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As the song reached the end, Sunday dramatically held down the C major chord, allowing the harmonious chord to echo throughout the air. A minute buzz cut through the chord. Releasing the tiles, he fished his phone from his pocket and saw a message from Welt Yang.
Come to the Parlor Car it simply said.
Upon entering the Parlor Car, he sees everyone standing together at the center of the cart. They appear to be in the middle of a deep conversation based on their expressions and head shakes. Feeling like he was intruding, Sunday gently knocked against the door thrice. Everyone turned their head upon hearing the knock, extinguishing their conversations. Sunday felt even more awkward, giving a half smile, at the doorway. Seeing the arriving person, Welt gave a wide smile and gestured towards Sunday to come and join them.
“Now that everyone is here, we can start the Astral meeting,” Pompom announced. “We would soon be flying past the planet Idunnowhattocallthisplanet-”
The Trailblazer snorted as soon as they heard the name. “Idunnowhattocallthisplanet” They repeated deadpan. “Wow, it's like the writer of this fic is too lazy to come up with a name or something.” They stared off into a very specific part of the wall, glaring at something that wasn't there.
“Excuse me! No interrupting the conductor!” Pompom puffed their cheek out in feign anger. “As I was saying, we will soon be flying over Idunnowhattocallthisplanet, we might make a temporary stop to check the train’s engine before our next adventure. This might be the planet we could stop at before our destined next one.”
Welt cleared his throat, “Well as we land. I think it is a good time for you youngings to go and explore the area. I heard the place is sunny and very tropical.”
“Ohhhh, it’ll be great for pictures!” March said excitedly. “I get to upgrade my wall.”
“Chests??”
“I guess I could update the data bank, with some personal encounters.”
A cacophony of voices ecstasy spoke over each other at Welt’s suggestion. Himeko stood smiling nearby at the teens' excitement. “You should join them too,” Welt said, turning to Sunday.
“Me?” Sunday asked bewildered, placing a hand over his chest in disbelief.
“It’ll be good bonding time. Besides, you haven’t had a chance to work with them, unlike Himeko and I.” Welt said, giving a light nudge to Sunday.
As the quartet left the train, Himeko waved behind them. She told them to have a good time as the quartet walked away, waving behind them.
Sunday lingered behind the trio as they all naturally got along with each other. March and the Trailblazer were loudly talking to one another, pointing out anything that caught their attention. Dan Heng mostly stayed silent, except when prompted a question or to scold the Trailblazer. Once in a while, they would stop and take a photo together.
Sunday couldn’t help but feel like an outlier when traveling with them. Afterall, it wasn’t long when they faced each other off in Penacony. He watched them smile and laugh, even Dan Heng held a smile on his face from time to time, at each other's company. All Sunday had…was himself. Himself and his thoughts. His fingers were clasped in front of him and he fiddled around with his thumbs as he stood nearby silently observing the Nameless’ happiness, with a small smile plastered on his face.
“Oi Sunny, we can’t see you in the pic.” A scruff voice called out to him, pulling him out from his melancholy thoughts.
“Huh?”
March 7th, Dan Heng, and the Trailblazer were staring at him. They held March’s camera in their hand as they were looking back at the photo.
“You aren’t in a single pic.” They added on.
“You want me in your picture?”
They scoffed, “Of course. Get over here.” They gestured towards him. March stepped out and pulled him by the arm. Dan Heng moved to the side, giving space for Sunday to stand with them.
“Smile!” March chirped, throwing up a peace sign, and a bright flash went off. The photo captured everyone’s goofy pose as well as Sunday’s elegantly surprised expression.
“Holy- are you photogenic, Sunny?? How can someone look so beautiful while looking absolutely dumb in real life?”
Sunday had no idea how to respond to that. “Anyways, let’s continue.” March said, pointing straight ahead of her. She tugged Sunday by his arm and the quartet walked side by side in the direction pointed to earlier. Instead of watching the trio from behind, he stood equally with them, listening to their nonsensical chatters, jokes, and previous encounters. Although he didn’t contribute much to the conversations, his insides felt warmer than before.
At last, the quartet stumbled across a small village. It was quite lively from the hustle and bustle of vendors yelling for customers to visit to children running down the streets playing with each other. March excitedly took photos, snapping pictures of the vendors to graffiti that decorated the walls.
