A month has passed since the holidays, Daniel continued his usual job as a janitor.
This past month, there was nothing major that happened. Hell, he even forgot that he's in a dangerous world for some time.
Unfortunately, those peaceful days didn't last. Day by day, the effect of Raiden Ryoma's incident became visible, from isolation to pure bullying, it made Raiden Mei's school life worse.
"Don't mind them." Daniel waved his hand in an attempt to comfort her.
They are currently on the rooftop. No one would bother Raiden Mei here, and it's also the most peaceful place in the school, away from those aristocratic students.
Raiden Mei didn't reply and just nodded. It seems that she was in a trance.
Daniel was frustrated but there was nothing he could do, he wasn't that good at comforting people.
'I wish Kiana was here.' He thought with a sigh.
Right on cue, the rooftop door burst open and a white haired dumpling came out.
"Mei-senpai!"
Ignoring Daniel, Kiana jumped on Raiden Mei only to meet the former's hand.
*Bang!*
"Sorry, I thought it was a dog." Looking at the girl on the ground, Daniel said expressionlessly.
Normally, Kiana would quarrel with Daniel but ever since Raiden Mei came to their group, she changed.
"Mei-senpai! The school janitor is bullying me." Kiana stood up once again and hugged the purple haired girl.
"K-Kiana-chan!" Looking at Kiana who's rubbing at her chest, Raiden Mei's face turned red.
Although she was used to Kiana clinging on to her, it was still embarrassing, especially when Daniel watched on the side.
During this past month, Kiana has become bolder and bolder, to the point that her shame has been completely thrown out the window when are related to her.
"Idiot, can't you see that she's uncomfortable?" Daniel pulled the back of Kiana's collar and lifted her like a cat.
"H-Hey! Stop that!" Kiana struggled but didn't resist.
After this month, that has been Daniel's role.
Keep Kiana on line so she wouldn't be branded as a pervert.
Not that there's any need to.
"Anyway, what got you so down?" Daniel asked curiously.
He wanted to say no offense but he didn't feel it's appropriate.
Kiana wanted to scold him when she heard this. Isn't it obvious why she's down?
Raiden Mei wasn't bothered by this. Over the weeks, she's gotten used to Daniel's emotional intelligence.
Add to the fact that it's a different reason altogether.
"It's….about the Kendo Club." She said with her head down.
Daniel and Kiana lean closer hearing this.
"What's wrong with that?" The janitor asked.
"The Kendo Club is close to competing but after that…. incident, they have been pressuring me to quit." Raiden Mei muttered.
"Couldn't you just leave then? I don't think it's important now." Daniel asked with a confused expression.
"Yeah Mei-senpai, couldn't others just compete?" Kiana nodded to the side.
"Hehehe, I'm the president of the club and the members have quitted one by one after finding out about my father's crime." Raiden Mei smiled wryly.
She was reluctant to leave the club since it's been with her ever since she got into this school.
Even if other people leave, she still persisted and shoulder the responsibility as the club president.
Unfortunately, people just want to target her and even now at the most important part, they want to get rid of her.
"That…. doesn't make sense. How can students do that to you?" Daniel asked with a bewildered look.
What's with students having power in fiction?
"It's not just them unfortunately, even the faculty wants it removed…. Unless I leave the club myself." Raiden Mei wanted to cry.
"Hmph, they are just jealous of Mei-senpai's talent." Kiana muttered with anger.
"That's for sure." Daniel shook his head. Talent is naturally envied by others, especially if the one who has it are also those who stand at the top of the hierarchy.
People like those are not uncommon, especially at a prestigious school like this.
"What are you going to do now? I highly doubt they would just let it go. They wouldn't care about what you're experiencing now." Daniel asked the purple haired in question.
'They'd likely make you even more miserable if they found out.'
"I.. don't know." Raiden Mei lowered her head.
Kiana looked frustrated by this. Aside from beating people up and fighting against the Honkai, she's not good in terms of conspiracy.
"I hate it. Why are they doing this to me? I didn't do anything wrong!" Raiden Mei suddenly exclaimed, her purple eyes have now turned red.
"M-Mei-senpai?"
Kiana was startled and immediately called out.
Raiden Mei didn't hear what Kiana was saying and she's still muttering about the unfairness of the world.
"Mei!"
"H-Huh?" Hearing Daniel's voice, Mei's red eyes vanished and she looked at him with a confused expression.
"Lunch is almost over." He tapped his watch and reminded her.
"O-Oh, I-I see.." Raiden Mei stood up like a robot and walked down the stairs mechanically.
After Raiden Mei went down, Kiana give Daniel a punch in the side before asking with a glare,
"Why'd you have to say that to Mei-senpai?!"
Daniel sighed as he looked at this girl's angry face.
