"Thanks, Kiana!"
"No problem, no problem!"
"Ah, hot!"
"The front horn of a Flame Catapult Beast generates a massive amount of heat upon contact with the human body. Step aside and leave it to me."
"Emperor-Class Honkai Beast has breached the Blockade of Sector A!"
"Rules... are made to be broken!"
"Wow! Senior Kiana is so reliable! I need to work harder too!"
"Hehe~"
Waving to the C-Rank Valkyries who thanked her, Kiana wiped the fragrant sweat from her forehead. She watched cheerfully as they transported the dismantled Honkai Beast limbs into the ship's storage for data compression.
Next, these materials would be transported to the research department under the Far East Branch for study and processing. They would be used to forge various weapons and equipment, or serve as raw materials and experimental subjects for artificial Stigmata.
"There's a share for you guys in there, too."
Himeko, who had arrived beside her unnoticed, spoke up.
"Ours?"
The girl followed the voice and found Himeko sitting in a wheelchair, beckoning to her.
A pale blue liquid swayed irregularly in the IV drip hung high above, flowing at a steady pace through the tube and the cannula into the veins beneath her skin.
"Yes, yours," Himeko smiled. "Theresa has told me everything that should and shouldn't be said."
She was referring to Fuli pushing the credit for killing the Herrscher onto her aunt!
When her 'external brain' wasn't around, Kiana's own intelligence would reoccupy the high ground.
With a quick turn of thought, the girl understood the underlying meaning of Himeko's words.
"It doesn't have much to do with me, hehe."
The white-haired dumpling scratched the back of her head and laughed foolishly. "It was mostly Ah-Li who was amazing. Besides—"
"Kiana!"
"Aye! Coming!"
After responding to a shout in the distance, the girl, who had barely rested for a moment, clapped her hands and stood up. "Someone over there is calling for help. Teacher Himeko, let's chat later."
"No need."
A pale hand pressed down on her shoulder. Himeko turned her wheelchair around, putting on her fiercest 'demon instructor' face, and roared in that direction:
"I'm talking to you lot! Just because the little girl is kind-hearted doesn't mean you can order her around like this! Do your own damn work! Don't think about relying on others all day long!"
"Ah! Y-Yes! It was my lack of consideration, Major Murata!"
The Valkyrie squad leader who had called out hurriedly saluted. After giving Kiana an apologetic look, she turned and walked away quickly.
Withdrawing her gaze, the Big Sister snorted. "These brats."
"It's really fine, actually."
Kiana struck a strongman pose, her face full of smiles. "I have all this strength and nowhere to use it anyway. I'm really happy to be able to help everyone."
"The premise is that you don't overdraw yourself."
Himeko jutted her chin forward. "Push me for a walk?"
"Huh? Oh, okay!"
Realizing what she meant, the girl hurriedly walked behind her and pushed the wheelchair slowly along the path.
The treetops swayed gently in the evening breeze, as if nature were slowly turning the pages of a book.
Vermilion and Pure White strolled along the path, their silhouettes exuding a harmony that seeped into the heart.
Only when they reached the deserted edge of the deck did Himeko speak softly. "Something on your mind?"
Incresion had said something similar to Kiana earlier.
To that, the girl's choice had been to give no quarter.
But facing this other person sitting in a wheelchair, despite them having met only once, Kiana couldn't help but nod gently.
It was as if this wasn't their first meeting, but rather a reunion between a teacher and student who had known each other for years.
Himeko spoke again, "Can you tell me about it?"
"It's not a big deal, really."
Kiana stopped walking, her hands unconsciously tightening as she spoke.
Looking up at the pitch-dark horizon, she used a seemingly indifferent tone. "It's just... I feel like I'm not strong enough. That I should have done better... thoughts like that."
Whether good or evil, four years of wandering had shown Kiana a lot.
But generally speaking, her journey had taken place in relatively peaceful regions and times.
That was why, witnessing the resolve of the Valkyries who didn't hesitate to use themselves as bait to lure the Honkai Beast tide, the girl was shocked beyond words.
Self-sacrifice and the like were common tropes in novels and anime, but seeing it happen right before your eyes was an entirely different concept.
