POV: Fu Hua

Her room in the base was arranged like it had been at St. Freya. Aside from basic furniture and necessities, it had few decorations, but the ones that were there were all created by her own hand. Ink paintings of mountainous landscapes, birds in flight, and poetry in the most flawless calligraphy hung from the walls, displaying their artist's skill and talent.

Fu Hua dipped her brush in ink and drew it across the paper. She wrote of a tale that spanned millennia, a great epic of loss and the struggle to preserve what little that still remained. It was a tale of a world besieged and a world that fell only to rise again to claim a second chance. It was the era she had known and the era she lived in now.

She exhausted the ink on her brush, but rather than dipping it in more, she set it down and stared at the incomplete poem. She began writing it only days ago. Her thoughts were in turmoil, so she directed them into this effort instead. It had the effect of taking her mind away from her situation now and returning her to the world she once belonged to.

Two worlds. One new, one old. Most of her long life was spent defending the new era, not the old, dead, and forgotten one. Yet she still considered herself to be a scion of the world as it used to be, one of the last remnants of a bygone age. It was a world in its own right, a world filled with billions of voices, nearly all of them now dead and buried. She knew her poem would ultimately amount to little. What was dead could not be revived with even the most descriptive tale, butit was something she felt like she needed to complete. She was the only person who could.

It would need to wait. She had spent enough time working on it for one day, and if time had taught her anything, it was to not dedicate herself to any one task for too long. She left the ink to dry and smoothed out her ponytail. She stepped out of her room and into the hallway. There, she saw Mei walking by. Mei stopped and greeted her politely.

"Good afternoon, Fu Hua."

"Good afternoon, Mei. I hope you're doing well."

"I am, thank you. How are you? I haven't seen much of you these days."

"I've been doing what I can to help Theresa."

Mei nodded. "We all are. Schicksal is a heavy responsibility to deal with alone, so it's a good thing Theresa isn't alone. Kiana and I have always trusted in her strength, and we still do, but we're glad to add our strength to hers."

"And so do I," said Fu Hua before giving her a curt nod and walking away. Before she got far, she heard Mei speak again.

"Wait. I was hoping to speak with you. If you weren't busy, of course."

Fu Hua was not busy. She had no direct destination in mind; perhaps she was only going for a walk.

"Back at St. Freya, I always admired you," Mei continued. "You were the perfect class monitor and role model. But we never spent much time together. We didn't even talk that many times. We were busy with our own lives. But now, even though we're part of the same team…the same family, we're still almost like strangers. I've been spending most of my time with Kiana and Bronya since I've returned, but if you're okay with it, I'd like to make up for our lost time."

Mei was correct. Their interactions had always been limited. When Fu Hua had acted as a class monitor at St. Freya, she had taken care to not drift too close to any of the students. It was a risk she did not wish to take. Even then, she had grown closer to Mei and the rest of Squadron V than any of the other students there. She had no more excuses to remain distant from Mei or anyone else.

Fu Hua turned around and smiled. "I do welcome that. How would you like to begin?"

Mei smiled back, but it quickly faded as she answered with two heavy words. "World Serpent."

Those two words were the last Fu Hua wished to hear, but she understood the importance of Mei speaking them. She led her into her room and closed the door behind them. They sat at a table, where Fu Hua had brewed some tea.

"Would you care for some?" Fu Hua offered her.

"Thank you." Mei took a cup of tea Fu Hua offered her and sipped from it. "It's good."

"I'm glad. I've always enjoyed preparing tea, especially for others."

"So do I," replied Mei. "Preparing food and drink for others has always felt like something special to me. Kiana especially. She missed my cooking so much. You wouldn't believe how much of it she's been eating lately." Mei smiled before it faded again. "At least, before…"

"Let's return to the reason you're here," Fu Hua said. "This is about Kevin, isn't it."

Mei stared down at her cup of tea. "Yes. I've been concerned about how he'll react to my defection from World Serpent."

Fu Hua set down her tea and spoke her next words carefully. "Mei, during your time at World Serpent, did you interact with Kevin very much?"

