Chapter 190: Stelle: March, You're Not Dead
Stelle shook Rekka's shoulder, her voice pitched high with absolute panic. "What do we do, Rekka? You literally scared March to death!"
Rekka remained completely unfazed, standing perfectly still in the dim corridor. "She isn't dead yet. Try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."
On the floor, March 7th's fingers twitched. She had been fully prepared to spring up and deck Stelle squarely in the face, but the moment Rekka's suggestion hit her ears, her entire demeanor shifted. She squeezed her eyes shut, folded her hands neatly over her abdomen, and arranged her features into a serene, expectant expression.
"Oh, right, right, right! Mouth-to-mouth!" Stelle rolled up her sleeves, practically vibrating with eager energy. She leaned over her fallen comrade. "Wait, I remember reading about this. Mouth-to-mouth involves using the tongue, right?"
Rekka let out a long, exhausted sigh. "Why would you use your tongue for CPR? You open the airway, pinch the nose, and blow into the mouth..."
Stelle ignored the instructions, puckering her lips and leaning in close. Before she could make contact, a hand shot up from the floor and slapped squarely across Stelle's face.
"Ah! March, you're not dead!" Stelle cheered, right before receiving two more solid, retaliatory punches to the cheek.
Rekka stood off to the side, maintaining his bizarre, eldritch posture. Twisted, antler-like branches sprouted from his head, casting jagged, unnatural shadows against the dim walls of the Express. Worse were the pale, extra arms extending from his ribs, writhing with a chilling independence.
March 7th scrambled to her feet, huffing with indignant anger. "What on earth are you doing?! It is the middle of the night, and neither of you are sleeping!"
She glared at Rekka, then blinked. After staring at his monstrous form for a few seconds, the initial shock wore off. It actually wasn't that terrifying once you got used to it.
"I really didn't mean to scare you," Rekka said, his tone entirely casual. "My apologies, March."
She crossed her arms, looking away. "Well... I guess it is not that big of a deal then."
Stelle rubbed her bruised cheek, her brow suddenly furrowing in suspicion. "Wait a second. March, why did you get up in the middle of the night?"
March stiffened. "This? Uh! I got up to go to the bathroom."
Stelle squinted. "That makes no sense. Doesn't your room have an en-suite bathroom?"
Stelle's gaze dropped to the half-empty cup clutched in March's hand. A sweet, fruity fragrance drifted through the air. A flash of inspiration hit the Trailblazer, and her expression morphed into a highly meaningful, teasing smirk.
"Oh, I know exactly what is going on!"
March flushed, clutching the cup tighter. "You! What do you know! I was just thirsty! So what? Is it a crime to be thirsty in the middle of the night?"
"Totally normal," Stelle said, her smile widening as she met March's panicked eyes. "I know you snuck out to drink that special vitamin juice stash so your skin looks better in photos tomorrow... right?"
March deflated, her shoulders slumping. "Uh... fine. Just do not tell anyone."
Having reached a silent agreement of mutual blackmail, the two girls turned their attention back to Rekka. His extra, pale appendages continued to writhe slowly in the air. The large, unblinking eyeballs embedded in the backs of those hands swiveled, examining Stelle for a moment before snapping over to study March 7th with unsettling curiosity.
"You look quite..." March 7th paused, struggling to find the right diplomatic wording. "...unique like this."
Rekka tilted his head, the antlers shifting. "Unique?"
"Yeah. Those arms of yours are very creatively grown. Honestly, I think if Dan Heng walked out and saw them right now, he might actually let out a sharp sonic boom."
Rekka glanced down at the pale limbs protruding from his ribs and spine. The eyes on the hands tracked his movements, entirely subservient to his will. He flexed his mind, and a few of the extra hands made empty grasping motions in the air, cracking their knuckles in unison.
"I think it is perfectly fine. It might look a bit beyond human imagination, but having extra limbs is incredibly convenient."
To prove his point, he commanded one of the longest arms to stretch out directly in front of Stelle's face. The eye embedded in the palm rolled wildly before locking onto her, sizing her up and down.
Stelle leaned back, deadpan. "I feel like looking at this form of yours is actively draining my Sanity."
March suddenly narrowed her eyes, turning the interrogation around. "Wait a minute, Stelle. What are you doing up so late?"
Stelle froze. "Uh, well. This and that..." She hesitated, shifting her weight awkwardly.
Her mind raced back to the mysterious Memokeeper from the Forgotten Hall. The spectral entity had explicitly warned her not to reveal anything about their mirror dimension to the rest of the Astral Express crew, claiming that disastrous consequences would follow. The Memokeeper had repeatedly warned her, and eventually resorted to outright begging Stelle to keep her mouth shut.
"Nothing," Stelle lied smoothly. "I just could not sleep, so I got up to walk around the parlor car and look at the stars."
