On the way to the Herta Space Station, Herta abruptly logged off—leaving only a standby puppet behind.
Aboard the ship, Ruan Mei spoke with Kiana. "That's just how Herta is."
"I can understand that," Kiana said.
After all, this was the same woman who could say 'I'm begging you to run some tests for me' without a hint of shame. Compared to her, Ruan Mei actually seemed much more normal.
"Ruan," Kiana asked, "will you stay on the Space Station until the project is finished?"
She cared more about that than anything else.
"Most likely until the project's completion," Ruan Mei replied, gazing out the window at the glittering starstream. "At least until the framework is fully established."
"You can stay with me, or go find someone else—it doesn't matter."
"I probably won't stay by your side the whole time," Kiana said softly. "After meeting Sirin, I still want to look for her."
To find Mei.
She recalled what Sirin had told her—that Mei had walked farther and farther along the Path of Nihility, to a point almost beyond their reach.
Kiana knew well what Nihility could do to someone. She didn't know if Mei had become like she once was…
Forgetting things.
The thought made her chest ache.
But the most important thing was still to find Mei.
Ruan Mei nodded.
Just as she'd expected.
Kiana's persistence in this matter was truly remarkable—and it made Ruan Mei curious about this friend she longed for so deeply.
What kind of person could inspire such devotion? Who could make Kiana keep searching, no matter the distance?
Ruan Mei couldn't help but wonder.
And so, a few days passed.
When the ship finally docked at the Herta Space Station, Kiana found herself standing at the very place where everything had once begun.
After all this time in this world—it was her first time setting foot here.
She couldn't help but wonder when the Legion invasion would happen.
"Are you Lady Ruan Mei?"
A pink-haired girl appeared soon after they disembarked, approaching them with a polite smile.
Asta!
The moment Kiana saw her, recognition flashed through her mind. Though she had long forgotten most of the Space Station's side stories, she vaguely remembered that Miss Asta was a somewhat sharp-tongued heiress from the IPC.
"Yes, that's me," Ruan Mei said calmly. "Take me to see Herta—and Screwllum, if he's here."
"Of course. Please, this way. Miss Herta and Mr. Screwllum are both currently on the station," Asta said, leading the way.
Kiana quickly tore her gaze away from her. Staring would've been rude—and besides, she had something else on her mind.
Before arriving, she had already contacted Sirin, who told her she was still at the station.
She should be nearby.
"Ruan, I won't go with you. I—"
"Kiana!"
Before Kiana could finish, a purple blur shot toward her from afar like a cannonball.
It hit her full-force—like getting struck by a truck.
The impact sent her staggering, her breath catching as her balance nearly gave out. The tackle ended with both of them crashing to the ground.
"S-Sirin?!"
Asta gasped, covering her mouth in shock. The sudden collision had left her completely dumbfounded.
Ruan Mei, who had been about to leave, paused and turned back curiously—her gaze falling on the purple-haired girl clinging tightly to Kiana.
Did she know how strong Kiana's body was?
Or was she simply too overwhelmed by emotion?
"Cough—Sirin, can you let go of me first?"
Kiana, nearly crushed under Sirin's grip, managed to push at her weakly.
She honestly feared she might not have died in Izumo—but would instead die here, from Sirin's overly enthusiastic hug.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm just so happy to see you! I really thought—I really thought you were gone…"
Her excitement gradually ebbed as she heard Kiana's faint voice. Sirin quickly released her.
Finally able to breathe again, Kiana laughed helplessly. "You're even more impulsive than before."
"How could I possibly stay calm? I always thought everything you said back then was just to comfort us!"
"How could that be? I value my life far too much. I promised you all, didn't I? I'm not that easy to kill. See? I'm perfectly fine!"
The joy of seeing Sirin again filled Kiana's heart, and her smile didn't fade for even a moment.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Ruan Mei and Asta watching.
Kiana coughed lightly and turned to Ruan Mei. "This is Sirin—my friend from Izumo. I mentioned her to you before."
