Chapter 2: The Anchor She Needed

I grunted as I blocked an overhead strike from Kiana, her heel smashing down onto my crossed arms as I was sent back a few meters, closer to the back wall of the training facility. I felt my arms briefly go numb as I righted myself, her strength had always been something to be admired. While Sirin and I were strategic fighters who had to plan our attacks from time to time, Kiana boasted not only a brain that matched both of ours but a strength that was closer to our fathers.

Swiftly ducking under a sweeping kick aimed for my head, I placed my palms against Kiana's airborne leg and pushed it upwards, catching her off guard and sending her backward with a yelp, causing her to land on her back, glowering at me flatly as I raised a single eyebrow and smirked.

"You know the rules, whoever is on their back in the snow is out."

I watched her grumble for a few moments as she got up and walked past me, sending me a small, scheming smirk before I heard the telltale sound of void portals opening, I spun, punching towards the sound as my fist impacted with one of the training swords that Sirin had fired at me from the other side of the training floor.

I looked at the flimsy weapon discarded on the ground before shaking my head and reaching towards the weapon rack not too far away from me. I pulled off a dulled greatsword and a pistol filled with rubber bullets, I stared back towards Sirin to see her holding the same pistol except dual wielding it, as the Kaslana Kata had determined one to use them.

I knew it because I follow the same Kata, except, I had been slowly working on a different one. One focused on the use of a greatsword alongside a singular pistol. The Cavalry Kata, combining the heavy strikes of the greatsword and the swift blows of the pistol, was one that required enhanced strength for the user to utilize the greatsword with one arm, while the pistol sits in the waiting hand.

Sirin stared at me for a few moments before smiling, it was supportive, yet it promised not a single ounce of mercy, she made that clear when she shot forward, both pistols raised and firing off rubber rounds in rapid succession, I raised my greatsword in response, watching as the bullets fell to the ground.

I was as expected, sent back a meter or so as Sirin kicked the blade I had raised while I blocked. I felt the lingering numbness in my arm fade before my grip on my sword tightened. I spun, the momentum carrying me along as I lashed out at Sirin, ignoring the fact that she flipped away from me so easily. Instead of fretting, I raised my pistol and fired in rapid succession causing her to retaliate by firing at me, knocking a few out of the air before she went low, moving at speeds that no normal human could reach.

I readied myself, not noticing a void portal form beneath my left foot until the last moment when I made to lash out with the greatsword, only for my left side to jerk downwards. My last vision of the training room was Sirin's foot slamming into my chin, sending me upwards before she slammed a fist into my airborne body, forcing me off of the training platform and into the wall beyond.

I held an icepack to my chin as I quickly ate my food, instead of the sweatshirt and sweatpants combo I had been during training, I now wore my Chiba Academy uniform, a mostly all-black attire if not for the simple lining of orangish gold silk on the clothes, the black coloration was supposedly to signal that I was a second year, while my sisters' clothes were white to show that they were juniors.

They were comfortable to an extent, the only argument I could make towards the outfit was the tie, it seemed I hated ties, not that they were hard to do up and junk like that, but it was a simple fact that it could be used to possibly choke me, any disadvantage in combat was a heavy one, that sentiment seemed to be agreed with by Sirin who had put her pistol holster away with a growl earlier because the skirt was too short to hide it on her upper thigh.

I sighed and put the icepack back in the freezer as Kiana and Sirin put the dishes in the sink, a robot making its way out to clean up and put away anything that was out of place. I made my way towards the door as the two followed me, honestly, a small part of me was nervous.

Kiana and Sirin would have each other as they shared classes, but I wasn't the talkative one with strangers, I was the one who couldn't keep up conversations either due to people losing interest or because I didn't know what to say.

As we walked, I ducked into a fast food place and ordered a cup of tea for Sirin, some hot chocolate for Kiana, and, a coffee for myself. Sipping away idly as my younger sisters spoke animatedly on our way to the academy.

The first step past the gates of Chiba Academy was the most damning. The entire place felt, dreary in a sense. Groups of people muttered to themselves as they stole glances in our direction. I disliked it, once more being reminded of the Facility I was kept at, as doctors just, watched me. Obviously, my reaction was visible as I felt a smaller hand slip into my own, startling me out of my own thoughts as I looked at Sirin who just smiled at me.

My pounding heart settled as I just focused, reminding myself that I hadn't been there for years, that it shouldn't be affecting me as badly as it was. A squeezed the hand lightly before she pulled her hand away and we made to move.

Only for the whispering to intensify as people began to focus on something behind us. I turned back and felt my vision waver for a moment.

