The Gratitude Arc

The Gratitude Arc is the congregation of events in The Gratitude Arc manga, taking place after the events of Theresa's Nagazora investigation which led to her passing out and being transported back to St. Freya High. 
== Characters== 
* Theresa Apocalypse
*Yae Sakura
* PE 12th Herrscher
*Kallen Kaslana
*Raiden Mei
* Kiana Kaslana
* Yae Rin
*Bronya Zaychik
*Otto Apocalypse (appearance)
==Summary==
As Theresa is resting from her battle with the pseudo herrscher, she is plagued with a dream, where Kallen Kaslana, who’s missing her arm, is laying against the steps of a destroyed village at night. Yae Sakura then appears with a dead expression as she draws her blade against Kallen, who pleads with her to not strike. Waking from the nightmare, Theresa calms her racing heart and assures herself that she was back in reality before climbing out of bed. However, within just a few steps, she collapses again, passing out as the stigmata she received from Sakura emits ominously behind her. When the rest of St. Freya found her, they discovered her in a coma. Taking her to the medical bay, Bronya scans her situation, deducting that the main cause of the problem came from the Sakura stigma, which was transmitting abnormal amounts of information that interfered with Theresa’s mental state. Bronya then explains how Schicksal avoids the abnormality by giving artificial stigmas that best fit the host’s functions and comments that the stigma on Theresa’s back was never hers to begin with. She concludes that if they didn’t do anything, the data of the stigma would eventually overtake and assume Theresa’s mind, causing Kiana to panic further. While calming Kiana, Mei asks Bronya if they could do anything to prevent such a thing, and Bronya replies with a Homu-Homu Virtual Reality Link headset that would allow one of them to enter the dataspace and locate Theresa’s consciousness. Mei steps up to the task, with Kiana insisting to tag along, but Bronya tells Kiana off for her rashness and sends only Mei into the stigmata. 
Inside the stigma space, Mei’s outfit translates to a more oriental, Japanese attire as she lands in the middle of a wrecked village in the midst of night. Surprised, Mei questions the events that could have occurred here before Bronya notifies her that she couldn’t detect Theresa’s consciousness and advises her to move to the next sector of the dataspace. Before she goes, however, Mei notices Kallen laying on the ground, wounded and exhausted. Sensing Mei, Kallen pleads with her to take the golden crucifix pendant from her and give it to Sakura when she sees her before dying, a single tear trailing down her cheek. Meanwhile, Theresa wakes up in the middle of a forest in the daytime, dressed in a white and red shrine maiden’s outfit. Though questioning how her outfit changed, Theresa has bigger problems as a corrupted bear Honkai beast appears, chasing some unfortunate villagers her way. Picking up the spear dropped by one villager, Theresa challenges the beast in order to protect the people, only to have the spear snap, due to low durability. Weaponless, Theresa gets bound by the vines from the beast and is suffocated into unconsciousness before Sakura arrives and saves her.
Theresa then begins dreaming again, this time about Cecilia, where the other is feeding her a spoonful of raspberry mousse. Theresa remarks that the cake had a certain bitterness despite being a berry, and Cecilia offers to make bitter melon mousse since the other did favor a more bitter taste. As Theresa starts waking, she realizes there is a taste much more bitter than bitter melon in her mouth and opens her eyes to see Sakura’s face inches from her own. As it turns out, she was fed herbal soup by Sakura mouth to mouth, which Sakura saw as the only option to get her to actually drink it as the other was unresponsive. Sakura then takes a small wooden washbowl out to help clean Theresa but the other is too embarrassed and insists on washing herself. Seeing this, Sakura receives deja vu of her encounter with Kallen who reacted the same way but allowed her to wash her. In her head, the Herrscher of Corruption insists that Kallen is dead before a servant arrives, notifying Sakura that the meeting will begin soon. Sakura then leaves Theresa with the washbowl and onigiri, telling her she was welcomed to stay in the shrine after exchanging names. Later, Theresa is walking around the shrine, eating the onigiri as she explores her new environment, analyzing the events that led her to the mysterious place. Theresa is still irritated that she was overpowered by a normal Honkai beast before feeling that the mouth to mouth with Sakura had happened before. She then remembers that in the middle of the fight with the pseudo herrscher at Chiba Academy, a fox-eared miko that looked exactly like Sakura had appeared and done the same thing, with the kiss causing Sakura’s stigmata to appear on back. Feeling her back, Theresa notices that the stigmata is no longer there before hearing someone call out for the “lady with silver hair.” Turning, Theresa then meets an apparition of Yae Rin, who asks for her to help free Sakura from the endless samsara she was cursed with. Before she could ask what any of that meant, Rin then departs, replaced by her tombstone, which frightens Theresa as she realizes the other was a ghost. 
