Prologue

50,000 years ago

Fire Moth's final remaining base

So very much can occur within the span of a few seconds.

Within a few seconds, countless people die and are born.

Within a few seconds, a group of soldiers, possessed by hatred and fear, broke through the door of a prison cell.

Within a few seconds, bullets flew from the barrels of their weapons, striking the prisoner multiple times.

Within a few seconds, the life of an innocent little girl ended, spreading around her in a dark red pool, her death celebrated by the ones who had killed her.

Within a few seconds, that same innocent little girl took revenge on her murderers and the entire race they belonged to.

...

One minute later

A calm and cold, but urgent voice sounded in her earpiece, and she listened to it intently.

"Hua, be on your guard. We have a situation in the base."

As if the sirens and flashing red warning lights didn't already make that obvious enough.

"Defying Dr. MEI's orders, it appears that a group of soldiers broke into the Twelfth Herrscher's containment cell and killed her. This has released the Herrscher energy stored inside her, which has begun corrupting anyone it comes into contact with and transforming them into Honkai zombies. The affected areas have already been quarantined and sealed off, but do not let your guard down; we don't know how far the Honkai has spread. If you encounter any zombies, eliminate them immediately. But far more importantly, you need to prevent the infection from spreading. You should know how. "

There was no need for her to respond with anything more than an "Understood".

She closed her eyes.

She was Sakura's little sister...she didn't hurt anyone...and they still did this to her…

It was both too early and too late to mourn. As a Flame Chaser, she had little room for such emotions. She concentrated on her task at hand. She suspected that the Herrscher spread through psychic and mental means, so she activated the Eighth Divine Key, Fenghuang Down, and used it to put to sleep everyone in the base who lacked Honkai resistance. Hopefully, that would prevent the Herrscher from corrupting them.

She found herself in a blue-coloured world filled with falling cubes. She could see tens of thousands of bright sparks, each representing a sentient entity who had been affected by the Divine Key. She scanned them as quickly as she could, searching for the one she cared for the most.

She could not find him.

Her breathing quickened. She felt cold sweat soaking her skin. She tried to prevent herself from panicking, with only partial success.

No, no...am I too late again? Please, please still be alive…

She ended the illusion and raced toward where she hoped she would find him. With growing horror, she realized that if he had been performing his routine, he would be sealed behind one of the quarantined sections of the base. A part of her knew she was already too late, but she lied to herself that she was wrong and continued running.

Please...just this once, can't you just break the rules? Can't you just slack off even once and be safe somewhere you aren't supposed to be?

He was a man who took his duty more seriously than his own life, and she knew he would have never forsaken it, even for a moment. She knew his duty would have had him in the sector not far from the Herrscher's containment cell, and she knew he likely wouldn't have had enough time to get to safety.

Why are you always like this!?

She held back her tears and kept running. Soon, she found herself in front of a solid metal gate over a meter thick, sealing off the sections behind it. The sections that were by now consumed with Honkai energy, with any humans unfortunate enough to be trapped in them turned into mindless and aggressive abominations.

"Hua? HUA! What are you doing at the gateway between Sectors R45 and R46? You know it was sealed off! Continue focusing on using Fenghuang Down so we don't need to seal off even more sections! This is an order, Hua. Our entire existence depends on you!"

"But...Kevin...he's still in there...he's behind this door, and there's…"

"And there's nothing you can do for him now. He's already gone. If he were lucky, he'd be killed off by one of the zombies. If he wasn't…"

"I know, Kevin. But please. Please let me through, so I can...so I can see him one last time...and if he's become one of them, please let me free him…"

"You know I can't do that."

Several minutes passed in silence. Finally, she heard footsteps approaching her. She turned around and saw Kevin Kaslana, her leader and the leader of their entire organization. A tall, silver-haired man, he stopped next to her before slumping down next to the wall, defeated. For all of his might, even he had been powerless against this formless foe.

"Hua, the Herrscher...it's been defeated. Dr. MEI managed to seal it in a black box."

"Really? How is Sakura?"

"She's dead."

Hua said nothing.

"The Herrscher of Corruption didn't only infect humans...it was a virus in more ways than one. The Honkai always manages to surprise us."

"How heavy are our losses?"

