"Navigator...?"
The woman raised her head with some uncertainty, facing Himeko's enthusiasm.
Their eyes met for less than a second before she immediately looked away.
"But I just attacked you, and you're going to turn a blind eye?"
Doubt laced her tone. Clearly, she couldn't understand Himeko's thinking.
"That's how the path of the Trailblaze works. Yesterday's enemies can become today's friends. Still, you should probably apologize to Taco for attacking him."
Himeko pulled her up from the ground.
"This is Taco, Samba Country's contestant. Beside him is Himechi Cat, um..."
For a moment, Himeko couldn't decide what species to classify Himechi Cat as.
She wasn't a pureblood Imagenae, but neither was she a monster native to the amusement park.
Calling her a mongrel would be rather offensive, and it sounded awful, too.
"I'm actually the navigator of The Fluffy Voyage of the Azure Sky."
"If you insist on putting it that way, you're not wrong."
"Miss Himeko, can I beat her up? The medicine you gave me seems to last only a day once it's opened. Let's not waste it."
Taco glared at the enemy who had just stabbed him and was already showing signs of joining their team.
"Washana, Bear Country's contestant." Washana ignored Taco and spoke directly to Himeko.
"Ms. Himeko, I admit your thinking is certainly... compassionate. But I'm pessimistic. When interests are at stake, I don't believe what you've said will hold true."
Washana's thinking was entirely within Himeko's expectations.
As the saying went, the first step was always the hardest. The beginning of the Trailblaze always faced all manner of obstacles, but that didn't diminish Himeko's desire to keep moving forward.
"Perhaps this will all be for nothing, but I believe that as long as there's even a little light, someone will follow in its footsteps and become the next ray of light."
"You're really strange. Still, thank you for saving me just now."
"Am I really not allowed to beat her up?" The mood had shifted. Afraid that he would never get another chance to beat Washana up once she became a teammate, Taco spoke up in a panic.
Washana snorted, paying no heed to Taco's words.
"You're no match for me." Then she changed tack. "I'm sorry for what I did just now. If you need help later, I'll lend a hand."
"Holy shit! That's exactly what I was afraid of! I'll never get my revenge now! No-"
Himeko shook her head slightly with a faint smile, marveling at how interesting the people of Blue Star were.
The woman hadn't explicitly said it, but anyone could see that she had accepted Himeko's offer.
In Huaxia's livestream, waves of comments swept across the screen.
[She's just letting her off?]
[She just repaid your kindness by stabbing your lackey, and a few casual words from you make it all fine?]
[Why is our contestant the Leshan Giant Buddha?]
[Honestly, I feel like Himeko would've brought that chainsaw down if Washana had refused to join. Girl never put the saw down.]
[Courtesy before force. She's already playing along, and another friend means another option.]
[What friend? You call her a friend, but you might have to split your attention to help them later. If you just cut her down, though, that money would actually be in your pocket! Countries that killed other contestants got hefty rewards.]
[Fuck you. I already said courtesy before force. I tried being nice, but you just had to argue, so now I'll have to bash your mom to death!]
[So you're doing courtesy before force, too?]
[I think it's pretty good. The amusement park never said all the contestants had to fight to the death. As long as they meet the exploration requirement, what's wrong with everyone getting a happy ending?]
[Boring. I want rivers of blood.]
In Bear Country's livestream:
[Washana just agreed like that?]
[Can't she tell Himeko is manipulating her? All that light and peace stuff is an evil Huaxia plot!]
[But what if Himeko means it? In the countries whose contestants died, even the lightest penalty was having their lifespans halved. How many people suddenly died of old age while walking down the street?]
[Who would believe that? If I had Himeko's abilities, I'd definitely be figuring out how to rule the world. This has to be part of her plan for world domination.]
[Washana is only being threatened right now. Once she gets a chance, neither of those two nor that fox will get out alive.]
[Isn't that thing a cat?]
[How does it look anything like a cat? I study biology, and I can give you the most certain, authoritative answer: that's a fox.]
Unlike Huaxia and Bear Country, Samba Country's comments were remarkably unanimous.
[Go, Taco! Beat her up!]
[Hit her hard! How dare she start trouble? Show her those muscles aren't just for show!]
[Smash her! Show her who's Huaxia's number one lackey!]
[What's happened to our comments? Why are they so fired up?]
[I'm so touched. This is what Himeko was thinking, and we thought she was a man-eating devil.]
[I threw out the statue of Jesus at home and hung up Himeko's picture instead.]
[Samba Country will be Huaxia's closest partner!]
Inside the amusement park's infirmary:
Himeko and the other two searched for anything useful.
"Bandages, alcohol, painkillers... Why do we need painkillers? This stuff seems pointless. One emergency pill and any injury is healed."
Taco stood before the medicine cabinet, taking stock of its contents one by one.
Himeko, meanwhile, had immediately searched for a kitchen, to no avail.
"So I really can't find restaurant supplies in an infirmary. What a shame."
"What's a shame about that? Let's be realistic about our cooking skills."
Himechi Cat, for her part, felt that not finding cookware wasn't entirely a bad thing for their future passengers.
At least that way, Himeko wouldn't put laundry detergent in the soup instead of salt.
"How could something like that possibly happen twice? I know what I'm doing."
Himeko was quite confident in her methods.
"You're the one who keeps claiming to be another me, but we're still pretty different. Compared with the original, you're rather out of character, too."
"That's how fan interpretations work. Besides, aren't you the one who turned me into this? My original appearance was Himeko."
"You're still OOC. I wouldn't talk like that."
The infirmary's medical supplies were so plentiful that medicine was the only thing there was to take.
Things the other contestants could use to upgrade their trains, on the other hand, were exceedingly scarce.
"Good thing my go-kart is solar-powered. A little sunlight fills the battery right up, so I don't have to hunt around for fuel."
Taco was glad his luck had been good. Both the train and the guardian deity he had summoned worked very well.
There was just one thing he didn't understand: if the go-kart could keep upgrading, what would it become afterward?
He really couldn't imagine what a go-kart would look like after evolving into a full-length train.
"The sky was clear all the way here, but there's no guarantee we won't get rainy weather later. I'd suggest finding a couple of batteries first, just in case."
Washana abruptly spoke up, giving Taco a reminder.
"You have a point. Thanks for the reminder, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to beat you up."
"Psycho."
Neither Taco nor Washana carried a backpack, and they had limited room on their persons, so they simply pocketed a few bottles rather than collecting too much.
Himeko, by contrast, eyed each cabinet and stuffed practically everything usable into her suitcase.
Washana watched with her own eyes as Himeko forcibly stuffed a cabinet bigger than a person into the suitcase.
"How did you do that???"
"It's not particularly difficult. You just need to use the power of the Trailblaze."
Before you continue