"I don't want to be a boring Ingenium beast anymore — I want to love and be loved! I want lots and lots of love, do you understand?!"
Three parts heavy, five parts hollow, two parts pitiful, negative one part indignant.
"Want us to go catch you a pigeon?"
"Ugh, what kind of bird do you take me for?! Organic life forms are so beneath me!"
"Ahem, ahem — so here's the thing. A batch of my picture books got confiscated. The kind a little Ingenium beast really shouldn't be looking at! Heh heh heh — could you two give me a hand? Once it's done, I'll make it worth your while. Seventy-thirty split on the books!"
The Ingenium beast clasped its wings together in a polite bow.
Stelle straightened up, radiating righteous authority: "The depraved winds of lewdness are a raging flood and a savage beast — they poison the youth of the Xianzhou! I stand irreconcilably opposed to vice and corruption!"
Caelus frowned and tilted his head: "Why only seventy percent?"
"You two — I could see you doing something terrible the moment I showed up!"
Pink hair full of energy swayed and bounced with its owner's sprint, filling the whole world with a lively, youthful air. March 7th came charging furiously toward Stelle and Caelus.
Small pink fists went bam-bam against two gray-haired heads.
"What do you mean, 'something terrible'? We're helping others in need. Or rather, helping a bird in need."
Caelus tilted his head along with the impact.
"March, what are you doing here?"
Stelle covered her head and crouched down in defense like a pampered young lady.
"What do you mean what am I doing here — do you two have any idea what kind of mess you've made?"
March 7th planted both hands on her hips, puffing up into full angry-pufferfish mode, then landed two more pink-fisted strikes: "You broke the law, did you know that?"
"Huh? What law?"
Caelus stepped forward to shield Stelle.
"Driving without a license. Speeding at five times the limit. Changing lanes without prior filing. Running seven red lights in a row..."
March 7th counted off the two gray-haired offenders' crimes on her fair, slender fingers — ten fingers weren't nearly enough — and finally pointed her index finger between the brows of both, the very picture of an adorably irate little girlfriend:
"Racing a Starskiff, fine, whatever — but why am I the one who ends up suffering for it?!"
March 7th looked like she wanted to cry but had no tears left.
She had spotted the two gray-haired troublemakers scrambling onto a Starskiff in a tearing hurry, and on the spot she had packed up the freshly developed photos she'd just picked up and chased after them.
First: because without anyone to supervise them, she was afraid they'd cause some massive catastrophe. Second: because she was afraid they'd ditch her and go off to have fun without her.
"Follow that Starskiff ahead!"
— March 7th had always been waiting for a chance to say a line like that.
As the saying goes, when a reclining dragon leaves its lair, a fledgling phoenix is sure to follow — and the driver uncle had also been waiting his whole life for someone to say exactly that to him. He slammed the throttle to the floor. Still couldn't catch the tail lights of the whirlwind-tornado-typhoon ahead, and took a psychological blow on top of it all.
The result was that they were pulled over by a Sky-Faring Commission patrol running official Starskiffs. The driver uncle was hauled off for a lecture and had points deducted.
The Sky-Faring Commission traced the Starskiff's serial number back to the buyer's registration, saw it was a vessel-friend from overseas, and immediately filed a report.
Then March 7th, who happened to be right there at the scene, was caught red-handed by Yukong, who had come to handle the matter.
Yukong, upon discovering her daughter had been sneaking off on joyrides in a Starskiff, was in a somewhat sour mood — yet she still patiently sat down to talk things through with March 7th. The Sky-Faring Commission hadn't managed to locate Stelle and Caelus.
Yukong's attitude was at least reasonably civil — but the friendlier she was, the more mortifying March 7th found it. It was exactly like being the older sister called in to school because her younger siblings had caused trouble while the parents were away.
March 7th spent half a day at the Sky-Faring Commission, came out puffing her cheeks, and immediately set off to find them.
After half an hour of wandering she finally tracked them down — only to find these two were in the middle of an illegal transaction with an Ingenium beast.
