Honkai Impact 3rd: Don't Die For Me Book 2 Purgatory

Chapter 59 Bloom

"I'm supposed to be the one leading the way," Sakura exclaimed.

It had been days since her short brush with death. Days since her heart started to warm. Perhaps she was interested in her savior. She definitely couldn't get enough of Kallen's honey scent and life was bearable by her side. All the confusing emotions landed Sakura on Kallen's back. At the moment Kallen was piggybacking her up the dense forest that neared the mountaintop.

There were fewer demons at the top, or what Kallen called Honkai beasts. The mountain top was windy and icy, the droplets of sweat froze and tore micro strands in the Yukata they wore. The air was impossibly thin, with Sakura's condition she couldn't possibly make the climb without Kallen's help.

"I'm part of a knight's family. I wouldn't dare let a maiden struggle before me."

"What's a knight? How do you know I'm a maiden?"

"A protector, kind of like your priestess duties. Fret not my dear lady, I'll deliver you safely."

"Do you always speak this way?" Sakura asked, hiding her blush behind a calm tone.

Kallen thought for a moment. The memories recollected turned her mood sodden.

"No, but I guess for you I'll make an exception. Chivalrous and courteous. Just like the knights in those theater plays."

The last words came out soft and Kallen spoke no further. Sakura craned her head to look past Kallen's hair. What she found was a cold expression, a shell. It was an expression Sakura would see every time she looked into the well. Even with Kallen's arrival, it wasn't an expression she couldn't abandon.

"Did you and Otto enjoy those outings?"

"...I did. I loved the actors on stage, breathing lives into characters I'd never met. I loved the lively atmosphere and the silence that important scenes commanded. I enjoyed viewing the story of fairytale worlds that were so distant from our own. Only I realized that the stories in plays are not restricted to the stage. I don't know if he enjoyed them. I'd like to think he did, I dragged him to our first few viewings and he took care of the rest."

"Hmm, it doesn't sound too different from the theater my family took me to see. White faces, a few masks, and lots of music. I didn't enjoy it too much, it's a long way from the shrine into the fortress's theater house. But I remember sitting on my father's lap, falling asleep to the constant rocking. Rin told me she liked the plays."

"It sounds like heaven. Perhaps we should watch out together."

"Mmm perhaps," Sakura replied. The memory had made her drowsy. Her cheeks were heavy and her eyelids threatened to snap shut. It was warm at the top of the mountain, warmer than it should have been.

"Your sister, family, how were they? How did they..."

Suddenly the warmth faded away faster than it had settled. A ravaging blizzard that threatened to swallow the village howled in its place. Moments passed causing, Kallen to briefly pause their climb waiting for an answer.

"They died honorable deaths. For the sake of this village."

Kallen didn't push the subject further. Despite being dense as a winter melon, she knew the basic lines that couldn't be crossed. Sakura was hiding something, she suffered alone all this time.

'I was just the same when my father died.' Kallen thought as she resumed the climb. Bounding from ledge to ledge. Propelling herself further and further until she left the forest behind. 'But the Kaslanas never yield even if it's down to the last member. That's how it should be. Ha, in a sense I'm the final member, they've all strayed from justice after all. Sakura is just like me I guess.'