Honkai Impact 3: Deadwood

A deep light shone from the gradually dimming black starry sky, shining through the tips of the branches and resting on the flawless crystal flower in front of him.

She condensed the crystallization of her thoughts and love into this beautiful flower, and after circulating for tens of thousands of years, her love was entrusted to her by her former friend.

All of this is just to bring a ray of hope to myself who is stuck in a difficult decision, so that I can make a choice more easily when that day comes.

Perhaps, this is what she thought in her heart, and this is the fate she wanted to choose.

Because she loves herself deeply, she hopes that she can live, just like the fate she chose to embrace back then.

All of this is not false...

"But if that's the case..."

The captain slowly stretched out his hand, and his blood-stained and worn fingers touched the "love" that she had left for him floating in front of him.

"But if that's the case, Kevin, what exactly do you want to see in my eyes?"

This is a question that the captain has never gotten an answer to.

Kevin Kaslana…

He is her comrade-in-arms, and also her and her friend...

Just like a mirror, he and Kevin could see themselves reflected in each other just by looking at each other.

As rebels of that era, they fought together to the end, and also lost everything...

Failure was once their fate, and resistance is their unchanging choice.

That's why he understands himself so well that he doesn't need to explain too much.

If the identities were swapped, the results would definitely be the same... Just by looking at the traces of the other person's desperate struggle, you can understand what happened to the other person and what the other person has been through...

If that was the case, why had he been staring at me with such a determined gaze from the very beginning? What kind of disguise was hidden in my eyes that the overly sharp edge in his eyes was he trying to penetrate?

Obviously... there is no need to do this.

……

...?

The outstretched hand finally stopped in mid-air, and there was only a short distance between the captain's damaged fingertips and the flawless crystal flower.

Yes---

The answer is not complicated...

Maybe I should have thought of it earlier...

For those who have not experienced the "end" of this era, it may be difficult to know what this man is thinking.

But for myself, this may be a question that can be answered with a little thought.

———The overly sharp light in his eyes was not because he wanted to gain something from himself. On the contrary, he was just trying to hide something, but did not want to be seen through by himself, so he deliberately misled himself in this way.

Hey? Why did Mr. Zhi stop? What happened?

Miss Butterfly, who was standing by, looked at the scene with bated breath and asked this question in her heart.

And at the moment when this doubt arose, the young man retracted his five fingers, and a long black blade appeared in his hand, which the captain swung with all his strength towards the crystal flower in front of him.

This flower, which had been preserved for tens of thousands of years and was filled with the girl's thoughts and love, broke into pieces in the tears that flashed in the boy's eyes, and turned into strands of reluctant light, lingering around him, interweaving on his expressionless face, pitying, caressing... and finally dissipating.

———He made his choice.

"Why!?"

Xier couldn't help but let out a shocked sound. After listening to the "Snake"'s story, even she understood that it should be a very precious thing to the boy, but he... just destroyed something entrusted to him by an important person?

The thing that she had carefully preserved for tens of thousands of years was destroyed in front of her by the person she was supposed to entrust it to. Xier didn't dare to imagine how the "Snake" felt at this moment.

She secretly turned her gaze to the white-haired man on the other side of the branch, but saw that the other party still remained silent. He just watched everything happen quietly, with a trace of pity in his eyes.

In his opinion, the speed at which his old friend swung the sword was not fast. If he wanted to, he would have had many opportunities to stop the other party from swinging the sword, but he did nothing. He just watched quietly as the rays of light went away and dissipated in the space.

"It seems that this is your choice."

"You've never been good at lying, Kevin."

"..."

The man paused, and there was a hint of heaviness in his words: "Zhi, you may have lost the chance to see her one last time."

Hearing this, the captain temporarily closed his eyes, but the tears of sadness did not fall from his eyes.

Yes, maybe he will never have the chance to say goodbye to her properly. Even after walking in the world for thousands of years, he can't become hard-hearted. The feeling of sadness still makes him feel bitter.

But the choice has been made, so why should I burn others with my tears of sadness?

He knew very well how "stupid and selfish" his behavior was. He trampled on the sentiment that had been passed down for 50,000 years and chose to push himself into a fate that might be irreversible.

Once, after losing the only family he cherished, his heart was shattered into pieces like the crystal flower that he had cut off with his own hands, full of scars and shattered.

After that, the flawless girl named Alicia spent a very long time using her sincere "love" to piece his heart together again and slowly heal the wounds in his soul.

But when the girl finally became his new hope in that dying era, she suddenly died in exchange for the continuation of his life, and told him in this way...

"You are the 'hope' that I want to preserve - Xiaozhi."

……

The captain didn't know if he had the qualities that made her so sure of this, but if he could...

If possible, then now, he must become the "hope" in the girl's eyes.

"At that time, Hua... no, Chi Yuan told me that our journey has just begun." Recalling the scene when he swung the last sword, the captain walked slowly towards the man in front of him step by step.

"..."

"I know, I know it's not her, it may just be an illusion created by my fluke, but——"

Finally, the captain stood in front of the man and met eyes with his comrade from ten thousand years ago. His gradually brightening eyes flashed with the things he wanted to protect and the smiling figures of the girls. There was not a single hesitation in his dark eyes.

"Now, I am not just a "branch". As their "captain", I have a responsibility or a mission. No matter what, I must lead all of them to a more promising future!"

The pain of losing everything will be borne by someone like him who has lost everything once, while the beautiful vision of the future will be realized by them in the future.

That's it.

He knew that if it was this man, even if he didn't agree, he would definitely understand and accept his choice.

And I just need to get an answer from him that he hasn't said yet.