Chapter 49: Dan Heng: We Are No Longer Brothers
'Stelle, you absolute menace.'
Rekka shuffled through the pristine corridors of the Astral Express, tightly cocooned inside a massive, fluffy white blanket. Every time the climate-controlled vents blew a gentle breeze, a distinct chill bit through his newly molted carapace. Shedding his old shell had miraculously knit his battle injuries back together, but the sheer biological toll left him dragging his six segmented legs across the carpet in sheer exhaustion.
Dan Heng, who had escorted him back, sat rigidly on the parlor sofa. The stoic spearman's teal eyes were locked onto the oversized bug-man. Though his handsome face remained as impassive as ever, his entire aura screamed a very specific, silent accusation: 'We are no longer brothers.'
Rekka paused, his fuzzy antennae twitching nervously above the rim of the blanket. "What is that look in your eyes?"
"You didn't call me." Dan Heng's voice was flat. Dangerously flat. If one looked closely at the usually unflappable guard, the micro-tension in his jaw and the slight narrowing of his eyes painted a vivid picture of his current mood. He was thoroughly displeased.
An invisible question mark practically materialized above Rekka's head. His mandibles clicked in genuine confusion. "Call you? Call you for what?"
Dan Heng crossed his arms, the leather of his bracers creaking softly in the quiet car. "I am the guard of the Astral Express. When encountering danger, it should be me standing in front of you."
Rekka froze. His antennae drooped slightly beneath the heavy folds of the blanket as the realization hit him. Oh. That was what this was about. During the chaos on the space station, he had let Stelle take the reins and control his body, completely sidelining the Express's dedicated protector. Dan Heng felt left out.
"Look, there is a literal Stellaron inside her body," Rekka offered, trying to justify the chaotic team-up.
"Mm."
"You aren't surprised?"
"I am not surprised." Dan Heng did not blink.
"Right. True." Rekka sighed, his elytra shifting uncomfortably against his back.
A soft chime broke the awkward silence. Dan Heng glanced down at his phone screen, his brow furrowing slightly at the notification. The Express family group chat had lit up.
Himeko: [Everyone, Stelle wants to join the Astral Express.]
Rekka: [1]
March 7th: [1]
Dan Heng: [1]
Welt Yang: [1]
Himeko: [Please, everyone, do not be so lazy with your replies.]
Rekka: [It is incredibly difficult to type on a touchscreen with chitinous forelimbs, Sister Himeko.]
Himeko: [So, what does everyone actually think?]
Welt Yang: [Having more vibrant young people join the train is a good thing.]
March 7th: [I have zero objections! The more the merrier!]
Dan Heng: [I have no objections.]
Rekka: [Since everyone else is on board, I have even fewer objections. By the way, I am absolutely freezing after shedding my shell. Can someone please turn up the heat in the passenger cars?]
Himeko: [Alright. Since it has been passed unanimously, Stelle is officially a new member of our Astral Express family.]
Tossing his terminal onto the mattress, Rekka burrowed deeper into his nest of blankets, shrinking his massive, insectoid frame into a tight ball. Tapping into the Path of Propagation had granted him absurd physical power, but the mental tax of processing the world through a swarm-mind perspective was staggering. Now that the adrenaline had completely faded, a heavy, crushing wave of fatigue washed over him.
A rhythmic knocking echoed from the corridor. "Rekka. Rekka."
"Open the door yourself, it is unlocked," he mumbled, his voice muffled by layers of cotton.
The metal door slid open with a soft hiss. Stelle poked her gray-haired head into the room, her golden eyes scanning the space.
"Your room is surprisingly tidy," she noted, stepping inside with her hands shoved deep into her jacket pockets.
"What exactly did you expect my room to look like?"
"A bug nest. Maybe some slime on the walls. A few half-eaten carcasses."
"How can you say that to my face!" Rekka threw the blanket off, indignantly pointing a sharp, jagged forelimb at her. "I literally only turned into a bug today! I have standards!"
Stelle ignored his outburst entirely, her gaze drifting to the climate control panel on the wall. "What temperature should I set the heater to?"
"Just make it comfortable," Rekka grumbled, pulling the blanket back over his head. "I am going to take a nap."
"Oh. Then you rest." Stelle picked up the remote. She stared at the digital display, tilting her head. What temperature would be considered comfortable for a giant, molting space insect?
Five minutes later, the room felt like the inner core of a dying star.
Rekka kicked the blankets away, panting heavily as his carapace practically steamed. "I am roasting alive! What temperature did you set this thing to?!"
"One hundred degrees," Stelle answered blankly.
"Are you trying to cook me, brother?! I am a bug, not a rotisserie chicken!"
Unfazed by his panic, Stelle calmly pressed the down button until the display read a much more reasonable twenty-six degrees. She then pulled up a chair and sat right next to the bed, resting her chin on her hands as she quietly observed Rekka, who had once again wrapped himself up like a giant, grumpy silkworm cocoon.
"You were incredibly impressive when you were fighting outside earlier," she remarked, her tone casual. "How did you end up so pathetic immediately after coming back?"
"I was running on pure adrenaline and mental stimulation during the fight," Rekka shot back, poking just the top half of his head out from the fluffy white folds, revealing only his glowing, complex eyes. "Of course I am exhausted now that the danger is gone."
