Honkai Impact 3rd - The Next Reality

by ANewFace

It had been many years ever since the downfall of the second civilization. The Honkai have now begun attacking the Earth once again after many years. The Earth is not prepared for these attacks, yet they fight on, hoping history would not repeat itself. During this time, an amnesiac man would be forced to become the central part of this conflict. CHAPTER 4 Rewritten.

10. Chapter 10 - Different Types of Bonds

Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to Honkai Impact 3rd, Mihoyo, or any other fictional material referenced in this story.

The OCs are the only things that I own.

---

Honkai Impact 3rd : The Next Reality

Chapter 10 : Different Types of Bonds

Date : Monday, August 18th, 2553.

---

Tendou's Perspective

It had been nearly 2 weeks since the bout between Kyle and I. Not much has changed. Life continued on as normal, but one thing did technically change though. I, along with the other D-Ranks took a test to see if we qualified to become C-Ranks. The test was split into 3 parts, a multiple-choice, a written essay, and of course, combat. A majority of us actually failed to the surprise of the academy. Only I, alongside 2 others passed. Nailah, and the rest failed to qualify. To be fair, I barely managed to pass thanks to Lessica helping me out with the combat portion.

With me being a C-Rank, I'm technically allowed to register for C-Rank and D-Rank missions on my own without the supervision of Reshia. Though since the maid is always with me, I'm allowed to join higher missions, but I'm not ready for that yet. Sadly, that means Reshia is stuck with me through the low stuff. Speaking of someone following me though….

"Ino, Claudia, I like you both, but you don't have to follow me everywhere just because you want to talk to both Lessica and I." I told the sisters.

"Aw come on! You can't just push us away for a stupid reason." Ino puffed her cheeks.

Ever since the public battle with Kyle, the twins have become more infatuated with me, and not just the twins. Minus Tobias, all of the 5 Kaslanas children have become infatuated with me. The Kaslanas aren't the only one either. Desmond, and all of his siblings in the Schariac family have been hit by the infatuation wave as well. Hell, I think even their parents have become infatuated. Thing is, I don't even know most of them that well!

"Both of you are some of the strongest Schicksal has to offer, and you're really joining something way below your league, just to be with me for your selfish reason. I think that's going a little overboard, especially since not only is Reshia here by obligation, but Desmond is here too! That's four S Ranks!" I complained.

"For a simple C-Rank mission, that's overkill!"

"Well Tendou, you see-." Ino began

Before she could say more, Claudia quickly covered Ino's mouth. Raising a finger to her mouth, Claudia would notify Ino to shut up. Shut up about what is what I'm confused at.

"Uh….is there something I'm missing?" I asked the sisters.

Claudia released her hand from Ino's mouth, the younger sister blushing at the fact that she nearly said something.

"Sorry, uh, don't worry about it Tendou." Ino tried to laugh off.

"Yeah, right. I'll forget about it."

"Moving on from that conversation, I want to talk to Lessica!" Ino demanded.

"I haven't gotten the chance to talk to her ever since that day you introduced her to me. I want to ask her about the things that happened that day."

"Oh man, I knew she was going to ask us about this." Lessica groaned.

"I caused us so much attention during that day. Everyone has been all up in our business ever since that day, either it being about us positively, or negatively, usually the latter. The worse part is that I can't even fault you for this. It was my decision to not just fight Kyle and his brats, but also use our powers too. I fucked up!"

"And fuck up you did." I retorted back to her.

"Well, you backed me, along with yourself into this corner. We're kind of forced to answer her question now."

Looking down at Ino, I prepared myself for any question that she was going to launch at me.

"So, what questions do you have?" I asked the younger Kaslana present in the room.

"Hmmm…..I want to ask Lessica about her powers. I saw her shoot lightning and throw razor wind disks. I know she said that she's keeping it a secret how she has those powers, but can she at least answer how she can use them?" Ino looked at me with sparkles in her eyes.

"Well, you heard her Lessica." I told the girl residing in me.

"I know she's asking me that, but you can answer that too, can't you? Sure, you've never used our powers in those ways before, but you still have grasp on the concept of how you can use them." Lessica talked back.

"I'm sure you can explain to her how I used our powers."

"Ugh, fine, I'll explain to her using my own words." I groaned.

"Alright Ino, so it might sound a bit bizarre and confusing, but bear with me." I told Ino.

"So what Lessica does is she thinks about what attack she wants to do, then concentrates all of her energy to where she was the attack to be released from."

"Ah..Seems pretty simple actually." Ino commented.

"Also, when Lessica means energy, she's talking about Honkai energy, right?"

"I assume so." I guessed.

"Hmmm…..Next question then. Why did Lessica use her powers against Kyle? I know him and his friends would have overwhelmed her by sheer numbers alone, but was she aware of the danger that she put everyone in?"

…..

"Yes, definitely." Lessica replied nonchalantly.

"I can't outright tell her that!" I yelled at Lessica.

"But it's true. You're even getting the truth from the source itself."

"That's not the point! I can't flat out tell Ino that you knew that you were definitely putting others in danger, the implications will ruin our reputation more than it already has!"

"Gah, reword it then to make it seem like I did care."

…

"According to Lessica, she knew that she was going to harm the crowd, but that's why she limited herself a lot." I lied to Ino.

"Awww, how sweet of her!" Ino smiled at me.

Hearing Ino say that statement, I could hear Lessica letting out a sigh. I wanted to chuckle so badly, but nothing left my mouth, so I ended up staying silent.

"Alright, last question. How long can Lessica take over your body? We all saw and knew that she took over when a reverb of her voice came shortly after your normal voice. Now I want to know how long she can stay in control." Ino interrogated me.

"That's simple to answer actually. The amount of time I have to control you is inconsistent as of now. Seems to depend on how much energy I deplete." Lessica replied back.

"According to Lessica, the amount of time she is given varies. There's multiple factors at play when deciding how long she's in control." I explained to Ino.

"Ahh, I see. I guess this whole thing going on between you and Lessica is more complicated than I thought. Well, thanks for answering all of my silly and selfish questions!" Ino clapped her hands together and gave me a gorgeous smile.

"Yeah, no problem." I replied back with another smile.

"Moving on, when was it estimated that we would arrive to the mission site?" I asked Ino.

"Oh, about like, 3 hours minimum. We are traveling from like, the middle of Asia to Northern Canada." Ino told me.

"Speaking of Northern Canada, did you bring any proper wear? It's very cold up there you know?"

"…..I mean, I'm wearing two shirts." I pulled the black undershirt that was mostly covered by the white and red cross shirt.

"Tendou, you idiot, that is not going to keep you warm. Northern Canada is a harsh, frigid environment." Ino chuckled.

"Wearing an extra shirt will definitely not be enough to keep yourself warm. Not even your battlesuit will keep you warm. Please ask someone if they have a spare coat."

"I'll try. I do have to meet with Desmond soon. He promised he would spare with me and maybe give me a short lesson since he fights unarmed like me." I told Ino.

Upon mention of his name, Ino's expression changed from a happy one to a more blank one.

"I guess that is true. It also makes sense to ask him for a spare coat. He is around your size after all." Ino let out.

"Well, I'll leave that to you then. See you around Tendou." Ino bid farewell as she left.

Ino left, though Claudia remained with me for a little bit for some reason. Curious, I asked the mute her reasoning for staying with me. The mute pulled out her notepad and wrote to me.

"I originally wanted to talk to you alone, but seeing as you have your own plans as well, I guess I can leave our private talk for another time." The notepad answered.

"Ah, I see. Sorry about that Claudia." I apologized.

"I'll try to find time for just the two of us to talk."

With that, the mute blushed slightly before leaving the area. I stayed at the area where all 3 of us were at before leaving myself. Even though our talk was short, and mostly not important for me, I'm still curious as to why Claudia prevented Ino from saying anything about the mission. Granted, I know nothing since Reshia signed me up for this C-Rank mission without my consent, but keeping intel about a simple mission seems strange. The vibe I'm getting from this is similar to the mission where I first encountered Laevateinna and Uryusume. Lessica was withholding some information from me about Laevateinna, similar to how Ino and Claudia were doing the same earlier. Only difference was that Lessica at least told me a few things. Ino and Claudia haven't budged anything out at all!

"Lessica, you are just as confused about that, aren't you?" I ask her.

"Confused about what? You haven't told me what you were confused about yet." Lessica pointed out.

"Oh, my mistake. When Claudia had to shut her sister's mouth from spoiling the mission for me, you're confused about that too, right?"

"Oooohhh….yeah, definitely. Speaking of that, Reshia hasn't told us anything either. Normally, she would tell you stuff about the mission to inform you to keep yourself safe, but here, she hasn't said anything. Gives me a feeling that someone ordered her to take you, and seeing how the only other person she obeys is Otto, I have a bad feeling that all of this is his doing."

"Possibly, but what do I have to do with this? I get the man has an obsession with me for some reason, but what would the contents of this mission have relating to me?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out…"

…

…

---

"Glad you could make it to our sparring session." Desmond greeted me as I arrived at the training quarters within the airship.