"About a hundred in the base. Thanks to you using Fenghuang Down, everyone else managed to avoid infection. You saved them all, Hua."

"...not all. You know exactly who I couldn't save."

Kevin didn't answer to that.

"That was the good news. The bad news is that it took only a minute for the Herrscher to infect every last computer in the base. Then it took command of the firing protocols for the three hundred nuclear missiles stored here and launched them all at our last three cities. They're all gone. They're nothing more than smoking craters now. Once the missiles were in the air, there was nothing any of us could do. We...humanity...have already lost."

She said nothing. She slid down against the wall before falling into a sitting position next to him. They were silent for several minutes, then he finally spoke again.

"The immediate threat is past, but zombies may still be active in the quarantined sectors. As you requested, I'll have the gate unlocked now. Clear the sectors of any threats you find. And Hua...make sure you've prepared yourself for what you're about to see." He stood up and walked away.

"Thank you, Kevin."

Her heart pounded as her mind focused on maintaining the Divine Key-enforced sleep on the inhabitants of the base. She finally ended it when the armoured gate slowly slid open, revealing a blackness beyond. All power had been redirected away from the quarantined sectors, leaving them in complete darkness.

She slowly walked forward, straining her eyes. She saw a brief motion shuffling in the darkness. After a few more steps, a humanoid figure lunged at her, growling like a feral beast, luminescent lines of Honkai energy snaking across its skin, glowing in the dark and ironically making it a more visible threat.

She sidestepped the zombie before striking it with a fist, destroying it instantaneously. She looked forward again and saw more glowing violet lines moving in the darkness. The noise had only attracted more zombies, which she dispatched with ease. She fought her way over to the commander's personal quarters before the lights finally turned back on. In front of the doorway was a body lying on the ground.

The man she was searching for was the commander of what remained of humanity's armed forces - the few thousand soldiers stationed in Fire Moth's last remaining base. He was a serious and dutiful man when he had to be - which was most of the time - but Hua knew this was not the kind of person he wanted to be. He was also casual, funny, caring, gentle, and loving during the few times he was allowed to be. Hua spent many of these times with him. Talking, bonding, sharing drinks, and making memories with him. In his bed, embraced by him as he moved on top of her, their lips locked together, both of them moaning passionately for each other. Hua remembered these happy moments as best as she could because she knew they would never happen again.

The man she found lying on the ground in front of her was none of those things. He was not even a man anymore. She saw lines of Honkai streaking across his skin, and she saw the amount of blood pouring out of the wound on his head that must have been inflicted by one of the rebellious soldiers attacking him when he had attempted to stop them from breaking into Yae Rin's cell. The fear and hatred the soldiers had had for the Herrscher had evidently exceeded any respect they may have had for their commander.

Her grief finally caught up to her, and she fell to her knees, crying. She wept in utter despair at what had transpired in mere minutes that day. She grieved for what she had lost, that things would never be the same again. She hated herself for being so weak, so inadequate, so unable to save those she loved. She leaned forward and fell to her hands, her teardrops dripping onto them.

She heard a deathly noise. The shape in front of her moved slightly. It slowly climbed to its feet and stood up before turning around to face her.

She looked up. The eyes that stared into hers were no longer human.

With a growl, the zombie lunged at her, its hands outstretched, its jaws gaping.

In an instant, she had gotten to her feet and assumed a combat posture. With her eyes closed, tears still leaking out from beneath them, she closed her hand into a fist and struck her assailant in the center of its chest as it closed the distance between them. Blood sprayed forth from its mouth, and it staggered before falling backwards onto its back, its head injury aggravated as it collided with the floor, even more blood pouring from the wound in its head and from its mouth as it lay still forever.

Hua finally lost her ability to keep her emotions under control, and she screamed with grief and despair as she fell back onto her knees again. Tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes and she sobbed and wailed with utter sadness, anger, and pain. She punched the ground below her over and over, leaving deep craters in the ground, as her tears fell from her face and mingled with the ever expanding pool of blood, the corpse in the center of it having once been the only man she had ever loved.

But no matter how much blood spread across the ground, it never became as red as his hair.

...

Present day

Onboard the Hyperion, 10,000 meters above sea level

"Incorrect, captain. Repeat it again after me: Ya...lyublyu...vas," sighed the short, grey-haired girl who styled her hair into drill-like twintails.

