Elysia
The sky of the Golden Courtyard was supposed to be a painting of eternal, perfect twilight.
It was supposed to be a canvas of soft purples and golds, a sanctuary constructed from the will of the Flame-Chasers.
But today, the sky was bleeding.
Jagged, crimson cracks marred the horizon, spreading like capillaries across a bruised eye. The gentle breeze that usually carried the scent of wine and pristine flowers was gone.
The grass, usually a vibrant, beautiful green, looked grey and withered in patches, as if the life had been sucked out.
In the center of this deteriorating paradise, beneath the great tree, a boy lay motionless.
"Kenji? Kenji, come on. We got your body back!"
Elysia's voice was tight and utterly devoid of its usual playful lilt. The pink-haired woman was on her knees in the dirt, her clothes stained with the grey dust of the fading grass.
She had Kenji's head in her lap, her hands cupping his face, tapping his cheeks with increasing desperation.
"You wanted to talk to me again, didn't you?" Elysia whispered, her smile failing to reach her eyes. "You can't just sleep now that you're here, it's rude, you know…"
Kenji didn't stir. He looked like a porcelain doll that had been dropped and glued back together wrong.
His skin was translucent, his breathing shallow and nonexistent, as if his very existence was unraveling.
"Ellie..." Eden knelt beside her, placing a gentle hand on Elysia's shoulder. "He cannot hear you. His consciousness has retreated deep into One For All."
"No, he can hear me," Elysia insisted, shaking Kenji slightly. "He always hears me. He's just... he's just tired. Zero pushed him too hard."
"It is more than fatigue," a small voice murmured.
Griseo stood on the other side of Kenji's prone form. The young painter was tracing the red veins that pulsated beneath Kenji's skin—corruption left over from the False Origin's rampage.
"The colors are wrong," Griseo whispered. "Zero painted over him with too much red…"
"Ok, we all need to calm down!!" Pardofelis hissed, her tail puffing up in anxiety. The cat-girl was pacing back and forth, her ears flattened against her skull. "He's tough! Our successor wouldn't be put down by just one fight. He fought a Herrscher! He just needs a nap!"
Pardo looked around nervously at the encroaching red cracks in the sky.
"Uh, hey, Su? Vill-V? Can we fix the roof? It looks like it's gonna cave in!"
A few meters away, the atmosphere was less emotional but equally tense.
A large floating screen hovered in the air—their only window to the outside world. Now dead silent as Kenji's body was now recovering.
Vill-V stood before the screen, her steampunk gears clicking frantically as she manipulated a series of holographic interfaces.
"The architecture is destabilizing," Vill-V stated, her voice clipped and professional—the 'Expert' was currently in control.
"When Zero pushed Kenji aside, he didn't just take control, but also rewired Kenji's entire system. He forced an output of Honkai energy that this vessel wasn't designed to handle."
She pointed to the red cracks spreading across the screen's border.
"And that red lightning... It's not just an overflow of energy. It's corruption. Zero's influence is trying to overwrite the administrative privileges of the Mindscape. He's trying to lock us out."
Her brows furrowed as she got increasingly more frustrated, "He didn't just use Honkai energy either! There's another energy that is a subset of Imaginary energy, but for the life of me, I haven't figured out what it is!"
"Can you purge it?" Su asked. Sitting in a floating chair, his eyes closed.
"Thankfully, I can patch the holes," Vill-V admitted, frowning. "But the foundation is cracked. If Kenji hadn't regained control when he did... if the Kaslana girl hadn't administered that sedative..."
She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't have to.
Standing silently behind them was the final member of their vigil.
Fu Hua—or rather, the vestige of her that remained in this space—stood like a statue. Unlike the others, she wasn't fully formed. Her avatar was engulfed in eternal flames, a silhouette of burning feathers and memory.
Because the real Fu Hua was alive outside, this shadow couldn't speak. It could only witness.
But even when not fully manifested, the tension in the burning figure was palpable. The flames on her shoulders flared as she replayed the fight between herself and Zero, a faint look of disappointment on her face.
"He is fading," Su said softly, opening his eyes. "The link between his ego and THEIR power is thinning. The red energy is acting as a barrier."
Su looked at the screen, where a red static vignette was slowly consuming the image of the real world.
"If the screen goes dark..." Su warned, "We will lose our sight. We will be trapped here, unable to guide him. Unable to warn him."
