Can I Touch Your Judah?

"What a scumbag..."

After returning to the recorded save point, Ming Yu sighed and removed the virtual reality headset.

—Now that he knew entering it would draw Otto's attention, he naturally had to avoid that dangerous future.

For now, there was no need for him to clash head-on with the Schicksal Overseer. Continuing to hone his abilities and waiting for the right opportunity was the proper course.

In any case, teaching Kiana history could be left to Mei or Bronya later.

After taking off the device, he looked at Kiana, who was still studying the Homu in her hands on the bed. He coughed lightly and said,

"...Forget it. Let's talk after we eat."

"Huh? Why did you suddenly change your mind again?"

Kiana froze for a moment.

However, the moment she heard they could eat first, her eyes immediately lit up, and she nimbly climbed to her feet.

After lunch, Ming Yu bid Kiana, Mei, and the others farewell before leaving their dormitory.

He took a detour to the combat training room and picked up a prototype longsword before returning to his own dormitory.

Naturally, he needed to test out the ability he had just acquired.

He placed the prototype longsword on the table and began his attempt.

After acquiring this ability, the conditions for activating Projection Magic had naturally entered his mind:

Analyze the concept of creation, envision the fundamental framework, replicate the constituent materials, imitate the manufacturing techniques, empathize with its growth experience, recreate the years it had accumulated.

Normally, projecting it should have required a considerable amount of practice, perhaps even complete insight into every part of the weapon in his hand. Yet perhaps because this ability came from Joyce's gift, his projection went unexpectedly smoothly. It came together in one go, without any difficulty.

It was probably similar to Joyce's unique nature as the original Herrscher of Reason. As long as he touched something himself, he could perfectly understand its structure and usage.

Of course, it might also have been because the prototype longsword was not particularly complex, allowing him to succeed on his first try.

Very soon, a longsword identical to the original appeared in Ming Yu's hand.

He tried striking the two swords against each other to confirm whether the projected longsword was merely a superficial imitation.

As it turned out, although the projected counterfeit was indeed slightly inferior in performance, it was still usable in actual combat.

Ming Yu waved a hand and dismissed the projected weapon.

Now that he had confirmed he could project weapons, he planned to start looking for weapons truly suitable for projection in battle.

Prototype weapons were far too weak and could only serve as targets for practicing his ability.

If he wanted to use them in real combat, he needed other materials.

In the world of Honkai, when it came to weapons powerful enough... naturally, the answer was God Keys.

—In theory, he should also be able to project false God Keys out of thin air and use them, just like the First Herrscher or Void Archives.

And there were indeed several God Keys within St. Freya Academy.

For example, Theresa's Oath of Judah, as well as Fu Hua's Key of Domination and Feather of the Wind.

However, Fu Hua normally would not casually take out her God Keys at the academy. After all, there was no need to use weapons as dangerous and powerful as God Keys here.

So he would probably need to think of a way to find an opportunity with Fu Hua. Being too deliberate would not be good either.

Theresa, on the other hand... as its launcher, she basically carried Oath of Judah everywhere. Opportunities in that regard were plentiful.

Therefore, Ming Yu planned to find an opportunity to touch Judah first and try copying it.

In any case, that settled the matter for now.

Ming Yu then opened his mobile terminal and logged into his private email.

A new email was waiting there.

"It's Raven's reply..."

He narrowed his eyes and read what she had sent:

"I can help you find Raiden Ryoma's location and information. Depending on the situation, I can also provide some other assistance, as long as the price is right. As for payment, we can discuss it once I have the exact information."

She had agreed after all.

Well, it was not some job involving murder or arson. She only needed to use World Serpent's intelligence network to find someone. For Raven, it was probably an easy task.

"Whew... And then..."

Otto was indeed an enemy he would need to deal with in the future, but compared to him, there was someone more urgent and much closer at hand.

For instance... the incident known as the "Anti-Entropy invasion" was probably not far off, was it?

Cocolia, who had failed to capture Raiden Mei in Changkong City, would not simply let the matter go.

To take Mei away, she was about to order Welt-series clones to attack St. Freya Academy.

He had to prepare for it.

Can I Touch Your Judah?

That evening, at the combat training grounds within St. Freya Academy.

"Help... Help!"

A white-haired girl fled miserably across the broad training field.

"Hehe, Kiana, if all you do is run away, you won't be able to win a battle, you know~"

The petite girl sat atop a massive cross, watching her niece run all over the field while golden chains pursued her.

