Xingbao Wants to Learn Hollow Technique: Purple? Start by Digging Through Trash Cans
Thud!
A dull impact rang through the train car.
Both of Xingbao's knees slammed into the red velvet carpet.
She held nothing back. Even the solid wood coffee table beside her shook.
A few drops of black tea sloshed out of a glass onto the tabletop.
March 7th was hiding behind an armchair.
She held a mug printed with Pom-Pom's face.
The sudden noise made her shoulders jerk.
Her wrist twisted.
Most of the warm water spilled straight onto her pleated skirt.
The fabric soaked through instantly and clung to her legs.
Drops ran off the hem, leaving a dark ring on the carpet.
March 7th forgot all about drying her skirt.
She stared open-mouthed at the gray-haired girl on the carpet.
Her mind couldn't keep up.
Using her knees like feet, Xingbao shuffled two steps forward.
She lunged and grabbed for the edge of the leather sofa.
Or rather, for the two little legs dangling above it.
"Boss!"
Xingbao tipped her face up, her voice cracking.
"Teach me! That move... the big glowing purple ball! I want to learn it!"
Her eyes were bloodshot with fervor.
Dust from under the sofa still clung to her nose, mixed with sweat.
Su Chen frowned at her sudden shout.
Behind his sunglasses, his blue eyes showed undisguised distaste.
He pulled his legs back.
Limitless activated automatically.
Xingbao's hands stopped a hair's breadth from Su Chen's little leather shoes.
It was like trying to hug an invisible steel pipe.
Her fingers scrabbled uselessly against empty air, making a muffled rubbing sound.
Xingbao didn't care.
Her cheeks squashed flat against the invisible barrier.
She kept yelling.
"Teach me, and I'll be your number-one sidekick!"
"Point me at anyone, and I'll take them down! No questions asked!"
A few flecks of spit hit the spatial barrier and burst into droplets.
She looked exactly like a street thug pledging loyalty to a new boss.
Su Chen felt a little sick.
Why is this Stellaron girl such a hooligan?
He planted his right leather shoe against Xingbao's forehead.
Then he gave a gentle push.
Xingbao tipped backward.
She landed squarely on her backside with a muffled thump.
"Back off." Su Chen dusted off his trouser leg. "You're filthy."
His voice had the merciless bluntness only a child could manage.
Xingbao rolled halfway across the carpet and sprang up.
Far from getting angry, she scooted closer again.
Her persistence was like a stray dog spotting a meaty bone.
"I don't mind getting dirty! Boss, take me as your apprentice!"
She pressed her palms together above her head and bowed repeatedly.
Su Chen sighed.
Unless he gave her an answer, this clown would pester him all day.
He crunched the last of his mint and swallowed it.
His throat bobbed.
"You want to learn Hollow Technique?"
Su Chen crossed one leg over the other and folded his hands on his knee.
He looked down at Xingbao, still kneeling on the carpet.
"With that body of yours, you can't learn the Divine Court's Cursed Techniques."
Xingbao froze, her hands still raised.
The fervor on her face went rigid.
"Then how do I learn? Do I have to pay tuition?"
"I... I still have two hundred Credits on my card. You can have it all."
She felt at the empty pockets of her jacket, sounding less than confident.
Su Chen nearly laughed.
Two hundred Credits? That wouldn't even buy a lollipop.
He put on a stern, mysterious air.
His little face tightened, and the cold light of the car reflected in his sunglasses.
"I don't need money."
"You need a Cursed Object."
Su Chen made up the term on the spot and delivered it without a hitch.
"It's a special-grade object steeped in higher-dimensional curses."
"To master space, your body first has to adapt to that violent power."
Xingbao swallowed audibly.
"A Cursed Object? What does it look like?"
Su Chen raised one fair finger and traced a long, narrow shape in the air.
"A shriveled finger."
"It's called Sukuna's Finger."
March 7th frowned as she listened.
A shriveled finger? That sounds creepy.
The train's air conditioning blew over her soaked skirt, chilling her legs until she shivered.
She was about to tell Xingbao not to believe such nonsense.
But Su Chen dangled the bait first.
He pointed to a silver trash can in the corner of the car.
