My Sister is Bronya

Despair, a despair that words could barely describe, spread through Ishiu's heart.

"Mom..." Ishiu pulled at the corner of his mouth, forcing a smile that was uglier than crying. He looked at Cocolia's evasive eyes and asked, word by word, "Why did you do this?"

His voice was soft, so soft it was as if the question held no importance.

Ishiu couldn't hold back any longer. He wanted to know Cocolia's purpose, what she was trying to achieve.

This wasn't an accusation; he genuinely didn't understand, truly didn't grasp it.

"Ishiu..." As soon as Ishiu spoke, Cocolia knew her plan had been exposed. She sighed, her eyes no longer dodging, but meeting Ishiu's directly. "You have to believe me, Mom would never do anything to hurt you. Mom did this for a reason."

Ishiu remained silent.

Cocolia took a deep breath. Since things had reached this point, she decided not to hide it any longer. It wouldn't have been hidden for long anyway.

"Alright, since you want to know, I'll tell you. I did all this for the Herrscher core. I need its power to save Seele."

"See...le?" Ishiu's expression froze. He had considered many possibilities, but never this one.

What did the Herrscher core have to do with Seele?

"It seems Bronya hasn't told you yet," Cocolia said, looking at Ishiu with a deep tone. "Four months ago, after you disappeared while saving Seele, Seele requested the experiment be restarted. She wanted to bring you back. I refused at first, but that child, though seemingly frail, becomes incredibly resolute when she decides on something. She threatened me with her life, saying if I didn't restart the experiment, she would die right in front of me without hesitation."

"I had no choice but to agree. But to ensure safety, I only allowed her to conduct the experiment for five minutes. However, after five minutes passed and she found nothing, Seele unexpectedly initiated Quantum Assimilation, wanting to enter the Sea of Quantum."

"In the end, although I stopped the experiment and didn't let her disappear like you did, she had initiated Quantum Entanglement. This seems to have sent her to a very mysterious place. She brought back the Heavy Armored Bunny 19C from that place and gave it to Bronya. As for her, because she became too entangled with the quantum, her body underwent some changes..."

At this point, Cocolia's expression turned very low, her tone growing increasingly sorrowful.

"Seele will intermittently enter uncontrolled quantum states. It might happen while she's eating, sleeping, or even talking to someone. Once she enters this state, she disappears from this world, becoming a ghost drifting between the world and the quantum wall, alone in that realm... Can you imagine what that feels like?"

"I want her to return to a normal life, and for that, I need this Herrscher core."

"Then why Mei?"

"Because like Seele, she is a natural Stigmata holder."

"..." Ishiu lowered his head, silent.

"So Ishiu, can you understand Mom? Mom had no other choice..."

"Mom, I have two more questions," Ishiu interrupted Cocolia, his voice returning to a calm state. But beneath this calm, it was like an undercurrent beneath the sea, ready to erupt at any moment.

"Ask away," Cocolia wasn't sure how Ishiu was feeling, so she could only go along with him. She truly didn't want this incident to fracture their relationship.

"First, will extracting the Herrscher core endanger Mei's life?" Ishiu looked at Cocolia, raising one finger.

"...Yes," Cocolia nodded. This was a fact she had already admitted, and she couldn't deny it.

But the significance of Ishiu's question was different this time. Before, Cocolia was in the position of a helper, but now, she was the perpetrator.

"Second, do you think, with methods that casually manipulate other people's lives, leading to the fall of Changkong City and countless deaths in this catastrophe to obtain the Herrscher core, would Seele be happy if she knew?"

"..." Cocolia opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Because she and Ishiu both knew the answer. With Seele's gentle and kind nature, she would absolutely not accept it.

"...As long as she doesn't find out," Cocolia mumbled after a long silence, her voice lacking conviction.

"Ha... Just like you did to me?" Ishiu gave a bitter laugh.

"Ishiu..."

Ishiu closed his eyes and sighed deeply. The words Raiden Mei had said to him when they parted flashed in his mind—

Ishiu, I believe in you.

How ridiculous. She had believed in him so much, and yet he was the one who personally pushed her into the fire, and it was his own mother who orchestrated the situation that led to her current state...

He... had failed Raiden Mei!

Chapter Eighty: Call Me Your Majesty!

'Clang—'

In the small laboratory, a crisp sound of a blade being drawn suddenly rang out.

A flash of light from the blade, and the specially reinforced glass wall was cut in half like tofu, forming a huge cross.

Ishiu walked over and casually kicked out, shattering the glass.

"Ishiu! What are you doing?!" Cocolia cried out urgently.

"...I'm taking her away."

Ishiu walked into the laboratory, and with another flash of his blade, the mechanical arms were severed at the waist. He then caught Raiden Mei, holding her in his arms.

