監督 武居正能
脚本 武上純希
Director: Masayoshi Takesue
Screenplay: Junki Takegami
The winter season was ongoing for 3 months. Snowflake particles flowed from the night before the moon, piling up the land into a white snowfield. The entire field of St. Freya Academy was also piled up with snow.
It was 00:07, 3 hours after the life-staking mission that resulted in mayhem and destruction, rescuing their captured squad of the Hyperion. Though the mission was a success, neither team celebrated its victory as two of their squads were unconscious and must be treated at once.
Mei, Bronya, Theresa, Wendy in the wheelchair, Fu Hua, Himeko, and Juggler kept silent and didn't break a dead quiet scene.
The Hyperion squad was outside the medical bay ICU of St. Freya Academy, waiting for the diagnosis for the valkyrie and the knight while also watching the doctors treating them from the window.
Inside the ward were Kiana Kaslana and Y/N, in their capnography mask, who was resting on a separate bed and had passed out for a strange reason that only Bronya and Mei knew.
Sound of the electrocardiography beeping in a stable rhythm. Both were breathing at a steady tempo but still unresponsive.
Outside the bay, Theresa was self-deprived, staring at the ground blankly. She heard everything from Wendy's story, with how she fell into a pit of stress when she was about to tell how bad Y/N getting tortured to death by Cocolia. She could tell from her face how traumatized Wendy was, even unable to comprehend some words.
Himeko leaned against the wall beside Juggler. She folded her hands between her mouth, worrying about the fate of the two.
Fu Hua stood beside the door, leaning against the frame, with her hands crossed while looking at the ground, hoping they would be fine. She was concerned about Y/N's condition the most. She had never been worried when she discovered the wounds on his right arm and cheeks. With Kiana starting to take care of him, she thought that she no longer needed to worry about him being lonely, but Fu Hua still couldn't help it when she saw those wounds on him.
Bronya and Mei sat beside Wendy in the wheelchair, in their cold and silent, remorseful expression, holding hands together to let the pressure off their heads and shoulders.
Bronya and Wendy were the only valkyries who witnessed Kiana and Y/N's agonizing incident before their eyes. At the very least, Bronya's denial finally paid off in relief after she found out that Y/N and Kiana were still alive.
Mei remembered how she and Bronya had tried to wake them up while waiting for aid from the Hyperion squad. She tried to nudge Kiana as best as possible, like Bronya to Y/N. With how they held hands, Bronya somewhat found out to be cute, while Mei simply acted with slight jealousy.
One thing that bothered Mei and Bronya the most was someone disguised as Kiana. It turned out to be one of the Herrscher. The word Herrscher was a red light for them, should they encounter one.
However, they realized that the Herrscher was unlike anything but a passive, friendly ally and didn't have any malicious intentions present on it or plotting to kill anyone in its sight. Evidenced when it showed its genuine apologetic intent for using Kiana's body and leaving its last words to take care of their friends.
Not wanting to make their leaders troublesome, Bronya and Mei agreed with each other to keep their secret about their encounter with the Herrscher. Despite it being friendly, they still set their wariness high, as Herrscher was known to be an entity that eradicated humanity.
Minutes passed, and the specialist doctor arrived with the test results in his hands as a binder. Theresa and Himeko approached the doctor with desperate questions, while Juggler only followed them still in his stoic face. Fu Hua moved away from the wall, awaiting his diagnosis.
"Well, Doc?" Theresa asked in her voice of hope.
"It's a miracle that neither of them has any life-threatening injuries. As for Y/N's right hand may have gotten a deep-cut wound, but miraculously, his veins didn't get severed. His Red Blood Cell counts are slightly lower than average due to the blood loss from the wounds he inflicted, but other than that, brain activity is flowing flawlessly, and his heart rate is stable." The doctor reported with his professional voice and attitude.
"And for Kiana, there's not much I could say about other than she's not suffering any severe skin burns, nor even her battlesuit left charred skin. She's in perfect condition, however... they're both fragile right now, according to their mental records. We just need time for both to recover, at least late."
The Hyperion Squads finally let out their sigh of relief after receiving a positive report from the doctor.
"Thank goodness..." Himeko calmed herself down with a sigh.
However, as he continued, the doctor wasn't done with the report, but this time it was more toward a bizarre case. With a sigh, the doctor checked the clipboard with medical information printed on it.
"But, aside from their stabilizing condition, we discovered something odd corresponding to their body after we took a blood sample from them."
The whole Hyperion caught their interest in confusion as they glared their heads at the doctor.
"What...?" said Fu Hua in her confused tone.
The doctor averted his head from the clipboard. He seemed confused, trying to explain it with his eyes squinting to get the right word to describe it.
"The biopsy result confirms that Y/N's blood has a positive Honkai reaction. His Honkai concentration is fluctuating."
The hallway filled with gasps of shock and disbelief.
Honkai was a complex disease for males, as they had very low body adaptability and could lead to instant ill effects. No case, even in the records, where a male could adept high Honkai energy was found nor recorded unless someone who inherited Kaslana's blood. Y/N's arrival seemed to change everything.
He had taken an injection of Honkai immunity 2 years ago and never used any artificial stigmata throughout his missions. Instead, he opted for his own stigmata without any life-threatening ill effects. However, it wore off throughout battling the Honkai outside.
Bronya stood up in a snap, and a worried expression formed as she immediately remembered the stigmata marked on his right hand. She didn't believe what the doctor explained. She pretended to hear nothing about her brother catching a terminal illness.
"That's impossible! Honkai inside a human male body is game over for them instantly! How did Brother Y/N survive that?!" Bronya snapped in her emotional tone.
"There's almost no mistake. The antibody reaction seemed to be weakened. We tried to inject it once, but it didn't have any effect. He's been exposed outside the Honkai zone for so long...." The doctor maintained his professionalism, yet inside his heart, he, too, was quite bewildered by the diagnosis.