Inwardly, she justified the secret. After all, the Memokeeper handed out precious Stellar Jades every once in a while. Anyone who gave out premium currency could not possibly be a bad guy.
The scene shifted to the sterile, brightly lit laboratories of the Herta Space Station. Rekka sat on a cold examination table, undergoing a highly invasive routine physical checkup conducted by Herta and Ruan Mei. Ruan Mei stood close, her expression entirely clinical as she gently lifted one of the writhing, eye-covered arms extending from Rekka's torso.
"Ruan Mei, come look at these readings," Herta called out from a nearby holographic terminal, her puppet body whirring softly.
Ruan Mei hummed, her gaze fixed on the unnatural flesh. "A truly interesting combination of Paths. The Path Resonance systems within the Simulated Universe could easily use his biological data as a foundational blueprint."
After the two Genius Society members subjected Rekka to a battery of intrusive scans, they reached a consensus. Deep within his chaotic physiology, the chaotic authority of Elation had somehow formed a stable, overriding suppression over the rampant, mutating power of Abundance. Biologically speaking, he was a walking contradiction, but no immediate problems should arise.
"Will there be any long-term side effects?" Rekka asked. He felt entirely relaxed, swinging his legs off the edge of the table and casually making his extra arms juggle a few spare data pads.
"Side effects?" Herta scoffed, crossing her arms. "The only side effect is that your current appearance has somehow reverted you from an indescribable, flesh-warping Abundance monster back into something vaguely resembling a human shape. You have the Path of Beauty to thank for that little aesthetic miracle. Without it mixing into your core, anyone with a slightly weak mental state would instantly collapse into a raving lunatic just by looking at you. Your very existence defies logic."
His current form was nothing more than a superficial disguise. Rekka's true core had mutated into something fundamentally terrifying. A single, unfiltered glimpse of his true nature would completely deplete a normal person's Sanity, leaving them a hollow shell.
Ruan Mei tapped her chin, her eyes gleaming with scientific curiosity. "I am far more curious about your consciousness. Harboring three conflicting Paths simultaneously must exert immense pressure on your psyche. Has your fundamental way of thinking been affected? For example, do you find yourself desperately wanting to seek amusement, while simultaneously feeling the urge to save the world, all while possessing the absolute delusion that you are peerlessly beautiful?"
Rekka paused, genuinely considering the question. "My mind is actually fine," he replied. "I just might have a slightly harder time saying no to people who ask for help. Though, I would still refuse anything excessively annoying."
Ruan Mei nodded slowly. "Reasonable."
"Is this a good thing or a bad thing?" Rekka asked.
Ruan Mei shook her head, her elegant features remaining impassive. "Uncertain. Although your bodily systems are currently in a state of perfect balance, that balance is resting on a razor's edge. It is extremely unstable. We cannot be certain what kind of catastrophic mutation would occur if the Imaginary Energy inside your core increased or decreased by even a fraction of a percent."
Herta stepped forward, her mechanical joints clicking. "Are you interested in becoming a permanent researcher here at my space station? I will grant you the absolute highest level of security clearance. You can browse any of my private Curio collections and use any experimental equipment as you please. What do you say?"
Herta was deeply, obsessively interested in Rekka's unique biology. Of course, she harbored a similar fascination for Stelle and her Stellaron, but an anomaly like Rekka could keep a Genius Society member enthusiastically occupied for centuries.
"Not interested," Rekka refused flatly, without a single second of hesitation.
Herta huffed, crossing her arms in annoyance. "Fine. You do not have to come. I will probably just lose interest in you one day anyway."
Ruan Mei stepped back, logging the final metrics into her terminal. "Basic data collection is complete. The remaining deep-tissue scans will take some time to properly prepare. You may return to the Express for now. I will notify you when we are ready for the next phase. Remember, do not run around causing unnecessary chaos during this time, and absolutely do not use the conflicting powers in your body recklessly. If you accidentally shatter the delicate balance keeping you humanoid, you are entirely on your own."
Rekka hopped off the table, his extra arms retracting slightly. "Then I will be going."
Ruan Mei stopped him with a subtle gesture. "Wait. There is something else."
Rekka raised an eyebrow. "Of course there is."
Later, back in the familiar, warm confines of the Astral Express parlor car, Rekka sat on one of the plush sofas, staring blankly at the wall. He looked entirely dazed.
March 7th walked by, noticing his unusually sluggish demeanor. She stopped, tilting her head. "Rekka, what is wrong?" she asked, genuine concern lacing her voice. "Did the checkup at the space station find any major problems?"
Rekka blinked, snapping out of his trance. "...Ah. No, it is not that. My body is fine. It is just... something else." He shook his head, running a normal hand through his hair. "It is just... before I left, Ruan Mei asked me a massive favor. She asked if I could transplant some of my highly regenerative Abundance cells into someone who was nearly destroyed by a Lord Ravager. And I agreed."
March 7th's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, what? Someone destroyed by a Lord Ravager?"
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