Afterwards, Theresa wanders near one of the other shrine buildings, deducing that Rin must have been a friendly ghost before being curious of what was happening inside the building. Sneaking a peek, Theresa notices Sakura knelt with other villagers in a circle while a heavy atmosphere filled the building. Theresa is immediately flustered by the sight of Sakura, remembering their little exchange, when the villagers finally break the silence by issuing their beliefs that the recent monster attacks were related to Theresa’s arrival in the village. Sakura insists that there is no proof of the connection before requesting for more time to investigate and put an end to the monster attacks, as the villagers hurl accusations at her for not doing her job. Her father then reminds her that the offering day was coming and that Theresa would be a good candidate, as a gaijin (foreigner), to be sacrificed. Sakura starts to protest before he brings up that Rin had given her life for the village, drawing Sakura back to her sister’s dying wish for her and the misery she had for following it. Multiple voices then fill her mind, insisting that to be a good miko like her sister wanted, she had to feed the gods in selflessness and thus offer Theresa up as the sacrifice before claiming that Sakura was already beyond redemption. Theresa puts an end to it by stepping inside, shielding the traumatized Sakura and insisting that the villagers were wrongfully bullying the other into her duty. She then denounces the child sacrifices and the gods, insisting that humanity can forge their own destiny before citing modern solutions to the village’s problems, forgetting that she was in a different time period. The villagers were aghast, accusing Theresa of being a witch while a rock was hurled at her. Sakura intercepts the rock, which collides with her temple, calming the villagers as they realized they had maimed their miko. Sakura then quietly asks her father for time to decide. The chief priest agrees, dismissing the meeting as everyone leaves. However, as he nears the door, he then turns around, his voice becoming a vessel for the Herrscher of Corruption, as it warns her that it knows she sees Theresa as a remnant of Kallen and that Sakura had attempted to kill herself and the herrscher when she gave Theresa the stigmata. It then promises to consume Theresa’s soul to finally break Sakura after all these years. 
Later that night, Sakura is recounting all those that died in the village the past few days and praying for them before the Herrscher of Corruption speaks in her mind, goading her to feed it and allow it to grant her the tools necessary to wipe the village out once again. The chief priest then appears as Sakura is trying to shut out the herrscher’s voice, and he tells her to make her choice already as they were out of time. Meanwhile, Theresa is sleeping inside the shrine, when Rin’s ghost visits her, giving her a dream about the two sisters’ history. In this dream, Theresa is told of how Rin and Sakura had been both born to the chief priest, but that Rin was always sick, often taken care of by Sakura and being inseparable together. One year then came without rain so their father decided to offer up Rin. In order to avert this, Sakura planned to run away with her sister, but her father found out and hamstrung Rin before guiding Sakura’s hand to deal the killing blow to Rin. After these memories, Rin’s ghost implored Theresa’s aid once more, in which Theresa accepts, believing the task to be simple before Rin reveals that the herrscher had complete control over the dataspace. Theresa then wakes up to a villager in a fox mask, pinning her down as they reveal that Sakura had chosen her to be the sacrifice in which Theresa denies. The villagers don’t care, however, as they prepare to hamstring her while Theresa declares that she will save Sakura as she promised Rin. 
