"Sorry, you arrived a bit sooner than expected. Why don't you get some rest for a while? This isn't meaningless; it will help you understand 'him' better. And this world isn't just a dream."
Just before her consciousness faded, Seele heard a voice like that.
"Chirp... Chirp-chirp-chir..."
"Ugh... where am I?"
Her head felt dizzy for a moment. When she came to, Seele found herself in a place she had never seen before.
Before her was a neatly landscaped lake, surrounded by willow trees. Yellow birds chirped softly, spreading their wings as they darted between the dry, yellow willow branches and skimmed across the lake's surface. Such an orderly arrangement was clearly man-made.
She looked up. Half the sky above was filled with the blinding light of the rising sun, while the other half was a dark, somber west that had not yet emerged from the night.
Seele couldn't shake the feeling that there was something strange about the sky.
After studying it for a few more moments, she finally identified the problem. The dawn light and the night split the sky in two—one side a brilliant gold, the other a deep, low blue. The transition of pale white and light gray that should have been between them was barely visible, making the whole sky starkly divided.
Seele took a deep breath. The air here felt strangely heavy, probably because there was no wind. The lake before her was also exceptionally calm, with only faint, sparse ripples.
"Other me, are you there?"
As she observed her surroundings, she instinctively called out to "her." Unconsciously, she had come to take her other self's existence for granted, and just as naturally, she had come to rely on her when faced with trouble.
She could feel "her" presence within her body, a sensation as tangible as feeling her own heartbeat. But surprisingly, "she" didn't respond.
This made Seele's heart tighten. Her relationship with her other self wasn't always harmonious. There had been times before when the other would get angry and deliberately ignore her. But that was always after some conflict between them. The current situation made her worry that something had happened to her other self.
Fortunately, she could still feel her presence, and upon closer inspection, she didn't seem to be injured. Reassured, Seele continued to observe her surroundings.
She wanted to shout for Big Sister Bronya, Big Sister Mei, and Kiana, but considering the unfamiliar environment, she conservatively chose to remain silent.
She looked to her right. There were rows upon rows of buildings. The closest row was relatively low, looking like an apartment complex. But the design of all these buildings was somewhat odd. The main material might have been the reinforced concrete Seele was familiar with, or it might not have been, because everything was tightly encased in a layer of thick metal armor plating.
Despite the deliberate matte finish, the unique hardness and weight of the metal were still palpable. Combined with the sharp, exposed corners of the buildings, the murderous aura was so intense that Seele couldn't help but take a half-step back before quickly turning her gaze to the left.
And there, she saw a giant pyramid.
Calling it a pyramid was merely to describe its shape. Its surface was covered in pale cyan crystals that reflected the sunlight, obscuring the already faint seams between them until they were almost invisible. Compared to the heavily armored buildings on the right, this pyramid appeared both dazzling and fragile.
Rustle...
Leaves rustled behind her. Seele quickly turned around and saw a familiar splash of fiery red among a patch of tender green sunflower buds.
"Teacher Himeko!"
"Himeko? Yawn... Not many people have called me that since I left my homeland... Wait, you're—"
Himeko had woken up early. She was drowsily watering her beloved sunflower seedlings when she heard the call. She looked up sharply, and her pupils constricted.
"You're... Seele?"
She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, clearing the blurry double vision, and confirmed the identity of the girl before her.
"Teacher Himeko, what are you doing here?"
Seele frowned. "Himeko's" reaction made her uncomfortable. The look in her eyes wasn't hostile, just... it felt like she was looking at a dead person.
"How are you... Ugh... You're still alive?"
Himeko's words stunned Seele. She looked at herself, then at Himeko, and pinched her own cheek.
It hurt a little, which confirmed that she wasn't dead. She was alive.
So what was going on?
She suddenly thought of the worst possibility. Could... could this be the future? Did something happen in between, making everyone think she was dead?
Seele shook her head, not to deny the thought in her mind, but to deny Himeko's words.
"Teacher Himeko, I'm fine. What's the situation now? Where are Big Sister Mei, Big Sister Bronya, and Kiana? And Brother Michael?"
Himeko's expression grew even stranger. She opened her mouth, but hesitated. Then, a thought seemed to strike her, and her amber eyes narrowed slightly.
"Michael... sigh... That workaholic Mei, need you even ask? Same as always, I'm sure."
