Hua's Vulnerability

Carole showed a faint smile.

"As long as I'm not causing you trouble. I'll lead the way. The shortest route out of the city from downtown probably isn't known by anyone in the whole school—ah, the school should probably..."

"...Mm. According to my calculations, a meteorite should have struck the school directly. But fortunately, school was out, so there probably weren't many people there."

Though their current situation was not necessarily good, that at least counted as good news.

"Heh, does that count as it helping me fulfill one of my wishes? I'd wanted to blow up the school for ages." Though Carole was joking, there was no smile on her face at all.

"Hua... I've decided."

While they ran, Carole suddenly spoke.

"Hmm? What is it?"

"I don't want to be an adventurer anymore."

"Carole, you?"

Hua's pace could not help but slow by a fraction.

"I also want to... eradicate them from this world!"

Chapter 66: Hua's Vulnerability

"Hua! This way!"

After weaving around all kinds of dangers, Hua finally saw Moth Chasers to Fire's temporary encampment, along with that familiar red-haired figure.

"Captain Himiko, I'm back... I'm sorry..."

"Sorry for what?"

Himiko patted Hua's shoulder with some relief.

"You should say, 'Reporting! Hua, member of Moth Chasers to Fire's Fifth Squad, returning to duty!'"

"Yes! Reporting! Hua, member of Moth Chasers to Fire's Fifth Squad, returning to duty!"

Hua gave Himiko a proper military salute.

"Pfft—you child... Welcome back to the squad, Hua."

By the end, Himiko had become serious as well.

"If you mean rescuing survivors, you already did very well."

Himiko looked at Carole behind Hua.

"Knowing the limits of your own strength is what makes a qualified soldier... We can't save everyone—this is a cruel reality, and we must face it."

Beneath Himiko's coldness, there was a faint air of relief.

"To be honest, I regretted giving you that order after I did. You had no support, no equipment... But when I wanted to contact you again, the excessively strong Honkai pulse cut off communications entirely."

"..."

Hua quietly listened to Himiko.

"But in any case, it's good that you returned safely... Hua, what's the situation in the city now, after everything you saw on the way back?"

"...It's terrible. All I saw along the way were Death Soldiers and corpses, along with nothing but ruined walls and rubble."

Thinking of what she had seen in the city, Hua's expression grew heavy.

"...Just as bad as I imagined."

Himiko nodded, with no extra expression on her face.

"It isn't just Canghai City. In fact, this disaster has affected more than half of East Asia... This is already the third time. I really don't know how long this campaign will last..."

Kevin and Mei had joined Moth Chasers to Fire during the Third Honkai Eruption. Before that, every Herrscher suppression operation by Moth Chasers to Fire could be said to have been built with lives.

"And... I'm sorry, but your hometown is also within the disaster zone, and it was hit... quite badly. I heard it was almost completely wiped out."

"Then my dad..." Hua had long expected it, but upon hearing the news, her heart still skipped half a beat.

"Your father is fine." Himiko reassured her. "Because of his excellent teaching ability, he was transferred away long ago. And Moth Chasers to Fire's base can withstand the disasters brought by Honkai."

This news made Hua let out a long breath.

Seeing Hua's expression, Himiko thought for a moment before quietly revealing a secret.

"Come to think of it... Moth Chasers to Fire actually received news about this Honkai Eruption a month ago."

"Huh?"

Himiko's sudden words left Hua looking confused. She could not understand why, if they had received word so early, things had still ended up like this.

Seeing the undisguised confusion on Hua's face, Himiko explained heavily.

"Because... it was an extremely roundabout cipher." Himiko could not help but smile bitterly. "At first, Moth Chasers to Fire's technicians did not take it seriously. It was so indirect that, after a brief investigation, they treated it as something some hacker had accidentally sent."

"What happened after that?"

"After that... it seemed that a few bored technicians wanted to 'teach the other party a lesson,' so they tried to trace the cipher back to its source. But they found that the sender was like a ghost on the network, leaving no trace at all. Only then did the technicians begin to take the matter seriously."

"Th-this person couldn't have just spoken more directly!?"

Carole said angrily upon hearing this.

"You're right... Although everyone's efforts led to the cipher being cracked quickly, there were too many doubts surrounding the cipher itself. For example, why be so indirect? Why hide their identity? And how had they predicted the Honkai Eruption in the first place?"

Himiko gave a bitter laugh.

"All these doubts made it impossible for Moth Chasers to Fire's higher-ups to make a decision. After all, it involved half of Asia, and no one dared make a rash call. But following the principle of better safe than sorry, Moth Chasers to Fire's forces had made all kinds of preparations a week ago... It was just that the intensity of the Honkai kept rising.

