25th of May 2007, Holding Rooms within Schicksal Facility.

Kane.

A pounding headache was what Kane awoke to the next day, his jaw aching as he found himself strapped down onto a chair before a single metal table. He tested the straps on his arms and legs a few times before sighing in annoyance. 'That chick. I feel like I've met her before...' A pulse of pain in his head caused his thoughts to be disorganized, his head felt hot while he tilted backwards with a groan as he stared at the sole light above him.

'Flowers? Why am I thinking of flowers?' He clenched his eyes shut as his head continued to pound, flashes of a brief meeting entering his mind. He had met her once, as a child, it was a single moment where he had asked his sister to help him buy some flowers for mothers day, they were going to visit their mom at the hospital and he wanted flowers for her as a wish towards her health improving. 'Rossweisse Flowery, it was run by a father and daughter. Her name? What was it..." He wanted to rub his temples as the headache flared again, causing him to twitch a few times as he powered through it.

Something wasn't right. He knew that he took a hard hit from that woman, but even after being smacked by a Honkai Beast before he'd never had such a killer headache in his life, more often than not it was his bones that hurt, not his head. "I'm getting bored in here, kind of expected a good cop, bad cop sequence at this point!" Despite his shout, nothing new happened and he let himself slump with a sigh.

He knew he was being observed, Big Sis had taught him to feel for things like that, to feel for when something that had a predatory drive was observing him with interest. The issue was that he didn't know where it was coming from, the room was too dark and lacked any visible cameras on the walls, for him, it was just an enclosed room with nothing but a seat, a table and himself as the main attraction. 'God, my head...' He pushed down the desire to slam his own head onto the table before him and quickly found himself perking up as the mechanical door slowly slid open.

"I am afraid that you won't be receiving a 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' routine, my friend."

Otto Apocalypse.

Otto stepped forward into the darkened room, a second metal chair being dragged behind him as he made his way forward, the heavy scraping sound obviously getting on the child's nerves as he watched him grit his teeth. He finally sat down across from his guest, a glass of water being placed on the table alongside a sandwich that Rita had made.

"Shall we begin? Mind my style of doing things, I'm not too... versed in how these situations are done." He picked up the glass and took a sip from it, the ice within clinking against the rim as he placed it back down with a satisfied hum. "Apologies, I've been quite parched as of late and needed a drink." He sent the child a smile and wiped some leftover water from his own lips.

"Now. Do you remember your name?" He watched the child stare at him with narrowed eyes, suspicion, a feeling that wouldn't normally come from someone who looked at least eight to ten years old at most. Of course, that would make sense for someone who hadn't been spat out of a rift in the sky.

"Kane." Otto nodded at the child in thanks as he took mental notes. "No family?" Kane seemed lost for a few moments before the words registered and he shook his head while looking down at the table. An orphan? Good. He could work with that.

"Do you remember anything from before all of this?" He watched Kane's eyes dull before the child shook his head and looked away. Lying, textbook in its use, he was a bad liar at least. "How about the name.of your home?"

"Nowhere." He could feel an eyebrow raise as the child spoke, nowhere could mean many things, either his home was destroyed or following Rita's line of thought with his training, he was a child soldier. It was a possible theory, but possibility was for the ignorant. "Do you remember how you came to be here?"

"In this room or here in general? I'm pretty sure the first one can be answered by the lady who almost broke my jaw with her knee." Snarky. Possibly hot headed, not particularly a trait he liked, but one he could possibly deal with later. He nodded to the side as if to say the latter. "..."

Silent? There was something the child knew and it was something he was willing to withhold, a possible threat? An unknown?

"Please. If we can figure out how you got here, maybe we can help you get back to wherever you left." Kane's golden eyes stared back into his own, glowing ever so faintly as he stared at him, there were ever so slight flickers of something in them. Pain. Hope. Bitterness and something...

Something he was familiar with, a deep seeded self-loathing. A hatred, not for another, but for no one but himself. Whatever the child had experienced, he understood what had been left behind.

'I need this child.' He was surprised by his own thoughts as he stood up and grabbed the glass, a few steps was all it took for him to place it before Kane and unstrap his hands alone. "Please, I promise it has nothing within it." He felt the childs weary gaze focus on him before he reached out and grabbed it, drinking slowly

While the child focused on refreshing himself a golden cube took form in his hand, just barely out of the child's reach, Void Archives twisted in on itself before a golden feather manifested. He signalled towards the see-through wall, hearing through an earpiece that Rita had already removed everyone.

