"Link Start!"

Opening her eyes, Mei found herself in a completely different environment and in a more traditional Japanese Samurai-styled outfit. Around her was a village completely shrouded in flames, as if some form of attack had just taken place.

(A/N: "I do wish this was an outfit in game")

Mei: "So this is the Stigma's dataspace. This place looks devastated. So, the Principal's Stigma is storing all of this?" While she was surprised, she quickly remembered that she wasn't supposed to be the only one here. "Ame! Ryu! Where are you!?"

Ame: "Onee-Chan!" The ravenette gasped in hope as she quickly turned around, finding Ame jogging towards her, wearing a different outfit as well. It was an outfit that made her kind of look more like Kallen, with her hair even being braided.

Mei: "Oh thank goodness." She sighed in relief, seeing that her sister had been reunited with her.

Ame: "Where's Ryu?" She asked, but Mei could only shake her head in response.

Mei: "I thought he was with you. But it looks like we were separated..." She briefly fell silent. Not having Ryu here with them, especially since he had experienced a similar situation with Kiana and Bronya didn't make her feel very confident. And on top of that, seeing the environment around her, she couldn't help but be a bit worried that he would end up somewhere more dangerous. But her worries would all be washed away when her sister ended up taking her hand.

Ame: "I know you're worried about him... But Ryu's strong. Possibly the strongest of us. I trust he'll be fine." Hearing her words placed a warmth of comfort within Mei as she smiled at her little sister and nodded while gently squeezing her hand.

Mei: "You're right." Unexpectedly however, a holographic screen appeared in front of the two sisters, displaying Bronya's face.

Bronya: "Mei! We haven't found any trace of Theresa in the current Dataspace sector!"

Ame: "Did you check for Ryu? Because he's not here too." The moment those words left her mouth, Bronya's eyes widened before she slightly gritted her teeth.

Bronya: "The Bronya doesn't see a trace of him here either... Meaning he must be in a different one like Theresa. We must head to the next Sector. Please follow the Bronya's waypoints to get there."

Ame: "Got it. Onee-Chan. Let's—"

Mei: "Wait!" the younger Raiden blinked in surprise as she watched her elder sister turn around. Following her gaze, she was further surprised to find a white-haired woman lying on the ground with blood staining her clothes. "Kiana? No... wait... this lady really looks like her... but she isn't Kiana."

Ame fell silent as she stared at the woman, watching as she weakly held up a small golden cross. The more she looked at the woman, the more she matched the description of Kallen Kaslana, the same woman Kiana, Ryu and Bronya met.

Kallen: "Bush! I know not your name, but please... grant me a boon..."

Ame: "Is that... Kallen Kaslana...?" She muttered. Meanwhile, Mei instantly ran over to her.

Mei: "Oh dear! Are you alright? What happened to this place?" The weakened Kallen looked at her.

Kallen: "I'm done for and will soon join my beloved in the afterlife... but if you were to encounter the priestess with cherry colored hair... Please... you must give this to her... That's all I ask... of you..." As she could see her vision becoming more and more blurry and the sounds around her becoming more muffled, Kallen uttered her final words with tears running down her eyes. "I'm coming to join you... Ryu..."

Mei and Ame's thoughts: "Ryu!?"

They both stared at the silenced woman with mixed expressions. Considering what Ryu had told them, it would make sense to assume that this lady was indeed Kallen Kaslana and was taking about the Ryu that was apart of this dataspace. Mei briefly looked at the Crucifix Pendant in her hand, entrusted to her by Kallen before suddenly the space around them began to glitch out.

Ame: "Huh? What's happening!?"

Bronya: "Ame! Mei! This dataspace sector is collapsing! The Bronya will force transfer you both to the next Sector!" Soon, the two Raidens would find themselves being consumed in another bright light as they switched dataspaces.

>Chapter 16: Yae Sakura<

A small groan came from Ryu as he was seen lying down in the middle of some sort of forest. As his eyes fluttered open, he held his forehead and slowly sat up.

Ryu: "Ugh... What happened..." He muttered. As his vision began to clear up, he looked down at himself and realized that his clothes were different. "When the hell did my clothes change?"

However, he wouldn't have much time to process it as he heard a terrified yelp nearby. Instantly he recognized the voice as...

Ryu: "Theresa!"

