"Tch, why is it that I walked the Path of Propagation and still can't whip up hypnotic wing-dust like that?"
Caelus rubbed his chin, feeling like he'd just missed out on a fortune.
This ability was basically a technique tailor-made for Propagation!
Compatibility off the charts!
It was basically a built-in hypnosis app — instant, anywhere, anytime Master of Hearts and Minds.
"Could it be that my real-world self just hasn't walked deep enough down this Path yet?"
Caelus sank into thought, mulling over whether he needed to seriously develop his Propagation skill tree.
Hypnosis... Propagation... Elation...
Could he copy that move?
Inject the power of the Paths of Propagation and Elation into the azure fluid?
Make anyone who drank it drop straight into a paradise illusion, hypnotized to the core, entirely his to command?
Was there potential here?
"I think there's totally potential!"
Stelle had drifted over at some point, her trademark impish grin spreading across her face as she nodded vigorously in agreement.
Caelus shot his silly little sister a flat look — he definitely hadn't said any of that out loud, it had just been internal monologue.
You can even read my thoughts now, Hachi-Stelle? Seriously, you...
Elsewhere, Haxxor Bunny was carefully cradling a delicate embroidered pouch.
It was the very container sealing away the Giant Sting.
Treating it like a mortal enemy, she used only her fingertips to peel open the barest sliver of a gap, holding her breath as she pressed one eye close to peer through the almost imperceptible crack.
The space inside seemed to stretch far beyond the pouch's exterior — she could clearly see the hideous giant insect anxiously wheeling and beating its wings, surrounded by dense swarms of smaller bugs, like a miniature hive of hell.
"Tch, this kind of trick is absurd..."
Haxxor Bunny couldn't help but gasp under her breath, both awed and a little unnerved.
A space this vast could probably fit several planets inside!
As for her former — no wait, her actual body was still confined to that small patch of Arc City.
But that this world could produce someone who could casually conjure a space this enormous — Haxxor Bunny once again felt the sheer weight of what it meant to be a Genius!
"Heh heh, impressive, right~"
Stelle stood with hands on hips, chest puffed out, wearing a smug, triumphant grin.
"...Hey, hey, you didn't make this. Why are you so proud of it?"
March 7th watched from the side, her eye twitching, unable to resist a razor-sharp jab, her expression going flat as a dead fish.
"How is it not mine?"
Stelle-Mei bounced once with righteous confidence, thumping her plush, snow-pale chest firmly:
"It's my body! Round it up — whatever's in this pouch is basically my accomplishment too!"
"..."
March 7th opened her mouth, then realized that although the logic was absurd, she couldn't immediately find the words to refute it.
"Relax. Ruan Mei trusted us with this thing herself, so the safety's rock solid."
Caelus hung lazily off Stelle's back, arms looped around her swan-like neck, chin propped on top of her head as he added his two cents.
His tone was as casual as if he were holding an ordinary coin purse instead of a bag full of world-ending insect swarms.
Within the star-studded ranks of the Genius Society, there was always someone eager to rank the geniuses' creations against each other — and Ruan Mei's pocket was, even among that crowd of oddballs, a legendary creation that ranked near the top.
She had wanted to carry the universe around with her, but the endlessly expanding dimensions inside the pocket eventually forced her to seal it away.
The little embroidered pouch in front of them, of course, wasn't that ever-expanding original — it was just something Ruan Mei had whipped up on the spot from whatever was at hand, a makeshift imitation not even worthy of being called a defective copy.
Even so.
It still had plenty of room to spare for several planets.
"Although this beautiful and powerful lady has sealed away the giant Giant Sting..."
Argenti's gaze swept over Stelle-Mei — lively, playful, utterly unlike her usual self — curiosity flickering in his eyes, though he kept his elegant manners and refrained from prying further.
"...I can still sense discordant noise lingering aboard the Astral Express."
"The greatest threat from the swarm was never individual combat strength, but the very concept of 'Propagation' itself. We escaped from the belly of the giant bug, but inside the Express... there are likely far more of them lurking already."
Dan Heng nodded, his voice low and grave:
"That's plenty of time for them to have laid countless eggs in hidden corners by now."
"Eh, why does it always have to be a fight to the death?"
Stelle shoved her kid brother off her, pressing a hand to her chest in a pose of tragic, sorrowful compassion:
"Can't we all just live in peace?"
