"I'm sorry to depend on you again Bronya, but can I ask you to pick these up in the city?"

"Of course. Bronya is happy to assist when possible"

The small exchange between Einstein and herself replayed in her mind as she walked the quiet night streets, travel shopping bag in hand. Luckily, the list she was given had the items grouped by place and even an optimal travel route outlined. Leave it to Einstein to optimize a shopping trip amidst all her other work piling high on her desk.

The aftermath of the Herrscher of Domination's attacks had the entire Anti-Entropy Salt Lake base working around the clock. Einstein and Tesla were at the forefront of speaking with world leaders and coordinating relief efforts for those affected by puppets. Bronya herself suffered multiple injuries from being captured by the Herrscher for a brief period, along with having her own Herrscher powers being stolen by them temporarily. Slowly but surely, with the help of the base's medical staff and video calls with Welt Yang, she was recovering. Einstein's favor was actually a welcome change of pace from her usual routine.

She had a feeling Einstein also knew this from seeing her around the base and she silently thanked her for it. The crosswalk light flashed a red stop signal and that gave Bronya a moment to check the list. Only one item left: a 72-count pack of rechargeable AA batteries.

Slightly tilting her head to the side, she questioned what item in a military grade base run by Anti-Entropy needed AA batteries. But Einstein put it on the list for a reason so Bronya chose not to question it further.

Another flash of the signal color changing from red to white prompted her to cross the road.

That one electronics shop should be around...there

The store itself was small but very well-kept. A maroon carpet floor with black shelves forming the aisles, stocked and shelved neatly. An older man in glasses was manning the register behind a glass counter. He looked up from his notepad, nodding at her entrance and she gave a small bow of her own in return.

Light music played over a speaker system in the back as Bronya toured the aisles. It didn't take her long to find the batteries, the 72-count battery packs took up an entire bottom shelf. She grabbed one pack of the rechargeable ones Einstein specified and went to the register.

The man from before was still scribbling on his notepad, but stopped once he noticed Bronya place the batteries on the counter. Wordlessly he took the batteries to ring them up, giving her another nod. Bronya smiled as she welcomed the comfortable silence.

Going through the motions to pay for the batteries with the credit card Einstein gave her, Bronya's attention was suddenly caught by an item sitting inside the glass counter in front of her.

"A Super-Hoyo 32...?"

She used to have a Super-hoyo of her own back at the Academy dorms. Cocolia had sent it to her as a birthday present but before that, she had never even heard of video games. She found herself enamored with it the first time she picked up the controller and instantly became a fan. Soon after that she was playing and trying whatever new games she could with her limited student allowance.

Bronya wistfully thought about how often she would find herself playing with the others. The long win-streaks against Kiana always demanding a rematch, teaching Mei how to play for the first time, Theresa bringing her co op games to play together, fierce matches with Fu Hua while Himeko spectated and cheered them both on with a can of beer raised in excitement...they were all warm, distant memories from a far off place in both the literal and figurative sense. Now she was halfway across the world in America and her school days at St. Freya felt like a different era altogether.

She finished paying for the batteries but she continued to gaze at the game console. The numbers on the price tag showed that it was highly valued as a retro console and Bronya could tell it was kept in great condition. There were even some game cartridges for sale as well! She recognized a good amount of the titles as she used to have her own copies. She also recognized the price stickers on each box. Running the math in her head, it quickly added up...

She frowned to herself, previous habits drilled into her kicking in to reevaluate the situation. Did she really need video games now though? Before at St. Freya, she easily made time for gaming in-between studying and training. But now she wasn't at school and things had changed.

Honkai still threatened the world even after they won against the Herrscher of Domination.

The World Serpent was still in the shadows, including Mei, she sadly noted.

She was still needed in the field once she fully recovered. People depended on her.

She...might be able to find time to play games at the end of her day but would be investment be truly worthwhile? Looking again at the prices, she was positive she had enough in her personal account to buy the Super-Hoyo and a few games. But she had never spent that much money all at once before, be it herself or anyone else.

When was the last time she spent money on herself?

She remembered a certain day after fall semester's final exams. Kiana kept insisting to her and Mei on celebrating their freedom (and conveniently ignoring the fact that Kiana didn't study again) by starting their winter break with a big dinner outing.

"C'mon you two~" she pouted while shaking their shoulders. "The big bad exams are over, we're on break and it's the weekend! We gotta treat ourselves!"

She smiled at the memory. The restaurant they went to that night was wonderful, the food delicious. Even if it cost just as much as the Super-Hoyo, it was worth it. Leave it to Kiana to remind her not to complicate things.

They all just overcame a world-scale crisis together, she deserved to have some fun of her own. The Herrscherr core inside her seemed to hum in resonance as Bronya collected herself. It had been a while but she still had confidence in her spoken English as she cleared her throat.

"Excuse me sir, that Super-Hoyo right there…"


Hello world! There's a perfectly good explanation of how I got here but that's another story for another time. For now though, I hope you enjoyed the prologue to my (hopefully not too crazy) idea~