Thirty seconds later
"I'm truly very sorry!"
Watching the girl blush as she spoke these words to him and Rin, Leo Ash gently stroked her hair and said in a soft voice.
"Alright, no need to make such a big deal out of it."
"I know the problem wasn't your fault. Don't take it too hard."
"As for the other, not-so-lovely young lady…"
Hearing Leo Ash bring up her other personality, Seele quickly looked up at him and said.
"The other me is definitely not a bad person, she's just… a little mischievous!"
[Hey! Who are you calling mischievous!]
[And why are you being so respectful to him! I was just careless for a moment. If you gave me another chance!]
"Ah, yes, a little mischievous."
Withdrawing his hand, Leo Ash gazed at the incredibly flustered Seele, a profound smile suddenly appearing on his face.
"Indeed."
"I imagine that right now, she's probably still thinking, unconvinced, that she can replicate what just happened and seize my power, right?"
Faced with Leo Ash's guess, Seele said nothing.
But unlike the slightly more theatrical dark Seele, even when Seele was silent, Leo Ash could tell just by looking at her face that he was absolutely right about this.
[Hey, you little brat.]
[When faced with an ungrateful little brat like this, your first thought is naturally—]
*Pin her to the Bed and Do her until she passes out, three times, yes, three times—I guess that's what you were going to say, huh?*
[You get me. How about we do it now?]
*If she had her own body, I really would. For an ungrateful, malicious brat like her, I think… there's really no need to be so polite. But if I act against her now, the innocent Seele will suffer too, so let's just forget it.*
[Ah, an expected answer.]
[Even though you had to rely on Mind Like Still Water to force the joystick back to normal, you're surprisingly gentle in this regard.]
*We're both orphans, and she just hasn't met a good mother yet. If I can, I should show at least a little kindness. It's just…*
At that moment, her innermost thoughts exposed, Seele was suddenly pulled in front of Leo Ash, making her even more flustered.
" Big Brother Leo Ash?"
"Alright, relax. I just want to have a good chat with your companion."
Condensing the Phantasmagoria on his fingertip, Leo Ash placed his finger gently on Seele's forehead.
As the Phantasmagoria spread over Seele, she naturally fell unconscious.
At the same time, the dark Seele, completely oblivious to the situation and unable to control her body, felt her vision suddenly go black.
*Damn it, that guy—what does he plan to do to Seele!*
Although the dark Seele was usually domineering towards Seele, she genuinely cared for her.
Now, because of her own reckless actions, the Seele she cared about was being persecuted by a powerful expert…
Regret and frustration now filled the girl's heart.
And what troubled her even more was…
"Yo, hello there."
After darkness fell, Leo Ash actually appeared of his own accord within her world of consciousness.
"You… stay back!"
Within her consciousness, the dark Seele immediately materialized a scythe and spoke viciously to Leo Ash.
"This is my territory! I'm not afraid of you in here!"
"Ah, is that so?"
As Leo Ash said this, the dark Seele was stunned to see the man vanish from before her eyes.
"You see…"
Hearing a voice from behind her, the dark Seele immediately swung her scythe, cleaving through the Leo Ash that had appeared behind her.
"Your reaction time is pretty fast, but it's a shame it's useless."
In the dark Seele's eyes, Leo Ash's body was easily torn apart by her scythe.
But after his body shattered, his voice unexpectedly came from behind her again.
"You're trying hard, but what's the use against me, who possesses an immortal body?"
"Cut the crap!"
Even though she knew this was just an enemy illusion, the dark Seele now felt the unease in her heart amplify because of her enemy's voice.
In truth, faced with this situation, she shouldn't have become so anxious.
Less than a year ago, she had used a similar method to get revenge on a girl at the orphanage who had been tormenting Seele.
Having tortured that girl to the point of a mental breakdown, the dark Seele knew very well that losing her composure at a time like this was a surefire way to walk right into the enemy's trap.
But as she tore through the enemy's body with her scythe again and again, only for it to reappear elsewhere, her already fragile resolve began to waver even more violently.
"Sigh, the warm-up is over. Now then…"
After saying this, Leo Ash's figure suddenly swelled to over ten meters tall before her and slowly began walking toward her.
"It's my turn, isn't it?"
"You, you, you—"
Watching the massive figure approach, the dark Seele roared in unwilling fury.
"Don't you come over here!!!!!"
Elsewhere, Seele watched as the Phantasmagoria rewrote her other self's perception of reality, making her think Leo Ash had done something to her and causing her to cry out in terror. Her face was full of pity as she looked at Leo Ash, who had taken out and put on a pair of sunglasses.
" Big Brother Leo Ash, please stop. My other self really knows she was wrong."
"Sigh, Seele, you're a good kid. Of course you'd think your companion was just being a little mischievous, and that a little scare would make her admit her mistake right away, wouldn't you?"
"But here's the thing—if I let her off the hook just like that, she'll definitely think in the future, 'This guy is so easy to fool, I have to keep causing trouble,' and then find ways to keep tormenting me."
"You're a good kid, and I don't want to involve you when I retaliate against her in the future, so for now…"
Looking at the little brat who thought she was being spanked but was actually completely unharmed, Leo Ash said indifferently.
"Just scaring her a little in her mental world is the last of my kindness."
