MOTH soldiers escorted the survivors into MOTH's defensive perimeter and placed them under protection.
A mature red-haired woman walked in, a faint trace of drunkenness still lingering on her face. The strong scent of alcohol made the survivors quietly question whether this rescue team captain was reliable.
Himeko glanced at the fully armed bodyguards and asked sternly, "Are you survivors too? Where did you get those weapons?"
Zofia sat up from the stretcher and explained, "I am the general manager of HoMu Network Technology Co., Ltd.—Zofia. These are my bodyguards."
As she spoke, she handed over the company's documentation card.
On the surface, these fully armed Mad Hatter Party soldiers were all officially registered as CEO bodyguards under HoMu Network Technology Co., Ltd. All paperwork was legitimate—except that their equipment had been modified.
"So many bodyguards?" Himeko looked skeptical. She took the card and scanned it with her mobile terminal. The company's registration details immediately appeared on the screen.
The filings matched reality. Himeko had heard of HoMu Network Technology Co., Ltd. before. The "HoMu Project" that Siegfried rambled about all day had been produced by them. A company that seriously made animation shouldn't harbor any ill intentions. Surely they hadn't come to suffer through a Honkai Eruption on purpose.
...
MOTH Disaster Response Central Hospital temporarily housed survivors of Honkai disasters from around the world.
As the scale of Honkai outbreaks increased year by year, even temporary medical intake was becoming overwhelmed. Recently, the hospital had begun using unmanned robots to replace human staff in caring for non-critical patients.
It was a small cabin. Fortunately, it was relatively clean.
Hua sat by the bed, staring blankly at the crushed box of chocolate in her hands.
She didn't know how many days had passed since the unknown creatures attacked Sapphire City. She had been placed here and hadn't seen anyone since. Meals were delivered automatically by machines three times a day. Sometimes she wondered: Had humanity already gone extinct?
"Carole..."
Suddenly, a pair of hands covered Hua's eyes.
"Hi~ Guess who I am?"
That lively tone and familiar voice—could it be?!
"Carole?!" Hua cried out in disbelief.
Hua had only ever had one friend. Naturally, she wouldn't call out any other name. This was a matter of life-and-death trust.
"Bingo! Correct answer, Hua~"
Carole's voice sounded so close, yet carried a faint, ethereal quality that made Hua anxious to turn around.
"Ahem. Just so you know, don't be too shocked when you see what I look like now, okay~ Hua."
Carole's words made Hua's heart sink. Had Carole been disfigured in this disaster?
Hua turned her head.
Sitting beside the bed was a beautiful girl. Her silver, star-like eyes seemed to emit a mysterious glow. Her white hair, streaked with red highlights, shimmered faintly in the sunlight.
She wore the same red qipao with gold trim that she had once given Hua. On her now fuller figure, the dress clung elegantly, its sides cut daringly high along her hips, revealing the smooth length of her well-shaped thighs. She looked like an elf from a dream—elegant, enigmatic, and irresistibly charming.
Faced with a completely different appearance from the Carole in her memory, Hua felt stunned and confused. She even wondered whether she had somehow misremembered Carole's face.
Carole had clearly been as flat as she was...
"Yes, the previous Carole puppet had been flat."
"You are...?"
"Hua, you can call me Fuka. How about it? Doesn't my new name and appearance suit you perfectly?"
[Id] Vill-V spun in a circle, allowing Hua to admire her entire figure. She brushed her hair aside, clearly satisfied with her new appearance.
"As for me, I'm the you from the future."
Hua listened blankly, as though she understood and yet understood nothing at all.
Carole was actually her future self?
If she had made herself her own friend... then did she have a friend, or not?
Seeing Hua fall into deep contemplation, [Id] Vill-V suddenly waved her hand. Her tone seemed to lose its vitality, becoming softer and gentler.
"Alright, alright. Hua, you're still as rigid as ever. I... won't tease you anymore."
"You can forget that 'future you' nonsense. I'm just me. My real name is Vill-V."
Vill-V...
Was that Carole's new name?
"Mm... Hua, you must be wondering why I pretended to be Carole... and befriended you."
"I'm sorry... The girl who might truly have become your close friend may have already died in this Honkai outbreak. I don't know who she was. And I couldn't save her."
When Vill-V discovered that a zombie had appeared in Sapphire City, she naturally couldn't allow it to attack humans. She eliminated it the very same day. But that also meant Hua never had the chance to play the hero.
There was no dark-skinned, white-haired girl in Sapphire City who looked like Carole. No one named Carole either. Who knew which "lively girl" Hua had met in the original storyline? Maybe it had just been a reused character model.
That was why Vill-V had chosen to become the "lively girl" herself. The real one could no longer be found. The streets were full of so-called "lively girls." Who could she even argue with?
As for why Id personally stepped forward, instead of letting the "lively girl Magician" who had been clamoring in her mind to give Hua a "Five-Fu Blessings" shock performance take the stage—
Part of the reason was that, as a fraudster, Id found it easy to fabricate a character that existed only in imagination.
But more importantly, whenever Vill-V met a Flame-Chaser for the first time, she wanted to face them as Id if possible.
First meetings carried a powerful sense of ritual.
Id wanted every Flame-Chaser to remember Id from that very first encounter.
As someone with severe social anxiety, Id also worried about whether meeting a Flame-Chaser might cause misunderstandings. Yet what Id feared even more was beginning that first meeting with deception.
Even though Id's very existence signified deception.
Because Id was, after all, a fraudster.
In the original story, Id [Helix] Vill-V carried the same contradiction. She worried that others would feel uneasy because of her identity as a fraudster, so she rarely awakened. It was a kind of Vill-V-style gentleness, and at the same time, a refusal to fully accept her own identity.
The current Vill-V, however, could face her identity as a fraudster head-on...
No, that wasn't quite right.
It was more like she was challenging it—and repeatedly failing, then switching personalities on the spot.
Fortunately, Hua's personality was remarkably similar to her own—introverted, reserved, unlikely to make unexpected demands of Vill-V. Only Vill-V would trouble Hua; Hua would never trouble Vill-V.
And so, for the first time, Id Vill-V performed with such stability.
As expected, the well-behaved Hua was much easier to get along with.