Time to Clear Things Up~

"Well... it's time to clear things up for our navigator."

Sera's voice grew frivolous again.

"Himeko."

"Ah, yes?" Himeko froze for a moment, then immediately answered.

"Were you afraid of something before?"

"...Yes." Himeko nodded.

"When I was little, I once got lost in a forest. But... a shooting star appeared.

I followed the shooting star and came to a coast.

There, I found the crashed Astral Express.

In the past..."

Himeko hesitated, but continued.

"Finality told me many stories about the Astral Express.

I listened carefully to every one of them. So I recognized the train at first sight.

After that, I spent my spare time learning about trains and repairing the damaged Express.

But once I'd fixed it, I hesitated. By then, the pain of the Ancestral Weathering Curse had begun to torment me, and I was afraid I wouldn't live to see the stars.

I could never ignite the train's engine, and before I met you, I was short on time..."

"So you couldn't make up your mind?"

Sera propped up his head with one hand and tilted it as he looked at Himeko.

"Yes."

"Then what about now?"

"Now I have time, but I still can't ignite the train's engine..."

Himeko sounded a little dejected.

"Himeko, let me ask you: why do you blaze trails?"

"Because... I want to chase the stars, because I want to reach them too!"

"Then, when you need to, run and catch the star that belongs to you!

Only the conviction to 'Trailblaze' can ignite the engine."

"Catch a star..."

Himeko lowered her head and looked at her hands, seeming to understand something. Suzi gently took her hand.

"I understand. Thank you, Sera."

Himeko's smile carried an infectious vitality, like a little sun that warmed the heart.

"I'll be your companion in the future too, Miss Himeko~ No need to thank me."

Sera picked up some food with his chopsticks and began to eat.

"Can I come aboard?" Cyrene blinked, looking pitiful.

"Of course." Himeko didn't hesitate for a moment.

She, too, would have a completely different adventure and different companions.

She had also promised the March 7th from the other timeline that she would find her in this one.

In a memory...

"Himeko~" Little March wheedled at the young Himeko from in front of the screen.

"You have to fish me out! I can't imagine how boring I'd be without the train!"

"All right, I promise." The young Himeko looked to the navigator Himeko as if seeking help.

"All right, Little March." The navigator Himeko stepped in to rescue her.

The memory ended there.

"Rest while you still can these next few days."

Sera glanced at everyone present.

"Voracity's revival can no longer be suppressed."

"Mm..."

Feiying, who had been eating all this time, stopped.

"I can feel it... the Eternal Spirit Tree can barely hold it down anymore."

"In other words, we need to prepare to fight Voracity and Finality at the same time."

Sera didn't intend to act in advance. He didn't like charging ahead alone as a Savior with everyone watching, and Himeko happened to need a push, so... he would be there to make sure nothing went wrong.

As for the people of the Dual-Phase Paradise, Sera still couldn't help twitching the corners of his mouth when he thought of them.

If he had landed in the Dual-Phase Paradise, then, the second he recovered his power and memories...

Honkai would probably have descended, wouldn't it?

After all... what was left of Elation now?

A hellish joke... heh.

Just how badly had Aha been hurt for Elation to degenerate into what it was now?

The more Sera thought about it, the more he felt the Tavern needed to be set straight.

Elation that laughed purely for the sake of laughter had strayed completely from Aha's way as the god of children.

Sera felt that Sampo, Sparkle, Giovanni, and those other old-guard Fools had left too deep an impression on him. That was why seeing what the Tavern was really like made him feel... disgusted.

Speaking of Sparkle... he wondered if she was in the Dual-Phase Paradise.

Sera decided to visit the Tavern in the Dove River District that afternoon. He might run into Sparkle or Sampo.

"Feifei Fox." Sera spoke without thinking.

Oh no! Feifei... ahem, Feiying has said it so many times that even I've picked it up from her.

"Oh, White Kitty, you're finally willing to call me that!" Feiying's eyes lit up.

Forget it... let's leave it at that.

Seeing how happy Feiying was, Sera just couldn't bring himself to take it back.

"Feifei Fox, I'm going to check out the Tavern in a bit. Want to come?"

"The Tavern..."

Feiying's eyes were full of disdain.

"What are you going there for, White Kitty? Apart from the old Fools, they're all a bunch of annoying people."

"I'm going to look for an old Fool. As I see it, he's one of the Fools with the best reputations.

After all, he's a Fool who likes children."

"Hmm... people like that hardly ever go to the Tavern anymore. They only come to pick things up."

"I'll give it a try. It's fine if I don't find him."

"All right, then. I'll risk my life to keep you company today!"

Sera looked at Cyrene, who was holding his hand, and slowly shook his head.

"You can't come, Cyrene."

Cyrene pouted unhappily, but didn't say anything else.

"And you two as well. The Tavern isn't a good place. You'd better not go."

"We know. We weren't planning to go anyway."

"Mm."

Sera was taking Feiying because she already knew what the new generation of Masked Fools was like. He was also worried they would make him explode with anger, so he brought her along to hold him back if he got angry.

"I'll go too."

Yaoguang waved the peacock mask in her hand.

"All right."

Sera nodded. Yaoguang could help Feiying hold him back, since the Path she walked was The Hunt, which represented restraint.

Honestly, in Sera's eyes, none of the new generation of Masked Fools were more elated than Yaoguang, a general of The Hunt.

Hardly any wicked people had come from The Hunt's side. If all the Paths in the galaxy could be subject to restraint, how much better would the galaxy become?

But restraint was by no means the same as bondage. Otherwise, it would be "Order."

All living beings would be under Taiyi's control. Such a galaxy might be beautiful, but its civilizations would be lifeless, without a shred of creativity.

Taiyi herself didn't like such civilizations either, so she simply committed suicide.

That left only one god to manage the galaxy: HooH of Equilibrium. There had been pitifully few Aeons doing so to begin with.

Qlipoth of Preservation? Just a construction guy.

Sera felt no respect. The Interastral Peace Corporation claimed everything it did was for the Amber Lord, but who knew how many of its people had Voracity in their hearts?

"This is nice. A familiar taste." Sera finished his meal.

Amphoreus had hardly any of this food, and Sera had never adjusted to the diet there.