Ruan Mei nodded slightly, recalling the name. She gave Sirin a brief glance, though with Kiana right there, it wasn't exactly the right time to observe too closely.
"Leave me a message before you go," Ruan Mei said simply, then gestured for Asta to lead her on. "Take me to see Herta."
Asta hesitated for a moment, clearly wanting to say more, but the matter of escorting this famed genius took precedence. She had heard that Herta had invited Ruan Mei several times before—and only by personally intervening this time had she succeeded.
Once they were gone, Sirin noticed a few curious glances from passersby and quickly pulled Kiana aside, into a quieter area. Even then, she refused to let go, her eyes fixed on Kiana as if trying to confirm she was real.
Kiana's outfit was different from how she'd dressed back in Izumo, but otherwise, she looked the same.
"What exactly happened?" Sirin asked again, unable to hold it in any longer. She wanted to hear everything—straight from Kiana's mouth.
Kiana didn't hide anything. She explained how she had deceived Mei that day, returned to Izumo, and forcibly triggered her Herrscher transformation.
"And after that, I was… affected. I didn't wake up until more than a year later. That's when I left Izumo—and met Ruan Mei, the woman who was just with me."
After finishing her account, Kiana looked at Sirin nervously and asked the question that had been eating at her most.
"What about you all? What happened after? Mei… there really hasn't been any news about her?"
Sirin sighed quietly.
"My relationship with Raiden Mei wasn't exactly good to begin with. After we tricked her and she learned the truth, things only got worse between us."
"But because of Project Ark—because of the surviving fireseeds—she still traveled with me for about a year."
"When the caravans were finally established, Raiden Mei left Project Ark. She said she wanted to find a way to return to Izumo."
"Since then, we've barely stayed in contact. Only when I occasionally returned to Izumo did I see her nearby."
"I don't know what she's been through, but she's walked very far along the Path of Nihility. Every time I saw her, she was different from before."
"We always met that way—by chance, briefly. But this last time, when I went back to Izumo, I didn't see her anywhere near the area. She must've left."
Sirin paused, her tone softening. "Maybe she realized that path led nowhere… and decided to search for another way."
Sirin summarized everything for Kiana as best as she could. The only thing she could confirm with certainty was that Raiden Mei was still alive and well.
"So that's why I couldn't find her in Izumo…"
"What do you mean?" Sirin asked, surprised. "You went back to Izumo to look for her?"
"I returned to Izumo not long ago. I thought I'd find you all there."
Which meant—if she'd stayed in Euphorion a little longer, maybe they wouldn't have had to wait until now to reunite.
The thought left Sirin with a strange, bittersweet feeling.
Thankfully, Kiana had put up that bounty notice for Raiden Mei—otherwise, they really might have missed each other entirely.
And if that had happened, who knew how long it would've taken before she learned that Kiana was still alive, and had already left Izumo.
"What's wrong?" Kiana asked, noticing the change in her expression.
Was she feeling unwell?
Kiana reached out and took Sirin's hand. She didn't sense any trace of Honkai corrosion on her body.
Could it be the influence of Nihility instead?
"I also went to Izumo not long ago," Sirin said softly. "If I'd stayed there just a little longer… maybe we would've met sooner."
Then she shook her head, gripping Kiana's hand tightly—as if afraid she'd vanish again.
"Good thing I didn't miss the IPC's announcement!"
"You mentioned you're traveling the star sea now, right?" Kiana scratched her head and smiled. "Even if you'd missed the IPC's message, it wouldn't matter. The Yaoqing Xianzhou promised to spread my name. So even without the bounty notice, as long as you're still sailing through the stars, you'd have heard about me eventually."
Not only had she befriended the members of the Genius Society—she'd even made connections with the Xianzhou Alliance, earning the favor of the Yaoqing.
Even after leaving Izumo, Kiana's life seemed just as unpredictable as ever—one turn after another.
After a bit more chatting, Sirin decided that talking in public drew too much attention, so she brought Kiana to her temporary quarters on the Space Station.