"Sorry, Bronya. Uh...here goes…yellow...blue bus?" he said, embarrassed at the obvious mistakes he'd made in front of the three native Russian speakers.

"No, no, no, Captain Idiotka! How could you get something so simple so wrong again? Little kids can say this, so why can't you!" exclaimed Rozaliya, her tail twitching in annoyance.

"Russian children, Rozaliya Idiotka. Of course we were able to speak our mother language just fine...do you remember how long it took for you to learn English? You used to always pronounce your own name as - " said her cyan-haired twin sister before being interrupted.

"Nope, I don't remember, Liliya! Besides, I can say it just fine now! Rozaliya, Rozaliya, Rozaliya - "

The Olenyeva twins kept arguing, their speech gradually transitioning into Russian as Bronya and the captain watched them and smiled with amusement.

The four of them were seated at a table in the Hyperion's lounge, which was designed to not only resemble any lounge in the world thousands of meters below them but also to be more comfortable. Clear, floor-to-ceiling windows revealed the beauty of the blue sky and white clouds surrounding them for as far as they could see. The Hyperion had become their permanent home over the past several months, and they were glad it lived up to its reputation.

What they were far less glad about was the frustratingly slow pace at which the captain picked up Russian, which was surprising given the several languages he had already learned to speak, read, and write fluently. He had asked Bronya if she were willing to teach him since all four of them could speak it while he could not, and she'd gladly agreed. She'd been joined by the twins and Seele, who spoke their language as well as she spoke Estonian, her own native tongue. How little they knew of the difficulty that lay ahead of them. In more ways than one.

Bronya sighed and started putting away the learning materials. "That's enough for one day. At least you've made some improvements. You don't butcher the words like an uneducated peasant anymore, captain. Now you only butcher them like an uneducated serf," she said, smiling warmly to show him that she was jesting and didn't mean to cause any offense.

He laughed awkwardly, running a hand through his red hair. "Thanks, Bronya. Any improvement is welcome…"

She leaned forward until they were face to face. "Perhaps a kiss would impart some of my knowledge to you, captain?"

"It's worth a try, Bronya," he said before kissing her as passionately as he could, embracing her at the same time. They quickly broke it off when the door to the lounge opened, and a blue-haired girl with equally blue eyes walked in. This made the twins stop arguing.

"Seele!" they said together with Bronya. She stood up and hugged her, receiving a hug in return.

"Hi, Bronya. How did the captain's lesson go?"

"About as well as you predicted. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the problem is with the teachers and not the student...or perhaps it's both."

"Don't say that! And whatever the problem is, I'm sure you'll figure it out. I was even worse than him when I started learning it…and English..."

"And now you speak both perfectly, Seele," he said before standing up and patting her on the head. "So where were you just now?"

"I was talking with Kiana. I could tell that she needed someone to talk to, and I felt like I could help her. We're similar in a lot of ways...and we both have...another us inside us…"

His eyes darkened, not wanting to be reminded of the malevolent entity within Kiana. He hid his emotions before inviting Seele to sit next to him.

"And how was Kiana, Seele? Did you feel like you were able to help her and make her feel better?"

"I think so...that she was willing to talk to me at all hopefully means she's starting to feel better...when I first arrived, I could feel that she didn't seem to like me very much for some reason…"

The captain knew the reason, but he kept it to himself. Kiana had been envious that Bronya and Seele had been able to reunite so happily in contrast to her own disastrous reunion with Raiden Mei in Nagazora. But the captain was glad that she seemed to have overcome this irrational emotion.

"I'm glad to hear she is, Seele. Keep being a friend to her, and I will too."

Bronya overheard their conversation but did not participate.

Suddenly, they received a message from Theresa Apocalypse, a silver-haired girl who resembled a younger version of Kiana who had once been the principal of St. Freya Academy before its destruction. A holographic projector was in the center of the table, out of which a holographic image of Theresa appeared. If not for the occasional blue flickering in the image, she could have been there, standing on the table in person as she would have been if she weren't preoccupied elsewhere.

"Hello, girls. Hello, captain," she said tiredly.

"Principal Theresa!" the girls responded happily.

