A click came from behind him—the sound of armor buckles being released.
The White Comet armor, which had accompanied her through her long wandering in Arc City and was already battered beyond recognition, was peeled away, hitting the floor with a heavy, muffled thud.
The chill raised goosebumps all over Kiana's body.
But far more piercing than the cold was the stinging pain of her wounds being exposed to the air.
Trembling, she picked up a cotton swab soaked in iodine.
The fabric had stuck to her flesh and blood. As she tore it away, pain shivered through Kiana's entire body, and cold sweat instantly poured down.
Yet, she bit down hard on the back of her hand, refusing to let out even a single cry of pain.
Su Yu stood with his back to her, but his hearing became abnormally acute in this moment.
He heard her suppressed breathing, the faint friction of the cotton swab against skin, and he could even smell the light scent of blood and iodine diffusing into the air.
He sighed, the urge to drag out the mastermind behind the system and give them a beating growing even stronger in his heart.
To force a girl into such a state... this bullshit system really had a twisted sense of humor.
After an unknown amount of time, the sounds behind him changed.
It was the rustling of fabric.
Those were the clothes Fu Hua had left behind.
Kiana clumsily pulled on the white shirt, which was obviously a bit too large for her.
She buttoned it all the way to the top. The collar carried a faint, clean fragrance, like a mix of ink and aged tea.
It was the scent that belonged to the 'Squad Monitor'.
This familiar smell made Kiana's movements pause for a split second. Her eyes stung with rising tears, but she quickly sniffed hard, forcefully suppressing that weak emotion.
She pulled on the black sweatpants. The legs were a bit long, so she had to roll them up twice.
The Valkyrie, originally filled with sci-fi aesthetics and a chilling aura of slaughter, now looked unexpectedly thin and frail wrapped in those oversized casual clothes.
"I... I'm done."
A hoarse voice came from behind.
Su Yu felt as if he had been granted amnesty; his taut nerves finally relaxed.
He slowly turned around.
The Kiana before him was wearing Fu Hua's old clothes. The sleeves were so long they covered the backs of her hands, revealing only the very tips of her fingers.
She had casually gathered her messy long hair behind her head. That pale little face still held a lingering vigilance, but due to the embarrassment of treating her wounds and changing clothes just now, a trace of extremely faint color had returned to her cheeks.
She no longer looked like a ghost that might shatter at any moment; she had... slightly more of the vitality of a 'human'.
Su Yu's gaze lingered on her for a second before he politely looked away, his eyes landing on the pile of bloodstained armor.
"How is the wound treatment?" he asked naturally, as if the awkward 'one-meter confinement' from earlier didn't exist. "Can you still walk?"
Kiana pursed her lips and nodded. Then, as if remembering something, she turned her head away, her voice muffled:
"Than..."
Although the voice was as quiet as a mosquito's hum, Su Yu still heard it clearly.
Just then, a knock sounded on the break room door.
"Senior Su Yu? Are you still in there?" Fu Hua's voice came from outside. "The rain seems to have let up a bit. If it's inconvenient, I can..."
Hearing that voice, Kiana's body, which had just relaxed slightly, instantly tightened into a bowstring again. She subconsciously shrank behind Su Yu.
"Uh... Senior Su Yu."
The door opened.
Fu Hua's gaze went past Su Yu's shoulder, landing with some concern on Kiana, who was hiding behind him with only half her head exposed.
Although she had changed into dry clothes, the girl's pale complexion and her eyes, filled with wariness like a frightened little beast, clearly showed she was far from okay.
"She looks badly hurt, and her mental state seems very unstable... Do we really not need to call the police? Or call an ambulance?"
Fu Hua kept her voice very low, evidently afraid of agitating the strange girl.
"If it's because of domestic violence or some dispute, it would be safer for the police to intervene..."
Hearing the word "police," Kiana's breathing became rapid, and she practically tried to shrink completely into Su Yu's shadow.
For the current her, any official organization meant the claws and fangs of "Schicksal," meant endless pursuit and those cold laboratories.
Su Yu moved half a step back without drawing attention to it, using his back to shield Kiana reassuringly.
"No need, Ah Hua. Calling the police... would only make things more troublesome."
He sighed.
"You know how it is, some people have special circumstances... like lost ID documents, or being 'undocumented residents' to begin with. If the police come, not only will they not be able to help, but we'd probably all end up drinking tea at the station tonight."
Fu Hua froze for a moment, then revealed a look of realization.
In the bustling Arc City, there indeed existed many people wandering in the gray areas.
Although she was a law-abiding good student, she was by no means an inflexible bookworm.
She took a deep look at Su Yu. A trace of inquiry flashed through those gray-blue eyes, but it eventually settled into calmness.
"I understand."
Fu Hua nodded and didn't ask further.
Out of trust for this easygoing senior who frequented the store, she chose not to interfere excessively.
"Since you say so, Senior, then I won't meddle."
She walked out.
Su Yu looked back at Kiana behind him.
Kiana, however, stiffly and resisting, averted her gaze.
The rain outside the window beat against the awning; only the sound of rain remained in the break room.
"I'm Su Yu," Su Yu said, breaking the atmosphere first. "Hello."
"...Kiana," she said, her eyes still holding vigilance.
Su Yu noticed her body was tense, as if ready to flee at any moment.
"I'm not a bad person," he said. "Well, a bad person wouldn't say they're a bad person either."