He stared at her unblinking. "Why aren't you staying in your own room? You just joined the Express. Go enjoy your new bed. Why did you come here?"
"I do not want to be alone," Stelle answered, her brutal honesty catching him slightly off guard. "My mind is completely empty. When I sit in a quiet room by myself, I start thinking about a lot of strange, uncomfortable questions."
"For example?"
"Like who I am. Where I come from. Why you were the first thing I saw standing in front of me when I woke up." Stelle looked directly into his insectoid eyes, her expression deadpan but carrying a hint of existential weight. "Like where the actual edge of the universe is, and what happens if you fall off..."
"Tell the truth," Rekka interrupted, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
Stelle did not miss a beat. "I think it is extremely rare to find a giant bug that can talk, and I want to get along with you to see what happens."
"I knew it." Rekka groaned, shifting his weight. "Listen, there is no need for all this complicated social pretense on the Astral Express. Everyone here is family. You do not have to make up deep philosophical excuses just to hang out."
As he spoke, Rekka shifted a little too far to the left. The heavy blanket tangled around his midsection, throwing off his already precarious center of gravity. With a pathetic, muffled thud, he rolled completely onto his back.
Oh no.
"Uh. Can you give me a hand?"
Rekka lay flat on the mattress, hopelessly trapped beneath the weight of his own carapace, his six spiky legs kicking uselessly at the ceiling.
Stelle remained seated on the edge of the bed. She watched him flounder in the sea of white fabric, a spark of undisguised amusement flashing in her golden eyes. She made absolutely no move to help. Instead, she leaned forward, resting her chin on her palm, deeply fascinated by the frantic, desperate trajectories his segmented limbs were tracing in the air.
"That is quite a unique posture you have there," she noted dryly.
"Stop watching the show and help me, big sister!" Rekka pleaded. His antennae drooped aggrievedly against the pillow, and his hard elytra rubbed together in his panic, emitting a low, pathetic buzzing sound that vibrated through the mattress.
The corners of Stelle's lips finally twitched upward into a faint smirk. Taking pity on the helpless creature, she stood up, leaned over the bed, and firmly grabbed the thick edge of his carapace with both hands.
"Alright. One, two, three, here we go."
With a solid heave and a dull, heavy rolling sound, she flipped him over. Rekka's massive bug body landed right-side up onto the mattress with a heavy sigh of relief.
"Rekka!"
The bedroom door slid open again, and March 7th bounded inside, balancing a large tray of steaming food. Her pink hair bounced with her energetic steps. "Sister Himeko was worried you were going to starve to death in bed after shedding your shell, so she specifically asked me to bring you some dinner! Do not worry, it is all completely normal food. No strange cosmic seasonings added!"
"Thank the Aeons," Rekka groaned, his head resting heavily on his front claws. "Can you feed me? My arms are too tired to lift a fork."
"Hey, hey, now you are just pushing your luck!" March 7th scolded, placing her free hand on her hip.
Despite her protests, the archer immediately pulled up a stool, picked up a spoon, and began feeding him with the practiced ease of someone who had fully anticipated this exact scenario. As she shoveled a spoonful of warm rice into his mandibles, she turned her bright blue and pink eyes toward Stelle.
"By the way, I saw your combat skills back at the space station. You were seriously impressive out there! I wonder what you used to do before you woke up."
"I am not sure. I forgot everything," Stelle replied, her tone perfectly flat.
"Hmm... oh, right! That makes sense, since you lost all your memories." March 7th tapped her chin thoughtfully with the back of the spoon. "But hey, I lost all my memories too! That means we are officially sisters in misfortune!"
A sudden realization lit up March's face. She blinked, processing the math. "Wait a second... you are new, and Rekka is relatively new... does that mean I am officially a senior Trailblazer with two juniors under my wing now?!"
The sheer joy radiating from the pink-haired girl was blinding. She looked incredibly proud of herself.
"Are you absolutely sure about that ranking?" Rekka mumbled around a mouthful of food, his complex mouthparts clicking as he chewed.
"Of course I am sure!" March 7th puffed out her chest, practically glowing with unearned authority. "If there is anything you two do not understand in the future, you can just ask me! I am a senior who has been traveling on the Astral Express for a very, very long time!"
Stelle tilted her head, genuinely curious. "Exactly how long is a very long time?"
March 7th's proud expression instantly froze. A bead of sweat formed on her cheek. "Y-you do not need to know the exact details! Anyway, it has been a long time! Definitely much longer than both of you combined!" She quickly changed the subject, waving the spoon between the bug and the amnesiac. "Anyway... you two actually seem to get along quite well."
"It is alright," Stelle agreed, giving a small nod. "He is quite fun."
"Fun?" Rekka's antennae shot straight up, rigid with indignation. "Am I just a toy to you?"
"No." Stelle paused, her golden eyes softening just a fraction as she looked at the giant, ridiculous insect currently being spoon-fed by a pink-haired girl. "A friend."
The word hung in the air. It was delivered so suddenly, and with such quiet sincerity, that Rekka was completely caught off guard.
"...Oh."
He slowly sank back down into the soft pillows. His hard elytra closed gently over his back, shifting to hide the sudden, unfamiliar warmth blooming in his chest. He was not used to such direct earnestness.
March 7th giggled, scooping up another spoonful of rice. "Alright, alright, friends are friends! What is there to be so shy about, you big softie? Now open up!"
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