Chapter 176: Maybe We Should Just Call the Police
"Like... me... Conductor... good."
Little Blue Light stumbled over the awkward syllables. Her voice was crisp and bright, yet heavy with the clumsy cadence of a newborn just learning how to use a human tongue. She reached out with slender, pale arms and scooped Pom-Pom into a tight hug, happily rubbing her cheek against the Conductor's velvety, oversized ears.
Pom-Pom was hoisted entirely off the floor, tiny booted legs flailing helplessly in the air. Although the Conductor was exceptionally startled by the sudden affection, a strange sense of relief washed over the furry creature. After all, Pom-Pom had watched this little entity grow from a literal bug into a rather beautiful young girl.
The Conductor clearly remembered the day Little Blue Light was first brought aboard the Astral Express. Back then, she was nothing more than a tiny, clicking insect no bigger than a fist.
What a sentimental, if slightly terrifying, growth process.
The learning and adaptive capabilities of The Swarm were inherently monstrous, a dark fact heavily recorded in the bloody annals of the Swarm Disaster.
[Survival is a grand deception. You discard your primal form, coating your shell in ash and mud, adding the luster of bricks and tiles to your six legs. The faces of prey sob upon your fangs, and cries for help drift through the scent of blood. You must shrink your form, even shed your hard armor; you must grow a cowardly visage and mimic the mouths of your enemies. Until they embrace you and call you 'friend,' until the delicious granaries are opened to you.]
In order to survive the harshest environments, The Swarm could even turn into humans. This was not achieved by relying on the optical illusions of wing scales or pheromones, but by physically, agonizingly evolving into a human form, all while still walking the Path of Propagation.
Little Blue Light, however, belonged to a rather special category of insect.
She had inherited Skarkabaz's appearance, Skarkabaz's Mandibles of the Swarm King, and even Skarkabaz's terrifying potential. Yet, she did not follow the previous Swarm King. Instead, her absolute loyalty belonged entirely to the boss she had acknowledged.
The Swarm King was actually quite tolerant of its offspring. As long as you could survive and weren't completely alone, it simply did not matter how you lived.
Propagation was not entirely an evil concept. For example, there were the Preservation bugs that lived in peaceful symbiosis with humans and assisted with heavy construction, the Star-Kneading Worms, and the Nihility bugs. Those particular Non-Contention Pests had evolved into absolute lazy dogs that simply grew in massive clumps across the seabed, lying flat from morning to night relying entirely on photosynthesis, not even caring if they were casually eaten by passing aquatic animals.
Little Blue Light sniffed the air, her nose wrinkling somewhat uncomfortably at the sterile scent of the parlor car. She then padded softly down the corridor, seeking out the guest rooms belonging to Rekka, Stelle, and Delta.
'Boss is sleeping.''I want to sleep too.'
Meanwhile, deep within the chaotic boundaries of Dreamflux Reef.
"That Memokeeper is really hard to catch. Maybe we should just call the police."
"Call the police? We're stowaways. Calling the police would just be turning ourselves in." Rekka shook his head, instantly rejecting Stelle's brilliant idea.
"Think about it," Rekka continued, crossing his arms as he surveyed the neon-lit gloom of the reef. "To be able to move freely in Penacony, blatantly approach a member of the Stellaron Hunters, and even tamper with her memory... do you really think that's something she could pull off alone? I suspect that annoying woman with the big assets must have some secret deal with the people in power here. In other words, we are the outsiders."
Sparkle nodded, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "If we really make a scene in the open, we're the ones who'll be labeled terrorists. And I would know a thing or two about that."
"What? We're the outsiders?" Stelle scratched her head, her baseball bat resting casually against her shoulder. "Well, we can't just stand here and stare at the walls, can we?"
"Boss... I'm... here!"
A sudden weight dropped from the sky. A petite girl crashed directly into Rekka's arms, knocking the breath out of him. He caught her instinctively, his eyes widening as he took in her appearance. She looked remarkably similar to Stelle, right down to the facial structure.
The only major difference was that her eyes were a striking, insectoid gray.
Rekka looked down at the person who had suddenly appeared in his arms, momentarily stunned into silence.
"...Little Blue Light?"
"Mm! Boss! Little Blue Light!"
"How did you get in here?" Rekka set her down gently on the cobblestone ground, looking her up and down in absolute bewilderment. "And how did you... evolve into a human?"
He mentally noted that the Ambrosial Arbor really was a terrifyingly great tonic.
