A Moment Frozen in Time

Fu Hua was walking down a hall in Fire Moth HQ to Himeko's office. She had finally finished her report of the 4th Herrscher battle.

Why those researching the Honkai required a firsthand account of every single soldier that participated in the battle was unknown to the teen. Mei had once tried explaining it to her, but the explanation went right over her head.

Either way, she had accomplished the menial task and was on her way to turn it over to her captain.

Along the way she saw a familiar face, a certain soldier with hair resembling snow. He looked contemplative as he walked down the hallway.

Deciding the interact with her fellow soldier she joined him, "You look rather out of it, is something wrong?" Hua was genuinely curious, Kevin rarely looked so lost in thought after all.

Kevin glanced up at the teen, "Oh, Fu Hua. Nothing much, just thinking about the battle." The young man's response was curt, but more out of a sense of absent mindedness rather than any ill intent.

"It was certainly a harrowing fight, but I don't think that's what you're contemplating." Hua crossed her arms as she began her impromptu interrogation.

The white haired teen had never shown much fear in battle, if any at all, and sought to exterminate the Honkai with extraordinary gusto. The battle with the 3rd Herrscher was simply more of the same but with higher stakes.

The question then was what had happened during that time that had Kevin so deep in thought.

The young man sighed, "I suppose the simplest way to put it is that, I've seen my limits." Kevin held a look of frustration and...was that envy, as he answered.

"You were fighting a girl with the power to shred buildings in half in the blink of an eye, I would be more surprised if you didn't find your limits." The girl spoke from her own experience as well. She was certainly stronger than she was before but not nearly to the extent being a threat to the Honkai.

"I'm talking less about the Herrscher and more about Einar." Kevin clarified.

It dawned on Hua what he was talking about.

Einar was a human that was able to decimate the strongest of Honkai by himself and was able to restrain a Herrscher for a few moments. Combine that with his skill in utilizing his powers and weapons it would make sense that Kevin might feel rather overwhelmed.

"I don't think it's particularly fair to compare yourself to him on the basis of power." Hua countered, after all it was highly improbably that anything outside of a Herrscher could rival Einar.

Kevin was exasperated as he started, "That's what I just-"

The girl interrupted him, "So then compare yourself to him on the basis of skill"

The male soldier looked intrigued as he silenced his previous complaints, for the moment at least.

"If you can't match him in raw power than beat him with skill, find out his weaknesses and use those to your advantage." Hua's face seemed far more cheerful than a moment ago as her point finally started to resonate with the boy.

She continued, "You would know more than anyone what those weaknesses are, after all." Kevin spared rather frequently with the white haired man, lending credibility to her argument.

The male adolescent pondered for a moment before speaking, "Endurance would be a big one. Even ignoring the time limit he has on his powers, he still doesn't have as much stamina as you might think." Perhaps that wasn't necessarily accurate, Einar went all out from the very beginning of a fight, which wore him out very quickly.

The female soldier seemed pleased at his observations, "See, there's already something you can do to best him. Anything else that comes to mind?"

"His lack of defense. He always wears sparse amounts of armor to focus on speed." Kevin was beginning to see what Hua was trying to get him to see but he still had one question.

"As nice as it would be to be able to defeat Einar how would this help me against the Honkai." The boy in questions had proved to be firmly on their side so he failed to see the point of this other than helping his wounded ego.

Fu Hua's cheerful expression fell from her face like rushing water. She sighed in exasperation as she spoke, "Learning how to beat someone stronger than you is vital in this line of work. We're all still human and the Honkai possess a strength that can't be overcome by force of will. This isn't some fiction novel."

The Honkai had the power to bend reality to their whim. Physics was their playground and nature was their best friend. Herrschers could manipulate space and simple Honkai beasts could freeze entire cities.

Power was certainly important, of that there is no doubt, but it was not something that could be afforded to humanity so easily in the face of such an adversary.

Kevin seemed to take the girl's words to heart from her perspective but before she left he asked her a question.

"What did you do before Fire Moth to know things like this? I doubt you've learned all of this in just a few months." Hua was certainly a bit enigmatic to Kevin. He had no idea of her background and only rarely interacted with her at base.

The girl turned around and shone a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "The world may never know." And with that she resumed her path to Himeko's office.

Kevin sighed, "Why is she quoting Tootsie Pop commercials now?"

After a very...unique explanation with Kevin, Hua had at long last made it to her captain's office.

When she opened the door, she was greeted with the sight of a certain redhead lying face down on her desk in abject fear.

