"She might still be there."
Whenever Kiana thought of her, ripples stirred in her heart, and her voice quickened slightly. "Ruan, you've been to Euphorion before, right? Have you ever heard of someone named 'Acheron'?"
"Someone in the same situation as you?"
"Uh..."
Kiana's thoughts froze there. Remembering the stigma she had given to Mei—and the destiny that originally belonged to her—she murmured uncertainly, "Maybe... something like that?"
"I haven't heard of the person you mentioned."
Ruan Mei thought carefully before shaking her head. "Without any way to contact her, finding someone affected by Nihility somewhere in the galaxy will be even more difficult."
Kiana understood that logic.
What she feared most now was that her interference had caused Mei to stray completely from her fate of becoming Acheron.
If that was the case...
Then searching for Mei in the sea of stars would be like looking for a needle in the ocean.
"You should be mentally prepared," Ruan Mei said softly. "If you go to Euphorion to find someone, you might end up finding nothing at all."
"I'm prepared."
Kiana's eyes were firm. She believed that Mei was still alive—so no matter how long it took, or how far she had to go, she would never stop searching.
The events in Izumo...
She had failed everyone's expectations.
"I'll have some people keep an eye out for you," Ruan Mei said. "If you're set on not returning with me, then at least give me another vial of your blood before I leave."
It didn't matter that Kiana wasn't going back with her—Ruan Mei had already gathered plenty of data. The hypotheses swirling in her mind needed time to be verified.
Kiana's absence wouldn't change that.
Some things could wait.
It had been at Euphorion that she'd first found Kiana—memory lost, wandering aimlessly—and taken her in, keeping her close ever since.
Now that Kiana had regained her memories...
Would she really leave and never come back?
That thought didn't even cross Ruan Mei's mind. Her head was already filled with experimental data and the new discoveries she had made during this time.
Since Kiana refused to accompany her, Ruan Mei was eager to return to her laboratory and had no reason to linger here.
After drawing a fresh vial of blood from Kiana, she departed in the same swift, unhesitating manner she'd arrived, leaving Kiana to see her off.
Only after Ruan Mei's ship disappeared from view did Kiana remember the message Robin hadn't replied to.
More than three hours had passed since she'd sent it.
Robin should have seen it by now, right?
On her way back to camp, she pulled out her phone for a look—but there were no new notifications.
"Still busy?"
Setting her phone down, Kiana decided to ask around. Robin was well known; if she was still at the camp, someone would surely know where she was.
The refugees from Bury City had already been evacuated—perhaps Robin was helping those in need.
If that were the case, not checking her terminal right away would make sense.
With Ruan Mei gone, Kiana planned to leave Kasbelina-VIII within the next couple of days. The planet had never been her true destination. Meeting Robin had been a pleasant surprise, but her heart now burned with urgency to find Mei.
And as long as she remained here, the Honkai she carried would continue to worsen the situation.
As for the war...
The IPC had already invested its manpower and resources. They wouldn't engage in a losing battle. This war was just another game of bargaining—once both sides were satisfied, it would likely end in some farcical truce.
She didn't want to waste more time here.
All she could do was apologize silently to Robin.
Even with her memories restored, until she saw Mei again, she could not truly feel at peace.
What was meant to be a farewell turned into something else entirely when Kiana returned to the IPC camp.
"Robin was hit by a stray bullet?!"
Kiana's voice was full of disbelief. She knew that, in the story, Robin's fate in this world involved a stray bullet—but she never thought it would still happen here.
"How is she now? Where is she? When did this happen?"
Her rapid string of questions left the IPC staff member pale and nervous.
He didn't know either—he had only heard the news from someone else!
"I'm just a guard, miss! I don't know any of that. But you can ask around at the hospital—people there will definitely be able to tell you more."
"Where's the hospital?"
"Over there."
The guard pointed her in a direction, sending this frantic friend of Miss Robin toward the hospital.
The IPC's camp on Kasbelina-VIII had been established for several months already.
The base was large—almost the size of a small village—with well-developed infrastructure.