“Where should we head first?” Dan Heng asked, his eyes absorbing the atmosphere around them.
“Oh! Oh! I know I know! Leave it to me!” The Trailblazer said confidently, pointing to themselves. The group watched as the Trailblazer marched over to a group of muscular men huddling around something.
“THAT CHEST IS MINE!!” they declared loudly, pushing past the hoard and pointing to the chest.
Sunday felt his jaw drop at the Trailblazer’s brazen attitude. Next to him, Dan Heng sighed covering half his face with a hand. “Hahaha, I guess we should’ve seen that coming.” March laughed awkwardly.
“HUH?” A man turned to look at the Trailblazer. “WHAADDA SAY KID?”
“YOU HEARD ME! THAT CHEST IS MINE!” The Trailblazer yelled, putting their hands against their hips and puffing out their chest, trying to size up to the man. But it clearly didn’t work as the man was three heads taller than them. Oop…
“And that’s our sign to intervene.” Dan Heng said, hastily jogging to the Trailblazer with March and Sunday following suit.
“Sorry! Excuse me!” Dan Heng yelled, frantically waving a hand. Everyone turned to look at him.
“I must apologize for my friend’s manners. They are a child at heart and have no idea what they are saying.” Dan Heng practically growled the last part outloud, glaring viciously at the Trailblazer. “If you don’t mind us, we will leave you be!” He held the Trailblazer by the strap of their clothes, planning to drag them elsewhere.
But the Trailblazer wasn’t going to lose their chest here! That’s 20 jades! No one is going to willingly give up jades when it's not being locked behind a puzzle! The Trailblazer shrugged against Dan Heng’s grip, freeing themselves from his grasp. They ran back to the group of men.
“My friends and I are going to kick your butt!” They declared loudly. Their voice echoing throughout the plaza, earning stares from vendors and customers as well as drawing in a small crowd.
March started to panic, “SHHHH!” She cut in, reaching over to cover the Trailblazer’s mouth. But they kept moving around, avoiding the frantic silencing. ‘Why are you making our lives harder !?” March hissed, struggling.
Sunday stood off to the side, flabbergasted at the scene unfolding before him.
“I’ve seen enough,” a tall burly man said. “We are going to pummel you and your friends.” Pointing at the Trailblazer then March and Dan Heng. Around him, his group members began to crackle to themselves. Some pulled out wooden bats and others cracked their knuckles threateningly.
The Trailblazer manifested their metal bat, leveling it at the group of men. “Bring it!” They challenged, before laughing manically.
“We just got here.” Dan Heng mumbled to himself, summoning Cloud-Piercer and moving to an offense stance.
“Oh boy, even after all my efforts!” March cried, drawing back the string on her bow.
“Sunny, Sunny! Boost me! Boost me! I wanna do big damage” The Trailblazer pestered. They began jumping around, waving their bad in the air trying to garner attention from Sunday.
Sunday sighed, removing his book from his hip.
“Aye that twink over there is with them too!” a man shouted, pointing at Sunday.
“Sunny!!! Boost!!!!!”
Sunday opened his book and raised a hand “Torment and doubt, I bid you farewell.” Giving his blessings to Dan Heng, who began to weave through the horde charging at them, knocking away weapons and tripping over their enemies.
“Sunny, what the fuc-” The Trailblazer cursed with a deadpan face, slowly turning towards Sunday.
Sunday looked away as if oblivious to the Trailblazer’s daggering stare. Don’t see, Don’t know Sunday thought, sticking a tongue out at the Trailblazer mentally.
As predictable, this batch of enemies is no match for them, as they had beaten the gang black and blue. Seeing how they had lost miserably, they took a moment to call retreat, stating how they weren’t prepared.
“This- this won’t be the last time you are seeing us!” A man stammered, a finger shaking violently towards the Astral members. He turned and ran behind his retreating gang.
Ah the classic line
“Nah- nah- nah- nana” The Trailblazer mocked, blowing raspberries at their running figures.
Little did the Trailblazers know, the gang kept their threat. Ambushing them several times throughout the day. Each time bringing new gadgets from chainsaws to firecrackers. The Nameless won each battle of course, but even then their stamina wasn't infinite. Their strength waned with each battle, dragging it longer and longer instead of the usual one two!
