Chapter 64 : Asking for a New Weapon

Year xxx, Date xx, Previous Era,

"V!" The young woman turned around as she heard someone calling her name. She has short grayish-green hair and gray eyes. (Might change the colors later when her official character information is revealed.) Wearing a top hat decorated with gears, she is an engineering consultant of the Flame Chasers.

"URIEN," the woman nodded as she saw the man who called out to her. He has short white hair, and his face is expressionless like usual. Following behind the man is a woman with long pink hair and two long ears on her head. "And SAKURA," she added.

"What brought the two of you here?" As URIEN called, the woman, V, asked as it is not every day to see URIEN even though the two of them are working in the same building.

"Two?" URIEN tilts his head and looks behind to see the woman behind him. But even then, he did nothing but raise his eyebrow, just enough to acknowledge her presence.

"Anyway," he started, turning his body toward the woman standing behind him. "Can you leave the two of us for a while?" He asked.

As for the woman, although her long ears flattened a little, she said nothing and left. She was used to this. She was used to him treating her coldly. She was used to him treating her as some kind of substitute. But although it saddens her, she doesn't mind. Why? Because she fell in love with him. She fell in love with his smiles whenever he was around her sister. She fell in love with him at that moment when he saved her from the Honkai Beasts. He might not remember it, but for her, it was something she could never forget.

Back to URIEN and V, the two of them are standing face to face. The woman didn't back down even when she was being stared at by URIEN's emotionless eyes.

"So?" the woman started. "What do you need?" she added.

"I need you to make a new weapon for me," URIEN went straight to the point.

V raised her eyebrow. "Listen here. Don't you already have 2 Divine Keys in your hand?" She asked with an irritated tone while pointing at the lance the man was holding and the cross-shaped hand accessory on the wrist.

"I have my own reason why I need a new weapon," URIEN replied, not minding the tone the woman was using.

"Oh? Tell me then. The weapons I create won't be able to match those weapons in your hand. The only bad side of those weapons would be—" she evidently stopped her ranting. Her eyes went wide, not believing what she just thought. "Don't tell me!" She stepped toward URIEN quickly and pulled up his shirt.

"Where is it?!" she demanded.

"Where what?" Not minding the woman's action, he asked back.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! Where is the symptom of you know what?!" Not taking any of his bullshits, V demanded an answer.

Finally, closing his eyes, URIEN heaved out a long, tiring sigh. Taking off the ring on his middle finger, the purplish-bluish stripes appeared across his body.

The woman's breath hitched. "As I thought," she muttered. "Does anyone else know about this? About you getting infected by Honkai Radiation?" she asked, trying her best to calm down. "That thing on his finger… someone must have helped him," she thought.

"Only Mobius knew about this," was what URIEN answered, confirming her thought.

"How much?" she started, making the man raised his eyebrow. "How much time do you have left to live?" she asked. The two of them are not that close to asking this kind of question. But she wanted to know.

"With the help of Mobius' medicines? 3 years tops if I don't use any of the Divine Keys in the future," he replied even though she thought he wouldn't answer.

"That's why you were asking me for a new weapon… I see," the woman nodded, sorting out the mess inside her head.

URIEN is one of the first two MANTIS soldiers of Fire Moth; hence his status in the organization is not low. Even though the person himself didn't know, he has many loyal followers in the HQ. Many knew that he would sacrifice them in order to get the job done, but even then, they were willing to follow him.

From what V heard from Elysia, URIEN ranked second in the most influential MANTIS soldiers. According to Elysia, she even tried to make URIEN the leader of the Flame Chasers, but the man rejected, taking the last number, 14th, for himself.

V can understand why he doesn't want others to know about his condition. It will bring a lot of trouble. And as URIEN is someone who is willing to place someone above his condition, he will not accept the antidote, which will cause a lot of issues.

There are only 4 people who can talk sense into that thick skull of his, but sometimes, even they won't be able to make him listen to them. Those 4 people are KEVIN, MEI, SU, and ELYSIA.

There is another one, but V hasn't seen her before. It was the younger sister of SAKURA. Most, if not, all of the Flame Chasers knew that URIEN treasures RIN very much. They do not know the reason, and URIEN also didn't bother to explain.

According to her understanding of URIEN, he didn't let his friends know about his situation because he didn't want them to sacrifice 1000 people just to make an antidote for him.

SU would be a little uncomfortable about it, but he won't say anything to stop the other 2 of his friends. They, KEVIN, and Dr. MEI won't bat an eye to infect 1000 people with Honkai Radiation to make a cure for URIEN. For them, URIEN being alive is better than ordinary 1000 people they don't know. With her understanding of Dr. MEI, that woman will really do that to save URIEN, which is what scared her.

Finally reaching the conclusion of the reason why URIEN didn't bother to tell his friends, V sighed. She was used to making KEVIN's weapons, so it might not be too hard for her to make one for another.

Pulling herself out from the thought, she asked the man standing in front of her, "What kind of weapon do you want?"

"A one-handed sword…," URIEN started. "It would be better if it can be changed into a gun," he added.

"Hmm…," V puts her hand under her chin. "Like KEVIN's Judgment of Shamash?" she asked, pulling out a notebook from somewhere.

"You can say it like that," the whitehead nodded.

"It won't be hard then," the engineer confirmed. Many ideas spurned inside her head. "I can make it done within a month," the inventor reassured him.

"I see… Thank you," the man nodded. But after that, he turned around. "Let's talk about it later. We'll be late for the meeting if we keep standing here," URIEN informed her. And without waiting, he left her standing alone in the corridor.

