Otherworld — Chapter One
People came and went through the bustling city. Amid the surging crowds, Kevin walked hand in hand with Mei along a corner of the metropolis.
“Kevin, do you like this world?”
Mei asked gently. In her expression Kevin saw a woman full of tenderness — it was precisely this tenderness and warmth that had drawn him in so deeply and kept him by Mei's side.
Facing Mei's question, Kevin nodded. He gripped her hand tightly and made a vow there on the dazzling, bustling street.
“I like this world, because in this world you are here beside me. In the name of the head of the Kaslana family, I swear I will protect this world that has you in it.”
“Is that so…”
Mei smiled and quietly lowered her head.
Just then, a bolt of lightning suddenly burst out from behind Mei! The deep-blue electric light crystallized and gradually joined together, forming a pair of wings!
In that instant, the scenery around them began to crumble. The city lights and the clamorous streetscape shattered like building blocks, and behind the falling shards, what was revealed was a desolate, ruined wasteland.
Amid the broken walls and rubble, Mei held Kevin tightly, and Kevin heard a whisper by his ear—
“Then choose which to destroy: this world, or me.”
Kevin opened his eyes. At this moment he was on the rooftop of the main academic building of Senba Academy in Nagazora City. He shook his head, casting the dream just now out of his mind.
Kevin stood up, running a hand carelessly through his wind-tousled silver-white hair, and looked down at the tranquil campus below.
This was an all-day girls' school. Girls in gym clothes were pouring out their sweat on the field, and from the building beneath his feet came the soft sound of recitation now and then. The whole academy was suffused with a peaceful, serene air.
Kevin yawned and pulled a white phone from his pocket. On its screen a string of numbers was counting down at a rapid pace.
“It's about time to begin…”
Kevin murmured to himself. With a flick of his hand, the phone spun in his palm like a pistol and slid back into his pocket — and in that very instant, a mournful shriek rose from the campus.
As if it were the opening note of a performance, scream after scream came like drumbeats from all directions. The girls on the field fled in panic, and in an instant the whole academy seemed to plunge from heaven into hell, filled with terror and shrieking.
Yet Kevin didn't seem to mind this near-mad scene. As if long accustomed to such infernal sights, he casually stepped onto the rooftop railing, then leapt down, streaking toward the ground like a silver meteor.
Kevin landed steadily on the field before the building. He glanced around. The lively, lovely girls who should have been there had turned into hideous zombies, and the instant he touched down, these zombies seemed to catch the scent of life on him and came lurching toward him.
Kevin scratched his head with a helpless look, and just as he took a stance to meet them, a series of muffled gunshots rang out from nearby. The zombies who had been advancing on Kevin all turned toward the sound in unison, then surged off in droves in the same direction.
Kevin looked toward the source of the gunfire. A girl with white hair like his own was striding swiftly toward him, gunning down the zombies blocking her path one by one with the pistol in her hand.
“Idiot!! What are you standing there for?! Do you want to get eaten by the zombies that badly?!”
The white-haired girl wore an agitated expression, but there wasn't a trace of panic in it. As if she'd been through scenes like this countless times, there was nothing wasted in her movements, and with agile grace she cut down every zombie that stood in her way.
The girl's figure shot to Kevin's side as fast as a fired bullet, and she grabbed him by the necktie!
“I'm talking to you! Still standing there like a fool!!”
With that, the girl dragged Kevin along at a dead sprint. Kevin, his neck cinched by the tie, was suddenly unable to breathe, feeling his body hauled off by an enormous pulling force before slamming hard into a wall.
Kevin hurriedly loosened the tie around his neck and touched his throat — it had already been chafed into a red welt.
“Are you trying to kill—”
Just as Kevin was about to complain about her rough treatment, his mouth was pressed shut by a soft palm.
“If you want to live, don't talk!”
The girl in front of him said this while peering out to look around.
Kevin glanced about. It turned out he and this girl were crammed into a small, cramped space. The light around them was dim, and from the cold metal touch at his back, he guessed he was in something like a storage locker.
Because the space was so small, Kevin's body was already pressed against the girl's. Her warmth and soft touch carried through their clothes onto him.
Kevin shifted, trying to put a little distance between them, but to his surprise, the moment his leg moved it slid along the girl's skirt and right between her legs!
Kevin froze, and couldn't help lowering his head. At that moment, he saw the girl also turning to look back at him.
Facing the girl's furious expression, Kevin gave an awkward smile — and what awaited him was a crisp sound—
SLAP!!
After the sound, Kevin walked out of the locker clutching his hot, red cheek.
“Tch! Who'd have thought it'd be some gross pervert. If I'd known, I'd have let you die back there!”
The girl brushed off her clothes as if she'd caught bad luck, muttering with a look of disgust. When she saw the tear that had been scraped open on her clothes, she cursed even more furiously.
“Damn it!! You even ruined the uniform Mei mended for me!! You! How are you going to make it up to me?!”
The girl glared at Kevin imperiously. But Kevin was unmoved — in what she'd just said, one name had caught his attention.
“Mei? You mean Raiden Mei?”
“Obviously! Who else but Mei!”
The girl answered without a shred of doubt. She strode up to Kevin, rose on tiptoe, and sized him up.
“Hmph! I've heard Mei used to be called the Lightning Empress at this academy, the object of thousands of boys' longing. Looks like you're another toad lusting after swan's meat.”
With that, the girl jabbed a finger at Kevin's nose.
“I'm warning you! Mei is mine! If you dare have any funny ideas, I'll put a bullet in you just like those zombies!”
Facing this domineering, overbearing girl, Kevin gave a helpless, wry smile. “What a hot-tempered little thing. Who'd have thought someone this cute would have such a rotten temper — really a shame.”
Hearing that, the girl's face darkened even further, and she stamped down on Kevin's toes, the pain making him lose his footing and fall to the ground.
“You think I want anything to do with you? If I hadn't inexplicably ended up back at this crappy academy, I'd have escaped this Honkai outbreak with Mei by now!”
Kevin stood back up, gritting through the pain in his foot. A good man doesn't quarrel with a woman. Faced with the girl's rudeness, he chose the more rational course — because Kevin knew that before long, an even greater disaster was about to strike this academy.
“The Honkai has only just erupted; there's still time to flee. You have two choices now: one, come with me and let me protect you; two, leave this academy at once, and I'll draw the zombies away for you. As long as you—”
“Who asked you to protect me?! Go do whatever you want!”
Before Kevin could finish, the girl cut him off and turned away angrily. Seeing how rude she was, Kevin finally lost his patience and was about to go and set her straight. But just then, a muffled peal of thunder came from outside the window!
Kevin looked out. The once-brilliant clear sky had, at some point, been blotted out by dense black clouds. Threaded with violent flashes of lightning, these clouds hung over the academy like a giant inverted funnel, forming a terrifying supercell storm in a matter of moments!
Seeing this, Kevin hurriedly shouted at the girl beside him: “Get out of here now! This academy holds something hundreds of times more terrifying than the zombies! If you want to live, then—”
Kevin's words cut off again, because the girl hadn't heeded his warning. When she saw the storm cloud outside, her expression suddenly turned agitated, as if the thing she'd been searching for lay at the very center of that cloud. Ignoring Kevin, she dashed straight toward the storm.
“Hey! Stop! Didn't I tell you to stay away from there?! Tch! What a troublesome girl!”
Kevin clicked his tongue and hurried after her fleeing figure, a sudden unease rising in his heart—
And the source of that unease also lay within that storm cloud.
The enormous storm cloud swept over the entire academy like a tide. Kevin chased the white-haired girl to Senba Academy's main building. Throughout, the girl moved without hesitation, as if she'd known from the start what was going to happen here, heading straight for the rooftop.
Kevin followed close behind, his misgivings mounting. As he passed through the rooftop door and stepped onto the roof, a bolt of lightning flashed before his eyes. But its target wasn't him — it was the girl standing before him!
“Look out!”
Kevin lunged and knocked the girl down. A fierce bolt of lightning streaked past them, blasting a huge crater into the rooftop floor!
“Mei! Don't you recognize me?! It's me, Kiana!”
The girl in his arms desperately broke free of Kevin's protection and shouted toward the sky. Above the rooftop, another girl in a black uniform floated in the air, wings of lightning spread like crystal, gazing down upon the earth like an angel of destruction from myth.
Kevin knew who this girl was — or rather, he knew her better than anyone. The figure that lingered in his memories kept surfacing before his eyes — Raiden Mei. That was the girl's name.
The girl called Kiana got to her feet and charged toward Mei again. Kevin hurriedly grabbed her arm to stop her.
“She's no longer the person you knew. The Herrscher form has already stripped her of her human will.”
“The Herrscher form?! Something like this happened to Mei before too! Is it the same as that time?!”
