The "Eight Oaths of Brotherhood": In ancient times, this referred to the bond between sworn siblings, a relationship of extreme closeness. In the present, it refers to a furious Bronya berating Fuli and Kiana for being such hopeless noobs that they managed to rack up an eight-loss streak against bots.
A short while later, Mei, having wiped her hands clean, descended the stairs amidst the duckling's foul-mouthed tirade.
Fuli, having just suffered a third strategic nuclear strike in their PVP match, decisively threw down his controller. "Since we're at this point, let's arrange the night watch schedule."
Physical fatigue couldn't be recovered with just a few healing bullets, and Fuli's mental energy had been completely drained while controlling the Trailing Shadow Swords.
Whether it was him or Kiana and the others, after fighting for the better part of a day, everyone needed a good rest to face tomorrow's battles and (in Fuli's eyes) the impending Third Eruption.
"Let's put the night watch aside for a moment. This Young Lady won this round! Don't think you can just toss the controller and pretend nothing happened!"
Lifting her delicate little face, which had been marked with seventeen tally marks, Kiana crawled over on all fours with a pen in her mouth.
Her little bottom swayed back and forth under her hot pants, and combined with the loose, oversized boyfriend shirt hanging down, it created a tantalizingly seductive silhouette.
"Hey, let's talk business, talk business."
Snatching the pen that was trying to doodle on his face, the scummy Ah-Li took a wet towel from Mei and spoke righteously.
"Hmph!"
The girl huffed and sidled up to Mei, chirping away.
"Mei—! Look at him!"
"There, there, don't move."
"Okay..."
Once Mei had wiped Kiana's face clean, Fuli spoke. "It's nine o'clock now. If we go until six in the morning, that's nine hours."
"Proposal!"
"Please speak, Classmate Kiana!"
"I propose that Mei sleeps for the first six hours!"
"Proposal passed!"
Fuli gave a thumbs-up, flashing a mouthful of white teeth, just like Kiana, who was making the same gesture.
From ten at night to four in the morning was the ideal sleep period for humans.
Theoretically, as long as one rested well during these six hours, they could stay energized for the entire day.
Previously, a proposal so obviously laden with care would have undoubtedly been rejected by Mei.
This time, however, she just absentmindedly agreed, leaving Fuli and Kiana, who had a belly full of arguments ready to persuade her, with no outlet for their efforts.
The two exchanged a look.
"Then you take the first watch, Ah-Li. Mei and I will go to sleep first."
With that, Kiana took Mei's hand and stood up.
The stubborn, tsundere girl was still unable to express her kindness directly. Sleeping for three hours, standing watch, then sleeping for another three was definitely a lower quality of sleep than standing watch until midnight and then sleeping soundly until morning.
"I need to get up in the middle of the night to monitor the Anti-Entropy troops' situation. Or can you also use the Trailing Shadow Swords?"
Unfortunately, Fuli negated her good intentions with a single sentence.
As a lone wolf who had wandered for two and a half years, falling asleep and waking up quickly was a necessary skill.
Coupled with the vigorous life force provided by the Human Immortal Dao and Peerless Nine Turns, for Fuli, there was little difference between sleeping in one go and sleeping in segments.
"Oh."
Seeing that he had his own plans, Kiana didn't say anything more.
She tilted her head, suddenly realizing a problem. "By the way, where are we sleeping?"
"Here," Fuli pointed to the basement floor beneath their feet. "If we're attacked, the first floor acts as a buffer, and we can take the opportunity to escape from the garage on the second basement level. It's perfect from every angle."
"No," Kiana shook her head vigorously, her face-ruining braid flying everywhere. "I mean, are you sleeping with us?"
"Yeah, we need to be ready to coordinate at any time."
The Attack Helicopter waved his hand. "Don't worry, we won't be in the same bed, and I won't do this or that to you in the middle of the night."
"You're not interested in women?"
"I'm not interested in humans."
Bronya, who had clammed up since Mei's arrival and had been secretly listening to their conversation, suddenly became alert.
Not interested in humans ≈ dislikes humans ≈ likes non-humans ≈ likes steel robots. Could it be that his XP is Project Bunny?
If that's the case, then it makes sense why this person is being so nice to me...
Flick!
"???"
The girl, who had just been flicked on the forehead, was a bit dazed, blinking her innocent, large grey eyes at him.
"Great train of thought. Don't have it again."
Said the culprit, retracting his hand.
He retrieved the bedding from the first floor and, on the side, kicked Kiana, who was reluctant to leave. "Hurry up and go stand watch."
"I know, I know!"
The thought of her Mei sleeping in the same room as a man, even in a separate bed, still made the girl's heart bleed.
"Mei," she held her friend's hand, unwilling to let go, and reminded her solemnly for the forty-third time, "If you're in danger, you have to scream!"