*Sigh, Big Brother Leo Ash… he's not wrong.*
Looking at her other self, who was unharmed in the illusion but was clutching her bottom and crying out, Seele thought the scene was…
Actually quite novel.
After all, since she became aware of her other self's existence, she had never seen her look so timid and helpless.
Without a doubt, Seele's heart was filled with helplessness and pity.
But with Leo Ash having said so much, it was unlikely she could continue to plead for the dark Seele.
Ultimately, although the dark Seele had taken these actions to protect her, from Leo Ash's perspective, she had truly intended to harm him.
And the fact that the dark Seele now looked as helpless as a bullied kitten was fundamentally because—she couldn't beat Leo Ash.
Faced with someone who was preparing to harm him, Leo Ash merely using a special method to enter her mental world and scare her was already showing them a great deal of respect.
*Sigh, my other self, I hope you can be a little more peaceful after this is over.*
*Things didn't have to turn out this way, but now…*
*I'm sorry. Right now, I can't save you either.*
...
In the real world of the World Bubble, Rin looked at the girl Leo Ash had placed on the sickbed, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards slightly.
"What, do you need me to leave for a moment?"
"This child looks very cute. If you want to make a move on her, I'll help you keep it a secret."
"Wow, so kind of you."
After laying Seele down, Leo Ash, having already left the mental world, looked at Rin, who had clearly detached from her soul state, and casually found a chair to sit in.
"You didn't have this attitude towards me before."
"That's true, but the past is the past, and now is now."
"It's like you said, we're all just grasshoppers on the same rope. Causing internal conflict over a few things at a time like this is really inappropriate."
"Besides…"
Flexing her wrist a bit, Rin spoke with a hint of gratification.
"Ever since entering this World Bubble, I've felt that my condition is different from before."
"Although my soul is still attached to Jizō Mitama, with the power of this World Bubble, I've actually managed to re-condense a physical body for myself."
"Now that I have a body, I don't have to think about taking yours every day. With no conflict between us, why should we keep thinking about messing with each other?"
"So that's how it is. But you know that's not what I wanted to talk about."
Using the wheels on the bottom of the chair, Leo Ash suddenly moved closer to the 'school doctor' before him.
"Honestly, do you still hate humanity?"
"…What do you think?"
Faced with Leo Ash's question, Rin didn't give a direct answer.
But her current attitude was enough for Leo Ash to deduce the answer.
Even if Leo Ash tried to soften Rin's heart, and even if her heart had indeed softened due to recent experiences, fifty thousand years of hatred couldn't be completely erased by a few months and a couple of events.
In the original story, Rin completely let go of her hatred and became the almost entirely harmless Higyokumaru because Theresa no longer resented Otto, the relative of the person who had killed someone important to her.
But now, the person interacting with Rin wasn't the saintly Theresa, but Leo Ash, who had also had someone important taken from him by the Honkai.
Even with his Avenger personality in a state of chaos, Leo Ash's 'newborn' personality still harbored a deep hatred for the Honkai.
How could a person who couldn't forget his own hatred possibly convince others to forget theirs?
"Alright, don't overthink it."
Seeing Leo Ash fall silent, Rin gently shook her head and continued.
"At the very least, I can guarantee that I absolutely will not make a move on you before we kill our common enemy, Otto, 'classmate' Leo Ash."
"…That's a reassuring answer, 'Teacher' Rin."
*Sigh, even though in a sense we are the closest of people, and have even come to understand each other's hearts, but…*
*What good is mutual understanding?*
*Or rather, it's precisely because we understand each other's thoughts that we cannot completely convince one another.*
*However, I can feel that her malice towards me is indeed diminishing.*
*In that case, I'll relax for now and prepare to leave this place with her.*
Looking at the still unconscious Seele, Leo Ash was already thinking about his next move.
In the real world, after his battle with Kevin, Leo Ash had vanished from everyone's sight.
And what was worse, the Herrscher girls he was close to were all present at the time.
Even worse, Kiana was in good shape, while Mei and Yuna were in terrible condition.
And Fu Hua, with the Herrscher of Sentience Core inside her… considering the Herrscher of Sentience's trait of being 'easy to fool,' the Honkai would definitely trick her into causing chaos at the first opportunity.
Thinking of the worst-case scenario, if Kiana, who had suddenly appeared in Jiuyou for some reason, went berserk, Sirin, who would take over her body, could immediately seize Mei's and Yuna's Herrscher Cores.
Welt and Su, who originally had a chance to suppress Sirin, might be tied up by the Herrscher of Sentience and unable to act.
And if Leo Ash were to think 'oh, I must rest well for a few days' in this World Bubble, by the time he got out, not only would it be too late, but many, many more people would certainly have died.
*There's no other way. I have to think of a plan.*
*Just now, I used the Phantasmagoria to make the dark Seele behave a little, which was also a test to see how well my body has adapted to it.*
*The result of the test… is truly troublesome.*
*I survived thanks to the Joyce clone's Pseudo-Herrscher Core, but that doesn't mean I'm immune to the negative effects of the Void Demon Stone Fragment.*
*Recklessly using the Phantasmagoria will still kill me, so right now…*
*I suddenly remembered something.*
*System, System, come out! Where's my reward for fighting Kevin?*
[Huh? You don't check your mail?]
[The reward was sent to your mailbox while you were unconscious.]
…