Hearing Kiana's words, a flicker of surprise crossed Kevin's face, but it didn't last long — because at that moment several more bolts of lightning shot down from the sky, aimed straight at the two of them.
Kevin hurriedly shoved Kiana aside. The lightning streaked between them, splitting the rooftop with a fissure.
“You vermin! Let me burn you all to ash!”
Mei wore a manic expression as she roared and stretched out her hand. The storm cloud churned violently, spinning like a vortex, and the flickering lightning gathered within the rotating clouds, forming an enormous ball of lightning.
Watching the scene, Kiana scrambled up to look for somewhere to take cover — and just then, Kevin's body moved to stand in front of her.
“Don't move. Get behind me.”
“What are you doing?! Get out of the way! Do you want to drag me down with you?!”
“Trust me.”
Kevin's voice was low and calm. Kiana was so struck by his confidence that she froze.
In the instant of their exchange, the lightning ball in the sky had grown even more massive. Kiana gritted her teeth — on this open rooftop, forget finding cover; when that blast came down, the whole roof would likely collapse.
Looking at Kevin standing in front of her, Kiana couldn't help but mock herself. To think she of all people would be protected like some little girl — if her father found out, he'd laugh himself silly.
Just then, Mei brought her hand sweeping down, and the enormous lightning ball hurtled toward the two on the rooftop!
Kiana stood up. Rather than rely on this guy in front of her, she'd figure something out herself!
Kiana reached out to pull Kevin back, when suddenly she felt a chill on her face, and the air around her fogged white as if freezing over.
Before Kiana could react, the lightning ball came screaming down into the rooftop! A deep-blue explosion, crackling with electricity, engulfed the entire building! With one violent roar, the whole structure collapsed like a heap of scattered blocks!
Moments later, a huge crater had been blasted into the once-imposing building. Where the lightning ball struck had become a field of ruins, and among the rubble faint currents of electricity still coursed!
Kiana climbed up from the debris, and was stunned by what she saw. In front of her, a thick wall of ice stood in the way, and from the scalding steam rising off it she could tell it had taken the full brunt of the lightning strike, leaving broad scorch marks.
Everything beyond the ice wall had already caved in. The spot where she now stood jutted out in midair like a lone island!
“What on earth is going on…”
Kiana looked up. The ice wall beside her was slowly melting, and Kevin still stood before her — but his posture had changed to that of someone throwing. Kiana watched a cold mist condense in Kevin's hand, gradually taking the shape of a long, slender ice spear!
Before Kiana could grasp the situation, Kevin hurled the ice spear from his hand, sending it flying toward Mei in the sky!
The silver spear pierced the black clouds like a bolt of light and struck the wings behind Mei! The instant the Honkai-forged lightning wings made contact with the spear, they released an enormous surge of energy!
The flying spear drove into the middle of the wings, and cracks gradually spread through the lightning feathers, shattering under the spear's impact. Mei's face twisted in pain.
“What is this energy?! The Honkai's power is being suppressed?! Aaaaah——!!!”
After a heart-rending scream, Mei descended from the sky onto the ruins of the rooftop. And now, the madness had left her face, replaced by a face streaked with grief-stricken tears.
“Mei! Is that you?! Mei!”
Kiana rushed toward her. The Mei before her now was, without a doubt, the person she knew best!
“Don't come near me! I can't control myself right now… Get away from here! While I still have my own mind…”
Mei fought with all her strength to suppress the Honkai within her, backing step by step toward the rooftop's edge. She lowered her head, looked at the academy she'd destroyed, and wore a look of anguish.
“I'm sorry, Father…”
Seeing this, Kiana's heart burned with panic! Yes! This same scene had happened before, this same image! She knew exactly what was about to happen the next second, and she dashed toward Mei!
“At least when I die, let me keep my own heart…”
Mei murmured softly, then stepped off the edge of the rooftop and fell. At the same moment, Kiana threw herself forward, reaching out toward Mei… but this time, a gap of a few centimeters remained between their hands.
“Mei!!!”
Kiana failed to catch her in time, and could only watch helplessly as she fell. In that moment Kiana's face was filled with despair and helplessness — she couldn't believe Mei would just die like this.
Just then, a white figure brushed past Kiana and leapt off the rooftop together with the falling Mei — and that figure was Kevin!
In midair, Kevin caught the falling Mei. Timing it perfectly, he grabbed a jutting rebar in the rubble with one hand and braced his feet against the crumbling wall, and in an instant the two of them came to a stop against the broken wall!
Mei felt the warmth from the body against her own and slowly opened her eyes. When she realized she was in Kevin's arms, a look of surprise crossed her face.
“Let go! Let go now! If you keep stalling, I'll be taken over by that thing again! I'm begging you, let me die!”
Mei said, weeping, weakly pushing at Kevin with her hands, trying to make him let go. But her arms had no strength left, striking his chest as feebly as a sponge.
“People don't live for others' sake — they live for themselves. Look at those who've had their lives taken by the Honkai and turned into walking corpses. Don't you think your own life is precious…”
“And if you really want to die — then at least go on one more date with me first.”
Kevin said the latter half very quietly, and Mei didn't seem to hear what he'd said, only weeping on and on.
Kevin kicked hard off the wall and jumped back up onto the rooftop. Seeing Mei safe and sound, Kiana rushed over at once and threw her arms around her.
“Why… why did you save me… Without Father I'm nothing… Just let me die like this!”
“Mei…”
Lying in Kiana's arms, Mei sobbed uncontrollably. Kiana held her but couldn't find any words of comfort. Watching Mei's anguished face, her own heart felt as if it were being cut by knives.
“The cleanup unit will arrive before long. To avoid trouble, we'd better leave here quickly.”
Kevin watched quietly from the side, then silently turned and walked away.
“Just who are you?!”
Kiana called out to him from behind. Kevin stopped, turned, and gave a faint smile.
“My name is Kevin. I'm nothing more than a simple weapon.”
Otherworld — Chapter Two
Late at night, in the silent academy.
The old baroque-style campus buildings gave off a weathered air under the moonlight, and from one unremarkable classroom, a trace of warm light shone out.
On the old, decaying classroom's lectern, an alcohol lamp gave off a faint glow. By its flickering light, Kiana was bandaging Mei's wounds, while Kevin leaned against the wall nearby, resting with his eyes closed.
“Mei, it's just a scrape, don't worry.”
“Thank you. May I ask your name? Seeing that you're wearing our academy's uniform… a girl as pretty as you, and yet I have no memory of you.”
Kiana's hands, carefully bandaging, suddenly trembled.
“Come on~ I'm Kiana! Mei, are you still not yourself yet?”
“I'm sorry, I really don't have any memory of you… have we met somewhere before?”
At this, Kiana's hands stopped, and she gripped the bandage tightly, as if about to tear it apart.
“Mei… don't tell me you lost your memory in that accident just now!!”
Kiana sprang up with a start and shouted. Mei jumped, and even Kevin opened his eyes and cast a puzzled look at the two of them.
“Mei! You don't remember me?! We swore we'd be together forever!”
Kiana grabbed Mei by the shoulders and said, agitated.
“…I'm terribly sorry, I really don't have any memory of that…”
Mei wore an awkward expression. At this Kevin came over and pulled Kiana away.
“Quiet down. This may be the old campus, but there's no telling whether zombies are lurking about. Being that loud will draw them here.”
Kiana shook off Kevin's hand hard and dumped all her resentment onto him.
“It's all your fault. You hit her way too hard back there! Mei must have lost her memory in that attack! You brainless idiot! Moron! Dolt!”
Facing Kiana's barrage, Kevin wore a helpless look. Then he sighed and went back to lean against the wall again.
“I'm not sure what's going on, but Raiden Mei really has never met you — that much I can be certain of.”
Kiana turned and glared at him suspiciously, but Kevin was oddly calm. He pointed at Mei sitting in the chair and said,
“Because I've been watching her at all times.”
“Wh…”
“…”
At Kevin's bombshell, both Kiana and Mei froze on the spot. Yet Kevin seemed not to notice their expressions and simply went on talking.
“Raiden Mei is an extremely dangerous existence, so her every move must be watched at all times. To that end I've installed surveillance cameras in both her dormitory and her classroom, and even follow at a distance on her way to school, to prevent an unexpected Herrscher transformation from triggering the Honkai early. This has been going on for a year now.”
“That must have been quite a hardship for you… impressive that you weren't discovered this whole year…”
“Of course. I'm a specialist in dealing with the Honkai, professionally trained, and in any situation I—”
Before Kevin could finish, that familiar sound rang out again—
SLAP!!
After the sound, Kevin opened his eyes. What met his gaze was a red-faced, furious Mei, and beside her, Kiana looking at him with disgust.
Clutching his hot, red cheek, Kevin gave a wry smile at Mei's retreating back.
