Chapter 169: Lone Fox: Sakura Dies Twice! The Ferryman is Actually the Captain? (1W)
At this moment, it wasn't just Kasumi in the game who was profoundly shaken; even the various players across the world playing the game before their screens were equally stunned by this scene!
Initially, it was because of Yae Sakura's breathtaking beauty. Resting beneath the cherry tree like a sleeping beauty, that CG instantly captivated many players. But what followed was a wave of scalp-tingling chills as the truth was revealed!
Yes... the greatest secret hidden within the City Lord's mansion was indeed Yae Sakura. And combining Kallen's previous actions—the so-called "soul transfer technology" and the earlier mechanical puppet experiments—Kasumi's true identity seemed all but confirmed.
[What exactly is Kallen trying to do?]
[She definitely wants to resurrect Yae Sakura, but... why is Yae Sakura here?]
[Has Yae Sakura been sealed here for five hundred years?]
[So Yae Sakura didn't actually die? Instead, she's been sealed in this place for some reason?]
[Then... who exactly is Kasumi? Why does she have the same face as Yae Sakura? Could she be...]
Shocked comments flooded the stream, and Theresa felt her breathing quicken. she felt as if she had truly stepped into the shoes of the ninja named Kasumi. To see a girl with an identical face in that moment—how much shock... and terror must she feel in her heart?
["I warned you not to dig deeper, from the very first moment we met."]Facing the shocked Kasumi, Kallen stood with her hands on her hips, her expression complex.
["You knew. You knew from the start...."]Kasumi glared at Kallen. Her composure and calm as a ninja had vanished, replaced by hysteria. ["Who exactly am I?! And why was I born?!"]
Kallen seemed to have anticipated Kasumi's reaction. ["It seems you aren't as indifferent as you thought."]
Kasumi gripped her kunai, ordering Kallen to speak. The moment the truth was partially unveiled, her previous calm was gone. ["Answer my question!"]
A shadow doesn't seek its origin because it never hoped to touch the sunlight. But if there were a way to let it walk in the sun—
["Then, I shall ask again. Knowing nothing is a form of happiness; even so, do you still wish to know your origin?"]
["Tell me!"]
["Then take it from my hands yourself—both the seal and the truth."]
To obtain the truth, Kasumi engaged in a fierce battle with Kallen. Ultimately, due to the heavy influence of the Preta Way on Kallen, she lost the duel.
["Have you... finally calmed down?"]
["Yes, thanks to you. Deliberately provoking me to take the brunt of my rage... was that your plan from the start?"]
["Not at all. This is something I had to face. Everything started because of me; you have the right to curse me. But at least when facing your own origin, I hope you can feel something other than just anger."]
Next, Kallen recounted Kasumi's origin to the gradually calming ninja. After leaving Schicksal HQ, Kallen had fled to the Far East. But she didn't expect that uncontrollable malice had already leaked from the black box during her escape.
Hellmaru, the spirit beast contracted to the Yae clan, was tainted by the madness of the Herrscher of Corruption. Although Kallen and Yae Sakura did their best to stop it, the nightmare was only beginning. The Herrscher's madness didn't dissipate after Hellmaru's defeat; instead, it hid within Yae Sakura, making her the next host.
Because there was no guarantee that the madness would vanish if the host was destroyed—and if it happened like it did with Hellmaru—then Kallen would be the next target. To protect Kallen and the village, Yae Sakura used a moment of clarity to ask Kallen to use the spirit blade and the Six Ways of Outer Paths to seal her and the Herrscher within her body beneath the Sacred Sakura tree.
This City Lord's mansion was the old Yae Shrine, the old battlefield, and the place of Kasumi's birth.
["Wha...?"]
["You are... the second vessel, created as a substitute for Sakura to seal the Herrscher of Corruption once more."]
["The second... vessel..."]
The shocking truth left Kasumi's mind blank. she murmured the term, clearly understanding what it represented. The exposure of Kasumi's origin caused the viewers in the stream to gasp collectively, contributing their share to global warming!
