Journey Through the Apocalypse (Honkai AU)

Chapter 3 Part 2: Wandering Within Shadows

The last battle between the abnormality and Welt left Tesla shocked. Welt disappeared since then, nowhere to be seen. She has been searching for him since then and it's been 2 days. Hakatsu is nowhere to be found as well, he disappeared without a trace.

Tesla is now under surveillance while working and Einstein is now her surveyor.

"I can't believe it. I left you for a few days and you already caused trouble for the organization."
Said Einstein as she drank her coffee.

"It's not like I am the main cause! We were just investigating a newfound Honkai type and Schicksal decided to capture us due to suspicion."
Stated Tesla.

Eins sighed disappointingly due to her statement.

"That suspicion is proven with you working with Decade. Don't you know his wickedness?"

She already knows what he is being assumed as, however, Tesla keeps his belief up. From her experience, Hakatsu possesses no harm toward anyone. Especially when he found out the real cause of the first eruption.

While they were arguing about the status of Hakatsu, a man came in with exhaustion overwhelming him. Opening the door without any of the two noticing, he fell right at the entrance. Finally alerting his arrival, Welt. Where has he been during his missing? No one can answer that until he wakes up.

The first Herrscher is being hospitalized with everything they can treat him with. Even after finding him, Tesla's worry stays the same as Welt lays unconscious on the bed. They aren't certain when will he recover.

On the other hand, our rider, Hakatsu is sleeping on a pile of garbage. He tore his shirt to cover up his wound. The spiked chains fucked him up badly, his muscle felt weak. It is not the best place to rest due to the hygiene but he can't get anyone unrelated in trouble.

He slept for a night before being woken up by rapid raindrops hitting his face. It is raining. Hard rain. It's a storm instead. The man walks away from the alley wet with his jacket on, looking for a better place to rest. Walking to the end of the road, he reached a dimly lit bar. He looks through the window and finds no one to be inside. It seems to have been abandoned recently.

He gathered the tables around, forming some sort of a bed. Just it isn't that warm or soft. Rather be cold and solid. 

It felt enough and much better than lying on a pile of trash. Looking at the ceiling, I wondered. Is that me? If so, why would I help a Herrscher when I can just steal his power? Why's there such a weird abomination?

Everything is still a question to me but all I do is face it without an answer.

I blinked a few times and fell asleep.

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Waking up in the warm morning. The sky is just about to rise, shown by the color of the blue surrounding it. Pulling out his arm, and noticed he was within a pink blanket. It protects him from receiving sickness by covering up with warmness. Perhaps it's that person again who covered me.

The detective washed his face using a nearby sink. It's colder than the temperature, enough to fully sober him. Sometime later, he browse through a newspaper. It seems to be pretty old considering the date was stated to be taken in 1947. It's just an old newspaper, nothing catches his eye. Moving away from the desk where the newspaper lays, the floor breaks. Hakatsu falls into the falls into a hole.

The landing was rather cold and wet. His body hurts from hitting the metallic floor, which is odd. "Metallic floor?" he gets up with the pain subsiding slowly. The tunnel is very dark and looks inhabited. Curious about where it would lead, he equipped his flashlight and carefully explored the underground. The deeper he went, the worse the smell got. It smells like something rotting.

He reaches two entrances and both seem to be a room. The lock of the room is broken by a shot of his Ridebook, revealing an even worse smell. It almost made him puke.

"What the fuck is this smell?!"

The door is closed once again, he regrets opening it.

Even if he knows what could come out of the previous room, he unlocks the other room. It's the call of the void. A desire of curiosity. This time, the smell is slightly better. Exploring the room, he found something covered in some sort of blanket. Since he has come this far, he won't waste any more time. Hakatsu peeks what's inside, it seems to be some sort of a limb?...

Uncovering what seemed like a tube, he found a familiar person he had met recently. From the hair alone, he recognizes the person and immediately breaks the tube. She's not covered in anything but some sort of liquid.

Later at noon, the woman opens her eyes. She breathes heavily as if something had happened to her. She is greeted by the pink blanket covering her. The fireplace nearby is still burning like new.

"Oh, woken up already?"

The man himself gives her a rabbit soup as he greets her. The woman is Einstein. She is confused as to where she is but he assures her that she's safe for now.

"Don't worry about it, just recover yourself for now," says Hakatsu.

A while later, Einstein asked who he was. He introduces himself while surprised by the fact that she doesn't recognize him. Even after giving the details of how many times they met, she still doesn't know who he is. Could it be that her memory is erased?

She explains that she was uncovering what's up with the massive eruption of Honkai lately in 1950. But something happened to her during that which made her reach here. Hakatsu is confused by her statement, especially when she says she was investigating in 1950 despite the year now being 1955. Something might struck her during that period. But most importantly, Welt and Tesla are in danger!

They immediately head to the lab where they should be. In the patient room where Welt is resting, Einstein grabs a pair of scissors and slowly approaches him. Her steps are slow but the massive grin on her face is enough to tell how bloodlust she is. Just when she was about to stab his throat, Tesla came by and she threw away the scissors to hide it. 

"Has he woken up?" asks Tesla unaware of the Einstein next to her. "Not yet, might not take longer for him to wake up," answered Einstein nervously.

After Tesla faces away, Einstein sees Welt staring into her soul. His stare is like him saying "I know what you are". Like a wolf, she swiftly picks up the scissors and attempts to stab him... Before being stopped by Hakatsu. Decade shot her with no mercy, resulting in the faker breaking the window and falling out of the building.

The real Einstein was behind him during the rescue and now is evacuating Welt and Tesla. Decade looks down the building and finds a blood pile of dark blue substance, he jumps down the building and scans the substance using his blade. Turns out the liquid was still active and attacked him, collapsing a wall near him as he hit it.

The liquid slowly reformed Einstein's body and mimicked every bit of detail imperfectly. Suddenly, multiple copies of Decade came out of the dust and attacked her rhythmically. They are perfectly coordinated as the being is failing to reform its body. When they think are about to succeed in defeating the being, all of them are stabbed. Blood spills out of the armor and they collapse.

The being grins in a temporary victory before it is stunned by the shock of something. Turns out, Decade was never to jump out of the building in the first place.

"How naive."

Said Decade as he activated his Final Attack Ride card. Panels of cards appear below him, they shine gold. As he sends his meteor kick, he phases through the cards and lands a powerful hit upon the fake. Exploding it right after a few seconds the attack lands.

Done with everything, he puts away his armor and heads to where they should be. When he arrives at this destined area told to Einstein, he doesn't see them anywhere.

However, another person appeared and waited for his arrival instead.