Phillip breathed out a sigh, letting the explanation sink in some more while Bronya remained curled up. Once his mind had finished compiling the information, he spoke his first words on the matter rather bluntly.

"That is the single dumbest reason for doing something like this."

Bronya didn't react excessively, but her eyes glared holes into his skull when she responded in her monotone. "Matushka was running out of means to save her. We resorted to desperate action."

"And that only took 50 million lives and the mental destruction of a young girl," Phillip stated. "Obviously, that is the best cost for a single life."

"Seele is worth all of it."

Phillip shook his head in disappointment and minor disgust. "Would Seele agree with that? Did she change from when I saw her into a selfish monster or was she still the innocent girl I met then?"

Bronya didn't react, her stone face well-crafted to betray none of her thoughts. However, the fact that she didn't respond immediately was enough for Phillip to believe that she had wavered in her belief. Phillip pulled himself from his seated position and stood tall before the gray-haired girl.

"Words from the wise: never use someone else to justify your actions. You'll drag them to hell with you." Phillip looked down the hall to spot Kiana sleeping against the unconscious Mei. Now sure the girls were okay, he looked back at Bronya. "I can't allow you to return to Cocolia, not until she gives up on this farce. So, until then, you'll be traveling with us."

"Nyet."

"Wasn't an invitation," Phillip replied to the negative, walking forward and taking hold of the wreckage beside the girl. "After all, if you don't, I'll scrap her last gift to you."

If looks could kill, Phillip would have been obliterated by the glare Bronya sent him. However, with many death glares sent his way before, Phillip simply reacted with a calm smile.

That is until he started flaring his killing intent, washing over the central area like a rapid tide. Bronya diverted her gaze immediately upon feeling the vast pressure, and sweat formed on her brow.

"Good, now get some sleep," Phillip stated, as the orange glow of the setting sun became more apparent through the openings the site had. "I'll introduce you to the girls tomorrow morning."

"Can you ascertain Bronya's imprisonment here?" she asked, with no genuine curiosity in her voice. To answer, Phillip summoned four clones that disappeared from view immediately after.

"Be nice to your babysitters," Phillip said offhandedly before walking back to the others. He pulled out the blue blanket and tossed it over the two girls. With little else to do, Phillip sat against the pillar opposite of them and drifted off into the void quickly. Though he knew it wouldn't last.

Subconscious Arena,

Not long after he shut his eyes, his drifting consciousness found itself back in the field of endless pillars. This time, however, Gabriel was already before him with a teacup in hand. He gave a casual sip with a stone face before speaking.

"Welcome back. Would you like some crumpets?"

"Gabriel…"

"Oh, fine," Gabriel grumbled and snapped his fingers. The table before the angel vanished without a trace, and he leaned forward intently. "I want to state that keeping Bronya around is the best course of action as of right now. She will be a strong ally later on if you can win her trust."

"Which, I'm assuming, you don't believe I'm doing well at."

"You're being cautious," Gabriel said honestly. "It's not the wrong method, given the circumstances, but you'll need to be less hostile later on if you keep her around."

Phillip crossed his right leg over his left, leveling a flat stare at his company. "She hasn't given me any reason to trust her yet. Her potentially being an ally later doesn't mean I should drop hostilities now. We're dealing with a problem of her making. So, until we leave this city, I'm not stopping."

"Trust me, I understand," Gabriel replied, bringing a hand to his forehead in exasperation. " But this journey will have its end, and this belief will have to end with it."

"I'll keep it in mind. Anything else to talk about?"

Gabriel paused for a moment, seeming to ponder Phillip's words before casting them aside as the angel flipped his hand, and the teacup disappeared. "This will suffice for now. Keep your wits about you and give my regards to her when you wake."

"Again?" Phillip asked half-heartedly, but the words couldn't escape his throat fast enough, his world darkening rapidly. Soon, the process from before played once more.

December 13th, 7:50 am,

Phillip noticed the girls were no longer in front of him upon opening his eyes. A weight on his left shoulder spoke of the presence of one of them, but the other wasn't observable from his placement. With a turn of his head, his nose bumped into a white ahoge, causing him to recoil back. There, sleeping a lot more soundlessly than he expected, was Kiana.

