Chapter 125: Crimson Bloom
"Whoa, that Kurumi cosplay is perfect! Ugh... but the guy next to her is kind of an eyesore."
"Damn, I'm so jealous! I wish I had a little sister like Kurumi to call me 'big brother'!"
"Why can't Kurumi be my little sister? Why isn't my little sister more like Kurumi?!"
A chorus of such comments, a mix of admiration and envy, drifted into Rovel's ears from the surrounding crowd.
"Did you hear that, Mr. Rovel? That's what a normal person thinks," Yuki Suou chirped, nudging his waist playfully with her elbow.
"Ah, that's the kind of thing only people who don't have sisters can say," Rovel replied, pressing a hand to his forehead in mock exasperation.
It was just talk, the kind of fantasy people shouted about online. How many genuine siscons could there possibly be in the real world? He was deeply skeptical.
First, not every little sister was as adorable and well-behaved as Yuki. Most were little gremlins who called you by your full name when they didn't need anything, only to suddenly appear with a sweet "brother" when they wanted money. That fact alone probably disqualified ninety percent of the male population from the fantasy.
Second, most of these guys couldn't even work up the courage to confess to a girl they liked. Did they really have the guts to defy social norms and declare themselves a siscon? It was pure nonsense. At most, they might activate some kind of protective "big brother mode" if some blond-haired punk tried to make a move on their sister, but that was just instinct, a desire to keep family from getting hurt.
"You're so cute when you get all stubborn, Mr. Rovel," Yuki said with a snap of her fingers, a knowing glint in her eyes as if she had just read his every thought.
"I'm not being stubborn," Rovel stated calmly.
"Are not, are not," Yuki immediately parroted back in a singsong voice.
Just then, a photographer clutching a professional-looking camera stepped forward. "Miss... excuse me, miss? Could I get a photo? I'd love to take one of you alone."
"No, you can't," Yuki refused without a hint of mercy. "If you want a picture, you have to include my big brother. Unless, of course, you can convince him to leave."
Her right hand tightened its grip on Rovel's arm, making it perfectly clear she had no intention of letting go. She wasn't giving Rovel a chance to escape, either.
"Brother-in-law, please!" the photographer pleaded, suddenly bowing deeply to Rovel.
The casual address struck a nerve. Rovel's smile vanished, replaced by a gaze so cold it could freeze fire. "What did you just call me?" he asked, his voice dangerously low.
The photographer flinched as if struck, sensing the evident shift in the air. He shuddered, stammered a hasty apology, and practically tripped over his own feet as he scrambled away into the crowd, thoroughly spooked.
"He wasn't another one of your 'special' arrangements, was he?" Rovel asked, glancing sideways at Yuki.
"Hehe, guess," she replied, lifting her chin and exposing her elegant, swan-like neck. She seemed utterly delighted by his reaction.
The variety of cosplays at the convention was staggering. Rovel spotted someone dressed as a Death Soldier, and further on, others in elaborate Honkai Beast costumes, and even a few towering titan mechas.
'What if a real one got mixed in?' The corner of Rovel's mouth twitched at the absurd thought.
As if summoned by his dark humor, a sudden commotion erupted from a nearby section of the hall. Following the panicked surge of the crowd, a monstrous figure, easily over two meters tall, stomped into view.
"Huh? Isn't that another monster from Honkai? The detail on that construct is insane..."
"It's even walking! Must be remote-controlled, right?"
"Can we get pictures?"
For a split second, Rovel's eyes locked with the strange, spider-like goggles of the construct. He recognized it instantly. This was a Deathweaver, one of Jackal's twisted creations.
"Big Brother, I've seen that before," Yuki murmured, her cheerful tone slowly dissolving into uncertainty. "It's a monster created by one of the World Serpent executives." Her words trailed off, a flicker of unease in her eyes. "The reproduction is so... realistic..."
"Is it possible..." she whispered, her voice barely audible, "that thing is real?"
Even surrounded by the bustling convention, Rovel felt a knot of dread tighten in his stomach. He pulled Yuki back a few steps, his instincts screaming. A moment ago, an incredibly potent killing intent had washed over him, a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning and everything to do with the predator that had just entered the room.
