On that bright, gleaming wash-world, there was never any shortage of visiting spacecraft.
But beside a train that ran across the galaxy, every single one of them looked second-rate.
After finishing its maintenance and inspection, the newly refurbished Astral Express plunged back into the universe.
What unknown journey awaited the Nameless aboard it this time, and what new world lay ahead for them to explore?
Naturally, everyone on the train was curious about the unknown.
A new destination meant a new story, a new adventure, and new encounters. As Nameless, they cared deeply about that sort of thing.
It was just that there seemed to be a small snag when it came time to choose their next stop...
"Did you hear? I think Pom-Pom picked this jump destination."
Dan Heng's words instantly filled March 7th's head with question marks.
"Wait, what did you just say?"
She stared at Pom-Pom at the front of the train, disbelief written all over her face.
"You're saying Pom-Pom decided where we're going next?!"
No wonder she was shocked.
Up until now, most Astral Express jumps had simply retraced old routes, following in AKIVILI's footsteps.
And when unexpected situations came up—like needing to head somewhere special—the destination was usually decided at a route meeting by democratic vote.
Pom-Pom, despite being the conductor, normally did not take part in those meetings at all.
So for Dan Heng to tell her that Pom-Pom had personally decided the next destination—
That really was unexpected enough to leave March stunned.
More importantly, she was dying to know what kind of place could make Pom-Pom want to go there of their own accord.
"I don't know. You could try asking Himeko."
Dan Heng could only spread his hands. If anyone knew why this place had managed to catch Pom-Pom's interest, it would probably be Himeko.
March's eyes lit up at once.
Dan Heng was right. Himeko was the Express's navigator. There was no way Pom-Pom would keep something like this from her.
So after parting ways with Dan Heng, she hurried down the corridor to a door with the scent of coffee drifting from inside.
She knocked, got a response, and stepped into Himeko's room.
The room wasn't large, but it felt lived-in.
Even more so with a red-haired woman inside, holding a cup of coffee and breathing in its aroma.
Himeko took a light sip. Only after the bitterness faded from her mouth did she ask, "What brings you here, March?"
March was the sort who never came knocking without a reason. If she had come looking for Himeko on her own, then something had to be up.
Caught on the spot, March gave an awkward laugh, then quickly blurted out the question she had just heard.
"So that's it. I suppose that's on me for not explaining it to you all earlier."
Setting down her coffee, Himeko told her where they were headed.
"This time, we're going to the Asdana system."
"As for why..."
Himeko paused for a moment, then said something so absurd that March's mind went blank for a second.
"Because Pom-Pom is going there to collect a debt."
That reason left March frozen.
What the heck? Collect a debt?
Since when had the Astral Express started making loans across the cosmos like the IPC?
"Don't look at me like that. That's exactly what Pom-Pom said. They even brought out a bond certificate."
Even Himeko found it hard to connect debt collection with the Astral Express, but the evidence Pom-Pom had produced had looked all too real.
Especially the way they handled that bond so carefully, like they were afraid it might get damaged. That alone had convinced Himeko this might actually be genuine.
"Maybe one of the previous Nameless made an investment there and left the bond behind."
That was the most plausible explanation she could come up with.
But the moment March heard that, her eyes began to sparkle.
"So that means we're about to get rich?!"
For Pom-Pom to remember this bond for so long, the investment behind it had to be huge.
If they could cash it in and get those credits back, wouldn't the Astral Express become instantly loaded?
At that point, they could buy whatever they wanted and do whatever they wanted.
March grinned to herself, already dreaming about her future life as a rich woman.
Himeko, meanwhile, was far less optimistic.
"But the Asdana system is the Family's territory. I'm not sure Pom-Pom's debt collection is going to go smoothly..."
A trace of unease had crept into her feelings about this sudden trip.
It had been who knew how many years since the Astral Express last visited the Asdana system.
By now, all of Penacony was under the Family's control.