Phillip quickly summoned a clone and swapped with it. Now free from his confines, Phillip checked around for the missing link and found her in the middle of the structure, right in the place where Bronya should be.

Mei stared down at the unconscious girl with a mix of anger and pity. Her hands clenched and unclenched in a set rhythm, and Phillip saw some small arcs of electricity dance around her arms as he walked up.

"Hey," Phillip said once he was close, hoping to disarm the situation before the Herrscher made another break for it.

Mei jumped at his voice, losing her concentration on Bronya as she looked at him in surprise. "Oh! Phillip-kun, you…" Mei took a couple of breaths to calm down before continuing. "You scared me a little. I was so focused on her that I wasn't paying any attention."

"You're fine," Phillip replied as he did beside her, eyes fixed on Bronya. "Are you feeling okay? You seemed unnerved."

"I…" Mei sent another look at Bronya. "I'm angry. I want to yell at her, attack her, make her feel everything I was forced to feel, but-"

"But she's a kid," Phillip finished, earning a flinch from Mei for his efforts. "She was instructed to do something, and she couldn't possibly have known the pain she was inflicting. Am I getting that right?"

Mei nodded at this, an agonizing expression displayed on her face. She didn't want to admit it, but she felt more pity for the girl than anger.

"Then understand this: she knew," Phillip explained solemnly. "She knew what would happen and felt no need to act against it."

"But… she's too young."

"It's fine to show your enemies compassion." Phillip turned fully to Mei, meeting her reluctance with seriousness. "If she does show remorse at the right time, then let her. But never give them the means to manipulate you, or you'll be hurt more than you are now."

"… I understand," Mei agreed with a downtrodden expression. "I… I think I'll go back to sleep." She made to walk away from him but was stopped by Phillip and pulled into a hug.

"I know what I said was harsh, especially towards her, but I don't want you to get hurt anymore. Can you understand that, for my sake?"

Mei remained slack in his arms for a couple of minutes. Soon, though, she circled her arms around him and squeezed tightly as she laid her chin on his shoulder.

"I understand. Thank you."

Phillip gave one more squeeze, pulled back, and gave her a gentle smile. "Why don't you go wake up Kiana? Then we can have some breakfast."

Mei returned the smile, nodded, and took off back to where they had slept before. Phillip watched her leave for only a minute before looking back to Bronya, the smile fading into a neutral face.

"You heard that, didn't you?"

Bronya opened her light gray eyes to send an analytical gaze at her captor. "How did Subject Phillip determine Bronya's slumber falsified?"

"Your breathing altered when Mei and I started taking," Phillip explained, arms crossed over his chest. "We're going to eat, then we're going to move along. Can you walk far distances?"

"Why risk bringing da Bronya asking?" she asked immediately, the idea obviously lingering in her mind since their first talk. "Wouldn't da Bronya simply be a burden to you? Better to abandon her."

Phillip's eyes narrowed at this. "I'm not going to abandon you for lack of use. In fact, it's because you can be a problem that I need to bring you along."

Bronya didn't react to this. Instead, her attention shifted to where Mei ran off to. "Movement detected. Unwanted surveillance is likely being utilized."

Phillip shook his head at this. "Remind me to fix your robot speech sooner rather than later." He turned over to the spot and gave the intruder a warm smile. "Besides, she's someone you ought to talk to."

The person stepped out into the clearing, revealing themselves to be Mei. She looked down at Bronya with the same expression she had worn before. Phillip walked over to Mei and squeezed down into her shoulder as reassurance. He then walked away from the two with this to say as he did.

"I'll handle breakfast. Why don't you two settle your differences?"

8:00 am,

"Why are we taking her along?!"

Kiana's cry was muffled by the mulch of food still in her mouth. Phillip settled a glare in her direction, causing her to inadvertently gulp and rid the conglomerate of produce and saliva.

"Better," Phillip said as he finished wrapping the breakfast burrito and handed it off to the last one: Bronya. "We're taking her because we don't have a choice. Either we do and be safer, or we don't, and it bites us in the Alps." He suffered a minor slap to the back of his head for this comment.

"Language."

"I didn't curse."

"You meant to," Mei explained before taking a sip of green tea with a small look at Bronya. "It's also rude to treat her as if she isn't here."

