"Not here either."
"This isn't it."
Theresa was back at St. Freya High School, sitting in her office. The moment she arrived, she dove into searching for information about the girl with wings. Even Schicksal's database had nothing on her.
After hours of digging, her desk was piled high with books, stacked so tall they nearly tipped over. Finally, Himeko spoke up.
"Principal... Theresa, we should stop for today. It's already night," she said, worry in her voice. She'd been watching Theresa read nonstop.
Theresa sighed, closing her book and stretching her arms. "Ugh, yeah, I should probably stop... I'm just really worried about Kiana."
"Kiana..." Himeko said softly. Everyone on the Hyperion had seen the winged girl carrying someone, and they all knew it was Kiana. They couldn't help but worry about her.
Theresa had strictly ordered everyone to keep quiet about what they saw.
"Did you find anything else?" Theresa asked.
"No, just that one book," Himeko said, glancing at the single book set apart from the others.
"I see. Well, we should check it out before we leave," Theresa said, picking up the book and opening it.
Himeko pulled her chair next to Theresa so they could read together.
It was the only book that matched the description of the girl they saw, except for one detail-the book described a male, not a female.
"Lucifer, the fallen angel..." Himeko murmured.
"Same six wings, same wing colors, same blue eyes," Theresa said, comparing the book's description to what she saw earlier.
The similarities led them to think it could be Lucifer, but the problem was that Lucifer was male. If the person they saw was male, it wouldn't be an issue.
"But the one we saw was a girl," Theresa muttered.
In the end, they found nothing else, but at least they had a clue.
"Are we really not telling headquarters? You told everyone to keep quiet about her," Himeko said.
"I know why you're asking, but trust me on this. I have a bad feeling if we involve my grandfather," Theresa replied.
She couldn't shake the feeling that if her grandfather got involved, the girl could destroy all of Schicksal. With Honkai already a huge problem, Theresa didn't want to add more trouble.
"What about Anti-Entropy? Have we made contact with them?" Theresa asked.
"We still can't reach them. And we still haven't found Siegfried," Himeko answered.
"Damn it! At a time like this, and we can't contact them!" Theresa said, frustrated.
Despite all Theresa's efforts, they couldn't reach Anti-Entropy. The group was too busy searching for Cocolia before she could nuke Nagazora City.
After Siegfried warned them about Cocolia, they tried to track her down, but her whereabouts were still unknown, even to Anti-Entropy.
"I hope nothing bad has happened to Kiana..." Theresa said, her voice full of worry.
Meanwhile, the one they were all worrying about, Kiana, was happily eating breakfast with Reina, Mei, and Yuna. The four of them together made the atmosphere lively, everyone chatting and laughing while enjoying Reina's cooking.
Mei watched, amazed, and decided she really wanted to learn to cook. Seeing how much fun it was, and hearing Reina say that watching people enjoy her food with happy faces made her happy too, Mei felt inspired.
After breakfast, Reina teleported Mei and Yuna to an empty street near their homes so they could get ready for school.
Meanwhile, in an unknown location...
"Kiana Kaslana."
"Aoyama Yuna."
"Reina Zero."
A blonde woman with purple eyes spoke, staring at three documents with photos of the girls. Her name was Cocolia, the one Reina had been searching for, studying information about the three who had suddenly grown close to the Herrscher.
She knew exactly who Kiana Kaslana was, but it was strange. Kiana had vanished for years, only to reappear in this city. Maybe Siegfried sent her here, or it was some other coincidence, but that wasn't Cocolia's main concern.
Her priority was to awaken the Gem of Conquest in Raiden Mei and turn her into a Herrscher. Taking over ME Corp to fund her goals was less important, as she had other ways to achieve what she wanted.
Cocolia's first phase was to take over ME Corp by getting Raiden Ryoma arrested, then paying students to bully Mei and push her into depression. The more depressed Mei became, the better the chance she'd awaken as a Herrscher when the second phase began.