Through the creature's peculiar spider-eye visor, Rovel could have sworn he saw a pair of blood-red eyes staring fixedly, hungrily, at him.
"Run!" Without a second's hesitation, Rovel scooped Yuki into his arms and broke into a dead sprint, pushing through the bewildered crowd.
"SUOU ROVEL!!"
An inhuman roar tore from the monster's throat—a high-pitched, grating shriek, like rusted machinery grinding to life after decades of disuse. The four mechanical limbs coiled and sprang, launching the monstrous frame of Funahiki Gyō dozens of meters into the air in a single, terrifying bound, landing squarely in their path of retreat.
The resulting shockwave of displaced air sent a ripple through the crowd, stunning them into a second of silence.
"This... the realism is incredible. It really feels like a monster from the game," someone murmured, still standing dumbfounded.
"Holy shit, are you an idiot? That's a fucking real monster! Run!" his friend screamed, slapping him hard across the face and snapping him out of his stupor.
The dam of confusion broke. The venue erupted into pure chaos as everyone began fleeing for their lives, a tide of screaming, panicked humanity.
"Big Brother, it's chasing us!" Yuki cried out, her voice trembling with fear. Seeing the monster clear such a massive distance with a seemingly effortless leap had terrified her. This was the first time she had ever encountered a creature from the world of Honkai in reality. While rumors and grainy videos of Death Soldier sightings had circulated online, she, like most people, had never witnessed it firsthand.
"..." Rovel didn't dare waste his breath on words, focusing every ounce of his energy on weaving through the chaos, searching for any form of cover. He had a sinking premonition that this creature wasn't just on a random rampage. It was targeting him.
Spotting a cluster of abandoned vendor stalls, he ducked behind them and gently set Yuki down. "Yuki, I'll lure it away. You hide here and don't move."
"...Mhm. Be careful, Big Brother." Yuki didn't argue or protest. She simply nodded, her eyes wide but resolute. She knew, in this moment, that she was a liability.
Rovel took a deep breath and darted out from their hiding spot. Funahiki Gyō's head snapped towards him instantly. But as he ran, he kept glancing back over his shoulder, a deliberate, desperate act. He was checking its movements, but he was also revealing his own weakness.
A cruel, intelligent grin stretched across Funahiki Gyō's lips beneath the mask. It saw his backward glances. It noticed the person he had been carrying was now gone. It understood. There was no need to play this foolish game of cat and mouse. All it had to do was find—and kill—the girl. Checkmate.
Rovel's heart plummeted. He saw the monster pause, its head swiveling as it scanned the surroundings instead of giving chase. He immediately knew something had gone terribly wrong.
Suddenly, a strange device on Funahiki Gyō's back hissed, spewing out a thick, crimson cloud. The toxic fog, shimmering with an unholy radiant energy, began to spread in all directions.
Unfortunate attendees who inhaled even a wisp of the red vapor turned a ghastly shade of gray, their hands clawing at their throats before they collapsed, foaming at the mouth. Within seconds, all signs of life vanished.
The toxic mist expanded with horrifying speed, a rolling wave of death consuming the convention floor. More and more people fell. The red tendrils of death were about to engulf Yuki's hiding place. With a snarl of desperation, Rovel abandoned all pretense of stealth and charged directly at Funahiki Gyō.
Seeing him charge headfirst into the range of her toxic mist, Funahiki Gyō quivered with a sick, ecstatic excitement. She knew the potency of her 'Crimson Bloom' intimately. Inhalation meant death in ten seconds. Even if one held their breath, direct skin exposure for more than thirty seconds would allow the toxin to seep through the pores, a guaranteed kill.
The moment Rovel stepped into her mist, he was already a dead man.
But Funahiki Gyō didn't want him to die so easily. She wanted to kill Yuki Suou right in front of him. She wanted to shatter his spirit and make him watch his world burn.
With a flick of her mechanical limbs, Funahiki Gyō deliberately expanded the mist again, her senses drinking in the sight she craved: the raw, undiluted panic warring with the blazing inferno of fury in Rovel's eyes.
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