Arknights, Suika's Messenger Journey

After sitting down and taking in the familiar atmosphere around her, Hoshiguma finally emerged from her tangled thoughts.

She had wanted to ask who the girl before her really was, and what purpose she had come to Lungmen with.

But then she remembered what had just happened. If the other party had not pulled her away at the critical moment, she would probably have already become a victim of the attacker's strange Originium Arts.

And Suika's counterattack had only come after she herself was attacked.

Even when Suika pulled her away afterward, if she had truly harbored ill intentions toward Lungmen, there had been no need for that. After all, that punch had completely exposed her in front of Hoshiguma.

Rather than going to such lengths to save her, it would have been better to let her die there and keep quiet forever.

The fact that a skill's power is one hundred doesn't mean I have to hit for one hundred every time

"Phew! I thought you'd been scared stiff!

Want a drink to calm your nerves?"

Seeing Hoshiguma's eyes gradually clear, Suika patted her chest in relief, then held the Ibuki Gourd out to her.

Since Suika had not used the power of Drink Invitation, Hoshiguma was unaffected. She shook her head.

"No need. I'm very calm right now.

Can you tell me what that move of yours was?"

Hoshiguma stared into Suika's eyes and asked with complete seriousness.

Suika sat up straight and looked back at Hoshiguma.

"Hoshiguma, what do you think an oni is?"

"Oni? Oni are oni!

If we really trace our origins, us oni are probably descended from a group of Sarkaz who followed Kuron eastward.

But after so many years of intermarrying with the people of the Eastern Country, the Sarkaz traits have almost completely disappeared. The Sarkaz of today probably wouldn't even acknowledge the oni as one of their branches.

What does that have to do with your spell?"

Hoshiguma was not speaking to Suika like an interrogator. Even in this situation, she was communicating with her as an equal.

Suika shook her head.

"Not the oni race. Oni.

The strange and the supernatural are called oni.

That was the name given to us by people who did not understand our true nature and feared us.

I told you before, didn't I? I'm very strong.

I held back on that punch just now. Otherwise, it wouldn't have merely left a hole."

After saying that, Suika habitually took a sip from the Ibuki Gourd to wet her throat.

"You're saying you didn't use your full strength?" Hoshiguma, who had thought she could no longer be surprised, revealed a shocked expression once more.

Suika raised her thumb.

"What kind of move do you think deserves to be called a secret technique?

And Three-Step Ruin isn't some simple move. It's the signature technique of Ibuki Suika.

If it could only manage that much, it couldn't be called powerful."

As she said this, Suika recalled what had happened earlier. The moment she attacked, she had felt that something was off.

When her fist struck the ground, it felt as though she had punched a block of tofu.

The ground, which she had assumed was solid, had crumbled with shocking ease.

She had even sensed that, even if there had been thick iron plates beneath the concrete road, they would not have stopped her fist from punching straight through Lungmen from top to bottom.

So at the last moment, she had pulled back most of her strength.

But even though she had held back at the final moment, that first contact had still blasted straight through the ground.

Only then did she clearly understand the true terror of Three-Step Ruin.

But because of that, her control over her own power had risen another step.

"Three-Step Ruin can punch through the deck of a Mobile City, but that doesn't mean punching through a deck is all it can do.

I'm fairly confident in my control over my own strength."

In truth, Suika felt rather guilty saying that.

This was her first time using this move in reality, so she had not had the slightest idea what to expect.

Even though she had expected one punch to cause serious damage, she had not imagined that its destructive power would far surpass her expectations.

Luckily, Lungmen was a Mobile City.

The advantage of a Mobile City was that its overall structure was strong enough. Suika estimated that if she had not held back, she would probably have only punched straight through it.

If the Mobile City had been replaced with a High-Speed Battleship, she felt it would not have been as simple as punching a hole through it.

While the two talked, upstairs in the Guard Department, Wei Yenwu and Wen Yue fell silent after listening to the Black Mantle's report.

"Did the street surveillance capture any footage?" Wei Yenwu looked at Wen Yue.

Wen Yue nodded and turned on the screen in front of them. Soon, the footage of Suika reaching out to pull Hoshiguma back, suddenly growing enormous, then punching through both the attacker and the ground appeared before him.

"There's only this one recording?"

Wei Yenwu asked cautiously.

"Although surveillance equipment has indeed started being installed along the streets to make the Guard Department's work easier, this place is too close to the Guard Department, and it isn't in the direction of the wealthy district, so the surveillance network here has not been fully completed.

This is the only device that captured the scene. Those attackers presumably knew that, which was why they chose this place for the attack.

Once they succeeded, whether by car or on foot, they would only need to cross two blocks to reach the nearest slums. We have no surveillance installed in the slums."

As Wei Yenwu's capable wife and the true second-in-command of Lungmen, Wen Yue assisted him with many matters.

Among them, the installation of Lungmen's surveillance network was under her management.

Old Wei did not blame Wen Yue for there being fewer surveillance devices here than in the wealthy district.

"What about other passersby? Could anyone have recorded the scene on their phones?" What he needed to know now was whether anyone had captured Suika's display.

"Probably not. From the moment she grew larger to the moment she threw that punch and changed back, less than five seconds passed.

Other than the camera fixed here, unless someone happened to already be filming and had their camera pointed this way, it would have been very difficult to capture that scene."