But now, even with the first phase starting, Cocolia wasn't sure Mei would break as planned. Reina, Kiana, and Yuna were too close to her, and they'd definitely help her stay strong.
"For now, prepare the first phase and a plan B if needed," Cocolia ordered the two people standing silently in the room.
"Understood," they said together, then walked out, leaving the room.
Left alone, Cocolia turned her attention back to the documents. She sighed softly, her eyes drifting to the photo frame on the side of her desk.
The bright smiles of all the children in the picture made her heart ache. She slowly clenched her fist, her teeth tightening, and murmured, "Just wait, Seele. I'm not gonna stop until I bring you back."
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February 2014
A few months had passed since Reina told Mei and Yuna who she really was.
Not much happened during that time except Yuna got super curious about Reina's home world.
Since learning Reina's identity Yuna wanted to know everything about the Sky Realm.
Reina had all the memories of her original self who lived in the Sky Realm for ten years. She had tons of stories to tell and Yuna listened to every one with wide eyes full of interest.
For Mei Reina kept her promise to teach her cooking. She and Yuna helped Mei learn whenever they had time. At first Mei was clumsy and nervous in the kitchen. But she quickly got the hang of it. In just two weeks she could handle a knife cut ingredients and follow recipes like a pro.
Even Yuna was shocked that Mei learned so fast in such a short time.
Not just that, one day Mei asked Reina and Kiana if she could watch them train. She had heard Reina often trained Kiana and got curious, wanting to see it for herself.
So Reina took Mei and Yuna to the Zero Dimension, where she usually trained Kiana. Mei was amazed by how they fought each other. She felt excited and wanted to try it herself. It reminded her of when she sparred with Reina, and she wanted to do it again.
Yuna didn't like violent stuff, though. So she sat on the side, watching Reina's experiments while they trained.
They also celebrated Kiana's birthday in December, but that's a story for another day.
"Ah, another day, another breeze of night," Reina murmured to herself.
The ME Corp building, also known as Massive Electric Industry, stood as the tallest and largest structure in Nagazora City. It was led by Raiden Ryoma, Mei's father.
Though called Massive Electric Industry, ME Corp secretly supplied weapons and mechs powered by Honkai energy to other countries to fight Honkai. Most people didn't know this, as it was kept hidden from the public. Even Mei was unaware, since her father rarely spoke about his work.
Reina and the others had met Mei's father once a month ago during New Year's. In the game's story, he was supposed to be arrested in December after Cocolia framed him. But that didn't happen. Raiden Ryoma was still leading ME Corp, even now in February.
And that really pissed Reina off-not because Mei's father wasn't arrested.
"WHERE THE HELL IS THAT BITCH COCOLIA!" Reina shouted, pounding the ground with her fist.
She was on top of the ME Corp building. Every night since December, she'd been watching, waiting for Cocolia to plant false evidence on Ryoma's computer. Then she could track her down. But the problem was, even though Reina came every day, Cocolia still hadn't shown up.
Reina's plan was simple: deal with Cocolia, then take care of Otto, handle the Cocoon, and finally separate this timeline from the Imaginary Tree so Honkai could never return.
Once everything was done, she could take Kiana to travel across dimensions. Maybe Mei or Yuna could come too, if they wanted.
"This is so stupid..." Reina muttered.
In the end, she stood up, walked to the edge of the roof, and sat down, gazing at the view of Nagazora City. At first, she was amazed by the sight, but after months of seeing the same scenery, she was bored.
"Maybe it's better if I tell Kiana and bring her here with me..." she said to herself.
"No, never mind, that's a really bad idea," Reina said, shaking her head to dismiss the thought.
If she told Kiana she knew about the future, it would put even more pressure on her. Especially with that Kaslana blood making Kiana want to sacrifice herself for others.
"I still need to work harder to get that mindset out of her head," Reina muttered.
In the end, she spent the whole night on the roof again. Nothing happened, and no one tried to sneak into the ME Corp building.
At 5 a.m., she stood up, stretching her body. "Ugh, ha, well, another day, another waste of time," she grumbled.