"I... evolved... looking for Boss. Boss is in the dream. I... slept... and came in." Little Blue Light spoke word by word, her brow furrowed as if she were trying incredibly hard to piece the scattered fragments in her mind into complete, coherent sentences. "I... now... powerful. Protect everyone."
The air in the alleyway went dead silent for a split second.
Firefly instantly gripped the transformation device in her hand, her combat instincts flaring to life at the sudden appearance of an unknown, bizarre entity.
"One of our own! One of our own! Don't get excited!" Stelle practically lunged forward, grabbing Firefly's arm to hold her back. "Little Blue Light is someone we've raised all this way. Although she used to look like a giant clicking bug, she's never eaten people, and she's actually helped us a lot."
Firefly slowly lowered her device, though her gaze remained sharp as she looked Little Blue Light up and down.
Gray eyes, messy silver-gray hair, and her small body was wrapped in a strange layer of what looked like a semi-melted blue substance acting as clothing.
"Are you absolutely sure?" Firefly asked, her voice laced with deep skepticism.
"She's just a little bug Rekka brought back after he turned to the Path of Propagation one day," Stelle explained casually, as if this were a completely normal Tuesday occurrence.
Firefly stared at them.
If that was really the case, then...
She seemed to be a fairly close kind of being to herself. Was the Glamoth Iron Cavalry not also a form of Iron Cavalry Pest?
Since Stelle was so adamant that Little Blue Light was a domesticated, friendly pet bug from the Express, Firefly forced her muscles to relax, temporarily setting aside her intention to attack.
Little Blue Light blinked her large gray eyes. She suddenly reached out a pale hand and gently took hold of Firefly's index finger.
"Friend... can't eat. But... friend is good."
Firefly was stunned. She was entirely unused to such pure, unfiltered kindness, especially coming from the mouth of a Swarm bug that had just evolved into human form.
"...Friend is good." Firefly gently squeezed Little Blue Light's finger back before letting go, a small, complicated smile touching her lips. "Thank you."
"Little Blue Light, you can turn into a person just by evolving?" Stelle circled the girl twice, observing her with intense curiosity.
"Evolve... protect everyone... powerful!" Little Blue Light proudly put her hands on her hips, puffing out her chest. "Stelle... powerful. Little Blue Light... become Stelle! Rozaliya, Liliya... everyone likes! I change!"
Delta, who had been quietly observing from the side, blinked in surprise.
'I'm involved in this too?'
Little Blue Light tilted her head, seemingly not understanding why Delta was giving her such a weird look.
"Looking closely, it really seems so," Rekka muttered, rubbing his chin. "This height and face are just like a weird fusion of Rozaliya, Liliya, and Stelle. I guess the environment really does influence a child's development."
"Boss... here... many bugs." Little Blue Light suddenly frowned, her antennae-like cowlicks twitching.
"Many bugs?" Stelle looked around the empty alleyway, completely confused. "What do you mean by many bugs? Could there actually be bugs from the Path of Propagation in the dreamscape?"
March 7th's mouth had always been a terrifying source of prophecies.
Hearing March's earlier complaints about the state of Penacony echoing in her mind, Little Blue Light nodded vigorously.
"In a very deep place. They are eating things, becoming many."
March 7th, who had just caught up to the group, gasped in absolute horror. "How could bugs crawl into a place specifically made for dreaming? The Family's hotel hygiene is way too poor! I'm leaving a zero-star review!"
"It's okay, don't be afraid. I can control them!"
Little Blue Light wasn't stuttering anymore, her confidence surging. She opened her mouth, revealing a row of neat, sharp little white teeth, and tried her absolute hardest to make a fierce, intimidating expression. But with that round face and those big eyes, it could only be described as fiercely cute.
"Hey! You lot! Hold it right there, hold it."
Heavy footsteps echoed down the street as a scruffy man appeared from the shadows, looking thoroughly exhausted and annoyed.
"I am a Bloodhound Family security officer—"
Far away, arriving at the bustling, neon-drenched streets of Golden Hour, Sampo looked around in utter confusion. He scratched his head, dodging a group of dancing Pepeshi.
"Didn't that Sparkle girl say she wanted me to come to Penacony to help? Where is she? Strange, where did she go?"
Sampo checked his pocket watch, sighing heavily as he failed to find Sparkle at the agreed-upon location.
"Didn't we agree to meet right here? Could it be she hasn't arrived yet? Or is she playing another one of her stupid pranks on old Sampo?"
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