"You promise you would teach me how to fight better. With how I've been getting my ass served, I'd say I need these lessons." I reminded Desmond.

"Don't worry, I'll teach you how to fight better hand-to-hand, but before I do that, I'll need to test your skills first." Desmond stated back.

"I want to witness, and fight against your style of combat first. That way I can at least see what needs improving upon."

Desmond raised his hands up and hovered them around his waist level. His right arm's level was slightly above the left arm's level, and his hands remained open as Desmond would not clutch them together to becoming fists. Desmond's fighting style is even weirder when taking into the fact that Desmond was not still as his entire self would lightly bounce up and down.

"Come at me with everything you got!" Desmond yelled.

I ran up to Desmond and unleashed a right hook at him to which he responded by simply dodging to his left. I followed up with a left hook this time, which Desmond dodged easily again. Following up on my previous attack, I let out a punch that went up diagonally to the left. Again, Desmond dodged the attack, but I quickly swung my fist back after the diagonal punch to give him a backhand swing. He didn't have enough time to dodge, but he was quick enough to raise his right leg up to block the attack. Kicking away my arm away by kicking upwards, Desmond immediately dropped an axe kick down. I moved to his right, causing his axe kick to miss, but it seemed like that was his expected outcome as Desmond would quickly shift out of the axe kick and kicked the back of my knees instead. I fell down to the ground with my face looking up at the roof above us. Desmond, using his left leg, went for another axe kick aimed at my face. I jerked my head away from the kick, just barely enough for it to miss. Rolling away from his leg, I immediately sent a kick at Desmond while still low on the ground, but the kick missed, mainly because my kick was way off in the first place. Desmond took this opportunity to grab my leg, and slam me on the floor behind him. I hit the ground face first, my nose absorbing most of the impact.

"Well, I think that was a good test run." Desmond stated.

"That was the test run?! I thought you decided to actually get serious partway through!" I sputtered out, shocked.

"Nope, anyway, I think I can figure out what needs improving." Desmond answered.

"Let me start off with something I noticed about your fighting Tendou. All of your punches consisted of these big hook punches. I can feel the power behind them, but the problem is that constantly throwing out hook punches like those are very deadly for yourself. You leave yourself wide open as you pull your punches back before releasing them." He explained.

"Plus, you hold your punches back a bit too long before unleashing them, giving your opponent an even bigger opening to attack. I'll admit, most people here are dumb enough to actually get hit by those dumb hooks, but I wouldn't say the risk is worth it. If you're still going to go for those hook punches, don't hold them back as long as you do. Another thing I want to bring up is your leg work. Your legs are always straight. This is not always a bad thing if you are going for a more agile fighting style where you constantly move around, but you don't move that much from the ground. If you're going to stay grounded during combat, I would recommend that you fight with your knees slightly bent to keep yourself super grounded."

"Hmmm. Those sound like professional tips." Lessica said.

"I'll admit, even I'm surprised at this. Maybe I could also learn a thing or two."

"So even you didn't know these tips?" I asked Lessica.

"Obviously not. There's a good chance that I have fought for a longer period of time than Desmond, but the difference between him and I is that he had a formal education. I'm a self-taught fighter, and that can only get you so far."

"There's a lot more that needs improvement, as obvious for a rookie, but I think giving you parts of what needs improvement bit by bit is better than shoving everything down your throat at once." Desmond admitted.

"Right, that makes sense." I agreed.

"By the way, do you have a spare coat? I didn't bring one for the mission, and I heard it's going to be freezing there."

"You didn't bring a coat? Well, tough luck for you Tendou, but I only brought one for myself." Desmond sighed.

"Most, if not, all people will only bring one coat for themselves because that's the logical choice. No one really thinks about other people until we actually get to the battlefield."

"I see. Well, I'm going to be freezing to death at the mission site then."

"Why didn't you bring your own coat? You knew we were going to Northern Canada, right?"

"Not until Ino told me."

"How?! The mission signup always tells you where we're going!"

"I don't signup for my missions. Reshia does that for me out of her own obligation, and she didn't tell me anything about today's mission."

Desmond let out a sigh and nodded his head a few times. Adjusting his glasses, he stared straight into my eyes.

"You know, I guess it's fair enough that she wouldn't tell you anything about what's going to happen, but at least she could have told you to bring a coat at least." Desmond muttered.

"Wait, why is it fair enough that she didn't say anything?" I asked.

"Uh, shit." Desmond cursed back.

"Nothing. Forget that I said anything."

"Ino, Claudia, Reshia, and now Desmond. Everyone has been withholding shit from us. The hell is going on?" Lessica ranted.

"This is definitely Otto trying to hide something behind us. Question now is what the hell does he plan to hide from us? I honestly don't see what he wants to hide, both of us don't have a history with anything in Northern Canada, at least I don't."

"So you truly don't know?" I asked Lessica.

"No. What? Did you think I actually did?"

"To be frank with you, I honestly thought you did, and you were trying to hide history from me again, like you usually do."

"What the-? No! I genuinely don't know anything! I'm just as clueless as you this time Tendou."

"Damn. Now I'm actually confused as to what he wants to hide. I thought it would have something to do with me, and it technically still does, but I thought it would have been related to my past." I admitted.

So the bastard Otto is hiding something from Lessica and I, and both of us are clueless. No one will tell us anything even though this is supposed to be a team effort. Can't help but feel like I'm being used as a pawn in some grand scheme.

---

After a few hours, we all arrived at our destination, and just like everyone said, it was fucking freezing. I suited up immediately before I even took one step out of the aircraft carrier. The stupid trench-coat that was apart of my battlesuit gave me some warmth though. Who would have thought the stupid trench-coat from Professor Sarah would actually have a use? Still feels like I'm becoming a popsicle though.

"Huge regret, gigantic regret, enormous regret!" I chattered my teeth.

Behind me, I could hear the laughter of everyone as they saw me freezing to death. The A-Ranks, B-Ranks, and I think even all the S-Ranks were laughing. Hell, I think even the crew members were cackling at my pain.

"Man, all of you are heartless." Doctor Enmu chided.

"Doctor Enmu? Why are you here? Did Otto ask you to come too?" I asked him while my teeth were clattering against each other.

"No, he didn't, but after hearing what might be happening here, I forced my way into the mission." Doctor Enmu answered back.

"Why would you do that? Aren't you just a doctor?"

"It's…..complicated. Anyways, come here, I have something to give you."

My hopes shot up immediately. I rushed back to Doctor Enmu, believing that he would have a spare coat for me to wear. I reached out my hand, ready to get a coat, but instead, I got a weird watch instead. At that moment, all of my hopes were shattered immediately.

"This…..this is just a watch." I whinged at Doctor Enmu.

"Yeah. What did you expect me to give you, a coat? You realize no one is really going to bring a second coat when they just need one right?" Doctor Enmu enforced the truth onto me.

"Don't remind me." I sighed.

"Moving on, that watch. There's a button on the side of it. Press it and it will instantly give me the location you last pressed it at."

"Ah, so it's a locater….why did you specifically give me this?"

"It's….complicated. I can't explain it to you now."

"Goddamnit!" Lessica shouted.

"First, it was Reshia, then it was followed by Ino and Claudia, then Desmond, and now even the Doctor. What the fuck is that bastard hiding from us?!"

"At this point, I feel justified to believe that I'm being used as a pawn." I told Lessica.

"Maybe you are."

Wearing the watch around my other wrist, I turned back around to step back onto the ground. Suddenly, a headache randomly occurred. It was those memory fragments shit again. This time, it was a bit weird. Only two fragments showed up, but unlike the previous ones which were clear as day, these two had a filter placed on them. It looked as if the frames were inside a glass casing, and something cracked it. It was very hard to make out what the fragments were, but from what I could see, the first was in a forest with a heavy blizzard, while the second was of a gigantic glacial wall.

"Tendou, you ok there?" Doctor Enmu reached out to me.

"Hmmm? Yeah, I'm fine." I lied.

"That was weird. These two had different experiences than the previous times." Lessica stated.

"Great, more things that we won't get answered. What a great day."

"Yeah." I replied back.

Looking at our surroundings, we were in a snowy area, just outside the entrance of a forest, one that looked eerily similar to the one from the fragment. That being said, there was no blizzard, it was just lightly snowing. However, the last memory fragments depicted were inaccurate for some parts of it, so maybe these ones could also be inaccurate.

"Tendou? You feel ok so far?" Reshia asked behind me.

"Not really. It's only going to get worse." I chattered while rubbing my arms.

"Please accept my apologies. I should have told you to bring something warm to wear."

I turned around to look at her, and everyone else behind me. Reshia was wearing her usual battlesuit, just with a comfy coat around it. However, Desmond, Claudia, and Ino were wearing different battlesuits. Their current battle suits didn't look as fancy as the ones that I've seen them in. Instead, they look more akin to my own, a generic armored suit. Their weapons, at least for Desmond and Claudia, were also different. Instead of wielding their Divine Keys, they had different weapons. Desmond had a unique looking sword strapped to his back and a pair of gauntlets on his hands while Claudia had a much more common looking lance rather than a cone-shaped one.

