Soft morning light filtered through the elegant windows, casting mottled shadows across the floor. A distinct sense of cozy happiness permeated the air, carried by the faint aroma of fresh tea and the sweet scent of pastries.
Inside the welcoming reception room of the Twilight Courtyard compound—
"Um... so, let me get this straight," Castorice said. She lowered her white porcelain teacup, her pale purple eyes filled with a mix of subtle inquiry and sheer bewilderment as she stared at the mysterious entity currently floating above Fuli's shoulder.
It was a bizarre creature roughly the size of a human head. Its entire body was covered in fluffy pink fur. A pair of massive ears perked up from its head, with the tips of the ears and the end of its bushy tail transitioning into a soft, pristine white.
Star-shaped pupils sparkled in its eyes, and a bright red, heart-shaped gem rested on its chest. A few light, feathery white adornments were scattered across its body, giving the creature a dreamy, mesmerizing, and incredibly child-like aura.
After staring at the fluffy pink fluffball for a long time, Castorice finally asked, entirely unsure of herself, "According to Your Excellency... this highly uniquely designed... um, pink mammal, is the fourth and newest member of our team?"
"Mimi! Mimi mimi!"
However, upon hearing the girl's hesitant description, the seemingly harmless, illegally cute creature instantly puffed out its cheeks. It planted its two tiny front paws on its round waist and struck a furious pose, letting out a rapid, crisp series of completely incomprehensible squeaks. It was clearly protesting at the top of its lungs.
"Ah, Mimi is formally stating that referring to her as a 'pink mammal' is far too rude," Fuli explained, fighting back a smile as he assumed the role of official translator. He reached out a finger and gently scratched the little creature's chin.
Mimi immediately let out a comfortable string of purrs, her star-shaped pupils narrowing into contented slits. Her previous tantrum evaporated instantly.
The consequences of failed magic were always bizarre and unpredictable. This was a well-documented fact, easily verifiable by reading the countless anecdotes passed down by witches and wizards throughout history.
As the advanced version of the Kalachakra, the Radiant Star Drive was a pinnacle SA-Rank spell. Naturally, practicing it came with immense risks.
The first time Cyrene messed up, she had shrunk from a breathtakingly gorgeous teenager into a petite, adorable "girl-next-door" child.
This time, her luck was significantly worse. She hadn't even managed to maintain a basic humanoid form, directly transforming into this bizarre creature she called "Mimi."
Honestly, Fuli wasn't overly concerned.
First, according to the feedback from his Divine Mirror, his Great-Auntie's core life essence was incredibly stable. At most, it would take a week for the state to naturally dispel, reverting her to her original form.
Second... the little creature's design had directly struck his aesthetic weak point.
Ah! This fluffy, soft texture!
Look! This dreamy, adorable appearance!
Oh! Mimi! My sweet Mimi!
Under these circumstances, Fuli genuinely wished he could hold her in his arms and aggressively pet her twenty-four hours a day. It still wouldn't be enough.
Of course, as the victim in question, it was taking Cyrene—or rather, Mimi herself—a little time to adapt to her new body.
The little creature knew perfectly well that she was unbelievably cute, and she didn't hate this form at all.
The real problem was that she couldn't speak a single complete human sentence! She could only make noises that sounded like a spoiled kitten begging for attention. It severely hindered her ability to communicate normally!
Worse yet, it made her incredibly easy to misunderstand.
Pink mammal... Castorice's summary was way too accurate! It hurt her pride!
Even if it was technically biologically correct, it didn't stop Mimi from feeling a tiny bit heartbroken and wronged!
"Uh..."
Walking in with a freshly brewed pot of floral tea, Hyacine hesitated upon seeing the scene. She gently placed the tea tray on the cloth-covered round table and looked at Fuli with worry.
"Li-bao, I know Mimi is actually Miss Cyrene... but right now, she doesn't look all that different from Little Ica. Will the Wardance officials actually let her officially register as a combatant?"
"Oh! You're right!"
Instead of being disappointed, Fuli's eyes lit up with a brilliant realization. "If I apply to register Mimi as my personal pet... doesn't that mean we theoretically still have an open slot to recruit a real fourth member?!"
A short time later. Luofu Xianzhou, Seat of Divine Foresight—
"Through my divinations, I was already aware of your purpose for coming here."
"To put it bluntly: I refuse."
