Su Yu, very much the gentleman, pulled out the tall stool at the bar for Eden, then took the seat beside her in one smooth motion.
The second his rear touched the leather seat cushion, he could feel three lines of sight scanning him up and down like X-rays.
One came from Cioara behind the bar — appraising and wary, like she was sizing up the make and condition of a gun.
One came from Bronie beside him — laced with playful interest and the cold edge of data analysis, like she was disassembling a new toy.
And one came from… well, that perfectly legal little loli hiding behind a wine barrel with nothing but a pair of twintails poking out — pure melon-eating-bystander curiosity.
"Don't be nervous."
Eden shrugged off the oversized windbreaker, revealing the exquisitely tailored deep purple long dress beneath.
She offhandedly straightened her waterfall of hair, the motion as elegant as if she were in her own dressing room, utterly ignoring the bar's somewhat shabby decor.
"Cioara's an old friend of mine. She might look a bit fierce, but her bartending skills are top-tier."
Cioara gave a cold snort, the highball glass in her hand polished to a brilliant shine.
"Save it. What'll it be? The usual?"
"Of course." Eden turned her head to Su Yu, a hint of inquiry in her eyes. "Su Yu, how about you?"
"Just an ice water for me." Su Yu smiled. "I can't hold my liquor, and I still need to see you home."
"Tch, what a boring man."
A faint scoff came from beside him.
Bronie was chewing her bubblegum, both legs swinging in the air, those gray eyes staring at Su Yu without the slightest attempt at concealment.
Eden wasn't annoyed — she simply smiled and took up the role of impromptu tour guide.
"Let me introduce everyone. This is Bronie, Cioara's adopted daughter. The little cutie hiding behind there is Theresa — the recently very-popular Magical Girl Teriri."
At this point Eden paused, a subtle smile creeping into her voice.
"As for Theresa's guardian, you've probably heard of him — visiting professor at Arc City Medical University, and one of Su's teachers as well: Mr. Otto Apocalypse."
"…Otto?"
Inside his head, Fenghuang's voice sounded like a duck with its neck strangled, full of an indescribable kind of toothache.
"That man… in this world he's actually Su's teacher?"
"We've already had the precedents of the Tai Xu Sword Sect and the Golden Courtyard, but seeing these… Counterparts woven together in such a bizarre yet logical way with my own eyes still leaves me… mixed up inside."
Su Yu, face expressionless, let go of his glass, picked it up perfectly naturally, and took a sip of lemon water to calm his nerves.
"Squad Monitor, stay cool. Maybe this world's Otto is some kindly soul out there ministering to the masses? Like… he invented some kind of potion that brings the dead back to life?"
"…Your jokes aren't funny at all."
Su Yu's gaze swept across the few people in front of him. Inwardly he was hardly as calm as he looked on the surface.
The whole Counterpart business was already absurdly mystical on its own — and the previous civilization had indeed featured a doctor who looked strikingly like Otto.
So the man popping up out of nowhere in Su Yu's life at some point was, in itself, not inconsistent with Su Yu's understanding.
But clearly, ever since the Tai Xu Sword Sect, Ah Fu's dojo, and the Seven Disciples, this world had begun getting a bit weird.
Still — just as he'd once said to Kiana — who could say how many parallel worlds this one held? All he could say was that the keynote of the world he was in was "Golden Courtyard," but with a great many other things mixed in.
If he had to explain it, it was probably just the personal bad taste of whoever was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Su Yu smiled.
Cioara, Bronie, Theresa, plus that so-called guardian Otto.
Where exactly was the "Golden Courtyard" slice-of-life route in any of this?
This was clearly the event storyline of Honkai Impact 3rd, the main storyline, and the previous-civilization lore all tossed into a blender with the high-speed pulverize button slammed down.
Arc City… plus Cio…
Wasn't this the classic [Maze City Cyber Bunny] event storyline?
"Squad Monitor, I've got a bad feeling."
Su Yu rubbed his chin, his gaze turning deep.
"Since both Bronie and Raven are here, do you think our Golden Courtyard's miserable little wage-slave Miss Sakura might one day suddenly suit up in the Night Shadow Heavy Mist armor and morph into a cyber-electric-mule?"
