How Is This Any Different from a Confession?

Normally, only the intelligence officers specifically responsible for passing information to her had her contact details and could reach her at any time.

"...Thank you."

"N-no need to thank me."

Raiden Mei was actually quite easy to get along with.

Tanaka Nao couldn't help but feel a sliver of doubt toward the rumors she had heard.

"What about Yae Sakura?" Kiana put away the spray and remembered someone who was on their side. "Do you know Yae Sakura? Do you have her contact details?"

"Miss Yae?"

Tanaka Nao looked at Kiana in surprise and nodded. "I haven't added her. After all, we're responsible for different areas. But she's easier to talk to than Lady Sirin. I can ask some of my other friends for you."

"Yae Sakura?"

Mei remembered that name—the woman who had delivered her father's letter, taken the Resonating Blade, and injured Kiana.

"She might know Sirin."

Kiana nodded as she spoke, feeling that the possibility was fairly high. After all, judging from how Yae Sakura had merely drawn her blade and caused the temperature to plummet, covering the ground in Frost...

She definitely counted as one of the stronger ones.

She had also been the one to tell Mei about the Edict Blade, and the blade in her hand was one of its unfinished versions.

Just like Narukami before it.

"Miss Yae?" Tanaka Nao thought for a moment, then nodded. "That possibility is indeed quite high."

Seeing that it was getting late, Mei exchanged contact details with Tanaka Nao, and the three of them stopped chatting on the mountain.

The three of them went down the mountain together and parted ways at Mirror Lake. Tanaka Nao said that she would tell them immediately after obtaining Yae Sakura's contact details.

Only after the two of them were on their way back together did Mei take out the crystal they had obtained from slaying Kishin earlier.

The crystal was just as pitch-black as the previous one, but there were also some differences.

"There seems to be Honkai energy inside it."

"Really?"

[Special Honkai Crystal (B): Can upgrade equipment from the 'Cursed Sword' series, and has a small chance of adding an affix to equipment from the 'Cursed Sword' series]

It was indeed vastly different from the inferior energy crystal they had seen before. Not only had its effects gained another entry, but its name had also changed beyond recognition.

"Honkai Crystal... Mei, that Kishin you slew has completely transformed into a Honkai Beast."

After seeing the description about the small chance of adding an affix, Kiana didn't immediately recycle the crystal. Instead, she put it away for the time being.

"Why not sacrifice it?"

"It has another use." Kiana explained, "We can sacrifice it whenever we want, but this crystal can increase the power of the Cursed Sword. Let's keep it for now."

"Won't keeping it by our side have any effect?" Mei asked uneasily.

"Of course not!" Kiana shook her head and spread out her hand. The item appeared out of thin air. "Besides, I'm not carrying it on me."

Mei nodded. As long as it wasn't being carried around, that was fine. Whether it was a Kishin's curse or Honkai's erosion, neither was anything to take lightly.

"As for that Kishin, it was killed too quickly. I didn't actually feel anything special."

If she still had the strength she had possessed before obtaining the Resonating Blade, she would have known what was different about that Kishin transformed by Honkai.

"Did its strength not increase much?"

"It felt weaker than that spider before." Mei thought for a moment and gave an example. "That spider was the most difficult enemy to deal with, aside from Takemikazuchi."

The Kishin they had just encountered and the spider from before were both much stronger than the weakest Kishin. But that spider with a human head was definitely several times more troublesome than the Kishin they had just fought.

Though to her current self, either of them could be dealt with in a single move.

"It seems that even if weak Kishin undergo Honkai transformation, the increase in strength isn't particularly exaggerated."

"Kishin at Takemikazuchi's level, and perhaps those one level below it, might be different. The stronger they are, the stronger they become."

"That makes sense."

Kiana nodded in agreement.

Of course, there was another possibility.

The reason these not-so-powerful Kishin didn't become absurdly strong after undergoing Honkai transformation, and didn't seem to have changed that much...

Was that the Honkai Energy Concentration wasn't high enough.

After undergoing Honkai transformation, they also lacked the ability of those especially powerful Honkai Beasts to raise the Honkai concentration in their surroundings along with their own.

...What exactly was the standard used to measure this Honkai Energy Concentration?

When the value increased, she could feel the rise in Honkai energy concentration. But so far, she hadn't seen any reports about the dead appearing, nor had she heard of any Honkai disaster breaking out anywhere.

What would happen when the progress reached one hundred percent?

Unknown.

She had no idea what would happen.

But the arrival of the End was definitely unavoidable.

"After we get in touch with Sirin's side, maybe we'll be able to learn more."

Mei remembered some of the information Tanaka Nao had let slip earlier and vaguely guessed why Sirin had said those things.

She should have verified the existence of Honkai and informed the Demon Slaying Bladesmen of it ahead of time.

That was why even Tanaka Nao, whom they had never met before today, had been able to accurately identify Honkai.

Regardless of whether Sirin had done it out of distrust or because she wanted to protect Kiana, Mei felt somewhat relieved.

At least Kiana hadn't been exposed.

