That Incident / The Killer

"No, that's not it. Hmph, I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"Hahaha..."

"I just occasionally wanted to help Team Member Lin shoulder some of the burden..." Hun sighed softly, thoughts drifting. "Carrying the will of the dead... If only there were no sacrifices, no deaths..."

At that, the man put away his wild laughter and instead revealed the composure of a sage. "Hun, sacrifice and death are unavoidable. Humanity advances precisely because of what those before us gave."

"All we can do is accept it."

"But... even if it's only a fantasy, a world without death, where no one ever leaves... Team Member Lin wouldn't have to carry so much..."

"Hun..."

"Bang--------"

All words vanished within the blaze.

That Incident

"Meow~"

The ever-unchanging black statue extended a hand from the darkness and took the sheet of coded information Canned Food held in its mouth. After patting its head, Lin gave it a bag of silver coins and a dried fish.

"Tell Pardofelis I'll go find her in a while."

"Meow~"

With agility utterly mismatched with its body, Canned Food hopped away again and vanished at the entrance to the Imaginary Tree.

"You can talk to cats?"

Mei approached from afar. She looked toward where Canned Food had disappeared, then turned back to Lin, who had picked up the document to inspect it.

"No, but Canned Food understands what I say. That's enough." Lin tapped beneath several distorted characters with his fingers. An azure display window lit up, signaling that he had begun decrypting it.

"Speaking of which..."

"Raiden Mei, if you have something to ask, you don't need to beat around the bush. I'll say what I should say. As for what I shouldn't, no amount of fishing for answers will help."

"..."

Looking on the bright side, at least Lin would not mock people or lose his temper at the drop of a hat like Chrono.

"Pardofelis is also one of the Thirteen Heroes, your companion. And from what I've observed, you treat her far better than anyone else. Even better than Elysia..."

"Oh my? Did I just hear someone calling my adorable name?"

Elysia appeared from nowhere. Mei had already grown used to her unpredictable comings and goings.

With a grin, she sat beside Lin, crossing her shapely legs as she leaned against the sofa. "Mei, you're so mean. You're actually digging into gossip about Lin and me behind our backs."

"I wasn't..."

"You could have just asked me directly."

"..."

Mei did not know whether she should trust Elysia, but since Lin, one of the people involved, showed no reaction at all, Elysia probably was not lying.

She continued her earlier question. "Lin's attitude toward the Hero called Pardofelis is completely different from how he treats everyone else. Is there some history behind that?"

"Before we talk about that, Mei, how could you tell that Lin treated Pardo differently?" Elysia smiled sweetly. "Clearly, Lin and I are very close too~"

"..." Lin glanced at her without speaking.

"The names." Mei gave her reasoning. "Whether Lin says my name or yours, he always uses our full names. Even when there are easier ways to say them, like Raiden or Eri, he only uses the more formal full names. Only with Pardofelis does he use an affectionate abbreviation."

Moreover, when Lin dealt with Pardofelis's pet, he used gentle motions completely unlike his usual persona to tease it. Such behavior was rarely seen from the cold and harsh Lin.

"As expected of Mei. You even noticed that."

Elysia nodded, then turned to Lin. "Lin, can I tell her?"

"...Do whatever you want."

Under the dim lighting, Elysia's smile became difficult to read.

"How should I put this? It's a historical leftover, I suppose. Lin is a little gentler with younger girls than he is with other people."

"...Elysia." Lin gave her a warning. Her phrasing was a little too... ambiguous. Mei's disdainful gaze had become somewhat piercing.

"Ah, I said that wrong." Elysia showed no remorse at all and continued smiling cheerfully. "Lin treats everyone about the same. He just cares for Pardo a little more."

"Sigh..." Lin shook his head and put away the document. "Raiden Mei, why are you asking about this?"

"I came here to find answers about the truth behind Honkai, but after arriving at the Imaginary Tree, I discovered that things were far more complicated than I imagined." Mei watched the two people in the Imaginary Tree whom she found hardest to understand. The mysteries surrounding them were even deeper than she had expected. "Especially you. You're not a Flame-Chaser, yet other people's assessment of you is... 'powerful.'"

Lin occasionally gave her pressure no less imposing than that of the other Heroes. Even Chrono's arrogant tone became much more restrained whenever he mentioned Lin.

"I'm not powerful." Lin had always been modest about himself, but this time his words were different. "But I'm not weak either. I'm always the first to appear before successors because I need to assess what kind of people they are."

"I thought it was because I'm a Herrscher."

"That is part of it. If you were truly a Herrscher standing on Honkai's side..." Lin said calmly, "then I would kill you before you had the chance to act."

He said it lightly, as though killing a Herrscher meant nothing to him.

Yet Mei could not help believing that this so-called "ordinary human" truly possessed the strength to make good on those words.

Elysia rubbed the top of Lin's head. "All right, all right, why make things so tense? Mei, I didn't scare you, did I?"

"I'm not so easily frightened by a threat of that level."

But from now on, she needed to be even more wary of Lin. None of the people in the Imaginary Tree were easy to deal with.

"By the way, Lin, is that document in your hand from the Fire Moth?"

"Yes."

Lin opened the document again. The densely packed code no longer revealed its original meaning. The Fire Moth had hundreds of encryption methods, and Lin knew only a few of them, but now he had nearly unlimited time to decrypt it.

