Vacation and Hua's Dream

"Everything was fine. The glove's functions were all normal too. Teacher Liu, did he want to possess it?"

"Not yet. I'll fly up and check the situation first."

Running fifty meters only took a few seconds in anyone's eyes, but what about fifty meters in the air?

That was the height of sixteen or seventeen floors. For a more tangible comparison... Ultraman. For example, Ultraman Zero's normal height was forty-nine meters.

Therefore, as long as there were no particularly large obstructions, Liu Bai had a clear view of the entire street below.

"—Found them. In the open space outside the alley, there's the white-haired girl you should still remember, along with two Death Soldiers. They haven't encountered each other yet, but I estimate they're about to—"

"Waaah—!"

A girl's scream suddenly rang out.

"...All right, they've already met."

"What?"

Hua abruptly sped up, forcibly causing Liu Bai, who was in midair, to teleport.

"Waaaaah! D-Don't come closer! Don't come closer!!"

The two Death Soldiers had surrounded Carole. Behind Carole was a concrete wall, meaning she had nowhere left to retreat. The crimson glow in the Death Soldiers' eyes seemed ready to tear Carole apart in place of their claws.

Th-There really are zombies? Waaaaah!

What was she supposed to do? At this rate, she might end up as tomorrow's top headline in Canghai City.

"Get away from her!"

Hua charged out of the alley, her ferocious momentum successfully drawing the attention of both Death Soldiers.

"Teacher Liu, please turn the gauntlets' power up to maximum. We have to find a way to instantly kill one of them."

"Understood."

Liu Bai, possessing the gauntlet, replied softly. The next moment, three steel blades sprang out from within, tearing apart the fabric covering the gauntlet and revealing its crude, simple metal construction.

—This was the result of his and Hua's research over the past few days.

It had temporarily been named the Blade Fist Type I. Liu Bai had wanted to give it a cooler name, but with a design like this...

Giving it a good name somehow felt like wasting a fine name on a dog.

The gauntlet itself had a simple mechanical structure. Its primary means of attack were the three retractable steel blades, which carried a high-voltage current. However, without Liu Bai's help controlling them, the blades' maximum charge could potentially pierce the insulation and shock the user in return. Thus, Liu Bai had locked the highest power setting, which could only be unlocked through his possession.

Thanks to Himiko's sponsorship, the gauntlet used a certain amount of military-grade material from Moth Chasers to Fire. It was clear that Himiko strongly supported Hua's mechanical experiments.

After all, the greatest black technology of the Previous Era, the "Fusion Warrior," had not even been proposed yet—this was equivalent to Schicksal having no Valkyrie Armor.

They could not possibly rely solely on those few "exceptionally gifted" people to fight the Honkai. Therefore, Moth Chasers to Fire was extremely enthusiastic about developing anti-Honkai weapons for ordinary people.

Incidentally, a major reason the Previous Era had not developed Valkyrie Armor technology was that mei, the Key of Emptiness's sole compatible wielder, suffered irreversible bodily damage after using the Divine Key against the Herrscher of a Thousand. After that, mei was forbidden from using the Key of Emptiness.

The Previous Era had truly gotten the short end of the stick in this regard. Although Fusion Warrior technology had a high ceiling, its floor was equally low, and the risks were high as well. Even at its peak, there had only been several hundred Fusion Warriors.

In Fu Hua's future memories, most of them had merely reached a level "that human soldiers with exceptional talent could attain through rigorous training." Even if people of the Previous Era had somewhat stronger physical constitutions... it still was not worth it.

...Which was why the Thirteen Flame-Chasers truly were the one-in-a-hundred-million result of an entire civilization, that civilization's final crystallization.

Ahem, back to the point.

This was the gauntlet's first real combat test.

"Hua, whether we can scam some funding and live off public money depends on you."

What did he mean, scam funding and live off public money?

As an honest child, Hua really wanted to complain about Liu Bai's words, but with two Death Soldiers before her, she still managed to keep her mouth shut.

With the experience from last time, Hua's punches this time were cleaner, more decisive, and fiercer. The three steel blades shot straight toward the Death Soldier's head.

"Remember, the first priority is saving her. Killing these two Death Soldiers is only an optional objective."

Liu Bai reminded Hua not to forget the important matter at hand.

Hua's gaze sharpened. She immediately feinted, dodging the Death Soldier's counterattack. The specially made steel blades on her other gauntlet, likewise charged with high-voltage electricity, stabbed directly into the Death Soldier's waist as though cutting through tofu.

In an instant, under the terrifying voltage, the Death Soldier's body became limp and weak.

"Record this: when the Blade Fist Type I's high-voltage current acts on a low-level Death Soldier's body, it still has a noticeable effect, but it is not lethal."

Unable to obtain Moth Chasers to Fire's Honkai research files, Liu Bai could only record all kinds of information himself.

"As expected of Moth Chasers to Fire's military-grade steel. This sharpness should probably be enough to damage a Honkai Beast's shell. Hua, finish it."

Uppercut!

The steel blade pierced directly through the Death Soldier's chin and into its head. The sharp blade and high-voltage current instantly destroyed the dead man's brain.

The process was too fast—so fast that the crimson glow in the other Death Soldier's eyes actually faded slightly in confusion at the situation. With intelligence no greater than a beast's, it could not comprehend what had happened in that instant.

Hua with a weapon and Hua without one were practically two different people in terms of combat power.

"Roar—!"

The Death Soldier barely managed to react. The crimson light in its eyes grew brighter as it fearlessly charged at Hua.

