Kenji
"Come on guys, we're getting closer!" Kenji shouted to his team as they made a swift turn towards the island's shoreline, their feet now running over soft sand.
He could feel the pulling getting slightly closer, only for it to increase in distance again. Wendy must know that they are trying to find her and that she is actively running away.
Kenji cursed, 'Dammit, we'll never get to her at this rate—Whoah!'
The sand beneath Kenji's feet started to tremble as he heard deafening explosions from afar. He narrowed his eyes in the direction of the sound, which was located at the opposite end of his pull.
Even after hearing the explosion, the team's pace didn't slow. "What was that?!" Kiana yelled from behind him.
He stumbled, his boots skidding on the sand. Danger sense was constantly activating and deactivating.
It was as if enemies that were about to harm him were suddenly killed before they could do anything.
He skidded to a stop, sensing Wendy change direction.
"Could it be Anti-Entropy?" Mei asked on his side. The question made Bronya tense as she conjured up a holographic screen in front of her.
"Maybe," Kenji gritted out, his eyes narrowing as he looked up. "I'm sensing a shit ton of danger from multiple entities, but they are too far away for me to get a clear location. Bronya, any leads?"
Bronya stopped beside him, her gaze fixed on the sky. Her datapad was in her hand, the screen scrolling with a frantic cascade of red warning lights.
"The Bronya detects multiple thermal detonations in the upper atmosphere. Conclusion, Anti-Entropy is currently engaged in a deadly battle with—"
Before she could finish, they saw clouds suddenly part in the distance.
A lattice of blinding white beams tore through the smoke, followed by blossoms of orange fire that lit up the twilight like a second sun. The roar that followed was deafening, shaking the sand around them.
Massive, blocky silhouettes descended through the cloud layer, their engines burning blue-white as they engaged unseen targets higher up.
"Anti-Entropy," Mei breathed, recognizing the design of the battleships. "But who are they fighting?"
Himeko's voice crackled in his ear. "Principal! What is going on?! I have massive thermal spikes all across the sector! My scanners are showing a full-scale engagement!"
Kenji pressed his hand to his earpiece, straining to hear over the roar of the sky war. He expected Theresa to sound terrified and be screaming orders at them.
Instead, when Theresa's voice cut in, it sent a different kind of chill down his spine.
"Oh, that?"
Her tone was too calm. Dangerously, unnervingly calm. It had a smug quality to it that felt entirely out of place in a war zone.
"You all can stop worrying about Durandal for a while," Theresa continued, her voice smooth. "It seems I... made a mistake. A terrible, clumsy mistake."
"Oh no, I don't like that tone. What did you do?" Himeko sounded scared to even ask.
"I was trying to send Durandal's secure flight path to your console," Theresa said, the words dripping with feigned innocence. "But in my panic, I must have hit the wrong relay. I accidentally broadcasted her location on a public frequency. Anti-Entropy must have intercepted my line and found out Durandal's location, how clumsy of me."
He looked up at the burning sky, at the titanic battle raging between the two most powerful organizations on the planet.
'Theresa is fucking terrifying when she wants to be.' Kenji grimaced as another explosion happened in the sky.
She didn't make a mistake. She purposely leaked Durandal's location, her own ally's location, to an enemy. Just so that they would have more time to save Wendy.
Theresa Apocalypse, the woman who ran a school for heroes, had just started a war. She had thrown her own organization's strongest warrior into a direct confrontation with an enemy, risking her career.
And she had done it for them.
"Damn, Auntie, I didn't know you had it in you! You're amazing!" Kiana laughed as she smiled at the carnage in the sky.
"Let's fucking go!" Kenji said as he joined Kiana in ecstatic laughter.
Mei and Bronya were also left stunned, not expecting their principal to go to such lengths for them.
"Well," Himeko said after a long, stunned silence. Her voice was dry, clearly understanding the subtext but playing along. "That is certainly 'unfortunate', Principal. But the 'damage' is done, and Durandal is occupied."
"Exactly," Theresa said, her voice returning to a sharp, urgent command. "I bought you a window, but it won't last forever. Anti-Entropy won't hold her for long. Find Wendy before either side wins up there."
The comms clicked off.
The team stood in the ruin, the light of the burning sky reflecting in their eyes.
"I can't believe she 'Butt dialed' Anti Entropy," Kiana said, still smiling from her aunt's actions.
"Looks like it," Kenji said. Theresa had bought this time with fire and blood. He wasn't going to waste it.
He closed his eyes, tuning out the war above, and focused on the lonely pull in his chest.