The cold, clear voice echoed across the massive office. Fu Xuan stood with her back to Fuli, gazing out the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.
The magnificent robes symbolizing the authority of the Master Diviner outlined her slender yet powerful back. The golden sunlight coated her in an awe-inspiring, unapproachable halo.
"Why?" Fuli asked, ruthlessly rubbing the squishy Mimi in his arms.
"As a General of the Luofu, how could I possibly permit such a blatant exploitation of the rules?"
Fu Xuan slowly turned around, her calm gaze landing on the boy's face. She took a step forward. Though she was much shorter than Fuli, the overbearing aura she had cultivated from years in a position of supreme authority easily enveloped him.
"Your team is already the favorite to win this tournament. If you truly emerge victorious, only for the outside world to discover you employed such underhanded trickery, the fairness and solemnity of the Wardance will be severely questioned. It would shake the prestige and reputation of the Luofu—and the entire Taixuan Front—in the eyes of the public."
The young woman explained meticulously, her tone softening slightly, like a wife lecturing a worldly-ignorant husband. "Furthermore, the Hyperion's own reputation would be dragged through the mud. As the leader of your faction, you must keep this in mind. Do not hand your enemies ammunition to use against you."
Fuli thought about it and realized she was entirely right.
Ever since the Hyperion was founded, wild, scandalous rumors regarding his personal life had spread like wildfire across the Honkai side of the universe.
At first, it was just basic gossip—calling him Theresa's fiancé, or Durandal's secret lover.
But as time went on, fueled by chaos-loving gossip mongers (like a certain hacker named Houraiji), the list of famous women he was "involved" with grew absurdly long. Telesilla, Robin, Mobius... even General Fu Xuan standing right in front of him wasn't spared.
Of course, our Savior of Light never bothered to fabricate rumors out of thin air. It was just that his actual track record was so absurdly stacked that the tabloids had infinite material to work with. A little creative embellishment was all they needed to churn out best-selling sensational articles.
But at the end of the day, those were just personal lifestyle rumors. People would feign disgust in public while secretly grinding their teeth in pure, unadulterated jealousy.
However, if he was caught actively exploiting loopholes and winning unfairly? That would be a matter of principle. The blow to his reputation would be devastating.
Fuli didn't care if people talked trash about him; he wasn't made of pure gold, he didn't need everyone to like him. But he had a massive faction to run now. He couldn't drag Mei and the others down into disgrace with him.
"Alright, fair enough."
The boy dropped his joking demeanor and accepted her reasoning seriously.
Then, he lifted Mimi high into the air, a bright smile returning to his face. "Well, since I'm already here, could I trouble the great General to formally register our new team member?"
"You..."
Seeing his cheeky grin, Fu Xuan finally couldn't hold it in. The corners of her lips curled up into a helpless, slightly indulgent smile.
In the entirety of the Luofu, the only people who dared act this brazenly in front of her were that slacker Qingque, who spent all day playing Celestial Jade... and the massive headache standing before her.
But, she reasoned internally, he is the future father of my child. I suppose I can indulge him a little.
Thinking of this, Fu Xuan expertly pulled up a holographic interface. Her fingers tapped lightly, quickly completing the registration for the new member. She asked casually, "Since your roster has changed, do you want to change your team name as well?"
Fuli asked her to wait a moment. Before his voice even faded, he vanished like a gust of wind.
A few moments later, relying on his Reignbow avatar's godly speed, he reappeared in the Twilight Courtyard's reception room.
"So that's the situation."
He relayed his conversation with Fu Xuan to his teammates, who were sitting around the table, before asking for their input. "So, should we take this opportunity to change our team name?"
Since "Li" (Yunli) had left the team, the mission of the name "Crychic" (a pun on suffering/crying for Li) had officially been completed.
"Changing the name is fine... but what should we change it to?"
Sitting in her chair, Hyacine held her face in her hands, looking deeply troubled. Her gaze accidentally drifted to Little Ica, who was currently sniffing a pastry.
A flash of inspiration hit her, and she raised her hand excitedly. "How about Pegasus Fantasy?! It includes Little Ica, and it gives off a great sense of adventure!"
"I have watched Saint Seiya, you know," Fuli deadpanned, somehow producing a small chalkboard out of nowhere and writing the name on the first line.
"What about you, Cassie?" He looked toward the quiet Reaper girl.