"You're not Bronya's matushka anymore... Bronya will not tolerate your cruelty." Bronya lowered her head to the ground while clenching her hands, grieving for what her cruel mother did to him.
Himeko was no different than others. She felt remorse for him, having shared the same fate as herself. "Not again... will he be like me...?"
Theresa's heart aches when hearing it, reminiscing Himeko's symptoms. She could only fold her arms and pray for his safety. "Please be alright, Y/N... Please. I'll pray for you in my prayer room...."
Fu Hua's face marked a disbelieving frown, being denied, and she found it impossible to have a certain kind of male having a Honkai inside his body. The way it stabilized his mental record indicated something not seen by their naked eyes.
"Doctor, there must have been mistakes. There must be something inside him... something that's undetected from the exam."
The doctor let out a sigh while nodding. "That's what I thought. Something odd's been found too. It's still the same Honkai, but it was a different type. We failed to specify the Honkai."
"Different types of Honkai? What the hell is going on, doctor?" Mei glared at the doctor with a somewhat surprised expression.
"I-I'm sorry, but I'll need to look into it more. It seemed to be benevolent compared to the typical malignant one. There was no sign of zombification either."
The doctor then briefly looked at the clipboard before preparing to report what he expected was a surprise for them.
"And moreover, we detected Y/N's chromosomes in Kiana's blood. In other words, she may have a high chance of entering her maternity stage."
It wasn't just a gasp of shock anymore. The hallway was only filled with dead silence. Their eyes widened in surprise, except for Juggler, who squinted his eyes in a bemused expression.
They wished it was all just a blatant coincidence. The Knight that they thought was reliable and trustworthy had done something damaging to their Valkyrie.
—————
Gasps of anxiety and panic attacks filled the emptiness. Y/N's opened wide in sharp motion, and he first saw darkness filled with purple mist. He turned his head sharply around the surroundings, only to find nothing in his sight other than the dark purple mist obscuring the darkness.
"My king, my king... you finally came for me...."
"W-who's there?!"
The sultry yet psychotic feminine voice rang in his ears, causing him to glare toward nothing.
"The one and only queen of yours...."
Putting himself in a wary position, he reached for the bracelet on his right arm but turned immediately into a cold panic when he realized the bracelet wasn't on his wrist. Worse, he went for the holder, and nothing was hanging on his hips, leaving only his battlesuit.
"Nothing...?"
However, how the voice called him a "king" perplexed him even more. "Queen and King?! Since when I'm a king?! Who said that to you?! And who are you?!"
"No... it's always been you, my king. We're destined to be together to rule this world together... You're not a botfly anymore."
His eyes widened in shock with his back straightened out of a sense of danger close from behind, especially when she mentioned "Botfly.". The sultry voice was directly coming from behind his ears.
He immediately turned his body to the back, only to witness a silhouette of a girl, with her glowing epitome and long hair only standing still. The same girl he accidentally saw through Kiana's vision two years ago when they tried to extract the Gem of Serenity.
The ghostly figure seemed to smile at him with her terrifying slash of a grin. "S-Sirin?!"
"You still remember my name... For 17 years, I have wanted to find a human prince, so we can rule the world together... But among all the humans I found, you're the most attractive and special prince I have ever met. No, again, you're not a botfly anymore. You're now my king of Honkai...."
Y/N was used to being brave to anything that looked horrifying in their looks. But for some reason, he couldn't move back or forth and remained frozen, as if his legs got bound by an invisible chain. He could feel his heart building up pressure and his chest pounding the rib cage hardly.
Little did he know, it was the same disturbing experience after the Gem of Serenity had put him in a dangerous mental effect.
Fear.
He didn't know why, but he felt that the ghostly form of Sirin was starting to get close to him through her slow and elegant approach.
"No! No! Go away! Go away! Get away from me!"
Sirin expressed no anger to him. She kept smiling at him. "My cutie king, why are you distancing yourself from me? The sight of you glitters at me... Love is truly beautiful, eternally sweet. You showed me what true love looks like. You're the only normal human who loved me... You even gave me your seeds inside my womb... Rest assured, I'm not going to hurt you~."
Sirin was already standing near him as she reached for his face and cupped his cheeks with a feather touch.
Y/N felt her palms were cold, even colder than the dry ice. "What...?!"
She tilted her head in an alluring manner while she stroked his bag eyes with her thumbs. "Oh? Are you mentally dull or pretending to be dumb, my king? You just showered your love on me."
He had no idea what she was talking about. He wanted to pry off her frosted hands from the touch, but his whole body wouldn't let him move for some reason, as if his entire nervous system had gone haywire.
He was more perplexed when she claimed her love for him. Not even for once he interacted with her, let alone love each other. "No! No! No! What are you talking about?!"
Sirin kept seducing him with numerous strokes on his hair and eye bags with her fingers.
"You sure are my stubborn one, my cutie king. Do you know that Kiana you loved is the same as you loved me? Hmm, ~? Surprise, right?" She moved her head closer to him. Her cold breath was affecting his head, and he felt his consciousness slipping away.
Another manipulative thing entered his mind, yet he was truly devastated and in denial. That caused him to break free from Sirin's alluring spell as he quickly shoved her from the hold.
"Go away!!! Go away!!! You're trying to manipulate me!" Negative emotions filled his heart, and he immediately threw a punch at the spectral girl, only to let herself vanish in a dark mist.
In his defensive stance, he glared around the dark dimension in case Sirin ambushed him.
His whole body jolted awake and froze when suddenly, a frostbite-like breath breezed on his nape, and spectral hands snaked around his abdomen.
Sirin reappeared herself behind him like a ghost. She planted her face on his neck, sniffing the aromatic minty scent on her likeness.
"It's the truth, my king. Kiana and I are the same. The same Sirin who perished those insects in that wretched world 17 years ago. How ironic you loved someone who is a tyrannical creature and committed genocide against humanity, millions upon billions."
