Getting back into the main Senba building proved to be less of a problem than Soleil had getting out of it to begin with. For as brief a time as it had been, most of the zombies seemed to have cleared out since, though there were still a fair few of the shamblers left roaming the halls by the time Soleil and Kiana had breached their way back in.
And in their search for an immediate safe zone, had diverted to the first floor nurse's office, luckily clear of any zombies or bodies. One door barred by a broom and blocked with a bed and a few shut curtains alter, and the two had a chance to slow down amid it all.
"Hmm… good on ammo, but I'm going to need to be conservative with my shots. Tch… should've tried to get a battery-powered gun before I left," Kiana was grumbling to herself as she checked her pistol, a flick of her wrist setting the slide back in place as she set the magazine back into position. "So, what's a third-year student like you doing carrying around Schicksal tech like that bat of yours, hm?"
"You first, Miss Kaslana," Soleil leaned against a bed as he scoffed. "I'll repeat: What's a member of the Four Houses doing here in Nagazora?"
"Exchange study, I guess," Kiana gave a shrug, though Soleil didn't look convinced. "Bad joke I suppose. I'm kind of here on a mission. See I'm not just a run of the mill Valkyrie—"
"Wouldn't expect run of the mill out of a Kaslana."
"Ahem," Kiana gave Soleil a cross look for his snark. "I'm not just a Kaslana! My mother also happens to be a mother of the Schariac family. So, I'm not just any Valkyrie you know?"
"Uh huh. And what rank are you?"
Kiana puffed out a cheek as she kicked a foot. "B. But that's more than enough! Valkyries don't even get to go out on field missions like this unless they're at least B Rank you know? Besides, I'll be A Rank soon enough! No, not even A, I'll be an S Rank before anyone knows it!"
"Can we back up to the part where you said your mom is a Schariac?" Soleil tilted his head, Kiana tilting her head up with a prideful giggle. "The hell kind of whack ass situation am I in right now? Ah, whatever. So, what's this mission of yours, huh?"
"Ahtata! You need to tell me who you are first, Rei-senpai! You wouldn't be carrying around Schicksal tech like that if you were just some rando student! Plus you stand out way too much with how you look to boot!"
"Pot meet kettle," Soleil's snark earned another glare, and he gave a relenting sigh. "I'm also with Schicksal. North American Branch, Anti-Entropy unit in particular."
"Isn't that the division that does most of the mech research? I thought they didn't deploy Valkyries or Knights at all."
"Yeah, well… I'm something of an exception," Soleil wanted to go quiet, but Kiana was giving him an all too insistent stare. "And I'm not really on some mission. I'm actually here on exchange study program. Let me guess, you got sent here to Nagazora because Schicksal was picking up on the rise of Honkai energy or something?"
"More of a… predictive model someone I know put together," Kiana strode to one of the windows, tugging the curtain aside just enough to look outside, grimacing as the storm overhead was looking ready to get worse than just booming thunder alone. "Some fancy program or something he can use to track stuff like this. No clue how it works. All I was told that there might be an outbreak like this in Nagazora, so I was sent in to see if I could find the cause. Still, kind of glad I don't have to prance around playing pretend anymore, playing the nice lady was getting old."
"Senba was an all-girl's school until a few years ago. Guess the mentality stuck around."
"Yeah yeah. Well then…" Kiana put her hands to her hips, cocking her waist to the side a bit as she flashed a smirk. "Since we're both stuck in this situation now, Mr. Anti-Entropy, how about we both go after the Source and find out what caused this Impact? You were planning on going after it too, right?"
"Of course I was. And I can't argue an extra pair of hands is better… wait a second," Soleil felt another ding in his head. "Wouldn't a squad have been sent in for a suspected Impact event? Why are you the only Valkyrie here, huh?"
"Well, it wasn't clear if it would happen. So, I was sent alone to monitor someone," Kiana pulled her phone out, flicking her finger across the screen, then showing Soleil an image. "This girl right here. Raiden Mei, the daughter of ME Corporation's CEO. Heard of her?"
The mugshot was of a girl their age, bearing an elegant yet dour countenance. Black hair falling around her like a curtain, and striking violet eyes staring ahead.
"Not a soul in Senba doesn't know who Mei is," Soleil said, Kiana giving a nod. And Soleil's brow knit as troubled thoughts rose up. "Heck, she and I are classmates in homeroom. But I didn't think anything was too up with her… well, aside from the whole shut-away thing she does."
"Oh I know the story," Kiana sat down on one of the beds, letting her phone lay on her thigh as she folded her legs. "The darling daughter of ME Corp, practically the idol of Nagazora's esteemed Academy City. Only for it all to turn on its head when her father was arrested for embezzlement. And like that, she went from idol to pariah… the kind of change that can foster the worst of emotions in a person, don't you think?"
"Emotions that would be perfect for a certain something to pry in on… you're telling me Mei's suspected as being a Herrscher candidate?"
"Eh, just a theory. Won't know until we find her. Or whatever else this Source could be. I wanna be optimistic and say it isn't her."
"And if it is her?"
"Then I'll just have to save her, of course!"
"That so, huh?" Soleil let out a slight chuckle, though his expression fell a bit, hidden by his hair as he looked down. [Saving a Herrscher, huh? I wonder if that kind of thing is even possible. Hehe… though I'm sure the geezer would have something to say about it. Granted, he's kind of an exception to the rule.]
Herrscher. The title that had only been used twice within the history of the world. A "Ruler of the Honkai", humans who through one mean or another had gained near-godlike power through the Honkai rather than become mutated by its corruptive effects. The arrival of one was the heraldry of a coming disaster. This, however, was not something made known to the public.
After all, how would they react to knowing that the world-altering disasters that were the Impacts were in fact caused by one of their own?
"Then I guess we need to find wherever Mei holed up and hope for the best," Soleil stood straight, picking his back up as his dour expression raised back to a confident grin. "So, how close does it say we are anyway?"
"About… fifty meters," Kiana gave a hum. "That'd be somewhere on the third floor or rooftop, right? Haaagh, it's gonna be a lot of fighting to get to either isn't it?"
"Not much else we can do," with a quick yank, Soleil pulled aside the bed that had been blocking the door. A sigh left him when the door immediately buckled a bit alongside a thud. "I'm surprised the broom is holding that well."
"Our classmates suddenly got very rude, didn't they?" Kiana snickered as she chambered her pistol, holding it up as she joined Soleil at the door. "Time to put more of them to rest."
"The only favor we can do for them now."