Souls in Teyvat

"Why is it so cold?" complained March with pale lips, shivering as her body tried to retain its temperature in a tolerable range.

"Why is the girl who can create ice complaining about cold?" asked Keith back, shaking his head in exasperation.

"And why is the only one who could take off his clothes and not feel cold questioning me?" asked back March with a small frown.

The group had landed in Jarilo-IV, but the only thing that greeted them was a cold plain with a meter of snow and monsters all around.

The hostile creatures didn't pose any problem to them, after fighting that Doomsday Beast on steroids every monster looked small, weak and stupid, but the freezing temperatures were taking a toll on everyone except Keith.

"Look!" shouted March, pointing at what they had been seeing since the moment their feet touched this planet. "Even those things from the Anti-matter Legion froze!"

And just like March said, they were everywhere.

Statues that held twisted creatures seeking destruction above all things adorned the otherwise desolate plain where nothing could live for long without some special measures.

'Why are some monsters not frozen them?' wondered Keith. 'Did they arrive later? I don't think these weak members of the Anti-Matter Legion could stay here for long, does that mean they 'arrived' recently?'

"March, hold on a bit longer" said Dan Heng, even if his face was also slightly pale. "There should be a city nearby."

"Don't worry" said Keith, patting his chest. "Should you all freeze, I will take you to the city like the corpses you will probably be by then. Also, March."

"What now?" asked March with a frown, as being in her current state was making her moody.

"It wouldn't be the first time you freeze, isn't it?" asked Keith with a smirk. "Maybe you can even remember something."

"Keith, don't be stupid" intervened Stelle under a thick coat, making March nod energetically seeing that Stelle was at her side. "You should know better than to antagonize the protagonist."

"...." and March remembered that Stelle only sided with herself.

"Mysterious past, amnesia and above everything, strange-coloured hair" nodded Keith, accepting his defeat. "Indeed, March seems like a protagonist."

"Doesn't she?" said Stelle with a sagely nod, looking at March's deadpan expression.

"But she still lacks....something" said Keith, trying to find the correct word, and making Stelle and March look at him. "She lacks this aura of the protagonist. She will be the true protagonist's right hand, but when she recovers her memory and her true power is revealed, she will act like a dumbass and say something like 'I have a duty to take care of. I'm sorry, I enjoyed being by your side, but I need to leave', and she will disappear only to reappear 2000 chapters later. That, or she will turn into a psychotic beast."

"Chapters? What are you on about?" asked March, but decided to give up understanding Keith.

"March, just remember this" added Keith, but he had lost March. "Follow the Dao."

"Maybe returning to ice is better than this" grumbled March with a pout.

And Keith couldn't detect any lies in that statement.

"Keith, aren't you the protagonist?" asked Stelle, looking with interest at Keith. "You also have amnesia, your body is a cheat, and you have this weird blue power. Also, you can detect lies."

"Foolish woman, I lack the colourful hair, a trait every protagonist must have" replied Keith with a shake of his head.

"BUT" said Stelle, pointing at Keith's hair. "You have something else all protagonists have, and it's even more important than the hair."

"....there is nothing more important than the hair" said Keith, but a tinge of hesitation was present in his voice.

"You have pretty and weird eyes" replied Stelle with a victorious smile, knowing she had won.

"Stelle is right" nodded March, leaving aside any prejudice and desire to get revenge. Maybe.

But Keith only shrugged.

Because he knew the protagonist wasn't him, but Stelle, and he was perfectly fine with it.

"Ouch!"

A scream of pain, almost hidden by the intense blizzard, made the members of the crew look at each other in confusion.

March would have been a lot more vocal.

Stelle with have swung her bat at whatever made her scream.

Dan Heng would just stay silent, even if he hit his pinkie with a table while not wearing any shoes.

And the other 3 doubted Keith could feel too much pain.

Stelle shrugged, and kept walk-

"Ah!"

But another scream made her look down, only to see a tuft of dark blue hair coming from the ground.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"March, you got an imitator" commented Keith after they dug up what turned out to be a tall man with dark blue hair and green eyes, with a smile far too relaxed to belong to a face immersed in the snow for god-knows how long.

"Ha Ha" laughed March with naked sarcasm.

"What were you doing down there?" asked Dan Heng, looking at the man trying to get rid of the snow.

"I got caught by the-"

"Lie" interrupted Keith with a blank expression that made the other 3 look suspiciously at the man, who was caught flat-footed. "Just so we can proceed quickly without any distraction that will make the future minion complain even more, I can detect lies."