"Let's go," he said, opening his eyes and pointing East, toward the overgrown botanical gardens at the edge of the facility. "She's running this way."
/ — /
The shoreline was a graveyard of rusted metal and concrete skeletons, no doubt due to Wendy's strong winds.
Kenji moved through it with a heavy, measured gait, his boots crunching softly against the gravel.
The wind coming off the ocean was biting, carrying the scent of the salty sea. He pressed his hand against his chest, his fingers curling into the fabric of his battlesuit as he focused on the sensation beneath his ribs.
It wasn't the violent, bursting throb from before. It was a quiet, rhythmic pull, a cold tether connecting him to something unseen in the distance.
"She stopped running," Kenji whispered. He didn't look back at the others, his gaze fixed on the horizon where the grey sky met the churning sea. "She's waiting for us."
"Waiting?" Mei asked, falling into step beside him. He could feel her gaze on his arm, still showing an expression of concern.
Even regenerated, the limb felt wrong, the skin was mottled and raw, as the nerves continued to misfire with phantom pain—an unfortunate side effect of rapid regeneration.
"Is it a trap?"
Kenji closed his eyes for a second, exhaling a breath that misted in the cold air. "Maybe. But it doesn't feel like malice. It feels... lonely. I don't really know how to explain it."
Kiana moved ahead of them, vaulting over a piece of driftwood. She turned back, forcing a grin onto her face. "If she's lonely, then we'd better save her quick! It's not right to leave a lady waiting."
She punched the air, but her movements lacked their usual snap. "Right, Bronya? You got the best speech prepared?"
Bronya didn't turn to face her, but her pace didn't slow even a little. "The Bronya does not prepare speeches, she states facts. Fact: Subject Wendy is a victim. Fact: She has been manipulated. Fact: We are the only variable she has not yet accounted for."
"Exactly! We're the wildcards!"
Kenji managed a small laugh. "Wildcards... I like that."
They crested a ridge, the industrial ruin giving way to the rugged, wind-swept cliffs. The world opened up before them, a vast expanse of grey water and grey sky, separated only by the fragile line of the horizon. And there, standing at the very edge of the precipice, was a lone figure.
Wendy.
She wasn't floating in a storm of her own making. She wasn't glowing with the horrifying, green light of a Herrscher.
She was just a girl in a torn dress, her bare feet pressing into the grass, looking out at the ocean as if searching for an answer in the waves. Her shoulders were slumped, her silhouette small and terribly fragile against the vastness of the world.
The team stopped. The sight of her—so human, so broken—robbed the air from Kenji's lungs.
"Wendy!" Kiana called out, her voice carrying over the wind.
The figure flinched violently. Wendy spun around, her eyes wide with shock, her hands coming up in a defensive posture.
When she saw them standing there, her expression crumpled into a mix of confusion and fear.
"You..." Her voice was thin, trembling like a leaf in a storm. "Why are you here? Why are you still following me?!"
She took a step back toward the edge, the wind whipping her hair across her face. Faint green sparks flickered around her fingers. "Do you have a death wish?! I almost killed you! Just leave me alone!"
Bronya stepped forward first, dematerializing Project Bunny. She slowly walked towards her, her small form unyielding against the gale, her grey eyes locked onto Wendy's green ones.
"We cannot do that," Bronya stated, her voice cutting through the wind with a quiet, absolute certainty. "The Bronya knows what it is like. To be a weapon. To be hollowed out and filled with directives until there is nothing left of yourself."
Wendy froze, her breath hitching.
"The Bronya knew someone," Bronya continued, her tone softening, slowly losing its robotic edge. "Someone who was consumed by the darkness. Who was lost in the Honkai's corruption. But she came back. She was able to overcome it because she was not alone."
She stopped a few feet away, her gaze never leaving Wendy's. "We will not let you be alone. We will ensure your safety. That is a promise."
Wendy stared at her, her lip trembling as she processed the words. "Safety? There is no safety for me. I'm a Herrscher. Do you have any idea what Shicksal would do to me? Do you even have a semblance of—!"
"—I do," Kenji said.
He stepped up beside Bronya. "Look at me, Wendy," he said softly, his voice barely more than a whisper over the wind. "I was in a similar situation to you. I… suddenly got this amazing power and got the attention from all kinds of people. I was an anomaly to them, something new."
Kenji paused for a moment, not wanting to overwhelm her thoughts. "I could have been locked in a lab, dissected, and used just like you were. If it weren't for St. Freya... for them..." He gestured to his friends, his gaze softening. "I would be lost too. And I'd probably also lash out at the world."
