"So... it just ended?" On the slowly moving train, Kiana asked, her mouth full of food, yet her words surprisingly clear.
Shu nodded, taking a sip of Homu-brand soda from his cup.
"Yes, it's over." His other hand caressed the black notebook in his lap as he confirmed with another nod. The Core of Memory had merged with the notebook, transforming it into a super-massive information database.
Compared to the Spirit Awakening Key, this yet-unnamed Key of Memory fulfilled the promise Shu had made. It possessed limited combat capabilities, having only two rated power outputs: Record and Display.
Aside from millennia of Shenzhou history and all memories since Depascal's founding, this "history book" was blank, waiting for more memories to fill its pages.
The core was genuine; Shu had "borrowed" the Key of Evolution from Kiana's room to compare them thoroughly. The Honkai energy was also real; the reason it hadn't been detected earlier was that all the energy had been evenly distributed throughout Depascal.
Thinking back now, a village showing no signs of Honkai corruption yet possessing the same Honkai energy concentration as places like Sapphire City or ARC City... How could he have forgotten such an obvious anomaly? The Herrscher of Memory was truly formidable...
Kiana chewed vigorously a couple more times, swallowed the large mouthful whole, and put down her chopsticks.
"But, wasn't that a little too easy?" Kiana gestured. "Like, we 'da-da-da' went in, then 'om-nom-nom' ate a lot with that old lady, and then 'hoo-hoo-hoo' took a long nap..."
Finally, Kiana threw her hands up, completely bewildered. "And then it was just... resolved?"
Shu and the others nodded affirmatively.
"Resolved."
Kiana's expression immediately twisted.
"That was way too simple! I feel like I barely did anything before it ended!" Kiana sat back down, disgruntled, taking her frustration out on the food with her chopsticks.
"Pff— Cough cough!!" Shu's body suddenly jolted. He nearly sprayed his drink, but managed to block his mouth with the cup just in time, forcing the soda back down.
A few drops seemed to go down the wrong pipe, however, sending Shu into a violent coughing fit, rendering him speechless for a moment.
Bronya, sitting beside Shu with dead-fish eyes, raised a hand and started patting his back. "Is being this easy not good?" she asked while patting.
"Cough cough—!" Shu turned away, still coughing violently, the sound echoing dramatically.
Kiana's cheeks puffed out. "But I just feel like it ended without me doing anything! I didn't even realize we encountered an enemy..."
She put down her chopsticks again and threw a couple of punches at the air. "Isn't dealing with Herrschers supposed to be like 'pow pow!' then 'pew pew!' before the Herrscher goes 'bleh~' and falls down?" After finishing her final pose—clutching her throat, eyes rolling back, tongue sticking out—Kiana resumed eating under Mei's "gentle" smile.
"Cough cough—!!" Shu was still coughing.
"Regardless of the outcome, at least we successfully overcame this challenge. And the matter of forgetting each other... wasn't easy either," Mei said gently after Kiana picked up her chopsticks again.
Kiana thought about it and nodded in deep agreement. "Right, I definitely don't want Bronya kicking me out of bed again. When someone's in her bed, she really kicks..."
Bronya's hand, patting Shu's back, paused. Fortunately, Shu had recovered by then, returning to the table gasping for breath.
"I think Bronya is right. This way is the best," Shu said, wiping his mouth with a napkin before silently pouring away the drink he had coughed back into.
Kiana could only nod, muttering softly, "Just feels like it ended before I did anything..."
Shu fell silent.
Really did nothing? He didn't think so.
The first thing he did upon returning to the train wasn't settling Ai-chan or storing the memory core to make the Divine Key, but storming into Kiana's room and digging out the Spirit Awakening Key.
This time, no amount of excuses from the three girls could stop Shu's search, not even Kiana's smooth combo of apologies and pleading, Bronya's rare Homu stickers, or Mei's... Mei didn't offer any conditions.
"You actually brought such a dangerous item onto the train without even telling me?!" Shu had questioned the three sternly.
The three shared a tacit understanding: one looked at the ceiling, one looked at the floor, and the third whistled, though couldn't produce a sound.
"Well, we didn't want to hold you back," Kiana, the master of playing dumb, was eventually chosen to explain. "Otto said you wouldn't agree, so he told us to sneak it aboard..."
Otto... that guy... calculated things so precisely! Even from this distance, Shu could still feel Otto's gaze seeing right through him.
But... he had to admit, Otto's consideration was truly necessary. If not for the unique nature of the Spirit Awakening Key as a Divine Key, Kiana would never have been able to reach him.
He had personally experienced the fate of someone without special protection facing the White Mist. If even he couldn't withstand it, how could an unprotected Kiana have safely navigated the mist to find his memory self?
Thinking of this, Shu sighed. The Spirit Awakening Key was indeed useful, but the cost was truly immense, especially its uncontrollability. Indeed, even for Otto, creating a Divine Key from scratch in just three months was likely too difficult?
"Right, Shu," Mei suddenly seemed to remember something, looking at Shu with confusion. "That girl, and the White Mist... were they really Herrschers?"
At this, Bronya also looked up at Shu.
"See, I told you things weren't simple!" Kiana immediately straightened up, seeing someone had joined her side.
Shu paused for a moment, then shook his head.
"The Herrscher wasn't the girl, nor the White Mist... Like all the objects in that space, they were ultimately products of the Herrscher."
"Then the real Herrscher..."
"Is Depascal itself... and the girl and the White Mist are its memories."
"Oh, I see..." Kiana nodded in sudden understanding. "Then does stepping on it twice count as me getting an assist?"
Shu: "?"
You're still thinking about KDA at a time like this?
But after careful consideration, Shu nodded anyway.
"You get the primary assist."
—
[Key of Remembrance - Akashic Chronicle: Volume Zero — Complete Record of Shu's Regressions
History Browser — Kiana Kaslana]
(End of Volume IV: The Unacceptable Truth: Whispers from the White Mist)