"And if we can't warn him," Vill-V added grimly, "then the next time Zero wakes up... there won't be anyone to help Kenji take control of his body."
A heavy silence fell over the Golden Courtyard, broken only by the ominous crackle of the red lightning in the sky.
Elysia stopped shaking Kenji. She realized that force wouldn't bring him back. She shifted her position, pulling his unconscious head onto her chest, wrapping her arms around him in a fierce, protective embrace.
"It's alright now, you need to rest," Elysia whispered, "You have to get strong again. Because if you don't..."
She looked up at the sky, watching a massive red crack split the beautiful twilight directly above them. It looked like a wound that refused to heal.
"...if you don't, I don't think I can save you next time."
/ — /
Hyperion Medical Bay
"Kiana… Please stop doing that, you need to eat."
Kiana was tearing the crust off the sandwich Himeko had forced into her hands twenty minutes ago, shredding the bread into tiny pieces on the plastic tray table.
Her eyes weren't focused on the food, nor were they focused on the sterile white walls of the Hyperion's medical bay.
They were locked on the heavy, composite-alloy cuffs binding Kenji's wrists to the bedrails.
"What if he was telling the truth?" Kiana said abruptly, her voice cracking the silence of the room. "What if Kenji really is going to kill himself because of some stupid voices… Actually, what even is his power anyway?"
She bit her lip, "We know he's super strong and has red lighting, sure. But where did flying come from? How does he have Gearshift, and what the hell were those black tentacles?!"
Wendy shifted in the chair opposite her, letting Kiana let out some steam.
But she was entirely the opposite of her. For the first time in weeks, Wendy looked entirely grounded.
She was slumped and had her elbows resting on her knees, and was once again wearing a hospital gown that was too big for her.
"Zero was trying to get in your head, Kiana," Wendy said, though sounding a bit unsure herself. "That's his weapon. He used my circumstances and my gem against me, too. He wanted to hurt you."
"But was he lying?"
Kiana finally looked up. Her blue eyes were rimmed with red, dark circles heavy beneath them.
"Kenji always jumps in front," Kiana whispered, abandoning the mutilated sandwich. She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging her legs. "I-I mean, I do that too, but…"
"He's always fighting for everyone else. He took the hit for you. He... he never hesitates… I never see him doing anything that could actually be considered selfish."
Wendy didn't know what she could say. She only knew Kenji for a short amount of time, and while she got the essence of his character, she didn't really know him as a person.
Before she could even think of anything, Kiana spoke again. "We all do things for ourselves sometimes, even if it doesn't benefit anyone else… So why doesn't he?
She looked at the bandages wrapped thick around Kenji's chest—the exact spot where she had emptied her magazine.
"Zero said Kenji is making a deal with 'ghosts.' That he's planning to trade his life for something." Kiana rested her chin on her knees, staring at the unconscious boy. "If that's true... then he's getting closer to death the stronger he grows, isn't he?"
She turned her head to Bronya, who was lying on the hospital bed close by, "What are we even supposed to do?"
Wendy didn't have an answer. She instinctively felt the radiating power of the Gem of Desire, feeling its faint, pulsing warmth. She remembered the promise she had made to Zero in the eye of the storm.
She had promised to protect Kenji so that he wouldn't have to sacrifice himself. But looking at the room, the promise felt heavy.
To her left lay Bronya. The small Russian girl was motionless, hooked up to a ventilator and a web of wires. She was the cost of the first battle.
To her right lay Kenji. Restrained like a monster, broken like a doll. He was the cost of the second.
"We will save them," Wendy murmured, looking between the two comatose figures.
The pneumatic hiss of the medical bay doors cut off Kiana's response.
Mei stepped inside.
She had traded her torn, scorched battle uniform for a hospital gown, but the scent of battle seemed to cling to her hair.
She looked pale, her movements stiff as she carried a tray with three cups of coffee and a bottle of water.
Mei didn't speak immediately. She walked to Bronya's bedside first. She adjusted the blanket, smoothing out a wrinkle near Bronya's shoulder with a gentle, lingering touch. It was a quiet apology to the girl who had gone through so much.
Then she moved to the two who were sitting down.
"Drink," Mei said softly, placing a cup in front of Kiana and handing one to Wendy. "I'm not taking no for an answer. We just had the battle of our lives, we need nutrients."