"Please. Relax for now." The child seemed to snap back to reality and noticed the feather, swatting at it and inadvertently triggering it's effects, his already golden eyes flashed a brillaint lustre before everything shifted.

March 28th 2014, Senba Academy - Changkong City.

Kane.

The faintest snores could be heard as Kane sat in his classroom, snooring away happily on his desk, completed homework beside him while he finally found time to sleep. The teen shivered ever so slightly in his sleep as something pulsed throughout the region.

ALERT! ALERT! HONKAI IMPACT IMMINENT! FIND SHELTER! ALERT! ALERT!

As the alarms blared the teen shot up straight with bleary eyes, his brain lagging for a few seconds before he realised what had been announced and slammed his table to the side before bolting towards the door of his classroom.

"Nonono, Sis said this place was the least likely place for this to happen! What the hell is going on!?" He slammed open the door and sped into the hall, the nearest shelter was on the academy's boundary and that meant he'd have to be fast.

"Everyone! Get moving!" He shouted to a few students down the hall as he ran towards them. The plan to help them get to the shelter died quickly as one of them turned to him, they seemed normal, they looked normal, but... Something didn't feel right.

Then it screamed. Deathly, a wail that would haunt him for all of his life echoed out as it started to walk towards him, it was slow but that wasn't what he was worried about, it was the noises picking up behind him, down the back hall and around the corner.

"No..." He backed up and ran towards the stairs, quickly making his way down them and only briefly have to dodge away from the grabbing hands of a few undead students who had been travelling the lower halls.

"I won't make it." Kane said to himself in a hushed voice as he looked out the window and into the courtyard. They were everywhere, there was no chance that he would get past them to the shelter and he doubted there were any actual safe places in the Academy itself. "Anywhere, fuck!"

He swore as a zombie gripped onto his arm with an intense grip, he could feel the bones creaking from the pressuer before something blindsided the monster, a somewhat large fist impacting with its face and throwing it away from him.

"MOVE IT FREAK!"

The person who shouted was a punkish upperclassmen with wild blonde hair and grey eyes that were filled with annoyance. "You good, Fire Crotch?" It was one of his bullies, at least one of the tame ones who at most asked for him to grab food every once in a while. "Y-Yeah! Thanks Toge!"

The older male sent him a fanged smirk before his features seemed to become focused as more undead began coming down the stairs. "Look. I don't like you, you probably don't like me. But, there's a closet a hall or two back that the janitor uses. I need you to fuck off and hide." He shook his head at the Toge's words and made to grab his arm only to get slapped backwards harshly.

"Fuck off gopher, I can't fit in there and I bet only a midget like you can make it inside. So get moving before I use your ass as a weapon against them." The stinging sensation cleared his frayed mind as he got up and ran, ignoring the laughter of the older teen and the fact that it soon faded into screams.

With no hesitation he locked himself within the closet the moment he reached it, dry heaving as he cried.

The sound of metal meeting flesh rang as Kane was shocked out of his brief sleeping spell. He shook his head to clear it only to jump as something heavy slammed against the door. He could hear somewhat winded breathing on the other side of the door. He reached out to push only to freeze, what if they attacked him like in those Survival Novels he read?

He was weak, he didn't have a weapon and worst of all, they had probably just beaten a zombie with what sounded like a pipe or something like that. What chance did he have? It would be better if he just stayed there and waited it out instead of risking it on a cha-

"Hello~! Local hero looking for survivors~! Anyone there!?" The female voice seemed familiar. The goofy and excited tone they spoke with reminded him of someone that had been kicked out of the academy library multiple times during study days because she couldn't shut up.

"Kaslana?" He spoke softly and almost screeched as he heard a body get thrown aside and the door was almost torn off of it's hinges. "That's the name, don't cut it off~" Mentally, he wanted to correct the saying, physically, she had already yanked him out and looked him over to spot any issues.

"You look good. No bite marks or broken bones, that's good. Wouldn't want you to be damaged right Kyle?" He grit his teeth as the girl spun him, almost dislocating his shoulder in the process before he pulled out of her grip and stepped away. "I'm fine! And, it's Kane. Not Kyle." The girl had the decency to loop sheepish at her mistake at least, so he couldn't find it in himself to judge her.