At the sacrifice, the herrscher, using the chief priest as her vessel, declares her victory as there was nothing Theresa can do now against the ritual. Theresa scowls at the herrscher, who taunts her for her helplessness, determined to believe that the herrscher wouldn’t win. The herrscher then tells Theresa that dying in this world would also mean the death of her in the real world. Soon, Sakura appears emotionlessly as she draws her blade to complete the offering. However, upon seeing Theresa knelt there, Sakura is reminded of Rin and cannot bring herself to do it as she drops the sword and stumbles backwards painfully, regaining a bit of herself. The herrscher then holds up Theresa for Sakura to see, insisting that it was already too late to save Theresa as the other was hamstrung and forever crippled before reminding Sakura of her sister’s last words to be a “good miko.” Theresa insists that Rin would never want Sakura to do what the herrscher wants but Sakura, emotionless again, picks up her sword and runs it through Theresa, killing her. Right as she’s dying, Theresa gently caresses Sakura’s face, pleading with the other to not give in to the herrscher when she’s gone and insisting that Rin had faith in her. The herrscher then celebrates her victory while Sakura realizes what she had done, breaking down as she finally reveals a crack in her resolve, which had kept her hoping and living for 500 years within the samsaras. The herrscher then embraces Sakura, declaring that they would now be inseparable while Theresa’s body in the real world is taken over by the herrscher. 
The samsara plunges into an endless nightmare once again, with Sakura exploring every way possible to still escape, but each ending as horribly as another. Finally, in one cycle, Sakura is aware of the previous samsaras, and ends up back as her younger self, lamenting on how she had failed to save Theresa. The Rin in the cycle comforts Sakura and tells her sister to rest as she insists on being able to at least feed herself, but instead she spills the bowl. Rin apologizes before Sakura brushes it aside and says she can make another one. Rin then says it’s alright and that she knew that she would never get better, before the herrscher whispers to Sakura to give it up. Sakura runs outside and yells at the herrscher that she would never give up, confusing the Rin in that cycle. Rushing through the shrine, Sakura tries to make preparations for another escape attempt, but trips and falls, finding it incredibly hard to bring herself back up as she recalls the past failures and calling herself pathetic. It is then that a little, blue-eyed white cat with a ribbon tied to her tail appears, licking Sakura’s face to comfort her. At first, Sakura pushes away the comfort, believing that the cat would just die like everything else in the samsara later, only to hear the cat persistently meow and being unable to resist bringing the cat with her. Sakura plans to feed the cat, but the cat then paws at the bitter herbs, reminding Sakura to remake the soup bowl for Rin. After making it, Sakura then sinks into depression again as she sets the bowl down by Rin’s mattress, who apologizes again for spilling the bowl. Sakura then says Rin might be right that she wouldn’t be able to recover, and she didn’t have to drink the bowl if she didn’t want to. The cat then shows up again, having followed Sakura to the house, and brushes itself against Sakura. Rin notices the cat and gets excited, letting the cat into her arms and naming it Chiyo. Sakura is surprised as she has never seen Rin so happy before. The chief priest then appears, scoffing at Rin for playing with animals before reminding Sakura that the ritual was due soon. Sakura pleads with her father that she couldn’t take the cycle anymore while Chiyo leaps off Rin’s arms and hisses at the priest. Waving his hand, the priest walks off as repeats the reminder, causing Sakura to despair as she feels the cycle continue again. However, Rin settles down with Chiyo, telling the cat about Sakura’s promise to bring her to see the cherry blossoms one day. Motivated again, Sakura takes Rin’s hand and repeats those promises, before their father returns with the villagers in fox masks. He then reveals that he had already told Rin about being chosen as the sacrifice in which Rin confirms, crying as she tells her sister that she is at least glad to be able to protect the village like Sakura did before wishing her to be the “good miko” again. Chiyo then attacks the priest, causing him to toss the cat aside in rage. Seeing this, Rin is heartbroken as she reaches for the cat, but falls and stares at Chiyo, saying that it may be her time to go but that somehow she felt a bit of hope when she saw Chiyo. Sakura insists that it’s not over and begs Rin to not give up just yet, while her father demands why she keeps resisting him. It is then that Chiyo transforms into Theresa and dropkicks the priest, explaining that Sakura’s determination had helped restore some of Theresa’s own powers and allowed them this opportunity to escape once more. 
Back in the real world, the herrscher relishes in obtaining a human form for the first time in centuries before setting her sights on Kiana and Bronya, who realized the stigma had corrupted their principal. Bronya then warns that Theresa was now giving off herrscher level energy before the herrscher attacks Kiana, only for the Kaslana to evade and allowing the herrscher to collide headfirst into a wall, knocking herself out. Kiana remarks how the herrscher isn’t very impressive before petting the herrscher’s fox ears, which lulls the herrscher to sleep as she curses them and realizes that Sakura and Theresa were still fighting her in the stigma world. Bronya then suggests unironically forming a team of ear-petting specialists and confining Theresa into a cell for the time being.
