Chapter 181: Returning to the roots
"Need help?" the brown-haired man who had granted them a chance to win approached the hurt Keith, who held Stelle's unconscious body in his arms.
"No" replied Keith, whose next words were stuck in his throat.
Because he now understood what his body had been trying to tell him before.
The more he regenerated, the stronger he was, because the Abundance was strengthening his body.
But the stronger the Abundance inside him grew to be....the more accurately the Aeon of the Abundance could feel his location.
And he could feel it now, something unfathomably growing closer, approaching with every second.
He didn't know how far Yao Shi was, but the feeling of something infinitely powerful creeping up closer by the moment was an extremely alarming one.
"Yes!" shouted Keith making the brown-haired man look at him with surprise. "Who is in charge here!?"
"I am" said Asta, the woman with light blue eyes and pink hair. "Something I could do for you? You saved the Space Stati-"
"Can this junk move?" asked Keith desperately.
"....probably" said Asta, who swallowed the retort about to come from her mouth hearing Keith call the Space Station 'junk'.
"Then move it!" shouted Keith, feeling the uneasiness growing inside him. "There is something coming!"
"Something?" asked Asta, unwilling to move the Space Station as it was right now, as it could cause even more damage to it. "I need something more."
"..." Keith briefly thought of his possibilities, but quickly wore his wristband again, feeling how that feeling of being chased disappeared.
But he also knew Yao Shi had already sensed where he was now, and even if it was small, the possibility of the Aeon still 'travelling' here was possible.
"There is an Aeon approaching" he said in nothing but a whisper.
He didn't want to reveal how he knew that, or what had the Aeon of the Abundance been attracted to, because he knew he was the only possibility of that happening.
He had regenerated his body during the fight in front of everyone else, but it was too late to do damage control. He could convince Himeko to leave with the Astral Express, but if Yao Shi appeared here....what would happen to the ones inside the Station?
Even if he ended up being chased after revealing something he shouldn't have, he didn't want to bring death to the civilians and innocent people in the station.
At worst, he could call Kafka and Firefly to pick him up, and would pray for Stelle while helping her from the shadows.
"An Aeon?" asked Asta, looking in disbelief at Keith.
But the commander of the Space Station, chosen by Herta herself, couldn't be a dull person.
Reports of Yao Shi erratically moving, coupled with the clearly abnormal recovery Keith had shown in the battle and his conviction of the Aeon moving quickly linked up, painting a terrifying scenery in her mind.
"She should be chasing me now, this wristband avoids it" Keith, seeing Asta's expression and realizing that Asta had connected the dots, readily admitted it, as they had no time to lose. "But that Aeon might still arrive at my last known location."
Asta looked at Keith for a moment, but quickly turned around to get the Space Station moving.
Because she knew that as terrifying as the rampaging Doomsday Beast had been, an Aeon was just death incarnate for frail humans.
"Keith, looks like you have a few things to explain" said Himeko's calm yet exhausted voice, who approached Keith from behind.
"There are things I can't explain, like your horrible taste in coffee" replied Keith. "But I can explain why an aeon is chasing me. Talk about nonsense, right?"
"We should leave the Space Station" suggested the brown-haired man, looking at Himeko. "Asta was being polite in not kicking Keith out, but I think she would be a lot calmer if we left for a while."
Himeko pondered the man's words, and looked at Keith.
"Are you sure that Aeon is not chasing you?" she asked, while thinking to herself that the world was truly whimsical when the meaning of her words echoed in her head.
An Aeon, the strongest existence in this universe, was chasing the annoying existence she still considered a close friend.
"Yes" nodded Keith, showing his wristband with a small 'stone' of nothingness. "This thing prevents the Aeon of the Abundance from sensing my location, but she already sensed this place so we need to move."
Himeko looked at the small 'stone' before a wave of discomfort coursed through her, and looked at Keith again.
"Himeko!" March came with a tired face, exhausted by the fight physically and mentally.
"Welt-san" Dan Heng also approached, sending a wary look at Keith, having witnessed his regeneration first-hand, before dismissing his suspicions.
