Honkai Impact 3rd: Yumeji Satsuki's lies

As Yumeji reached his limit, a hand reached out to grab his exhausted body, the hand belonged to an emotionless girl with silver-gray hair and cold eyes that at this moment carried a rare hint of worry. He looked up and moved his trembling lips to call out the girl's name.

"…Bronya?"

There was no immediate reproach. No unnecessary questions. She just silently observed him, assessing his condition quickly but thoroughly.

And then, in the same tone as usual but a little softer, she said:

"Can you tell Bronya clearly what's going on?"

It wasn't "Are you okay?", nor "Where are you hurt?"

Those questions were unnecessary, because Bronya already saw the answer clearly.

—He's not okay.

The most important question now is: Why did it turn out like this?

---

Yumeji burst out laughing.

"…Haha."

He didn't expect Bronya to react like this.

If it were Kiana, the idiot would definitely panic, repeatedly asking him if he was hurt in a flustered manner, even though she would usually laugh sarcastically when she saw him in trouble, but she wouldn't be so mean as to do that in the most serious situations no matter how much she hated him. If it were Mei, she would probably be worried but still stay calm, asking him to rest immediately.

But Bronya was different.

She didn't let her emotions overwhelm her reason.

As soon as she realized he wasn't going to die immediately, she focused on gathering information.

That was why Yumeji felt more at ease.

—He wasn't the type to hide things

If someone asked, he would be willing to explain.

Just… not the whole truth.

"The thing is…" He wiped the blood from his nose, took a deep breath, and began to explain.

"You know, I have a few special abilities. They make me stronger, create explosions, or control fire."

Bronya nodded, confirming that she had known this all along.

He was a little disappointed by the superficial response, but he had to accept it because he had shown off those abilities so often that it had become a bit cheap in the eyes of those who knew him.

"But those things aren't something that comes naturally." Yumeji continued.

"It's like… software. I need to tweak and program it to make it more effective."

Bronya narrowed her eyes.

"…You mean your ability isn't completely natural, Bronya asked?"

"Hmm, it might be easier to understand if you call it a Honkai coefficient hack." Yumeji shrugged.

"Honkai… hack?" Bronya immediately focused more.

She didn't trust anything related to hacking, but if it was something that could help Yumeji fight, she didn't deny its value.

"What exactly… did you do?"

"Ah, I just tried to upgrade my ability by modifying its pre-defined protocol. But the problem is… the data is too complicated. It's like a piece of programming code that's too complicated, full of bugs, and incomplete."

He wasn't lying.

He just… didn't tell the whole truth.

Bronya didn't need to know that he was from another world. Didn't need to know that he didn't belong here. And especially, he didn't need her to know about the System.

What he said still made sense. A power based on data, that could be tweaked and optimized, but if abused, it would backfire.

—An explanation that was 50% correct, and the other 50% fallacy.

Bronya didn't immediately refute. She was thinking.

"…So that means," she finally said,

"Yumeji just tried to edit a complex piece of code by herself without any tools, did Bronya understand?"

Yumeji smiled bitterly.

"Yeah, although it's a bit of an oversimplification, you guessed it right."

Bronya let out a soft sigh.

"…Bronya thought he had misunderstood Yumeji, at first Bronya thought Yumeji was quite the smart type but now that Bronya thought about it, Yumeji was probably not much different from the stupid Kiana."

'Hey, isn't that too much to say!?'- he thought with a grimace, but at least he felt a little better now

It wasn't a direct insult. It wasn't a scolding.

It was just a simple sentence, but it contained dissatisfaction and responsibility.

—She didn't like that way of doing things.

Bronya's thinking system wouldn't allow a program to try to fix its own errors without any external processors.

To put it simply—

Who does he think he is to do that alone? That was what made Bronya feel uncomfortable right now.

Perhaps to someone else, the hero model was something wonderful, but to Bronya, it was nothing more than a tragedy. There's no reason for a person to carry so much burden on their shoulders. They can say that they're just doing what they want to do, and that their loved ones are simply supporting them. But those people never realize that they're putting more burden on their shoulders and pushing their hero further towards the abyss, they always want their savior to listen to them but they don't really listen when they're in trouble.

Bronya thinks she knows why, it's because they're afraid. They're afraid that the current relationship they've built with that hero will collapse like a sand castle if they speak out. Both sides of that relationship are pitiful, as one side is afraid to share and the other side is afraid to be shared. The better the relationship, the heavier the fear of it collapsing.

Bronya knows that, because she has experienced it.

No one is born strong, no one is born with great responsibility.

What? Because they have great power, they have to take responsibility for that power? What nonsense! Don't justify why instead of saving a drowning child from a fate that he had no choice in, you cruelly drown him so he can learn to swim and save others.

Putting a special category on someone and then praising them so that person cannot climb down but can only continue to climb higher to meet expectations, that is the person you call a hero. If that person chooses that path because they themselves desire it, then even if the story they create afterwards is terrible, Bronya will accept and applaud that story because it is built from the true determination of the main character, not because of forced circumstances.

So, Bronya would choose to listen and believe regardless of whether what they said was trustworthy or not. Regardless of the inadequacy in their explanation that created the premise for doubt and even if what they said was extremely far-fetched and empty, Bronya would still believe.

Why should she find a reason not to believe them? When all their efforts were so obvious and they even reached out to ask for help when they were in a deadlock.

Then Bronya would definitely take that hand.

Whether what they said was true or not didn't matter. It didn't matter if their relationship wasn't completely sincere. She didn't care what the truth was behind it.

Bronya would be less calculating and think logically because after all, the person asking for help here was Bronya's friend.

And she, Bronya, would never regret helping her friend.

And so…

Bronya reached out and touched Mecha Project Bunny's processor.

"Yumeji."

"Hm?"

"If the data you need to edit is that complicated, then instead of doing it yourself…"

She opened a signal scanning interface, then handed him a pair of special goggles.

"…Why don't you let Bronya help you?"