Honkai, I Alone Saved Everything

The so-called "Menkyo Kaiden" signifies reaching the pinnacle of mastery, having thoroughly grasped all the tricks and secrets of a particular style.

"How does your Yae family's swordsmanship compare to the Hokushin Itto-ryu?"

Ming Yu, with some leisure time, began conversing with the shrine maiden in his mind.

"...In terms of the finesse of the techniques, they are in no way comparable."

Yae Sakura replied honestly.

—As a shrine maiden living in a secluded village, she had never slacked on honing her swordsmanship. However, due to the lack of guidance from a renowned master, her achievements in swordsmanship were actually quite limited.

Her sword techniques were all honed and summarized through her daily training, not the skills of a famous school.

Of course, while her swordsmanship was inferior to the opponent's, she could still discern the level the other party had reached.

"Moreover... this Herrscher is much easier to communicate with than I imagined."

Yae Sakura said quietly.

Having been "fortunate" enough to personally experience being controlled by a Herrscher's will, she understood perfectly what it meant to lose oneself.

The Herrscher's will would overwhelm the original self with excessively strong negative emotions, and then replace it.

She had already prepared herself to fight the other party to the death, but judging from the current situation, her resolve seemed somewhat unnecessary...

What was initially thought to be a life-or-death struggle had now turned into a pure swordsmanship competition.

Well, "competition" might not be the right word, as Ming Yu was being completely outmatched in both strength and technique.

With just a casual flick, she could send him flying with exquisite angles and force.

Under such circumstances, Ming Yu quickly met his defeat.

After being easily sent flying by the girl once again, the accumulated pain in Ming Yu's body finally reached its limit.

"...It's nothing more than this."

The black-haired girl approached Ming Yu, who was lying on the ground.

—He was still too weak. He was completely knocked to the ground in less than thirty seconds.

If she had wanted to kill him, she would have had countless opportunities during their previous exchanges.

In short... he seemed unable to continue fighting. What should she do now?

The girl, who was the Herrscher of Thunder, was a bit bewildered.

Should she say something to show concern for him now? No, she hadn't yet acknowledged him as worthy of being her friend.

For a moment, she stood frozen beside Ming Yu, unsure of what to do.

While the girl was caught up in her internal struggle, a thought flashed through Ming Yu's mind.

"...Rewind."

Although he had temporarily "forced growth" to boost his strength, he was still facing a Herrscher. Even though she was clearly not using her full power, she was more than enough to overwhelm a rookie like him.

However, despite his defeat, Ming Yu felt quite happy about it.

—This was a rare sparring partner and opportunity.

While the idea of changing the future fate of this Herrscher's personality from now on was true, Ming Yu deeply understood that to truly change anything, one must possess the corresponding strength.

Whether it was Cocolia in the early stages, Otto in the mid-to-late stages, or Kevin in the end...

To stop them from doing anything, one must have the corresponding abilities.

Therefore, even if not for the sake of the girls he was familiar with, even if only for himself, Ming Yu wished to improve his strength as quickly as possible.

Being able to exchange sword blows with her now was entirely thanks to Yae Sakura's temporary possession; it wasn't his own strength yet. However, the memories and techniques of using a sword could be firmly remembered and utilized later.

In short, for now, he would let her become his sword-fighting mentor.

He had already set the moment he met this girl as a [save point] and began practicing sword fighting with her over and over again.

As long as his spirit could endure it, he intended to repeat this process indefinitely.

[Second time, you lasted thirty-five seconds under the Herrscher of Thunder]

[Third time, you lasted forty-two seconds under the Herrscher of Thunder]

[Fourth time, you lasted one minute under the Herrscher of Thunder]

[...]

[198th time, your sword fight with the Herrscher of Thunder could be maintained for over three minutes]

[Purely relying on swordsmanship, she no longer posed a threat to you, so she began to use some of her authority, wielding a sword in one hand and summoning lightning with the other. Under the paralysis of the electric current, she easily knocked you to the ground again]

[So, you began to squeeze the power of the shrine maiden possessing you, no, Higokumaru, to resist the lightning, and seized this opportunity to learn the techniques of Herrschers manipulating Honkai energy]

[...]

[326th time, without a true life-or-death battle, you were barely able to hold your own]

"..."

After a few minutes, the girl was very surprised by Ming Yu's persistence.

The way the other party responded to her swordsmanship was as if they were close friends who had spent countless days and nights together.

It was as if the opponent knew her combat techniques intimately, as if they had gone through countless battles.

...Did I miss something in Raiden Mei's memories?

And... could it be that what he said earlier wasn't a lie?

The black-haired girl's resolve finally began to waver.

At her core, she deeply desired connection with others. Friends, family... these were terms she had only encountered in Raiden Mei's memories, and she wished to have her own.

Perhaps due to this momentary lapse in her resolve, the sword in her hand faltered for a brief moment.

Ming Yu, already intimately familiar with Mei's sword skills, instinctively seized the opportunity. He swiftly raised his hand, drew his blade, and knocked the opponent's longsword away.

