"Hey hey, what do you mean 'still attached to Lixue'!"
Whether it was from overthinking or her train of thought taking a strange turn, a faint blush suddenly spread across Little Senti's face.
"My relationship with Lixue is strictly a proper master-disciple one, alright? Your wording is just too weird!"
"Besides, just the day before yesterday I was still soaking in one of Otto's cultivation tanks—how could I possibly be 'inside' Lixue?"
"B-but…"
Even with her high intelligence—honed through St. Freya's cultural courses and Cecilia's loving upbringing—the paramecium felt her brain short-circuit at this scene.
Thus, the Kaslana family's excellent genes immediately triggered their traditional skill: when teammates are present, automatically treat them as your external brain.
With a pleading look, Kiana turned toward the smirking Lynelle beside her.
"Hmm? Kiana, why are you looking at me?" Lynelle's lips curled up slightly. "Without a doubt, she is my Big Sister Hua, you know?"
"?"
Perhaps because her brain was working at high speed, the tuft of hair sticking up on Kiana's head seemed to twist into the shape of a question mark.
"Idiot." It was Sirin, who had just woken up, who came to her rescue.
"Kiana, think back—did Lynelle ever call Fu Hua 'Big Sister Hua' before?"
"Oh, right!"
Kiana snapped to realization.
Back at St. Freya, Lynelle had essentially been their teaching assistant, while Fu Hua was a student.
No matter what, Lynelle would never have used an address like "Big Sister Hua" for Fu Hua. Which meant… the Fu Hua in front of them really wasn't the one they knew.
"But judging by Lynelle's attitude, it seems this Fu Hua isn't exactly…"
"Exactly. Her identity is definitely special—neither Fu Hua, yet retaining a self-awareness of Fu Hua's social connections," Sirin coached her silly little sister inside Kiana's mind.
"And Lynelle isn't introducing her outright; she's letting us guess. That means the situation isn't too serious. Even in the worst-case scenario, Lynelle doesn't think anything bad will happen."
"Usually, when Lynelle is this confident, it's for two reasons: either she's strong enough to suppress the other party—which clearly isn't the case here—or… the other person has a very good temper, or their relationship with Lynelle is good enough that even in the worst case, a fight definitely won't break out."
"So, I suggest you use the simplest and quickest method."
"The simplest and quickest method?" Kiana blinked. "You mean…"
"Idiot, of course go ask Lixue! The signal interference here lifted after Mei's Herrscher awakening and Ana fell unconscious, didn't it?"
Sirin felt like biting Kiana a few times. "Don't just shut your brain down because someone else is doing the thinking for you!"
"Ehehe… It's just that you're too useful, Sirin-nee…"
Kiana stuck out her tongue, quickly withdrew her consciousness from the Herrscher core, and under Little Senti's gaze, pulled out her communication terminal.
"Huh? Kiana, what are you doing?" Little Senti asked curiously.
"I just thought of a possibility," Kiana explained while searching for Lixue's contact. "Could it be that after Class Monitor's body recovered, it automatically pulled her consciousness back into it?"
"Uh, r-really? But if that were the case, shouldn't I have memories from before?"
Beep— "Hey, Kiana, did something happen?"
The call connected, and Lixue's projection immediately appeared beside them.
"Is it about Nagazora? If you need my support, I can probably get there in about six hours…"
"It's not that, Lixue Sis. Things are mostly wrapped up here. I just wanted to ask…" Kiana pointed the terminal toward Little Senti. "Is Class Monitor still with you?"
"?"
A deafening silence came from the other end of the call. After a moment, Lixue's slightly short-circuited voice finally sounded.
"M-Master?"
"Mhm, not bad, not bad. Looks like you've been doing pretty well these days, Lixue."
"That Otto fellow didn't give you too hard a time either. Good." Little Senti nodded in satisfaction. However, at the same time, another voice came through the call.
"What is it, Lixue? Why did you call me out all of a sudden?"
Fu Hua, materialized beside Lixue via the Fenghuang Down, asked in confusion. Then, she saw Little Senti on the other end of the call.
Fu Hua: O.o?
Little Senti: o.O?
"There really is another me?" Little Senti wore an expression of disbelief. "Hey, me over there, what exactly are you?"
"I'm Fu Hua?" Fu Hua was even more bewildered. "When Otto killed me, I secretly activated the authority of the Fenghuang Down and transferred my consciousness to another feather…"
"In theory, there shouldn't be any consciousness left in my body."
"What are you talking about, all this nonsense… If you're Fu Hua, then who am I? Could I be Otto cross-dressing as a woman, or a Herrscher sent by the Honkai?"
Little Senti's hand also manifested several crimson-black feathers. "Otto has Fenghuang Down too—I confiscated these from him. If you activated a Feather, how could he not know?"
"Wait… Oh—I get it now!"
Mid-rant, Little Senti suddenly looked as if she had an epiphany.
"You're not the self-awareness I left on that feather, are you? So after I went offline, you started thinking of yourself as the main body? This kind of thing has happened before…"
"How could you be the main body? If you had my memories, you'd know that before I died, I used… Lixue?"
Before Fu Hua could finish, as if sensing something, she turned questioningly toward Lixue, who was fiddling with her main body (the feather).
Ahem… Lixue, her face inexplicably tinged with a blush, cleared her throat.
"This sort of thing is hard to explain clearly over a call. Why don't you wait there for a bit, and I'll bring Master over in person?"
"Um…" Lynelle quietly raised her hand.
"Even though Nagazora isn't under immediate threat from a beast tide right now, the Honkai beasts and Imaginary Constructs from earlier haven't been fully cleared out yet."
"And Ana's condition is only temporarily under control… Nagazora is probably going to be troublesome for a while. Kiana and the others will likely be quite busy."
"Then let's not cause trouble for Kiana and the others," Little Senti and Fu Hua said in unison.
"...You really are me, quite in sync."
With that, Little Senti gave Fu Hua a strange look, then patted Lynelle's head.
"How about this: you all deal with the Nagazora situation first. I'll wander around on my own for a few days… Once things settle down here, bring Lixue and that feather to Mt. Taixuan. I'll personally see what kind of existence this 'me' inside the feather really is…"
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.