[Kasumi is... the second vessel?!]
[A sacrificial lamb created by Kallen to seal the Herrscher??]
[This... although I suspected it, hearing it from Kallen's own mouth makes it feel...]
[Saint Kallen... to save her lover, she touched the taboo and committed acts as mad as Otto's...]
[True. At the start, Otto created Theresa hoping her experiments would lead to Kallen's resurrection... now Kallen is just like Otto, breaking the ultimate taboo!]
[And Kallen is arguably more cruel, isn't she? Kasumi is a living being with her own consciousness! Telling her this now is just too much!]
"Sigh...." Theresa gripped the controller, her expression heavy. Perhaps seeing Kasumi made her think of her own self in Everlasting Memory... no, more than that, she thought of Kiana. Kiana was born as a vessel to revive the Second Herrscher...
The fates of all three were tragic, and the cause of such misery was "Love." Kallen's love for Yae Sakura, Otto's love for Kallen... driven mad by love, both had committed atrocities, carving pain and sorrow into the lives of the unfortunate. Theresa, Kiana, and now Kasumi...
"I feel like you've turned 'Love' into a literal monster... Why do the characters in your stories either die for love or suffer endlessly because of it?" Theresa looked at Su Mu reproachfully. Thinking back, none of the couples in Honkai 3rd had good treatment, did they? Every single one was tortured to the brink. Even the background figure Siegfried—whenever Cecilia's sacrifice in the Second Eruption was mentioned, Theresa could imagine his despair.
"Who says? In my eyes, love is a magnificent thing," Su Mu replied solemnly. "Even a villain like Otto believes in love; doesn't that prove I believe the power of love is infinite?"
Theresa chuckled: "Killing Herrschers with love, right? Is the 'love' you're talking about the same thing I am? Sometimes I wonder if you had a bad breakup in the past. Why is every romantic character in your writing destined for tragedy? Can't you write a sweet romance for once?"
Su Mu shrugged. Was it really my fault? Not just Theresa, even he wanted to roast it. The Honkai 3rd writers were seemingly born from an ancient "Anti-Couple League" (FFF-Dan); why did they have to stab every couple they saw? It felt like pure revenge against the world, didn't it?
Despite his inner roasting, Su Mu felt his approach was flawless. If "Gen" Urobuchi could be called a "Warrior of Love," then he could be a "Partner of Love." As a veteran, his duty was to keep the Honkai in the light and send the players into the dark... ahem, sorry, his true self almost leaked out.
In the subsequent dialogue: Kallen continued her story. After sealing Yae Sakura with her own hands, she took over protecting the land. To do so, she absorbed the original mark of the Deva Way as a human, surviving for five hundred years. But Yae Sakura's body had decayed over the centuries, falling into pieces long ago. Although she looked whole now, it was just an illusion. Her body was on the verge of shattering, only held together by the divine nature of the spirit blade.
To bear the Herrscher's madness, one needed an exceptional Honkai-compatible body. In this village, only the Yae clan of the shrine possessed such traits. Thus, using Sakura's surviving cells for cultivation, Kasumi was born as an artificial lifeform.
But back then, looking at the infant Kasumi, Kallen wavered. Because Kasumi and Sakura looked so much alike, Kallen couldn't bear to send her into the same fate. But it was too late; the unsealing of the Herrscher concerned the fate of all Yae Town. Even if she felt pity, she couldn't stop the other participants. So, on the sixth night after Kasumi's birth, Kallen disguised herself as a thief and stole Kasumi from the underground lab.
But she couldn't keep Kasumi by her side. After much thought, Kallen sought help from the man she wanted to see the least, sending Kasumi out of Yae Town to Europe for protection under the Schicksal Church.
[???]
[Wait, what? Whaaat?]
[I love that one sentence from Honkai players—'Eh?']
