"All right... if that's what Kiana wants."
In the end, Kiana's firm insistence made Firefly give up on going with her. But just because Firefly agreed didn't mean SAM had agreed.
Most of the reason she hadn't revealed her identity yet was that she didn't want Kiana to panic or assume she'd rescued her with some hidden motive.
The other reason was that she didn't want her first meeting with Kiana to happen as SAM, an officer of World Serpent. Either way, Firefly didn't think this was the right time to reveal the truth.
Once Firefly nodded, Kiana visibly relaxed. Of course, she was worried that staying with the girl might bring trouble to her doorstep, but she was even more worried that Firefly might do something reckless somewhere Kiana couldn't see.
That would be far harder to deal with than any danger right in front of her.
At least if trouble came while Kiana was there, she could use everything she had to get Firefly to safety. Besides, Firefly's ability—or rather, her condition—was genuinely useful to Kiana right now.
One of them was rapidly losing energy while the other carried far more energy than her body could handle. Helping each other was almost too perfect.
Fu Hua's thoughts on the matter weren't much different.
Once they'd settled the issue, the two quickly finished off their "dinner." Kiana could hardly call it a proper meal, but the sweet taste and the rare chance to relax helped soothe both her mind and body.
Firefly wasn't especially worried about Himeko's condition. She'd arrived too late to undo many things, but that didn't mean they couldn't still be fixed.
A trace of Himeko's consciousness remained inside the Gem of Haste, and as long as that consciousness still existed, finding it a brand-new vessel wouldn't be difficult.
Night was the best time to move. Once it was well past midnight, Kiana waved goodbye to Firefly, and a golden distortion rippled through space. The white-haired girl vanished from the living room.
That was why no one had been able to pin down Kiana's exact location. With her authority over spatial movement and her careful attention to camera placement, avoiding the city's surveillance network was easy for her. Before long, she appeared atop a high-rise not far from Heliopolis Life Sciences.
Her arrival was quickly detected by Heliopolis Life Sciences—or rather, by World Serpent.
Under normal circumstances, Jackal might not have paid so much attention to the surrounding area, but tonight was different. She'd already guessed what Firefly was planning, so she'd naturally guessed what the two of them might try next.
She'd hidden everything they weren't supposed to see long ago and replaced it with a cover convincing enough that no obvious flaws remained.
Just imagining the two of them staring at a handful of meaningless details, desperately trying to piece together the "truth," made Jackal hum to herself in satisfaction.
And things unfolded almost exactly as Jackal expected. Once Kiana and Fu Hua infiltrated Heliopolis Life Sciences, they found almost nothing worthwhile. Most of the so-called "evidence" they uncovered was only enough to call the company unethical, not enough to reveal anything truly useful.
At worst, Heliopolis Life Sciences looked like a shady company with dirty business practices. Some might even say its sins lay in what it was doing right now, but according to its records, it really was shipping medicine across the world to help people resist Honkai corruption.
There was only one thing Jackal had failed to account for.
Kiana might've known very little about many things, but Fu Hua was different. Near the end of their search through the archives, one last reluctant attempt by Kiana uncovered something that left Fu Hua stunned.
"1475... True Portrait of the Phoenix Celestial Breaking the Formation?"
At first glance, the image itself should've been useless. What caught Fu Hua's attention was the person labeled the "Phoenix Celestial," whose face looked remarkably similar to her own.
Fu Hua froze.
"1887, London... a photograph with Dr. Conan Doyle? Wait, the person in this picture...!?"
The first image could've been dismissed as a resemblance. The second couldn't.
"...Kiana, you're not mistaken. This really is a record of my past. This file contains almost every place I've ever visited and nearly everything I've done throughout my life..."
Kiana didn't know exactly what Fu Hua had lived through, but those two images and Fu Hua's own admission were already enough to leave her stunned. "This..."
"...I wasn't trying to hide it from you. I've simply had too many names and identities over the course of my life. I wouldn't even know where to begin."
Fu Hua's voice turned serious. "More importantly, records of my entire life shouldn't exist inside a pharmaceutical company like this. Whoever's behind Heliopolis Life Sciences... just who are they...?"
Her words planted even more seeds of doubt in Kiana's mind. The two continued searching through every piece of information they could access.
"The all-knowing and all-powerful serpent." "The Previous Era." "MANTIS."
Several familiar terms appeared one after another, and Fu Hua's frown never eased. By now, she was certain this pharmaceutical company was anything but ordinary.
Only after they exhausted every useful lead did the two finally abandon the search and return to Firefly's apartment.
--+--
"How did it go?"
Firefly was still sitting in the living room when they returned.
"Huh? You're still awake?" Kiana hadn't expected Firefly to wait several hours for her. She'd left well after midnight, which meant Firefly had basically stayed awake all night.
"I... couldn't sleep."
The girl's face showed traces of exhaustion and worry, along with obvious hope that Kiana had discovered something useful. Kiana could only shake her head helplessly.
"Sorry. I didn't find anything useful... This investigation definitely made me more suspicious of Heliopolis Life Sciences, but..."
For now, they still had no evidence proving that the unusually frequent Honkai disasters in Arc City had anything to do with Heliopolis Life Sciences.
"I see..." Firefly couldn't hide her disappointment.
"There's another problem," Fu Hua told Kiana. "Even though no one caught us during the infiltration, it won't stay hidden forever. If my guess is right, then we have an explanation for the strange behavior of the Honkai beasts in Arc City, and we can also identify whoever's behind Heliopolis Life Sciences."
"But for now, it's still only a theory."
Kiana was growing restless as well. She could faintly sense that a huge conspiracy was hiding behind Heliopolis Life Sciences, but they simply didn't have enough information to connect all the pieces.
Their investigation seemed to have reached a dead end.
At the same time, a Schicksal transport ship was making its way toward Arc City, carrying vaccines and various pharmaceutical materials requested by Heliopolis Life Sciences.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL