Honkai: Strijder
Chapter 9: How Many Years for Kidnapping?
The next day.
As promised, Sigurd bought Kiana a small cake from the most famous cake shop in town, then led her to a forbidden place that, according to common sense, minors were not allowed to enter.
—An internet café.
Kiana carried an empty cake box that had somehow become completely empty along the way. She casually tossed it into the trash can outside the internet café.
"An internet café? Why are we here? Do you want to go online?"
Sigurd handed her a tissue.
"Yes. Also, wipe your mouth."
Kiana obediently wiped the cream from her lips. She watched as Sigurd paid the fee and rented two computers. Then, following the owner's directions, the two of them walked into the internet café.
"The internet is a virtual world that brings together all kinds of information from the real world without any distance between them. It stores information that can be used to measure the entire real world, and it possesses enough power to manipulate that world," Sigurd explained as they walked.
It was currently 2012. Aside from organizations such as Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, the world's technological development was generally comparable to that of his original world.
The internet's penetration rate wasn't exactly low, but it was certainly nowhere near as widespread as Sigurd remembered.
Even so, there were already countless things one could accomplish through the internet.
Kiana's expression was blank.
Her apparent age was twelve, but she had only been genuinely interacting with this world for a little over three years. The fact that she knew what computers and the internet were was already impressive. How could she possibly understand the true power of the internet?
"Do you know how to use a computer?"
"Mm. I've seen one, but never used one."
"Then, can you read?"
"A little. I know a little bit."
Kiana grinned sheepishly and made a gesture indicating "a little."
When Kiana said "a little," she meant literally a little—not the exaggerated "a whole lot" that people sometimes jokingly referred to as "a little."
In fact, her "little" might even be slightly less than what most people would consider a little.
"Doesn't matter. Just figure things out at your own pace."
As long as she could patiently occupy herself nearby, that was enough. Sigurd never expected her to be of any help.
They sat down and logged in. The desktop interface was in Russian, a language he had become somewhat familiar with over the past few days.
Sigurd took hold of the mouse. His first step was to learn the input method, after which he began studying the underlying logic of the entire operating system.
And so, about an hour passed.
After an hour, Sigurd had refreshed his memory and thoroughly familiarized himself with the operating system's underlying logic. He had mastered virtually every function available in a desktop system, including many features that ordinary people might never encounter in their entire lives.
Sigurd leaned back and stretched.
Understanding everything had been effortless, but it required concentration and focus. He was somewhat tired.
Sigurd glanced at the computer beside him. A chat window was open on Kiana's desktop.
Not bad!
Sigurd thought to himself.
There was already a chat platform on the desktop, which suggested that its adoption rate was fairly decent.
At that moment, Kiana was biting her lower lip, her two chubby little hands awkwardly tapping away at the keyboard one key at a time. She was slow, but completely absorbed in what she was doing.
Sigurd didn't want to disturb her, so he got up and went to the counter to buy two drinks.
One bottle of mineral water and one bottle of cola.
He unscrewed the mineral water for himself and placed the cola beside Kiana.
"Ah! Cola! Thank you, Sig!"
Kiana's eyes lit up. Without hesitation, she opened the bottle, tilted her head back, and gulped down more than half of it.
Then she let out a sweet, cola-flavored burp and contentedly narrowed her eyes, looking like an adorable little kitten that had just eaten its fill.
Meanwhile, Sigurd leaned over to look at her screen.
It was an instant chat room discussing cakes. Judging by the latest messages, Kiana had just typed a question asking about Siegfried's whereabouts.
Not bad. She may be greedy, but she hasn't forgotten about finding her father.
Sigurd felt somewhat pleased.
Although it was difficult to say how effective this method would be, at least it showed that Kiana was taking the matter seriously.
Feeling pleased, Sigurd patted Kiana's little head as a reward before returning to his own work.
Having mastered the operating system's logic, the next step was understanding the logic of the underlying code, as well as crawling and analyzing the enormous amounts of data on the internet.
Sigurd remained busy with this task until noon.
He checked the time. It was about time for lunch.
"Kiana, we should go eat… Hmm? What are you looking at?"
Sigurd took a closer look.
The webpage was covered in all kinds of explicit advertisements, and the video playing in the center of the screen was an image of a rather beautiful woman being rammed by a man.
In other words, a porn.
Sigurd: "…"
Kiana, what the hell are you doing?!
Sigurd looked at Kiana again.
