March, Himeko, and Jingliu watched the cryptic exchange between the two, feeling more than a little lost.
What really got to them was the intense, knowing way Yuki and Kafka were looking at each other, it stirred something distinctly uneasy and sour in their chests.
"Ugh, what are you two even talking about?!"
"She's a wanted criminal! Yuki, if we turn her in to the IPC right now, we'd get a literal mountain of credits!" March immediately suggested they arrest Kafka on the spot and collect the massive bounty.
But Yuki just waved a hand dismissively.
"I'm not interested in that bounty. She came here to ask me for something. Let's hear her out."
March pouted in acute frustration.
"Well, you might not be interested, but I definitely am!" she muttered grumpily under her breath, then turned her gradient gaze back to Kafka.
The more she looked at that effortlessly elegant, mature face and the older woman's undeniable charm, the more annoyed she got.
"You big pervert you're totally charmed by this femme fatale! Ugh!" March mentally glared at Kafka like she was some kind of manipulative seductress.
Himeko stayed quiet, but deep down, she silently agreed with March, mentally tagging the Stellaron Hunter as a highly "dangerous woman."
Kafka didn't seem embarrassed or offended by the hostility. Instead, she gave March a soft, teasing smile.
"Oh my… looks like March is jealous." She shot a deeply meaningful, playful glance between March and Himeko.
"Huh?!"
"Jealous?! Why would I be jealous?!"
"Of him?! Don't be ridiculous! A beautiful, independent Trailblazer like me doesn't get jealous!" March's eyes flickered with intense embarrassment as she fired off a panicked flurry of absolute denials.
But the more loudly she protested, the more it seemed to perfectly prove Kafka's point.
Seeing that Yuki had absolutely no intention of going after Kafka, Jingliu slowly lowered her icy sword and stood silently to the side, waiting to hear what came next.
Himeko still had deep, logical reservations about a notorious Stellaron Hunter casually standing in their room, but with Yuki vouching for the situation, she decided to hear Kafka out as well.
March plopped down heavily in a corner chair, puffing her cheeks out in profound frustration. She opened the multiversal chat group and immediately started venting about Yuki.
[Group Chat]
[March 7th]: Yuki is such a pervert! Now he's completely bewitched by some glamorous wanted criminal!
[Seitenshi]: Huh?! What happened, March?
[Artemis]: Spill the details! (Curious)
March's dramatic message quickly drew responses, and she rapidly typed out the whole story, even sneaking a stealthy photo of Kafka to share in the group.
[Saeko]: Hmm… she does have a certain undeniable presence. If I were a man, I'd probably be interested too.
[Seitenshi]: No wonder March feels a bit threatened.
[March 7th]: Huh… Threatened? Me? I'm fine?
[Nishino Akane]: Guys are usually intensely into that specific type, the mature, mysterious, curvy type with a great figure. Like, ten out of ten guys in my class are always talking about older women like that.
[Marika]: Oh! Guess I fit that type perfectly then! (Laughs)
[Marika]: (Sends a selfie)
[March 7th]: Uh… okay, but why the photo?! And why are you wearing so little?! Your chest and—ugh—it's almost completely showing! Hey!
[March 7th]: You did that on purpose to show off, didn't you?!
[Marika]: Hehe, you've got it all wrong, March. This is just how I comfortably dress at home! (Gotcha)
[Raiden Ei]: (Sends a selfie)
[Saeko]: (Sends a selfie wearing nothing but an apron)
[Seitenshi]: (Sends a selfie wearing nothing but a sheer priestess robe)
[March 7th]: Hey, hey! Why is everyone suddenly joining in?! And the photos are getting way too revealing! (Annoyed)
March was completely at a loss. Why had everyone suddenly started sending spicy selfies? What was this, some kind of inter-dimensional beauty contest to prove who was the most "mature"?!
[Dongfang Huaizhu]: This looks fun. I suppose I will join in too.
[Dongfang Huaizhu]: (Sends an elegant, yet subtly alluring selfie)
As more and more members started posting their photos, March became even more exasperated and kept spamming flustered complaints.
But before she knew it, the conversation naturally shifted to the girls enthusiastically discussing and complimenting each other's features. Swept up in the fun, March ultimately ended up joining in, proudly sending a highly filtered, incredibly cute selfie of her own.
While March was happily distracted chatting away in the group, back in reality, Kafka had begun telling her story to the others.
"Do you know what people fear the most?"
Kafka's pink gaze drifted toward the simple, worn wooden table nearby, her voice quiet and reflective. She didn't wait for an answer.
"It's not knowing what fear even is."
"I come from a place exactly like that..."
As Kafka spoke calmly about her tragic origins and her past, Himeko and Jingliu found themselves seeing the infamous, universally feared Stellaron Hunter in a completely new light.
Kafka was born on a planet called Pteruges-V.
Long ago, that world had been heavily corrupted by the reality-warping presence of a Stellaron. Because of the Cancer of All Worlds, its people developed a strange, collective psychological "affliction" they entirely lost the biological and emotional ability to feel fear.
Even in the direct face of gruesome death, planetary disaster, or something that should have been viscerally terrifying, they felt absolutely nothing. Just a cold, empty numbness, not fear.
And that wasn't all. Along with losing the concept of fear, every single person also lost their natural restraint over their darkest desires.
That was the truly horrifying part of the affliction. Human desires can be good or exceptionally bad. Without the natural, psychological restraint that fear provides, there was no longer any functional distinction between the two.
The people of Pteruges-V would do absolutely anything to satisfy their basest, most violent impulses, no matter the bloody cost to themselves or others.
That was exactly how Pteruges-V devolved into a literal planet of "demons."
Kafka used to work as a "Devil Hunter" there, formally tasked by what remained of the government with hunting down and capturing these unrestrained demons.
But that endless cycle of numb, fearless violence never made her feel like her existence had any actual meaning. She was just an empty shell hunting other empty shells.
Then, one day, she met a man named Elio, who promised her an impossible change. He promised to show her true fear. So Kafka joined the Stellaron Hunters, working loyally under Destiny's Slave to achieve that singular, desperate goal.
After she finished quietly telling her story, Himeko and Jingliu listened in silence, deeply moved by the tragic reality of her existence.
"When you don't know what fear is, neither your own life nor anyone else's holds any real weight. You can't truly value it."
"And so, you can never fully grasp the meaning or the precious worth of life itself," Himeko lowered her gaze, looking at Kafka with a profound hint of sympathy in her golden eyes.
She found it incredibly hard to imagine just how terrible it must be to live a long life completely without the ability to feel fear. If she were in Kafka's shoes, born onto a demon planet with an empty heart, she probably would have done the exact same thing—accepted the mysterious leader's offer and worked for him in the desperate hope of changing her fate.
"Heh. I'm relieved that you understand my perspective, Himeko."
"Otherwise, I was honestly worried you might actually try to turn me in for that IPC bounty." Kafka gave a gentle, elegant smile and teased the Navigator lightly.
"Maybe I still will."
"But how can I be absolutely sure you're not lying right now to gain our sympathy?" Sympathy aside, Himeko remained a pragmatic, cautious Trailblazer around the Hunter.
"Everything I just said was the absolute truth, you know."
"After all, I couldn't lie right now even if I desperately wanted to—not in front of him." Kafka glanced pointedly over at Yuki, clearly implying that even if she tried her best acting, his terrifying perception would see right through the deception.
Yuki gave a small, casual nod, officially confirming that Kafka had told the absolute truth about Pteruges-V.
Only then did Himeko's tense shoulders relax, looking satisfied with the explanation.