The trio were now sitting in what was left of their classroom. Mei still looked very much despondent and was still crying, but at least she didn't feel like throwing herself off the building anymore. Rei, still shaken by the events that had just occurred, buried his face into her shoulder. Kiana was glad that they weren't hurt, though she didn't know why Rei looked even more shaken up than he was when he had just regained consciousness. She tried to ask him, but he wouldn't answer, and Mei was sobbing too much for her to answer any questions.

Her stomach rumbled, and it was here that she realized they all had a major problem.

They needed to eat.

Kiana quickly looked around and noticed Rei's backpack was still there, still intact. How it managed to survive was unknown, but that was the last thing on her mind.

"Aha!"

She ran over to it and opened up the bag to find a seemingly untouched bento box. Carefully taking it out, she opened it to reveal a cold yet edible-looking lunch.

Taking his cutlery as well, she brought them over to the traumatized couple who were still huddling in a corner.

"Rei-senpai?" she said as she tapped on Rei's shoulder. He looked up and saw what she was holding in her hands.

"Huh? Oh, that's my lunch… you can eat it if you want, Kiana…"

"No, you need it more than me."

Rei didn't have the heart to insist, so he took it. He took his chopsticks, picked up a small amount of rice, and ate it. It was stale and rather tasteless, but it was better than nothing, and at least it didn't taste foul.

He took another small pile of rice and went to feed it to Mei, who reluctantly opened her mouth to eat it.

She sniffed. "Will… Will anyone forgive me… after what I did?"

"It's not your fault, Mei…" he comforted her.

"B-But…" Tears were coming out of her eyes again. "I… killed so many people…"

"I don't blame you for any of this…"

"Why…?"

"None of us could've expected any of this to happen… and I don't believe you're at fault for any of this."

"You… You really think so…?"

Rei fed her some more rice, to which she hesitantly ate.

"Why did you save me…? I'm still a danger to all of you, and… and I don't want to hurt both of you…"

"Because… even after all of this…"

He set his bento box down and gently cupped Mei's cheeks, their gazes now locked.

"…I still love you, Mei."

He then kissed her. It was a short kiss, but it was enough for him to fully convey his message. When they separated, both of their eyes welled with tears.

"I don't know when things will get better," Rei continued. "But no matter what happens… I promise I'll always stay by your side."

"R-Rei…" She stuttered before pulling him into a tight hug and bursting into tears. "T-Thank you… for e-everything…"

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Rei looked out of the broken window with a solemn look on his face. It was almost pitch dark. All the lights were out as Nagazora, having been completely ravaged, was now cut off from the power grid.

He couldn't sleep. How could he? After everything that happened, his mind wouldn't let him take a break. He wished Kiana would hit him in the head with a bat right now so he could pass out, but she had somehow already fallen asleep, and he didn't want to disturb her.

Mei had fallen asleep long ago, having been tired out by her constant sobbing. She was lying on Rei's lap as a substitute for a pillow, snoring softly and unconsciously tightening her grip on Rei's right hand. Rei sighed, slowly running his fingers through her soft, violet hair. Even after all of this, she was still as beautiful as ever. Just thinking about her face was enough to give him some brief comfort.

He looked out the broken window again as he continued to let his mind wander, and remembered he had killed a few of his classmates. He expected himself to take this news less well than he was right now, but, deep down, something told him they deserved it. He clenched his fists as anger built up in him.

That's right… they deserved it. They had what was coming for them. They dared to hurt Mei, to bully her. She was entirely innocent, and yet they did it anyway. Those fucking bastards! I shouldn't have immediately burnt the rest of them. They should suffer! Suffer for what they-

His thoughts were interrupted when Mei shifted slightly on his lap. His anger immediately dissipated, replaced with regret.

