One can tell a person's mental state just by looking at their eyes.
While helping Lin cook, Mobius quietly observed his expression. Perhaps he didn't need to wear a helmet, because he was already a person without any expression, but his gaze had truly changed.
Mobius hadn't seen Lin eyes from before, so she couldn't compare, but she believed these eyes—like frozen lakes—weren't the kind that the Lin who had been trying his best to change himself recently would show.
Her gaze shifted, landing on Lin hand as he chopped the vegetables slowly and carefully. She asked as if casually, "You said before you were going to visit that assassin named Sakura home, right?"
"..." Lin stopped his hand and glanced at the back of Mobius head. "...I probably won't be going anymore."
"Why?"
"...There's no time, and no necessity."
"Do you want to go?"
"No."
Lin brushed the bits off the knife, set it aside, and lit the fire to boil water—this step didn't require Mobius help.
He did all of this in a business-like manner.
...
"Dystopia, are you okay?"
"..."
Kosma never thought he would be the one comforting someone.
Dystopia stood in the cemetery. Her expression wasn't one of grief, but Kosma felt her sadness surging like a tide, submerging his ankles.
She came here wanting to see a name.
But that name would not be carved on this monument for the fallen.
Because Fire Moth could not treat a Herrscher the same as other casualties.
"Kosma, did Captain do anything wrong?" Dystopia clenched her fists and stood before these names with her head bowed. In the past, standing here made her feel the weight of these names, but now, she only felt that a piece of her heart was empty.
"...Dystopia, this isn't something we can control."
Dystopia had been at the 19th Branch in Australia and witnessed the destruction of a city with her own eyes—and the culprit was her beloved captain.
"Why did this have to happen to Captain?" Her eyes welled with tears as she suppressed her voice, as if an unquenchable fire was burning in her chest. "Why does humanity have to go through this?"
"..."
Kosma stood silently behind her. He knew he was clumsy with words and not good at expressing himself, so it was better to let her vent for a while.
Kosma also thought of that girl who would eat instant noodles with him in the middle of the night. She was like a bubble that flashed through his life; before he could even process it, before he even knew if they counted as friends, she had easily drifted away.
Outside was a clamor completely different from the quiet cemetery. They were excitedly discussing humanity's victory, shouting that humanity had won.
Did humanity win?
Kosma looked at the cemetery packed with the names of the deceased, and at Dystopia sobbing in front of it.
Humanity... did it win?
...
Hua wiped the dust off a photo frame. She silently gazed at the shy version of herself in the glass, Lin sitting in a wheelchair wrapped in bandages, the girl with highlights stealing a glance at Lin, and the boisterous red-haired woman with her arm around her.
She didn't know what profound speech she should give to express her feelings.
She only knew that she actually missed the past very much.
Whether it was her student days in Canghai City when she could call her father to chat and go out with friends for wonton noodles, or her days as a recruit protected by Lin and Himeko, the memories were incredibly clear.
Only here and now did she realize that when people mourn the past, they can only rely on memories.
"Hua, what is it?"
Immer took up a stack of beer cans and asked when he saw Hua standing motionless.
"No... it's nothing." Hua put away the photo frame. "Thank you, Immer, for helping me pack Himeko's things."
"Don't thank me. I was also often taken care of by Captain Himeko." Immer's temperament took after Lin; in most cases, he could think calmly and quickly organize his mindset. "Hua, do you have any plans for the future?"
"...The future?" Hua remembered she had said she wanted to travel after the Honkai ended.
"Yeah. I plan to get more involved in intelligence analysis. There's still too little information regarding the Honkai. Many sacrifices happened because of inaccurate intelligence. And since even aliens exist, humanity might face more than just the threat of Honkai in the future. Intelligence should be the top priority."
Hua instinctively placed her hand on the photo frame; the cold touch made her pause for two seconds.
After humanity defeated the Honkai, was it still not over?
Then, the "future" Captain Himeko looked forward to, the "future" Captain Lin told her to choose... did they truly exist?
"I want to... know the answer," she murmured in a barely audible voice.
She wanted to ask the departed Himeko... no, the Seventh Herrscher.
...
"You are the hero of this Large-Scale Honkai Eruption. Are you really not going to the ball to share a few drinks?"
"..."
The rain poured down. He heard the sound of the metal roof being soaked by the rain. In this rainy season, welcoming a rainstorm was practically a daily routine; the trickling water would gather from the edges into a stream and finally flow into the ocean.
Kevin heard it all clearly, even if he didn't want to.
He stood in the center of the gym. A bone-chilling cold spread from his feet to the floor; the low temperature, which only specialized cold-resistant clothing could withstand, was spreading to the surroundings when he wasn't paying attention.
It was as if he were standing in another lonely world; no one stood before him, and no one would stand behind him.
Kevin looked down at the ground, which was turning white from the frost. He took a deep breath, controlled the icy chill in his body, and turned to look at Mei standing at the door.
Mei could only stand at that distance. If she moved any closer, she would be pierced by this cold.
Kevin's cold expression relaxed the moment he saw Mei. He shook his head slightly: "Forget it. I'm no longer suited for crowded places."
"I think many people would be willing to put on cold-resistant suits just to see you," Mei said with a smile.
"But I don't want to see a ballroom full of canned people in bulky clothes." Kevin closed his eyes and imagined the scene; he would probably have nightmares at night. "Besides... I'm not a hero. From any perspective, I'm not."
"...Lin volunteered just like you did."
"But I volunteered to believe in you, while Lin volunteered to die. He joined the MANTIS project from the start just to provide a trial-and-error opportunity for the surgery." Kevin turned his head away. "He is a failure, and I am a success, but one shouldn't be worshipped as a hero just because of that."
"But humanity needs a hero."
"I know. But I have you. What does Lin have now?"
Kevin stood there, face to face with Mei.
They seemed very close, yet also very far apart.
Was it the cold that separated them... or something else?
Finally, Kevin took a step forward, crossing that distance.