Amid everyone's expressions — some horrified, some stunned, some silently screaming 'not this again?!' — Stelle produced, as if by magic, three wriggling Giant Sting larvae from behind her back.
She beamed:
"Look! This is Little Bi, this is Little Li, and this is Ellen! They're a loving little family! Come pet them!"
"Stop it!!!"
"Absolutely forbidden!"
"My precious living ancestors!"
"Stay away from Pom-Pom, pom—!"
"Don't you dare come near me!"
Dan Heng made the call instantly, his voice ironclad: "Caelus, March — subdue Stelle, now!"
"Yes sir!" ×2
Two figures shot forward like loosed arrows — Caelus with a textbook arm lock, March 7th with a precisely placed leg sweep.
Before Stelle could react, the two of them had pinned her flat onto the sofa, completely immobilized.
The three loving larvae were frozen in an instant into three glittering, crystal-clear ice sculptures by Six-Phased Ice bursting from March 7th's fingertips.
"Whew..."
Himeko wiped away a nonexistent bead of cold sweat from her temple, trying to lighten the nearly frozen atmosphere with a joke:
"Though a handful of stray Giant Stings and larvae probably don't pose much of a threat... I think none of us really want to experience the wonders of cohabitating with a swarm of insects, do we?"
Unfortunately, judging by March 7th and Little 'White' Seele's ashen faces, that joke landed nowhere near funny.
Thinking of all the bugs possibly writhing in the shadows, their jaws hideous, Little 'White' Seele couldn't help but shiver all over.
"Super, incredibly, urgently emergency!"
Pom-Pom went into full panic mode, its fluffy ears flapping like propeller blades, bouncing in place both terrified and alarmed:
With a hard stomp, it issued its highest-level directive:
"Full cleanup! We need an immediate, thorough sweep of the entire Express, pom, aaaaah!"
"Every single egg has to be rooted out and exterminated! Pom-Pom absolutely, positively does not want to see the whole car crawling with bugs, pom!"
The problem wasn't limited to the potential egg threat lurking inside the cabins, though.
The outside of the Express had suffered too — after being inexplicably swallowed into the giant Giant Sting's stomach, the hull was coated in a highly corrosive, sticky, disgusting layer of digestive fluid, and had come close to being dissolved entirely.
Cleaning the hull was just as urgent!
"Before we make the jump to Penacony, we're rerouting to the nearest Washtopia, pom!"
Pom-Pom rushed to the control panel without hesitation, its little paws darting across the console to adjust the stellar course.
Scattered throughout the vast universe were quite a number of car-wash stars, built specifically to service interstellar vehicles.
They dotted the travel routes like great service stations, spaced not too far apart, so one could be reached soon.
Pom-Pom was determined to give its beloved Express a full head-to-toe spa treatment, inside and out.
"The Express's annual deep clean?"
March 7th's eyes lit up instantly, fists clenched, declaring with boundless energy:
"I love a nice tidy room more than anything! Let's use this chance to scrub every corner spotless!"
With that, she gave Caelus a playful wink and flashed an eager, ingratiating grin.
"Cleanup..."
Still pinned firmly under Caelus-cub on the sofa, Stelle suddenly seemed to remember something and sprang upright in one fluid motion, like a carp flipping in the water.
"Ow~ what was that for~"
Caught off guard, Caelus was nearly launched off the sofa, letting out a protesting 'big-brother' whine.
Stelle had no time to spare for her kid brother. She strode off on those attention-grabbing long, pale legs, marching briskly to an inconspicuous corner of the Parlor Car, eyes darting sharply left and right as though searching for lost treasure.
"Hm? Where's my trash?"
"I left it right here — a whole giant pile of it! Who took it!?"
Stelle's gaze swept over everyone present like a searchlight, singling out her prime suspects.
"Not me. I was playing games."
Caelus said from the sofa, not even bothering to look up.
"Not me. I was busy distracting Caelus from playing games."
March 7th shook her head, cowed by Stelle's intimidating presence.
Haxxor Bunny's eye twitched violently:
"No, wait — hold on! Why would you even keep a pile of garbage in the Parlor Car in the first place?"
Stelle pouted, wounded, as if she'd lost her most beloved toy:
"Hmph... those cans were rare, oddly-shaped ones I painstakingly dug out of over a dozen trash bins, all for building an aluminum-can tower!"
"Um..."
White Seele timidly raised her hand, her voice soft and small:
"Sister Stelle, Seele thinks she saw... that cute little critter eat your treasure."