“Women really are hard to understand…”
He sighed helplessly and turned his head toward the window.
Kiana, on the other hand, grew even more interested in him. Ever since she'd met Kevin, one thought had lingered in her mind, and to confirm it she paced over in front of him and fixed him with a serious look.
“That ability you used in the fight just now — what exactly is that? Materializing Honkai energy and using it as a weapon. As far as I know, only one family's people have such an ability!”
“You mean the Kaslana family? Kiana Kaslana.”
“So you already know who I am… Just what are you?!”
At Kevin's calm reply, Kiana warily reached for the pistol at her waist.
“I told you before, didn't I? My name is Kevin. Kevin Kaslana.”
The moment Kevin finished, Kiana instantly drew her pistol and aimed it at him.
“Cut the nonsense! I've never heard of having any older or younger brother!”
Facing the muzzle pointed at him, Kevin turned and said to Kiana without changing his expression, “Your father took you and left the Kaslana family many years ago. There's a great deal you don't know.”
“You…!”
“Now's not the time to discuss this. We'd better think about how to escape this Honkai zone. If we die here, none of it will mean anything.”
“…”
Kiana fell silent for a moment, then reluctantly holstered her gun.
“Once we reach somewhere safe, I'll get to the bottom of this! You just wait!”
Kiana turned around. Behind her, Mei's face wore a nervous expression. Seeing how uneasy Mei looked, Kiana patted her own cheeks, put on a bright smile again, walked over to Mei, and kept comforting her.
“Mei~ once we escape, make me omurice again~ I still remember exactly how your omurice tasted yesterday~”
“Um… I don't think I've ever made you omurice, though.”
“Uh… anyway, it's a promise! You have to make it for me later~”
“Mm… all right.”
As the night deepened, the conversation in the classroom faded away. The alcohol lamp had gone out, leaving only the faint moonlight resting lonesomely in the run-down classroom. Kiana and Mei lay on a bed made of pushed-together desks, and only Kevin sat by the window, watching the night alone.
“You can't sleep?” Kevin said softly, as if to himself. As though hearing him, Mei quietly sat up in bed behind him.
“In a state like this, how could I possibly sleep…”
Mei's tone was very low. She stood and walked over to Kevin's side.
“Please, tell me — what exactly am I? Did this terrible disaster come about because of me…”
Through the dim moonlight, Kevin glanced sidelong at Mei's face, as delicate and lovely as in his memories.
“It's not your fault, and you don't need to blame yourself. The true culprit behind all this is the calamity called the Honkai, and my mission is to sever that calamity.”
“Then… can I still go on living like an ordinary girl?”
Mei looked up at Kevin, as if hoping to draw a sliver of hope from his lips. But after waiting a moment, all she received was a flat reply from Kevin.
“Get some rest.”
The next day.
On the outskirts of Senba Academy, against the magnificent backdrop of the academy city's buildings, three figures walked along the light-rail tracks, their cluttered footsteps striking crisp sounds off the metal rails.
Kiana walked in front, listless, seemingly still not recovered from the blow of Mei forgetting her. She glanced back at Mei and Kevin behind her, a flicker of displeasure crossing her face.
“Someone back there — isn't your mission to sever the Honkai? Is it really all right for you to just tag along idly like this?”
It turned out Kiana hadn't slept the night before either, but had lain there quietly listening to Mei and Kevin's conversation.
“The priority of my task has changed. As the primary target of this Honkai, my mission is to protect this lovely lady. I wouldn't want to give up such a fine assignment.”
Watching Kevin say such cheesy things without batting an eye, Kiana grew even more irritated.
“I'll protect Mei just fine on my own! Why don't you go feed yourself to the zombies! Hmph!”
“I have to say your judgment is quite sound. If we keep going forward, we may really end up feeding ourselves to the zombies.”
With that, Kevin raised a finger and pointed ahead. Not far off, a derailed tram was billowing thick black smoke.
Amid the tram's wreckage, wriggling black shapes emerged from the smoke, some with flames still licking at their bodies, staggering step by step toward the three of them.
“Tch! Just like before! Which means that little girl should be somewhere nearby too!”
No sooner had Kiana spoken than a huge shadow roared overhead. The three looked up to see a silver-white mech diving toward them, firing several missiles!
Seeing the danger, Kevin scooped up Mei beside him and dodged the missiles' blast at incredible speed. The smoke and heatwave from the explosion instantly swallowed the narrow rail line!
Kiana climbed up out of the rubble, wiped the soot from her nose, and coughed a few times.
“Cough! Cough! Mei, are you two all right!”
Kiana looked up and saw Kevin holding Mei not far off. Her cheeks instantly puffed up.
“You! Who said you could touch Mei?!”
Just as she was about to run toward Mei, the huge mech slammed down in front of her, its thrusters kicking up a violent gust that forced her back several steps.
On the mech's shoulder, a girl with a double-helix hairstyle looked down at the target before her.
“Target found. Commencing elimination.”
The girl's voice was as emotionless as a machine's. Receiving its master's command, the mech below raised its steel arm, a large-bore cannon aimed straight at Kiana.
“Bronya! You brat, don't you recognize me and Mei anymore?!”
“Bronya does not know what you are talking about.”
“So it's not just Mei — you've lost your memory too…”
Kiana muttered, but the situation left no room for further negotiation. Within the mech's deep muzzle, a beam of intense light was rapidly gathering!
Cold sweat beaded on Kiana's brow — on this narrow track, dodging a cannon of that caliber was all but impossible!
Just then, from the mech's other side, a volley of sharp ice blades came flying, striking the outer wall of the cannon barrel at the very instant it fired!
The powerful laser burst from the muzzle, but the impact of the ice blades had thrown off its angle considerably. Kiana hurriedly dropped flat, the laser searing past over her head. She felt a scalding wave of heat press across her back, her clothes nearly catching fire!
The tremendous laser struck the tram wreckage not far off, and with a violent explosion, the tram car was blasted several meters into the air! The surrounding zombies were instantly reduced to ash under the beam!
Watching the scene behind her, Kiana couldn't help swallowing hard. She'd always thought Bronya's cannon packed quite a punch, but only after narrowly escaping death from its muzzle this time did she truly understand how terrifying it was.
“Attack failed. Changing tactics. Recharging.”
The mech's muzzle swiveled again, this time aiming at Kevin, who stood on the other side of the tracks — the ice blades a moment ago had undoubtedly been his handiwork.
“Bronya! You've been controlled by someone again!”
Kiana shouted at Bronya. But facing the same deadly weapon, Kevin showed surprising composure.
“Talking to her is useless. She's just a humanoid weapon developed by ME Corp. Not a very strong model. Destroy her within thirty seconds and we'll keep moving.”
As Kevin spoke, white mist rose in the air around him again, and sharp ice blades condensed before him.
“What a cute child. She'd surely grow up to be a great beauty. A real shame.”
The ice blades shot out again, straight at Bronya on the mech. But the instant they neared, a huge shield blocked their path.
The ice blades stabbed into the mech's shield. The mech's arm swept hard, and shards of ice scattered to the ground.
Bronya reached out, and from the missile ports on the mech's back a barrage of missiles gushed forth, trailing flames straight at Kevin!
“Missiles are just a heap of fire-spitting scrap metal once they lose their thrust.”
Facing the incoming barrage, Kevin raised his hand with a crisp snap of his fingers, and in an instant the flames at the missiles' tails all went out at once. Robbed of power, the missiles dropped like lead weights, tumbling along the tracks and exploding.
Facing the scalding heat, Kevin didn't budge an inch. Behind the smoke and flame, Bronya's mech fired its main cannon again, a fierce beam cutting through the fire straight at Kevin!
“You just won't learn…”
An instant before the laser reached Kevin, a thick wall of ice rose abruptly from the ground! The moment the laser struck it, great gouts of steam gushed out like a waterfall! The whole rail line was wrapped in an enormous white void!
Watching this, Kiana was astonished. Her earlier fight with Mei must have looked much the same. Kiana hurriedly dropped to the ground, the heatwave and steam sweeping over her — the second time today she'd experienced such a thing.
The moment the cannon stopped, Bronya's mech instantly drew a sharp lance from its other hand, its rear thrusters igniting again as it charged at Kevin through the drifting smoke.
CLANG!!!
With a huge crash, the lance drove into the ground, and the entire light-rail line began to shake!
But the strike hadn't hit Kevin. As the smoke cleared, where the mech had pierced were only broken rebar and scattered concrete.
“Target lost. Commencing search.”
Bronya drove the mech again, wrenching the lance from the tracks, ready to locate Kevin for the next assault.
Suddenly the mech's arm shuddered, giving off a grinding creak as if caught on something. Bronya looked down. What was stuck wasn't the mech's arm, but the lance embedded in the ground.