"Please no more paperwork, I surrender!" Was the woman's cries of despair as she had yet to look up from her desk to see who exactly had walked in.

"I'm not one of your superiors captain." Hua spoke in a dry tone to her commanding officer. She should be used to these situations by now with her and Einar.

Himeko, recognizing the voice, looked up from her makeshift fetal position, "Fu Hua! My savior!"

The woman ran up to the younger girl with her arms outstretched.

Hua swiftly dodged to the left, letting Himeko ran into the door behind her. The personnel outside that heard a loud *thump* expertly ignored all noises coming from the office.

The older woman groaned as she cradled her now injured head, "I should file a complaint for abuse towards a senior officer"

Hua seemed amused as she answered, "If you want to try making that case to Yasuhiro or Mei then be my guest." Himeko immediately paled.

"On second thought I have seen the folly of my actions and retract my previous statement."

Hua, while entertained at the current conversation, decided to make know her reason for coming here in the first place, "I brought my report from the last battle."

Himeko deflated a bit, "Well, at least I don't have to do anything with it other than hand it over to the fancy people in lab coats."

A new voice interrupted the two's conversation, "'Fancy people in lab coats' huh?"

Frozen in place the red maiden slowly turned around to face the chief of the Honkai research department. The Laboratory Demon, Mei.

At least that's what Himeko called her.

A feeling reminiscent of imminent death overtook the Fire Moth Captain, "I meant to say, the important people that don't eat chocolate"?

With the rather obvious joke about Mei's white coat, said woman gained a look of cold judgment.

Himeko immediately turned to gain assistance from Hua, "Please help me oh great and wonderful Hua!"

The younger girl did not answer immediately and instead turned to the professor, "Can I go into the city while you two get this situation resolved?"

Mei gained a fear inducing smile as she responded, "Of course, we'll be here for quite a while."

The girl then left as quickly as she could, not wanting to remain for the inevitable fallout.

I'll make it up to you later captain, though Hua with pity. She needed a vacation.

Somehow she expected this.

What was the cause of her distress?

Einar becoming the champion of the arcade.

Normally this would be the point in the story where we would go back in time to try and make sense of how this came to be but that would be rather useless in this case.

The simple explanation was that Hua's squad mate had somehow become the undefeated king of a fighting game in an arcade in the city closest to Fire Moth HQ. He was surrounded by a large group of people that seemed to be betting on when he would meet his match.

As the girl was debating on leaving, however, the boy seemed to notice her presence.

"Hey Hua!" He yelled over the noise of the crowd as he began to make his way to his fellow Fire Moth soldier.

The crowd seemed quite upset that he was leaving as many had started a betting pool on how many opponents he could best in the arcade before being defeated.

The teen sighed as Einar came over towards her.

"You look as though you're having fun goofing off." Was Hua's observation as the arcade's new champion came over to greet her.

"I was, thank you very much. I would have invited you, but I didn't think you would want to get beat six ways from Sunday in front of such a large crowd." His taunts were obvious to anyone who heard the conversation, including Hua herself.

Not rising to the challenge made in jest, she ignored him for another topic, "What are you even doing here in the first place." She had though that Yasuhiro or Mei would have something for him to do.

"Well funny story about that." He crossed his arms behind his back as he whistled very suspiciously. The girl had no doubt that wasn't trying to hide what happened at all, but she was still curious as to why he was in the middle of the city and not the base.

"I have time." Was her curt response.

Einar ceased his actions as he turned back towards Fu Hua, "Well if you're sure."

The teen said nothing as she waited for his inevitable and probably dramatic explanation of the events that occurred.

"To put things very bluntly I may or may not have used a bit too much electricity during a test and fried every electronic device in the lab?" Even Einar sounded sheepish as he recounted his actions. The girl didn't even know he was capable of being nervous, let alone sheepish.

The female soldier gave the boy a blank look, "You deserve far more than simply being told to leave the base."

"They probably didn't want me to stay around and possibly break anything else." Einar spoke his honest view of his current predicament. "So I, being bored as I was, found this glorious arcade and began to show them my prowess."

"Is there ever a time where you take things seriously?" All of her interactions with the boy were filled with his overbearingly cheerful character. She wondered whether or not he fully understood the situation they were in at times.

The anomaly gave a small smile, "Well yes, but I find it much less taxing to take things in stride than fuss over every little detail. Its far more entertaining that way."

"Entertainment is not a priority when we have the Honkai breathing down our necks." Hua spoke her opinion of her companion's words.

"Perhaps you're right but taking a moment to enjoy life can be just as important as fighting the Honkai." Einar realized that he might take that to the extreme at times, but his point still stood. Death could only be mourned if one appreciated the value of life after all.

