I don't own Honkai. Mihoyo does. If I did own Honkai, we would still have the bunny girl event.
"Kiana! You're too fast!" she ran as fast as her little legs could take her. But no matter how far she ran, she could never catch up. Her older sister smiled and stopped at the front of the cabin, panting.
"I win again, Cecilia," Kiana said, placing her hands on her hips. Cecilia stopped in front of her sister, her hands on her knees.
"No fair. You got a headstart!" Cecilia pouted.
Kiana giggled and ruffled her hair. "Come on, let's go inside before Dad burns the food again."
"Okay!" The two girls walked inside to find their father in the kitchen. Dreading the worst, Kiana and Cecilia ran to the cabin's kitchen to find their father huddled over the stove with a pistol in his hand.
The pistols were white and black in design with orange lines of pulsating energy. Siegfried had his finger on the trigger, ready to fire when Kiana yelled.
"DAD! Don't cook with Shamash!" Kiana said.
"Huh? Oh! Baby dolls! You're back for dinner?" he asked, hiding Shamash behind his back.
"Dad! I know you have Shamash behind you."
"No, I don't," Siegfried said.
Kiana lunged at her father and began trying to wrestle the pistols of mass destruction out of his hands.
"Daad! The last time you cooked with Shamash, the food became coal!" Kiana said, trying to grab the gun.
"This is the Kaslana method of cooking! I'll have you know your mother loved my food!" Siegfried said.
As her older sister and father argued, Cecilia clutched her sides in laughter, hearing them scream over each other. However, the laughter soon vanished and heat surrounded her on all sides. The heat felt familiar to her. She had felt it a few years ago before her-
Cecilia opened her eyes and stumbled back. The woods where their cabin was was lit ablaze by an inferno. The land was scorched as animals fled for their lives from this raging inferno.
"It's okay, baby doll."
Cecilia looked up in front of her and saw her father standing before her. Siegfried smiled sadly as he looked down at her with a missing arm.
"Everything will be okay."
"Daddy?" she whimpered as she reached towards him.
Siegfried repeated his words, becoming more distorted with every uttered syllable. As he finished the sentence, his body was engulfed in flames, causing Cecilia to scream.
"Dad! DAAAAD!?" she reached towards the inferno, but the heat was too much. She wailed and screamed as the flames consumed her father. Cecilia's tears streamed harder as she watched her father slowly crumble to ash inside the flames.
"Daaad!"
"Cecilia!" Kiana burst into Cecilia's room, wrapping her arms around her sister's thrashing body. She whispered calming words into her ear while rubbing soothing circles on her back. Cecilia visibly calmed down, still shaking as the sobs came in full force. It was that time of year again. It was that day. Cecilia always had nightmares of that day.
"Shhh, it's okay. I'm here, I'm here." Cecilia wrapped her arms tightly around her sister's body as Kiana said those words. Kiana kept soothing her inconsolable sister as the tears began to stain her shirt.
Cecilia rubbed her eyes as she groaned. She had barely any recollection of what had happened the night prior. Her head felt extremely comfortable. This was softer than any pillow that St. Freya had ever provided them with. Cecilia fully opened her eyes when she saw the sleeping face of her older sister above her. Kiana had a bit of drool trailing down the left side of her mouth as she slept.
Cecilia immediately jumped back and realized what had happened. Kiana must have come in here because I had that dream again, she thought. Cecilia looked at her clock. It was still an hour before she was supposed to wake up. She yawned and laid her head back down on her sister's lap. It wasn't every day that she got a lap pillow from Kiana and she was going to make the most of it while she was still here.
Kiana yawned, opening her eyes when she heard Cecilia's alarm go off. She looked down and saw her sister's happy expression as her head rested on her lap. Kiana smiled and poked her cheek.
"Wake up, Ceci."
"Mmmmm…" Cecilia groaned and buried her face in Kiana's thighs. "Five more minutes, Baka-Nee…"
"Ceci, you have classes in thirty minutes. Remember? Your B-Rank exam is in a day and Himeko is planning to cram the rest of-" Kiana never got to finish as Cecilia jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. "There she goes." Kiana smiled and left the room to cook breakfast for her sister and the two other members of their dorm.
Kiana walked into the main campus. Her sister and her friends had just left to go to Himeko's class.
"Kiana, you're here." Kiana nodded upon seeing Theresa greet her. Next to her was an unknown woman. However, upon meeting the woman, Kiana could immediately tell that she was powerful. Not as strong as her diminutive child-like aunt, but powerful nonetheless. If she ever got into a fight with her, Kiana would actually have to use them in order to push her back.
