Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

"Kiana!" Before Kiana, whose mouth was full of food, could reply, Mei's voice came from behind her.

"Quickly put those undercooked foods back; they'll make you sick."

"Mmm... It's okay, Mei, and Snow too, right? Thanks for your concern." Kiana, after gulping down the food in her mouth, waved her hand dismissively.

"I got used to it when I was wandering alone. There wasn't much good food back then, but you get used to it," Kiana said, grabbing a skewer from her clothes and stuffing it into her mouth—then her arms and shoulders were grabbed by the three girls beside her.

"Uh... what are you going to do?"

"Kiana..." Mei looked at the girl in front of her, wanting to say something, but not knowing how to express it.

"Miss Kiana...you...we..." This was also at a loss for words, as was the response from Hōraiji Kyushō.

"Hey... what's wrong with you guys? Mei, why do you look like you're about to cry? I don't need your pity!"

“Miss Kiana Kaslana... please look at us,” the blonde girl said solemnly to the white fluffy creature in front of her.

"Remember, you are no longer alone—" Snow pointed out the thoughts in the two girls' minds, while Jiu Xiao and Mei stood by.

"Uh...why are you suddenly so serious? Okay, okay, I know, I won't eat anything undercooked anymore," Kiana chuckled awkwardly, pulling out all the food she had hidden from her and putting it back on the grill.

[She seemed uncomfortable with this sudden closeness, but it didn't matter; just like she said, she'd get used to it.] Snow watched the white-haired girl put the food she'd hidden on her person back onto the grill, pondering this, and then... his expression gradually began to twist.

...? ? ? ?

"You... just how much stuff are you hiding on your person??? Are you some kind of hamster?!"

"Hahahaha—wait, I haven't settled the score with you for kicking me down the stairs yet!"

"Oh? Really? I saw you enjoying it quite a bit back then."

"What! Enough talk, take this!"

"Wow~ Wow, someone's getting impatient, I won't say who she is—"

"Ahhh, I'm going to make holes in you, make holes in you!"

Chapter Four: The Stigmata and Her Past

At six o'clock the next morning, Snow opened his eyes precisely on time, a habit ingrained in his instincts from 16 years of living there. He dressed in his sleeping bag, quickly crawled out of the warm bed, and stretched his body.

Picking up a towel and water glass from the side, grabbing a bottle of alcohol from the first-aid kit, and stepping over the fast-sleeping Jiuxiao and Kiana, she headed towards the restroom on the floor. Unsurprisingly, Raiden Mei was there too.

"Good morning, Snow-kun. Aren't you going to sleep a little longer?" Mei greeted the girl as she entered.

"No, I'm used to getting up at six." She wet the towel, wiped her face with it, the cold water washing away the last trace of sleepiness. She washed the towel again, wrung it out, poured the medical alcohol she'd brought onto it, and applied it to her left forearm.

There were five distinct scratch marks there, seemingly left by someone with sharp fingernails. Snow frowned slightly as an alcohol-soaked towel stung the wounds.

"Are you alright, Snow?" The black-haired girl asked with some concern, noticing Snow's slightly furrowed brow.

"Of course, it's just the normal stinging sensation from alcohol disinfection, Mei-senpai, don't worry," Snow replied matter-of-factly.

"Are those wounds left by those monsters?" Mei asked again, still unwilling to give up.

"No, I accidentally got caught by Kiana during our playful fight last night. It's nothing serious; minor injuries from roughhousing are normal." Snow seemed to have thought of something, a pleased smile playing on his lips.

"Oh, really? Seriously... Everyone should get along well, Kiana too, and Snow, you too..." Mei seemed a little angry, switching into motherly mode and starting to nag incessantly.

"Mmm... Mei-senpai, I understand." The blonde girl nodded her head like a typewriter.

"Sigh... Come here and let me see if you're hurt anywhere else." Mei sighed as she looked at the blonde girl who was just nodding, and then her expression turned serious.

"Uh... alright." Seeing Raiden Mei's serious expression, Snow obediently moved closer. Offending the team's catering matron was no good idea—of course, he couldn't say that to Mei's face.

The blonde girl's attire was simple: a black sports vest and a matching white cape at the back, with a cloak draped over it. She wore a white skirt and black stockings.

