Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers-Chapter 253: Borrowing Klein From You

Tap— Tap— Tap—

Rumble-rumble—

Hearing the sounds from deep within the tunnel, Mobius flicked her hair and turned to look, just in time to see Michael and Taro emerging from the access gate.

"Alright, your wish has been granted. If there are no other issues, you can head back now." Michael spoke in as gentle a tone as possible, but gentleness couldn't be faked; Taro only felt a chill.

Taro pondered for a moment, then let out another cold snort.

Compared to Kiel, who would spend the rest of his life in The Deepest Place, and the other three former SEELE members, he considered himself quite lucky—when the crucial vote took place, he was unconscious on an operating table.

The voting process and results were broadcast globally, open, transparent, legitimate, and lawful. The only minor flaw was Michael and Kevin standing guard in a small corner of the conference room, one leaning on Abyss Flower, the other on Judgment of Shamash, acting as "bodyguards."

But Taro didn't need to worry about that anymore. When he woke up, the United Government had vanished into thin air. All its former agencies now belonged to Fire Moth.

Or, put another way, most units simply had to take down the United Government sign and replace it with Fire Moth's plaque and emblem. That was it.

He simply had no choice.

Because he had been severely injured during the Ninth Honkai Eruption, Vasquez, in charge of propaganda, had already hailed him as a "Hero of Humanity," the "only high-ranking official from the United Government brave enough to go to the battlefield"...

Riding a tiger, truly no choice...

But Mei, Michael, these young people... couldn't they show a little more respect?!

He badly wanted to protest, but lacked the courage.

Just then, Michael gripped the handrail of his wheelchair.

"What are you doing?" He looked up warily, though he quickly realized he had no ability to resist Michael.

"Relax... relax..." Michael pointed towards the figure in the distance.

"Well! Sorry about this, but Mobius and I have something to discuss. You might have to go back alone."

"And then?" Taro couldn't ask for more. For the past week, that guy named Immer had shadowed him constantly, his movements completely restricted to a small apartment.

He had finally used visiting Kiel as an excuse to get out for a walk, only for Michael to teleport him directly from the apartment to this tunnel.

Now, finally having a chance to wander around... It wasn't about gathering intelligence or anything; being confined to a small space for so long was simply unbearable mentally.

Eh... But if that's the case, isn't Michael worried he'll get lost in the base?

Taro was just about to ask when he saw Michael's lips twitch.

A sense of foreboding filled his heart—for no other reason than, previously, when Michael had agreed to his request to visit the prison, and he thought he could move freely... Michael had worn the exact same expression.

"I obj—"

Before he could finish, his body, along with the wheelchair, was swallowed by a spatial rift.

Only the sharp trailing end of his cry lingered echoingly in the tunnel.

"Can't you be a little gentler with the elderly?" Mobius started complaining from afar.

"Gentle?" Michael shook his head with a chuckle.

"Mobius, can you tell me what exactly happened to those three SEELE higher-ups? Two died directly on the operating table, and one survived the metamorphosis surgery only to die forty minutes later... Heh."

"Given the mortality rate of metamorphosis surgery, is there a problem?"

"Of course not." Now it was Michael's turn to be speechless.

He certainly wasn't objecting to Mobius's actions, just mentioning it since she brought up gentleness.

Of course, it was also a reminder to Mobius not to be so crude and simple in the future; it left traces too easily.

Finally, the topic returned to the beginning.

"Gentleness is Aponia's patent. I'd like to be gentler with them too, but I just can't."

"You weren't like this before."

"Er..." Michael pondered briefly, a hint of reminiscence on his face, but quickly suppressed it.

"I don't intend to deny my past self, but the present cannot be equated with the past. The distance traveled between the two cannot be reversed."

"Tsk!" Mobius waved her hand dismissively, disgust evident on her face: "Alright! Every time this comes up, you launch into a long lecture. My ears are going numb... However, there is one thing, speaking of which..."

Michael walked alongside her. Although he didn't understand how she ended up looking like a drowned... snake, he didn't ask, simply using the rising heat from his body to dry the moisture off her.

Perhaps influenced by the heat, Mobius's cheeks flushed slightly, and her words became hesitant.