Once they'd caught up, Sirin suddenly remembered something—a small but strange detail from not long ago.
"Kiana, is your homeland… similar to Izumo?"
There was no hint of subtlety in her tone—it was a straightforward question. "Does it have Raiden Mei? And people like us?"
Kiana, who had just sat down, shot up as if burned. Her blue eyes widened in shock.
Why would Sirin suddenly ask something like that?
Could it be… Honkai?
Was it the Stigmata she had given them?
Had the Stigmata, after being developed further, somehow started showing them fragments of her memories?
If that were true…
Kiana's heart raced. Her voice turned urgent. "Sirin, why do you think that?"
Something wasn't right.
Sirin blinked, confused by Kiana's sudden change in tone. She hadn't meant anything serious—after all, she'd already dismissed the idea that Welt Yang was from the same place as Kiana.
She'd only wanted to bring him up as a topic—since his world also had Honkai.
But Kiana's reaction was far too intense.
Sirin's pulse quickened. Wait—was she wrong? Was that Welt Yang actually from the same world as Kiana?
And was that why Kiana cared about them so much…?
"Do you know the Nameless of the Astral Express?" Sirin asked. "Not long ago, when they stopped by the Space Station for supplies, I met a man named Welt Yang. He looks exactly like the Welt we knew."
So it wasn't the Stigmata after all.
It was Welt.
Kiana exhaled softly in relief. If the Stigmata had been the problem, things would have been far worse.
If the Stigmata had shown them pieces of her past, Sirin and the others might think she was treating them as replacements—as substitutes.
And she had to admit—when she'd first met them, her feelings had been unconsciously tinted by her memories.
But no one wanted to be seen as a stand-in.
If that misunderstanding had really taken root, no matter how much she explained, it might never have cleared.
That kind of misunderstanding could never be allowed to happen.
"The world he's from… also has Honkai," Sirin said cautiously, watching Kiana's reaction, afraid she might say she knew the man personally.
"Well… how should I put it."
Kiana scratched her head in mild frustration. She hadn't expected Sirin to be the first one to meet Welt Yang—and even before the main events had started, right here on the Herta Space Station.
Sirin's expression darkened slightly. That reaction alone told her plenty. At the very least, Kiana knew exactly who she was talking about.
"I know who you mean," Kiana admitted. "But the Honkai in his world and the Honkai I brought here aren't the same thing."
Whether they were the same or not didn't really matter to Sirin. What she cared about more was whether Kiana's original home also had people like them.
Kiana noticed her distracted look, and her voice softened as understanding dawned. "Sirin, do you know what 'observation' means?"
Sirin blinked, pulled from her thoughts. Her gaze refocused on the girl before her—the one she could never forget.
"Observation?" she echoed.
Kiana nodded. "From a perspective higher than this dimension, you can see many things."
"What you asked earlier—about my home—I can tell you clearly: no. My world isn't like Izumo, and there are no people like you there."
"But I have seen people like you. To be precise, I've observed them. Just like the Welt Yang you mentioned—I know him, and I know what his world has gone through."
"The relationship is something like this: I know him—but he doesn't know me."
Observation and the observed?
Sirin's mind spun rapidly, but soon she steadied herself and exhaled softly in relief.
It wasn't the worst possibility—and if it wasn't that, then there was no need to worry. Even if it had been, it wouldn't have changed much.
After all, everything they had gone through had truly happened.
"Honkai is difficult to explain," Kiana continued. "But you only need to know that the Honkai in Welt Yang's world isn't the same as the one we know."
"They're similar—but not identical."
Then, after a brief pause, Kiana shifted the subject. "Sirin, where do you think Mei went after leaving Izumo?"
She spoke a lot all at once, but in the end, her focus returned to Raiden Mei.
She was planning to leave soon.
Now that Ruan Mei had joined the Simulated Universe project, her attention would be elsewhere for a while—and Kiana could use that time to search freely.
Or perhaps… to spread her name across the stars.
The more people heard of her, the greater the chance Mei would see her name—and reach out to her again.