After all, Keith was the second most important reason they were able to win, with Stelle being the first.
"We leave for now" declared Himeko, making everyone else look at her. "We will follow the Space Station, and will come here again once things have calmed down."
Keith sighed in relief, and sent a grateful nod at Himeko, who only answered with a small smile.
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"Ahhhh!"
A shout was the first thing everyone got when they entered the cosy Astral Express, which despite appearing majestic and glamorous, they all had called home at one point or another.
A small being with a red uniform, a red hat and a pair of big ears approached with an angry expression.
"You are dirtying the train!" shouted Pom-Pom, erratically moving his hand in the air in a gesture that appeared more cute than menacing.
"It's amazing how he can say that after sensing the battle" commented Dan Heng.
"Sorry Pom-Pom" apologized March. "We will help you clea-"
"No!" shouted Pom-Pom. "Cleaning is MY job!"
But he fell silent when he sensed something unthinkable.
The weight on his head that had accompanied him since the moment he had been born had disappeared.
"Ha!" shouted Keith, still carrying Stelle's limp body, with a red hat on his head. "I am Pom-Pom now!"
"Keith" sighed Himeko.
"Ah!" shouted Keith, pointing at Himeko's dirty look. "You are staining this place with your dirt!"
"ENOUGH!" shouted the furious Pom-Pom, ready to unleash hell on this place.
But before he could make the impudent man taste what his punch tasted like, he found out that the hat was once again on his head.
"Long time without seeing you" said Keith with a small smile, having missed the peculiar being who got angry at seeing someone dirtying the Astral Express, but couldn't help but be happy when he saw someone entering the same train he liked to clean.
"...yes, it's been a long time" grumbled Pom-Pom, before turning around to start cleaning.
"Hehe, Pom-Pom is a tsundere after all" laughed March
"Please, leave it for tomorrow" sighed Himeko. "We all need to rest, and I need my coffee."
"As you always do" replied Keith, dumping Stelle's body in the surprised March's arms.
"Why are you giving her to me?" asked March, struggling to pick up Stelle's limp body.
She wasn't the strongest after all.
"You see, as much as I love the female body" replied Keith. "If it belongs to a woman who can't give her consent, it is nothing more than a vile crime."
"..." March looked at Keith with confusion written on her face.
"Want me to wash her?" asked Keith, allowing March to understand what he was implying. "And you did the least in that fight, Himeko still helped a bit."
"Mou!" March pouted hearing that "I told you I was making shields for everyone! I saved a lot of people today?"
"Oh, I didn't notice" Keith admitted that March had probably helped a lot while he was unconscious, so he picked up Stell again.
"...." and Himeko found herself with a limp body in her arms.
"Only you are left" shrugged Keith. "You wash her, and I make you coffee."
"....fine" grumbled Himeko. "I expect it to be as good as you said it was in your letters."
"Of course" nodded Keith, watching Himeko leave the room, with Dan Heng and March following her.
Which left him alone with the man named Welt, who he already knew of thanks to Himeko's letter.
"I have something to confess" said Keith, turning to look at the man wearing glasses.
"Do you?" asked Welt, trying to keep his sarcasm out of his voice.
Keith had a TON of things to explain and admit after all.
"Yes, I do" continued Keith, ignoring Welt's sarcasm. "I haven't made coffee in my life."
"..."
"I was boasting" shrugged Keith, approaching the antiquated and manual coffee machine Himeko liked to use. "I was feeling a bit playful, so I said that as a joke, and only realized later that sarcasm is a bit hard to express in a letter, so Himeko took it seriously."
"I believe you" nodded Welt. "But you kept 'boasting' about your godly coffee-making abilities for a month after that."
"Well, looks like Himeko isn't the only one who read my letters" commented Keith, warily touching a button and jumping back in alarm when the upper part of the coffee machine separated, revealing a small space to put in the coffee beans. "Oh, it worked. Anyway, once Himeko doubted me for my 'godly coffee-making abilities' I felt a bit insulted, so I doubled down."
