So this is a one-shot about Shinki. it's not canon to Retrospective Change though some parts of her backstories are similar. But let's just say it is canon to a different Series. Also, do you want me to explain Shinki's full backstory in a separate chapter or as part of Retrospective Change chapter 16? Please comment or DM me if you have any suggestions as I'm still thinking about whether or not her backstory will fit in CH 16 or not.
Anyway, enjoy this short chapter.
"Hello?" The calling of a little girl was heard in the distance. She stood alone on a beach in the middle of the night only accompanied by waves crashing onto the sandy beach. It is dark out there with no stars visibly lighting up the dark sky. Only a dim moon lit up the area around her.
The girl is unsure how she ended up there or even where this place is. "Okaa san?" She calls for her mother, but there was no response. She continues to call for her mother but to no avail. Minutes turn into hours and eventually, the girl would stop calling for anyone as she began to tear up.
Tears flow down the girl's cheeks as she cries. The emptiness scares her. Though what can she do? She was left there by the cruel world that abandoned her. Alone to rot in the dark corner of the abyss.
The water eventually feels more viscous than normal. The moon slowly turns crimson as the moon bled. Its liquid fell onto the ocean turning the once-dark sea into a sea of blood.
Streaks of purple started appearing as the sand cracked around her. Her skin becomes paler and those same streaks of purple lines also appeared on the girl's hand and eventually, it climbs all the way onto her neck.
"O…Okaa san…I…It hurts….Wh…Why does everything h-hurts?" The girl mumbles as she fell onto the ground below her. She lies there motionlessly on top of the sandy shore, wondering where her sins were and what did she do to deserve all of this.
She continued her quiet muttering until suddenly she felt her small body getting picked up. There she saw a skeleton covered under a dark cloak cradling her in his arms. At that moment she felt peace amid all the pain and loneliness she endured, feeling a sense of warmth that she hadn't felt in a long time.
Despite knowing who that is perhaps, him coming to greet her doesn't seem so bad after being tormented for so long. "...Are y…You here to pick me up, Mister?" Shinki asked weakly. The reaper looked at the weak little girl in his arms, only giving her a smile.
"Normally I would, but let's just say, I can bend my own rules here and there." He said as the world around her started to become a bit more normal. Streaks of purple slowly faded away from her body. "I know what you've been through, coming here basically gave me access to your memories, so I know what your current situation is. World Serpent is doing experiments on you, and it's not fair that you are having to suffer through that."
The reaper extended his hand to her as he stood up from the ground. "I'm giving you a choice, and I think you might take it. I can bend my own rules and give you a second chance, or I can take you to the afterlife."
The girl took his hand as she stood up, still listening to what he was saying, seeing his face somehow morph into one of anger despite being bone. "If you choose to take the second chance, you'll get your revenge on those so-called "humans" who have hurt you and many others, because the way I see it, those who treat the lives of others with no respect don't deserve to have theirs. Life isn't something that can be toyed with, something that is just widely available at a moment's notice if something goes wrong."
She saw his face lose its anger after he looked at his hand for some reason. "But that's not all. I'm giving you this choice because I know that you'll be able to survive anything that life throws at you, but I don't want you to take this second chance and live a life of vengeance. I know it's the opposite of what I said a few seconds ago, but I know you'll do it anyway. I don't want you to live in just vengeance. I want you to live your life to the fullest. Since I know your memories up to this point in your life." He rubbed her head gently with his hand. "I know that you're wondering about your friend's condition. Sirin."
The girl released a small breath of air at that. "All I can say is that she is alive since I haven't taken her to the afterlife, but it's up to you if you want to search for her if you choose to live." She could feel his hand leave her head, instinctively moving her head towards it a little.
The reaper put his hand in his cloak as he pulled out his scythe, slicing the air and somehow managing to create a rift of some kind, the girl seeing a field of flowers on the other side. "If you want to pass on, go to the afterlife, step in here. But if you want to keep living." The reaper made another rift, showing where her body currently was in the World Serpent Lab. "Go through here, and you'll be taken back to your body."