Whether they would even acknowledge a bond that old was still an open question.
"What's there to be scared of?"
March snorted.
"If they try to dodge the debt, leave it to me!"
On the Express, when it came to bluffing people, March 7th would humbly claim second place—and nobody dared claim first.
"If they dare welch on it, I'll make a post online and call on every Nameless in the universe to come back us up!"
Himeko laughed. "All the people you want to call are already on this train. Who exactly are you planning to summon?"
March thought about it and had to admit that was true.
Still, if you were collecting a debt, you absolutely could not lose in terms of presence.
Her eyes darted, and another idea popped into her head.
"Then we'll use the ultimate Trailblaze summoning!"
"We'll summon every Trailblazer from the past!"
"Then we'll surround them with countless trains and overwhelm them with sheer numbers. There's no way they'd still refuse to pay after that, right?"
Himeko shook her head helplessly. March really did think in leaps and bounds, same as ever.
Still... the Astral Express of the past...
"If it were possible, I really would like to see them..."
As the train's navigator, she couldn't help being curious about the navigators who had come before her.
Sadly, that was only a wish.
Rather than that, she ought to be thinking about how to enjoy the grand dream festivities once they arrived in Penacony.
...
A beautiful melody carried the spirit of freedom, and within that gentle singing voice was an unyielding resolve to resist.
Even though countless people in Penacony had already been numbed to everything around them by ORDER's influence, Robin's promotion had still drawn a crowd to come and cheer.
Only, the people who came could not even fill the seats of a single small theater.
No one would have imagined that Robin—the famous galactic superstar who could command a response across the cosmos, whose concerts sold out every time and whose tickets were nearly impossible to get—would one day fall to this.
Once, she had stood on stage amid the cries and applause of countless people.
But the crowd gathered in this small theater was not even one ten-thousandth of what it used to be.
To say there was no sense of loss in her heart would have been a lie.
And yet, even so, Robin kept singing here in freedom.
Because only by doing so could she feel that her consciousness was not in chains.
Only by doing so could she resist assimilation by ORDER.
When the melody finally faded and the song came to an end, Robin bowed to the audience in thanks.
"Thank you all so much for your applause and support. At the very end, there's one thing I want to say to everyone: please, never give up hope."
The speech left some people confused, while others simply took it as a final blessing for the crowd.
And amid the audience's last burst of enthusiastic applause, that day's Robin theater performance came to an end.
At last, Robin was able to rest.
She returned to her secret hideout.
Now that she and her brother had completely parted ways, she had no desire to go back home.
She would rather find some hidden corner and rest properly.
All of it was watched in silence by Sunday.
He looked at his sister asleep on the sofa from sheer exhaustion and said nothing for a long while.
"The venue application, the setup, the accompaniment, the singing... It's hard to imagine she did all of that by herself."
Even Gopher Wood sounded surprised as he watched Robin sleeping.
He truly had not expected her to have this much drive.
She had actually managed to put on a full performance alone.
"But the strain on her energy is far too great."
After all, that was work meant for several people.
With all of it piled onto Robin alone, the moment she stopped moving, she dropped straight into sleep.
And judging from the look of things, once she had rested enough, she meant to do it all over again.
Even Gopher Wood was curious how many more times she could keep this up.
Sunday said nothing. He simply remained there, watching his sister sleep.
Her clothes were full of wrinkles from a full day of work, but she had not even had time to change before fatigue dragged her under.
Before this, Sunday had never once seen Robin in such a sorry state.
And what made it worse was that it was not only her current condition that was miserable, but also the singing career she loved most.
Once, she had been the brightest star in the galaxy.
Every concert packed to the brim, every seat taken. Tickets were unbelievably scarce; even a fortune might not buy one.
Endorsements came in endlessly. Spotlights had always surrounded her.
But now she was like a completely different person.
