Honkai Impact 3: Noah's Ark

14:《Calm》

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《Tuesday, 5: 30 PM Present Day》

"Attention all classes," Theresa's voice echoed through the hallways of the school, including the medical R&D ward, "We have been graced today with the presence of an S-rank Valkyrie, the Vice-Captain of the Immortal Blades, Rita Rossweisse. I want you all to be on your best behavior while she's here and show HQ that Saint Freya's Valkyries are nothing to scoff at! That is all."

The three descending dings rang as the P.A. system turned off. Noah looked away from the speakers at the ceiling and opened the door to Dr. Heide's office.

"Ah, Noah," the doctor said, placing down his coffee mug and pushing off from the table he was leaning against, "How have you been?"

"Fine sir," Noah replied, "Though that's for us to know."

"That's good. Let's not delay, shall we?"

The two left the room locked and went down to one of the lower floors. They arrived back at the room where Noah's Cellular Treatment usually took place and quickly went into the business of putting the boy in a vat. Twenty minutes passed and the boy was back out, dripping nutritious fluid. After a shower, he dressed himself back into his uniform and went beside Dr. Heide to review his results on a monitor.

"This is strange," his assigned physician said, frowning. "The rate in which your cells have been spontaneously combusting has slowed to a crawl. Levels of Honkai radiation have also dropped, and instead there's renewed vigor and brain activity as if it's all being purified in the background." The man turned to him. "You did get a new stigma, didn't you?"

The boy nodded and raised both of his palms to show the doctor his Kaslana and Sakura insignias. The man rubbed his chin, which was starting to grow a beard. Then, went back to the monitor and parsed through a few windows and did some functions that Noah couldn't understand with his level of education. Then he sighed and turned back to the boy.

"There's a high probability that the stigma is helping keep your symptoms in check," he said. "Though there's still a lot of room for error, which can be eliminated by further testing. Want to set an appointment?"

The boy considered that. "Friday, 7 PM," he replied.

Dr. Heided nodded. "That's good. Well, we've taken up all the time we have for the session. Go home, and tell me should anything happen."

Noah saluted the doctor farewell, then picked up his belongings and headed out of the facility. The clouds above St. Freya were thick and casted deep shadows from the early evening sky, yet made no other obvious signs of rain. The boy didn't take his chances though and went straight to the dorm. It didn't take long for him to get under the roof and drop his pack on his basement room's bed. He plopped along beside it.

The boy sat there for a moment, just listening to the quiet underground. Then he fished his notebook out of his bag and began reviewing.

Not even a minute had passed when there was a knock on the door. Noah moved to receive his guest, and found Kiana in a beige sweater and shorts.

"Hi," she said. "Um, can you help me with something?"

"Okay," Noah said. "But allow me to change first."

He closed the door again and quickly took off his jacket and changed to jogging pants, then he picked up his back, stuffing the notebook inside, and went to meet the girl who still stood outside the door.