Honkai Impact 3: Deadwood

"Captain..."

"This is your own wish, the voice of your deepest heart, and there is no shame in it."

"But…"

"You can choose to escape, you can choose to blame this desire on your so-called greed, but, Wendy, more important than these is that you have to learn to accept it, accept the desire to stand up and be with everyone. Same, you can run and jump."

"But, I have already..."

I can no longer stand up...

The girl lost her voice for a moment. Although she had long been accustomed to life in a wheelchair, she would feel a sting in her heart every time this established fact flashed through her mind.

"Wendy."

The captain whispered Wendy's name, and the girl raised her head. Her emerald-green eyes revealed her years of wish and the pain that she didn't want others to know.

So, the captain smiled and asked the girl in front of him: "Wendy, are you willing to become a member of the Hyperion? As the captain's secretary."

"...?"

This time, Wendy was silent. If it had been her before, she would have said yes without hesitation... But now, she hesitated, not because she was disgusted with this position, but because she felt that she was "incompetent" now. question.

But the captain ignored the girl's hesitation and just put down the hand stroking the top of her head, stretched it out in front of her, and then asked again: "Wendy, are you willing to become a member of the Hyperion?" The identity of the captain’s secretary.”

"I would...well...but..."

Looking at the captain's hand in front of her, the girl stretched out her hands to touch and hold it, but she didn't dare. She hesitated, her white hands stopping less than a centimeter away from the captain's fingertips, but she didn't dare to move any closer.

"Wendy, are you willing to become a member of the Hyperion? As the captain's secretary."

"..."

The captain could see the hesitation on the girl's face, and also knew the confusion in her heart, but his voice did not have the slightest disappointment or wavering because of Wendy's repeated words again and again. Some of them only remained unchanged from the beginning to the end. of tenderness and sincerity.

And these gentle words that were repeated in the girl's ears finally became the glimmer of light guiding her in the darkness.

She gritted her teeth, as if she had finally strengthened her determination, and tightly held the captain's hand stretched out to her, with no intention of letting go.

"I do! Captain, please let me stay and work by your side!"

Because Wendy's grip was so tight, the captain even felt a slight pain in his left hand. It was the girl's determination that made him satisfied.

But this is not enough, because what the captain wants to hear is not only this valuable "determination", but also the most sincere "desire" in the girl's heart.

When a girl dares to face her "wishes", this conversation will have its real value.

To this end, he must seize this opportunity to enter the deepest part of Wendy's heart, to listen to her voice that no one can talk to, and to learn about her long-standing desire.

"Wendy, do you want to stand up?"

"……Eh?"

The moment those words, as gentle as the breeze and as warm as the sun, truly penetrated into the girl's heart, the slender hands holding the young man's palm visibly trembled.

"me…"

The girl lowered her head and clenched her teeth. The pain and grievances she had accumulated for several years suddenly broke down the dam in her heart like a torrent because of this simple sentence.

"I want to... stand up... I want to..."

Whether it was pain or wishes, the emotions that had been fermenting until now were all guided by the young man at this moment, and he could no longer pretend to be nonchalant and cover it up with silence.

"Ugh... I want to stand up... I want to stand up! I also want to... I also want to run freely like ordinary people! I still have many things I want to do, I want to help everyone, and I want to contribute to everyone. the power of!"

Without caring about etiquette and not knowing how to restrain herself, Wendy used her loudest voice to express her long-suppressed feelings to the boy next to her.

"I don't want to sit here all the time, receiving everyone's attention but being unable to do anything. I don't want to, I don't want to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of my life!!!"

This was the first time since the failure of the experiment that the girl confided these words to anyone other than herself, letting others know the pain in her heart.

It took a while before Wendy came back to her senses and realized what she had said. She wanted to apologize to the captain, but when she raised her head in a panic, she found that the young man's gentle gaze on her had not changed at all.

"Woo...Woo..."

I felt a choking in my throat, and the bright tears rolled beside the girl's charming emerald eyes, and then slid down her cheeks...

"Pa-ta", "pa-ta"...

Crystal tears fell on the back of the boy's hand, and Wendy cried.

"Cough... Wu... Wuwu... Captain, Captain!"

The A-level Valkyrie named Wendy, who had always been very strong in everyone's eyes and suffered silently, at this moment... finally turned back to an ordinary, sixteen-year-old girl. It's so normal.

She dove headlong into the boy's warm and strong arms, and her bursts of sobs turned into howls. The pain accumulated over the years came out with tears and wetted the boy's white shirt. The heartbreaking cries echoed in the empty ward. echoing in…

The captain looked at the pot of white flowers swaying freely in the breeze in front of the window of the ward. His gentle expression contained expectations for the girl's future, so he raised his hand and gently touched the head of the girl in his arms.

"Ohh Ohh ohh…"

"I finally said it properly... Well done, Wendy... No, you are my secretary now, right?"

"Uh-huh... uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh." The girl in her arms replied with a choked sob.

"Haha, as your entry reward, stand up and do everything you want to do from now on."

"...?"

The girl obviously did not understand what the other party meant. She wiped her tears and raised her head, her eyes red and swollen from crying were full of doubts about the captain's words.

"Captain...?"

Before starting to explain, the captain took out a handkerchief embroidered with red birds and dotted with pink crystal flowers from his pocket, and motioned to Wendy to wipe the tears on her face.

Later, seeing that Wendy had almost calmed down, the captain informed her about the "Soul Steel Prosthetic Arm". When she heard that she could stand up again like an ordinary person, Wendy's eyes widened with the words "I can't believe it" written all over her face.

Wendy felt like she was dreaming, but when she saw the captain explaining the matter to her very seriously, she gradually accepted this shocking reality.