Phillip shook his head at the girl, picked up his own burrito that lay on his lap, and took a bite. He wasn't interested in starting a battle with Mei, so the best decision was to finish early so they could get moving sooner.

Kiana looked over the new addition with a critical eye and pointed out a rather amusing factor. "Does anyone want to point out that Phillip ran away from a cripple?"

Her amusement came to an abrupt stop when Phillip landed a chop on her head. As she nursed the bump it caused, Phillip decided to address that same problem.

"That is something we'll need to talk about. Can you walk, or will you need carrying?"

Bronya leveled a blank gaze at him. "Subject Phillip has witnessed da Bronya walk before yesterday's events."

Phillip nodded at this, earning a critical glance from the others. "I have, but some time has passed since then. I wasn't certain if you still possessed the same level of motor control."

With that, Bronya made to stand up, though several motions suggested her robot aided her in the process. After several struggled attempts, she managed the task with trembling legs.

"Oh, totally convinced with that," Kiana commented teasingly. "Look at this kid, thinking she's tough."

Bronya appeared before Kiana in a blink with her left hand poised to strike Kiana in the neck with a jab, proving the attempts prior were simply for show. However, she couldn't land the blow as she was surrounded by clones immediately, each with a blade at critical pressure points.

"Calm down," Phillip said nonchalantly. "We don't have time to be messing about. So, stow away the hostilities and get ready to move out."

Kiana pouted at his words but stowed the gun she pulled before back into its holster. "Fine, but I want an apology for the attack."

"Denied."

"Brat, you better-"

"Enough." Phillip glared down at the two girls, causing both to pause. "Kiana, you're going to clean up the food. Make sure everything comes out spotless."

"What?!"

Phillip then rounded to Bronya, ignoring the pleas of the white-haired annoyance. "You're going to help collect your scrap metal so I can seal it away."

"Project Bunny."

"Scrap metal," Phillip finalized, ending the conversation before it could escalate. He then turned over to Mei. "Could you step outside for a moment? This shouldn't take long."

Mei stood up and looked at him with innocent determination. "Allow me to help Kiana-chan. It's the least I could do."

Seeing that Mei didn't realize his reasoning for the task, Phillip opened his mouth to deny the idea but let out a sigh instead. "Fine. Just make sure Kiana does some of it." Once again, ignoring the indignant cry, he looked at Bronya. "Let's go."

8:30 am

They reconvened outside, with Kiana and Mei carrying the pans he used to seal away. After everything was placed in the correct seal and Kiana got a reload of ammo, they set off into the city.

The traveling was relatively uneventful. Other than the clone carrying Kiana around voicing complaints about harassment, nothing of interest happened during the time used. Bronya remained completely docile with her clone while Mei struggled to calm Kiana down and keep an eye on Bronya. It was after several minutes that something caused them to stop.

"That's it!" Kiana's clone dived down and landed hard against the concrete roof of the skyscraper below it. Phillip sighed before chasing after it, landing just as Kiana was dropped like a sack of potatoes. The other clones soon landed afterward.

"Hey, what gives!?" Kiana yelled, rubbing her bottom in response to the sudden fall. "I didn't do anything!"

"I'm tagging out!" The clone stared at Phillip with angry eyes, obviously offended by something. "Get one of the other clones to do this! I'm done!" The clone dispersed with a puff of smoke, and the memories were sent to Phillip. He simply brought his right hand up to his face and breathed a sigh.

"Kiana, please keep the groping above there, please." Kiana grew a bright crimson blush at his words and stammered a couple excuses that he didn't care to listen to. Phillip looked back to the other two, noting both Bronya's relatively flat expression and Mei's own blush forming. "Do you girls need to stretch your legs?"

Bronya was the first to move, removing her arms around the clone's neck and dropping to the roof. "Bronya lacks the desire to stay in a male's grasp much longer. Beginning recon."

Phillip watched the girl head to the edge of the building to peer down at the streets below them before looking at Mei, who was much slower in her own attempt, eyes locked on to Bronya's retreating form. Once she had joined them on solid ground, the clones were dispersed, and Phillip addressed the group in total.

"We'll continue on by foot from here, for now. I'll bring out clones again once they've cooled off, and we'll secure a path out of the city from there."

