"This is going to be a long story…" Actually, Shun had planned to lay his cards on the table with Raiden Mei today. After all, he had deliberately arranged for Mei to play Sekiro and become "Wolf Mei" precisely so that Raiden Mei could grow.
Although Raiden Mei hadn't spent much time in Ashina, experiencing a story in first-person perspective where she personally participated and decided the ending could bring her tremendous change.
As the saying went, even Lu Mingfei could return from Sekiro and become an overpowered dragon Aotian. So why couldn't Raiden Mei, who could already stand tall on her own, do the same?
"In short, Mei, you just need to know that I won't harm you." Shun started with a disclaimer.
"Of course I know that, Teacher Shun. Since you possess the power to create an entire world, you naturally wouldn't use such a troublesome method to harm me."
Although the world bubble had been made by Shun using the Cosmic Juggernaut, Raiden Mei didn't know that. She genuinely believed Shun had created a world. For someone with the ability to create worlds, what could he possibly see in her?
"This matter actually starts with your father, Raiden Ryoma, but just telling you that might not make sense… Forget it…"
"…Let's start with Honkai instead…" Shun explained to Mei the knowledge about Honkai that didn't involve future information.
"So this world really has such extraordinary powers…" Mei was deeply shocked after listening. Although she had already experienced it herself, having it confirmed felt completely different.
"Then I would rather this world was just an ordinary real world." Shun thought to himself. If only there were no Honkai, he could have eloped with Ana to her home in Germany long ago and lived a carefree, happy life.
"Why? Isn't having such transcendent power a good thing?" Mei found it hard to understand Shun's thinking. If one possessed superhuman computational abilities, why would anyone still want to be an ordinary person?
"Although 'with great power comes great responsibility' sounds like moral blackmail when applied to others, for me, if there are things I can do but choose not to, I would feel uneasy in my conscience."
If not for wanting to achieve a perfect ending and make up for the regrets from his time as Captain, who would willingly put themselves in danger again and again?
Ana had little impact on the plot. If he married her early and even had children, he refused to believe Honkai would still choose her as a Herrscher. If that happened, Honkai would love Ana a little too much.
"Teacher Shun doesn't seem to have many ambitions. If I had your power, I would probably want to become the king of the world…"
Shun treated Mei's words as a joke. You talk so big, yet why didn't I see you get the Shura ending in your first playthrough? Was it because you didn't want to? I saw you beat Isshin in one try.
If it had been Cocolia, she would definitely have gone for the Shura ending on her first playthrough.
"Getting sidetracked. Since we've finished talking about Honkai, let's go back to your father, Raiden Ryoma." Shun cleared his throat and steered the topic back on track.
"As expected, I knew it! Father must have been framed!" The moment Mei heard there was a chance to clear Raiden Ryoma's name, she immediately became happy.
"No. Your father did commit economic fraud, but he could have made up the deficit in a very short time. Still, saying he was framed isn't entirely wrong either."
Mei was hit with a bucket of cold water. She had thought… she never expected that her father had actually committed a crime.
"Don't overthink it. Your father didn't do anything wrong. He comes from Anti-Entropy, one of the world's two major organizations fighting Honkai. Using such methods is perfectly normal for them. Besides, ME Corp is the Raiden family's family business and was completely controlled by your father. It would be ridiculous to send him to prison for that reason."
Mhm. The reason Raiden Ryoma was imprisoned was as absurd as a family of three where the father, who controlled the finances, spent a little money without telling the children, only to be reported by the children to the court and thrown in jail.
As the funding source for the conservative faction, even the conservative faction couldn't protect its own people. No wonder Anti-Entropy had been infiltrated until it became Snake Shield Bureau. Now if Shun went to Anti-Entropy and shouted "Long live World Serpent," he would probably get a hundred responses with a single call.
In contrast, over at Schicksal, aside from male researchers who might be planted by World Serpent, they basically couldn't get their hands on the true core Valkyries.
"Teacher Shun seems to have no good feelings toward Anti-Entropy," Mei keenly sensed Shun's malice toward Anti-Entropy.
"Of course not. The idealists are one thing, but the people who joined later are all sorts of monsters and demons. They shout about opposing Schicksal every day, yet what they do is far worse than Schicksal."
Speaking of the conservative faction, they were pretty much like that. In the first chapter of the game, they dropped the massive Moonlight Throne ship along with a giant Honkai energy reactor straight into Nagazora City without caring whether Kiana and the others could stop it.
If something went wrong, tens of millions of people in Nagazora City would be done for. Was that the mercy of the conservative faction? Otto conducting human experiments for five hundred years hadn't killed as many people as this one gamble might.
In any case, Shun had always labeled Anti-Entropy as the type of group that didn't have much ability but always felt they were a big deal. The only ones who couldn't really be criticized were the successive Herrschers of Reason.
Aside from Old Yang being a bit of a collapse negotiation master with some meme material, the Herrschers of Reason really were fighting for the world.
But the event of dropping the Moonlight Throne into Nagazora City hadn't happened yet. Shun wouldn't use future events to blame the people of the present. However, if those wise guys did something like that again, Shun would directly use the Cosmic Juggernaut to teleport over and smash their dog heads.
"Back to the main topic. There is something called a Stigmata inside your body. The Stigmata awakened when you were very young, but at that time you couldn't withstand the energy from the Stigmata. Your father, Raiden Ryoma, in order to protect you, placed the Core of the Herrscher of Thunder the Conquest Gem which he had been researching, into your body."
"It was used to balance the Stigmata. After saving your life, both the Stigmata and the Conquest Gem fell into dormancy. That's why your father didn't dare act rashly, and the Herrscher Gem has remained inside your body ever since."
"However, within Anti-Entropy's radical faction there is a madwoman named Cocolia. Having stabilized her position through mechanized troops, she wants to control the power of the Herrscher of Thunder. So in a political game, she toppled your father and is now planning to use the three million people of Nagazora City as a sacrifice to turn you into the Herrscher of Thunder, then control your power."
After hearing this long explanation, Raiden Mei was completely stunned. She never expected the matter to be so complicated.
"Wait, Teacher Shun, I understand the relationships between the people, but what exactly are Herrschers and Stigmata?" Too many new terms had been thrown at her at once, and Raiden Mei didn't even know where to begin her complaints.
"It's very simple. Think of Stigmata as superpowers you were born with, and Herrschers as great demon lords that will destroy the world."
"Ah? I… I will destroy the world? Is that real or fake?" Raiden Mei was already hesitating whether she should just commit suicide for the sake of the world. After all, she had done the same thing in Ashina, so she already had the resolve.
So Teacher Shun arranged the journey in Ashina for me in order to save the world? That's right. I have nothing left to fear anymore…
Raiden Mei had already prepared herself for a heroic sacrifice. It was a pity she hadn't prepared a death poem beforehand. She might as well adapt the one from the Sixth Heavenly Demon King Oda Nobunaga.
Seventeen years of life, like a dream, like an illusion.