He took another step, the grass crunching softly under his boot. Wendy didn't retreat. She looked at his arm, the one she had broken before, and then up at his eyes. She was searching for judgment, for hatred.
She found none.
"I know it hurts… I know you're scared that the moment you stop fighting, they'll hurt you again. But I promise you, this time will be different."
He slowly extended his hand. The gesture was simple, an invitation that she has to take with her own choice.
"Come back with us," he said, his golden eyes locking onto hers. "We... no. I promise I'll protect you. I will make sure you find the happiness that I did in St. Freya. You deserve it, Wendy. More than anyone."
The wind died down. The green sparks around Wendy's hands faded into nothing. She looked at Kenji's outstretched hand, then up at his face.
She saw the truth in his eyes—the earnestness, the resignation, the shared pain of someone who knew what it was like to question their own existence.
"You... you really mean it?" she whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek, catching the light.
"With everything I have," Kenji vowed.
Wendy let out a sob, a sound of pure, heartbreaking relief that seemed to carry the weight of the world. She took a step forward, reaching out her own trembling hand to take his.
It was a fragile connection, a bridge built over a chasm of trauma.
"Okay," she breathed, her fingers inches from his. "Okay."
The tension that had been strangling the cliffside air finally snapped. Kenji let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, his shoulders slumping as the adrenaline began to ebb.
Kiana let out a loud cheer. "Yes! We did it!"
Mei smiled, a relieved expression that softened the sharp lines of her face. She stepped forward, her hand resting on her chest as if to calm her own racing heart. "I'm glad," she said softly to Wendy. "You made the right choice."
Wendy looked at them—at Kiana's grin, at Mei's warmth, and at Kenji's steady, golden gaze. For the first time, the fear in her eyes was replaced by something else. Something fragile and terrifyingly new.
Trust.
"I..." Wendy started, her voice barely audible over the wind. "I don't know what happens now. But... I don't want to be used again."
"You won't be," Kenji promised, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "We're sticking with you."
It was a perfect moment. A victory not of strength, but of heart.
Then, the world tilted.
Behind them, Bronya made a sound. It was a sharp, strangled intake of breath, like someone surfacing from drowning.
Kenji turned, his smile fading. "Bronya? You okay?"
Bronya didn't answer. She stood rigid, her head was bowed, with her silver pigtails obscuring her face. Her small frame was trembling—not with cold, but with a violent, internal struggle.
"Bronya?" Kiana asked, her voice losing its cheer. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Bronya's head snapped up. The movement was jerky, unnatural, like a marionette being yanked by invisible strings.
Kenji felt his stomach drop.
"Bronya...?" Wendy whispered, taking a step back, her hand slipping from Kenji's grasp.
Bronya's lips moved, but the voice that came out wasn't hers. It was cold, matured, and layered with a chilling authority.
"Initiating Phase 2."
The air behind Bronya warped. Reality tore open with a digital shriek as Project Bunny 19C materialized from the void. It's heavy, armored arm shifted, plates locking into place with a series of sharp, mechanical clicks that echoed like gunshots.
The massive cannon barrel extended, humming with a lethal, high-pitched whine.
Kenji's Danger Sense immediately activated. In the span of just a second, he saw Wendy's eyes go wide. He saw the green light of the cannon charging.
"NO!"
The roar tore from his throat as he threw himself forward.
His hand slammed into Wendy's shoulder, pushing her aside with desperate force. She stumbled back, falling onto the grass, out of the line of fire.
And Kenji stepped into it.
A beam of pure, concentrated energy slammed into his chest.
There was no pain at first. Just a blinding white light and a force like a freight train hitting him square in the ribs. The world spun. The ground disappeared.
He hit the earth hard, skidding across the dirt and grass. His vision flickered, grey static eating at the edges of his sight.
Then, the pain arrived.
It was a scream of agony that tore through his entire body. His chest felt like it had been opened up and poured full of molten lead. He gasped for air, but his lungs refused to fill.
"KENJI!"
The scream sounded distant, muffled, as if he were underwater.
He tried to push himself up, his arms trembling violently. He looked down.
There was a gaping hole that went straight through his chest. He coughed, and blood splattered onto the grass.
Across the clearing, Bronya stood frozen, her cannon still smoking. Her red eyes flickered, fighting a losing battle against the programming.
And Wendy was staring at him. Her eyes were wide, filled not with the green light of the Herrscher, but with tears. She looked from him to the smoking cannon, and then back to him.
"W-what?"