Kallen's words turned Theresa's chat into a wall of question marks. This plot was explosive. Kallen entrusted Kasumi to Otto Apocalypse for protection? Wait, Sister... (meme). You really aren't treating Otto like a human, are you? Not only was he "greened" by a fox spirit, but now he has to raise her kid?
[I'm suddenly curious: what was Otto's expression when he saw Kasumi, with the face of his rival...]
[Wait, this world-line Otto is too pitiful! I actually think Kallen is being inhumane!]
[I never expected Lord Otto's reputation to recover this way?]
[I hate Otto, but even I think he's too pitiful now!]
[And did you notice? Since Otto protected Kasumi, it means he's also lived for five hundred years just like Kallen?]
[Doesn't that make it worse? In the main story, he lives for the obsession of resurrecting Kallen. In this world, Kallen openly says she doesn't love him, yet he still waited and lived all this time?]
[Knowing Otto, he lived this long just to do everything he could for Kallen. Think about it—if Otto weren't there, Schicksal might have actually 'liquidated' Kallen. Because Otto was in power, Kallen could live peacefully in Yae Town...]
[My assessment is: pure race to the bottom. Kallen in this event is actually more 'beast-like' than Otto?]
The players began to sympathize with Otto. He might not be a good man, but his love for Kallen was purer than 24K gold. To protect her, he stayed as Overseer for five hundred years, knowing his love was unrequited, yet choosing to provide for her silently...
In Otto's office, he clutched his chest, feeling like he was about to vomit blood. "Ahem... I—I feel very unwell right now..." No matter how you looked at it, this was too tragic. Unrequited love was one thing, but helping raise a kid made from his rival's cells?
Yae Sakura's mood was equally complex. So... is Kasumi technically her child? If so, her child was given to Otto by Kallen for protection and raised to adulthood... what is Kasumi supposed to call Otto?
Otto felt like dying, but seeing the chat in Theresa's stream, he was stunned. Most people were calling him pitiful and a "True God of Pure Love"... This made his expression incredibly varied. He was suffering in this world line, but his reputation was recovering because of it? I don't know whether to laugh or cry! This way of gaining favor is too ridiculous!!
Amidst the roasting, Theresa continued. Kasumi mentioned Otto Apocalypse; although he taught her how to survive, he never once looked her in the eye. Kallen had tried to create more vessels afterward, but the plan failed for unknown reasons. thus she ended the vessel project and turned to soul transfer experiments. Later, due to the Preta Way's rampage, space-time distortions summoned monsters from other worlds. Kallen intended to use the rampage to transfer the Herrscher's will to another dimension.
Facing Kasumi, the Kallen who had lived five hundred years showed deep exhaustion in her eyes.
["I am tired, Kasumi. In these centuries that shouldn't have belonged to me, my deepest realization has been my own weakness."]
["Before then, I was Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie. I never doubted I could defeat the Honkai and end the calamity in my generation."]
["I hated the rot and darkness that grew within the Schicksal Church under the banner of fighting the Honkai."]
["But in the end, I couldn't protect Sakura, I couldn't protect you, and even after clinging to life for centuries, I can only use this clumsy method to end the karma of the past."]
["A sense of justice without power only brings despair to those who believe in it. Being unable to abandon either side isn't 'gentle'—it's just weakness."]
["I am but a mortal born with a bit more strength than others, and now this mortal is using her last ounce of strength to protect what is within her reach."]
["If I cannot even stop the cries right beside me, how can I reach for the hand of someone calling to God from far away?"]
Kallen's weary gaze in the CG, combined with the voice actress's emotional performance, made the audience feel like they were right there. The helplessness of losing a loved one, the descent into extremism, the centuries of drifting, only to realize your past naivety was a joke... saving nothing, accomplishing nothing, eventually yielding to reality... the weight of this Kallen Kaslana's life was suffocating.
Bianca, who had been silent, let out a long sigh. "The weight of reality finally crushed Kallen's will. she is no longer the Kaslana who held onto her convictions. now she is just a walking corpse living for a single obsession...."