The IPC's frontier technology was everywhere.
They had their hands in every field.
"Thank you."
The hospital wasn't far—ten minutes on foot, or faster if she ran.
In her anxiety, Kiana broke into a run.
After her identity was confirmed by the IPC personnel, she was recognized as Robin's friend and allowed to learn what had happened.
After leaving Bury City, Robin had gone with others to a region where fighting was still raging fiercely.
There had been many people who couldn't evacuate in time.
The rebels, whose command center had been bombed, launched a counterattack. The flames of war spread to the local army's positions, creating countless tragedies.
The casualties were devastating. Both sides had gone mad with bloodlust—no one was willing to stop.
Out of humanitarian concern, the IPC had tried to enter the bombing zone to rescue civilians, but the ongoing battle made those efforts nearly impossible.
When Robin learned of this, she volunteered to assist in rescuing the displaced civilians alongside IPC personnel.
At around four o'clock yesterday afternoon—
Robin, just as she had done the previous days, was searching through the yet-unscanned ruins of the bombing zone, looking for survivors who hadn't been able to escape.
But luck wasn't on her side.
On the way back, she and her group stumbled upon a skirmish between small units of the rebels and local forces.
They were mistaken for enemy troops.
In order to ensure the civilians' safe retreat, Robin and the IPC members stayed behind to cover their escape.
During that effort, a stray bullet struck her.
Although she was rushed to the hospital in time, the bullet had hit her neck. Just a little higher, and Robin would have lost her life.
When Kiana finally saw her, Robin was lying on a hospital bed, her face pale from blood loss, her neck wrapped in layers of gauze.
The fragility of her condition lent her a heartbreaking kind of beauty.
"Robin?"
According to the doctors, Robin had regained consciousness around noon, and the surgery had gone smoothly.
Thinking of the medical agents she carried with her, Kiana entered the ward quietly, intending to check on her—and perhaps offer help.
Robin had been resting with her eyes closed, but the sound of the door made her stir. Opening her weary eyes, she looked up in surprise to see Kiana standing beside her bed.
Kiana came back from Bury City?
And without trouble?
Robin's eyes seemed to speak as they looked at Kiana. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Meeting Kiana's gaze, her eyes were full of helplessness—and concern.
This wasn't a small matter.
Even though the IPC's medical technology was highly advanced and the surgery had been a success, the injury was at her neck.
Her vocal cords were unharmed, but to ensure proper recovery, she wasn't allowed to speak.
Kiana understood.
"I just got back not long ago. Didn't I say I'd let you know when I left Bury City?"
Kiana pulled a chair over and sat down beside the bed, feeling a pang of heartache as she looked at Robin.
Before they parted, Robin had been perfectly fine.
But after only a few days, she had been struck by a stray bullet—lying here, pale and fragile.
Suddenly, Kiana could understand Sunday's feelings a little better. She and Robin were only friends, yet the sight of her like this hurt deeply.
For someone like Sunday, who had lived side by side with Robin for so long, the fear and distress must have been even worse.
"I didn't see any reply from you, so I asked around the camp about your situation—and that's when I learned you were hit yesterday and brought here."
When Kiana reached for her hand, Robin moved first, gently clasping Kiana's fingers and blinking reassuringly, as if to say she wasn't seriously hurt.
She looked fine now, but this had been a close call—a matter of life and death.
If not for the IPC's timely treatment...
"The doctor said the surgery went very well, but you'll still need some time to recover completely. I have a vial of healing serum—it should speed things up. Want to try it?"
Robin looked at her for a moment, then nodded slightly. A healing serum that accelerated recovery wasn't rare.
But she could feel Kiana's emotions—the genuine worry and frustration over her injury.
She trusted Kiana.
"You'll be fine soon. Don't worry."
Kiana retrieved the serum from her storage space and carefully administered it to Robin. She had no use for such medicines herself, so she didn't hesitate—using the full dose without concern for overflow or waste.
When she finished and put the items away, Kiana suddenly slapped her forehead. "Oh no!"
