Bird in a Cage / Just Like Before

If you kill her, those bacterial type Honkai Beasts will also die.

"Thank you, Lin, for listening to me so much. Now you should leave quickly and not get involved in this anymore," Kallen said softly to the man who was stroking his chin in thought. "I assure you, the sun will rise as usual tomorrow."

Lin was ultimately just a stranger, Kallen could sense the kindness he exuded, which was why she couldn't let him get any more involved.

"... And what about you?"

The man lowered his hand from her chin, calmly raising his head to look into the girl's azure eyes, which were instinctively looking away. "Why didn't you become like that?"

"... Would you like to hear a story? A story about a body that died five hundred years ago, but has been resurrected five hundred years later."

Let's talk as we walk.

Lin knew this wasn't the time to stand around chatting, so he took the lead and walked ahead of Kallen. Kallen didn't try to shoo him away; she simply followed behind him, adjusted her breathing and pace, and began to tell a story.

"Kallen Kaslana, this person actually died five hundred years ago. She was once a saint, but became a traitor and eventually died at her own execution ground to protect the people."

"..."

Lin turned around and glanced at the composed Kallen. Was this girl, who looked no more than ten years old, already a person from five hundred years ago?

"She should have remained asleep forever, Kallen Kaslana, a noble sacrificial woman. But five hundred years later, a man wants to awaken her from her eternal slumber."

"He borrowed forbidden power to create a girl who could inject the Honkai Beast within her into others through blood-drinking, thus infecting them. The infected could share her life force. So that man made her absorb Kallen Kaslana's blood."

"Clatter."

The footsteps stopped.

Lin raised his head and looked at the indifferent full moon that looked down on everything on the ground.

He turned back and gazed at the serene-looking girl.

"Then, a body that had lost most of its senses and had only scattered memories of Kallen Kaslana awoke."

Most of the senses and... memory.

Lin felt as if an electric current had struck his mind. He instinctively covered his forehead as fragments of his memories, which he had been sorting out, surged forth like a tsunami.

The bright moonlight seemed to pierce through the sinner, nailing him to the ground, and enveloped the man whose eyeballs almost bulged out of their sockets. Chaotic consciousness, jumbled memories, and a missing self all threatened to engulf him.

Stop...

"MSA-079, Lin, please take your medical examination report..."

Stop!

A roar abruptly cut short the pain that had barely surfaced before sending chills down his spine. Lin snapped back to reality, panting as he looked at Kallen, who was oblivious to his presence, and slowly began to clear his jumbled thoughts.

"This body should have long since rested underground, and that man was indeed completely open with me. The eagerness in his eyes and his expectation were as if he were looking at the real Kallen. But I am not Kallen. He was just chasing after the phantom of that saint, and I... was nothing more than a tool for him to comfort and convince himself."

The wrong person wakes up at the wrong time in the wrong world.

Kallen stood on the desolate sand dunes, unable to see her past or the direction of her future.

Who exactly is she?

Is her purpose in living in this world simply to be a phantom of a dead person, trapped in a cage?

Perhaps, from the very beginning, the illusion called "Kallen" was something that should not exist in the world.

Just like "her"...

Chapter Ten: The Bird in a Cage

"Sister... Sister..."

... What am I, really?

Inside the hibernation pod, she opened her blue eyes and looked at her reflection, a sickly figure in a hospital gown.

Reach out and place your hand on the cold glass, as if you could touch the reflection of "Kallen".

She laughed, and "Kallen" laughed too.

She cried, and "Kallen" cried too.

But she is not "Kallen".

Are you awake?

The reflection of "Kallen" shattered, and a blond man stepped outside the unreachable "Kallen" and looked at her gently.

She, however, remained indifferent to the fervor in his eyes.

In the blond man's eyes, he could only see the reflection of "Kallen." The woman he saw was not a real person, but the illusory shadow of Kallen that had just appeared in the glass.

That's really... pathetic.

Has the meaning of his life been tied to a deceased person?

Is he pursuing "Kallen" or a faith called "Kallen"?

Have no idea.

But she didn't want to accept the blond man's gaze. She wasn't Kallen, and he shouldn't think she was!

And what, then, is the meaning of her life...?

"Sister... Sister..."

When she opened her eyes, countless autumns had passed. The white-haired, red-eyed girl stood gracefully in front of the hibernation pod, looking inside with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

"Who are you..."

The girl answered her, "His Holiness the bishop called me... A-872..."

A-872... Is that her...?