She deliberately made her words vague and ambiguous, not out of caution, but out of confusion and a desire to probe.
Although her exchange with "Seele" had been brief, as a battle-hardened commander, maintaining a clear head under any circumstances and quickly organizing, summarizing, and reasoning from available information was an essential skill.
First, she ruled out the possibility of the Sixth Herrscher's resurrection. The Sixth Herrscher was dead. There was no room for doubt. After all, her core had been made into a Divine Key, and her body had dissipated before Michael's own eyes. Without her Authority, the Sixth Herrscher had no way to resurrect. And if she did have her Authority, with her powers, she wouldn't need to waste words. She could have wiped out the entire base without them even knowing, so revealing herself was the worst possible option.
Even if, for argument's sake, this really was the resurrected Sixth Herrscher and her goal was to reclaim her core, revealing herself was still the worst choice. Using a different, ordinary body would offer some concealment. Using Seele's original body was like walking around with a sign on her head that said, "Come and get me."
Of course, Himeko had dealt with Herrschers enough to know that judging their intelligence by human standards was a mistake.
But what truly made her rule out the possibility that the Seele before her was the Sixth Herrscher was her form of address.
"Teacher Himeko? Teacher Himeko? What about Big Sister Bronya and Kiana?" Seele waved her hand, calling out again when she saw Himeko spacing out.
Himeko smiled. Yes, it was these titles that made her realize something.
Her name was Himeko, not Himeko. Although the pronunciation was the same in her native language, there was a subtle difference in the common tongue.
She hadn't interacted much with Seele, having only met her once during the Fifth Honkai War. After Anti-Entropy returned to the Fire Moth, she never saw Seele again. She knew now that Michael had sent her to a world called the Sea of Quanta.
Under these circumstances, it was understandable for Seele to get her name wrong. But for her to use the similar "Himeko" was too much of a coincidence.
Moreover, she had never been Seele's teacher, so where did the title "Teacher" come from? During the Fifth Honkai War, Seele had followed Michael in calling her "Captain Himeko" or "Big Sister Himeko." If the Herrscher had truly inherited these memories, it shouldn't have made such a basic mistake.
And finally, there were the other two names Seele mentioned.
"Bronya, Kiana..."
Himeko silently recited these unfamiliar names, a conclusion already forming in her mind.
"Seele, you..."
Her words cut off abruptly. Himeko suddenly looked up. The sky... it seemed to have trembled just now. The quivering morning sun was the best proof.
"No way..." she murmured softly. Although she found it incredible, she had a premonition.
The next moment, a piercing alarm blared throughout the underground city, echoing three times.
"Heh..."
Himeko shook her head and smiled. Ignoring the bewildered Seele, she used the last few moments to gently water the sunflower buds beside her.
"This... this alarm... could it be... another Herrscher has appeared?" Seele whispered. The shirt on her chest glowed faintly red, and a white flower suddenly bloomed in her palm. Then two, then three, more and more, until they finally coalesced into a massive white scythe that seemed mismatched with her petite frame.
Himeko, who appeared to be focused entirely on watering the flowers, had actually been watching Seele's every move. She couldn't help but glance over, but what surprised her most was Seele's words...
"Seele!"
Just then, two youthful voices called out from the side. Himeko turned at the sound, and her pupils constricted again.
Two girls were running toward them from the direction of the main base. The shorter one had silver-gray hair and eyes—no need to say who she resembled. The more mature-looking one was a spitting image of Mei from a few years ago when she first joined the Fire Moth!
Without even thinking, Himeko knew these were the "Big Sister Mei" and "Big Sister Bronya" that Seele had mentioned. Because the moment the two girls saw her, they had the exact same reaction as Seele.
They skidded to a halt, their eyes filled with suspicion and surprise, and said in unison:
"Himeko (Teacher), what are you doing here?"
Himeko smiled, stopped watering, and tucked a strand of her fiery red hair behind her ear, shaking her head with a hint of resignation.
"I'm sorry, but I'm probably not the 'Himeko' you know."
Of course, Seele, Bronya, and Mei couldn't understand what she meant.
Himeko knew they were confused; she herself was a bit bewildered by the situation. But the appearance of these two newcomers only confirmed her suspicions.
So, her smile became even more resigned, but she didn't forget to be cryptic.
"You'll understand soon enough."
