I'm not gonna lie, burnt pizza toast wasn't as bad as it sounded.
Everyone of us knew Kiana was a terrible chef, but for this dish in particular we made it work…
After fifteen tries of course.
Let me tell you, it isn't easy to cook with Shamash when you wanted to avoid burning down the house.
Bronya came over for breakfast as well and after we ate, all of us just went and did our own things.
Bronya wanted to invite me to play games with her, being her support while she was the ADC in order to coach her, but Kiana cut in and they duo-ed together instead.
I really wanted to laugh when I saw Bronya's half-dead expression when Kiana got caught in the bushes at level one… and then proceeded to run down the game immediately afterwards.
Hmm, I wonder what happens when a marksman lacks a support and has a 20-0 assassin on the enemy team?
But when I sat down with some popcorn to watch the cinema that was going on in front of me, Mei suddenly told me that she wanted to talk to me alone.
Away from prying eyes, I asked, "Did something happen?"
"Yeah… the Herrscher spoke to me…" Mei said in a soft tone. "I'm thinking she's trying to bring me down and make me open her seal or something. And then, she's going to take over my body and cause mass mayhem to the world and-"
"Then shout 'Kneel before the Queen of Thunder'?" I jokingly continued for her.
"Yea and then…" Mei's brain rebooted as it turned into a glare. "Gojo! This is serious!"
"I am acting serious!" I defended myself. "I'm seriously making fun of you."
"Maybe it would just be better to let her out…" The purple haired girl's face was set in a deadpan, but there were subtle twitches on the sides of her lips.
"Please no, my Queen… I'm so frightened~"
And at that, both of us burst out in laughter at her expense.
"Alright." My laughter slowly came to a halt. "Now that you look a bit better, tell me-"
My expression became serious.
"What did she say?"
—-----------------------------------------------
The ocean roared as waves crashed against one another, churning with restless energy beneath me.
I was standing in the air in above the ocean with both guns of Shamash in hand as I wore a singlet a pair of short pants.
With what I was going to do next, I didn't want to wear my $2000 dollar shirt or pants.
But before I did so, thoughts came into my mind as I recalled what Mei told me earlier.
The Herrscher was mocking her about being a crybaby when Mei was feeling down about her father…
If Mei didn't hide anything, that was pretty clear cut that the Herrscher persona was actually malevolent right?
But it's not that simple.
Given all of the actions of her right now, the Herscherr (of Thunder? Electromagnetism?), seemed to actually be somewhat… complicated.
She was very willing to hand over energy to Mei when needed. In fact, it seemed like she even boosted Mei's output somewhat when she was about to go fight with us.
Another thing that I thought about was her attitude when she faced me the second time…
She was actually friendly.
Sure, you could construe it as her knowing that it wasn't time for her to fight at that time, but that concern she had for Mei?
That was a pretty big sign.
On the other hand though, if you wanted to go more conspiracy theory-esque, one could say that the Herscherr was a master manipulator and playing a really, really long game.
Thus, in order to truly confirm it, I actually need to set up an experiment…
But I didn't want to do it.
Why?
Because this experiment actually requires a lot of manipulation on my part to make Mei think that we were actually in danger.
And given her intellect? It would actually need to be something truly life threatening to convince her.
If the Herrscher persona was willing to help if we were in true danger as well, then I have just confirmed something…
I let out a sigh.
So that's a dead end.
Just as I was about to put away my thoughts and get into training however, a stray thought suddenly came into my mind…
And it was from Ryoma.
That time…
That time when he said, "She was kidnapped when she was younger so…"
My eyes widened.
Could that be the key?
If Mei was kidnapped when she was younger, then she should have been traumatised by that back then right?
And sometimes, when a person has trauma, they may develop a secondary personality…
So if Mei had been traumatised, she may have developed a secondary personality in order to protect her…
If so, then it would make sense why the Herrscher would be so demeaning towards Mei, yet was willing to help when needed!
She was trying to protect her?!
Thinking about it, she confronted me back then when I was basically stalking her! And since she could sense Honkai energy, then she would have thought of me as a threat back then…
Mei herself could detect that the friends around her were insincere as well, so those guys being called monkeys ties in!
Therefore, in conclusion…
There was a huge chance…
That Mei was fricking schizo af!!!
Of course, the Herrscher persona was supposed to destroy the world… but since this is an anime world…
Who says that she couldn't turn on them?
Hehe…
Nothing was ever a hundred percent of course, so I should act with some degree of caution regardless.
Still, I felt that my hypothesis was actually pretty good.
Herscherr Mei didn't even bother trying to kill others when we first fought anyway.
Just don't think about the damage to the school building she did…
With a huge grin on my face, I let out a huge laugh alone.
If I were right, then things would be absolutely perfect!
But for now…
I really should get started with my training…
Calming down quickly due to my adapted emotional control, I held up both guns of Shamash.
As they slowly merged once more to form the broadsword, or the Cleaver of Shamash according to Kiana, I chuckled slightly as I spoke these words.
"Divine Flames…"
The space surrounding me began to warp as even space and time itself burned…
I immediately felt the heat as Infinity was starting to disappear. My skin began to blister from the heat, but the smile still never left my face.
"Open."
And the world burned a fiery red.
(A/N: How was the chapter? Please give powerstones and comment if you liked it. Please review as well if possible
Here is the invitation to the discord.
https://discord.gg/cqQG4rmhXN
Detective Gojo is back and he has another theory now! Is he right? Is he wrong? Who knows?)