"Wait, what happened to your weapons and suits?" I asked all three of the noble members.

"Hmm? Oh, did you think we only had those godsbane suits? Silly Tendou, we have other suits that we use too." Ino chuckled.

"Granted, they aren't as powerful as our godsbane suits, but we can't constantly use them. They actually put quite a strain on us. As for Desmond and Claudia's Divine Key, it's the same deal. However, I feel like Desmond should have brought his. His value pretty drops to the negatives without it."

"Say that again, and this time to my face." Desmond growled at Ino.

"Alright, both of you calm down!" Doctor Enmu intervened.

"I get the family issues, but can we not bring them up in a mission like this?

Immediately, Desmond and Ino dropped their act, much to their dismay. Everyone else around them, barring a few let out sighs of disappointment, hoping to see the rival families battle. I was one of the few, mainly because I'm more worried about dealing with the temperature than caring about the potential fight.

"Now that everyone is out of the ship, let's begin explaining a few things. Tendou, Reshia, and Ino, I need you three to come here." Doctor Enmu ordered.

All three of us walked over to him, as he opened up a map. The map was a bit confusing since it was unmarked, looking like a picture that was just freshly printed out of a printer. Anyways, the map looked like an overhead view of the forest we were outside of.

"Alright, so right now, all of us are currently here." Doctor Enmu pointed towards the end of the east side of the map.

"The objective for you three is simple, we need you three to enter the forest and go to these exact locations."

He pulled out a red marker and slashed x's at three oddly specific locations. With the map being an overhead view, and pretty much being white all over thanks to the snow, I couldn't find anything unique about them.

"Go to these locations, and see if you can spot something at those locations. If you don't….."

Doctor Enmu was dead silent. Reshia and Ino weren't shocked at his silence at all, but I, on the other hand, was weirded out. Switching back and forth from all three of the people I was currently around, I tried asking them what the silence was for. None of them answered until Doctor Enmu spoke up again.

"Uh….you know what, return back here."

"Hold up, what was with the long pause?!" I asked Doctor Enmu.

"Sorry, it's just that this is the first time I've technically become a host for one of the missions. Pardon my rockiness." Doctor Enmu apologized.

"I'm mostly a doctor after all. Now go, we don't have much time, especially with Tendou over here who might catch frostbites if you all don't hurry."

"Right!" All three of us yelled though I let out some chatter as well.

All three of us ran from the current base and into the forest. We headed towards the closest of the three locations that we needed to head towards. I still don't know what the hell was going on. Everyone seems so normal despite the mystery behind the mission. Why are we going to these three exact locations? Maybe it's because I didn't see it, but the locations didn't have anything special. Maybe I should just roll along with everyone and go into this fully blind, but that would be fully stupid! I've already had first-hand experience in multiple missions, and I've learned that you do not want to go into these things blindly.

"I know this is a dumb question, but if I encounter anything dangerous at these three locations, you have my back, right Lessica?" I asked the entity living within me.

"Well, if the danger is life-threatening, sure." Lessica replied.

"Otherwise, you're on your own."

"Wow, thank's for the reassurance."

---

Desmond's Perspective

All of the Valkyries who came along on the mission were split into different groups, well, most of us at least. I was paired with Claudia of all people, and just her. I'll be honest, I was fortunate to get paired with her out of the two Kaslana sisters. Claudia was sadly unable to speak, which is a plus and a minus. It means that I don't have to argue with her constantly while on the mission, but it does make communication during the mission a bit harder, not that it already is harder with her just being by my side.

Outside of the missions, her muteness comes with the problem that she usually resorts to violence first every time any of us bickers with her. I can't deny that stepping in to protect your siblings is noble, but maybe Claudia can find a way to not resort to violence first.

Now Claudia and I didn't really have a specific target. Our mission was to enter the forest and eliminate any Honkai we encounter. It was the least specific, but it was probably the most important outside of the one Doctor Enmu gave to Tendou, Reshia, and Ino, though compared to them, this mission was nothing. Really, outside of their objective, every other objective was just used as a distraction for us and to make Tendou fall under the false belief of this being a normal mission. I'm still confused about why Tendou is specifically the main priority of this mission. I know why he's here and what his purpose essentially is, but I can't help but ask why our main target is after him of all things. I get that he has that special treatment with how unique he is, but if our target is after anything, shouldn't it be one of the House members? We seem more deadly than Tendou so far, and if our target really is out for blood, then logically, I or the other two Kaslana sisters should be the main target. Maybe I'm just missing a lot of contexts here. After all, I barely know much about anything revolving around Tendou.

The forest was filled with Honkai beast, though it was the generic ones that are normally found commonly in Honkai Contaminant Areas. There haven't been any sightings of the higher class monsters so our job is easier, but I can't help but feel like it'll be boring. I think I know how to spice it up a bit.

"Claudia, I have a challenge." I brought up with a smirk.

The eldest Kaslana looked over at me with a condescending stare. We were currently just hopping around the forest on its tree branches, quickly trying to find any Honkai Beast.

"How about we keep track of all the Honkai we slay, and at the end, we compare the numbers." I told her.

"No cheating on the score though, just like your dirty cheating father."

With that last remark, Claudia gave me a death stare before leaping faster from tree to tree. She really wanted to win, and that's why she was going faster. I can't let myself lose to the eldest Kaslana. As the eldest Schariac, I can't let my family name down and lose to a Kaslana!

I picked up my pace and began racing Claudia as we tried to look for Honkai to kill. We bounced off of multiple trees, racing for about five total minutes before we found a gigantic horde of around 46 mobs below us. I'm not saying that Claudia and I can't take on 46 mobs, hell, we probably could take 46 solo! It's just that seeing 46 in a pack is really uncommon, nearly etching towards rare. No matter, there's 46 Honkai in front of us, and I plan to take most of them down!

Claudia and I leapt away from our tree and aimed ourselves downwards before crashing down on the Honkai. Claudia's crash had more of an impact thanks to her using a lance while I relied purely on my fist. Due to this, the amount of Honkai that she caught with her own attack was more than my own. That being said, both of us didn't actually kill anything since our attacks made impact with the ground, and not directly at any of the Honkai. Our impact only sent the Honkai flying up a bit and stunning them…but that's all we'll need to start the slaughter-fest.

Drawing out my sword, I blazed through all of the Honkai in my sights, slashing them in half at where their cores would be located at. Likewise, Claudia stabbed and slashed her way through, aiming for the cores like I was. Both of us were killing so much of the Honkai at such intense speeds, that I honestly lost count of how much I actually killed, which kind of ruins the challenge I set up myself doesn't it? I could probably make up a number, but unless she failed to count like I did, Claudia will probably see through my bullshit. That girl can see through a lot of things despite only having an eye, though I guess you don't really need an eye to see something that isn't technically physical.

One of the chariots among the crowd unleashed a massive roar before we could get to it. Chariots using their roars as a method of attack is fairly common, but Claudia and I were nowhere near this chariot, so I'm assuming it was using its roar to alert the other Honkai within the area. It's a fact that's forgotten among most that while animalistic in terms of appearance and movement, the Honkai are fairly intelligent. They are capable of thinking like us, and the further up a Honkai is within a class, the more intelligent they are. Hell, there are some Honkai who are actually more intelligent than most of us are. It's honestly weird that this fact is usually forgotten despite how important it is. Even I have to admit that I forget this at times.

Moving on, the chariot's roar alarmed a gigantic crowd of Honkai towards us, many of them stomping towards our way. There were hordes of cavaliers, ballistas, radicals, chariots, and templars now surrounding us. We initially had 46 Honkai around us, and we depreciated the numbers, but with the call of the chariot, I think the numbers have skyrocketed up to around 80. Again, Claudia and I won't have much of a problem. We both blazed our way through earlier, and we can do it again. Our only problem would be the templars since they have their stupid shields that are pretty tough, but we do have the mobility advantage, so we could easily loop around, and if we can't, we can just brute force our way through.

"Claudia, what's your score?" I asked her.

Claudia lifted her hand up, signaling a two, then a four. So she had 24 under her belt. Damn, so we're even? Good to know that I didn't have to lie, otherwise she would have tried to add me to that count. Not saying that I would have been on that count, but Claudia would have definitely tried to add me to her count.

"Even then. Good. Don't get too cocky now. Now it's time that I get serious!"

Getting a head start on her, I eviscerated through the radicals present first as they were the easiest threat, which allows me to rack up my kill counter even more. Claudia was clearly pissed off when I decided to turn around and look at her reaction. She was gritting her teeth and her eyes were filled with ferocity. Instantly, she dashed forward, piercing a total of four cavaliers through her lance. She managed to knock four cavaliers off of their horses and stab them together to form a kebab. If that wasn't enough, she used one of the lances from the cavaliers to form another kebab, this time with eight cavaliers. After creating two live kebabs, she spun both lances around to skid the bodies off of the lances, sending cavaliers crashing into other Honkai. With the cavalier lance she picked up, Claudia spun it around before throwing it like a javelin towards a templar's head. That's another thing about Claudia, despite being the eldest Kaslana, she has no class whatsoever.