The reaper put his scythe away as he rested his hand on the girl's shoulder, getting onto a knee. "These doorways will stay open for as long as you need. Time in the physical world is currently on pause, so don't worry about taking too much time. But if you do choose to take a second chance at life, if we ever meet each other, I'll look forward to seeing you again."
The reaper stepped away from the girl, closing his eyes. "We only get one life Shinki, it's up to you if you want to conclude your story here or later." As he said this, he disappeared, leaving Shinki with the two rifts. Her two choices.
GASP-
Shinki suddenly woke up from her slumber as cold sweat was dripping down from her body. "Another nightmare huh." She muttered. She looks much older now. Unlike before she is now a young girl in her teens.
She sat up on her bed and looked down at her hands. Shinki knows that they look normal but inside she's just a monster. A "successful" MANTIS experiment as the scientist would call it. An eldritch monster living in human skin.
"I want to live." Those were the last words she ever spoke to that reaper before she took that step and went back to the world of the living. But is it the right choice? Until now she's still unsure if the decision she made was the correct one.
She looked over to her left and saw a sleeping girl. It is Raiden Mei. Someone whom she has a close bond with. Despite knowing her secret the ex Heiress didn't run away. Instead, Mei calls her, her true friend and savior as Shinki is always there by her side.
"...How can someone like me be a savior? I don't understand. A savior doesn't kill off their enemies mercilessly and lives as a monster in disguise, Mei." Shinki muttered while brushing some of Mei's hair away from her face so she could take a good look at it. She then felt a slight punch on the side of her abdomen.
She looks over to her right only to find her other companion, Kiana Kaslana sleeping there. As usual, she's still rather active even when she's asleep but how and why did she get here? "I will become S-rank Valkyrie and save the world." The Kaslana muttered as her arms flailed around.
Shinki sighs and carefully steps out of bed to hopefully not wake one of them up. Well, she doesn't need to be as careful around Kiana since she's a heavy sleeper and could sleep through literally anything. Like how she could somehow still sleep peacefully throughout the night in a city infested with zombies and Honkai beasts, beats her. Better for her not to question how Kiana managed to somehow survive all of that.
As Shinki made her way toward the living room, she found two men sitting across from one another at the dinner table, well a man and a teenage boy around Mei's age. Though one looked visibly tired while the other was scribbling something down on his notes as he drinks his coffee. Still, it's 3 am in the morning, why are they here at this time of day?
"Nightmare?" The one scribbling on his notes noticed her presence and asked. Despite both of them having a similar shade of red hair, the two boys aren't actually related to one another. One of them has yellow eyes while the other didn't, and their hair have a slightly different shade than the other.
Shinki lets out a sigh and nods "What are you doing here Kairos? You have your own dorm room don't you?"
"Well… I woke up from a sudden inspiration, made my coffee, and continued writing down the calculations I needed for my project before I helped this guy carry his drunk cousin back to her dorm. Besides, it's much livelier here than in my dorm room."
"Kairos it's 3 am. No one's awake."
"You and Hajime are awake though." The boy replied deadpanned as the two stared at each other. This is Kairos, Kairos Apocalypse, an engineer and scientist who worked for St. Freya and Theresa's adoptive son. The two have actually met a long time ago before they were eventually reunited here.
"Half awake. Let me sleep." Hajime groans.
"Kairos you know what I meant." Shinki sighed, ignoring Hajime's comment while the boy just chuckled. "Here." He offered her a flash drive. "I've modified some of the enemies in the simulated arena to suit your personal level. It'll give you a challenge while you blow off some steam." Kairos smiled. As usual, the boy is always kind towards her despite his upbringing.
He was also an orphan just like her because the 2nd eruption had taken away his family and yet that didn't deter him as he still shines brightly despite getting minimal official education before Theresa took him in. A genius is what people would call him.
Theresa adopted him to prevent him from falling into one of Otto's schemes. Though it seems for now the overseer isn't as interested in having him on his side and let his granddaughter foster him. And so after a couple of years of education, he managed to get a job working as one of St. Freya's engineers.
"...Thanks. Get some sleep Kairos, you're still human."
"I will. I will. Just let me write everything down first. I have an idea for this new Valkyrie weapon but I was stuck at the technicalities and intricacies of the design."