Fuli added smoothly, "Go ahead and scream. No one will come to save you even if you scream your throat out."
"You really do have designs on Mei!"
"Hurry up and go!"
He kicked Kiana's butt. The boy then curled up under the covers and was asleep in three seconds.
"What was that for? Why so hard..."
The white-haired girl rubbed her little bottom and turned around to complain, but instantly quieted down when she saw his peaceful sleeping face.
—Watch Bronya.
She mouthed silently to Mei, then turned and tiptoed towards the lookout post on the second floor.
Mei nodded, her crimson-purple eyes casting a faint, cold glance at the prisoner.
Noticing this, Bronya shook her head and mouthed back:
I won't wake him.
Mei remained noncommittal. She walked to Fuli's side and knelt down, looking down at his sleeping face. Without warning, she drew her dagger!
The blade flashed with a silver glint as it stabbed viciously towards her own abdomen!
"!!!"
Bronya, who had been watching her intently, opened her mouth to scream, but Mei had already used the dagger's ability to teleport behind her, pressing the blade against her neck.
"You were lying. You were going to wake him."
She lowered her voice, spitting out the words in a cold, hard tone.
"But I'm satisfied with your action just now. Therefore, don't let it happen again."
The girl sheathed her dagger, turned around, and lay down facing Bronya.
The latter's gaze towards her was cold. "Are you planning to stare at me all night?"
"Yes," Mei nodded politely. "And please shut up. Your action just now made me develop a tiny bit of goodwill towards you. I hope you don't provoke me before it's completely worn out."
What a dangerous woman, Bronya couldn't help but think.
The dark basement fell into a dead silence, with only a light glowing from Fuli's chest.
He had a bad habit of curling up into a caterpillar under the covers when he slept, so this anomaly was not noticed by the two girls in their standoff.
The source of the light was a gem the size of a fingernail.
It was the Gem of Corruption that the Priestess had transformed into after being defeated, an incomplete version of Jizo Mitama.
More than a day had passed since he had obtained Jizo Mitama. During this time, Fuli had, of course, tried to activate it for his own use.
Unfortunately, no matter what he did, the Honkai energy he input was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no feedback at all.
For a man, trying for a long time without getting any feedback is a terrifying prospect.
After half a day of fruitless experiments, Fuli had no choice but to reluctantly give up his plan to activate it ahead of time.
According to his experience from the previous timeline, Jizo Mitama did indeed need some more time to fully develop.
So he made it into a pendant and wore it, looking forward to the day it would emerge from its cocoon.
Fuli, being from an unorthodox background, was unaware that the incomplete Jizo Mitama could actually be used.
Not just Jizo Mitama, but any incomplete Divine Key could have some of its functions utilized through the following two methods:
First, with the active cooperation of the consciousness within the Divine Key.
Unfortunately, the Miko (He think RIN as Yae Sakura), who had been precisely bombarded by Blazing Sun Apollo, had yet to recover. Even if she did, it was doubtful she would cooperate with the culprit who had crushed her twice. So, this route was a direct PASS.
The second method was to drive it through resonance with energy of the same origin as the Divine Key—the Honkai energy from within a Herrscher Core.
Divine Keys were super-divine weapons made from Herrscher Cores as raw materials. The two could be said to be brothers from different mothers.
Under normal circumstances, the current Fuli could not meet this condition either.
Honkai energy also had its own hierarchy.
The Honkai energy in a Herrscher's body and the Honkai energy in a zombie girl's body were worlds apart in terms of quality.
And then, Mei provided the assist.
Friends who have journeyed through the world of Honkai Impact 3rd all know that the 'faucet' that continuously supplied Honkai energy to her body was none other than the Gem of Conquest that Cocolia so desperately craved.
As an extract from the body of the Second Herrscher, the Gem of Conquest could be understood as a youth edition of the Herrscher of Thunder's Core.
Jizo Mitama, sensing the Herrscher energy, was instantly energized. But the problem was that Fuli consumed it extremely quickly.
Previously, it was used to manifest Trailing Shadow Swords to hold back Anti-Entropy; the Honkai energy would make one round in his body and then be gone. Later, it was converted through the devouring ability of the Human Immortal Dao for cultivating the Peerless Nine Turns.
The former was like edging practice; the latter was like "just the tip, I promise, I won't go in."
Could it tolerate this?
Absolutely not!
Unfortunately, even if it couldn't tolerate it, it had to.
Jizo Mitama had no ego.
With the Priestess severely injured, it would only operate according to the program inscribed within it by its creator.
So the question was: when faced with the above or similar situations, what did Dr. MEI, the one who created the Key of Corruption, require it to do?
"Mmm~"
Mei let out a seductive moan, sensing a strange sensation within her body.
She narrowed her eyes vigilantly, immediately suspecting Bronya across from her.
Bronya rolled her eyes. I swear on Seele, am I supposed to take the fall for the Captain for doing nothing?
The information from her Tengan-tsu told Mei that the other party was truly clueless. She pondered for a moment and decided to observe a little longer.
The girl, focused on Bronya, ultimately failed to notice that on the inner side of her thigh, under her pajamas, the Thunder Stigmata she was born with was emitting a faint light.
That wasn't the only place emitting light. So was the inner side of Fuli's thigh.
A Thunder Stigmata, identical to Mei's, was being imprinted from scratch under the power of Jizo Mitama.
This situation lasted for a full two hours before the imprinting of the Stigmata was finally complete.
A string of data recorded in the language of the Previous Era flashed across the surface of Jizo Mitama:
[Name: Thunder Stigmata]
[Rank: A]
[Category: Permanent]
[Effect: Ignores 80% of lightning-attribute effects. Combat power increases when in a lightning-attribute environment.]
[Note: "The first thirteen Herrschers are different facets of the Herrscher of the End in different dimensions. Conversely, as long as we can gather the corresponding Stigmata with the properties of the thirteen Herrschers, we can completely reverse-engineer and create a... belonging to humanity..." —Dr. MEI's academic report, jointly rejected by the Fire Moth Council for certain reasons]
The gem's light gradually dimmed, eventually fading into nothingness.
Twenty minutes after the imprinting of the Thunder Stigmata was complete, Fuli, lying on the tatami mat, opened his eyes.
He picked up the phone by his pillow and checked; there were ten minutes left until the shift change at midnight.
He got up and looked at the beautiful girls lying beside him.
Both sleeping soundly. Very good, very good~
The boy squinted his eyes in satisfaction.
When a Trailing Shadow Sword was destroyed, it would cause a slight mental shock to its creator. He was sure Bronya hadn't caused any trouble, at least not by breaking the duck-tying ropes.
He reached out and tucked Mei in, covering her slightly exposed thigh.
He tiptoed and sneaked upstairs.
After Fuli left, Mei and Bronya's closed eyes snapped open, and they stared at each other just like before.
At this point, it was no longer a matter of monitoring each other.
Dammit, whoever flinches first is a coward!
...
The clouds in the sky gradually dispersed, and the bright moon timely revealed itself.
Tonight's moonlight had shed its incandescent white, instead taking on a rare golden hue.
But the gold was not dazzling; rather, it was quite serene and soft.
Under such moonlight, Kiana leaned against the window.
Her eyes gazed aimlessly outside, and the braid tied at the back of her head had come undone at some point.
The interplay of light and shadow, gold and silver, bloomed magnificently. A white flower of the night, its fragrance exquisite and beautiful, as magnificent as an Udumbara flower.
In the corner, Fuli held his breath.
"Who's there?!!"
Sensing a presence, the girl suddenly turned her head, the scattered chill in the air condensing into a single beam.
"Oh, it's just you, Ah-Li."
Seeing who it was, she scratched her head, her pursed lips curving into her usual charmingly silly smile.
—It withers by the next morning, known as a fleeting bloom.
The records of the Udumbara flower in ancient texts flashed through Fuli's mind.
He sighed and said, "You last even shorter than an Epiphyllum."
"?"
"Nothing."
I can't just say I was almost one-shotted by your critical-hit-level beauty, can I? the boy thought with lingering fear.
"Can you not speak in halves!"
Kiana exclaimed in dissatisfaction. She hated it when people piqued her interest and then stopped abruptly.
"The rest is hard to say out loud."
Fuli scratched his cheek, his gaze shifting slightly away.
The girl studied his expression, as if suddenly realizing something.
"Hehe~"
She put on a cunning smile and stepped closer, standing on her tiptoes to pat his shoulder comfortingly.
"Alright, alright, Miss Kiana's 'Beauty Under the Moon' portrait just now was too beautiful, and I was momentarily captivated, okay?"
Fuli said with some self-deprecation, then tossed something at her. "Here, catch."
Kiana obediently caught it and found it was Sauce's AI.
"You actually remembered!"
She happily put it away, not asking where the dog's body was.
"Go to sleep."
"Okay~"
Kiana nodded and bounced towards the stairs.
But just as she left Fuli's line of sight, the girl leaned against the wall of the stairwell as if drained of all strength.
"Beauty Under the Moon?"
"Momentarily captivated?"
The blush she had suppressed for so long surfaced on her cheeks. Kiana savored the mesmerized and stunned look in the boy's eyes just now.
"As if I'd believe that!"
She lifted her hand to cover her face in a futile attempt to hide it, but the beautiful curve of her lips could not be suppressed.
...