"Damn Claudia, really tarnishing the class of the Kaslana family." I jabbed at her.

Claudia continued ignoring me, aiming for the ballistas next. I can't let myself fall behind her, but she's taken the ballistas, which were the next easiest thing after cavaliers and radicals. I guess I'll take the chariots.

Twirling my sword around my body for…..no reason really, I taunted the chariots to jump at me. In hindsight, getting crushed by a chariot was probably terrible, but I wasn't going to get crushed. I taunted them so all of them will try to jump me at the same time so they could collide into each other and stagger each other for a short moment. I thought the chariots would actually fall for the taunt, and they sort of did? I mean, they jumped at me, but I thought they would jump at the same time, but nope. The chariots hopped at me one by one. I guess that's me forgetting that the Honkai are actually fucking smart.

I easily dodged all of the chariots jumping my way, but since they all hopped one by one pretty quickly, I wasn't given enough time to actually slash, stab, and do any damage to them. If they all lined up in a straight line after their jump, then I could have blitzed through all of them easily with one slash, but I just had to jump to multiple locations. I really need to stop being arrogant.

I tried the same tactic again, taunt the chariots, and get them to jump at the same spot. Of course, it failed, but now I can see if the follow up could work. I dodged all of the hops, but this time, I dodged in the same line. Thankfully, the chariots all leapt into a single file line, and once the last chariot landed, I dashed as fast as I could with my sword, cutting through the chariots and their core like a hot knife through butter.

"Alright, chariots down, just the templars left."

I ran over to the templars. Claudia had already finished with her group of ballistas, and now she was heading towards the templars as well. I don't know what her count was at this point, but I doubt it's much higher than mine. If she is, then I have to get to the templars first!

Running up a tree and stopping midway, I launched from the tree with my sword pointing forward. I essentially became a missile with a sword tip and no explosion. The force of my jump and sword tip allowed me to penetrate through the templar's shield, stab through its core and came out the other end. Somehow, I also managed to pass through the cores of three more templars as well. It wasn't until the fifth templar that I was stopped when my sword got jammed inside the fifth templar's core. I guess I launched myself harder than I expected, but it played out in my favor, so it's still a win.

Pulling out my sword, I ran towards the remainder of the templars, only to see them fall down simultaneously. Behind them, Claudia twirled her lance around before sheathing it away by connecting it to the magnet on her back. Counting the number of templars left within her wake, I'm afraid both of us ended on the same count, at least that's what I think.

"So…..how many do you have?" I asked Claudia.

Before she could answer, both of us received a loud signal from within our wrist communicators. We pulled them up close to our faces and noticed what the signal was about. The signal sent us a location, and that location was where we were needed.

"You know what, never mind Claudia. You can forget the competition. We need to go, now!"

Sheathing my weapon, I ran as quick as I could to the location sent to us. I just hope things don't go down the drain too quickly.

---

Ino's Perspective

Tendou, Reshia, and I all ran towards the first of the three locations that we were requested to go to by Doctor Enmu. Reshia and I were running far ahead of Tendou, who was slowly falling behind as the numbing weather would be a large hindrance for him. I didn't want to feel sorry for him since I want to help him deal with the chilly environment, but I really don't know how to help him. Saying sorry feels like I'm just giving up, or not bothering to help someone, and I really do want to help Tendou, but there's just nothing I can do. The size difference between us is already big enough for me to unable to lend him a coat, but then we also have to take in count body measurements too. That alone is already enough indication that I can't do anything since Tendou was not only very tall, but his body looks like the body of one of the main Saiyans from Dragon Ball Z….well, I think the main characters are called Saiyans. I haven't watched anything related to Dragon Ball, and I only remember it vividly from Tobias when he was younger.

"Reshia, don't you think we should slow down a bit?" I asked her.

"Hmm?" Reshia looked back to see the slowly widening gap between us and Tendou.

"Yeah, maybe we should."

Both of us slowed down our pace, which helped close the gap between us and Tendou, though the gap would increase again as Tendou slipped against some well-hidden ice.

"Tendou!" Reshia screamed as she ran back.

"Agh, don't worry, I'm fine." Tendou reassured Reshia as he grabbed his fedora off the snow.

Weird. Tendou managed to slip on some ice that Reshia and I managed to pass safely. It's not impossible to run on ice without slipping, but surely you would slide a bit, or at least feel the ice when you place your foot on it, and I didn't feel anything but the snow.

"Sorry for the holdup." He apologized as he swept off the snow off his battlesuit.

"No, it's fine." I told Tendou.

Reshia assisted Tendou back onto his feet, and together, all three of us continued running to our first location. If I have to be honest, I'm quite unsure of the mission objective, the actual one. The three locations we're trying to reach have nothing special in them. They're just wide open, plain areas. The locations have nothing important we need to receive, they're just a catalyst for the actual objective. Thing is, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable using Tendou for this. The Overseer requested him specifically to be the one who triggers everything, but knowing what we're actually trying to do, I don't like using Tendou to be our main priority. I get that he is special, but considering what happened last time, it seems like suicide. I want to tell him the truth, but the Overseer told us not to say anything to him. I don't want to follow the Overseer's words, but sadly, this is the best path all of us can stroll down at this point.

"Ino, you look distressed, is something wrong?" Tendou asked.

"Uh-…sort of." I replied back.

"It's just that….well, it just feels so wrong to withhold something from someone-."

"And by someone, you mean me." Tendou cut me off.

"…How did you-?"

"All of you avoided telling me anything about this mission as if telling me was like a forbidden ritual or something." Tendou explained.

"Honestly, all of you are shit at hiding stuff. The moment that Reshia didn't tell me anything was already a warning sign, but when Claudia had to shut you up, and Desmond had to refrain himself, it was pretty obvious that something is going on involving me. Can't lie that I feel like I'm a pawn being used here."

…..Tendou's not wrong on anything given how we've acted towards him, but I hate that he's right on everything.

"Both of you, heads up. We have a small swarm of radicals ahead of us." Reshia warned.

Looking forward, there was a swarm of 11 radicals ahead of us. It was a pretty small amount when compared to the usual, and it's weirder that the pack is comprised of all radicals. There were no chariots, cavaliers, or even any zombies. Just those flying radicals.

"Let me take care of them." I offered.

Twisting on silencers on my guns, I looked over at the swarm. They were clustered close to each other, so rapid-firing my pistols probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Also, since I had the silencers on my pistols, I wouldn't alert any unnecessary Honkai to our location.

"I can dispatch them quickly without alerting any other towards our location. With how far we have to go, I think it's best if I take care of the swarm here."

"Sounds like a wonderful idea." Reshia agreed.

"Alright, the swarm is yours."

Nodding my head, I double-checked to see if my weapons were currently in top condition. I don't want a single jam in the pistols to ruin everything. Once everything was good to go, I ran forward immediately and went haywire on my gun triggers. With proper aiming, and also my tendency to double-check things by shooting more bullets, I exterminated the Honkai pretty easily, and thankfully, I didn't alert anything else.

"Coast is clear. We can advance now." I told my two partners.

Looking over at my two partners, I saw Reshia trying her best to warm up Tendou, who looked like he was about to suffer from the Captain America treatment at this point. Both stood up and nodded before all three of us took off again. All of us traveled through the thick snow in the forest, which only piled up as snow continued to fall. Now I've faced many winters before, but the forest and the snow here seem way too unnatural. Granted, maybe Northern Canada is just like this.

"How much farther until we're there?" Tendou panted.

"We're almost there, don't worry." I told Tendou.

All of us ran a few more meters until we came to the first open area, and just like shown on the map, it was empty. Nothing but layers of snow in an open field surrounded by trees.

"Alright, we're here. Now what?" Tendou asked.

"…..Tendou, can you try to go to the center, or at least close to it?" I asked.

"Wait, why me-?"

"Just go please."

Hesitant at first, Tendou finally ran near the center. I didn't really want to force it on him, knowing what could happen, but this is the reason why we're here in the first place. Again, I don't want to do this to Tendou. He of all people is probably the person who deserves to be a test subject the least, but he's also the only viable one according to the Overseer. I'm torn if I should be honest to him, or allow duty to continue.

"Ino, I'm at the center. Now what?" Tendou yelled from a distance.

Despite being at the center, nothing happened. The area we were at was still empty with snow. Nothing special happened. I guess she isn't here then.

"You did your part. Come back here Tendou, we'll have to go to the next locations." I told him.

"Great, more running in the cold." He moaned.

"I'm sorry Tendou, but please bear it for a little longer."

Tendou ran back over to Reshia and I, and we began traveling to the next location. The snow was starting to pile down harder than usual, and it became more difficult to see as most of our vision became occupied with the plunging snow. Likewise, the wind became more fierce, which became a hindrance for all three of us as our pace had slowed down. We still managed to maintain the same path, but it will take us longer to get to the second location, and at least for Tendou, make the cold feeling worse. The only positive for this is that the Honkai will probably have a bit more trouble locating us, which means that with enough effort, we could probably avoid them.

