Chapter 78: Trailblaze Firmly Believes Humanity Can Move Forward Carrying Scars, but Remembrance Thinks Otherwise
"You guys aren't asleep either?"
March 7th stared at Dan Heng. Her expression was caught in a dangerous, trembling limbo between utter disbelief and a desperate urge to burst into laughter. The usually stoic, spear-wielding guard of the Astral Express was currently standing in the corridor wearing a fluffy, oversized Azure Dragon onesie.
Then she slowly turned her head. Beside him stood Stelle, completely deadpan, zipped up to her chin in a plush raccoon suit.
And then... there was Rekka.
"What on earth are those pajamas?" March 7th finally managed to choke out.
"Can't you tell?" Rekka replied, his voice muffled by a ring of felt teeth. "It's a shark onesie, obviously."
"No..."
March 7th rubbed her temples. Her brain was struggling to process the bizarrely hilarious scene unfolding in the Express parlor car.
Dan Heng and Stelle could at least be explained away. Maybe they simply liked fluffy pajamas, or more likely, Stelle had dragged Dan Heng into buying matching sets.
But the shark onesie Rekka was wearing... it was an absolute crime against marine biology. Instead of a normal hood-and-fin setup, the suit was designed so that the wearer looked like a shark walking upright on its tail fin. It was deeply eerie.
"See? Isn't it interesting?"
Rekka dropped to the carriage carpet and began to wiggle. He flopped left and right, the stiff fabric of the tail fin smacking against the floorboards. It looked like a piece of abstract performance art, but his completely serious demeanor made March 7th suspect he wasn't actually joking.
March 7th stepped forward, her boots clicking against the floor, and firmly tugged at the soft, elongated tail of the shark suit.
"No matter how many times I see it," she sighed, "I feel like you and Stelle's mental states are at least five Amber Eras ahead of everyone else."
"Forget the pajamas for a second," Rekka said, sitting up with a slight rustle of fleece. "That scene of vibrant life and all things flourishing is still fresh in my mind. Why don't we see how the ecosystem of Jarilo-VI is recovering?"
The ecosystem's recovery was indeed rapid. The initial expectation was to restore the frozen world to a stable state within five days, but current data confirmed the planet would reach the optimal level in just two to three days.
"Speaking of which, it's almost midnight, right...?" March 7th glanced at the parlor car's ornate clock.
"Yeah."
As the clock struck twelve, the atmosphere in the room shifted. Today's daily transformation was clearly a bit off.
Rekka slumped back into his chair, his eyes slipping shut as he entered an unconscious state. Instantly, four distinct, brightly colored spheres of light materialized around him. The air grew heavy, radiating a sharp, suffocating sense of danger.
A brilliant blue sphere and a blazing red one collided, spinning violently in the air above him, while a vibrant green orb and a radiant gold one chased each other in a frantic, tight orbit.
Suddenly, Rekka raised his hand. The motion was entirely instinctual. He drew the four spheres back into his palm. As they made contact, the flesh of his arm dissolved into a deep, swirling starry-sky hue. The spheres vanished into the cosmic void of his skin.
'What is this, some kind of Visas Starfrost cosplay?' Rekka thought dimly as his consciousness resurfaced.
"Well, today is Equilibrium again," he announced, opening his eyes.
Everyone's gaze toward him turned slightly subtle.
"When you turned into the Path of Equilibrium the other day..." March 7th began, eyeing his starry arm, "it wasn't this exaggerated, was it?"
"Today I simply obtained more of Equilibrium's power," Rekka said, flexing his fingers. "I have perfectly balanced the powers of four Paths within my body."
"Four Paths..." Stelle leaned closer, her raccoon hood flopping over her forehead as she stared at his arm. "Which four?"
"Trailblaze, Remembrance, The Hunt, and Abundance."
"Does it hurt?" Stelle asked.
"It doesn't hurt." Rekka flexed his fingers again. Tiny, brilliant points of starlight rippled across his arm, tracking the movement of his tendons. "It feels quite wonderful, actually. Like I'm having a very intense argument with myself."
"Arguing with yourself?" Dan Heng crossed his arms, the plush dragon claws of his sleeves folding over one another.
