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Raiden Mei smiled softly as she finished explaining the final piece of her lecture on applied Imaginary Physics. The blackboard behind her was absolutely covered in different equations and diagrams, painstakingly drawn by the Schicksal professor and carefully laid out to provide the best flow and reading to accompany her words during the lecture. The air was pleasantly warm, the spring sun floating through the windows and several dozen bodies within keeping the chill spring air at bay. Each breath brought with it the scent of chalk, the entwining woody and chemical smell of pencils and pen ink, and the lingering scent of cleaner from when the janitors had gone over the room this morning. Violet eyes darted to the clock over the entrance to the classroom to her left. She had finished earlier than expected, they still had fifteen minutes before she should be letting her students go. Contrary to her expectations, there had been significantly less questions than she’d prepared for. Perhaps a compliment to how her teaching skills had grown?
“Professor Raiden! Professor Raiden!”
The older woman’s smile turned to the excitable voice shouting from the student desks. A hand was in the air and waving frantically from the middle row, the girl said hand was attached to staring at her with wide and seeking eyes, “Yes? What is it?”
The girl beamed, “I heard squad leader Bronya say the other day that you had a special person in your life! But I’ve never heard you talk about them!”
Mei’s eyes widened ever so slightly before her expression dipped into an annoyed sigh, “That Bronya...” Her gaze darted to the clock again.
One of her other students seemed to notice this, “Come on, Professor!” The other girl grinned, “We’ve still got fifteen minutes of class and nothing to do! We want to know who’s good enough to have caught the eye of the great Professor Raiden! Tell us!”
A flustered little chuckle fell from the older Valkyrie’s lips, “I- W-well... She’s-”
“A girl?!”
“I knew it!”
“Hey, shut up and let her talk!”
Mei narrowed her eyes at the chatty students, voices that quickly died down when faced with such an expression. Mei cleared her throat, “Ahem, Yes, well, she’s... Oh, where do I even begin?” The Professor’s smile melted into a warm, nostalgic fondness, “We met when we were quite young. She transferred to my high school in Nagazora, and saved my life when... the Honkai outbreak occurred.” Mei paused for a moment before laughing softly, “That’s where we met Bronya as well. And the three of us have been nigh inseparable ever since. When I first met that girl, she was loud, excitable, very straightforward, and brash. In a lot of ways she is still much the same even with how much she’s grown over the years. She is fiercely loyal to those she cares about. A protective, yet amazingly kind soul. A carefree air-headedness that hides just how intelligent and thoughtful she really is. She has gone through so much, and we have gone through even more together, and it has made her into a wonderful Valkyrie. But more importantly, it’s made her into the best friend and the best girlfriend a woman could ask for.”
“Wow...” Her students stared back with gleeful smiles on their faces as they watched the stern and responsible Professor Raiden practically melt as she spoke.
Mei chuckled, “She’s shouldered more responsibility than I could ever truly understand, and every day I try to make sure she knows we are all grateful. She-”
Mei’s warm words were unexpectedly cut off by the ear piercing sound of metal shearing apart and concrete shattering to bits. Almost as quickly as the noise battered their ears did a large cloud of dust fly into the classroom, obscuring a large portion of the side of the room. The cloud just barely reached past where the Professor stood in shock, her students screaming in surprise.
From the light dust of concrete, there first came a glow. A soft purple that moved with a silhouette from within the rubble that used to be the left wall of the classroom. And then the annoyed voice of a young woman.
“Senti, you fucking asshole! This is supposed to be a casual spar! I swear on Bronya’s HOMU collection, when I catch you I’ll-”
Mei’s expression quickly morphed from surprise into a cold displeasure, “Kiana Kaslana!!” Boomed the authoritative voice of Professor Raiden Mei.
“Oh shit-” The figure amongst the debris frantically spun around. A gust of wind unnaturally blew from within the classroom and out the new hole in the wall, quickly clearing the lingering dust and revealing the full extent of the damage. As well as the woman standing amidst it in what appeared to be a tattered wedding dress. The woman raised a hand and waved, smiling awkwardly at the narrowed eyes of the frowning professor, “H-Hiiii Mei~ Fancy meeting you here!”
Mei cocked an unimpressed eyebrow, “In my classroom?”
“Er, ummm.... yessss?” The woman fought to keep a grimace from showing through her smile and was only partially successful.
Mei pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, “I expected better from you, young lady. You know St. Freya’s sparring arenas aren’t designed for Herrscher level attacks! All this mess is for what? Did Senti goad you into a fight again? You promised Theresa you’d be careful around the students!”
