Chapter 10 - Sisterly Sparring
St. Freya Academy, Outdoor Training Area close to the Squad Dormitory - Honkai Impact 3rd World - July 2016 - Six days after the end of the previous chapter
(Fuchou's P.O.V)
The last few days have been fairly peaceful after the trip to the beach with the rest of the squad, mostly filled with training Mei, Himeko, and surprisingly Fu Hua on the uses of Ki in the way I have been able to manifest it while having both myself and my sister work on slowly teaching the two our style of martial arts in a bid to not only ensure that the School of Taixuan style is no longer tied to just the two of us but also to give both Mei and Himeko a solid foundation to work on their own style of fighting eventually.
That being said though, Fu Hua was reluctant at first to agree to teach others the School of Taixuan style of martial arts but I did manage to eventually persuade her that since the two were a part of my retinue, we should ensure that they're at their strongest for the stuff that lies ahead of us.
She did make one stipulation regarding her agreement, however, it is one that I was and still am very hesitant to perform for her as despite my confidence in my own abilities, I am still not sure if I should do this to her or not…
"Are you certain of this sis, what I did before was not exactly intentional after all?" I ask with a hint of concern as I slowly get into a familiar stance with Fu Hua doing the same on the other side of the sparring ring, Fu Hua shows only determination as she nods in my direction.
"I am Fuchou, I have been admittedly considering this request for some time and now I must remember what I have forgotten, lest we are caught unaware by the machinations of those around us," Fu Hua says, referencing the memories having been cleansed from her mind and with the benefits of both the company defenses and a sister who is a herrscher bearing the Domain of Sentience, she aims to regain those memories back no matter how painful they may be.
It is an incredibly risky thing to request regardless as while I am admittedly a very badass Herrscher who can kick ass with the best of them, I ain't no brain surgeon so I have no fucking clue what the side effects of effectively copying over my version of her memories over to her will be.
The only reason I even agreed to do it in the first place was that we checked to see if the company defenses would help with this shit and surprisingly the answer to that one is a resounding yes, specifically stress defense will deal with any degenerative mental effects so that takes a massive amount of weight on my mind about the whole thing.
Still doesn't mean I can't help but worry about her anyway…
"Alright Alright, if ya truly wanna do this then I should warn you that once we start, I ain't stopping until every last memory from the past 15,000 years is shoved back into your brain, besides, I suppose an Old-timer like you has forgotten lots of things in her old age~," I say with a cheeky grin on my face, painful memories about my timeline's Fu Hua springing up momentarily at the nickname before pushing down my mental anguish aside for the time being since I need to be 100% focused to make this work.
Fu Hua for her part narrows her eyes at being called an Old-Timer before getting into a stance, ready to resume the fight we had postponed so long ago when we first met in this timeline, this time with the intent of making my sister remember.
"School of Taixuan, Fu Hua.."
"School of Taixuan, Fuchou Jingshen"
The two of us spoke one after the other as I began to harness the Domain of Sentience, a thick red aura rippling out before it began to ignite and flare dramatically alongside my Ki while Fu Hua's own brilliant sky-blue Ki aura flared in response.
I can see both Himeko and Mei watching from the sidelines, mostly there to witness the two of us fighting properly for the first time, even if I am having to hold back to prolong the upcoming fight as the longer we have the less information I have to pass onto Fu Hua through an exchange of blows.
For a moment both myself and my sister remain in our position before at last, we both blur forward with our Ki enhancing our speed to the point that one moment the two of us are on opposite sides of the sparring ring and the next we clash in the middle as I start the fight with the attempt of a left-handed palm strike to her chest like I did during our introductory spar.
Fu Hua knocked it aside with an open right-hand palm, wincing momentarily as her head began to throb in slight pain, the moment our limbs had made contact I began the transfer of memories, with the first one being simply one of our earliest memories of our father training us at a dojo…
I slide back to avoid a left-hand palm strike aimed at my face before retaliating by knocking the left arm aside so I can swoop in with a left-handed punch to the sternum, mostly to wind her and knock her back which I did so successfully.