She was wearing headphones, crouching on her chair, and covering her eyes with both hands. However, there were enormous gaps between her fingers, through which she was secretly enjoying a form of art that was absolutely not appropriate for someone her age.
Sigurd pulled off her headphones and closed the page. He was also relieved that the internet café's computers didn't have external speakers and that the audio could only be heard through headphones. Otherwise, this would have been an absolute disaster.
Kiana came back to her senses, lowered her hands, and looked up, meeting Sigurd's extremely dark expression.
"I– I– I was just chatting, and then someone sent me a string of blue links. I clicked on one, and then— It wasn't my fault!"
Kiana looked pitiful and explained in a weak, timid voice. There was also a suspicious blush on her little face.
Sigurd narrowed his eyes.
"Go sit over there and wait for me."
Sigurd went over to Kiana's computer and took a deep breath. His hands moved so quickly that they left afterimages as he typed away at the keyboard with fluid precision and decisive speed.
He hacked into the chatroom's server, traced the connection through the network, and located the computer belonging to the perverted shut-in who had sent the link.
Then he completely wrecked it!
...
Thirty minutes later, Sigurd and Kiana were sitting in a nearby restaurant, waiting for their food to arrive.
Kiana gripped her knife and fork with both hands. Her eyes nervously wandered around, and she didn't dare look at Sigurd's stern expression.
"You didn't deliberately search for it, that's true. But why didn't you close it immediately or tell me about it? Is that really something you should be looking at?"
"I… I just… got curious…"
Kiana replied timidly, giving Sigurd an ingratiating look.
Sigurd took a deep breath and slowly calmed his emotions.
"For this sort of thing… I'll find you some proper educational materials. You can't go around being curious about absolutely everything!"
"But… what does it feel like? Does it really… feel that good?"
Kiana blinked her large, curious eyes.
At that moment, Sigurd felt as though he had a small heart attack.
Wouldn't any normal adult turn pale when a little girl asked them something like that? Especially when Sigurd knew that Kiana's actual age, in the truest sense, was only around three or four years old!
"…I'll find some educational materials. You can study them systematically when I get them. I suppose it's about time anyway."
Considering Kiana's circumstances, this stage was roughly equivalent to that of a twelve-year-old girl. Learning some basic biological and reproductive knowledge was appropriate.
Kiana finally seemed to settle down.
Meanwhile, Sigurd let out a deep sigh.
That was enough for today.
It had only been half a day, but he already felt mentally exhausted.
And one more thing: he never wanted to take Kiana to an internet café again!
...
Eating, shopping, buying a computer… and finding educational materials.
Those were the main activities Sigurd and Kiana got up to that afternoon.
The delighted Kiana managed to polish off another three ice creams, two glasses of juice, and various other desserts.
Sigurd wasn't particularly concerned about how much she ate. What he couldn't understand was why anyone would enjoy eating ice cream in such cold weather.
Even so, that evening, while Sigurd was taking a shower, Kiana—whose stomach had started rumbling again—decided to sneak out and find something to eat.
"Take your gun with you. And come back early."
Kiana had thought she was being discreet as she opened the door, but Sigurd's reminder suddenly came from inside the bathroom.
Kiana shrank her neck, stuck out her tongue, and replied, "Okay!"
...
After finishing his shower, Sigurd sat on the sofa and brewed himself a pot of black tea.
Life was about occasionally taking the time to relax and enjoy the simple pleasures!
However, barely ten minutes later, the door to the inn room was suddenly kicked open.
Sigurd turned his head.
Kiana came rushing inside in a frantic hurry, carrying a still-moving little girl over her shoulder.
The young girl had beautiful golden hair, fair skin, and an adorable appearance. But none of that was important.
What mattered was that her hands and feet were tied with rope, her hair and clothes were somewhat disheveled, and her mouth had been sealed with tape. Tears filled her eyes as she trembled in fear while Kiana carried her into the room and placed her on the sofa.
Clatter!
The teacup slipped from Sigurd's hand and fell to the floor.
Just as Kiana was about to reach toward the trembling little girl, Sigurd stretched out his hand and stopped her.
His expression was complicated, and his tone was exceedingly grave as he spoke:
"Has that stubborn hereditary fetish awakened this early, just because you watched one little video? Kiana, I won't judge your preferences, but… you've already gone down the wrong path! Stop now, while there's still time."
As he lectured her, Sigurd picked up the landline phone from the table and muttered to himself:
"What was the emergency number here again? How many years do you get for kidnapping a minor?"
"Wait! Sig, let me explain!!!"