"Aunt Teri. I didn't know we were getting any visitors during the exams," Kiana said, crossing her arms.
"I didn't have a choice on the matter. Grandpa sent her here to make sure all goes well and to help us with the massive ship we acquired," Theresa said, sighing in frustration.
Kiana knew the person the headmaster was referring to. Otto Apocalypse. Despite the title Theresa called him, Otto had an appearance that completely blew that out of the water. Otto, from what Kiana could remember, was a fairly young man, possibly in his early to mid-twenties. Nothing about that man was right. Kiana never felt right whenever he heard his voice while she was in Theresa's office.
And so, it was natural that Kiana would be wary of the woman next to her aunt. The woman was oddly dressed. A maid was what she was cosplaying as. Her hair was a brownish-blonde and she had red eyes that seemed to look for any weakness within her. However, Kiana could not afford to show her any. She was the Head of House Kaslana.
"Introduce yourself and stop staring at her. You're only here as an auditor, not to pick a fight with my niece," Theresa said, sending the maid a sideways glance.
"My apologies." She performed a curtsy. "I am Rita Rossweisse from Schiksal Main Branch. I am here on behalf of Lord Otto to oversee the exams and to acquire the Selene for further research."
The woman had a polite smile plastered on her face. The smile made Kiana shiver internally. She had seen people like her before. That smile was as fake as the Gods that people prayed to.
"Likewise. I am Kiana Kaslana. I am the current-"
"The sixty-ninth Head of House Kaslana, Kiana Kaslana. Eldest of the two twin daughters of Siegfried Kaslana, a Knight of Schiksal and previous Head, and Cecilia Schariac, the former S-Rank Valkyrie." Rita kept smiling, causing a vein to throb in Kiana's head.
"You're well informed," Kiana said, trying to keep her annoyance from showing.
"Alright, you two. Come and follow me. I don't want a fight happening in my courtyard. Am I clear, Kiana?" Theresa said, sending her a look.
"To be fair, Himeko and I were drunk and she started it." Kiana gave her aunt a dry look as she followed the two.
"Rita. How is my grandfather doing?" Theresa asked as they walked down the hall.
"I don't know much of Lord Otto's affairs beyond business so I'm sorry to say that I don't know. But when he sent me here, he sounded fine," Rita said.
"Typical," Theresa said.
"You're here to collect the battleship?" Kiana asked.
"Yes. Though, for what purpose, is beyond me," Rita said.
"We're still running our own analysis on it so we'll send you our data when we're finished." Theresa turned to Rita. "Don't forget. In terms of authority, I'm still above you so if I don't want to hand the ship over, I won't."
"Of course, Lady Theresa," Rita said, bowing her head in submission.
"..." Kiana remained quiet as they approached the massive AE ship. She clenched her fist. Whose idea was this? Why was it sent there?
"What an impressive piece of engineering. I heard from Amber that this weapon was used in the Second Eruption to help weaken the Second Herrscher," Rita commented.
"Indeed. Though, it looks nothing like the original that the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy had at the time," Theresa said.
"I see." Rita turned to Kiana with a smile. "So, I hear that your sister is participating in the Valkyrie Exams. What are your thoughts on it?"
"My thoughts?"
"Yes, I heard from Lady Theresa that you managed to become an A-Rank Valkyrie before her. It seems that Miss Cecilia will have a lot of training to do in order to catch up," Rita said.
"I don't care. Whatever happens, I'll be proud of Cecilia. Even if she didn't become an A-Rank as fast as I did," Kiana said.
"Ah."
"Come on you two. We're stepping into the ship," Theresa said, waiting on the elevator platform.
"I'm soo tired!" Cecilia groaned, walking out of the classroom. Bronya and Mei lagged behind her. Cecilia was never book smart. Well, that wasn't all true. Cecilia was smart in a sense. She just never applied herself to anything other than combat training. In a world where they're taught to fight monsters, Cecilia believed that learning from books just wasn't as effective a method as training for real. Of course, her sister had other views and forced her to read. It was one of the many things Kiana did as they traveled across the world.
"Subject Cecilia's body language suggests that she has not gotten the optimal amount of sleep," Bronya said, looking at her friend's stature.
"Ceci-chan, did you stay up all night playing your DS5 again?" Mei asked, crossing her arms.