Before leaving, she created a replica of herself to keep watch. If anything happened, the replica could alert her.
But Reina's replica wasn't that useful beyond watching for a short time. Creating it split her power, and since she already had only half her original strength, she didn't want to divide it for too long.
"As usual, I leave the rest to you," Reina said.
"Leave it to me," the replica replied.
After that, Reina vanished from the building, leaving her replica behind.
As usual, Reina came home planning to make breakfast, do laundry to dry in the afternoon, and clean the apartment all morning. It was Sunday, so there was no school.
She reached the apartment and almost walked into the bathroom when she suddenly turned around, sensing someone there.
"Reina, you're finally back! Where did you go all night?" Mei's voice called out.
Today was also the day Mei was sleeping over. Since that first time Mei and Yuna stayed over, they sometimes came to hang out, study, or sleep over. Yuna wasn't here today, as she had plans with her mother, so it was just Mei while Kiana was still asleep.
"Mei? What are you doing awake this early?" Reina asked, surprised to see Mei sitting on the couch, reading a novel Reina owned.
Mei closed her book, stood up, and walked toward Reina.
She got really close-so close her face was just inches from Reina's clothes.
"Sniff, sniff," Mei sniffed Reina's body for some reason.
"Mei! What are you doing!" Reina yelped, stepping back quickly to get away.
Mei stayed in her position, upper body bent forward, sniffing the air with her eyes closed. Then she nodded to herself.
"Nothing suspicious found..." she murmured.
Mei's eyes narrowed as she stepped closer to Reina, her expression sharp. "Kiana mentioned something," she said, her voice low.
"She said you keep disappearing every night. She feels empty when she sleeps, and when she wakes up in the middle of night, your side of the bed is always empty."
Reina stayed silent, feeling a dangerous atmosphere from Mei. It was the same tense vibe she'd felt once before, when Kiana asked for her "reward" and Mei accidentally saw them.
Mei kept walking closer, her gaze locked on Reina. "So, where are you going every night, Reina?" she pressed, her tone firm.
Reina's heart raced, but she kept her face calm. In the end, she decided to dodge the question with a random answer.
"Oh, you know, I've got some experiments to do," she said casually, shrugging.
Telling Mei where she was going would mean explaining why she was at the ME Corp building.
Mei stared at Reina without saying a word. Reina had no clue what was going through her mind.
She did know, though, that sometimes Sora and Mei's other personality hung out together for some reason. Whenever Reina asked about it, they always brushed it off, saying it was nothing.
Mei let out a small exhale and decided to drop it. "I trust you, Reina. You don't have to worry," she said, a smile spreading across her face.
Reina felt relieved that Mei was letting it go. "Then I'm gonna prepare some breakfast," she said, smiling back. "After that, I'll wake up Kiana. Any food requests?"
"Whatever you cook is always good, Reina~" Mei said, giggling.
By now, Mei had learned how to cook well. Kiana and Yuna even said her cooking tastes like professional chef, even though she'd only been learning for a few months.
Still, Mei preferred eating Reina's cooking, even though their skills were pretty much equal at this point.
Reina nodded at Mei's words and headed toward the bathroom, wanting to take a warm bath after being outside all night.
But as she passed by Mei, Mei's right hand suddenly grabbed Reina's left shoulder, stopping her.
"Hm? What's wro—?" Reina started to ask, but before she could finish, she felt Mei's atmosphere shift.
From the corner of her eye, Reina saw Mei's purple eyes glowing with the intensity of the Herrscher of Thunder.
Mei's voice turned cold. "If I find out you've been going out every night for months because you're seeing someone else, Reina," she said, her tone sharp and possessive, "Sora and I will make sure you get punished."
Then, just as suddenly, the atmosphere changed again. Mei let go of Reina's shoulder, her smile returning. "I'm gonna help prepare the ingredients while you take a bath," she said cheerfully.
Mei walked into the kitchen, leaving Reina standing there, stunned. "What the hell just happened?" Reina muttered to herself.