Oh… I killed them… I killed them in front of Mei… she must have seen it all…

I'm sorry Mei… for traumatizing you…

He thought about it some more. He knew about Herrschers. They were the beings who instigated the Honkai Eruptions, with the most notable one being the Eruption that happened when he was 3 years old. He knew how destructive they were, and that they could wreak serious havoc.

He just didn't expect himself and Mei to be one of those Herrschers.

He lowered his head and covered his eyes, which were now welling up with tears again.

…

He looked outside again. The rain seemed to have subsided and the clouds had parted, revealing a night sky that was, for the first time in many years, filled with stars. It was beautiful, but what would be a comforting view instead made him feel worse. He felt like even the stars in the sky were mocking him, only showing themselves at the worst time of his life.

He sobbed quietly until he finally fell into a restless slumber.

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Mei awoke to the sound of thunder. She slowly opened her eyes and was greeted with the sight of the city being drenched by torrential rainfall. The sky remained dark as if the sun had never gone up, contributing to the gloomy and despondent atmosphere. She didn't want to get up. She didn't want to face reality. She wanted to curl up and stay here forever.

She felt the object she was resting her head on shift, and she looked up to see she was resting on Rei's lap. He was still asleep, snoring softly. Bags under his eyes indicated that his slumber wasn't a particularly pleasant one. There was also some residue left on his cheeks, hinting that he had been crying before falling asleep. Mei tried to get up slowly to not disturb him, but Rei slowly opened his eyes when she sat up.

"Mei…?" he whispered, too tired to raise his voice.

She hugged him. They didn't say anything else for a while. The warm hug was enough for them.

…

"Mei, there's… there's something I need to say…" Rei whispered again after they separated.

"What is it…?"

"Do you remember what happened? In the school courtyard…?"

"Huh…?"

"Did you…" He swallowed a lump in his throat. "Did you see me… kill our classmates…?"

Mei's eyes widened.

"I… I don't know why I did that…" He choked on his words. "I wanted to protect you, and I just got so angry when I saw them kicking you… and I… I don't know how it happened, but the next thing I knew… I… I had killed them…"

She didn't know how to respond.

"You must have seen it all, right…? Will you ever forgive me, Mei…? For… for traumatizing you like this? I…"

"Rei, I-"

He suddenly pushed himself away from her.

"I… I don't know if I can ever forgive myself for t-this… I… I'm sorry…"

"Rei…?" Mei tried to approach him, but he pushed her away again.

"N… No… don't… you'll probably see me as a monster, right…? I'm… I'm sorry… I love you Mei, I truly do… but I don't think I should-"

She hugged him as tightly as she could.

"M-Mei…?" he sniffed.

"D-Don't blame yourself, Rei…" she comforted him. "You weren't in control of yourself… just like I was when…" She trailed off, not wanting to recount what had happened anymore.

"R-Really? You… You think so…?"

After a long while, he managed to force a weak smile.

"Heh… I'm… I'm such a fool, Mei…"

"Don't say that…"

They stayed in their warm embrace when they were interrupted by Kiana.

"Mei-senpai! Rei-senpai! Are you two feeling better now?"

The couple silently nodded, and before they could do anything else, their hug turned into a group hug, though it felt more like Kiana was trying to compress them.

"Mmph!" Mei struggled to let out. "Can't- breathe-!"

"You two had me worried, you know!" Kiana pouted. "You wouldn't even let me hug you!" She then hugged them even tighter, and Rei felt like his eyes were about to bulge out of his sockets. Eventually, though, she mercifully broke the hug off. Despite having felt like he had been squished by an industrial compactor, Rei smiled, having experienced Kiana's antics once more. It was strangely reassuring and comforting, enough that he could just barely pretend that everything was alright.

Even if it wasn't.

He stood up and looked outside the window. The endless storm continued to rage on, but through the constant sheet of rain, he could make out what seemed like people. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. A crowd was on the cracked streets, but something was off about them. He could see that they walked peculiarly, one that didn't seem normal. They looked more like… zombies.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Mei! Kiana! Look!"