But Hua pulled her fist free. Facing the Death Soldier rushing toward her, the last trace of unease in her heart vanished.

...Sure enough, just as Teacher Liu had said, Death Soldiers like these were merely fodder not even worthy of the battlefield.

As long as she had a weapon, even without Teacher Liu's enhancement, she could deal with them easily...

"Th-This, this, this..."

Carole looked at the "zombies" that had just been viciously blocking her path, now lying silently on the ground. Her entire face was filled with bewilderment.

"Were you hurt? Um... I remember your name was Carole, right?"

Hua looked at the white-haired, dark-skinned girl before her with concern. She looked badly frightened, only barely coming back to her senses when Hua called her.

"Uh... I-I think I'm fine? They didn't scratch or bite me."

Carole instinctively felt around her body.

"If you weren't bitten, you're fine." Hua nodded. Himiko had explained some things about Death Soldiers to her.

"That's good, that's good." Carole nodded with lingering fear. Thankfully, she had turned and run the instant she saw them, so those two zombies had not caught her. Then, Carole suddenly remembered something, and a surprised expression appeared on her face. "Wait, you know me?"

"Uh..."

"Let me take a look..."

Carole suddenly pressed her face close to Hua's, inspecting her up and down as if she wished she had a magnifying glass.

"Mmm... You really do look familiar. Who was it again...?"

"Um, Carole, my name is..."

"Wait! Don't tell me! Let me remember on my own!"

Carole shouted, stopping Hua just as she was about to speak.

"Don't worry! I'll definitely remember!"

"Uh..."

Watching Carole fall completely into thought, Hua was left speechless.

She had never met anyone with such an unpredictable personality before.

"...Rather than wasting time on this, call Himiko first. Have her send someone to deal with the scene. And, of course, there'll be a confidentiality agreement."

Liu Bai quietly reminded her.

Vacation, Hua's Dream

"Ah! I remember now! You're that one who dresses pretty unfashionably... that one... Class 1-3, first in the grade! Hua, right? Your name is Hua, isn't it!"

Hua had just finished calling Himiko when Carole beside her suddenly slapped her palm in realization.

"...It was impressive enough that she remembered my name."

Even Hua's mouth twitched slightly as she faced Carole. If Hua had not been rather well-known at Canghai High School right now, Carole probably would not have remembered her at all.

"It's fine. That's just how idiots are. You'll get used to it eventually," Liu Bai comforted her.

"I never expected you to be so amazing... You killed those zombies in no time at all."

Carole looked at Hua in amazement, as though she were getting to know Hua all over again—no, this girl had not known Hua at all before, had she?

What a live wire.

That was Liu Bai's assessment.

"Uh... My family runs a martial arts school."

Hua was somewhat unaccustomed to Carole's enthusiasm, so she gave her a wry smile and tossed out the universal excuse.

It had to be said that for people who had never encountered martial arts and were not particularly suspicious, Hua's excuse could explain anything related to fighting.

Sure enough, the carefree Carole did not doubt her. She nodded with an understanding expression.

"No wonder you're so good... But I never thought zombies really existed. I thought it was just a joke... No wonder you kept staring at me when we met before."

Carole seemed to have recalled their previous encounter along with the scene.

"Zombies... More or less. You should avoid running into secluded alleys like this at night." Hua spoke very seriously.

"U-Understood. If I'd known things like that existed, I definitely wouldn't have come here!" Looking at the two Death Soldier bodies on the ground, Carole nodded with lingering fear. But as soon as she turned her head, she wore an excited expression again.

"By the way, where's that 'whoosh, whoosh' thing you had just now?"

Whoosh, whoosh?

Only after seeing Carole's enthusiastic gestures did Hua understand that she meant her gauntlets.

"I put them away. They're dangerous items, after all."

What a joke. If someone else was found carrying those things, they would be hauled into the police station.

Only Hua dared to do this because she had a Moth Chasers to Fire reserve soldier certificate—though, of course, no one else could have made them anyway. Liu Bai had contributed greatly throughout the manufacturing process.

That power-generation device... it was technology he had learned from Tesla, something that could roughly be considered black technology. The turbine Tesla had once made for Schicksal was still beyond Schicksal's ability to analyze.

Although Liu Bai had not learned all of it, what he knew now was enough.

"Oh..."

Carole looked rather disappointed, but she did not throw a tantrum about it.

...Come to think of it, Liu Bai suddenly realized that if this Carole really was the alternate-universe counterpart of the post-Honkai Carole, then it seemed quite normal for her to be interested in gauntlets.

"Ah! Right, Hua, are you the kind of superhero who upholds justice in the darkness and protects the city's safety?"

Carole was clearly the sort of girl who jumped from one thought to another.

"No."

"Huh? Then how did you get here so quickly?"

"...I just finished eating noodles at the noodle shop." Hua was already starting to feel a headache coming on.

It was not that she found Carole annoying. It was simply obvious that she could not keep up with Carole's train of thought.

"Oh... I see..."

Carole showed her disappointed expression for the nth time.

...It made Hua feel as though she were ruthlessly crushing a young girl's innocent fantasies.

"You'll get used to it. With someone like Carole around, you'll never be bored," Liu Bai said from beside her with amusement.

Liu Bai, who had seen plenty in life, could keep up with Carole's thoughts... Thanks to the scatterbrained Dr. Einstein.

"So, what do we do next? Call the police? Or contact the media?"

Carole looked excited for the nth-plus-one time.

"I already called the police. We just need to wait here... We'll probably only need to give statements and sign an agreement."

"Oh..."