Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

"Achoo—!"

Sirin suddenly sneezed.

She frowned and grumbled, "It must be that bastard Noldrei talking behind my back again."

She wasn't just sitting around looking for people to beat up today, of course.

Sirin might be a pufferfish who likes to puff up, but her head wasn't just for show. She knew perfectly well that getting revenge was one thing, but if she went on a rampage and started hurting people indiscriminately, she'd be the one getting punished.

Right now, Sirin was sitting in a classroom, attending a lesson.

Of course, this wasn't about bowing down to so-called humans. It was about finding a real way to defeat Noldrei and win back her freedom.

Sirin would absolutely never admit that she was afraid of Noldrei.

"This student," the teacher announced, "is the manga artist who caused a sensation in the Far East with her sexual liberation movement. Her experiences are quite unique, and she possesses an extremely high talent for artistic creation. However, the world has greatly misunderstood her, but such a thing will not happen here in our Academy City."

"As technology continues to advance, our spiritual and cultural development must naturally become more prominent, giving people more to contemplate and savor."

"Student Eriri Sawamura's work, Sexual Repression, serves as an artistic starting point, offering deeper reflection on human industrial civilization. In this new era where organ replacement is so frequent, should we not pause to think more about love, about the sex education we have lost?"

"Her artwork has brought a wealth of..."

As the teacher droned on at the front of the class, Sirin was already getting impatient.

Give me a break, she thought. It's just a tentacle monster, isn't it? Although Sirin couldn't understand what it was all about, the work did indeed look incredibly oppressive and uncomfortable at first glance.

A tentacle monster, incapable of pleasure, desperately trying to simulate human sexual interaction with another tentacle monster.

The students around her were already starting to whisper amongst themselves.

"It's amazing! I don't really get it, but it still feels amazing!"

"Isn't it just a bunch of scribbles? I could do that."

"For real? This art is too avant-garde for me."

"Could there be something shady behind it?"

"What are you thinking? If you can see a problem, don't you think the leaders can? It's definitely fine; we just don't see the 'art' in it."

Sirin found herself confused. She might be a bit of an idiot, but she wasn't stupid. She hadn't learned much from Noldrei, but she had picked up a thing or two about reading people.

No matter how she looked at it, the blonde girl's smile was stiff as a board, and she stood there with her feet shifting restlessly, as if a single push would send her toppling over.

'She doesn't look very happy. Could it be that I just don't have an artistic bone in my body?'

Sirin wasn't just bragging; she thought she had some talent for designing cool outfits. How else was she supposed to meet the other Herrschers?

Did everyone have to be like Welt Yang? Going out without a Herrscher skin, wearing nothing but his own clothes?

No way, that was too lame!

But even with her refined aesthetic sense, Sirin still couldn't see any art in this strange doujin.

The teacher was talking about what it satirized, what social issues it criticized, and all that stuff. The last time she'd felt such a strong impact was from a doujin called Metamorphosis that she had secretly read with Kiana.

'To be honest, the tentacles aren't even drawn that realistically,' Sirin mused. 'Most of them have a rubbery texture. They have a special effect of being warm in the winter and cool in the summer when you hug them to sleep. When we play together, they don't feel all wet and sticky. They have very good control over their fluid secretions.'

'And although it might seem like a problem, cleaning up with Noldrei's body is actually more effective than washing with water...'

'I don't see what's so repressive about the content.'

After thinking it over, Sirin concluded that this must be the doujin girl's imaginary version of a tentacle monster.

She must think tentacle monsters are strange creatures that are always uncomfortable, inferior to humans, ignorant of pleasure, and living in bad places.

But in reality?

Eriri Sawamura had no idea just how comfortable "tentacle monsters" lived every day, to the point where they even looked down on the human lifestyle.

"Is this the peasant's golden hoe, imagining what the emperor uses?"

Sirin seemed to have grasped something strange.

"It truly is an outstanding work of realistic art..."

Sirin lamented the new student's situation.

The new student adapted quickly. After class, many people surrounded her, wanting to ask questions about "art." But student Eriri Sawamura managed to politely brush them all off.

Sirin thought for a moment and decided she also wanted to ask about the doubts in her heart.

She pushed through the crowd and walked up to Eriri Sawamura's desk.

Her movements silenced the students. It was clear that Sirin wasn't very popular at school.

"Hey, why did you draw such a weird tentacle monster? It's not because you were threatened and controlled by someone, like me, is it?"

Sirin tried to use her own unfortunate experience to get closer to the other girl.

But she had no idea that her words were like an icicle falling from a winter roof, piercing straight into Eriri's head.

Eriri froze for a moment, then remembered the painful experience of those few days.

Someone had doxxed her, threatened her, and even forced her...

Tears began to stream down her cheeks.

'What's going on?! Why is she suddenly crying?! Do you really have some unbearable past?!'

Sirin was taken aback by Eriri's reaction. She looked around at the other students. Sure enough, they had already started whispering.

"Hey, I didn't bully her! What's with those looks! Damn it!"

Sirin immediately started panicking. She had never expected such a bizarre thing to happen.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then don't! Why are you suddenly crying like this!"

"It's not like you broke up with your boyfriend or something, what's wrong with you?"

'I didn't even cry when I was dismembered and studied!'

Eriri suddenly shuddered, as if she had thought of something. She could no longer control her emotions.

The blonde girl slumped onto her desk, sobbing. Her heart-wrenching cries made the entire class feel her unbearable pain.

Sirin's mouth dropped open into an "O," and her star-pupiled eyes nearly popped out of her head.

She stared at the scene in shock, her hands frozen, not knowing where to put them.

Soon, a female student came over with Raiden Mei.

Seeing the situation, Mei immediately became furious. "Sirin! You're bullying a classmate again! I told you to study properly at school, but no, you just had to go and bully the new student! I see you're looking for another scolding!"

Sirin felt utterly wronged, like Qu Yuan about to jump into the river. "Mei! Let me explain! I really didn't bully her!" she protested loudly.

Mei walked over, grabbed Sirin by the ear, and dragged her out of the classroom. "The whole class saw it, and someone even came to tell on you! And you still want to deny it!" she said angrily.

"Ow! Ow! I was wrong, okay, I was wrong!"

Sirin was immediately subdued by Mei and dragged out of the classroom.