Hua opened her mouth to object before she was interrupted by the boy grabbing her arm and pulling her down the street.

"Enough of this depressing talk! Today let's relax a bit, you've earned it." The female soldier noticed that he said "you" rather than "we" but didn't think too much of it. Einar wasn't exactly the greatest linguist in Fire Moth after all.

She resigned herself to the boy's shenanigans as she asked, "So, where are we going?" If it was something that she had no desire to visit, like most places he went to, then she would rather be able to leave now without wasting her time.

"To go for a walk of course!"

"Only you could make those words seem terrifying."

"Where are we going?"

The two soldiers had been walking for a few moments as Einar lead the girl to their destination. The commonplace hustle and bustle of the city seemed so out of place to Hua after they had seen the devastation wrought by the Honkai.

"I have no idea!" Was the response given by the all too cheerful boy.

It seemed as though every time Hua spoke with Einar she lost the will to critique his absurd statements. At the very least she knew that the boy had enough tact not to bring her anywhere too outlandish. Probably.

Einar soon broke the silence, "So, how was Himeko before you left? I don't imagine she was in too fine a condition with her lack of beer."

"I have a feeling that had more to do with Mei's intervention rather than any will power on captain's part." Hua responded with a chuckle.

The two's mutual friend was a great companion and captain, but she had a particular fondness for alcohol that had gotten the group into some rather awkward situations that the none involved would ever speak of.

"But other than that, she seemed alright, it didn't look as though she was too banged up." The girl was referring to their fight with the 3rd Herrscher. Einar had wanted to know as to whether the woman was falsifying her condition to any extent. Luckily it seemed as though he had worried for no reason.

He smiled as a though crossed his mind, "Well she did participate in the battle against the 2nd Herrscher, so I suppose she's far tougher than she looks. And considering she wields that greatsword like it's a paperweight, that's quite impressive."

"She's even beat you a few times hasn't she?" Questioned Hua with a smirk, as she remembered one of the few times the two had fought.

"One time! I lose one time, and no one lets me live it down!" Einar yelled, "Either you guys had some inhuman expectations for me, or you doubt Himeko's ability. I'm honestly not sure which one I find more insulting!"

A laugh escaped the girl's lips, "Well considering everyone had the perception of you being some kind of superhero, it was amusing to see you get beat over the head with a mere wooden sword."

"A demon sword is what I would call that thing." Murmured the boy in a quiet defense of his pride.

"Oh, is someone a sore loser?"

"Hey, that sword could command the armies of Hell itself, I want to see you try and face that without flinching!" The soldier shivered as the memory of his time against the wooden blade came to the forefront of his mind.

"Sure, sure." Was Hua's doubtful answer.

Einar gazed at the girl with slight heat, "As much as I would like to refute the obvious doubt I hear, we've arrived."

The girl hadn't paid much attention to the scenery as the had walked but the two were now in a park near the edge of town. The tower structures of glass could be seen in the distance, reflecting the fading light of the sun.

It was a beautiful sight to be sure, but Hua was confused.

"Ignoring the fact that you claimed to not know where we were going, why are we here?" The sight was captivating, but the girl did not think that Einar was going to be professing his eternal love or anything that might normally be associated with such a scene.

"To show you what we're protecting." Was all he said.

Hua turned a curious gaze towards the boy and waited for him to continue.

"A lot of our comrades died during the fight with Wendy, so I wanted to show you what that was for." Einar held a complex emotion on his face. It looked to be a combination of pride, sorrow, and remembrance.

"It's so very easy to dismiss the people that live in these cities as unimportant, after all I don't know them." The boy simply turned his eyes at the city's landscape as he spoke.

He continued, "It's so simple to get caught up in the bubble of war that you forget what we're protecting. Sometimes you need to take a step back and realize what you've accomplished before you can move on."

Hua followed his gaze as she stood next to him. Take more pride in my accomplishments, huh? Was what she had gathered form his speech. It was hard to do when she saw so many of her comrades perish beside her while she yet lived.

But that's the point isn't it, she though.

"Thanks Einar. Maybe you should be a motivational speaker." The girl spoke in jest as she turned back towards him.

"Yeah that's not happening. Imagine me trying to encourage a bunch of buffoons shaking in their boots. I would be personally responsible for at least a few hundred letters of resignation! Yasuhiro would kill me!" He spoke with a faux sense of fear in his voice that failed to match the humor dancing in his eyes.

He continued, "Well you ready to head back or do you want to go somewhere else?"

