The bullets hit Mei with enough force to send her flying. She skipped across the floor several times before crashing into a loose pile of chairs hidden in the shadows. Kiana carefully stood up from her stance. She eyed the shadows. Part of her wanted to reach out and make sure Mei was okay. The more pragmatic part knew she couldn't take the risk. This was a different world from when the two had them had attended St Freya. The time for fun and games was long since passed. Second ticked by. Finally she spun her pistols before extending arms outward and storing the weaponry within Void Space. Turning in heel the former Valkyrja walked toward her meagre camp. She needed to pack up and be gone within the next ten minutes.
Mei lay in a bloodied heap. Her gut hurt from where the two bullets had struck. It was lucky at the very last moment she had found the Honkai energy to divert into the defensive systems. Still, her augmented reality optical interface indicated that some damage had been sustained to the battlesuit. Mei coughed and spat out some bloody phlegm. Pushing herself up onto one side, she checked over her body. Her arms and legs hurt where she had struck the chairs. Mei knew she had a black eye in the making. It throbbed where the foot of a chair had slammed into it.
'Well at least she didn't kill me,' Mei mused.
Fumbling around, Mei found the hilt of her katana and curled fingers around it tightly. Surveying her surroundings, she could see Kiana was most of the way back to her little campsite. Taking an incautious action, Mei silently shifted into a crouch on one knee and grabbed a loose chair with her free hand. With a wide wind up Mei hurled the chair toward Kiana. The cheap plastic and metal furniture spun through the air silently. At the last moment Kiana stepped to one side, hand blurring as she summoned a pistol from the Void, before taking aim and firing. The bullet materialised inside the seat of the chair, exploding with enough force to fragment the furniture and send chunks flying wildly about. Spinning on her soles Kiana took aim at Mei, the muzzle flaring twice. Mei was unable to track the direct motion of the bullets, each of them immaterialising and then materialising just before they struck her. The impact knocked her across the floor a second time and further into the pile of chairs.
It took Mei longer to stir. She had luckily managed to keep hold of the God-Key. The second pummelling courtesy of the bullets and the chair limbs left Mei feeling like a meat patty. Hissing through her teeth she pushed herself up again. Troublesome text scrolled across her optical interface.
'Secondary damage to defensive systems. Further kinetic damage cannot be mitigated. Secondary damage to metamaterial cloaking. Optical camouflage integrity degraded. Manifestation coil integrity compromised. Further usage of system may lead to total system collapse'
Mei sighed at her own bad lack.
'But I did learn some useful things. I couldn't follow any of those shots. But they still hit. Which means she's somehow tapping into her Void abilities to shift the projectile between realities, making it harder to track. Cover or obstruction won't mean much if she has a good idea where her opponent is hiding.'
Mei was in a decidedly negative situation. Everything was mounted against her. And still she felt almost exultant. Her limbs felt lighter than they had in years. For all her pain and bruises her mood showed no sign of dampening. She knew what she had to do now. She didn't hear that scathing voice inside her head anymore. But she knew what it would have said, what now she would say, if they gave up.
'Coward.'
A dry chuckle carried out of the shadows, followed by painful coughing and more amused sounds.
"That really fucking hurt, you know."
Kiana's pace slowed. The words had been delivered in perfect English.
"English is so much better to swear in than Japanese. Oh and you didn't even show a drop of sympathy. That probably hurt more than the bullets."
Kiana stopped in place. The lilt and cadence of Mei was something Kiana had not heard in some time. It sounded like her. Or to be more precise, it sounded like someone mimicking her. She cautiously turned around and summoned both ARC pistols from Void Space, training on the pile of furniture where Mei had fallen.
"If this is the way you treat your friends, I shudder to think what you would do for your enemies. Otto is in for a rough time."
Kiana didn't like this voice. It reminded her of Nagazora. It reminded her of when she had fought Mei in the past.
"What have you done with Mei?" Kiana growled.
"I didn't do anything. You shot me, remember?"
"That taunting voice. The constant hint of mockery. That's not Mei. That's you, Herrscher."
"I would say 'Takes one to know one,' but that would be disingenuous. It isn't the Herrscher that is talking. Raiden Mei is the one you shot. Herrscher."
Kiana fixed her gaze upon the woman she had once thought of as the most important person in her life. Sitting there in the shadows, using the blade as a crutch, was a smirking woman with glowing scarlet eyes, pupils slitted like a cat. Kiana knew this Mei. She wasn't sure how they could still exist. But she would put it down much as she had in the past.
