Everything went back to normal after the exam, Bronya, Kiana and Sirin playing homu games together, Kiana stealing food from everyone's plates (which she would've done even if somebody died), and Himeko drinking.
Kiana was sleeping a lot more in classes due to her nightmares. Which nobody was happy about because they didn't know about her nightmares.
Now, we're currently heading to New Zealand in search of the Gem of Desire.
-- ★ --
Sirin stretched her legs and arms. "Finally! We're here!" She yawned out.
"You could've walked around on the way here, you know." Kiana said, checking the Comms for Himeko's call.
"Second Lieutenant Kiana," Himeko said through the Comms. "I see you arrived at New Zealand. Prepare for mission briefing."
"Hello to you too, Himeko." Sirin said, sarcasm in her voice.
"Wait, Himeko. Can you tell me the analysis of that unmanned battleship?" Kiana asked.
'Damn, double ignored.' Sirin thought.
Sirin kinda zoned out at the rest of the conversation. It was longer than the games version, which was something that she'd realised and liked, but with mission briefings? Hell no!
"That's all i know." Himekos finishing the mission briefing snapped her out of her hateful thoughts towards the mission briefings.
"Alrighty! Let's go get that gem!" Kiana grinned and turned back to Sirin, who was pretending she had been listening all along.
Kiana and Sirin walked along the brick path to meet up with Mei and Bronya. Stopping for a moment to wish on dandelions.
"I wish Wendy and Himeko will survive."
"I wish I can stay with Mei, Himeko, Theresa, Sirin, and Bronya forever."
Sirin finished off the wish with a quickly said, "Ich liebe dich."
"Target located." Himeko abruptly appeared on the Comms yet again causing Sirin to jump, and nervously look around to make sure nobody saw. Wendy did.
"Target? But I thought we're looking for the Gem of Desire. But we only found this girl." Mei asked confused.
"Intel from the Oceania branch confirmed this girl as the Gem of Desire." Himeko explained.
"She don't look like a shiny rock to me."
Bronya facepalmed.
"Allow me to explain." Himeko began, putting on her lecture voice. "3 years ago, the Oceania Branch implanted the Gem of Desire Wendy's calf. The aim was to meld the Gem with her tibia to achieve Herrscher grade powers."
"I guess this Wendy must be pretty powerful. But she's a girl on a wheelchair." Mei said.
"I dunno, even with the wheelchair she looks like she could land a really good punch." Sirin said, pretty confident that she could.
Himeko cleared her voice as a way of telling everyone to shut up and continued. "Wendy was Oceania's best Valkyrie. She might have become the 4th S-rank Valkyrie of this generation. But even she couldn't handle the gem's power."
"I wasn't strong enough to contain the power of the Gem. I lost control of my legs." Wendy said as if she was reliving the moment.
"They should've taken out the Gem!" Mei shouted. "Wendy shouldn't be stuck in this wheelchair!"
"The Gem of Desire is extremely unstable in every medium, but it stabilized in Wendy's body." Himeko explained.
"So Schicksal decided to use Wendy's body as a vessel for holding the Gem? That's... Evil!" Mei said.
"Well.... That's Schicksal for you...." Sirin muttered under her breath.
"No point arguing this here. Bring Wendy back to the Hyperion." Himeko ordered.
"We're heading back? But I'm in a wheelchair. I might slow you down..." Wendy said nervously.
"I can't believe it. Bronya does not believe Wendy will slow us down. Project Bunny: activate!" Bronya said in her usual monotone voice.
"A robot? It just materialized from thin air!" Wendy squealed.
"Project Bunny, pick up subject Wendy. Zaychik will carry you, subject Wendy." Bronya said and project bunny picked up Wendy.
"What? It can fly!" Wendy said shocked.
"Cool!" Sirin said.
"Awesome! Bronya, can I ride on your robot next time?" Kiana asked hopefully.
"For subject Kiana? Nyet."
Bronya carried Wendy back to the Hyperion with Project Bunny while Sirin, Mei, and Kiana handled the Honkai beasts.
"We will be back on the battleship in 4 minutes." Bronya announced. "Statement proven. Wendy did not slow down the squad."
"Bronya is so kind today." Mei said with a smile.
"I guess the mighty Bronya data centre is corrupted by the "kindness" virus." Kiana joked, Sirin would be laughing if she didn't want to become better friends with Bronya.
"Thank you, Bronya." Wendy thanked gratefully.
"Bronya is glad to help."
"Bronya is equipped with armoured leg prosthetics. Bronya was wounded and confined to a wheelchair after an experiment. The exoskeleton system restored Bronya's ability to walk."
"Awesome! Does that mean Wendy can recover one day?" Wendy asked, both excited and hopeful that she could possibly recover.
"Oh my god, she's already picking up Bronya's habit of talking in 3rd person." Kiana whispered to Sirin. The two weren't very inconspicuous with their whispering due to the fact Kiana had to kneel down to whisper in her ear.
"I'll be able to walk and fly like Bronya, right?"
"Da," Bronya responded. "Bronya believes it is possible. Once we return to St. Freya high, the Gem can be removed. Subject Wendy shall regain the ability to walk."
"You're so nice, Bronya."
They'd finally reached the area where the Hyperion was supposed to be. Bronya was asking Himeko to take the Gem of Desire out of Wendy's calf.