Because Bianca was also someone with strong will and conviction, seeing Saint Kallen's fall made her deeply sad. The Kallen of the main story might have been naive, but her conviction was real; she held to the Kaslana oath until the end, becoming a shield for the people and dying beneath the Honkai beasts' feet to protect them. This event-timeline Kallen was pitiful and tragic to Bianca. Abandoning her oath, betraying her justice, touching the taboo for selfishness... most ironically, Kallen was conscious of her descent. she knew her actions were a betrayal of herself, but she couldn't stop her fall.
Su Mu was sentimental as he listened to Bianca. In his previous life, he had also been shocked by Sanka Saga. Establishing Kallen as a hero in the main story only to ruthlessly tear that image apart in an event, turning her into a fallen soul who lived five hundred years in a daze—it hit hard. He had thought the writers must be traumatized... but he had to admit, the quality was top-tier. And he knew... this wasn't even the peak of the writers' "malice." The true "fangs" would show when the truth was fully revealed!
Before Kasumi and Kallen finished their talk, a contemptuous laugh interrupted them. Yae Sakura... no, the Herrscher of Corruption, had awakened. Learning Kallen's plan, the Herrscher mocked her ruthlessly.
Humans are interesting creatures; given a little catalyst, they act beyond expectation. What is corruption? A virus? Thought assimilation? Or madness? It told Kallen it had simply magnified what was already in her heart. Justice, guilt—because those feelings were so pure, Kallen fell deeper and deeper until she reached this point.
["You thought your decision to stay and rebuild Yae Village was out of responsibility."]
["You thought using external power for immortality to protect this land was out of guilt."]
["You thought creating the second vessel was to seal me once more... You were right, yet you were hopelessly wrong."]
["All of this was the result that man wanted."]
The words left Kallen frozen. The cold reality finally broke her. Otto Apocalypse. The man who had sent the golden cross from thousands of miles away. When the Herrscher was first sealed in that body, he noticed it hadn't fully fallen asleep. He made a deal with the Herrscher then.
["If things continue, Kallen will inevitably be taken by Schicksal and face trial for heresy."]
["I have no interest in what happens to this world, but Kallen—I must make sure she lives."]
So, the Herrscher responded to Otto's request, magnifying Kallen's guilt and responsibility. In return, Otto promised to help the Herrscher unseal when the time was right and provide a perfect vessel. Consequently, Kallen regained her strength and stayed here, even fighting Schicksal. This Yae Town was a birdcage built specifically for Kallen, and the new vessel was built by Kallen's own hands. she even unsealed the Herrscher piece by piece herself to reach this point.
A twist. A sudden reversal that left the audience blindsided. Even Bianca, who had lamented Kallen's fall, stared with wide, shocked eyes. Previously, they thought Kallen went mad for love and committed crimes out of guilt. But with the Herrscher's awakening and the reveal of the deal with Otto, they realized: Kallen was just a tragic pawn being fooled! From the start, she was in a birdcage built by Otto and the Herrscher... Bianca thought Kallen was consciously falling, but without the interference of the Herrscher and Otto, she never would have reached such an extreme state.
"This—this isn't right, is it?" Otto's expression was extremely subtle. After a giant circle... the blame was placed on him again? This world-line was his fault too? Huh?
[LMAO, Honkai 3rd has its own designated scapegoat!]
[I'm numb, brothers. So it was Otto again?]
[I seriously suspect Su Mu has a grudge against Otto. Except for Priest Otto, every other version is a top-tier bad seed!]
[Dammit, I was just saying Kallen had changed, but it was Otto and the Herrscher's handiwork!]
[I'm done. Why is Otto everywhere? I thought he was the victim this time, but he's the culprit??]
The streams were in an uproar. In Theresa's stream, the "writer who wrote such a brilliant plot, is likely traumatized, and makes players wail as a career goal" was currently holding back a smirk!! Watch his face change, children! It's guaranteed!