She had released so many wonderful new songs. In the past, each one would have sparked celebration across the galaxy.
Yet now she could not even fill the seats in front of the stage.
Once, countless people had bustled around her and handled everything above and below the stage, leaving her only to step out, display her charm, and sing.
Now, whether it was onstage or off, Robin had to do it all herself.
The exhaustion and weariness she had never needed to feel before had all come flooding back to her now.
It was like falling straight from the clouds into the depths of the earth.
"Right now, you're a broken-winged bird..."
Sunday's expression turned thoughtful. His fingers tapped lightly against the tabletop. Knock, knock.
When, then, would the breeze she believed in finally come?
And in that silence, a new cycle quietly arrived...
When Robin came back to herself, she found that she was sitting aboard the train Compassie.
"Welcome back aboard, miss."
Misha greeted Robin with a smile.
Where am I...?
Robin frowned in confusion.
Everything that had happened in this cycle surfaced in her mind.
Just like the last time, she had gone through the farewell ceremony. Just like the last time, she had also witnessed Sora and Sunday's confrontation.
The difference was that, because Sora had left, Sunday had not truly fought this time.
He had only silently watched as ORDER replayed what was supposed to happen. He watched Robin speak toward the place where the NIHILITY should have been, and watched her drag a clump of empty air off into the distance.
Only after Robin boarded Compassie did she recover the promise and memories from the last cycle.
So that's... what happened.
A tired look crossed Robin's face. Once her memories returned, the fatigue returned with them too, as though her body had finally caught up.
But her resolve quickly hardened again.
She would not admit defeat so easily!
So once more, just like last time, she began carrying out her own plan.
Only this time, she could feel ORDER's influence even more clearly.
Everyone in Penacony dreamscape seemed like puppets wound up to the limit, mechanically carrying out the tasks assigned to them.
Only a very small number could break free of that puppet-like state and briefly regain clarity.
Most people, however, simply continued performing the roles tied to their identities.
Drivers stayed forever on the road. Chefs kept cooking. Servers recited lines of welcome to empty air even when there was no one there...
Most of all, every single face wore the same satisfied smile.
Their emotions had been fixed in a state of contentment. All of them were immersed in ORDER's sweet dream.
Other than her, no one felt tired. No one felt disappointed...
And that power was continuing to eat away at the Twelve Hours of Penacony, dragging everyone there down into that abyss.
Robin completed the preparations under a heavy weight in her heart.
But after she skillfully arranged everything and stepped onto the stage, she fell silent.
The seats in the small theater could practically be called full.
It still wasn't packed, but compared to last time, it was much better.
Yet with more people in the audience, Robin's expression did not improve at all.
"Brother... what are you trying to do?"
She knew Sunday was here.
She knew he had to be watching her.
Otherwise, how could people who should have sunk even deeper into ORDER's dream because of the looping suddenly seem to awaken in groups and come to her?
Someone had to be controlling this from behind the scenes, and only Sunday could do that.
He was trying to use his actions to prove that what he had done was right.
Robin wanted no part of Sunday's charity.
So she remained silent there. She did not begin the performance, but the people below did not start muttering or growing angry because of it.
"Sigh..."
At the long sigh drifting down from the sky, the docile people seated there rose in orderly fashion and left the little theater.
After the people under Sunday's control had gone, fewer than a third of the audience from last time remained.
The entire theater felt emptier than before.
Those with free will were dwindling at an alarming rate...
Robin had already expected this outcome, but she had not imagined the decline would be this fast.
Even her conviction took a blow from it.
"Hey, what's going on? Are you singing or not?"
The impatient shout from below snapped Robin back to herself.
"Right away—just a moment..."
She quickly adjusted the equipment as she apologized.
Once upon a time, how could a galactic superstar like her ever have ended up in this kind of situation?
But this was the road she had chosen.
This was her own decision.
So even if not one person remained by the end, she would keep going.
"Come on. We're all waiting for your performance."
