"You spoke too hastily back there."
On the way back, Mei walked beside Kiana, calmly voicing her thoughts.
"Whether it's about the Honkai or your decision to sell things to them, there was no need to reveal everything so quickly."
Being too forward could make it seem like she had ulterior motives. Mei believed it would've been better to slow things down a bit—let curiosity grow first. If the others wanted what Kiana offered, they'd come to her naturally.
Thankfully, Sirin already had a good impression of Kiana. No matter what Kiana said, she only seemed puzzled rather than suspicious.
"Because the situation's getting worse," Kiana replied with a sigh.
She knew she'd been too impatient, but who knew how much time Izumo had left? Right now, she was just waiting for Sirin to pay her medical fee, which she planned to use as capital to bulk-purchase practical badges and weapons to sell to others.
Damage aside—
Weapons with self-replenishing ammunition? That wasn't too different from having new weapons refreshed every day!
If not for the fact that Honkai affected an entire planetary-scale region, making battlefields too expansive, Kiana might've already started mass-selling low-tier weapons from her system.
Wait… maybe she should limit the number of ranged weapons.
…Or better yet, just sell low-tier badges and melee weapons only?
The thought of those heavy weapons—whose ammo would refresh daily—made her hesitate. Her system contained all kinds of strange, unpredictable weapons.
Kiana hesitated.
After all, Houkai Gakuen had ended with humanity's internal war.
"It's serious, sure… but that's no reason to rush," Mei said, frowning as she tightened her grip on Kiana's hand. "I think we need to meet these Sentinels first, understand them properly before deciding anything."
"I'm not accusing anyone, and it's not about distrust," she added after a pause, sighing softly. "But being cautious never hurts."
The thunderclouds summoned by Almighty Thunder's wrath still loomed faintly overhead—but since its death and the forging of Howl, they had begun to disperse. The oppressive storm had lost its cohesion.
Dim sunlight, faint but visible, filtered through the clouds and fell upon the ruined city—a quiet sign that the disaster had finally passed, at least for now.
Almighty Thunder had been terrifying.
The thunderstorm it brought had left deep scars.
But Mei didn't see it as a world-ending calamity. In her eyes, it wasn't strong enough to destroy everything.
After all, she had only been hunting Kami for three days—and yet, with Kiana and Sirin's help, she had already slain one of the Twelve strongest Kami.
Compared to the idea of the world being destroyed by Kami, she was more worried about Kiana—and about the Honkai Kiana feared.
"I don't really understand all this," Kiana admitted after a moment. Then, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, she grabbed Mei's hand. "So, can you help me?"
"Ah?"
"Help me, Mei!"
Kiana leaned closer, her tone turning playful and coaxing. "I don't understand any of this, so from now on—can you handle these things for me?"
"You want me to?"
"Yes!" Kiana nodded eagerly. "Just like earlier—you were amazing!"
The immediate crisis had passed. The rising Honkai concentration hadn't shown visible consequences yet, and Kiana had returned to her earlier "Mei strategy."
"Like earlier…" Mei's cheeks grew slightly warm. She didn't think she'd been 'amazing' at all—she had simply wanted to keep Kiana from revealing too much to Sirin.
Still, she couldn't quite adapt to the sudden praise. Embarrassed, she turned her gaze back to the road ahead.
"…Alright," she finally said after a brief pause, her mind running through Kiana's request.
"I'll handle communication with the Sentinels. You just add whatever small comments you think are safe."
"I actually have something to discuss with you right now!" Kiana said, tugging her hand lightly to draw her attention back.
"The Honkai? Or Sirin?"
"Neither—but kind of related to both."
Sirin had mentioned that her comrades would arrive soon. Originally, they had planned to wait together—after all, Howl was now in Raiden Mei's possession.
But remembering what Kiana had said about the Honkai, Mei reconsidered.
Perhaps it was better if Kiana didn't meet the others just yet. She could talk to them first about Almighty Thunder's abnormality.
After all, everything would need to be verified anyway.
Once they confirmed it themselves, she could bring up Kiana's theory about the Honkai.
As for Howl…
Recruiting new members wasn't her concern.
So, Sirin let them return to the shrine first, while she stayed behind, waiting for the long-delayed reinforcements.
"It's about selling equipment," Kiana began after a pause.
Feeling uneasy about openly distributing weapons, she wanted to hear Raiden Mei's opinion.
"When I recycle these crystals, I can exchange them for useful gear. Blades are just one category—I can also get single-use rocket launchers, pistols, shotguns, sprays, landmines, things like that."
There were quite a few types of weapons.
If she sacrificed enough Kami, wouldn't Kiana basically become a walking armory?
Mei's expression shifted slightly.
"Don't tell anyone else about this. Not a single person."
Even if the chances were slim, the possibility existed: if Kiana ever wanted to, she could raise a fully armed private army overnight.
Regardless of her intentions, others would inevitably label Kiana as a "potential threat."
Kiana nodded seriously before continuing. "Remember that healing potion I gave you? The weapons I trade these energy crystals for—they all have limited ammo. But the ammo automatically refreshes the next day."
An infinite-ammo arsenal!
Mei's breathing grew noticeably heavier. She stared at Kiana in shock, wondering if she had misheard.
Endless ammunition.
Weapons that restored their bullets after a day—what kind of nightmare scenario was this?
"Because the Honkai can do anything," Kiana said with a faint smile.
Seeing Mei's bewildered expression, she assumed her friend was just puzzled about the "scientific" impossibility of auto-refilling ammo.
Anything that defied logic—she could just blame on the Honkai.
Because Honkai Energy could do anything.
"Infinite ammo?" Mei's voice trembled slightly.
If Kiana really produced a large batch of such weapons and distributed them freely… she couldn't even begin to imagine the devastation Izumo would suffer. The world would burn.
"…More or less," Kiana admitted. "You have to wait for a cooldown after each round, but yeah—ammo does come back."
She guessed the weapons used Honkai Energy to automatically restore their munitions.
"Absolutely not!" Mei snapped.
Mass-distributing infinitely reloading weapons would plunge Izumo into chaos. An unprecedented civil war would erupt overnight.
And once sold, there would be no way to retrieve every weapon. Without control or restriction, those tools would become a nightmare far worse than the Kami themselves.
"Sell them swords if you must," Mei said firmly. "But all those ranged weapons—the ones that can refresh their ammo—must never be sold. None of them!"
If Kiana accidentally became Izumo's largest arms dealer…
The thought alone made Raiden Mei's vision go dark for a moment.
That could never be allowed to happen.
Human greed was boundless. Just like her own—though she was already Kiana's closest friend, she still longed for more.
She wanted their bond to become truly unbreakable.
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