"No." Cecilia froze. "...maybe. But I only did it until 2 in the morning! I went to sleep right after defeating that boss in Kallen Souls 3."
"You really should sleep earlier instead of playing games all night. It'll affect your performance tomorrow in the exams," Mei said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"You're worrying way too much, Mei-senpai. I'm plenty strong," Kiana said.
"Did you forget that in addition to our combat exam, we have a written exam before it?" Mei asked as they walked down the pathway.
"Err… that's why we're going to the library right? To read up on our… topics?" Cecilia scratched her cheek in slight embarrassment. The only part she was confident in was her knowledge of the pillar families of Schiksal, specifically the questions about her family. It was a name Cecilia took much pride in. She was related to two of their strongest members.
"No, we're heading there because Himeko asked us to help you pass the written portion, which means we'll be doing a rundown of all the topics we went over," Mei said as they approached the library.
"..." Cecilia remained silent as they went inside.
"So basically, this is what we have so far on our initial analysis of the ship," Theresa said, swiping through her tablet.
Kiana closed her eyes and listened in on Theresa's report. All the while, Kiana kept her senses trained on the maid next to her. The three stood inside Selene's engine room as multiple engineers ran by, all performing scans on the different parts inside.
"The main part of the ship is what you're interested in. The weapon, from what Bronya was able to decipher, requires four keys of some sort in order to power. Where or what these keys are we have yet to figure out," Theresa said. "As for the weapon's destructive capacity, we have yet to fully figure it out but it appears to be powered by massive amounts of Honkai energy. Our engineers have hypothesized that this is what the 'keys' are for."
"I see. I will make note of this and send word to HQ to divert some resources to find these keys," Rita said.
"Why do we need to power it? Shouldn't having it in our possession be enough? These keys are probably in Anti-Entropy's possession anyway," Kiana said, butting in.
"If they had the keys, they wouldn't have allowed us to capture the ship so easily." Rita smiled at her.
"Rita's right, Kiana. There are lots of things wrong with this ship's appearance and the fact that we were able to grab it so easily," Theresa said, "But as I've stated before, we don't need help from HQ for this. Don't forget that I still possess the power of an S-Rank Valkyrie. I can handle this situation myself if it gets out of hand."
"I understand your words, Lady Theresa," Rita said respectfully. "I am only conveying what Lord Otto wishes. You are his granddaughter after all."
"Let's continue. While our analysis is incomplete, our engineers have deduced that the ship is built for combat and is estimated to have enough firepower to wipe out an entire city in less than an hour," Theresa said. "In addition to the Honkai powered weapon, there is also a series of lesser weapons located all over the ship."
And so, as Theresa began the rest of the report, Kiana tuned her out and went back to standing there.
"Agghhhh! I get it already!" Cecilia slammed her head into the table, startling the others.
"Ahaha, it's okay Class Representative. Cecilia, pay attention!" Mei said.
"It's fine," the girl said. The girl appeared to be the same age as they were. She had shiny dark grey hair, tied in a ponytail. She wore red rimmed glasses and had a blue St. Freya uniform on. This girl was Fu Hua, an A-Rank Valkyrie similar to Cecilia's older sister and the class representative. "We're finished with this section and we're moving onto stigmata. Cecilia, do you know what a stigmata is?"
"Umm…" Cecilia raised her head and tried to remember. She vaguely recalled hearing that word from her dad and her older sister. Something about Hershey bars was said along with it. Now that she thought about it, Himeko said something about it once too.
"I'll take your umm as a no. Turn to page 53 of your basic training manual," Fu Hua said as she erased the whiteboard.
Cecilia groaned and flipped the pages.
"Stigmata are highly advanced implants that are designed to improve a Valkyrie's combat capabilities and their Honkai adaptability." Fu Hua wrote the definition on the board without even glancing at her own training manual.
"Woah, Class Rep! You didn't even look at the manual! No wonder you get straight A's all the time! How did Baka-Nee graduate before you?" Cecilia asked.
"Kiana is a prodigy of the Kaslana Family. It's only natural that she zoomed through the classes with minimal effort," Fu Hua said.
"Unlike Subject Cecilia. She appears to have inherited nothing from her family," Bronya remarked.
"You brat! You know you're insulting one of the three noble families of Schiksal!" Cecilia said, getting in Bronya's face.
"Three noble?" Mei asked, vaguely remembering that from her lessons.
