9 Chapter 8: Calm before storm
Upon arriving home late in the evening, Xuan let out a weary yawn as he turned the key in the lock of his apartment door.
As he stepped inside, he found Senti seated in the living room, engrossed in a Japanese rendition of Power Rangers—well, more accurately, Kamen Rider.
"I'm home," Xuan announced, his hand instinctively covering his mouth to stifle another yawn.
"Xuan, you're back?" Senti, deeply engrossed in the television series, only seemed to notice Xuan's presence now. Rising from her seat, she approached him warmly, offering a hug.
Given their familial closeness, it was a natural gesture for Senti. Besides, she had been sneaking into his room for the past couple of days without issue.
Expecting Senti's embrace, Xuan leaned into it effortlessly, his head tilting towards her ear as he whispered, "Investigation completed, the third Honkai eruption is happening soon."
Xuan briefly said those words causing Senti's eyes to widen. "Honkai Eruption? So soon?"
"... Seems like you already know?"
"Of course, I am a Herrscher afterall." Senti proudly raised her head before pursing her lips, "Then, what are your plans?"
"Well...." Xuan briefly explained his plans to his supposed sister who nodded between his words. And after a few
"Oh? It seems fun, I'm in." Senti clenched her fist. Fighting a Herrscher like her do sound like a fun plan. She wasn't against it.
But then again, Senti paused between her words, "Aren't you going to stop the Honkai eruption?"
"I want too, trust me, but we have a lot of things to worry about. Cocolia is the least of our problems."
Xuan muttered, pursing his words before continuing. "Crushing Cocolia is easy, but I'm more cautious of Shicksal, particularly Otto."
As Xuan broke away from Senti's embrace and settled onto the sofa, resting his head on the armrest, Senti couldn't help but question, "Why are you so wary of him? Isn't it as simple as defeating him?"
Senti inwardly wondered why Xuan seemed to be overthinking things.
Last she checked, herself was a Herrscher, while he himself is pseudo-Herrscher, with the original Fu Hua techniques and skill level – which includes techniques like edge of Taixun among many others.
Plus, with their omnipotent system, even time-controlling stopwatches were but trivial SR items.
"...." Xuan glanced at her, as if contemplating whether to rebut her statement, but ultimately remained silent.
Perhaps he thought better of it, deciding not to argue.
'Maybe I'm being overly cautious. But it doesn't hurt to be vigilant, right?'
"As for stopping the third eruption... It's not necessary... As long as the people close to me are okay, that's all."
Senti hearing those words went fell silent, before she nodded, "You really understand it well, unlike her." By her, she was naturally referring to the real Hua.
Xuan now sitting up from his chair said dryly as he forced himself to remove his phone from his pocket. "Sen, what do you wanna eat? We'll have busy days ahead of us soon."
"Fried chicken for me!"
"Fried chicken again? No way, you had fried chicken today."
"Hah? Since when did Xuan start getting stingy?"
"I'm scared I'll run out of money before the third eruption starts."
"Are you trying to say I'm a glutton?"
The bicker continued with the two for a long while, as the moon hung over the sky, shining its bright moonlight as the cold and gentle breeze of the night swayed.
It was a calm before the storm.
***
—With a certain Tuna.
"Ahhh! Xuan!" Kiana's eyes snapped open, as she sat up from her bed, panting, and sweating. "A dream?"
She muttered as she turned her head to look at the alarm clock by the side of her bed which read a half past five.
'It's still early!'
Kiana thought in relief and a sigh, as her back laid against her bed back lazily. However, just as she closed her eyes, the scenes from her dream, appeared again in her mind vividly.
[A hand piercing through his chest...]
[Killed by none other than the person she loves the most.]
[...His cold body falling on the ground.]
[Until his body eventually dissipated away into a burst of light...]
After tossing and turning in her bed, attempting to find a comfortable position, Kiana exclaimed in frustration.
"Ahhh, this is stupid."
She sat up on her bed, irritation evident in her movements, before swiftly getting out of bed.
After freshening up, she quickly dressed in her school uniform.
Standing in front of the mirror, she adjusted her hairdo, tying her hair into two braids while muttering angrily to herself.
"Where the hell did that stinky daddy go? He used to tie my hair. Ugh, if I find him, I'll give him a punch in the stomach."
Kiana clenched her fist, her expression darkening as she recalled a scene from her dream:
[Xuan, smiling as he braided her hair and they chatted.]
Shaking her head to dispel the thought, Kiana snapped out of her reverie and slapped her cheeks hard with her palm.
"No, what am I thinking."
"Mei-senpai is my one and only!" Determined to convince herself, she clenched her fist and forced a smile.
"Good! Time to go to school!" It was then, the alarm clock went off. Which meant it was already almost seven.
Turning off the alarm clock, Kiana grabbed her bag and dashed out of her apartment, almost forgetting to lock the front door in her haste.
Along the path to school, she thought to herself.
'Since I woke up early, I might as well meet him.'
Just as Kiana was hurrying towards the school, her eyes fell on a familiar figure ahead, causing her to exhale a sigh of relief.
'It was just a silly dream, after all.'
"Class rep!" she called out, waving her hand as she caught up with the boy, who turned to look at her, his expression one of surprise.
To confirm his suspicions, he checked the time on his phone, his already shocked expression growing even more absurd.
"7:20..." His voice trailed off.
Seeing this Kiana face churned as she stared at him in anger.
How dare he? Is he trying to say: there's no way in hell she can ever get up early?
"How rude!"
"Why're you blaming me, I didn't even say anything."
"Your face said it all! Ugh! Can't you at least praise me!" Kiana was not willing! Being looked down on multiple times by him was annoying.
"I'll praise you the day pig's fly. Literally." Xuan said with a straight face, in all seriousness.
"Kuh—" Kiana felt she had been attacked by an invisible arrow and felt like coughing up blood. She even felt like straggling him.
However, just as she was fuming....
"—You're not coming?" Xuan called her out of her reverie. Honestly, Xuan wasn't expecting to see her this early.
Realizing she was trailing behind, Kiana hurried to catch up with Xuan, who had increased his walking pace. "Hey! Why are you walking away? Wait for me!"
After catching up, Kiana tugged at the corners of Xuan's shirt, looking at him with a sheepish smile as he turned to glance at her.
"What is it?" Xuan tilted his head, puzzled by the white-haired girl's strange sheepish expression.
"I'll forgive you if you carry me to school," Kiana declared, raising her nose in the air as she demanded something he hadn't even asked for in the first place.
Just as Xuan was giving her the weird looks, Kiana hurriedly continued, "Don't misunderstand. I... just want to experience what it feels like to be carried by someone."
As she said those words, Kiana's head hung low, as a scene from her dream flashed before her eyes once again.
[In that dream, he had carried her on his back to school.]
⸻
[Editor's Note]:
I made some small corrections; scratch that, I made some massive changes to the og chapters, if you like, you can even go to the og and compare and contrast.
I also added some more in-depth scenes that are not in the original, and I honestly hopes it okay.
Some changes I made:
1. The dream Kiana had was like a prediction before the storm.
2. The dream Kiana had originally had its own chapter, but I was like....
Meh, I ain't writing allat cringey details, so I compiled everything into this chapter, and added some extra stuffs for like predictions that oddly came to pass and stuff, you'll understand if you've read the og, or wait till more chaps come out.