"Never mind that! Let's get moving, gotta get you to safety!" Kane looked at the girl oddly as if trying to figure out a puzzle as she pointed in the direction she was planning to go. "Why? Why save me?" He didn't understand the use of saving someone who couldn't fight back.

"Why not? The Hero saves those who needs help, do I need any other reason?"

As the teen felt himself be pulled along by the girl, he couldn't help but begin to understand why his sister risked her life so much for strangers.

After all, a Hero had saved his life.

Otto Apocalypse.

One would call Otto an apparition within the memories he had begun to walk. His eyes taking in the world around him as he followed what looked to be a slightly older version of the child he had been questioning.

An Impact, not unlike the First or Second, such was made obvious by the earlier announcement that had blared, but it couldn't have been. "No such Impacts were recorded recently and it couldn't have been Siberia, the region looks to be Japan."

If such an event occurred, the only people who could cover it up was was Schicksal and if he hadn't given the order to cover it up, that meant...

"He's from another world." The smile that formed was filled with an almost animalistic hunger as he made to follow the now duo of teens as they exited the school. The Kaslana reminded him of a more childish Kallen in some ways, always willing to be a hero and the older Kane seemed more... Innocent?

"Would that be the word?" He asked himself out loud as he observed the two bickering, conparing the teenager to the child he had taken in. The child seemed more tired and jaded compared to teen that had been saved and was going about setting a path towards a possible exit.

They had left onto a road, there were surprisingly few zombies along the way, causing him to focus on their surroundings, more than the duo, as he attempted to identify the location.

Honkai Influx detected, 2'o clock, 700 meters.

Otto watched with interest as the Kaslana girl pulled out her phone and honed in on the influx despite the objections of Kane. As they moved closer his ears detected the sound of electrical currents in the air, by the time they reached what looked to be a crowd of zombies he realised something was off.

"Mei?"

His eyes went to the Kaslana who was looking between her phone and the girl who stood at the epicenter of the zombie group.

'A Herrscher?' Otto felt his interest peak as he watched a purple haired girl turn away from the shocked Kaslana before turning to leave. He watched as the duo he had been following made their way to a racing track.

Kane.

"KEEP MOVING!" Kane felt himself be yanked to the side as a motorbike flew past him, the zombie on top of it just barely missing him as Kiana kept him safe. It was tiring to be honest, being yanked around non-stop but he had already noticed it, Kiana was deadset on saving Raiden Mei, so all he could do was-

"DUCK!" He followed her instructions, grip tightening on the metal pole he had found on Sakura Road. 'I am done with this!' He yanked his arm away from Kiana's grip and spun, swinging the pole into the next motorbike zombie, sending them off the bike as his muscles screamed in pain.

"Now that's more like it~!" He felt a palm slap against his back before he was pulled once more, they were heading to the main teachers building.

Where a storm had gathered, striking wildly at the roof where the shadow of a figure stood.

Raiden Mei.

Mei watched the duo of teenagers enter the teachers facility with a troubled look. Everything had collapsed so readily, the tempered glass that had been holding back everything had shattered and now, everyone was either dead or dying. She felt like she was going to vomit, yet, a shallow more jaded piece of her soul saw it as good.

After all, her bullies wouldn't be a problem anymore. She wouldn't be reminded of what happened to her father and... She could rest, but could she really? Could she rest knowing that whatever was inside of her, had killed so many people?

Purple hues glowed ominously as she turned away and looked to the sole door leading to the rooftop, red and white entering her vision as her underclassmen barged through the door.

"You're here."

Kiana Kaslana.

She had witnessed it all. After joining the academy, she had met Raiden Mei by pure chance. It had been after the first time she was kicked from the Library for being loud, she had went to the courtyard to calm down and looked up by pure chance.

"Mei..." She had been stunning, a beauty with no equal and yet, her eyes had looked so sad, as if she had wanted something more than anyone else and if was refused to her, time snd time again.

She was alone. The very few times she wasn't, she was being harassed, bullied and slandered by everyone who had acted as her friends, all because of her fathers supposed malpractice. Kiana had made sure to secrectly teach those people a lesson when no-one was looking.

And now, that lonely soul was being controlled by a Honkai capable of manifesting in a humans body. She needed to get her back go normal, she needed to break past the Honkai and reach the girl who was bogged down by her sadness.

