Hachiman sighs as he keeps walking beside the man, towards an end he can't see, "Tell me a bit more of my uncle," He asks while glancing at him.

The man glances back with a raised eyebrow, "Hmm… As a reward for telling me your thoughts; I will indulge in your question instead of avoiding it again, but not for long since we are near."

He nostalgically smiles, "Your uncle… Was special. He had the ability to dive into people's mind and manipulate it as he saw fit, though he needed to spill their blood for his ability to work. I was his first sword and the one that knew him the longest, to the point I managed to develop my own sentience due to being the medium and making his ability my own."

The man's smile turns bitter, "He was a foolish man, for he did not take advantage of his ability to take control of others. A kind and naïve man that believed in others and helped to deal with those who were under the Will's control… Yet the mass turned against him, fearing that he would do the same to them, while the people who were supposed to be closest to him… They hesitated, leading to his demise."

"…Huh… Wait then how –"

"Enough. We are about to enter combat with the secondary defenses."

Hachiman glares at him before turning to look in front, only to blink as he sees multiple Honkai beasts roaming without purpose. Then the surrounding slowly turns into pink clouds that have lightning randomly appearing.

"…Those are the defenses?"

The man nods while readying his sword, "Yes. They are the memories embodiment given form, Manifestations, destroying them will leave behind the memory in its place, to which you can peer into and manipulate to your heart's desire."

Hachiman frowns with his eyebrows squinted, "Wouldn't that… Harm the person by destroying their memories?"

He glances at him, "Fear not, for the memories itself will not be damaged in any way unless you were to damage the memory it dropped."

Hachiman looks unconvinced but seeing as there is no way for him to confirm or deny, he will need to trust him for now, "Alright… Actually is there any way to avoid them?"

The man blinks then slowly lowers his sword, "Hmm… There is a way but we would require two memories."

"…Two… Are we going to disguise ourselves as them and sneak past?"

"Indeed."

Hachiman lifts his sword up with a sigh, "Fine. I would have liked it to be zero but I'll take what I can get."

The man raises an eyebrow at him, "Why are you readying yourself? I alone is enough."

Hachiman glances at him with an annoyed look, "I know. I hate working since my whole motto was to work is to lose, but Kiana and Mei kept nagging at me to lose it until my ears bled."

He shrugs then takes a step forward, "Besides. There will always be a chance that I will have to fight these things since I am with those two; might as well practice where I can't die."

"For your information, if we take a fatal wound here, our soul will dissipate which will leave your body and the sword soulless."

"…I fucking hate you for refusing to tell me until needed."

Hachiman shakes his head then spots a lone beast that is far away from the others yet close enough to him and the man, "Can these things be taunted?"

"If you mean by being led, then just show yourself in front of the Manifestation until it notices you. They have terrible vision in first encounter but once seen, they will hone in on your presence and track you."

"Can they communicate with each other?"

"Not for earlier manifestations, which are the ones in front of us."

Hachiman nods, "Good enough. Now go there and lead it to us."

The man tilts his head with a blank face, "Why, getting cold feet? Weren't –"

"Shut it."

The man shrugs then flies to the lone beast, which merely keeps aimlessly walking. He slows down but still approaches the beast until it suddenly turns around then charges at him.

He turns back then flies over to Hachiman, "I will demonstrate on how to dispatch a Manifestation."

The man boredly looks at the charging beast, an Archangel if Hachiman is not mistaken from the books he had read, then the beast leaps, prompting him to thrust his sword forward to pierce it.

The beast goes limp then slowly dissolves until a square-like film is left on where it once stood, "That is how."

The man turns to look at Hachiman, who glares at him, "Just a stab. That's it?"

The man nods as he picks up the film, "Indeed. These Manifestations are the earliest memories, making them the weakest due to there is nothing holding onto them or they have already faded into the deepest recess of the mind."

Hachiman frowns as he looks around, "So… You mean that the earlier the memories, the weaker they are?"

"Indeed." The man hands him the film, "Set the memory down and you can view it like a screen."

Hachiman looks at him with scrunched up face before setting down the film, which quickly transforms into a screen that shows a pink surrounding before small dragon claws stretch out from the screen.

"Wow…" He looks amazed as he sees the dragon claws pull back then the screen shakes before slowly moving forward, "So this is actually what your ability does…"

The man chuckles, "Of course. The one that you made with that girl Sirin was the basic of your uncle's ability… Although, he never could see memories unless he dived deeper in."

Hachiman glances at him before shrugging, "Let's just get this over with." He grabs the film, "So how do I do this?"

"Merely put the memory at your chest then slowly push it in."

Hachiman follows the instruction then agonizing pain ripples all over his body, making him fall onto his knees while screaming with his eyes shut. After a while, the pain disappears like a lie, prompting him to slowly open his eyes.

"Ah, apologies, I forgot to warn you that the transformation will hurt."

Hachiman turns to glare at the man, "You fucking bastard, I will destroy –" He lifts his hand up to try and give the middle finger, though he blinks as he sees the familiar look of the Archangel beast.

"Woah…" He lowly exclaims as he moves his new hand, "This feels… Weird." He slowly gets up, though more accurately, floats up, "Wow I can fly…"

The man shakes his head at the sight of Hachiman examining himself then flies off, "I will go get my own then we shall proceed deeper inside."

In a room of white and blue lines all over the place, lies a large pink box that has pink chains wrapped around it and embedding the ends into the ground.

2 Honkai beasts, an Archangel and a Knight, slowly emerge into the room through the only opening of the room, then the beasts slowly turn into Hachiman and the man.

Hachiman painfully sighs as he slowly gets up from the ground, "Ow… I can see why my uncle never took the silent route," He grumbles as he stretches to get a feel of his body again.

The man looks at him with amusement, "He hated it but he will do it whenever the situation called for it." The amusement disappears as he turns to look in front of him, "This is the box… And I can feel a faint presence in it."

Hachiman shakes his head then summons his sword, "Well then, time to unfortunately get to work."

*A...N*

Welp, seeing as how this story caught up to my 100 operator one, I'll be taking a break from writing this one and focus on either my other fics or to make new ones (I got plans on League, Scp, GFL, Danganronpa, all of which got dear ol 8-man in there fucking things up lol) so do look forward to that (unless I am dead then you'll just get a comment about it from my sister). Anyway on to the comments!

eightmanantartica2428 - *Kiana thumbs up*

DrackNath - lmao, and its fine since I also like small harems now and then. Also now that is a fun imagination of Bella and Sirin double teaming (artist please make it into reality!)