Luo Lin stood at the entrance of the Institute, facing Siegfried, who had also come to find Kiana.
Beside the girl were Sirin and Senti.
And beside Siegfried stood the old acquaintance Pardofelis and the Miss Pink Elf... Wait, why were Elysia and Siegfried together this time?
Upon seeing Luo Lin, Siegfried, as usual, fell into confusion. Pardofelis hadn't yet figured out the situation, so she wouldn't speak rashly... But Elysia was different. Her eyes sparkled as she gracefully approached Luo Lin and her group.
"Hi, how are you all doing? You seem like a very close-knit family!"
Senti scratched her head and replied, "Actually, we're not a family. I'm just her good friend..."
"Oh, a good friend... You look a lot like one of my good friends."
Elysia blinked and said softly.
Luo Lin turned to look at Senti, who didn't react much...
What's going on? Has Senti not remembered anything yet?
Luo Lin thought for a moment and realized that it might be because Fu Hua had burned her memories with Fenghuang Down too fiercely. After waking up, Senti simply synced briefly with Fu Hua's memories, not retrieving anything from a long time ago (referring to fifty thousand years ago).
Then Senti was called out by Luo Lin, and they had been busy until now (actually, it felt like they played more than they worked). Senti hadn't even used Fenghuang Down, so naturally, she hadn't noticed her "abnormality."
—As long as she wanted to, she could completely bypass Fenghuang Down and directly hypnotize enemies, organizing memories. Everything Fenghuang Down could do, she could do. And what Fenghuang Down couldn't do, Senti could.
But Senti hadn't fully grasped this yet. She still thought she was "Fu Hua," and since "Fu Hua" couldn't do anything with the semi-disabled Fenghuang Down, Senti had set aside her abilities.
The wielder of the abilities was crying inside.
"Hello, beautiful young lady! My name is Elysia, and you?"
Elysia looked at little Sirin and took the initiative to approach, seeming very interested in the child.
Miss Pink Elf was also someone who liked to smile. Her smile was different from Senti's usual "fanatical" smile; it was cuter and more approachable.
Sirin looked at Elysia, and somehow, she gained courage. She waved her hand and said, "Hello, Sister Elysia, my name is Sirin!"
Siegfried shivered. This name brought him out of his confusion, and then he saw the familiar, unmistakable purple-haired girl standing next to "Cecilia" and "Fu Hua," and she was getting along well with the Elysia he had just met.
That's Sirin! The Second Herrscher!
Cecilia, Fu Hua, you are warriors against the Honkai! Why are you just standing by? Have you both betrayed us?!
No, this scene seems familiar... Have I fallen under the influence of Fenghuang Down?
During this half-minute brainstorming in Siegfried's brain, Elysia had already learned from Sirin the purpose of Luo Lin's group's visit.
"Looking for Kiana Kaslana? That's too coincidental. I won't forget this impressive girl!"
Sirin asked, "What's so impressive about her?"
"Of course, it's her appetite."
Luo Lin nodded in understanding.
So, a group of people walked into the Institute lively. Soon, Luo Lin saw the familiar pink-haired masked girl and approached them, leading them to a secluded corner, where they saw the white bug eating pork chop rice in the house.
"Mom, Dad!"
Kiana jumped up excitedly from her chair, then almost choked on her food. Fortunately, Sakura handed her a glass of water in time, and Kiana drank a few mouthfuls, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Slow down, Kiana!"
Luo Lin walked into the room, patted the girl's back, and Siegfried followed in with a complicated expression, looking at the silly white fluffy ball, and his intuition told him that this was his Kiana he raised...
At this point, Kiana had already caught her breath and couldn't wait to ask, "Mom, weren't we still fighting Honkai beasts earlier? How did we suddenly come back?"
Luo Lin's mouth opened wide. "Huh? You remember?"
"Why wouldn't I remember...?"
The two looked at each other.
Kiana finally had some thoughts. She hesitated and said, "Could it be that this has happened many, many times, and I've forgotten them all? Is it... time reversal?"
Luo Lin raised her eyebrows, finding it hard to imagine that Kiana could come up with such a guess. "Unfortunately, you guessed right."
"..."
Sirin, Senti, and Elysia also entered the room. Sirin curiously counted the empty lunch boxes on the table and said thoughtfully, "Younger sister Kiana seems to have only eaten eighty percent of her meal..."
Upon hearing this voice, Kiana snapped out of her reverie and looked at the purple-haired girl, feeling quite good about her.