All the while with every second Fu Hua's memories are reawakening more and more, flashes of things from her distant past rush past her eyes and prevent her from entirely focusing, her head throbbing but even so, she continues the fight once she recovers from being winded and begins her own offensive.
With every palm strike, I knock it aside
With every kick, I perform a forearm block.
With Every grapple, I make a counter-grapple before throwing her over my shoulder.
The constant ebb and flow of the spar allows me to slowly but surely reawaken Fu Hua's lost memories during the fight, even as I grow more concerned as it is clear her head is aching in pain from so many memories being reawakened in rapid succession.
However, I began to notice something happening with her Ki as we began to draw closer and closer towards her memories as a Flamechaser and as a MANTIS, like it has begun to grow warmer and warmer like a flame is been stoked the more her memories are being restored with the heat starting to become more than just the heat of her Ki but the inferno of something more.
As the fight continued I noticed Fu Hua's attacks become more and more aggressive, as if reawakening her memories had begun to draw out something deep within her psyche that even I didn't know existed, something that burned brightly and with the ferocity of anger that I know all too well…
The more the fight continues, the more Fu Hua begins to breathe heavily and her eyes begin to glaze over more frequently before being shaken off momentarily as her memories are being reawoken, alongside whatever it is locked deep within her.
"Jeez sis, didn't think you'd be getting tired already, figured you'd have more energy to burn than this," I say with just a slight hint of teasing, my concentration momentarily slipping in that one moment as I, for the briefest instant, forget what exactly I am trying to do here.
It is then all of a sudden that the entire sparring ring that the two of us were in began to burn in a flash of flame…
The intensity of the flames that quickly burst forth from Fu Hua momentarily forced me to cover my eyes from how bright they were, but the moment I was able to see through the fire, I stopped and stared in shock as I witnessed my sister staring at me with a fiery gaze with eyes just as red as my own…
These flames and the form that Fu Hua has taken blend seamlessly with her Ki as her once grey hair has turned white with streaks of red as flames dance around her body, her power having suddenly skyrocketed out of nowhere as a single term pops into my head when I see this form that Fu Hua now has, that being Vicissitude.
Without warning, Fu Hua manages to close the gap and sucker punch me in the gut, sending me flying into the air before her fiery orange Ki aura blasts forth into the skies above St. Freiya to catch up to my body.
"Fucking hell sis, didn't think you had a trick like this up your sleeve," I say before I realize that staying at base form would only result in me losing fast to this new form of Fu Hua, and my gut tells me that it would be in my best interest to not allow her to end the fight her way in this state.
With that in mind and seconds before the transformed Fu Hua reached me, I allowed my new powers to erupt forth and blast Fu Hua away from the shockwave of entering into Super Saiyan, our fight now causing many in St. Freiya a great deal of concern and fear as our combined honkai energy levels have summarily broken a lot of the sensors close to the school.
Either way, my only concern is the fact that my sister is not responding to me at all, as if…
Oh fucking hell, I may have fucked up the transfer somehow and her mind is probably stuck at some point in the past due to the interrupted transfer, and if I am right about that, it means that there is only one way to fix this, and that's to beat some sense into Fu Hua and bring her memories up to speed fully before St. Freya becomes molten slag under the two of us.
Fu Hua suddenly blasts forward in a trail of fiery orange Ki, the speed of her recovery surprising me greatly as I had never seen her do anything like this before, forcing me to place two fingers on my forehead and perform instant transmission to teleport behind her before unleashing several blasts of Ki, my transformed sister rushing through each one of them and seemingly taking no damage before I am suddenly met with her extremely hot grasp upon my neck, trying to choke the life out of me.
Gritting my teeth as I can feel my neck begin to burn and blister, I rear up my right foot and slam it into her stomach to force her to let go due to winding her, awakening more of her lost memories in the process as Fu Hua grips her head with her taloned fingers.
Seeing a chance to blitz her before she has a chance to recover, I blast forward as a golden Ki aura covers me and I begin to perform a rapid series of basic punches and kicks with each one reawakening more and more of Fu Hua's memories.