"But you didn't know how to brew coffee" pointed out Welt, watching how Keith tried to understand how to operate the simple machine.
"But she didn't know I didn't" replied Keith. "Hey Pom-Pom, I will give you the latest broom model if you tell me how Himeko operated this."
"..." Pom-Pom was a puppet, but Keith could taste the pure disdain coming from his eyes. "I already have the latest model."
And it seemed that the disdain was for an entirely different reason.
"I will bring you some of those candies I sent you a few months ago" tried Keith. "I know you liked them, Himeko caught you smiling while you ate them in your room."
"..." Pom-Pom was having a conflict inside him.
He felt like Himeko had betrayed him, which made him want to scold her and reject the offer.
But those candies.....were amazing.
"2 bags" offered Keith, raising 2 fingers.
Today was the day Keith learnt how to use a coffee machine and brew coffee, while Welt understood that Keith was too used to bribing Pom-Pom.
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"I'm back" said Keith with a damp hair after taking a shower. "Everything is he same as it was when I left."
But Himeko, who stood next to the wryly smiling Welt, didn't reply.
"What's wrong?" asked Keith, sitting in front of both Himeko and Welt.
"She didn't like your coffee" explained Welt.
"...you are kidding" said a deadpanning Keith. "How could that ever happen?"
"Pray tell how did you make that coffee?" asked a dark-faced Himeko. "Because as enthusiastic as I am about coffee, I still haven't found a way to use my coffee beans to make a salty coffee with a spicy touch."
"....well" said Keith, trying to find a physical explanation for that. ".....how could coffee be salty?"
"You tell me" replied Himeko, finding Keith's genuinely confused expression insulting.
"Maybe" interrupted Welt, sensing that if both people started arguing it would take hours to end. "We should focus on the important matters at hand."
Himeko looked reluctant to let the matters go, but sighed to calm herself down and admitted that they didn't have the time to banter.
"Mind explaining what happened?" asked Himeko, sipping from the coffee she brewed to wash away the taste of the salty yet spicy coffee.
"I already told you I have the body made from an Emanator of the Abundance" said Keith.
But the sound of a glass breaking interrupted him.
"You...what?" asked the normally unshockable Welt, not having read the letter Himeko chose to burn upon finishing reading it.
"I hoped it was another one of your jokes" muttered Himeko, knowing that things had turned very complicated. "But seeing that fight, it was obvious that it wasn't."
"IS that why you are being chased?" asked Welt with a hand covering his mouth in a pensive gesture. "But why would she? I heard from Himeko who your 'teacher' is, why isn't he being chased by the Aeon of the Abundance too?"
"Looks like my soul has something special" explained Keith, making Himeko remember the small purple orb she had seen now close to 9 years ago. "Don't ask, I also have no clue of what it is, but the Aeon judges it was worthy to chase me for it. As for what she wants, I have no clue. Maybe opening my skull to see, or maybe dissecting me to add me to her collection. But I know this, I don't want to be in front of an Aeon, no matter how 'friendly' they might be."
"Nobody sane would" commented Himeko. "But I understand that you have no choice, and you seem to be prepared for that."
"Yes, this weakens my connection to her" Keith pointed at his wristband. "It's very uncomfortable and it restrains the Abundance inside me, but it's the only thing I have."
"You took it off for the fight?" asked Welt, who hadn't been in the fight from the beginning.
"Had I not, we wouldn't be here" replied Keith with a nod, with a double meaning.
"You were a great help in that fight" admitted Himeko with a small nod.
"Please, I was a star in that fight" scoffed Keith.
"Which brings me to the other star" continued Himeko. "I already learned about Stelle in your letters. What are you playing with Keith?"
"I'm not playing to anything or anyone" said Keith with a sigh. "Stelle had an accident, and ended up into a Stellaron after her teammate hypnotized her into absorbing a Stellaron, I don't have a clue of what or how."
"A Stellaron?" asked a surprised Welt.
"A Stellaron" nodded Keith. "I wasn't there, but I saw the Stellaron for myself. We needed a body for her, so we came for the Space Station to get something called a Vessel, that would make the Stellaron morph into a humanoid form, or maybe the Stellaron moulded it into a body, I have no clue."