Sirin's right hand wrapped around his neck while her other hand raked his chest in her most loving and seductive gesture. Tempting over his scent, she started to lick him from his neck to his right earlobe.
He felt his respiratory system becoming choked over the alluring sensation by her. He couldn't breathe properly. "SHUT UP! You should've been dead! You're not the Kiana that I loved!"
He tried to pry off her embrace, but yet again, his whole body became limp to the point he couldn't move his body around, even his arms.
At this point, he was bound by Sirin's embrace spell, and there was not much he could do to break the spell.
The spectral girl wrapped around his upper neckline from his shoulder with her right underarm. Her face was close to his ear, ready to spread her spell to mess up his mind.
"Which one do you believe more? The reality of the world you lived in filled with lies, cruelty, humans with monster minds, and false hopes? Or, the queen of yours who will always reveal the dark secrets behind the real world?"
Her alluring soft voice was already beyond his control. He felt helpless to resist her seduction and could only let her enjoy playing with his body. Even worse, that gaslighting question made him unable to come up with a reasonable explanation.
"......"
Sirin chuckled just as she had planned, and she then gave him a sensual licking on his ear while letting out her erotic moaning noise.
"See~? If you can't answer, that means you love me as much as you did to that Kiana~."
He shook his head out of denial, yet he couldn't move his body as if her spell wouldn't let him move to his liking. "No... no..."
Sirin smiled in her sly and sultry lips as she lowered her head to the side of his neck and planted her face to it, gathering his minty scents just for her pleasure.
Behind his minty scent was something that only Sirin could tell based on his experience in the past and it was something that made her feel more dismayed and uncomfortable with whoever did to him.
"There's a slight smell of a tragic past coming from this. How they mistreated you and abandoned you. The fleeting friendship that ended up with your back getting stabbed. Now, those pathetic humans were trying to kill you out of existence. How cruel they are for not caring enough for you. Those insects who dare hurt my king deserve to be wiped out from the world."
He gasped in his shaking breath, with how bewilderingly he was when Sirin could describe his past accurately and precisely based on his scent.
He tried not to hear any of her manipulating words, but how she expressed her sympathy and emphatic support for him made it seem like she genuinely cared for him, even though he knew he shouldn't get close to Herrschers.
Sirin's confidence uplifted her desire to reward him with a kiss on his neck, starting from nibbling, then eventually biting him firmly and letting out her erotic deep moan thriving into his ears indirectly.
Pain. Stinging cold in his brain, spatial disorientation pounding his vision, Y/N fell into the intolerable agony that he felt it's breaking his brain apart.
He inhaled sharply and clasped his head off his most severe headache that tore apart his mental nerves, causing him to drop to his knees and eventually fall to the ground of a dark dimension in his fetal position.
Sirin laughed in her harsh voice of watching him suffer on the ground. "Good! More pain! Get even more suffering! That way, you'll become just like me!"
Agony devoured his mind completely. He had no strength anymore to suffer his intolerable pain. His soul drained out, resulting in him passing out, and he could no longer move around or twitch.
Satisfied with seeing him fall unconscious, the spectral girl crouched and softly pushed his back to the ground, wanting to see her human's passed-out face. The appearance uplifted her desire to reward him with a soft kiss on his lips. She then kissed him deeper before finally withdrawing with her satisfied smile.
"I have left the scent of Honkai on your body. You cannot run away from me 'cause you're mine forever. I don't want you in that tainted world, my king."
"The next time I have truly awakened, I will find you again and watch together that world full of those cruel insects burn down. While they're burning, bear our children inside me. Hahaha~. Ghhhhahaha~."
Sirin left her last laugh to the passed-out Y/N before she disappeared from sight, leaving him alone, lying unconscious in the neverending dimensions.
"See you later, my king of Honkai~."
—————
His eyes opened wide, showing a glaring light casting a ray on his visions. The first thing that entered his mind was what he thought was the afterlife's existence, so much so that he felt he died peacefully. But simultaneously, his whole back rested on a slightly dense, soft cushion.
Eyes rolled around the place. Sound of the electrocardiography beeping in a stable rhythm. He was resting in a ward room that somehow felt familiar to him.
Despite how grateful he survived his unforgettable torture, how he did still left a question for him. Noticing something with a cloth texture wrapped around his lower right arm, he peered his head to the right and saw a bandage on his arm.
He sighed in relief as he found out that he was back in the ward of St. Freya Academy. He was wearing his patient gown.
"Oh, you're awake."
The first thing he heard was the deep feminine voice of his Class Monitor, who he wasn't aware was standing beside the curtain sheets.
"Inchou?"
Fu Hua walked from the curtain to his side at the edge of the bed, expressing her slight worries behind her smile.
"You lose some blood from your wrist, but thank goodness they missed slashing your arteries, so you survived."
Y/N's immediately remembered that tragic event, with how Cocolia tortured him, going as far as extracting his life force with force. It will always be trapped in his head. As much as how grateful he was to survive, he became nothing more than devastated and traumatized for a lifetime.
His right arm trembled on its own. Out of curiosity, he placed his palm on his injured arm, feeling the cloth texture. He didn't know how he was still alive, with how he lost a good amount of blood from the slits. He was supposed to not be awake anymore.
The sensation itself already put him into a devastating state. "Oh my god... oh my god..."
Behind Fu Hua's smile of remorse was also a concerning sight of Y/N's drastic change inside his body.
The exam results confirmed Honkai's Infection flowing through his blood, but to her surprise, it wasn't a typical infection. It was different yet seemed to be benign. What's more strange is that it acted as an antibody to counter the malignant Honkai and seemed to fix and recover his internal organs damage, though it didn't seem to recover the external damage.
'Benign Honkai infection that heals him? I never heard of such a thing before....'