"I'll go over them in-depth later but in short, Kiana and Cecilia belong to House Kaslana, which is one of the three pillars of Schiksal alongside Apocalypse and Schariac. Now, back to what we were talking about, there are three types of stigmata that exist out there," Fu Hua said, "Does anyone remember them?"
"Artificial, Natural, and True." Bronya didn't look up from her tablet.
"That's right. Schiksal provides its valkyries with the first type of Stigmata. Artificial Stigmata are granted to Valkyries to boost their Honkai Adaptability in order to let them use Honkai energy in combat," Fu Hua said, writing them up on the board.
"Now, Natural Stigmata," she continued, writing its name up, "Are stigmata that naturally occur and is normally passed on through bloodlines. But regular humans can be born with it too. The most famous example of people with Natural Stigmata are members of the Kaslana Family, like Cecilia. Members of the Kaslana Family are born with natural stigmata that gives them powerful Honkai adaptability, making them the strongest of the three Pillar Families."
"Heheh." Cecilia smiled smugly as the other two wrote it in their notes.
"Historical personalities also leave behind powerful stigmatas for us to use against the Honkai." Fu Hua said.
"What about the third one?" Mei asked, raising her hand.
"True Stigmata are stigmata that naturally appear on those that become Herrschers." Fu Hua gave Mei a sideways glance.
Mei clammed up and hastily wrote the information down in her notes.
Cecilia froze for a moment. Herrscher… didn't Dad- She flinched as her head throbbed suddenly. A brief image of flames appeared in her head before she blinked and found herself back in the library.
"Cecilia, are you…?" Mei asked, looking at her friend worried. Cecilia had frozen for a good two minutes with no one being able to get her attention.
"Huh? I'm fine! Just uh, not getting enough sleep," Cecilia said, lying through her teeth.
Fu Hua nodded and continued on. "Not much is known about True Stigmata since we never had the opportunity to study it since Herrschers want to destroy us. The last Herrscher was defeated in the last Eruption in Siberia but her body was destroyed in the process."
"What about the First Herrscher?" Mei asked.
"..." Fu Hua remained quiet, trying to figure out how to answer her question. "I believe that we never got a chance to study him either." Fu Hua closed her manual and banished some unpleasant memories from her mind. "I believe that we are done with the manual. Remember girls, tomorrow is your Valkyrie exam so rest well and don't cram too much."
Cecilia sat on her bed later that night, books scattered all over the floor of her room. She looked up when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in."
The door opened as Kiana walked in. Her hair was wet and she had a towel wrapped around it. She was wearing nothing but a white sleeveless tank top and black shorts.
"Oh, Kiana," Cecilia said.
"I came here to check up on you," she said, sitting down next to her.
"Is this because Mei-senpai told you that I went catatonic?" she asked.
"You went catatonic?" Kiana asked.
"Nevermind," Cecilia said.
"Anyway, I'm here to ask if you want me to stay with you tonight. You've been having nightmares for the past few days and I was won-"
"Yeah."
"Eh?" Kiana looked at her sister's increasingly embarrassed face. She smiled. It has been a long while since Cecilia had slept with Kiana. The thought of it brought a smile to her face. Cecilia always had a habit of crawling into bed with her older sister.
"J- Just for tonight so I can sleep." Cecilia grabbed the pillow and hugged it.
"Alright then," Kiana said. Cecilia turned away from her and crawled under her blanket.
"Going to sleep early?" Kiana asked.
"Yeah, the exams are tomorrow and I want to pass them so Mei-senpai and I get promoted together," she said.
"Aww, that's cute."
"Baka-neee, stop it." Cecilia hid her face in the pillow.
"Alright, alright. I'll stop. Scoot over," Kiana said, getting onto the bed. She took the towel off her hair and threw it on the floor.
"Good night, Ceci," Kiana said, getting under the covers.
Cecilia said nothing and mumbled in return instead. Kiana smiled and hugged her, bringing her face close to her chest. Cecilia's eyes grew wide at her actions. But the thought of it made her smile and her eyelids heavy. And as she fell asleep, she heard those magic words her sister always spoke to her when she felt down.
"Ich Liebe Dich, Ceci."
That night, the nightmares never came for Cecilia. Instead, all she felt was the warmth and love of her older sister in her dreams.
Here I am with another chapter. I messed with the dream sequences that K-423 got and changed it to a flashback of her, Kiana, and Siegfried. You'll find out why in a bit. Anyway, please leave a review and follow the story! And I'll see you guys in the next chapter!