"..."
"..."
"Ugh, it stinks... Did you bring back the sample I asked for?"
Yiselian pinched her nose, carefully putting on gloves to accept the Insect Queen's corpse from Ryn.
But upon getting the sample and bringing it closer, Yiselian realized the smell wasn't coming from the Insect Queen...
She turned and glanced at the four of them. Seeing their clothes soaked in mucus and tattered from corrosion, Yiselian backed away quickly with a look of disgust.
"It stinks... I've got what I needed, you should all leave now. If you stay any longer, the smell will be hard to get rid of..."
"..."
Ryn and Seele both flipped Yiselian the middle finger.
Penglaiji Ryn curiously sniffed her own body. "Blech..."
——————————————
*Splash—*
"Woohoo— I'm alive again!"
Seele threw off her clothes and jumped into the hot spring with a splash.
This was the hot spring that Bronya had created with Project Bunny during the Third Honkai Eruption for Mei to bathe in.
Penglaiji Ryn, holding a bath towel, shyly tried to soak herself in a corner of the water. But her well-developed figure, far beyond her peers, made it difficult for her to sink, and the buoyancy kept her half-floating on the surface.
Seele swam over to Bronya, who was sitting dazedly in the water. "Big Sis, are you still thinking about Big Sis Mei?"
"No... I was a complete failure as a leader today. If it weren't for Ryn, we might have all died there... Himeko was right, I'm not qualified to be a leader..."
"That's not true! If Big Sis hadn't brought us all together, no one would have had the courage to live on!"
"But, today I..."
Seele took Bronya's hands and looked into her eyes with sincerity and earnestness.
"Big Sis... perhaps we were supposed to die five years ago... At that time, I had already decided that as long as I could be with you, Big Sis, death was nothing to be afraid of...
But we survived, we survived together with you, Big Sis... This makes me so happy, so blissful. But the happier I am, the more I fear death, the more I fear being separated from you... Even if it's just the two of us, we have to live on forever."
"Seele... I'm sorry..."
Bronya guiltily reached out, wanting to caress Seele's cheek and wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes.
Then Bronya hugged Seele, pressing her face against hers.
"Sorry, I let you see my pathetic side... Thank you, I'm okay now." Bronya cheered up and smiled again.
Seeing that Bronya had pulled herself together, Seele's heart also became lively. Looking at her beloved Big Sis, now completely naked before her, Seele's little hands started to get restless.
Penglaiji Ryn was still holding her towel, wondering how to use it, when she witnessed a scene that both flustered and intrigued her.
Seele, drooling with a lecherous expression, pounced on Bronya, her restless hands freely caressing Bronya's body.
"Seele! What are you doing!!"
"Hehehe, Big Sis's chest, I finally have a chance to touch it~"
Bronya looked at the almost-transformed Seele in astonishment. "Guh... weren't you just..."
"That was all a ploy to get you to hug me, Big Sis~ Big Sis, just let me touch a little more!"
"No way! Seele, there are other people here!"
After saying that, Bronya and Seele both looked towards the shocked Penglaiji Ryn in the distance.
Hearing them mention her, Penglaiji Ryn seemed to suddenly understand the purpose of the bath towel. She lifted it to cover herself, but her flushed little face and curious eyes were still visible.
Seeing this, Seele, with a *puyo*, pinned down Bronya who was trying to escape.
"Big Sis's chest is the same as always, so nice~"
"Stop talking about it, I'm still very self-conscious about it! Does Seele wear clothes like that every day just to show off to me?!"
"Is Big Sis jealous~? Is it because you're envious? Then do you want to grope mine~?"
"No!"
"Then I'm going to grope yours~"
"Hmph hmph hmph ahhhhhh—"
Outside the door, Himeko, who was about to push it open and enter the hot spring, paused. She had thought she might have been a bit harsh today and wanted to check on Bronya, but it seemed she had been overthinking things.
Himeko shook her head and turned to leave. As she left, however, she glanced at the partition where two figures were visible.
*Isn't that the private room arranged for Ryn? Why does it look like there are two people in there?*
*Whatever, just a doomsday carnival... what does it have to do with an old woman like me who's destined to die single...*
——————————————
"My my, it seems I've been seen~"
Tianqi was perched on the wooden partition separating the two sides of the hot spring, peeking at the three girls in the other bath, completely ignoring Ryn behind her and Himeko who had just passed by.
"As expected of my vessel, I'm very satisfied with this figure..."
"She's only 16. Based on her body type, that's what you looked like as a child, right? You're really narcissistic."
Ryn closed his eyes and wiped his body. Both the giggling sounds from the next bath and the beautiful body before his eyes were a great test for him.
It should have been such a beautiful scene, but seeing Tianqi's face, so similar to his own, Ryn instantly went limp. Himself with himself, it just felt wrong no matter how he thought about it!
"So... why the hell did you pop out at a time like this!! And how can you be so comfortable bathing with me!!"
"What's wrong~? Getting impatient? I just love seeing you like this, wanting it but unable to have it..."
Tianqi's fingertips lightly traced across Ryn's chest, her breath ghosting over his skin, a picture of endless temptation.
"You've definitely got some serious issues..." Tianqi's teasing made Ryn's heart itch, but he still had to maintain his moral bottom line. So he turned sideways to avoid her touch.
"Hahaha... no issues here, I just purely want to mess with you. Besides, I also wanted to see you look all shy~"
Seeing Ryn turn his back with a red face, the smile at the corner of Tianqi's mouth couldn't be contained. She then recorded this image of a shy Ryn and the image of a shy Penglaiji Ryn from the other bath and sent them all to Stigmata Kiana.
Stigmata Kiana sat in the manifestation of the Stigmata Consciousness. Any information she saw would be engraved in the Stigmata Space. An unlimited, ultra-HD holographic image storage device, who wouldn't love that~
"Sigh, what an idiot... how could a guy who's been asleep forever outplay someone who's been tempered by the secular world..."
Stigmata Kiana sighed as she saved the holographic images sent by Tianqi. And next to the few images sent by Tianqi...
...were all-angle glamour shots of Tianqi uploaded by Ryn, though her face was censored... Hmm, the censor can be removed...
Who said you can't see with your eyes closed? A full-sensory view with one's mind sees far more than the naked eye...