The News
"The formal investigation report by Schicksal stated that the explosion's origin is on the building. Normally, a company that big has a little stockpile of Honkai fuel and a backup generator to guarantee that the HQ will have enough power to operate even in the event of a blackout. The amount of fuel is not sufficient to generate that explosion that occur the other day, but it still, emits dangerous radiation and thus requires some careful storage. The night before the explosion, Schicksal detected Honkai's presence near the building and contacted ME corp about that, sending a survey and containment team the next day. When they arrived, however, they are attacked by mechs in the building owned by Anti Entropy, a terrorist group who is based in North America that may or may not be linked to the United States government. During the attack, it is believed that all of the team members sent on the containment mission is gunned down ruthlessly. The mechs then opened fire at the military craft as the pilot tries to evacuate the scene. The mechs, failing to shoot down the craft with bullets, shoot the plane with Honkai rockets. The rocket explodes killing the pilot and the craft tumbles and crashes into the building, raining debris down to the ground. Honkai energy is released as a side effect of the Honkai rockets causing Honkai radiation sickness in the surrounding area. The chairman, Raiden Ryoma, and his family are presumed dead as they were inside the building at the time of the incident. Schicksal believes that Anti Entropy is hiding something inside the building to justify their attack against the craft."
________________________________________________________________________________
Liana is floating inside the familiar black space, the space of dreams. Whether or not this is a dream or a piece of memory that has been forgotten, she doesn't know, but the certain thing is that this meant a new vision should play out in front of her. The last vision has been the death of Himeko, the dream Liana's squad leader. The red-haired commander has become a Herrscher with the power of flame that burned the city and materialized Honkai beasts.
A white flash occurred as the scene played out.
***
"Control, the Herrscher has been neutralized and Liana and Fu Hua has been rescued" Kevin spoke through the comms. The room is a sort of planning room, with people holding charts and talking through the comms. Mei is sitting on a chair facing a control panel with a couple of people standing next to her helping her by her side.
"Copy that, RTB, and meet me on the landing pad" Mei said as she stands up. She then ordered one of her aides to replace her in the seat and coordinate the recovery of the city. She then exited the room with two guards escorting her to the landing pad. They navigate the numerous corridors in the base which ends up with an elevator to take them to ground level. With the threat of Honkai and Herrscher attacks increasing day by day, control centers for combat operations have been moved to deep underground bunkers connected to the surface with an elevator and the emergency staircase.
The travel is uneventful, for Mei herself isn't on the talkative side and preferred to not interact with her guard except for the bare minimum. Even though Fire Moth has assigned these two individuals as her personal bodyguard for a while now, she doesn't even know their names. To her, it is not important, especially right now.
The elevator rises and the sound of the familiar *ting marked the arrival of the elevator to the surface. The doors opened and they exited the machine. The elevator itself is located within a small administration building with a receptionist table in front, near the entrance of the building. The receptionist bows to the group but Mei just walks past her, her mind is preoccupied right now.
The group exited the building and walk toward the landing pad.
The administration building is located in the central garden of the base surrounded by a U-shaped large multi-story building. The buildings house the offices of both the Military and Civil section of the Fire Moth. Around the said buildings are rows of barracks and a hospital located just south of the U-shaped Building. Large administrative buildings are located just across the street from the open section of the U-shaped building which houses the offices of the High Command of the region and their adjutants. Beyond that are the training grounds and warehouses for the base.
The landing pad is located on the northwest side of the U-shaped building, near the edge of the training ground. The section has many hangars and landing pads, as numerous shuttles and fighters are taking off and landing. Since there is an active evacuation of the city and an active operation to clear the city from the effects of the Herrscher awakening, the region is very bustling with activity. Civilians are ushered to the training ground where a temporary camp has been set up as a refugee camp until the city has been deemed secure or another place could be arranged for them to evacuate to.