Purple hair and matching eyes, soft features that were stained by a distant, almost cold look as the person made her way into the academy. She wore a black variant of the clothes Sirin and Kiana wore, stealing a small, confused look towards the three of us before she shook her head and continued walking.

The mutterings seemed to follow her as she entered the school and disappeared around a corner, I looked towards my sisters and felt myself freeze, Kiana had that look of excitement she always had when finding a new thing that interested her. But Sirin, she was frozen, her eyes glowing gold as she seemed to track the girl from earlier through the walls.

"Bella..."

My hand landed on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly. She took a few moments to catch her bearings before she grasped Kiana's hand and rushed into the academy, her blue eyes filled with intrigue as she dragged her twin towards their homeroom.

"We have been given the chance to foster a new student from another land. Please, act your age and treat him kindly."

I felt that had been my cue as I slid the door to my homeroom open and stepped inside, I noticed the teacher look at me expectantly, a piece of chalk in his hand while he subtly pointed towards the board beside him. I nodded, understanding as I swiftly wrote my name on the board and turned towards my classmates with a blank look, speaking softly.

"Kaslana Sieghart..."

I noticed a few looks of expectation, they must've expected more from me. But I couldn't, I felt my face burning as I looked towards the floor. Siegfried had told us that 'Strangers were just friends you hadn't made yet,' but as I stood before a league of strangers, I couldn't help but find his advice inadequate, they didn't feel like friends, they felt like predators.

"I see, Kaslana, please that the seat beside Raiden so I can begin taking names."

I looked towards everyone, confused about who he had spoken about before my eyes met with the girl from earlier, her distant look still prevalent as she raised her hand and pointed to the empty desk beside her. I nodded lightly and made my way forward, ignoring the mutterings of the other students so I could sit down in my seat.

I gave Raiden a small nod, not catching her look of confusion as I settled into my spot and listened as the teacher called out names. The first day was starting and it already seemed to be too much for me, part of me wished that Siegfried had marked me as being the same age as Sirin and Kiana, but the more rational part knew that I looked older than them and twins were easier to explain than triplets.

I listened idly to a bit of the chatter in Homeroom, talking about some man named Ryoma Raiden and the arrest that followed his supposed wrongdoings, I sent a glance towards the only other person with the name Raiden, watching her knuckles turn white as the grip on her desk tightened. I couldn't stop the scoff that slipped past my lips as I lifted my eraser and threw it, the item blurring ever so slightly as it impacted with the boy that had spoken so brazenly while a person connected with the issue was in the room.

He hit the floor holding his now red cheek, catching the attention of the teacher who looked around the room for the perpetrator, glancing towards me idly as I tapped a pencil on the table and swirled my spare eraser in my hand while staring out the window. Except, I was watching the reflections in the window, noting that Raiden was staring at me in confusion, glancing towards the boy that sat back down, rubbing away at his cheek that swelled ever so slightly.

I stretched out as the bell for lunch rang out, making my way out of the class, towards where I knew Sirin and Kiana would be, the Cafeteria, likely spending as much money as they could on food. Not noticing Raiden following me silently as I pushed open the doors to the common area and began to jog towards the Cafeteria.

"Doesn't she normally stay up on the roof? Why is she down here?"

I shook my head and found Kiana and Sirin as they sat before a pile of food, people around them watching in disgust as they seemed to battle it out, trying to eat more food than the other. As I made my presence known, Sirin looked to me with a sandwich in her mouth, waving before freezing, staring behind me as her blue eyes flickered lightly.

I turned my head and caught the gaze of Raiden who stood a few meters back, staring at the three of us in interest. I looked to Sirin who had still been frozen before looking to Raiden and nodding. The girl started before a small, barely visible smile appeared on her face and she began to walk towards us. She sat down opposite Sirin, while I sat across from Kiana, idly grabbing what looked like bread with brown noodles in it.

Sirin on the other hand had placed down her half-eaten sandwich and stared at Raiden. Her gaze could be described as frigid as the purple-haired girl just stared back.

"Sirin. Stop it."

Said girl sent her cold gaze to me before shaking her head in exasperation. It was almost as if it were my fault that the Raiden girl had followed me, I just wanted the idiot in Homeroom to shut up, so I made him shut up.

Food spilled off the table as Kiana stood abruptly, stretching over across the mound of food as she held out a hand towards Raiden with her familiar wide smile, I felt myself soften as Raiden looked at the offending hand confused. The girl reminded him of Sirin, while capable of making friends, no one would reach out due to her cold demeanor. No one except for someone like Kiana.

"Hi! Kiana Kaslana. Wait no, it's Kaslana Kiana! Heh, knew I'd remember!"