Looking back now, the person who sent the message probably had their own difficulties as well."

In other words, even with all their preparations, Moth Chasers to Fire had still failed to react in time. The Honkai had grown far faster than they had imagined.

"...This is awful." Carole's face was full of gloom.

"Captain, did that cipher have a signature?" Hua suddenly thought of something.

"It did... The signature seemed to be Liu? Though I never saw the original cipher myself."

That matched up. Hua instinctively glanced at Liu Bai.

Hua had vaguely guessed some of Liu Bai's restrictions as well.

Fu Hua Compatibility +10%

"Hua, look carefully. This is the disaster you'll have to face in the future."

Liu Bai also looked gravely at the city before them, which had almost been reduced to ruins.

This was Hua's first time personally experiencing a major Honkai Eruption, but was it not Liu Bai's first time personally experiencing one as well?

"Hua, this is a last stand without even a shred of warmth." Liu Bai voiced the insight of Reanna, a Valkyrie who had fought Honkai for a hundred years. "Honkai will not bargain with you, nor will it pity any life. They are cold and merciless."

"..."

Hua had no answer.

"These are the enemies you'll face in the future... Right now, I can do everything in my power to protect you and those around you. But eventually, I will leave. When that time comes, perhaps you will have no choice but to face true 'loss.'"

"..."

"...Honestly, I'm increasingly unsure whether placing a warrior's responsibilities on you so early was a good thing... Perhaps I've been forcing you to grow too quickly?"

Liu Bai muttered to himself with some self-mockery.

Hua might have seemed mature, but she was only barely sixteen.

"Hua, don't look so sad."

Himiko patted Hua's shoulder.

"This was our failure of duty. It has nothing to do with you... You already did the best you could. Leave the rest to us failures to handle... Little girl, take her back to rest."

"O-okay!"

Faced with Himiko's suddenly imposing presence, Carole nodded in a fluster.

"Hua, let's go rest first... You don't need to blame yourself so much either. I think Captain Himiko is right. You did your best. If it weren't for you, I probably would have died in this disaster already."

"...Mm."

Teacher Liu... will he leave?

For the first time in a long while, Hua felt somewhat lost.

She actually knew very well that she had only been able to make it this far without wavering because of Teacher Liu.

She did not think she was a particularly strong person. She felt that if Teacher Liu had not been by her side, she might have quickly been crushed beneath the pressure...

If Teacher Liu had not been there, her father should have been recovering from injuries in the hospital back home after a Death Soldier attack, only to die in the sudden Honkai Eruption. Instead, as things stood now, he was able to stay far from the disaster as an instructor for Moth Chasers to Fire.

And Carole—if Teacher Liu had not reminded her to stay a little longer, would she only just be setting out from here to conduct rescue operations now?

Could Carole have survived under those circumstances?

Based on what she had seen along the way, could even one-thousandth of the people in this massive city that had once held tens of millions survive this disaster?

Perhaps even one-thousandth was wishful thinking.

So how could Carole possibly have survived in such a perilous place on her own?

"Hua, what's wrong?"

Carole keenly noticed that something was off with Hua's emotions.

"...No, it's nothing. Just... a little joy at surviving a disaster, that's all."

"Hua, has anyone ever told you that you're bad at lying?"

Carole curled her lips. "Your excuse is even more ridiculous than me hiding my test paper because I failed... Well, maybe you really do need some quiet time. Let's go over there."

Carole led Hua to a large tent marked with the words "Rest Area."

Clearly, the tent had only just been set up, and there was no one inside yet.

"I'll go look around first! Perfect chance to ask how to enlist."

After leaving those words behind, Carole ran off in a flash.

Carole was truly socially perceptive, having gotten along so well at school. She had left this space for Hua alone.

"Teacher Liu..."

"I'm here."

That reassuring voice.

Yet the more reassuring it was, the more inexplicable fear Hua felt.

"You said... you'll eventually leave, right?"

"That's right. I just don't know when."

Liu Bai answered calmly.

"But we'll meet again in the future."

"The future... how long will that be?"

For the first time, Hua showed a helpless expression.

"...I don't know, but it shouldn't be too long."

For Liu Bai, the next "soon" naturally meant finding Fu Hua after returning—though at that point, Fu Hua would still be played by Shibao.

But for Hua, that was more than fifty thousand years later—a number enough to make any normal person despair.

"...Is that so?"

Hua tried her best not to appear too distressed.

The atmosphere between them fell silent, as though neither knew how to speak.

But Hua knew very well that she was being willful.

Willful for no reason.

So willful that even she could not understand it.