Meeting Again

Long, golden hair. That much was obvious. As long as someone had no trouble recognizing colors and shapes, they could reach that conclusion.

She was very beautiful, indeed. Even without considering the bonus points Kaino gave her for resembling his mother, she was undeniably gorgeous.

Her legs were straight and long, probably? Blue Seele, sitting across from Kaino, blocked them from view, but the blonde girl's height alone—far beyond that of others her age—was enough to roughly confirm it.

He guessed that if the waitress named Bronya had been standing there, he would only have been able to see her head, maybe a bit of her shoulders.

As for the front armor...

Kaino's gaze drifted to the girl's chest, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

How should he put it? Front armor was a pretty fitting metaphor. And it really was quite large...

But wasn't it a little mismatched with her age? She looked pretty young.

"Excuse me, is there something on me?"

Noticing Kaino's rather unabashed stare, the blonde girl frowned and asked him.

The two Seeles and Bella beside him all turned to look over.

"Uh, no. It's just that your appearance matches the description two people gave me earlier."

Kaino came back to his senses and scratched his cheek with a finger. "To put it simply, you're the manager of Honkai Ranch, right?"

"Huh?"

The blonde girl blanked out for a moment, then thought about it and nodded.

"That's right. I'm the manager of Honkai Ranch, Durandal. By the way, were the two people you mentioned two creatures in armor?"

Durandal? Then that explained it.

At first, he had thought she was his mother when she was young, after dyeing her hair and sneaking out to have fun.

Kaino nodded and tapped the table in front of him with a finger.

"We're probably talking about the same ones, if they can really be called creatures."

"Mind joining our table? There are a few things we'd like to discuss with you. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Kaino Kaslana, a contestant in this challenge."

After speaking, Kaino pointed at the two Seeles and Bella.

"These are the two Seeles and Bella—don't bother looking. There's one Seele you can't see."

Seeing her gaze search all around him, Kaino explained.

"Also, Boss Rita and the others went to the kitchen to prepare food. There's a lot of work, so they probably won't be out anytime soon."

"Ah, is that so? Thank you."

Durandal nodded and readily sat down beside Blue Seele.

"Come to think of it, since you saw those two, you must have visited Honkai Ranch, right?"

Before Kaino could say anything, Durandal, who had just sat down, spoke first. "How did those two perform? Did they manage the ranch properly? To be honest, I was worried about leaving them alone there, but this business trip was unavoidable. I was worried they might cause some kind of trouble."

"Um... let me think about how to put this."

Kaino scratched his head, unsure how to explain it to Durandal. It wouldn't be great to directly tell her that they had tied the two up and thrown them onto the grass with the Honkai Beasts, would it?

Be tactful. Be tactful.

"When we arrived at the ranch, we found it incredibly quiet. Not a single Honkai Beast was making noise."

"Oh? I didn't expect those two to do such a good job."

Durandal nodded, looking a little incredulous. Then a smile appeared on her face.

"If that's the case, then..."

"Because they let all the Honkai Beasts out of the ranch, of course it was quiet inside."

Kaino shrugged.

The smile vanished from Durandal's face in an instant. Her delicate brows furrowed, and her expression turned cold.

"Those two... excuse me for a moment. If Honkai Beasts enter the city, it could seriously endanger the citizens. I need to deal with it."

"Ah, no need. We spent quite a while handling them—we mean driving them back to the ranch, not killing them."

Durandal, who had just pushed herself up to leave, frowned slightly upon hearing that. After thinking for a moment, she sat back down.

She looked at Kaino and the others with a serious expression.

"Thank you very much for your help. Once I return to the ranch and verify this, I will reward you generously."

Kaino's words alone were not enough to make her believe it immediately. After all, quickly containing a group of Honkai Beasts with only a few people was no easy task.

Though, based on her understanding of her two subordinates, they were absolutely capable of doing something like that.

"You can forget about the reward. Durandal, you're an adjudicator for the intermediate division, right? Just stamp our approval later—that'll be enough. Though, if you really want to treat us to a few meals, we won't refuse."

Her first reaction upon hearing that the Honkai Beasts had been released was to protect the citizens. That earned her a great deal of Kaino's goodwill, so he did not intend to make excessive demands.

"If what you say is true, then of course that won't be a problem."

Durandal nodded.

"Oh, right. There's something I need to apologize for in advance. It concerns those two subordinates of yours."

To keep Durandal from turning hostile after returning home and finding her two subordinates trembling in fear while tied up in front of a mountain of Honkai Beasts, Kaino decided to give her a warning beforehand.

"Hm? What happened to them?"

"Well, after learning that they had released the Honkai Beasts, my blood pressure shot up in anger, so I tied them up and threw them into the ranch."

To Kaino's surprise, Durandal merely nodded to show that she understood.

"Don't worry about it. As for those two... it's fine."

"And they were at fault first. While violently punishing others is not something that should be encouraged, it is understandable in this case."

"Just try not to do it again in the future."

