"Ahhh!"
Raiden Mei shot upright in bed, hands clenching the sides of her head, her face a mask of pain.
"Mei!"
Kiana shoved her own weakness aside and scrambled to wrap her arms around her. "What's wrong? Are you hurt? Did something happen?!"
"Ugh… haah… haah…"
But Mei could only gasp, struggling for air.
Beside them, Himeko, Theresa, and the others wore matching looks of alarm.
"What happened?" Theresa asked, voice tight. "Did the other her… attack her?"
"Let Bronya examine Mei's body."
Bronya's tone was even, as always. Everyone moved aside. Once Kiana reluctantly released her hold, Bronya knelt on the mattress, a faint frown on her face as she pulled out a controller-shaped scanner and passed it over Mei.
The scan revealed nothing new—just the same, lingering trauma from yesterday and a body pushed to exhaustion.
"Mei's physical condition is unchanged," Bronya reported. "The injury is likely mental." She looked at Mei, her darker gray eyes calm. "Mei, did something occur in the dream space?"
"Haa… haa…"
Mei was still heaving breaths, her skin pale and slick with sweat. Kiana, her own heart aching, kept brushing the damp hair from Mei's forehead.
Theresa and Himeko exchanged a grim look. It was clear. Whatever conversation Mei had tried to have with her future self… it hadn't gone well.
Finally, as the phantom edge of that impossible blade faded from her mind, Mei found her voice. Haltingly, with a tremor of residual fear, she told them what had happened.
"Mei… how could she become like that?" Kiana whispered, the words laced with disbelief.
"Locking herself away in her own mind? Thinking she doesn't belong with us?" Theresa's expression was a complicated knot of emotions, frustration and worry tangling with a spark of anger.
"The only thing she did right was not actually harming Mei," Himeko said, her voice low and serious. She fixed her gaze on the recovering Raiden Mei. "Mei. Don't you dare take after that version of you. She was wrong."
"I know…" Mei's voice was thin, unsteady. A bitter smile touched her lips. She couldn't imagine herself ever becoming that person.
"Bronya is thinking," came the soft, analytical voice from the corner. "What kind of reason… would cause the future Mei and Kiana to become what they are now…"
A heavy silence fell over the room, filled with unspoken questions.
"Maybe…" Mei's eyes drifted to Kiana, her gaze profoundly complicated. Kiana met it with a mirrored intensity. "Maybe because the future is just… that heavy. That desperate."
Thwack!
Himeko's hand came down in a light chop on top of Mei's head.
"No matter how heavy it gets," Himeko said, her brow furrowed in stern emphasis, "you remember who's standing behind you. You don't try to carry it all yourself. Understood?"
"I understand." Mei nodded, the gesture firmer now.
"And you, Kiana."
Himeko's glare shifted. Kiana gave a little shiver, then nodded vigorously, her expression a blend of sincere resolve and slight grievance.
"I know, I know! I won't be like that. If I have a problem, I'll talk to everyone."
"Good."
---
Xia Qi listened to the conversation fade, remaining within the quiet expanse of Raiden Mei's mental space. She planned to stay a while longer.
Nothing in the outside world demanded her attention just yet.
Her harshness earlier, those cutting words… it had all been a calculated push. A stimulus to force Mei's growth, to catalyze the transformation she needed.
They can achieve a preliminary fusion already, she mused, recalling the moment the Herrscher's will had perfectly aligned with Mei's own in combat. A faint, genuine smile touched her lips.
"Good."
She was certain now. Without direct intervention, Sirin would be no match for this rapidly evolving Raiden Mei.
And Kiana, too, had changed. Her physical power might not have leapt ahead, but the strength of her will… it was no longer something Sirin could so easily crack.
Only…
Xia Qi's slight frown returned. She settled into a cross-legged pose in the void, one ankle resting on the opposite knee, a casual stretch running through her limbs.
Should I go see Kiana… or Sirin… as Cecilia now? The thought brought a wry twist to her mouth. In this form, as Raiden Mei, the affection she felt for Kiana was a persistent, warm current. She knew its origin—knew it belonged to this identity—but that didn't make it less real.
The idea of later approaching Kiana while wearing the face of her mother, all while currently being Mei… no matter how she framed it, it was supremely awkward. Deeply embarrassing.
How absurd.
Ah, right.
Since she had a moment of quiet… perhaps she should rest properly. In her own form.
Light and shadow shimmered, dissolving the image of Raiden Mei.
Another figure coalesced in the void and let out a long, weary sigh.
---
"Mei didn't sleep at all last night… is she going to be okay?" Kiana hovered outside the hospital room door, her whisper anxious.
"She's exhausted, but she's hanging on. Fu Hua's in there with her, keeping her talking. She'll manage for now."
Himeko massaged her own temples, a gesture of familiar exasperation. "Until Bronya's gadget is ready, she can't afford to rest. And we have no idea what's going on in the other Mei's head right now, either."
"…"
Kiana was quiet for a beat. Then her hands curled into determined fists. "I believe her. Mei wouldn't hurt us."
Beep beep beep!
The sudden chirp of her phone.
"Hello? Auntie, what is it?!"
"Kiana! How many times—it's Principal Theresa! Never mind, forget it! Bronya's device is finished. We're on our way to the hospital now. Tell Mei to get ready—we'll be there any minute!"
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