Chapter 8: You Can't Just Throw Away Money for a Little Bit of Fame, Right?
"Ah? You are not sad anymore?"
March 7th stared, her jaw slightly slack as she watched the two amnesiacs bounce back with terrifying speed.
"Not sad anymore, not sad anymore." Stelle and Caelus chimed in unison, offering matching, foolishly wide grins.
"Alright, so you were both faking it!" March 7th finally connected the dots, her boots stomping hard against the metallic floor of the corridor. Was she the only one gullible enough to get tricked by these two?!
"Forget it," she sighed, rubbing her temples to soothe the rising tension. "Look around and see if there is anything you like. Take one as a weapon. The Legion is running around the Space Station like mad dogs, and the way back is not safe. It is better to carry a self-defense weapon."
March 7th ushered the group into the Storage Zone. The vast, sterile room was lined with glowing containment pedestals and reinforced glass cases, housing an assortment of bizarre items.
"There are strange things everywhere here, the so-called Curios," March explained, gesturing vaguely at a floating, geometric puzzle box. "Herta collects them but never uses them. They just sit here gathering dust. I really do not know what goes on in that genius head of hers."
As they wandered past the displays, Stelle stopped dead in her tracks. Her golden eyes locked onto a simple, unassuming baseball bat resting on a pedestal. For some inexplicable reason, a deep, cosmic instinct told her this bat was her destiny.
She reached out, her fingers brushing the smooth grip. But just as she curled her hand around it, another hand clamped down firmly on the opposite end.
"Hey, I saw this one first, little sister!" Caelus tilted his head, flashing a rogueish, challenging grin.
"I clearly touched it first!" Stelle refused to yield an inch, tightening her grip. "And besides, I am the older sister!"
"Sigh, wait... you two are fighting over a single baseball bat?" March 7th rubbed the bridge of her nose, a dull ache throbbing behind her eyes as she watched the bickering pair.
"I just feel like this one feels right in my hand," Stelle insisted, trying to yank the weapon toward her chest.
"Liar, it clearly suits me better!" Caelus immediately retorted, digging his heels into the floor to pull back.
"Alright, alright, stop fighting. Here, one for each of you. Otherwise, people will think we cannot afford them."
Unable to watch the ridiculous tug-of-war any longer, Leon casually reached into his pocket. With a smooth, practiced motion, he pulled out an absolutely identical baseball bat and shoved it directly into Caelus's chest.
March 7th stared, her eyes wide enough to fall out of her head.
"Wait, is your pocket a magic bag or something? How do you have everything in there!" she sputtered, completely speechless.
Of course, she did not find the concept of stuffing a large weapon into a pocket entirely strange. In the vast universe connected by the star rail, space compression technology was a common convenience. But the real issue staring her in the face was the bat itself. It was an exact, flawless replica of the Curio sitting in the Herta Space Station.
That was way too much of a coincidence!
'I am starting to suspect you handcrafted this bat on the spot!'March thought, eyeing Leon with deep suspicion.'Wow, a star rail prophet has appeared. Quick, kill her off, kill her off!' Leon mused inwardly, highly amused by her accurate deduction.
"Alright, now you have one each, that should be fine..."
Before Leon could even finish his sentence, a new scuffle broke out. He looked down to see Stelle and Caelus abandoning the original Curio entirely, now wrestling over the exact bat he had just produced.
"This one was handed to me personally by Dad! This one is mine, that one is yours!" Stelle shouted, trying to pry her brother's fingers off the handle.
"No way! This one is mine, that one is yours!" Caelus yelled back, refusing to let go.
"Dad! Look at him..." Stelle whined, turning pleading eyes toward Leon.
March 7th buried her face in her hands. 'Haven't we already confirmed he is not your dad? Why are you still calling him that?'
"So noisy. I thought I was noisy enough, but now I have found there is always someone better. Or in this case, louder," March muttered, letting out a long, exhausted sigh.
For a brief, fleeting moment, she actually missed the reliable presence of Dan Heng. In all their past adventures, she was always the one filling the role of the energetic, unpredictable wildcard. She never expected that, among this particular group of weirdos, she would somehow become the most grounded and responsible person in the room.
Somewhere far away, Dan Heng might have pointed out: 'Actually... I am a warrior. Who do you think was playing the unreliable role in the team before you arrived?'
"Alright, alright, the older one should give way to the younger one," Leon proposed, stroking his chin as he offered a perfectly fair solution.