"What's wrong?" Michael immediately regretted asking.

For a tsundere snake, if she didn't want to say something, she wouldn't. Asking might just provoke her.

But surprisingly, she remained quite calm this time.

The price was a long silence between them.

Fortunately, this path was long enough, long enough for a lifetime. A few sentences were but an instant in comparison.

After her chest rose and fell rapidly about ten times, Mobius finally spoke: "Before, on one hand... I also felt you were too fragile, too indecisive, always throwing tantrums like a child. As if some unseen entity sent you to tell me—even with earth-shattering changes in the form of existence, the fragile human heart remains difficult to evolve. So back then, I always thought, if only you could be stronger, more decisive. Then I might be more..."

"And now?" Michael's voice was flat, yet perfectly interrupted the words Mobius struggled to utter.

A glint of emerald flashed in her eyes. Pretending to be nonchalant, she quickly glanced at Michael and mimicked his tone, trying to sound indifferent: "The current you isn't a child anymore. Hmm, at least you qualify as a normal adult."

"And then?" Michael pressed his advantage, giving her no time to retreat gracefully.

"Hmph! Then... then... then I realized I wasn't as happy as I imagined either. Because I understand clearly how much pain you endured behind the scenes to become who you are now, and how much pain you brought to others."

She observed Michael's expression, suddenly regretting saying these things.

"Will this hurt his feelings...?"

She couldn't gamble on Michael's "strength." Although he presented this facade now, the deepest impression Mobius held was still of the boy who gripped her throat tightly, tears splashing onto her face, the boy whose face she held in that bloody, smoky corridor, forcing him onto the battlefield.

"Oh. So?" Michael stopped walking.

Mobius took two more steps due to inertia, then whipped her head around to look at him, her face flickering with inexplicable astonishment.

Her vertical pupils trembled slightly as she sized Michael up from head to toe—his eyelids drooped, conveying an air of complete indifference.

"Hmph!" She snorted coldly, turned her head away, crossed her arms, and marched forward stubbornly.

"Hey, acting like this, you really are little sister Mobius." Her pouting demeanor registered in Michael's eyes, echoing what Ely had secretly told him two days ago—

"Don't be fooled by Grandma Mobius's stern face all day; she actually has a very girlish heart! Afraid of getting too big, she causes lab accidents now and then to make herself younger. She changes her earrings, brooch, and hair clip every day, but shyly hides them with her hair and coat.

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"And that's not all! Last time I went to give her... a maid outfit, I found several pink shirts and skirts in her closet! The skirt hems even had lace ruffles! I told you, no girl can resist pink! She's just too shy to wear it in front of others. Maybe she even tries them on in front of the mirror every night!"

Inexplicably, something occurred to Michael, and his face flushed slightly.

He quickly took two steps to walk beside Mobius again. Without much hesitation, he bent down to take her hand.

"So, finish what you were saying, Mobius!"

"Tsk! Are you annoying or what!" Mobius swatted his hand away irritably. Tilting her head, she spent another long while organizing her thoughts. Finally, she looked at Michael helplessly and gave a baffling answer: "It really is... just like Elysia said. Not nearly as cute as before."

"Eh wait... What does that mean?!" Now it was Michael's turn to be bewildered.

"Hmph, let's talk business. You didn't specifically ask to meet me just to spout this nonsense, did you?" Mobius pouted, wrinkling her nose, forcefully dispelling the nascent trace of tenderness between them.

"Ahem!" Michael coughed into his fist, slowly retracting the left hand that had almost reached her shoulder, covering his embarrassment.

"Actually, it's nothing major. Mainly heard you had a lab accident a few days ago, and I was busy handling United Government affairs then. Only got free today to check on you..."

"Then why didn't you come directly to my lab?" Mobius lifted her chin, glancing at Michael a couple more times, suddenly finding him much more pleasing to the eye.

"Ahem! With Klein around, that would be awkward!"

"Don't give me that!" Mobius swatted away Michael's outstretched left hand again.

But in the next instant, she regretted it, proactively taking Michael's hand. Perhaps her size affected her intellect, because she even swung their joined hands back and forth childishly, completely out of character.