"Eh? Me?" Castorice blinked, caught off guard. Whatever she was thinking about caused a faint blush to spread across her cheeks.
Twisting the hem of her shirt with her slender fingers, she whispered, "Since it's a team made up of His Excellency Fuli and us girls... how about Fuli's Chicks?"
"Absolutely not."
Fuli waved his hand, immediately vetoing the suggestion. "The pun is terrible, and the double entendre is way too easy to misunderstand."
"Mimi! Mimi mimi!"
Mimi, currently in his arms, loudly voiced her own idea. She struggled out of his embrace, jumped onto the table, and began shaking her fluffy pink fur.
As a medical student, Hyacine observed her with intense curiosity, desperately wanting to know how a fluffy creature like Mimi managed to sweat and regulate body temperature like a human.
"Memory Battleship?"
Fuli, translating the squeaks, didn't quite understand why his Great-Auntie associated them with that phrase.
He rubbed the cold hilt of Endless Night Moon at his waist and examined his teammates: Hyacine, Cyrene, and Castorice. A battleship of memories... For some reason, the team composition gave off a distinct "Version 3.0 Meta Dominance" vibe.
"What about you, Your Excellency?" Castorice looked up, asking softly. "We've all given our suggestions. Do you have any good ideas?"
"Me?"
The boy's eyes rolled around playfully. He suddenly recalled an anime he had watched with Bronya not too long ago.
"You know, if you combine Cyrene's name—Xilian—with mine, you get Fuli-rene. If you stretch that a little bit, doesn't it sound exactly like Fuli-ren? As in... Fuli-rene: Beyond Journey's End?"
"Yep. I formally submit that as my suggestion for our new team name."
As soon as he finished speaking, he couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing at his own terrible pun.
"Uh..."
As the famous fanfiction author Long-Shirt Calling the Purple Dragon, Castorice was obviously a massive anime fan.
Hearing this absolutely glacial, sub-zero pun, she felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of her feet to the top of her skull. She couldn't help but shiver, momentarily terrified that her Authority of Death had somehow returned to freeze her soul.
"Alright, alright! Let's vote!"
Hyacine clapped her hands, a bright, lively smile on her face. "Everyone gets two votes! But keep in mind, you can only vote for your own suggestion once! Fair and square!"
"Good idea," Fuli nodded approvingly. "Hya really has the aura of a grand leader. Very thorough."
"By the way, Little Ica gets to vote too!" Hyacine blinked slyly, adding with absolute certainty, "He's an important partner, after all! Or... do you guys think Little Ica doesn't count as one of us?"
Dammit! Blatant, shameless moral kidnapping!
The remaining two humans and one Mimi immediately shot solemn glares at the radiantly smiling healer, then at the chubby little Pegasus happily flapping its wings nearby.
The voting began quickly—and ended just as fast!
Hyacine suffered a catastrophic, historic defeat!
"Waaah, why do I only have a pathetic two votes?!" she cried, collapsing onto the table in despair.
"Mimi! Mimi mimi!"
The victorious Mimi hopped around excitedly, her tiny chest puffed out in total triumph.
"Heh! That's what you get for making it so obvious you had a two-vote advantage right out the gate! Everyone strategically voted against you to balance it out!" Fuli explained, translating the situation. "Anyway, our new team name is officially Memory Battleship. Losers have to accept reality obediently, got it?"
"How could this happen?!"
Hyacine's indignant wail made everyone burst into laughter. The reception room was filled with a joyous, lighthearted atmosphere.
Soon after, the new team name was updated on the official Wardance website.
At the same time, Castorice looked at the increasingly tight scores on the leaderboard projection, a serious expression crossing her face.
"Everyone, it looks like our competitors are pushing hard in the final stretch. If only so we don't let Miss Yunli down, we need to step up our game too!"
Just as she said that, the girl noticed Fuli sneaking over to the door, poking his head out and looking around cautiously.
"Your Excellency?"
"It's nothing, nothing. Just checking to see if there's an ordinary black sedan passing by."
"Please rest assured, Your Excellency. Even if we're suddenly ambushed by a drive-by shooter spraying submachine gun fire, I am fully confident I can get us out safely."
"Mi?"
Watching the two of them casually throwing out obscure anime death-flag memes, Mimi and Hyacine exchanged a glance, question marks popping up over their heads.
