In The Honkai World: Transforming Into An IF-Route Valkyrie

Taixuan Mountain

"By the way, when are Sister Irene and that Herrscher of Sentience — wait, no, when is the Class Monitor coming back?" Kiana sat on the deck, gazing into the distance.

They had already rendezvoused with the Hyperion. After spending some time on repairs in Canghai City, Einstein and the others had pitched in to get the ship back in working order.

Fortunately, Otto hadn't managed to cause any greater damage — all it had taken was replacing the deck plating and the bridge, and swapping out all the operating systems.

Not too difficult, as it turned out. Anti-Entropy had warships of their own, and it was simple enough to just pull parts from one and fit them onto the Hyperion. At the end of the day, this ship barely needed human operators anymore.

Rin and Little Corruption could handle it between them, and if all else failed, there was always the autopilot. Most of the crew were practically redundant at this point — and as far as the control interface and settings went, they weren't all that different from Schicksal's systems anyway.

There were some minor differences in the details, but a bit of adjustment and everything worked fine. They all came from the same technological lineage, after all — it wasn't like anyone had gone and programmed the thing in classical Chinese.

Once they'd reunited, Anti-Entropy began leveraging their influence to coordinate an evacuation effort, while everyone else stayed put and rested up.

After all, the Herrscher of Sentience was a Herrscher who governed consciousness itself. The Class Monitor had said Sister Irene could handle him — but no one could guarantee there wouldn't be some unexpected wrinkle.

If things went the way Irene described and the Herrscher of Sentience posed no threat whatsoever, that would of course be the best possible outcome.

But if something did go wrong, they might end up facing both a Herrscher and Sister Irene at the same time — and that was not a scenario anyone wanted to think about.

"Dummy Kiana, you really should fix that slip of the tongue before it's too late," Bronya said, standing on the deck nearby with patient calm. "We don't want there to be no problem, only for you to go and create one."

As someone who had dealt with a similar situation firsthand, Bronya had a rough sense of what the Herrscher of Sentience's current state was like — and she could well imagine the indignant fury that might follow if he were called the wrong name or had his condition pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll just call him 'Class Monitor' the whole time, how's that." Kiana propped her chin in her hand, then thought of Wendy, who had only just returned, and glanced over at Bronya — whose Herrscher aura was quietly radiating around her.

"You know, something about all this feels kind of... disillusioning? My whole dream was to become an S-Rank Valkyrie — the strongest in Schicksal, even — and here I am, a Herrscher. How did it come to this?"

"Maybe that's just fate being fickle," Bronya said, propping her own chin in her hand and joining Kiana on the edge of the deck. As for the high-altitude winds and thin air — well.

Never mind that the two of them were already Herrschers who could waltz through outer space without breaking a sweat — even back when they were ordinary Valkyries, sitting out here like this had never been an issue.

"Teacher Himeko has been puzzling over this for a long time. She couldn't figure out where she'd gone wrong, and just the other day she was actually wondering if there was some flaw in her approach to education."

"Can't rule it out — what if it really is destiny?" Kiana had barely finished the sentence when a glint of gold flashed in her eyes, and Sirin surfaced alongside her.

"I swear you just say whatever crosses your mind when you're bored. Never mind all that — have you actually been practicing the techniques I taught you?"

"Practicing, practicing — I'm getting there." Kiana batted her off lazily. "I'm just taking a little break right now, okay? And besides — you've been drilling me so hard lately. Is that payback for the time I pulled you away from Mama?"

"Absolutely not," Sirin said, enunciating each word with deliberate precision, as if to make abundantly clear how serious and reasonable she was. But Kiana was already certain — this girl was a hundred percent getting revenge for that incident.

Bronya listened to their exchange and raised an eyebrow. "Mama? What's that about?"

"She means Sister Irene." Kiana tapped the side of her head, thinking back to the sea of faces she'd glimpsed inside Irene's mind. "I'm telling you, that was the first time I'd ever seen so many people living inside one person's head."

"Honestly, seeing that whole crowd in there made me feel like my own split personality was completely unremarkable by comparison. At least I only have two — Sister Irene has a genuine multitude in there."

"Who said anything about two personalities? One of these days I'm asking Irene to make me my own body." Sirin wrinkled her nose. She had absolutely no interest in sharing space with Kiana indefinitely.

Kiana's heart was completely wrapped up in Mei — and that was decidedly not who Sirin was chasing after.

