In a room within the Apocalypse family estate in Kolosten, Europe.
Unlike the cold, damp outdoors where it was raining, the sound of firewood crackling in the fireplace filled the room with a warmth that naturally induced sleepiness.
Even so, the blonde girl still felt a chill continuously welling up from her limbs, and even her consciousness was slowly fading away.
The rain here always fell endlessly, as if it wouldn’t stop until it had soaked everything thoroughly; thus, under day-after-day of wear and tear, the roads within the rain curtain became muddy.
The more one wanted to quickly walk out of this mire, the deeper the feet stuck in it would sink.
“How is the situation?”
“It’s simply too severe this time. At most, I can only let her live for a few more hours.”
“…”
Hearing this, the blonde man merely glanced indifferently at the doctor, then shifted his gaze to the blonde girl lying on the bed.
Illuminated by the dim firelight, her hair reflected a faint luster.
Unlike the man whose hair was mixed with mottled colors, the girl’s hue was as pure as gold.
“If you put it that way, things might be hard to explain.”
The man lowered his voice.
“The young lady’s constitution is weak to begin with, so the people responsible for caring for her daily life should have paid more attention usually, shouldn’t they?”
The two began to argue in low voices, while the maid in the room absentmindedly fiddled with a potted plant.
Neither of them noticed that amidst the mediation of this bizarre atmosphere, the blonde girl was about to quietly pass away.
“It’s raining again.”
Vesta Apocalypse had a very long dream.
She dreamed of dreams, dreamed of the future, and dreamed of a very, very distant place.
Until her long blonde hair became withered, her emerald-green eyes lost their light, and even her heart yearning for warmth began to grow numb.
Only then did her dream, along with her hopes, transform into illusory bubbles.
Having possessed one of the most noble surnames in Kolosten right from birth, she was nonetheless unable to stand up due to being born sickly.
Lying like this on a small bed, she drifted further and further away from everyone else.
By the time she realized it, those things had already reached a place so far away that even if she leaned half her body out of the bed and reached out desperately, she couldn’t catch them.
The pristine white ceiling, the narrow sickbed, the servants’ faint mocking laughter, and the lingering solitude constituted everything in that tiny room, which was already the entirety of her world.
This was the life of Vesta Apocalypse.
“…”
At death’s door, Vester cast her gaze towards the window.
The maid who took care of her disliked the oppressive feeling when the windows and doors were tightly shut, so this window had always been open.
Tilting her head to look at the raindrops hitting the floor, the girl smiled abruptly.
“What a pity.”
Wanting to feel the temperature of the rain, she realized that she had even lost the strength to reach out her hand.
“Although I like the rain very much, still, as expected.”
“In the end, I still want to experience the warmth of the sunlight…”
“Hey, look quickly, there’s a shooting star!”
A maid who was slacking off by the window shouted.
“…Ah?”
Vester widened her eyes.
Through the window, she happened to see that shooting star crash through the dark clouds, rushing towards the ground accompanied by daylight.
“Wait, why is that thing flying straight towards here?”
To her surprise, that shooting star whipped out a huge arc of a tail in the air, turning towards Vester’s direction at a nearly ninety-degree angle.
Its speed even increased once more, to the extent that it directly pulled out a sonic boom ring at its tail.
The next instant, the shooting star arrived in front of the blonde girl, and everything in the latter’s field of vision was instantly filled with golden light.
“This is our child, haha, it’s a little princess.”
At the same time, the place where she currently was had changed from her familiar bedroom into another room.
In the room, accompanied by loud wailing, an infant was presented to a woman by a maid.
The latter’s expression changed, and she forced a smile at the corner of her mouth, while the man standing beside her remained completely silent, as quiet as a stone.
The scene shifted, the dim interior replaced by a large courtyard swaying with lush greenery.
Through the fluttering green leaves, mottled sunlight sprinkled onto the ground.
As if chasing something, a few children ran past from under the tree.
Amidst laughter, these small figures faded out of sight.
“At that time, I was still able to push my own wheelchair out.”
Noticing herself sitting in the wheelchair and hiding under the shade of the tree, Vester muttered to herself.
She had probably figured out her own situation.