"Hey, is everyone still with me?" I asked.

"I'm still here." Reshia responded.

Reshia responded instantly, but Tendou remained quiet. I looked behind me, calling his name again. Still no response. I called out to Tendou again, this time, yelling.

"I'm here!" I heard Tendou yell back.

I let out a sigh as I felt a massive weight being lifted off my heart. He's still with us, just far behind. I was afraid that he had trailed off on his own, which I wouldn't fault him for if he did. It's become hard to see where we are going. That being said, I am a bit angry that I had to yell his name though. It could have given us away from the Honkai, which we wanted to avoid in order to make our life easier. Within the far distance, Tendou's figure made itself present as he got closer to us.

"Can you both slow down?" Tendou begged.

"It's become harder to move through the snow, especially when you have nothing warm."

"Yeah, we know." I replied back.

"Here, wrap your arms around the both of us."

"Why would I do that?" He asked back.

"With your arms wrapped around us, we can at least carry you so you don't lag behind. Don't worry, it won't bother us."

"I mean, if you say so."

Tendou wrapped his arms around my shoulders and Reshia's. In hindsight, this was actually going to be a bit more bothersome than I thought. I forgot that there was a height difference between all three of us. Reshia was the shortest out of all of us, and I wasn't much taller than her. Tendou on the other hand had a bigger gap in height difference than both of us, which made it awkward for us to carry him, especially for Reshia. I guess it's also awkward for Tendou as well since he had to find a way to lower himself down to my level, and Reshia's. Basically, Tendou would have to keep his knees bent during the rest of the trip, or keep his legs straight and let us drag him. Honestly, we probably should have held hands instead. It would have been weird, but definitely not as awkward as this.

"Alright, let's go." I breathed out.

With us carrying Tendou, our trip was now much longer. Tendou wasn't necessarily heavy. I mean, considering his height and body, he would probably be heavy when compared to a normal human, but Reshia and I aren't normal humans. We're Valkyries that have been modified, so Tendou practically weighs like nothing to us, but his sheer size alone made it difficult.

"How much longer until we get there?" Reshia asked.

"We're close, just bear with it Reshia." I told her.

After more minutes of walking and carrying Tendou, we finally made it to the second open area. With how blurred our vision is due to the heavy snowfall, it was hard to determine where the center was, so we just carried Tendou around the area. Again, nothing happened.

"Not this place either." I let out.

That meant that the final place was hopefully the place where she was. Thankfully, our closest footsteps haven't disappeared yet, so that can help indicate where we should go.

"Just one more place to go. Please bear with us again Tendou." I said as Reshia and I dragged him once more.

With a little navigation, all three of us fell down the right path again. The snow on the ground had started to become very thick, and some ice had formed beneath the layers, but thankfully, the snowfall had calmed down a little. It was still hard to see, but at least we weren't nearly blind.

"Heads up you two, I think there are some Honkai ahead of us." Reshia warned.

Indeed there was. There was a bigger pack of Honkai ahead of us. They were hard to see thanks to how they blended in with the snow, but their pinkish-purple colors ratted them out easily. I pulled out my guns to prepare myself to deal with them again, but Reshia stopped me.

"Put your guns back." She said.

"Let me deal with them. It'll be hard to see them without getting up close. Besides, I'll be fine. Also, I can distract them for you and Tendou to get to the location."

"That sounds like a good idea. Alright then, they're yours Reshia." I patted her on the back.

Seeing how Reshia was an equal, she'll have an easy time dealing with them.

"Tendou, let's go before they catch all of us." I told him.

"Right." He replied.

Thankfully with Reshia gone, Tendou became easier to carry around. We walked past the crowd of Honkai that Reshia was fighting and headed towards the last open area. Weirdly enough, we did also encounter more Honkai on our way. They were far, so they wouldn't see us hardly, but they were also flocking towards something. Must be Reshia allowing one of them to call others so that we won't have any on us. Good going girl!

Finally, after Reshia's distraction, and more walking, we finally made it to the last open area. I let go of Tendou, whose body felt really cold, even though I had a coat on.

"Last area huh?" Tendou asked.

"Before I go, can I ask you something? Why am I being used like this? What purpose am I serving?"

I looked at Tendou with disheartened eyes. If anyone really deserved to know anything, Tendou was that person. He is the main priority of the mission, and everything is banking on him. I wished I could tell him, but I can't. Not only did the Overseer prevent us from saying anything, but given what his purpose is, it would throw away the entire mission. Tendou is a good guy by heart, but he has a lot of confidence issues. Saying what he's supposed to do would cause him to try to skip the mission. Skipping a mission comes with a penalty, and while not physically harming, is still not worth it.

"I'm sorry Tendou, but I can't tell you. It's against orders, and well, there are other reasons as well." I admitted to Tendou.

"Figures. You know, for all of the mission, I've had such a terrible gut feeling, and Lessica feels the same way. For once, she's been clueless, and the whole situation has made her really uncomfortable." Tendou told me.

"Well, tell Lessica that I'm sorry, but this is how it has to be."

Tendou stared at me before walking towards the center. He stood there, waiting for something to happen, and nothing. Nothing special happened. This mission has been a complete bust.

"Nothing happened again." Tendou yelled as he looked back.

He started making his way back. The only thing I could do was look down. I can't believe I used Tendou, just for nothing to happen. I feel so guilty right now. His life had been put in danger, and he doesn't know that. The guilt is weighing down on me too much. I just can't hold back the truth any longer! It should be fine now since the mission is a bust, right?

"Tendou!" I yelled.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't keep you in the shadows anymore! The whole reason why we've been keeping everything from you is-."

Suddenly, the wind picked up, and so did the snowstorm. It began snowing harder than ever, so much that all I could see was snow. The wind was also pushing against me, causing me to walk back a bit if I wanted to keep my balance straight. For some reason, the ground shook violently as something came up. After a few, crazy minutes, everything calmed down. The wind started to disappear, the snowing had stopped, and the ground had calm down. Opening my eyes, I was met with a gigantic ice wall, instead of Tendou.

"Ino, what the hell happened?!" I heard Reshia call from behind.

I turned around to meet the maid, who was out of breath after running, probably hearing the commotion that happened here. Her eyes widened as she saw the ice wall in front of us.

"What happened to Tendou?" She asked.

"He got stuck on the other side of the wall." I told her.

Reshia's face turned to panic as she released what this means, and soon, I figured out what happened too. The mission wasn't a bust. Our target was just waiting for the perfect time to catch Tendou alone.

---

3rd Person Perspective

"Agh, what the hell?!" Tendou yelled.

His eyes opened as the mini storm calmed down. An ice wall was now meters in front of him, and it blocked him from getting back to Ino. Tendou looked around at his new surroundings. The ice wall was only one of the new scenery changes to his area. Instead of snow, ice was what made up the ground. He was trapped within a full ice area. What was unusual about this place was that it wasn't freezing cold. This area was probably the warmest area that Tendou had been to within this entire forest. It was still cold, but he wasn't shivering.

"This place…..looks oddly familiar." Tendou noted.

"It does." Lessica agreed.

"It looks a lot like that ice area we saw in those fragments."

"It actually does, but who has the power to create such a thing, especially this quickly?"

Tendou was about to take a step forward, but a hand was placed on his back instead. A shiver went down his spine.

"Ah, so it looked like it worked." A voice called out from behind Tendou.

The voice that called out to Tendou was familiar. Even though he has only heard it once, the tone was enough for him to deduce who it was. The person's head peeked out from Tendou's left, giving him an innocent yet devious smile.

"Hey Tendou, it's been a few weeks since we last met." Uryusume greeted him with a cheery tone.

Upon seeing her face, Lessica immediately pulled Tendou to the side, taking control of his entire body. Lessica launched a hook at Uryusume face, using an air blast placed at her elbow to thrust the fist faster. Despite the boost, Uryusume still managed to dodge Lessica's punch, her deviously innocent expression changing immediately to shock and confusion. Lessica turned around to face Uryusume, ready to attack her again, but Uryusume lifted up her hands, crossing them to form an X.

"Lessica, calm down." She said.

"I haven't even told you what I came here to do yet. Calm down."

"Bullshit! It's obviously clear what you want to do." Lessica retorted back.

"You came here to lure us, and trap us alone so that you can try to retrieve me."

"Actually no, that's not what I came here to do." Uryusume admitted.

Her face changed back to an innocent expression, but the devious aura had somehow disappeared. Lessica was actually confused. What did Uryusume want then?

"I've been thinking back to our bout a few weeks back." Uryusume began.

"When we confronted, you were hesitant to leave Tendou, and I always wondered why? You never really told us, so that's why I started this. I had to find a way to lure him out on a mission, and I had to try to make sure that Otto would force him on this mission. So how did I do that? I just kind of hinted to Otto that I was here. I'm sure you know full well that Otto doesn't care about saving this world. He has his own priorities, which only he knows. Yeah, he would send some of his strongest Valkyries, but he's a man of interest, so obviously he would send Tendou here as well. I'm pretty sure he might have some recording drones somewhere spying on us right now."

