Honkai Star Rail: The Archiver

"Is everyone alright!?"

March frantically looked around after hearing the gunshot and tried to find out if anyone was hurt during the unexpected shooting.

Just by judging the sound they heard, it was most likely aimed at the area where Her, Yuuto, Stelle and Dan Heng were.

Alongside the vagrants, they managed to capture during their whole journey through the long caverns the mine had.

"Thankfully no one was hurt." Yuuto took his mist back and grabbed onto the bullet that was suspended in the air closely near to where his back was.

The bullet's surface was hot but he cooled it down rapidly using the mist he gathered back from his surroundings.

Feeling the thickness and weight of the bullet, Yuuto predicted that if this shot succeeded in piercing his body. It would have brought major or even fatal damage depending on where it would have landed on his back.

Just the thought of this happening brought a small chill to his heart.

Yuuto spread his fingers to touch the remaining strands of blue and gold light floating in the air and felt thankful for its protection.

The light, as if reading his thoughts, wrapped itself around his finger and lit up slightly which made Yuuto smile. He was able to feel the tinge of warmth it tried to give off.

Whether it was the remaining memory of Solar acting on itself inside the fragment or Solar herself, he was grateful.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

Dan Heng gained Yuuto's attention after he finished examining the bullet in his palm and waved his arms around showing he was uninjured.

"Not a single scratch."

"That's good, the bullet probably missed but having it ricocheting off the stone floor would have been equally as dangerous."

"Yeah, thankfully the bullet missed."

Yuuto showed him a faint smile before he hid the bullet he had in the pocket of his pants.

As Yuuto was about to ask Dan Heng something, he heard a loud thud behind him and what accompanied that was the surprising presence of Oleg and Bronya.

With them was a struggling vagrant who was tied up tightly and yelled in place trying to escape from the bindings wrapped around him.

Oleg nodded his head to greet Yuuto and Dan Heng who replied with their own.

"Let me go!!"

"Now how did this hot-blooded youth get his hands on some dangerous firearms?"

Oleg ignored the yells coming from the man and instead made sure that the gun that was in his possession was locked and had its bullets taken out of it.

Noticing what Oleg was trying to do, Bronya offered to help him as she was familiar with the weapon and knew the model this gun was. 

It was an outdated one compared to the ones the current Silvermane Guards used, however this bore no issue for Bronya.

"Chief! You decided to finally catch up. You also caught the coward who shot that gun…"

Seele and Luka accompanied by Stelle and March eventually made their way towards the growing group of people that Oleg and Bronya managed to find.

Seeing the man gritting his teeth in anger, Seele had a dark expression on her face and brandished her scythe to try and interrogate him. The thought of this person aiming to injure a person or possibly kill them brought unspeakable feelings to her. 

Finding out that the vagrants had access to guns made it highly dangerous as it would mean unknown harm may potentially occur if these people acted on their desires.

Yuuto watched from the back knowing that Seele had this covered since she was always in contact with vagrants during her time patrolling. As he watched in silence he noticed the presence of a person who awkwardly stood next to him.

His eyes were still peeled to the front but the repeated glances this person was giving him made him wonder if he should speak up.

Seeing that she was still not saying anything, Yuuto took the initiative instead. "It's a surprise to see you here Miss Bronya."

"Ah.. yes.."

Bronya quickly answered but almost fumbled on her words hearing Yuuto unexpectedly speak up first. Maybe not unexpected as she wanted to say something first but the problem was there were a lot of things she wanted to say.

On that night she followed them into the Underworld, she did an extra round of patrolling to calm her mind. The conversation she had with him dug deep into her thoughts for some reason.

She had lingering doubts before considering some orders she acted on from Cocolia were ones that affected a certain party but she never really questioned it.

All she knew was what she was doing was the best course of action for Belobog to have.

But the moment she arrived in the Underworld, she learned a lot.

'What did they go through after all the Silvermane Guards left…'

The low supply of food, limited medical supplies and the ever-growing conflict these people were facing.

All the grievances the people of the Underworld were facing were all bare naked for her to see.

Confusion on why this was happening alongside doubts of whether or not her job was actually helping Belobog or hurting it. All these thoughts plagued her mind.

"Your thoughts are a mess."

Bronya's chaotic mind suddenly felt a cool sensation wash over it after hearing a few words enter her ears. She looked up and noticed that Yuuto was brushing a few strands of her hair which caused her to stiffen up.

However, the cool sensation continued to calm her mind down which made her body naturally relax.

"You should organize your thoughts before you say anything."

Yuuto's hand stopped glowing white and noticed that Bronya's [Nexus] finally stopped shaking from what he predicted was from the number of things she learned about the Underworld in a short amount of time.

Bronya closed her eyes to bask in this cool sensation for a while before finally opening them back up.

'Her mentality is strong.'

Yuuto was a bit surprised seeing the solid look she was giving him. It was only a few seconds after she closed her eyes so he thought it would take longer but he was unexpectedly off mark.

"Did you know this was happening?"

"This was my first time coming to this world so how could I know?"

"But what you said was similar to…"

"As I said before it was hypothetical. I heard stories about a person having to choose between two things that will bring negative effects on both sides so I just wanted to know how you would think. Who would have thought it would come true."