Mei and Kiana ran to the window and saw the same thing. They were confused and concerned.

"What?" Mei asked.

Suddenly, they heard a faint growl from behind them, and they immediately turned around in alarm. "Who's there?" Rei instinctively shouted, feeling fear take over him, and all he got as a response was a faint, yet louder, moan, which was also accompanied by some footsteps.

"Let me look," Kiana said before beginning to head for the open door.

"Kiana!" Mei grabbed her arm in concern. "They might be dangerous! What if-"

"Don't worry, Mei-senpai!" She puffed in response. "As a Kaslana, my duty is to protect both of you!" She then ran off.

Nothing else happened for a short while before the duo suddenly heard loud growling, followed by punching and kicking sounds. Rei stood up and slowly approached the door, ignoring Mei's protests. He peeked around the doorway and saw Kiana beating up what looked like the security guards who used to patrol the ME Corporation headquarters. Before he could do anything else, he was suddenly startled by a loud bang behind him. He immediately rushed into the opposite classroom out of pure instinct, and his mind began running through the possibilities. Was that a gunshot? No… no it can't be…

The same loud bang rang out twice more before the source suddenly turned to enter the classroom he was in. It was another security guard. It clumsily flopped around as if it were a zombie, and it held what looked like a pistol in its left hand. It let out another growl before firing said pistol in random directions.

Rei knew it was a matter of time before whoever that was got lucky, so he grabbed a nearby chair and hurled it at the guard to stun him, which worked, and the guard fell to the ground backward. He then charged forward, and without thinking, yanked the pistol out of its hand and shot its head with a loud bang, causing blood and brain to splatter everywhere in a horrific manner.

The guard spasmed before lying motionless.

"Hah… I just did that…"

Rei looked around the classroom, still gripping the pistol tightly, and checking to see if there were any more threats, to which there seemed to be no more.

As the adrenaline wore off, the realization of what he had done began to dawn on him, but before he could begin to fully comprehend what had happened, he heard a familiar high-pitched voice.

"Rei-senpai! Are you-"

"AH!" He yelped, startled by Kiana's sudden appearance, and he accidentally dropped the pistol he was holding. It fell to the floor and a shot rang out, blasting a hole into the opposite wall. Thankfully, nobody was in its line of fire.

"Are you okay!?" she exclaimed before hugging him.

"Y… Yeah… I t-think…" Rei's voice was shaky, the adrenaline finally wearing off. "I… I need to… lie down…"

He removed himself from the hug and slowly laid down on a patch of floor that was not as covered with debris and took a few deep breaths. As he did, he took a look at Kiana, and it looked like there was a fresh, red bruise on her face.

"What happened, Kiana?" he asked between breaths. "I heard some punching and kicking back there."

"Someone hit me, so I hit them back!"

"I… Okay, I guess that's a good enough explanat-"

"REI! KIANA!"

Mei barged into the classroom, fear written across her face.

"Is everything alright!? Did you get hurt?"

"Uhm… I guess we're okay…?" Rei replied as he stood up.

Mei stared at both of them for a few moments. Her worry was replaced with relief, and she pulled both of them into a hug.

"I'm glad you're both okay… I was just so worried… especially when I heard a loud bang…"

"You don't have to worry about us, Mei-senpai!" Kiana said proudly, and Rei couldn't help but chuckle. Eventually, the trio separated from the hug, and they were now focused on the peculiar corpse on the floor. They tried to ignore the blood and brains scattered around said corpse and looked closely at the former guard.

His skin was entirely white. Not deathly pale, but white, and so was his hair. Branching and glowing pink lines covered his face entirely, and his eyes were of a dull crimson.

…

Rei gulped. "It doesn't look like we're alone. We're not safe here."

"Then… what do we do?" Kiana asked. "Will anyone come to rescue us?"

"I don't think so…"

The three of them continued to stare at the zombified corpse.