Where the lance met the pit in the ground, a faint mist had risen, and a thick layer of ice had formed at their junction at some point!
Bronya looked around. As the mist spread, the entire mech was coating over with white frost. She tried to steer the mech out of the mist's range, but it moved as if bearing a mountain on its back, barely able to budge.
Just then, from beyond the mist, dozens of ice blades came flying at Bronya again! The mech gave a muffled sound, its right-hand shield barely shifting in time to block the attack.
Standing in the mist, Bronya could scarcely pinpoint Kevin's position. She tried to locate him with thermal sensors.
Just then, ice blades came flying from every angle!
The first drove into the sensor on the mech's head!
0.1 seconds later, the second blade pierced the wrist joint!
0.2 seconds later, the third stabbed into the shoulder joint!
Then the fourth! The fifth!
Blades launched from all directions struck the mech's shell like a downpour, and in moments its vital points bristled with dense ice blades, the whole mech curled up like a hedgehog shielding the girl at its core.
“Warning! Warning! System overload imminent! Recall imminent! Warning!”
The mech's shrill alarms rang ceaselessly in Bronya's mind. Her brain was tightly linked to the mech's systems, so she understood her situation clearly: if she didn't get clear of danger soon, once she lost the mech she'd be nothing but an ordinary human.
But Kevin gave her no such chance. The ice blades mercilessly pierced the mech's shell. Shrill screeches of tearing metal came from every corner of it.
At last, when the final volley of blades struck the mech — by now nearly an ice ball — the whole thing vanished in a flash of white light, leaving behind only the girl kneeling helplessly on the ground amid heaps of ice shards.
“It's time to set you free.”
Bronya looked up. Before her, a sharp spear-tip was already leveled at her. Kevin raised the ice spear in his hand and thrust it down toward Bronya's throat!
“Stop!”
When the tip was only millimeters from her throat, Mei's voice rang out.
“She's the same as me! She's a victim of this disaster too! We should save her!”
Kevin's hand hung in the air; he showed no intention of withdrawing the spear.
“This girl likely has a mind-control implant in her brain, and we currently have no means to remove it. If we let her go, she'll just keep attacking us under someone else's control.”
Kevin said calmly, his expression as devoid of any emotion as the girl he was about to kill. Watching Kevin like this, a chill ran through Mei's heart. Trembling, she raised her gun and aimed it at Kevin.
“If you're going to kill her… then I'll…”
“Then you'll kill me?”
Still that calm tone.
“I know this girl is the same kind of existence as me! So I can feel the pain and struggle in her heart… You said people don't live for others' sake, but for themselves! Then this child should have the right to live for herself too!”
Mei shouted at Kevin, her voice all but choked with sobs. Kevin looked at Mei with a cold expression, yet the ice spear in his hand rose again and stabbed toward Bronya without hesitation!
“No!!!!!”
“Move!!!”
Just as Mei tried to fire! Just as the tip was about to pierce the throat! Kiana lunged and knocked the kneeling Bronya aside, pinning her to the ground.
“I have a way to snap Bronya back to normal! I did it once before!”
With that, Kiana yanked open Bronya's clothes and reached for her chest.
“This kid's chest is still as flat as ever… let me see, I think it's around here… uh, guess I misremembered…”
Behind her, Mei held her firing stance, staring blankly at Kiana's frankly perverted behavior. Kevin, meanwhile, silently withdrew his spear and walked over to Kiana.
“Need a hand?”
“Buzz off!”
Kiana fumbled around on Bronya for a good while, then finally pulled her hand out from the clothes, clapped her hands together, and flashed a confident grin.
“Done~”
Hearing this, Mei hurried to Bronya's side and gathered her into her arms.
“How do you feel?”
Bronya slowly opened her eyes. “Bronya does not know how to answer that question…”
“It's all right! From now on, big sis will protect you!”
Looking at the excited Mei before her, Bronya paused a moment, as if pondering something, then after a while raised her head as though she'd found the answer.
“Bronya is willing to obey your command.”
“No, no~ From now on, no one will command you anymore, and you don't have to carry out anyone's orders. Just follow the thoughts in your own heart!”
Mei hugged Bronya tightly. The words she spoke seemed to be for herself as much as for Bronya. At this moment her face brimmed with happiness — not only the joy of saving another, but the peace of being saved herself.
“No fair! Mei gets all warm and fuzzy the second she sees Bronya! I want a hug too!”
“Kiana, what exactly did you touch to break Bronya's control?”
“Heh heh~ that's a secret~ Right, Bronya?”
“Bronya does not understand what you mean.”
The three girls' cheerful voices echoed through the ruined tracks, becoming the most precious thing in this Honkai-stricken world.
Watching the three girls play, Kevin pulled the phone from his pocket.
“Mm, it's me… understood… If that situation arises, I'll annihilate Raiden Mei myself.”
Otherworld — Chapter Three
“Here~ Bronya, this is pudding~”
Mei peeled back the wrapper of a boxed pudding and held it up to Bronya's mouth. With an “ahm,” Bronya swallowed the pudding in one gulp.
“Bronya! You can't just swallow pudding whole!”
Mei hurriedly crouched down and patted Bronya's back, only relaxing once she was sure she hadn't choked. Just then Kiana flopped onto Mei's back, nuzzling her cheek against Mei's hair like a spoiled child.
“Mei~ I want pudding too~”
Mei pushed Kiana's face away, stood up, and handed her the pudding in her hand.
“Here you go.”
“No, I want Mei to feed me too!”
“Honestly! You're not a little kid anymore!”
The girls' merry chatter and laughter echoed through the deserted passage, casting four long shadows in the dim light.
This was an underground emergency passage beneath a shopping plaza in Nagazora City. To avoid the areas where the zombies gathered, the group had chosen the fastest, safest route based on Bronya's navigation system. But from the marks of battle on the girls' clothes, it was clear the way hadn't been smooth — though in the face of this life-or-death disaster, that already counted as tremendous luck.
The three girls walked ahead, chatting and laughing as if on an outing. Only Kevin followed behind in silence. Watching Mei's back ahead of him, he reached into his collar and pulled out a pendant from around his neck.
It was an emerald-green chameleon pendant. By its texture it seemed to be made of metal, and the faded patches on its surface showed it had some years on it.
Kevin clenched the pendant in his palm, wearing a thoughtful look — and just then, the footsteps of the three ahead suddenly stopped.
The passage ahead had caved in, the collapsed floor from the level above blocking the way completely. Through the gap overhead, a dazzling light shone down into the corridor.
“Looks like the only way is up. I'll go check it out. Mei, wait down here.”
Kiana stepped onto the broken concrete slabs. The gap was only a little over four meters high, and she nimbly clambered up a few steps, reaching the top in no time.
Kiana carefully poked her head out to survey the level above, and suddenly her eyes lit up with excitement. She lowered her head and called out,
“Mei! Come up, it's safe up here~”
Kiana slid down a few steps and reached out a hand to Mei.
As the three girls made their way up, Kevin leapt onto the ledge too. At once a flood of bright light filled his vision — this was an indoor amusement park!
Though limited in space, with no large rides, its colorful cartoon-style attractions gave off a special charm under the seven-colored lights, like stepping into a fairy-tale world. Every one of the three girls before Kevin had their eyes captured by the sight.
But Kevin didn't let down his guard. He carefully scanned the area. This amusement park sat at the center of the shopping plaza, topped by a glass pyramid skylight. Strangely, in such a busy spot there wasn't a zombie in sight, and the facilities were all intact — only the place they'd climbed up looked as if something had blasted a hole in it, jarringly out of place.
Yet just as Kevin was pondering this, a silvery peal of laughter reached his ears. He shook his head helplessly — these young ladies really were carefree.
Mei took Bronya's hand and strolled once around the park, cheerfully explaining amusement-park trivia to her. Halfway through she was dragged off by an impatient Kiana to ride the carousel, and the whole scene brimmed with a relaxed air.
Kevin, on the other side, stood off like a bodyguard, still perfectly at ease.
The girls' laughter rang endlessly through the empty park. After such a tense, oppressive journey, coming upon a patch of paradise like this, no wonder they released the stress in their hearts onto these simple amusements like children.
Fortunately, this was only a small amusement park. Had it been the size of Disneyland, they'd probably have wasted a whole day here.
Kevin thought this, watching the girls' satisfied smiles after they'd tried every ride in the park, and decided to suggest they leave.
Just then, he saw Mei waving him over. Puzzled, Kevin walked to Mei's side and found that they'd discovered a photo-sticker booth and wanted to take a group photo with him.
Seeing how eager the girls were, Kevin sighed and said,
“I'm not interested in this. You three hurry and finish so we can keep—”
Before Kevin could finish, Mei grabbed his hand and yanked him over.