Although phones already existed, Terra's mobile phones were still at a primitive stage. Their primary function was short-range communication, and their recording capabilities were underdeveloped.

Using a phone to record video was extremely troublesome, and phones were expensive enough that few ordinary civilians could afford them.

"Seal this recording. Without my order, no one is allowed to access it."

Wei Yenwu took a dry pull from his smoking pipe and made his decision.

He truly had not expected Suika to bring him such a terrifying surprise.

"Then... that child..."

Wen Yue was somewhat hesitant.

Wei Yenwu had been willing to protect Suika for the time being not because of her abilities, but because she was from the Eastern Country.

But what she had hidden clearly exceeded normal limits. If he had known from the beginning that she possessed destructive power capable of seriously affecting a Mobile City, then even if he ultimately made the same decision, Wei Yenwu's arrangements for her would never have been so permissive.

"Once I make a decision, I have no intention of taking it back.

Besides, look at this little one... Even if she concealed some of her abilities, she never intended to conceal..."

Wei Yenwu rewound the footage to the moment Suika saved Hoshiguma, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.

If she had only wanted to save Hoshiguma, that earlier action would have been enough.

He had personally brought Hoshiguma out of the slums, so he knew what she was capable of.

With her abilities, holding on with Suika until reinforcements arrived would not have been a problem.

But that child had refused to choose the option that would let her hide her strength. Instead, she had chosen to strike back head-on with even greater, absolute force.

Wei Yenwu did not believe she had not known that would expose her. That could only mean she had truly been angry because Hoshiguma had been attacked.

Journey to the West? Journey West?

Because Wei Yenwu had taken the surveillance footage, even though the Guard Department knew there were far too many suspicious elements in the incident, they could only let the matter drop.

As for the people captured by the Black Mantle, they probably felt that being punched to death by Suika at the time would have been better.

At least they would not have had to suffer even more afterward.

The hole that had been blasted into the ground was completely filled in two days later.

After Hoshiguma made Suika stay indoors for an entire day, Suika resumed her life as a letter-delivering paper girl the next day.

Hoshiguma could do nothing about it. After all, judging from that punch, she did not think anyone could withstand it.

Suika, on the other hand, remained calm. Every day, she delivered letters, returned home to read, then followed along with recordings to practice pronouncing words.

She was completely unaffected by what had happened.

Several months passed quickly. Everyone had more or less forgotten what had happened on that street, while the day Suika was due to leave Lungmen drew ever closer.

"I still think the west is too dangerous. Have you heard? A very formidable figure has appeared under that Demon King.

Theresa had previously been beaten by Theresis without any ability to fight back, but now they can actually hold their own against Theresis's forces on local battlefields, and even gain the advantage.

Because of that, fighting has broken out all across Kazdel.

The route from Lungmen to Leithanien has already been cut off because of the Sarkaz conflict.

According to Chen's estimates, given the Sarkaz's fighting strength, it will take at least three to five years before this civil war is fully decided.

I really can't rest easy knowing you're heading that way."

Since Suika did not intend to return to the Eastern Country, Hoshiguma had been paying close attention to information from west of Great Yan during this period.

Most of it naturally concerned Kazdel, rebuilt by the Sarkaz west of Great Yan.

Around this newly built city, the Sarkaz Demon King and Regent King were locked in an intense battle.

So, seeing that the time was gradually running out and Suika was about to leave Lungmen, Hoshiguma could not help coming to persuade her.

"Three to five years..." Suika tilted her head. If she were not a prophet who knew what was about to happen, she would have agreed with Hoshiguma and Chen.

But the truth was the exact opposite. The Sarkaz civil war was about to end, because the story of the white moonlight's downfall was nearing its final act.

Suika could do nothing about that, and she also felt that it was actually the best ending for the Sarkaz as they currently were.

What she could do nothing about was this: even if she went to Kazdel and found Theresa, who was still fighting a guerrilla war, how could she make Theresa believe that Doctor had betrayed her and betrayed Babel without any proof?

Could she let Theresa look through her memories?

Suika would definitely never agree to that, so she had no way to expose Doctor.

After all, Theresa's side was only able to gain the advantage because of Doctor's command ability.

Someone who was not even Sarkaz running into the heart of Sarkaz territory, finding Theresa, and telling her that the person carrying her forces to victory was actually on Theresis's side, all so that at the final moment he could send everyone out and give assassins a chance to catch her off guard?

She would probably be treated as a lunatic the moment she said it.

Besides, just as Doctor had said, the Sarkaz had nearly exhausted everything they had through battle after battle.

As long as Theresa remained alive, the rebels would continue to hold hope, and the civil war would never end.

That was the worst possible outcome for both Babel and the Sarkaz.

So, in the eyes of Doctor and Theresis, trading Theresa's life for a brief peace for the Sarkaz and Babel's safe withdrawal from the civil war was a worthwhile deal.

Of course, Suika still rather admired those two teachers.

After all, setting aside their respective positions, Theresa was that irreplaceable white moonlight.

One could only say that no one knew whether the two who made that decision had truly remained as calm as their expressions, or whether they had already cried themselves dry in their hearts.

So when she heard the final date Old Wei had set aside for her departure from Lungmen, Suika briefly wondered whether Old Wei had also traveled back from the future.

Otherwise, how could he have arranged the timing so perfectly?

But just as she could not pass this information on to Theresa, Suika had no way to tell Hoshiguma about it either.