By the tenth battle, March has had enough “AUUGGHHH! WHY IS THERE SO MANY OF THEM? AREN’T THEY TIRED OF LOSING EACH TIME???” she complained. The quartet were hiding in a small restaurant, away from the public eye. Dan Heng was holding down the Trailblazer’s arm as they were trying to actively eat gum off the floor. “Indeed, it is getting tiring and only three hours have passed.” Dan Heng sighed. “And you” He turned towards the Trailblazer. “Haven’t I told you to stop eating things off the floor? And stop harassing the locals?”
“Erm, it's not my fault!”
“They won’t stop chasing us to the Express, will they?” March asked uncertainly.
“Seeing how tenacious they are, I wouldn’t be surprised if they appear at the Express.” Dan Heng replied, frowning at the thought of a group of random strangers surrounding the Express.
“What if we ‘lose’ to them? Maybe they are prideful and won’t stop chasing us because they want to win?” Sunday proposed.
The other three turned to look at him. “Or.. maybe not…” Sunday mumbled under his breath, his confidence dwindling.
“Better to have a plan than no plan” March agreed, lighting up. She stood up and loudly said, “Let’s find those men and lose.”
“SHHHH!” A sharp hush cut through March’s determination. “This is a public space! Please be quiet” a voice reprimanded.
March quickly sat down, “Haha sorry.” she apologized, feeling her face burn with embarrassment.
The quartet got ambushed again by the beach. Instead of pulling out weapons to fight, they chose to feign retreat, running as fast as they could through the sandy area.
“PULL OUT THE BIG GUNS” a loud voice boomed behind them.
Looking back, the quartet watched as the gang pulled out a massive rocket launcher. With a simple pull of the trigger, they launched the missile. The force is heavily ricocheting, knocking back some of their members. The missile wildly flew into the air, spurring rapidly into the atmosphere before losing momentum and falling back down.
Ah. The quartet thought with unison as they watched as the missile fell closer and closer to them, its shadow expanding as it crashed down.
Then BOOOOOM.
Through the smoke and debris, The Trailblazer was buried upside down underneath the sand in the crater. Dan Heng was blasted away, covered underneath some beach wrack. Sunday found himself hanging off a treebranch and March was facedowned at the shallow end of the ocean.
“HAHAHAHA!” The leader of the gang laughed. “That is what happens when you mess with us!” He gloated, arms crossed in front of him with his chest puffed out. “Leave and never come back or we will defeat you again!” Then he walked away in triumph with his other members marching behind him hollering in victory.
Even though they came out unscathed, everyone looked worse for wear. The edge of their clothes were fried off, dust, dirt, ashes covered every possible surface of their clothes. Soot and grime coated their faces and the edges of their hairs were puffed out.
Although it was an embarrassing defeat, at least they managed to be left alone right? Right??
A laugh tore through the silence. The Trailblazer was giggling to themselves again. Upon seeing normalcy, the others sighed a breath of relief looking at each other with lightheartedness.
They dusted off whatever they could before making their way back to the Express.
Upon boarding the Express, the Trailblazer groaned as they slid down onto the carpeted floor, “Uggghhh, so tired.” Dan Heng followed behind leaning heavily against his lance and March faceplanted onto the ground the moment her feet made contact with the Parlor cart. Sunday boarded the train last, walking in with a calm and elegant posture, had the trembling of his legs not expose his exhaustion.
Welt and Himeko were resting in the Parlor cart. Upon seeing the young Trailblazers open the door, they stood up to greet them.
“Welcome back you four. How was Idunnowhattocallthisplanet?” Himeko greeted, holding a cup of her homemade coffee.
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” March replied, her response muffled against the ground.
“Although there were some bumps along the way, we did manage to complete our objective.” Dan Heng answered instead, rolling his shoulders to loosen the tight muscles. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll clean up after myself. I will see you during dinner.” As he walked past Welt and Himeko, he gave them a quick side glance. The two adults noticed his glance and gave up a minute nod.