The cloak and cape covering her back were quickly removed, and Raiden Mei's attention was drawn to the black mark between the two shoulder blades on the blonde girl's back.

It was a bizarre combination: a single eye served as the main mark, backed by runes resembling a book, and a sword, or perhaps a candle, pierced through it from top to bottom.

In a daze, Raiden Mei felt the one-eyed creature in front of her blink, its eyeball rolling and staring at her eerily.

"Ah!" the girl cried out in surprise.

"What's wrong, Mei-senpai?!" Snow reacted quickly, assuming a fighting stance the moment Mei's scream escaped her lips.

"It's nothing... Snow-kun has a penchant for tattoos, right?" Mei patted her chest to calm her startled heart and asked the junior next to her.

"Tattoos? No, I don't have that hobby. Mei-senpai, you know I'm a well-known model student in the academy, so what's wrong?" A somewhat unreliable answer came to Snow's mind.

"On your back... Snow, roughly between your shoulder blades, there's a black mark, like a tattoo. Hmm... it's roughly a combination of a book, an eye, and something that looks like a sword or a candle," Mei described to the girl what was on her back.

"As I stared at the pattern, it seemed to move; the single eye seemed to blink at me."

"I have a mark on my back, and it even winked at you while staring at you, senior? Hmm... maybe we should ask Kiana. She should be quite familiar with these things, right? After all, she cleared those monsters so easily; she should know a lot about these things."

“After all, I’ve never seen this kind of pattern on a back before; it could only have appeared in the last couple of days,” Snow shrugged.

"Okay... let's go back to find Kiana now." Mei grabbed the girl's arm and ran towards the room where Kiana and the others had been resting.

The girl whose arm was being pulled turned around and her face immediately darkened.

[The mark that suddenly appeared on my body... it's probably just a stigmata, but it moves? Are there stigmasta that move...? Hmm, of course, we can't rule out the possibility that Raiden Mei is mistaken. Her mental state is only temporarily stable. Until she receives the tangible psychological reassurance of having a bomb implanted in her heart, there's always the possibility of fluctuations... Hmm, there's also the possibility that she's seeing some kind of special effect inherent in my stigmata.]

In short, with the Stigmata as an excuse, my actions are no longer as restrained as before. I can begin to show some of my abilities in the upcoming confrontation with Bronya, which is good news. Having made up his mind, Snow put away his slightly gloomy expression and revealed a somewhat panicked and helpless look as he followed Mei back to a classroom that was serving as a temporary bedroom.

Kiana was still fast asleep, her lips pursed, a thin line of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth and falling to the ground. If you were to get closer, you could probably hear her murmuring in her sleep.

"I want Mei-flavored instant noodles!"

...No, now I probably won't need to lean in to hear it, and I'll also wake up Jiu Xiao, who's already a light sleeper.

Three pairs of eyes of different colors looked at the white fluffy ball in the middle, who was still sleeping soundly.

"I want to drink Mei's sister juice!" Kiana continued to utter these outrageous (weird) words under the watchful eyes of the three.

...a deathly silence fell over the air.

Snow, who had somehow appeared beside Jiu Xiao, handed a pair of sunglasses to his companion. Jiu Xiao, without warning, put them on, then pulled out a can of cola and a watermelon from who-knows-where and gave them to his friend who was also wearing sunglasses.

"Kiana! What are you saying—!" The next moment, lightning filled the entire classroom.

--

"What... Mei, don't worry! That golden-haired monster's back has a Stigmata, which is what allows us humans to move around in areas with high Honkai energy. As for the moving Stigmata you mentioned, Mei, you're probably mistaken, or maybe that guy's Stigmata has some kind of hallucinogenic effect. Look, I have Stigmata too!" Kiana turned around and lifted the back of her clothes, revealing a bright red mark composed of a longsword and wings.

"Isn't it beautiful, Mei? My old man told me it has a really nice name—'The Wings of the Kaslana Family'!" The white-haired girl seemed to be showing off, even spinning around in place.

"Hmm...it's good that you're alright...Miss Jiuxiao should have some too, right?" Mei seemed to remember something and looked at Penglai Temple Jiuxiao, who was watching the drama unfold.

