[The foreign object in the lobby was a display screen from Herta Space Station. After March 7th touched it, the surrounding space rapidly disintegrated. When her vision cleared again, Dan Heng's voice rang in her ears.]
["March, snap out of it. We need to hurry."]
[March 7th was puzzled why Fu Xuan wasn't speaking, but Dan Heng was urging her to hurry up and follow him.]
[March suddenly realized—this was the scene right before encountering Stelle. Yet strangely, after passing through the door ahead, the running Dan Heng abruptly vanished. In the hall remained only Arlan, Asta, Herta… and Stelle standing in the distance, coldly watching her.]
["March 7th, even if you look back, all you'll find is a chaotic and ever-changing past." Arlan's tone was calm: "You are the sole survivor of the Jeweled World Adlivun, its last princess. That star was incinerated into an obsidian hell the instant Nanook ascended."]
["Your parents, in despair, placed you still in swaddling clothes into a vessel of eternal ice, then watched with hope as you vanished into the raging cosmic waves of the vast star sea."]
["You were picked up and raised by nobodies. You are the sole savior, the promise of rebirth."]
——
DC Universe.
"This segment of March 7th's experience…"
Inside the Daily Planet editorial office building, Clark Kent lifted his head from a mountain of interview notes.
Upon hearing Arlan's narration, he felt a strange sensation crawl up his spine—like a long centipede wriggling countless slender legs. Was Arlan's story true or false? Could March 7th's experience really be so similar to his own?
"Kent! That special feature on the Abundance Aeon you wrote last time was pretty good." Editor-in-Chief Perry White poked his head out of his office, an unlit cigar clamped in his mouth. "But remember to double-check the translation of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus text "Thousand-Hand Merciful Pharmacist Salvation Scripture" next time… Uh, Kent, what's wrong with you?"
White looked strangely at the somewhat awkward tall young man. Clark's eyes were half-squinted, mouth slightly open, gaze locked motionless on Arlan and March 7th in the light screen… as if he had witnessed something completely incomprehensible.
"What's the matter? Is it Arlan's story that feels strange, or the fact that he's dissuading March 7th from seeking her memories?"
Lois tossed a mint candy from the next desk over, landing precisely in front of Clark's keyboard. "If something feels off, why not jot it down first? After all, the people in that light screen are the kind who give headaches to every world leader right now."
Clark felt a wave of dizziness and had to remove his black-framed glasses to rub his eyes hard. At this moment, his heart pounded violently in his chest; the rush of blood in his ears nearly drowned out everything else.
…It was happening again—that feeling of being watched.
"Could it be because of the Memory Aeon?" Clark's thoughts began to wander.
He remembered the introduction to the Memory Aeon [Fuli]—They possessed every memory in the universe. Then… They should also possess his own memories and know everything about his experiences on Krypton.
No matter what, this segment of little March's past was far too similar to his own. If it was pure coincidence, that would be fine—but what if it wasn't…
"Clark, you really don't look well. Do you need me to take you to the hospital?" Lois noticed his abnormality.
"I… I'm fine." He forced out a reply, but his eyes couldn't tear away from Arlan. "It's just… this story… it's way too familiar."
——
[March 7th felt extremely embarrassed as her imagined scenes were all laid bare, giving her the sensation of public social death.]
[Meanwhile, Asta beside her was even more outrageous. In her version, March 7th was a Galaxy Ranger who had not only resisted wars against the Swarm, but also saved worlds swallowed by black holes and even thwarted the schemes of Dr. Primitive.]
[In Herta's telling, March 7th transformed into an Aeon. Each version grew more fantastical and unheard-of—completely new stories Fu Xuan had never encountered.]
[But when it came to Stelle, her tone was dead serious and coldly indifferent.]
["Little March, stop trying to remember. What's the point of dwelling on those past events? The moment a Nameless boards the Express marks the moment of rebirth. The path beneath our feet is one we can never turn back from."]
["Go explore. Go Trailblaze. Don't tarnish the honor of the Nameless by looking back."]
["Huh?" March 7th was inexplicably stung by the phrase "tarnish the honor," and for the first time she felt truly furious: "Stop it! You're not Stelle at all! She would never stand here pressuring me or telling me to give up on something important to me!"]
["I don't care who you are—disappear right now, get out of the way, and stop impersonating my friend!"]
[March 7th angrily cleared away the Stelle before her. The passage behind her thus revealed itself, and standing inside was a member of the Garden of Recollection.]
["I am a [Messenger] of the Garden of Recollection. Miss March, please do not continue to trace back the past." She too began to dissuade her, using almost identical wording as the others.]
——
Teyvat.
Inside the shrine at Mt. Yougou, night breezes gently stirred, scattering cherry blossoms.
"At this point, even I'm starting to feel strange. What kind of memory could be so deeply concealed that even the Garden of Recollection guards it like this?" Yumemizuki Mizuki asked in bewilderment.
Ei held a cup of dango milk, responding calmly: "If it's merely memories that bring only pain, then forgetting might actually be a form of mercy."
"Oh my, Ei, that doesn't sound right at all~"
Yae Miko beside her gave a soft laugh, narrowing her fox-like eyes: "To forget even one's own past—this kind of 'mercy' seems far too cruel to little March, doesn't it?"
She gently shook the omamori in her hand: "Memories are like these knotted cords. Untying them might scatter everything, but if you never dare to touch them your whole life, they remain nothing but a dead knot forever."
"Little March wants to untie this dead knot. Just judging by her momentum in standing up to the Garden of Recollection, I think it's quite impressive."
"But there is one possibility…" Ei's gaze shifted slightly as she looked at the Messenger of the Garden's face in the light screen—transparent and featureless like glass. "Once March 7th recovers her memories, the people of the Garden might no longer be able to protect her, right?"
"Protect?"
Miko laughed as if she had heard the funniest joke, leaning close to Ei's ear with a teasing breath: "Ei, do you really think insects trapped in amber are being 'protected' by the resin?"
"…" Ei's gaze trembled faintly.
"The current March 7th… is precisely that little insect trapped in resin. She doesn't even have the freedom to seek her past—how can you call it protection?"