She had forgotten to discuss her equipment with Ruan—to give her a sample for examination.
Only now did she remember.
"Hm? Hm? What's this..."
Robin realized she felt no pain. Tentatively, she tried to speak a word—and the vibration of her vocal cords didn't trigger any discomfort.
She reached up to touch her neck, still wrapped in several layers of bandages, and felt no trace of a wound.
Astonished, she started to sit up, trying to remove the gauze herself.
"Let me help."
Seeing that Robin's movements were a bit clumsy, Kiana stepped forward and took the bandage from her hands, unwrapping it layer by layer.
"You just said 'oh no'? Did something happen?"
Robin drew her hands back and sat obediently still.
"I sent you that message and left Bury City right after. Just now, I saw Ruan off—she's already boarded her ship and left Kasbelina-VIII."
Kiana sighed. "I just remembered—I forgot to bring something up with her."
"Something important?"
"Not really... I guess it can wait. Once I get back from Euphorion, I'll talk to her then."
Thinking about it, Ruan might not have had the time to study it anyway—mechanical equipment wasn't her field of focus.
"Ah? Your friend left already?"
Robin sounded both surprised and a little disappointed. She'd been curious about this friend Kiana kept mentioning, hoping to meet her once Kiana returned from Bury City.
"Yeah, that's just how she is. Once she gathers enough data, she can't wait to get back to her lab."
By then, Kiana had finished removing all the bandages from Robin's neck. The inner layers still carried faint bloodstains.
After unwrapping everything, Robin touched the spot where she had been injured—it felt completely normal, as if the wound had never existed.
"This medicine's amazing!" Robin said in surprise.
"It really is. And it didn't even leave a scar."
Kiana leaned closer to inspect the wound and, finding no scar, finally felt relieved.
Because of the blood loss and anesthesia from the surgery, Robin's mind had been foggy, her body weak and heavy.
But after Kiana used the healing serum on her, not only did the pain vanish—her fatigue and lightheadedness from blood loss also disappeared. The lingering effects of the anesthesia faded as well.
Her body felt completely restored, as if she had never been injured at all.
"I didn't expect something like this to happen. Did it scare you?"
"Of course it did!"
Kiana set the gauze aside and looked at the now-spirited Robin. "I'd just seen Ruan off and was coming back to say goodbye to you—how could I have known you'd get hit by a stray bullet?!"
"Goodbye? You're leaving?"
Robin immediately caught the most important word in her sentence and asked instinctively.
"My destination is Euphorion. Showing up on Kasbelina-VIII was pure accident."
At the mention of Euphorion, Kiana thought of Izumo—and of the friends she'd left behind there.
"It's been a blessing in disguise here. I've remembered a lot of things—like a friend who's still waiting for me at Euphorion. I want to hurry there as soon as possible."
"Your amnesia... it's gotten better?"
Robin looked at her in delighted surprise, genuinely happy for her. "That's wonderful!"
She already knew Kiana suffered from memory loss. And ever since they had become friends, Robin had secretly worried about the possibility of being forgotten one day.
Even if Kiana ever forgot everything they had shared, Robin had already decided she would remind her—tell her their story again in the future. But still, it would be best if she never forgot.
Though their time together hadn't been long, Robin didn't want to forget Kiana—and, perhaps out of a little selfishness, she didn't want Kiana to forget her either.
"Yeah, my amnesia's cleared up."
Kiana glanced at the faint 'Weakness' icon still visible on her panel. After a moment of thought, she decided to write down everything about herself in a notebook and store it in her spatial inventory.
That way, it would never be lost or seen by anyone else—and she could leave herself a reminder in her phone's notes app about the existence of that space.
Even if she ever forgot again, she wouldn't wander aimlessly, lost and confused.
"So, when are you planning to leave Kasbelina-VIII?"
"I'll need to ask the IPC about transport. The last ship was arranged by Ruan, so I'll probably have to find another one that's heading toward Euphorion."
The ship she'd arrived on had already finished maintenance and departed a few days ago, after confirming she wouldn't be boarding it.