"Talking to her and comforting her would do nothing but delay the inevitable, unless we get her self-esteem back, she'll still be trapped in…whatever she's experiencing now."
"I know…. But what else can we do? Unless we can solve her father's crime, nothing would change."
"I have two ideas that might help, it depends if I'm correct or not."
"What are those?" Kiana asked anxiously.
It's been a month and there's no progress of Raiden Mei's mood improving.
Although she's hiding it, they can tell in a glance that there's something wrong with her mental health.
Considering what happened, it's not surprising.
If it can help her, she would listen to what Daniel says.
"I'm going straight to the point. Raiden Mei might turn to what Asakura Mizuki have become." Daniel took a deep breath and said.
"W-What are you—?" Kiana's eyes widened in panic.
"Honkai Energy."
Those words made Kiana's attempt on dodging the topic stop.
After that incident, Daniel didn't bring it up again nor questioned about what happened.
This made Kiana, who was ready to spill the truth about Honkai, frustrated and eventually, after the holidays, just forgot about it.
Daniel wasn't really interested since he already has some inside knowledge and considering how Kiana didn't bring it up herself, he didn't ask.
A misunderstanding of the two but in the end, it gave them peace.
Since no one questioned, the two just forgot about those things and continued their normal life.
Until this situation that is.
"Since you already know it, why didn't you say it to me?" Kiana sighed and asked with an annoyed tone.
"You didn't say it first so I thought we should just forget about it." Daniel shrugged.
Kiana has no refute about that.
"So you mean that Raiden Mei might turn into that?" Since it's no one's fault, Kiana didn't press any further.
"Herrscher, well, a non complete Herrscher… I guess a Pseudo Herrscher?" Daniel wasn't really sure what to call her.
"A Herrscher? Wait, I think I heard that before…" Kiana put on a thoughtful look.
Daniel looked at her with a blank face after hearing that.
"Seriously? I thought you're supposed to have more knowledge about Honkai than me?"
"I-I just forgot okay!" Kiana replied with a blush.
When she was with her cheap dad in Siberia, she did hear him talk about Herrschers.
Unfortunately, it was only mentioned and her dad didn't say anything about it after.
She wasn't really touchy about it since after her dad left, most of her Honkai encounters are either zombies, dead warriors and Honkai beasts.
As for Herrschers?
Sorry, her brain has already thrown that away.
"Anyway! How do you know about all of this?" Kiana didn't like being embarrassed in front of him so she immediately changed the topic.
"I only know a thing or two, it isn't that profound compared to others." Daniel said with a shake of his head.
"Then what do you mean about Mei-senpai?"
"Just what I said, she might turn into a Herrscher." He said frankly.
Kiana bit her lips hearing that.
"Wait, you said that you have an idea about how to solve this right?" Kiana's eyes brightened and urged him to ask a question.
"I only said might but," Daniel dragged his words, "don't you find it strange why Raiden Mei is in this situation?"
"Huh?" Kiana's stupid look appeared again.
"Sigh…. I suspect that there's something behind the scenes of Raiden Mei's situation." Daniel explained it to her.
"Why would you think that?" Although surprised, Kiana didn't refute him.
"Raiden Mei's father has only been charged with various crimes that have not yet to be proven, with his status, the most that the authorities can do to him is house arrest."
Massive Electric Corp is a multi billion dollar company, even if he's in charge of spending billions of dollars, the authorities can't just arrest him out of nowhere.
"Especially Nagazora City, you can say that this is Raiden Ryoma's home court. In terms of influence, no one can beat him here."
"This is not even including that ME Corp is central in scientific advancement. Unless people here want to die, I don't think they'll persecute the number one power in their city."
"Unless…"
"Unless what?" Kiana eagerly leaned towards him.
"Unless an equal power has kicked him off from his seat. That's the only explanation that despite his influence and authority, he is still helpless in this situation."
Kiana smacked her fist and palm together and made a sound.
"So you're saying that Mei-senpai's father might be innocent?"
"That's just a guess. Considering Raiden Ryoma's situation, then there must be some truth to it." He added just to make sure.
He doesn't know Raiden Ryoma personally, and all of these guesses are just based on his own deduction.
"Still, that's a great guess. You're so smart Daniel." Kiana patted his back with a smile.
"I'm going to tell this to Mei-senpai." She was about to run off but Daniel grabbed her arm.
"I don't think that's wise."
"But why?"
"Raiden Mei is having problems with her club. I think we should solve that first before dropping her the news."
"And it's just a guess. Giving her false hope is not what she needs right now." Daniel replied helplessly.
"I see…" Her mood dropped hearing that.
"But don't worry, I have a way to fix this. Just leave it to me." Letting go of her hand, Daniel patted her shoulder and assured her.
"What will you do?" Kiana was confused, what can Daniel do in his situation?
"You'll see." Daniel replied with a smirk.