"And… future you — could you actually become the local tyrant of the Tai Xu Sect, then transform into that whatchamacallit Black Tiger Ah Fu?"
"Shut up."
Fenghuang's voice was weak and listless. Linked to Su Yu's consciousness, she very easily picked up exactly what storyline he meant by "Black Tiger Ah Fu."
That belonged to a certain world-bubble of Honkai Impact 3rd, a world-bubble that contained only a cyberpunk-style Arc City.
The protagonist, Bronie — that is, Maze City Cyber Bunny — refused to remain forever trapped beneath the sky-veil, and so set out on the path of obtaining the three keys and breaking the sky-veil's seal.
Within Arc City there was a faction called the Tai Xu Sect, and its sect master was Fu Hua — but that image, Fenghuang felt an indescribable wrongness all over her body just looking at it.
"This world… is even more chaotic than I imagined. Right now I just want some quiet."
Fenghuang sighed.
While Su Yu and Fenghuang were busy with their intense mental brainstorming, the few people across from him were hardly idle either.
Cioara held a shaker in her hand, her shaking motion flowing like water, the ice cubes striking the metal walls in a pleasant rhythm.
But her eyes — those eyes sharp as a hawk's even under the dim lighting — were locked dead onto Su Yu through the wisps of bangs hanging over her forehead.
As a former mercenary, she had an almost instinctive sensitivity to the aura of her own kind.
This man…
"He's trained."
Cioara made the judgment in her heart.
"And… he's got blood in him. Not the same as the petty viciousness of street thugs — this is the kind of deposit that comes from someone who's truly seen life and death, crossed mountains of corpses and seas of blood."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the bar.
Bronie sat on her tall stool, one leg swinging casually. Bubblegum chewing in her mouth, those eyes behind her goggles were running an extremely covert data scan on Su Yu.
[Target: Su Yu]
[Height: 182cm]
[Estimated Weight: 75kg]
[Muscle Density: High (Abnormal)]
[Standing Posture Center of Gravity: Extremely Stable, ready-to-exert state at any moment]
[Threat Level: …Medium…]
Bronie's brow furrowed slightly.
The data was off.
From outward appearance, he was just a slightly-handsome, mild-mannered Office Slave.
But every one of his physiological indices — heart rate, depth of breathing, pupil response to light — was in a combat-standby state.
This feeling…
Bronie's gum-chewing slowed.
This feeling — astonishingly similar to the white-haired monster-strength girl she'd met at the abandoned factory the other day, Kiana.
That aura of seeming harmlessness, while a fierce beast lay dormant inside.
Hold on a second.
A jolt of current suddenly flashed through Bronie's mind.
What had Eden just called him?
Su Yu?
Bronie rolled the name around in her mouth, and a sharp glint suddenly burst from the bottom of her eyes.
That name.
Captain Lewis had mentioned it on the encrypted channel.
The "guardian" of that white-haired monster-strength girl, Kiana.
The legendary, somewhat thin-and-frail Outer-Sect Senior Brother of the Tai Xu Sect, the one who had brought Kiana out of the Deep Mountains and Old Forests.
"Heh."
An extremely faint cold laugh huffed out of Bronie's nostrils.
Thin and frail?
That muscle-girl Lewis must be blind.
This wasn't thin and frail at all — this was an expert hiding in deep waters.
No wonder he could keep a monster like Kiana — who could crush a steel pipe into a U-shape with one fist — under control.
Bronie's eyes lit up.
It was the kind of light a hunter gets only when discovering new prey, or a hacker discovering a firewall they've never seen before.
Interesting.
Way too interesting.
All the gloom of being dragged back was swept away in an instant.
How was this bad luck? This was clearly the Goddess of Fortune throwing her flirty winks!
She'd been worrying about finding more clues on that white-haired girl, and the girl's keeper had walked right in to deliver himself to her door?
A bold, faintly mischievous plan was rapidly taking shape in Bronie's genius brain.
She wanted to test it out.
Test the depth of this man.
Test what kind of chops the man who could tame that white-haired monster-strength girl actually had.
"Eden, your drink."
Cioara slid a freshly mixed cocktail in front of Eden. It was the classic [The Godfather] — a blend of whiskey and amaretto liqueur, amber in color, carrying a smoky chill.
"Um… Mr. Su Yu, was it?"