Her slender finger pointed toward a peculiar, wobbling creature swaying in the corner — none other than a trash-can-shaped Cat Cake.
"Oh ho! You dared eat my garbage! Spit it out right now!"
Stelle lunged forward in a single bound, standing over the innocent-looking trash-can Cat Cake with hands on hips, like a Demon King descending.
"I remember."
Little Duck tilted his head, delivering the finishing blow in a placid tone:
"Isn't that trash-can-shaped Cat Cake the pet you brought back yourself, from Herta Space Station?"
"Huh? Is that so?"
Stelle blinked those big, innocent-looking eyes, her expression switching at breathtaking speed.
She instantly dropped the ferocious glare, cleared her throat, and adopted a magnanimous pose:
"Ahem! Well, since it's one of our own... capital punishment is waived!"
Her tone flipped again, eyes turning sinister once more:
"But the lesser punishment stands! You ate my treasured garbage, so you'll pay the price! Hehehe~"
Stelle reached out with her clawed hand, pinching the trembling trash-can Cat Cake, and announced its fate:
"Since you love eating garbage so much, put that skill to use and help us with chores! All the trash you can eat!"
"Hey, why are you even arguing with a trash-cake?"
March 7th rubbed her temple, looking utterly exasperated.
"Hmph, how do you know it doesn't want to volunteer for chore duty itself?"
Stelle shot back righteously, then bent down with mock solemnity, addressing the trash-can Cat Cake in her grip in a gentle voice:
"Little guy, you're volunteering — eagerly, enthusiastically, of your own free will — to help us with chores, right?"
She paused, smiling kindly:
"If yes, say: 'meow meow.'"
"If no, then recite: 'let us then fish and gather firewood upon this river isle, befriend the fish and shrimp, make companions of the deer, and set sail together in a single small skiff, raising our cups to toast one another.'"
March 7th & White Seele: "..."
Haxxor Bunny & Little Duck: "Nice!"
The trash-can Cat Cake: "...meow?"
[trembling_in_terror.jpg]
Five minutes later.
Haxxor Bunny stood with arms crossed, staring in utter confusion at March 7th, Caelus, and Stelle, all lined up neatly on the sofa with their legs crossed in perfect unison, missing only drinks in hand to complete the picture:
"Didn't you say this was an urgent cleanup? Why aren't you three doing anything?"
She'd already been ready to head back to her room and tidy up herself.
"Bronie."
Stelle's voice had shed its usual bounciness, now carrying a natural, cool-toned nobility. Her golden eyes glowed with a lofty, regal air, reflecting the naive girl before her.
The gray-haired girl's presence in that moment perfectly matched the image of a cold, aloof lady.
"Let me teach you what a proper cleanup really looks like."
This sudden shift in aura genuinely stunned Haxxor Bunny for a moment.
She unconsciously reined in her skeptical expression, an instinctive glimmer of curiosity and eagerness to learn from a senior's experience creeping into her eyes.
After all, in terms of seniority within the Express crew, she was undeniably the youngest.
Watching Haxxor Bunny adopt a humble, teachable posture, Stelle nodded with satisfaction, like a master about to pass down a secret, unspoken art.
And then —
She spun around abruptly, instantly switching back to that crafty little grin, clinging to Caelus's arm beside her like a koala, swaying and cooing in a saccharine-sweet voice:
"Daddy~~~"
At the same moment, March 7th switched into full drama mode, snapping into a formal Xianzhou salute — left hand over right fist — her voice ringing out:
"Foster Father—!"
"Mm~"
Caelus wore a deeply pleased expression as he pulled out the Tara Mask and put it on.
"Come forth, my Legion!"
Under Haxxor Bunny's bewildered, unsettled stare, countless miniature raccoon-Stelle-shaped black shadows surged up from every shadowy corner of the cabin, bubbling forth like boiling ink.
The universe's number one household chore army — the Shadow Soldier Legion — reporting for duty!
Of course, everyone else hadn't just been sitting idle either.
While the Shadow Soldier Legion swept through the cabin like a whirlwind, carrying out their own gloriously bizarre style of cleaning, the rest of the group was hard at work on the actual task.
With Caelus serving as a living detector, and Argenti — that remarkably efficient Knight of Beauty when it came to exterminating pests — leading the charge, the group made short work of hunting down and physically dispatching every Giant Sting and unhatched egg hidden in every nook and cranny of the Express.
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