Honkai Impact 3rd: Don't Die For Me/ Book 3 Paradise

Chapter 95

<Tunnels Underneath Vienna>

Wreathed in those playful emerald flames, Sakura pressed through the ice. Night had long fallen and the next day was just dawning. The Blooming had been quelled; what was left was the recovery of the people and their loved ones. When the quakes started those childish emerald flames matured to guide her once more.

'This is for her,' Sakura realized as the impenetrable ice melted away. There was no steam, no residual vapors or water for that matter.

Those flames pushed her forward but her heart lurched her back like the Shimenawa ropes of her shrine. Holy ropes that protected the sanctuary of her heart.

'He blessed me and so I must keep my promise.'

Gold against emerald soon appeared before her. Where was she? She had somehow found Kallen, wrapped in gentle silk-like chains, bleeding from blue and white ice.

"Kallen!"

Sakura was slower than the flames. They parted the chains and set her ablaze. There was no heat. No energy and yet the ice assaulting her disappeared. Her tears flowed and the book wrapped in her chest, tight enough to protect it but gentle enough to not damage a single page, pulsed like a dying heart.

"Otto, you promised." Kallen whimpered. "You promised."

Sakura froze. The fire spread faster than a forest blaze, the forest of ice left no trace of ever existing. All this care, for her. Sakura picked up Kallen as gently as she could. The Oath shrunk to its Rosary form, dimming until only the emerald flames radiated light. Light that could only be caught by the two rings, clutched in Kallen's hand. One was tied to her neck and the other the book.

"Kallen,"

Sakura was even more tender and gentle but Kallen wasn't conscious. The flames protected them both and Sakura once again found herself forward in time. She was back in Vienna, back at the clock tower. She was witnessing the dawn, a gentle glow informing people of the day to come. Yet, it was shrouded by clouds dark and gaunt. The subtle rumbling of the ground signaled another crisis coming from west of the walls.

'Huh?'

Sakura's right hand which held Kallen's head was wet. Yes, there was another drop. It rolled down her wrist and disappeared into her sleeve. Another drop, another, it became a stream. The emerald flames had just disappeared. Why? Why?

Sakura shook her head, the stream diverged on her cheek.

'I'm crying,' Sakura realized numbly. She could finally cry. She could finally, no. She had to remain silent. A stake in her heart, not removed to not let her bleed. But she was hemorrhaging. Whose fault it was, was clear.

Droplets began to fall, refracting and hazing the dimming sunlight, they acted as a veil to the past.

<Sakura's Memory>

There was no training on that day though Katsuki did visit. She offered to dry him off but she was rejected and labeled a pervert. How irksome but Sakura didn't protest. He didn't pry into her secrets and she would give him the same respect, even if he were a bit nosy.

Little tremors, his soft steps in the hall. Her fox ears twitched and followed his every move. Such surveillance was unnecessary, he was safe in her shrine. Setting aside another tatami mat for him on the patio, Sakura waited. Like a child he got distracted, unlike a child he whispered a sleepful line of scholars.

"One would think inundation would drench the shrine, it's made of wood, after all. Waxed? Cured? Hydrophobic?" He whispered, scratching the floor, and wiping it with the damp towel that previously dried him.