Honkai, Kaslana's Way of Survival

"No matter how I look at it, you're still a human, aren't you?"

"I actually think we don't need to be so rigid in our definition of Honkai Beasts, and can be a bit more flexible."

Kaino shrugged, offering his insight:

"What is a Honkai Beast? An animal that uses Honkai energy and is hostile to humans. Of course, in this world they aren't hostile to humans, so that just leaves using Honkai energy and being an animal."

"I'm an animal, and I use Honkai energy. In that case, it's reasonable for me to be a Honkai Beast, right?"

"If that doesn't work, we'll just catch a Knight-class Honkai Beast. Before the competition, I'll sit on that horse, sneak in, and then we'll all fight our own battles..."

"But no matter what, the rules are decided by the organizers, right? This level of deception..."

Blue Seele's expression was complicated.

She was gentle by nature, and some things were hard for her to say, but Kaino understood.

The organizers aren't blind—although the words were a bit rough, that's what Seele wanted to express.

Kaino clicked his tongue regretfully, unable to refute it.

"Hmm? Hey, Kaino, I remember that... the instruction manual, didn't it say that tamers can participate in battles?"

It seemed that the ice cream was very attractive to Red Seele, causing her not to carefully read the instruction manual.

She was the one who was clamoring to participate in the competition before...

Kaino sighed and began to explain:

"If it's just capturing Honkai Beasts, then tamers can naturally participate in the battle, after all, it's part of taming."

"But when it comes to the finals, the tamers can only give commands, and the fighting can only be left to the Honkai Beasts."

This was easy to understand, knowing that this was the Taming Master Challenge. If tamers could also participate, then it might as well evolve into a world martial arts tournament.

If it developed like that, presumably the organizers... might even want to see it happen?

In short, tamers are prohibited from participating in the battle in the finals, which is why Kaino wanted to disguise himself as a Honkai Beast to participate in the finals.

After all, with his super strength and God Key, even if his Honkai energy content limit is low now, he should be able to defeat most Honkai Beasts. What's more, by the time of the finals, he should have recovered almost completely.

As for those Honkai Beasts that he can't beat... it's just a city competition, so it's unlikely that a Judgement-class Honkai Beast will appear.

But there's no point in saying all this now.

"Boss, please give me ten more cups of bitter gourd juice and twenty servings of sea salt ice cream to go."

After ordering food from the cold drink shop owner, Kaino looked at the two Seeles:

"It's getting late, you guys eat here first. I remember there's a hotel on the way here, I'll go book a room first. Remember not to run around, or I won't be able to find you later."

"Oh, right. Do you two want one room or two rooms, single beds or a double bed?"

"One room with single beds is fine. Seele only needs to sleep, I'll just stay in the Stigmata Space."

Red Seele shrugged and replied.

"Oh, okay."

Freezing the bitter gourd juice and ice cream placed on the table by the boss and putting them into the Imaginary Space, Kaino turned and left the cold drink shop.

After confirming that he wasn't being followed, Kaino didn't go directly to the hotel, but instead went to an uninhabited alley.

He had been concerned about his fainting due to the Stigmata on his chest, after all, he had experienced such a fainting spell when he woke up, and even traveled through the world because of it.

But Seele had been by his side since he woke up, and he didn't feel anything unusual in his body, so Kaino didn't take it seriously.

Until he glanced at it while changing clothes in the swimwear store.

Conjuring a palm-sized mirror in his hand, Kaino used it to observe his Stigmata.

Two snakes entangled together, with a hollow diamond-shaped block in the center.

Kaino frowned.

"It really has changed... I haven't heard of Stigmata changing midway, have I?"

The hollow part of the diamond-shaped block in the middle of the snake had become larger, making it look more like an eye.

Kaino could be sure that he wasn't mistaken, after all, he had actually often looked at the Stigmata on his chest in the past few years, so he had already memorized its image.

But why would it change?

Shaking his head, Kaino gave up thinking.

Since there was nothing wrong with his body, he would put it aside for the time being, and ask Auntie to help him check it out after he returned to his own world.

Chapter 52 Small Creation

The next day, early morning.

The sun had just risen, and Kaino and his party sneaked to the place where they encountered the Knight-class Honkai Beast yesterday, planning to capture it before other contestants noticed it.

"Brother Kaino... is this really going to work?"

Seele's voice sounded a little worried.

"Of course, since the instruction manual says so, then in theory it should be fine." ...

Kaino patted his chest, his voice full of confidence:

"Seele, that Knight-class Honkai Beast is right ahead, right? If it makes any moves, let us know."

"Okay, okay..."

Red Seele yawned, looking boredly at Kaino and Seele, who were groping forward like blind people.

The reason for this was that both of them had blindfolds over their eyes.

Since eye contact would cause both sides to enter a battle state, then as long as they couldn't make eye contact, they couldn't enter a battle—that's what Kaino thought.

It wasn't just wishful thinking. Judging from the Honkai Beast's behavior yesterday when it was being fed, the Honkai Beast should be extremely kind in its normal state.

