Classic Otto.
Kallen couldn't help but marvel inwardly at his words. His sheer audacity was as impressive as ever—too bad he was the enemy. She wasn't naive enough to think Otto viewed her as his Kallen.
Given his paradoxical nature—overflowing with arrogance and pride, yet harboring a deep-seated inferiority complex regarding her and a desperate fear of abandonnt—he likely saw her as nothing more than a Kallen from another tiline, one resurrected by a more "successful" version of himself.
She wasn't his Kallen. She was a trophy from a different reality.
"Then, I shall take my leave." As Otto's voice faded, the screen flickered back into a cascading waterfall of data streams.
A heavy silence descended upon the laboratory.
Kallen stood her ground, the twin pistols, Blooded Saints, slowly lowering in her grip. Though her gaze remained wary, the sharp edge of hostility had blunted.
"Kallen..." Yae Sakura stared at her, her entire fra trembling. Her eyes shimred, turning a watery crimson as joy and raw emotion overwheld her.
"Sakura..."
Kallen murmured the na, her sapphire eyes clouding with a flicker of feigned confusion as she looked at the woman before her.
"Thank God... I'm finally seeing you again..." Sakura couldn't hold back any longer. She lunged forward, pulling Kallen into a desperate, crushing embrace.
"..."
In the safety of the hug, Kallen's expression shifted to one of quiet bewildernt. It was a calculated performance for Sakura and the others.
In the tiline of Sündenjäger Kallen, she had been brought back to life by the "First Hug" of a Theresa who had rged with the power of the Herrscher of Corruption.
Because of that, most of her past mories remained fractured, nothing more than jagged shards.
"Sakura..." Kallen stood rigid, her hands hovering awkwardly as Sakura held her.
Her eyes were a mask of dazed uncertainty. "Otto told ... five hundred years ago... I sealed you away with my own hands. You're... you're still alive?"
"I've always been alive... Kallen..." Sakura nodded fervently.
In her emotional haze, she didn't catch the nuance in Kallen's words—that Kallen was speaking about the sealing from the perspective of an outsider, as if reciting a history book rather than a mory.
Sakura was too far gone in her own relief, pouring out five centuries' worth of longing. For five hundred years, she had lived in the shadow of Kallen's mory.
Even a week ago, when she had encountered a digital, fleeting phantom of Kallen who spoke of those five centuries, it hadn't eased the ache. If anything, seeing that hollow projection vanish as the space collapsed had only made the yearning sharper.
Listening to Sakura's frantic confession, Kallen remained silent. She willed her pistols back into the spatial storage of her Valkyrie armor and let out a soft, weary sigh.
"I'm sorry, Sakura... there's so much I just can't rember."
Kallen shook her head gently, her gaze a complex slurry of guilt and confusion. "I don't rember eting you. I don't rember anything we went through together."
As she spoke, she tentatively reached out, wrapping her arms around Sakura's waist. Sakura's outfit felt like the finest silk—soft, smooth, and clinging perfectly to her fra.
The mont Kallen's hands made contact, she felt the suppleness of Sakura's waist—firm, lean, and incredibly delicate to the touch.
"...What?" Sakura froze, her voice trembling with sudden insecurity. She pulled back slightly to search Kallen's eyes. Seeing the genuine fog of guilt there, it felt like a thunderbolt had struck her soul. "You... you don't rember?"
Sakura's voice dropped to a ragged whisper, her eyes swimming with sorrow. But seeing the flicker of anxiety and self-reproach in Kallen's expression, she didn't let go.
Instead, she pulled her even closer, as if trying to anchor her to this reality.
"It's okay... Kallen. As long as we're together... I'll tell you everything. Piece by piece, I'll help you rember it all."
"Okay..."
Kallen nodded softly, eting those deep blue eyes with a look of newfound tenderness. She lowered her voice to a gentle hum. "I might not have the mories, Sakura, but... in this body, I can still feel it. The longing. The love I have for you."
"Kallen..."
Sakura broke into a radiant smile, tears finally spilling over.
Good grief... I'm actually pulling off this soap opera dialogue without cringing, Kallen thought to herself.
In her past life, if she'd seen a scene like this, she would have died of secondhand embarrassnt. It was pure sap. But now, held tightly in Sakura's arms, feeling the soft, encompassing warmth of the other woman pressed against her, she had to admit—it felt pretty damn good.
"Um, excuse ..." Theresa chid in, unable to stay silent any longer.
While she was happy to see Sakura reunited with her lost love, there were so burning questions that needed answering. "So... Kallen, why were you... you know, trying to kill earlier?"
Kallen's gaze shifted to Theresa. She pulled away from Sakura, her eyes clouding over once more with a heavy, unreadable emotion. After a long pause, she spoke.
"Because... both of us... are things that should never have existed in this world to begin with."
The words hit Theresa like a physical blow, silencing her instantly. As a clone of Kallen, hearing those words from the "original" felt like sothing vital inside her had just shattered.
"Hey! What the hell are you talking about?!" Kiana snapped, stepping forward and pointing an accusing finger at Kallen.
"Auntie isn't so 'thing' that shouldn't exist! She's Theresa! She's the Principal of St. Freya! She's my favorite aunt, and she has nothing to do with you!"
"Kallen?" Sakura's eyes widened in shock. Having learned of Theresa's origins, she felt a deep protective bond with the girl. She never expected Kallen to say sothing so cold.
"Wait a mont."
Fu Hua frowned, her blue eyes narrowing thoughtfully behind her glasses. "Judging by what happened with Raiden Ei and Seele... I suspect sothing else is at play."
"Kallen... is it possible your world is fundantally different from ours? Can you tell us what happened in your tiline? Why do you feel that way?"
"...Fine."
Kallen maintained her facade—looking slightly bewildered, as if she didn't quite follow Fu Hua's logic. But she began to explain, her tone dropping into a somber, hollow register.
"I... or rather, the body you are looking at right now... actually died five hundred years ago."
"Kallen!" Sakura gasped, her face pale with horror.
Kallen looked at her and shook her head slowly, her expression a pained mixture of sincerity and grief. "Sakura... please, let finish. If you truly love Kallen, then listen..."
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