After the scene at the docks. Theresa decided that since "everyone was already together" we might as well get the living arrangements sorted. She then decided just like in the original that Himeko's apartment in the staff dorm was an optimal place for us to live, instead of the student dorm.
She was probably worried that Mei would explode and accidentally kill a bunch of students. She was probably less worried about Himeko dying or just didn't care.
Himeko led the way, still in her uniform, boots loud against the stone walkway. She had complained the entire time about having to "play house" with a bunch of students when Theresa brought it up.
The walk through St. Freya was quiet except for Kiana, who had apparently never seen a campus before before.
"Whoa! This place is huge! There are buildings everywhere! What's that building! Do we get our own rooms? Are there training arenas? Wait, do we get uniforms?"
Theresa didn't answer. She was probably praying for silence.
When we reached the small building on the edge of campus, Himeko unlocked the door and pushed it open.
The smell hit first, dust, stale air, and the faint sharpness of something that might once have been disinfectant. Inside was a scene of mild chaos. There were piles of papers and notebooks on the table, a few empty bottles on the counter, and laundry, some clean, some clearly not, scattered across a couch that looked like it had given up on life. Cardboard boxes were stacked unevenly along the wall, half of them full of full bottles of… something, and other random things.
Theresa frowned. "Watch out, girls. This is the lair of a single angry female."
"Fuck off, Theresa," Himeko said automatically, kicking a shirt out of the way. "I would've cleaned up if I'd been given five minutes to prepare."
The living room didn't look like it had seen sunlight in a while.
Kiana's mouth fell open. "Whoa…"
Mei's hand went to her nose. "This is… um…"
I decided saying nothing was the optimal move.
Himeko turned, scowling. "Why do I have to play mother here anyway?"
Theresa's tone was honestly a little petulant. "It'll be good for you. Character-building. Maybe it'll even calm that temper."
Her eyes flicked sideways, just for a moment, thinking something else she didn't say. Probably you dumped this on me, so now you get to deal with it.
Mei and Bronya hovered near the entrance, both looking vaguely ill. I could relate, though my main feeling was the sharp, irrational need to start scrubbing surfaces.
Kiana, naturally, wandered straight into danger.
"Hey, what's in this closet?" she asked, tugging the handle.
The door opened, and gravity claimed another victim. A flood of boxes, old paperwork, and assorted junk toppled out, burying her feet and scattering across the floor.
Theresa groaned. Mei gasped. Bronya blinked.
Himeko muttered, "I was saving those."
"For what?" I asked.
"Emotional support."
Theresa looked like she was about to throw something.
Walking further into the apartment, there was a living room at the front of the apartment, along the wall close to the entrance was where most of the trash was gathered, as if she had been preparing to take it out each time, but just never did.
Attached to the living room there was a kitchen, with a counter facing into the living area. The kitchen had empty plates in the sink, but other than that, it looked like it had barely been used at all.
Moving beside the kitchen to the hall that ran the right side of the apartment, behind the kitchen there were an additional 4 rooms, the closest room was clearly Himeko's room, the door was open and the bedroom inside was in as bad of a state as the living room and kitchen.
Then there was the bathroom, which was rather large however the counterspace was entirely taken up by stuff that should have been in the drawers.
Moving down the hallway however, the random trash and cardboard boxes slowly disappeared and was replaced with dust, the first room after Himeko's was partially filled with random moving boxes, mostly organised and covered in a thin layer of dust, clearly this was used as a storage room for all the stuff Himeko never used. The final room was completely empty. Covered in a thick layer of dust.
"Well this room is much better! This room is mine!" Kiana proclaimed.
"Idoka Kiana, there are four of us and only two rooms, that means we have to double up." Bronya said.
"Then I am definitely sleeping with Mei!" Kiana proclaimed, causing Mei to blush slightly, and Himeko to roll her eyes.
Which I guess left me to sleep with Bronya. I was fine with that, I hopefully wouldn't be staying much longer anyway.
"I will get a moving crew to bring in four student dorm beds, the traditional student dorms are doubles anyway so it's not like this is any worse." said Theresa.
"Well, we might as well get to cleaning," I said, since the mess was starting to make my skin itch and my hands to shake, "Himeko, do you have any cleaning supplies?"
"There should be some in the closet at the end of the hall… I think." Himeko responded before going into her bedroom and closing the door behind her. Followed by the distinct click of the door lock.
Moving to the end of the hall, the closet contained a vacuum with its cord still tied up with a tag, along with a long dust cleaner that had at least been used once or twice. Grabbing both, I made my way to the front of the apartment.
Upon seeing the cleaning supplies, Theresa said, "Well, I will be going now, if you need anything ask Himeko. I will be back in a little bit to help you get your school issued gear and new uniforms."
"So there are uniforms!" Kiana, who was now holding the long dust cleaner which looked somewhat discongruous with the image of Kiana in my mind.
Before Theresa could flee, I raised my voice slightly and said, "I have a question."
Theresa paused before turning around, "What is it?"
"Where do I bring the trash bags?"
>>> 5 Hours Later <<<
As it turned out, Himeko hadn't abandoned us after all, she had emerged a few minutes after Theresa had left, no longer in her uniform.
Together the 5 of us cleaned the apartment rather quickly, it wasn't that large after all and we had a lot of people. Although Kiana, who had initially started out seemingly helpful, tended to miss a lot when cleaning an area, and Mei, who had seemingly never had to do the cleaning herself, just kinda stood around awkwardly following Kiana around while holding out a trash bag for her.
Theresa returned a few hours later carrying several bags of various things that seemed to far surpass what her little frame could carry. Though that was deceptive since she was actually a MANTIS despite her rather… lacking stature.
