Yama stood before the train door. She leaned against it with her eyes closed, enjoying this brief period of dormancy. Most of the time, she used "suicide" to force herself to sleep. Only occasionally would she think of the past to quiet her restless heart for a moment and fall into a peaceful slumber.
However, even this moment of tranquility was destined to be broken.
Wait—that guy should no longer be considered a "person."
Human, Herrscher, monster, god, ghost... all seemed applicable to him, yet none could fully encapsulate him. He was a "collective entity," a "thing" controlled by a conviction that had spanned tens of thousands of years.
At least, that was how he viewed himself.
Yama opened her eyes and saw "him." The appearance of "him," with whom she usually communicated only via voice, could only be glimpsed in full within the Sea of Quanta.
Upon seeing his appearance, Yama fell silent.
"What's wrong? Isn't this the person you want to see most?" "He" rubbed his chin, letting out an exaggerated, face-distorting expression. "Or did you want to see... hmm... but I don't like pink hair."
"Stop the joking," Yama replied coldly.
"Oh, right. You've been waiting for this day for two years... of course, time isn't that important in the Sea of Quanta. After all, I can't even count how many 'two years' I've waited for. Ahahaha..." "He" laughed, holding the back of his head. "I thought with your personality, you would have pulled him over earlier. I didn't expect you to actually wait until the Ninth Honkai."
"..."
After all, Yama and Lin, even if they were the same person from different worlds, had subtle differences in personality.
"But speaking of which, it still ended up influencing the subsequent Honkai of that world. Even using such a secretive method to transmit information didn't work," "He" said with a troubled expression.
Yama merely watched the laughing man with cold eyes. She knew perfectly well that he was acting. In his time—which was so vast it had practically stopped—he had certainly tried to transmit information and intervene in other worlds, just as she had done.
How could he "not have expected" it...
"Those pieces of scum had enough time and resources to violate ancestral traditions. This way, their useless, absurd, and greedy lives can end early, allowing them to finally serve humanity honestly." "His" smile, whenever he wished, could be flawless—like a work of art.
No flaws, and no emotion.
"Why did you do this? If you hadn't sent the information about Active Project Soldier to Mobius in advance, Fire Moth wouldn't have descended into internal chaos right as the Ninth Honkai erupted. The MANTIS project wouldn't have entered its second stage early, and that person called Delta wouldn't have died before his eyes."
"Why, you ask..." "His" smile remained unmoved. If anything, Yama didn't know if anything could move him. Everything proceeded exactly as he envisioned; every question had an answer in his heart. "Because... it was necessary."
"Aren't you also looking forward to it? To seeing his naive ideas collapse, deteriorate, become abstract and stubborn as the people around him die one by one... until he becomes..."
"His" finger pointed at Yama, and then at himself. Everything was left unsaid.
"Who will be next? And who will be the last?"
"When the person who wanted to be the first to leave becomes the last to stay... I must see that expression with my own eyes."
---
"Ngh..."
"Are you awake?"
Mei asked the female voice. She had heard the soft groan the voice just made.
"...How did you know I was asleep?"
"Just... intuition, I suppose."
It was hard for Mei to describe, but there was an inexplicable connection between her and this person. She felt they were the same kind of person.
"...I was just thinking about the past." The female voice didn't mock Mei or anyone else today. "Humans are truly prone to reminiscing, even when they know that aside from mourning, they can't do anything else."
Hearing her self-muttering, Mei spoke softly: "Can't do anything else, huh..."
"Don't project yourself onto me. You know nothing of my past, so there's no need to empathize with me," the female voice emphasized. "A person's emotions and stories are only most authentic when known after their death. Therefore, a story you learn from the protagonist themselves may be nothing more than self-deception."
"Are you telling me not to ask about you?"
"I'm glad you understand."
"Because there are many people in the Elysian Realm just like you."
Unwilling to show their past to others—be it glory or wounds.
Only Lin seemed completely indifferent to who tore open his scars or how they did it.
"That idiot only has one good quality: he's willing to share his past without reservation. He does it so others can use him as a warning and not repeat his mistakes. At the same time, it's his way of passing on the stories of the people he cared about to others."
"You actually approve of Lin?"
It was rare. Usually, the female voice would mock Lin from head to toe with the most venomous vocabulary rather than acknowledge him.
"I'm just speaking the truth."
Perhaps the memories of the past had improved her mood. She spoke more today and was no longer as biting.
"He..."
The female voice suddenly stopped. Mei waited for her to continue, but she suddenly realized the atmosphere was wrong. She pricked up her ears; the hair on her body stood on end as a sense of crisis throbbed in her heart. She immediately stood up, looking around warily.
"Hey? Are you still there?"
"Ziz—be—ziz—careful—"
The intermittent voice cut off at a certain point. The scene before Mei's eyes turned upside down. This wasn't the space changed after her wish to the monkey's paw; this was... someone controlling it?
The Herrscher's power returned to her body, but it didn't make her feel at ease at all. She thought of those "shadows" that had attacked her and Lin.
*Drip.*
"Rain?"
A drop of water landed on the bridge of Mei's nose. She looked up in confusion, seeing a sky thick with dark clouds and an impending storm.
*Tear.*
A rift opened before her.
Under Mei's disbelieving gaze, a "person" slowly stepped out from the rift. His inhuman rainbow pupils stared at Mei as he held a pure knight's lance.
A head of silver-white long hair drifted in the low-pressure wind.
This was a person whose beauty was so perfect it seemed unreal.
Wait—he wasn't a person!
Before Mei could react, the lance was already before her eyes.