Chapter 50: I'm a Girl? Damn, Why Didn't You Say So Earlier!
Morning light filtered through the observation windows of the Astral Express, casting long, geometric shadows across the dusty floorboards of the passenger cabin. Inside a massive, slightly crushed cardboard box, a tuft of grey hair shifted. Stelle cracked her golden eyes open, blinking away the sleep.
She stretched her limbs, wincing as a particularly stiff flap of corrugated cardboard dug into her ribs. Although the box was undeniably spacious, sleeping on a flat layer of industrial paper was starting to take a toll on her spine. What should she do about this?
The amnesiac girl stared at the ceiling and began to formulate a flawless survival strategy.
Day one, infiltrate March 7th's room and crash on her bed. Day two, hijack Rekka's mattress. Day three, act pitiful until Himeko offered up her luxurious sheets. And so the cycle would continue. Mr. Welt was completely off the table since his door remained perpetually locked, and Dan Heng literally slept on the floor, which defeated the entire purpose of a bed heist.
However, there was a flaw in the plan. Himeko was an elder figure on the Express. The number of times Stelle could act spoiled and beg for sleepovers had to be strictly rationed, otherwise the elegant navigator might start suspecting that Stelle simply hadn't bothered to tidy her own room.
And she really hadn't. How long had she even been on the Express? She decided she would just make do with the cardboard box for another couple of days. Once she recovered her energy, she could finally start sweeping and decorating her assigned quarters into a luxurious little sanctuary. According to March 7th and Pom-Pom, her room was actually the largest on the entire train.
She had managed to sweep away the worst of the dust last night, so the environment wasn't entirely hostile. Sleeping in the box for a little longer wouldn't kill her.
Having finalized her grand procrastination plan, Stelle climbed out of her cardboard fortress, stretched her stiff shoulders, and stepped out into the corridor.
She shuffled her way into the Parlor Car, only to stop dead in her tracks. There was a boy standing near the seating area whom she had absolutely never seen before.
He had striking black hair with deep blue highlights catching the artificial light, and he wore a high-collared cloak that gave off an exceptionally cool, mysterious aura.
The little grey-haired trash panda blinked her eyes slowly. So there were other passengers hiding on the Astral Express?
"Good morning," the boy said, turning to look at her. "Did you get used to sleeping here last night?"
Stelle leaned against the doorframe, giving him an appreciative once-over. "Hey handsome, who are you?"
"It's me." Rekka raised a single eyebrow, his expression completely flat. "You even helped me flip over yesterday."
Stelle froze. Her jaw dropped slightly as she stared at the boy. "You're Rekka?"
Looking at this cool, cloaked figure who seemed completely and utterly unrelated to the monstrous entity she had hung out with yesterday, Stelle was struck with absolute devastation.
"Where's my Hachi-Bug?" She lunged forward, grabbing the sleeves of his cloak and shaking him. "Give my Hachi-Bug back to me! My Hachi-Bug!"
Rekka just stared at her in silence, letting her shake his arms.
"Today I am not on the Path of Propagation," he finally said, his voice dry. "I cannot turn into a giant bug."
"But the Hachi-Bug is the one I can ride!" Stelle pointed an accusing finger directly at his nose. "Transform for me! Right now!"
"No way. Do you think I'm a Transformer, just changing into whatever vehicle you want?" Rekka swatted her hand away. "It is way too early in the morning, and there is absolutely no logic in forcing someone to turn into a giant insect before breakfast."
Stelle crossed her arms and began to circle him slowly, her eyes sweeping up and down his new form with deep disappointment. She completed two full orbits before stopping in front of him.
"So you really can't?"
"What exactly are you so disappointed about?" Rekka sighed.
"I mean, you're pretty handsome like this, but you can't be used as a mount." Stelle let out a long, heavy breath, her tone dripping with deep regret. "It was so cool sitting on your back yesterday. I was genuinely planning to go back to the Herta Space Station today just to run a few more laps around the researchers."
As she spoke the words, the tragedy of her lost bug-ride hit her again.
"Sigh."
An hour later, breakfast had been cleared away, but Stelle was still trailing right behind Rekka's heels as he walked down the corridor. She wasn't sighing anymore, but her golden eyes were locked onto the back of his head with intense purpose.
Rekka stopped and turned around. "Why are you following me?"
"I have a lifelong request I want to ask of you." Stelle pressed her palms together in front of her face, bowing her head slightly in a gesture of absolute pleading.
"What request?"
"I'm afraid of the dark."
"Real or fake?" Rekka looked at her, genuine surprise flickering across his face. "You? Afraid of the dark?"
He knew perfectly well that Stelle was eccentric, chaotic, and possessed a skull thicker than the Express's outer hull plating. This was the very first time he had ever heard her claim to be scared of something as mundane as the dark.
"No, you are definitely hiding something from me," Rekka narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms.
Stelle dropped her hands, her pleading expression vanishing instantly into her usual deadpan stare. "How did you find out?"
"I was just bluffing to test you. Who knew you would just blurt out the truth immediately?" Rekka spread his hands in exasperation.
Stelle stared at him in silence.
"My room isn't ready yet," she finally admitted, entirely shameless. "And your bed looks really soft. I want to sleep in your bed."
"You are quite honest when cornered." Rekka leaned his shoulder against the corridor bulkhead. "So how exactly did you make do last night? Don't tell me you just slept on the bare floor in the hallway."
"I found a really big cardboard box."
Rekka pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sleeping in a cardboard box is way too miserable, even for you."
"Actually, besides being a bit lumpy on the ribs, it wasn't a problem at all," Stelle corrected him, defending her box with pride.