Jingle, jingle, jingle.

The familiar sound of wind chimes rang out again.

"Homu Happy Restaurant should be here, right? But why does this place look so much like a bar?"

A familiar male voice came first.

"Maybe those two armored guys lied to us?"

Then came a female voice identical to Blue Seele's.

"Choo choo~"

Then came the familiar voice of the Chariot-class Honkai Beast.

"Wow, it smells so good!"

Finally... huh? A female voice he had never heard before.

Looking at the Captain, Seele, Choo Choo, and an unknown figure hidden behind Choo Choo with only a corner of her clothes visible as they entered the restaurant, Kaino slumped back in his chair with a helpless expression.

"Why are you guys here again?"

Reunion

To be fair, whether it was the Captain, Seele, or even Choo Choo, they were all quite pleasant... people. They were not the type to annoy others.

In fact, Kaino did not have any bad feelings toward them. He even got along quite well with them, especially the Captain.

But that did nothing to ease the headache caused by having three Seeles surrounding him.

Red Seele was easy enough to tell apart. She wore red, floated in the air, and had a very distinctive way of speaking. But Blue Seele and the other Seele were almost identical aside from slight differences in how they spoke.

What a pain.

"Kaino, Seele, and Bella? So it really is you guys."

Hearing Kaino's voice, the Captain turned around and raised his brows. But after hearing what Kaino said, he immediately got angry.

"What do you mean, 'again'? That sounds hurtful!"

"You heard wrong."

Brushing off the Captain's question, Kaino shrugged. "This really is Homu Happy Restaurant. It probably looks like a bar because of the owner's personal tastes."

"Come to think of it, I remember there were only three of you when we parted ways. It's only been about half a day, and you've already abducted another innocent girl?"

"Hey, who are you calling abducted? I'm not that stupid!"

The girl who had been behind Choo Choo stepped out, put her hands on her hips, puffed out her cheeks, and squinted at Kaino.

"More importantly, you... huh?"

The girl froze after getting a clear look at Kaino.

Kaino froze as he looked at the girl too.

He had often dreamed of that familiar pair of pure white twin-tails and those sky-blue eyes identical to his over the past few years.

Though the twin-tails looked a little more rustic after being braided into pigtails, he was certain the girl before him was Kiana... at least in appearance.

The girl who looked identical to Kiana suddenly stepped forward, braced both hands against the table, leaned close, and tilted her head from side to side as she stared at Kaino like she was observing some kind of giant panda.

She even sniffed at him.

That snapped Kaino back to his senses. He instinctively leaned back... only to realize he could not lean any farther.

"Um, Kiana... cough, I mean, could you pull back a little first?"

Kaino swallowed and made the suggestion softly.

"No, wait."

The girl frowned and looked Kaino over from left to right. Finally, as if confirming something, she straightened up and nodded.

"You're some kind of cousin of mine, right?"

Her eyes lit up as she spoke excitedly to Kaino.

"I'm Kiana Kaslana. Big Auntie told me long ago that the Kaslana family was huge, but I've never met any other Kaslanas before!"

Hearing her reveal her name, Kaino slowly took a deep breath.

"I'm Kaino Kaslana. I am indeed a Kaslana, but I really haven't heard the name Kiana before."

"Come to think of it, how are you so sure I'm your older cousin and not your younger cousin? You can't tell who's older just by looking at us, can you?"

During the brief moment he had been distracted, Kaino had already decided not to acknowledge her. Whether she truly was Kiana or someone else, neither possibility meant more to him than Bianca and K423 did.

"Who does she look like among the relatives you know? Your little sister?"

Taking advantage of the fact that no one could see or hear her, Red Seele floated over to Kaino, overlapping with Bella as she asked him.

Kaino gave an almost imperceptible nod and said quietly, "She does look the same, but it's nothing."

Just as Blue Seele had chosen not to speak with Bronya, Kaino had no intention of getting too involved with this Kiana.

After all, whether she was truly Kiana or someone else, her relationship with him could never be deeper than K423's.

After all, K423 was at least the little sister he intended to acknowledge... or rather, his biological younger sister.

"I thought you were an older cousin because you seem more mature. You can't tell much from appearances anyway. Big Auntie is so old, but she still acts like a child."

Kiana puffed out her cheeks, looking unconcerned.

"But why are you acting together with the Captain and the others? Anyone participating in the challenge should have formed their team already."

"Ah, hehe. I'm not here to compete. I came here for another purpose."

As Kiana spoke, she put her hands on her hips and grinned proudly.

"I'm going to find some rare Honkai Beasts and make a Honkai Beast feast!"

Bella shuddered and glared at Kiana with a mixture of fear and anger.

Besides Bella, the two Seeles also stared at her in utter disbelief.

Kaino's Adam's apple bobbed.

"Hey, wait. Why did your Adam's apple move? Don't tell me you were swallowing?"

The Captain, who had been watching them, noticed Kaino's unusual reaction. His eyes widened as he asked in surprise.