The message from Silver Wolf arrived exactly as expected.
And, just as predictably, it was a string of complaints.
'Finality Kiana' looked at the long scroll of messages popping up. If she didn't know better, she'd have thought she was dealing with some overly clingy, obsessive girl.
Of course, that was mostly because Silver Wolf preferred firing off a few characters at a time rather than sending a complete sentence.
After scrolling through the mountain of nagging, it turned out Silver Wolf only really wanted to know one thing:
Where she was right now.
'Finality Kiana' glanced over at Kiana, who was currently busy touring the Astral Express, and a slight smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.
Well now, the "Main Trio" was about to be fully assembled.
She shared her current coordinates with Silver Wolf, knowing the girl could simply use her positioning to teleport straight over.
Right then, Kiana suddenly leaned in, her eyes wide with curiosity.
"Hey, other me, since Mei, you, and Himeko—uh, Sensei—are all here, does that mean there's also a Bronya or a Seele around?"
"What's this? Getting addicted to finding familiar faces?"
'Finality Kiana' looked at Kiana with a smile. While those people certainly existed, none of them should have held Kiana's attention quite like Himeko did. Himeko was special, after all.
"Heh, I'm just curious! Look, I've already run into several of them in one go. No matter how I think about it, it feels like a miracle. It's such a massive universe, yet I keep bumping into everyone."
Kiana's eyes sparkled with pure wonder.
"Hmm..."
'Finality Kiana' fell into a pensive silence. She hadn't really given that question much thought.
From a gameplay perspective, it was just a way to pull old players into a new game with familiar faces. But from a "reality" perspective, it truly was miraculous to encounter so many counterparts.
Still, whatever. Who knew the actual reason? She didn't particularly care why.
"But regarding the Bronya and Seele you mentioned, they really do exist. And—"
Before 'Finality Kiana' could finish her sentence, a pixelated wormhole suddenly expanded right beside her.
Then, a tiny, pint-sized Bronya descended from the sky, seated atop Project Bunny!
"Whoa—! It's tiny Bronya!! Come here and let big sister give you a hug, hehehe~"
Since the Bronya in Kiana's world had grown up—the classic "eighteen transformations of a girl"—she looked vastly different from her childhood self.
She had even stopped referring to herself as "The Bronya," which had left Kiana feeling disappointed for quite a while.
She never expected to see a little Bronya here.
Heavens! That nose, those eyes, those giant drill-curls... it was Bronya herself!
Silver Wolf, having just stuck the landing, hadn't even had time to figure out which of the two white-haired women standing together was her "sister."
Suddenly, the one with the braided hair lunged at her with a bizarre smile and scooped her into a tight embrace.
The key issue was that, even with Silver Wolf's abilities, she hadn't been able to react to the woman's movements at all.
By the time her mind caught up, she was already trapped in this strange woman's arms.
(ᗜ ˰ ᗜ)
Silver Wolf's eyes went dead.
She immediately activated her Aether Editing, and Kiana felt her arms go empty. The little Bronya dissolved into a stream of data, flew out of her reach, and ducked behind the other "self."
"Sister, who is this weird woman?"
Before 'Finality Kiana' could even answer, Kiana's eyes erupted with an intense light, and she burst into a loud, boisterous laugh.
"Sister?! This little Bronya actually calls my other self 'Sister'?! Hahahaha!!!"
Silver Wolf frowned at the remark and snapped back immediately, "What's wrong with calling her sister? My name, my Project Bunny, my power, and my future—they were all given to me by my sister."
"Ah... wow. Well. Then you must really, really love your sister."
Kiana hadn't expected the little Bronya of this world to have... such a sad past as well.
Though she didn't know the specifics, she could feel through the girl's words that her other self must have saved her. That was why she called her "Sister" with such heartfelt sincerity.
Not one to disappoint, Silver Wolf nodded with serious, unwavering conviction.
"Of course! I love Sister the most!"
"Wooo-hoo! I am definitely manifesting this footage to let Bronya witness it with her own eyes!!"
Kiana was absolutely delighted now. Since the moment she stepped onto the Astral Express, the corners of her mouth hadn't come down once. Now, she was over the moon.
Originally, she had only planned to take news of Welt and the Void Archives back home, maybe tell everyone about the Astral Express. But now, she had made up her mind.
This hopeful scene of Bronya calling her other self "Sister"...
She was going to manifest it perfectly and make Bronya watch the whole thing from start to finish. A hundred times!!
Heh heh heh.
Kiana wore the grin of a mastermind whose plan had come together.