Yuuto let out a small laugh as he naturally lied but managed to piece together something that would somewhat be reasonable. 

Bronya took in his words and remembered that the reason they talked in the first place was to exchange a few words. Learning more about the other person was natural so this didn't seem all that unreasonable.

She turned quiet once again but this time she began to voice out a bit of her thoughts.

"Even back then I felt like some of… Mother's orders were questionable but my sense of duty overwhelmed those thoughts."

"Only an idiot would follow orders blindly."

"Ugh.." Bronya took a bit of damage hearing his honesty. 

However, it was something that she reflected on after learning more from Oleg back at Boulder Town.

"I agreed with the decision to seal the Underground but I would have never thought anything as drastic as this would happen if the Silvermane Guards left." Bronya felt the gun in her arms as she recalled the situation on the surface. 

"The ever-growing erosion affecting the surface was left unchanged with our current guards so the thought of adding more forces felt more reasonable. But.. the circumstances right now are.." 

She bit onto her lips feeling a tinge of regret. Yuuto listened to her and felt like she was taking on too much of a burden all on her own. 

"Do you want to help them?"

"Huh?"

Bronya looked up and noticed that he wasn't facing her.

"Actions speak louder than words, didn't you say that if it means giving them a better future you would take any hardship?"

"That is a given."

Yuuto smiled hearing the straightforward response from her. He caught her gaze and gestured to the people standing in front of them.

"These people would gladly help if those are your honest thoughts you know. Act, if you wish to do something then act on it rather than wallow in regrets from the past."

"Don't wallow in regrets…"

Bronya took in what he said and slowly began to imprint this directly in her mind.

While she was doing this Yuuto felt a wry smile grow on his face when he noticed that Seele was about to finish interrogating the vagrant Oleg brought along.'Sorry Seele, I might have taken a bit of your brownie points.'

"So how is it?"

"He doesn't want to say a single word."

Oleg sighed after hearing Seele's annoyed voice and felt like this man was a bit tightlipped than he expected him to be

"Just leave him for now."

"As you should."

The man spat near Seele's foot which made her grit her teeth in anger and glared at him as if she wanted to slice him apart.

"Okay, that's enough."

Seele was told off by Oleg and was brought along to the others leaving the man behind. He walked over to where Yuuto was and told him about his plans.

"I will bring these guys back to Boulder Town and have Wildfire arrest these vagrants. If you have nothing else to do then you should go back and rest as you've been a great help."

"I'm going to check something out so I'll leave later but…" Yuuto smiled and looked at Seele which made her strangely on guard.

"..What..?"

"My friend over here wants to assist you guys so be nice to her."

"Huh."

Bronya jumped up when she was suddenly mentioned and looked at Yuuto who ignored her.

"Her? But she looks like she doesn't even–"

"She's the commander of the Silvermane Guards."

"Silvermane.."

Hearing the name, Seele frowned and glared at Bronya who accepted the gaze being sent to her.

"Stop acting like a cat whose tail has been stepped on."

"I'm not–"

"I'll give you some more jerky."

Seele immediately closed her mouth which made Yuuto burst out laughing. He underestimated the jerky he bought from Solarian and wondered if he should have bought more.

Yuuto looked at where Stelle, Dan Heng and March were to see that they had already left to find some items pertaining to the lead Yuuto provided.

"I'm going to roam around so be nice."

"Whatever." Seele scoffed but quickly hid the jerky Yuuto gave her.

"I'll see you guys later~"

Yuuto gave one last glance to Bronya who was staring bullets at him and wandered off. After watching his back, she looked at Seele seriously which made her feel a bit awkward.

"What..?"

"Can you show me some tasks I can do to help right now?"

***

"Tsk, I'm stuck here."

Sitting against the wall, the man who shot Yuuto was clicking his tongue in annoyance after finding himself stuck in this situation.

As he was given a gun by his leader he wanted to test it out but the arrival of robots and Wildfire brought his plan straight to the ground.

After finding a spot hidden away from everyone else he finally had his eyes on a man with purple hair and immediately brought him as his first target of the day.

"But I swear I had him dead on…"

"Who are you talking about?"

"AHH!"

The man shouted when he suddenly found a person right beside him and saw that it was the man who he wanted to shoot.

"Your—"

"Hold your tongue for a bit."

His mouth was suddenly covered by a thick layer of ice and he felt a sharp pricking sensation on the skin around his mouth.

"I must be pretty petty but I was almost shot so just bear with me."

The man felt a deep chill when he heard this oddly calm voice and his eyes widened when he was met with a pair of glowing white eyes.

"I usually never do this but…"

The eyes grew brighter and the man suddenly felt a sharp pain radiating from the depths of his mind. His mind felt like it was repeatedly stabbed by a knife and radiated throughout his whole body.

He wanted to scream but the ice covering his mouth prevented him from doing so and all that was left was blood dripping from the palm of his hands from his nails digging deep into his skin.

The man's eyes rolled back and the person in front of him stood up with his palm open.

"So they found the guns hidden underneath some dirt and near a bunch of fragmentum. That place matches the memories from both the man and woman ghost I unveiled."

Closing his palm he walked off leaving the man unconscious and a bit of saliva dripping down his mouth.

***

E1 Bronya is better than Sparkle right…? Right?…haha… I'll upload another chapter later today…