When she learned afterward that even facing a Judgment-Class beast like Shesha, Fuli had still managed to rescue the critically injured and dying Murata Himeko from right under its nose, that shock expanded to another level.
Now, whenever Kiana had a moment of idleness, that scene before her departure would replay before her eyes.
[Even if my face gets scratched up, I don't want to live anyway.]
Those were cute girls about the same age as her! They were precious darlings who should have been running and laughing on school grounds, having sweet romances, and being held in the palms of their families' hands for fear they might melt!
If Ah-Li had been there! If I could have been just a bit stronger!
They... they wouldn't have been sacrificed so easily, right?
Crack!
The sharp sound of snapping metal rang out. A stinging pain in her palm woke Kiana from her reverie, revealing that she had accidentally crushed the handle of the wheelchair.
"Ah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Teacher Himeko!"
The trouble-making white cat clasped her hands together in apology. When she peeked through her fingers, she met the smiling corners of Himeko's mouth.
The girl's nose tingled. For some reason, she suddenly felt like crying.
"Mere alloy fragments definitely can't pierce the skin of a B-Rank Breaker, so I won't ask if you're okay."
Himeko paid no mind to the handle issue. "The content of your worries is pretty much what I guessed. My thoughts when I first stepped onto the battlefield were similar to yours."
"You had that kind of experience too, Teacher Himeko?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Kiana wanted to slap the her from a second ago. Wasn't that blatantly poking at someone's painful past?
"Of course I have."
Himeko curled her lip. "Forget the past—even right now, I'm thinking, 'If only I were a bit more capable, maybe I wouldn't have had to entrust the Vermilion Knight sword to a boy the same age as my own student?' It feels like my dignity as an adult has been trampled into dust. How great would it be if I were still the same age as you guys? Then I could righteously curl up in the arms of the boy I like and watch him save the world, while I just need to be responsible for looking beautiful and acting spoiled."
The girl laughed dryly. "Ah, ahahaha..."
"Alright, just kidding."
Himeko dropped the complaining act and waved her hand behind her. "Come here, in front of me."
"Oh."
Kiana didn't understand, but she obediently walked around.
"Squat down a bit."
"Mn."
"Lean your head a bit closer."
"Okay."
Kiana did as she was told, and then her forehead received a kiss, light as a dragonfly touching water.
"Th-th-this! Y-y-you!"
The girl covered her kissed forehead and stumbled backward. Her collagen-rich face flushed with a riot of colors, looking ridiculously cute.
At the same time, some mysterious information flowed into her brain along with that kiss.
It was the lesser technique of the Vermilion Knight sword—the training method for the Flame King's Greatsword (Ver. B).
"This is a thank-you gift! For our little hero."
Himeko winked at her. "A gift for defeating the Herrscher and saving us."
Kiana stammered incoherently, "W-why k-kiss me for giving A-Ah-Li stuff!"
"I have prepared something else for that young man. Don't worry, it won't be worse than yours."
The implication was: This is something I'm giving to you specifically.
"But I clearly...!"
"I know what you're thinking."
Himeko waved her hand to interrupt. "You feel you don't deserve my gratitude. You feel you weren't strong enough, that you couldn't prevent the tragedy that happened before your eyes, that you're a failure who couldn't do anything."
W-well, maybe not to that extent...
The girl thought sheepishly.
"But if we follow your logic down this rabbit hole, who is the biggest failure?"
Himeko sneered, her choice of words hitting like a violent storm.
"First is Cocolia, who committed the Sin of Greed! Just because she couldn't dominate the organization alone, she had to trigger the Third Eruption to achieve her goals!"
"Then there's Theresa and me, who committed the Sin of Sloth! If we weren't so weak that we couldn't even handle a mere Herrscher, things wouldn't have needed to get so complicated!"
"Next is the Leader of Anti-Entropy, who committed the Sin of Incompetence! What the hell does he do? He can't even control a subordinate, letting her bite people everywhere like a mad dog!"