The sudden voice made Robin freeze.
She looked down and saw familiar faces in the audience.
"Quit spacing out, superstar. Time to start."
Hotaru sat below, urging Robin on without pause.
"Even if you sing badly, we'll forgive you."
As Hotaru stirred things up, those familiar faces around her all smiled at once.
Mitsutake said, "Even if she did sing badly, she'd still sing better than you."
Shunji added, "That's true. Compared to a certain someone's ghost-wailing, even Robin-san at her worst would still count as heavenly music."
Unkyō said, "This is my first time seeing someone who can't carry a tune accuse someone else of being tone-deaf..."
The barrage of comments made Hotaru's face flush red. She widened her eyes and protested, "How can you slander me like that out of nowhere?!"
"Slander? Just the other day, I saw Sora writhing on the floor after listening to someone secretly practice a new song."
Hotaru instantly choked on her reply. The veins on her forehead bulged.
"Writhing on the floor doesn't count as being tone-deaf... singing! ...And private singing—how can private singing count as being tone-deaf?"
What followed was an increasingly baffling stream of excuses—things like "I wasn't even using my real power," and "My singing can put Sora to sleep in seconds."
The people around her could not help laughing when they heard that.
Then a gentle melody rose, washing away the embarrassment Hotaru was currently suffering.
See, Brother? There are still birds who have ridden the wind walking beside me!
You were wrong.
In this cycle, Robin once again reaffirmed the path she had chosen.
"Why haven't these people been affected by the power of ORDER?"
What was happening here made Sunday frown.
He looked at Hotaru and the others, utterly puzzled.
Robin had been granted his special exemption. Sora had power that placed him outside ordinary bounds...
But why were they also immune to ORDER's control?
Inside ORDER's sweet dream, Sunday was nearly a god.
With a mere shift of thought, he understood the entire chain of cause and effect.
There was only one being here truly immune to ORDER's looping: Hotaru.
And the reason for her exception lay in the NIHILITY hidden inside her body.
Within NIHILITY, there was no ORDER, and ORDER had no effect on NIHILITY.
She should have been excluded long ago.
Why, then, was she still here?
"What is this?"
Sunday looked at Gopher Wood.
"By your own logic, shouldn't NIHILITY have been excluded from ORDER long ago?"
NIHILITY should have been pushed outside in advance. It was the natural enemy of ORDER's sweet dream.
So why could this person still remain inside it?
Gopher Wood answered, "Because now, we possess the ability to fold NIHILITY into ORDER as well."
Previously, ORDER really had needed to exclude NIHILITY.
But now things were different. Under that seven-colored radiance, ORDER's power had grown far stronger than before.
And because of that, Gopher Wood had begun entertaining the idea of taking even NIHILITY into hand.
There were two people in the dream walking the path of NIHILITY.
One of them, a powerful one, had for some unknown reason been guided to the edge of the dreamscape. The other, the comparatively weaker Hotaru, had been left here.
"Do you think the presence of NIHILITY affected you in any way during the earlier cycles?"
Gopher Wood's question made Sunday look inward.
The answer made him hesitate before shaking his head.
None at all.
"And that," Gopher Wood said, "is precisely what I wish to accomplish. Only when even NIHILITY can be folded into ORDER will our sweet dream of ORDER be able to spread across the entire universe!"
His face was radiant as he spoke.
Right now, even with Hotaru inside ORDER's sweet dream, ORDER had not deviated in the slightest.
If this succeeded, then later, their ORDER might even be able to absorb NIHILITY itself.
And if that happened, there would no longer be any enemy left for them in the entire universe.
"When that time comes, the stain of NIHILITY will no longer remain the universe's incurable disease. At that point, we'll be able to save even more living beings."
After hearing Gopher Wood's explanation, Sunday hesitated for a moment, then silently accepted it.
He was right.
If they could solve the contamination of NIHILITY...