“Is this a panoramic flashback?”
Under her gaze, that little girl worked hard to turn the wheels on both sides of the wheelchair, continuing forward.
These were all her past memories.
“Be a good girl and stay in your room, don’t cause me any more trouble.”
A lavishly dressed woman intercepted the girl who attempted to leave the courtyard.
“You can’t do a single thing right, and yet you actually turned out to be my daughter.”
A man sharply rebuked the blonde girl, who buried her head deep down.
Looking downwards, a shattered cake lay all over the floor.
“She doesn’t know how to walk, hey, will she transmit her crippling disease to us? We’re not playing with her!”
“No matter how many times you ask, Young Lady, the result will still be the same. There’s no need to dwell on your illness anymore… After all, even if you can only rot away in a wheelchair, your parents are still willing to let you live. That is already a tenfold blessing for you, Young Lady.”
“Even as trash, one can still enjoy glory and wealth. This world is truly unfair.”
Countless scenes swept past her eyes like a revolving lantern, and fragmented images pieced together snippets of memory.
They communicated, linked up, and ultimately portrayed a complete story.
“Mhm, so this is your life.”
Honkai Impact 3rd, Kolosten, Apocalypse.
‘If I remember correctly, right now we should be before the plot of the Purple Iris Arc in the manga.’
Recalling the sporadic clues she saw in her Remembrance, the blonde girl already had an answer in her heart.
‘This girl named Vester actually belongs to the same generation as Otto.’
Otto’s father, Nicholas Apocalypse, is precisely the current head of the Apocalypse family, whereas Vester’s father is one of the former’s brothers.
“Who are you?”
On the other side, looking at the blonde girl who suddenly appeared behind her and looked identical to her, Vester asked with puzzlement.
“Who am I, you ask? Good question.”
Having once been a player, the authority she possessed was absolute.
How should I put it, she could at least be considered a higher-dimensional observer?
She had to start acting cool right away!
Just as the blonde girl cleared her throat and prepared to start spouting nonsense, she suddenly heard a sound that made her heart stop instantly.
[ “Yuzusoft ~ Senren*Banka!” ]
Wait, what the hell kind of sound is that?!
The blonde girl abruptly opened her eyes, only to discover that the flashback-like scene transitions hadn’t stopped.
The two of them, who were just in Kolosten, had now arrived in a small room featuring a computer, air conditioner, and refrigerator, heavily styled in the electrification era.
Inside the room, a male sitting in front of the computer frantically clicked the mouse in his hand, opening an exe file tucked away in some corner of the D drive.
As the program ran, Yuzusoft’s logo emerged from a white background.
With a flash, four familiar female characters appeared in the center of the screen.
There were only two people present.
One person’s had finished broadcasting, and whose Remembrance was being broadcast now?
It really is so hard to guess.
If she was guilty, please at least let the law punish her.
What on earth was the meaning of making someone else watch him play restricted-category galgames right in front of her?
‘It’s fine, Senren*Banka isn’t considered a particularly hardcore nukige; at least you don’t get flashed right at the start…
Holy crap, you’ve already cleared it and got a complete collection, what the hell are you still playing for?
Are you coming back to reminisce about it again!’
Before the blonde girl had time to comfort herself, the man opened the flowchart.
Noticing the fully lit-up portraits inside, a few drops of cold sweat dripped down her forehead.
“Is this white-haired girl a shrine maiden?”
“Haha, y-yeah, she is.”
“Why are you sweating so much?”
“Uhm, it’s a bit hot. Right, I’m just a bit hot.”
[ “I like you, I like you so much… So I have a request, please, please…” ]
On the screen, the white-haired girl wearing a shrine maiden outfit sat kneeling on the ground, a solemn expression on her face.
“…”
[ Please accept my chas*ity! ]
Realizing exactly which plot segment this was, the blonde girl closed her eyes in despair.
Unfortunately, the scene still continued mercilessly.
Feeling several flashes of white light consecutively through her eyelids, she ignored Vester standing beside her with a shocked, open mouth, and simply revealed a look of relief as if she could attain nirvana on the spot the very next second.
“Let this world just be destroyed already.”