And it was soon. The moment she finished speaking, at the end of the path leading to what Seele had thought were "apartments," a figure all three girls were very familiar with appeared in their line of sight.
The girl ran straight toward them. Her gaze quickly swept over Himeko's face, and she nodded in respect. But as she sped past Mei and Seele, she suddenly stumbled to a halt and walked back.
She was panting heavily, her flat chest rising and falling rapidly, making her words slightly muffled.
"Dr. Mei? And... Seele? No, you must be..."
The three girls were clearly as shocked as she was. A thousand words ultimately boiled down to a single title:
"Class Monitor?"
"Huh?"
Both sides were stunned.
Mei and Hua simultaneously pointed their index fingers back at themselves.
"Doctor? Are you talking about me?"
"Class Monitor? Are you talking about me?"
Hua's brow furrowed, and she unconsciously glanced at Himeko.
"Ahem!" Himeko cleared her throat and shook her head slightly.
"Hua, ignore them for now. You... go do what you need to do."
Hua's gaze swept over Mei once more, looked at Seele with some wariness, and finally glanced wistfully back down the path she had come from.
The path was empty. The figure she had been hoping for, what was he doing now?
And, "do what she needed to do"...
Heh, for a useless MANTIS like her, what difference did it make what she did or didn't do?
She hated this powerlessness.
She had been silently repeating to herself, "I still have things I can do," not because she truly believed she could do anything, but because other than "doing something," she had no idea what else she could do.
It sounded convoluted, but perhaps it was because a person's inner thoughts are not easily put into words.
"I understand."
She nodded and started running again, toward the main base.
And so the three poor girls were left behind again, watching another familiar face who didn't know them disappear from sight.
"Confused?" Himeko resumed watering the sunflower buds.
"A little..." Mei nodded readily.
But Bronya looked around. The piercing alarm was still blaring, with only a brief pause between each set of three rings. There were no soldiers mobilizing. Some faint noise of people could be heard from the more distant buildings, probably organizing an evacuation. But "Himeko" just stood there without any reaction, showing no desire to take shelter or prepare for battle.
"You're not Himeko," Bronya stated with certainty.
A slight smile played on Himeko's lips as she softly asked in return, "When did I ever say I was the Himeko you speak of?"
Bronya was speechless, but Seele and Mei were even more confused by her words.
So, she added with another smile, "My relationship with the Himeko you know is probably the same as your relationship with the Dr. Mei I know, and your relationship with the Seele who died two days ago. We're just parallel world counterparts."
"Parallel world?"
"Counterparts?"
"I'm already dead?"
The three girls were each shocked for different reasons.
Himeko tilted her chin up slightly. There weren't that many fools in the world. Parallel worlds were an easily acceptable and already clichéd theory. Plus, Kevin and Hua had mentioned more than once their experience of meeting Aponia in a bubble universe before the Fourth Honkai War, even before meeting her in their own world. So, Himeko herself had considered the existence of parallel worlds and their corresponding counterparts more than once.
Of course, she wasn't as calm as she appeared. But surprise wasn't an emotion that had to be expressed through actions or words.
There was another reason. The situation at hand didn't allow her the luxury of being surprised. She had more pressing concerns, things that occupied her mind far more than near-scientific miracles.
She was silent for three seconds. She had hoped that person would appear within those three seconds, but unfortunately, he didn't.
And so, like Hua before her, she was disappointed.
"Never mind. I don't know how you three kids managed to cross the distance between worlds to get here, but let me explain the current situation. Hear that alarm? Seele, you seemed to realize it just now, didn't you? Looks like your world has Herrschers too."
"Herrscher?" Mei was taken aback. Bronya, however, was not surprised. She simply replied with a cold and proud tone:
"We are humanoid weapons trained to fight against the Honkai and Herrschers."
"Is that so? But they are the same," Himeko replied with a smile.
"They?"
"Mmm... but he, how should I put it..."
She ignored the girls' question and looked down with a hint of disappointment, gently stroking a sunflower bud with her finger.
You're still not going to show yourself?
She was thoroughly disappointed.
"Looks like the only thing I can do today is water the flowers."
Himeko gave a sad smile, saying words the three girls couldn't understand.
But fate seemed to enjoy playing tricks on people. The moment she had given up hope, the sound of sunflower leaves rustling, swaying, and even being trampled came from behind her.
And along with it, that familiar voice:
"Captain!"