"Thanks, Mei," Wendy accepted the cup, letting the warmth seep into her cold hands.
Mei walked to the side of the bed, and her eyes fell on his hand. His fingers were bruised, swollen, and peeking out from beneath the heavy metal restraint cuff.
She winced. While the doctors confirmed that his healing factor activated just enough to keep him alive, he still had many injuries that would have killed him had they not been treated.
Mei reached out.
Her hand hovered over his for a second, trembling.
She physically recoiled from the memory—the sensation of the lightning tether connecting her palm to his chest.
The way he had arched his back and screamed—a sound of pure, raw agony—as she flooded his nervous system with devouring thunder.
She remembered the feeling of his body unraveling under her command. She remembered systematically shutting down his body, forcing his muscles to fail, stripping him of his agency until he was just a twitching heap in the dirt.
She had done that.
She hadn't just fought him; she had utterly violated his body to stop him. A fact that she was only now able to truly process.
Mei's hand flinched back, curling into a tight fist against her chest. She took a sharp, shallow breath, closing her eyes as the guilt washed over her.
'I hurt him. I broke his body.' Mei thought.
But then, another voice spoke in the back of her mind. It wasn't the voice of the timid girl she used to be. It was colder. It was the voice of the Queen of Thunder she was becoming.
'You saved him,' the inner voice whispered. 'You gave him temporary pain for absolute survival. If you hadn't broken him, he would be lost forever.'
Mei opened her eyes. The trembling in her hand stopped.
She reached out again. This time, she didn't flinch. She placed her hand over Kenji's bruised fingers, resting it there with a firm, possessive weight.
It wasn't an apology.
It was an acceptance.
She had hurt him to save him. She had become the villain he needed—the monster she had so feared—to stop the monster inside him.
And if she had to do it again—if she had to break every bone in his body to keep him from dying—she would.
"He's going to be okay," Mei said, her voice steady. She looked at Kiana, then at Wendy. "We brought them back. Bronya. Kenji. They're here. That's what matters."
Kiana dropped her feet to the floor, leaning forward. She pointed at the heavy chains holding Kenji down.
"Is it?" Kiana asked, her voice cracking. "He looks like a prisoner, Mei."
"He's a patient," Mei corrected, her thumb brushing against the cold metal of the cuff. "And we're the guards. We won't let anyone take him again. Not Zero, and definitely not Cocolia."
"And if Zero was right?" Kiana pressed, standing up now. "If Kenji is the one trying to leave? If he's the one trying to trade his life?"
Mei's expression hardened. The violet hue in her eyes flared for a brief second.
"Then we save him from himself," Mei stated, her grip on Kenji's hand tightening. "No matter what it costs."
Kiana opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. She looked at the resolve in Mei's eyes, then at the exhaustion in Wendy's posture.
She looked at her two friends who were fighting for their lives.
She sat back down, picking up the shredded remains of her sandwich.
"Fine," Kiana whispered. "Whatever it costs."
/ — /
Theresa
Theresa was looking at the small, framed photograph on her desk—a picture of Kiana, Mei, and Bronya taken during the entrance ceremony.
Kenji wasn't in it. He had arrived later, a storm wrapped in a smile, crashing into their lives and changing everything.
Theresa sat on the edge of her mahogany desk, her legs dangling, not quite touching the floor. She could still feel the presence of Judah. It had done its job. It had bound the monster and now Kenji was back safe and sound.
But Theresa didn't feel like a victor. She felt like a jailer.
The electronic lock of the door beeped.
Theresa groaned but didn't look up. "I told the bridge crew I didn't want to be disturbed."
"Good thing I'm not the bridge crew," a familiar voice replied.
Himeko walked in. She looked worse for wear. Her red hair was tied back in a messy bun, and she had bandages wrapped around her upper body beneath the casual shirt she had on.
She held two heavy crystal glasses in one hand and a bottle of amber liquid in the other.
"Bourbon," Himeko announced, kicking the door shut behind her with her heel. "The good stuff. I was saving it for when or if I got married, but I think we both need it right now."
She walked over to the desk, poured a generous amount into both glasses, and slid one across the polished wood toward Theresa.
Theresa sighed, rubbing her temples. "I'm on duty, Himeko. The ship is still on yellow alert."
"I'm the Captain of this ship, remember? You don't have to be so alert. The ship is on autopilot, and the kids are in the medical bay watching paint dry," Himeko countered. She took a sip from her own glass, the ice clinking softly.
