"After all that effort she did to rescue you, she still has the guts to look out the window like that."

Her other self had her usual stinging tone, but Seele Vollerei had to admit that she did feel that way. She had grown so much patience through the loneliness in the Sea of Quanta, and it did pay off, but then she found herself expecting too much once the whole rescuing was over with. For one, Theresa Apocalypse's Saint Freya splinter faction that just allied with Anti-Entropy still had work to do about some Kiana Kaslana, a missing B-Rank Valkyrie whom Bronya often kept an ear to the ground for with another Valkyrie named Mei, whom Bronya called "Sister" like how Seele addressed Bronya. And then there were the Olenyeva Twins, if Seele had to be fully frank, and, of course, Sin Mal.

Still, Seele held herself back from complaining. Her dear Sister had to have made friends to get by before rescuing her, after all, and it would be foolish to assume that her dear Sister did not understand the feeling of missing a loved one. That, and Seele had been starting to grow some assertiveness thanks to the challenges posed by the twins and Sin Mal.

"So that giant Honkai explosion we saw was Madam Mei going nuts again?"

"Roza, stop being rude."

"Tch, you guys are insane for worrying about those dumb Herrscher friends of yours!"

And there they were behind Seele again, earning twitches from Seele's other self. Meanwhile, Bronya sighed, but she still kept on looking into the dark distance beyond the window of their room within the Hyperion.

Recently, they had gotten wind of information about Mei Raiden having defected to the World Serpent, that organization led by that Kevin Kaslana who also escaped the Sea of Quanta with Seele and Bronya. Not only that, Kiana still hadn't come to after her defeat in Mei's hands. Seele was starting to regret that failure in the Sea of Quanta even more now, and she could see that Bronya felt the same way, especially considering her dear Sister's more frequent visits to Mr. Yang, who was silently spending his recovery time through activities like making model mechs and creating short animations. Mr. Yang held no resentment for them, but still, Seele and Bronya couldn't help feeling bad about it.

"So what can we do now?" Mr. Yang also reminded them, and Seele asked that to herself again today. Did she have to repeat attempts at getting Bronya to play video games with them? Not even Honkai outbreaks stopped the updates of their favorite HOMU video games, after all. And Seele really wanted to try playing online games with her dear Sister!

"My dear Bronya...would you like to play video games with Seele?" Seele then decided to step forward and ask, all while holding her hand back from touching her likely sensitive Sister.

"Hey, Lili and I wanna join, too!"

"Quiet, Roza."

"I'm gonna join and kick your asses, whether you like it or not!"

And then Bronya looked over shoulder, blinking widened eyes as she took in the sight of her fellows from Cocolia's Orphanage.

Meanwhile, Seele dearly hoped that her dear Sister hadn't grown tired of her and their friends.

So when Bronya nodded, a smile grew on Seele's face.

---

"Wait, so this guy can counter like you do, Lili? Your move's way cooler, though!"

"Roza, we've been taking inspiration from these games as well. Still, thanks."

"I'm not going to lose this time, you brats! Now hand over the controller, Rozaliya!"

Seele felt a sinking feeling again as she watched her dear Sister stare into the distance, the latter's gaming device held onto by their more reckless friends. That feeling had also grown so strong at this point, she couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Do you not love us anymore, Bronya?" Seele asked, also holding back from replacing "us" with "me," though she hoped that her dear Sister also took it that way.

"The Bronya doesn't hate you," her dear Sister quickly replied. "The Bronya doesn't hate you all. Maybe Sin Mal, but the rest, the Bronya does not hate at all."

"So why is my dear Sister Bronya so sad, then?"

"Because the Bronya feels incomplete."

"Without Kiana Kaslana and Mei Raiden?"

"And Himeko Murata and Fu Hua. They are wonderful friends. I want to introduce them to you."

"Do you want to talk to us about them, then?"

At that question, Bronya's eyes widened. "The Bronya did not consider that." She bowed her head. "Apologies, Seele."

"It's okay, Bronya," Seele smiled back, feeling warmth as she found herself connecting with her dear Sister again. "So who are Kiana and Mei, then?"

"Kiana Kaslana, I call Kiana Idiotka," Bronya smiled as she looked up. "Mei Raiden, I call Sister Mei. Himeko Murata is Miss Himeko. And Fu Hua is the Class Representative. Kiana Idiotka is a noob at school. She narrowly keeps up her Valkyrie Rank all the time. And Sister Mei, she is kind and cares a lot for us. She also cooks very well. Miss Himeko, meanwhile, drinks a lot and can be lazy. But she is way better than all three of us, befitting her status as one of our superiors. And the Class Representative is mysterious. But the Bronya knows that she has a kind heart."

"And they are Herrschers?" Seele suddenly asked, much to her own surprise as well.

"...Only Kiana Idiotka and Sister Mei," Bronya answered with a grim expression. "Kiana Idiotka and Sister Mei can't control it well like Mr. Welt Yang and I can. Sister Mei had to have a bomb planted on her before, while Kiana Idiotka..."

At the mention of Kiana, Bronya's fists clenched.

"What happened to Kiana?" Seele pressed, even with her growing nervousness.

"Matushka and I gave her and Sister Mei a hard time," Bronya answered almost inaudibly, "And it gave Otto Apocalypse a chance to control Kiana..."

At that, Seele hugged her dear Sister from the side.

"And Miss Himeko..." Bronya continued, tears starting to stream down her face, "She sacrificed herself to get Kiana back from the Herrscher controlling her. Our Class Representative Fu Hua also did the same, even though she betrayed us at first. And now we are trying to find her and get her back, but just as we thought that we would finally be reunited..."

What was left unsaid, Seele already knew. And as long as their superiors kept them away from deployment, all they could do was wait.

With all that in mind again, Seele hugged Bronya even tighter and let the tears soak their shoulders.

"But the Bronya...will not give up..."

"We won't give up, Bronya. We'll wait. They'll be back. I promise."

Again, Seele felt fear as she recklessly spouted yet another promise, but she wouldn't let herself falter this time.

"Don't forget about me, Seele," her other self echoed within again. "We'll do everything in our power to keep our promises now. After all, dear Bronya and Welt Yang aren't the only ones here who can control their Herrscher powers."

Seele's eyes widened at that, but then she smiled widely and hugged Bronya more tightly.

"I promise, my dear Sister Bronya," Seele then said with firmer conviction.

"It's your turn now, you sister girlfriends!"

"As they say, it's your funeral, Roza."

"I am not going to mess with Seele and Bronya here, you hear me?"

And then those three stooges pulled them back into some semblance of ordinary again.

---

Author's Note: Speaking of which, Bronya's finally getting back into the Main Story plot with Fu Hua! Anyway, yeah, that earlier lack of development's a big factor in the making of this fanfic.