Chapter Text
It is now almost two years since the Ambrosial Arbor was resurrected on the Xianzhou Luofu. Time flies, but the Astral Express flies much faster.
During these two years, the Nameless have not actually visited any new worlds. Instead, they have been bouncing back and forth between the Herta Space Station, Jarilo-VI, and the Xianzhou Luofu. They have run random errands for the Genius Society, attended the cosmic War Dance, and—on one memorable occasion—stopped the IPC from basically buying Belobog.
Life on the Express is always hectic, but it is also full of joy. Today is an especially big day. The youngest crew members, Stelle and Caelus, are officially four years old.
“Happy birthday! May you stay healthy and grow tall this year!” Bailu cheers. She hands the toddlers a bottle of vitamins as a gift.
Stelle and Caelus do not even look at the vitamins. Instead, they beam with joy and launch themselves at the young Dragon Lady. Their clear target is her squishy tail. Bailu already expected this. She dodges the hyperactive toddlers with a swift swoosh. Seconds later, the trio starts a chaotic game of chase around the parlor car.
Pom-Pom just stands on the side with a calm, exhausted face. The Conductor knows that Bailu is actually one of the calmer kids the twins hang out with. The Vidyadhara child is nothing like Pitch-Dark Hook the Great. The last time Hook visited the Express, she accidentally started several fires. The Nameless babysitters are just glad the twins are celebrating their birthday on the Luofu this year.
“Wahhhaha~”
“Be careful,” Dan Heng warns gently, his eyes watching the toddlers like a hawk.
Meanwhile, March 7th takes the chance to snap a dozen photos.
“Dan Heng, don’t you want to be in the picture? Go stand over there!” March nudges him.
“No,” he flatly denies.
Across the room, Welt and Himeko chuckle as they watch the happy children. The two adults are busy sorting through a mountain of gifts from various space-delivery services. They used to let the twins open all their presents themselves. That stopped last year, right after Kafka mailed the kids a pair of functional flamethrowers and a time-bomb assembly kit.
“Please, just one sword,” Yanqing pleads, holding up a wrapped package. “I promise it is completely safe, Miss Himeko! The kids are actually very good with blades!”
“What do you mean 'they are good with blades'?! Didn't we ask you to stop training the twins?” Himeko sighs, gently pushing the gift back.
“Eh... well... but they kept popping up in the middle of my training sessions…” Yanqing trails off, unable to look the navigator in the eye.
General Jing Yuan has recently recognized Yanqing’s natural talent for teaching. Because of this, he has started making his student coach various Cloud Knight squads. The young Lieutenant even represented The Luofu in the recent War Dance. In fact, that event ran into a massive amount of life-threatening troubles. Thankfully, they managed to wrap it up just in time for this party.
Yanqing has definitely grown a lot over the past two years. Unfortunately, one thing has remained exactly the same: he cannot say no to the twin trailblazers.
“Hah! I told you it wouldn't work. They didn't even accept my hand-crafted swords,” Yunli tells Yanqing, looking unnecessarily smug.
Before the two teenagers can start bickering, a tiny voice cuts in.
“Mr. Yang!” Caelus runs over to the grandpa. He is holding up one of the pastry-like lifeforms that Ruan Mei previously dumped on them. “Can I keep this on my bed, please?”
As expected, Caelus picked out the specific critter that looks like a trash can. What is worse is that it smells exactly like one, too.
“Uh. No, my dear... That belongs on the floor,” Welt replies. He exchanges a deeply worried glance with Himeko.
“Oh… Okay then.” The four-year-old pouts, but does not argue further.
He runs back to his sister, still hugging the trash cake tightly against his chest. It does not look like he will put it down anytime soon.
“Tsk. Has it seriously been two years? They still look illiterate to me,” Herta comments from a hologram.
The Express crew previously found a bottle of condensed growth elixir in a delivery parcel. It is now completely obvious that the genius sent it. Himeko silently thinks that the Astral Express truly needs to find better friends.
*******
Once all the guests arrive, they sing the happy birthday song and dig into a massive feast. Everyone has a wonderful time.
The entities residing inside the twins' consciousness are also especially noisy today. Because the children's mental endurance is limited and cannot properly process the Aeons’ language, the message interface glitches out, permanently. All they can see is a vague description of moods or actions, not the Aeons’ names or titles, and certainly not the specific things they wish to say. Because of this heavily censored information, the twins—and eventually everyone else on the Express—simply assume that these intrusive mental messages come from the Stellarons sealed inside them.
>>> [□□□ starts singing]: Happy birthday to you!~♪ Happy birthday to you!~♪ | Xipe The Harmony
>>> [□□□ is still singing]: Happy birthday to Akivili’s children!~♪ Happy birthday to you!~♪ | Xipe The Harmony
>>> [□□□ hands out flowers]: Wishing the little ones a blessed, blossoming life that will never, ever end.