"Ishiu!" Cocolia's voice intensified, tinged with anxiety. "You can't do this!"

"Mom, you've already made a mistake. Look at Changkong City at your feet. Don't you feel any regret?" Ishiu said, looking at Cocolia with disappointment.

He didn't deny Cocolia's determination to save Seele, because he felt the same. But there had to be a bottom line in whatever one did. Once that line was crossed, a person was no longer human.

"I'm doing all this for Seele. Don't you want Seele to return to normal?"

"Of course I do, but I wouldn't use this method," Ishiu said sternly.

"Ishiu, I won't let you take her. She has now become a Herrscher. If her Herrscher core is not removed, when she recovers, she will bring an unprecedented disaster upon this world," Cocolia said seriously.

"Heh..." Ishiu suddenly found it a bit amusing. If these righteous words were spoken before the disaster in Changkong City, they would be fine, but now, they just sounded incredibly ironic.

He lowered his head to look at the Queen of Raiden in his arms. She was also looking at him, her eyes no longer holding their previous coldness, but a different kind of color.

"Will you destroy humanity?" Ishiu asked softly.

"...Depends on my mood. But if those annoying guys come looking for death, I won't hold back." The Queen of Raiden disdained lying. Although saying no now would clearly gain Ishiu's help, her pride wouldn't allow her to lie just to survive.

Especially not in front of the only man she recognized.

"Very well. As long as you don't have the subjective intention to destroy humanity, that's fine." Ishiu nodded.

"Ishiu, don't believe her! She's a Herrscher, an enemy of human civilization by nature! She's lying to you!" Cocolia said anxiously.

"I believe her." Ishiu glanced at Cocolia, his voice calm.

"You're jumping into a fire pit!" Cocolia said angrily. "You don't know how terrifying Herrschers are! If she absorbs all the Honkai Energy in Changkong City, she can easily slaughter an entire city, even a nation!"

"Well, I truly don't know how terrifying Herrschers are. But I do know that whether it's a fire pit or not is something you only find out by jumping in. If you haven't jumped in and you already think it's a fire pit, it just shows you're unwilling to trust others."

Ishiu decided to trust the Queen of Raiden, firstly because of Raiden Mei, and secondly out of guilt. The Queen of Raiden's appearance was directly caused by his mother. Whether it was the disaster in Changkong City or the extraction of the Herrscher core, at least from what Ishiu saw, the Queen of Raiden hadn't actively shown any intention to destroy humanity. Since that was the case, he was willing to believe her.

Ishiu's words were exceptionally calm, but to the Queen of Raiden, they sounded like thunder. She froze for a good while before biting her lip and asking softly, "You... you said you're willing to believe me, not because of 'her'?"

"You are you, and Mei is Mei. You are different."

"..."

The Queen of Raiden fell silent, but she proactively wrapped her arms around Ishiu's neck.

Since her birth, the voice in her mind had been constantly feeding her the darkness and inferiority of humanity. And from Raiden Mei's side, she had confirmed this point, so she actually disliked humans a lot.

But there was one person who was different, and that was Ishiu.

He was the first human the Queen of Raiden recognized. In him, she seemed to see none of the things that made her dislike humans; instead, she found them all quite interesting.

And more importantly, he also recognized her, willing to believe her. Did this mean he saw her as a person?

Ishiu walked out of the laboratory holding the Queen of Raiden. The researchers present became nervous, but no one dared to stop him.

After all, Ishiu had just kicked open an aluminum alloy door and shattered reinforced glass with a single blade. They clearly couldn't stop such a formidable individual.

"Ishiu, are you declaring war on me?" Cocolia's voice trembled slightly, even to her own ears, as she uttered these words.

Ishiu merely shook his head gently and put Wolf Fang back into his clothes.

"Mom, I won't be your enemy, never. You're my mother. No matter what mistakes you make, our relationship won't change. But... I am definitely taking Mei with me. And, I will never agree with your ideals."

Cocolia's expression shifted. She gripped the edge of the table tightly, wanting to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.

Ishiu began to walk towards the exit. He didn't walk fast, but the distance to the door wasn't long. In a short while, he had covered nearly half the way.

Bang—!

A sudden gunshot, so piercing in the absolute silence of the space.

Blood splattered instantly on Ishiu's left shoulder. A bullet had deeply embedded itself into his scapula. He let out a muffled groan, nearly falling.

"Who fired that shot?!" Cocolia's eyes instantly turned red at the sight, her anger soaring to its peak. She looked in the direction of the gunshot, where a researcher in a white coat stood.

"M-Madam Cocolia, you can't let him take the Herrscher away! We've already spent so much funding and effort on this experiment..."

