Honkai Impact 3rd: Yumeji Satsuki's lies

Kiana's POV

"Sigh, it seems like we took the wrong path, Mei-senpai. We've been walking for a while now and haven't seen a single soul."

She let out a groan as she leaned against the cave wall.

"I give up, Kiana. Choosing the path is all about luck."

"But it's a waste of effort, Mei-san~ I'm thirsty after walking for a while! Besides, I want to be the one to find the Xuanyuan Sword!"

Mei looked at Kiana with an awkward expression, and she wondered if Kiana was confusing the quest to find the Xuanyuan Sword with the quest to find treasure.

"Kiana, we didn't come here to play."

"I know Mei-senpai. I know! But don't you think it's cool? I mean the Xuanyuan Sword."

She excitedly raised her voice. To her, searching for the legendary holy sword was just as exciting as searching for treasure! No, maybe even more so!

"Kiana. It's not that whoever finds it is theirs. The mission is to retrieve the Xuan Yuan Sword and return it to the organization. Also, aren't you using a double gun?"

"Ahaha, Sister Mei! This young lady here plays with everything from shooting weapons to close combat weapons!~ Using a sword is no big deal to me!"

"Oh really."

Mei was speechless, she really didn't know what to say to advise Kiana.

"Oh really? Look, Sister Mei, the path splits into two."

Hearing Kiana's call, she also ran over to take a look, after carefully observing, she made a comment.

"Based on the direction, it seems that the path on the right is connected to the path that Major Himeko's group took."

"Hey, so if we go this way, we'll find Aunt Himeko's group, then Sister Mei, let's go that way."

"Wait, Kiana. Then what's the point of grouping?"

Hearing that, she immediately whined in response.

"Oh! Sister Mei, it's just a waste of effort to go that way anyway, it's a dead end."

"How do you know? Kiana, do you have any basis for that?"

Hearing Sister Mei's question, she immediately smiled brightly and confidently replied

"Based on intuition."

"Huh?"

Mei was a little stunned, before deciding to ask again.

"Intuition?"

"Yes, intuition!"

"Whose?"

"Mine!"

Noticing Sister Mei's doubtful expression, she immediately affirmed confidently

"Don't worry Sister Mei! My intuition is always right, just trust and follow me."

Realizing Kiana's determination, Mei could only sigh and follow her.

****************

Back to the present...

We were wandering on the wide road. What a joke, this path became wider and the ceiling became higher as we went deeper.

"Looks like this is the right place."

The group nodded in agreement with my comment. Then we continued to go deeper with the intention of meeting up with Major Himeko.

Then, after walking for a while, the scenery in the cave changed dramatically, starting to change clearly. Carved patterns began to appear, and the group saw light from what seemed to be the destination of this path.

When we arrived there, a familiar figure appeared in front of us.

Fu Hua heard the footsteps and turned around to look.

"Everyone's here?"

Seeing Fu Hua's face, the group was delighted, but when Kiana asked Fu Hua where Major Himeko was, she immediately revealed a thoughtful expression and pointed forward.

It was hard to see clearly because of the darkness, but with just one step forward, they immediately activated some mechanism, causing the entire area to light up in the sacred torchlight.

Inside was a large hall with a large stone bridge extending from where they were walking to a stone altar with a radius of about 10 meters, surrounded by large stone pillars carved with reliefs.

The stone pillars were connected to the stone statues above, forming some kind of sensor. Those were stone pillars shaped like large birds, which according to Fu Hua were statues of the Jingwei bird.

Not stopping there, the statues seemed to sense our presence and immediately shot out rays of light from their mouths.

Four statues of the Jingwei Bird are arranged in the East, West, South, and North directions, shooting rays of light from different directions, converging to illuminate the central area.

There is a golden sword with a ruby ​​inlaid on the blade, shining brightly and majestically as it hovers over the altar.

.

Facing the sword was a figure that we were all too familiar with.

While I was tensely preparing for the upcoming situation, another figure that I didn't want to see clearly appeared in my sight, distracting me for a moment.

Just as Kiana shouted happily upon seeing Major Himeko.

"Ah, it's Aunt Himeko! Oh, Aunt Himeko! Where did you go that we've been looking for?"

As soon as that classic disastrous line was uttered, a fiery slash was thrown straight at us, shocking everyone.

While Bronya quickly reacted and set up a barrier to protect everyone, I was paying attention to something other than the danger before my eyes.

Yes, I looked towards the invisible ghost of Emperor Xuanyuan who was looking at us with sad eyes while hiding himself so that no one could see.

Yes, I could still clearly see Emperor Xuan Yuan, even though she clearly had no intention of revealing herself for others to see, all thanks to my special eyes, which were involuntarily dyeing my pupils a bluish-white color.