March lifted her head, “Ugh, me too. I’m due for a bath. The Trailblazer kept roaming around picking fights with the locals! I didn’t even get to take many aesthetically cute photos!” She was fuming internally, her legs and arms were sore, and her clothes had burnt singes in the edges. March slowly pushed herself up and dusted her clothes. “Hey, you need a bath too! I’m tired cause of you!” She lifted the Trailblazer’s leg and began to drag them to her room.
“Nooooo” The Trailblazer cried, their sorrows echoing behind them as March dragged them away. “I wannnnaaa sleeep here.”
Seeing how half the crew was away, Sunday stood with Himeko and Welt.
“How was it?” Welt asked, a small genuine smile rested on his face.
“It certainly was…. eventful.” Sunday replied.
Welt held a hand up, “Wait lemme guess.” He closed his eyes and scrunched his eyebrows together, putting on an act of thinking hard. “The Trailblazer ran around wrecking havoc everywhere.”
Ah so it's a common occurrence here. Sunday recounted the excursion, explaining how it was basically the group babysitting the Trailblazer making sure they don’t put anything weird in their mouth, stealing from the locals, or starting fights. But most of their efforts were in vain. Himeko giggled at his retelling and Welt smiled awkwardly at the Trailblazer’s manners even though it was within his predictions.
Seriously, how much energy do they have? Sunday remembered him asking that question to himself as he aided the trio in their… tenth battle against the local gang.
“I’m glad to see you bonding with the other members even though the situation felt a bit comical. I assure you not all adventures are like this.” Welt gave a pleasant hum.
“I’m sure being a Nameless has many surprises. Some good and some bad.” Sunday agreed.
“I believe you should get cleaned up too.” Welt took note of Sunday’s white and pristine coat, coated with darkened grime and ashes. “I will let you know when dinner is served.” With that he gently pushed Sunday towards the Passenger Cabin.
Sunday came out of the showers donning a new set of pristine suit half white and half blue, he sighed a breath of relief. A nice shower is always good after a long and exhausting day. Especially after being blown up by a missile.
His phone vibrated from a text message from Welt Yang.
Come to the Party Car for dinner followed by a PomPom sticker holding a thumbs up sign.
The Party Car? Sunday quizzically thought. But he brushed it off thinking that the Nameless wishes to eat dinner in a new area today.
Upon entering the Party Car, Sunday was greeted with a dark room. Frowning, he called out, “Hello? Mr. Yang?” No reply. Strange, Mr. Yang clearly told me to come to the Party Car for dinner. So where is everyone? Did I misread the message? Fumbling for the light switch and flipping it, Sunday was met with the loud popping of confetti cannons along with a chorus of "Surprise!" He jumped, eyes squinting as it adjusts to the brightness.
The Party Car was decorated thoroughly with festive decor. Batches of colorful balloons were sporadically placed around the room, colorful strings entangled with bright fairylights hung around the windows and ceiling, and confetti bits were sprinkled around the floor. A table was placed at the front of the room covered with various types of food.
“What in the name-” Sunday stood stunned at the scene in front of him. March 7th, Dan Heng, and the Trailblazer were holding empty cones of confetti poppers. Himeko and Welt Yang stood behind them holding small glasses of champagne.
PomPom walked over, their pattering footsteps trailing behind as they shuffled across the cart, “Passenger Sunday, so glad you can join us on this lovely occasion.”
“What occasion?” Sunday asked dumbfounded.
Welt’s baritone voice cut in, “This was rather abrupt especially with Amphoreus and whatnot. We realized we never officially welcomed you to the Express.”
“Then today was-”
“Well it was meant to have you bond with the others. But also as an excuse to get you off the Express while Himeko, PomPom, and I set things up.” Welt placed a hand on Sunday’s shoulder, a gesture of not just reassurance but acceptance, before letting him go and returning to Himeko’s side.
The Trailblazer was stuffing their faces with food and Dan Heng was yelling at them. March had her camera up, taking photos of the two, while laughing hysterically. PomPom was engaged in a conversation with Shush, with the conductor threatening angrily how they’ll dismember the machine if they tell one more bad joke.
Sunday stood there looking at those he once called an enemy. Those around him are laughing together, laughing with him, and being merry all around. It's like they are in their own world, being present in the present instead of shackled in the past.
At that moment a single thought crossed Sunday's mind.
Perhaps, he too, can walk among the mortal realm.