“Stop dawdling! Three pretty girls are inviting you~ This is the kind of thing you'll never get a second chance at in a lifetime!”
Mei held Kevin's hand, wearing a relaxed, delighted expression. Sure enough, the amusement park's atmosphere had drawn out her truest self.
Looking at Mei's smile, that warm feeling couldn't help stirring the fragments of memory within Kevin. By the time he came to his senses, he'd already been pulled into the cramped photo booth.
“Honestly! Mei, why'd you have to drag this jerk in with us!”
Kiana glared at Kevin with a look of disgust, and Kevin tactfully turned his head aside.
“In that case, I'll just step out.”
“Don't be so distant!”
Mei grabbed hold of Kevin as he tried to turn and leave, then looked back at Kiana.
“Kiana, you too! It's a rare chance — wouldn't it be nice for everyone to take one as a keepsake?”
“Well, if Mei says so…”
“Mm-hm, then let's begin~”
Mei happily scooped up Bronya and faced the lens.
“Here~ Bronya~ look at the camera~ hold up your index and middle fingers~”
“Mei, is this some kind of ritual?”
“It's the etiquette of taking sticker photos~ Kevin, get closer too! Standing over there, you won't be in the shot!”
“Ah… okay.”
“Here we go! 3—2—1”
“Meow~”
Click!!
“Hmm~ hmm hmm hmm♪”
Mei held the strip of sticker photos to her chest with both hands, her delight plain to see. Beside her, Kiana cradled her own photo, not forgetting to needle Kevin.
“This dead-fish-eyed guy on the edge is such an eyesore!”
Kevin, unbothered, tucked the photo into his pocket and said,
“Young ladies, if you've had enough fun, I think it's about time we set off.”
Hearing Kevin's words, the smile faded considerably from Mei's face. She pinched a corner of the photo and nodded.
“But before that, I have a piece of good news for everyone.”
Kevin pointed at the glass skylight.
“On top of this building there's a platform. If I'm not mistaken, it should be a helipad. If there's a helicopter up there, we'll save a lot of time.”
“Really?! That's wonderful!”
Hearing this, Mei seemed to regain her spirits — but the next second, Kevin's action shocked her again.
An ice spear condensed in Kevin's hand. He raised it and aimed the tip at Mei!
“But before that, I need to deal with a troublesome pest first.”
“Kevin! What's gotten into you now?!”
Kevin lunged at Mei. Seeing this, Kiana hurried to stop him, but Kevin was far too fast! In an instant he was upon Mei, the ice spear raised high in his hand thrusting out without hesitation!
Mei let out a scream and stumbled back several steps. A tremendous crash shook through her whole body, but she felt no pain. She opened her eyes to find Kevin's arm around her waist, and beside her cheek, a metal lance held fast in midair by Kevin's ice spear.
Mei turned her head. Behind her, a huge shape loomed in the air — Bronya's mech! And not far off, Bronya stood with her head down, controlling the colossal machine!
“What on earth is going on…”
Mei froze on the spot, and Kiana, who'd been charging toward her, stopped short as well. Kevin's move a moment ago hadn't been an attack on Mei, but a block against Bronya, who'd tried to attack Mei from behind!
“Task update complete. Control-authority transfer commencing.”
Bronya's emotionless voice muttered on like a machine program.
The mech's lance drew back, and it stood at Bronya's side like a sentry.
Moments later, Bronya seemed to regain consciousness and lifted her head again.
“As expected of Schicksal's strongest weapon — able to sense the trap the very instant I attacked.”
The revived Bronya seemed like a different person, her tone vastly different from before.
“I never trusted her from the start. I merely turned the plan against you, following the safe escape route you'd charted to draw out your true aim. But it seems the aim has been achieved. Just who are you?”
“You can call me C. I created this girl.”
Bronya gave Kevin a bow, and a faint smile even appeared on her face.
“Impossible! I already broke Bronya's control!”
Kiana hurriedly retorted, unwilling to believe her efforts had come to nothing.
“That crude little trick of yours could only lift the most superficial hypnosis. Bronya's subconscious is still firmly in our grip, and we can reclaim her body at any time.”
With that, Bronya raised her hand, and the cannon on the mech's shoulder bared its vicious fangs again.
“My demand now is simple. Just stay here obediently and wait for my forces to come collect you, and we'll guarantee your lives.”
“And if we decline your hospitality?”
Kevin countered.
“Then I'll just have to make you suffer a bit!”
“Do you think this puppet you're controlling has the ability to stop me?”
Kevin's expression turned cold too, the earlier calm gone from his eyes.
“How would I know without trying?”
Just then a low rumble suddenly rose from all around! One after another, humanoid weapons of a build similar to Bronya's rose up and closed in on Kevin and the others!
These weapons resembled girls in appearance, and from the look of them belonged to the same model as Bronya's mech. They hovered in the air like wasps, some armed with missile cannons, others wielding katana.
“No wonder the zombies all vanished from the area — they were wiped out by these things.”
“Correct. But this is merely a bit of entertainment. It's my honor to let you experience your last taste of joy in this amusement park.”
Bronya swept a hand, and the mech-girls in the air, receiving their master's command, swarmed at Kevin and the others!
Seeing nowhere to hide, Kiana hurriedly threw her arms around Mei, trying to shield her with her own body.
Just then, a thick wall of ice condensed up around Kiana, forming a shield that enclosed both her and Mei.
“I'll leave Mei to you to protect!”
“You don't have to tell me that!!!”
The airborne mechs poured fierce fire down at the ground, dense missiles screaming in and bursting into balls of flame against the ice wall.
Kiana held Mei tightly. The din from beyond the ice wall was deafening. She couldn't imagine what state Kevin was in out there amid the hail of fire — right now she had only one conviction: she absolutely would not let Mei be harmed!
Beyond the ice wall, Kevin used ice blades to strike down every missile flying at him, his agile figure weaving through the blazing explosions. His hands swung the ice spear, cleaving the katana-wielding mechs in two!
By now not a trace of humanity could be seen in Kevin's eyes — only the innate instinct to kill and destroy!
Explosions mingled with the shriek of tearing metal, filling the empty amusement park with clamor. Mei buried her face against Kiana's chest, unable to believe that the peaceful paradise of a moment ago had turned into a scorching hell!
Mei's mind went blank, her ears deafened by the violent noise, feeling the whole world shaking — unable to tell whether it was her own body trembling or the ground quaking beneath her.
At last Mei's consciousness gradually blurred, until she could feel nothing at all…
She didn't know how much time had passed when Mei seemed to hear a voice calling her. She slowly opened her eyes, and Kiana's blurred face came into view.
“Mei! You're finally awake!”
Kiana threw her arms around Mei, and the warmth from her body gradually brought Mei around. Then she remembered where she was and bolted upright!
Mei looked around. The explosions had stopped, leaving only sunken craters, the air thick with the acrid smell of gunpowder and machine oil.
Just as Mei tried to stand, her foot slipped on something. Luckily Kiana caught her in time before she fell. Mei looked down and found she'd stepped on something round — and that something was the head of a humanoid mech!
In that instant, Bronya's face flashed through Mei's mind, and her stomach lurched. She hurriedly covered her mouth and struggled to compose herself. After a moment, she lifted her head again and cast her gaze farther off.
Mech wreckage and severed limbs littered the ground, smoke and firelight obscuring her view. Mei stumbled forward a few steps, searching for the figures of those two—
Bronya and Kevin!
At last, Mei made out their silhouettes through the drifting smoke. A smile returned to the corner of her mouth, and she hurried toward them. But as the scene before her gradually cleared, Mei's expression froze…
Kevin stood with his foot on the mech's wreckage, the slender ice spear in his hand now a thick ice pillar run clean through the mech's body. The whole mech lay slumped on the ground, like a shield covering the master beneath it.
Mei's gaze followed the ice pillar down. Its base, once transparent, had been stained dark red with blood, and at the pillar's end, a sharp spear-tip had pierced Bronya's slender body!
Even now, Bronya remained expressionless, her eyes open, looking up at Kevin above her as she parted her lips slightly.
“What a… pitiable creature… this power so close to destruction… it's exactly like the Honkai… you can no longer be called human…”
Bronya's voice came in fragments, and her eyes slowly closed.
“It seems… to oppose Schicksal… we'll have to develop an even stronger weapon…”
As her voice faded, the ice spear was pulled from Bronya's body, and a cruel snapping sound tore through her. Kevin's cold eyes watched Bronya in silence as the weapon in his hand dispersed into mist upon the air.
Kevin turned around and saw Kiana supporting Mei not far off. He gave them a faint smile.
“The obstacle's been cleared. Let's keep moving.”
Kevin's voice was so calm, his expression restored to its usual handsome ease. But in Mei's eyes, the Kevin before her was nothing more than a monster desperately playing at being human!
