Chapter 15
Hua and Ana take a seat on either side of Kiana on on Kiana's bed while Himeko is seated at the foot of it
Kiana, for her part didn't know where to start, she figured that the beginning is a good enough starting point, so that's exactly where she started
It’s interesting how she didn't know how to start, but when she started everything flowed out soeasily
“...i, i don't, i don't know what to think anymore” Kiana finishes as she once again curls up into a ball like she did in the room that she was assigned to in the med bay
However, between Himeko’s reassuring gaze, Hua’s warm touch and Ana’s weirdly cold yet comforting presence she felt safe, safer than she felt in most of those memories
silence reigned over them once more at least until Hua let out a soft sigh beginning the attention of the other 3 in the room on to her
“Between Major Himeko’s horrible honkai compatibility, you going through this and Ana basically partially herrscher-ifying herself, we’re having quite the time aren't we” Hua says with a wry smile on her face
Hua sighs, “and here i though my being a MANTIS from the previous era that somehow ended up as a Current Era Herrscher would be the weirdest thing that i will encounter”
“Come again…” “huh?” “what?” came the united confused response to Hua’s statement that admittedly came out of left field
Hua looks up, closes her eyes and sighs, “technically speaking, I'm not supposed to remember as much as i do”
“The Previous Era was what, Fifty thousand or so years ago? I'd be really impressed if you remembered a lot about it” Ana said with an amount of snark, clearly still upset about her current condition
“That's not why I'm saying that I'm not supposed to remember as much as I do” Hua says with a rueful smile, “the operation that turned me into a MANTIS involved a Honkai Beast known as a Garuda and the side effect of the MANTIS operation gave me perfect memory”
“That… sounds like a blessing, so why do you say that like it's a curse?”
“A perfect memory is a blessing in the short term, however, in the long term, a long term that involves thousands of years, well, the human mind isn't cut out for that”
“Oh… how did you…?” Kiana asks with uncertainty, Hua just holds her a little tighter
‘Looks like my theory of what could be happening to Kiana might be on point’ Hua thinks to herself before she opened her palm and summoned a feather, a pretty, red and white feather that Kiana can easily recognize
“This is a plume of Fenghuang Down” Hua starts before Kiana can say anything, “its main function is to allow the user to store their memories within it, to put it simply”, Hua sighs, “i manually have to remove memories in order to not overload my brain”
“You mentioned that you were a herrscher”
Hua nods, “it was slightly before i awakened after my disciples betrayed me” Hua closes her eyes and shakes her head, “i know what my thoughts sound like and there was an unfamiliar voice in my head, young and energetic compared to my at the time cold, jaded and tired one”
“She was… a blessing, she was a bright spot in my cold solitude of a life at the time” She said fondly before sighing sadly, “at least until she was struck down by the honkai for not being for not being ‘what a Herrscher is supposed to be’” she said darkly with the last part in air quotes
“I tried to save her… it's funny really, for most of my life i truly believed that Honkai and Herrschers are evil and the bane of humanity's existence and yet there i was desperately trying to save a Herrscher” her voice quivered as tears formed in her eyes
“Did you manage to save her”
Hua took a deep breath “in a way, I succeeded in saving her however in others I failed to save her” she said softly
“You…failed…?” Ana asks, shocked
“My attempts to save her ended up fusing her with me” Hua says solemnly
“So you managed to save her because you're still alive…” Kiana starts softly
“But you failed in the way that she's no longer her own person as she is now a part of you” and Himeko finishes
Hua nods
“What about your connection with that bastard and the thing that you did against Sirin?” Kiana asks before her eyes widen and covers her mouth when she realized what she had just said
Hua gives Kiana a soft smile before a complicated look came on her face, “Otto offered to protect Shinzou in my stead if I worked for him, considering that he has the resources that i didn't,” Hua sighs ”I'm sure you can understand why it was a really good deal for me in the long run”
“It wouldn't be after the entire second Eruption that I’d find out through some old friends that Otto in a very Otto fashion was doing what he said he would do very half-heartedly” Hua said with her annoyance towards the man clear in her voice, “so since then I've been doing my end of the bargain exactly like how he's been doing his”
“And Sirin?”
“A slightly altered version of one of my techniques, instead of burning a fenghuang down feather I used my Herrscher power, it was my first time doing so and I was out of commission afterward”
A relatively comfortable silence settles amongst the four of them
“Hey Hua?” Ana asks, “you seem to understand whatever that Kiana is going through right now, can you explain?”
“It's not too dissimilar to what happened between me and Senti” she says before giving the rest of them a sharp look before saying, “don't question it, that's what I called her” there was a light flush on her face as she said that
None of them needed to word it out as the implications are very clear, the girl that is Kiana and the girl that was Sirin are fusing together
“Well, I for one think that that's enough life altering information for the night, don't you?” Himeko says with an exhausted look
Kiana clearly wanted to continue, but both Hua and Ana agreed with Himeko
“Kiana, i know you want to continue but with how mentally and emotionally exhausted we all are, we should keep such a taxing topic for another day” seeing Kiana’s betrayed look Hua continued, “Kiana, I swear to you on the soul of my student who was like a daughter to me that I will tell you everything that I know on the subject, ok?
Kiana looks disappointed but nodded regardless
Himeko nods in approval of Hua’s decision and leaves the room
Hua and Ana pull Kiana to lay down in bed with them, it's a tight squeeze but neither of the girls were going to let the snow haired girl stay by herself