Kiana raised her left hand, leaning back on her right as she did. "If we get tired, can we get a lift?"

"Mei can. Bronya doesn't want it, and you're on probation."

Kiana gave a huff at this, causing Mei to giggle at her expense. The calm, gentle moment lasted only a moment, but it seemed to ease off the tension from earlier that morning. When Bronya came back with her analysis complete, the group traversed the building down, clearing zombies along the way before finally reaching the ground floor.

They didn't need to talk much to understand the primary formation as they continued down the streets in cautious strides. Bronya took the front, with Phillip close behind, to keep an eye out for oncoming threats, while Kiana held up the back. Thus, Mei was left in the middle to lend aid as much as possible to whichever group needed it.

As they walked the wide roads, dodging around the abandoned/zombie-infested cars that littered the streets, Mei slowed her pace just enough to match up with Kiana. Kiana immediately latched herself onto Mei's arm and rubbed her head on the bare skin there. Mei allowed the act of affection, a gentle smile gracing her face as she watched, but soon pulled her arm from the Kaslana's grasp to start a conversation.

"What do you think about Phillip-kun allowing her to come with us?"

Kiana let out a huff at the question. "That brat needs to learn her place. One moment, those two are enemies, and now, Phillip can't keep his eyes off her." Her brow furrowed as aggravation settled onto her face. "Didn't think him as a lolicon."

"I... don't think that's the case." Despite these words, Mei was now staring at Phillip in suspicion. She shook it off quickly and continued with her actual meaning for the talk. "What I meant before was if you thought bringing her along was the right decision."

Kiana snorted at this. "Oh, hell no. I don't know what he's thinking, but I think we should have simply left her to pick up that scrap pile and left." A dribble of drool soon flowed out from the corner of her mouth as she eyed Phillip's form in front of them. "At least, we could have fewer things blocking the view."

This thought process was halted by Mei pinching Kiana's ear and giving it a pull. "Stop thinking pervy thoughts, Kiana-chan. It's doing you no good." Whimpers and unintelligible noises escaped Kiana's mouth as she struggled to escape the punishment. Mei only held it for a minute, though, before letting go and allowing Kiana to recover. "I just want to believe he's doing this to help us or, at least, to keep us safe."

"I think the two of you need to entertain this idea of his."

The two jumped when the voice reverberated through their minds, quickly searching their environment for the source while Kiana pulled one of her guns. Not finding the source, as Phillip was now too far away for such a soft voice, Kiana turned to Mei with wide eyes.

"You heard that, right? Like, I'm not going crazy or anything like that."

Mei opened her mouth to voice her own confusion, but the same voice reverberated through her mind once more. "Your mental state isn't in question, young Kaslana. I'm a companion of your other friend and would like to settle the record somehow."

Kiana's face scrunched up as she tried to rack her brain for what the disembodied voice meant. "Friend? That crazy brat is no friend of mine. A nuisance maybe, but not a friend."

A silence befell the group as Mei gave Kiana a light smile that hid the sweat drop forming on her head. Once the moment had passed them by, Mei let out a soft cough and tried drawing more information from the voice.

"Voice-san, are you talking about Phillip-kun?"

"Please, call me Gabriel. Yes, I'm referring to the walking mess in front of you."

Mei's eyes wandered over to the back of the boy, who craned his neck about to be wary of anything close by. She had to wonder if he could hear them, as he had already displayed rather extraordinary senses, but the voice- Gabriel- managed to dissuade her fears.

"Don't worry too much. So long as I reside nearby, he won't hear anything other than that which I allow."

"So," Kiana started, her mind whirling into hyperdrive for her machinations. "If I yelled something about his ass, he wouldn't hear it."

"Oh, no, I would make sure he heard it. Teasing him is my favored pastime."

With that, Kiana opened her mouth in order to shout out what was on her mind but shut it quickly when a dangerous aura was felt beside her. Tilting her head to the left, Kiana noticed Mei give her a smile that was anything but warm.

"Kiana-chan, what exactly are you going to say?"

"N-Nothing!"

"Good." The aura faded at this, allowing Kiana to breathe again. Mei then cleared her throat a bit before returning to the voice. "Gabriel-san, you mentioned that you wanted to settle something before. What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, it's nothing much. I just wanted to alert you that this was slightly less his idea and more of mine."