“You bastard… you actually killed Bronya…”
Mei's voice came out as if forced through her teeth, which chattered ceaselessly, her face already twisting with rage.
Electricity began to crackle around Mei, the mech wreckage on the ground sparking under the violent current. Kiana noticed the change coming over Mei and hurried to stand in front of her, shouting.
“Mei! What's wrong?! Mei!!”
But Kiana's efforts had no effect. Now Mei's eyes held only Kevin. Roaring thunder wrapped around the whole amusement park, lightning lashing the rides and throwing off sprays of fire!
Honkai patterns surfaced on Mei's arms, and the raging thunder gathered onto them, forming a translucent wing of lightning!
Facing the transforming Mei, Kiana was frantic! Current flowed past her, scoring red welts across her skin, but Kiana paid it no mind, desperately trying to call Mei back.
“Heh heh heh heh!!! Hahahaha!!!!!”
Mei suddenly broke into mad laughter. By now the Honkai personality had seized her heart and taken control of her body once more.
“Free at last. This girl's body is mine now!”
“!”
With a violent crash of thunder, Kiana's vision went stark white. A dazzling bolt of lightning punched through the glass skylight and struck straight down. Before Kiana could react, the current racing through her had already numbed her limbs!
“Move!”
Just then, a tremendous force shoved Kiana clear!
Kiana fell to the ground and hurriedly looked back at where she'd been standing—
Amid the dazzling light, a sharp bolt of lightning had pierced clean through Kevin's body…
Otherworld — Chapter Four
The white-haired boy stood quietly on the charred, blackened stone paving, expressionless, not a trace of life in his eyes.
Before him lay the ruins of a town laid utterly to waste. Among the broken walls, huge black shapes moved slowly through the churning smoke.
“Trial No. 132 commencing. ‘K,’ annihilate all Honkai Beasts within the designated area.”
Hearing the command through his earpiece, the boy slowly stepped forward, walking toward the ruins.
As the dust swirled beneath his feet, a huge black shape burst through a crumbling building, its silver-gray metallic armor gleaming amid the flying rubble, dark red spots across its towering body glowing with menace.
This was a monster born of the Honkai, which people had named a “Honkai Beast”!
The enormous Honkai Beast swung the blade in its hand, spreading its limbs in a roaring stance, poised to kill.
It leveled its blade at the boy before it, ready to charge forward!
But just then, a huge ice spike drove head-on through its armor! In an instant, sharp ice spears rained down from the sky like a downpour! In mere seconds, this swaggering monster was buried in an icebound grave!
Beside the ice-shattered beast, the white-haired boy walked slowly past, a thin cold mist wreathing his body.
The boy walked without hesitation into this town — a place of death razed to nothing by hundreds of Honkai Beasts.
Three hours later—
“This trial took 3 hours, 12 minutes, 44 seconds. Total Honkai Beasts annihilated: 274, including 54 Grendel, 79 Mimir…”
A handsome young officer stood with a cigarette dangling from his lips as his adjutant reported the results at length. But the officer had no interest in this. Looking at the town ruins turned nearly to ice sculpture, he broke into a fascinated smile.
“Where's that kid now? Let me see what sort of brat is this impressive!”
“Your Highness! Contact with ‘K’ requires approval from the upper echelons. Approaching him rashly would…”
“I've been appointed that child's guardian — put plainly, we're father and son. Are you telling me I need the say-so of those old men upstairs just to see my own son?”
“That… as you command…”
Led by the adjutant, the officer came to a heavily armored transport vehicle, ringed by a squad of fully armed soldiers. The adjutant stepped forward and waved a hand. The guards exchanged glances, then hesitantly opened the door.
The light inside the compartment was dim. In its deepest corner, the white-haired boy sat hugging his knees. The officer walked to his side, but the boy remained motionless as a statue.
“Yo~ kid!”
The officer greeted him in a light tone, but again to no effect.
“What's your name?”
“…”
“Sir, his experiment codename is ‘K.’ He has no name.”
The adjutant behind him hurried to answer.
“K, huh… K… Then from now on you'll be called Kevin! How about it — good name, right?”
The officer said cheerfully, but the boy before him paid him no mind from start to finish, leaving him to scratch his head awkwardly.
“Anyway…” The officer crouched down and reached out a hand to the boy. At that, the boy's gaze, through his own hair, caught sight of hair the same color as his.
“My name is Siegfried. From now on, I'm your guardian.”
Five years later—
“Kevin, I've got a new assignment for you.”
Siegfried tossed a file to Kevin, who was seated in a chair.
“This one's a real sweet job~”
Watching Siegfried's grinning face, Kevin opened the folder. A girl with ultramarine hair came into view, dressed in a black uniform, an air of elegance radiating from her bearing.
“This girl is the target this time. Quite the beauty, isn't she~”
As Siegfried spoke, Kevin kept a poker face while reading the girl's file: Raiden Mei, 16, first-year at Senba Academy, daughter of the president of Massive Electric…
Suddenly, a subtle change came over Kevin's eyes. A line at the very end of the report had caught his attention.
“Third Herrscher host…”
Kevin read the words aloud in a low voice. He looked up and found that Siegfried's expression, too, had shed its earlier levity, his face gone grave.
“That's right. According to our investigation, this girl is very likely to become the newest Herrscher to trigger the Third Honkai. So you should understand the purpose of this mission.”
“Kill this girl.”
Kevin answered at once.
“Wrong!”
Siegfried smacked Kevin on the head, then sighed at his puzzled look.
“The primary objective this time is to recover the Third Herrscher — to bring her to Schicksal before she undergoes the transformation. But the 'ME Corp' this girl belongs to is a problem. This company may be deeply connected to the organization secretly obstructing us, and acting rashly could trigger the Third Honkai ahead of time.”
Siegfried sat down across from Kevin and struck a thoughtful pose.
“So your task is to watch over and protect this girl, to keep that organization from getting to her, and then, when the Third Honkai erupts, to recover her for Schicksal!”
“Protect…”
“What is it?”
“All this time I've only ever been given tasks of annihilation and cleanup. Protect… what exactly does that mean?”
Kevin looked up at Siegfried. Though his expression scarcely changed, Siegfried sensed the wavering in his heart. He smiled and ruffled Kevin's hair.
“Kevin, tell me — what is your ability?”
“Ice?”
“That's right. Your ability has absolute destructive force, overwhelming force, a dominating force above all else. But have you ever wondered why, when your ability takes form, it becomes ice — and not rock, or flame, or some sharper metal?
The Kaslana family's abilities all carry their own meaning. Kaslana blood flows in your body too, and though for now it's cold ice, one day you'll discover the true power it holds.”
With that, Siegfried stood and pointed proudly at the Kaslana family crest over his chest.
“That is the Kaslana family's most glorious mission — to protect!”
Kevin looked at Siegfried in silence. Siegfried held his grandiose pose for a good while, until at last he felt the awkwardness and reluctantly dropped it, looking at Kevin with a scheming expression.
“Well then, let's begin your special training.”
“Special training?” Kevin was baffled again. “Are we conducting combat drills against a Herrscher? But a Herrscher's power is said to utterly surpass a Honkai Beast's. I doubt even a thousand Honkai Beasts could match the intensity of fighting one.”
“You really are a blockhead…” Siegfried stood up and planted a foot on the desk, looking down at Kevin. “Obviously it's training to pick up girls!”
Nagazora City, a key economic hub of the Far East region, had on its outskirts an academy city no smaller in scale than the downtown, home to dozens of prestigious schools, its surrounding commercial districts bustling with traffic.
And at this moment, atop a towering apartment building, an unremarkable tent was pitched beneath a water tank. Beside it, Kevin held a pair of binoculars, observing the situation on the street.
In the focus of his binoculars, a girl of graceful bearing walked slowly through the crowd — Kevin's target, Raiden Mei. Right now Mei had reached the apartment entrance and was turning to go inside.
“Target has reached the apartment. Switching to indoor surveillance.”
Kevin lowered the binoculars, picked up the laptop beside him, and pulled a can of instant food from behind him. Eating his dinner, he continued his all-angle, round-the-clock surveillance.
Three months had passed since the surveillance mission on Raiden Mei began. Kevin had repeated this routine day after day, keeping his consumption to the bare minimum, tuning himself to a state of readiness to deploy at any moment.
Suddenly, watching the screen, Kevin frowned. After several minutes, Mei's figure still hadn't appeared on the indoor cameras. He quickly cast aside the can in his hand, leapt from the apartment roof to a slightly lower building nearby, used the drop to reach the ground swiftly, and pressed himself into an alley between buildings, peering out.
“Miss~ care to do me the honor of a drink?”
On the steps before the apartment entrance, several men had surrounded Mei, swaying on their feet, reeking of alcohol as they spoke.
