Vill-V Side Story · Ship of Theseus

She had a pocket watch. It was the first thing she had ever learned to repair.

But in truth, that watch also represented a classic philosophical problem for her—the Ship of Theseus.

If a ship continually replaced damaged parts during its voyage until every part of the entire vessel had been replaced, was it still the original ship? If not, at what point had it ceased to be the original?

For someone named Vill-V, that meant—

If new personalities kept diminishing through experiment after experiment, while new consciousnesses were split off to fill the gaps... then if even the original personality was replaced one day, would Vill-V still be Vill-V?

"I'm no philosopher, so there's no point discussing this with me." The silver-haired young man spoke coldly. "I can't give you a satisfactory answer either."

"Don't worry, I wasn't expecting an answer from you. After all, even the original Vill-V still hasn't figured out this question." She carefully examined the black-and-white entwined lance, the last Divine Key she had made before being forbidden from doing so. "I'm just chatting with you. Otherwise, with only the two of us in the Spiral Workshop, wouldn't it be boring to sit here without saying a word?"

She placed the Divine Key called Black Abyss White Flower onto her workbench. "Black Abyss White Flower isn't in too bad a state. Considering you faced that anti-Herrscher head-on, I'm actually a little surprised that it only sustained this much damage. Still, it's a pity that I wasn't responsible for the Divine Key made from the Herrscher of Binding's core. Otherwise, I could have custom-made a Divine Key specifically for you."

The young man shifted his gaze to Black Abyss White Flower. "No need. I'm quite used to using Black Abyss White Flower as it is."

"Can I take that as a compliment?" She smiled. "After all, this is a Divine Key I made."

"A genius's masterpiece, without question." The young man paused. "And... this should have been made by Expert, right?"

"Isn't Expert Vill-V still Vill-V in the end?" She did not seem embarrassed in the slightest. "I'm Vill-V too, so there's nothing wrong with saying I made it, is there?"

"I hope Expert never hears you say that." The young man fell silent after that.

Thus, the workshop sank into silence once more. He did not speak, and she did not know what to say either. She knew very well how capable he was of ending a conversation, especially now.

Forget it. It was enough that he was here.

As she tried to repair the damage the Herrscher of Binding had inflicted upon Black Abyss White Flower, the young man suddenly spoke. "Vill-V, do you think I'm still myself now?"

"If you aren't Yu Feng, then who else could you be?" she answered casually.

"I thought about the Ship of Theseus you mentioned. Would I count as a Ship of Theseus as well?" The young man stood with his arms folded, expressionless. "Ever since I underwent the Fusion Warrior surgery, then accepted the Chimera Project, and now—after using Vishnu's power to devour Lilith and the others—am I not a Ship of Theseus whose every part has been replaced? Then, am I still the person I once was?"

Her hand paused over Black Abyss White Flower. After a moment of silence, she chuckled softly. "But your core has never changed, has it? What the original me faced was the replacement of her inner self. By her way of thinking, perhaps one day, what you see would still be Vill-V, but would the personality within still be Vill-V?"

"That's why I said I'm not a philosopher. I can't answer that question." The young man lowered his eyes. "I only gave it some thought because you brought it up."

"It's fine. That's her problem to agonize over." She looked entirely unconcerned. "Still, I'm happy that you were willing to think about it."

After a while, the young man spoke again. "Tens of thousands of years ago, one monkey among a troop tried to climb down from the trees, lit a torch, and began living on the ground. Perhaps that was the beginning of humanity, though the concept of humans did not yet exist."

He looked toward the decorations in the workshop, which changed every time he visited, and continued, "In the tens of thousands of years after the concept of humanity emerged, the definition of humans kept changing alongside nature. Later humans divided earlier humans into different categories, but the name for the group known as humanity has always remained. Is that also a kind of Ship of Theseus?"

"You're still thinking about that?" she said, somewhat speechless. "That's nothing more than the Original Self getting upset with herself and creating trouble."

Something seemed to sound behind her. Her instincts told her that something terrifying had appeared—something that made her want to abandon everything and flee.

She turned away from her work and looked toward where the young man had been standing. At that moment, a fallen angel with twelve black wings stood before her. The oppressive force he brought was even more terrifying than when Kevin had previously revealed his demonic form.

It was the collective of the Thirteen Fallen Angels: Lucifer, the first and also the last fallen angel.