Stepping inside the door, URIEN was greeted with the sight of Dr. MEI and other Flame Chasers.

"Mister URIEN Gregorios has arrived!" An AI announced his arrival into the room.

He walked toward his seat without saying a word, which had a Roman number XIV on it. Beside him, KEVIN was already there, taking a seat at his place.

"Are you free after this, URIEN?" the other whitehead asked.

"I do," URIEN nodded, knowing fully why his friend asked him.

"Then let's grab a bowl or two of ramen after this," the man grinned.

"Sure," URIEN smiled a little. "I'll pay for it this time," he added. But he thought for a while. "Can you call MEI and SU too?" he asked. Spending time with his best friends put him at ease. Although the world is ending, it sometimes puts him back when things were simple. That time when they would only need to worry about the exams, not fighting against the world-ending entity.

KEVIN's smile grew brighter. "Of course! I'll call them too. Just leave it to me," he gave URIEN a thumbs up.

"Miss Vil-V has arrived!" The two of them heard the AI announce. With that said, they are just waiting for the remaining Flame Chasers to arrive.

"Miss PardoFelis has arrived!" This time, URIEN's ears perked up when he heard the AI announce.

PardoFelis is the number 13th of the Flame Chasers. Her seat is right beside him. As soon as she sat on her seat, URIEN's hand immediately went up toward her head, especially toward the furry ears of hers.

"U-URIEN!" the girl was startled. Although she was used to him grabbing her ears, those ears are sensitive.

URIEN said nothing and continued to rub her ears.

"URIEN… if you keep this up, I'm going to charge you in the future. How does $100 per section sound?" The girl grinned as URIEN's hand stopped. But what she didn't expect was URIEN pulling out 5 $100 bills from his wallet.

"Here is $500. I'll be taking 5 sections, Phylis," he just said it was like nothing to be ashamed of and continued to touch her ears.

"U-URIEN! Please stop! There! SAKURA is glaring at me!" PardoFelis tried her best to ignore the feeling she felt from URIEN stimulating her ears while trying her best not to look at the pink head who was glaring at her while touching her own long ears.

"Her ears are not as fluffy as yours," URIEN stated it like some kind of universal truth and continued.

"URIEN!"

"URIEN!"

Year 2014, November, Current Era,

"Urien!"

"Urien!"

Hearing someone shouting his name, Urien snapped out of his thoughts. He noticed that he was patting the raccoon in front of him. Standing beside him is Kyuushou.

"Hahh…," he sighed. He just remembered something from his previous life. It was… a good memory. He wondered… what had happened to that new sword of his. Did V manage to finish it? He didn't know. But he at least once wanted to try using the sword made by the genius inventor.

"Did you call me, Kyuushou?" Urien stood up and asked the girl beside him.

"Un," Kyuushou nodded. "HQ wants us to return to school. Those party poopers, they don't want us to skip school," she pouted.

"Now, now, let's go back then," he smiled and patted her head. He'll be going back to school now. He doesn't want to regret not going to school as he did in the past.

Year xxx, Date xx, Previous Era,

It was a week after URIEN died. KEVIN is holing up in his room for an entire week, and others can't blame him for that. After all, he had to kill his best friend with his own hand.

Although she felt like shit, Dr. MEI chose to work in the laboratory. Inside the lab, 3 other individuals are sitting in front of her. They are Vil-V, Mobius, and Eden.

"The situation is normal. The baby is long past the critical condition," Mobius informed Dr. MEI.

Yes, the baby. The baby is inside the incubator. It took the three brightest-minded individuals to make the baby alive.

"SAKURA… she froze the time of the baby inside her belly. I don't know how she did it to last the effect even after her death," Eden muttered.

"I guess I can give the sword I made for him to his daughter," Vil-V sighed. That idiot went ahead and killed himself right before she was able to give him her newest invention.

"If you guys are trying to mop around, I'm leaving. I have more important things to do," Mobius stood up.

"Thank you," Dr. MEI thanked her. She cannot say how relieved she was when Mobius helped her keep her best friend's child alive.

"Don't be," Mobius glared at her. "This whole situation happened because of you. If not for you… Forget it," she continued in a venomous tone. Not wanting to see Dr. MEI's face, she turned around and left.

"I'll be leaving too," Vil-V also stood up. She doesn't want to stay in this place filled with awkward silence any longer.

Now, only Eden and Dr. MEI are left in the lab. "Dr. MEI," Eden stated, not wanting to keep the silence longer.

"Yes?" MEI sniffed.

"I want to adopt the girl," the Diva went straight to the point.

"You do?" the bluish-black hair girl asked back in shock.

"Yes, it is at least I can do for my No. 1 fan," Eden smiled slightly. Thinking back to the man's smiling face even in his death.

"Please, I'll leave her in your care," MEI just agreed. She doesn't have any right to adopt the child after what she has done. So, among all the other Flame Chasers, Eden is the best choice.

"Have you thought of a name?" Asked the Diva.

"I did, actually," MEI nodded. She had researched a lot of names during these days.

"So?"

"Yukio… that's her name," MEI decided to use a Japanese name as the baby is a girl. If it were a boy, she would use a European name.

"Yukio…, the Kanji combination of Snow and Cherry Blossoms. It is a good name," Eden nodded.

Looking over into the growing child inside the incubator, Eden smiled. "Nice to meet you, Yukio. My name is Eden. From now on, I'll be your mother," she introduced herself.