Yu Luo stood downstairs, Mei unconscious in his left arm and a large bag in his right hand filled with food and drinks. He had originally been thinking about that bottle of Imouto Juice that had died before it could fulfill its mission, but after searching the supermarket for ages without finding it, he felt rather regretful.
Yu Luo glanced conflictedly at the Mei he had knocked out, then looked at the second-floor window and sighed. He had no idea how to explain this to Kiana. After agonizing over it for several minutes, he finally spotted the flaw in his reasoning. "Why do I have to explain myself to that White-Haired Idiot? Can't I just make up an excuse?"
With that in mind, Yu Luo held Mei in his arms, carried the food and water, and jumped straight onto the second-floor windowsill. He pulled aside the curtains and climbed in.
Well, there was none of the usual changing-clothes fanservice Yu Luo had imagined. Kiana was sitting beside the table, maintaining her two USPs under the desk lamp's light. When she saw Yu Luo jump in through the window, she stopped what she was doing, snatched the bag from his right hand, pulled out a bag of chips, and began crunching away.
"Mm, mm..." Kiana ate chips like a hamster, and Yu Luo could not help wondering why he had overthought things so much. This White-Haired Idiot's brain was completely single-threaded. Once there was food, she did not care about anything else.
Yu Luo placed Mei on the bed. Only then, under the light, did he get a clear look at her condition. Her pale face was tightly furrowed, with traces of blood on it. Her purple dress was covered in dust. She looked like nothing more than a frail little girl, with none of the mad queenly air she had possessed during the day.
"Kiana," Yu Luo said as he looked at Mei lying on the bed, "can you tell me what you know about Mei?"
Kiana lifted her head from the pile of food and saw Mei on the bed. Yu Luo had imagined Kiana's reaction countless times downstairs—she might fly into a rage and pull out her guns for a fight, or panic and run away—but her actual response completely caught him off guard.
Kiana merely glanced at Mei in surprise. "You actually kidnapped Senior Mei?!"
"What do you mean, kidnapped?!" The system and Kiana both made him sound like a human trafficker, and Yu Luo immediately took offense. "I saw that she was acting strangely tonight and worried about her safety. But she wasn't very cooperative, so I was just a little forceful and brought her back."
"Whatever." Kiana stared at Yu Luo for a while before giving up on pursuing the matter. "Rather than not knowing when Senior Mei might attack us, it's better to keep her nearby. At least we can be prepared."
"Right, right!" Yu Luo nodded along readily, not daring to admit that he had only brought Mei back on an impulsive whim. Kiana did not buy his act at all. She gave a cold snort before answering his earlier question.
"Mei Raiden, second-year student at Senba Academy, princess of ME Corp. She once rejected twelve boys' confessions in a single day and was called the 'Thunder Queen.'" Kiana recited the information she knew about Mei Raiden with a blank expression, as if reading from a script. "I'm just a new transfer student, so that's all I know."
"Then why did she suddenly attack us?" Yu Luo recalled Mei's appearance during the day: the savage horn on her head, the pair of translucent purple wings behind her, and the way she had wildly controlled lightning to cause widespread destruction.
"Was she infected by the Honkai you mentioned?" Yu Luo asked curiously. "But shouldn't people infected by Honkai turn into zombies? She was clearly conscious. She didn't look like a Zombie Girl at all!"
"I don't know how to answer that, because I'm just an ordinary female high school transfer student." Kiana scratched her cheek in confusion and tried to organize her thoughts. "I don't know much about Honkai either. Maybe because Senior Mei is the Source of Honkai, she didn't turn into a Zombie Girl."
"No, no, no. Whether you're a transfer student or a high schooler, there's no way you're ordinary!" Yu Luo complained inwardly. Still, Kiana's words only left him even more confused. "What exactly is the Source of Honkai?"
Hearing Yu Luo's question, Kiana looked troubled and hesitated. Seeing her like this, Yu Luo knew there had to be some unknown secret involved. By the usual logic, if he learned it, he would definitely end up in huge trouble. Just as he was about to say she did not need to explain, Kiana suddenly blurted out in resignation:
"Anyway, you're already a Honkai survivor, so it doesn't matter if you know!"