The girl, snapping back to her senses, also raised her hand and unleashed a bolt of lightning, sending Ming Yu's Spirit Blade: Sakura Snow flying as well.

Despite this, due to the momentum, she was accidentally knocked to the ground by Ming Yu.

"...Alright, that's enough."

Seeing Ming Yu so close, she felt a pang of guilt and averted her gaze.

For the first time, she harbored the thought of returning control of this body to Raiden Mei and hiding away herself.

Upon hearing her words, Ming Yu felt a wave of relief.

His previous guess was correct; this third Herrscher did not possess an overwhelming desire for attack and destruction.

Otherwise, Kiana wouldn't have been able to subdue her through combat in the original timeline.

Hmm, though she has a bad temper and hits hard, she's actually quite manageable.

Just as Ming Yu was about to get up—

"Mei-senpai, I'm here to save you!"

A white-haired figure suddenly appeared on the rooftop.

—This was the belated Kiana Kaslana.

Perhaps the commotion from Ming Yu's battle with the Herrscher of Thunder on the rooftop had caught her attention, leading her to fight her way up.

She wielded a baseball bat, bearing numerous marks from combat, and charged forward, coincidentally witnessing Ming Yu pinning Mei down.

The white-haired girl's simple mind didn't overthink things: Mei-senpai was her classmate, and Ming Yu was a stranger she had never seen before.

Therefore, Kiana likely assumed he was the Herrscher responsible for this Honkai outbreak!

Her conclusion wasn't solely based on her own thoughts; Kiana could indeed feel a power similar to that of a Herrscher emanating from Ming Yu.

In any case, since Mei-senpai was in trouble, she had to intervene. Kiana directly charged forward and swung the bat at Ming Yu.

The force of this blow was substantial—as expected of someone from the Kaslana family, possessing innate superhuman strength.

Of course, Ming Yu wasn't injured by this blow. However, his body, already fatigued from the recent intense battle, could no longer sustain itself and promptly collapsed downwards.

As fate would have it, forehead to forehead, eye to eye, nose to nose, mouth... to mouth.

"...!"

The black-haired girl's eyes immediately widened.

Ming Yu was equally bewildered. He only felt something incredibly soft pressed against him, and a warm sensation from his lips.

—For both the boy and the girl, this was likely their very first experience.

After a brief delay of a few seconds, Kiana's surprised shriek echoed from behind:

"Eh... Eh?!!!!!"

While the rooftop was in chaos, a silver-haired girl arrived at the vicinity, fashionably late.

This was Bronya.

—After taking a long detour, she had finally found her mission target here.

It turned out that Raiden Mei, the target she had been searching for, had never left Senba Academy since the Honkai outbreak began.

However, she also noticed that in addition to Raiden Mei, there seemed to be two other figures on the rooftop.

Through remote observation by Project Bunny, she confirmed that one of them was the survivor Ming Yu, whom she had encountered in the city not long ago, accompanied by a little girl with purple hair.

At that time, she was certain he was just an ordinary person with no combat ability. But now, the Honkai energy detection equipment installed on Project Bunny was feeding Bronya a remarkably strong signal.

"..."

Was he deceiving me before? He's not just a simple survivor?

A disguise that could fool Project Bunny's detection and my own observation...

This made Bronya slightly wary, and she didn't immediately rush forward to apprehend her mission target.

As for the other white-haired girl... although Bronya didn't recognize her either, she didn't appear to be an ordinary person.

Facing three opponents at once was not a clear choice.

As a precaution, she first stopped here and contacted her mother, Cocolia, through the bio-chip in her mind.

"...Reporting, Mother Cocolia, Bronya has located Raiden Mei's position."

The silver-haired girl calmly informed the blonde noblewoman on the other end of everything she had seen.

"Understood, Bronya. It was correct for you not to take any rash action. I've also received an important piece of intelligence here."

Cocolia's voice reached Bronya's mind:

"Schicksal... the battleship from St. Freya Academy will arrive in Changkong City in a little while."

"..."

Bronya immediately realized something.

If Schicksal personnel arrived here, it would be a pipe dream for her, alone, to take Raiden Mei from here.

With her own strength, how could she possibly fight a battleship with Valkyrie squads?

However, if she didn't take Raiden Mei from here, then Seele's return would be indefinitely delayed.

Thinking of this, Bronya's tone during her communication with Cocolia became a little more anxious:

"...Mother Cocolia, please allow Bronya to engage immediately and retrieve Raiden Mei."

Even if the chances were slim, she was willing to try.

"No, you don't need to act now, Bronya. I have my own arrangements."

Cocolia methodically conveyed her plan to Bronya:

"I've already arranged for a cluster of tactical mechs to head there. They will arrive earlier than the Hyperion. If all goes well, they can retrieve Raiden Mei directly before Schicksal arrives."

This batch of tactical mechs was originally stationed by her on the outskirts of Changkong City, ready to be deployed at any time.

Although Bronya was very strong, Cocolia was still a bit uneasy about entrusting the entire mission of retrieving Raiden Mei solely to her, so she had prepared some backup plans.

"...What if it doesn't go well?"