Honkai Messengers Are Drawn to One Another!

"Phew—"

"Calm down—"

"This text was just sent, which means she wasn't dead a few seconds ago. If I get there in time, I can still save her!"

"You can do this, Mo Yi!"

Slapping his cheeks with both hands, Mo Yi rapidly thought through which ability or Character Card he had was best suited for this situation—something that could find Kiana and get to her side as quickly as possible!

In an abandoned alley not far from Mo Yi's home, Kiana, looking utterly disheveled and covered in dust, pressed her right hand against the wound on her left arm. She ran forward while tapping at her phone, whose screen had gone black and was covered in cracks.

"Damn it—"

"I wonder if that last message sent successfully."

At that moment, a very childish girl's voice sounded from behind her:

"If you keep running around, Theresa is really going to get angry—"

PS: The Kaguya in this book borrows a certain setting from a certain Touhou fanfiction masterpiece by a big name on Book Guest.

As it happened, the author really had worked as a game narrative planner for a while.

Honkai Messengers Are Drawn to Each Other!

"Come out. I've already found you!"

After working overtime as usual and delivering late-night takeout, Kiana entered an empty patch of woods. With a grave expression, she stared toward a clump of bushes behind and to her left. Yet no one answered her, as though she were merely talking to thin air and playing a game of wits with herself.

However, Kiana did not relax because of that. Looking at the takeout containers in her hand, she hesitated for a second before hurling the plastic bag holding them at the bushes with all her strength like a meteor hammer.

That was dinner for Mo Yi and her tonight. Damn bastard, just wait until I beat you to tears!

Whoosh—

The instant the takeout containers plunged into the bushes, a black-and-white ball of fluff swiftly sprang out.

It was a silver-haired girl with twin tails, dressed in a dark Lolita dress dominated by red and black. Due to the afterimages created by her Quick Attack, Kiana had only seen a black-and-white blur just now.

"It's you?!"

Kiana's pupils widened as she looked at the twin-tailed girl before her in surprise.

The girl had been one of the customers from Kiana's late-night delivery run. As usual, Kiana had called her and asked her to come out and collect her takeout.

When the girl opened the door, Kiana had been drawn in by her appearance. Not because it was love at first sight, of course, but because the girl looked strangely familiar, as if Kiana had seen her somewhere before, though she could not remember where.

Still, Kiana had not taken it to heart. She had plenty more deliveries to make, so how could she waste time on it? Perhaps it had simply been a coincidence.

After all, she saw so many people every day. There would always be one or two who looked familiar. Just like when Kiana, a foreigner, had first arrived in Changkong City, she had thought every Eastern person with black hair and black eyes looked exactly the same. She could not tell them apart at all until she had lived there for some time and cured her "acute face blindness."

There was one more thing. When the girl saw Kiana, her nose had twitched, and she had stared at Kiana with a strange look in her eyes. Only after Kiana set the delivery in front of her and called out twice did she return to normal.

As the girl turned and left, Kiana seemed to hear her mutter something about "big brother's" something.

After working hard, racing around on her electric scooter, occasionally accelerating through Space-Time Rifts, taking turns through drainage channels, and sometimes pulling off a Canadian flick to pass an AE86 driven by the tofu shop owner's son, Kiana's work was so busy and tightly packed that she naturally forgot all about that silver-haired loli.

As for how she knew that AE86 belonged to the tofu shop owner's son, it was naturally because Kiana delivered all three of his daily meals. They saw each other often, and Kiana was not the aloof sort, so she naturally knew about his family.

After Kiana finished all her deliveries and prepared to head home, an inexplicable sense of danger rose within her.

Having been followed several times before, Kiana quickly guessed that someone was tailing her.

But this time, no matter how she detoured or covertly observed her surroundings, she could not find a single opening. This was unlike the delinquents from before, or fellow delivery workers jealous that Kiana had taken too much territory. Whoever it was, they were clearly an expert at tailing people.