"Things containing curses are usually abandoned in the most overlooked corners of the universe."
"Like trash cans all across the universe."
Xingbao perked up.
"Go through every trash can in this starfield."
Su Chen waved her off like a fly.
"Find that finger, eat it, then come see me."
Xingbao sat on the carpet.
She never once questioned how absurd any of that sounded.
Her one-track mind was already racing.
She imagined opening a rusty metal dumpster.
Beneath a heap of stinking wastepaper and banana peels, she dug out a wooden box glowing purple.
She slid the lid open. Inside lay a withered finger wrapped in yellow talismans.
She picked up the finger and swallowed it whole.
A dry, bitter taste rose in her throat.
Then a terrifying purple aura erupted around her.
She stood before the Doomsday Beast and, just like the white-haired little girl, raised a single finger.
"Hollow Technique: Purple."
An enormous beam blasted out, leaving not a scrap of the monster behind.
Xingbao's breathing grew heavier.
Her chest heaved.
Hot air puffed from her nostrils, stirring the hair by her mouth.
She looked down at her hands.
All ten fingers clenched and opened in the air.
It was as though red and blue light already shone at her fingertips.
A strange flush crept over her cheeks.
Her grin spread wider and wider, nearly reaching her ears.
"Heh... hehehe..."
Xingbao let out two muffled, foolish giggles.
A thread of drool stretched from the corner of her mouth.
She looked like someone who'd gone hungry for three days and found a banquet.
She was utterly lost in her fantasy.
March 7th stood two steps away.
She gripped her soaked skirt with one hand and covered her face with the other.
Despair showed through the gaps between her fingers.
This is so embarrassing.
Embarrassing enough to reach outer space.
March 7th curled her toes hard inside her shoes.
She nearly wore through the soles.
It was bad enough that Xingbao liked rummaging through trash cans.
The Astral Express Crew had chalked it up to her being a little strange, or having some odd collecting habit.
Everyone had let it slide.
But now?
All for some lousy technique that might not even be real.
Was this girl seriously planning to eat a dead person's finger out of a trash can?
If word got out, the Astral Express's reputation would be finished.
March 7th bit her lower lip.
Her teeth left a row of white marks in the soft flesh.
Her cheeks burned red, as if she had a fever.
Her secondhand embarrassment was flaring up again.
The air in the car seemed to thicken until she could barely breathe.
She stole a glance at the cold-faced, white-haired little girl on the sofa.
She saw right through him.
He's definitely messing with her.
Who digs through trash cans for fingers to eat as part of their training?
March 7th wanted to pull Xingbao to her feet.
But halfway there, her hand snapped back as if she'd been shocked.
She didn't dare approach the Seventh Seat.
The sight of Pom-Pom being kneaded like a stuffed toy still haunted her.
He was a monster who could even burn out the Data Bank's mainframe.
March 7th could only stand there and fret.
Her lips moved for ages, but she couldn't force out a word.
She could only watch Xingbao stray further down the wrong path.
"I can't stay on this train anymore..."
She muttered it so quietly it was barely audible.
Xingbao sprang off the carpet.
She moved so briskly she didn't even bother brushing the dust from her knees.
She clenched both fists and knocked them together in front of her chest.
A muffled thud sounded.
"Got it!"
Xingbao gave Su Chen a firm nod.
Her eyes were as resolute as if she were about to save the entire universe.
"I'll go turn over every trash can in the train's storage room right now!"
She spun around and dashed toward the rear door of the car.
The hem of her heavy coat swept an arc through the air.
Her shoes pounded the wooden floor in a rapid thump-thump.
She was in such a rush she couldn't spare a single second.
Just as Xingbao's hand closed around the metal door handle,
the view beyond the observation car's holographic windows changed.
The brilliant trails of light stretched straight by the warp jump broke apart without warning.
The faint tug on her body stopped at the same moment.
Outside the window, the starlight became motionless points of light once more.
The train had completed its faster-than-light jump and entered normal cruising mode.
Then,
a huge white planet slowly filled the train's holographic view.
Its surface was covered in thick ice and endless blizzards.
The pale ice fields reflected the cold light of its star.
It hung silently in the depths of space.