"That was five days ago. No need to worry. You know I can't die." She turned her head, looking at the wall beside them, the curve of her lips growing wider.

But immediately, she felt the grip on her hand tighten; Michael had grasped her hand back, unconsciously increasing the force.

Neither knew when they had stopped walking. It seemed only when she was roughly pushed against the wall did Mobius remember that this stretch of path was a surveillance blind spot. Moreover, this tunnel, a remnant from the Poisonous Cocoon era, wasn't even within the main headquarters base. Apart from a few routine maintenance personnel, practically no one should be around.

Right, except for those security drones and firefighting teams.

Mobius closed her eyes with a hint of secret delight, yet forced a look of "facing death unflinchingly" onto her face.

So, perhaps fulfilling her wish, Michael made no untoward moves. He first flattened his right palm, gently pressing it on top of Mobius's head, then gestured back towards his own chest level.

He then sighed, asking in a tone... half concerned, half helpless: "Mobius, you know yourself, it's been five days... Haven't you noticed..."

"Noticed what?" Mobius sneered repeatedly, baffling Michael.

Just moments ago she seemed compliant, now she was prying Michael's hand off her wrist and pushing him away.

"Isn't this the height you like?"

"Hey, hey! Don't falsely accuse an innocent person! When did I ever say..."

"Hmph! Your eyes were clearly shining!"

"Weren't you closing your eyes just now?"

The two started walking again, only this time side-by-side became front-and-back—Mobius took small steps ahead, while Michael walked with hands in his pockets, taking casual strides, his gaze dancing along with the ends of her hair.

"Mobius, are you... is your... growth, no, recovery, recovering... slower than before?"

"..."

"Before, in five days, you'd probably grow to, er... Or maybe you just revived smaller this time?"

"Tch! What are you worried about?"

"Sigh..." How could he not worry?

The so-called "can't die" felt both like a curse and a flag.

After all, how could such a thing be possible?

And didn't Mobius, in the end...

Michael had ample reason to suspect that the supposed infinity wasn't truly infinite, just like a Mobius strip can be imagined in reality but cannot physically exist.

"Tch! Worrying about this all day? However, knowing you, you probably didn't seek me out just for this, right?"

Michael let out a heavy nasal sound and said with forced lightness: "Alright, you saw through me. But it's nothing major. Just need to borrow Klein from you for a project."

"Hmm?" Mobius turned around, facing Michael, walking backward.

Her eyes held uncertainty. Michael and Klein shouldn't have much connection. And Klein...

She couldn't think of any project that absolutely required Klein's participation but not hers.

Could it be...

"Does Mei know about this?"

"Er... Um, Mei definitely knows." Michael habitually scratched the back of his head.

Seeing this, Mobius sneered again.

Michael put his hands behind his back, lowered his head, and started calculating—what method could he use to "trick" Klein away from Mobius?

Of course, it wasn't that he had a project absolutely requiring Klein's assistance. There was only one reason for doing this—it had been seven days since the Ninth Honkai Eruption ended.

No one ever stipulated how much time needed to pass between each Honkai Eruption. It could be six years, like the Second, or just a few days, like the Seventh and Ninth.

Michael was long accustomed to this. If someone told him two Honkai Eruptions would occur almost simultaneously next time, he wouldn't find it impossible.

If his memory served him right, the Tenth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Dominance, also known as the Herrscher of Thousand, was the only one with three names. Tenth was the order, Dominance the Authority, and Thousand referred to... quantity.

And searching his memories, Michael could only confirm two individuals—Klein, and Immer.

One stabbed Mobius at the beginning, then was killed by Mobius in an unconscious state of revival.

The other possessed a minuscule fraction of the Sixth Herrscher's Authority and couldn't be killed despite dozens of attempts.

"Just tell me straight, how long?"

"Er?" Mobius impatiently bit her lip: "Just say it! How long do you need to borrow Klein for?"

"I don't know either. Maybe a few days, maybe a few years."

"?" Mobius turned around again, facing away from Michael, silent for a moment.

"Fine, I agree. But you have to promise me, after it's over, bring her back to me in one piece!"