BAM — BAM — BAM!
She knocked the two of them into covering their heads and fleeing like startled rats, getting every last bit of frustration out before she finally stopped. Little March blinked her big, clever eyes and peered at the two grinning faces before her.
"So — what exactly were you two in such a mad rush to come here and do?"
These two were looking suspiciously cheerful.
Stelle and Caelus exchanged a glance, gave each other a nod, and answered in perfect unison: "Oh, nothing. We just came to find a treasure chest."
They could hardly tell Little March the truth about their bonding session with Mama Kafka, now could they?
Kafka had left.
Left happy, and satisfied.
Held gently in Kafka's arms, Caelus — who carried a Persona Mask — had always been acutely sensitive to the emotions of those around him. He could sense that Kafka had sunk into a strange and peculiar state. Not the post-coital clarity of a sage's mode — the hollow in her soul was alive with a complex tidal surge of emotions, ebbing and flowing, her heart adrift.
A deep, gentle warmth spread along the cerebral cortex, offering his consciousness a quiet tenderness. Facing a Kafka like that, even with her lying utterly bare in his arms, it was difficult for him to stir up any desire.
Well — to be fair, getting thoroughly drained and wrung out by Star-Kafka had something to do with it too.
In any case, the three of them chatted in an inexplicably warm and cozy atmosphere. No talk of Stellaron Hunters missions, no mention of fate or the future — just simple, trivial everyday things.
Once the spider-web domain Star-Kafka had woven finally dissolved, all three walked out of the room together, under Blade's expression that was three parts "what in the hell", three parts "I can't unsee this", three parts dark-faced, and one part "you two haven't lost your minds, have you".
The web domain had sealed off all sound — Blade couldn't hear a thing from inside.
Sure, he had a Mara-struck body — but he wasn't an idiot. Did they really think he couldn't figure out what had happened in there?
How to put it?
He was a little annoyed at the fused entity for ordering him to stand watch — and after they came out, Blade could dimly sense that something about Kafka had changed, something different from usual.
Kafka's condition had improved considerably — and yet it also seemed as though she was gradually losing something.
Using the Potara earring fusion to patch the hollow in her soul could indeed give Kafka a sense of wholeness — but it was treating the symptom, not the cause. Once the fusion dissolved, the hollow remained. Everything that had been filled in by Stelle's feelings, intent, and will would gradually drain away, and eventually Kafka would return to her fearless, deficient state.
On that, Kafka's position was: before she reached the future where she was changed, even a temporary fix wasn't bad.
And so Kafka hoped — provided it didn't interfere with Elio's script — that once the filled parts drained away again, she could ask the two of them to fill her back up.
After all, it had already happened once. Stelle and Caelus were each other's destined fate with her — not quite what she had imagined, but Kafka accepted that fate.
Stelle and Caelus naturally had no reason to refuse.
"Really?"
The volume of her voice rose with skepticism. March 7th crossed her arms and fixed the two of them with a stare: "You think I'm completely gullible, don't you? You honestly think I'd believe that?"
"No no no."
"Our March is the smartest of all."
"Absolutely!"
"Hmph — whose 'our' is that, exactly?!"
March 7th's cheeks flushed faintly, her expression a delicate mix of pleased and pouty, as she turned her head away from Caelus.
"Hey hey hey — you two reeking of sourness, are we going or not?"
A peculiar mechanical voice cut in and interrupted the moment, as the Ingenium beast hopped to the edge of a flower bed.
"Don't rush — we're going, we're definitely going."
Caelus crouched down to bring himself eye-level with the Ingenium beast. Ahem — not that it had anything to do with picture books or anything — mainly it was that this bird had triggered a daily quest. Eight Crystals.
He was only eight Crystals away from having enough for 1600!
"What's the deal with this Ingenium beast?"
March 7th furrowed her brow in puzzlement.
These intelligent parcel-delivery machines were everywhere on the Xianzhou — but she had never seen one this strange and... vivacious before.
"Probably a bug in its AI."
Caelus understood this completely.