"Um….okay?" Lessica responded.

"I can agree with you on your part with Otto, but why did you drag Tendou here again? You said you wanted to see why I won't leave him?"

"Oh yes, I do." Uryusume answered.

"Again, I don't know why you're so attached to him. However, I've been thinking about it for the past few weeks, and I thought that maybe you were attached to him because of his potential. So I'm not here to take you away, or actually fight YOU, but I'm here to fight Tendou himself. So would you please let me fight him?" Uryusume begged as she lifted up a hand and slightly bowed her head.

"And what's saying that you won't try to take me away?" Lessica asked.

"You only have my word on this, but you know me enough to know when I'm being honest or not."

"…."

"….okay, maybe I'm lying a bit, but depending on how Tendou performs, I'll reconsider, alright?"

Lessica stayed silent for a bit, standing in a battle position until she stood upright. Lessica closed her eyes and reopened them again. However, the eyes changed from purple to blue, signifying that Tendou was not the one in charge.

"Are you serious Lessica!" Tendou yelled at her.

"Calm down Tendou. I know this is insane, but Uryusume is actually telling the truth. If you can show her your best, she might let us out scott free." Lessica said.

"I'm going to get destroyed, and she's going to take you away!"

"Don't worry, I'll be here to guide you. Just follow most of my instructions."

Uryusume and Tendou stared each other down. Uryusume still had her innocent expression while Tendou had a very worried one.

"So, you ready?" Uryusume asked.

"I-I guess-?" Tendou replied.

"Actually, wait. Let me do something." Uryusume interrupted.

Uryusume began to glow white. The dress that she had on started to disappear, being replaced with a normal winter coat and jeans. A pair of ear muffs also appeared on Uryusume's head, warming her ears.

"Ah, there we go, now we're on a more similar playing ground." Uryusume stated.

"Wha-what did you just do?" Tendou asked, confused.

"Ah, I just deactivated my full Herrscher transformation." Uryusume explained.

"Us Herrschers have the ability to 'transform' in order to enhance all of our capabilities. Nothing really changes other than our hair. We do get an outfit though, which is optional. I decided to deactivate it since I might use my ice abilities here, and I don't want to go overkill, so this will allow me to restrict myself a bit."

Uryusume began moving her legs and arms around before stopping them to enter a battle stance, one that oozed elegance. While weird-looking due to its elegance, it also showed the difference between her and Tendou. Uryusume has had more combat experience than Tendou, which explains her more veteran and dignified style that would allow her to move her hands quickly in comparison to Tendou, who had a very improper stance that was poorly fit for battle as it would not give him any time to block major vital points.

"Strange battle stance." Uryusume commented.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't expect much from a rookie. You've only been awake for, how long now, a month max? You really didn't have enough time before being thrusted into the battlefield."

Uryusume wiggled her entire hand at Tendou, taunting him to make the first move. While he wasn't infuriated by the taunt, Tendou did decide to attack first recklessly, much to Lessica's dismay. Tendou's fist would only be blocked by Uryusume, who used both hands to block his fist, stopping all of his momentum. Moving one hand away from his fist, Uryusume used that hand to pull Tendou's arm towards her and pushed his fist away with her other hand. Tendou was pulled forward, and his ankle made contact with Uryusume's leg, which she extended outward to trip him. Tendou fell, but he managed to catch himself by falling on his palms first and kicked his legs at Uryusume's chest. Again, Uryusume blocked his kick with ease and forced his legs down to the floor.

"Damn it Tendou! Don't rush into a fight this recklessly, especially against Uryusume." Lessica scolded him.

"Yeah, you're right. My mistake." Tendou owned up to his reckless assault.

"So what do I do?"

"Try to see if you can do a complete circle kick while getting up. Aim at her knees to trip her."

Following orders, Tendou got up to his knees, extended a leg, and spun around. Tendou performed the move to how Lessica described it, and while it was true to how she described it, it was pretty sluggish. This gave Uryusume more than enough time to react. The Herrscher of Ice reacted by jumping up before Tendou's leg could hit her, and landed back down on Tendou himself, sitting on his back like a stool. Tendou was sent back to the floor.

"AGH! What the hell? Are you this heavy?!" Tendou insulted as he tried to push himself back up.

" -Yawn-…Nah, you just didn't expect me to sit on you, so you didn't prep yourself for when I sat on you." Uryusume retorted back, not having taken any offense from Tendou's insult.

Uryusume allowed Tendou to get up, but once he was nearly up, Uryusume shifted herself so that she was now sitting on his shoulders. Like Uryusume implied, she wasn't actually heavy, but her constant moving on top of Tendou's shoulders made it difficult for the rookie to stay still and keep balance. After teasing him a bit more, Uryusume grabbed hold of Tendou's neck with her legs, and with her body weight, threw the both of them to the ground in something similar to a wrestling maneuver. However, Tendou held tightly onto Uryusume's legs and brought her with him. Uryusume was not expecting this, so her maneuver actually failed, and instead, Tendou slammed Uryusume face-first into the ground. Tendou let go of Uryusume and backed off.

"You know what, I didn't expect that. Good job on that." Uryusume muffled through the snow.

The Ice Herrscher pushed herself up and brushed all of the snow off of herself. She had a small smirk on her face. Her right hand opened up and a little ice dagger formed on her palm. Grabbing it tightly, Uryusume dashed towards Tendou and released a series of strikes with the dagger. She sent forth a stab, a left horizontal slash, an up-left diagonal slash, a downward vertical slash, an up vertical slash to which she threw the dagger up in the air for a bit, spun around, and then grab the dagger in a reverse grip to stab back. Tendou dodged the first two attacks from Uryusume, but the up-left slash managed to get him. The down vertical would have hit Tendou down his face, had he not summoned an energy sword around his left hand to block, and let Uryusume's ice dagger slide down the energy blade. Tendou followed up with a downward slash to parry Uryusume's upward slash, but somehow, the Herrscher of Ice's slash parried the rookies instead. As for the final stab, Tendou simply dodged out of the way, but the dagger managed to scratch Tendou's cheek, giving him a tiny cut.

"So you can use your abilities. That's good." Uryusume commented.

"I thought Lessica would refuse to teach you how to use them though I guess not. However, you seem to have a good grip on how to use them. Show me more."

"If that's what you want, then sure." Tendou replied.

"Just make sure you don't come crying to anyone if I'm too much to handle."

"I doubt that I'll go cry to Laevateinna. I think you would be more likely to do that with how low your confidence is."

"Shut up."

Lifting his hand up, Tendou tried to see if he could do something. When Lessica had control over his body, she was able to summon these sharp wind disc. With how easy it seems to be to use his abilities, Tendou should be able to summon these disc with ease, and with ease did he summon a wind disc. Swinging his hand, Tendou sent a wind disc over at Uryusume. Uryusume was surprised to see that Tendou was able to use his abilities with ease, though that might have been expected. She simply dodged out of the way of the disc. The wind disc flew until it started to shrink, then disappear completely. Tendou lifted his hand again, creating another disc which he threw. Tendou would continue to spam the wind disc to throw at Uryusume.

"Tendou, be careful!" Lessica warned.

Uryusume continued dodging all of the wind discs, even with the fast speed at which they came at her, and the amount that Tendou threw at her.

"I'm sorry, but are you even trying?" Uryusume asked.

"I'm dodging all of them. You clearly aren't blind enough to ignore it. Are you even trying to hit me?"

Tendou threw a few more wind disc before stopping momentarily. He started breathing heavily as he exhausted himself a bit. Then, he lifted his hand again and threw one more wind disc, eyeing it for some reason. Like with the previous discs, Uryusume dodged it with ease.

"You may have an assortment of abilities, but you don't seem to have the stamina to keep using them in the long term. Considering your circumstance, it's understandable."

"Jeez, it's like you know me more than I do." Tendou breathed out.

"Well, in some retrospect, I do know more about some things about you than you know, provided that Lessica hasn't told you anything yet, has she?" Uryusume inquired Tendou.

"No, she hasn't. Lessica's been pretty secretive about most of the past. I have my curiosity, and I've tried multiple times, but she hasn't budged. I wonder why?"

"Considering what I know about both of your backgrounds, I sort of understand Lessica on this one, Tendou."

"I see. Man, people really like hiding things from me…..HYAH!"

Tendou started to throw a flurry of more discs at Uryusume. The Herrscher of Ice dodged them again, though she was confused why Tendou went back to the same tactic that had already been proved to not work. Tendou stopped throwing after a few discs, seeming to have learned his lesson.

"What was that for?" Uryusume asked

"You're only wasting more energy by throwing these disc. Can't you think of a better strategy?"

"Don't need to. After all, you seem to have fallen straight into it anyway." Tendou pointed out.

Upon hearing him, Uryusume realized what was going on. The razor wind discs Tendou threw during his second round were circling around Uryusume by Tendou's will. She now understood why he was eyeing a solo disc so closely. It wasn't a random disc he threw, it was a test for himself.

"Huh, you managed to catch me off guard. This was unexpected, but not inescapable." Uryusume said.

