"How are you doing now?"
That was my question as I checked up on Kiana. Her expression was a bit less pained than it was just now- a good sign, but it was still better to check.
"Can you count how many fingers I'm pointing up?" I raised both hands. "Wait, you might not be able to count that high. Sorry." I said as I put down one of them.
"Gojo… my head fucking hurts right now but I'm not braindead…"
"Could've fooled me."
Mei groaned as she interjected.
"I think we should not be provoking Kiana when she's like this right now?"
"Urgh…" Kiana tried to sit up. Noticing this, I helped pull her up as she said, "It's fine, Mei. I'm feeling a bit better now…"
"That's good." Mei let out a breath of relief.
"Agreed. For a moment, I thought we were going to have Mei number 2 here."
Three 'what?'s immediately entered my ears.
This, I decided to explain in the 'Erm ackshually' pose.
"When Mei was doing her Herrscher stuff, she got a headache too after some Honkai energy exposure. The same thing happened to Kiana and space got a bit weird just now."
"... space?" Kiana muttered. Her eyes dulled for a moment but just for a second, I swore I saw a hint of gold in her eyes.
The sides of my lips dropped slightly.
Seriously?
Did I get it right in one go?
No way right?
But when I moved directly in front of her to stare directly into Kiana's eyes, all I got was nothing.
Na da
Zilch
It was just Kiana's sky blue eyes.
Not a bad sight by any means, but it wasn't what I was looking for at the moment.
"O-oi… what are you doing? Are you perving on a sick person here?"
"Yea. I'm enamoured by your eyes." I said blandly. "A pair of two cerulean gems that take my breath away. Truly the most wondrou-"
"Ah stop it!" Kiana acted pleased. "It's a little embarrassing even though it's all true.'
"Uh huh…"
"Subject Kiana seems to be okay now? Why did it take for Gojo to finish the Honkai beast before Kiana stopped being Cinderella?" Bronya asked with a tilted head.
That sparked a 'Hey' from Kiana but it did leave me thinking.
That was a good question.
She seemed to be in a lot of pain just now but just so happened to recover after my fight ended?
Why now?
Why not any time before?
Perhaps just a coincidence? My fight with the Honkai beast was relatively quick after all.
I sensed the space around me again but I found it acting weird despite Kiana's recovery..
So was I wrong then? Was this spatial anomaly not related to her? Or was it still linked to some sort of awakening, but it was controlled?
Looking at how this goober was acting right now, I'd be cautious about the pseudo awakening thing.
Not a confirmation by any means right now, but something to ponder about.
Her reaction to the word space was a MASSIVE red flag though so I wasn't letting that one go.
So that, along with the 'maybe something up with the eyes' made me believe that there was a fair chance that Kiana could be something I hoped she wasn't…
A Herrscher.
Having to deal with Ms Queen of Thunder was enough on my plate. What more needs to be said about another?
I popped back onto my feet and gestured for Kiana to get up.
"C'mon now Cinderella. Do you want me to give you a little kiss before you get up too?"
Kiana snorted. "Hmph. You'd have used up all the fortune in your lifetime if you could kiss me." She said that, but she dusted off her clothes as she got back up to her feet at this time. "Did we even get anything out of this trip?"
"I guess we got to commit mass destruction and terrorism?"
"No mechas?"
I slumped slightly when I heard that question. "No mechas…" I repeated.
"Crap…"
"Yeah…"
It seems that Bronya would be the only one with a mecha…
For now!!
Mark my words! I will get one someday!
"Subject Gojo, Subject Kiana. Look on the bright side. At least Matushka will not have as much access to ME Corp's resources anymore due to…" Bronya pointed at the destruction. "This…"
"True." I moved over to Mei who was slightly lost in thought now. "But are you okay with this, Mei? This is your dad's company after all."
Mei kept silent for a second, but a cold voice emerged from her throat suddenly.
"It'd be better for all of it to burn than for that woman to get any of it."
Oops, it seems like Herrscher Mei was out.
She was a bit of a homebody though as our likely traumatised chuunibyou suddenly popped back. "Huh?"
"Nevermind Mei… nevermind…"
—------------------------------------
Back at home, I toyed around with both guns of Shamash in my room as I laid on the bed.
By this time, all of us had already showered and gone back to our rooms. I gotta tell you though, waiting for two girls to finish using the bathroom is probably a certain type of psychological torture to me.
Luckily, Mei was more considerate as she finished with it after not too long.
It was still a bit awkward for Mei to be living in close proximity with a guy, but she seems to be slowly getting more used to it.
I exited my thoughts as I stared at the guns deeply.
When I hit the Black Flash previously, I felt my connection with Honkai energy deepen quite a bit.
Surprisingly, it wasn't enough to boost my control further, but I still felt a change.
This change… was that I could feel some sort of connection between the two guns of Shamash, as if they were fractured from one another, but once a whole.
Hehe… fractured b-
Wait… that's a crude kid joke! I shouldn't be giggling at that.
But on second thought, I was 15 years old right now. I do have the right and the obligation to laugh at crude jokes like these.
Hahahahaha.
My laughter came to a halt when Kiana shouted for me to shut up or else she would do nasty things to me tonight from the other room, but I didn't let that ruin my fun.
I began to join the guns together as I pumped a bit of Honkai energy into them as well.
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to do that, but my actions were almost instinctual at this point.
But then something happened.
The two gun grips joined together at this time, turning into something similar to a sword hilt. The bodies of the gun itself moved upwards and joined as well as they formed into…
A broadsword?
Two red shards, looking similar to gems, appeared from the former gun under the sword's crossguard. They seemed magnetized to each other as they slowly drew closer to one another.
It looked cool, but…
I immediately stopped the fusion as I stopped pumping Honkai energy into it.
At once, the transformation reverted and the broadsword returned into its gun forms once more.
The reason I did this?
I suddenly had a premonition that it would be a terrible idea if I let these guns fuse here, Kiana and Bronya might find themselves becoming the homeless ones as well.
However, a huge grin appeared on my face as I laughed out in excitement.
My guns have a frigging transformation option!
Bang.
The door slammed open as Kiana came into the room.
"I TOLD YOU THAT- Is that Shamash?"
"Would you believe me if I said that these were a one to one replica for a cosplay I'm planning?"
"No."
Ah shit…
(A/N: How was the chapter? Please give powerstones and comment if you liked it. Please review as well if possible
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https://discord.gg/cqQG4rmhXN )