She gazed at A-872, the child who had awakened her from her long slumber, who seemed to understand nothing, merely looking at her in astonishment.

During some periods of lucidity, she had wondered what she would think if she saw A-872.

A monster that defiled "Kallen's " body? Will she be resentful?

But when she saw A-872, she felt only calm.

An innocent child, a tool used by that man.

"A-872... Don't you have a name?"

"Name?"

"It seems not." She exhaled, blurring the girl's face in the glass. She reached out and wiped it away. In the mirror, where she couldn't tell whether it was A-872 or "Kallen", she said softly, "Then I'll give you a name."

"For me?"

"Yes, a name that belongs only to you."

"It belongs only to me... Okay!"

"Then let's call her... Theresa."

From that day on, two "things" that should not exist in the world found meaning in their existence, and from that time on, the vampire girl who had a name was no longer a soulless prop.

Two empty shells born from an experiment to resurrect the dead, but as they drew closer to each other, they developed their own souls.

"Sister... Sister..."

She opened her eyes and saw no starry sky, only an orderly but cold laboratory.

The vampire girl stood in front of her hibernation pod, excitedly holding up the book in her hand, and smiled slightly, "Theresa..."

"Sister! I saw the sea in a book today! Is it a giant bathtub filled with water? Isn't it beautiful?"

"Hehe... that's not a bathtub... but it must be very beautiful."

How beautiful?

"It's much prettier than this place."

"I really want to see it with my own eyes..."

The vampire girl looked on with longing, like a caged bird yearning to fly.

At that moment, an idea came to her.

"Theresa... let's play hide-and-seek."

"That's how it all is. In the end, it started because of me, and it should end with me." Kallen walked past Lin, biting her lower lip so hard that it bled, her mouth filled with a bitter taste. "If you want to come, then come. But just watch quietly from the side."

Lin remained motionless, head bowed, seemingly unwilling to concern himself with the "culprit."

That's right, the best course of action now is to go with Kallen to find the vampire who might attack humans at any moment, the sooner the better, and then help Kallen shoot her dead. That would bring everything to a satisfactory end, and maybe the distortion of this World Bubble would also end.

The crisis was resolved, the mission was accomplished, the distortion disappeared, and everyone was happy.

Is that so?

What would he do? When faced with someone close to him turning into a monster, and forced to kill them...

"Wait a moment."

The man with his head down suddenly spoke up, stopping Kallen from moving forward. He quickly walked up to Kallen, squinting as he examined her face.

"Do what?"

Are you... hungry?

"Huh? What are you talking about!" Kallen hadn't expected Lin to say something so nonsensical, but before she could utter a second sentence, her stomach—

"Gurgle~~~"

"..."

Her face flushed as she covered her stomach, and her murderous aura and frustration vanished instantly.

She hadn't eaten much. Her original plan was to have a meal after meeting up with Lin before looking for Theresa, but she ran into Theresa, who had woken up, on the way. She hadn't eaten a single bite since.

"Let's go, it's my treat."

"Now? No, that's not right, I need to go..."

"You can't fight a good war if you don't have enough to eat." Lin grabbed Kallen's shoulder without saying a word, pushed her forward, and said in a lecturing tone, "If you lose later, it will be me and Canghai City that suffer."

"..."

This statement acted as a weakness, causing Kallen, who had initially wanted to argue, to immediately back down.

She was indeed hungry.

"Gurgle... gurgle..."

Passersby swallowed hard, sweating profusely as they stared at the "dragon and tiger leaping" dining table beside them.

That's an exaggeration.

On the table, a small hill had been piled up, with a large number of plates that were cleaner than if they had been washed, while a girl with silver-white braids was still engrossed in wolfing down her food.

No matter what the ingredients, the dish, or the size, if it's near her mouth, she'll swallow it all in two bites.

Good heavens, did she finish a whole roast chicken in just two bites?

With greasy hands and mouth, she placed the last plate on the "hill," then let out a soft burp. The girl stared intently at the silent man sitting opposite her.

"I'm full, it's time for me to go."

She is in good condition now, and it is almost dawn. If it gets light, it will be difficult to find Theresa is lying motionless in the vast city.

We must resolve this while Theresa is still active.

However, Lin's words infuriated her. "Don't rush, digest first, I haven't eaten yet."

"Then you eat by yourself, I'm leaving." She got up and was about to walk out of the store, but as she passed Lin's seat, a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to the seat.

She was furious: "You—"

Do you want to save her?

One sentence shut her up.

Chapter Eleven is the same as before.

Do you want to save her?