To put it another way, if one girl with a constitution resistant to Honkai Energy emerged among ten thousand people, then even among ten thousand people with that constitution, not one might necessarily awaken a Stigmata!
In some people with antibodies, those antibodies would form a patterned marking on their bodies, and that was a Stigmata.
As mentioned before, Destiny's Valkyries gained great power only after being implanted with Artificial Stigmata, while those born with Stigmata could obtain great power without paying the price of reduced lifespans.
And now, a Stigmata had actually appeared on Seele's body. What that represented hardly needed to be explained.
Cocolia walked behind Seele in disbelief and gently reached out to stroke it.
"Ah..." Seele immediately let out a startled cry like a little animal.
"Seele, when did you awaken your Stigmata?" After confirming that it truly was the legendary Stigmata, Cocolia asked excitedly.
"I think... a few months ago..." Seele blushed as she tried to remember, answering uncertainly, "I think... it appeared in my body on the day Bronya was sent to the hospital. I was too scared then, so I didn't dare tell anyone..."
"I see." Cocolia suddenly understood.
"Um, can I put my clothes back on now?" Feeling Ishiu's burning gaze, Seele was so embarrassed she wanted to find a hole to crawl into. If she had not been so anxious just now, she would never have taken off her clothes in front of everyone.
However, seeing how interested Ishiu seemed in her body, a strange sense of shy embarrassment rose in the girl's heart.
"You can." Cocolia nodded. Turning back and seeing Ishiu still staring at Seele without even blinking, she laughed and smacked him on the head. "You little brat, still looking? Wait until Seele grows up, then you can take your time looking."
"Mom!" Seele was instantly mortified. Her face turned so red it seemed ready to bleed as she hurriedly fumbled into her clothes.
"Ahem..." Ishiu awkwardly rubbed his nose. He had not expected Seele to have such a good figure. He had not really noticed when she was dressed, but that skin was so white... tsk tsk.
"Mom, can I take part in the experiment now?"
After getting dressed and taking some time to compose herself, Seele looked seriously at Cocolia, though her cheeks were still flushed.
She did not want Bronya to undergo such a dangerous experiment. Bronya had always taken care of her, and now it was time for her to do something for Bronya.
"This..." Cocolia hesitated. "Seele, are you sure you want to do this?"
"Mm!" Seele nodded firmly and smiled. "I believe in Mom."
"Alright. Since you have made your decision, the experiment will take place three days from now. You need to prepare yourself," Cocolia said.
"Mm, but Mom, can you please not tell Bronya yet?"
"Seele... alright, I promise."
"Thank you, Mom."
"Sigh... silly child. I should be thanking you." Cocolia lovingly pulled Seele into her arms and gently stroked her little head.
Watching this touching scene between mother and daughter, Ishiu silently sighed to himself. There was nothing he could do. He did not even have the right to undergo the experiment in Seele's place, simply because he was a man...
The only thing he could do was silently pray for Seele, praying that the experiment would succeed.
Ishiu quietly left the room, leaving that space to Cocolia and Seele. He knew they must still have much to say to each other, and it would have been inappropriate for him to stay.
"Ishiu, why are you here? Where's Mom?" At that moment, Bronya came over from the stairway on crutches. After several months of recovery, her leg was mostly healed. In another month, the bone plate could be removed, and she would fully recover.
Little Pudding Was Jealous?
"Mom? She and Seele are discussing how to marry you off to me." Ishiu winked at Little Pudding as she approached him, a mischievous grin curling across his lips.
"Marry your head!" Bronya's little face instantly reddened. Angry, she raised her crutch and swung it at Ishiu.
Ishiu nimbly sidestepped, easily avoiding Bronya's blow while also reaching out to pat her little head.
"Haha, just kidding. Don't take it so seriously."
"Don't touch Bronya's head!" Little Pudding puffed out her cheeks like a bun. She seemed utterly unable to tolerate Ishiu touching her head.
"Why not?" Ishiu asked with a smile. He loved seeing Bronya wear that expression where she was clearly angry yet completely helpless against him.
"Because Bronya is the older sister!"
"But I never acknowledged that." After teasing Bronya a little, Ishiu smoothly changed the subject. "Alright, no more jokes. Mom is whispering with Seele right now, so let's not disturb them. How about I take you out for a walk?"
