["Garden of Recollection? You're people from the Garden of Recollection? Are you the one blocking my observation?"]
["What intentions do you have toward this girl? No matter what motives you harbor… to so brazenly steal away another's memories, to blind them like leaves before their eyes, to deceive others—I cannot allow it!"]
[Accompanied by a reassuring voice from behind, Fu Xuan approached with steady steps. Her amber eyes glared fiercely at the Messenger before her.]
[The other party also knew the situation was unfavorable and swiftly fled. March 7th's memories had now reached the Astral Express. She was nearing the source; soon the Matrix of Prescience Ultima could begin its verification calculations.]
[Passing through the corridor, the figures of Welt, Dan Heng, and others gradually reappeared and then faded again. From their conversations… March 7th realized this was the memory of when the Trailblazer crew first found her.]
[And all of this, she had long since forgotten.]
["You remember many things—you just don't know it yourself." Fu Xuan reminded her from the side.]
[Opening the door to the Parlor Car observation lounge, March 7th found herself back at the starting point. She tried once more to pass through the corridor and open the door… but it was all in vain. She could only repeat this short path over and over again.]
[…]
["Of course I hope to take her in… or rather, even the most basic moral judgment leads to the same conclusion—since we found her, we must take good care of her."]
["They all agreed to take you in. I, an exile, and you don't seem to have anywhere to return to either… but at least here, none of us will be alone anymore."]
[Here, March 7th saw even more memories from her companions. But when she prepared to press forward, the Fu Xuan beside her reminded her that the Messenger had been interfering all along. Only by 'going backward' could she find the past.]
[March 7th understood immediately. She pulled open the Parlor Car door behind her. But with a burst of dazzling light, she found herself back in her own room. Everything in the room was as before—except at the very center… a multicolored block of ice floated there.]
——
Chainsaw Man.
"Hey Denji! That ice looks super—duper delicious!" Power stretched her neck as far as it could, practically pressing her face against the light screen. "Like the rainbow ice cream they sell at the convenience store!"
"Idiot, that's just a foreign object from her memories."
Denji lazily sprawled on the sofa, tossing popcorn into his mouth. "I don't get it… The Express has everything. Breakfast can be sandwiches and Himeko's coffee, lunch can be yogurt and whatever Power cooked… Even on the Xianzhou, they're treated like VIPs. Isn't this life insanely good? Why risk everything just to dig up the past?"
Thinking back to the days living with Pochita, even a small piece of buttered bread in the morning had been enough to satisfy him. Before following Miss Makima, he had never thought about anything beyond "surviving."
He really couldn't understand someone who had such a good life yet still refused to just enjoy it.
"Look, Denji! March 7th is about to touch the ice block! She's gonna get her memories back any second now!" Power excitedly shook Denji.
"Aaah stop shaking! You're gonna spill the popcorn!" Denji struggled to sit up from the sofa, watching March 7th's fingertip draw near. "What if she gets her memories back and finds out her past was awful?"
Power suddenly stopped moving, tilted her head, and thought for a moment: "Even then, isn't it better than knowing nothing? Like… uh, like if this great me forgot I was the absolute strongest Blood Devil—that would be so boring, right?"
…Power forgot she was a devil?
Wouldn't the world become a lot more peaceful then? It seemed… kind of nice?
——
["This is probably the foreign object… It looks like our exploration has reached the final step. This seat will confirm one last time—are you certain you wish to explore your past?" Fu Xuan looked solemnly at March 7th.]
["Mm… I'm certain." For once, March nodded with unusual seriousness.]
[Her fingertip gently touched the multicolored ice block.]
[In that instant, she felt no coldness. Instead, some invisible pull made her open her eyes—she was now in a void, with nothing beneath her feet yet somehow stepping on countless lingering shadows of memories.]
["Master Diviner?" March 7th called out cautiously.]
["The Matrix of Prescience Ultima has begun verification; she cannot be distracted." The Messenger's voice suddenly rang out.]
["Why is it you again? What does my recalling the past have to do with you? Why are you blocking me?" March 7th complained indignantly.]
["Please trust the Garden of Recollection. Everything I have done is to protect you." The Messenger spoke sincerely.]
["Even so, you can't 'protect' someone by imprisoning them?!"]
["…We know."]
[The Messenger's tone sounded utterly helpless. She appeared before March 7th and led her toward a glowing singularity. But just before touching it, she made one final plea for March 7th to believe her—seeking the past would bring her no benefit whatsoever.]
[The singularity gradually transformed into a scene. It recorded exactly how the former March 7th had been sealed within Six-Phased Ice.]
——
Gintama.
"Ohhh! This… this is just…!"
Sakata Gintoki's eyes instantly widened. The strawberry milk in his hand dropped to the floor with a clatter, but he didn't notice at all. His gaze remained fixed in a daze on the breathtaking sight in the light screen.
"Hey! Gin-san! What are you doing?!" Shinpachi could no longer hold back. He pushed up his glasses, the lenses flashing with sharp light. "That's a sealed girl! Don't look at her with that pervy expression!"
"You guy with zero sense of art—this is interstellar human body art appreciation!"
Gintoki defended himself righteously while slithering around the room like a gecko, trying to find the perfect viewing angle. "Damn it, the refraction index on this Six-Phased Ice is all wrong! Why is the critical area always blocked by the light halo!?"
Shinpachi grabbed Gintoki by the collar and yanked him back: "What refraction index problem—it's your humanity sounding the alarm like crazy!"
——
["This is your starting point. From then on, you began your one and only life, experiencing those unique adventures that belong solely to you."]
["Anything earlier than that holds no meaning for you. The value of your life does not lie in everything that happened in the past, but in the present—in the future."]
["An eagle spreading its wings never yearns for the cliff from which it once fell. A ship setting sail never misses the strait where it once ran aground."]
["And you, my child, should also understand that the past is as illusory as mist and clouds."]
["Yet everything you experience now will surely be etched in gold and stone by someone."]
["It is time to say farewell… I leave you with one parting gift. I look forward to our next meeting."]