As Mei arrived at the section, a shuttle landed. The doors opened and out comes another wave of refugees. This time, a group of soldiers from the medical corp rush towards the shuttle and extracted a gurney with an injured person laying on it while the healthy ones exited the shuttle and were directly guided towards the camp.
Although Mei doesn't really pay attention to what's happening, she did notice two figures exiting the shuttle, both with bright pink hair and some ashes on their faces.
'Must be sisters' Mei thought as the both of them followed the soldiers' instruction and follow the crowd towards the camp. Mei continued to pay attention to the pair until she move her gaze onto the next shuttle who is landing. After the craft had landed, the door swing opened and again medical personnel started moving towards the craft. This time, however, Mei knew the person who is laying there, Liana. Her hand has third-degree burns and she has fainted from the pain. The medical personnel immediately grabbed her gurney and ran towards the field hospital that has been set up near the camp. Fu Hua also exited the shuttle with burn marks and a few scratches here and there. She is then helped by another medical personnel and also heading towards the field hospital. A couple of other gurneys have also been extracted from the craft containing soldiers who have suffered injuries and are combat ineffective. Then, Kevin exited the craft, with thick gloves that covered the entirety of his arms, a white mask, and his neck is covered.
"Kevin" Mei rushed towards Kevin who is also rushing towards her.
"Mei" Kevin said as he move towards Mei, hug Mei.
Mei felt cold. Obviously, due to the MANTIS project, Kevin's body temperature has become so low, direct contact with him can cause frostbite in normal humans. Due to this, He exposes as little skin as possible so that people can still touch him for a while, but it is still cold, and prolonged contact can still cause frostbite, at least, he still can hug his girlfriend.
They release their hug and together, they headed towards the field hospital.
***
Liana who watched these scenes played out is confused. 'Wait, so this isn't my memories then? I am there laying on the bed, in a coma due to my burns but these scenes keep playing out' Liana thought while raising her hand toward her chin. 'This vision is different than the others. Normally, I would see the vision through Liana. If this vision appeared, then that means that these sort of visions doesn't come from my memories but from some other external sources. The best guess is Honkai-chan.' Liana deduces the meaning of the vision, a quite intelligent assessment of the situation. Never would have thought she of all people, the tuna herself, managed to not be an idiot and reach that conclusion by herself.
As Liana talk to herself, the visions changed. This time it is just outside the field hospital.
***
Liana is standing near the entrance of the field hospital with Mei and Kevin standing near her. It has been roughly a week since she arrived at the base in a state of coma. Due to her surprisingly fast tissue recovery rate, her burns have been able to rapidly heal. Now, it is just a patch of red new skin that is still being covered by bandages. Although it seems that she has not made a full recovery, the doctor decided that she can roam around freely. What hasn't healed though, is the mental wound she is now dealing with.
"Liana, how are you feeling?" Mei asks in worry towards Liana, who has just exited the tent and moving towards them.
"I'm Fine, Mei nee-san. The doctor said that I could run around freely." Liana said in a somber tone.
"Why are you sound so sad?" Kevin said. He wears the exact same suit as when he arrived at the base.
"I am fine, no worries" Liana tries to deny her brother's worries, but Kevin is easily able to notice her lying. He squint his eyes suspiciously and asked "Is it about Himeko?"
It looks like Kevin's question hit the mark as Liana winced as if she has been hit with a wave of pain. Both Kevin and Mei know that Himeko has been very close to Liana and she respects and cares about her squad's commander. Both of them also can guess the reason for her sadness, the death of Himeko.
"Liana..." Mei try to comfort her but Liana decided to turn away and ran towards the barracks, towards her room. "Liana !!!!" Mei called to her, but she kept running away. Mei tried to catch up with her but was stopped by Kevin.