Getting up and dusting himself off, Ryu instantly dashed off into the direction of the scream. When he got to the area, he became shocked as he saw Theresa, who was also in some different outfit that was more traditional Japanese styled, was being held in mid-air by a Bear-Type Honkai Beast. The Beast used its tendrils to bind the female and hold her up, while squeezing the life out of her.

Instantly, Ryu unsheathed the sword that was on his hip and leaped into action, slashing the tendrils to bits. With a gasp of much needed air, Theresa began to fall but grunted as Ryu had leaped into action and caught her bridal style, before sliding to a stop on the ground. Theresa, now resting in his lap, weakly opened her eyes and looked up at him.

Theresa: "R-Ryu...?" Ryu silently looked at her before glaring at the Honkai Beast before him. As he raised his left hand, his Battlesuit's signature claw formed on his hand, with the palm cannon glowing.

Ryu: "How dare you do that to my principal, asshole?"

His voice distorted slightly as his left eye glowed red. An accumulation of Honkai Energy formed in the cannon in the palm of the claw before firing a beam of raw Honkai Energy that blew a whole right through the Honkai Beast. In an instant, the beast had fallen over, lifeless. Ryu stared at the corpse with clear hatred in his eyes, but all of that went away as he felt a small hand touch his cheek. Instantly he looked down at Theresa, to see her weakly smile at him.

Theresa: "Don't get... so worked up... for something this minor..." She spoke. His eye stopped glowing and he shook his head as his claw disappeared. Then he smiled back at her.

Ryu: "You Idiotka..." He said, but hearing another growl caused his eyes to widen. In an instant, Ryu pulled Theresa close into his chest as he turned his body. A pained yell came from him as some Honkai Tendrils struck his back and one then wrapped around his neck tightly. All this was coming from a second Honkai Bear.

Theresa: "Ryu!! Kyah!" She yelped as Ryu's body shook from another attack from the Honkai Beast. She looked up at him, seeing the male slightly smile at her.

Ryu: "D-Don't worry... I'm fine."

Obviously, he was not fine. Those tendrils made of Honkai Energy burned against his back and the one wrapped around his neck was squeezing the air out of him. Ryu could feel himself blacking out and could hear Theresa's cries from him slowly fading out. However, there would be a slicing noise that rang through the forest as Honkai Tendrils were removed from Ryu and the second Honkai Beast fell lifeless. Theresa looked over his shoulder and was surprised to see a beautiful woman with cherry blossom pink hair approaching them quickly, with her sheathing her katana in her hilt. Ryu managed to slowly look back and barely managed to see the female's figure before he blacked out completely.

Theresa: "R-Ryu!" She gripped his shoulders and shook him. The moment she said his name however, the pinkette's eyes widened.

???'s thoughts: "Ryu...?" She froze for a second before shaking her head. She quickly made her way towards Theresa and the unconscious male.

???: "Quickly follow me. I have herbs to treat him." She said, crouching down to them. While Theresa was unsure, Ryu's life came first, so she quickly agreed.

Theresa: "Okay."

>Later<

Unknown...

A few grunting noises filled a training room as there were two figures going at it with just their fits. The figures were a male and female, one who was obviously Ryu, who was just in some black training long pants and a white training shirt, and the others was a pink-haired female, wearing a black training bra and some tight black training pants.

Ryu threw a left hook towards his sparring partner, who grinned in excitement as she did a cartwheel, dodging the attack gracefully before retaliating with two swift kicks. Crossing his arms, Ryu blocked the attack and skidded back. As he came to a stop, he grinned but looked up, seeing the female leap into the air and perform an axe kick, however she yelped in surprise as the black-haired male caught her foot and threw her to the side.

With a grunt, she landed perfectly, but quickly raised her arms and Ryu closed the distance and threw a right hook that met her arms. The pinkette grunted but retaliated with a right hook of her own, but it was stopped instantly with Ryu caught her arm. The female tried with her left arm, but the same thing happened. Now with both of her arms suspended, the female was locked into a power struggle. The female knew that Ryu was physically stronger than her as she was slowly beginning to be pushed back, but suddenly an idea came to her head.

Ryu's eyes would widen as suddenly his sparring partner with purposely let off on the pressure, allowing him to fully push against her and send the two crashing down, but at the last second, the female lifted her left leg just in time before pushing it into the raven-haired male's gut, causing him to grunt loudly and be sent tumbling onto his back. Before Ryu could even comprehend, the female was already straddling him, a smirk of satisfaction and victory on her face.