Eventually, I send Fu Hua flying with a swift kick to the stomach, sending her sailing toward the ocean before soaring toward her, sensing that her mind is beginning to adjust to all these memories through my Domain of Sentience, likely because Stress Defence and Mind Defence are starting to kick in hard here.
Stress defense I can understand, mind defense however I don't though, which confuses me as to what is triggering Mind defense of all things, but I don't think about that now as I grab onto Fu Hua before taking this one chance to finally finish the transfer and at long last, Fu Hua should have all of her memories again.
"Sister, can you hear me?" I ask as Fu Hua slowly stops wincing in pain and slowly opens her eyes, the fiery gaze having changed to one of recognition and confusion as she is quick to notice that we're in the middle of the ocean rather than the sparring ring.
"I….I do, and I…remember everything" Fu Hua says as a momentary use of the Domain of Sentience reveals that Fu Hua has regained all of her memories at last, the two of us floating above the ocean as she is still trying to process it all over again.
Her past students and their attempt to strike her down, the death of Lixue, the loss of HIMEKO, and her time as a Flame Chaser, all the memories she had lost over the years returned and if Fu Hua is being honest with herself, she is unsure if she will be able to look at her squad captain the same ever again…
Before either of the two of us can discuss things any further, our instincts kick in and we dodge an incoming white lance that would seriously injure the two of us if it hit as we turn to see a blur of white with a trail of light blue surging towards us.
Both me and my sister react as one, my left hand along with Fu Hua's right hand curling into a fist that thrust forward to clash with the white blur as the ocean around us ripples with a shockwave, my expression of displeasure soon turning to shock at exactly who we're fighting now.
A woman with long blonde hair, and blue eyes bearing white ornate armor as her hands clasp our fists, the blonde woman wincing at the recoil from the sheer force behind our punch before throwing the two of us aside as a giant white mechanical knight soon manifests itself behind her as it swung it's behemoth two-handed sword with the flat of it's blade.
My prior shock turned into focus as without truly realizing what I was doing, my left hand was held flat against my right hand held into a fist…and I pulled on my Ki…
Moments later the giant Knight's blade clashes with a Ki scythe roughly the same size as my body as I hold it with two hands, both weapons sparking violently before I see the woman begin to manifest a wellspring of energy in the air as the giant vanishes.
A strange familiarity comes over me as for a moment I feel memories of %~#$! wash over me as I am treated to a split-second vision of the same woman manifesting a lance of white from the wellspring before I am forced back into the present as the same lance begins to form.
Seeing the potential danger if that attack goes off, I quickly cupped my hands together in a familiar stance Ki as black as night begins to pool in my palms, noticing my herrscher energies mixing in as the still unfinished Black Kamehameha suddenly gets a blood red core of Honkai energies that begin to surge with black and red lightning before eventually…
"Honkai Kamehameha!" I cry out, giving the strange new technique born from my ki and honkai energies at this moment as it blasts forth as a beam of red and black that rips through the sky, with the white lance fully forming and clashing hard with the Honkai Kamehameha.
As neither attack gives way to the other, the final result of the clash is soon made apparent within seconds as both shrink momentarily before erupting into an explosion of white, red, and black energies that sends rippling shockwaves that force the sea below to churn violently as if a storm appeared in that split second.
Eventually, the battle goes silent as both Me and Fu Hua stare at the blonde-haired woman as her armor glows blue along the skirt, keeping her in the air with the woman about to continue the fight when she gets a message on an earpiece, prompting her to focus her attention on the incoming message.
"Overseer, I have…yes sir….a-are you certain sir…alright Sir, I'll bring them in," The woman says before finally calming down, her stance loosening as her expression becomes more relaxed while looking over at us.
"Valkyrie Fu Hua, Trainee Fuchou Jingshen, you are to return to St. Freya and report to Headmistress Theresa Apocalypse to explain yourselves regarding the events that transpired over the last half hour" The woman says, whom I finally recognize as none other than fucking Durandal, aka the as of yet unknown original Kiana Kaslana, although that later fact is something I only learned through the memories of %~#$! And fuck do I see it now that I'm looking for it.