The only problem was that Sirin was very concerned about the fact that "she was the older sister and Kiana was the younger sister." However, because she seemed young, Kiana didn't want to dwell on it and just went along with it.
"Sirin, how do you know I only ate eighty percent of my meal!"
"Humph, because I'm your sister!"
The purple-haired girl raised her head proudly, very proud.
Pardofelis had originally planned to follow Elysia into the room to see what was going on, but she casually glanced and saw a black wallet in the corner of the corridor.
—Oh! Good luck!
Pardofelis left the group, trotted over to pick up the thing, but after weighing the wallet a few times, she gave up on the idea of taking it away—after all, this was their own research institute, where colleagues were everywhere, and it wasn't good to just take away a colleague's wallet.
So, she stood in place and shouted.
"Whose wallet is this?"
"Clang!"
Just then, a loud noise came from nearby, scaring Pardofelis, who had been hiding her tail, causing it to stick out like a straight furry stick.
"Meow? What's going on?!"
She looked in the direction of the sound and saw Luo Lin's group being suddenly shut in a room by a heavy door that had just descended from above.
Siegfried instinctively pulled out the Judgement of Shamash, only to find a shiny katana already resting on his neck. The man looked at the pink-haired masked girl with some surprise and exclaimed, "What a fast sword!"
"Hey hey hey?! What's going on, Sakura! Put the sword down, this gentleman doesn't have any ill intentions!"
Elysia was shocked and tried to intervene, but Sakura remained indifferent. She just glanced at Miss Pink Fairy and said, "Elysia, you should explain to us why you're mingling with these dangerous elements..."
Luo Lin sighed, "Why have we suddenly become dangerous elements?"
"Mom, this might be related to me..."
Kiana scratched her head awkwardly, "When I appeared in the Institute, I was still carrying two pistols with red-hot barrels... At that time, I hadn't realized that time had rewound, and I was wandering around looking for Honkai beasts with my guns..."
That's enough to lock you and the people looking for you up. Just from your behavior, you seem like a suspect in a shooting case.
Elysia and Sakura stared at each other for a few seconds, then sighed, "Well, alright, I'll tell you how I met this white-haired gentleman..."
"Early this morning, I sensed some subtle Honkai energy fluctuations, so I asked Dr. Mei for leave and went out to search for clues. After looking for half a day, the fluctuations suddenly disappeared... On the way back, I saw Pardofelis leading this gentleman as a guide, so I went over to greet her and naturally met Mr. Siegfried."
"After a brief exchange, I found that Mr. Siegfried had excellent martial arts skills and was well-trained, so I decided to invite him to look for clues with me..."
Miss Pink Elf blinked and continued.
"Then, I followed them to the Institute, and shortly afterward, we were locked in the house by you guys. Pardofelis, do you agree? Hey? Where's Pardofelis?"
"Elysia? Is there a mechanical malfunction in this room?" Pardofelis's voice came from outside the room, sounding a bit muffled, "Luckily, I'm lucky. I didn't go in with you. Wait for me to find someone to get you out... Oh, Dr. Mobius, please come and see what's wrong here!"
"...I ordered them to be locked up."
The lady with green hair and snake pupils walked out from the side, followed by the uneasy Raiden Mei.
"Elysia, are you sure you didn't find any clues?" Mobius looked at the people standing in the room and asked meaningfully.
"Yes, I'm sure. Let them out quickly? They really mean no harm."
The green-haired lady fell silent for a moment, then turned her gaze to Raiden Mei.
"It's up to you, Dr. Mei."
Kiana Kaslana.
Of course, Raiden Mei couldn't forget the other party. That was a quite mysterious classmate.
Kaslana was supposed to be a noble from Europe, but she chose to come to the Far East to study. It seemed that she hadn't received elite education for nobles, and she even made mistakes on relatively basic questions...
Mysterious.
But in terms of physical fitness, she far surpassed everyone else, even making the muscular sports teacher suffer from diarrhea.
More importantly, Raiden Mei had already watched the surveillance video of Kiana wandering around the Institute with two guns earlier, and she even discovered some shadows of practical combat martial arts in Kiana's movements—those were genuine killing techniques, not just ordinary poses for practice.
Very... mysterious.
"Seeing your confident appearance, it seems that you understand the current situation... Why am I appearing in this strange world and even being mistaken for someone else..."
Raiden Mei pinched her fingers, pretending to be nonchalant, "Let them out, I have some questions for these people."
"You're in charge."