"If we fight again then it ends the same way," Kiana warned. "I held back before. I won't do so again."
"Good."
"Wha!"
Kiana couldn't help but drop her cool persona for a moment. Mei's response took her completely off guard.
"If you went soft on me now, Kiana, then I'd actually be angry."
Mei struggled slowly to a crouch, one knee on the ground, the katana doubling as an effective crutch. This was no time to be a passive force. This was a time for Mei to act. To act out. To actually take the initiative and claim something for herself.
"I'm going to give you one last chance," Mei warned Kiana. "You can choose to come with me peacefully back to the Hyperion. Or I can break your arms and legs and drag your sorry carcass back to the Hyperion."
"Uh… Mei-senpai, I think you don't understand the meaning of carcass."
Mei curled her hand tightly about the Jizo Katana and began to channel a large amount of Honkai energy into the weapon. She surprised herself with how much still bubbled within her body. Then after a moment of self-reflection Mei realised how foolish a notion that really was. She had always been this gifted. It was only now that she stopped pretending to be someone else and took responsibility for having this power.
"Oh, I assure you, Kiana-chan, I meant every last word."
The logical thing would be to create some sort of distraction or obstruction. In that moment the defender would flee left or right into the shadows and better cover. This tactic was rendered moot by Kiana's ability to immaterialise her bullets. No amount of cover would help when she could fire indiscriminately through any protection. That left one alternative.
"Awaken, God-Key," Mei chanted.
The silhouette of a bulky figure in samurai armour appeared in front of Mei, plates tinged the colour of blood, inky shadows boiling from the gaps between. The Jizou spirit rested an odachi over one shoulder, ready to bring the blade down in a broad horizontal arc. Kiana wasted no time firing in response, peppering the conjured entity's internal structure with immaterialised rounds. The creature was hollow, bullets echoing around the body cavity and striking the plates of armour. The rest of the shots Kiana aimed in a wide arc, bullets passing through cover such as pillars, small concrete barriers and furniture. The food atrium was lit with gunfire.
The Jizou spirit swung the odachi in a wide, across the shoulder, horizontal slash. Even for its bulky size the strike was deceptively fast. Kiana was quick with her timing, leaping just above the slash. And it was in mid-air that she realised her mistake. Mei had fled not across the floor, but into the air, having run up the blade where it rested hidden behind the Jizou spirit, the spray of gunfire having gone off beneath her. She had remained hidden, clinging to the blade just near the hilt. And with Kiana in mid-air now was the time to strike. The Valkyrja braced herself and leapt from the blade, sailing toward Kiana with deadly force. It still wasn't enough to rattle Kiana. Seasoned as she was, the woman used two quick shots to reorientate herself in the air before launching several rounds at Mei. The bullets materialised within her just as she slammed into Kiana. The shadow clone disintegrated into crackling blue static, residual kinetic energy enough to knock Kiana onto the ground. Going with the momentum she went into a reverse tumble before coming up on her feet.
The Jizou spirit disappeared in a flicker of hazy orange light. Meanwhile two Mei's dashed in on ghostly feet, appearing out of the shadows and attacking as one. Kiana spun on heel, gun kata guiding her through the motions. The uncoordinated pair were quickly knocked down, Honkai energy field integrity collapsing as the bullets appeared within their structure and shredded the pseudo-bodies. Gritting her teeth, Kiana scanned the shadows, trying to locate her foe. Another three Mei appeared, movements much as the originals. The same wooden motions and lack of cohesion. It took nothing for Kiana to dispatch them.
"Is this all you can do? Harass me with pale doubles?"
"Nope."
The hot lance of pain across Kiana's back was the answer. She used the physical force pressed against her back to tumble forward, shifting her body and coming into a crouch, both pistols directed toward her enemy. Mei's body flickered, metamaterial cloak struggling to maintain the shadowy disguise. Her blade was unbloodied, having failed to breach Kiana's armour. Still the weight of the blow had left a hefty bruise.
Kiana shot twice, sure of her mark. This time Mei shifted out of the way of the strikes. Again and again Kiana fired. But the blows were always short of their mark. In a second Mei was upon her, forcing Kiana onto the defensive. In close combat the two were near equal. The Kaslana gun kata allowed Kiana to fight on par with a blade, knocking aside slashes, stabs and parries. Even with Kiana's ability to immaterialise bullets and therefore ignore defences she was unable to hurt Mei. It was like she was fighting a Mei that was on a different level.