The young woman in question cringed harder and harder with each word, “I- Mei-senpai it was just a friendly spar, I swear! I was keeping my Honkai energy under control and everything and then she pulled out that shitty little-”
“Language!”
“-that dumb little huge weapon sheathe she uses like a skateboard and knocked me halfway across St. Freya like a baseball! It’s not my fault!” Kiana scrambled further into the classroom and out of the rubble, “It’s fine it’s fine! I can fix it, watch!” The whole room suddenly burst into a strange unnatural purple tint as a time fracture bloomed to life. Every bit of dust and grain and shattered building rapidly reversed their course and sealed themselves back together into a complete wall. The unnatural tint over the world disappeared and Kiana turned a triumphant smile to Professor Raiden, “See? Good as new!”
Mei rubbed at her temple. She could feel a headache coming on, “Kiana...” She sighed, “Okay, I’ll let it slide this time as long as nobody got hurt.”
Kiana’s nervousness immediately bled away into a giddy grin, “Yay! Thanks Mei-senpai, you’re the best!” She proceeded to spread her arms wide and jump at the woman, kissing across her cheeks and lips in an unashamed display of affection until the flustered ex-Herrscher finally pushed her off.
“Okay, okay!” Mei giggled, “That’s enough, Kiana-chan!”
“Oh my god...” Sound finally came from the other occupants in the room. Mei had almost forgotten about them judging from the way she froze, eyes widening in realisation. All at once several Valkyries in training cried out, “PROFESSOR RAIDEN’S GIRLFRIEND IS THE MOON GODDESS?!”
As if in an attempt to one-up this realisation the roof gained a new hole as another woman broke through and landed expertly upon one of the long desk rows. The students yelped in surprise, the poor woman who had been directly underneath this new hole sporting a bright red flush. Her eyes had widened to such a degree it appeared her eyes might pop out of her skull as the Herrscher of Sentience’s toned thighs and rear squatted down directly into eye level in front of her.
“Found you, Kiana!” Senti grinned, “Oh, hey Mei! Mind if I beat the shit out of your girlfriend a little more?”
“Senti!” Mei admonished, “Stop destroying my classroom! No more Kiana projectiles! Make an illusion or find somewhere outside St. Freya if you want to throw each other around! If you harm my students I’ll make you regret it!”
Senti stood up to her full height and laughed, oblivious to the way the poor Valkyrie trainee behind her gasped for breath like a spell had been broken, “Don’t tempt me, Mei! I’ve always wanted to fight the Herrscher of Thunder! Even if your powers aren’t as strong as they were before Kiana started doing her thing on the moon.”
Kiana raised her hands in an effort to give the woman pause, “H-hey now lets hold on for a minute Senti-” Kiana’s eyes darted lower as Senti’s sword manifested into her hand, “Let’s think about this for a minute! I don’t want to sleep on the couch tonight!”
Almost faster than the eye could register, Senti launched herself from the desk. Just as quickly Kiana’s own sword flashed into existence and slid upwards to clash with the incoming blade.
“Senti please!” Kiana pleaded, eyes darting over to a once again frowning Mei, “I’ll help you prank Fu Hua!”
“I’m much more interested in getting a fight outta the Herrscher of Finality than messing with the Old Timer right now,” Senti grinned dangerously.
“Oh for fu-” Before Kiana could finish, Senti disengaged from the bind and launched a vicious kick into Kiana’s midsection. The resulting noise from Kiana made even Mei wince in sympathy. In that same instant, the Herrscher of Finality crashed right back through the wall she had just put back together moments before. Senti followed close behind, a speedy grey blur that disappeared just in time to miss the electrified hand that attempted to latch onto the collar of her clothes.
Raiden Mei remained in place, electricity sparking across her body, her lips pulled back and teeth bared in almost a snarl as her hand gripped only empty air. The silence that fell afterwards was thick, the sharp rapping of rubble falling from the ceiling like the tense ticking of a clock counting the seconds until Raiden Mei finally snapped. Instead, the woman closed her eyes and took in a deep breath and held it for several seconds before releasing. Upon this release, the lightning dancing across her body dissipated back into nothingness. Her students watched in wide eyed, tense wonder as she sighed.
“Class dismissed,” Mei said steadily, “I have a Herrscher to punish.”
Nobody moved as Mei marched right out the shattered hole in the wall and disappeared, the crackling of lightning flashing through the concrete dust.
Professor Raiden’s students all looked at each other, words unneeded for they knew they were all thinking the same thing.
They needed to tell everyone else about this.