Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

"Huh… was it a dream?" Mikael shook his head, quickly sorting through his thoughts. No point in dwelling on it. If he wanna know what happened, he just gotta ask someone else.

So, he hopped out of bed, peeled off his sweat-soaked clothes, and planned to hit the showers.

"Ugh… hiss!"

"?"

A muffled groan followed by a sharp intake of breath drifted from the bathroom. Mikael paused, then gently pushed the door open.

Sakura, having hiked up her T-shirt and biting the hem with her lips, was facing the mirror, trying to stitch up the wound on her abdomen with a U-shaped needle.

The moment the needle pierced her skin, the door swung open behind her. Her eyes met Mikael's in the reflection, her hand flinched, and a gasp of pain escaped her lips.

"Sorry!"

Mikael's first instinct was to spin around, but just a moment later, he turned back.

"Hold still… let go, let me do it!"

Before Sakura could even react, his index finger was gently pressing against her wound.

"Ugh…"

An itching sensation mixed with warmth surged around the wound. With a "sizzling" sound, white mist rose.

The torn flesh began to knit itself back together at a visible rate. About five minutes later, the horrifying gash had completely healed, leaving not even the slightest scar.

"Give it a wiggle, see how the muscles under your skin have recovered?"

Sakura's mouth was slightly agape as the hem of her T-shirt fell back down. She raised her arm and did a few stretching motions, seeming perfectly fine.

"Because of the World Bubble's interference, plus the fact that it was just a leftover phantom of your authority, if you were to use it in the real world, you wouldn't even be able to unleash one ten-thousandth of a Herrscher's power?"

Another power that wasn't exactly combat-ready.

Sakura didn't seem overly surprised by this. Perhaps, in her eyes, Mikael was just someone who could… do anything.

"Your clothes got blood on them, go change."

Mikael tilted his head slightly. He didn't even need to ask; the residual spatial power clinging to the wound was enough to tell him it was his doing.

Figuring out when he'd slipped into that state wasn't hard either.

"Mhm, mhm…"

As Sakura's gaze drifted downwards, her crisp reply trailed off.

Whoosh!

Mikael swiftly yanked the shower curtain shut. "I… I'm gonna take a shower first."

"So, Su's okay?"

Mikael gulped down a glass of ice water, crunching the remaining cubes with his teeth, feeling a sense of relief wash over him.

"Yeah, you basically punched thin air. My wound was just from trying to stop you; I accidentally got caught… Oh, right, here."

She handed the two photographs to Mikael.

"Sorry, I was still too slow. I couldn't…"

Mikael's fingers gently traced the cracks on the photo frames, saying nothing.

He then slumped onto the sofa, frowning as he tried to piece together the strange events of the past couple of days.

[Seele's appearance was probably just a coincidence, a twist of fate. The resulting chain of events, like meeting Aponia and Su, those are just coincidences, nothing more.]

[But something still feels off. These past few days, have my emotions been… too much? Is my mental state going wonky? Like Seele's…? Huh?]

He suddenly sat upright. "Sakura, have you felt anything… off with your mental state lately?"

"Off?"

Sakura scratched her head, her fingers brushing against her pointed ears.

"Nah… Speaking of which, Mikael, Su gave you this."

She produced a blister pack of pills from seemingly nowhere and placed it on the coffee table.

"What's this?"

"It's what Su prescribed for Seele. He said your symptoms are similar. Even though we can't jump to conclusions, the side effects of this medication are minimal, and it's pretty effective for treating auditory and visual hallucinations and delusions. You can try it out."

"Medication…"

Mikael instinctively recoiled slightly.

But he knew it was Su's good intention, and perhaps… no, definitely, Mobius had given her approval.

He silently picked up the pills.

"Lurasidone hydrochloride tablets… Did Su mention the dosage?"

"Yeah… one tablet is forty milligrams. The starting dose should be one a day, but Su said your situation is a bit more serious, so he recommends taking two… Oh, right, you need to take this with some food. Dr. Mobius had Vill-V whip up something special. It's been a while since you had a proper meal… I'll go get it."

Sakura hurried off. Mikael knew she was probably going to find Mobius and Su to discuss his condition further.

"Haa…"

Alone in the room, a chill ran through the air. Mikael shivered and poured himself another glass of ice water.

He felt like he'd almost grasped something important, but Sakura's arrival with the medicine had broken his train of thought. The clear idea had vanished, leaving not even a vague trace.

No, there were still remnants, like text written in pen that had been covered with correction tape – still noticeable and obvious, which was why he could sense it.

Thinking about it, he quickly conjured up paper and pen, ready to jot down his thoughts. But the moment the pen touched the paper, he forgot what he wanted to write.

"What the hell!"

That invisible force could erase his thoughts, but it couldn't erase the strange feeling. It was like no matter if you used correction tape, correction fluid, a rubber eraser, or even sticky tape, you could never fully restore something to its original state.

Because these were events that had already happened on the timeline. You could only cover them up, not reverse them.

But that was enough. Knowing there was something hidden beneath the correction marks, Mikael felt powerless to scratch it off, left circling in place with that unsettling feeling.

Until he finally gave up and collapsed back onto the sofa.

With nothing else to do, he peeled open the pill packaging and took out a tablet, examining it under the light.

Just an ordinary white pill, with "L40" imprinted on one side.

"…Maybe it really is just a mental health issue? I haven't exactly been getting much rest lately. Maybe I'll take these pills and get a good night's sleep."

"Speaking of which, I haven't even had a single day to sleep in since coming to this world… Ugh… Just thinking about it makes me sleepy?"

"Awwawaawa… Why isn't Sakura here yet!"

Once the sleepiness hit, there was no stopping it.

As the darkness crept into his vision, blurring the remaining world, the door finally opened.

He could vaguely make out a pink figure. Mikael didn't even register what food she brought. He just mindlessly scarfed down the contents of the plate and washed down two pills with ice water.

Before he could even stand up, he face-planted onto the sofa.

"Ehehe! You look so cute when you're all groggy… Sleep tight, Mikael. Guess we'll leave the rest to Elysia."

A finger as delicate as a scallion brushed across the tip of his nose. Then, pale arms slipped under his neck and knees, effortlessly lifting him onto the bed. She gently tucked him in before tiptoeing away.

"How is he, Elysia?"

"He's asleep. Honestly, for such a big problem to pop up while I was gone for such a short time…"

Inside the meeting room, the long table had been shattered into countless pieces. Even the unpainted walls were encased in a layer of pink crystal. According to Elysia, her crystals had many strange abilities, including, apparently, the ability to isolate mental attacks.

That's right, Mikael wasn't the only one who sensed something was wrong. His teammates weren't dummies.

"The Honkai beasts don't seem to be trying to interfere with my mind. Strange, why would they target Mikael and Seele?"

Mobius shrugged, equally perplexed.