Mei however was learning as she fought. Internally she felt unbalanced. Her mind had not quite synchronised with the power bubbling inside of her. Nor had her body. It took every ounce of the Raiden Itto-ryu training to keep up with. Yet with each second that she was pressed by Kiana her control only improved. The two odd halves coming further into balance.
'I see it now,' Mei realised. 'She must have trained incredibly hard to get to this level. But at the same time through observation I can overcome her skill. All I need to take into account is the minimum distance from the bullet leaving the barrel before they are immaterialised. Then factor in the range of motion of wrist and arm. There is a maximum range of motion a wrists can take when discharging your weapon before the kinetic recoil would damage it.'
Mei got inside Kiana's guard, using her blade to knock an arm wide before going to a single grip and punching Kiana hard in the face. Stumbling backward, Kiana hissed and firing thrice. Even at such close range Mei dodged each shot.
'By the nature of ballistics her movement have to be linear. Just factor in what the danger zone of each pistols is and ensure I remain outside of that area.'
Mei remained in a single-handed grip, staying on a side profile and slashing at Kiana with quick, economic motions. Kiana disliked being on the defensive but had little choice. Mei pressed hard. The manifestation coils in her battlesuit were all but spent. Still she attempted one final activation, hoping to eke out a decisive blow.
"Tsukuyomi," Mei uttered the activation word.
Angry static roared across Mei's augmented vision as the system responded. Still the suit managed to summon three more shadow clones. These duplicate Mei moved to encircle Kiana. Each of them had imprinted upon their temporary memory engrams the combat knowledge Mei had accumulated. Unlike the first clones, these knew how to remain outside of Kiana's gun kata kill zones. Though they were only temporary composites of Honkai energy, they still struck with just as much force. Now surrounded, Kiana did her best to defend, snapping between stances and firing back quickly and efficiently. This was a situation she had trained and prepared for. Ducking under a blade strike, Kiana reached out to the powers of the Void and drawed on it very briefly. She summoned an Enerstrom, a roiling ball of void energy that sucked everything bar Kiana toward it with incredible force.
Caught off their guard, the mob of Mei's were pulled into the twisting gravity well. What surprised Mei was Kiana's next action. She had expected her foe to withdraw a goodly distance before opening fire at a tactically sound range. In the brief window of opportunity Kiana remained in melee range. She held a hand out to one side, the air crackling golden before a void lance appeared. Gripping the flechette tightly, Kiana swung the weapon and struck the group of Mei's. The shadow clones disintegrated under the sheer strength of the blow. The original Mei was knocked off her feet and hard into a concrete pillar. Stunned by the force of the strike, Mei could do little more than slump down to the ground. Kiana let go of the void lance, letting it fade back into the other dimension. She grimaced, not happy at having to use such power against a friend.
"I remember pulling the Herrscher core out of you," Kiana muttered. "You cannot be one anymore."
Mei coughed, managing to summon up a brief smile. Her body ached far more than before and she was certain a few ribs were broken. Cracking an eye revealed a litany of system failures and compromised programs in her augmented vision. The manifestation coils were offline entirely and most of her basic systems were barely functional.
"What are you afraid of?" Mei rasped.
"You look and sound like her."
"Like who?"
"The Herrscher of Lightning."
"Maybe the problem is you never knew the real me."
Kiana kept her pistols trained on Mei. She wasn't going to fall for the same tricks twice. Mei continued.
"Not like I can talk. I didn't know me either. I was always what everyone else needed. A dutiful daughter for my father. A willing captor for the terrorists. Do you know why I prefer short nails? Long ones are easier to tear off. It wasn't long after they sent that video that my father finally decided to organise my rescue. People needed the cool and reliable senpai. St Freya needed someone with Herrscher powers that wasn't a threat. So I did my best never to touch them."
Mei chuckled with genuine mirth. She knew her appearance was a complete mess. Shredded battlesuit, bloodied and bruised face, covered in concrete dust. And it was still the best she had felt in ages.
'I'm doing this because I want to. Because this matters to me. And I'm not going to stop now because it's gotten hard.'
"I'm sorry, Mei-senpai, but you need to stop. You tried your best. But it's time to rest."
