"You dared to mess with me! This young lady's going to make you two call me Mommy today!"
March 7th puffed up into an angry blowfish form.
Why did the Astral Express have to have both Stelle and Caelus — this pair of legendary troublemakers — aboard at the same time?!
Seething with rage and spiking blood pressure, March 7th narrowed her eyes, locking a deeply meaningful stare with Stelle and Caelus, both hauled up by their collars, toes dragging two lines across the floor.
Her hands turned to blades, coming down with a resounding thwack on both gray-haired heads.
The wonderful empathy bond that felt so good in bed had, in this moment, doubled into shared pain instead.
"Ow... March Mommy, I was wong~"
Stelle latched onto March 7th's slender, snow-white legs, nuzzling her cheek against them, her voice so sickeningly sweet it made everyone's scalp crawl.
"Hey~ I've told you not to talk like a little kid!"
Was this guy's sense of dignity sinking lower by the day?
"Phew, that scared me half to death!"
March 7th stared at the ugly creature Caelus had just instantly vaporized in his hand, patting her rather impressive chest, still shaken.
"I actually thought my long-lost twin sister had shown up... turns out it's just a giant cockroach!"
"By biological classification, True Sting-Bugs belong to Coleoptera, while cockroaches belong to Blattodea. There's a significant taxonomic difference between the two orders."
Caelus corrected March 7th's biology knowledge, as sparse as the chest measurements of self-proclaimed flat-chest club members Haxxor Bunny and Silver Wolf.
"Ugh, who cares what order it belongs to!"
March 7th shot an irritated glare at Caelus, who'd dared to subtly imply she was dumb, then resolutely turned to the more reliable-looking teammates nearby:
"What in the world is going on?!"
"Simply put, the Express has been infested with bugs."
Teacher Dan Heng put it succinctly.
"We're clearing out these uninvited guests section by section."
Haxxor Bunny added, arms crossed, fingers flying across a virtual screen, apparently marking the swarm's distribution.
"The question is, why are they chasing the Express? Is there something on board that's drawing them in?"
Himeko said, her gaze drifting thoughtfully toward Stelle and Caelus.
Whenever an anomaly left everyone stumped, asking these two chaos-magnet troublemakers — Star-baby and Caelus-baby — always turned up something unexpected. It had practically become an unspoken rule among the Express crew.
"Huh? I dunno!"
Stelle looked baffled, whipping her head around to Caelus-cub, her eyes carrying more than a hint of blame-shifting.
The others didn't know, but she was well aware that 'she herself' walked the Path of Propagation.
"Don't pin this on me, don't look at me."
Caelus immediately waved his hands, looking both innocent and helpless.
This had nothing to do with the Path of Propagation.
Argenti, who had been standing elegantly silent all along, spoke up slowly, a note of apology in his voice:
"I believe the root cause may lie with us — with Velite, specifically. He may have inadvertently picked up the pheromones of the bug species... and those True Sting-Bugs tracked that scent here, infiltrating the Express."
"I had thought I'd driven them all off, but unfortunately, it seems I failed to eliminate them completely."
"Whatever the cause, our priority now is to stop more True Sting-Bugs from infiltrating the Express, and above all, to prevent any chance of them reproducing. Otherwise, the consequences..."
Dan Heng's brow furrowed, his tone grave.
"Ugh... I do not want to see a whole swarm of March 7ths crawling around the cabin! The three of us — me, Stelle, and Caelus — are already chaos enough as it is."
March 7th shuddered instantly.
"Ah Qi, it's good that you know yourself so well, but could you leave me out of it?"
Caelus slung an arm around the pink-haired girl's shoulders.
"Hmph~ someone really ought to learn from this young lady — not a shred of self-awareness."
March 7th shot Caelus a coquettish eye-roll.
"All right, this is no time for playing around. Besides clearing the bugs out of the cabin, we also need to find a way to get out of this giant Giant Sting's body."
Watching these youngsters bicker and flirt without a shred of urgency, even while trapped inside a bug's stomach, Himeko rubbed her temples helplessly.