A few tense moments passed before Raiden snorted, breaking her distant demeanor heavily as she reached out and took the hand of my sister and shook it with a smile, I looked towards Sirin who watched with a sense of envy as the two hit it off right from the start, I sent her an encouraging look as she caught my eye afterward causing her to roll her eyes and hold out her own hand towards her.

Raiden seemed to contemplate it a few moments before reaching out and grasping it with a smaller, yet still pleasing smile.

"Kaslana Sirin, I'm the one who stole all of Kiana's brain cells."

I watched Raiden pull back her hand with an amused look as Kiana sent a slap into the back of Sirin's head, almost slamming her head down into her half-eaten sandwich. I watched blankly as the two started throwing food at each other while Raiden simply glowed, lightly laughing as she watched the two.

"Raiden Mei. Please, just call me... Mei."

The two settled as Mei smiled, it was small, yet filled with an unnatural kindness, so fragile that the slightest misstep would shatter the glass that allowed it to be viewed. I had been right, she was exactly like Sirin, and judging by the girl's look of familiarity, she could tell that Mei had been put through enough grievances already.

"Nice to meet you Mei-senpai!"

The whispers returned and I found myself glancing around at the other students in the Cafeteria who sent venomous glances and hushed words of disgust in the direction of the table we were sitting at. Words that painted my sisters in a bad light, made them sound like they had only let Mei sit with them out of pity, only sat with her to gain information on something called ME Corp.

It was infuriating and judging by the cold look Sirin was slowly letting off, she was beginning to be fed up with the situation as well. It wouldn't do however for her to get in trouble on her first day, so I reached a foot over and stamped down on her foot gently, signaling for her to calm herself. I quickly moved to stuff whatever wrapped up food was on the table into my bag before standing up.

"Come on, obviously the Exterminators missed a few Insects."

I hadn't meant to sound so cold, but watching a few of the students flinch at my words made it impossible to hide the small, vicious smirk that took root on my face as I made my way out of the Cafeteria, my sisters who had flanked Mei from both sides following me as I slammed open the doors, a fake show of anger that caused the distant whispers to focus on myself, the Violent Yank, instead of Mei or my Sisters.

Good, that had been all that was needed for now.

All four of us settled down on the roof of the School, Kiana, and Sirin splitting up the food they had bought amongst themselves, placing a few snacks to the side for myself as Mei sat on the edge of the roof, eating with a serene look as she watched us all. It was a far cry from the way she had been earlier, the barely concealed anger and the distanced personality she portrayed to make it seem as if she was fine.

Siegfried had said to me once that I had the uncanny ability to view everyone as if their hearts were on their sleeves and Mei, she was hurt, the world around her was cruel and she was adapting to it the wrong way, instead of lashing out in some way to fix it for herself, she was hiding away and allowing it to hurt her again and again. It was wrong, it was exactly the same thing Sirin had done when she had hurt me after awakening as the Herrscher of the Void.

I felt Sirin move close to me, having gained her side of the food she and Kiana had bought, choosing to talk to me instead of eating alongside her twin.

"I don't like this. This is all familiar."

I glanced towards Sirin, her blue eyes watching Mei as the girl in question set aside her empty box of food, wrapping it up and tucking away the box within her bag. Once she did so, an aura of command seemed to take over as she stared at us, I felt a cold sweat form as flashes of Siegfried glaring at me whenever I fell during training flooded my mind.

"Sieghart. During Homeroom, you threw an eraser at someone who was speaking out about my father. May I ask why?"

Mei's words seemed to catch the attention of Sirin and Kiana fully, both of them looking at me in confusion. It made sense though, they knew about my pacifistic nature, I had no desire to hurt humans, so to learn that I had willingly hurt someone for speaking out of line was a surprise to them at least. They knew I could get angry, but not enough to hurt others.

"Because no matter what sins the father may bare, none of that is of the child. Whatever the past may have hidden, isn't for me to care about, it is the present that matters."

My words seemed to have reached her as the small elegant smile turned into one of happiness, Mei looked radiant as the sun shone past the cloudy sky above and illuminated the roof. I heard a small hitch of a breath behind me, my eyes drifting to Kiana as my youngest sister seemed to turn red-faced at the sight of Mei Raiden's brilliant smile, what seemed to be tears prickling the side of her eyes.

I smiled however, Kiana was experiencing something for the first time, a moment of reprieve from her mundane life of constant training, one that would allow her to see more than just their fight against the Honkai, but to feel something she had never felt before and if it actually blossomed into more than just a blatant crush? Who was he to complain about his sister gaining love?

"Mei... Is Mei."

