Rex, the unattractive, bland, and unnoticeable Knight, and the Valkyries

The roomate that never was

Rex sighed as he watched Kiana, Mei, and Bronya walk away back to the dorms and he looked at Elysia. 

"No, I made my choice already," Rex said to Elysia's unspoken question. 

"Rex, Rein and Reve miss you," 

"I know," Rex said with a soft smile, he missed his brothers but his impulsive decision that day... that day he ran away. "But I have a life here now. A job... several of them, and some... friends?" 

"So, Kiana, eh? You know she likes Mei." 

"What are you talking about?" 

"You blind child," 

-==-=-=

"Oh! Rex!" Rex blinked and almost had a heart attack as he saw Kiana for a split second. "You okay?" 

"I'm fine, Kirino," Rex said with a sigh. After meeting Kiana, he immediately got along with her because of the girl before him. Nakatsukasa Kirino, his closest friend, and someone he used to have a crush on. Her family helped him get on his feet after he ran away. He lives in the house next to them, which he bought with his money. 

Sniff sniff.

Rex blinked as Kirino leaned in and took a sniff at him. "Did you smoke again?" 

"!"

"I told you that smoking is bad for you!" 

After half an hour of scolding, Rex went inside his house and lit a cigar before turning to the glowing cube on the living room's coffee table. "I'm back, Void Archives," Rex greeted the cube, or the entity inside it rather. A katana on the wall ominously glowed with killing intent. "Higyokumaru," 

The intent subsided as Rex sat on the couch and turned the TV on. As the TV played, Rex pulled out a suitcase and opened it revealing a beautiful bracelet. A revolver lay inside it, holding the insignia of a bear. 

"I finished the gear earlier than expected." 

Rex said nothing as the Chibi-version of one of his great granduncle's soulium bodies appeared in front of him. 

"You didn't have to do this, V. I'm not a knight or a combatant," Rex said while a Chibi version of a fox-eared and tailed Rin popped near him. 

"But you have the potential—,"

 "Stuff it brat, it's my turn!" Void archives said, dropkicking the Chibi fox child. 

"Why you simp-looking ass!" Chibi fox child roared and the two floating chibis started doing DBZ levels of fighting mid-air. 

Eyeing the revolver, Rex opened the cylinder and spun it with ease. 

=-=-=-=-=-=

Yawning as he drank from a cup of coffee, Rex approached a lab with practice ease while a white lab coat embraced his form. 

"Begin experiment 23 for project salvation," Rex ordered while holding a tablet with his left hand. In front of him, a screen showed the carnage of numerous people writhing in pain. 

'I wonder when will I join them?' Rex thought to himself at the sight of the Death to inmates. An image of Kirino smiling at him, Elysia, Reve, Reese, and Rein, on a dinner table eating happily... Only criminals are subjected to live experimentation. While he can't fight, not anymore... hidden deep beneath the synthetic skin, the Soulium prosthetic left arm and his right leg.

Without hesitation, Rex watched the chilling sight without any hint of emotion. A special R&D division under the direct control of the Overseer. The only way he can help and repay the monster known as Otto Apocalypse, a man who only loved one woman and his entire adoptive family. 

'To think I would be following in his footsteps,' Rex thought to himself. 

"Be my Herrscher of Wind, child of the Cross," 

The sight of his left arm up to his shoulder torn while his right leg up to his knee got crushed by some rubble as he crawled. Steel bars pierced his torso, enough to damage him but not kill him. 

'The fragment of the true Honkai... one that freely shared the knowledge without any drawbacks. It was a strange feeling back then but now... it felt familiar.' 

'The power and the majesty of the Honkai, the ever-existing calamity that once destroyed an entire civilization 50 millennia ago. To adapt and evolve with each incarnation.' An image of the back of Reve and Rein appeared on Rex's mind. The brothers he loved and wanted to catch up to. 'To live forever...' 

Threads of multi-colored lights pulsing with pure Honkai energy approached Rex. 

'Begone!' Dark eyes narrowed as the thirteen-year-old looked sharply at the form of the Honkai and the threads, even the core itself recoiled. 'My heart... my soul... my life...' The pain of steel bars piercing skin, organs, and bones, missing limbs... 

'To share my life with you... to lose myself in the infinite sea of entropy... to gain life eternal by giving everything up. How ironic... no. To hell with that.'

"To hell with you! What's mine is mine alone. Every hair, every drop of blood. I am me." 

"I am me." 

"I. am. me." 

"I AM. ME." Rex repeated with his memories as he looked at the carnage on the screen.  

'Even if my body is broken, even if my heart surrenders. I will never give in to your influence. I am me.' The youngest Crozzo thought to himself as he looked at the colorful lines on the writhing bodies on the screen. 

"As expected of someone of your position," Amber said as she looked at Rex's back. "Shicksal's special independent research and development division: Iscariot. Codename Seth Twilight, the Wrath of Iscariot," Amber said with a frown as he saw the countless monitors each showing numerous people writhing in agony as purple lines of pure Honkair energy coursed through their veins for the experiment. 

"What do you want?" Rex asked, no emotion in his face as he eyed the monitors. 

"Overseer—," 

A ringtone pierced through the atmosphere while Rex fished out his phone from his labcoat and took a deep sigh. Holding the phone to his ear... "What is it?" 

"..."

 "I'm busy with work... stop bothering me while I'm working if you just want to rant about Mei talking to someone!" 

Amber blinked under her visors at the annoyed sigh from the young man. What surprised her the most was the serene ghost of a smile on his face while he looked at the monitors and the tablet in his left hand. 

'Rex Crozzo, the youngest of the current generation of House Crozzo and a person who volunteered to become a member of Iscariot to pay Overseer Otto back for saving him that fateful day and hiding the details... The person who is chosen by the divine key, Void Archives, as its next wielder. But to this facility, he is known as 'The Doctor.' 

Turning to the side of the hallway, Amber shivered as numerous pods filled with some sort of liquid and humanoid bodies filled the Hallway each one with the label.

'PROJECT: STIGMA'