Xingbao Wants to Learn Hollow Technique: Purple? She Can Start by Rummaging Through Trash Cans

Thud!

A dull impact rang through the carriage.

Both of Xingbao's knees slammed into the red velvet carpet.

She held nothing back. Even the solid-wood coffee table beside her jolted half an inch.

A few drops of black tea sloshed out of a glass and landed on 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 March 7th's pleated skirt.

The fabric soaked through at once and clung to her legs.

Water dripped from the hem, leaving a dark ring on the carpet.

March 7th forgot all about wiping her skirt.

Mouth open, she stared blankly at the gray-haired girl on the carpet.

Her brain couldn't keep up.

Using her knees like feet, Xingbao shuffled two steps forward across the carpet.

She lunged with both hands and clamped onto the edge of the leather sofa.

More precisely, she tried to grab the two little legs swinging above it.

"Boss!"

Xingbao tipped her face up, her voice cracking as she shouted.

"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, smeared together with sweat.

The sudden shouting made Su Chen frown.

Behind his sunglasses, his azure eyes showed undisguised distaste.

He drew his legs back.

Limitless activated on its own.

Xingbao's hands stopped a tenth of a millimeter from Su Chen's little leather shoes.

It was as though she had grabbed an invisible steel pipe.

Her fingers clawed uselessly at empty air, making a muffled sound of leather rubbing.

Xingbao didn't care.

Her cheeks squashed against the invisible barrier, flattening her face.

She kept yelling.

"If you teach me, I'll be your number-one underling!"

"Point me at anyone, and I'll take them down! No questions asked!"

A few flecks of spit struck the spatial barrier and burst into spray.

She looked exactly like a street punk pledging loyalty to a gang boss.

Su Chen felt a little sick.

Why did this Stellaron girl act like such a thug?

He planted his right foot, clad in a little black leather shoe, against Xingbao's forehead.

A gentle push from his ankle sent her tipping backward.

She landed squarely on her backside with a muffled thump.

"Back off." Su Chen patted his trouser leg. "You're filthy."

His voice carried the merciless bluntness only a child could manage.

Xingbao rolled halfway across the carpet and scrambled up.

Far from getting angry, she scooted another half meter closer.

Her persistence was like that of a stray dog that had spotted a meaty bone.

"I don't mind getting dirty! Boss, take me as your apprentice!"

She pressed her palms together, raised them over her head, and bowed again and again.

Su Chen sighed.

If he didn't give her an answer, this menace would pester him all day.

He crunched the last bits of mint candy in his mouth and swallowed.

His throat bobbed.

"You want to learn Hollow Technique: Purple?"

Su Chen crossed one leg over the other and folded his hands on his knee.

He looked down at Xingbao, who was kneeling on the floor.

"You can't learn the Divine Court's techniques with that body of yours."

Xingbao froze, her hands still raised.

The fervor on her face stiffened.

"Then how do I learn it? Do I have to pay tuition?"

"I... I still have two hundred credits on my card. You can have them all."

She felt at her empty coat pockets, sounding less than confident.

Su Chen nearly laughed.

Two hundred credits? That wasn't even enough for a lollipop.

He set his face and put on an air of profound mystery.

His little face was taut, his sunglasses reflecting the carriage's cool light.

"You don't need money."

"You need a Cursed Object."

The phrase Su Chen had made up rolled off his tongue without a hitch.

"It's a special-grade item imbued with a higher-dimensional curse."

"To master space, your body must first adapt to that violent power."

Xingbao swallowed with an audible gulp.

"A Cursed Object? What does it look like?"

Su Chen raised a pale little finger and traced a long, thin outline in the air.

"A shriveled finger."

"It's called Sukuna's Finger."

March 7th frowned as she listened.

A shriveled finger? That sounded way too creepy.

The carriage's air-conditioning blew across her soaked skirt, which clung to her legs, and 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 carriage.

"Things steeped in curses are usually discarded in the most inconspicuous corners of the universe."

"Like trash cans all across the universe."

Xingbao's ears perked up.

"Go through every trash can in this stretch of the stars."

Su Chen waved a hand as if shooing away a fly.

"Find that finger, eat it, then come back to me."

Xingbao sat on the carpet.

She never questioned how absurd any of that sounded.

Her one-track mind was already racing.

She pictured herself opening a rusty metal dumpster.

Beneath a heap of stinking wastepaper and banana peels, she dug out a wooden box glowing purple.

She slid open the lid. Inside lay a withered finger wrapped in a yellow talisman.

She picked up the finger and swallowed it whole.

A dry, acrid taste rose in her throat.

Then a terrifying purple aura erupted from her body.

She stood before the Doomsday Beast and, just like the white-haired little girl, extended a single finger.

"Hollow Technique: Purple."

A massive beam blasted out, leaving not a scrap of the monster behind.

Xingbao's breathing grew heavier.

Her chest heaved.

Two streams of hot air shot from her nostrils, stirring the strands of hair beside her mouth.

She looked down at her hands.

All ten fingers clenched hard at empty air.

It was as though red and blue light already shone at her fingertips.

An eerie flush crept across her cheeks.

Her lips slowly spread into a wider and wider grin, nearly reaching her ears.

"Heh... hehehe..."

Xingbao let out two stifled, foolish giggles.

A silvery thread of drool stretched from the corner of her mouth.

She looked like someone who hadn't eaten in three days and had just seen a lavish feast.

She was lost in a fantasy she couldn't pull herself out of.

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 was so embarrassing.

Embarrassing enough to reach outer space.

March 7th felt her toes curl tightly inside her shoes.

She was nearly digging through the soles.

Xingbao's usual habit of rummaging through trash cans was one thing.

The Astral Express Crew had simply assumed she was a little strange or had some peculiar collecting hobby.

Everyone had turned a blind eye.

But now look at her.

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 sank into the soft flesh, leaving a row of white marks.

Her cheeks burned red, as if she had a fever.

Her secondhand embarrassment was acting up again.

The air in the carriage seemed to turn thick and sticky, making it hard to breathe.

She stole a glance at the cold-faced, white-haired little girl on the sofa.

She knew exactly what was going on.

He was definitely messing with her.

Who in their right mind rummaged through trash cans for fingers to eat as part of their training?

March 7th wanted to go over and pull Xingbao up.

She reached out halfway, then snatched her hand back as though she'd been shocked.

She didn't dare approach the Seventh Seat.

The sight of Pom-Pom being kneaded like a stuffed toy still flashed before her eyes.

That was a monster who could even burn out the Data Bank's main computer.

March 7th could only stand there and worry.

Her lips moved for ages, but she couldn't force out a sound.

She could only watch helplessly as Xingbao strayed further down the wrong path.

"I can't stay on this train..."

She muttered so softly that her voice was quieter than a mosquito.

Xingbao sprang up from the carpet.

She moved briskly, not even bothering to brush the dust from her knees.

She clenched both fists and knocked them together hard in front of her chest.

A dull thud rang out.

"Got it!"

Xingbao nodded emphatically at Su Chen.

Her eyes held the resolve of someone about to save the entire universe.

"I'll go through every trash can in the train's storage room right now!"

She spun around and rushed toward the rear door of the carriage.

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 hurry that she didn't want to waste a second.

Just as Xingbao's hand closed around the metal door handle,

the view beyond the observation car's holographic windows changed.

The brilliant light trails, stretched straight by the warp jump, broke apart without warning.

The faint tug on their bodies vanished at the same time.

Outside, the starlight became stationary points of light once more.

The train had completed its faster-than-light jump and entered normal cruise 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.