"Good afternoon, Headmaster," he said. He insisted on addressing her by her former position even if she wasn't one anymore. "How is your mission status?"

"I'm glad to see that you're all doing well," Theresa said. "There's nothing to worry about my mission. I'm here with much more urgent news: ten days ago, Schicksal headquarters was attacked by an unknown force. The extent of the damage suggests that it was a surprise attack, since Schicksal wouldn't have been overcome so easily otherwise. The entire headquarters is threatening to fall out of the sky, the Air Terminal in ruins...and...Grandpa...Otto is missing in action…it's one of the worst disasters Schicksal has ever suffered."

That bastard Otto's gone? Good. I doubt he'll stay gone, though.

The captain had a one-sided grudge against the Overseer of Schicksal for awakening the Herrscher sleeping within Kiana, which had caused her and her friends so much suffering and triggered a worldwide catastrophe.

"Overseer Otto is missing and unaccounted for?" asked Bronya.

"Yes. Durandal has temporarily taken command and even deployed three S-rank valkyries, which is unprecedented. Something terrible must have happened ten days ago, but so far, we've been unable to determine what."

Everyone was silent, contemplating the developments.

"Why should we care about what happens to Schicksal, Principal Theresa? They're our enemies!" said Rozaliya.

"Because until we determine who was behind the attack, whoever did this can just as easily be our enemies, Rozaliya. I also received another, harder to verify piece of intel; World Serpent was ambushed shortly afterwards. The enemy even faced their Sire in a fight before managing to escape. Whoever they are, they aren't to be taken lightly, and I want all of you to be careful," Theresa said, the blue flashes of light in her hologram matching well with her battlesuit.

"World Serpent? Does that mean you have news about Mei?"

The door opened, and a silver-haired, blue-eyed girl had walked in, wearing an orange jacket on top of her battlesuit. She looked depressed, but also less so before.

Theresa smiled at her niece.

"Kiana...I'm so happy to see that you're doing well. Have you been sleeping well?"

"I guess. I haven't exactly been sleeping, more like meditating on the lessons that Class Monitor Fu Hua taught me back in Arc City."

"Yes. Kiana Idiotka has changed. I have been unable to determine the nature and extent of these changes, but I feel like she has changed for the better. Be assured, Principal, that I will take good care of the Idiotka," said Bronya. Even now, she couldn't resist poking fun at her old rival. Kiana glanced at her but didn't retort. She was far more concerned about her missing friend.

"That's good to hear. But Kiana, I'm sorry...the intel said nothing about Mei. But don't worry; she's a Herrscher now, and she can protect herself. And no matter what kind of man the Sire of World Serpent is, he wouldn't willingly allow someone as important as her to come to harm."

Kiana closed her eyes and sat down. Theresa only had a little more to say.

"I have one last thing to tell you. Otto may be missing, but he isn't gone. He always has a way of returning, and an Otto working from the shadows is far more terrifying than Otto the Overseer. Take care of each other, all of you, and I'll be back as soon as I can. The professors and I will give you our full support."

Theresa blinked out and vanished.

Everyone was silent for a while more.

"So...what should we do now?" asked Seele.

The captain wanted to investigate the mysterious attacker, but he let Kiana and Bronya speak first.

"We should be getting close to Mount Taixuan now, Seele," she said. "Based on our current location and cruising velocity, we should arrive tomorrow morning," said Bronya. She and Kiana had asked him to fly them there, and after hearing their reasoning, he had agreed.

"Fu Hua told me she lived there once and had a school she taught at. We should be able to find the Edge of Taixuan somewhere in there. It'll help us control our Herrscher powers," explained Kiana.

Bronya nodded in assent. Both of them had only recently begun to exert any measure of control over their Herrscher powers, and if there was anything that could help them do so, it was an avenue worth looking into. The captain agreed with their decision, and the Hyperion continued gliding through the air.

He thought about the name Kiana had mentioned, though. Fu Hua...it was strangely familiar, and he recalled that she had been a class monitor at St. Freya Academy. They had met briefly a few times during his stay there, but they effectively remained strangers. Maybe this could be an opportunity to change that.

...

The battle was not going well for Kiana and Bronya. It was, however, excellent for their enemy.