“Sorry, I'm not interested.”
Mei answered calmly. Paying the drunks no mind, she skirted around them and headed straight into the building.
“Hey! You stuck-up little— don't be so ungrateful!”
Seeing Mei ignore them, the drunks stepped forward and reached out to grab her. Sensing it, Mei was about to turn and take them down, when a figure appeared between her and the drunks — and that figure was Kevin.
Kevin gripped the drunk's wrist tightly. The controlled drunk twisted his face, straining to shake Kevin off, but Kevin's grip only tightened, nearly crushing his wrist — until Mei grabbed hold of his clothes.
“That's enough.”
Kevin let go, and the drunks, seeing they were outmatched, staggered off in a hurry.
“Thank you.”
Mei glanced at Kevin and said coldly. Wariness filled her eyes, as if to her Kevin were no different from those drunks.
“Is there something else you need?”
At Mei's question, Kevin met her gaze for a moment, the atmosphere unbearably awkward, as he hurriedly recalled the methods Siegfried had taught him for handling such a situation.
Just as Mei, looking exasperated, was about to turn and leave, Kevin suddenly remembered something.
“I am deeply in love with you.”
“Huh?”
This was the strategy Siegfried had told him: once spotted by the target, simply recite this passage to the end.
Kevin grabbed Mei's hand, dropped to one knee, and looked up as he spoke.
“I am deeply in love with you — whether in winter or in spring, whether the flowers bloom or fall. If this love could become the stars, I would be a meteor falling for you; if this love could become grass and flowers, I would be a green vine growing by your window; if this love could be only a fleeting dream, I would be a passerby in your dreams; and now, I wish only to remain by your side, only for time to stop at this second, only to hold your hand until the world's end.”
Delivered entirely in the tone of reading off a script.
Mei froze on the spot. Watching this stranger recite such syrupy words with a blank expression, she didn't know how to respond. Looking at the utter lack of feeling in Kevin's eyes, she couldn't help pressing a hand to her forehead and letting out a helpless sigh.
“So this is what you're after too…”
Mei shook off Kevin's hand, her gaze suddenly turning as contemptuous as a haughty queen's.
“I meet several guys like you a day. No idea where you copied that line from, but next time you confess, try putting a little more feeling into it.”
Mei turned and left, leaving Kevin only a solitary retreating figure. And at that moment Kevin looked up, studying the terrain near the entrance, thinking he'd better set up a camera here too.
This was Kevin and Mei's first encounter — full of misunderstandings, but thankfully without rousing Mei's suspicion. And so Kevin passed more than a month in this ceaseless, day-and-night surveillance.
Today, Kevin crouched atop the apartment as usual. But unlike other days, the crowd below was several times larger than before, TV vans and news reporters packing the apartment entrance to the point of bursting. Kevin scanned the crowd for Mei's figure. Right now Mei was being escorted through the crowd by a group of black-suited bodyguards, moving in a daze.
On this day, Raiden Mei's father had been arrested by police on suspicion of financial fraud, and as his only daughter, Raiden Mei had been thrust into the eye of the media storm. Though Kevin didn't quite understand what this meant, from Mei's grief-stricken, helpless expression he sensed the situation was far from good.
That night, Mei sat blankly in her room, staring vacantly ahead. Watching Mei on the screen, Kevin seemed to see a reflection of himself — that little boy who had once sat alone in a containment cell.
Suddenly, Mei stood and walked toward her desk. At the same moment, static flickered across Kevin's screen, as if disrupted by something, the image beginning to blur.
Kevin felt a faint trace of Honkai energy emanating from the apartment beneath his feet. He pulled open the tent flap. Under the clear night sky, only the apartment's roof had a strange thundercloud gathering above it.
Kevin turned back to the monitor. In the blurred image, Mei sat gripping a blade in her hand — and she had shut her eyes, on the verge of hurting herself.
Just as she was about to, Kevin slammed the door open and rushed in…
“Kevin! Kevin, wake up!”
At the crisp sound of a call, Kevin slowly opened his eyes. Before him, Mei was leaning over him with a smile, her ultramarine hair falling to brush his forehead.
After that fairy-tale-like rescue, Mei had developed special feelings for the white-haired boy before her. Upon learning that Kevin lived on the apartment's rooftop every day, Mei would come up to see him from time to time.
Mei sat beside Kevin, utterly unlike the icy beauty from their first meeting — an expression she'd never once shown even throughout Kevin's surveillance.
It was a smile carrying a warm, sweet air, and for some reason, Kevin found his eyes captured by it. Though he'd watched her for so long, in this moment Kevin felt as if he were meeting the girl anew.
As Kevin's gaze lingered on Mei, he felt a cool touch at his neck. He looked down to find an emerald-green chameleon pendant hanging on him.
“This is a gift to thank you for saving me. Thank you.”
Kevin picked up the green chameleon pendant, and a strange vision suddenly surfaced in his mind—
Amid fire-swept ruins, he sat powerless in a crumbling world, holding Mei, her blood dripping onto him, her body so cold it chilled him to the bone!
A piercing pain spread through his whole body. Kevin clutched his chest, feeling as if his entire body were about to be run through!
Kevin struggled to lift his head. By now Mei had risen and was walking toward the rooftop's edge. She looked back at Kevin, wearing a smile the exact opposite of the one before — a heartbroken, bitter smile…
“Well then, goodbye, Kevin…”
With those words, the entire apartment rooftop collapsed with a roar, and Kevin, clutching his chest, plunged from the air!
In the instant before darkness took him, Kevin struggled with all his might, then forced his eyes open—
Before him, Kiana was watching him with an anxious face.
Otherworld — Chapter Five
Pale lightning flickered across the pitch-black sky.
Kiana crouched beside Kevin, wrapping his chest thickly with cotton cloth she'd found somewhere. Even so, a faint trace of blood seeped through.
“Hey! Pull yourself together!”
Kiana's anxious face filled Kevin's vision, her voice sounding faint and far away. Kevin didn't know what expression he wore now — perhaps blankness, perhaps pain.
Right now he only lay there calmly, watching through the shattered glass roof of the amusement park, coldly looking on as the world teetered on the brink of collapse, thrashing amid the lightning.
“Kevin! Get up! If we don't think of something soon, Mei will…”
Kiana shook Kevin's body hard, as if to drag his soul back into his flesh. But Kevin only gazed indifferently up at the sky.
“Raiden Mei's Herrscher power has fully awakened. There's no other way now but to destroy her.”
Kevin said coldly, not a shred of emotion in his tone.
“Bullcrap! I'll find another way! You just lie there! I'll definitely find a way to save Mei!”
Watching Kiana's agitation, Kevin suddenly broke into a faint smile.
“You really are a simple one…”
Bracing a hand against the ground, Kevin sat up with effort.
“This Raiden Mei you see is not the Mei of your world. She isn't even… the Mei of my world. She's nothing but a phantom.”
“A phantom?”
“That's right. Haven't you had doubts about the world you're in now? Why you returned to Senba Academy, why everyone you meet has forgotten you as if struck by amnesia…”
Kevin leaned back against the broken wall behind him, a faint cold mist wreathing the wound at his chest. To staunch the bleeding, Kevin had frozen his own blood, forming dark red ice crystals over the wound.
But Kiana didn't notice this grim sight, for in her mind, a more important matter had seized all her attention.
“You mean… this world is a fabricated world created by the Honkai?”
Facing Kiana's question, Kevin shook his head.
“In regions of intense Honkai source, the natural laws are thrown into disorder, and even space-time is distorted. But this world isn't a counterfeit made by the Honkai — it's a world that truly exists in the universe.”
“You don't mean—?!”
“That's right. With every different choice, a new parallel world is generated in the universe.” As he spoke, Kevin turned to look at Kiana. “And this place is but one of the vast branching world-lines spreading out from the choices of Kevin Kaslana—
Everything you see is nothing more than a fleeting bubble in the tiny universe.”
Violent bolts of lightning rolled down one after another, buildings sliced apart like tofu and reduced to blackened scorched earth. The ground began to quake violently, glass and rubble crashing down from the ceiling, the whole shopping center on the verge of falling apart in the storm!
“But no world can escape the fate of destruction, and so the Kaslana family appears, taking up the mission of saving the world.”
Bracing one hand against the wall, Kevin slowly rose to his feet. In his other hand, a sharp spear of cold ice condensed once more.
“So what of it!”
Just as Kevin stepped forward to carry out the Kaslana family's mission, Kiana's voice cut him off.
“Are you saying that in countless choices, Mei has only ever had one path — death?! I will never accept that!”
Kiana strode to Kevin's side. “Isn't the Kaslana family's mission to protect the world?! If Mei absolutely has to be sacrificed — then I'll find an option that saves her too!”