The group quickly moved to the control car up front. Himeko's gaze landed on Welt, focused intently at the console, and Pom-Pom, flustered and scrambling:
"What's the situation?"
"It's bad, pom! The signal's being interfered with, and the energy readings are all over the place, pom!"
Pom-Pom, sweating buckets, worked the complex control panel with tiny quick hands, ears drooping in distress.
Welt pushed up the black-framed glasses on his nose, his voice low:
"Based on the environmental readings... we're most likely inside its stomach."
"Wh-what?! Its, its stomach!"
March 7th jolted as if struck by lightning, leaping up and clutching her chest with both hands:
"No way! I-I don't taste good at all! My meat's sour! Really! Will the teddy bear and bunny in my room dissolve in the stomach acid? They've been with me for so long, I have to go rescue them..."
"..."
"..."
The control room fell into dead silence.
"Why's everyone so quiet... say something, will you?"
Little March grew more flustered under the weight of the silence.
"To have met all of you here, I, Argenti, could die without regret."
Argenti placed a hand over his chest and bowed slightly, his tone sincere and earnest.
"...Okay, actually, quiet reflection sounds nice too."
March 7th forced a strained smile.
Then she resolutely turned to Caelus, latching onto his arm and deploying her skills of whining and Beautiful Girl's Privilege.
"Doraecaelus, think of something already! You've definitely got a plan, right~"
Caelus looked down at the girl hanging off his arm, feeling the soft warmth pressed against him, and reached up to pat her fluffy pink head:
"What am I going to do with you, Nobi Ah Qi."
"Wait, you actually have a plan?"
Haxxor Bunny startled at that.
Then why hadn't he said so earlier?
"No plan. Let's just toss out all those limited-edition snacks Ah Qi's been hoarding in her room — maybe the bugs will fill up on those and lose interest in tough old us."
Haxxor Bunny: "?"
She silently retracted her earlier hope — scratch that.
"Perhaps we could try briefly overloading the Express's engine, ramming the stomach walls, and blasting out of the giant Giant Sting's body at high speed."
As one of the 'parent' figures of the group, Welt pondered a way out, his gaze grave as he looked through the window at the squirming, dim red-glowing 'starscape' outside.
With the Express trapped inside the giant Giant Sting's stomach, many of his options were off the table for fear of collateral damage — unleashing the Star of Eden at such close range would surely engulf the Express too. Otherwise, he'd already be invoking it in the name of the world.
"Then why not just jump straight to warp?"
Little Duck raised the question.
"A warp jump requires a stable route, charging time, and plenty of other preparations."
Dan Heng shook his head, explaining, "The energy ripples the process generates would draw the swarm's attention."
"That method carries enormous risk."
Himeko pinched her smooth chin, her willowy brows knitting. "The engine could very likely combust on its own..."
"I don't think that's wise either."
Argenti stepped forward, his gaze sweeping over everyone before settling on Stelle and Caelus, his expression solemn:
"My dear friends, I have an idea. May I have a word with you both in private?"
"...When did you two become 'dear friends'?"
March 7th eyed the three of them suspiciously.
But to be fair, the three of them did seem to get along surprisingly well — in terms of sheer absurdity, anyway.
"The friendship between Knights of Purity and Beauty is simply this pure and sincere, no words needed."
Caelus and Stelle said smugly, arms slung over each other's shoulders, to March 7th.
Apologize to those four words 'Knight of Beauty' right now!
Little March's face twisted.
Oh, so the knights were absurd too, huh?
Never mind then.
"You're not about to say..."
A knowing smile curled at the corner of Caelus's mouth as he looked the Knight of Beauty straight in the eye:
"That you'll go it alone, leave the Express, and stab its stomach wall with that spear of yours, triggering violent spasms — making it vomit the Express back out?"
"..."
Argenti fell silent for a moment, a flicker of surprise at being seen through so completely crossing his resolute eyes, before deepening into even greater determination.
"As expected of my dear friend — that very thought had indeed been circling in my mind. Perhaps I've walked the Galaxy alone for too long to understand where this feeling truly comes from."
