In the pitch-black underground corridor of St. Freya Academy's cathedral.
"When did a door appear here... and when did they change the password...?"
Snow Apocalypse and Kallen Kaslana, who had broken in by physically ripping the door off its hinges, tossed the steel door behind them. The storage room before them contained a long, black and red katana resting quietly.
As if sensing their arrival, the katana began to vibrate. A furious and strange voice started rambling incessantly in the cramped chamber:
"I, the Herrscher of Corruption! Have been imprisoned in this miserable container for a full fifty thousand years!!! And even exiled from my own homeland—Now!! You dare trespass into my domain, you are seeking your own deaths—!!!"
The booming voice in the small room made both of their brows furrow in annoyance.
"If you keep babbling, I'll use you to unclog a public restroom toilet—"
The blonde girl, who had been nearly deafened by the shouting, snapped back instantly, causing the nearly driven-mad Herrscher of Corruption, Miss Rin, to shut her mouth immediately...
"Do you even know how I've spent these fifty thousand years? Every single day I was...!"
The Jizo Mitama, refusing to give up, switched her approach in an attempt to keep babbling at the two of them. However, her voice suddenly cut off, as if she had glitched.
"What were you doing every day?"
Kallen then asked, her curiosity piqued...
"Uh... sleeping??"
The two girls just said "Oh" and completely ignored the chatty Herrscher who had been bottled up for fifty thousand years. Yet, the latter seemed oblivious to being ignored and continued to mutter and grumble.
Finally, unable to bear her incessant complaining, Kallen Kaslana decided to initiate a conversation, hoping the now-chatty Herrscher would at least change the subject.
"Hey, Herrscher of Corruption? Miss Rin? Chatty—"
"Do you know what I'm... Huh? What are you calling me? Don't interrupt my speech, don't you know that's rude???"
"Uh, well, I'm really sorry about that. I just wanted to ask you something...?"
"Ask me something? What could you possibly ask a poor Herrscher who slept for fifty thousand years and might be suffering from intermittent insomnia???"
Rin's voice was filled with confusion and bewilderment.
"You know, didn't I bring you out of Schicksal's underground facility before? You should still remember that, right?"
"Oh, I was wondering why you looked so familiar... Your name is Kallen, right? You ran so fast, and not a single one of those people babbling behind you could keep up..."
"Right, right, right. My name is Kallen. You still remember that I took you to a certain island nation in the Far East, right?"
"Huh? Oh, that. I remember... You're not trying to ask about the whereabouts of that pink-haired vixen who looks just like my sister, are you? Don't you already have a fiancé?"
"BFF, she's my BFF! That doesn't conflict with having a fiancé!"
"People in your era are so strange... So BFFs can actually take off all their clothes and cuddle in one bed together..."
"..."
Kallen suddenly regretted trying to change this damn subject.
"That miko BFF of yours named Yae Sakura broke free from that seal during the Third Honkai Eruption five hundred years later. She saved a little girl who was either your descendant or something, anyway, that little shrimp smelled a lot like you. She was poisoned by some Pseudo-Herrscher, and that stupid woman didn't know any of those fancy tricks..."
"She chose the most brutal method: fighting poison with poison. How does that saying go? Use a Pseudo-Herrscher to defeat a Pseudo-Herrscher... She turned herself into a Stigmata, merging into that little shrimp's body, and I was also picked up by that little shrimp."
"Little shrimp this, little shrimp that... How you haven't been taken by the Headmaster to unclog toilets is a miracle..."
"I wouldn't say it to her face, though. To her, this young lady is just a strange katana that suddenly appeared by her side when she woke up."
"And aren't you guys here to take me away? I want to see my sister, right here, right now!! Also, the alarms are already blaring. Are you planning to get surrounded by the students in this Academy???"
Just as the Herrscher of Corruption had said, from the moment they physically broke through the door, the alarms in the entire basement had already echoed throughout the Academy.
"Mom—the magical Phantom Thief Miss Kallen, have you ever been caught stealing before?!"
"No—"
Suddenly excited, Kallen pulled out a mask from somewhere and placed it on her face.
"What a coincidence, I don't either—"
The mother and daughter exchanged a glance, grabbed the Corruption Key placed on the secret room's table, ignored Rin's loud protests as the "Sword Spirit," and charged at high speed toward the distant gate where figures seemed to be flickering—
"Whoa, you guys, take it easy—I get motion sickness, bah, no, I mean airsickness... bah bah bah, that's not right either... anyway, don't rush so fast—!"
Inside the divine key, Rin, who had no horizon or gyroscope to stabilize her vision, could only swing up and down with the movements of the two people, protesting all the way as she was carried out of St. Freya's Cathedral.
"Lawbreakers ahead, cease your resisting and fleeing behavior immediately—!!! You are surrounded by us, resisting will be severely punished, confessing will be treated leniently!"
When the mother and daughter emerged from the dark underground passage of the cathedral, this was the scene they glimpsed from the cathedral's gate—the Reserve Valkyries, who had swarmed out of the Academic Building upon hearing there was something to do, had completely blocked the cathedral's entrance, with several Valkyries at the front shouting warnings through megaphones.
"...Whoa, you guys look surrounded. Are you going to surrender? They said resisting will be severely punished, but confessing will be treated leniently."
Rin, who had finally recovered from the bumpy ride, continued to chatter away, clearly enjoying the chaos.
"Surrender? Not a chance... Little Rin, that phrase 'resisting will be severely punished, confessing will be treated leniently' actually has another meaning if you read it backward: resisting will be severely punished, and you'll go home for the New Year... confessing will be treated leniently, and you'll rot in prison—"
"Come on, Rin-chan, show them something impressive—activate your second transformation form!!"
"Eh? Eh? Eh??? Isn't that a bit much... Besides, that samurai form doesn't look like a young lady at all—"
Inside the divine key, Rin seemed to be hesitating—
"What are you afraid of? These Schicksal facilities are all my family's property anyway. Just tear this cathedral apart!! I'll figure out the rest—"
"...Let me be clear, I'm not paying for any property damage!?"
"You don't have to pay—"
[Just let your sister pay for it... This is the perfect chance to trick another fox of the same model into joining Schicksal—I wonder what Dad's face will look like.]
Of course, Snow kept these words to herself and didn't say them out loud.
"Alright, I'm going in... Fuck—go! Ignore that!"