"I get it, Kiana. I really do. We had this conversation, if you remember. All those deaths weigh on your conscience. You just want to push everyone away. I think the difference is that I didn't kill someone I truly loved."
Kiana tensed up at the mention of her dear family and the implication. Mei used that meagre distraction. Fasting than the trained eye, lightning raced up from her and coiled around the concrete pillar she sat against. It bit deep into the pillar in several places, shearing concrete and steel rebar. With the self-same electromagnetic powers Mei took hold of the chunks, gripping the rebar within and flinging it downward. Kiana had no time to return fire. She pulled back, dodging between hunks of flying column. The booming sound of falling debris echoed around the building. As the concrete dust began to settle Mei's calm voice called out from the gloom.
"You're not the only one that can swing around obnoxiously oversized clubs."
Kiana couldn't repress a snort of laughter. Those were the last words she had expected to hear from the always cool and calm Mei-senpai. For a moment Kiana wondered just who this person she was fighting really was. It felt like neither Mei nor the Herrscher of Lightning. Someone with the razor cheek of the Herrscher but lacking the inhuman edge. Someone able to take direct initiative and with startling confidence, but not wallowing in hubris.
"Who are you?" Kiana muttered.
The smell of ozone was the answer. A pulse of lightning crackled throughout the atrium. More concrete pillars were sheared and shredded. The chunks that had fallen around Kiana lifted into the air at irregular heights. Keen eyes scanning her surroundings, Kiana realised that numerous pieces of concrete debris had been pulled into the air, held hovering in place by an unseen electrical force. Hunks of concrete and rebar began flying toward Kiana. Snapping into familiar gun kata, Kiana started unloading, bullets materialising inside the debris and destroying them from within. Perception dialled up, Kiana spotted Mei jumping between the flying concrete lumps, reorientating herself to run across the surface of each, pulling herself into the sections through electromagnetic force. Dodging quickly about, Kiana snapped off several more shots as Mei leapt between hunks. Gaging her approach, Kiana reached out and drew further on her void powers as Mei rapidly closed distance. Making that power her own, Kiana let loose her control and suffused that area with void energy. Mei was mid-leap when she suddenly lost all sense of balance. Her electromagnetic bond to the steel rebar was negated. The kinetic motion and energy of the debris had been cancelled. Through the dust she spied Kiana. Her best friend hovered a little above the ground, haloed in golden Void energy. Her gaze flicked up to meet Mei's. Her eyes reminded Mei far too much of the Herrscher of the Void.
Kiana dropped to the ground, pulling the Void energy down with her. Gravity returned, empowered by the kinetic force of the Void energy being drawn toward the floor. Yet again the atrium boomed and echoed. The debris field crashed into the tiles, tearing holes into the floor, sending more dust rushing upward. Mei fared no better, crashing hard into the floor and losing consciousness for a moment. The katana slipped from her hand, rolling off before a chunk of concrete crushed it underfoot. Mei's body throbbed with innumerable aches and pains. She was certain there were some hairline fractures along her arms where she had braced when crashing into the floor. Her head pulsed with an unpleasant headache, the possibility of a concussion giving her pause for concern.
A loud click focussed Mei's attention on the here and now. Opening her eyes she looked up at the barrel of an ARC Serratus pistol. Kiana stood triumphantly above Mei.
"You really have begun to master your Herrscher powers," Mei noted with a tinge of awe.
"Fu Hua has—"
Kiana had no chance to finish her sentence. Mei's reaction time was faster than even Kiana, hurling a handful of concrete dust into the woman's eyes and flipping onto her feet. Kiana let out an angry growl and fired off several quick shots. Mei easily dodged the bullets. When finally her eyes cleared of dust and tears, Kiana saw that Mei was standing only a few paces from her. Rather than disappearing into the shadows or finding a weapon to use Mei had opted to remain in the open and vulnerable. She sported a somewhat embarrassed smile.
"I had this big speech lined up, you know, this grand monologue of the differences between the two of us. Of course, now I realise how foolish it sounds. Except the fourth point. That's the one bit of this speech that's really important."
Kiana carefully lowered her pistol.
"What are you talking about, Mei-senpai?"
The air around Mei smelt of ozone. The fresh scent washed away the stinging bite of concrete dust, crushed tile, gunpowder and burnt metal. Mei tipped her head to one side. The scarlet glow suffusing her eyes faded. Kiana could feel Honkai energy bleeding out of Mei before diffusing into the environment.