"Just get some sleep." Shinki shakes her head. "You always look tired when you're doing your projects."
"I'll be fine. I got a good amount of sleep yesterday anyway."
"That's- Alright fine." Shinki shakes her head. There's no point in arguing with him as he can be even more stubborn than Kiana. She opens a void portal in front of her and went inside.
Exiting her portal she arrived at the control area of the simulated arena. Shinki turns on the device and plugs the USB into one of the available ports and lets it do its thing.
She exited the room through another portal and arrived inside the arena itself after grabbing a scythe as her weapon of choice. "Houraiji Shinki. Hard difficulty." She said.
After a while, a wave of Honkai beasts appeared in front of her. They're not high-level threats but is it just her or did the simulation summon more mobs than usual? Maybe this is Kairos's doing. She didn't check what he put inside of the USB, in hindsight maybe she should've. Though Shinki didn't falter and stood her ground.
Instead of backing away, the girl charges forward to the horde of Honkai beasts. The horde also charges forward and one by one they fell at the blade of Shinki's scythe or are pierced by Shinki's summoned void lances.
Sparks of electricity start to envelop her entire body as Shinki blitzes through the gaps left by the Honkai beast. She shocks the ones that were on her path. Her target was the big chariot in the middle of the horde. She swings her scythe vertically bringing the 2 handed weapon down as the blade landed on its front which causes a small burst of electricity to erupt. Shocking and killing the chariot while also briefly stunning the Knight class Honkai beasts that were standing right beside it.
Shinki still has a couple more beasts to go. This horde of Honkai beasts would be quite challenging for a squad of B-rank Valkyries. Though Shinki isn't your typical B-rank, with her skills she could be considered an A-rank Valkyrie. But in a battle, she's not used to working as a team and oftentimes tries to do things solo.
Unlike regular Valkyries, she didn't mind getting hurt in the process as she could always heal her wounds with the power that her stigmata possesses. She's a fierce fighter and everyone acknowledges that but when it comes to everything else, she's not the best at it.
As the battle ends. Shinki pants while using her scythe as a support to help her stand and recuperates her lost stamina. She took way more damage than needed but in the end, she cleared out the wave of Honkai beast rather quickly. Kairos is right. This is definitely much more challenging than her previous sessions but the weight that is on her mind hasn't been lifted yet.
'Maybe one more.' Shinki thought to herself.
"That's impressive. But aren't you pushing yourself too much? An A-rank Valkyrie or Knight would still struggle to face this horde of Honkai beasts even if the Chariot class is the most difficult Honkai beast to deal with in the horde."
Shinki turned and saw a man in the control room overlooking the arena. She recognizes him as one of the A-rank knights that are stationed in St. Freya, well the only 2 knights in St. Freya apart from the other one named Meta. This Knight is named Aidan Brandt if she remembers correctly.
"It's none of your business how I train… Aidan. I'll be fine."
"You took more damage than needed. Even if you could heal yourself, you'll end up feeling more tired. It's better to pick off the small ones first. Chariots are slow so they're not an immediate threat, you don't need to target them first."
"...Thanks for the advice." Shinki replied deadpan. "Now start the simulation again. I'm here to train, not to talk."
"Wait-." Aidan groans. "Don't be too stubborn. You haven't regained all of your strength yet, get some rest first. If this were real you might've lost your life if you take on another wave in that state that you're in."
Shinki sighed as the A-rank knight went down to the arena. "Here I'll show you." Shinki backs away from the middle of the arena as her senior "A-rank" Knight shows her how to do it more efficiently.
Aidan takes center stage with his main weapon at hand, a Partisan.
"So a two-handed weapon like my scythe." Shinki thought to herself as she observed Aidan's performance when facing the same wave of enemies.
Unlike Shinki who charges into the wave at the start of her battle. Aidan lures the beast as he moves back while keeping his eyes on the horde and just as expected the small archangels were the first thing he fought due to how fast it is.
Using his enhanced reaction time and agility he used the Archangels as temporary platforms as he dodges the knight class charge. Just as he finishes most of the Seraph-Class Honkai beast, the slow-moving Chariot-Class Honkai beast finally arrives at his location.
