Honkai, I Alone Save Everything

Bronya pressed her question.

"If the tactical mechs' operation fails, or if they are interfered with by Schicksal's Valkyries or other factors... then you try to approach them, get rescued by Schicksal as a survivor, find a way to get close to Raiden Mei, monitor her movements, and make further arrangements based on the situation."

Cocolia made her arrangements.

As a girl who hailed from Siberia, now a wasteland in most regions, and who had lived long-term in a secret orphanage, Bronya's identity was unknown to most people.

Therefore, there was no need to worry about Schicksal discovering her identity.

By using Bronya for positioning, if Schicksal's group planned to send Raiden Mei to some laboratory later, she could arrange for troops to ambush them midway and recapture the Third Herrscher.

The Third Herrscher, she was determined to obtain.

"...Bronya understands."

The silver-haired girl silently stood up.

Just as Cocolia had described, clusters of Titan mechs could already be vaguely seen within her field of vision.

If she looked even further, the silhouette of a colossal object could also be faintly glimpsed on the horizon – that must be Schicksal's Hyperion.

Afterward, Bronya shifted her gaze to the rooftop within Chiba Academy.

This battle for Raiden Mei... seemed to be drawing to a close.

Chapter 13: Railgun

"You-you-you-you... Who are you? And how can you bully Mei-senpai!"

The white-haired girl stood before Ming Yu, who had finally managed to sit up, holding a baseball bat and questioning him aggressively.

Ming Yu glared at her, sat up, and patted his head as he replied, "I'm Ming Yu, and... didn't you do this?"

Kiana during this period was still in her "grasshopper" phase, with her hair tied in two pigtails, and her speech was incredibly lively.

The conspiracy against her had not yet been revealed, and during this time, she could indeed be described as innocent and cute.

"Th-this young lady was just trying to stop you from bullying Mei-senpai, Herrscher!"

The white-haired girl tried to explain.

Kiana mistook him for a Herrscher...?

Hmm, it was probably because Yae Sakura's soul was currently possessing him.

After all, this shrine maiden was now a pseudo-Herrscher.

...It felt like too much trouble to explain now, so Ming Yu simply retorted, "Have you ever met a Herrscher as easygoing as me?"

"..."

Kiana tightened her grip on the baseball bat slightly, then immediately loosened it:

"It seems... you really don't look like one?"

In the past, she had also experienced her own powers going berserk, which even cost her father Siegfried an arm.

How could a true Herrscher converse with her so normally?

If it were a true Herrscher, they should have attacked immediately upon meeting.

"I'm Kiana, a student at Chiba Academy, so... what happened here?"

"Well, that's a bit of a story..."

Ming Yu mused.

He felt that this matter shouldn't really be explained by him, as Raiden Mei was the one who had transformed into a Herrscher during this incident.

Right, why did she seem so unresponsive...

Or rather... too quiet?

He had originally thought she would get angry and electrocute him...

As Ming Yu looked at the girl kneeling on the ground with these thoughts, her pair of crimson eyes had long since vanished. In their place were a pair of innocent purple pupils.

It was obvious that the girl who had been fighting him earlier had retreated, handing over control of her body back to Mei.

As for why...

Ming Yu touched his lips, which still held a faint warmth, and didn't know what expression to wear.

Just as Ming Yu was about to say something to Mei, Yae Sakura, who was possessing him, warned him:

"Be careful, enemies are coming."

Due to the special nature of her authority, she had sensed the rapidly approaching Titan mechs from a considerable distance.

Ming Yu stood up and walked to the edge of the rooftop, looking outside Chiba Academy.

A batch of tactical mechs was rapidly advancing in this direction, clearly with ill intentions.

"What are those robots?"

Kiana also saw this batch of mechs. Being someone who had always wandered among the common folk, it was her first time seeing the tactical mechs developed by Anti-Entropy.

"…Those things are probably after Mei. They intend to capture her."

Ming Yu pondered.

It didn't take much thought to know this was Cocolia's doing.

—Cocolia sending Titan mechs to capture Raiden Mei was something that hadn't happened in the original timeline.

In the original story set in Changkong City, Bronya, who was responsible for the retrieval mission, inexplicably abandoned her task of capturing Mei and instead infiltrated St. Freya High School to enjoy academy life.

But here, in the reality Ming Yu was personally experiencing, at least for now, that silver-haired girl was definitely still wholeheartedly focused on completing the mission to bring Mei back.

—For this goal, she didn't even care about sacrificing her own life. Ming Yu had already witnessed this firsthand.

Although he didn't know the specific details, he figured Cocolia likely gave Bronya hope by saying that capturing Raiden Mei for research might lead to finding the now-missing Seele.

Regardless of Bronya's own thoughts, whether Cocolia genuinely intended to save Seele, who was currently preserved in the Sea of Quantum, remained a debatable issue.

