"Good evening, Ms. Cocolia. We meet again."
Night fell. Cocolia had just finished a busy day and was preparing to draw a hot bath to relax. As she was about to remove her clothes, she suddenly heard a man's voice from behind her.
The sudden appearance of the voice startled Cocolia so much that she drew the handgun she always carried and aimed it at a strange young man who had appeared out of nowhere, now sitting on her sofa.
"Who are you?"
Cocolia's eyes were filled with vigilance. Setting aside how this man had managed to get in here without triggering any of the alarm systems, how on earth had this secret safe house been compromised?
"Me? I'm just an ordinary person with some special abilities. I imagine you must be quite bewildered by my appearance and visit. I also don't have a habit of letting the uninformed bear sin unknowingly, so... remember. Remember what you did in the original world."
The young man snapped his fingers. In an instant, Cocolia, who had been on high alert, suddenly felt her mind relax as a flood of memories surged into her brain. These memories should have been enough to make a normal person dizzy, but Cocolia accepted them with great speed, as if they were simply things she had forgotten.
After receiving the memories of the original timeline, Cocolia lowered the handgun in her hands. With the weapon she held, trying to harm the existence before her was nothing short of a fool's errand. Rather than holding a weapon and being like a child waving a water gun in front of an adult for his amusement, it was better to put it down, have a proper conversation, and maintain some semblance of dignity.
"So, are we in the past, or have we met again in the future?"
"Your past, my future."
From a small refrigerator next to the sofa, Cocolia took out a bottle of what appeared to be vodka.
"May I have a few drinks? It's been a while."
"Of course. We have plenty of time," the young man nodded.
Cocolia opened the bottle, poured the contents into a glass, and then drained it in one gulp. Her bold manner was truly that of a Russian.
"My defeat was total. My flawed experiment caused problems for the child I regarded as my own daughter, leading me down a path of one mistake after another, until I eventually became a villain who could sacrifice an entire city's population without batting an eye."
"Have you ever had regrets? In the dead of night, when you lie alone in bed, do you ever think about the millions of deaths you caused? Do you see the faces of those who died because of you in your dreams?"
"...No. I would only lament that my plan had too many flaws, which led to the failure to capture the Herrscher and the failure to complete the Gem retrieval plan."
"Why don't you say you would? That would make you seem less thoroughly wicked. Perhaps it might even persuade me to let you off the hook, seeing as disaster has not yet struck."
Cocolia finished another full glass of vodka, her calm eyes fixed on the young man before her.
"I can naturally repent. I can naturally apologize to you in tears. But all of that is meaningless. A person who has committed a wrong must bear the punishment that follows. If apologies and repentance could fix all mistakes, there wouldn't be so much suffering in this world, and a person like me wouldn't exist."
"I love the children I've raised with all my heart, but I would still send them into the laboratory for the sake of what I want."
"It's because I truly want to defeat the Honkai. My friends died in the Honkai. Many people I knew died in it. Even among the orphans I raised, quite a few became orphans because of the Honkai."
"But now, an existence like you, no different from a god, has descended. Everything I've done has become meaningless. The Honkai can be defeated. Even the tragedies caused by the Honkai can probably be rewritten."
"Then I, too, should take responsibility for the mistakes I have made."
Xin Yu looked at the Cocolia before him, watching this woman who downed glass after glass of vodka.
"I understand now. You are a good mother. Even if you committed the act of sending the children you raised into a laboratory, those children still think of you as a good mother. Even Bronya still acknowledges you as her mother."
"But you have also made mistakes. A murderer harms people, but you cannot lessen the murderer's crime just because a doctor saved all the victims."
"Cocolia, you will not die. From now on, do good deeds. Strive to do what you can to help others, until you have atoned for all your sins. I will allow you to live a life that belongs to you in a new era, a new world."
Xin Yu stood up, and his entire being vanished. Cocolia looked at the spot where he had disappeared and felt a stinging sensation in her hands. Lifting them, she found that tattoos resembling thorns were wrapped around both of her wrists.
Those were her sins. And the judgment and origin of those sins were her own conscience, her condemnation of herself.
Cocolia raised her head. She seemed to see a young woman in a military uniform, holding a gun, looking at her with a heroic and valiant posture.
I was so wonderful back then.
The illusion before her shattered. Cocolia lowered her head, only to find that the drink on her table had vanished, replaced by a bowl of a clear, water-like liquid brewed from some unknown ingredient. The liquid emitted a faint, clean fragrance. Through the clear liquid, Cocolia saw her own reflection.
A little haggard, a little weary, even a little unfamiliar.
She looked at herself for a long time. She had clearly been walking on a path she firmly believed to be right, yet why, looking back now, did she find that the path had deviated at some unknown point? Even her own face on that path had become somewhat strange.
Cocolia drank the liquid from the bowl. She found that the slight dizziness and intoxication from her rapid drinking had cleared, and her originally uncomfortable body felt relaxed and soothed.
"He really is... far too kind."
Cocolia found her communicator. After issuing several orders to cease all operations, she fell silent for a moment before finding the contact information for two particular doctors.
"Hello?"
"Dr. Einstein, starting now, I am relinquishing all my positions in Anti-Entropy and will hand over all resources and information in my possession to you... Yes, I haven't lost my mind, nor am I joking. I'm serious."
"Why?"
Cocolia raised her head and looked at the sun that was, at some unknown point, beginning to rise. Gazing at the sunrise, she answered.
"I'm about to begin a journey. I'm going to find that past self who was lost in the snowfield, and along the way, complete a redemption."
Hanging up the call, Cocolia was about to grab another bottle of vodka from her small fridge, but after a moment's thought, she didn't. Instead, she simply poured a glass of water, and facing the rising sun in the distance, she said:
"To the rising sun."