"Fine. You can sleep in my room today. I will take the sofa."
Stelle scratched the back of her head, genuinely confused. "Why sleep on the sofa?"
"Because men and women are different."
Stelle froze. The gears in her head ground to a violent halt. She looked at Rekka. Then, very slowly, she looked down at her own chest. She reached out and pinched her own arm.
Her golden eyes widened to the size of saucers.
"What... so I'm a girl?" Her voice echoed down the corridor, thick with absolute shock. "Damn, why didn't you say so earlier!"
Rekka stared at her.
"You didn't even know if you were a man or a woman?"
"I have amnesia!" Stelle spread her hands righteously, defending her complete lack of self-awareness. "My head is completely empty! Who would think to confirm their gender the exact second they wake up from a coma? Besides, I haven't even looked in a mirror to study myself carefully yet!"
Rekka opened his mouth, closed it, and just looked at her.
Her expression was entirely serious. This wasn't a joke. She possessed a human form, but she was clearly only slightly acquainted with basic human nature. To say something so utterly absurd with such a straight face... no, she wasn't acting. She was just naturally this chaotic.
What a terrifying natural talent. Rekka knew he couldn't come up with a trolling line that good if he practiced for a lifetime.
"You are invincible, kid." Rekka shook his head, managing to squeeze out the only sentence that fit the situation. "I will help you tidy your room later so you don't have to sleep in a box."
"No need." Stelle decisively rejected the offer.
"Why not?"
"That is my room, so of course it must be cleaned by my own hands!"
"You won't do it. I guarantee that a week from now, you still won't have cleaned a single inch of it."
Although Stelle puffed out her cheeks in protest at his accurate prediction, she remembered that she was relying on him for a soft mattress today. She swallowed her complaints and shut her mouth resentfully. Today was simply not a good day for talking back to her provider.
"Speaking of which," Stelle tilted her head, changing the subject. "What Path are you on today?"
"Of course, it is the Path of Trailblaze."
"Trailblaze..."
Stelle stared at his blue-highlighted hair and the high-collared cloak. She couldn't shake the feeling that today's version of Rekka carried an inexplicable sense of familiarity, like a distant echo in her empty memory.
She shook her head. Forget it. Thinking too hard hurt her brain.
By noon, the post-lunch lethargy had fully set in. Stelle dragged her feet into Rekka's room, eyeing the pristine, soft mattress like a starving wolf looking at a steak. She took one step toward the pillows, preparing to face-plant into dreamland.
A hand grabbed the back of her collar.
Before she could protest, she was physically tossed into the adjoining bathroom.
"Wash up before you get in my bed to sleep!" Rekka's voice called out through the door.
A long while later, the bathroom door cracked open. A wet, grey-haired head poked out, dripping water onto the floorboards.
"Got any clothes?" Stelle asked, completely unbothered. "Mine are soaked."
A few minutes later, Stelle was sitting on the edge of Rekka's bed, swinging her snow-white feet in the air. She was swallowed up in his oversized white short-sleeved shirt and a pair of black shorts that hung loosely around her waist. She had tied her damp hair back into a messy ponytail, water droplets still clinging to her neck.
"The material of your clothes is actually quite soft." She patted the fabric of the shirt. "Lend them to me for a couple more days."
"You really do not know the meaning of the word polite." Rekka walked over, plugging in a hair dryer and flicking it onto the warm air setting. "Turn around. I will help you dry the back of your head. You are drying it like a bird's nest right now. If you sleep on it like that, it will look even worse when you wake up."
Stelle obediently spun around, presenting her back to him.
The low hum of the dryer filled the quiet room. Warm wind blew through the grey strands, Rekka's fingers expertly combing through the tangles to ensure the heat distributed evenly. The gentle heat and the rhythmic brushing motion made Stelle's eyes droop heavily.
Once the dampness was entirely gone, Rekka clicked the machine off, wound up the power cord, and placed it neatly on the nightstand.
"Alright, it is all dry. Hurry up and go to sleep, don't just sit there staring at the wall."
Stelle immediately flopped backward onto the mattress like a salted fish. She grabbed the edges of the thick quilt and rolled over twice, wrapping herself into a cozy, grey-haired burrito.
"The big bed is so soft. This is incredibly comfortable."
She wriggled a few more times, adjusting her shoulders until she found the absolute perfect napping angle. Then, a single pale arm reached out from the depths of the quilt, patting the empty space beside her.
"Come on, you sleep here."
Rekka looked at the spot her hand was slapping. He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. "I sleep there?"
"Yeah."
"No. I already told you, men and women are different."
Stelle processed this information with a personal best decision-making speed of exactly 0.01 seconds. She completely discarded it.
"I told you to come over, so just come over. Why are you acting so shy?"
Before Rekka could step back, the little trash panda lunged out of the blankets, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him down onto the mattress with surprising physical strength.
"Come, come, come, let's sleep together. No need to be polite with me."
Rekka braced his hands against the mattress, staring down at the girl who had just kidnapped him into his own sheets.
"This is my bed."
"Uh... seems so." Stelle blinked slowly, her eyelids already heavy with sleep. "But it doesn't matter."
She possessed absolutely zero self-awareness as a girl, treating him like a fellow stray dog she had decided to share a warm vent with for the winter.
She pulled the quilt up to her chin, closed her eyes, and let out a long, contented sigh.
"Bro, bro," she mumbled, her voice already fading into sleep. "Don't call me when you wake up later."
Rekka stared at the ceiling, listening to her breathing even out into a soft rhythm. He let out a long, defeated breath.
"Fine."
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