"Finally, the Overseer of Schicksal, who committed the Sin of Pride! Five hundred years and you can't even settle the Honkai? If you aren't a failure, who is? You could even blame the Previous Era, cursing those brain-dead idiots who only knew how to infight for failing to defeat the enemy and leaving such a massive pit for their successors."
Kiana was dumbfounded. "You! That's sophistry!"
"Yes, sophistry. But this is the answer derived from following your logic—a logical loop falling into nihilism."
Himeko spoke calmly, "So, now I ask you back: Were Theresa's actions during the Third Eruption useless?"
"Of course not!"
The girl retorted loudly. "If Auntie hadn't desperately held back the Herrscher for those three minutes, Ah-Li wouldn't have had the time to convince Cocolia's group to turn around, and he wouldn't have made it to the scene in time!"
"If she hadn't gritted her teeth to suppress the expansion of the Great Eruption, the Third Eruption would definitely have contaminated all of Honshu and the surrounding seas! The Honkai beasts would have expanded like a tide, spreading to the Eurasian continent, turning the southeast coast of Shenzhou into a dead land overrun by monsters!"
"Very good."
Himeko nodded and asked again, "Then I ask you, were my efforts useless?"
"Definitely not!"
Kiana replied without thinking. "If Teacher Himeko hadn't arrived on the scene in time to support, Auntie would have long since been sacrificed under the pincer attack of the Herrscher of Thunder and the Judgment-Class beast. The consequences would have been no different from above!"
"Then I ask you one last time: Was Kiana Kaslana's effort a useless act?"
"Also no!"
The Paramecium blurted out. "If I hadn't brought Bobo's cotton from the sky at the critical moment to give to Auntie to unlock, and then held Gungnir..."
Her voice gradually grew smaller, until finally, she fell silent.
"Not going to say it? Then I'll say it."
A hint of a smile appeared on Himeko's lips. "If you hadn't forced the Herrscher of Thunder to reveal three trump cards—the Superconducting Neural Network, the Spear of Brahma, and her Energy Storage Organ—through your long-range spear throw and the Genesis blast fired by Bronya... even if Fuli unleashed that crucial slash—no."
At this point, she shook her head. "In that situation, Fuli wouldn't have had time to unleash that slash that divided dawn and dusk."
The Superconducting Neural Network allowed the Herrscher of Thunder to react and move at the sixth cosmic velocity in an extremely short time. The Authority of Victory residing in the Spear of Brahma was a cheat-level divine item that directly modified the world itself, not to mention the massive energy reserves she had been accumulating since birth.
If the cost of using the Superconducting Neural Network wasn't so high; if the Herrscher wasn't wary of the Spear of Destiny hidden in the dark; if her personality wasn't overly cautious, and she wasn't distracted dealing with the resisting Mei; if the battle hadn't happened so quickly that the Twelve Divine Keys Fuli materialized triggered her greed...
If both sides had clashed head-on with full power from the start, under the absolute crushing weight of power, Fuli wouldn't have had even a sliver of a chance to win—just like the branches the Herrscher of Thunder saw in the River of Fate.
Therefore—
"Kiana Kaslana!"
"Yes!"
The person in question snapped to attention.
"In my opinion, being a hero has never been about strength."
Himeko said seriously, "A hero is a hero because they appear at the right time, in the right place, and do the thing that only they could do at that moment."
"So I ask you: Appearing before Fuli on the eve of the counterattack to take Gungnir; relying on the absolute Honkai resistance of a Kaslana to hide in a dangerous position where the Honkai energy was so dense even A-Rank Valkyries couldn't approach; seizing the split-second opportunity when he and the Herrscher of Thunder were locked in a stalemate to throw the Spear of Destiny... Can Kiana Kaslana be counted as one of the heroes who decided the critical direction of this battle?"
Kiana's pretty face turned beat red.
Normally, she could brag endlessly while joking around with Fuli, calling herself the Chief of Earth or the Overlord of the Universe, because those were just jokes.
But right now, in this atmosphere...
To ask her to praise herself like this... She, she, she, she... this concubine cannot do it!
"Can't do it? Fine. Then I'll start."