"Mei, I think it is best to let her be alone for now" Kevin suggested. Mei looked into his eyes and found worry, anxiousness, and guilt in them. Kevin is worried about his little sister. He knew that the loss of her mentor will have a huge impact on her psychology, and wants to try and help as much as he could. But at the same time, he also is the one who kills that very same mentor of hers. The guilt in that action prevented him from actively trying to alleviate his little sister's sadness. In his mind, if he, the one who killed her mentor, talk to her about it, that little sister of his's condition will be worse and might fight him because of it. That is why Kevin is betting on time to heal Liana's mental wound and hope that the void in her heart can be replaced by someone or something else. That is also why Kevin stopped Mei from chasing after Liana.
"Kevin, she is having psychological distress, we should help her" Mei argued.
"Mei, sometimes it is best to leave her alone for a while, let her process what's happening, and give her time to accept the reality. If we were to aggressively tries to help her, she might not appreciate the action and will lash out at us instead." Kevin explained, "We should watch her closely, but still give her space to herself"
"But..." Mei tried to argue
"Mei, if I were in Liana's shoes, I would want to be alone to have some time to arrange my feelings, to express my sadness, to cry to my heart's content. My pride simply wouldn't let me do that in front of others and would just make me bottle up my sadness which is the worst thing to do, and trust me, Liana is quite a prideful girl. So let her be alone, to have sometime released of her sadness, anger, and regret without others pitying gazes." Kevin said.
"I...I guess you are right, our meddling will only worsen her condition" Mei accepted Kevin's argument and slumped her shoulders in defeat.
A shout is heard from the background, loud enough to attract the attention of the two. The pink-haired sisters that Mei had spotted exiting the shuttle a week ago are talking to a soldier in a loud voice.
"Mister, I want to join Fire Moth, I want to kill those beasts as revenge for my mother" The eldest speak towards the confused soldier. Behind her, her little sister is clutching her elder sister's clothes.
"I am sorry miss, you cannot join us, you are still too young." The soldier replied. He tried to answer as softly as possible to not agitate the girl. He knew from the girls' reasoning, that their mother had been killed in the city and that the eldest displayed an immense level of anger and rage that can explode at any moment, so he knew that he should de-escalate the situation through some compromises. "We can note your name and when you are old enough to join, we will contact you"
"Mister, please make an exception for me, I am willing to do anything for Fire Moth as long as I get my revenge and my little sister is taken care of" The girl insisted.
"Miss, I.." The soldier tries to convince to girl to not join Fire Moth but got interrupted by Mei.
"*ehem, corporal, let me handle the things here, leave them to me" Mei walks and talk to the soldier. Kevin followed behind her.
"Yes ma'am" The soldier saluted and walks away to do his duties.
Now Mei moves her attention towards the two girls in front of her.
"You said you want to do anything to get your revenge?" Mei asked the eldest.
"As long as my little sister is taken care off" the girl replied
Mei looked at both of the girls again and decided
"I will guarantee you to join Fire Moth and agree to take care of your little sister for the time you are inside this organization. But I want you to partake in project MANTIS. Beware, after the project is done, your body will have permanent changes that might hamper you to do some things, do you still want to join Miss?" Mei said.
"Deal." The eldest said.
"Ok, what's your name by the way?"
"Sakura, and this is my little sis, Rin" The girl replied.
***
'Another new character. I have absolutely no clue who they are' Liana thought to herself. She never met a girl with pink hair before. She asked herself when would these visions end. when would it reach a conclusion? These visions are still an enigma to the girl. The more the vision manifested in her dream, the more confusing it is for her. Is it memories, is it a dream, is it a video made by honkai-chan to mess with her head? is reincarnation actually happening? are these real events or fabricated ones? she doesn't know. What she does know, however, is that whatever the ending of these visions, it will be the answer to all her questions.
________________________________________________________________________________
About a week after the reunion, Liana's condition improved. Her eyesight has been gradually improving as her brain regenerates the damaged part. It is still not perfect, but at least she can see. For the first time, she is able to see the small Mei as she comes with Ei into Liana's room to play with Kiana, who now spent the majority of the time playing close to either Sirin or Liana. It seems that Aoi and Cecilia have been quite close nowadays, and decided to go out together when Cecilia has some empty time.