"No. But I spoke with him more than once, not that he ever spoke much either."

"Did you feel that he was a vindictive person who would feel personally slighted by your actions?"

"...I'm not sure. I want to say no, but I never truly knew him. At least, the real him. I spoke with his sim in the Elysian Realm a lot more, and while he was different from the real Kevin in many ways, he was also the same in some ways. The sim Kevin would have never done the things the real one did, but after speaking to both of them, the real Kevin…I don't know…"

It had been many years since Fu Hua heard the words Elysian Realm. It was not something she thought would matter again. She wondered how her own counterpart living there was faring, and she considered asking Mei about what kind of person she was until she decided against it.

"Then let me say that the Kevin I know is not a man who holds grudges against anything but the Honkai," Fu Hua said. "He doesn't have the time for something so petty. However he may feel about you leaving World Serpent, he likely never expected you to stay forever, and I don't expect for him to make any attempts to retrieve or punish you."

"It's been over a month since I left," Mei said, still staring at her tea. "The longer he does nothing, the more anxious I feel. What if he is planning something?"

"World Serpent is always planning something," Fu Hua said. "Mei, I want to assure you that you made the right decision by coming back to us. You were there for Kiana when she needed it the most. You were there for Bronya and everyone else, too. I'm glad that you're here right now." Fu Hua smiled at her again. "The ongoing purge of World Serpent's spies from Schicksal and Anti-Entropy is happening with the information you gave us. You should be proud."

"I am. But this will only anger World Serpent and Kevin even more."

"It will, and we will have a reckoning with them one day, but not today. For now, focus on what you can help with, and that's to be there for Kiana, Theresa, and everyone else."

Mei raised the cup to her mouth and took a long drink from it. When she set it down, it was empty. Fu Hua refilled it for her.

"Thank you," Mei said. "I am, and I will." She looked at the paintings and poems Fu Hua had hung on the wall as if noticing them for the first time. "Those are all very beautiful. Did you create them yourself?"

"I did."

"You have such talent. When I was growing up in Nagazora, I often practiced my calligraphy with my father. He taught me the art himself. I hated it at first, but I came to enjoy it as a way to relax."

"For me, it's the same."

They continued speaking about lighter topics. Fu Hua welcomed the time she spent with Mei. She had not expected to enjoy their discussion to this degree. Once, long ago, she took every effort to avoid growing too close to others. She feared the pain of outliving them, which was a certainty because of her enhanced lifespan. She only recently came to learn to cherish those who were dear to her and to appreciate how much they meant to her. It was true that she and Mei had not been particularly close at St. Freya, but it was never too late for change.

"Mei, would you care to practice calligraphy with me?" Fu Hua abruptly said.

"Really? I'd love that."

Mei was as skilled with the brush as she was with the blade. Her hand movements were practiced, precise, and refined. The characters she drew were different from Fu Hua's, but they were just as elegant. When she finished, Mei read it out in her language before reading it again in English. It was a haiku that, in only a few phrases, spoke of her current state of mind, her worries, and her fears.

"Writing my feelings down and reading them aloud helped me feel better about them, even if only by a little bit," Mei said. "My father told me that I couldn't run or hide from my fears if I wanted to overcome them. I had to face them directly, and the first step to doing that is by naming them." Mei stared at her poem before looking back up. "I want to thank you again, Fu Hua. I didn't expect us to do this, but I'm glad we did."

"Of course. Poetry has meaning."

Mei glanced at Fu Hua's work in progress. "Is a poem what you're also writing?"

Fu Hua glanced at it. "It's a retelling of the Previous Era. That era of history is too long for any one poem to cover, but I still try to convey their struggles, their beliefs, and how hard they fought against the Honkai. How they fought for their right to live."

Mei was quiet and had a contemplative look on her face. "The Flame Chasers I met in the Elysian Realm told me a lot about the world they came from. It was so different from ours, but it was also similar. Some things change while other things stay the same. And…yes, I met you there as well."

Fu Hua wondered why Mei had mentioned her. "I'm not surprised that you did. But please, say no more about her. I don't need to know."

