Whenever, Wherever...

"Actually, my ability is very simple." Shu said, smiling as he withdrew his hand.

"My power is to consume a type of mysterious energy within my body, and then respond to your expectations. The more difficult your expectation is, the greater the cost I have to pay."

"Huh?" Kiana was a bit lost. Shu was speaking a little too deeply for her. Her CPU was overheating.

"I'm a wish-granting machine," Shu said in a simpler way.

"Ah?!" Kiana understood this time.

"Shu, can you fulfill any request?" Bronya, who had been silent until now, couldn't keep quiet anymore. Though she knew that Mei would also ask this question, she couldn't wait another second.

"If my power is enough…" Shu felt the energy inside him that had been completely depleted. He then said with certainty, "I can do anything."

With just those earlier demonstrations, the energy that Shu had received, from who knows where, had been completely used up. In particular, the small flame and lightning barely consumed any power.

Teleporting for a moment had used a third of his power, and almost all of the rest had been used to stop time for less than a second, so he could only pull out a piece of candy at the end.

Otherwise, he would have definitely conjured up a four-course meal to satisfy his cravings!

And that had only been a trace of his power. The power he'd gained when he'd said "rebuild civilization" to those people had been hundreds of times stronger!

Well, maybe not that much. Moreover, this power couldn't be automatically recovered.

And one very important thing: everything he did was actually a one-time thing. These expectations couldn't be stored for long.

Kiana's expectations, even if he still had that power inside him, he wouldn't be able to show again; he'd have to make Kiana have that expectation again.

So, this was actually a rather useless ability. His own expectations for himself couldn't be used; he could only rely on those around him to create his abilities.

Looks like I won't be able to be a lone wolf this lifetime.

But still, Shu could do anything!

Just like last time, Shu's body had contained a lot of this energy, and Bronya's expectation of him had been "defeat the Honkai soldier."

So, at that time, all the power had been poured into the expectation of "defeating the Honkai soldier," giving Shu the ability to fight back even after suffering a fatal injury.

And after truly defeating those two Honkai soldiers, the power without a goal was unable to vent, leaving Shu with no power to struggle.

And the Honkai beast picked up another kill… damn it.

Shu could feel that there was a lot of power in his body at that time. He hadn't used up much power at all to defeat those two soldiers, what was lacking was him, not the power.

"That's really amazing…" Kiana's eyes sparkled with envy, and the sweetness in her mouth had made her thoughts fly away.

"Damn it, if I had known, I would have wished for a full-course feast! Shu, you just tried to brush me off with a piece of candy!" Kiana wiped her mouth, regretfully complaining.

Shu protested, it wasn't that he didn't want to conjure something good. It was just that her two requests had been way too excessive!

That was teleportation and time stop! Why were you so focused on that piece of candy?

"This power… Shu, how much power do you have right now?"

"None, not a trace. It was completely drained by Kiana." Shu honestly replied, while giving Kiana a glare full of resentment.

Kiana looked shocked, "Mei! I didn't! He's slandering me! He's slandering me!!"

Mei couldn't help but laugh. Kiana seemed to have been experiencing a lot of misfortunes lately. Someone was always trying to set her up. There was Bronya's report, and now there was Shu's ambiguous statement.

But Shu probably wasn't wrong, his power was completely gone now.

"Can't you recover it? Or, how do you get this power?" Mei asked the most important question.

"Unfortunately, no." Shu shook his head, still without any secrets, "As for the source of the power, though I'm not sure, I have a theory."

"The source of this power comes from all of you, and other people who have trust, respect, and goodwill towards me." Shu said, looking at his hand.

"Who respects you?" Kiana complained, muttering under her breath, but not quiet enough to escape anyone's notice.

"Goodwill and trust, huh…" Mei was deep in thought. "Power that comes from the heart… Shu, was that last display all of the power you've gained from us?"

She and Shu had known each other for a long time, Kiana even longer, almost a month. They all had a relationship built on trust, but they had only managed to create a small amount of power…

"No, it's just started recently, maybe these last two days." Shu shook his head, giving them some good news.

"That's good." Mei sighed with relief, smiling at Shu. "Now that you have confidence, we'll naturally work with you."

"Leave thinking about abilities to me!" Kiana confidently raised her finger to Shu. "I'm not just a pretty face!"

"You weren't respectful to me earlier, you didn't give me any of your power, but now you expect me to respond to your expectations?" Shu teased, never missing a chance to poke fun at Kiana.

"Shu!" Kiana got angry, "Don't think you can push me around just because you have power! I… uh… damn it, I will definitely not lose!"

"Ah, yes, yes." Now that he had his powers, Shu wasn't afraid at all.

Heh, the Kiana era is over, now it's the Shu era!

Once he entered the shelter, he would be the boss!

Kiana puffed out her cheeks, sulking as she nestled next to Mei. "Mei~ look at him~"

What could Mei say? She could only smile, and pat Kiana's head.

Kiana wasn't truly angry; she was also happy for Shu. Shu also knew just how much Kiana trusted him.

She was going to send him to find Mei, and she would lead the Honkai beast away. Until the very last moment, Kiana hadn't given up on leading, until…

So – that Honkai beast had to die, even if it wasn't the original one. Shu didn't want to endure this for a single moment longer.

He wanted revenge, until the very end!

"Oh, right." After snuggling into Mei's arms for a while, Kiana suddenly thought of something. She looked up at Shu. "Are you really going to keep calling your power 'power'? Why don't you give it a cool name?"

A cool name?

Shu was stunned; he hadn't thought of that. "What kind of name should I give it…"

The others didn't give any suggestions. These kinds of things were best left up to Shu. Unless Shu gave himself a terrible name, they wouldn't intervene.

After thinking for a moment, Shu looked up.

"I don't need a name. This is 'Expectation,' and it's something I will respond to, whenever, wherever!"