"Yes. Trailblaze firmly believes that humans can possess the will to transcend desperate situations at any time, while carrying their scars. But Remembrance thinks otherwise." Rekka's voice dropped, taking on a strange, echoing resonance. "The divergence between Remembrance and Trailblaze lies exactly here. Remembrance wishes to freeze the entire universe in a single, perfect moment. As long as one stops moving and stops thinking, one cannot feel sorrow or pain."
He explained it slowly, letting the cosmic weight of the concepts settle over the room.
"That means..." March 7th trailed off, a chill running down her arms.
"Remembrance wants the entire universe to fall into an eternal freeze—which is, fundamentally, death," Rekka continued. "Remembrance believes that pain is relative; as long as one cannot feel pain, that is happiness. Right now, Trailblaze is actively stopping Remembrance from taking over."
"When you turned into Remembrance a few days ago..." March 7th pursed her lips, her pink eyes filled with concern, "it wasn't this extreme, was it?"
"Actually, it was. It's just that the thoughts stayed locked in my mind and weren't spoken aloud."
"Then you now..."
"Balanced. No need to worry." Rekka smiled, looking as if the fundamental laws of the universe were entirely under his control. "They are now in a state of dynamic stability. When Trailblaze is needed, its power will step forward. When Remembrance is needed, its icy power will appear. They won't interfere with or suppress each other."
"...Is Equilibrium really that overpowered?" March 7th muttered. "I thought Equilibrium was just some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder."
"Of course not. That previous state occurred because I hadn't mastered the true power of Equilibrium." Rekka tilted his head. "The current me... isn't actually sitting on the sofa."
"...Huh?"
The three Trailblazers stared at him, completely failing to grasp his meaning.
"What I mean is—" Rekka gestured to his own chest. "The 'me' you see before your eyes is merely a projection created specifically for the convenience of communication. Right now, I am a much more abstract concept."
Himeko, who had been quietly observing from the side with a cup of coffee, looked thoughtful.
"So, what is your current specific situation?" she asked, her elegant voice cutting through the confusion.
"I am distributed across the Express, out in the starry sky, and woven within the star system itself. The Express is me, the planets are me, the universe is me, yet none of them are me."
March 7th subconsciously looked around. The plush sofa, the polished wooden walls, the arched ceiling, the patterned floor—every single corner suddenly felt a bit strange, as if the Express itself was watching her.
"You mean, you're... everywhere right now?"
"Correct. 'I' am within all things."
Stelle reached out. Her palm passed directly through Rekka's starry arm. She felt absolutely no resistance, no warmth of blood, no texture of skin. Her fingertips simply brushed through those flickering points of light like passing through a heatless hologram.
"...How much does this conceptual state consume you?" Dan Heng stared at him, his sharp eyes narrowing. "You said you maintain this projection just to communicate with us. That means maintaining it is constantly draining your computing power and will."
"Equilibrium will automatically supplement the energy consumed," Rekka replied smoothly. "Nothing will be added, and nothing will be diminished."
"Then can you eat?" Stelle asked, pulling her hand back.
"No need."
"Can you sleep?"
"No need for that either."
"Can you..." Stelle tapped her chin, thinking hard. "Can you go to the bathroom?"
"Stelle." Dan Heng shot her a deeply helpless look.
"I'm just curious!" Stelle declared righteously, puffing out her chest in her raccoon suit.
"I have moved beyond conventional modes of existence," Rekka said, his tone dryly amused. "So I don't need to perform standard biological life activities."
"Then can you touch me now?"
"Yes."
Rekka reached out. His glowing fingertip lightly tapped Stelle's forehead. Stelle blinked, feeling a distinct, warm sensation press against her skin, exactly as if someone had physically poked her with a real finger.
"So, what practical use does this abstract conceptual form have?" Dan Heng got straight to the point, steering the conversation back to reality. "Your last two Equilibrium states were just simple obsessive-compulsive behaviors, like arranging objects symmetrically on the table. What about this time?"
"This time is true Equilibrium."
Rekka stood up. His projected form glided smoothly into the middle of the group.
"I no longer need to be confined to the symmetry of external physical objects. Instead, Equilibrium is applied directly at a macroscopic level."
He raised his hand, turning his palm upward toward the ceiling.
"Of course, you might not quite understand what I'm doing right now because... from a microscopic perspective, it's impossible to comprehend actions taken from a macroscopic viewpoint. Sorry, I'm not being arrogant; it's simply a matter of perspective."
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