"..." the man looked blankly at Keith, wondering if his talented silver tongue had met its kryptonite. "The name of this successful businessman is none other than Sampo Koski."

"Did he lie?" asked March, looking at Sampo with clear suspicion.

"He didn't" replied Keith, making March sigh with some relief.

"March, human traffickers are also businessmen" added Stelle, making March look with horror at Sampo.

"Why am I being deemed as a human trafficker?" complained the man with an aggravated voice. "I haven't got involved in any human trafficking!"

And March instantly looked at Keith, waiting for his judgement.

"He didn't lie" repeated Keith, making March sigh once again.

"March, that only means he hasn't sold or bought humans, but there are other races he might have sold" added Stelle, making March glare at Sampo once again.

"Dear lady, did I do something to piss you off?" asked Sampo with a twitching smile, looking at the grey-haired girl intent on putting some serious crimes on his head.

"Why would you think that?" asked Stelle back with a genial smirk. "I was only pointing out some loopholes in March's reasoning."

"Enough, we need to move" said Dan Heng with a sigh, realizing that the bantering could last forever. "We need to reach that city, we can't afford to-"

"Oh, I can guide you there" said Sampo with an 'honest' look.

And yet...

"He is not lying" pointed out Seth.

"Again, did I give you any reason to doubt every word I say" complained the man making a flamboyant gesture with his hand.

"You were deep within the snow, and the first sentence you said was a lie" commented Stelle with a shrug.

"....want to go to the city or not?" asked Sampo with fake tears pooling in his eyes.

And the crew finally got the most dubious guide to ever appear in the universe.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I knew we couldn't trust him" grumbled March, raising her hands.

"Don't move!" a man wearing a white and blue armour, with a big steel helmet covering his face, shouted seeing March do something he considered suspicious.

"Well, at least we know why he was hiding in the snow" shrugged Keith. "To think that man was a fugitive."

"And to think these guys believe we are with him when they haven't seen us in their lives" added Stelle, as carefree as him.

"You were with him, weren't you?" asked a soldier, hearing both Keith and Stelle's comment.

"And pray tell where is he now?" asked Keith, looking around in fake confusion. "Because I can't see him anywhere."

"....."

"Yes, that's right" nodded Keith. "He snuck out before anyone realized, and here we are."

Dan Heng only sighed, not understanding how reaching a town could be this complicated.

"What is going on here?" a tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes weraing a bulky white armour and with an aura of authority, approached with a solemn expression, glancing at the colourful group of 4 his subordinates were dealing with.

"Captain Guepard" the soldier Keith was arguing with put his heel together in a show of respect, while Stelle and Keith inspected the newcomer. "These people where together with the suspect."

"Who you lost, and got us instead" added Stelle viciously.

"Who are you 4?" asked Guepard, looking at the strange outfit they had. "Those are not clothes you can find in Belobog."

"We come from the stars" replied March with an energetic nod and a big smile.

"Stars are balls of gas, goofy girl" pointed out Keith, making March frown at him. "And I consider myself pretty solid."

"Don't bully March" intervened Stelle, making March nod excitedly, as she was in a 2v1 now. "She might not be the smartest, nor the strongest, nor the most beautiful."

"She probably isn't" accepted Keith, while March glared at Stelle.

"But she is the cutest" continued Stelle, making March look at her with a mouth open with shock. "And cuteness is justice, ergo, we indeed come from the stars."

"There you have it" Keith turned to Guepard, convinced by Stelle's arguments. "We come from the stars."

"Dammit...." muttered Dan Heng, wondering if he should have stayed in the Astral Express.

Guepard inspected the group, but aside from finding them a bit quirky, he couldn't find any threat from them.

And if they spoke the truth, it was out of his authority.

"I am Guepard Landau, the Captain of the Silvermane Guards" he introduced himself, and the group of 4 nodded in acquiescence. "I can take you to Belobog to see the Supreme Guardian."

"Supreme Guardian?" asked Keith with a strange face. "That's incredibly cring-"

"We will take your offer" interrupted Dan Heng before Keith could complicate things even more.

"That title is cringe as fu-"

March lunged towards Stelle, blocking her mouth before she could complete her sentence.

This was the moment a new alliance was formed within the Astral Express crew, one which would try to simplify the already complex world by restraining Stelle and Keith.

As for their success, it still remained to be seen.