"But I know this much: as a knight, my duty is to protect the seeds that hold beauty within, to stand before them and ward off all harm. And right now, the Astral Express and you — you are that most precious seed..."
"Stop, stop, stop!"
Caelus cut him off crisply, raising a hand before Argenti's aria could begin in earnest:
"I get what you mean, your chivalry is commendable, but—"
"There's no need for that."
"But if not that, how else can the Express escape from the giant Giant Sting's maw?"
Argenti's brow furrowed, his voice low and worried.
"It's simple—"
Caelus lifted his chin, chest out, his expression calm.
Splash, splash, splash—
The stomach fluid churned, whipping up towering waves, and a figure emerged from the crimson starscape — unhurried, composed, utterly at ease.
Everyone in the cabin heard her sing out:
"In youth I cast away the springtime light, snow and fallen blossoms left cake's fragrance behind."
"Love and hate, passion and grudge, come with the tide; waking from sleep, temples mussed, I feel the chill."
"In the sour river of stomach acid, plum blossoms grow; the True Sting-Bugs' song wakes the unending night."
"This moment, weathered by time, I climb the dancing stage; let all spirits await — fate runs unbridled."
As the poem's echo faded, all fell silent — not even a bird's cry broke the quiet.
The expressions on everyone's faces were a spectacle unto themselves.
Himeko's face twisted strangely, lips parting as if to speak, then stopping.
March 7th's mouth fell open into an O.
Welt's hand froze mid-push on his glasses; Dan Heng went blank.
Little Duck was dumbfounded.
Haxxor Bunny wore a face that screamed 'what the hell.'
Hair black as ink cascaded like a waterfall of dark silk; a smile as warm as the spring breeze graced the peerless beauty's face as she glided toward Caelus with graceful, elegant steps, as though strolling through a misty corridor in the water towns of Jiangnan.
"—I'll just become a Genius of Life Sciences, won't I!"
With that, while everyone was still absorbed in the poem, Caelus grabbed Ruan-Caelus's own small head.
Instantly transmuted!
"Even burdened by a giant Giant Sting, even if I have to hold up the Astral Express with one hand, I, Caelus, remain invincible under heaven!"
An invisible aura seemed to rise around Caelus.
Deep within his body, he sank his own and Stelle's consciousness to the deepest reaches of the sea of awareness, awakening the spirit slumbering at the very bottom of his soul.
"Heaven-tier Combat Art: Spirit Possession — Ruan Mei, save me!"
Amid the astonished stares and twitching mouths of everyone on the Express, the dark-haired, goofy beauty's eyes glazed for an instant — then her entire bearing underwent a complete transformation.
Every trace of her usual goofiness vanished, replaced by a gentle grace steeped in scholarly wisdom and the mysteries of life — a demure immortal carrying the misty air of Jiangnan.
"Darling?"
A voice rang out, carrying a distinctive cool cadence; her newly opened eyes, clear as water, gazed tenderly at Caelus standing right before her.
"...M-Miss Ruan Mei?"
Himeko's expression became especially rich, impossible to put into words.
She'd heard from Stelle and Caelus about Ruan Mei lending them her body, but no one had mentioned they could actually summon Miss Ruan Mei herself!?
Hearing this, Ruan Mei glanced over and nodded to Himeko, greeting her with cool but polite courtesy.
Then she turned her attention back to Caelus.
"Weren't you working on an experiment related to Propagation recently? I happen to have come across a rare giant Giant Sting here — would you like to take it back as research material?"
Caelus smiled and pointed out the window.
"A giant Giant Sting, is it."
Ruan Mei followed his gesture and looked out the window.
Due to technical differences from Caelus's female-form consciousness or the 'stand-in AI,' whenever Stelle or Caelus held control of the body, Ruan Mei would slumber like a secondary personality.
"It truly is rare research material. Thank you, darling~"
Ruan Mei leaned forward and pressed a fleeting, dragonfly-light kiss to the corner of Caelus's mouth.
Then, before everyone's eyes, she took a single step forward, and amid a flurry of falling plum blossoms, Ruan Mei's figure had already appeared outside the Express.
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