Said girl wiped away the light tears from her eyes, Kiana's words reaching her ever so slightly, her smile not once fading as she stood up and walked over to us, crouching down as she smiled. There was that sadness in her eyes that seemed to shift and turn, fading into happiness from time to time, allowing me to see a girl who much like Sirin, needed an anchor to root her in place, to show her that she wasn't alone.

"So, if you need help, please come to us."

Sirin spoke after, holding out a hand towards Mei who took it and allowed Sirin to pull her up. Kiana hopped over and wrapped an arm around the two of them with a wide smile. I let myself take in the aura of calmness as I sat there and watched the three of them, Kiana hugging the other two happily, Sirin trying to escape her twins' clutches, and Mei, having found her Anchor, just allowing herself to feel happy for the first time in a while.

It was oddly touching that three strangers could get along so readily on the first day they ever met, normally it would take longer, but for someone like Kiana, who was filled with a brightness no one could ignore, and Sirin, someone who understood the feeling of pain, it was hardly a surprise that the two could reach out to someone like Mei so easily.

I let myself chug down half of my bottle of water as I sat down on one of the benches within the training room. Sweat covered my form, my clothes sticking to me as I stared at the gray roof above me.

When the final bell for school had rung, we had parted ways with Mei, the girl promising to talk with us more tomorrow, likely on the roof again as it was the one place that they were safe from the whispers, Kiana and Sirin didn't complain in the slightest and I was happy to just let them do whatever they desired.

The wooden bench creaked as Sirin sat down next to me, watching as Kiana duked it out with a training bot, shouting out weird attacks while dodging away and hitting the robot. The older twin drank from her own bottle idly, she was out of focus and I could tell something had been bothering her all day. I allowed myself to watch Kiana as well before sighing softly.

"Who's Bella?"

Quiet. It was never a good sign when it came to either of the twins. Quiet meant that Kiana was thinking, throwing aside her excitement to contemplate things, while Quiet meant Sirin was scheming, as her snake-like words were no longer uttered. I looked to Sirin who stared back, golden hues glowing as I stared back. I watched her gaze lower before she turned her head forward to stare at the ground.

"Bella was a friend. She protected me no matter what, fighting at my side at every turn and even dying for me in the end."

It was the other Sirin I was talking to as she clutched her arms around herself and just spoke about her lost friend. Kiana had gone off to shower and eat, before heading to bed, while Sirin and I continued to talk. She told me everything, about the Second Eruption, about how she had met Siegfried and Cecilia, how she had been placed within an illusion... How she had wished so deeply to be a normal girl, only for the wish to come true.

By the time we had finished, those golden eyes were slowly fading back to blue, Sirin resting her head against my shoulder tiredly as I propped her up on my back and began making my way up to the first floor.

"Brother..."

Sirin still spoke like the other one as she wrapped her arms around me to keep herself up. But, nonetheless, I did not complain as she called me as she had. Even if she were not my Sirin, she was still Sirin and that's ultimately all that mattered.

"Mei... The reason I called her Bella..."

A small yawn took over as Sirin placed her head on my shoulder and began to slowly close her eyes.

"She's been marked by the Will... She smells like Bella..."

I stared forward as I reached the top of the stairs and broke into the living room, slowly heading up to our bedrooms.

"She... Will become a Herrscher... Like... Me.."

Sirin slipped off into her dreams, leaving me with nothing but a cold sweat as I registered her words. A Herrscher. Mei was to become a Herrscher at some point, sooner or later she would become something more than a human, something that could either destroy humanity or work towards its betterment.

I gently laid Sirin down in her bed, returning to my room and sitting down at my desk, I opened my laptop and entered my password. I loaded up the search engine and looked for ME Corp, the first result being the scandal that got Ryoma Raiden arrested in the first place.

I would spend the night searching for everything.

A feeling of disgust permeated the air as a pure white being, vaguely shaped like a human hovered over the shoulder of Sieghart, watching the boy type away at his laptop, tiredly searching for anything that could help him with his new acquaintance, Mei Raiden.

The Will of Honkai merely observed as one of its chosen had come into contact with not only the Truth and the Void, but with the Usurper as well. The being before it so brazenly wrong to the world, yet not once rejected by the Imaginary Tree, it knew who to blame at least, the man who had come into contact with it during the Second Eruption.

A small, sickeningly sweet smile took over the Wills face as it remembered the Fool.

A man who wished for his friend to return to him.

It seemed that it needed to step up its game, lest Humanity becomes far stronger than any other on the branches of the Imaginary Tree.

Shame. The simple story of a Family prevailing against darkness seemed so interesting to it.

Truly. A shame.

AN:
20 Followers? I didn't expect that to happen so quickly.

Anyway! I thought I'd mention that, unlike the mainline story, some events will happen a little earlier or maybe later than expected.