If she wasn't still holding out hope for more "material," she would have already started condensing the images to send to Bronya's inbox back on Earth.
'Finality Kiana' pressed a hand against the grinning Kiana's forehead and pushed her away. "Fix that expression. Don't go scaring the kids."
"Slurp... cough, what are you talking about! How could a super-invincible beautiful girl like me scare a child?"
Kiana wiped a bit of drool, cleared her throat, and began blushing while trying to argue that she was cute no matter what face she made.
In the middle of the argument, however, Kiana suddenly went quiet. Her gaze began to bounce between her other self, the other Mei, and the other Bronya.
She watched Mei, who—though not clinging—never let her eyes wander far, and the little Bronya, who was clutching the other self's arm, refusing to leave her side.
Kiana rubbed her chin, feeling like she had just stumbled upon a major revelation.
Could her other self have "claimed" not just Mei, but Bronya as well?!
Sssp...
Kiana imagined herself and Bronya being that close and instantly shuddered. It wasn't that they had a bad relationship, but when she thought about how many times she and Bronya had bickered or fought over Mei's attention, she found it impossible to accept the idea of an intimate bond between them.
Besides, Bronya clearly liked Seele more; it would never be Kiana's turn anyway.
But even if the Bronya back home wasn't like that...
Seeing someone with her own face not only being with Mei but also seemingly building a whole "system" with Bronya... Kiana felt her face morphing into the likeness of the famous painting The Scream.
She desperately wanted to ask, but considering how many people were around, she forced the impulse down, planning to snoop around quietly when they were alone.
'Finality Kiana' watched Kiana's hesitant expression and saw the "Emotion Points" on her panel jump significantly once again.
She was genuinely confused; the points had spiked when Silver Wolf appeared, so why the sudden surge now? What kind of wild scenarios was Kiana dreaming up in that head of hers?
Despite her hesitation, Kiana never voiced her thoughts. Instead, she scampered off to continue her tour of the train.
Finally free from debating whether Kiana was a "flawless beauty," 'Finality Kiana' finally found the time to introduce Mei and Silver Wolf to each other.
"This is Raiden Mei, my partner."
"Guh..."
Silver Wolf's eyes widened, and her grip on 'Finality Kiana's' arm tightened noticeably. She looked exactly like a cat wary of someone trying to steal her favorite person.
"And this is Bronya, though you can call her Silver Wolf. She's a child I met on Punklorde a few years back. Now, she's one of the top hackers in the universe."
"There is no 'one of.' Soon, there won't be anyone else..." Silver Wolf instinctively corrected her, though she added the second part in a mutter.
After all, she hadn't exactly won her bout against the two Hertas yet. And against the supposedly even more formidable Screwllum, Silver Wolf wasn't entirely confident of a victory.
Mei looked at Silver Wolf clinging tightly to 'Finality Kiana's' arm and reached out with a smile to pat the girl's head. This huffing and puffing little girl was actually quite cute—like a kitten baring its teeth.
Silver Wolf swatted her hand away, but Mei didn't mind. She retracted her hand and looked at 'Finality Kiana'.
"Where do you plan to go next?"
"I'll take Kiana for a tour. It's her first time here, so I have to host her properly."
'Finality Kiana' thought for a moment and decided she should find some time to take Kiana to the Herta Space Station.
In her memory, the station housed a relatively new Curio—what looked like the red greatsword belonging to the Himeko from the Honkai Impact 3rd world.
The sword itself wasn't particularly miraculous; it was just a collection of fragments with lingering traces of unique energy. That was why Herta had added it to her collection.
She could take Kiana there to see it. If Kiana wanted it, 'Finality Kiana' could probably sweet-talk Herta into letting the shards return to their rightful owner.
She knew exactly how much Himeko meant to Kiana. Recovering these relics would provide at least some measure of solace.
Still... she was a bit worried about triggering Kiana's PTSD. Seeing a different Himeko was one thing, but seeing those shattered sword fragments felt like a completely different story.
Beyond the Space Station, Jarilo-VI was also worth a visit. She wasn't sure what the current state of the planet was now that the Stellaron crisis had been resolved early and recovery was underway.
However, in this era, Cocolia, Seele, and Bronya should all be there.
It was just likely that Seele and Bronya hadn't grown up yet—they were probably only in their teens. Heck, that little brat Hook might not even be born yet.
And then there was the Xianzhou Alliance. Though the Alliance Marshal, Hua, had a chance of looking exactly like Fu Hua, someone in that position was likely too busy to be easily met.
Still, she could tell Kiana stories about her to pique her curiosity.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL