The transport plane carrying survivors to Australia buzzed with chatter.
Vill-V happily leaned against Hua's broad shoulder. As a certain miner's poem once testified:
She is a sturdy woman,
Tall and strong, arms powerful, steps steady,
Her solid frame like a wall itself;
Her bearing imposing, her features dignified,
Shoulders like a double-door refrigerator.
Her eyes shine like cold stars, her brows bold as brushstrokes;
Like a demon-quelling lord descending from heaven,
Truly a mighty deity among mortals,
What a broad shoulder for a little canary to nestle upon!
With a grin, Vill-V asked, "Hehe, Hua-chan, how did your talk with Captain Himeko go?"
Hua answered honestly, "She only briefly explained the current situation. She didn't tell me how the disaster actually happened. I'd still rather hear the truth from you."
"Well now, I'm honored. That suddenly puts a lot of pressure on me... Hey, hey, don't give me that apologetic look. I'm just joking."
Seeing Hua's downcast eyes, Vill-V hurriedly waved her hands. "I do have a sense of responsibility. Since I've influenced your life, I'll naturally see it through to the end."
"Pfft." Hua laughed. Vill-V was still like Carole back then—energetic, enthusiastic, attentive to her feelings. Talking to her always felt easy and warm.
Vill-V scratched her head. "I feel like you're thinking something disrespectful."
"No. I was thinking you're still the same as Carole back then," Hua said softly.
"Guh... Hua-chan, the moment you mention Carole, my heart starts aching again."
Hua placed her right hand gently over Vill-V's and comforted her. "No matter what, you're still human. You can't save everyone. The fact that you saved me and my father—I'm already deeply grateful."
"Don't treat the fact that you couldn't rescue everyone as your burden. It's not about whether you tried hard enough. It's about the choice you made."
"I believe your choice wasn't for selfish reasons, right? Since you made it, trust it. Completing it properly is the only way to honor the options you gave up."
Under Hua's encouraging gaze, Vill-V scratched her cheek somewhat sheepishly. "Whether it was for selfish reasons or not... that's hard to say, Hua-chan."
"That doesn't sound like you, Carole." Hua widened her eyes in mock surprise.
Of course, she was only pretending to match her words—to cheer Vill-V up and bring back her usual energetic demeanor.
She hadn't expected Vill-V's next words to truly shock her.
"Oh, right... Nice to meet you—or perhaps long time no see, Hua. I'm Vill-V's [Id]." Vill-V touched her slightly flushed cheek and explained a bit shyly.
"[Id]?" Hua tilted her head in confusion.
Vill-V continued, "You can think of it as me having multiple personalities. And the most fundamental personality—that's me."
"Then before...?"
"That was the personality called [Conductor] acting." (Conductor: If you dare to do it, you should dare to admit it.)
"..." Hua's eyes widened in astonishment. Studying Vill-V's face carefully, she could indeed sense a subtle, indescribable shift in her temperament.
"How many personalities do you have?"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7..." Vill-V counted on her fingers before holding up seven. "For now, seven in total."
Hua didn't pay attention to the phrase "for now." What concerned her was something else entirely.
"So does that mean being friends with you is like being friends with seven people?" Hua said with visible concern. She wasn't sure she could handle multiple personalities. What if she offended one of them? Would Vill-V... be upset?
"Not exactly. You could say that being friends with me is being friends with seven people," Vill-V replied with a smile. "All of us have a very good impression of Hua. No need to worry."
Understanding the implication behind her words, Hua asked, "Are your consciousnesses connected?"
"Not entirely. All personalities have to communicate through me—through [Id]. I'm like... a messaging app. Oh, Hua-chan, you might not know what that is. Think of me as a shared microphone. The personalities can relay messages quickly through me."
"Though it's only for relaying messages. Specific emotions and thoughts can't be transmitted. In other words, each personality actually holds different feelings toward you."
"For example, Conductor's feelings toward you are admiration and calculation. As for me, what I feel is nostalgia—and friendship."
"Nostalgia and admiration? And what do you mean by 'calculation' as a feeling?" Hua asked, puzzled. She was still so young—how could anyone feel nostalgic about her? It wasn't like she was some elderly person.
"Hahaha, feelings aren't something you can fully explain with words. You'll understand someday, Hua."
Vill-V laughed and hugged Hua's arm, as if trying to let her feel her heartbeat.
For some reason, Hua felt that Vill-V seemed even more intimate than Carole had been back then—even though this was her first time meeting Id.
Feeling the soft pressure against her arm, Hua finally voiced a question that had long troubled her. "Um... I've wanted to ask this for a while. With such... impressive chest muscles, how did you bind them before?"
Could something like that really be compressed? Or had Honkai energy stimulated her development?
Vill-V turned her head and explained, "Hehe, actually, the 'Carole' back then was a bionic puppet I controlled. It wasn't my real body."
Using bionic robotics technology from another world, she had created the [Carole Cybernetic Bionic Puppet]. In appearance and touch, it was indistinguishable from a real human.
The only downside was that DIY manufacturing such a puppet was expensive. Unlike that other world, there were no mass-produced parts or assembly lines. To build it, Vill-V had drained the Mad Hatter Party's last bit of liquid funds—and even had to take out a small loan.
But it was an investment in Hua. Worth it.
"Even though my real body wasn't there, the one talking to you, communicating with you—that was truly me." It was just done through VR equipment, like playing a dating simulation game.
Hua nodded in realization. "That explains it. No wonder your movements felt strange at the time. I thought it was just regional differences. After all, people's physical constitutions can't be generalized."
As someone who practiced martial arts year-round, Hua had long noticed the oddities in "Carole's" behavior. A bionic puppet, no matter how advanced, would still differ slightly from a real person.
But as a friend, Hua had never dared to say it. It would have felt rude—like pointing out someone's flaw.
As for why she wasn't astonished that Vill-V could create such high-tech puppets—well, in Hua's eyes, a lifelike puppet wasn't that different from a smartphone.
It wasn't that Hua was foolish. Rather, her father's long-standing physical isolation of her from modern technology had left her almost completely disconnected from advanced scientific knowledge. The outdated information in middle school textbooks was nowhere near enough to understand such things.
Hua was aware of this herself. So she had grown accustomed to not being surprised by high-tech products. As long as she didn't understand them at all, she was immune to technological shock.
Looking at the blue sky and white clouds outside the transport plane, Hua thought of the days she trained with her father. "Once they confirm there's nothing wrong with my mental state, I can go home, right?"
Since she hadn't suffered overwhelming psychological trauma, Hua believed—at least in her own assessment—that she was perfectly fine. After passing a routine evaluation from a psychologist, she should be able to return to the martial arts school and help rebuild what the Honkai Beasts had destroyed.
"Mhm, I'm coming too, I'm coming too! I've always wanted to see what kind of martial artist Hua's father is. He must be even more impressive than you," Vill-V said eagerly.
Hua smiled, in relatively good spirits. "Then you might be disappointed. Let me tell you—he can't even use an induction cooker. The martial arts school still runs on kerosene..."
Chatting like that, the plane soon reached its destination—the Australia Psychological Rehabilitation Medical Center.
As the aircraft descended, everyone could see through the windows the towering, magnificent structure of the center.
The entire building was constructed of white marble and silver aluminum, gleaming under the sunlight. Smooth curves and well-spaced windows gave it a minimalist yet elegant design.
Several girls who had phones took photos to commemorate the moment. After all, it wasn't often one traveled to Australia. And experiencing the Third Honkai Eruption was a once-in-a-lifetime event. It only made sense to leave behind some record.
Vill-V and Hua followed the men in black toward the rehabilitation center. Along the way, they noticed tall hedges encircling the facility like a barbed-wire fence, isolating it from the outside world.
Strangely, though it was midsummer, there were no sounds of insects or birds. The silence felt eerie.
Inside the main hall of the center were rows of chairs, each fitted with soft green cushions. Bright flowers were scattered across the green carpet. On the walls hung banners of gratitude from former patients, along with messages wishing recovery.
At the center of the hall stood a reception desk. A friendly-looking receptionist greeted each arrival with a smile.
But Vill-V noticed something off. The smile seemed stiff—as though masking something underneath.
At some point, a squad of soldiers armed with loaded rifles emerged from a side door and surrounded the group. The leading man in black gave an unquestionable order. "This way."
Would normal psychological rehabilitation require armed escort? They weren't severely unstable patients.
Hua's expression grew uneasy. She tugged at Vill-V's sleeve. "Fuka—"
Before she could finish, a soldier jabbed her with his rifle butt. "No talking. Move forward."
The decorations along the corridor gradually disappeared. Cold white lights cast an icy glow, making the entire hallway feel frigid. In the end, there were no decorations at all—only steel walls on every side. Even the floor was made of cold metal plating, heavy and oppressive.
Soon, they were brought before a massive door flashing with red lights. A soldier stepped forward and entered a code. The red light turned green. The door lifted, revealing rows of grim prison cells inside.
Panic spread instantly. Some tried to flee, only to be forced inside at gunpoint.
As the outer gate and cell doors slammed shut one after another, cries erupted. Some sobbed. Some screamed for help. Some tried to call out on their phones—only to find there was no signal.
"Hua-chan..." Vill-V moved closer to Hua. "It seems their so-called 'psychological rehabilitation' was just a pretext. Their real goal is to imprison the survivors."
Vill-V did not possess detailed intelligence about MOTH. Naturally, she hadn't known they had set up something like this in Australia. The rehabilitation center was a massive trap.
"..." Hua felt equally stunned. "What is going on? Is it to prevent us from leaking information about the disaster?"
"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Vill-V had already heard unusual sounds echoing from deeper within the facility. This was no ordinary prison.
"Perhaps this is their experimental ground. And we are their test subjects."