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ArabicHonkai Impact: My Power Grows When Valkyries Fall For Me — Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Raiden Mei
The sun painted the sky a brilliant, cloudless blue. As time trickled by with the quiet hum of a peaceful afternoon, the final bell of the day echoed through the halls of Chiba Academy.
Soon, students not participating in club activities began to spill from the school’s main entrance. Lucian, blending in with the crowd, was among them.
After bidding a cheerful farewell to Kiana, he started on the familiar walk toward his apartment. His thoughts, however, were far from the mundane path ahead. They kept circling back to his right eye, to the strange events of the previous night and the lingering questions of today.
The complex, golden patterns within his iris hadn’t faded. He was certain they weren’t there before; he would have noticed. But ever since his arm had been miraculously healed, the pattern in his right eye seemed to have become a permanent feature. It wasn’t glowing, but it hadn’t vanished either.
‘But how do I actually use it? That’s still the problem…’Lucian muttered to himself, his fingers unconsciously tracing the edge of his right eye socket. He couldn’t seem to trigger any ability at will. He couldn’t command the flow of Honkai Energy, nor could he perceive anything unusual through it.’Could it just be a passive healing effect?’
He furrowed his brow. Lost in thought, his gaze swept over the street corner ahead, and his footsteps faltered.
There, standing alone on the sidewalk about ten meters away, was a familiar figure.
Her deep purple hair, tied back in a long braid, fluttered gently in the breeze. She wore the Chiba Academy uniform with an impeccable, upright posture that radiated a natural elegance.
Raiden Mei.
She was looking down at her phone, a slight, almost imperceptible frown creasing her brow. She seemed to be waiting for someone, or perhaps hesitating over a decision.
Lucian was momentarily taken aback.
According to his original plan, he wasn’t supposed to actively approach Raiden Mei at this stage. The primary reason was his fear of attracting the attention of Anti-Entropy.
Being on Siegfried’s radar was one thing; he was actively trying to draw the man out, after all. But if that vixen Cocolia set her sights on him, things could get complicated in a hurry. If she merely sent Bronya to assassinate him, he was confident he could win the girl over to his side. But what if Cocolia decided an ordinary person like him wasn’t worth the trouble of a personal touch? What if she simply dispatched an invisible mech to blow up his apartment, with the next day’s news reporting a tragic gas explosion? He had no desire to be blown to smithereens.
‘Still… just striking up a conversation shouldn’t be a major issue, right?’
Having made his decision, he smoothed his expression and began to walk toward her.
“Senior Raiden?”
A gentle voice sounded from her side. Mei looked up from her phone, her gaze shifting to the source of the sound.
A boy in the Chiba Academy male uniform stood before her. He had black hair, wore a pair of dark sunglasses, and offered a smile that was polite but not overly familiar. Mei recognized him—Lucian, the boy Kiana so often talked about.
“Hello, Lucian. Is there something you need?” Mei gave a slight nod, her voice as calm and polite as her posture, yet carrying a faint hint of formal distance.
“Nothing in particular,” Lucian replied with a natural-sounding smile. “It’s just that I often hear Kiana mention you. Are you waiting for someone, Senior?”
Mei shook her head gently. “I’m waiting for my family’s car.”
“I see.”
Lucian nodded. He didn’t leave immediately, nor did he press the conversation. He simply stood there quietly, as if he, too, were waiting for a ride.
The street was a steady stream of people and cars. A few seconds of comfortable silence passed between them.
“…Do you usually go home with Kiana?” Mei suddenly asked, the question seeming to surprise even herself.
The moment the words left her mouth, Mei pressed her lips together, a flicker of regret in her eyes as if she felt it was impolite to pry into his personal routine.
“Usually, yes,” Lucian answered frankly, pretending not to notice her slight unease. “Today, Kiana said she wanted to check for part-time jobs on the shopping street, so she headed off on her own.”
“A part-time job?” Mei blinked, a touch of surprise in her voice.
In her experience, most students at Chiba Academy came from well-off families. Very few would need to consider working part-time, especially as first-year high school students. Besides, while Kiana seemed a bit impulsive, her clothes and spending habits never suggested she was short on money.
“Yeah. She said something about… losing the card her father left her,” Lucian explained, his tone laced with an amused resignation. “That girl has absolutely no concept of money, but she sure knows how to spend it.”
A faint, almost imperceptible curve touched the corner of Mei’s lips.
“Kiana… is a very interesting person,” Mei said softly, her gaze drifting toward the neon signs that were beginning to flicker to life on the buildings across the street.
“Indeed. She can be a real headache sometimes, but being around her just seems to put you in a better mood,” Lucian agreed.
Mei turned her head, her gaze landing on Lucian once more. The sunglasses completely hid his eyes, making his expression unreadable.
“Are you and Kiana very close, Lucian?”
“You could say that. We’re deskmates, so we naturally end up spending a lot of time together.”
“So you’re deskmates…”
Mei gave a light nod and said nothing more. At that exact moment, a sleek black luxury sedan glided silently to the curb, stopping beside her.
The driver lowered the window and gestured for her to get in.
“Well, I should be going,” Mei said, offering Lucian a slight, polite bow.
“Goodbye, Senior Mei.”
Lucian stood in place, watching the car merge smoothly into the flow of traffic. Only then did he let out a soft, quiet sigh.
‘The first contact went fairly smoothly…’
His eyes followed the black sedan as it disappeared into the evening rush hour. With a quiet yawn, Lucian turned and continued his walk home.
————
In the days that followed, life seemed to settle back into a peaceful rhythm.
Lucian went to school, sat through classes, traded banter with Kiana, and went home. It was a simple, repetitive cycle.
The patterns in his right eye remained, a constant, silent presence. But there were no more strange occurrences like that night, nor did the eye display any hint of an active ability. He tried everything he could think of: concentrating his will, stimulating it with minuscule amounts of Honkai Energy, even gripping the Judgement of Shamash again. The results were always the same. Aside from his body being mysteriously repaired and refreshed the next morning, all his research hit a dead end.
His contact with Raiden Mei also remained at that one chance encounter. On campus, they would occasionally pass each other in the hallways, exchanging a brief nod before continuing on their separate ways.
Kiana, however, made a habit of running off to find Mei during breaks. She would return to her desk bubbling with cheerful chatter, exclaiming things like, “Senior Mei praised me again today!”
Lucian would just listen with a small smile, occasionally offering a word or two of agreement.
The days slipped by at this unhurried pace. Then, this afternoon, just after the final bell rang, the class monitor walked to the podium.
“Everyone, in two days, it will be our Chiba Academy School Festival. The teacher has announced that there will be no classes tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be using that time to decorate the classroom.”
“The School Festival!” The classroom instantly erupted in a buzz of excited whispers and the rustling of students shifting in their seats.
The monitor pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, waiting for the noise to subside before continuing. “Our class has already voted on a project. We’ve decided to host a Maid Café. The costumes have been prepared, so I ask that everyone get ready at home.”
“A Maid Café?! For real?!”
Kiana shot up from her seat, her face a mask of shock and horrified resistance. “Monitor! Th-that’s not a good idea, is it?! We’re high school students! Wearing… those kinds of clothes…”
The monitor pushed her glasses up again, her tone perfectly calm as she rebutted Kiana’s outburst. “The School Festival is an excellent opportunity to showcase our class’s uniqueness and creativity.”
“also,” she continued, “Maid Cafés are very popular. Last year, Class 3-C’s sales were number one in the entire school…”
As the monitor spoke, a classmate suddenly interrupted her.
“Wasn’t that just because that one senior from last year’s Class 3-C was so beautiful that tons of people came just to see her in person?”
The classroom fell silent for a beat before erupting in a wave of suppressed laughter.
The monitor’s hand, still pushing at her glasses, froze mid-motion. A rare hint of embarrassment colored her cheeks.
“Well… that might have been part of the reason, but it was mainly because their coffee tasted good and their service was excellent…”
She tried to explain, but it was too late. The topic had been completely derailed. Several girls were already huddled together, whispering excitedly.
“Speaking of which… our class has some lookers, too, right?”
“Yeah! Kiana is really cute!”
“How about we have her be our poster maid to attract customers?”
Hearing her name, Kiana’s expression instantly stiffened. She shot a helpless, pleading look toward Lucian, only to be met with his mischievous grin.
“Do your best, Kiana.”