This was the combat training Theresa had arranged for Kiana. Recently, she had been dragging Kiana over every day and forcing her to spar with her.

Unfortunately, the current Kiana did not even have the strength to force her down from Judah.

"I... I know that!"

Kiana protested stubbornly as she fled.

But there were ten of those chains in total, shooting at her from every direction. Avoiding them alone was already extremely difficult.

And once the chains bound her, the Honkai energy in her body would be suppressed, making her subsequent evasive movements slower and making her even more likely to get hit.

After narrowly avoiding the chains once again, the white-haired girl gritted her teeth and simply charged toward Theresa, who sat atop the cross.

With a sudden burst of speed, she evaded the chains closest to her and rapidly closed in on the cross.

"Oh? Your speed seems to have gotten a little faster than before?"

Theresa watched Kiana rush toward her with interest, completely unhurried.

"Take this, miss—NEKO CHARM!"

Seizing the opportunity, the girl launched herself into a flying kick. Honkai energy condensed around the foot she kicked with, forming a golden cat's claw.

Facing Kiana's full-force flying kick, Theresa merely held onto the cross beneath her, flipped herself over with both hands, and used the massive cross to block the cat-claw kick.

Although this was Kiana's all-out strike, the cross that received the impact head-on did not move in the slightest.

The golden cat's claw crumbled away the moment it touched the surface of the cross.

Before the failed Kiana could even land, two chains extended from the cross and wrapped around her body, binding her and delivering her before Theresa.

"It... It didn't do anything at all..."

Kiana said dejectedly.

"Judah's defenses can withstand even Herrscher-level attacks. Don't be too discouraged."

Theresa said as if it were only natural.

"Still, Kiana, you have improved a little. At least after training for so many days, you can finally make me move."

"...That doesn't count as a compliment, does it?!"

Kiana complained.

The more she trained, the more she could feel the gap in strength between herself and her Headmaster.

"All right, that's enough training for today. It won't do to pile up too much at once."

Then Theresa looked toward Ming Yu, who had just arrived nearby, and invited him,

"Ming Yu, do you want to give it a try too?"

"I'll pass... I just finished training with Mei."

Ming Yu shook his head.

Still, he had come here for a reason.

After thinking it over, he summoned the courage to say in an admiring tone,

"Headmaster, that cross of yours is really incredible."

"That's right. Judah is quite a useful weapon. Not only can it be used in battle, where it can provide endlessly varied attacks, but it can also offer all kinds of help in daily life."

Theresa introduced it proudly.

It had not only a combat deployment mode and search mode, but also essential flight mode, cooking utensil mode, height-boosting mode, and so on for home and travel.

From the moment she first obtained Judah decades ago until now, she had spent an extremely long time together with this God Key.

Hearing that, Ming Yu immediately looked at Theresa with even more admiration and asked,

"Then... can I touch Judah?"

"Of course, but be careful. If Judah does not like you, it might actively reject you."

Theresa nodded.

To a certain extent, God Keys all possessed some degree of self-awareness.

Or rather, they had a certain ability to recognize an owner.

If someone forcibly used a God Key without receiving its permission, it could easily backfire. Being corroded by Honkai energy would be unavoidable.

After obtaining Theresa's permission, Ming Yu walked to Oath of Judah's side.

He reached out and gently brushed his hand over the Eleventh God Key.

In an instant, something seemed to flow into his mind.

—These God Keys truly differed greatly from ordinary weapons.

Behind every God Key lay a story and a legacy that could not be forgotten.

And because they housed the Herrscher Cores of deceased Herrschers, they allowed Ming Yu to glimpse a few shadows of the past.

A special scene appeared before his eyes.

—He saw a sea of blood, with people lying everywhere. Judging from the identical clothing on the corpses, they had been comrades from the same organization.

Ming Yu realized that this might have been a moment from the Herrscher of Binding's life.

This was the Tragedy of Binding.

==========

At the same time, inside the girls' dormitory.

Mei, who had returned a little earlier, was busy preparing dinner in the kitchen, while another silver-haired girl sat on the sofa in the living room, tightly hugging a Homu doll in her arms.

"Bronya."

At that moment, the voice of Mother Cocolia rang out in the silver-haired girl's mind.

"..."

Bronya unusually did not respond immediately. After falling silent for a moment, she finally said,

"Bronya received the message. Please give your instructions."

"Tonight, I will send people to infiltrate St. Freya Academy and seize Raiden Mei. Cooperate with him when the time comes."

Cocolia ordered.