Hearing Kiana's naive words, even Kevin's face showed a flash of anger. Having lived through thousands of worlds, he'd been left with no choice but to kill Mei; through countless cycles he'd tried with all his strength to protect her, yet the final answer had always been nothing but blood staining the muzzle of his gun.
“An option like that cannot possibly exist!”
Kevin gripped the ice spear in his hand, forcing the words out almost through gritted teeth.
Just then, the phone in Kevin's pocket rang, and his face darkened at the sound.
He shook Kiana off in a few strides and charged toward the center of the storm!
“Hey! Are you even listening to me?!”
Kiana hurried after him. Though she didn't know what was happening, an ominous premonition welled up in her heart…
The shopping center's rooftop plaza stabbed straight into the belly of the storm cloud, the towering floors seeming swallowed by a great black maw, only the base left exposed.
Kevin stood on the roof, roaring thunder streaking past him, the whole plaza tottering under the lightning's assault.
Kevin held the phone in his hand. Before him, Raiden Mei was watching him coldly.
“Hmph~ Just as I was about to set out and deal with you, you came to throw your life away on your own. Saved me quite a bit of trouble.”
Raiden Mei wore a ferocious grin, the lightning wings at her sides grown immense, currents gathering on the translucent feathers linking to the churning storm cloud, vast Honkai energy pouring into Mei's body through the medium of lightning!
“The Herrscher power has fully awakened. I am the Honkai itself now! All things shall turn to ash in my thunder!”
A fierce bolt of lightning shot from behind Mei at Kevin! A wall of cold ice sprang up before him at once! But the instant it touched the lightning, this immensely hard wall was smashed to pieces!
The tremendous impact blasted Kevin away! Yet the attack didn't stop there — along Kevin's flight path, several more bolts of lightning flashed in, striking at him!
Kevin hurriedly conjured several ice walls around himself in midair, but under the fierce shocks his body was batted about like a rubber ball by the lightning! Then he slammed hard into the ground!
The force of the impact drove a deep pit into the plaza, the floor beneath Kevin caving in, and he fell through with the collapsing floor, crashing heavily onto the level below with a muffled roar!
“Heh heh heh! In the end just a human — before a god, nothing but an ant.”
Mei reveled in her own power, looking down contemptuously at the world beneath her feet.
Amid the collapsing floors, Kiana, who'd chased after Kevin all this way, found him slumped in the rubble. Kevin was just then climbing up out of it, the wound at his chest seeping blood again from the impact.
“You're hurt this badly and still showing off?!”
Kiana caught the staggering Kevin. Just then she faintly heard a murmur from his lips.
“In the end, no matter how I struggle, the ending still can't be changed…”
Kevin bowed his head, and Kiana couldn't make out his expression. Only the sound of a call came from the phone in his pocket to her ears.
“Kevin! I order you to annihilate the Third Herrscher at once! Do you hear me?! Kevin! Tch! That traitor Siegfried's protégé can't be trusted after all! Dispatch an S-rank Valkyrie to annihilate the Herrscher immediately!”
Hearing Siegfried's name, Kiana's body suddenly stiffened, but she quickly shook her head and remembered her promise with Kevin.
“You'd better hold on! I'm still counting on you to tell me about my old man!”
“Old man… you mean Siegfried.” Kevin's voice was very low. “It was Siegfried who taught me how to live as a human, who told me the weight of life, who taught me how to win a girl's heart…”
Kevin lowered his head, the pendant at his neck swaying before his eyes. “But there was one thing he never told me — how to protect them, once I had them.”
Kevin coughed several times and brought up a trace of blood. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a case of capsules, the Kaslana family crest engraved on its lid.
Kevin opened the lid, slipped a black-glinting capsule into his mouth, then slowly lifted his head toward Mei, transformed into a demon in the sky.
“Ha ha… the destruction of the world, is it…”
Kevin laughed as if mocking himself, warm scenes of his time with Mei surfacing in his mind — the two of them holding hands, strolling through bustling streets amid laughter, watching the neon lights illuminate each other's forms.
“As the heir of the Kaslana family, how could I abandon protecting this world!”
Looking at the chaotic world before him, a terrifying killing intent surfaced on Kevin's face. As if he'd made up his mind, he bit down and crushed the capsule in his mouth, turning himself into an asura!
SLAP!
At the crisp sound, Kevin felt a burning sting across his face. He turned to find Kiana glaring at him with a furious expression.
“I refuse to accept this idea that protecting the world means killing Mei! Snap out of it right now!” Kevin held his cheek, looking at Kiana with a bewildered expression. “If it were my old man, he'd definitely find a way to use every ounce of his strength to protect what matters to him!”
Kiana's expression was one of utter fury, but through that fury ran a thread of sorrow, tears welling in her eyes, held back by force.
“My old man once said… even if it costs your own life, you carry your convictions through to the end! That's the Kaslana family's mission, isn't it?! A guy like you, only ever bent on destroying the Honkai, never once thinking about how to protect — I refuse to accept that you're a Kaslana!”
Kevin stared blankly at Kiana. In her bearing, he seemed to see the shadow of Siegfried, and he couldn't help scratching his hair.
“Honestly… you really are exactly like your father…”
In this moment Kevin recalled the words Siegfried had once said to him — why, when your ability takes form, is it ice, and not rock, flame, or some sharper metal? Now he seemed to grasp some of the reason behind it.
Just as Kevin was thinking this, several roaring bolts of thunder came at him again. Yet Kevin didn't dodge, and the thunder struck his body head-on!
But as the lightning flashed by, Kevin stood there unharmed. Before him, a wall of cold ice had been seared with a great crater, water trickling down its face.
“Because ice can melt into water…” Kevin sighed softly. “So it was that simple a principle after all.”
Because of the lightning just now, the rooftop plaza overhead had caved in entirely. Mei looked down at Kevin from on high in the sky, wearing a savage expression.
“Hmph! Still clinging to life!”
Mei reached out a hand, and the storm cloud in the sky instantly condensed. In a flash the vast storm cloud gathered into a pitch-black ball of lightning, the compressed electricity crammed together, releasing devastating energy!
At Mei's command, the condensed black lightning ball surged toward the ground. At this the whole air stirred into a raging hurricane, the tremendous pressure blasting the surrounding buildings down in an instant!
Facing the overwhelming pressure, Kevin lightly snapped his fingers, and in that instant the lightning ball in the sky halted its descent — and even began to rise back the way it had come!
It turned out that beneath the lightning ball, a thin wall of ice was bearing it slowly upward, this ice wall melting away and forming anew without cease, held at the critical point of vanishing yet always present in the air.
The melting ice turned into droplets falling from the sky, drifting down like a fine, misting rain.
Watching the scene, Kiana was captivated by the raindrops amid this apocalyptic landscape, without noticing the faint mist rising around her.
“Go back — back to the time where you belong, to protect the things that are yours.”
Kevin wore a look of release as he walked up before Kiana. Only then did Kiana notice she'd been enveloped in mist — but the mist rising around her wasn't cold; it carried a warm air, soft to the touch as spring rain.
“Wait!”
Kiana reached out to grab Kevin, but her hand passed straight through his body. By now Kiana no longer belonged to this world; her body had begun to shift toward the world that was hers.
“Thank you — for telling me the words your father always wanted to tell me. If I'd heard them sooner, I wouldn't have had to repeat these thousands of cycles.”
Kevin watched Kiana gradually vanish, his expression utterly at ease, smiling happily as if a burden had been lifted from him. Amid the fine raindrops there was a trace of melancholy, and yet an unbounded freedom.
He turned to look at Mei in the sky. The ice walls all around had wrapped her in the air like an oval egg. Mei fought fiercely against the mist surging toward her, unleashing rolling currents, yet unable to disperse it no matter what.
Just as the Herrscher Mei struggled madly, an ice spear pierced through her body!
“How… how could this be…”
Before Mei's eyes, Kevin looked at her with a tender expression and drew her into his arms. The currents around her cut off abruptly with the spear's thrust, and only the ceaselessly gathering mist gradually wrapped the two of them together.
“This time I won't go anywhere. I'll stay by your side always. In the name of the head of the Kaslana family, I swear I'll protect this world that has you in it…”
Kevin looked at Mei in his arms, the lightning wings behind her fading away in the shimmering light, her expression returning to its former tenderness. As if feeling the warmth in his embrace, she broke into a happy smile.
Kevin slowly closed his eyes. The mist around them had condensed into a thick layer of ice, wrapping the two of them together, sleeping like a great snowball amid the ruins of Nagazora City.
If you really can't find a reason to be with a girl, then just go on a date with her! A date is a date! You don't need a reason at all!
In this moment, Kevin remembered the girl-chasing secret Siegfried had told him, and couldn't help smiling—
“Once the Honkai is gone, go on one more date with me.”