The next day's sunlight rose as it always did.
The door to the Under the Stellar Sky studio swung open at eight o'clock sharp.
Durandal was the first to walk in, carrying her own coffee, and settled into her seat with a composed expression.
She opened her computer, pulled up yesterday's documents, and began going through the day's tasks one by one.
The whole process was seamless and efficient, without a single wasted motion.
Five minutes later, Dan Heng came in carrying his laptop bag, gave Durandal a nod as a greeting, and quietly got to work.
Ten minutes after that, Bronya arrived with Seele. Seele was holding two breakfast bags and murmuring something to Bronya in a low voice. Bronya wore the same unreadable expression as always.
Mei and Kiana were the last to arrive, naturally.
Kiana showed up with her hair in a complete mess, eyes not fully open yet, being led in by the hand by Mei while mumbling something about five more minutes of sleep.
"You've already had ten five-more-minutes," Mei said gently, guiding her into her seat and handing her a warm cup of soy milk. "Wake up. We have a lot of work today."
Kiana hugged the cup and stared blankly at her screen.
Over in the corner, Stelle and March 7th had, for once, already seated themselves in front of their computers.
Not that this meant they were working. The two of them had their heads pressed together, staring at the same screen, their expressions growing increasingly excited.
"No way, no way, NO WAY!"
Stelle suddenly let out a shriek that startled half the studio.
March 7th screamed right along with her. "Is this real?! At this hour?!"
Kiana nearly spilled her soy milk. Durandal's fingers paused on her keyboard. Dan Heng's glasses shifted crooked. Even the ever-unflappable Bronya gave a slight frown.
"You two," Kiana started, about to say something, when Stelle's excited voice cut her off.
"Elysia is streaming!"
"Huh?"
"Right now! Doesn't she usually go live in the evenings?!"
In an instant, most of the studio had crowded around Stelle's computer.
On the screen, that familiar pink-haired figure was waving at the camera.
"Good morning~!"
Elysia's voice came through the speakers, as sweet and lively as ever.
"Surprised to see me at this hour, aren't you?"
The chat was going wild: "I can't believe it!" "Good morning, Elysia!" "I just woke up and I'm seeing this, am I still dreaming?"
Elysia looked at the comments, smiling with her whole face. "I'm not busy today, and I know everyone's been waiting.
The next chapter of the story is almost here, so I thought I'd come warm things up for you first."
She paused and winked at the camera.
"Also, I dreamed about Kiana last night. Dreamed she was walking all alone through the snow, on and on. Poor thing. So I got up a little early today to walk alongside her~"
The chat melted immediately: "Elysia, you're too precious." "Let's go, start the stream!"
On screen, the story continued.
A vast snowfield. A solitary tower standing tall. Kiana stood in the blizzard, looking around in confusion.
She bit her lip, her gaze settling on the distant tower.
"Whatever," she said quietly. "I'll go check it out. Maybe Sis is there."
She started walking again through the snow.
Just then, the internal communicator in her Herrscher of Flamescion armor crackled with static.
"Kzzzt, Kiana..."
Kiana stopped dead.
"Sis?!"
She pressed the communicator against her ear, trying to catch the broken signal. "Sis! Is that you?!"
The voice coming through was fragmented and faint, but the tone, the familiar way of speaking. That had to be Theresa.
Kiana's eyes lit up.
"Wait for me! Sis! I'm coming!"
But when Kiana arrived at the scene, her footsteps stopped cold.
In the snow, a small figure was crouched down.
Her nun's habit was stained with a jarring red that had bled into the white snow beneath her.
Theresa, who always stood ramrod straight with all the authority of someone who never let you forget she was a principal, sat there now with a face so pale it was nearly translucent.
Her head was bowed, her hands trembling as she tried to repair her broken arm.
The chat erupted: "THERESA!!" "What is happening right now?!"
Elysia said nothing. She just watched Theresa on the screen in silence.
"Sis!"
Kiana rushed toward her.
Theresa's head snapped up, her eyes full of wariness and something else Kiana couldn't quite read.
"Stay back!"
She barked the command and activated the Judah Testament. Golden light blazed across the snowfield.
"What are you? An apparition of the Second Herrscher?!"
Kiana froze.
"Sis, it's me! Kiana!"
"Silence! Second Herrscher, don't think you can fool me with such a crude trick!"
The golden light transformed into sharp chains and shot toward Kiana.
The chat went absolutely chaotic: "????" "WHAT IS GOING ON?!" "Wait, what's the Second Herrscher?"
Elysia let out a soft sigh. "It looks like the Theresa from this point in time doesn't know Kiana yet."
Out on the snowfield, the battle broke out in an instant.
The Judah chains cut through the snow, closing in fast.
Kiana dodged desperately, but never once struck back.
"Sis! It really is me! I'm Kiana!"
"Silence! Did you think using that name would make me waver?!"
A chain grazed Kiana's cheek, leaving a thin line of red across her pale skin.
She gritted her teeth and kept dodging.
She couldn't fight back. This was Theresa. The Theresa who had brought her back to St. Freya Academy and given her a home.
The Theresa who talked tough about hellish training but cared more than anyone. How could she possibly raise a hand against her?
Then Kiana did something.
Her twin guns spun at her fingertips, tracing a smooth, fluid arc.
It was the Kaslana gunslinging style, passed down through generations of the family. Unmistakable.
Theresa's movements stopped cold.
"The Kaslana gunslinging technique. Who taught you that?"
Kiana caught her breath and looked straight at Theresa, who had finally stopped attacking.
"My dad."
"Your... dad?"
"Siegfried Kaslana."
Silence fell over the snowfield.
The confusion that crossed Theresa's face was plain as day.
The chat lost it: "That expression is EVERYTHING." "She's completely buffering."
After a chaotic round of explanations and a great deal of wild theorizing on Theresa's part, the two finally recognized each other, albeit in the most awkward way imaginable.
Theresa, for her part, remained utterly convinced that this girl who had appeared out of nowhere knowing the Kaslana gunslinging style was some secret daughter Siegfried had fathered at some point without telling anyone.
Kiana tried to explain that she was actually his niece from sixteen years in the future.
But one look at Theresa's expression, which said very clearly try me and I'll start swinging again, and Kiana wisely shut her mouth.
Still, through piecing together what Theresa had said, Kiana finally understood one thing. It was the year 2000. A full sixteen years before she was supposed to exist.
"Oh!"
Back in the studio, Kiana suddenly let out a loud yelp.
Everyone looked at her.
"I get it now!" She pointed at the screen with a look of total revelation. "The Kiana in the game went back sixteen years!"
Mei: "..."
Bronya: "..."
Seele murmured quietly, "Kiana, didn't they explain that in the story earlier?"
"Huh? Did they?" Kiana scratched the back of her head.
Bronya rubbed her temple.
"She didn't travel through time, you dunce. They said it before: the Kiana in the game entered a virtual space.
Everything she's seeing, all the people and scenery from the year 2000, it's all a simulated illusion."
"Oh, really?"
Kiana blinked, then scratched her head with a sheepish laugh. "Haha, I forgot!"
Stelle beside her was laughing so hard she was slapping the table. "Kiana, are you serious right now?! You watched the whole cutscene for nothing!"
March 7th laughed too. "You're even more clueless than the Kiana in the game!"
Kiana puffed out her cheeks. "I was just, I was just really into it, okay!"