???: "Oh my, seems like I win this one~" She winked. Ryu glanced around and saw that the pinkette had his arms pinned down with hers and was firmly planted on his lap. That did mean that she was the victor. He chuckled and smiled at her.

Ryu: "Yeah, yeah. You beat me."

???: "But..." she looked up before she smiled gently and looked at him with an affectionate gaze. "It was very fun. Thank you for giving me this heart racing experience, Ryu." The male felt his heart flutter from her tone and from that gorgeous smile of hers, but he couldn't help but smile back.

Ryu: "Aw stop it, you'll make me blush." The pinkette giggled and cupped his cheek with her hand.

???: "Mm. I feel like you deserve a reward!"

Ryu: "Oh? What kind?" he questioned as he raised his left hand and pushed a bit of her cherry blossom pink hair behind her pointed elf-styled ear. His golden eyes stared into her beautiful blue eyes with pink pupils ones.

???: "I believe it's quite obvious... darling~" she said as she leaned down, with her eyes closed and their lips gently encountered one another.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Ryu's thoughts: "Mm... What's this... soft feeling"

The male thought as he slowly fluttered his eyes open, spotting a flurry of pink hair. As his vision began to clear up a bit, he suddenly realized what was happening as his eyes widen in shock. A beautiful pink-haired woman was kissing him on the lips!?

Ryu: "Huh!?" He suddenly pulled back and sat up. The female leaned up while touching her lips as she turned her head away.

???: "W-Well... at least you're awake now. You passed out in that girl, Theresa's arms and couldn't drink the Herbal Soup. So, I had no choice to use my mouth." She explained with a faint blush on her cheeks. Ryu blinked and stared at her before he just scratched the back of his head.

Ryu: "I... I see... Well, it's fine if it's just that..."

???: "It may be bitter, but the herbal soup can help you recover." She said, picking up a miniature wooden bathtub (idk what they're called). "Come, take off your clothes. I'll give you a bath."

Ryu: "Huh...?" He blinked a bit before realizing what she said. His face went red as he quickly shook his head and glanced away. "U-Uh no thanks. I'm perfectly capable of bathing myself, thank you."

The pinkette stared at him with a bit of a confused expression before her eyes widened and she too went a bit red. That sentence just came out of her mouth so naturally!

???: *cough* "R-Right. Of course..." she gently rested the wooden tub down. Taking a glance at him, she couldn't help but be lost in him as her mind displayed an image of a slightly older looking version of him.

???'s thoughts: "That Theresa-Sama... she said that his name is Ryu, right...? I can understand having the same name but... what's with his striking appearance...? And Theresa-Sama too, she looks awfully like Kallen." She sighed and held her head. "I... can't control my emotions... I miss them... so much..."

Voice in the Head: "ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕖𝕤! ℝ𝕪𝕦 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕂𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕟𝕠 𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣 𝕒𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕤𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘. 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕟𝕠 𝕤𝕒𝕝𝕧𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕, 𝕐𝕒𝕖 𝕊𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕣𝕒!"

The woman named Yae Sakura was suddenly brought out of her train of thought as a Shrine Maiden kneeled behind her.

Maiden: "Miko-Sama, our meeting is about to begin." With a small sigh, Sakura turned to look at Ryu.

Sakura: "My apologies, young sir. I have other matters to attend to. I'll leave the towel and the tub here for you. You may rest in the Jinja when you're done bathing. Your friend, Theresa-Sama is also here so you may go and find her if you'd like. I have prepared some food for you as well." she said, gesturing to the two fresh Onigiri. "I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name is Yae Sakura."

(Yae Sakura-Gyakushinn Miko)

The moment she introduced herself, Ryu's eyes widened in shock.

Ryu's thoughts: "Yae Sakura!?" He suddenly thought of Kallen and what she said when they first met in that VR world.

(Flashback)

Kallen: "I'm Kallen. I'm... I'm your girlfriend, along with Sakura."

(Flashback end)

He then remembered that memory he remembered after he, Kiana and Bronya came back to the real world; the memory of him being with Sakura and Kallen. However, while Ryu may have been in a state of shock, he was soon brought out of it by Sakura's voice.

Sakura: "Who might you be?"

Ryu: "Huh?" He looked back at her before realizing that he hadn't told her his name yet. "O-Oh right. I'm Aikawa Ryu."

Sakura's thoughts: "Aikawa... Ryu... He even has the same Surname as he does..." She silently hummed before pushing her own emotions and feelings aside and nodded at him.

Sakura: "Very well, Ryu-San. Please, make yourself at home."

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