With a sigh, she took a step forward to him and gave a pat on his head, attempting to soothe him down.
"You're safe, Y/N... you're safe."
Y/N's distress gradually eased down, feeling the affection of patting his head. "Thank you... Inchou... and to all of my friends...."
Fu Hua then stopped patting and gave him a warm smile. "Now, are you able to walk?"
When he heard the question, he slowly craned his torso before swiping his legs to the edge of the bed, taking a deep breath.
His visions were briefly disoriented due to his slight anemia but eventually recovered to clear.
But, before he was about to get up from the bed, there was one thing that he wanted to know first.
'Kiana...'
"Where's Kiana...?" He craned his head to Fu Hua in a slightly worrying tone.
Fu Hua smiled as she expected that kind of question. She was glad to finally have someone look out for him, so she no longer no need to worry about him.
However, she almost forgot how both had been doing weird things lately, with the doctor stating that she had his essence inside her, which she thought was beyond wild for Fu Hua to feel about it.
But then it got weirder when she spotted what appeared to be a hickey marked on his right neck.
'Y/N... Kiana... What did you guys do?'
She pushed the center frame of her red glasses. "She's in the dorm, sleeping. She's already discharged from the infirmary earlier. It's alright, she's fine. You can see her later anytime. Also, you both must visit the Principal around noon. She wanted to check on both of you personally."
"And why did you have that mark on your neck?"
Y/N's face expressed confusion. He genuinely had no idea what she was talking about as he reached to his right neck with his left hand. It may seem nothing was wrong, but little did he know, a deep love bite spot was marked on him. "What?"
Fu Hua's eyes squinted in suspicion when he responded in his clueless voice about his implication of weird activity. She knew this would break the code of the St. Freya Academy if he got caught doing something indiscriminate to Kiana. Since she couldn't confirm whether it was his or Kiana's doing, nor did they didn't do it, she decided to let it pass for now.
"Nevermind... I must have thought they strangled you or burned you alive."
He nodded, letting out his interjection tone. He was curious about how long he had passed out. "What time is this?"
"Half 2 late. Do you want me to accompany you to Hyperion?"
For once, he needed someone to accompany him to walk. He never felt that needy whenever it was a simple task for him. He didn't know why, but he couldn't resist her request to take a walk.
"Okay... It's been a long time since I last saw you...."
—————
Y/N and Fu Hua arrived in the Hyperion, standing before his cabin. Y/N's outfit was back to his battlesuit after exchanging the hospital gown. They both stare at each other, sharing their gratitude together.
It was snowy outside, and he slightly hated the weather.
"Here's some snacks for you. You haven't eaten yet, so at least fill your stomach." She gave him the three chocolate bars and the KitKat-like wafer, kept in the plastic bag.
Y/N looked at the snacks she gave him and almost forgot how she was very caring to him back then. Lately, he rarely encountered her ever since their annual exam day that went haywire a year ago.
"Thank you, Inchou...." He smiled at her while nodding, grasping the plastic bag filled with chocolates.
Fu Hua gave him a pat on his shoulder before she was about to leave him. "Now, go rest for a while."
She eventually walked away through the corridor, and Y/N briefly looked at her departure with a smile before he entered his cabin.
As she walked, a message was received on a projected screen displaying [Voice Only. Otto Apocalypse], from her left.
"Oh? At this time? What are your orders, Overseer?"
Returning back to his cabin was like a year past for him after that torment that changed his life drastically. He finally sighed in relief as he turned on the light.
However, he noticed that his cabin was filled with a strange yet sweet scent that he didn't even remember was there in the first place.
The sweet scent bore a similar striking smell that he felt familiar, and he loved it. The aroma represented fragrant lily flowers. In fact, he immediately recognized who the scent belonged to.
"This scent... Kiana?—- Haaggh!"
A sudden spasm pounded his heart, forcing him to clasp his heart in reaction. Eyelids slammed down, squeezing hard, wincing in pain, but it eventually turned down. Not aware of him, something trailing in blue beneath his battlesuit with the blue cyber-like lines trailing around his neckline and within his heart.
His eyes snapped open, taking a view at the floor, with his right iris glowing in blue before fading away, still to not his awareness.
Something warmth yet an alluring sensation thrived inside his whole body, which felt familiar.
"I was there... with Kiana... I thought It was over for me... but she never left me...."
Everything that happened to him after dying from the tragic torture endured, he remembered everything, and it was all surreal.
He remembered how he ended up resting in a field of flowers in his girlfriend's arms. How she treated him with care and love. Even to the point, they went as far as developing their love and bond together in the bloom.
It's like she was the only girl who could mend his broken mental heart that he thought would be permanent and had to get used to it.
It was the most pleasant experience they ever had when they nurtured their love.
But that pleasuring thought immediately turned into a very panicky experience.
"Then what does that mean?! I-I...!"
Panic, anxiety, and guilt attacked his mind. He remembered that he had taken away her virginity and feared that she might be conceived.
"Oh no... oh no! I got carried out! I wasn't ready for this!!" He latched his head with his hands in a violent manner out of pressure.
Not only did he become guilty for taking his girlfriend's virginity, but he remembered when Fu Hua mentioned a mark on his neck.
He rushed to the mirror and checked on his neck.
"Benaran ada... So that wasn't a dream...?" His suspicions were confirmed to be true.
There was a deep love bite on his right neck as he slowly rubbed it in curiosity.
He knew that was Kiana's doing. Despite being the most delightful thing, it left him greatly upset when he discovered it was real. What he did to her was a very sinful act, for harassing her sexually.
At that point, he didn't know what to do. He had no choice but to take responsibility for his actions toward Kiana. He went for the desk, placed his hands on it, and hunched his back in his stressful thoughts, letting out his sigh of defeat.
"Oh, Kiana... I'm so sorry... How am I going to tell her?"