"That's true. Sirin might have been researching Honkai with other people during this time."

After Mei's reminder, Kiana also remembered that Tanaka Nao had immediately named the Honkai-transformed Kishin as such.

It was clear that Sirin had spread the information she had told her, and quite a few people already knew that Kishin could be eroded by Honkai power.

The good news was that even if some of the weaker Kishin underwent Honkai transformation, their strength didn't become ridiculously exaggerated.

Kiana's greatest worry had been that every one of them would become absurdly powerful. Now that she knew this wouldn't happen, she finally let go of the weight in her heart.

The advantage is still mine.

Thinking about the Honkai Crystals dropped by the Kishin, Kiana felt that the benefits brought by Honkai seemed to outweigh the harm.

At least at the current concentration, that was the case.

Chapter Sixty: How Is This Any Different from a Confession?

Kiana believed that the advantage was hers.

As long as she could accumulate enough capital to resist them before the concentration skyrocketed to an absurd level...

Those enemies would all become fuel for her snowballing growth, becoming power she could use to resist the Void's pull dragging Izumo into the shadows.

But she urgently needed some start-up capital, as well as an opportunity to begin snowballing her development.

Her hopes rested with Sirin.

Kiana had never missed anyone this much before. It wasn't for any other reason; she was simply thinking about the money Sirin had promised her.

Amid this deepening longing...

The next morning, Tanaka Nao finally brought them good news.

After a night of effort, she had successfully obtained Yae Sakura's contact details from a friend. She had also gotten in touch with Yae Sakura, obtained her consent, and forwarded her contact details.

Thank you to the kind Miss Tanaka.

Mei opened the contact details Tanaka Nao had recommended to her. The profile picture wasn't Yae Sakura herself, but a grove of cherry trees with Sakura petals drifting down.

"Yae Sakura?"

Kiana said that the other party seemed like a good person.

After sending a friend request, Mei also pondered the words from yesterday that she still hadn't fully sorted out, though she had understood the general idea.

"She accepted!"

"Don't rush. I'll ask her right now."

Mei opened the chat window and was just about to greet her when the other party sent three words: "Please wait."

Please wait?

"Is she busy with something?"

Kiana also looked confused. She furrowed her brows. Since Yae Sakura could reply immediately, she clearly wasn't in battle.

"It's fine." Mei thought for a moment. "I can send the message first. Once she's no longer busy, she should reply when she sees it."

"Oh, right. Leave her a message."

It wasn't anything that required a conversation. She only wanted to ask whether Yae Sakura had Sirin's contact details. Once she was free and saw the message, she would reply.

'Hello, I'm Raiden Mei.'

'Sorry to disturb you. May I ask if you have Miss Sirin's contact details?'

'There's something urgent I'd like to discuss with her.'

"This should be fine, right?"

After sending the three messages, Mei considered how she should begin the conversation if she really managed to contact Sirin.

She was rather concerned about what Tanaka Nao had said and definitely had to ask for clarification. Then there was also... the treatment fee she owed Kiana. Kiana cared quite a lot about that.

But how should she bring up the debt?

She had no experience with this sort of thing.

The words "typing..." suddenly appeared on Yae Sakura's side. Mei raised her brows, assuming that Yae Sakura was about to send a message.

But "typing..." appeared and vanished, as if Mei had only imagined it. Yae Sakura's profile picture also quickly darkened.

"Did she go offline?"

"Maybe she really has something urgent to do?" Kiana rubbed her chin and suddenly understood. "Maybe she has to attend a meeting."

"...A meeting?"

"Yeah. Look, isn't attending a meeting something important? You can't just play with your phone whenever you want, right?"

"That's true."

Did the Demon Slaying Bladesmen have meetings as part of their daily routine?

Mei admitted that when she heard Kiana mention a meeting, her thoughts had been overly old-fashioned.

Kiana pressed Mei's hand down and said, "It's fine. She'll definitely reply once she sees the messages."

"I hope she knows Sirin."

"It's fine even if she doesn't." Kiana shook her head. "I can act as a bridge and introduce them later. Besides, getting in touch with Yae Sakura is an unexpected bonus. She knows your father, and also, she should know more than Tanaka Nao. We can ask her about what happened yesterday, too."

"...Father replied to my message."

Mei had wanted to tell Kiana about this yesterday, but she had accidentally fallen asleep. Mei had then tucked the matter away again.

"Huh?"

She lowered her head, looking as though she wasn't completely unconcerned. "It was a very short message. I don't know what he's really thinking, but none of that matters anymore."

Seeing that Mei was somewhat sad, Kiana grabbed her hand and comforted her awkwardly. "Don't be sad, Mei. I'm by your side. No matter what, I'll always stay with you."

You'll always stay by my side?

Mei looked up in surprise. "Really?"

Kiana nodded repeatedly with a smile. "Of course it's true! As long as you still need me, Mei, I'll always be right here!"

As long as she needed her, Kiana would always stay by her side?

Emotion welled up in Mei's eyes. She instinctively clasped both of Kiana's hands. "...Thank you, Kiana."