Bronie suddenly hopped down off her stool.
She offhandedly grabbed another shaker off the bar — the one Cioara had just finished using and hadn't yet rinsed out, still holding some leftover ice cubes and lemon slices.
"Since you're Sister Eden's friend, that makes you a guest of Raven's."
Bronie walked up beside Su Yu, that sweet-but-eyes-don't-smile smile plastered on her face, like a well-mannered girl-next-door.
"First time meeting — nothing much to offer by way of hospitality, so why don't I…"
Words not yet finished.
Without the slightest warning.
Bronie's wrist gave a sudden violent flick.
The stainless steel shaker, which by rights ought to have been used for pouring a drink, suddenly flew out of her grip.
The heavy metal body of the shaker tore through the air with a whistling shriek, hurtling straight at Su Yu's face.
Less than half a meter of distance.
Speed so fast it drew a silver afterimage through the air.
"Oh dear! My hand slipped!"
Bronie cried out with a thoroughly unconvincing yelp of alarm, but her eyes were locked dead onto Su Yu's reaction, pupils contracting slightly, capturing even the faintest muscle tremor.
An ordinary person would absolutely be looking at a shattered nose bridge and a flowered-up face from this.
Even a trained fighter would have a hard time mounting an effective response at this distance.
Cioara's glass-polishing hand froze.
Eden's hand, just about to lift the cocktail glass, hung stiff in midair.
Time seemed to stretch out.
At the hair's-breadth moment the shaker was about to kiss the tip of Su Yu's nose —
Su Yu moved.
No panicked lean-back, no clumsy dodge.
He simply lifted the left hand that had been resting on the bar.
The motion wasn't fast — you could even say it was somewhat nonchalant.
But in Bronie's dynamic vision, that hand was like a blade cutting through the flow of time, slicing precisely into the shaker's trajectory.
"Pa."
A muffled sound.
The expected crisp crack of metal hitting bone did not come.
It was the dull, solid sound of an object being caught firmly.
The shaker stopped.
Stopped just three centimeters from the tip of Su Yu's nose.
Su Yu's palm wrapped steadily around the shaker's body. The ice inside, carried by inertia, smacked against the walls of the shaker with a crisp "clatter."
The whole process happened very quickly — practically in the span of a single instant.
Su Yu slowly turned his head, looking at the dumbfounded Bronie.
His expression was very calm, even carrying a hint of… exasperation?
As if he'd long since foreseen this scene, or as if he'd grown accustomed to this level of mischief.
"Miss Bronie."
Su Yu gently set the shaker down on the bar and slid it back in front of her.
He gave a slight smile — a smile carrying the indulgence of an elder toward a problem child, along with a streak of deeply concealed warning.
"Next time your hand slips, remember to slip it toward a side where there isn't anyone."
"After all… medical bills are expensive."
Dead silence settled over the bar.
A few seconds later.
"Pop."
The bubblegum in Bronie's mouth burst.
She looked at Su Yu, and the trace of playful curiosity that had only been a test instantly ignited into a blazing inferno.
Interesting.
Way too interesting.
This man… was just as interesting as that white-haired freak!
"Heh."
Bronie withdrew her hand, fished a fresh piece of bubblegum from her pocket, and popped it into her mouth.
"Thanks, Senior Brother."
She deliberately emphasized the pronunciation of those two words — "Senior Brother" — her tone carrying a kind of provocation and… acknowledgment that only a fellow of the same breed could understand.
Su Yu looked at Bronie's face — provocative yet barely concealing her excitement — and the missing puzzle piece in his head clicked into place with a flawlessly snug "clack."
The slippers in the entryway yesterday, tilted fifteen degrees off-angle when he got home.
The water cup on the coffee table that hadn't been properly washed.
And the faint sweet residue of bubblegum lingering in the air.
And Kiana's utterly lame excuse: "It was Carole, she came to drop off some materials and grab a sip of water."
So that's how it was.
The corner of Su Yu's mouth lifted uncontrollably — a mixture of the "case closed" satisfaction and the warm-hearted feeling of "my pig has finally learned to root up the cabbage"… no wait, of "my autistic kid has finally made a friend."
This Paramecium had actually learned how to do underground work?
And the contact she'd made was none other than the famous Maze City Cyber Bunny?
