The Day Before - 3

For most students, classes concluding meant it was time for clubs or other sorts of after-school activities. Some did sports, others did various kinds of study topics, the usual activities.

For Soleil? Well, he'd mark himself a proud member of the Going Home Club. As a part of his whole "phantom student" bit, he made extra sure he was out of school as quickly as he was in it. Not that he could really "escape" what with living in the dorms and all, such was life in the academy city.

But that afternoon, an urge had come around. Something about that rise in ambient Honkai readings was sticking with him, even after he'd left the campus and stopped at one of the strip malls multiple fast food chain restaurants to get something to eat.

While he was absentmindedly picking at a container of French fries, scrolling through news articles on his phone to see what recent things could be on the mark. And when he eyed a particular link, Soleil's brow knit together.

"Those nutjobs again? It's a wonder they end up in the news at all."

Making sure his headphones were secure, Soleil pressed the link, his screen sliding over to another app and playing the video. It's title, "Head of the Church of Finality delivers address on the anniversary of the Second Impact."

On the video, it displayed a man taking a central podium, flanked by lavish decorations done in grand purples and whites, the man garbed in robes bearing the same colors. The man was about middle aged, a solid face just starting to lose the last traces of youth from it, with sterling white hair and violet eyes that were a downright unsettling shade of the color. But most striking was the marks on his otherwise pale skin. A bright purple color, shaped as lines rising from his neck and up across his face.

The marks of a body afflicted by Honkai radiation.

[Welcome, all you listening both in person or through other means,] the man spoke in an all too gentle manner, his speech measured in its cadence. A man who carefully chose his words. [To those just joining us, I am the leader of our fair flock, a follower of the Finality like all of you. I am known simply as the Cardinal. I address you all today on the anniversary of the end of the Second Impact. 14 years ago, our world was once again struck by the full brunt of the phenomenon known as Honkai. And while it is true this event brought much destruction, so did it pave the way for the society we have built in its wake! It is thanks to Honkai that we even have such a—]

Soleil closed the video as an unimpressed grimace crossed his face.

"Paved the way my ass. Saying that shit when almost half the world is still reeling from what happened," Soleil ground his teeth as he took a large bite out of the burger he'd ordered. "Freaking nutcase."

The Church of Finality was an… interesting group, from Soleil's perspective. A religious sect that had sprung up after the First Impact, it taught its followers that while the Honkai was a destructive force, that this destruction was simply "natural" and "in due course" with the order of the world. Corruption by Honkai was seen as the world enacting that which was a matter of course, striking against mankind as "response" to their "sins and folly."

Resultingly, adherents also had a bit of a habit of viewing falling ill from Honkai radiation as a "blessing" of some form, no matter the adverse effects that came with it. Ironically though it meant the Church of Finality had become a driving force in advances in stabilizing – though not outright curing – the effects of Honkai radiation on the human body. A field many thought that only the enigmatic Schicksal could manage in terms of technology and research.

But it didn't mean the Church was some powerhouse of their own. The scars of the Second Impact were still fresh enough in many people's minds to dismiss their preaching as utter nonsense, more of a cult than a proper church really. But still they had a following anyway. Borne of those disenfranchises by the ruin Honkai brought with it, or those looking for some explanation to the supposed madness of it all.

What was puzzling to Soleil was where in the world the Church got its funding.

Soleil decided those things were better put to the side for now. Finishing up his food and making his way out, as he was proceeding through the crowd, there was something that brought the teenager to stop for just a moment.

A brief glimpse of silvery-white, drawing his eyes through the crowd only to fail to find the source of that color. And yet, from that color alone, something did pop into his head.

A name.

"Kiana…"

And as that name left his tongue, the briefest of flashes ran through his mind. Of a girl departing on a train, a final, wistful smile as her hand trailed from what felt like his own.

When that flash ended, Soleil felt a slight warmth on his face, bringing a hand to his cheek, finding the trips of his fingers coming back wet. And that same feeling still at his eyes.

"I'm… crying? Why…?"