Liana also periodically checked in with her squad and safe to say they are surprised that their commander now has a visor on her eyes. These girls started asking questions regarding the recent arrival of Ei and the rest, but Liana kept tight-lipped on it as it is still classified information. Libertia was angry at their commanding officer, Liana, for hiding the fact that she is blind from them for so long, which the other two nodded in agreement. Liana didn't really want to hide that from them, but she just forgot. All days laying on the ward, visions playing out when she slept, reunion with Ei and friends, it all has been quite hectic that Liana just forget. The squad knew something is weird since it has been days since Liana visited them but when they try to find out what happened to her, they got told to stay silent about it and wait for further news. They are still being sent to do some missions but without the presence of Liana.
The squad is relieved however knowing that Liana's eyesight had come back albeit not perfect. Speaking of the squad, it seems that squad Charlie has garnered some reputation for itself. Griselda tells Liana about it. People talk about the squad in the cafeteria, around the base, etc but it seems that it hasn't reached Liana yet, since she has absolutely no clue. Griselda said that people keep talking about our squad because they are the only squad that is led by a person who lives in the High-ranking section of the base thus implying that the squad is an elite squad led directly by someone with high rank, not also mention that that same person is the daughter of the famed Cecilia Schariac and also a Herrscher. Lilia laughed and said that when they eat at the cafeteria, people will always look at them with admiration but kept a distance, Lilia admits that it is kind of funny but also lonely in that their colleagues are reluctant to be casual with them.
Leaving that aside, right now, Liana is facing the biggest challenge in her life, bigger than fighting the other part of her, bigger than fighting against the Herrscher of Domination, bigger than fighting God Otto at that apocalyptic final battle, and even bigger than the most challenging thing Liana has undertaken before this event, passing a written test back in St. Freya. The challenge is to keep her heart from exploding due to how cute little Mei looked.
"Liana nee-san, look, I made a crane" Mei ran inside the room towards the bed where I and Kiana are sitting. Mei ran towards us carrying a crane made from origami and although a bit rough around the edges, it is still crane-shaped. Ei must have taught the little girl how to do it seeing how caring Ei is towards her new little sister, no one could blame her though, she is too cute for her own good.
Every time Liana sees Mei smiling cutely and calling her name like that, her blood pressure rises significantly and it made her lightheaded. Mei climbs the bed and shows the crane to Liana which the latter takes to inspect.
"Mei, good job, come here you little cutie pie" Liana hugged Mei and pat her head.
"Ehehehe, Ei Nee-san taught me how to make it, if you like it Liana nee-san, I can make more for you" Mei offered.
"*groan" Liana groaned in pain as she clutches her chest where her heart is as if she is having a heart attack, or maybe she really does.
"Fufufu~, Liana, stop exaggerating with your acting, you make Kiana and Mei worry about you" Ei said as she join us on the bed.
"I am not acting Ei-senpai, she is really cute that my heart hurts every time I see her" Liana said still clutching her heart.
"Ehehe, I like Liana nee-san too" Mei said as she hug Liana.
"Hey, I like Liana nee-san first" Kiana hugs Liana also while glaring at Mei, and the latter returns the hostile glare.
"Come on girls, don't fight, let's share Liana ok?" Ei said as she hugged the three of them in a big group hug.
This situation is too much for Liana. The cuteness of Mei and Kiana and the beauty of Ei are proving too much for her blood vessel causing her to have a nosebleed.
Hello guys, hope you enjoy the story. Some of you guys may be wondering how this fanfic will end, and I must say honestly that I myself have no definitive ending in mind, everything is still floating around and still undecided. The events in future chapters are most likely unplanned and are influenced by my inspiration at the time of writing so even I couldn't predict what the future me will write in the future. Also, lately, I am having a hard time having ideas for making the chapter and it might take some time for me to write it. Maybe because I have been reading too much Tanya Degurachaff fanfic.
Never thought writing to be this hard until I made this, hahaha