"Bronya doesn't need you to accompany her." Little Pudding said with a sour expression. Yet although she said that, she did not refuse when Ishiu took her hand.
The two of them walked hand in hand out of the Orphanage. Ishiu led Bronya to the cliff where he often went.
That damn system often generated missions for him here, but the rewards for every mission were always impossible to describe. In any case, none of them had ever been reliable.
Still, the scenery here was quite nice. The sea lay right beside them, and from this spot, they could take in the blue ocean and vast sky at a glance.
"You're pretty good at finding places." Bronya looked at the horizon where sea and sky met. Every breath she took carried the cool, slightly salty sea breeze. She had to admit that this place was indeed quite nice.
"Hehe, of course. Who do you think I am?" Ishiu laughed smugly.
"Idiot." Bronya shot Ishiu a disdainful glance, then let go of his hand and walked several more steps forward with her crutch.
"Hey, hey, be careful. Don't fall." Seeing this, Ishiu hurried after her and worriedly took her little hand again.
Their previous position had been five or six meters from the cliff's edge, but Bronya was now almost at the brink. Ishiu was genuinely afraid that she might accidentally fall while using her crutch. That would be a disaster.
"Do you think Bronya is as stupid as you? Bronya won't fall." Although she said that, seeing how much Ishiu cared about her made the core in her chest feel warm. Even the sea breeze no longer seemed so cold.
It was four in the afternoon. The sun had begun to set, and on the far side of the sea, the orange sunset dyed more than half the sky in warm hues. Paired with the deep blue ocean, it made heaven and earth seem cut off from the rest of the world.
Bronya was almost entranced by the sight.
"Do you... often come here with Seele to look at the sea?" After a while, Bronya suddenly asked.
"Huh?" Ishiu paused, then answered honestly without thinking much about it. "More or less. Sometimes we watch the sunrise or sunset too."
"Tsk..."
"Hmm? Did you just click your tongue?"
"No!" Bronya turned her face away, showing Ishiu only the back of her head.
Ishiu scratched his head. He felt like Bronya seemed a little angry. Had she not been fine just moments ago? Why had she suddenly gotten angry for no apparent reason?
Could it be...
"Little Pudding, don't tell me you're jealous?" Ishiu asked tentatively.
People should not fall for the three great delusions, but he felt that Bronya treated him differently from the other boys at the Orphanage. He could not say for sure whether she liked him, but she definitely had a favorable impression of him.
So she was jealous because she heard that he and Seele often came here to look at the sea?
"What, what nonsense are you talking about?! Why would I be jealous? Don't tell me you think I like you? Don't be ridiculous. In my eyes, you're just a little brother! I'm only worried that Seele is so obedient that she might get tricked by you." Bronya looked at Ishiu with utter disdain, showing none of the panic or embarrassment of having her thoughts exposed.
"Uh..." Ishiu was instantly speechless.
Damn, it seemed like he had really misunderstood!
So embarrassing, so embarrassing. He really wanted to bash his head against a rock!
What Ishiu did not know was that behind Bronya's back, her right hand was tightly pinching her own butt. The intense pain forcibly suppressed her surging emotions.
After saying that, she quickly turned her head away, as though she could not be bothered to say another word to Ishiu.
But her real purpose was to hide her cheeks, which had instantly turned bright red.
Ishiu awkwardly rubbed his nose. After his earlier self-indulgence, he did not dare speak to Bronya. The open cliffside suddenly became quiet, with only the howling sea wind sounding continuously.
Seeing Bronya's petite body trembling slightly in the sea breeze, Ishiu instinctively took off his coat and draped it over her.
"Bronya, are you a little cold? How about we go back?"
"Let's watch a little longer." Bronya pursed her lips and shook her head.
Thinking of the experiment she would undergo in a few days, even she could not help feeling afraid.
She was afraid the experiment would fail and that she truly would not come back.
If that happened, she might as well use this chance to look at the sea a little longer.
And she was doing so with... with this idiot little brother.
"By the way, why do you want to become stronger so badly? You obviously don't have a constitution resistant to Honkai Energy. No matter how much you train, you can only become strong among ordinary people. But when facing Honkai Beasts, even the weakest Mothership-class one is not something you can fight. You..."