There was both a tablet and laptop for each of us, which was nice since Himeko had reclaimed her own tablet after my second interview with her aboard the Hyperion. Hopefully she didn't check the logs on it and noticed I had snooped around, and if she did hopefully if she did notice it wouldn't be seen as malicious.
After Theresa gave us our new account logins, she brought us to get new clothing and uniforms.
The rest of us picked out traditional clothing while each of us got measured for uniforms one after another.
When it came to my turn, I found out something that I should have already known, each person gets to design their own uniform with the help of a designer, as long as it didn't veer too far from Schicksal regulations.
I had decided I was going to go all in on the fact that I looked like an Otto expy, and was going to model my outfit after Locha's. However I was going to make a few modifications, after all each person in Honkai: Star Rail had their own custom designed outfit that matched their personal style. I decided on a traditional Hoyo black combat undersuit, which apparently had cooling and health monitoring properties, with a set of white uniform pants on top with low black boots, and a white uniform jacket with dark blue and silver accents that looked like a cross between Locha's and Sunday's.
Personally I had decided that I was going to get a pendant like Locha's for use in healing. Since I was the only representative of the Aeon of Abundance on this planet, I might as well go for it.
That wasn't to say I was all in on Abundance, Abundance was about helping all those who needed help, regardless of who they were or what kind of person they were. The Abundance wouldn't help you if you didn't ask for help, however, there were far more people in need who called for help than ever got replies. Thinking about it again, I really was quite lucky that they had responded to my call so easily, and so fast.
However, I was really about to die, thinking back on it, I was probably only a few hours away from it. In addition, the abilities they had given me seemed perfectly tailored towards helping people out in this world. I could theoretically heal anyone suffering from Honkai disease perfectly, as long as they hadn't become a zombie. Maybe the Aeon was already watching this world peripherally.
Helping people was all well and good, but I wasn't exactly about to start up a charity, I could help people if I came across them, but I wasn't about to go out of my way to start up a clinic. I had a goal to achieve, and there were trillions of people in need in this universe alone, and there was an infinite number of universes.
"For eternal life did not let her accumulate infinite wisdom. Instead, those she had once cherished faded into obscurity over time, never to return."
That was pretty good, as a self declared priest, I had decided that I should do my best to… become a yapper.
Hey, I like monologuing, and I have never really had the chance to do so before okay!
[System: … ]
If Otto can declare himself a priest of the Will of Honkai, then I can declare myself a priest for the Aeons. It's not like Aeons particularly need or want worship, so they hadn't really appointed priests anyway, so technically all priests were self appointed unless they were an emanator.
Speaking of Aeons, Aeons were the same across all branches of the imaginary tree.
I had chatted to the system while bored on the Hyperion.
The Honkai: Star Rail Universe was in fact made up of multiple "Branches" of the imaginary tree. It turns out that each "Branch" of the imaginary tree existed in the same dimension, and in the game was labeled as being separated by pure imaginary energy. This barrier, although quite similar to the barrier around Earth made by the cocoon of finality, was much harder to break through. In fact, it was seemingly impossible to do without the help of Path Energy, like the Star Rails left by Akivili, which used the raw power of the Aeon of Trailblaze to cross between branches.
Branches within HSR were various sizes, anywhere from a star cluster of a couple stars, up to entire galaxies.
Each "branch" of the imaginary tree existed in its own little cell, and had its own Sea of Quanta and Imaginary Space.
The Sea of Quanta was specific to each "Branch", and each "Branch" only grew toward one future, each offshoot eventually losing energy and "Falling" into the Sea of Quanta. This explained why HI3's Sea of Quanta was so full of Honkai shit. However the barrier that separated sections of the Sea of Quanta didn't come from the imaginary tree, but from something else. It was impossible to use the Sea of Quanta to get from branch to branch.
Each "branch" was also connected to imaginary space, which mostly mapped 1 to 1 with realspace. This is for instance where the second divine key is hidden, and where the theater of domination was located.
However Imaginary Space was where the Aeon Qlipoth's Celestial Comet Wall, the "Subspace Crystalline Barrier" was located. Which was designed to separate and isolate branches from each other.
Unfortunately for me, stuff like the Cocoon of Finality, capable of parasitising the imaginary tree to do things like create its imitation imaginary barrier and to create Herrschers, was exactly the kind of thing Qlipoth's wall was designed to keep isolated. This specific branch of the Imaginary tree had no Star Rail and a complete barrier in imaginary space.
In addition to these dimensions, there were also additional imaginary spaces, such as the "Dev Room" that Otto Apocalypse reached in order to split the HI3 "branch" in half. It's physically impossible to reach the "Outside" of the Imaginary Tree, after all everything is contained within it. The space that Otto reached was more of a "Reflection" of the Imaginary Tree, or in computer terms, something like a terminal. However it was "Outside" in the sense that it was outside of every branch. However to reach any space you needed something like an "Access Token" that contained some authority over the Imaginary Tree.
There was also the "Path Space" which could be accessed in specific situations using path energy.
This was essentially the crux of my plan was essentially to use these spaces.
Every single Emanator is described as having the ability to traverse worlds using their own bodies. This is the only power every Emanator is described as having. This is how Acheron is able to get "lost" and end up on Amorphous. How does this work exactly? It's very simple.
They use the "Path Space".
An Emanator can travel around the universe freely by using the "Access Token" of being a Emanator to reach the "Path Space" of the Aeon who granted them their power, which is "Outside" every "Branch", then from "Outside" they can re-enter the "Inside" at any "Branch" they want.
This was essentially what I needed to accomplish, and I had some ideas to go about it.