"You infiltrated the Space Station" sighed Welt in disbelief.
"We had a good hacker" shrugged Keith. "Even if she likes games a bit too much."
Himeko shook her head, knowing that only Keith would call someone able to hack the Space Station merely 'good'.
"What do you want to do now?" asked Himeko. "I find it hard to believe you were left behind with Stelle."
"Stelle doesn't remember her past" revealed Keith with a small shake of his head. "And as much I love our previous 'group', we need to stay separated for a while."
"Something dangerous?" asked the worried Himeko.
"Of course not" replied Keith with a firm voice. "But we had a goal, and now Stelle is too important. She needs to travel the universe."
"So you thought of the Astral Express" said Himeko with a carefully crafted calm expression.
"...you are too smart" grumbled Keith, who thought that Himeko had connected the dots too quickly. It wasn't that hard, but Himeko had taken a fraction of a second.
"But why the Astral Express?" asked Welt, looking at Keith's face. "What was your former group trying to do that requires the Astral Express' help?"
"To be honest, I have no idea" replied Keith, surprising both Himeko and Welt.
"But you stood years with them" argued Himeko with a pointer look.
"And yet, I am too stupid to know what defying fate means" said Keith with a shrug. "All I know is that I played an important part in it, but all of a sudden, accidents happened. I was absent for a while, and Stelle died, leading our leader to think that the plan B needed to be put into motion as I wasn't reliable enough."
"Is Stelle that plan B?" asked Himeko with a pensive expression.
"She is" nodded Keith. "And I came as a support to help her, and all of you in case you accepted her. Of course, I would have visited you at some point, no matter what your decision is, you are still the first person I met in this world and the one who gave me my name."
"Excuse me, but I must insist" said Welt, making Himeko and Keith look at him. "Why the Astral Express? You could have taken around the universe yourself, or using your organization's means."
"Once again, I don't know" replied Keith. "I know it's a bit too much, but I have no idea. All I know is that she needed to be in the Astral Express. Our leader could see the future, read Fate, or whatever it was."
"That sounds unbelievable" said Himeko with a frown. "I never heard of someone able to see the future."
"And that is why our group was the most searched for and still unharmed by everyone who looked for us" replied Keith with an understanding nod.
"I heard something similar" muttered Welt, making Himeko look at him with disbelief. "In the world I came from a similar mechanism existed. It couldn't read the future, but make unbelievable accurate predictions."
"Well, our leader couldn't just 'see' the future" added Keith with a shrug. "He saw a bunch of paths things could take, and tried to direct the 'train' through the best railways."
"So the best 'railways' pass through letting Stelle onboard the Astral Express" muttered Himeko, to which Keith nodded.
Himeko fell silent for a few minutes, pondering everything she had heard, while Welt and Keith stood silent.
They both knew that Himeko was the one who repaired the Astral Express, and the decision lied in her.
"I have a few concerns" said Himeko, sitting back again in front of Keith.
"Speak, I will try to explain everything I can" replied Keith.
"Your former group" said Himeko, making Keith wince. "As much as they want to keep things on the 'good track', they are not exactly role models."
"..." Keith fell silent, trying not to be offended by Himeko's insinuation.
Of course, he knew Blade had murdered quite a bit, and Kafka was even worse.
Even Firefly had probably torched a few people.
A few hundred.
And yet....he couldn't bring himself to consider them evil people.
They all had important reasons for killing, and he himself had seen some things that he would never forget, and made him wish that the culprits for those horrifying views had died sooner.
But did having reasons serve as an excuse for killing?
What was a good reason for killing?
Who decided what was a good reason or not?
He had asked himself those questions for years, but he hadn't found answers, and he feared he would never find them.
But he knew one thing.
"They are not bad people" he firmly said. "Despite the path they had taken, they have never killed an innocent. But I also realize how their actions might look to those who haven't seen everything we have."
"I can only disagree with that" said Himeko with a sigh. "Do you know how many people had the one you called Kafka killed?"