"…It seems that," he continued. "If we want any chance of getting out of here, we have to leave ourselves. It will take a lot of walking, and we will most definitely run into more of these… people… but it's either that or we starve to death here."

He looked back up and thought for a moment.

"And we'll have to leave as soon as possible. We can't wait around. We have to grab everything we can and get out of here."

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Night fell. Rei was leaning against a wall and was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion and fatigue. Mei and Kiana had already fallen asleep.

They had spent most of the day scavenging whatever they could from the school. His school backpack leaned against the wall beside him and was filled with a bunch of bento boxes and water bottles left behind by the other classmates before their untimely demise. He had no idea how long the supplies would last, but they were planning to scavenge more on their way out anyway. Beside his backpack was a map seemingly meant for a Geography test, which thankfully showed the area around the school with some labeled landmarks and compass directions. Every compass he found in the school seemed to point toward entirely different directions, and thus this was the only way they could know if they were indeed walking northeast.

On top of the map were three shinai swords Mei had acquired from the kendo club. They were terrible weapons since they were designed to limit harm to whoever got hit, but it was better than using bare fists.

Rei continued to remain on the lookout for any additional threats, though the necessity of doing so was debated as every single possible entrance to the classroom they were in was barricaded with tables and chairs that, even if they did not do their job as barricades, would make enough noise to alert them. He held a pistol in his hand, the same pistol he took from the zombified guard he had killed this morning. He was thankful that the guard held two full spare magazines on him, and the other guard Kiana had killed also held some spare magazines. It wasn't much, but it was certainly better than an empty gun.

Realizing his eyes were closed, he opened them. He decided to stand up to make sure he didn't fall asleep that easily, though it helped a lot less than he thought it would.

…

He suddenly heard a faint mechanical whirring in the distance. He immediately tightened his grip on his pistol, waiting for a foe to pop out of the doorway, but he then saw a petite girl step into the classroom. She had silver drill-shaped locks of hair, and he swore that he had seen her somewhere before.

"What are you doing here?" Rei whispered as he lowered his gun, to which the girl did not answer. She briefly took a look around the classroom before turning around to leave.

Rei would've gone after her, but he was simply too tired to, and eventually, his body gave up on him.

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The yellow tree reappeared for a brief moment before disappearing, being replaced with a view of Nagazora City.

"H-How could you do t-this to us, Mei!?" Rei cried, tears falling out of his eyes as he confronted Mei in front of him. "You can't do this…! W-Why?"

"I… I had to…" she replied in a somber tone. "I… I wanted Kiana to live-"

"And you think that b-betraying us would fix any of this…?"

…

"REI!"

"Wha- Huh?" Rei groggily muttered as he opened his eyes. "Did I fall asleep…?"

"You did!" Kiana replied, and he immediately sat up. He looked around and found no signs of any attacks last night, which was a relief, but there was a strange increase in supplies. Notably, the sudden appearance of canned foods.

"Huh? Where did these come from?" he asked, perplexed. He then saw someone who looked slightly familiar. "Have I seen you before?"

The silver-haired girl nodded before continuing to stare at him with an emotionless face.

"Did you bring us those supplies?"

She nodded in response. "The Bronya found Subject Rei in a distressing situation last night and decided to help."

"Oh… How did you know my name?"

"Subject Mei told the Bronya about you."

"I see… Thank you." He saw what seemed like a faint smile appearing on her face for the briefest moment. "What's your name? Bronya…?"

"Zaychik."

Suddenly, Kiana ran to hug Bronya tightly, to which she responded with a single sentence.

"Let the Bronya go, Subject Kiana Idiotka."

Kiana immediately dropped the hug and glared at her.

"HEY! What did you call me, Bratnya?"

Rei smiled as he saw the two bicker, and looked out of the broken window, which showed an overcast sunrise. He felt a glimmer of hope that they would all make it out of here alive.