Chapter 27: Understanding Family

“Hold them off a bit longer with these!” The bearded man pulled out a pile of grenades and handed them to the guild members. The turrets had indeed proven unreliable, but they had made plenty of grenades in advance. Most people instantly pulled the pins and hurled them toward Kanade Tachibana.

When the explosions erupted, Kanade was knocked down by the shockwave. The sight of her struggling to get up, appearing so fragile, made Yechen’s heart ache. Yet the grenades showed no mercy, flying toward her one after another. As they were about to land in front of Kanade, their trajectories were suddenly altered by distortion, causing them to fall around her instead. Yechen couldn’t bear to watch any longer.

He activated his delay, leaving streaks of silvery afterimages in his wake. The delay ability Yechen had acquired had been modified to allow long-distance movement. Seizing Kanade by her slender waist, he whisked her away from the blast radius just before the grenades went off.

“Quick, get into cover!” With the exception of Yechen, everyone had already retreated. Yuri and the bearded man were preparing to detonate the explosives and destroy the underground base. Shiina stopped them, frowning as she asked, “Yechen is still outside. Shouldn’t we wait for him?”

“He won’t die anyway, and his abilities mean we don’t have to worry about him. What matters now is to blow up the guild before the Angel gets here! Detonate!” Persuading Shiina, Yuri immediately gave the order to Chaa.

“Detonate!” Having received Yuri’s approval, Chaa pressed the switch in his hand. The underground guild was wracked by a series of explosions, as if it were under a terrorist attack.

“Is Kanade all right?” Kanade, who had just been carried out of the blast zone by Yechen, lay dazed on the ground, staring up at the rocky ceiling above. Her clothes and body were dust-stained and soiled, her disheveled appearance making her seem even more delicate.

“I’m fine.” Kanade replied calmly, her composure even in the face of such treatment leaving Yechen in awe. It was as if she truly felt nothing at all.

“She’s fine for now, but you two are about to have trouble! Yechen, don’t forget you set some charges down here yourself. If everything goes up, this place will collapse!” Ruocheng kindly reminded Yechen of his predicament. Cold sweat broke out on Yechen’s forehead as he realized from the tremors below that the explosions had already started.

Before they could get up, the ground began to crack in countless places. Chunks of rock broke loose and tumbled into the space below. The explosions had filled the underground with fire and smoke, turning it into a hellish inferno. Yechen and Kanade plummeted downward, heads first.

“Ruocheng, is there a way out?” Yechen knew he couldn’t survive this ordeal alone. He himself would be fine—after all, he couldn’t die—but having Kanade by his side was another story. He couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering death’s agony alongside him.

“Well, we can’t help. There are two options: one, do nothing, since except for special attacks, you can’t die in this world anyway.” Ruocheng hovered lightly nearby as they both fell, her voice as nonchalant as ever.

“Rejected! C.C. said you must never let a girl you care about come to harm!” Yechen immediately rejected the suggestion. Having been thoroughly indoctrinated by C.C. since childhood, Yechen had ironclad principles. He felt bad enough when he himself got hurt, let alone letting someone else experience death. Kanade was already a close friend and something of a good luck charm to him. There was no way he could agree.

“You really do listen to C.C.! There’s another way—you still have one use of your stellar power, don’t you? If you use it, not even dangers a hundred times worse than this in this world could harm you.” Hearing Yechen’s reverence for C.C., Ruocheng instantly realized how deep their lifelong bond ran. She puffed out her cheeks in a pout as she spoke.

“Should I really use it?” Yechen had wanted to save his last use as a trump card for unknown dangers ahead. If he used it now, he’d have nothing left for future crises.

“You saved it to protect loved ones and friends, didn’t you? If you don’t use it now, then when?” Harnessing the last of his power, Yechen’s eyes gleamed even brighter, a subtle energy swirling around him.

Yechen’s fall came to an abrupt halt; he now hovered in midair. Any falling rock that approached was reduced to dust by the starlight surrounding him. In his arms, Kanade stared blankly at this miraculous scene. Since he’d already used the power, Yechen decided to go all out—he healed Kanade’s minor wounds and cleaned the dust from her uniform.

Their previously bedraggled uniforms were instantly restored to pristine condition, and they themselves felt much refreshed. Glancing down at the burning guild below, Yechen frowned and pointed downward. In the sea of fire, a vortex appeared, drawing in the flames and smothering them beneath the collapsed rocks.

“Ding, host has successfully destroyed the guild and earned 100 Evil Points; host has successfully rescued and healed Kanade Tachibana, earning 100 Good Points. You now have 200 Good Points and 100 Evil Points remaining.” As Yechen finished, the guild was razed to the ground. The system’s sudden reward notification puzzled him—weren’t points only awarded for completed missions?

But for now, the most important thing was to get Kanade safely to the surface. The benefit of using this power was that, though it induced a berserk state during use, once it ended, the ability would be sealed, along with any killing intent. Back on the surface, Kanade fixed her amber eyes on Yechen, staring as if she wanted to see through him entirely. Her doll-like beauty remained expressionless; even in the face of death just now, Yechen had never seen a flicker of emotion on her face.

They gazed at each other in silence for almost three minutes. At last, Yechen made up his mind and suddenly declared, “Kanade, be my family!”

In the short time he’d spent in this world, Yechen had come to like this kind and adorable girl. He had plenty of friends now—Yuri, Shiina, Otonashi, Hinata, and other members of the resistance were all his friends—but the only ones he truly considered family were C.C. and Xiaobai. For him to take the initiative like this showed how highly he regarded Kanade—second only to C.C. and Xiaobai.

“Hm?” Kanade tilted her head in an adorably puzzled manner, not understanding. Didn’t “family” mean people related by blood?

“Family means sharing an exceptionally close bond—seeing each other as the most important person in your life, someone you’d sacrifice yourself for.” Noticing her confusion, Yechen did his best to explain, drawing from C.C.’s explanations. His knowledge was limited to what C.C. had taught him; clearly, he needed to visit the library soon to fill in the gaps.

“Family? Does that mean I can have lots of mapo tofu? I’ll share my mapo tofu with you from now on!” Kanade thought for a moment before responding, her answer guileless and sincere.