Whoever she was, she wasn't Fu Hua no matter how much she resembled her. The girl currently overpowering the two had pale white hair, malevolent red eyes, and a stylish outfit.

"I thought you two were my friends! Why won't you accept me for who I am!?" she demanded as her fist connected with Kiana's abdomen and sent her flying backwards for hundreds of meters.

Bronya fired a series of explosive drills at her, but to no effect. The enemy lunged at her in retaliation, which Bronya barely managed to dodge.

Gasping in exhaustion and desperation, she said to the captain over her mouthpiece "She's...she's too strong...I can't defeat her...Kiana is the only one who can do that, so I need to buy time for her…"

"Bronya, what are you doing!?" he demanded, terrified for her safety. "Don't do anything reckless!"

"Don't worry, captain...I was never going to be the one to end this. I have faith in Kiana, so please have faith in her too…"

He checked on Kiana, who was doing better than Bronya, although not by much.

"Kiana, are you alright? Do you have a way to defeat her?"

"Ah...ah…" she panted before responding. "The real Fu Hua spoke to me. I need to convince the Herrscher who's taken over her body that she isn't the real Fu Hua. I'm the only one who can do this - AH!"

She was cut off by the Herrscher punching her in the face and breaking her nose. Fortunately, it healed back in seconds.

"KIANA!" the captain yelled, his fear and terror rising. Why was he so useless? Why couldn't he ever do anything?

Suddenly, Bronya leapt into the air, Project Bunny 19-C transforming into a large motorcycle flanked by over a dozen blue laser cannons that fired an unblockable barrage at the Herrscher.

"Project Bunny - Ride On!" Bronya yelled.

The lasers flew toward the enemy as her motorcycle charged at the Herrscher at top speed in an attempt to run her over. But she laughed. Faster than Bronya could react, she rushed behind Bronya, threw her off her motorcycle, and with a single blow to her head followed by one to her chest strong enough to bring up blood from her mouth, knocked Bronya unconscious. She fell to the ground, unmoving.

"BRONYAAAAA!" the captain screamed, waves of fury erupting inside him, rendering him unable to think about anything except turning the one who had dared to hurt Bronya into nothingness...to become as empty as the void.

"Cap...captain? What are our orders? Should we join in and help them?" Seele asked, who was just as worried about Bronya. For a brief instant, her eyes had flashed blood red.

"We can't just stand here and watch! Please let us go help them, captain!" the twins pleaded.

He couldn't answer. He hadn't even heard them. Painful memories came to him unwanted, reminding of how utterly powerless he had felt when he could do nothing except watch Murata Himeko battle the Herrscher of the Void on top of the Hyperion. He had stood in the same place he was now, on the bridge, helpless to do anything to save either of them. He had stood there when Himeko had fallen into the depths of the Sea of Quanta, where she would never be found again.

The fury and fear coursing through him became one with him, suffusing every last part of his body. But they weren't the only things he felt anymore. He felt...power. Pure, unfettered power. Power that was his to use as he wished. He was no longer just an onlooker; he was more than just a bystander. He fixed his gaze on the Herrscher of Sentience. He focused all of his power and rage onto her. To the surprise of both himself and the girls who had just been on the bridge next to him, he was gone.

He had without thinking created a black portal with a golden rim, which he disappeared into only to reappear out of it again onto the battlefield seconds later. He blinked in confusion.

But as confused as he was, Kiana was far more so.

"C...captain…? Did you...did you just use...a void portal…?" she stammered, unable to understand what she had just seen.

He looked at her. "Kiana...I...I don't know…"

He remembered who he was here for. He looked to Bronya, still lying motionless on the ground, and teleported next to her using another portal. He gently picked her up and held her protectively in his arms.

"Who the hell are you? I thought I was only fighting one and a half Herrschers, not...two!" demanded the white-haired enemy.

"Why don't you shut up and die? It's what you deserve after what you did to Bronya," he growled.

"And you're rude, too! At least Kiana and Bronya could pretend to be nice to me at first!"

He created another portal in front of him and gently pushed Bronya into it, sending her back to safety onboard the Hyperion. Then he turned his gaze to Hua.

"You're a Herrscher, and that means you need to be exterminated. And that's exactly what I'm about to do."

