Honkai Star Rail (READER)

Kafka - Mother

It was a bit funny, looking back on all of it. The way you could vividly imagine the way it felt, and yet never truly remember. 

Staring deep into her eyes left a bitterness, a tightness that wrapped around you- squeezing every last bit of life from your chest. She seemed so calm, at peace with everything she'd done. It nearly terrified you to think about. 

The tides of this war began to shift, and they were no longer in Elio's favor. Though, that thought was quickly shunned upon the simple fact that destiny was a pre-ordained certainty. She was here, because Elio wanted her to be here.

It all seemed so- "Pointless?" She interrupted, continuing your thought without so much as an incentive. The futility within her taunts, garnering a hated response from within you. 

"You know...I was never cut out to be a mother. The moment those three knew the plan, they dumped you on me. Training, teaching, basic life skills, all on me-" She closed her eyes, smiling like she was enjoying a symphony. Breaking you down was merely a step in the grand plan he orchestrated, one she enacted without hesitation. 

"The plan could only work if I wiped your memories. Then I dropped you off on the train." 

Staring back at you, with those same horribly kind eyes... You hated it. You hated looking at it. More than ever, you hated not being able to remember. 

"Memories are a strange thing Y/N. They exist, just in- different ways." Turning her palm, she grabbed a card out of thin air. Spinning it gently before it made its way over to you. 

Within the frame was a single white room, splattered with blood.  You could tell, the moment of your creation was not one without tremendous sacrifice. Trials that Kafka endured to simply get you to this point, were not out of some deep-seated compassion but a cruel necessity. 

In her eyes, you were nothing but a tool. Once your usefulness wore out, she would leave you behind. Leave you alone, all over again. 

"You'll never be able to picture it quite the way it happened. Not the sterile smell or the blinding white strobe lights-" She elaborated, though you couldn't be sure which of you were suffering, only that both of you were present to see it. Only one would ever know for sure.

"Why you?" 

"Suppose I had the most patience. A bit ironic considering how thinly spread it truly is." She paused, searching your normally unreadable face. "You don't need to look so upset, Y/N. I've seen that look a thousand times to not recognize what it is." 

Looking away from her, all the allegories began to wear upon you. She spoke simply but with a trail of riddles that you couldn't decipher. Taking her hand and placing it gently on the back of your temple felt so right, and so painfully wrong. 

It was funny how cruel her beautiful mercy was. Like torture she brought your forehead to hers, mirroring a mother's embrace. Too distant to show any affection, but close enough to replicate the idea. 

"You are a piece of myself that lives outside of me. What that makes of you is completely up to you. Well- as much as it can be." Such a sad expression on her face that brought you to tears, completely unsure why. It felt normal to empathize with this all too familiar stranger. 

Letting go, it felt as if she would dissipate within seconds if you didn't latch onto her. 

"If it were up to me- I would have never made you." She concluded. 

Flicking the card towards you until it began to merge into your chest. 

Before you lost consciousness you could only see her strut away, walking free again as she left you behind. Whiplash from her nearly tender actions to such harrowing disdain worked its way into your mind. For the first time, you had received a memory from a past that should have been forgotten. 

--x--

Your head slammed into the floor, a youthful woman with bright magenta hair bore her fists above you. Readying to strike you down beneath her foot, you narrowly slid away from the impact as her heel crashed against the ground. 

"Better. And yet, you still ended up on the ground." 

"Sorry." 

"We have no use for 'sorry'. Succeed and you won't have to fear being replaced." She warned, removing the cloth wraps from her hands as she cooled off. Narrowing her gaze a bit, she walked over, taking your hands and unraveling it for you. 

"I don't want to be replaced.." You whispered, to no one but her. Childish doe-like eyes watering as you glanced up towards her. 

"Then prove you're worthy of living." She waved, leaving you alone in the blood-soaked room. 

From the floor to the walls, it was marred with struggle. The signs of a fierce beatdown written all over your bruised face. Kafka didn't bother holding back her punches with the young child. If they couldn't fend for themselves, then of what use could they be fighting in Elio's grand order? 

"I don't want to be- replaced." Wiping the blood and sweat from their broken nose, the child reapplies the bandages. Clenching their fist and slamming it against the wall, repeating the action to the point of insanity. 

Cynical eyes from different parties oversaw the crucial burning of Kafka's dominion upon this child. The control that she gained through brief interactions had been paying off. 

"Should she really be the only one interacting with the kid?" 

"It works because she's the only one." Stoic red eyes peered through the glass, woven through unempathetic stares. 

"Depriving the little star of all contact, seems a bit harsh." The man laughs, shifty gazes poking at the figure beside him and to the crazed child.

"Since when were you 'Mr.High morals', huh Sam?" The man barks, stepping away from the one-way glass. Leaving the shifting gaze of the far too noisy and much too catty personnel in the observation deck. 

"Might be fun seeing how you turn out, little star- Or if you'll be like the others." The smile on their curled lips falling short as they too walk away. Locking the door as they exit the long string of capsules, each with their own set of bloodied walls. 

The space in which stars go to die. Many times over had these halls heard the ringing of pistols echo from the chamber of her gun. Memories truly were a funny thing, as each of the experiments became yet another white card in her deck. 

---X---
A/N: The new leaks that displayed Kafka explaining how MC was basically made from her DNA truly shocked me. She seems like both the kind of person to despise such responsibility, as part of the nihility, and yet work perfectly with it. 

The stellaron hunters work so mysteriously as of now, and I kinda liked the idea that they are looking for a perfect host for their plan. Children are not children as long as they have a role to play. In that case they are soldiers. 

Inspired by GOTG 3? Maybe... Hah!

Thank you for reading!