"Don't..." Yu Luo sensed that something was wrong and tried to interrupt her, but Kiana continued.
"My irresponsible old man told me that Honkai is a natural phenomenon that destroys humanity. Every large-scale Honkai outbreak is caused by a Source of Honkai, which carries out Honkai's will to destroy humanity. We call that Source of Honkai a Herrscher."
"This Honkai outbreak in Changkong City is the third large-scale outbreak, which means..." Kiana and Yu Luo both turned to look at Mei Raiden lying on the bed. Yu Luo swallowed.
"She... is the Third Herrscher?! Shouldn't we hurry up and run while she's unconscious?!" It had been one thing when he did not know, but now that he knew the girl on the bed was the culprit who had destroyed all of Changkong City, Yu Luo started to panic.
Thinking back on it now, Mei Raiden had probably only been toying with them at the time. If she had not suddenly flown away after something went wrong with her condition, the two of them would not have had even the slightest chance of survival.
"Idiot teacher, where could you possibly run to? We should use this chance to kill her!" Kiana grabbed the twin pistols on the table and aimed them at the helpless-looking Mei Raiden on the bed.
"That doesn't seem right..." Yu Luo stopped Kiana with some difficulty. He knew full well that the girl on the bed was the source of this Honkai outbreak, but Mei Raiden's pale face, lonely figure, and desperate cries all struck at his heart. In a daze, he seemed to see the lonely, desperate person he himself had once been. Perhaps that was why he had impulsively brought Mei Raiden back.
"I was kidding." Kiana deftly spun her gun before placing the USPs back on the table. "Senior Mei probably hasn't been completely corrupted by Honkai yet. She still has her own consciousness. The fact that you were able to bring her here is the best proof."
"We can't abandon girls in distress! That's the Kaslana family motto!" Kiana said heroically. "I'll definitely help her break free from Honkai's control! It would be such a waste for such a beautiful girl as Senior Mei to be corrupted by Honkai!" As she spoke, her true nature was exposed, and a lecherous grin appeared on her face. What greeted her, however, was Yu Luo's merciless jab.
"You call that wanting to help her? You just want her body, you shameless pervert!"
While Yu Luo and Kiana were discussing Mei Raiden, an open-air ball was being held on the rooftop of another building. Waiters in small suits weaved through the crowd with trays in hand, while elegant members of high society danced gracefully across the floor.
A handsome man stood at the edge of the dance floor, searching for his target. At last, his gaze settled on a mature woman in a fiery red evening gown. Her flaming red hair and golden eyes were utterly captivating, and the man felt as if Cupid's arrow had pierced his heart.
"Beautiful miss, may I have the honor of this dance?" The man extended a hand like a gentleman. The woman with fiery red hair smiled faintly. "Of course." She was just about to place her right hand in his.
"Look, what's that?!" The dance floor suddenly erupted into noise. The social elites all looked up to see a massive floating battleship appear in the once-clear night sky, bearing a symbol on its side resembling the Chinese character for "non."
Unlike everyone else's astonishment, the red-haired woman curled her lip in displeasure. "I'm still on vacation!"
"Major Murata Himeko, there is an urgent mission. Report to the control room immediately!" A booming announcement rang out from the floating battleship. The red-haired woman grabbed the man by his tie with an annoyed expression and whispered into his ear, "Our wonderful evening is over, boy!"
Murata Himeko boarded the floating battleship with a belly full of irritation and entered the control room. Looking at the little bean sprout seated behind the desk, she said, "Principal Theresa, I'm on vacation."
"Himeko, a large-scale Honkai outbreak has occurred in Changkong City." Theresa had silver hair like Kiana's and looked like a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child. It was hard to believe that she was the person in charge of this floating battleship.
"Oh?" Murata Himeko was intrigued. "What's the Honkai concentration?"
"It instantly surged past 1000 HW." Theresa's expression was grave. "It has already reached the concentration required for a Herrscher to be born..."
"So after more than a decade, the Third Honkai has begun, right?" Murata Himeko said with a hint of excitement.
"Yes. The war against Honkai may have begun once again!" Theresa said with a frown.
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