Then what was a little risk?
And so this cycle ended beneath Sunday's vision of a beautiful future.
More than half the dream of looping had already passed.
From here on, the shackles Robin felt grew even stronger than before.
A mysterious voice rang out in her mind.
[You have been chosen as the divine elect to tune the multitude of voices. On the seventh day, go and lead the voices, bringing all things into harmony.]
A seed was guiding Robin toward the path of ORDER.
And at that very moment, a call from someone else snapped her consciousness back.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Hotaru's arrival pulled Robin out of ORDER's temptation.
"It's nothing. My head just feels a little dizzy."
"Then get some proper rest. We'll handle setting up the venue this time."
Hotaru told Robin to rest. After the last cycle, she had become part of Robin's backstage crew for these theater concerts.
With Hotaru helping, Robin was no longer exhausted to the point of collapse the way she had been the first time.
And once everything was ready, Robin stepped onto the stage again.
Only this time, the number of free-willed people who had come could be counted on one hand.
Even their movements had begun to stiffen.
Clearly, they were in the middle of being assimilated by ORDER.
Yet their longing for freedom had still brought them to the most abnormal place within this sweet dream of ORDER.
Here, at least, they could resist ORDER's assimilation a little.
But it was no more than a drop in the bucket. By the next cycle, they would probably lose themselves completely.
Robin saw it all, and helplessness gathered in her heart.
Hotaru's power could bring the Iron Cavalry who shared the PROPAGATION back to their senses.
But for these people, it did nothing.
All Robin could do was watch those few scraps of free will be swallowed up by ORDER.
By the time the concert ended, the sky outside had turned to sunset.
"Thank you all for listening. I hope next time we can—"
Robin did not finish the sentence.
Those people had already left in silence.
This might be the last time she would ever see them.
Under the evening sun, those unknown souls who had struggled against assimilation by ORDER to the very end walked off into the distance, their shadows stretched long behind them.
Robin looked on, unable for a moment to find any words.
And in that daze, she thought she heard a harmonica at her ear.
The melody was long and lingering, as though telling of a faint sorrow, and also of the helplessness of fate.
She turned and saw a figure leaning against the wall beside the theater, quietly playing that tune.
It was Gallagher.
He stood hidden in the shadows cast by the sunset, never stepping into the light.
Robin listened quietly until the harmonica piece ended.
"That's the accompaniment from Clockie, isn't it?"
The piece had appeared so rarely that almost no one remembered it anymore.
Yet Gallagher had unexpectedly played it in full.
"I heard it enough times back then. Recreating it isn't that hard."
The shadows around Gallagher stirred, and a strange hand-like darkness rose to shield him.
"If you want to learn it, once everything settles down, I'll find some time to give you the sheet music."
At that, he turned to Robin.
"And I'll buy you a drink while I'm at it."
The next moment, his figure was dragged into the shadows and vanished.
In silence, Robin entered the sixth cycle.
This time, things truly turned out just as she had predicted in the previous one.
No matter what tricks she used or how many people she mobilized, she could no longer bring a single outsider here.
Faced with an audience section full of empty seats, Robin fell silent for a while before choosing, once again, to repeat what she had been doing.
Even if no one remained, she would still play the music of HARMONY in her loneliest hour.
And the people in this cycle were no longer puppets wound tight like clockwork.
They had begun to slacken.
They still did their jobs, but now only perfunctorily.
No one would scold them, and no one was checking.
Everyone was immersed in peace and joy. There was no more oppression anywhere.
But there was no longer any interaction between people either.
ORDER's influence had seeped into everything—people's behavior, the growth of trees...
The dream of ORDER was about to reach its final state.
And once again, Robin heard ORDER's call inside her mind.
[You have been chosen as the divine elect to tune the multitude of voices. Tomorrow, go and lead the voices, bringing all things into harmony!]
Amid assimilation by ORDER, Robin entered the seventh cycle.
