Another Place, Another Time

Chapter III

A/N I feel like the more I carry on writing the harder Fu Hua's character gets to write, her personality is literally the opposit of mine and I'm suffering

As they landed in the city, all of the civilians looked at them with varying degrees of hope and distrust, Jingwei ignored them, instead focusing on Hua, "Hua, are you..."

"I should be fine, but I'm in no shape to fight if the Honkai keeps trying to influence me...you know, for humanity with no previous era survivors to guide them, they are developing fairly well," Hua choked out, the people carrying weapons instantly aimed their bows and swords at them the moment Hua said 'humanity'.

"Who are you, influenced by the Honkai? Are you a Herrscher? We got all the information about you guys in a book! Stay down or we'll shoot!" one of the men carrying a gun shouted.

Hua waved them off, turning back to Jingwei, "Regardless, I can't fight, so would you do it in my place, Master Jingwei?" she grinned, ignoring the slight gasp the crowd let out, "Don't worry, I can fight the other Honkai Eruptions, but this one was aimed at me to become the first Herrscher of this era."

The immortal sighed, she saw through the facade, the pain and regret that the Herrscher had that she wouldn't be able to fight by her side, as the first proper battle they have against the Honkai in the new era, "Alright, Hua, I'll fight in both your place and mine. Just...try not to die, okay?" Jingwei couldn't lose another friend, much less one that is like Hua.

(I suck at fighting scenes, I'm sorry this ruins the mood but I just can't write them...please just imagine that Fu Hua smacked a lot of Honkai beasts)

By the time Jingwei returned to Hua, the Herrscher had relaxed, evidently no longer suffering under the interference of Honkai will, she looked up and raised an eyebrow, as she said, albeit a little impatiently, "Oi, blockhead, aren't you going to help me up?"

The immortal sighed, but reached out her hand anyway, "I see you're back to normal, Hua."

"Same could be said about you...wha- ow!" Hua took the hand but when Jingwei let go, she lost her balance again.

"Maybe you should just try to stand up on your own next time."

'Maybe you shouldn't let go so early-' Hua retorted in her mind, "Stop staring at us, it's getting creepy," the last part of the sentence was directed at the still-stunned crowd.

The soldiers snapped out of their daze, and pointed their weapons at the Herrscher once more, "Stay down, Herrscher! I won't repeat that again, you clear? You better answer our questions if you want to get out of here alive!" the previous soldier yelled, much louder this time.

Hua was just about to argue back when a hand landed on her shoulder, as a cold voice spoke from behind her, "Hua will remain standing, ask away," Hua leaned against the immortal, basking in the familiar warmth as she fiddled around with her weapons.

The crowd tensed, but before anything could be said, Jingwei gently pried the weapons from Hua's grasp, earning an enraged, "Hey! You antique, you old grandma, you blockhead! Give me my weapons back!" faced with a not-really-angry Herrscher, Jingwei calmly slotted the weapons back into their respective slots in the case, and handed it back to a pouting Hua.

Witnessing the crowd's absolute shock when Hua insulted the legendary immortal only to get no response from the latter was utterly priceless, even if said immortal still carried an indifferent expression, Hua could feel Jingwei's amusement through the mind link, and that only fueled her joy so much more. Hua brought her hand to her mouth to stifle the mad urge to cackle.

"You know, I would have thought they'd be more grateful now we saved their asses, guess not, huh." Hua said flippantly, "Would bows really work? Pretty sure projectiles from bows cannot pierce nor harm PSY type Honkai beasts."

A soldier with a bow replied, "That is true, but we can leave a dent on them at point-blank range...swords are better for melee combat regardless, that's why we tend to have fewer people - we only need to kill the zombies, or whatever they're called."

"BIO type, zombies will only appear when humans are too close to the source of a Honkai Eruption, namely 6 meters, while that may not be seen as so lethal..." Jingwei trailed off, waiting for humanity to reach their own conclusion.

"Zombies can infect people, right?" a small voice spoke from the civilians crowd, it was coated with fear and sounded extremely young, she got a wordless nod in response.

"Right, proper questions," Hua spoke up, cutting through the fear-filled silence.

Another little voice piped up in the civilian crowd, "I have one. Are you survivors of the previous era?"

Hua replied almost immediately, "Of course we are! Well, the old antique here is from the era before the previous era, I'm from the previous era."

"And you are a Herrscher?" it was a soldier who spoke this time.

"That's correct, Hua is the 8th Herrscher of the previous era, the Herrscher of Sentience," Jingwei said.

"And are you..." the soldier trailed off.

"Really the immortal phoenix? Yes," the immortal finished for him.

"We're here to help you through this era!" Hua exclaimed, unable to hold back her excitement and anticipation any longer, "That reminds me, elm head, how many years was it before Honkai began? You mentioned something about this era's Honkai starting too early?"

'It was around two centuries,' Jingwei resorted to using the mind link, not wanting to reveal things from the previous era.

Hua adopted a thinking position, much to the crowd's confusion, 'So that late, huh.'

'It wasn't as powerful as the one we just witnessed when it started, too.'

The Herrscher's eyes widened, 'You don't think...'

'It would make sense why the 14th was so easy to convince,'

"She was spreading Honkai energy around the globe?" Hua burst out.

Jingwei massaged the bridge of her nose, and let out a heavy sigh, "She must have been leaving small amounts to make it less detectable...it would explain why she triggered Reset early."

Hua's face darkened as she finished, "She finished it, that would explain why Honkai happened so early in this era, much stronger too-"

They were interrupted by one of the soldiers, "What are you talking about, who's 'she', what's 'reset'  and what's this about Honkai happening early, isn't this the normal time? Also, why did it look like you two had a mind conversation?"

The Herrscher replied, "You shouldn't know about the previous era, and I doubt you will find anything of value in that so- called 'book' of yours. All you need to know is that 'she' is the 14th Herrscher, the Herrscher of the End, and that Honkai in both the previous era and antique's original era started much later, and was much weaker," and then after a beat of silence, she yawned and said, "I'm exhausted, old antique, you'll be my transport next time. Is there anywhere we can stay?"

Despite the people being far-too obvious with their dissatisfaction at the answers and questions, they didn't voice it, instead, one of the citizens lead the previous era duo to a small cottage at the edge of the city.

"It's a spare house," the woman had explained, at Hua's confused look, "you two are not quite off the hook yet, the authorities want another chance to speak to you tomorrow, at noon."

Word Count: 1251

A/N I also feel like I include far too much dialogue, it makes Fu Hua feel out of character, regardless, sorry for the long wait