"Huh? Me? I haven't noticed, but I guess I've been able to stay here for quite a while," Jiu Xiao said somewhat uncertainly, having gotten himself involved in the gossip.

[I either have a Holy Mark, or a Core, or both] Jiuxiao thought to himself.

"Hey, what would it be like?" The white fluffy ball's curiosity was piqued.

"Ahem... Now that the confusion is resolved, let's continue our journey after breakfast. As for the Nine Heavens' Stigmata, we can look into it after we escape from here," Snow interrupted Kiana's questioning with a cough, completely diverting her attention by bringing up the matter of eating.

"Hey, I want Mei's."

"Okay, okay, Kiana, I'll make it for you."

"Mei is the best! Let me help you, Mei!"

The girl in white and the girl in black walked towards the rooftop, where the bonfire that had been lit the night before was still burning.

Watching the two leave, Snow nudged his companion with his elbow.

"Don't tell me you have a Herrscher core inside you..."

"I don't know!"

"Your hand is wrapped in bandages, what's inside?"

"Let me untie it and see..."

"The red lines...that's alright then."

"It's good that there is one. Although having a Herrscher isn't a huge problem in itself."

"It's not very big, after all, it's that academy..."

--

At 9:00 AM, 19 hours after the third collapse, in the ruins of Changkong City...

"Hey, Snow, what was your life like back then?" The group walked in the middle of the road. Thanks to Kiana's strange phone that could detect Honkai energy levels, the four of them avoided a lot of trouble along the way, so much so that they even had enough time to chat.

"Everyone knows my story, right? I was always wandering around looking for my stinky dad until I met everyone in Changkong City. I also heard about Mei-senpai's story when I was in the academy, but I've never heard about Snow's story. Although I've always seen your name on the academy's bulletin board and honor roll, when I ask people around me, they can't really say what kind of person you are, Snow. You seem so mysterious. Hmm—Snow, you're not the daughter of some super-powerful dark organization's big boss or something, are you?"

"From a purely rational standpoint... you're more mysterious than anyone else... How did you manage to wander all the way from Siberia to this island nation in the Far East?" The blonde girl looked at the white fur ball that had come close to her face with a strange expression.

"My story? It's actually very simple, and not as exaggerated as you imagine."

"I grew up in Vienna, the capital of Austria, and my adoptive father was a very devout Christian."

“When I was little, he always liked to take me to the local church for worship. The bishop there was an acquaintance of my adoptive father. Whenever my adoptive father came to worship, the church was not open to the public. In the entire grand church, it was just the two of us praying.”

"...The church commemorates a saint who is very well-known in European history, and her adoptive father was a devout follower."

"And it's probably related to you in some way?" Snow glanced at the white fur ball beside him.

"Has anything to do with me?" Kiana looked somewhat confused.

“That saint’s surname is Kaslana, Karen Kaslana… If you really are her descendant, my adoptive father would probably be furious…” Snow shrugged.

"After all, he really liked that saintess, no... it seems like the locals all liked her quite a bit."

"Kallen Kaslana? I've heard my dad mention her. She really is an ancestor of our Kaslana family. So our ancestor was that famous?" Kiana scratched her head a little embarrassedly.

“I’ll try not to tell my adoptive father… You’re the kind of guy who’s a descendant of the great Saint Kallen Kaslana…” Snow’s lips twitched as he looked at Kiana, who looked embarrassed.

"Hey, do you have a problem with how handsome I am?!"

Although that saintess wasn't as perfect as described in the story.

"Ahem... Continue. Every time I went to church, my adoptive father would tell me the story of Saint Karen, and each time he would present a completely new version..."

“This peaceful life lasted until I was 12 years old. At that time, my adoptive father gradually became busy and no longer came home often. I went to ask the church that my adoptive father often went to, and the priest there just shook his head and told me that he had not been there recently. The person who took care of my life was changed to a long-haired maid named (this is also sensitive) Eileen.”

"No matter how you evaluate that maid, I can only describe her as perfect. Whether it's her etiquette or her culinary skills, she is impeccable."

"Even my swordsmanship and martial arts skills benefited from her guidance and instruction."

"As a teacher, she would never get angry. She would always point out your mistakes with a smile and encourage you with a smile." The blonde girl's lips naturally curved into a smile, as if she were recalling happy times from the past.