He shook his head. Pressure tightening his head and heart. Had they got caught red-handed, he would have had to deal with Mei's justified outrage over his actions and face the consequences from his leaders, for his misconduct of violating the code of the Academy.
He sighed before averting from the table toward his bed, only to discover even more strange things.
"Huh...? Since when did I come...?"
He never remembered running into puberty, let alone soaking himself the last time he slept where his friends slept on the floor.
Dried, wet marks were staining his sheets and his cylinder pillow. It sent chills down his spine, thinking it was the most embarrassing thing he had ever done.
He took the cylinder pillow in dismay. However, he could smell that prolonged sweet scent lingering on his bed, no doubt identical to Kiana's.
"Wait... is this Kiana's...? Oh. She did manage to enter my room...."
Another remembrance flashed in his mind. He knew in detail when Kiana admitted that she had barged into his cabin with the Captain's help and shared her anguish and loneliness for leaving her behind over his suicidal actions.
'I can't be angry... I don't know why... Maybe I've wanted for anybody to notice it...?'
He was conflicted. He couldn't hide his true feelings anymore. He threw the pillow back onto the bed and felt like he wasn't ready to sleep.
His right arm trembled again on its own. He lifted it with a terrified expression and grasped it with his left hand, trying to settle it down.
However, seeing the bracelet on his wrist made him even more heartbroken. The item that he paved with good intentions until those words left by Cocolia made him shattered in mind.
............
"And by that time your inventions are becoming prevalent, can you imagine one who grasps that power and eventually becomes corrupted? 'Cause, it's on you."
............
He shut his eyes, heartbroken, and tightened his grip on the trembling arm, restraining his emotions from bursting out. He couldn't deny those words.
"Was I being too good? The thing that I did for good... could only lead to destruction in the future? Am I being careless...?"
Lacking self-awareness for his good intentions and not thinking about the potential consequences, he decided it would be better to stop his research on making more Ultrasuits for the Valkyries' futures. He didn't want his inventions to fall into the wrong hands.
He knew it was too late to ask his friends to return his Ultrasuit transformation item to him. Because of that, he pretended that his inventions would be exclusive to his squads.
"Better safe than sorry...."
He unfastened his bracelet with his eyes closed in defeat. It dematerialized his whole body to his only underwear, not to forget the bandage wrapped around his torso and lower right arm.
"...!!!"
Terror attacked him. The same four snowflake-like diamond insignia with the blue cyber-like lines was now rooted on his chest, this time even more grotesque, immensely frightening him to the bottomless pit.
"It-it moved?!"
He felt like he wanted to throw up. Stigmata in a male's body was already a red flag for him. It could lead to an instant ill-effect, potentially causing death or, worse, zombifying effect.
Chest heaving heavily as if something choked his throat. He rushed to the mirror, even though it was unnecessary, but it was due to his disbelief.
He wished it wasn't real. His heart was pounding hard, and pressure and terror were piling up to the point he could no longer hold his emotion as he heaved his chest out of suffocating himself.
"AAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
It was too much for him to handle it. He let his emotions out in his most fearsome and shattered-heart screaming, crying out his anguish for the suffering he endured.
So much terror that he unintentionally thrust his right fist to punch the mirror out of his sudden reflex, causing the mirror to be cracked and shattered to pieces, destroying his reflection view.
The jagged edge of the glass was more than putting salt in the wound. It bled off his fist, but adrenaline had kicked his hormones. So much that he didn't care he hurt himself, as if all that mattered was to erase that grotesque mark of him out of existence.
—————
Kiana's eyelids snapped open in surprise when something seemed to wake her by striking her heart mentally. She sat up in a snap and gasped in shock. Heart pounding her chest, lungs heaving up for air.
She was still in her White Comet battlesuit, unscathed nor left burn marks on the fabric. However, her white hair, which used to be tied into her twin braids, was no longer there, as it flowed freely like a fountain.
Anguish thrived on her, and she felt like she wanted to cry out of a sudden. A shed of teardrop flowed out from her right blue eye.
"What was that...? Why... am I crying...?" She reached for the teardrop and looked at it momentarily.
"Oh right..."
A sudden memory came to her head. She recalled when Kiana got caught in the combustion while she was about to be evacuated from the facility after she successfully secured her dying boyfriend in her arms.
How they ended up stranded in the field full of lily flowers, and she had been waiting to share that bonding moment with her boyfriend. A pleasant warmth flowed through her whole body, forming a soft smile of warmth as she imagined their bonding moments that satisfied her, and she didn't get tired of that.
It came too quickly. She turned stricken at the thought of her boyfriend's state. Kiana remembered that she still had his holder mounted on her hip, to which she touched it in reaction with her palm.
"Wait! Y/N?!"
She called him out as everything that she saw returned to her. Her boyfriend, whom she wished to protect, was nowhere to be seen.
She looked around the corner, thinking he must've been resting in the dorm. She realized she had been sleeping on the couch in the living room.
But then, her eyes caught on her two friends watching her with their cautious faces marked.
"Mei-Senpai... Bronya...?! Wait, what about Wendy?"
Mei and Bronya had been keeping an eye on their close friends. Bronya was in her defensive state, with one of her arms craning slightly out of defense, while Mei slowly took a step forward to Kiana while also reaching out for her head with caution.
Wendy, Himeko, and Theresa were upstairs, having discussions about her offers of getting a new activity.
"Kiana-chan..."
"Wendy is upstairs with Commander Himeko and Principal Theresa. Is Idiotka fine?"
Kiana stared at them, frozen as if she hadn't seen them for so long. Without thinking much, she launched away from the couch and desperately hugged them with all of her heart, expressing how she missed them so much despite it being only away just for hours.
Mei and Bronya smiled warmly in response as they hugged her back firmly.
"It's alright, Kiana-chan... we're here...."
"The mission was a success, Kiana Idiotka... Bronya feels very proud to have you back...."