Amidst the wailing of the audience, the game continued. Rita, who had been hiding in the shadows, finally appeared. she told Kallen that everything the Herrscher said was true. Otto had given her two instructions: one, assist Kasumi in breaking the seals; and two, once the vessel was occupied, defeat the resurrected Twelfth Herrscher at any cost.
Knowing the full truth, Kasumi didn't collapse. she gripped her kunai, declaring she would never give her body to the Herrscher. Ironically, even this calm and composure was something the man named Otto had taught her.
The Herrscher had spent centuries tainting the spirit blade; it was now a demonic blade. Under the Herrscher's control, Jizo Mitama—wielding a giant katana and radiating terrifying resentment—appeared. Theresa discovered that in this combat stage, Rita and Kallen would assist Kasumi in fighting Jizo Mitama. And Jizo's health bar had a staggering 16 segments! But Kasumi was no slouch; in this stage, she had 50,000 HP due to the buffs from collecting the scrolls.
What a stat monster. Eventually, under Theresa's control, Kasumi defeated Jizo Mitama! However, though Jizo was destroyed, the Herrscher did not vanish. To end it for good, Kallen dragged her injured body forward. Using the power of the Preta Way, a spatial distortion began devouring everything.
["That night I took you from the lab, after a century, I saw the Sacred Sakura in full bloom again."]
["'Kasumi' is not a codename; it is the first name I gave you."]
["'Yae of the Night Sakura, flowers and leaves born together, like clouds and mist.'"]
["The same name as the Sacred Sakura. Your name is Yae Kasumi."]
[With that, she gave a slight nod to Rita. The woman behind her understood and led Kasumi toward the exit without a word.]
[Kasumi allowed Rita to lead her away, no struggle, no shouting, just staring blankly as Kallen's fading figure turned around.]
[she gently hugged the girl who was once Yae Sakura, gripped the hilt, and slowly drew the spirit blade that held the Miko's last line of life from the body.]
[This was the last sight Kasumi witnessed.]
After Kasumi and Rita left, the Herrscher's voice rang in Kallen's ear. ["A truly touching farewell...."]
["I should have done this long ago."]
["But you still... cannot... destroy me completely..."]
["That is why I used the rampage of the forbidden art to exile you to another dimension forever."]
["Truly, human struggle... never gets old...."]The Herrscher paused, a smirk appearing. ["Well, since you worked so hard.... I'll tell you one last good thing...."]
["What do you want to say?"]
["There has been no soul named 'Yae Sakura' in this body for a long time."]
["...."]
["That soul transfer experiment... the one you thought was futile until the end... was actually accomplished long ago...."]
["Could it be..."]
["The subsequent vessels... the reason they all failed... there is only one reason... her singular soul had already taken residence in the first vessel..."]
As the Herrscher's words fell, a look of realization appeared on Kallen's face. ["So that was it.... I had suspected as much."]
["Ah, I really wanted to see the night blossoms one last time...."]
The spatial distortion around the mansion lasted all night. When dawn broke, the towering mansion was a pile of ruins. Watching the screen, Kallen (real life) couldn't snap out of it. Her heart was in turmoil. Thinking back on the Herrscher's words, she finally understood: the lover her in-game self had worked so hard to save was beside her all along, yet she never knew. By the time she knew the truth, there was no chance for a final meeting. Her in-game self's fate was perhaps well-deserved. In the main story, Otto had committed crimes to save her. In this world, she was no different from Otto. Even with the Herrscher and Otto pulling strings, the crimes were committed by her, Kallen Kaslana.
In Theresa's stream: "Grandmother Kallen.... that's too tragic! Why did it turn out like this! Why can't two people who love each other be together, forced apart again!" Theresa felt like she was being stabbed to death; she couldn't stop the tears. Especially Kallen's final line—it was a critical hit. she looked at Su Mu with red eyes, feeling the urge to punch him! "Su Mu, you're too much! You're just here to steal my tears! Why did you wait until now to tell me Yae Sakura's soul moved to Kasumi!!"
Bianca offered her insight: "For Kallen, this was perhaps the best ending." "Even if she knew Sakura's soul was in Kasumi, what then? I don't think someone like her would feel worthy of staying by her lover's side after everything she did. From the moment she touched the taboo, her ending was destined for tragedy. Now, at least she knows Sakura has gained a new life and will keep living... for her, this is the best outcome."
Su Mu looked at Bianca with a hint of surprise... But then he felt relieved. Bianca was honest and easily fooled, but she wasn't like Kiana. she actually learned things and paid attention to the plot...
As Kallen vanished, the game returned to the opening scene. Yae Kasumi leaned against the pillar, exhausted and battered. The Ferryman approached her, asking how she was. At the moment the mansion was swallowed, an indescribable sadness had surged in her heart, as if someone were crying through her body. she shouldn't believe in souls, but in that moment, she believed it was a cry from the depths of a soul.
["So... is not seeing the light a misfortune?"]
["Needing light is the true misfortune."]
["she created me selfishly, then selfishly regretted it and sent me to the Overseer."]
["I could have lived alone as the shadow of the Overseer, but she appeared in my life again."]
["Revealed my origin, then selfishly told me to live on with the name 'Yae Kasumi'."]
["Truly... a selfish woman, until the very end."]
The Ferryman looked at Kasumi. Facing a girl who had lost her reason to live, he reached out his hand. ["Now let me reach out to you. I need you. Will you come with me?"]
["Ha, a suspicious identity and silver-tongued. Why does it have to be someone like you...."]
["I need you. Will you come with me?"]
["Even if I only know how to take?"]
["I need you. Will you come with me?"]
No matter what Kasumi said, the Ferryman repeated the same sentence. After a brief silence: ["....Take me.... with you."]Kasumi finally took his hand.
In the darkness, the monologue from the start of Sanka Saga played again. ["Why do humans... always obsess over how to be loved? In the long years, I have always pondered this question. It must be because we can never fall in love with 'the self living in the moment'. Someone once told me that when she was.... still 'her'. But to this day, I still do not understand the meaning of those words. So, I can only keep watching you.... watching you, who was born because of her. Until I find the words she couldn't say from you. After all, you are me yesterday. And I, I am you tomorrow.... I have no answers, and I have nothing to say to you. Even so, if I must say something to the 'me' of yesterday.... 'Tomorrow, you must also.... continue to live on, shamelessly.'"]
The monologue was finally complete. The girl named Yae Kasumi was born of a tragedy. she could have endured the darkness, if she had never seen the light...
[Sigh...]
[I have to say, this plot is incredible. Even as a grown man, I'm almost crying.]
[Yeah, especially Kallen's 'I really wanted to see the night blossoms'.... are Kallen and Yae Sakura destined for a tragic end?]
[Main story was a tragedy, and now the event is too!]
[Dammit! the Old Thief is still hunting Kallen and Sakura!]
[Old Thief, give it to me straight, can things ever be good! Why keep bullying Kallen and Sakura!]
The story left many players broken. They denounced Su Mu's inhumanity while praising the quality of the plot. In a way, the atmosphere and rendering of this event were even better than the Kallen/Sakura arc in the main story. Especially with the perfectly placed BGM, it was a tear-jerker...
While players were complaining, Theresa noticed the story hadn't ended. she clicked the screen, and a familiar rising elevator appeared. she widened her eyes. In the elevator, the Ferryman and Kasumi were talking.
["Rather than that, we've arrived, Kasumi."]
["This is my flagship, your future home."]
["Welcome to the Hyperion."]
As the doors opened with the familiar notification sound, the bridge of the Hyperion appeared. At this moment, the players who were crucifying Su Mu all shouted in surprise.
[EH???]
[Wait, brother? So this Ferryman....]
[THE FERRYMAN IS ACTUALLY ME, THE CAPTAIN?]
[Holy crap? Am I actually this cool?!]
END OF CHAPTER
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