"For you, it's just experiencing it one more time."
Lin licked his dry lips—they felt like dried orange peels. With a single lick, bits of dead skin came off, leaving a nauseating sensation in his mouth.
The torrential rain seemed intent on pouring all accumulated sorrow onto the heads of the people below, its frantic roar playing an unending symphony in their ears.
The speaker was Yama. Her wet, silver-white hair clung to her back, and her small frame shivered slightly from the cold after being soaked. Her indifferent eyes cast a sidelong glance at him before returning to the curtain of rain ahead.
The midnight rain was bleak and blurred. The smell of char was being washed away by the scent of damp water, yet it lingered stubbornly in their nostrils.
"Except compared to last time, you see it more clearly now. But in reality, you can't remember what your true parents were actually like. You can't even beautify the memory; they only exist in archival records... and in the form of 'anti-humanity' criminals."
"Bubble Universes are like bubbles—they can vanish at any moment. Everything within them vanishes too, so you needn't care at all about what happens here," Yama said nonchalantly.
"...There is no Honkai threat to humanity here."
Lin tilted his head back. The icy sound of rain sliding off the eaves skipped past his ears. He stared at the grayish-black ceiling, his lips twitching almost imperceptibly. "This time, they became friends. There was no opposing stance, yet the exact same thing happened."
The Speaker, those two parents, and their research data...
"Because they touched a taboo—something that ordinary humans must absolutely never do." Yama eyelids were heavy; she rubbed them with effort. "For the Speaker, he prevented an event that could have caused world panic. He nipped a horrific human modification experiment in the bud. The price paid was merely the cheap lives of two mad scientists. They didn't even respect their own child's life; how can they expect others to respect theirs?"
"..."
Even without the Honkai, what had to happen could not be changed. No, it should be said that precisely because there was no Honkai, the events that once used the Honkai as an excuse lost their fig leaf. It was caused by humans themselves, not a natural disaster.
So, was all of this meant to be? The deaths of those two were so "natural," so righteous, so full of grand purpose.
"So tired..." Yama could no longer fend off the sleepiness. The night of rushing around and fighting had left her, someone who hadn't felt the need for sleep in a long time, utterly exhausted. She sat down next to Lin, let her head drop onto his lap, turned to the side, and closed her eyes.
She fell asleep just like that, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"..."
Soft snoring sounds came from her slightly parted mouth.
Five seconds after she drifted off, the transport vehicle was opened from the outside. The man in the suit walked in without a word. He looked at the peacefully sleeping Yama, then at the equally expressionless Lin.
The Speaker already knew how this so-called "traveler" came to be. In the experimental records of that demonic couple, there was a project for modifying a child's psyche. They had artificially matured Lin cognitive age, causing his mental age to leap into adulthood.
"Little Lin, I have something to say to you."
Lin shook his head at him expressionlessly. He signaled with his eyes that Yama was sleeping, then closed his eyes to enter a brief rest of his own.
"..."
The Speaker didn't sigh or show disappointment. He merely waited coldly for a few seconds before retreating once more.
Lin listened to the door close, his mind falling silent. Suddenly, he felt something in his coat. It was bony, with a frighteningly fuzzy texture.
It was a Monkey's Paw.
"I don't understand much about the mind. Does psychology count? I specifically got a PhD in psychology to develop my magic tricks."
Vil-V spun in her swivel chair, fiddling with the magician's hat on her head.
"The instrumental checks show no problems at all. He's healthy to an excessive degree. Actually, according to the initial expectations for MANTIS, Lin was the intended average level. It's just that no one expected the capabilities of the successful MANTIS to exceed projections by so much..."
As she drifted off-topic, Mobius acted as though she hadn't heard the latter half of Vil-V words. She mused, "So, is it a split personality after all?"
"Do you want to run the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)?" Vil-V asked.
"With this guy's unique condition, I doubt a standard test would reveal anything."
Mobius tilted her chin up, looking at Lin as he stepped off the resonance scanner. Ultimately, she had decided to use formal examinations to see if something was wrong with him. But when he had agreed so decisively, she had already guessed the result. Sure enough, after every test they could think of, the only thing they could determine was that he was physically the same as before. If "blathering nonsense" could be used as a diagnostic criterion, she would have picked up a gun and executed him long ago.
For instance, right now...
"I didn't realize you studied psychology, Vil-V. I couldn't tell at all." Lin naturally draped his coat over his shoulders and walked behind Vil-V, resting his hands on the back of her swivel chair. "I thought your magic relied entirely on your natural gift. I always thought you were a genius."
"Ahahaha! Then, Lin, what do you think I am now?"
"Still a genius, just a more hardworking one."
Vil-V was very satisfied with this flattery. Her mental wiring was different from ordinary people; the word "humility" wasn't in her dictionary.
"However, I think there's one thing wrong with your magic."
"Oh?" Vil-V looked up in confusion toward Lin chin.
He lowered his head, his lips curling into a smile. "Your beauty exceeds your magic. Like a Venus with her arms intact—anyone would be captivated by your charm before they even notice the trick."
"..."
Mobius watched Vil-V freeze on the spot and sighed, rubbing her forehead. This Lin... his tongue was far too eloquent. His flowery words were enough to break through the defenses of an engineering shut-in like Vil-V who spent all her time in the Spiral Workshop. On the way here, he had flirted with countless people, regardless of gender. With his constant smile and perfectly aimed sweet-talk, even Mobius herself had almost been caught off guard.
What was more frustrating was that his face, by first impression alone, gave people enough goodwill that it was impossible to hate him. Lin used to be a cold, mission-focused man who never interacted with anyone. The contrast now was jarring.
"Lin?"
At that moment, another figure entered the Spiral Workshop. Her mechanical, synthesized female voice emitted a sound of confusion.
Lin turned around, greeting her with a perfect smile. "Why, if it isn't my dear partner, Prometheus..."
Thwack!
Prometheus suddenly delivered a merciless punch directly to Lin face.