"We can put the missions on hold for now. There's no immediate rush," Fuli coughed lightly, returning to his seat to discuss official business. "When I was with General Fu Xuan just now, she told me that the organizers are planning to shoot a series of official promotional photos for the top-ranking championship contender teams. They'll be displayed on the Wardance's official website."
"Photoshoot...?"
The moment she heard the word, obvious hesitation crept onto Castorice's pale face.
Because of her past inability to touch others, she had subconsciously developed a habit of avoiding crowds. She was entirely mentally unprepared to face a camera, feeling incredibly shy and nervous.
The highly perceptive Hyacine immediately noticed her friend's distress. Her petite body quietly slipped behind Fuli, and using her height advantage, she secretly threw an elbow into his lower back to get his attention.
"O-ow!"
"Hmm?"
Fuli looked down, only to find the tiny assailant crouching on the floor, clutching her own elbow, which had turned bright red from the impact.
Her slender legs, wrapped in pure white pantyhose, curled up slightly from the pain. Paired with her red dress, she looked exactly like a delicious, dropped strawberry shortcake.
Never underestimate the passive defense of the invincible Gold Cloth.
Sure, against S-Rank attacks, its protection might feel slightly lacking. But against any entity below the Critical Class? It was an insurmountable Wall of Sighs.
However, thanks to Hyacine's self-sacrificial reminder, Fuli immediately picked up on Castorice's anxiety and shyness.
He thought for a moment, then tapped his fingers against the swords at his waist.
The next second, the lively, bubbly Little March and the slightly aloof Endless Night Moon materialized out of thin air as spectral jellyfish.
Fuli whispered a few words to them. Little March bobbed up and down obediently to show she understood her daddy, then happily floated over toward Castorice.
Halfway there, she remembered something, turned around, and dragged the somewhat reluctant Endless Night Moon along with her.
Castorice, who had her head bowed in nervousness, suddenly felt something soft and cool gently brush against the back of her hand.
She looked up in surprise and saw two squishy, adorable little jellyfish glowing with a soft light. They danced gracefully around her, occasionally reaching out to curiously poke the tips of her hair or her cheeks.
"Hehe~"
The girl reached out a slender finger and carefully booped Little March's squishy body. The shyness in her eyes was gradually replaced by gentle joy as she began interacting with the two vastly different little creatures.
Watching the scene unfold, Hyacine sighed in admiration. "When it comes to coaxing girls and making them happy, you really are the absolute best at it, Li-bao!"
"...Why does it feel like you're not actually complimenting me?"
"It's just your imagination!"
The tiny healer flashed him a massive, innocent smile, then subtly took half a step back, maintaining a safe distance from the walking harem-protagonist hazard.
Meanwhile, somewhere on the Luofu Xianzhou—
Even though the sun was high in the sky, the room was as dark as midnight.
Thick blackout curtains completely sealed off the outside world. The only illumination came from the eerie blue glow of a massive computer monitor.
The air was thick with the scent of instant noodles, stale snacks, and the faint metallic smell of overworked cooling fans—a perfect recreation of a quintessential gamer's den.
For the soundly sleeping Houraiji Kyuushou, this was simply her daily routine.
As the girl often claimed, sleeping during the day and prowling at night was her natural biological rhythm.
What kind of self-respecting super-hacker operates in the daylight? The dark of night is our true battlefield!
Thus, even though the custom anime-decaled smartphone on her nightstand had been ringing relentlessly for the past ten minutes, it entirely failed to shake her resolve to sleep.
"To reclaim my youth, I'd do absolutely anything..." she mumbled incoherently into her pillow. "...Except exercise, wake up early, or become a functioning member of society."
It wasn't until the ringing became absolutely unbearable that she irritably fumbled under her pillow.
Relying purely on muscle memory, she grabbed her phone and pressed the answer button without even opening her eyes.
The voice on the other end said a few sentences.
Followed by three seconds of dead silence.
"What?! I get to shoot the official promotional photos for the Wardance's top championship teams?!!"
"I'LL DO IT!!!"
The previously dead-to-the-world girl launched herself out of bed like a coiled spring, screeching with the energy of a hyperactive cartoon character.
Her violet hair was completely frizzed out from static electricity. Her eyes, which had been foggy with sleep just a second ago, were now bulging wide open, bursting with the blinding, manic light of someone who had just struck absolute gold.