As for the stigma world, the herrscher manifests as Hellmaru as she begins to chase Theresa and Sakura, who are finding it incredibly hard to move as the world works against them. Right as they sit vulnerable to the herrscher, Mei finally arrives and blocks the attack. As she attacks the beast, she then realizes that its skin was immune to her blade as she gets sent flying backwards. The herrscher strikes, prompting Mei to block as she skids backwards, insisting that the herrscher should try harder to get rid of her. The herrscher then comments that she doesn’t have to get rid of Mei as she simply needs to consume Theresa and Sakura’s soul to dominate the body. Realizing this, Mei turns to look at Theresa, only to realize that it was a bait and the herrscher strikes her from behind, pinning her down as it declares its victory. However, her strike had broken the crucifix pendant's chain on Mei’s neck, freeing it as it fell towards Theresa and Sakura and turning into a shield for the two. Enraged, the herrscher recognizes the pendant to be Kallen, insisting that she had killed her the last samsara and that she should stop returning to impede her. The golden cross settles on Sakura’s lap, who picks it up and recognizes the Kaslana’s spirit, crying as she realized the other had stayed behind to protect her once again. Her tears then activated the pendent which emitted a cascade of light that enveloped Theresa. In the light, she meets Kallen, which she states is someone she sees frequently in her dreams, who extends her hand and asks Theresa to “protect this world and [her] beloved Sakura.” Taking the other’s hand, Kallen is then replaced with the Oath of Judah, which manifests in the stigma space. Furious now, the herrscher then demands from Kallen why she had continued to fight her for 500 years, and why she continued to seek to protect humanity even when they executed her. Theresa answers her by citing their oathbound duty that never fades before manifesting the Celestial Hymn battlesuit in the stigma world. 
The herrscher curses Kallen and furiously claims that Sakura’s soul and Theresa’s body are hers as she begins her attack. Theresa follows suit, parrying the herrscher before driving Judah’s spear chains into her. However, the herrscher retaliates, as its true sentient form engulfs Theresa, dragging her into another realm. Here, Theresa is confronted with her memories before seeing Cecilia entrust Kiana into her care. Theresa panics and insists to Cecilia that she could still tell her grandpa to stop the missiles, and it is then that the herrscher appears, claiming to have found the hatred in Theresa’s heart as it manifests as Otto. She then says the exact words Otto made when he ordered the missiles to be launched during the Second Eruption, before pitying Theresa and saying that they, Kallen, and Sakura were all peas of the same pod, with many reasons to hate humanity. Theresa denies this but the herrscher takes her hand, telling her that a petty slap would do nothing and that only by taking up her spear and killing those she hated would truly serve as justice. The herrscher then allows Theresa to grab her Judah spear, goading her to attack its Otto form. However, Theresa drops the spear and instead hugs her, which catches the herrscher off guard. Theresa then says that she didn’t know who the herrscher was but that humanity must have done some horrible wrong to her to have her hatred. She also says that she had met many great valkyries in her life that taught her to forgive and to never fight for hate or vengeance - but instead, to protect all that is beautiful in the world. Touched by this, the herrscher then looks back on where the origin of her own hatred came from and realizes that she no longer remembers. All she recalls is that back then she had at least made them, the ones who sealed her in the box 50,000 years ago, pay but had long forgotten what it felt like to be hugged like this again. The herrscher then willingly retreats into the box, saying that she will now contemplate on the things that Theresa had taught her: about forgiveness and making the world beautiful. 
In the aftermath, Theresa and Mei are watching Sakura, Kallen, and Rin cheerfully eating onigiri under the cherry blossoms. She knows that these things weren’t real as the stigma space was simply artificial but at least the three finally found their peace, somewhere. While leaving, Mei suggests Theresa to tell them goodbye, but Theresa remarks that she has a strong feeling that they will all meet again in the near future, entering the exit portal with Mei. "This is the tale of Yae Sakura and the simple story about Gratitude." 
Later, Theresa wakes up and realizes she’s in a cage while Bronya and Kiana observe her warily, before demanding to be let out.
== Speculations ==
*Mei's outfit in the stigma space resembles that of Hokushin Mei from Houkai Gakuen 2.
Category:Honkai Impact 3 Wiki
Category:Timeline