"This is..." Elysia found the document's serial number somewhat familiar. "Information on that Fifth Branch Incident? Did you ask Pardo to find it for you?"

"Yes. Mei's arrival this time caused new changes in the Imaginary Tree. Some things that should have been here but weren't have surfaced as well, so I had Pardo locate this."

"I remember the final conclusion on the Fifth Branch Incident was that it had been an attack by an unknown force." Elysia thought for a moment and recalled the accident that had shaken the Fire Moth.

"If that were truly the case, then this document would not need to be encrypted."

Lin's fingers gradually clenched, crumpling the document.

Everything had begun with that "accident." Spasi, Mei, Kevin, and... Hun.

The flames shooting into the sky became the most glaring sight in the city.

Lin rushed back to the Fifth Branch at top speed. Even so, when he reached the foot of the building, all he could see were flames engulfing the main section of the Fifth Branch before layers of metal plates from the containment system immediately sealed it off.

Quite a few people had gathered downstairs, all staring at the accident above, making it impossible for Lin to enter through the front entrance.

He landed on a rooftop to observe the situation, and an abnormal figure immediately drew his attention.

A man paid no heed to the incident and walked toward a secluded direction.

The Fifth Branch, where the accident had occurred, lay in the opposite direction.

When the moonlight was obscured, Lin vanished from where he stood.

Killer

"Tap, tap, tap..."

The lone man walked deeper into the alley. The city's clamor faded behind him, leaving only horrifying footsteps striking the walls and echoing through the air.

He was sending messages to the other side on his phone, reporting the mission's success.

Overall, everything had gone smoothly. All he had done was detonate several bombs and release the contained Mortal soldiers. The most troublesome person was absent, so he had ample opportunity to strike. However, he could not confirm whether the primary target was dead or alive.

"Tap."

The footsteps stopped.

The silence around him was somewhat unnatural.

Years of life as an assassin had sharpened his instincts, and he was extremely sensitive to being watched. A gaze from somewhere in the darkness made his back prickle.

Since they had caught up, that meant they had already determined he was responsible. Even pretending to be a passerby now would probably be useless.

The man casually closed his phone and reached into the inner pocket of his clothing as if searching for something.

"Bang!"

A bullet hole appeared at his feet, freezing his movement.

That utterly decisive shot was a warning not to make any rash moves. If he did anything else, the next bullet would not miss.

But that shot had also exposed the other party's location!

A vicious look appeared on the man's face. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the pistol in his pocket, turned, and fired three shots toward the gunfire--

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"What--"

All three shots he had confidently fired missed. As though the shooter had foreseen them, Lin had immediately left his position after firing.

"Whew..."

The sound of wind cutting through the air, to the right!

In the instant of his surprise, a black figure had already reached his side. A fist covered in a gauntlet came hurtling toward him like a cannonball.

This was an emergency. He could not worry about anything else. The man used the gun in his hand to block in front of him, while his other hand gripped something else behind his back.

"Boom!"

The two figures each retreated. Lin's strike had failed to land, and he extinguished the display window's light before blending back into the night. He swiftly moved into the man's blind spot and observed him.

Lin's punch had shattered the pistol, but it had still blocked him for an instant, allowing the man to draw something that looked familiar to Lin.

A greatsword.

That was right. It was a greatsword similar in design to the one in Himiko's hands. What the man had drawn was a folding device that unfolded into the massive blade. It was Armed Folding Technology that the Fire Moth was developing but had not yet deployed.

Judging from the man's practiced movements, he had faced situations like this many times. Whether his reactions or his responses, everything about him suggested techniques meant specifically for dealing with "humans."

He was not a Fire Moth soldier. He was an assassin who specialized in killing "humans."

Lin holstered his gun and gripped the hilts of the two blades on his back with both hands, slowly drawing half of each blade.

Lin, there is a new mission communication.

"..."

A new mission at a time like this?

A Honkai Energy leak has occurred at the Fifth Branch. Proceed immediately to provide support. The combat squad is en route to the MSA-079 coordinates. Transfer the arrest mission to the combat squad.

"..."

The combat squad's coordinates appeared on the display, closing in on Lin's location in an encircling formation.

The immediate priority truly was to support the Fifth Branch, which had come under attack. Continuing to fight this man would only increase losses and casualties.

However, Lin detected another meaning in the timing of this conveniently issued mission.

Lin, Doctor Mei is contacting you.

"...I understand."

Lin made his decision at once. He put away his weapons, abandoned the standoff with the man, and sprinted toward the Fifth Branch.

After Lin left, the man thoughtfully put away his weapon. He did not flee, nor did he offer any resistance when the arriving combat squad arrested him.

Kevin pulled the trigger, sending bullets pouring out. Yet the tall white monster flickered through the room like a gust of wind, and the bullets struck nothing but pitiful afterimages left upon the retina.

"A Loyal Ninja Mortal?" Seeing that firearms could not inflict damage, Kevin decisively drew his tactical dagger. He planted his right foot on the many charred documents scattered across the floor and kicked them upward, instantly using the scraps of paper to block the Loyal Ninja Mortal's vision as it flashed before him.

"Shing--"

His right hand holding the blade burst through the curtain of paper. The Loyal Ninja Mortal's crimson eyes flashed. Completely disregarding the attack about to reach its body, it brought down both blades, slashing toward Kevin's shoulders.