Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Kiana hadn't gone home last night, but she didn't just find some random place to sleep.

Technically, she could have just crawled into a sewer or something. She just wanted to see what Nagazora City looked like at night, wondering if there would be anyone running and fighting between buildings.

Unfortunately, she didn't find any opportunities for the white-haired heroine to act as a vigilante.

The academy city, under Bronya's management, wasn't exactly perfectly peaceful, but you wouldn't see the weird stuff you'd read in novels, like some idiots fighting in the middle of the night and then covering it up with a gas explosion.

At this level of combat power, no amount of cover-up would work.

The fact that Dr. Tesla hadn't personally stepped in to deal with them was already giving those terrorists face.

The people capable of fighting could be divided into two social groups: those with an organization backing them, and those with absolutely no organization behind them.

The former had someone covering for them; the latter were the ones with nothing to lose.

But Kiana hadn't encountered either. How come the security in this academy city is so damn good? she wondered. I've seen plenty of corpses in the sewers before, and none of them had anyone claiming them.

After leaving the research institute, Kiana went out for a stroll at night.

On the way, she overheard a conversation between a high school girl and a teacher at a ramen stall by the street.

"Yukino, why can't you understand? Why do you want to become a Valkyrie? Look, even with the Stigmata battlesuits, it's taken you this long to recover from your injuries."

Hiratsuka Shizuka slurped up some noodles. Her appetite had been growing ever since she arrived in the academy city.

Thanks to the existence of the Kengan Association, she had a great outlet to vent.

Things she couldn't or wouldn't dare to do before were all possible in the academy city. Hiratsuka had come to enjoy the visceral feel of close-quarters combat.

"Sensei, is that why you resigned from your teaching position to go boxing? Then shouldn't you be teaching physical education instead of literature?"

Yukino Yukinoshita unwrapped the bandages on her body. Even though there were still blood scabs on the bandages, the new, tender skin underneath had already returned to normal.

She sighed in admiration, "As expected of the latest biotechnology. Those women who are worried about scarring would flock to this, even if it meant a shorter lifespan. Every time I come down from the ring, I feel like I've been reborn."

Yukinoshita wasn't the only one who felt this way. That feeling of having every last drop of energy squeezed out of your body was something anyone would feel after a fight. She was just one of many, except she couldn't comprehend the desire for that kind of fighting in her teacher.

"They say it won't affect lifespan. It seems they've made some kind of breakthrough with telomeres or something. I don't really understand it either, but since so many people have participated in the experiment... it should... be fine, right?"

Hiratsuka couldn't say for sure. She worried that the academy city might produce something unexpected.

"By the way, I remember you formed a club, Yukino. Something about strong people using their compassion to help the weak, right?" Hiratsuka recalled the club Yukinoshita founded when she enrolled. She had a clear memory of it.

But this time, Yukinoshita didn't bring it up again.

Instead, she asked, "Sensei, am I not weak now?"

The situation had completely reversed; the original standard of strong and weak no longer existed. Especially when someone had entered her home and 'discussed' with her parents letting their child participate in the academy city project, her worldview had been altered.

Yukinoshita Yukino was the child who had been arranged to enter the academy city.

High school student, not an only child, good grades - these qualities made her the 'excellent talent' the academy city needed.

After entering the academy city, Yukinoshita realized that it wasn't just a simple union of schools, but more like a large-scale social experiment. There was far more freedom than in a regular high school, and even the educational approach was drastically different.

No normal school would dare to let students resolve their conflicts through fighting in a ring, but the academy city did. The advanced biotechnology meant that no one here worried about lower-class citizens killing each other in fights, so they dared to implement this more direct way of resolving conflicts.

Hiratsuka fell into deep thought. She had indeed noticed that Yukinoshita seemed to have lost something.

Everyone who came here was theoretically weak.

Here, there were only two groups who belonged in the ranks of the strong: Valkyries and researchers.

The researchers, led by Dr. Tesla, were all members of wealthy and influential research teams, held in high esteem by everyone.

The Valkyries went without saying; they were walking armed forces.

It's just that they hadn't been specifically used against humans before.

"But I'm afraid being a Valkyrie isn't that easy, right? They'll definitely receive more preferential treatment. I heard there's even family inheritance and such. In terms of power and status, they are definitely much higher than us. So many people want to join, but... the chances are too slim."

Hiratsuka had never considered joining the Valkyries. She did enjoy boxing, but she wasn't oblivious to her own limitations.

"No, actually, being a Valkyrie used to be very tragic; it's just that no one talked about it."

A sudden interruption broke the exchange between the teacher and student, drawing their attention to the black-clad, white-haired girl.

"Being a Valkyrie wasn't good in the past. It's just that the history books here only write about their glorious history. These are Schicksal's history books. Many Valkyries regret it when they go out to fight and see all those broken bodies and severed limbs."

Kiana calmly recounted the history of the Valkyries.

These were etched into the Kaslana Stigmata Space, where the memories of her mother, the Kaslana ancestors, Saint Kallen, Theresa, and many others flowed into the Kaslana family Stigmata space along with genetic information.

So, of course, she knew what the first Valkyries to go into battle had faced.

Yukinoshita remained silent for a moment, pushing aside her bowl of noodles before ordering another, and asked, "Are you a Valkyrie too?"

"Well..." Kiana thought carefully, figuring she didn't really count as a Valkyrie.

"I'm not a Valkyrie now. I'm just, as your sensei said, the one who inherited the ancestral genes. So I guess I'm a Valkyrie descendant? I still have a little say in the matter." The white-haired Tuna wasn't quite sure.

"I don't want to be a Valkyrie now either. It's all about fighting the Honkai anyway, and with the academy city, there will only be more people fighting. As long as people believe this world is worth protecting, they can put on the armor and fight. I think that's a better choice for this world."

Kiana didn't mean to boast about her ancestors.

Because in her generation, there was her, a Kaslana who had abandon her ancestors.