"Yeah, course I am!" She stepped forward with a wide grin, placing the bat on her shoulder as she moved in front of Kane incase an attack came. "Not plannin' on letting your act all loner up here. Not when all of this is happening!" She reached out with a hand towards her Senpai.

"I don't deserve that." She watched as Mei shook her head with an odd calmness. Her fluctuating emotions had finally settled as the Honkai settled in. "I'll never let them hurt me again!" A piercing scream echoed across the rooftop as lightning blasted towards her.

Kane.

He felt his eyes widen as lightning was thrown their way, instinctively he tossed his pole forward the lightning being drawn in and obliterating the metal in an instant. 'This isn't good.' He needed to hide. He needed to run.

But.. That would leave Kiana alone.

"It's okay to be scared. Don't worry, I'll handle it Kane." He looked to the girl that had saved his life, her blue eyes sparkling as she sent him an over the shoulder glance before she ran towards Mei, bat at the ready.

He watched as she weaved in and out of the lightnings range, it was like a comic book brought into reality. As if a hero and villain were summoned to his world to duke if out.

With every action the distance between the two became short before Kiana stepped into range and swung, a bang echoed out as she hit Mei and she was sent careening into the nearby wall. Again and again, Kiana was doing everything to drain Mei's energy and it was working.

It was...?

"GET OFF OF ME YOU WORTHLESS HUMAN!" Mei screamed and the roof was blasted apart by a bolt of lightning that threatened to shatter the floor beneath them. At the centre of the blast stood a lone figure, barely held up by a metal bat that looked ready to break. "Just... Just DIE ALREADY!" It was faint, but something was happening to Mei, the way her face twisted in grief as she raised her hands. The... tears.

"You mad?" And Kiana just stood there bravely, ready to take a hit that would surely kill her. She was so cool, a Hero, just like she shouted about being earlier and, she was going to die.

Just like all the other Heroes who's funerals he attended with Big Sis.

Just like Mom.

His legs started moving before his mind even registered what it was doing. Flimsy legs pushing themselves harder than ever as the bolt began to fly. "OPEN YOUR EYES! YOU'RE NOT ALONE!" He reached Kiana and slammed into her full force, sending her out of the strike zone as he glared at Mei. "Not anymore."

The world was painted a vivid white as the bolt struck the ground, a chunk of the roof shooting up into his face with enough force to send him through the air and over the edge of the railing.

Before his view was cut off from the fall, he saw blue eyes widen with fear and purple ones lose the almost divine glow that had been forced upon them.

'I'm so tired...' He closed his eyes, not hearing the scream or the sound of the rooftop being blasted apart as a figure moved.

Kiana Kaslana.

"KANE!" A hoarse scream tore its way from her throat as she pushed her pain ridden body to the edge and launched herself off the roof, her hands reached out as one of her feet hooked itself on the rails.

She wouldn't miss. She couldn't. She felt her fingers briefly against her classmates. She could. She'd do it.

Only for her sweaty grip to miss at the last second. Her eyes stung as she watched him just barely slip by, falling to his death.

"You sentimental brat! Get out of my head!" Kiana watched awestruck as Mei shot past her, just barely reaching Kane and grabbing him with one arm before her spare shot out to grab her hand. Mei stared up at her with a light in her eyes that she hadn't had before.

Honkai Influx stabilised.

She watched as the signs of possession and corruption faded.

She couldn't stop the watery smile that formed.

It had worked.

Otto Apocalypse.

"Astounding." That was the only thing Otto could utter as he watched the teens pull off a feat that he himself hadn't thought possible. Breaking a Herrsched out of the Honkai's control.

The last time that had happened, it had required thousands of lives to stabilise the current head of Anti-Entropy and yet, here he could witness two teens reaching out with nothing but a promise of care and love to save someone and it had worked!

"I need more. Surely this isn't all you have to give, Kane!" He summoned forth the Void Archives and once more brought out Fenghuang Down, a golden flower blossoming in his hand as he made to control the memories, to see all that he could.

"Apologies. Overseer, but you've already seen too much~" Otto froze as a voice dripping with malice entered his mind, his vision being clouded as a hand enveloped his own, shattering his false Fenghuang Down along with the illusion that allowed him to see the memories.

"What an odd man, so familiar... Yet so different~" The voice chuckled as Otto felt himself slip back to reality.