"Stelle, are you still suffering from the side effects of last time? How can your recognition be so far off?"
Xin Yu looked at the girl before him with a hint of pity. Could that bout of maddened laughter from Aha have left her with some lingering aftereffects? How could her perception have deviated so drastically?
"This is bad. I thought this was just going to be a relaxing vacation where we'd complete a few side quests. But if you've shown up, it must mean there's a major, galaxy-threatening mission... Oh no, who is it this time? We've already had an Emanator of Destruction once, so according to standard plot progression, it shouldn't be that. Then which other faction could possibly threaten The Family and still be an enemy?"
"It's a bit hard to guess."
"Stop assuming my appearance is the prelude to some disaster. And speaking of which, why on earth do you think I'm an Aeon?"
Xin Yu tried to steer the conversation back on track, but he could only watch as Stelle continued her frantic muttering, speculating on who this round's final boss would be. One moment it was the Void, the next it was Finality, and then she even dragged the long-dead Order out from its grave.
With a helpless sigh, Xin Yu let the beautiful-yet-manic Stelle continue her ramblings and turned to the dazed girl beside her with a smile. "Hello, I'm Xin Yu, also one of the Nameless. This person next to me is my lover, Raiden Mei."
"Hello."
"H-hello, I'm Firefly, an artist of the Iris Family."
Firefly's voice was somewhat timid as she replied. For some reason, Xin Yu felt that the way she looked at him was a little strange.
"Ah, forget it, I'm too lazy to guess! If we really run into a boss we can't handle, I'll just ask you for help. With you as our safety net, our adventure can never fail!" Stelle declared, planting her hands on her hips with a smug look.
Xin Yu's expression grew even more helpless. He truly envied her mental state, always so... upbeat and optimistic.
Raiden Mei looked at the girl before them. In a way, she thought, this freewheeling personality was a bit like the Kiana she had first met.
Stelle noticed the slight daze in the eyes of the woman standing next to Xin Yu. After a moment, she muttered, "That face looks really familiar."
"You've probably seen it before," Xin Yu said casually. "The universe is a vast place, so it's only natural for people with similar appearances to exist. We met a Seele, Bronya, and Cocolia on Belobog who looked alike, and when I first fell into the Void, I even met a Miss Acheron who looked similar to Raiden Mei. In a cosmos this big, with so many planets and countless intelligent life forms as numerous as the stars in the sky, the appearance of similar faces is perfectly normal."
"You're right, I have seen her. Not too long ago, in fact. The other person looked just like an older version of her, and she called herself Acheron."
"Miss Acheron? I didn't expect such a coincidence, to meet an old acquaintance here!" Xin Yu was momentarily stunned. It was truly a twist of fate to be able to encounter her again in this vast universe.
Raiden Mei looked at Xin Yu, her curiosity piqued by his obvious reaction to the name.
"You seem to know her?"
"Yes. After we parted ways in Nagazora, she was the very first person I met when I awoke from my coma. You could say she was my first guide in this universe. It was she who taught me many things and helped me understand how to apply the new abilities I had acquired."
"I thought it would be difficult for me to ever see her again," Xin Yu mused. "But to think we would meet again here. The universe is so vast; a coincidence like this is truly a wondrous twist of fate."
If this were the Raiden Mei from the past, she might have thought she was becoming someone's replacement. But the current Raiden Mei had outgrown the insecurities born from the drastic changes in her environment. She wouldn't think of herself as a substitute for anyone; she was merely curious about the life of this person who shared her likeness.
"Alright, since you're here on a date with your girlfriend in Penacony, I won't be a third wheel. I'll go hang out with Firefly!"
Stelle took the hand of Firefly, who had been silent all this time, and cheerfully ran off, looking like a child who had just arrived at an amusement park.
"Your friend is quite the character. She's a bit like Kiana back in the day."
"No, while Kiana could be a bit silly at times, I don't think she ever reached Stelle's level of unpredictability."
"Kiana is only occasionally unreliable, whereas Stelle is frequently unreliable... Come on, Mei, let's go buy a bottle of SoulGlad over there. It's said to be a famous drink in this part of the universe, though it looks an awful lot like cola to me."
Xin Yu took Raiden Mei's hand and smiled as they walked toward a stall selling SoulGlad. As for what Stelle had said earlier, he would just treat it as a joke for now. If something truly irreversible happened, well, he could always just reload his save.
Inside the Astral Express group chat...
Galactic Baseballer: Family! Guess who I just saw in Penacony?!
Zhao Camera: Who, who?
Galactic Baseballer: Xin Yu and his girlfriend, Raiden Mei.
Welt: ...
Welt: Location.
Galactic Baseballer: [Coordinate Data has been shared.]
Himeko: It seems Xin Yu is doing quite well for himself. I'm a little curious what his girlfriend looks like.
Archive Administrator: At least we now have someone who can play a key role in critical moments.
Galactic Baseballer: Oh, right! And I just met a beautiful girl! She's super cute, and she even treated me to cake!
Zhao Camera: Whoa, don't tell me you're getting tricked by a bad woman again. Last time, you looked completely mesmerized by Kafka.
Galactic Baseballer: I forbid you to speak ill of her. She's my mom!
Welt looked at the chat log, at Stelle's mental state which was as consistent as ever, looking exactly like a "subway grandpa with a phone" meme.
He put away his phone and began heading toward the coordinates she had sent.
For some reason, at this very moment, Welt really wanted to yell one particular phrase.
"The Honkai is still chasing me!"
"Hmm..."
"What's wrong, brother? You've been frowning ever since just now, as if something has happened. Is there a problem with the Charmony Festival?"
"No, there are no problems."
But for some reason, I feel as if something bad has happened in a place I don't know about.
The boy with chicken wings frowned. He'd had a strange sense of unease ever since a moment ago, as if a foreign object had suddenly been inserted into a smoothly running machine.
He hoped it wouldn't cause any major changes to the plan.
A single pitch-black bird landed on a rooftop, looking down upon every person coming and going within the dreamscape.