At least in this world, this Honkai Beast was.

So Kaino guessed that the act of making eye contact was likely similar to a matador's red cloth to the Honkai Beast. Without it, the Honkai Beast shouldn't attack them.

If his guess was correct, they could skip class and capture powerful Honkai Beasts in the future. If he guessed wrong, it wouldn't matter, since it was just a Knight-class Honkai Beast.

"Alright, alright, that Honkai Beast is right in front of you now."

Red Seele's slightly surprised voice rang out.

"It clearly sees you, but it seems to think of you as playing guests rather than tamers... Did your idea actually work?"

"Chirp~"

A slightly childish voice sounded in front of them, and Kaino felt his body being nudged by the Knight-class Honkai Beast.

His body couldn't help but stiffen.

This lower-level Honkai Beast could actually speak?

And it seemed to be treating him as a playmate.

"Um... Good boy?"

After a moment of hesitation, Kaino reached out and began to stroke the Honkai Beast—in his mind, most pets liked being petted.

At least that was the case with the cat his sister had when they were little.

"Chirp~ Chirp!"

"Woah! Your pet-soothing skills aren't bad at all! It looks pretty happy now."

Red Seele's voice rang out again:

"So, what are you planning to do next? Even if you blindfold yourselves to avoid provoking its hostility, you'll still have to rely on combat to subdue it in the end, right?"

"Indeed, we can only tame it through combat, but combat... doesn't necessarily have to be equal."

Kaino smiled, his voice with a hint of joy:

"Seele, come over and help me soothe it."

"Eh? O-okay!"

Hearing this, Seele quickly stepped forward to take over Kaino's soothing work.

Kaino retreated slightly, using the breeze to observe the specific situation of the Knight-class Honkai Beast at this time. Then, he placed a hand on it, his voice with a hint of apology:

"Well, sorry about this!"

"Chirp?"

The Honkai Beast's voice held a hint of confusion, but it quickly became panicked.

"Chirp!"

Chains appeared out of thin air along with a burst of blue light, locking the Knight-class Honkai Beast's joints. It was tightly locked and unable to move, like a crab tied up in a seafood market.

"Hey, done!"

Kaino untied the blindfold from his eyes and made friendly eye contact with the human part of the Knight-class Honkai Beast above.

Although it was a Honkai Beast, it wasn't lifeless, but had a lively expression. After seeing Kaino's eyes, the Honkai Beast seemed to realize something and immediately became angry.

"Chirp!"

"Brother Kaino, is this really okay? It seems very angry right now..."

The Blue Seele beside him looked at the Honkai Beast in front of them with some worry.

Red Seele nodded and started adding fuel to the fire from the side:

"Yeah, yeah, to do such a thing to an innocent and weak Honkai Beast, you're really... Hey, wait, what is it trying to do? Kaino, let's hit it!"

The locked Honkai Beast had a very unwilling expression, and the horse beneath it kept opening and closing its mouth at Blue Seele, as if trying to bite her, scaring Seele so much that her body trembled.

This scene made Red Seele's anger rise greatly.

"It should have entered a battle state, right? Even with its body locked, it still wants to attack. Its will to resist is quite strong."

Looking at the horse-person who was trying hard to stretch its head and bite him, Kaino rubbed his chin and said.

Because he had calculated the distance in advance, he wasn't worried that it would be able to bite him. On the contrary, he felt that the way it was trying so hard to hurt him was quite cute.

Aside from their ferocity, the Dead Soldiers could all be considered fair-skinned and beautiful girls. And although the one in front of him was a Honkai Beast, the upper half was also a humanoid Dead Soldier.

"Brother Kaino, we look like the big villains from a manga..."

"Putting aside the fact that it's a Honkai Beast, what villain wins against the protagonist only to tame them as a battle partner?"

Kaino shrugged.

"But speaking of which, it lost its ability to resist in the fight. Shouldn't that count as us taming it?"

"Chuang..."

Hearing Kaino's words, the Knight-class Honkai Beast suddenly stopped resisting, simply lying on the ground and making dejected noises, while the girl on its back also hung her head in disappointment.

"Giving up?"

Kaino nudged the girl's head and confirmed once more.

"Chuang."

The girl and the Honkai Beast nodded in unison, crestfallen.

Kaino snapped his fingers, and the chains binding the Honkai Beast vanished instantly. The Knight-class Honkai Beast rose from the ground, following closely behind Kaino.

"I feel like it's really unhappy."

Blue Seele looked at the drooping Honkai Beast, a look of pity on her face.

"What's there to be unhappy about? We didn't hurt them; we didn't even use weapons! On the contrary, they were trying to bite us the whole time."

Kaino shrugged, signaling to Seele not to worry.

"Chuang?"

The Knight-class Honkai Beast raised both of its heads, staring blankly at Kaino. After a moment, it looked at Blue Seele with teary eyes.

"Chuang~ Chuang~"

Kaino: ?

It even knows how to act spoiled?