Kiana was glad she finally got back to her friends together as she gradually calmed herself down over her embrace.
However, Kiana suddenly felt something was missing from their embrace group. There used to be four, but to her surprise, it was three now. Even she couldn't get to smell the minty scent that she always helped and become more spirited.
Panic and worries struck her.
'Mein Liebling...'
She released herself from the embrace while still grasping their shoulders, expressing her deep worry about her boyfriend's absence. "W-where's Y/N? I want to see him...."
Dissatisfied feelings took over Mei's mind. She wished Kiana didn't ask about his whereabouts after what he did to her, which was unacceptable. The doctor stated that Kiana had a high chance of her pregnancy caused by an indiscriminate act by the Knight that she thought was a trustworthy friend.
Bronya, however, was skeptical. She wasn't sure whether it was her doing or his since she just saw her and him fused together into Kiana's body, and it couldn't be a coincidence that his genes ended up leaking into her genes.
'This doesn't add up... If this is the result of their fusion, then it's possible. But if this is their first time, how and when did they...?'
Kiana noticed how her friends expressed their dismay and displeasure, much to her confusion, as if what she said was wrong to Y/N.
"Where is he...? Is he alright...?" She asked again with her softest tone of concern in her pleading face.
Mei had no choice but to spill everything she could about their relationship. She needed to stop her from getting closer to him. She let out a sigh before she moved closer to her and grasped Kiana's shoulder.
"Kiana-chan... do you recall what he did to you?"
Kiana looked at Mei in confusion. She was bewildered in thoughts of why Mei had seemed on looking at Y/N's fault points or even not wanting to let her get near to him.
She also had no recollection of what bad things Y/N did to her. "What...? What are you talking about?"
"The doctor said you are...." Mei lowered her head to the ground, hesitating to tell her the truth that might disorient her, but it needed to be done. Her grip tightened in holding her emotions.
Doubt and concern crept up Kiana's heart. She had a bad feeling that Mei had been attempting to put accusations against her boyfriend for no reason.
"Mei-senpai, what is the meaning of this?!"
Bronya could sense a partial anxiety attack from Kiana.
'Bronya detects anxiety in Kiana's mind... Bronya better backs off....'
"The doctor said you are...!"
Mei heaved her heart, preparing to spill everything Kiana must know about Y/N's criminal deeds to her. The grip on her shoulders became tighter, squeezing out of control.
Bronya prepared herself from the incoming conflict wave to trounce them as she slowly backed off from the duo out of defense.
Mei craned her head up in a snap, unveiling her emotions. "You have Y/N's genes inside your womb! You are impregnated! When did he harass you?! I don't want to let that man get near you! Never! This is ridiculous! The friend that I trusted the most, and he shamelessly impured you! The principal will have a talk with him later! I hope he will be disbanded soon, and let him get zombified into a Honkai!"
A moment of silence and clarity jolted Kiana into a defensive inner rage. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she subconsciously reached for her abdomen as if she wanted to protect her womb from them. Kiana knew she had it coming from her friend's mouth full of hatred and cruelty toward Y/N, spilling directly onto her.
She understood what Mei was saying, and she meant it. But she would not forgive her for her extreme cruelty. That caused Kiana to be pushed away from them, trembling in disbelief over their actions to set her boyfriend up.
Instead of reacting in a grievance as to what Mei expected of Kiana, she was shocked that Kiana was backing off instead. "K-Kiana-chan?!"
With her terrified face, Kiana backed off slowly out of pure betrayal and sadness while holding her abdomen. Her trembling right arm was raised while pointing at Mei with her index finger.
"Y-you?! You're trying to frame my love?!"
—————
Y/N was carrying the terminal device and the equipment that he used for his research on making the Ultra Gems and the Ultrasuits back to his cabin. He no longer wanted to continue creating inventions that he thought would contribute to violence. Ai-Chan even asked him about his sudden packing up from the lab and his screaming noises, but he only answered her in his normative manner.
He's now wearing a typical outfit with a black shirt and black fabric short pants. There was still a bandage wrapped around his lower right arm.
He was paralyzed at first from seeing an eerily Stigmata linked into his heart for minutes to recover, especially with how he accidentally broke the mirror over his reflex punch and his loud yell that he shouldn't do that at night. Luckily, he didn't wake much staff for his impoliteness, other than Ai-chan's awareness.
His right hand was still injured from his punch against the glass. It even left some blood stains on the cracked mirror. Nevertheless, he cared too much less about it.
He set down the equipment on the floor, under the desk, discarding the need to use it anymore.
Standing before the desk, he briefly looked at the sketchbook and the blueprint for his next project. The project he had been dreaming of.
Titled "Project ANTI-JUDGEMENTER.", The sketchbook consisted of a mecha design inspired by one of the famous robots in the Ultra Series, Galactron. He had planned to construct a giant robot as a counter for a Judgement-Class Honkai in case a new one had resurfaced.
Disappointment built in him. That excitement had been tempered by a growing sense of dread. He knew it would be better to just fight off with the available resources provided by Schicksal.
The dream of becoming a computer weapon engineer researcher had shattered. He had thought of resigning as a Hyperion Knight for good, but he knew he had nowhere to live. The Hyperion was the only place he could stay for a living.
The only thing he was worried about was his prohibited actions against the code of the Academy.
'I might get dropped out if they find out...."
He let out a sigh of resignation. He wanted to sleep to let his heavy thoughts flow freely, but after he realized he was infected with a Honkai disease, he could not sleep anymore. He was already in a highly distressed mood.
He panned his head to the window, where snowflakes flowed down to the horizon with the moonlight casting a light on the night sky.
Despite the weather reminding him of his tragic past involving a plane crash, for once, he wanted to experience what winter felt like since his hometown only had rain and summer seasons.