The person tried to explain further, but Cocolia, who was at her wit's end, didn't care what he said. She directly pulled a gun from her pocket and aimed it at his head, firing.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out. The researcher who had deliberately tried to show off had his head blown apart, falling to the ground, his eyes wide open in death.

Clearly, he didn't know the weight Cocolia placed on Ishiu versus the Herrscher.

"Ishiu, are you alright?" Casually discarding the gun, Cocolia ignored the terrified gazes of the other researchers and anxiously walked to Ishiu's side, wanting to check his injuries.

"I'm fine." Ishiu endured the intense pain and stood up again, continuing to walk out.

In reality, with his skills, he could have dodged the shot, but he didn't.

As a son, if he couldn't fulfill his filial duties, then suffering some physical pain was only right. No matter what, Cocolia was still his mother. Although she had made mistakes, she had never been unconscionable towards him.

Therefore, he could only use this method to alleviate some of his guilt.

"Ishiu..." Watching Ishiu's trembling back as he left, Cocolia clenched her fist, then finally relaxed it, letting out a sigh filled with exhaustion.

Perhaps... she had truly made a mistake...

"Human, are... are you alright?" After walking out the door, the Queen of Raiden looked at Ishiu's arm, which was still bleeding profusely, yet he was holding her with it. For the first time in her life, a flicker of worry appeared.

"How could I be fine? It hurts like hell... Right, can you walk now? If you can, hurry up and get off me." After leaving the laboratory, Ishiu stopped pretending. He laid it all out: it hurt like hell! Getting shot in the shoulder like this, if he were truly fine, he'd be a god.

"Yes." As time passed, the Queen of Raiden felt a slight stir of Honkai Energy within her. While she couldn't say she had become powerful, walking was no longer an issue.

So, Ishiu simply stopped the bleeding. The rest of the journey, it was the Queen of Raiden who was supporting Ishiu.

"Ishiu? What's wrong with your arm?" Bronya, who had been waiting at the entrance of the battleship, saw the Queen of Raiden supporting Ishiu as they came out, and Ishiu's arm was still bleeding so much. She immediately became anxious, rushed over, and forcefully squeezed between them, pushing the Queen of Raiden aside.

She hadn't followed Ishiu inside because she knew Ishiu and Cocolia would inevitably clash, and her position inside would be too awkward. It would be difficult to choose sides, and what if Cocolia asked her to deal with Ishiu?

So she decided not to go in, thinking that Ishiu and Cocolia wouldn't really cause any trouble. She never expected, however, that Ishiu would actually get injured.

"Who did it?!" Bronya asked angrily. She knew it definitely wasn't Cocolia. With her doting personality, she wouldn't even hit her child, let alone shoot them. Didn't they see Ishiu bring out Queen of Raiden without anyone chasing after them?

"Don't ask, that unlucky guy's already been shot in the head by Mom. If you want to find trouble with him, you'll probably only be able to desecrate his corpse," Ishiu said. "Forget it, this isn't the place to talk. Let's leave here first. Oh right, send a communication to Kiana and tell her not to come to the ship."

"Okay."

The three of them got off the ship and found a nearby pharmacy. Bronya used the medical supplies inside to give Ishiu emergency treatment.

Little Pudding truly lived up to her reputation of growing up on the battlefield. Treating gunshot wounds was like child's play for her. She easily removed the bullet with a pair of pliers, causing Ishiu very little pain.

During this process, Queen of Raiden remained surprisingly calm. She spoke very little, her gaze constantly fixed on Ishiu.

"Ishiu, what are you planning to do now?" Bronya asked hesitantly after his wound was treated.

"I... I want to go back and see Seele first."

He rubbed his face, his expression filled with exhaustion. To be honest, everything that had happened in the past hour was more stimulating than last night.

He never would have imagined that Raiden Mei's Herrscher transformation was orchestrated by his own mother, and that the entire Changkong City had become this way because of her.

It made him feel like an ordinary high school boy who suddenly discovered one day that his mother was actually the mastermind behind a terrorist incident...

"Human, I don't want to see you like this," Queen of Raiden said, standing in front of Ishiu with her arms crossed, looking down at him from above. However, there wasn't much arrogance in her eyes; instead, there was a touch of humanity. "This is not how you should be."

"I don't want to be like this either..." Ishiu said with a bitter smile.

Shaking his head, he glanced at Queen of Raiden. After a moment of hesitation, he finally spoke, "Um... Mei... is she still here?"

"Of course she is. We are one body with two souls. What she sees, I can see. What I hear, she can hear."

"...I'm sorry, Mei." Ishiu sighed deeply, his face a mixture of self-blame and shame. "I apologize to her on Mom's behalf... though, I suppose an apology doesn't do much good."

In this matter, Raiden Mei was undoubtedly a victim. To be honest, Ishiu didn't know how he would face Miss Mei anymore.