____________

Kiana froze as she looked at the scene before her. Her eyes were now completely dyed orange by the flames.

The flickering flames and the clashing sounds of swords.

Everything seemed unreal to her, her beloved teacher was going crazy like a demon swinging his golden sword mercilessly along with the raging flames attacking them.

And the one fighting that teacher was the friend she had just reconciled with.

She hadn't known him long enough to call him her best friend but she was still willing to call him her friend even though their relationship was still like cats and dogs.

And it was that friend who was protecting her when she and her group were too shocked to take the situation seriously and could only stand there frozen in place.

How pathetic!

How cowardly!

Move! Move!

She screamed at herself, urging herself to fight despite the lingering hesitation in her heart.

Just as she gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, and took a step forward, the scene that followed made her freeze in place.

Red.

A terrifying crimson color covered her vision.

At some point, the red halo that symbolized the power of the young man had disappeared.

He let his shoulders drop, seizing the opportunity to accidentally slash the golden sword down on the young man.

It was a large slash that extended from his shoulder to his waist.

Only then did she realize what the red that filled her vision was. It was the color of blood, fresh blood flowing from the wound that the young man had received.

Horror. Rejection. Fear. Worry. Despite the emotions that were surrounding her heart, a sound was about to burst out of her throat.

It was a scream, calling out a certain young man's name.

"YUMEJIII!!!"

But strangely, at the end of her vision, she saw the boy smirking despite the situation.

********

Fu Hua took the current situation in a completely different direction.

She was still calmly observing the situation. She was not frozen in shock, but on the contrary, she was more sane than ever.

She should have been the one to stop Major Himeko when she fell into madness and became a puppet of corruption, but why was she still standing here?

There was only one reason. That boy had told her to observe, no, not with words, but his eyes had told her so.

But did she trust him to that extent? The answer was no. No one knew what she was thinking, but she had never once truly trusted Yumeji. A person with an ambiguous background, mysterious and unclear strength.

A man full of mystery and secrets, that was Fu Hua's assessment as a Valkyrie and a warrior against Honkai.

But. Strangely enough, as a master, she thought differently.

She believed in him, she believed in her disciple, she believed in the efforts he had put in.

'Even though he complained a lot, that brat still didn't skip a single training session.'

She was the one who knew best how much Yumeji had tried, how much effort he had put in. Although she didn't know the root cause of that effort, she probably didn't need to know.

Because,

'He's not a bad guy'

Not a hypocrite who only knows how to talk, not a morally eccentric good person, and not a person with lofty responsibilities or ideals. What she concluded from looking at her disciple's character was not something too noble.

.

'Just a stubborn guy who keeps his promises'

So she didn't flinch when she saw Yumeji get slashed. And with that smile, it was obvious that it wasn't a big deal.

However.

'Should I add the words 'a reckless madman' to my review?'

**********

Back to ten minutes ago.

-Boommm!!

Although Bronya had erected a barrier to block the fire slash, the aftershock was still terrifying, pushing them back dozens of steps.

Moreover, the terrifying heat from the slash made everyone sweat.

-Keenggg!

A deafening sound rang out, our major who had transformed into a yaksha was frantically swinging her sword repeatedly at the barrier, causing sparks to fly non-stop.

Seeing this scene made me shiver. Her eyes were completely white, her red hair was blazing like fire, looking like a demon rising from hell.

That's why I said you shouldn't trust information from random sources, in manga and games, the movements are slow like puppets, but in reality, it's completely different.

'This is a wild beast, not a puppet!?'

-Clang

As soon as the barrier broke, a heat wave rushed over, but fortunately it was deflected from its original target.

We immediately took the opportunity to retreat to keep our distance. I slightly turned my eyes towards Emperor Xuanyuan and then turned back to focus on the battle.

The girls still couldn't help but look shocked, even Fu Hua couldn't help but frown.

'Even though I already knew this, this situation is still hard to deal with.'

I just thought for a bit, then Major Himeko's figure twisted her body in a terrifying manner and rushed forward like a bullet, swinging her sword and hitting the barrier hard.

-Boom!

As if that wasn't enough, she added another wave of flames, the aftershock carrying them all to slam into the cliff.

The backlash from the impact caused the cave wall to gouge deeply, forming a large hole, looking like a mini meteorite crater.

-Ugh!

Everyone was stunned. Then, Kiana shouted loudly.

"Auntie Himeko! What's wrong with you! Get a grip!"

Mei and Bronya also looked at Himeko. Although I couldn't read Bronya's expression, I knew that both Bronya and Mei had a hard time accepting this.

'It's no wonder.'

I put on a thoughtful expression and looked at the major. A flashback of the days I spent with the teacher for the past 4 months appeared in my mind.