"Hah! You? And besides, aren't you...uh...half a Herrscher yourself? You'd need to be half-exterminated. Hmm...how would I do that…"

As she continued pondering this question, the captain, again without thinking, created a razor-sharp lance out of thin air. He didn't do so deliberately. He hadn't been thinking about lances or any sort of weapon. But his desire to inflict harm to his enemy willed itself into a physical form. He grabbed the lance and threw it at her like a javelin.

"Captain, no-!" Kiana managed to yell before the Herrscher of Sentience casually caught the lance in her hand. She examined it briefly before shattering it into pieces.

"HEY! Not only are you rude, but you're also a pervert! Don't you know that it's bad to try to penetrate a woman without her consent!?" she screamed, furious at him. She picked up one of the broken parts before tossing it aside. "It's a nice copy of Kiana's subspace lance, but copies are never as good as the original. You only need to look at Fu Hua for proof of that," she laughed before charging him faster than he could react.

As she neared him, she raised her leg and kneed him in the groin with crushing speed and force. All of the air rushed out of his lungs. He was unable to even cry out in pain. He fell to the ground, gasping without breath.

She leaned down and put her face to his, her mad red eyes piercing into his. She was smiling.

"A perfect punishment for a pervert's...alliteration truly is an agony for you, isn't it? You know, even though your scent is just right, you really shouldn't pretend to be something you're not," she laughed.

Dark shapes crawled around the edge of his vision, and he felt pain spreading from between his legs throughout his entire body. The last thing he saw was Kiana screaming. Then a dark portal with a golden rim descending onto him. And then the world went black.

...

Pain. So much pain. Nothing but pain.

He groaned because of the pain. There was nothing else he could focus on. But then he felt something more. He felt gentleness and warmth holding onto both of his hands. With titanic effort, he managed to open his eyes.

Even through his blurred vision, he could see four girls sitting next to his hospital bed, two on each side, gently yet firmly holding onto each of his hands, unwilling to let go.

He tried to sit up straight but failed, groaning again from the strenuous effort.

"Captain! You're awake!" the twins exclaimed.

"Don't push yourself too hard...you're still hurt," said Seele, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Ughh...hey, girls...it looks like I'm awake...heh, I'd hoped to sleep for a bit more…"

"Don't you DARE do something so...so awesome and stupid again, Captain Idiotka!" Rozaliya yelled, squeezing his hand even more tightly. Liliya didn't say anything, but she seemed to agree with her sister.

"Heh - " he tried to laugh before his chest erupted in pain, forcing him to cough several times. The girls were even more worried than before. "I'm sorry, Rozaliya...to all of you...I'm sorry that I never told any of you about...about my powers...but...I'll never be sorry that I used them to help Bronya…"

The girl in question didn't speak. She was facing away from him.

"Bronya…" he said, trying to bridge the gap between them, "I'm glad that you're alright...you're in a lot better shape than I am, it looks like…"

"Yes, captain. The Herrscher of Sentience used much less of her power in her attack against me than she did to you. And because your physical durability is far less than mine and Kiana's, you took that much more damage from it," she said at last.

He suddenly remembered why he was lying injured in the hospital bed of the Hyperion's medical compartment in the first place.

"Kiana...the Herrscher...are they…?"

"There's no reason to worry, captain. Kiana managed to defeat her after she teleported you back onboard the Hyperion," Seele answered. "It wasn't easy, but the Herrscher is gone and her friend and mentor Fu Hua is back."

He shut his eyes again, relieved at the good news. So he hadn't made himself suffer this much for nothing.

"That's good. When can I see them?"

The girls didn't answer at first. Bronya was the one who took the initiative.

"Captain...first, you owe us some answers."

"A lot of answers," the twins added.

"There's no point hiding it. We all saw what you did. What we don't know is how you were able to gain Kiana's void powers. Did she somehow gift you a portion of her power? Did she do so when you two were living together in Soukai City? And if so, why did neither of you ever tell us?" Bronya asked calmly, but there was an unmistakable edge to her voice. Perhaps she already had an inkling of what had happened between Kiana and their captain.

He sighed. He'd known that he'd never be able to keep what he and Kiana had done a secret between them forever. There was no better time to come clean than now.

