Blooming Friendship?

"Let's rest here"

"Alright," Aldrich nodded while scanning their surrounding. Luckily he didn't notice any hostiles nearby. "Looks like we lost them."

"Yeah..." The white haired girl let out a sigh of relief. They were lucky to have escaped from the possible encirclement since she had limited ammo.

"..." Aldrich glanced at the beautiful girl sitting on the ground. He finally had a clear view of her appearance. She had long white hair tied into twin braids and clear blue eyes like jewels.

From her appearance alone, she looks to be in her mid teens, around his age. However this said girl was capable of superhuman feats as evident from their encounter.

Piecing this thoughts together, Aldrich suddenly came to an idea...

'It can't be...right?'

"This is our first proper introduction," He chuckled, "I'm Aldrich by the way."

"Nice to meet you," She grinned at him. "My name's Kiana Kaslana."

Hearing the familiar name, Aldrich finally confirmed his suspicion.

"Well, it wasn't actually a pleasant meeting though, with those things chasing us." He joked.

"Hmph, if only I had enough ammo," She snorted. "I could have finished them all."

He chuckled in reply.

"But," He said after some hesitation,"-just what are those things?"

Kiana didn't even hesitate and just answered truthfully. Although it was supposed to hidden from the general public, it didn't stop her from telling this knowledge.

"They're honkai zombies," She paused before continuing,"-they were humans that were corrupted by the honkai. And those flying monsters were honkai beasts."

"Honkai..?" He muttered, pretending to be confused. 'So far, no changes from game canon. I wonder what's different between the game canon and this world.'

"..." Kiana stayed silent, not because she doesn't want to continue explaining but because she herself wasn't sure what the honkai was. She only knew it was the cause of those honkai zombies and honkai beasts.

Who could blame her though, she wasn't exactly that knowledgeable about the topic. She was only taught by her father that they are sworn enemies with the honkai.

Aldrich glanced at the silent Kiana and saw her weirdly sweating and looking away. The comical scene caused him to smile while trying not to laugh.

'She's so similar to her game counterpart haha,' He then though of an idea. "Why did you stop your explanation? Or...was it that you also don't know?"

"You-" She gritted her teeth. "Hmph! What do you know, of course I know what it is. It's just...confidential! Yes, it's confidential so I can't tell you."

"Hee~" He smirked teasingly, "Confidential? Then why did you tell me about the honkai zombies and honkai beasts? Wouldn't that be considered confidential knowledge too?"

"Tha-that's-" Kiana was caught of guard and couldn't think of a retort.

"Pfff- hahaha! Look at your face!" Aldrich couldn't hold it in and finally let out his laugh.

"You-! Hmph," Her face flushed in embarrassment after realizing he was just teasing her.

The atmosphere between the two finally relaxed slightly. They both rested quietly after that.

Meanwhile, back at the honkai infested town, several robots came down the sky and started firing miniature rocket missiles at the honkai beasts and zombies.

*Swoosh!* *Swoosh!* *Swoosh!*

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

The hordes of honkai beasts and zombies were engulfed by the explosions. The explosions lit up the dark surroundings which was coincidentally seen by two people on the distance.

'Shicksal or AE? Since this is in the Americas, most likely AE.' Aldrich silently stared at the distant 'fireworks'.

"It's those guys again." Kiana exclaimed.

"Did you already encounter those people?" He curiously asked. After all, some small details is bound to be left out or different from his game knowledge.

"Not personally," She shook her head. "When I was traveling around, I encountered some small scale honkai eruption and some robots cleaning up those honkai beasts and zombies."

"Oh," He nodded and went into deep thought. 'She hasn't encountered valkyries of Shicksal? Does Otto has a hand on that, if it's the same as the game, most likely.'

"Anyway, what are your plans now?" She suddenly asked Aldrich, catching him off guard.

'She seems slightly different from her game counterpart,' He noted in his mind. From his knowledge, Kiana Kaslana is the type of girl that is bubbly and always smiling, not the serious and inquisitive type like the one in front of him. 'So she has this side of her huh.'

"I'm planning on going to the Philippines actually, just wanted to visit it before continuing on to who knows where." He shrugged. His travel journey wasn't planned, he just wanted to go wherever he thought off. His visit to the Philippines was an exception though, he wanted to visit his home country from his previous life.

"Ohh! What a coincidence, I was going there too!"

"Oh?" He was surprised at the twist of fate. "Then why don't we go there together? What do you say?"

"Sure!"

'There goes her happy go lucky self. That's the Kiana I know.' Unknowingly, a smile crept up to his face.

"What is it? Is something on my face?" She asked after seeing him staring at her face.

"No, I just think a smiling face is fitting for you. You look cuter that way," He commented out loud his genuine thought.

"Wha-" Although caught off guard, Kiana quickly composed herself. "Hmph, of course I know that."

Despite saying so confidently, a patch of red smeared her cheeks causing Aldrich to chuckle once again.

"What are you laughing about?!"

"Nothing," He shrugged with his ever present teasing smile.

"Grrr," Kiana gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Hahaha~!"