Su Yu looked at the bubblegum-chewing, swaggering little girl in front of him, and his gaze grew incomparably kindly.
That kind of gaze — like looking at the first playmate your own dopey daughter had ever brought home — full of the old-father's-glow of "my Kiana will be in your care from now on, please look after her."
Sure, this playmate looked a bit dangerous and would chuck shakers at people.
But that was fine — anyone who could click with Kiana, what kind of normal person could they possibly be? What? How do I know? Because I'm not a normal person either, ha!"
"Tch."
Bronie got goosebumps all over from Su Yu's doting gaze.
She knew this expression well.
Yesterday, when that idiot Kiana did something stupid and then stared at her with a dopey grin on her face, she'd looked exactly like this.
Truly worthy of being Senior Brother and Junior Sister.
These two's brain-circuits were absolutely carved from the same mold.
Just got provoked, and the first reaction wasn't anger, but… stupid happiness?
How exactly did this kind of creature survive in this hazardous world? Photosynthesis?
Bronie rolled her eyes inwardly, the bubblegum in her mouth crunching audibly.
"One brainless, one unhappy… no wait, one airhead, one smiling tiger. These two losers were absolutely carved from the same mold, factory settings identical."
"Looks like you two are getting along well?"
Eden, cradling that glass of "The Godfather," let her gaze flow between Su Yu and Bronie with a hint of curiosity.
"Su Yu, you know this kid?"
She'd originally thought this was just a normal "bringing a friend to sit at an old acquaintance's place" visit, never expecting the plot to drift more and more toward a primetime family-ethics drama.
"Not only knows me."
Bronie cut in first, swiveling half a turn on her stool to face Eden, both legs swinging, voice carrying a kind of showing-off familiarity.
"He's the Senior Brother of that idiot Vigilante who's been all over the gossip in Arc City lately, isn't he? Of course I know him."
When she said "idiot Vigilante," though the words sounded disdainful, a barely perceptible smile flashed at the bottom of her eyes.
However, this line was like a stray spark falling into air that was already saturated with gas fumes.
"Slap!"
The dishrag in Cioara's hand came down heavily on the bar, her face darkening.
The aura of someone who had spent years in the gray zone with blood on her hands erupted in an instant, pressing the air around them into a viscous thickness.
She glared at Bronie, her eyes carrying a stern warning.
"Bronie."
Her voice was as cold as a stone from an ice cellar.
"How many times have I told you — don't bring up that messy stuff in front of customers."
"This is a bar, not your intelligence trading post. Shut your mouth."
The atmosphere plunged to freezing point in an instant.
Bronie's swinging legs stopped.
She turned her head, looking at Cioara.
On that face which always wore a careless smile, a layer of stubborn frost had now risen to the surface.
"Messy stuff? Ha?"
Bronie gave a cold laugh, hopping off the stool, her tactical boots stomping hard onto the floor.
"I've got those skills, I've got drones, I've got the tech. If I don't go out there and make my name, am I supposed to rot in this run-down bar polishing glasses for you for the rest of my life?"
She thrust a finger at Su Yu, the finger almost poking the tip of his nose, her voice cracking with agitation.
"Look at him!"
"Both guardians! Both raising an underaged problem girl!"
"That white-haired freak's Senior Brother can support her in being a Vigilante! He can let her go out there and take her shot!"
Bronie grew more and more worked up as she spoke, her eyes even rimming red.
"Why can he, but you can't?! Am I really that worrying to you? Or is it that… you just want to turn me into a canary you can keep in a cage?!"
Boom—
The information density of these words was simply too much, and the lethality far too high.
They blew everyone present clean into a daze.
Su Yu: ???
No wait, hold on.
Since when did I become "the parent from a better family"?
This is one hell of an unjust line of fire I'm lying in! Besides, Kiana's a humanoid self-propelled weapon, you're a glass-cannon hacker — how could those two possibly be the same?
In the corner.
Theresa was shivering, curled up into a small huddle.
She looked at the enraged Cioara, then at the wronged Bronie, opening her mouth wanting to mediate, but discovered she couldn't get a single word in edgewise.
"Um, that… family… can be talked out…"
Her voice was as small as a mosquito's whine, instantly drowned out by the mother-and-daughter shouting match.