Himeko raised her pale hands to her mouth like a megaphone and shouted into the empty night: "I played a crucial role in this battle!"
"I... I played a not-so-important role in this battle..."
"Chest out! I did a great job!"
"I did an okay job..."
"I am a Great Contributor!"
"I am a contributor..."
"Once more! I am a Great Contributor!"
Perhaps finally deciding to smash the pot since it was cracked anyway under Himeko's persistent offensive, the girl closed her eyes this time and shouted at the top of her lungs: "THIS MISS IS A GREAT CONTRIBUTOR! THE GREAT—HERO—WHO ENDED THE THIRD HONKAI ERUPTION—!"
The sound spread outward, startling a flock of pitch-black crows into taking flight, cawing "Idiot! Idiot!"
Awkward. Utterly awkward. Awkward enough to carve out a three-bedroom apartment with one's toes.
Not just the readers behind the screen, even the author felt quite awkward writing this part.
But for the person involved, after completely releasing the repressed emotions in her heart, she put her hands on her hips and laughed heartily.
"So, you know why no one has come to retrieve the White Comet battlesuit from you until now, right?"
Himeko lowered her hands, wincing, and silently straightened the IV needle that had gone crooked on the back of her hand. "Because everyone acknowledges you. They believe you are worthy of wearing this equipment that Diana once wore, inheriting her unfulfilled will."
Diana, the name of the sacrificed Valkyrie squad leader.
"Because this... is inheritance."
"Inheritance..."
The evening breeze lifted Kiana's magnificent pure white long hair. She clasped her hands over her chest and nodded gently.
"I understand. I won't feel sorry for myself anymore, Teacher Himeko."
Coincidentally, dawn arrived at this moment. The eastern sky turned a faint fish-belly white, slowly transitioning into a gentle light blue, dyeing the girl's smiling face with a faint blush.
Himeko couldn't help but stare in a daze. Only when a few bird calls from the forest broke the silence did she steady her tone and continue.
"Good that you understand. Of course, I'm not saying that just because you've made a major contribution you should be complacent and stop working hard. But seeing you force yourself like before, I really couldn't just turn a blind eye."
The hand, hallucinated as flames, stroked the heavy bags under Kiana's eyes. "You haven't rested properly for a long time, have you?"
"Not that long."
Just three days with only two hours of sleep, plus fighting from start to finish with almost no stops.
The legendary King of Endurance, Kiana-cat, muttered secretly in her heart.
"Then what you should do right now is go to sleep."
Himeko said in a tone that allowed no refusal. "The Hyperion is indeed very busy right now, but not to the point where it stops running just because one little girl is missing."
"Study hard when it's time to study, eat well when it's time to eat, play hard when it's time to play, and rest well when it's time to rest. Wanting to become an excellent person is that simple, yet many people can't do it."
The teacher guided her patiently. "So, can you do it?"
"Mn!"
Kiana responded forcefully.
"I'll lend you my room."
Himeko smiled and winked at her. "Just ask the stationed Quartermaster; she knows where it is."
"Thank you, Himeko!"
After shouting her thanks, the girl turned and ran toward the Hyperion.
Her streamlined twin braids trailed in the air as she ran, like dazzling meteors piercing the night to call for dawn.
Watching her retreating back, Himeko shook her head with a smile.
With her experience, she could tell at a glance that the relationship between Kiana and Fuli wasn't quite normal.
It seemed like there were sparks of that kind, yet also seemed like there weren't.
As Asakura Miyuki's master, Himeko should have been on her precious apprentice's side.
But for some reason, as soon as she saw Kiana, the more she looked, the more fond she became; the more she looked, the more she felt this girl was precious.
It was as if they had formed a bond in a past life.
"Auntie Himeko!"
"Don't call me Auntie!!!"
The Big Sister twisted her head around, revealing shark teeth in a rage.
What is wrong with this brat? I just finished consoling her and now she pokes my sore spot?
"Hehe, understood, Teacher Himeko."
Kiana, having run back, stood prettily in front of her. "Um, I wanted to ask something."
"Can you guys here—"
Their conversation gradually grew quieter, finally drowning in the slightly cold breeze of early spring.
...