"Don't think I just have the disc." Tendou retorted.

Combining his hand together horizontally, Tendou created a fireball in front of the palms of his hands, aiming it at Uryusume. Uryusume could only smirk. Seems like Tendou was smarter than he seems. He still is pretty slow though.

The wind razor discs flew at Uryusume at the same time. The Ice Herrscher jumped up in the air just as the discs were about to touch her, causing the discs to collide and explode in a burst of wind. Tendou's arms followed Uryusume as she jumped up and fired off the fire blast. Uryusume created a freezing ice shield that reached 0 Kelvin in temperature. The fire blast crashed against the shield, causing a massive steam explosion. The fireball had disappeared while the ice shield remained. Once the fireball disappeared, Tendou fell down to one of his knees, releasing massive breaths. He's never used his abilities to this quantity before and he felt a massive strain on his body, especially near his chest where he had that scar.

"Tendou, what did I say?"

"I know what you said. Be careful." Tendou repeated her words.

"I didn't know overusing our abilities would bring along a constant strain on my body. Why couldn't you tell me instead of just saying be careful?"

"That's my fault. I didn't expect you to go overboard!"

"Lessica, we are fighting Uryusume. You think I would go easy?!"

Uryusume fell back to the ground on her feet. She was completely unscathed and still retained most of her energy as she had been conserving it. Really, there was no need for her to use it seriously when her foe was someone like Tendou. The Ice Herrscher walked over to Tendou, who stood back up, though struggled to stand. The rookie Valkyrie stumbled over to Uryusume with his tired and strained body, unleashing a weak right hook. His hook missed since his body made a misstep and pushed him forward, causing his hook to wrap around Uryusume's neck. Tendou himself crashed against Uryusume, who didn't budge. His exhausted body fell, but it was caught by Uryusume, who wrapped her hands around his body in a hug.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tendou asked the Herrscher.

"Catching you, obviously." Uryusume replied.

"It's the least I can since you pass the test."

Uryusume lowered Tendou down for him to sit on the snowed floor. His body was too tired to even let his upper body stay up, so Uryusume had to create an ice wall for him to lean against. Once she settled the rookie down, she sat across from him.

"You've developed a bit faster than I thought you would. I guess that shouldn't have come as a surprise though. Lessica really did see potential in you." Uryusume breathed off.

"Why's that?" Tendou let out a frosted breath.

"Considering that Lessica has been keeping everything a secret from you, I thought she wouldn't let you access this stuff. For only being awake for a month max, you learned a good amount of your abilities, though I guess that's not much of an accomplishment when compared to people like me."

"What even are you anyway?"

"Hmm? Well, to put it bluntly, I'm the Herrscher of Ice. Surely the academy has taught you about people like me."

"No actually, they haven't, but I've heard of what a Herrscher is. I've read it in a destroyed book, and heard it tossed around when someone mentions the Herrscher of Devastation."

"Ah, the Herrscher of Devastation." Uryusume let out.

"It's still a stupid name. I get that naming can be hard, but seriously? Devastation was the best they had? It's cringe. Besides, it doesn't even specify what that Herrscher's power is."

"You sound like you know much about this Herrscher of Devastation." Tendou said.

"Well…not exactly. Other than its stupid name, the only other thing I know is that the Herrscher of Devastation, at their current level, is actually pretty weak. They used to be strong, but over time, they've become weakened. It's probably due to the constant strain of using their ability, but seeing how they were able to keep it up for about 20 or more years, I highly doubt it. Now, they can't even use their powers for more than a few minutes, and the oomph of their abilities just isn't there." Uryusume explained.

"However, considering their core, the Herrscher of Devastation also has the most potential of all of the Herrschers, at least the ones currently awake." Uryusume looked at Tendou in the eyes.

"Depending on how things turn out, they might go back to their full glory, or even stronger! Again, though, it depends on how things turn out. Right now, Schicksal seems to have them locked down tightly, and they aren't revealing it to the public. Might cause havoc if they revealed that they just have a Herrscher."

"Wait, why reveal this to me?" Tendou asked.

"Well, even if you go around the campus, I doubt people would listen to someone like you." Uryusume jabbed at Tendou.

"Ow. Thanks a lot." Tendou grunted.

"So what's this Herrscher doing right now?"

Uryusume looked at Tendou for a bit before looking away, thinking about the answer. Once she came up with one, she looked back and stared into Tendou's cobalt spheres.

"As of now, they are currently asleep, sort of. However, they are dormant right now, and once a decisive moment happens, they might reawaken. Don't take my words for granted though."

"I see. Well, this has been an interesting talk. I didn't expect to talk to you of all people like this."

"Well, don't take this moment for granted. We might not have a moment like this ever again." Uryusume acknowledged.

Uryusume opened her mouth again, but before she could say anything, a gunshot rang from far away. The bullet pierced through Uryusume's shoulder. The Herrscher grabbed her shoulder and looked back. Behind her, Ino had a gun pointed at the Herrscher. Behind her was Reshia. Both Valkyries managed to get their way in here by climbing the entire ice wall.

"Tendou, the watch!" Ino yelled.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I forgot that I had this." Tendou commented as he pressed the button on the watch.

"Doctor Enmu told me to use this whenever this happened."

"Doctor….Enmu?" Uryusume stared down at Tendou.

Suddenly, Uryusume's eyes widened up, and instantly, she transformed back to her full Herrscher of Ice form. She leapt far away just as a rain of lasers struck down at the ground near Tendou. Tendou raised his hands to block himself from the wind force of the lasers.

"I should have expected that you were here." Uryusume grinned.

"It's been a long time…..Herrscher of Reason."

"Please, just call me Enmu." Doctor Enmu's voice called back as he landed on the area where his lasers struck.

Behind him were a plethora of floating laser cannons. His outfit hadn't changed from the comfy winter outfit that he wore when they arrived, but his eyes had a noticeable difference.

"Herrscher…of Reason?" Tendou whispered to himself.

"So he's a Herrscher as well." Lessica commented.

"The Doctor did always have something off with him, especially with how people treated him."

"Sorry Uryusume, but you won't be leaving here freely." Doctor Enmu stated.

"Oh? And you plan to kill me alone?" Uryusume asked.

"You do remember the Herrscher rule right? The higher a Herrscher is in the list, the more powerful they are. The awakening order doesn't matter, only what number they are in the list. You are the very first Herrscher, and I am the fifth. As it stands, I overpower you by a large margin."

"I do remember, and yes, you're right. As it is right now, I don't have much of a chance to win, but who said I was fighting alone?" Doctor Enmu retorted.

That statement was the call. From above the sky, all of the Valkyries that joined this mission fell down and surrounded Uryusume. That wasn't all. Another airship flew by, and from that airship, dropped even more Valkyries, all of which included people like Kyle and his friends. They and the rest surrounded Uryusume. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Uryusume was not phased, still keeping her composure.

"Huh, I didn't expect you to come here to save me." Tendou annoyed Kyle.

"Shut up will ya? I didn't come here to protect you." Kyle snickered.

"I will admit though, I am slightly pissed they used you as a lab rat. Who else am I supposed to toss around in a living hell if you die on me?"

Tendou couldn't help but smirk a bit. He stood himself up as he looked at the people in the area. Ino, Reshia, Doctor Enmu, the rest of the Kaslana family, the Schariac family, and some other S-Ranks like Kyle. He was really being pampered. He didn't know if he should feel glad or not.

"Wow, you really pulled all the stops here. Sadly, this isn't enough." Uryusume gibed.

"I've become stronger than last time Enmu. Not you and this crowd can stand up to me."

"And that's why the Overseer sent us." A voice called from the sky

Everyone looked in the sky as three Godsbane suited Valkyries came down from the sky. They flew down and crashed against the ground near Uryusume, pulling out their weapons and pointing them at her. All of the Valkyries, except for Tendou gasped and whispers began traveling amongst them.

"No way, they're here?!"

"I can't believe it's them!"

"They're standing right in front of us. The legendary three!"

Despite all of the talk about these three Valkyries, Uryusume's expression hadn't changed one bit. Instead, her expression changed to a slightly cocky one as she let out a chuckle.

"Well, I guess that's one more surprise." Uryusume let out.

"I would like to fight you all, but I've done what I came here for."

Uryusume turned to face Tendou, staring at him with a smile.

"I'll be watching over you starting from now, and I'll be waiting for when you unleash the potential hiding inside you. Goodbye now."

With that, the weather became the harshest it had been in the day. All Valkyries were caught off guard and covered their eyes. Once the storm had calmed down, Uryusume disappeared.

"Damn, we couldn't get her." One of the legendary three said.

"I'll report this to the Overseer."

Once the storm had calmed down, every one of the valkyries, outside Tendou, Ino, Reshia, and the legendary three ran up and surrounded the legendary three. The group of Valkyries started to fanboy and fangirl over them. Meanwhile, Reshia walked up to Tendou, but before she could say anything, Ino had run up, jumped onto Tendou, and hugged him. When the maid saw this, she couldn't help but pout a little bit. Was she a bit jealous to see this happen, maybe?

