[81] HIMEKO

-3rd POV-

'Shit, it's her!' Otto thought in panic.

He immediately kneeled to her level and checked her condition.

'holy fuck!' Otto grimly thought.

Right now her body was being broken down at immense speed by Honkai energy erosion, she just couldn't take any more of it.

She's just barely alive on hopes and dreams, literally.

"Is that...Himeko?" Rita asked in surprise and shock.

"Yeah, not our Himeko though" Otto replied, picking her up into a prince's style carry.

"Make a portal home" he ordered, and she did as she was told.

-HIMEKO 3rd POV-

HIMEKO's eyes began to flutter open, her mind disoriented.

"Hmm~" HIMEKO groaned as she got off the bed and stretched her body.

HIMEKO felt better than ever. Due to the Honkai erosion that was slowly but constantly destroying her body because of her stigma, HIMEKO was in a lot of constant pain.

Also, the reason why she always indulged herself in alcohol constantly. The booze numbed the pain even if it was just a little.

But now she was free from that pain, she was...

"Kiana!" She shouted at the top of her lungs as she remembered the event that had conspired.

Kiana becoming a Herrsher, Anti-Entropy pulling up...her death.

"Is this the afterlife?" HIMEKO asked herself.

The pain was gone, she was in an unfamiliar room, and she was in a pure white sleeping gown. Plus, she doubted anyone could have saved her in the condition she was in.

The door-she looked at it. Closing her eyes, she could hear a multitude of sounds.

Small and quick steps running on hardwood, soft and loud giggles, and yells of excitement coming from across the door every passing second.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door.

-HIMEKO POV-

To no surprise, multitudes of kids ran across these halls.

All of them smiled and laughed, no worries of the world burdening their small and fragile shoulders.

I couldn't help but smile, but feel sadness in my heart.

So many of these kids are dead already, and looking at how young they all were, they probably didn't get a long time to live.

"Eh, sister Himeko?" Suddenly spoke one of the kids, surprising me.

"You know me, kid?" I kneeled to her level, meeting eye-to-eye with the brown-haired girl.

"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?" she responded, looking at me as if I were crazy.

"You should hurry up, big bro Otto is making breakfast for everyone today!" She shouted with happiness before running away.

...Otto?

The Overseer?

In heaven?

"Ha...hahahahahahah!!!" I laughed so hard it felt as if my lungs were going to blow out my throat.

The chances of that man making it to heaven were lower than Theresa stopping her bitter melon juice drinking habits.

-2 Minutes Later-

My body stood still in shock as I looked at the scene in front of me.

Otto Apocalypse, Professor Welt, and a younger version of me we're happily chatting with each other as they are tea and pastries.

And the other me was *gag* sitting on his lap!!!

"Oh? Seems like you're awake" the Overseer finally noticed my presence in the room.

"Incredible! She looks exactly like me, just old" The other me said in excitement in her eyes.

*Twitch*

What did you say?!

I'll tell you that I am very young still!!!

Sigh~ this is Kiana all over again, calling me auntie and crap.

-Otto Apocalypse POV-

I watched in amusement as HIMEKO looked at MY Himeko in annoyance, probably because she called her an old woman.

Hehehe, the parallel between them both is insane.

HIMEKO is basically just my Himeko if she kept her fiery temper from our childhood.

Well, mix in alcoholism and you got yourself a HI3rd HIMEKO.

"Well don't be shy now, come have a seat" I said as I gave her a smile and patted the chair next to me at the table.

HIMEKO cast me a wary glare before nodding and awkwardly sitting next to me.

"So...is this hell?" Was the first few words she spoke.

...pft hahahahahaha!!!!

A fuck, she must think she's dead or something. And the fact I'm here probably means she's in hell.

Himeko and Welt also laughed a bit before stopping themselves, it was obviously rude to laugh but...pft.

"What's funny?!" She glared at us, her first raised as she threatened to punch us.

"Haaa~ man that was funny" I chuckled lightly as the laughter in the room died down.

"No, you're not dead HIMEKO. You've just traveled to another world" I explained.

Her eyes widened in shock, I could see her face process various emotions. Shock, worry, anger, sadness, grief, damn this woman is going through it.

After somehow getting through the five stages of grief in a matter of seconds, HIMEKO took a deep breath. "If that's the case, then tell me, what do you want with me?" Her eyes sharpened along with an intimidating aura emanating from her. Not that it scared any of us, it was adorable at most.

Fufu~ I guess she knows I'm not any different from her Otto, well, I'm better but that's not the point!

Sadly, she's wrong this time. I saved her purely from the bottom of my heart.

Now, let me explain how she got here in the first place before I say anything else, let's rewind to chapter 25. Kiana becomes the Herrsher of void, things went to shit, and HIMEKO tries to stop her.

When HIMEKO fights Kiana, she becomes traped in a separate pocket space created by the Herrsher of Void. They fight and HIEMKO manages to inject that serum thingy into her neck, knocking the fuck out of the HoV inside Kiana.

Now then, remember that HEMIKO was in a pocket space. When HIEMKO managed to inject the serum into HoV, she went berserk, causing the pocket space to become unstable.

And once it finally broke, it ejected everything out as that space didn't exist anymore.

The ejection was random, meaning that they could have been dropped off in the middle of Nagazora, the desert, or...another universe.

Example: in Honkai: Star Rail, if you go to the curio storage in Herta's space station you can find a shard piece of HIMEKO'S sword which had broken in the fight against the HoV. Those shards ended up there, but HIMEKO herself under up here.

But the thing is, even if I told HIMEKO that I saved her out of kindness, she wouldn't believe me a single bit.

"What do I want? what I want is you, HIMEKO" I spoke, ignoring my Himeko's painful punch to the ribs.