"Kiana Idiotka, you're drawing way too much attention with that precious pistol of yours."
In the middle of the open street, a short girl with drill-curled hair who looked no older than an elementary schooler moved with fluid agility, dodging the surrounding zombies while a floating mechanical arm, attached to a torso-sized robot hovering behind her, smashed an attacker's head into a pulp.
Her face remained perpetually stoic, as if the tense, life-or-death situation meant nothing to her, or she simply lacked the capacity to show emotion.
"I know that!"
A few feet away, a girl with long white hair styled in braided twintails blasted at the incoming wave of zombies with a pair of unique-looking pistols. She was tall and athletic like a high schooler. Fortunately, her lack of aim didn't becomes her defining weakness judging by her movement.
Kiana didn't bother shooting zombies at a distance; instead, she only pulled the trigger when they entered a tight radius right around her. If any managed to slip past her shots, she used her body, more specifically, a series of swift, punishing kicks to hurl them backward.
It was a signature martial art that seamlessly blended close-quarters hand-to-hand combat with dual-pistol gunplay, the so-called Gun-Kata. A technique she had inherited from her deadbeat dad.
"Can't you shoot a laser beam out of that floating arm of yours, Bronya?!"
Bang! Bang!
"Don't be stupid. Oh... never mind, I can't expect you to change something you were born with."
Bronya's voice was completely monotone, yet her deadpan sarcasm hit the mark every single time. Her physical movements, on the other hand, were nothing like those of an ordinary girl who merely knew how to fight. Unlike Kiana, she effortlessly dodged a zombie coming up behind her without even turning around, as if she had eyes in the back of her head.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Even if I explained it, you wouldn't understand, Kiana Idiotka."
When three zombies lunged at her from all sides simultaneously, Bronya crouched for a fraction of a second before launching herself into the air. She mysteriously hovered mid-air for a few beats, casually commanding Project Bunny to stomp them flat like ripe tomatoes.
It was clear neither of the girls was struggling, no matter how many zombies swarmed the street.
That was, until a much bigger threat came crashing down from the sky like a meteor, landing squarely between them on a bulky, single-legged frame.
ROOOOAAR!
The creature howled like a raging beast before slamming its massive arms heavily into the asphalt.
Because of its sheer bulk, its mobility was sluggish; the moment it slammed down between them, both girls had already kicked off the ground, easily putting a safe distance between themselves and the monster.
"It's a Honkai beast!"
"Thank you, Captain Obvious."
At this point, Bronya knew that simply using the mechanical arm wouldn't be enough to neutralize the Chariot-class beast before them. She glanced briefly at the twin pistols in Kiana's hands, then silently shook her head at the sheer stupidity of the plan forming in her own mind.
'There's no way Kiana even realizes those pistols have other uses besides firing infinite bullets.'
The 7th Divine Key: the Judgement of Shamash.
Kiana only knew them as the twin pistols her deadbeat father had left behind before vanishing the morning she woke up in their cabin a few years ago.
Bronya had run into her on the way to Chiba Academy after the outbreak started. Bronya herself hadn't said much, but Kiana was such an absolute chatterbox that Bronya hadn't even needed to interrogate her; the Tuna had practically spilled her entire life story unprompted.
"Ugh, I'm so unlucky! I keep running into trouble when all I wanted to do was find my deadbeat old man!"
Despite her complaints, she showed zero fear in the face of the towering Honkai beast. Any normal person would have fled the moment a towering, otherworldly monster materialized out of nowhere.
But these two girls were far from ordinary.
"I'll distract it! You figure out a way to blast it to pieces, little Bronya!"
Without waiting for a reply, Kiana unhesitatingly charged straight at the Chariot-class beast, firing a non-stop barrage of bullets while darting frantically around its perimeter. It was a textbook display of exploiting a slow, bulky opponent's blind spots.
The internal gears in Bronya's mind spun into motion as she rapidly formulated a strategy. But to pull it off, she needed to push Project Bunny to its absolute limit.
'Matushka told me to keep a low profile, but the situation has changed. It can't be helped.'
"Project Bunny — Engage Mode."
[Command Accepted.]
[Cannon Mode Activated.]
The bulky robot hovering behind her petite frame buzzed sharply as a second arm thrust forward from beneath its chassis, rapidly transforming into a heavy cannon and locking directly onto the Chariot.
A dense orb of concentrated energy quickly began to coalesce at the barrel, prompting Bronya to warn Kiana ahead of time.
"Get away."
"Got it!"
When the Chariot finally noticed the blinding energy charging up, it tried to lunge forward to crush Bronya. Once again, its sluggish movement proved to be its undoing. Most importantly...
"Too late."
Ka-boom!
The resulting explosion caught a handful of stray zombies within the blast radius, sending up a thick wall of smoke and dust that hid the beast's fate until the air cleared.
"Did that get it?"
Right on cue, the Tuna just had to tempt fate.
"...Kiana Idiotka, didn't your deadbeat dad ever teach you that you shouldn't jinx things like that?"
Even though her voice remained flat, a clear hint of exasperation bled through her stoic expression.
"Huh? What do you mean—"
ROOOOAAR!
A shockwave of sound blasted the remaining smoke away, revealing the Chariot. It was slightly singed and missing one of its massive arms, but judging by its aggressive stance, it was still as vicious as a cornered bull.
"Eh?! It's still alive?!"
Just as both girls raised their weapons to fire another desperate volley, they caught a sudden movement overhead. A young red-haired man was plunging straight down from the sky, holding a Great Hammer raised high in a devastating mid-air swing before bringing it crashing down directly onto the Chariot's head.
Bam!
The sheer, earth-shattering impact not only pulverized the Honkai beast into a shower of glittering purple dust, but also fractured the pavement beneath it as if a giant had stomped down.
"Woah..."
"..."
Once the settling dust cleared, Haru straightened up, casually resting the massive Great Hammer over his shoulder, and offered them a bright, easygoing smile.
"Hello there."