For a moment, even she, who possessed nearly half of Vill-V's talents, was dazed. What stood before her now—was it a person who had already drawn close to godhood, or a god that merely retained some semblance of human form?

"Can I still be called human?" he asked.

Could he be called human? Could someone with so many inhuman physical traits compared to ordinary people be called human? Could someone who could disregard the lives of a hundred million people and decide their fates still be human in spirit?

"That depends on what you think." That was her answer. "No matter what your final answer is, you'll still be Yu Feng—the Yu Feng I know."

"I think, therefore I am. Is that it?" The young man seemed to smile. He withdrew his wings and became human once more.

"As long as I believe I'm human, then I am human." The young man looked at Black Abyss White Flower on the workbench. "What anyone else thinks has nothing to do with me."

Should she record this conversation for the Original Self to know? Although she did not want to share the time she spent alone with him with any personality, still...

How should she put it? As the one first split off to hold all of Vill-V's pride, she was not made up of only that.

Along with that pride, all of Vill-V's feelings for him—feelings called love—had also been split off with her.

Yet even she, who had been specifically made to hold such feelings, seemed unable to carry all the new feelings that kept arising.

"How long until Black Abyss White Flower is fully repaired?" the young man asked.

"Give me one day. I guarantee it'll be restored to its original condition. If you want, I can even add some other functions..."

"Let's forget the non-combat functions. To this day, I still don't understand why Expert added a blooming function to it."

"...That was probably added by Conductor."

"All right, my mistake."

After apologizing without a trace of emotion, the young man checked the time and said, "I have other matters to deal with. I'll come back tomorrow."

"No problem." She watched the young man leave the Spiral Workshop, then picked up the notepad at her side and recorded their earlier conversation.

After all, she was generally only allowed to come out when the young man was around. She could not be bothered to emerge under other circumstances.

Now that he had left, she needed to write down what Vill-V had to do next, lest Conductor suddenly make her go offline.

After a while, the Spiral Workshop received its second visitor of the day. "Hi~ Vill-V, are you busy?"

It was Elysia.

She put down the notepad in her hand and looked toward the doorway. "It's you, Elysia."

The Original Self truly liked Elysia, but she was also jealous of Elysia. Jealous that the person she liked liked Elysia—though later, it seemed to have become Lilith?

This jealousy had naturally been partitioned off to her as well. Even though the Magician was supposed to handle social interaction and emotional expression, all the feelings developed for one person had still been partitioned to her.

Elysia's gaze shifted to Black Abyss White Flower on the workbench, and the smile on her face faded slightly. "Feng... he was here just now, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was." She replied irritably. "Black Abyss White Flower was damaged in The Tragedy of Binding too. To keep it from affecting future battles, he came to me for repairs. If you'd arrived a little earlier, you might've had the chance to run into him. Though he probably wouldn't have paid any attention to you."

Elysia looked at her, only speaking after a long pause. "You are... Evil?"

"Yes, but I'm about to go offline." She shut the clipboard over the workbench. "Leave chatting with you to the Magician or the Conductor."

In the end, her earliest self had just been too hesitant. Wouldn't it have been enough to knock him out and lock him in the Spiral Workshop before he went to Europe? Now, even if she wanted to knock him out, she couldn't beat him... And he'd even maxed out his drug resistance, so anesthetics were useless too...

"It has been confirmed that Finality has temporarily ceased activity. However, Mobius and Vill-V must still determine how long it will take before it can resume activity." The Hero bearing the Signet of Deliverance looked at the shattered Dominion Keys strewn across the ground and the wreckage drifting through space.

He then looked toward the Fallen Angel standing before Finality. Black Abyss White Flower was held in the Fallen Angel's hand, and at that moment, the Fallen Angel seemed to be staring blankly at Finality.

They all knew that the person before them had long since departed. But they knew even more clearly that, at the very least, they had to bring him back to Earth.

"Kevin, we... failed, didn't we?" the warrior bearing the Signet of Floating Life asked.

"But he, and Elysia, left hope behind for us. This battle is not over yet," the Hero said.

She stared blankly at the Fallen Angel's back. It had not been long since they had last met. After True Self departed, the final Fallen Angel had departed as well.

The youth bearing the Signet of Rising Sun and the mortal bearing the Signet of Empty Dream stepped forward, seemingly intending to lay down the Fallen Angel who had remained standing all this time, close his eyes for him, and pray that he would reunite with his friends on the other shore.

But when their hands touched the Fallen Angel, they seemed to freeze, unable to make another movement.

"Pardo, Kosma, we are all saddened by Feng's departure, but... we... must also learn to say goodbye," said the singer bearing the Signet of Gold.

Rising Sun remained silent, while Empty Dream hesitated before saying in a voice tinged with tears, "But... we can't move him. Brother Yu Feng... he... he can't be moved at all..."

"How strange..." The mistress of serpents bearing the Signet of Infinity stepped forward to confirm Empty Dream's words, murmuring, "He is only an empty shell now. After being so deeply corroded by Honkai Energy, after using Black Abyss White Flower's Zeroth Power Output for the last time, he had already... Why is there still..."

The Hero of Deliverance silently walked before the godlike Fallen Angel. Looking into his eyes, he spoke in a low voice. "Feng, I promise you: no matter the cost, humanity will defeat the Honkai."

The Fallen Angel stood there quietly. Gradually, he closed his eyes, and his body dissolved into particles of light.

The Hero of Deliverance raised his head, looking into the vast universe above, and spoke once more. "Humanity will defeat the Honkai."

Everyone watched the light fade away. After a long while, Infinity looked at her. "Hey, Vill-V, can you still move? Are there any usable instruments left inside the destroyed Moonlight Throne?"

She acted as though she had not heard, merely staring at Black Abyss White Flower, which had been left where the Fallen Angel once stood.

"Heh, forget it! You're no different now that all your other personalities have gone silent..." Infinity shifted her gaze to the nearly ruined Divine Key as well. "And I can't be bothered to observe anything anymore... There's no need..."

After a long while, she stepped forward and reached out to grasp Black Abyss White Flower. She seemed to be examining the Divine Key, checking whether it could still be repaired, because that was what Vill-V would do, and what she should do.

But all she was doing was looking at that boy from the past.

Was it possible that someone had noticed and fallen for that boy even earlier than Lilith had?

It was only that the boy had never looked her way, and she knew she could not compete with the girl he adored. She was merely a deceiver. She could deceive the world, even deceive herself, but she could not deceive her own feelings, nor the genuine, insecure self within her.

She watched him, watched the version of him that was different every time she awoke.

"Ah, hello. I'm Elysia's assistant. You can call me Feng, or Yufeng. As you can see, I'm the one writing Elysia's mission reports. I might... only be good for this much, after all. Kevin's much better at fighting than I am..."

That was him when they first met. It was just that he seemed to have forgotten all about it long ago. Back then, he had still been full of resentment toward Kevin.

"I'm Zhu Yufeng, captain of the European Branch's Seventh Squad, though I might have to change the squad's name after being transferred back to headquarters. Hello... Have we met before? Back when we were at headquarters, it seems we never really got the chance to talk much. Either way, we can just get acquainted again. Oh, and this is my assistant, Lilith."

That was him after returning from the European Branch. She had paid attention to the girl beside him as well. She truly was such a perfect girl. It seemed she could not compete again...

"Hmm? Do you need something?"

That was when, after deciding to partition her thoughts, she went to see him before falling into slumber. At the time, he seemed to have already let go of certain things, but she still did not believe she could honestly express her feelings, because in truth, she had basically only been watching him from afar...

"...Don't worry. They merely fell into brief silence due to the effects of the Divine Blessing Barrier. Thank you—no, I should say, thank all of you—for creating that fleeting opportunity for me to kill the Herrscher of Binding."

That was him after The Tragedy of Binding. At the time, he seemed extremely exhausted. Seeing the assistant in his arms, already dead, she chose silence once more.

"...It's good that you're all right."

That was the last time she saw him. Under Finality's attack, every personality she relied upon had gone silent. In the instant before the Moonlight Throne was destroyed, he brought her back to the moon, holding her in an embrace she had only ever seen others receive, only ever read about in books—an embrace she had once longed for herself.

"Could I also be considered a Ship of Theseus?"

"Can I still be called human now?"

The personality that had partitioned away all her feelings for him, along with all of her pride, recounted everything that had happened then.

She still had not figured out the answer to that question. But there was one thing she believed she understood now: no matter how she partitioned herself, she could never completely sever her feelings for him. No matter how many new personalities were born, no matter how many old personalities disappeared, some things simply would not vanish.

"But isn't it a little too late to think that now?" she thought as she looked at Black Abyss White Flower.

"And besides, whether you're human or not really doesn't matter. Because... even the you from back then was still you, still that... handsome, right?"