everpromisedthunder | FILE SS-???: Origin Reclaimed

Title: Origin Reclaimed
Summary: Mei talks one last time with her ‘reflection’ – or rather, the ‘other her’.
Warnings: Spoilers for the endgame of Honkai Impact 3^rd Arc 1 as usual.

“…you have such troublesome friends.”

“Do I?”

For being a meeting between other selves, there was something oddly… sad, about the whole thing. She couldn’t help but notice – her reflection was somber, almost pensive, compared to their rage-filled last encounter. It wasn’t a mood she expected to glimpse from “Raiden Mei”, the Herrscher of Thunder. And yet here they were.

“That girl – Inaba, was it? Her answers almost seemed to mirror yours all too keenly. How much of that, I wonder, was her own bravado, and how much of it was speaking with you?”

“And how much of it do you think was her own conclusions?”

“You’re in a position to influence others. How am I to know that you didn’t feed her these things?” Did she think her own ‘shadow’ was an idiot? It almost seemed outrageous.

“People don’t exist in a vacuum. Nothing ever does. Moreover, it feels like you’re trying to put her down just because she’s human.

I suppose that’s one thing that hasn’t changed.”

“Those are sentiments you used to hold about people yourself. I am you, after all – you said so yourself, did you not?”

Mei simply nodded, fiddling with the glove over her right hand. “I haven’t forgotten what I told you that day. Or the promise to never dishonor my -- our name. Just like last time… you’ve been asleep for too long.

Don’t you think it’s skewed your understanding a little?”

‘Raiden Mei’ scoffed. “And what of the boy? The spacetime kami, Yuuto? You’ve seen his bleeding heart. You’ve seen how similar he is to her. How he and Inaba are such a stark shadow of what you both used to be. Are you that committed to helping people you barely even know?

How do you expect them to find happiness in the darkness they’ve become entangled with, when your light barely shines here as it is?”

“However faint it is, it’s still light. It’s still something they can see even when shadows engulf them. The furthest stars can still reach the world we protect with theirs. So why can’t mine, even if it’s not so visible as to be blinding?

What makes my light so different from those faraway glimmers in the sky?”

“You’ve barely even lit it here. You’ve faced your first tragedy in a long while that you weren’t able to prevent. And yet you still have faith in yourself.” The unspoken question lingers in the air: where do you find that courage?

“Because I know I can help them reach it. What I faced with Hanyuu isn’t what I faced with Kiana – it wasn’t about her life. It was about someone else’s. And I could tell in her eyes that she was ready – I wasn’t there to see any of it… but she did everything she needed to.

Yuuto and Inaba deserve far more than the lot they’ve been given. And I’ll stand by that even if it means crossing blades with you again.”

‘Raiden Mei’ fell silent. She could feel the forceful push of this world’s ‘rulers’ – but what she’d been told was enough to convince her.

She was ready to depart again.

“…then do as you have since that day. If we ever meet again… I expect that they’ll have found this ‘happy ending’ you see for them. If they haven’t… well, I hope you understand what that means, right?

Goodbye, Raiden Mei.”

The young principal simply watched as her reflection ‘shattered’, then dispersed into sparks of lightning – leaving her all alone on that rooftop.

She stared out into the distance.

“I won’t fail them. No matter what it takes… I’ll make sure they never face this pain I bear.”