"That would honestly be ideal." Kiana nodded along. She'd already picked up on something, though she let it slide — besides, from what she'd observed, Sirin was far from the only one with a soft spot for Sister Irene.

"Oh?" Bronya looked at Kiana thoughtfully, then nodded. When she put it that way, a few things clicked into place. "So Sister Irene's got another new addition in her head, huh."

"I don't think it's just 'one more person' at this point." Kiana glanced at Bronya and shrugged. "If you've got a free moment, you should try taking a peek inside Sister Irene's head sometime."

"Trust me, you'll be amazed."

Kiana said it with a wink. Come to think of it — if Auntie Himeko and Bronya ever actually got around to going on a date with Sister Irene, they'd have that whole crowd inside Irene's head watching them the entire time.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a scene that would be. Just imagining it was enough to keep Kiana entertained for a good half hour.

"I can already tell Dummy Kiana is thinking something ridiculous again." Bronya rolled her eyes at the grinning Kiana, a sudden inexplicable chill running down her spine.

She had no reason to suspect anything in particular — but her gut told her Kiana was definitely scheming something at her expense.

"Who, me?" Kiana immediately dropped the subject. "Anyway, I wonder what the new Class Monitor will be like compared to the original. Sister Irene never gave us any details — it'd be nice to know what to expect so we can make a good impression."

"Who knows? Maybe he'll be into hip-hop," Bronya offered, not particularly interested in pressing the point, and happy to speculate along. "Or maybe he'll be even more serious than before."

"I can picture the serious type, sure." Kiana looked at Bronya. "But hip-hop, Bronya — how on earth did you connect that to the Class Monitor?"

"...Personal experience." Bronya placed one hand over her face. After Irene had brought Seele back, she and Seele had spent a good deal of quiet time together.

And through that time, through Seele's introductions, Bronya had come to properly meet and interact with the other Seele — [Seele] — as well.

So Bronya had some understanding of just how much a shared name could mean to a different person, and of how a second personality's character could diverge from — or even stand in complete opposition to — the first.

At the very least, she had never in a million years anticipated that the candy she'd been handed might be made with chili pepper. And in countless small habits of daily life, Seele and [Seele] were complete opposites.

Then, by a rather accidental turn of events, she had also discovered that [Seele] was somehow even more afraid of ghosts than Seele was. It was plain to see during horror movies — during the intense scenes, [Seele] would actually tremble.

Seele, watching the exact same film, wouldn't so much as flinch — and even seemed to enjoy it.

Apply that pattern to the current situation with the Class Monitor, and it probably held up just as well.

"There's clearly a lot of untold suffering behind that 'personal experience.'" Kiana watched Bronya's hand creep up over her face, and the corner of her mouth tugged upward. She reached out and patted Bronya on the back.

"You've been through a lot."

"Haah..." Bronya could only respond with a long sigh. The differences between the two were striking enough that she'd never once confused one for the other — but having to stay constantly on guard against [Seele]'s spicy little pranks was its own particular headache.

The harm was minimal, but for Bronya, who didn't particularly like spicy food, the occasional surprise burst of heat was not exactly a pleasant experience.

"This conversation just keeps getting more interesting." Kiana stood up from the deck and brushed the dust off the back of her clothes. "I'll leave you here to brood, Bronya — I'm not sticking around to get windswept with you."

"Fine, I'm heading back too." Bronya rose to her feet. The wind this high up was actually rather unpleasant, and besides, she needed to get back and join everyone for a proper planning session.

And just as the two of them turned to head back toward the bridge, a streak of black light shot unnoticed through the distant sky and plunged into the depths of Taixuan Mountain.

"So this is where Master used to live." Irene glanced over the courtyard before her. "I half expected to find nothing but ruins."

[It really does feel familiar.] Nuwa spoke up as well, gazing at the buildings that were at once familiar and strange. For her, the years on Taixuan Mountain had been austere and simple — but in a certain sense, they had also been the happiest of her life.

No need to worry about a Honkai eruption striking without warning. No endless avalanche of work. No Herrschers looming on the horizon. Just the quiet company of people she trusted, and a sense of peace.

They had built a home together, brick by brick. Everything there had belonged to them.

[It's changed a lot, too.] Fuxi chimed in. Compared to what she remembered, the structures before them had clearly been renovated and rebuilt more than once.

Nearby, Fu Hua — borrowing Irene's eyes — looked out at the buildings that were both familiar and foreign. She had a vague impression of them, but when she tried to grasp the details, the memories slipped away.