"Thousands" replied Keith. "And yet, I can't bring myself to think of her as a bad person."
That caught Himeko flat-footed, but quickly wore a pensive expression.
In the end...could she judge a person without even knowing her?
She didn't support killing, and she would never do so, but it was also easy to write anyone as a horrible person based on ear-talk, without knowing them yourselves.
So Himeko decided to shelve it for now, but the wanted poster of the woman called Kafka was enough to raise alarms in her head that she knew wouldn't turn off in a long while.
"Will your former group interact with us?" asked Himeko, who despite knowing and trusting Keith, didn't want to get that close to such a dangerous group she knew nothing about.
"No, that was the whole reason behind sending Stelle here" replied Keith. "Even if they appear, they will be supporting the Astral Express, they also want Stelle to keep travelling but for that, you all need to be alive. But if you are worrying about mingling with them and catching the attention of the IPC, you don't need to worry about that, they won't appear in front of you."
"That's a relief then" said Himeko, while Welt only listened quietly from the side.
"Will they try to direct us to some predestined path?" asked Welt, making Himeko nod in approval at that question.
"Of course not" replied Keith with a firm shake of his head. "The purpose of Stelle's being is to allow her to share your travel. They don't want to alter your path, because your path was the best one to start with. You are not taking Stelle on a mission, nor are you working for that group. You are just travelling like you always had, but you have one or two new people on board."
"That's good" nodded Himeko, who fell silent once again.
"If I may ask" said Welt, making Himeko nod again. "Why are you so sure Himeko would accept her? You risked a lot to leave Stelle behind, and as Himeko told me while you were in the shower, you were also found unconscious. Your actions suggest that you expected Himeko to accept her, but Himeko is known for being quite strict in accepting new companions, as we are a small but tight-knit group. You were Himeko's first companion, you should be aware of that."
"I do" nodded Keith. "But I also know she is a bleeding heart that wouldn't say no to someone who needed it. She did it with me, with you, with Dan Heng and with March. And Stelle's situation was not any better."
"That's...true" nodded Himeko, realizing that everyone she had accepted was people who didn't have a place to call home.
"As for why was I found unconscious" continued Keith with an exasperated sigh. "I wanted to stay with Stelle, because I thought I could help her in her travels. I have no doubt she will be loved by this group, but you know... she has still lost her memories, and I know better than anyone how hard can that be. I guess I was just worried about her. As for being unconscious, someone played a bad prank hoping for it help me in convincing you."
Welt nodded, and Himeko fell silent once again.
"But as you said, I had a pretty good reason to believe Himeko would accept her" added Keith, looking at Welt's face. "I think you all know that the path of the Trailblaze reappeared."
"How could we not?" asked Himeko, raising her hand from which purple sparks appeared, ones she was still trying to decipher and control. "I was one of the affected."
"Well, considering that the Astral Express, a relic the Aeon of the Trailblaze left behind, recognized you was a given that you would follow his path" shrugged Keith.
"Aren't you the same?" asked Himeko. "I saw that purple power I felt familiar emanating from both you and Stelle."
"We are also part of the Path of the Trailblaze" nodded Keith, who didn't want to lie to Himeko, so he didn't reply with anything more than that. He still wasn't sure of how would the reveal of the origin of his soul affect the dynamic of the group, and even if it was a very small chance, he needed to think a bit more about it. "But you see, Stelle is quite special."
"She must be, if your group was willing to go this far for her" interjected Welt.
"But it's this uniqueness which made me sure that Himeko would accept her" continued Keith. "Himeko was recognized by Akivili's relic, and she follows the path of the Trailblaze, where all people who are in search of the unknown band together."
"That is not enough reason for me to accept anyone" said Himeko with a small shake of her head. "All kinds of people can follow a path, but not for that are they trustworthy."
"But if you knew Stelle was a good girl with nothing to her name and without memories, and on top of that she followed the same Path you do, it would be a plus" pointed out Keith, making Himeko hesitantly nod. "But Stelle is not a normal Trailblazer. She is, and will be, the only Emanator of the Trailblaze."