He quickly jumps over its head swiftly evading the beast's powerful slamming attack and grabs onto its back. Aidan then stabs the beast, though due to his supernatural strength, his weapon pierces the beast all through the other side. "Hmph. Argh, Dammit." Now his weapon is unfortunately stuck within the corpse of the beast.
No matter how hard he tried to pull it out, the weapon wouldn't budge. He could use more of his strength to try and pull it out but it would only damage the handle instead and could lead to it snapping in two.
"Well, there's no helping it." He gave up on trying to get his weapon back and decided to use his fists instead. Normally it is not advised for Valkyries or Knights to be unarmed when they fight against Honkai beasts as the Honkai silicon exterior is pretty durable. It is mostly to prevent the Valkyries or Knights from hurting themselves.
But, there are a few exceptions.
Either they've learned Taixuan, a martial technique founded a long time ago in Shenzhou, that utilizes both Ki and Honkai energy. Those that have mastered the technique can afford to use their bare hands during combat as they could deal enough damage to their opponent.
The other option is using brute force, usually wearing a powerful battlesuit would suffice. Though if you're abnormally strong like Aidan you can afford to use your fist even without wearing any battlesuit. Guess more experienced A ranks are built different.
The man then proceeds to punch through the remaining Honkai beasts. And with that, the simulation ended. Even though his clear time was slower, he didn't sustain that many injuries during the fight and he didn't appear to be as tired as well but Shinki still has her suspicion that he may be hiding it.
"This is more efficient in the long run." Aidan said as he takes his weapon that was now lying on the ground. He then walks towards her with a smile on his face "...If you need someone to talk about. You can always talk to me."
"What are you on about?" Shinki raises her eyebrow suspiciously.
"You feel frustrated, don't you? That's why you came here to blow off some steam. You feel as if you're something other than a human. Isn't that right?" Shinki stayed silent at his comment but it was clear that she was caught off guard by that. There are not a lot of people that can accurately read her emotions after all.
A few notable ones are Kairos, Mei, and somehow Meta? Even though the two are just acquaintances. They met briefly during the Nagazora eruption and since then Shinki hasn't had any meaningful interaction with him despite him being her new teacher in St. Freya.
"I understand how that feels. Even though I don't know how I became like this, I used to be frustrated over it but eventually, I learned to accept the situation. You don't need to be biologically a Homo sapien to be human, You just need to keep your humanity to be one."
"..." Shinki wanted to retaliate but nothing was coming up. On an instinctual level, she knew that both she and Aidan are similar in nature. It isn't like a Herrscherr but more similar to a human and Honkai beast hybrid. "A MANTIS." Shinki murmured, recalling what those WS used to say about her.
"What's that?" Aidan asked. Seems like he has super hearing too.
"Nothing important." Shinki took a deep breath, feeling a little better now thanks to her brief conversation with him. Though it would still take a while for her to accept her current circumstances. "Thanks for the demonstration. I'll keep this in mind."
"I'll be watching from the side. Now try and do it again. This time try not to get hurt as much."
Shinki nods and soon the simulation starts once more. Hearing his advice Shinki changed her strategy in this fight. The A rank smiled at the growth that Shinki is demonstrating. Perhaps she wouldn't need as much combat training to become a full-fledged Valkyrie.
"Perhaps I should continue to mentor her. She could be a great asset if she became another Immortal Blades member." Aidan thought of that possibility. "Though she might need to improve her academic skills first and social skills." Seems like Shinki still has much to learn.
Though with time even someone like her could learn all the necessary skills to become a better Valkyrie. Who knows perhaps one day would manage to graduate an S-rank Valkyrie or an S-rank Valkyrie squad that would even rival the Immortal Blades.
As Shinki left to return to her dorms, outside her field of vision, a blue-eyed figure stood in the shadows of the training room, a smile on his face from the show he witnessed. After Shinki and Aidan were gone, he slowly disappeared into the air, saying one last thing as he did so.
"Glad to see you're living your second chance Shinki. I hope you find a purpose in this life."
Just to clarify these are the OCs that appeared in this chapter
Mine = Shinki and Kairos
JoshlyPoshly = The "Reaper"
Axl = Hajime
Kosmic = Meta
Rew = Aidan Brandt