"Drink. You look like you're about to have a breakdown."
Theresa stared at the amber liquid. She hesitated for a second, then snatched the glass… Then she downed half of it in one go.
The burn in her throat was grounding, a sharp reminder that she was still awake, still human.
Himeko leaned against the wall opposite the desk, nursing her drink. She watched Theresa closely, her golden eyes sharp.
"So," Himeko started, her tone dropping the playful facade. "Are we going to talk about it?"
"Talk about what?"
"About everything you know," Himeko said. It wasn't an accusation, but it wasn't a question either. "The Herrscher, Zero. How Kenji apparently has more abilities than super strength, and the voices in his head? Any of that ring a bell?"
Theresa gripped the glass tighter. She looked at the room's reflection in the dark window.
"I didn't know about the voices," Theresa said quietly. "I knew about the Herrscher, but I had no way of identifying what Herrscher it was, or what its abilities were."
"But that's not what you're asking for, is it?" She swirled the remaining bourbon. "You have a theory of your own, I'm guessing?"
Himeko nodded, "Tell me about his OFA energy, I know there's something you're not telling me. You owe me this at the very least."
Theresa sighed, "When I first analyzed Kenji's body, the readings were chaotic. High Honkai resistance, yes, but there was a secondary energy signature."
Theresa looked up, frustration evident in her eyes.
"It's a mystery, Himeko. Even now, after months of monitoring, I can't classify it. But I found patterns. This energy... it shares a structural similarity to Honkai. It mimics the lattice, it flows through the body like Honkai does, but the frequency is completely different."
"Related?" Himeko asked. "Like a mutation?"
"Maybe. Or a mirror image. I don't know," Theresa admitted, her voice tight. "But I knew that if Headquarters saw those readings... if my grandfather saw a boy with an energy source that mimics the Honkai, and absorbs without corroding the host? Kenji would be a specimen."
"So you hid him," Himeko said.
"I wanted to protect him. Believe me, I truly, truly, wanted to protect him." Theresa insisted, her voice gaining a little strength.
"After all, that's why I built St. Freya. To give kids like him—like Kiana, like Bronya—a chance to be children before the world forces them to be soldiers. I wanted him to have a dorm, friends, homework... a semblance of a normal life before the cruel reality of our world got to them."
Theresa looked at the empty glass in her hand, her expression darkening.
"But then... I started watching the telemetry, and I noticed how he affected Mei."
'And Kiana.' But that remained unsaid.
Himeko frowned. "I remember. He was suppressing the Herrscher Core and making it passive, right?"
"Yeah..," Theresa whispered. "Since Kenji arrived... since he started training with her, eating with her, being near her. The Core in her has been docile, and I've never seen her so… At peace."
Theresa slid off the desk, pacing the small room. And before she knew it, words just flew out her mouth that she just couldn't stop.
"When I realized that, I guess I… got carried away. I stopped seeing him as just a boy I needed to shield, and I started seeing him as a stabilizer. A cure. I thought, if I can understand how his energy keeps the Herrscher core in check... if I can utilize him..."
Theresa's voice cracked.
"I pushed them together. I authorized their joint missions. I told myself I was helping Mei, giving her a normal life. But really? I was using him as a tool to keep the Third Herrscher dormant. I got lost in the results, and I forgot that he wasn't just a heatsink for the Honkai."
Himeko listened, her expression softening slightly, though her eyes remained serious.
"You leaned too much into playing as the Overseer that you forgot you were dealing with people," Himeko said.
"...Zero was right," Theresa whispered. "I viewed Kenji as an asset and kept him in a cage… After he wakes up, I will be completely honest with him… Even if he won't forgive me afterwards.
Himeko's eyes softened at her words.
"He might not," Himeko said. She poured a splash more into Theresa's glass. "But that's not the biggest problem right now."
"What is?"
"The girls," Himeko said darkly. "Zero planted a seed in their heads. He told them that we are the reason Kenji is dying. That we're leading him to an early grave."
Himeko leaned forward, her face serious.
"The kids aren't stupid, Theresa. Kiana acts like an idiot, but she has terrifyingly sharp instincts. Wendy is observant. Mei is protective. They heard Zero. They saw how desperate he was, and they're not about to just forget about that."