Kiana stopped walking at this as frustration crossed her face. "So, it's your fault we're taking care of some brat?! Ah, just when I thought you were kinda cool too!"

"Excuse me for being uncool." The voice didn't convey the same level of offense the statement suggested, "Besides, that girl can become a great asset as we continue down this story."

"What, can ya see the future or something?"

There was a long pause at Kiana's question before Gabriel responded. "... Don't be ridiculous. I'm simply making an assumption based on interactions."

"Bullshit!"

Gabriel simply ignored the cry and shifted his focus to Mei. "What were the fruits of your conversation with Bronya?"

Mei didn't respond to the question. How could she when the two's conversation boiled down to staring each other down and an unanswered question that still boiled in Mei's head: "why?" When she realized no answer was coming her way, Mei had left Bronya in a fit of rage.

Gabriel, however, seemed to know exactly what was on her mind. "Don't worry too much; Bronya will open up to you eventually. All you have to do is not treat her like a burden or a pest."

Silence befell the girls as they continued their walk. Mei stared gloomily down at her feet, shamefully believing her reaction was terrible. Apparently, Gabriel sensed the atmosphere shift as he tried to excuse himself from the situation.

"I should return to Phillip. Remember to try and treat her better next interaction."

"Wait!" Kiana cried, stopping Gabriel in his tracks to hear out the white-haired girl. "I have one more thing to ask!"

"Very well. What's your question?"

"What's Phillip's size?"

Exactly two seconds later,

A smack resounded across the area, causing Phillip to halt immediately and turn around to face the source, hands placed in position to pull whatever weapon he needed. He was met with Kiana's face first in the cement before her, and Mei stormed up to him with her bangs hiding her eyes. Phillip simply allowed Mei to pass him by, not willing to incite her wrath, and went to pluck Kiana out of her hole.

"What did you say to get you in this position?" Phillip asked humorously. Kiana quickly pulled herself together, shrugging off her stunned state to pout at the retreating heiress as she stood up.

"I asked an important question, and she got all huffy," Kiana explained grumpily, causing Phillip to simply sigh.

"Knowing you, it was either about food or something perverted." He ignored the indignant cry Kiana let out at the accusation and continued his stride with the group. Phillip noticed that Bronya had sent Mei an analytical gaze but retracted it when she spotted him.

"You should try helping those two grow closer."

Phillip hummed at Gabriel, seemingly entertaining the idea for a moment, but decided to place his focus on the other problem instead.

What were you talking with Kiana and Mei about?

"... What gave it away?"

There was too little noise coming from Kiana when she was next to Mei. So, what's the problem?

"Just shedding some light on our little situation, nothing much else."

Phillip rose a brow at this, uneasy settling into his heart at the dismissive manner. Why is it that, whenever you say that, I'm the least at ease?

Before Gabriel could respond to this, Bronya called out from the front. "Movement detected in the general vicinity. Please, stand advised. "

Phillip appeared beside Bronya instantly, leaving both Mei and Kiana to catch up while he searched for the disturbance. Luckily, he spotted it rather quickly. The lumbering giant was still inside the skyscraper Bronya was staring at, seen through a tinted glass wall. Unluckily, however, it seemed to have spotted them as well.

As the 10-foot monster burst through the front of the building, its pale pigment glistened in the sunlight, eerily reminding Phillip of the swarm that he, Kiana, and Mei had fought days prior. In fact, the creature held a lot of similarities to the bugs, such as multiple parts of its body floating separate from the main structure and the magenta indents. This time, though, the white skin of the beast looked similar to armor, covering a dark purple body beneath, and held armaments: a lance for its right arm and a shield for its left.

Kiana gave the beast a cautious look as if it scared her somewhat to fight it. "If we're fighting this, we need to be careful. This one is stronger than that swarm we had to deal with."

"Is there an estimation to that description?" Phillip asked, hoping to garner more information about the currently still figure before them.

"Um, a lot?"

"Peachy," Phillip grumbled as a response before pulling out the sword to initiate his attack. "Mei, stick with Bronya. Kiana and I will handle this fight."