He decided to stroll outside late for once. He averted his body from the window, went to the wardrobes, and opened the door. He exchanged his short pants for his jeans. Afterward, he grabbed his iPhone 13, foldable phone, android HOMUphone, wallet, and wireless earbuds and inserted them into his sling bag.
Since it was winter outside, he remembered his black Japanese jacket that his mother had given him and the red scarf he had once bought for safety reasons.
At the thought of his mother, homesickness arose in his mind. He missed his parents so much after two years of losing contact with them. Two years passed, and he still lost his memories of how he ended up stranded in the world full of the Honkai plague that's been going around for centuries.
'How did I end up here...? What is this world again...? Why can't I get my family in contact...? Mom, Papa... my siblings...'
After moments of grievance, he sighed with an upset face. He reached for his red scarf from the wardrobe and wrapped it around his neck and his winter gloves. Then he went to the door where his jacket was hanging with a rack, grabbed it, and wore it.
'Is it just me... or did Kiana wear my jacket...?'
The sweet scent of lily flowers flowed through his nose. For some reason, it calmed his stress, and he felt very relaxed by the smell as he took a deep breath of the scent with calming motion. He couldn't help but giggle and smile fondly at his girlfriend's scent. That was something that at least received a positive side to him.
But at the same time, his mouth dropped in a frown, feeling very remorseful for what he did to her. Nevertheless, he would not run away. He was willing to accept any consequences from his leaders, so he planned to wait in front of the St. Freya Dorm until they left.
'Kiana...'
—————
"K-Kiana-chan?! What is wrong with you?!"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?! Why did you smear on my love?!"
"Huh...?!"
"Is it because he's a male?! You think we as a girl must play innocent, so he can be at fault?! It's cruel, Mei-senpai! It's cruel!"
"N-no! No! Why are you defending him?!"
"This has nothing to do with my maternity! And you're not making my situation any easier! Don't you care he's been protecting us from danger and not caring for himself?! Can't you see how much he had to undergo through his suffering?!"
The dorm was filled with chaos. The two that they used to interact with for a long time have now become an argument. Something they had never encountered before. Yet, this was the first time that the dorm, which used to be peaceful and quiet, had turned into a chaotic argument environment.
Bronya froze in shock at witnessing her friend's tense conflict for the first time since the last time she argued with Kiana. She wanted to stop them from fighting, but if she interfered, it might result in a lot more problems.
As much as Bronya understood what Mei felt, she sided with Kiana since Mei had already lashed Y/N straight without knowing it couldn't be him or her. They just witnessed how sadistic the Russian woman, Cocolia, had tortured him, even bleeding him to death.
Especially when the certain friendly Herrscher had asked them to take care of them.
.........
"Thank you.... take care of Y/N and Kiana...."
.........
Heartbreak of betrayal stride Kiana. She didn't want this to happen but couldn't stop when Mei lashed him out of pure defame and viciousness.
In the middle of their argument, Himeko and Theresa went down to the living room, angrily warning them to settle down because of the noise they made in the night.
"Keep quiet! It's already night! K-Kiana?" Himeko shouted out, only to find out in surprise that her important student was already awake.
The pressure of agony built up at the sight of Himeko and Theresa. Kiana's red eyes gazed at her aunt directly, thinking that her aunt had a plan for something detrimental to her boyfriend, even though he did nothing wrong.
"Aunt Theresa... Aunt Himeko... tell me... tell me... you're not planning to disband him..."
Himeko watched how Kiana cried for him and wrapped her abdomen with her left arm. It was like she was trying to protect her child from her assailants. She wondered why the impure valkyrie felt threatened and was still defending the knight, despite all the things he had damaged her.
'Stockholm Syndrome...? No, the way she expressed... It doesn't seem like she's enslaved....'
With her eyebrows slammed down in her stern and assertive principal demeanor, Theresa stepped forward, ready to tell her niece everything without any hesitation.
"Rules are rules. Y/N has violated the St. Freya Academy code, and that's not a mistake. What Mei said is true. The exam results indicate that you have a high chance of entering your maternity stage. Why did you keep quiet about it? Does he order you not to complain?"
Dead silence froze Kiana in disbelief. She couldn't believe how many times she had to hear his boyfriend receive a backlash several times. It felt unfair to her.
Kiana couldn't even get her to speak for some reason due to her heartbroken mental state after hearing their slander words toward Y/N.
Theresa's eyes squinted over a zero response from her niece. "I expected that. I would not let that man get near you. Because he violated the rules, I'm going to revoke his Hyperion license. He has lost our trust as a member of Hyperion. From now on, we will protect you from that disloyal man!"
Kiana couldn't say a word. She remained frozen in shock. She felt like she wanted to cry out loudly, but she was already hurting so much that she managed to endure her cries. It felt like the words from her aunt were like an invisible knife stabbing her heart.
However, only Himeko expressed her sympathetic feelings to her Valkyrie. A face of doubt marked her as she tried not to reach a conclusion first. She needed clarification from them first.
"Gakuen-chou... Isn't this too early...? We need to investigate this further first."
"This matter is settled!" Theresa replied out loud in her stern and fixated upon her words.
At this point, Kiana didn't care about what happened to what she had just experienced. Her hands clenching in furious sadness, her head lowered down in depression, her eyelids slammed shut with her tears flowing down out of pure rage and agony.
"Th—That's it? You just went straight to kick him out? Is that how a principal behaves like that? Only a cruel principal would say that kind of thing to my knight that I loved." She expressed her quiet yet painful hoarse voice, followed by her stuttered sobbing.
Theresa crossed her arms over her defensive response that she was expecting from someone suffering from a sympathetic syndrome. "Is that your Stockholm syndrome acting?"
"Kiana-chan... he controlled you... Stop defending him."
After hearing their denied response, Kiana let herself grin and let out her depressed chuckle, her eyes still closed in pure depression.
She didn't care anymore. She's ready to tell them the truth and let her friends think for themselves after she spilled everything.