Su Yu paused, pointing at the panel only he could see.
"But you should have felt it too. If you go more than a meter away from me, you'll slowly disappear."
Kiana's body stiffened.
She knew the man before her was telling the truth.
"What are you going to do to me? Hand me over to Otto? Or..."
The girl's voice was hoarse, carrying a trace of hatred.
"My apologies, but I have no connection to that ruthless man who wants to charge at a Tree on a whim."
"What do you mean?"
"It means—I don't know any Otto."
Kiana didn't believe him. Although she didn't say it, Su Yu read it in her eyes.
"You don't have to believe me," Su Yu said. "Let's go. We're going back."
"Back... back where?"
"My home."
"Why?"
"..."
Su Yu looked at Kiana, who was bristling like a hedgehog before him, and the corner of his mouth twitched with a hint of helplessness.
"I'm hungry. I'm going back to eat instant noodles."
"..."
Kiana didn't move.
Su Yu realized that Kiana in this time period had her guard up the highest.
It could be said she simply didn't trust anyone. Prying open her defenses wouldn't be such an easy task.
Then he'd have to use some strong medicine.
"Mei would be sad to see you like this."
"Wha—"
After that name was spoken, Kiana's pupils constricted.
"Who exactly are you?"
Su Yu didn't answer, simply turning around.
"Come back with me, and I'll tell you."
He didn't waste any more breath, but stepped toward the outside of the break room.
Su Yu never considered himself a savior; Kiana in this period was simply that difficult to communicate with.
Countless thoughts must have flashed through her mind in this moment.
"Wai... wait."
Kiana's voice made him pause in his tracks.
She was pointing at the Valkyrie armor on the floor.
"Clothes..."
Su Yu understood. He shouted to the outside: "Ah Hua, help me get a large plastic bag."
Before long.
Su Yu was carrying the bag containing White Comet, with Kiana following behind him.
Due to the one-meter distance restriction, the two were very close together.
Kiana just buried her face under her hoodie, head lowered, not looking at Fu Hua.
Fu Hua pointed at the landline on the counter.
"I'm on the night shift tonight, I'll be here until seven tomorrow morning. If... if there's really any emergency you can't handle, or if the wound worsens and you need medicine, you can come find me anytime."
After saying that, she took a carton of warmed milk from the shelf and stuffed it into Su Yu's hand.
"Take this, warm up your body."
"Thanks, Ah Hua. I'll treat you to a Shenzhou Zhe'ergen Family Bucket some other day."
"...That, I'll have to pass on."
Su Yu pushed open the glass door of the convenience store. The wet, cold air mixed with rain blew into his face again.
The rain was lighter than before, but the sky was still as gloomy as an overturned ink bottle.
Su Yu opened the large black umbrella.
Because of that damn "one-meter restriction," the two had to huddle tightly together.
Kiana lowered her head, her hand clutching the fabric at Su Yu's lower back, like an autistic child being forcibly dragged out of the house.
She moved her feet mechanically, those legs encased in the baggy pant legs stumbling slightly, but she never dared to fall more than half a step behind Su Yu.
After walking some distance, the warm light of the convenience store had been walled off behind them by the curtain of rain.
Kiana suddenly stopped and looked back.
Through the hazy veil of rain, she could still see that figure with a ponytail busy behind the counter, seemingly cleaning the floor that had just been wet.
"...Still that rotten good-person personality."
Kiana withdrew her gaze. Her voice was so low it was almost swallowed by the sound of the rain, carrying a sneer of self-mockery.
"Caring about strangers, giving milk to strangers... Heh, she acts so real."
She lowered her head, looking at the shirt belonging to "Fu Hua" on her body, a complex mix of pain and hatred flashing in the depths of her eyes.
"I just wonder... beneath that mask, is there also a scheme hidden? Is she executing some 'surveillance mission' again?"
Su Yu's hand holding the umbrella handle paused slightly.
He turned his head sideways, looking at the girl beside him who was covered in thorns.
The rain had dampened her bangs. In those eyes that used to be as clear as the blue sky, only a deep distrust of this world remained now.
In that heavy story, Kiana had been betrayed by the whole world.
Her most trusted Squad Monitor was a monitor; her most respected teacher died to save her; and she herself was treated as a vessel for the Herrscher to destroy the world...
After experiencing such tragic betrayal and loss, expecting her to let down her guard just because of a bottle of hot milk and a few words of concern—that would be writing a third-rate fairy tale.
For the current Kiana, suspicion was the instinct for survival.
All kindness, in her eyes, looked like sugar-coated poison.
Su Yu didn't refute her. He didn't explain that "the Fu Hua of this world is really a good person," nor did he spoon-feed her any chicken soup for the soul about how "there is true love in the world."
He just silently tilted the umbrella a bit more toward Kiana, blocking the drifting rain.
Then, as if he hadn't heard her complaints, he spoke in a flat tone: "Let's go. I'll cook you a bowl of noodles when we get home. You can't get full just eating that cold rice ball."
"...I didn't say I wanted to eat."
"Alright, alright, I'm the one who's hungry. You accompany me to eat, okay?"
Kiana bit her lip and didn't speak again.
But the hand gripping the corner of his clothes didn't let go.
In this freezing rainy night, this man who had to be kept within one meter became the only solid entity she could hold onto.
Even if she didn't trust him, even if she suspected the entire world.
But at least... the umbrella in his hand could truly block the rain.
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