Himeko pointed a finger at the door.
"If you lie to them again... if you try to 'protect' them by hiding the truth about Kenji's condition or keeping them in the dark about why you really kept him close... you will lose them. They won't trust you. And if they don't trust you, they might try to save Kenji on their own."
Theresa closed her eyes. She imagined Kiana and the others going rogue, trying to find a way to fix Kenji without Schicksal's resources, running headfirst into danger.
"I can't tell them everything," Theresa argued weakly.
"Then tell them what matters," Himeko countered. "Treat them like the Valkyries that they are. Because after tonight? After seeing their friend possessed and broken? They need some assurance."
Himeko downed the rest of her drink and set the glass down on the desk with a heavy clack.
"Figure out which part of you is making the decisions, Theresa. Otto's granddaughter? Or the St. Freya Principal?"
Himeko turned to walk out the door, but stopped at the edge. She turned slightly to meet Theresa's eyes.
"And please don't forget… I will always have your back… So I'd appreciate it if you trusted me a little more." With that said, she walked out, and the door hissed shut, leaving Theresa alone in the room.
/ — /
Fu Hua
The only light in the room came from the pale blue glow of the holographic interface.
Fu Hua sat upright in her bed despite the heavy cast encasing her left arm and the bandages wrapped around her ribs.
Her glasses reflected the scrolling text of the mission report she was compiling.
To: Overseer Otto ApocalypseFrom: A-Rank Valkyrie Fu HuaSubject: Mission Report - Anti-Entropy Rescue / Target: Kenji Aoyama
Her fingers hovered over the holographic keyboard. However, her typing was slow due to being restricted to one hand.
"The Herrscher exhibited a sudden and violent shift in personality, accompanied by a surge in unidentified energy. The energy signature manifested two new abilities (Gearshift and Blackwhip) and enhanced physical capabilities that exceeded A-Rank parameters. Possibly even equal to S-Rank."
Fu Hua paused. The cursor blinked, waiting for the next sentence.
She closed her eyes. In the silence of the room, she could still hear the sound of the wind howling in the facility. She could still feel her broken body in a heap of scrap.
But more than the pain, she remembered the whisper.
"Truly worthy of being a Flame Chaser."
Zero hadn't just fought her. He had known her. He had called her by a title that had been buried in the dust of fifty thousand years.
He had looked at her with eyes that recognized the shadow of the soldier she used to be.
If she typed that into the report... Otto would definitely waste no time in getting his hands on him.
While she knew this was a possibility from the start, with her being a spy for the man and all… She still wanted answers of her own.
And she wouldn't get them if Otto took Kenji all for himself.
DELETE.
All the previous words vanished.
She began typing again, her expression impassive.
"Subject appeared to be in a state of high-level delirium. Verbal communication was incoherent and consisted of non-specific aggression. No intelligence or specific knowledge was demonstrated."
She finished the paragraph and hit SEND.
The holographic screen dissolved into particles of light.
Fu Hua leaned back against the pillows, staring at the dark ceiling. She had lied to the Overseer.
She had chosen her own curiosity—and perhaps, her own conscience—over her duty.
"What are you, Kenji?" she whispered to the empty room. "And how do you know them?"
/ — /
???
Deep beneath the surface of reality, in a place where light and time dared not tread, there was a throne.
It was not made of gold or jewels. It was made of cold, grey stone, sitting in the heart of a void that smelled of ice and stagnation.
A man sat upon it.
He did not move. He did not breathe. To an observer, he would have looked like a statue carved from the same ice that surrounded him.
He had been waiting here for a long time, watching the world turn, waiting for the prophecy to ripen.
The Sea of Quanta rippled.
It wasn't a physical wave. It was a tremor in the imaginary space—a signal that traveled faster than light, cutting through the dimensions.
His finger twitched.
He felt it. Not the corrosive, chaotic stench of the Honkai. He felt a specific frequency. A resonance that he hadn't felt in fifty thousand years.
It was warm. It was perfect. It was the echo of a pristine origin lost to time.
His eyes slowly opened.
He leaned forward slightly on his throne, the stone grinding beneath his weight. He looked up, his gaze piercing through the Quantum Sea, looking toward the surface world.
"How is this possible?" His voice rumbled, deep and ancient, shaking the dust from the floor.
"Is that you..."
He closed his hand, catching a mote of invisible dust.
"...old friend?"