Makes me wonder how many had it staring them in the face and never realized it until the big reveal…
Before I can respond to Durandal's request, Fu Hua's new transformation suddenly cuts out and the sheer exhaustion that hits her results in her beginning to fall towards the ocean below, prompting me to fly fast to catch her in my arms bridal style, seeing my sister completely passed out from over-exerting herself with her new or perhaps I should say old transformation.
Perhaps in hindsight, I should have anticipated that constantly stoking my sister's Ki while also slowly restoring her memories would have that old SWARA shit come up and bite me in the ass, could probably access it myself if I could figure out how to trigger it without running into that trance-like state.
Either way, I suppose I should take Old-Timer back home to sleep in order to recover from the intensity of her GARUDA form reawakening, although judging by how it lacks permanence it probably needs further coaxing before it becomes something she can have up 24/7.
I began to fly back toward St. Freiya, knowing full well that with my sister out of commission for the time being I will have to be the one who reports to the brat headmaster, something that I can't help but feel apprehensive about…
St. Freya Academy, Headmistress's Office - 20 Minutes later
(General P.O.V)
"Ooooh Fuchou-chan, I hope you have a good explanation for why most if not all of the close-range sensors for Honkai invasion got completely melted just now~," Theresa Apocalypse says with a downright saccharine smile that masks the true feeling of pure rage and frustration that is directed at the sheepish Herrscher of Sentience sitting in the chair opposite to her desk.
"H-hey, I wasn't expecting my sister of all people to turn into that, I was just helping her with some memory problems that's all," Fuchou says while trying to stay calm as the small, white-haired young girl who sits at the headmistress's desk, that same girl giving her one of the most deadly glares right after the Herrscher of Sentience has spoken and begins to use her desk to show her what little footage of the incident that Theresa was able to get from what equipment that wasn't fried by the surge from Fuchou herself or melted from the heat given off from Fu Hua.
"You two duking it out above the fucking the Academy gave several students disorientation from the shockwaves, one or two got minor burns from the heatwave given off by Fu Hua and to top it all off the Overseer of Schicksal has assigned Durandal to your squad in case THIS SHIT BREAKS OUT AGAIN!" An extremely irate and stressed out Theresa says, the 40-ish woman who is more or less stuck looking like a young girl due to her circumstances is just so utterly done with the week so far, especially since she has yet to find that obnoxious prankster!
As the footage of the fight is shown to Fuchou, there is an amusing sight caught by the camera as Kiana is somehow on the roof of one of the nearby buildings cheering both Fuchou and Fu Hua on with the fight above the Academy, despite the danger with Raiden Mei trying to keep Kiana from getting any closer, using her slowly emerging domain of thunder to eventually just taser Kiana so she can bring her back towards the safety of cover.
Eventually, Theresa takes several slow, deep breaths to try and calm down in order to regain her composure and when she finally does, she looks at the Herrscher of Sentience across from her and just lets out a loud, tired sigh.
"Just….go make sure your sister is alright, don't worry about Durandal joining your squad yet since there is a process before I can assign a S-rank Valkyrie to what is essentially a trainee squad without messing with the cohesion of said squad and don't worry about the equipment loss, I'll see if we can't turn all this into a net positive somehow," Theresa says while internally dreading all the paperwork that will come of today's antics, especially now that the Overseer is getting way more involved ever since that weird form of Fu Hua's came up.
Fuchou considers speaking up briefly, but upon seeing how exhausted from the sudden situation Headmaster Theresa is she decides it would be best to keep her words to herself for now and soon leaves the room, leaving Theresa alone to her thoughts.
If Theresa had been honest with herself right now, she knows that she doesn't exactly want to tell Fuchou about the hunch she has currently regarding why exactly the Overseer's interest went from the passive oversight that was displayed prior, to the more proactive move of assigning what is essentially a key Schicksal asset to watch over the two.
And if the young apocalypse woman is right regarding her hunch, then the overseer has been hiding something BIG regarding Fu Hua who was officially just a simple hall monitor here at St. Frieya Academy.