Bronya had only wanted to change the subject, but as she spoke, she felt something was wrong. What she was saying seemed too discouraging.
"Well... at first, it was probably just my male pride acting up. I didn't want to be surpassed by a bunch of little girls like you. But now..." Hearing Bronya's cruel yet truthful words, Ishiu smiled calmly.
At first, he had only wanted to train because he did not want to be surpassed by these little girls. But what Cocolia said today had given him a new idea.
My wife is amazing!.jpg
Exposed
Cocolia wanted to use the children from the Orphanage in the experiment. She was not wrong, because her only goal was to let the children live better lives.
Seele wanted to take Bronya's place in the experiment. She was not wrong either. She simply did not want her beloved Sister Bronya to face danger.
Then, if neither of them was wrong, who was?
The answer was simple: Honkai.
For humanity, the appearance of Honkai itself was a mistake.
Ishiu did not have the lofty ideal of saving the world. He only wanted the people he cared about to remain unharmed. But the existence of Honkai had already threatened Seele, Bronya, and the others. That left him with only one path—drive out Honkai!
Of course, he did not yet have the qualifications or strength to do such a thing. In fact, aside from seeing them in videos, he had never even witnessed a Honkai Beast in person.
So all he could do now was complete the missions issued by the system as much as possible and gain the power needed to realize his ideals.
"What about now?" Bronya asked curiously.
"It's nothing." Ishiu shook his head and changed the subject. "By the way, Bronya, how is your leg recovering?"
"Mm, much better. I believe that in another two weeks, I'll be able to walk without crutches," Bronya replied.
"So that means I can still pat your head for another two weeks?" Ishiu curled his lips into a grin and rubbed Bronya's little head again while she was not paying attention.
"Ishiu!!!"
"Hahaha! You can't catch me right now! Nyeh nyeh nyeh~~"
On the cliff, the shy girl and laughing boy formed a breathtaking picture. Their shadows stretched long, long beneath the setting sun.
Three days later, Seele got into a car sent by Cocolia and quietly left the Orphanage without drawing anyone's attention.
Ishiu stood by the second-floor window, watching Seele's departing figure with a complicated expression. Before leaving, she seemed to have seen him and waved at him.
Though the distance was too great for him to see Seele's expression clearly, he thought she must have been smiling, right?
That silly girl was always like this. She was obviously timid, but in order to keep others from worrying, she always acted as though she was fine. Yet she did not know that this only made people's hearts ache for her.
Ishiu did not go over because he feared that if he saw Seele's expression, he would not be able to stop himself from keeping her there and preventing her from participating in that X-10 experiment.
But he did not go over because he had no right to deny the decision Seele had made for herself.
All he could do was wait here and pray in his heart, praying that the experiment would succeed.
Over the past two days, he had asked Cocolia dozens of times, and Cocolia's answer had always been the same: even if the experiment failed, Seele would be fine.
Ishiu stood there, staring blankly at the now-empty space. He did not know how long he had remained there until Bronya's voice sounded behind him and jolted him out of his daze.
"What are you standing here like an idiot for? Where's Seele? Why don't I see her?"
"I... I was looking at the scenery." Ishiu forced a smile at Bronya.
"Looking at the scenery? Here?" Bronya looked at him suspiciously, then put on a stern face. "Are you hiding something from me?"
"Of course not. How could I possibly hide anything from you?" Ishiu's heart skipped a beat as he gave an awkward laugh. "Um, Bronya, have you eaten? I'm a little hungry, you..."
Before Ishiu could finish speaking, the familiar mechanical voice of the system suddenly rang out in his mind.
Ding! System mission issued: Stop the X-10 experiment and save Seele. Reward unknown.
Ishiu's body stiffened instantly.
His expression became extraordinarily vivid in that moment.
The system would not issue unnecessary missions. That meant... Seele was in danger!
Realizing this, Ishiu no longer cared that Bronya was beside him. He hurriedly took out his phone and called Cocolia.
"Hello! Mom! Stop the experiment right now! This experiment can't be done! Seele is in danger!" The moment the call connected, Ishiu shouted desperately into the phone.
Before you continue