"Are you going to give another speech?"

"Absolutely not."

Two woman were seen in a large grey room with numerous displays plastered on the walls.

One had hair and eyes as red as blood and the other had black tinted with the faintest hint of blue.

Mei held was in front of what looked to be a control panel of sorts while Himeko sitting next to a machine with a frighteningly large syringe attached to it.

"You're sure you want to do this?" Mei broke the silence with a question of confirmation.

Himeko gave a grin in return, "Are you so doubtful of your own abilities? I'll be fine, I have to get stronger one way or another."

The liquid that was contained within the needle was a concentrated Honkai solution that was concocted by none other than Mei herself. In theory it would give the one it was administered to a much higher Honkai adaptability rating and superhuman physical prowess.

However, it had never been given to anyone before as Himeko had volunteered to be the first test subject. She already had a particularly high adaptability in case something went wrong, so the procedure was approved.

If the solution succeeded in its goal then it could enhance the biology of Fire Moth soldiers rather than the equipment they used.

"The process most likely won't be painless." Warned Mei.

"I honestly didn't expect it to be. Even normal shots aren't completely pain free." Himeko dismissed the warning with a wave of her free hand. Her right was tied to the machine to prevent it from moving.

The scientist sighed, "Leave it to you to compare something like this to such a simple event."

The red haired woman laughed, "Just remember that you owe me some beer after this is over."

"While that statement is quite off topic, I will agree with that request if you make it through the process."

"Quite pessimistic aren't you?" Complained Himeko, although her voiced lacked any venom.

"In my profession you have to be to a certain extent." Replied Mei.

"I suppose that makes sense. Now hurry up and stop stalling!"

"Alright then, make sure you survive." Mei spoke with a somber tone.

The blood red maiden responded, "Yeesh, enough with the sappy stuff already! I'll be fine, Mei."

The genius gave a small exasperated smile as she pressed a button on the control panel in front of her.

The needle pierced Himeko's skin.

The room was soon filled with the pained screams of a certain captain.

Einar stared at the ceiling.

Sleep escaped him as he stared at the rhythmic spinning of his ceiling fan.

His mind was filled with the thoughts of the past. Faces flashed through his mind as they either shriveled from age or fell into a pool of blood.

Eventually his mind came to a girl with hair as pure as snow. Kaguya.

His feelings about the girl were complex, to say the least. On one hand she was the girl he had fallen in love with and on the other she sought to exterminate the human race.

The boy wondered if he could kill should the situation arrive. Wendy was a different case as he had just met the girl and held romantic attachment to, rather he cared far more about her connection to Kaguya.

It was a cruel way of thinking.

Of course, it was made worse by Einar knowing exactly why girl was so set on the death of the human race. It was because of him after all.

So, all he had to do was empower the current generation. He had to give them the power to kill both the Honkai and himself, if he choose to protect Kaguya.

He imagined Kevin or Hua having to kill him.

Well, that's a morbid though, was Einar's mussing. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.

A voice interrupted the boy's thoughts, "Don't worry, I won't let it come to that, my knight."

He should have been startled at the girl's voice echoing throughout his head, but he wasn't. Her connection with him was a two way street after all. If he could invade her realm then it only stood to reason that she could invade his.

Neither will I Kaguya, neither will I.

No matter what happened the two's fates were linked together. This story would only end with their fates ending alike.

Either the both of them lived or died. There was no alternative.

So, let's begin this fight in full, but I assure you that the ones left standing will not be us.

The girl's presence left his mind and the boy fell asleep. Elsewhere, a captain recovered in the medical wing.

The war had begun its ascent to climax. Honkai evolved and humanity progressed.

A girl bathed in the purest of white, moved her next pawn.

A scientist furthered the technologies of man.

The dance of death begins in earnest and the victor is yet to be decided.

Author's notes: I hated this chapter. I think I had at least a few thousand words that I scrapped because it didn't make any sense. Of course, that's no excuse for how long it took to make this chapter, but I hope no one is too disappointed. Other than myself of course.

This chapter was meant to be a rare breather with the cast. I know people might hate how everyone's favorite Mantis warrior, Kevin seems pathetically weak. That is by design. He hasn't been hardened by years of combat just yet and he's also not a Mantis yet. I want to build up the cast as a groups of people that knows how to use the powers they have rather than overpower the Honkai.

That's about all I want to say so I'll just say that updates might be a bit slower until Christmas break. Finals are the incarnation of death itself.

And with that, thanks once again for the support with my lazy self.

Sayonara,

The Slow White Guy