As for Cioara at the eye of the storm.
Her expression had already become extremely ugly.
She looked at Bronie, then at the Su Yu whom Bronie was using as a "role model."
That kind of gaze.
Like she was looking at the chief culprit who had lured her own naive girl onto a crooked path.
Su Yu: "…"
I'm not, I didn't, stop looking at me with that kind of gaze!
I'm just a game producer passing by!
Just then.
A slender, pale hand lightly came to rest on Su Yu's shoulder.
Eden.
"Oh my, oh my…"
Eden tilted her head slightly, looking at the utterly drained Su Yu, her voice full of teasing.
"Looks like our little Su Yu… really has turned into a bad man, hasn't he?"
"Not only did you abduct a Little Junior Sister down from the mountain, now you've also got this mother-daughter-pair-in-all-but-blood quarreling on your account."
Eden leaned in a little closer, that pleasant red-wine fragrance drilling straight into Su Yu's nose.
"If Ellie were here…"
She gave a soft laugh, her eyes alluring.
"She'd absolutely cover her mouth and say in that exaggerated tone of hers — 'Oh my oh my, Su Yu, you really are deeply sinful, aren't you.'"
Su Yu let out a helpless sigh, feeling his temples throbbing.
"Sister Eden…"
He said weakly.
"Since when did you also become this wicked? Shouldn't you be helping to break up the fight right now?"
"Break up the fight?"
Eden blinked, the picture of innocence.
"But… seeing you at such a loss of what to do, I find it more amusing."
Just as Su Yu felt his life had gone grim and was ready to find a crack in the floor to crawl into —
That familiar red-and-black interface, full of Persona 5 style, once again exploded into his field of vision without the slightest warning.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[Confidant Availability Detected]
Accompanied by a stirring bass riff, a brand-new tarot card slowly rotated in the void, finally locking into place in front of Su Yu.
On the face of the card was a moon hanging quietly in the night sky.
Beneath the moonlight, a wolf and a dog faced each other, and a lobster crawled out from the water.
Mist curled around it, the road ahead uncertain.
[Arcana: THE MOON (The Moon)]
[Target: Bronie & Cioara]
[Coop Description]
[The Moon: represents unease, fear, the shadows of the subconscious, and… the light of truth sought within the fog.]
[Current Status: Reversed (Confusion and Conflict).]
[Bronie: a young wolf yearning to break through the fog, but unable to find her direction.]
[Cioara: a night-watcher who fears the dark, trying to pen the young wolf in with a fence.]
[Rank 1 Mission: Shattered Moonlight]
[Objective: Mediate the conflict between Bronie and Cioara, help this awkward mother-daughter pair untie the knots in their hearts, and help them understand each other's clumsy yet profound love.]
[Hint: Sometimes, a single shared battle is worth ten thousand explanations.]
[Reward: Unlock the [The Moon] Confidant.]
[Acquire Arc City's strongest hacker (Bronie) as the studio's Security/Tech Director.]
[Acquire former ace mercenary (Cioara) as the studio's Logistics/Intelligence Director.]
[Unlock Special Skills: [Hacker Intrusion] and [Intelligence Network].]
Su Yu looked at that floating tarot card, then at the mother and daughter still staring each other down.
Right.
He'd been wondering why the System had been so silent for a while — turns out it was buried right here, getting ready to drop a big one on him!
After reading through the mission description, Su Yu lifted his head to look at the Asura field-of-battle scene before him.
Cioara was glaring daggers at him, looking like the very next second she'd pull out that legendary "Third Divine Key" and give him a shot.
Bronie was looking at him with a stubborn expression, as if she'd taken him as the only lifeline and ally she had.
Eden was watching with a face full of "this is gonna be good," as if eagerly anticipating what new tricks he might pull.
You're asking about Theresa Theresa? She's already started munching on melon seeds.
Su Yu drew in a deep breath and let out a long sigh toward the heavens.
I came here to make games!
I came here to plagiarize my way to the peak of my life!
Why is the script trending more and more toward those primetime, blood-soaked-drama family-ethics mediation programs?
Where exactly is the Honkai Impact 3rd producer in any of this?
This is clearly Arc City's number-one gold-medal mediator, neighborhood-committee auntie Su Yu!
"What a karmic burden…"
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