"Ino-." Tendou began.

"I'm so sorry for putting you through all of this!" Ino cried into Tendou's shoulders.

"I should have defied orders and told you everything. I could have saved you from death, but I-!"

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down Ino, I'm alright." Tendou reassured her.

Ino lifted up her head, revealing her tears and ruined makeup. She got off of Tendou and wiped away everything on her hands.

"I know you're fine now, but the guilt will always be there. I don't know if I can stay around you because of it." Ino cried.

"Man, you're really taking this seriously Ino."

Kyle came over and rested a hand on Ino's shoulder.

"Ino, there's no need to cry over him." He reassured.

"He's not worth all the tears for, so save them up for someone who's actually-."

*SLAP*

Ino pushed Kyle's hand off of her and slapped him across his face. Kyle rubbed his face, but he didn't give much of a reaction afterward.

"Alright then. Waste your tears."

Kyle looked over at Tendou and gave him a condescending smirk.

"I'm surprised rookie, you lived past a Herrscher. You may have survived against a god-like being, but don't get cocky. I'll make your life at the school an even worse hell than she can." Kyle threatened.

Kyle walked away, and Tendou couldn't help but smirk a bit. Meanwhile, the crowd surrounding the legendary three Valkyries split as all three walked over to Tendou.

"So, you're the one the Overseer has his sights on." One of them remarked.

"My name is Ayakana. I'm the leader of Squad Majestic. Pleasure to meet you."

Ayakana was a modestly tall girl, standing at around 5'7". She sported neck length, blonde hair that had a large, curved bang down the middle of her face, and brown eyes. Her chest was fairly sized, and her body build was similar to that of an ideal model. Judging by what was in her hand, Ayakana's weapon of choice was a greatsword, which she seems to wield easily with one hand.

"I am Yoru, apart of Squad Majestic." Another one of the three legendary Valkyries introduced herself.

Yoru was a bit shorter than Ayakana, standing at around 5'4" herself. Her hair was black, which reached all the way down to the end of her back. In the front, her black hair covered part of her right eye which was a light purple color. Like Ayakana, Yoru had the body of a model as well, nearly reaching superstar level. From what she was holding, her weapon of choice was a katana.

"And I'm Kagura, another member of Squad Majestic." The last of the three legendary Valkyries introduced themselves.

Kagura's height was somewhere in between Ayakana and Yoru. She was somewhere around 5'5", maybe 5'5.5". Her hair was a dark brown with multiple bangs in the front, each becoming slightly bigger the more they get to the center of her face. Her eyes were a very whited out green. Just like her squad partners, she also had the body of an idealistic model. Her weapon of choice was a naginata.

"Ah, right. My name is Tendou." He greeted the three back.

"Nice to meet you Tendou. I have heard some rumors about you, especially those of a few weeks ago." Ayakana told Tendou.

"Personally, I would have thought those rumors were false, but there was a lot of recorded evidence to disprove my claim. Besides, Yoru was actually there to witness the fight between you, and Kyle, isn't that right Yoru?"

Yoru nodded her head shyly. A slight blush grew around her face.

"Yoru, there's nothing to be really embarrassed about." Ayakana chuckled.

"S-sorry." Yoru apologized.

"Moving on, I can sort of see why the Overseer would be interested in you. You are quite a fascinating person indeed. To witness your abilities not just in video, but from an actual distance was a sight to behold."

"Yeah, I guess they-..wait, from a distance?" Tendou queried.

"Oh yeah, that's right. All three of us were watching your fight with the Herrscher of Ice not too far away." Ayakana explained.

"We just didn't interfere because the Overseer told us not to. We were to only watch, but things did get out of hand. Thanks by the way Doctor Enmu."

"Your welcome." The Doctor sarcastically replied.

"Anyway, a little more about us. Yoru, Kagura, and I form a squad called Squad Majestic. We're famously known since all three of us are the strongest Valkyries within Schicksal. As for who of the three is stronger, we haven't figured that out. That's why we're called the three legendary Valkyries, though I assume you know that. You definitely have heard of us, right?" Ayakana asked.

"Nope." Tendou instantly replied.

"First time hearing your names, Squad Majestic, and the three legendary Valkyries thing."

Immediately after saying that, the whole crowd of Valkyries surrounding them began yelling and booing at Tendou. Despite being in a snow forest, the rookie could feel a sweat drop down his forehead.

"Hey, everyone calm down!" Ayakana yelled at the crowd.

Everyone calmed down immediately, letting Ayakana continue.

"I'm a bit curious why the Overseer knowingly sent you out to be a lab rat, and why the Herrscher of Ice didn't kill you. In fact, I'm a bit curious myself as to why she singled you out." Ayakana commented.

"Everyone seems to want a piece of you in one way or another. I can't blame them. In fact, I kind of want to recruit you into Squad Majestic."

Instantly, Ayakana bursted out laughing, while everyone else was just in shock at what she said.

"Don't worry, I'm just joking. I wouldn't recruit you into our Squad, at least not now."

Ayakana, and the rest of her squad put their weapons away and began walking past Tendou.

"I think it's time that all of us go home now, shall we?" Ayakana spoke out.

She placed her hands on Tendou's shoulders and whispered a semi-threat into his ears.

"If you know your way around the academy, you should know that your rank does judge you a lot. I'm not like Kyle or most of the others, but do know that I'm not a safe one either. Later Tendou."

With that, Ayakana, and the rest of Squad Majestic left for the airship, which was parked behind Tendou. Kagura only looked at Tendou, while Yoru bowed before she went to the ship. Soon, everyone else left for the ship with the minor exception of Tendou, Reshia, Ino, Claudia, and Desmond.

"Man, this was rough." Desmond exclaimed.

"I still don't understand why you had to be the victim, and how you even managed to live!"

"Me neither." Tendou agreed.

"You seem pretty exhausted. Come on, let's board the airship and go home." Reshia told Tendou.

"Yeah."

---

Tendou's Perspective

It had been an hour since we boarded the airship. Most had gone to talk to Ayakana, Yoru, and Kagura, while some had gone to do their own things. I was apart of the later. I was currently hanging out at one of the railed pathways, staring out at the big windows as we traversed the sky, or that's what I would be seeing.

"Today has been a bizarre day." Lessica acknowledged as she floated to sit on top of a rail.

"Honestly, that itself feels like an understatement."

"Agreed."

I looked over to Lessica. Her body had changed a lot. Her arms were now very defined as they were pretty muscular, at least for a girl's standard. Her body now had her abs muscles showing themselves as well. Her thighs had very little fat and was mostly muscle now. Despite that, they still remained pretty thick, though they are less thick than when we first met. Similarly, her chest had somehow gone down a size or two. Instead of being the humongous giants they were, her breasts were now somewhere between D-Cups and E-Cups. Hell, they might be a bit smaller!

"You've really put in some work with your body, haven't you?"

"I have actually. I appreciate that you noticed it."

"It's hard not to notice it actually, considering how much the difference is. What do you even gain out of this?"

"So far, nothing I guess. I just started to work out since I got bored. Now I've just been doing it regularly. Does help alleviate a lot of stress. How are you faring so far?"

"I'm actually doing pretty well. The strain is mostly gone."

"That's good to hear. You'll have to constantly deal with that strain. I, myself, haven't found a way to eliminate it."

"I see. Well, this mission was a weird one, but I'm glad I did take a part in it?"

"Why's that?"

"Yeah, fighting Uryusume wasn't fun, and dealing with the weather wasn't either, but I felt cared for. Ino came crying to me, hugging me, and apologizing for not being able to tell me about this. Reshia even did the same earlier, and so did Claudia, and Desmond. Hell, even Kyle cared for me in his own twisted way! The guy really said that I needed to live so that he could have someone to drag through hell. It's a morbid way of caring for someone, but it's better than death."

"I guess that's true. It did feel nice to know that some people care about us genuinely."

"Oh? Did you just admit to that?"

"Yes, yes I did. I did say I was going to give humans a shot, and well, this is a good step, I suppose."

"Heh….ahahahhaha! Yes, I'm glad I managed to-."

"Don't get carried away though. I still want you to be on guard. Kyle may care for you in a morbid way, but when he says that he'll drag you into a living hell, I just want to say that his living hell might be worse than what he's done so far. It might be something overboard too. Tendou, for your own safety, please keep the possibility of humans not being all good in the back of your mind. If you let the belief that humans are all good, then let a human travesty happen to you, who knows what might happen."

"Uh, that was a long speech. Um…sure, I'll keep it in mind."

Lessica retreated back into our mental realm, and the world resumed back to normal. I leaned forward against the railing and stared out into the sky. This mission has been weird, but honestly, it was worth the experience. Knowing that Ino, Reshia, and everyone else cared for me, it was worth all the trouble. Maybe I should start spending more time with them. After all, we're humans, we can't really harm each other. Sure, we may fight and joke, but we can't do anything severe to ourselves, so everything will be fine. I honestly can't wait to see what the future has in store for us.

---

Lessica's Perspective

….

….

….

"He's not going to listen to me, isn't he?"

---

Chapter 11 End