"I see... What if I said... that I was the one who let him give his body and spirits to me?"
Her head craned up while her eyelids opened to reveal her bloodshot blue eyes filled with anguish, forming her depressed smile.
The whole dorm was filled with dead silence. Everyone couldn't express their words, lost in their thoughts on what Kiana had said. They must've misheard what she said, still not believing her words.
Even Theresa was no different. It was an unexpected turn of events for her niece's actions. She's still in denial that it was Kiana's own doing, not the Knight himself.
Suddenly, Kiana picked up a faint minty scent out of nowhere, causing her head to glare to the right, where the dorm's exit door was located.
It was the same scent she always loved.
"Y/N...?! Y/N!" She rushed to the door in desperation, wanting to find him.
Mei immediately grasped Kiana's arm from going further outside in her most pure disbelief and jealousy. "Hang on! What do you mean you——"
It happened quickly. Anger burst out from Kiana's mind.
"I said enough!"
Kiana furiously refused to talk to Mei, accidentally sweeping Mei over using her partial Honkai power, much to their shock.
It accidentally revealed her unexpected sinister appearance in a flashed blurry figure superimposed upon her body. Her voice sounded more echoed, her eyes turned yellow momentarily, and her outfit seemed to feature a fur-trimmed neck with a black and golden accessory in front of it, with a black and white short exposed shoulder armored dress.
"Mei-nee sama!" Bronya managed to catch the falling Mei, but she was more shocked by Kiana's sudden burst out.
Mei looked at her in pure terror and shock over her violent behavior toward her. This was the first time she was being pushed over by her only friend. "Kiana-chan...?"
Still, in her normal appearance, Kiana came to her senses and was shocked by her actions. She looked at her hands over her guilty deed at her friend.
"I-I'm sorry...!"
Not wanting to worsen the situation, she immediately rushed out of the dorm and went to find Y/N to ensure he was alive.
"Wait, Kiana!!"
Himeko let her out, expressing her deep worries to her beloved student as she decided not to build up any pressure on her. "Don't go after Kiana... We can't ask more from her... not yet...."
—————
The pain of betrayal worsened her mental state. Kiana was already outside the dorm entrance, but after only a minute ran away, she became exhausted in anguish so fast. She stopped before the dorm, hunched her back while holding her knees and panting out of despair.
Snowflakes flowed down to her body, and she would catch a cold, but she didn't bother with it since her anguish and pain had taken over her excessively. All her mind was filled with her only beloved knight, Y/N, who was about to get disbanded from the squad without him knowing it.
Tears flowed out in sorrow as she reached for the holder that Y/N used to store his Ultra Gems from her hip, took it off, and momentarily looked at it as if it reminded her of her boyfriend.
She tearfully squeezed it with all of her heart. She wanted to find him and let him know she would always be there for him.
"Y/N!" Kiana couldn't hold it anymore. She wore her white and orange jacket with the Schicksal symbol printed on the back through her battlesuit.
She immediately ran toward the wall and started climbing out since the gate was already locked as scheduled. Tracking his scent, she could feel it was getting stronger.
——————
Y/N, outside the snowy season, sits on the park bench behind the bushes next to the lamppost on the right. It was located near the training plaza surrounded by the pillar and the entrance gate of the St.Freya Dorm. The place that he remembered where Kiana was always hiding behind the bush of her truancy.
He was enjoying himself experiencing the winter season while re-watching Ultraman Dyna episode 49 through his foldable phone. The story involved humankind using the Ultramen powers on their own wishes, such as Terranoid. His reason for watching that episode was to remind him that making weapons using their power of light would have the potential of mankind's destruction if it fell into the wrong hands.
Unaware of his surroundings, from the frosted air, he could pick up a rather faint sweet scent lingering in the air, but he was too focused on the screen.
"Yooo, mein liebling!"
A sudden call out in the sweet feminine voice jolted him, regaining his senses to react to the call. It came from his right.
"Oh, haha... Kiana."
Kiana hunched her back while holding the bench with her left hand and staring at him with her sweet smile. Y/N felt his pressure lifted out by just looking at his girlfriend's smile and beautiful appearance.
"Hehe, what are you doing here outside?" She then sat beside him while gently embracing and kissing him on his cheek.
Warmth entered his body. He smiled warmly, enjoying getting embraced and kissed by his girlfriend. He wrapped her around her neckline and gave her a kiss on her head. As much as he loved her being by his side, he wasn't ready to admit his guilty act toward his girlfriend.
"Hmm... I couldn't sleep... so I just strolled around the academy. What about you?"
"Me too... I'm so happy to meet you again...." Kiana smiled warmly as she rested her head on his shoulder, leaning onto him more. Y/N followed the same, as he leaned his head back to her.
Moonlight lightened the snowy night sky with the couples enjoying their warming cuddling and embrace moments, and they wanted to last forever.
"I miss you, Kiana."
"Me too..."
They then shared their kiss together, gentle and profound. Their hearts were ignited in flame by the kiss over the winter.
"What are you watching, mein liebling?" After Kiana pulled from their kiss, she looked down at his foldable phone, where he was watching his favorite superhero, who she already recognized by its giant appearance.
"Ultraman Dyna."
The word Dyna jolted her over her fondness for her favorite Ultra. "Ahh, my favorite! Let's watch together!" With her excited smile, Kiana leaned on him more as she looked down at the foldable screen.
Y/N smiled warmly over her excitement, watching together, to which he moved his phone in between them, sharing the screen to watch together. "For sure..."
Filled with excitement watching the Ultra Series with her boyfriend, she finally got to meet him. She didn't care about everyone else. All that mattered was him by her side. Even if he got to disband later, so did she too. He was the most special boyfriend she had ever met, and she loved it.
Her excitement, fun, and curiosity filled the snowy environment at night, with the moonlight casting a light in the sky.