In reality, there was absolutely no difference between the two baseball bats, aside from the fact that he had manifested one of them out of thin air. But seeing Stelle and Caelus fighting tooth and nail over his creation brought a warm, amused smile to his face.
My efforts in raising these two kids were not in vain.
"Oh, then it is settled! This bat is mine, right, big brother?" Stelle instantly changed her tune, her voice suddenly dripping with honeyed sweetness as she batted her eyelashes.
"Big sister, I am younger, so you should let your little brother have this one," Caelus countered, his expression morphing into a picture of pure, wide-eyed innocence.
March 7th stood frozen, a string of invisible question marks floating above her head.
Wait, you two changed your faces way too fast! Weren't you just arguing about who was born first?!
"Just birth order, how can that compare to a baseball bat!" Stelle declared righteously, wearing an expression that clearly said such logic was beneath her.
"Exactly, exactly, as expected of my sister," Caelus agreed deeply, nodding his head with vigorous approval.
The corner of March 7th's mouth twitched violently. Fine, just fine... as expected of these two lunatics!
"How about this..."
Leon interrupted smoothly. He snatched both baseball bats back, shoved them deep into his pockets, and then immediately pulled them out again, spreading his hands wide.
"Now I cannot tell which is which either. One for each of you, alright?"
This ridiculous dispute was finally settled by Leon's masterful tactic of fishing in troubled waters.
"From now on, I will call you little brother, and you call me little sister. We will each have our own way!" Stelle announced. She gripped her newly acquired baseball bat, hoisted it over her shoulder in a confident stance, and tilted her chin arrogantly at Caelus.
"Good! From now on, we are... the Galactic Baseballer!" Caelus matched her energy, stepping up beside her and resting his own bat against his shoulder with a cool, cocky smirk.
"Then I am 'Galactic'!" Leon chimed in with perfect comedic timing. He reached into his seemingly bottomless pocket, pulled out yet another baseball bat, and struck a dramatic signature pose beside the twins.
"Then I am 'Ball'!" Caelus immediately caught the rhythm, shouting his part of the slogan.
"Then I am 'Bat'!" Stelle followed up without a second of hesitation.
Silence descended on the Storage Zone. Leon, Stelle, and Caelus stood frozen in their ridiculous poses. Three people, six eyes, all slowly turned to stare expectantly at the pink-haired girl standing off to the side.
March 7th blinked. 'Eh? I am involved too?'
She pointed a trembling finger at herself, a single drop of cold sweat sliding silently down her temple.
"...Then, I am the 'Hero'?" she offered weakly.
"Aha, that is it."
Leon grinned broadly. He pulled out a fourth baseball bat and casually tossed it into March 7th's hands.
He chuckled inwardly, wondering if March 7th would somehow unlock a hidden baseball bat form of her own.
'Are you selling baseball bats wholesale?!' March 7th screamed in her mind as she caught the heavy wooden weapon. She could not help but complain internally. Had she just nonsensically joined this absurd Galactic Baseballer organization? This was way too casual!
"Watch out!"
The lighthearted atmosphere shattered the moment they stepped out of the Storage Zone. The twisted, metallic forms of the Antimatter Legion swarmed the corridor ahead, their glowing energy cores pulsing with hostile intent.
March 7th immediately dropped the baseball bat and summoned her bow, the air around her dropping in temperature.
"It is the Antimatter Legion. Those lunatics have roamed over here. Watch me go up and beat them," she declared, her playful demeanor vanishing.
Although she was a massive chatterbox, March 7th was still a seasoned trailblazer. Especially right now. If she did not step up and act reliable, she had a sinking feeling this entire team of weirdos would collapse into chaos, and they would all be doomed!
The sheer absurdity of her companions literally forced her to become the responsible adult!
March 7th lightly swiped her hand past her skirt. Frost gathered in the air, condensing rapidly into a glowing, jagged arrow of pure ice.
"Come and taste this lady's power."
She triumphantly knocked the newly formed ice arrow onto her bowstring, drew it back until the tension hummed, and released it straight into the heart of the Antimatter Legion.
Shatter!
The freezing impact exploded outward. These ordinary Void Rangers were simply no match for her precise marksmanship. March 7th took them out one by one, her arrows whistling through the air, quickly clearing the monsters from the immediate corridor.
But the screeching of metal echoed from the other directions. More Void Rangers lunged forward, raising their energy blades.
Before March could draw another arrow, two figures blurred past her, hefting their wooden weapons high.
"Rules are made to be broken!"
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