>>> [□□□ sharpens an arrow]: No. They should live courageously! Living too long is no good!
>>> [□□□ is still singing]: Happy birthday to you!~♪ Happy birthday to you!~♪ | Xipe The Harmony
>>> [□□□ is having a mental crisis]: Wishing they get a better birthday cake next year. This one is not symmetrical! | Hooh The Equilibrium
>>> [□□□ throws confetti]: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! NEW YEAR NEW CHAOS NEW FUN LET’S GO!!! | Aha the Elation
>>> [□□□ is still singing loudly]: Happy birthday to you!~♪ Happy birthday to you!~♪ | Xipe The Harmony
>>> [□□□ is irritated]: Wishing for the children’s inevitable, glorious destruction, and for the noisy one to shut the hell up! | Nanook The Destruction
Finally, the chaotic celebrations draw to a close. Later that night, Himeko tucks Stelle and Caelus into bed. The toddlers cheerfully read some of the newly translated "Stellaron thoughts" aloud to her. Once again, the veteran navigator's face twists into a very complicated expression.
“Let’s ignore what the Stellarons have to say, alright? They are just… silly things,” Himeko says, gently ruffling the children’s silver hair.
As soon as the twins learned how to read and speak, the Nameless discovered a terrifying truth. The Stellarons inside them have been making constant attempts to communicate with them.
The crew already knew that Stellarons are sentient. They know these space-cancers possess voices and minds of their own. Even so, they hoped Stelle and Caelus could lead a normal life.
If Himeko had a choice, she would hand the kids over to the Genius Society and ask them to safely remove the dangerous artifacts. However, her hands are tied. Kafka previously revealed that the kids cannot survive without these specific Stellarons. While the Stellaron Hunters may not always be reliable, they have shown cares for the children.
So, Himeko can only stay by the children' side, reminding them never to answer those voices inside their heads.
“If their messages get too loud, or if anything changes at all, you must tell me right away. Can you promise me that?” Himeko asks.
The little trailblazers bob their heads happily. “Okay, mama.”
Himeko lets out a soft sigh, the corners of her lips curling up. It is impossible not to soften up whenever she hears that word.
Originally, the crew decided that Pom-Pom should be the kids' official guardian. After all, the human crew members often leave the train for long, dangerous expeditions. However, it is a normal reflex for anyone to ask unattended toddlers where their mother is. And after the third time Stelle and Caelus pulled out Kafka’s wanted poster to answer that question, Himeko had to step up and take one for the team. With a ‘better’ mom, surely they would soon forget Kafka, or at least, that is their wishful thinking.
*******
A week after the birthday party, the Astral Express receives a special invitation. They are invited to the Charmony Festival on Penacony, a planet in the Asdana star system.
The invitation includes a secret message. It uses an ancient encryption method that only the Nameless know. This means the sender is likely a former crew member or someone very close to the Express.
"...Witness the impossible in the realm of dreams. Find the Legacy of the Watchmaker, Father of Penacony. Find the answer to the question: Why does life slumber."
The cryptic note immediately sparks everyone's curiosity. The crew quickly agrees to make Penacony their next stop. The only issue, as always, is their youngest members.
The trailblazer twins are four years old now. That is double their age from when they first visited Jarilo-VI. Naturally, their guardians should be much less worried, right?
Well, not exactly. If anything, their anxiety has also doubled. To prepare them for the upcoming trip, March decides to hold an impromptu safety drill.
“Stelle, Caelus, think very carefully,” March says, crouching down. “If a total stranger walks up to you and offers you delicious candy, what do you do?”
“Eat the candy!” the twins yell together.
“No!!! No, you do not take things from strangers!!” March grabs her head dramatically, fighting the urge to cry. “Let’s try again. If a stranger gives you yummy food and asks you to follow them, do you go with them?”
Stelle and Caelus pause for two seconds. They look like they are thinking incredibly hard. Then, they beam with pure joy.
“Yes!!!”
“NO!” March screams in defeat.
Himeko watches the entire training session with deep resignation. “I don't think we should let the kids off the train. Penacony will be packed with different factions. Even if the Family keeps order, we must be careful.”
Welt shakes his head. “The little ones were grounded on the Express during the War Dance, too. And yet, they somehow escaped just to singe Hoolay’s tail with Kafka's flamethrowers.”
The kids' sudden arrival actually helped save Jiaoqiu from the giant wolf monster. However, it also added a permanent nightmare to the crew's babysitting trauma.
“Mr. Yang is right,” Dan Heng agrees. “It is probably safer to bring the twins along so we can keep an eye on them.”
“Alright,” Himeko sighs. “I will map out a comprehensive babysitting schedule for the trip.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Welt nods.
Unfortunately, no matter how elaborate the crew's plans are, it does not matter. The exact moment the Astral Express completes its warp jump into Penacony, Stelle and Caelus completely vanish.