Honkai Impact : The Imaginary Human(Honkai Impact 3rd x OC)

Chapter 3

People died ridiculously easily.

It was one of the first life lessons that Lux gathered. Humans could die from so many things, it made life an extremely fleeting existence. As such, it forced him to make choices about himself early, lest he became another cold corpse in the tundra.

Rolling to the side to evade the thrust of the Honkai beast's spear, he shot the beast with the bullets from his gun, destroying its head. Lux had decided early to become a Honkai beast hunter. Well, that choice was aided by the fact he was a little more than human thanks to the Core facing his heart on the other side of his chest. He felt its steady thrum of power go back to normal levels since the threat had been killed. The cotton lining of his coat protected him from the cold, though the Core could keep him warm in emergency situations.

Lux then quickly checked if none of his equipment were damaged : thankfully, there were only a few creatures, so the fight had been short and caused no damage to his stuff. He was in the middle of the contract that could get him out of these frozen tundra, so he had to be prepared.

His method was simple : after enough information gathering in multiple cities, he would then switch from reality to - how was it called already ? Imaginary Space, that was how the Core's systems named it - to reduce the search zone more quickly. It's been almost one whole day and he knew he was close to its target. Traces of them kept popping up after all.

He looked at the pocket on his coat. There was the device he was supposed to use to give the coordinates of the targets, thereby completing his mission. He needed it intact at all costs. Reaffirming its position in the coat, he kept moving.

...

...

Some minutes later

A vehicle stopped close to where the boy was earlier. It was an armored vehicle fit for transportation. Inside was the Assault Squad, ready to go.

The ear communicators of the whole squad activated. "The target is situated 100 m East of here. Please neutralize any hostiles and bring back the target as quick as possible. Resistance from Siegfried Kaslana armed with the Judgement of Shamash is to be expected, so take that into account. Good luck." The handler of the squad having said his piece, the door opened to the snow-filled landscape.

Ragna resolved herself. She still had doubts but she couldn't go back, or prevent this. Hesitation this late would anyway end up endangering her and her squad. As a leader, she couldn't allow that.

Taking a deep breath of the tundra's air, she powerfully declared "We're moving, girls !"

"Yes, ma'am !"

...

Lux couldn't decide.

He had found them. He was hidden on a cliff filled with trees, overviewing them from a higher position. The girl and the father were apparently training outside their house. Having the skills to protect yourself were essential in this country after all. But that wasn't what gave him pause.

They were smiling. Not with those dirty, fake or twisted smiles that he had seen here, but pure smiles. Simple happiness, a bit more for the girl than the man, but still. That was the first time Lux was seeing this. Both looked so happy simply being there for each other.

Lux was not innocent. Even if he gained his life now from hunting, he still had blood on his hands. Killing someone to get their food or money, robbing, he had committed a number of crimes before being able to live a bit more decently. Lux learned that he had absolutely no leeway to care about someone else and how despicable people could be. Even so...