"This can't go on—"

Kiana's heart grew heavy as she considered her options. In the past, when dealing with stalkers, she handled them according to her mood. If she was in a good mood, she would shake them off. If she was in a bad mood, she would catch them and beat them up badly.

The other party had followed her so covertly that they definitely had some purpose. They also did not seem like an ordinary person. Otherwise, they could not have caught up so quickly after Kiana had shaken them off several times.

Going straight home was out of the question. That would reveal where Kiana lived, and it might drag Mo Yi, whom Kiana considered an ordinary person, into unknown danger.

So Kiana changed strategies. Rather than keep running, she prepared to confront her pursuer head-on. Otherwise, once she was chased until all her fighting spirit was gone, her situation would become even more dangerous.

First, Kiana found a parking spot and parked her little scooter there, so it would not get caught up in the coming fight and break. Living expenses did not come easy.

Then she continued pretending not to notice the person behind her, leading them toward an empty, open area where she could make full use of her speed advantage.

Finally, she arrived in this patch of woods.

"How can you throw things around like that? Big sister said that's wrong!"

After dodging Kiana's "takeout container projectile," Theresa glanced sideways at the food scattered all over the ground, then puffed out her cheeks and glared at Kiana.

Then waves of red mist gathered around her, floating around her in defiance of natural laws and growing increasingly dense. At first, it was only a thin haze, but within five or six seconds it had turned dark crimson, forming a fluid barrier that blocked all sight.

"Honkai Energy!"

Kiana, who also possessed Honkai Energy, instantly recognized the energy fluctuations radiating from the other girl. It was Honkai Energy—extremely violent and difficult to control.

Those who used Aura, or magic power, were defined by the Cultivator Association as Cultivators or Awakened. In contrast, Honkai Energy often appeared in the form of beastlike Honkai Beasts that endangered human civilization.

Whether they were beasts, indescribable monsters, or humanoids, all creatures that used Honkai Energy were called Honkai Beasts. In people's eyes, Honkai Beasts had no rationality—or rather, their thought processes differed from those of humans, making them impossible for humans to understand.

Yet among humans, there were also those who could absorb and wield Honkai Energy while retaining human appearances and intelligence. The Cultivator Association called such people "Honkai Messengers."

However, Honkai Energy possessed extremely strong corrosive properties. Most Honkai Messengers were constantly being eroded by Honkai Energy. The more they used its power, the faster the corrosion progressed, until they could no longer resist it. In the end, there were only two possible outcomes: their bodies would collapse and they would die, or they would transform into new and powerful Honkai Beasts.

During that erosion process, Honkai Energy changed more than just a Honkai Messenger's body. More dangerously, it affected their minds. Under its influence, they became increasingly extreme, irritable, and violent. Put simply, they gradually drew closer to becoming Honkai Beasts.

Therefore, the Cultivator Association had always remained wary of Honkai Messengers who controlled Honkai Energy. Once anything seemed amiss, it would issue a mission to capture and monitor them. As for what happened afterward, that was beyond what an E-rank hero like Kiana could know.

Of course, while gaining Honkai Energy, most Honkai Messengers could also absorb Aura to resist its corrosion. Because they possessed both types of energy, they were extremely difficult to detect so long as they did not use Honkai Energy.

Kiana was in exactly that situation. Yet from Kiana's own experience, her body had not been corroded or affected by Honkai Energy as others described. When she did not actively draw on it, it was as though it did not exist.

Kiana had thought that the person following her was, at most, a Cultivator with ill intentions. She never imagined that it would be the extremely rare Honkai Messenger.

Theresa thought for a moment. She had heard her big sister mention that term before, yet suddenly could not remember it. Crossing her arms, she muttered in a slightly cold voice, "Honkai Messenger?"

"Stop pretending to be clueless—"

Kiana was not swayed by Theresa's adorably dazed reaction. Her expression grew even more serious, and her entire body tensed. Pointing at Theresa with one hand, she said cautiously, "Honkai Messengers are drawn to each other—"