All she could go on was an instinct buried in her subconscious — a sense of belonging to this place — enough to know that this had once been her home. Hers, and Nuwa's, and Fuxi's.

"Well, that's the Taixuan Sword Qi for you." Little Senti looked at the familiar structures and nodded with satisfaction. Her head might have been a bit slow back in the day, but her taste in architecture had always been decent enough.

"Wood treated with it has exceptional quality — and under the protection of Honkai energy, staying standing for a thousand years is no great feat." Any insects or mold that dared encroach on Honkai-infused wood would find themselves very unwelcome indeed.

Animals, at least, had the occasional example of becoming Honkai Beasts — the Crimson Kites being one such case. But fungi and insects? Not once. Even plants had managed it, but those two never had.

Wood treated with Taixuan Sword Qi carried trace amounts of Honkai energy — excellent protection against insects, mold, and even cobwebs.

But Little Senti, looking at the buildings before her, still furrowed her brow. Everything was almost too clean — as if someone had just come through and tidied up.

Taixuan Sword Qi could ward off mold and insects, sure, but it couldn't keep out dust. Had someone been coming here to clean?

"Honkai energy really can do just about anything." Irene nodded, casting her gaze around the surroundings. She could feel it — the moment the two of them had stepped in, multiple pairs of eyes had fixed themselves on them.

"Coo, coo, coo?" A peculiar clucking sound came from somewhere around the buildings, and a cluster of plump little white chickens came waddling over toward them with great enthusiasm.

"Oh." Little Senti looked at the Crimson Kites crowding in around them, reached out, scooped one up, and gave it a good scritch. "Hey, disciple — this is what a Crimson Kite looks like."

"They're kind of adorable." Irene looked at the Crimson Kite in Little Senti's arms and smiled. "I bet they feel wonderful to pet, too."

She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but the moment Little Senti called her "disciple," it seemed like every single Crimson Kite turned and locked their gaze directly onto her.

"The feel is pretty nice, honestly." Little Senti gave it a couple more scritches, then lost interest and set the bird back down. "But I don't remember them being this fat before."

"Where did things go wrong, I wonder?"

Little Senti tilted her head, looking at the Crimson Kite she'd just put down. In her memory, these little birds hadn't been anywhere near this pudgy — they felt practically greasy to the touch now. They'd never been this plump before.

"Maybe you were the one who fed them into this state, Master?" Irene cast a fond look at the surrounding Crimson Kites. "And from the looks of things, while you were away, it seems like they've been the ones keeping this place in order."

"I could barely even keep myself fed up here, let alone fatten them up." Little Senti waved the idea off. Back in the mountain days, she'd been pickling turnips every day — there'd been precious little oil or richness to the food, and the Crimson Kites had certainly never had any to spare.

After all these thousands of years, she herself hadn't changed one bit — so how could she possibly have found the time to fatten up the Crimson Kites? Whatever had made these birds so round, it was definitely not her doing.

The Crimson Kites nearby were regarding Little Senti with a kind of puzzled scrutiny. She looked right. She smelled right. But something, somehow, felt just slightly off.

"Coo—?" Just as the Crimson Kites were still puzzling it out, a pair of hands scooped one of them up and gave it a gentle scritch. The bird looked up at Irene.

"Coo, coo, coo?"

"Don't worry — I'm a good disciple, I promise." Irene stroked the Crimson Kite's smooth feathers. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not a bad person."

"Coo, coo, coo!!!" The Crimson Kite shuffled its body, bumping its plump little form insistently against Irene, eyes brimming with suspicion. "Coo, coo, coo~"

"How would I even know what you're saying?" Irene scritched the Crimson Kite, its soft and silky texture making it rather hard to put down. "I never studied Chicken, you know~"

At this, the Crimson Kite's expression shifted into something faintly disdainful. Back when the master had lived on this mountain, she had always been able to understand exactly what they were saying.

"Are you having a conversation with them?" Little Senti glanced at the Crimson Kite Irene was holding and scritching away at. "Pretty great texture, right?"

"Really is excellent," Irene agreed, nodding, and looking at the squirming bird in her hands. "Though she doesn't seem to like me very much yet."

"Well, it's your first time meeting them." Little Senti nodded understandingly — and then, at an angle she assumed Irene couldn't see, turned and fixed the Crimson Kite with a pointed glare.

[That's my disciple. Don't you dare give her a hard time.]

____

________________________________________

🌸 Help Love Bloom!

Our girls need a little push... and you can help!

💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.

🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.

👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