"What do you mean 'bug' — that is my soul trembling with the ecstasy of freedom!"
The Ingenium beast pressed its wings to its chest, like a refined poet declaiming on a stage.
Stelle felt as though a noble, burning soul was about to burst right out of its frame. Her expression turned gravely serious: "Poet, contain yourself!"
"?"
The Ingenium beast tilted its head in confusion.
"Stop wasting time. Lead the way."
Caelus clapped his hands.
"Sir, this way!"
The Ingenium beast immediately lit up with excitement, snapping its wings open and soaring into the air with chest puffed and head held high.
Stelle, Caelus, and March 7th followed behind it, traveling from the Jade Cloud Grotto-Heaven all the way to Cloudford, where they spent half an hour turning through the maze-like docks before finally locating a shipping container.
"Right here — I can smell the breath of freedom!"
"Leave it to me!"
Bat in hand, Stelle fixed the container with a ferocious glare, her mental state resplendently unhinged:
"You villain! How dare you imprison within yourself a precious object that stirs the very soul — I shall smash you to dust and splinters!"
"Hey, wait — what are you doing?! Hold on!"
March 7th's protest came too late. Wielding the Curio Bat's profound wisdom, Stelle successfully persuaded the container to see reason and cough up its confiscated contents.
Yes. A flawless rescue operation.
The Ingenium beast, which had been keeping watch up in the air, dove headfirst into the picture books the moment it caught sight of them, letting out a voice of deep, rapturous satisfaction:
"Ohhhh oh oh ohhhhhhhh!"
"These books are incredible! Oh, the light, the color... hey, friends — I swear by the Reignbow Arbiter, this has more sheen and luster than Uncle Sam's vintage leather boots."
The Ingenium beast flipped through the picture books while holding pages up to share with the group.
March 7th squeaked in scandalized surprise, her fair face flushing pink, hands flying up to cover her eyes.
Stelle and Caelus's eyes lit up — golden first, then very slowly deepening to black.
"Look at this page — this gear! I want so badly to lock this gear onto my chain, so that every time I beat my wings I can feel it spinning and grinding inside me!"
"And this bearing — so powerful, so forceful! Powerful and forceful, I tell you!"
Stelle, who had been enthusiastically leaning in, froze mid-movement, petrifying on the spot like a statue. After a long moment, she began to sing softly: "The freedom I gave you — I went too far with it~"
Human preferences are your own business — but I really do recommend seeing a doctor.
You're not human? You're an Ingenium beast?
Never mind then.
Caelus smiled, clapped his hands softly together, and found this utterly magnificent.
Somebody had actually drawn a doujin about an Ingenium beast. An actual doujin.
A true pioneer of the fetish frontier.
Caelus bowed his head in genuine respect.
Not hearing any excited cries from Stelle or Caelus, March 7th slowly parted her fingers to peek through — and then she saw the gears, the bearings, and the Ingenium beast depicted on the page.
She made the face of a man on the subway looking at his phone.
She didn't understand it at all — but she was profoundly shaken.
[Hey, System — let me introduce you to someone.]
Caelus had no idea what kind of bug could scramble an Ingenium beast's programming and awaken such an outlandish set of preferences.
But without a doubt, this thing could sit at the same table as the System.
[Wow, these books are so spicy!]
The System's voice was excited with a touch of bashfulness.
"?"
Caelus slowly typed out a question mark.
System, are you being serious right now?
All he could say was: true to form, absolute legend.
Caelus looked down at the picture books in his hands, then shifted his gaze to the Light Curtain in his mind, and after a moment of silence said:
"Want some? Clearance price — ten books per Crystal."
[Yes yes yes!]
The System dipped into its personal savings of five Crystals and bought fifty picture books — the seventy-percent share — from Caelus.
Watching the books disappear into some unknown dimension, Caelus patted the screen that had already started flipping through them: "Wait until I'm not around to read those."
[Ahem, ahem — just a quick preview.]
Caelus watched the System interface return to normal, mentally tapped ten-pull, and pulled.
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