"Alright," Mei agreed. "I wish you the best of luck on finishing your poem. I'm sure it'll be a welcome addition to the library here."

"Thank you. And before you go, take some ink and brushes back with you. Write more whenever you wish to, and you can come to my room whenever we're both free."

Mei smiled. "Thank you. I will." She checked the time. "We have a few minutes before I need to go. Fu Hua, could I ask you something?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"How are you feeling about our situation?"

"What do you mean?"

Mei stared at the haiku she had just written. "About Theresa. About Schicksal. World Serpent. And…him."

"Those are questions I've asked myself," Fu Hua answered, "so I'm glad you asked them. About Theresa…I believe that she is the single most suitable person in the world to be Overseer. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a crushing and thankless task, but Theresa is more than able to perform it well. Like we said, we'll do what we can to assist her."

"Yes, we will."

"Schicksal may be a fractious and ornery organization at the best of times," Fu Hua continued, "but strong leadership from Theresa and strong support from us will see it become better than it ever was."

"And World Serpent?" Mei asked.

"I've been told that we may have gleaned some usable information from interrogating the spies we've captured. You'll need to ask Theresa how she intends to eventually confront them."

"That's good," Mei said. She still appeared uneasy. "And…"

"You can say his name. It's Johann."

"I know," said Mei. "I'm less worried for him than before, but…Theresa is the only person he's willing to spend any amount of time with. She doesn't speak about it much, but they've been spending more and more time together. I'm glad that they are, but I don't know if he'll ever be able to accept me or anyone else again. He isn't the same man he used to be. There's no way he could be after everything he went through."

Fu Hua shared her worries. Ten years was no short length of time, except for her. When she looked upon her past, ten years could pass as quickly as a blink of her eye. But for him, it was perhaps the ten most important years of his life.

Fu Hua saw him again. The bloodstained white uniform of Schicksal's Supreme Commander who reigned over an army of tens of thousands. The sigil of House Apocalypse, an open eye above four flower pedals, nearly invisible beneath the blood of the Ming Dynasty soldiers he had cut down to reach them. He was kneeling by an unconscious woman with silver hair. The one responsible for her defeat was Fu Hua.

Fu Hua saw him again. She saw a man she had loved and lost so many millennia before. Only, he was no longer the hard but compassionate man who led humanity into the war against extinction but a ruthless warlord who had waged war against Shenzhou for years on end. Countless lives had been extinguished by his orders, and as she reached out for him, she did not know if it was to embrace him or to crush his neck.

She did neither. She turned around and let them go. She had not thought of that day for five hundred more years.

That man is dead. He no longer lives. The Johann I know is not him.

"Fu Hua?"

Fu Hua opened her eyes. She had not answered Mei in over a minute. "I'm sorry, Mei. I was thinking of how to answer you."

Mei murmured in understanding.

"Mei, I can't make any promises for him. Only he can. But I don't believe he would forget all the moments he spent with us, not even after ten years, not even after gaining a family. If he had, he wouldn't even be here at all. He would have never even tried to come back."

"You've lived thousands of years," Mei said.

"I have. There's much I no longer remember, but I'm still myself. I'm still Fu Hua. And if you'll let me, I'd still like to think of myself as your class monitor."

Mei smiled. "One day, we'll rebuild St. Freya. We'll rebuild it bigger and better than it ever was. Who knows. Maybe we'll even be the new teachers there."

Fu Hua smiled back. Her memories of St. Freya were among her most treasured. The destruction of the academy at the hands of the Herrscher of the Void had hurt her, but one day, those wounds would mend. "One day, we will."

Mei stood. "Thank you again for all your time and for discussing all of this with me. I'll come by again when we aren't too busy."

"I look forward to it. See you soon, Mei."

Mei walked to the door, but she stopped with her hand holding the handle. She slowly turned back around. "I have one last question."

"What is it?" Fu Hua noted how serious Mei had become.

"If it came down to it, is there any way for us to defeat Kevin?"

Fu Hua considered the question for a very long time.

"I don't know."