"If you were given the chance to give up your Herrscher powers, would you do so, Kiana?"
The unexpected question froze Kiana in place. Her blood was like ice.
"In a second."
"I wouldn't."
The reaction was unconscious. Kiana pulled the trigger. That single gunshot was louder than the prior destruction of the atrium. Horror gripped Kiana's heart. Mei had moved a fraction to one side, the bullet only winging her ribs. The Valkyrja was beaming. It made no logical sense but Mei was genuinely smiling. A grin that boarded on crazy, but still a grin. It was then that it all sunk in. Kiana hadn't been fighting Mei. She'd been training her. Mei had been giving her all. Every time she rose to a new height Kiana stepped up with her. And now with barely two metres between them Mei had been able to react and dodge the bullet.
"I… I didn't mean… I…"
Kiana stumbled over her words. Mei waved the explanation off.
"It's okay. I provoked you in a way that's inexcusable. I'm the one that owes you an apology. But still, I meant it. I think that's the ultimate difference between you and me, Kiana. You're fundamentally an honest, earnest and good person. You're warm, bright and you strive to do the right thing beyond anything else. I don't think I've ever known such a moral person. Me, on the other hand, I'm not exactly the princess you might otherwise believe."
Mei looked down at her hands and clenched them tightly.
"I've finally accepted just what I am. I think that's why this fight turned out the way it did. Two halves of me not quite in sync. Every moment I fought you I felt myself coming slowly together."
Mei's crazy smile only grew wider. There was an almost infectious verve to it.
"I'm willing to get my hands dirty for the people I hold dear. I'm willing to fight and give my all for those that I cherish. I'll become a monster and take command of that power for those that I love."
Kiana slowly lowered her pistols. She tipped her head to one side and reassessed Mei.
"It really is you and not the Herrscher."
"I don't think Mei or the Herrscher of Lightning really exist anymore. I'm who I truly am. I'm Raiden Mei."
Kiana's skin tingled. In her chest she felt a numb buzzing. A sympathetic response to whatever Mei was up to. Mei closed her eyes. The same breathing exercise her Father had taught her. The same pattern she knew so well. The words slipped from her lips. A harsh whisper.
"You know something. Even if somebody takes away your car, it's not as though you forget how to drive."
"Huh?"
"The First and Second Herrscher didn't have a core implanted within them. They willed that power into existence. If I want it, I'll take it and make it my own."
There was no grand fanfare. There was no epic visual display or sonorous echo. There was nothing of the bombast one might expect in such a situation. It was merely a mental click. Still to Kiana it was so loud she flinched. She was the only one on the continent that would understand what had just happened. Kiana understood the gravity of what had just transpired.
Mei's aura was entirely different. She looked clearer than she had ever before, her profile sharper and more defined than a human eye could comprehend. Mei opened her eyes. Lilac purple, the purple a diamond surrounded by an X. Mei stretched a hand to one side. A fallen chunk of concrete cracked. The 12th Divine Key tore itself from the debris and flew into the waiting hand. Mei ran her hand slowly down the katana, lightning crackling between the two. Reaching the hilt, Mei drew her hand away and curled it as though grasping another hilt.
"Raiden niten."
The violet-blue lightning congealed together, forming the shape a wakizashi, the crackling force appearing as though trapped within an invisible pane of glass.
Kiana lifted her pistol. A numb tingling teased her neck. She realised that Mei was behind her, the lightning wakizashi held against her throat.
"Please come with me, Kiana-chan."
The glass ceiling shattered. A rain of crystalline shades fell down along with part of the reinforcing steel structure. Multiple heavy mechs fell from the night sky, support mechs right behind. The various weapons of the Arc City defence force landed amidst the hail of glass and steel. Missile type mechs quickly rotated and deployed their weapons. Large melee-class mechs activated combat programs and sized up their opponents. Defensive shields and supporting energy grids deployed from the smaller support mechs. All trained their weaponry on the two Valkyrja.
"I guess all that Honkai energy we were wielding was bound to get noticed," Kiana admitted sheepishly.
Mei withdrew her lightning wakizashi and moved to stand side-by-side with Kiana.
"Truce," Mei offered.
"Deal."
"We cut the mechs to ribbons. Then I drag you back to the Hyperion."
"Arms and legs intact?"
"This time."
The two Valkyrja, the two students, the two best friends smiled. Both snapped into combat stances.