Before Mei could try to voice any objections, the beast finally moved. It launched itself forward and reared the lance back, aiming to pierce through Phillip. With a push, Phillip sent Bronya back far enough to crash into Mei and dodged the attack quickly. As the lance hit the ground, Kiana quickly climbed up and began firing at the magenta hole of an eye.

The Honkai beast was unfazed by the barrage and swung the lance to its side to launch Kiana away, its focus still locked onto Phillip as he got underneath the beast. Phillip threw a skyward slash in hopes of cleaving the beast in two, but it managed to block at the last second. The attack was repelled, and the blade was buried deep within the concrete below. Phillip quickly pulled the sword out and dashed back to avoid another attack.

Realizing that frontal assaults wouldn't work, Phillip moved behind the beast and readied another attack. Unfortunately, the beast was prepared for this and turned around fast with its lance stretched out. Phillip blocked the blow as it slammed into his right side but was still sent flying through three buildings, one street after the other.

After going through the third, Phillip readjusted himself to land on his feet and skidded to a stop before the fourth. With a quick look-over, he found himself without injury and looked through the holes made by his impromptu flight.

The beast seemed ready to follow Phillip through the buildings but stopped when a rain of bullets pelted it fun above. Phillip made the logical assumption that it was Kiana and got ready to blitz back to the main battlefield when the opportunity appeared. As the beast turned to address the returned threat, he did just that.

Coated entirely in lightning, Phillip zoomed through the skyscrapers and crashed into the unprotected backside of the monster. He passed through it like a bullet to paper and landed on the ground before the monster with his right leg stretched out and a spin. Phillip raised his head to quickly note the damage, a 6-foot hole in the pale white armor, but couldn't waste much time. Already, the wound started to close, the monster was recovering, and lightning began to trace the lance.

With a blur of hand signs, Phillip stopped on one where his index fingers touched, thumbs slightly curled while pointed inward, while the others were interlocked by the middle knuckles. He leaned back with puffed cheeks, a blazing inferno building in his throat, and the incantation in his head.

Katon: Great Fire Annihilation!

Phillip thrust his head forward violently and quickly let out the breath he held back. Starting out a straight line of fire, it soon burst out into a great sea of flames after traveling a foot forward. The attack consumed the monster immediately before spreading out to cover several skyscrapers behind it. Phillip made sure not to go full force with the attack, though, as he didn't wish to reduce an entire section of the city into melted metal and ash. Thus, the attack stopped after the first set of skyscrapers and rounded back into itself to form a massive orb of fire.

Phillip continued the attack for several minutes, long enough for the heat of the flames to grow to uncomfortable levels, before finally releasing the jutsu. Once the fire disappeared, he looked at the new ruins before him.

The monster was long gone, reduced to ashes, along with buildings directly behind it. The cement where the fireball sat and several nearby skyscrapers showed signs of melting. To be completely honest, the only things that weren't damaged were Mei, Bronya, and Kiana, and all of them were looking at him with either fear, awe, or a mix of the two.

However, only Kiana was vocal about it, yelling loudly from the top of the building she was sent to.

"What the hell was that?!"

Phillip decided not to dignify that with a response. He simply made a clone to aid Kiana in returning to ground level. At the same time, he went over to Mei and Bronya, who stood in the exact positions as before the battle.

"You two alright?"

Mei simply nodded at him, her eyes still wide from the display. Bronya, however, was able to vocalize her condition.

"All functions remain nominal, Subject Phillip."

Phillip nodded his head at this and was about to respond in kind when the noise of strained metal resounded around them. He looked around, hoping to find the source, and got his answer when the skyscraper next to them began to crumble, sending the roof down to crush the three.

Now free from her trance, Mei quickly sprung into action and wrapped her arms around Bronya to protect the younger girl. Bronya was utterly stunned by this action, causing the two to fall to the ground as the top came barreling down.

Phillip, however, simply looked at the debris with disinterest before moving over to stand above the girls, facing them with both arms held far out to his side and hands turned backward. When the concrete hit him, the windows shattered into a spray of shards, but the piece remained intact as Phillip stopped it in its tracks. Smoke billowed out when the rest of the buildings crashed into the ground but disappeared just as quickly as it came. With a heave, Phillip threw the concrete piece to the other side of the street, where it shattered when it hit the ground, and asked his question once more.