Something that the Herrscher Sister has just exposed in front of a ton of students without any real context, and judging by the fact that Fu Hua's form looked strangely akin to that of a Honkai beast given human form, she can't help but wonder if that form was something Fu Hua was given to her by her Grandfather, or if she had such a power from before her time in Schicksal…
With that in mind, she has already asked that the nurse take a small blood sample from Fu Hua to match with a small blood sample that was taken from Fuchou during a standard medical checkup way back when she first agreed to join the academy.
Despite how slightly bustier and curvier the Herrscher of Sentience is compared to Fu Hua, Theresa has been unable to ignore how Fuchou practically looks just like her sister but has been pushing it into the back of her mind for the most part.
That was until the incident this morning revealing that strange firebird form of Fu Hua's…
Now she intends to look into it more closely, despite what the Overseer may say about it as she wants to see what is going on with those two and her desire for answers can no longer be held in check, which has prompted her to have her people check the provided blood samples.
"Sorry Fuchou-chan, Fu-chan….but I need answers and I don't think you'll give them to me, nor would my grandfather do so either," Theresa says as she signs the paperwork for the labs to check the blood samples, hoping to find the answers to an ever-growing puzzle.
It would be several hours later when she gets the results back after double-checking them, that she just sits at her desk staring at the seemingly innocent piece of paper that has completely upended her understanding of both sisters and their relationship with each other.
Especially since the blood samples of Fuchou Jingshin and Fu Hua are practically indistinguishable from each other, only separated by their apparent age, and even that has Theresa of all people wanting to join Himeko in her habit of drinking during work.
After all, when does one find out that both women are not only biologically the SAME PERSON but also said women are supposed to be over 15,000 years old, not even getting into the fact that there are genes from a very dangerous species of long-dead honkai beast in their DNA?!
It was the main reason that she had to get the samples checked twice to ensure that it wasn't an error in the process or something like that because this one lab result has effectively opened a massive can of worms that Theresa is extremely thankful that she had all the evidence of the test destroyed, including the blood samples after verifying this result.
Theresa doubts that even her grandfather, the overseer himself, knows the full story regarding these two women although not for a lack of trying on his part, leaving this 40-year-old woman in the body of a young girl to try and wrap her head around this massive secret she had unknowingly unearthed.
In the end, she knows full well that once both girls have recovered from their fight above the Academy, she'll need to speak to both of them immediately to finally learn the truth, to at long last have the answer to the now dual enigmas of both Fuchou Jingshen and Fu Hua.
But she can't help but wonder if the answer she'll get will just upend her entire worldview yet again, even so, she can no longer ignore it all anymore now that she's learned even this much about the two.
Deep down though, Theresa Apocalypse knows that this rabbit hole only goes deeper from here…
Arc City, World Serpent Hidden Lab - At that exact moment
(General P.O.V)
"Unusual Honkai emissions were detected at St. Freiya Academy today, sensors were unable to verify the source of the emissions but were able to detect a heat signature that is reminiscent of a long-dead strain of Honkai known as GARUDA as well as a new unrecorded form of energy…How interesting, seems that Schicksal has been hiding some interesting research specimens within the walls of that Academy of theirs" A woman with long dark brown hair and golden eyes says while she stares at a report from World Serpent operatives close to St. Freya academy from behind a black mask in the shape of an Egyptian jackal, her tone akin to that of one who has discovered something worthy of her attention.
"It seems that Schicksal has obtained the services of a Herrscher of some sort, although the nature of its domain has yet to be determined as well as the identity of its human form," A cold, male voice says, this man is covered in an all-black body suit and hood that exposes not even a hint of flesh underneath, with even his face covered in a ominous silver mask, with but a single glowing red eye peering out from the right socket.
"I wonder which one they managed to put a leash on, did they manage to get the wind brat under their thumb without us noticing or did they manage to get a handle on Raiden Mei at last perhaps, any word on that front Grey Serpent?" The Masked woman asks as she quickly moves through the lab towards her own personal laboratory with the masked man in tow, the polite yet cold demeanor of the man never shifting despite the woman wresting control of the conversation for the time being.
