MSA-209.
This was Fu Hua's identification number in MOTH.
After completing basic training, she successfully became a member of MOTH's 5th Squad. The captain of this squad was none other than her sponsor for joining, HIMEKO.
Having practiced martial arts since childhood, she quickly adapted to life in MOTH. But compared to the past, the smiles on her face were gone, her expression always tinged with a hint of sorrow.
Because she was no longer a student living a carefree life with her friends.
She was a soldier now.
Time passed. Unknowingly, three years had passed since Fu Hua joined MOTH.
She was no longer the little girl who knew nothing.
In the dimly lit room, Fu Hua took off her dark blue combat suit, leaving her fair skin covered by only small pieces of cloth.
She felt a little tired; after all, she had just rushed back from another region.
And so, without putting on any other clothes, Fu Hua lay down on the bed, letting the cold wind that seeped in from the window blow across her body.
It was a little cold.
Fu Hua closed her eyes, and a face surfaced in her memory.
It was Otto's face.
She remembered, three years ago in Sapphire, how Otto had shielded her, facing that terrifying figure alone.
Time had embellished the memory somewhat.
Fu Hua placed her right hand on her forehead. She could never erase the image of Otto's face and that horrifying figure from her mind.
After joining MOTH, she had learned what the Honkai was and what humanity was fighting against.
Fu Hua now felt that the malevolent figure that had appeared before her back then... was perhaps a Herrscher.
But that was the Third Honkai Eruption. The Herrscher had been born in Nagazora, and Sapphire was merely caught in the fallout.
There were no records of the Third Herrscher appearing in Sapphire.
And the first two Herrschers had been defeated long before that.
Fu Hua had once reported what she had seen and heard to the organization, but the conclusion was that it was impossible for a Herrscher to have been in Sapphire at that time. The organization deduced that, due to the sudden environmental shift and her lack of knowledge about the Honkai, what she had seen was likely just a Deadwalker.
But this was a conclusion Fu Hua found hard to accept.
Because back then, Big Brother Otto and that figure had vanished right before her eyes.
Even now, three years later, she could not forget that scene.
The person beside her had simply disappeared.
But now, six Herrschers had appeared, and not a single one of them matched the figure she had seen.
Fu Hua sighed and curled up slightly.
And then, a wave of warmth washed over her.
The feeling of something pressing down on her body.
Fu Hua felt herself being pulled into a warm embrace.
The warmth chased away the cold, making Fu Hua feel a little sleepy.
Otto was lying on top of Fu Hua, holding her gently. During this time, he had been nothing but an observer, watching Fu Hua's past unfold.
He did nothing, except to hold her gently when she was tired.
"Otto... Big Brother."
Fu Hua whispered from within his arms.
This was not her discovering Otto.
Fu Hua's fists clenched slightly.
She had a mild mental illness.
Because Fu Hua always felt as if Otto were right beside her, that he had been with her all along. And every night, she would fall asleep in a warm embrace while he rubbed her butt.
Over time, with Captain HIMEKO's help, Fu Hua went to see a psychologist.
After the examination, the psychologist's diagnosis was that after experiencing the disaster and witnessing people she knew die before her eyes, Fu Hua had developed a mild mental illness, causing her to feel that the deceased were still by her side.
It was a very common phenomenon.
Because no one could easily accept the death of a loved one.
Some husbands couldn't accept their wives' deaths, and even after they were gone, the wives continued to live on in the husbands' perceived world.
The doctor wanted to prescribe some medication for Fu Hua to help ease her tense nerves, to allow her to naturally forget the things that were causing her mental instability.
But Fu Hua refused.
Because she felt that things were fine just the way they were.
Her family and friends were all dead; was she not allowed to miss them?
If she forgot them, then wouldn't there be no one left to remember them?
As a survivor, she was the proof that they had once existed in this world.
However...
She was puzzled.
Why was it that the "Big Brother Otto who is always by my side" that she imagined was always rubbing her butt?
Fu Hua would never have guessed that it was because, of her entire body, her butt was the only part with enough flesh to feel good to the touch.
On the small bed, Otto held Fu Hua. This was no figment of her imagination; it was just that the Herrscher of Corruption had erased all perception of Otto from this world.
Even though Otto held her to sleep every night, Fu Hua never discovered the man.
"Right." Fu Hua suddenly remembered something. She slipped out of the warm embrace and walked barefoot to the wardrobe, opening it.
She had almost forgotten the reason she returned to the base.
Tonight, there was a MOTH ball.
She took out a sea-blue cheongsam from the wardrobe. Captain HIMEKO had helped her pick it out.
In her captain's words, wearing this cheongsam would make Fu Hua the focus of the ball.
But Fu Hua had no interest in the ball.
Not long ago, in order to eliminate the Sixth Herrscher, MOTH had lost three entire branches.
Comrades that Fu Hua knew had also fallen.
Faced with the Herrschers, humanity was simply too powerless, forced to pile up countless lives to achieve victory.
(The MANTIS project was initiated during the fight against the Seventh Herrscher.)
And yet, now they were holding a ball. Everyone would be in beautiful clothes, listening to music and eating snacks, so easily forgetting the grief and sacrifice.
This made Fu Hua a little uncomfortable.
In her eyes, this was just a way for people to escape reality, to gain a moment of happiness by forgetting and releasing their pain.
People needed entertainment.
A string that is always taut will one day snap.
But Fu Hua did not want to forget those memories that had left such a deep impression on her.
Like her family, her friends, her comrades, and Big Brother Otto.
Nevertheless, Fu Hua still changed into the cheongsam. If she didn't attend, her captain would probably carry her there.
Thinking of the humiliation of being carried over, Fu Hua chose to go on her own.
I'll just treat it as a buffet.
Gazing at her reflection in the mirror, dressed in the cheongsam, Fu Hua let out a soft sigh.
She looked at the empty space beside her.
"Hold me," Fu Hua said softly.
And then, she felt the sensation of being embraced from behind.
A man's hands wrapped gently around her waist.
Fu Hua leaned forward slightly, her forehead resting against the mirror as she looked at her reflection.
Heh.
This, too... is a form of escape.
---o---