"Girls…"

As he explained without going into the exact details, the girls each had a different expression on their faces. Rozaliya blushed while Liliya listened intently. Seele looked a bit uncomfortable, but otherwise she didn't seem too upset, especially since it had happened before she met the captain and started a relationship with him. But Bronya, perhaps unsurprisingly, reacted to the news the worst. Anger spread over her normally expressionless face. Anger that an idiotka like Kiana could get with her captain, Bronya's captain, and anger that neither of them had trusted her enough to tell them until he was forced to do so now.

But at the same time, she forgave them. She forgave them because Kiana was in such a desperate situation at the time, and only the captain could rescue her from it. Bronya had been similarly desperate the first time she had been with the captain. She would forgive them just this once.

As the captain tried his best to explain his encounter with the Herrscher of the Void in his dreams that had led to the powers he exhibited earlier that day, Bronya and Seele looked at each other before speaking.

"So...captain...this is what the other me smelled on you, why she was so interested in you…?" Seele asked hesitantly.

"I smelled it, too. But I didn't know what it was. We were going to ask you, but things got in the way," Bronya said.

"Huh? What are you two talking about? We don't smell anything!" the Olenyevas said, sniffing the air as hard as they could before they finally caught the scent of Honkai emanating from the captain's body.

"Wowwww, captain! You smell so great! How come you never did before? We're so jealous that Bronya and Seele got to smell something so irresistible first!" they said.

"Heh," he laughed, having recovered enough to do so without hurting himself. "I still don't know exactly what she did to me or why she did it, but there you have it...your captain was marked by the Herrscher of the Void, and apparently, I have some of her powers now...I'm sorry that I didn't tell you this before. I just didn't know how..."

"But why can only some of us smell the Honkai on you? Maybe...I think only those with Honkai energy can smell it, and the more energy, the better it can...Seele, the other you is a creation of pure Honkai, so that must be why she was so strongly attracted to him first," Bronya theorized.

"Yes, Bronya. I asked her once, and she said that she could sense Honkai better than I could because she is Honkai," Seele replied.

"But what about us? Aren't we half-Honkai?" the twins asked.

"Well…maybe you two only borrowed the energy. Herrschers instead are Honkai energy. But this is a question for another time," said Bronya. "Captain, we're glad that you explained all of this to us. But that was only the start. You still have so many steps in front of you...and like you asked, Fu Hua will see you now."

"What about Kiana?" he asked.

"She is...she is busy. She doesn't know how to face you. She must be the most confused out of all of us. She will see you again, but first, you should meet my class monitor and friend, Fu Hua."

The door to the medical bay opened, and a woman in an elegant white and indigo-coloured qipao and a green sash wrapped around her chest walked in, reflecting her origins in Shenzhou. Her long, grey-blue hair was tied up in a ponytail and flowing freely behind her.

The girls greeted her.

"Captain, we aren't done talking about this. But Fu Hua wanted to speak with you," said Bronya.

The other girls squeezed his hands one last time before standing up. Seele and the twins left first, but Bronya stayed behind.

"Bronya? You're staying?"

"No. But before I go…"

She leaned forward and kissed him as gently as she could, not caring that Fu Hua was able to see them.

When she withdrew, she smiled, her soft grey eyes expressing more emotion than words.

"Thank you for saving me, captain. Thank you for risking so much danger to yourself for me, even if you shouldn't have…rest now, and we'll see you back on the bridge whenever you're ready." She stood up to leave, but before she could, he took her by her hand.

"Bronya, wait...before you go, let me say one thing," he said softly, gently pulling her down so he could whisper into her ear.

"Ya lyublyu vas, Bronya." This time, he pronounced it perfectly, and Bronya understood every bit of meaning he put into those three precious words.

When she stood back up, her eyes brimmed with tears of happiness, and her smile was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. She quickly turned around so he wouldn't see the tears streaming down her face and walked out of the room.

Fu Hua, who had been watching from the side, finally stepped forward. Her bright blue eyes analyzed him, and her face betrayed none of her thoughts.

"Good day, captain. I've waited a long time to meet you, although I'd hoped it wouldn't be like this. But now that we're here, we have so much to talk about." She sat down on a chair next to him.

"I've heard a lot about you too, Fu Hua...so, how should we start?"