And after this cycle began, everything she saw and heard was silence.
Assimilation affected her mind and eroded her flesh.
As for those who had already been completely assimilated—at this moment, none of them moved at all. Every single one of them was staring into the distance at the Penacony Grand Theater.
There was no action left for them to take, and no work left for them to do.
Now, at last, the people of Penacony had arrived at the true [SEVEN REST DAYS].
They no longer needed to do anything.
They no longer needed to take any initiative.
All they had to do was remain here.
All they had to do was wait for god to descend.
And so the living sat cross-legged on the ground, quietly enjoying their holiday, gazing with devout expressions at the Penacony Grand Theater floating in the void.
Dominicus, embodiment of HARMONY, fluttered around the Grand Theater in countless tiny, sprite-like forms.
And within that old prison, some kind of rhythm pulsed ceaselessly outward.
It was like movement from within an egg, like a hymn chanted before a god's advent.
The Twelve Hours of Penacony revolved slowly around the Grand Theater.
With every turn, the power of ORDER grew stronger still.
"Robin, we've reached the final cycle."
Sunday's voice sounded in Robin's ear again.
"And yet the breeze you've been waiting for still hasn't begun to blow."
Now, ORDER had even taken the wind itself into its grasp.
There was pity in his voice, but also a faint anger at the fact that his sister had been deceived.
Seven-colored radiance blazed up from the Grand Theater, and a puppet-like figure unfolded there and rose to stand.
Those Dominicus forms sprouted iridescent wings as they clustered around the newborn ORDER.
Behind that newborn god, the projections of Penacony's Twelve Hours turned without cease, as though cycling through reincarnations.
"You've already done enough..."
In these circumstances, the fact that Robin had endured all the way to now through HARMONY alone made her something utterly unique.
The newborn god reached a finger toward Robin.
"You're already too tired..."
Throughout this stretch of time, Robin had never rested, and she had scarcely even eaten.
A mind stretched taut. A body worn down by relentless action. All for the sake of nothing more than an empty promise.
"...It's time to rest."
But everything she had done had come to nothing.
Since that person left, there had still been no word, no trace.
All Robin's actions had done was prove ORDER right.
[You have been chosen as the divine elect to tune the multitude of voices. You shall lead the voices with me and bring all things into harmony!]
If Sunday's words just now had been an elder brother's heartache for his younger sister, then now this was a god delivering an oracle to a broken-winged bird.
ORDER unfurled a vision of the future before Robin's eyes.
In that future, there would be no more famine, no more class divisions, no more suffering...
Led by the one true god, all living things would receive the supreme gospel.
Robin now stood only a single step away from that blessed future.
Only one final motion remained.
If her finger touched the god's, then she would be able to join that gospel of ORDER.
[Come, Robin. Is this not the paradise you longed for?]
"Come, little sister. This was our wish when we were young."
Just as he had when they were children and she had been too afraid to go onstage, Sunday offered his encouragement.
Only the very last step remained before everything succeeded.
And under the guidance of that radiant figure before her, beneath ORDER's assimilation, under the temptation of that dream, Robin slowly raised her hand.
That radiant god before her was the only color she could still see.
Beneath such brilliance, every other color seemed utterly insignificant...
...Or were they?
A streak of crimson shot across the sky like blood spilled across white paper, staining the pure white and disrupting ORDER.
It fell from the heavens and cut across the space between bird and god.
That red flooded Robin's vision like a sun.
"Sorry. I'm late."
Crimson lines traced a body overflowing with power, energy surging as though it could burn everything away.
That heavy frame stood like a wall, shielding the broken-winged bird from the evil wind beyond.
A warrior in rebellion against god fell from the sky!
KAMEN RIDER AGITO BURNING.
---
T/N: OOOOOH SORAAAAAA OF COURSE YOU HAD TO ARRIVE AT THE LAST MOMENT!!!
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