A searing pain churned in her stomach where the katana hilt had struck her.
But Bronya Zaychik was long accustomed to enduring pain. Though her small frame was doubled over from the impact, and a terrifying sense of falling gripped her, her mind was still methodically processing all the information she'd just gathered.
The intel Cocolia had gathered was completely wrong. Ren Amamiya was definitely not the ordinary person his file suggested. He had somehow stepped into the hidden side of the world and was very likely connected to Schicksal!
Using quantum teleportation technology consumes enormous amounts of energy. Even with Schicksal's resources, it wasn't something they could casually deploy on just any Valkyrie.
If Ren Amamiya truly had ties to Schicksal, his status must be extraordinary!
CRASH—!!
A dark figure suddenly smashed through the window above, sending more glass shards raining down.
The wing-like coattails of the black phantom thief outfit billowed dramatically in the downdraft.
Like a true black falcon, Ren Amamiya had also leaped from the living room window, relentlessly pursuing the young assassin who had infiltrated his home and tried to kill him.
Seeing Ren plummeting towards her from above, Bronya's pink lips parted slightly. A childish voice, almost milky-sounding, called out a name quickly swallowed by the rushing wind of their fall.
"—Project Bunny!"
Ren, diving like a falcon, sharply caught Bronya's fading call on the wind. Behind his white bird mask, his eyes widened instantly.
Before Ren's eyes, the air behind the petite assassin girl began to warp.
Amidst bursts of ethereal blue light, a massive figure—pure silver-white, imposing and mechanical like a humanoid robot—materialized silently behind the assassin girl.
"This girl is... a Persona user?!"
Ren's brow furrowed tightly.
He watched as the silver-white mechanical humanoid, floating like a guardian spirit behind the assassin girl, swung a massive mechanical fist with yellow knuckles. It targeted Yae Sakura, who was pressing down on the girl, forcing her fall, attempting to grab Sakura tightly in its grasp.
Ren had only just gained the ability to summon Personas in the real world yesterday... okay, maybe it wasn't that hard, considering it only took him two days from awakening his power to getting Jizo Mitama.
But even if it only took two days, mastering the ability to summon Personas in the real world was still an incredibly rare stroke of luck, something that shouldn't normally be possible.
And now, the day after Ren gained this power, he encountered an assassin who could also wield a Persona.
"If this were a novel, it'd definitely be one of those frustratingly angsty ones where the villain levels up alongside the protagonist, always staying one step ahead!"
Ren clicked his tongue slightly. Still in a high-speed dive, he reached out, his red-gloved right hand aimed at Yae Sakura's back.
Facing Project Bunny's surprise grab, Yae Sakura didn't dodge or evade at all, seemingly oblivious to the massive mechanical hand about to engulf her entire body.
Just as a flicker of confusion crossed Bronya's pale grey eyes, Project Bunny's mechanical hand finally closed around Yae Sakura's slender, fragile form.
However, the moment Project Bunny clenched its mechanical fist tight, Yae Sakura's body vanished instantly, causing the grab to hit nothing but air.
Only the Jizo Mitama katana, radiating a faint crimson-black glow, remained. Responding to Ren's call, it shot backward at high speed, landing perfectly in Ren's outstretched right hand.
"Come! Persona!"
Ren gripped the Jizo Mitama katana that flew into his hand in a reverse grip. He raised his other hand and tore off the white bird mask from his face.
Azure flames, tainted by crimson-black light, instantly ignited in mid-air.
Pitch-black falcon wings unfurled dramatically. Arsene—clad in a striking red dress suit, topped with a black high-top gentleman's hat—materialized before Ren.
"Crush it, Arsene!"
'What is that thing now? Is it a Honkai Beast?!'
Watching the bizarre figure in the bright red suit speeding towards her from Ren's position, Bronya's confusion surged.
But still caught in a tense battle, Bronya couldn't afford to get distracted. She halted her descent as quickly as possible and used the anti-gravity technology integrated into her leg exoskeletons to fly away from Arsene with all her might.
However, faster than Bronya could flee, golden lightning erupted from between Arsene's black claws.
A thick pillar of brilliant golden lightning tore across the sky, striking Bronya's position directly.
The continuous torrent of thunderous light pouring from Arsene's palms blasted Bronya straight out of the sky and down to the ground, smashing a huge crater into the hard concrete of the city below.
The thick dust cloud hanging in the air was dispersed by a gust of wind from Arsene's flapping black wings, revealing the figure of the assassin girl within the crater on the ground.
The massive silver mechanical humanoid shielded the twin-tailed assassin girl protectively within its chest cavity. The large red shield mounted on the mech's left arm had blocked Arsene's Ziodyne pillar, preventing the assassin girl in its embrace from suffering serious injury.
"As expected of a Persona user, not so easy to take down... But wait, are you a robot?"
A gust of wind swept silently past, gently catching Ren's falling body like a soft hand, allowing him to land lightly and steadily on the edge of the massive crater.
Ren stared at Bronya's face—it seemed utterly devoid of emotion, precisely cute, almost as if meticulously designed, yet cold. He noted the distinctly mechanical exoskeleton armor on her slender legs.
He recalled how Bronya had managed to fly through the air without any leverage, and how she hadn't shown any sign of pain or faltering even after Yae Sakura jabbed her hard in the stomach with the Jizo Mitama's hilt.
The more Ren looked at the silver-grey twin-tailed girl slowly getting up from the crater floor, the more he felt like this assassin targeting him resembled a cold, stoic kuudere robot.
He vaguely remembered that in the story of P3, hadn't they created a robot capable of using a Persona?
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Translator's Note: Early Honkai Impact 3rd Bronya's appeal heavily leaned into the "mecha musume" [robot girl] trope. So, Ren mistaking her for a robot is pretty understandable!