"Are you two okay?"

With two new cuts marring her left cheek, Mei turned to him and said, "We're okay. Just… just extremely relieved right now."

Phillip rose a brow at this. "Mei, you're bleeding."

"It doesn't hurt," Mei tried to explain vainly, her twitching left eye giving her pain away. " It's a shallow cut."

Bronya, unharmed by the incident, stared at Mei for a moment before voicing her thoughts. " Subject Mei protected da Bronya, despite disposition. Why?"

Mei looked at her with an odd expression, as if she couldn't decide on either pity or sympathy. Then, she looked off to the side to stare remorsefully at the nothing. "I… I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me."

Bronya didn't react to this answer, only looking down at her feet with an unreadable expression. Luckily, however, someone else decided to make herself known and drew attention away from the gray-haired girl.

"Mei-senpai!" Kiana cried out as she crashed into Mei with a bone-crushing hug, catching the older of the two off guard. Mei tried to reciprocate the affection, but Kiana pulled back quickly to glare down at Bronya.

"Stupid brat, you nearly got Mei-senpai killed! What do you have to say for yourself?!"

Bronya lifted her head to meet Kiana, a spark flying between the two. "Subject Kiana will now be referenced as Kiana Idiotka for the future."

"What!?" Kiana reached over and grabbed Bronya by the collar, teeth grinding against each other. "Are you calling me an idiot, Bratnya!?"

"Kiana Idiotka's analytical capabilities seem suboptimal. Suggested measures for rectification are cranial percussive maintenance."

"Enough." Phillip stepped in between the two, preventing any potential battle between the two. "I'd rather not attract any more beasts to our location. So, stow the hostilities for now, and let's get moving."

Bronya seemed more than willing to listen to Phillip, backing down and retreating to Mei's side, who seemed conflicted on the matter. On the other hand, Kiana took this as an invitation to point her aggression at him instead.

"And you," she seethed, glaring more intently at him than with Bronya. Phillip believed it had something to do with the fires from before but was confused when Kiana reached past him and seemed to pull something towards her, though with a little struggle.

When Kiana brought her hand back between the two of them, Phillip found a large piece of glass in her hand, coated in crimson blood.

"You have a hundred of these in your back! Are you trying to play it cool, or are you just a complete dumbass!?"

Phillip brought his shoulder forward and looked over it to get his own assessment. Several jagged shards of glass sprouted out from his back, each of them leaving a blotch of blood on his coat.

"Sorry," Phillip said as he plucked the shards from his back. "I have a habit of turning off my nervous systems when I battle."

"Subject Phillip never displayed such abilities in previous altercations with Bronya," Bronya said in her signature monotone.

Phillip locked eyes with the young girl with a dry smile. "That should tell you what I thought of those meet-ups." As he removed the final shard and dropped it into the pile beside him, Phillip gave a side-eye glance at the other two to view their expression. Kiana was still glaring sternly at him with her hands on her hips, while Mei had nothing but concern on her face.

Phillip breathed out a slight sigh, primarily to hide a grunt of pain, as Gabriel reactivated his nervous system and turned to continue their travels. "Let's get going-"

A hand grabbed onto his right sleeve and gave a hard yank. Phillip turned to pull the offender off of him, only for his other side to be captured too, and, after a slight tug of war, his coat was stripped from his body.

"Got it!"

"Kiana!"

The white-haired menace ran away from him, waving the coat like a trophy above her head. "Mei-senpai, get his shirt while he's distracted! Stupid bastard is getting healed somehow!"

"O-okay! I'll try!"

Phillip chased down Kiana, trying to take his coat back. However, Kiana was smart enough to avoid his grasp and weaved around every attempt. Mei tried her best to catch Phillip unaware, but failed at every turn.

Bronya watched this scene unfold before her with a blank expression. However, beneath her emotionless façade, she felt some of the weight on her soul begin to lift. A few minutes passed, the commotion growing more and more chaotic, Bronya walked towards to join the fray.

I didn't feel confident with this chapter, as I'm certain I still lack the ability to portray a good battle. However, this was taking too long and I need to post something of substance.

I hope you guys enjoy it, despite it all, and I hope to see you all later.