"So far we have not managed to pierce through the tight lock on the data regarding the Herrscher currently located at St. Frieya, but our operatives have assured us that we will have that information in due time Jackal" Grey Serpent says in response, the woman now identified as Jackal gives her colleague a satisfied smirk as they reach her laboratory and prepare it for the next round of experiments, although if Grey serpent was being honest, he wonders if Jackal extends some of her experiments just to ensure the test subjects feel the most amount of pain possible…
But before he can ponder that train of thought any further, all hell begins to break loose…
Alarms begin to ring out as both Grey Serpent and Jackal rush to the computers and see something tearing through their firewalls with terrifying ease that seems far beyond what even Anti-Entropy and Schicksal themselves have been reported to have the capabilities of.
Just as Jackal is trying to regain control of the system from whatever it is that has taken over, the monitors begin to display a message that stops both of them from continuing to force the entity that has gotten in out, for it is a message that even the likes of Grey Serpent can't help but feel a cold chill run down his spine once he processes what it says in his mind.
PROMETHEUS: -The Will of Honkai is no longer bound by the cycle of the previous Era, it has become aware of my interference and has removed me from itself, it will no longer be restrained-
"Jackal, I shall be forwarding all non-essential resources towards the retrieval of our Sire, we will need him at the head of World Serpent if we are to endure what is to come," Grey Serpent says as he begins to walk towards the exit of the Hidden Lab, moving with a swiftness of purpose he has not felt before now but with the situation has changed so drastically he can no longer afford to put off the return of his Sire in favor of any other project.
If he could actually feel such an emotion, the thing that Grey Serpent would be feeling right now would be something akin to a deep terror and intense anxiety born of the fact that the conflict with the Honkai has changed to the point that World Serpent can no longer be able to rely on foreknowledge of an Era long past to keep track of which Herrscher shall emerge…
As such Grey Serpent knows only one man who could prepare World Serpent for the storm that is to come and fight for the survival of humanity as a whole with everything that is currently at stake…
Kevin Kaslana
Author's Notes
And we are back at long last, burning midnight oil to some degree but back at long last, with a fairly sizeable chapter as well!
Alot of new developments came up regarding both Senti and Fu Hua in the time between the previous chapter and the current one, which has admittedly affected how this chapter went so without further adieu, three plot point discussions.
Fu Hua's memories and GARUDA Fu Hua
Originally I had planned for this to just be a simple spar between the two sisters to show off their new skills and pave the way for things to come, but with the revelation of Fu Hua's Active Honkai Reaction form, I had to make use of it since it will help with stuff that will come in the future.
As for the reason why it had activated in the first place, well the process of restoring Fu Hua's memories also had Fuchou accidentally giving Fu Hua the means to reactivate the Active Honkai Reaction form, although currently Fu Hua has spent literal centuries without ever having used this power so this means that she'll have to work on making it something she can access with the ease of breathing.
Theresa Apocolyse Office Scene
While originally I had intended to set up the next prank, with the events of the chapter up to that point I decided that it would be better to scrap the prank for now and go for something more serious and plot-related.
This has led our dear Headmaster Teri to get the bloodwork regarding both Fuchou and Fu Hua checked out so she can have a better idea of the secrets they're hiding from her.
Only for those same lab results several hours later smash her worldview with a hammer, especially since she now knows that the two are biologically the same person AND also over 15,000 years old despite how young they look and act.
Let's just say Theresa Apocolypse will be having words with the girls next chapter…
World Serpent and the Warning of PROMETHEUS
Originally I had intended for Kevin to receive the message, but asking someone more knowledgeable than me on Honkai Impact 3rd lore about the feasibility of such a thing, they pointed out the fact that Kevin is currently stuck in the Sea of Quanta so that is unfortunately a no.
However they did direct me towards sending the message to both Grey Serpent and Jackal in Arc City, ugly feelings regarding the latter of the two that I am certain Fuchou will act on aside, this means that with this warning regarding the Will of Honkai in mind, Grey Serpent is pulling every available resource he can into freeing Kevin Kaslana from the Sea of Quanta as fast as he feasibly can.
All while Fuchou and her group are blissfully unaware of the shitstorm coming their way…
In any case, Next time on Sentient Wrath!: Durandal Joins the Squad, Theresa gets answers, and Kiana and Sirin begin to talk
See you next month Hopefully!