a pleasant fragrance in the air, like flowers or perhaps tea. A spoon gently stirred the rich coffee, with a layer of pure white foam floating on top, looking exceptionally appetizing.
Fluffy cumulus clouds were layered on the horizon, stacked like cotton candy.
"Splash…"
A day of vivid colors.
The young man sat in a soft chair, holding the coffee and looking at his face reflected in the fragrant cup. After much deliberation, he took a gentle sip.
The rich taste made him feel happy, making him want to lie back lazily for a while on this sunny day.
Speaking of which, why did I come here again…
He searched his blank mind for a while but found no result. Indifferently, he lowered the chair's backrest, lay down on it, and yawned.
Never mind, it's not important.
The young man closed his eyes, no longer thinking about those useless things.
…
"Hey, wake up quickly, Uncle."
"Hmm?"
His cheek was pinched by two slender, smooth fingers. The young man groggily woke from his sleep and saw an angry, pretty face right above him.
She looked familiar, but he couldn't recall who she was.
"…Is something wrong?" The young man pushed her hand away and sat up from the soft chair.
The girl angrily pointed to the chair beneath the young man, "You ask me what's wrong? You took my spot, you silly uncle!"
"Is that so?" The young man rubbed the back of his head, frowning, "I guess so."
Why do I feel this way?
"What do you mean, 'I guess so'! Since you took my spot, get up quickly!"
"Oh, right."
The young man stood up confusedly, and the girl unceremoniously sat down in his original spot. She took a big gulp of the coffee, then promptly spat it all out.
"Pfft—cough, cough. This is too bitter. Last time too, Uncle, why do you love drinking coffee so much?" The girl put down the cup and wiped her mouth.
"Do we… know each other?" The young man stared blankly at the smiling girl. Something surfaced in his mind, but he just couldn't recall it. "Why do you call me Uncle? I'm only twenty years old."
"Of course we do."
"But I can't remember who you are… No, I don't even know who I am… What exactly is going on?"
The young man's mind was empty. Something vaguely familiar, as if trying to break through a thin film, surged in the depths of his consciousness, but the final veil could never be pierced.
Especially the person in front of him, he always felt like he was just on the verge of calling out her name.
He looked around. He hadn't noticed before, but now he saw that this was a beach. The water was turquoise, the sea breeze gentle. The sand underfoot stretched into the distance, with no end in sight.
The sand was flat and open, and he couldn't even see the footprints the girl had made when she walked over.
Wait a minute, how long have I been here?
The young man held his head. His right eye felt a faint pain. He reached out to touch it, but felt nothing.
"Uncle, what's wrong? Does your eye hurt a lot?"
"…You said you know me. Can you tell me how we met?" The young man put his hand down and asked the girl, who was fanning herself with her hand.
A seabird circled overhead, then landed on the distant beach, hopping and occasionally pecking at the sand.
"How did we meet… Hmm… I think it was a very romantic encounter, but talking about the past seems boring." The girl used her finger to play with the spoon in the cup, giving the young man a charming smile, "How about we talk about something else, something less important."
"Something less important…"
"I got it! Uncle, who do you think will win in the tortoise and the hare race?"
The tortoise and the hare race?
The young man knew this famous fable, but it was an artistic creation. In reality, as long as the rabbit kept running, the tortoise shouldn't be able to beat the rabbit.
But was the girl asking about the ending of the fable or the ending in reality?
Seeing the girl's eager, excited look, the young man thought for a moment and said, "The tortoise."
"Eh~ But isn't the rabbit much faster than the tortoise?"
"…The rabbit will become arrogant and underestimate its opponent."
"Uncle, that's just in the fable, right?"
"Then the rabbit will win."
"But won't the rabbit be careless and underestimate its opponent?"
"…"
The girl burst out laughing at the young man's speechless expression, "Hahaha… Uncle, your expression is so interesting. I don't actually care what you say; I just want to see you racking your brains for the answer. It's very cute."
"Just to see my expression…"
"Yes." The girl beckoned and smiled, "The answer is not important to me, in the end. After all, if you only focus on the result, you might deviate from the original path. I care more about the process."
"After you've walked onto the correct path, whether you reach the destination isn't important anymore, is it?"
There it is again.
The young man covered his right eye. Something seemed to be flowing out of it.
The young man caught a glimpse of his aged, weathered hand at his fingertips. He was silent for a while, then put down his hand and said to the girl, "But I led you down the wrong path. If you hadn't met me, if I hadn't told you about the Honkai, you would still be an ordinary person, living normally, walking on your correct life path."
The happiness of an ordinary person, the life of an ordinary person, the future of an ordinary person—there would be no need for the resolve to sacrifice for anyone.
The girl smiled and said, "No, I am very grateful to Uncle for telling me the truth. You allowed me to make the right judgment. It's wonderful that I was able to protect this world that I love, even in the end."
"That was supposed to be my destiny, not yours." The young man lowered his head. Having forgotten how to show emotion, he twitched the muscles in his face. "I am a selfish person, always dragging those around me into the vortex, always watching others leave for my sake. In the face of predetermined destiny, I just blindly walked to the end."
Why did they treat a person like him as hope, and why did they sacrifice themselves for him?
This was the end he should have reached long ago.
"No, Uncle, you didn't blindly walk to the end."
The young man looked up.
Sunlight fell on the girl's shoulder.
"Haven't you been fighting against your destiny all this time? You still are now," she said with a carefree smile.
The young man shuddered. He looked around in confusion, as if searching for something.
The girl smiled, "Are you looking for something?"
"The way back… I have to go back." The confusion in the young man's eyes gradually disappeared. Determination was revived in his gaze. "The Fifth Herrscher is not dead yet. I need to go save people."
Something began to leak from his right eye socket. The young man reached a finger into it and grasped his eyeball.
Pain surged from it.
"Is that so? That's wonderful." The girl sat in the chair, tilted her head, and chuckled lightly, "I've been waiting for Uncle to accept my marriage proposal, you know, but now, Uncle doesn't need to answer me anymore."
"Have a safe journey, Lin."
Lin grabbed his own eyeball and used all his strength to yank it out, root and blood.
In the final moment, he saw a man with dark circles under his eyes, wearing a white coat, smiling and waving at him from a distance.
…
"Screech—"
His right hand pulled out the necrotic eyeball along with the ice spike. Under the shattered helmet, boiling fresh blood streamed from his tightly closed eye.
Whether it was a hallucination caused by the Honkai sickness or a vision of death, Lin did not know.
But flowing in that dripping blood was his own will.
His remaining left eye focused, and he activated the anti-gravity flight device.