After all, Ming Yu clearly remembered that after obtaining the Gem of Desire from Wendy, the first thing Cocolia, that old hag, did was not to use its power to find a way to save Seele, but to excitedly embed it into the giant mech, "Father," to test its combat performance.

For her, pursuing control over Honkai's power was clearly far more important than the safety of her own daughters.

Did she truly regret experimenting on her daughters? Perhaps a little, but it was more likely she regretted that her daughters' disappearance hadn't yielded significant results.

In any case, having experienced the divergence point of "Bronya's Death," Ming Yu knew about the Titan mech attack.

He wasn't entirely unprepared.

Originally, he thought he could just ask his "big sister," the Herrscher of Thunder, to deal with them.

Mere tactical mechs were things that a Herrscher could destroy with a mere thought, well... perhaps Wendy was an exception...

However, perhaps because of Kiana's club, his "big sister" the Herrscher of Thunder had temporarily retreated.

The two, the Herrscher and the Stigmata, hadn't communicated at all yet, so it was still a question whether she was willing to help now.

"...Can you still fight?"

Ming Yu thought for a moment and then asked Yae Sakura and Higokumaru, who were possessing him.

His ability to fight the Herrscher of Thunder earlier relied entirely on the temporary power boost they provided through possession.

Although it was no longer within Yae Sakura's commission scope, she had indeed said she would help him with one thing after the task was completed.

Since it happened to be timely, he might as well use it now for immediate payment.

"We've expended quite a bit, but we can still manage."

Yae Sakura gave an affirmative reply.

In fact, if she could use Higokumaru's true power, it would be very simple for her to eliminate these Titan mechs.

The true power of the Herrscher of Corruption was like a natural predator against these purely mechanical entities.

But clearly, although Yae Sakura and Higokumaru were now bound by life and death, they were not of one mind.

Therefore, she couldn't exercise the true authority of the Herrscher of Corruption now and could only fight using her swordsmanship.

Otherwise, hacking into and destroying these Titan mechs would have been a matter of an instant for her.

Ming Yu glanced again at Kiana and Raiden Mei beside him.

Hmm... considering their combat power, Mei and Kiana, who weren't releasing their Herrscher powers at the moment, didn't have much combat capability.

Firstly, they lacked suitable anti-Honkai weapons and armor, and secondly, they hadn't undergone truly high-intensity combat training.

Bronya had strong combat capabilities, but in the current situation, she definitely wouldn't show up to help—she might even be hiding somewhere, quietly observing the situation.

So, it seemed he was the only one among the three who could still fight now...

Thinking this, Ming Yu stood up and said to the two girls behind him:

"Kiana, you stay here and take care of Mei. I'll go deal with them."

There were still a large number of Honkai beasts and dead soldiers wandering within Chiba Academy. Not long ago, he had considered them a nuisance, but now they could serve as tools to stall for time and protect the two girls.

"...Alright, be careful."

Kiana had wanted to join Ming Yu in the fight, but Mei's current condition indeed required someone to look after her.

"Their target is most likely Mei, so someone needs to take good care of her."

Ming Yu waved his hand and leaped directly off the rooftop, sprinting towards the Titan mechs.

Although it was a pity, if it really came down to it, he could choose to return to the point in time before his fight with the Herrscher of Thunder and make adjustments.

These tactical mechs, in the end, were not considered too great a threat.

Just as Ming Yu was about to pick up Sakura Blossom and charge into battle, his body trembled slightly.

A brand new power surged into his body out of nowhere.

Having experienced the previous incident with Little Kong, Ming Yu immediately recognized the source of this power.

—It was a gift from Mei, or rather, from the Herrscher of Thunder currently residing within her.

With this second experience, Ming Yu had roughly deduced that this "feedback" was likely based on the relationship between himself and the other party.

Hmm, it's probably about emotional connections...?

And it also seems to be related to the other party's own abilities.

Since Xiao Kong was just a young, incomplete Stigmata awakener, the feedback Ming Yu received was a simple increase in resistance to Honkai energy.

As for the Herrscher of Thunder... it naturally granted the ability to control electricity and magnetism.

Information about the ability flowed into his mind naturally—

[Railgun]

An electrokinetic ability, possessing the power to control electricity and magnetism.

In that instant, Ming Yu also understood how to utilize this power.

"Well, this isn't that, you know, the electric sparks dancing at your fingertips..."

Cough, anyway, I guess I have Kiana to thank for this whole thing.

This one blow, it's given me superpowers.

Now, Ming Yu felt a bit reluctant to rewind. After all, he couldn't be sure if he'd retain this power after rewinding. If possible, it would be better to preserve the direction of this timeline.

In any case, since he had gained new power at this point in time, and it was his first combat ability, it was perfect to use the tactical mechs before him as test subjects.

Through his sensitivity to electromagnetism, Ming Yu could sense that the tactical mechs had locked onto him and were preparing to attack.

He looked around on the ground and picked up a coin.

"Let's test its effects."