Bright sunlight spilled over Kafka's shoulders, her expensive dark-purple coat sliding gracefully from her raised arm to drape over the back of the wooden chair.
Her snow-white blouse was exquisitely textured, fitting perfectly against her waist, the fabric pulled taut by the fullness of her figure into curves that seemed almost mathematically considered — sweeping in where it cinched, like the golden ratio some classical sculptor had mapped out with obsessive care.
In truth, Kafka kept more of her skin covered than most people, dressing more conservatively than the majority — and yet somehow, no matter how you looked at her, there was always that ineffable, almost dangerous charge to her presence.
Mao Sui, who had once recommended himself for a post, famously said: "A person's talent makes itself known to all around them — just as a awl placed inside a cloth sack will work its tip through regardless; in the same way, if you put an ample figure into a fitted blouse, the silhouette will always find a way to show itself, no matter how much you try to conceal it."
That, incidentally, was the origin of the idiom — 'to stand out from the crowd.'
"After the Xianzhou disaster came to an end and Elio's script reached its curtain call, we were free to act as we pleased. Bladie had some personal matters to deal with, so I was originally planning to browse for coats while I waited for him."
The faint trace of a smile playing at the corners of her lips, Kafka's voice was soft and melodic — like a mother humming a gentle lullaby in the dark.
"Unexpectedly, Elio sent me a message."
"So you called us here because of that message? Oh — and by the way, do you want me to recommend some hair-regrowth serums for Elio?"
Caelus retrieved several drinks from his spatial ring and set them down in front of everyone.
At the mention of hair-regrowth serums, even Blade couldn't entirely suppress a flicker of something peculiar crossing his expression.
He was clearly recalling a certain someone scratching at their ears and losing their composure, shredding a script in frustration.
Since joining the Stellaron Hunters, it was the first time Blade had ever seen Elio lose his cool like that.
"Heh. Did Silver Wolf tell you that?"
"The thing called destiny — you can neither see it nor touch it. It ought to be as certain as all the collapsed, converging past and present."
"And yet, starting a few months ago, the previously fixed script began to fracture into over a thousand possible variations... Elio really has been a little troubled by it."
Kafka accepted her drink with a warm, quiet thank-you. She knew Silver Wolf had been keeping in touch with Caelus — the two of them teamed up to play games together regularly.
Silver Wolf also had a soft spot for the girl on the Express named 'Seele,' and without any doubt it was Silver Wolf who had taken and sent Caelus that photo of herself.
Kafka didn't mind particularly. At most she'd arrange to send Wolf-baby a quest notification at a critical moment in a future match, completely 'by accident,' and ruin her combo.
"Over a thousand variations, huh?"
Caelus leaned back slightly in his seat, the tactical instinct kicking in.
That was like a straightforward rational arithmetic problem suddenly turning into a multi-variable equation with over a thousand solutions. Having to solve them one by one — poor Elio indeed.
"Mama, what did Elio say to you?"
Stelle grabbed a glass and poured the drinks set out in front of herself, Caelus, and Kafka all together, mixing them thoroughly. She stuck out her small tongue for a taste, decided it wasn't bad, and switched from tasting to actually drinking.
"He said — that you two can fill me up."
Kafka smiled warmly, both hands propped under her chin, gazing at the twins.
"Pfft—!"
In an instant, Stelle — who had been happily sipping her drink — spat it all out. Shocked to her core, she nearly hurled the glass straight onto the floor.
Fortunately Caelus was fast enough to press her head sideways before the spray reached anyone — otherwise that mouthful would have landed squarely on Kafka.
White blouses and drink stains. Terrible combination.
"Is this appropriate?! OF COURSE IT IS!"
Stelle answered her own question, slamming her palm on the table with a thunderclap: "Elio, you absolute legend! You absolute LEGEND!"
She was going to be the most devoted daughter-in-law to her beloved mama!
"Flaming Lance, charge—"
"Charge your head, you don't even have a Flaming Lance, what exactly are you charging."
Caelus smacked her on the back of the head.
Though in fairness, Kafka's phrasing had been genuinely jarring — even Caelus, mentally borrowing Kiana's brain from the Valkyrie space, could figure out exactly which kind of 'fill' Hachi-Stelle had leapt to.
Because that was the kind of 'fill' he'd thought of too...
Ahem. But unless every single Aeon conspired to transform the entire world into a doujin production set, or Fenghuang Down's Divine Awakening unlocked and she joined forces with Jizo Mitama to cast some curse on Kafka — given Kafka's personality, that kind of development was never, ever going to happen.
Caelus looked toward Kafka with lively interest: "'Fill me up'... what exactly do you mean by that?"
"The reason I joined the Stellaron Hunters is because I wanted to change myself."
Kafka took a small sip of her drink and smiled gently:
"I have no mechanism for fear. Within my mind and my heart there exists a hollow — a void. Even I myself am not aware of it, so this kind of change is something I cannot bring about on my own."
Her violet eyes were clear as glass yet profound and empty, like something that could draw the soul in without it ever noticing.
"Elio can help me — so long as I act according to his instructions."
"He told me before that, prior to the future I hope for coming to pass, you two might be able to let me experience what it feels like to have that hollow filled. So — I'd like to ask you to help me. Let me feel what that's like."
Kafka's tone and expression were gentle as still water, yet anyone who met her gaze in that moment could clearly sense the gap in her soul.
"Oh! So that's the kind of 'fill' we're talking about."
Stelle drooped her head in mild disappointment. She'd thought Kafka was after her and Caelus-cub's bodies.
"Helping is no problem at all, but..."
Pretending to think it over, Stelle scratched the back of her head in genuine bewilderment, holding out her hands like a confused little bear:
"How are we supposed to help with that?"
Her brain, which she rarely exercised, began to turn over. She could more or less follow what Kafka was saying — but how do you fill something as abstract as a void?
"Elio didn't specify a method. The future possibilities are in an unknown, overlapping state — he hasn't seen clearly yet."
Kafka shook her head softly.
"However, since Elio says you are capable of it, then you must certainly have a way of arriving at that possibility — even if you yourselves don't yet know how to get there."
To borrow the equation metaphor: it's known with certainty that a multi-variable, high-degree equation has a solution within a certain range — but the precise value of that solution hasn't been worked out yet.
Stelle rubbed her delicate chin with her small hand and thought hard for a long moment: "Hmm... Mama, do you want to come dumpster-diving with us to hunt for treasure chests?"
Stelle was quietly wondering whether Crystals might do the trick.
Whenever she felt hollow inside, one look at Crystals and she'd instantly be back to full HP. Incredibly effective!
Blade: "..."
Kafka: "..."
Both of them fell silent.
Blade turned the image over in his mind — Kafka, filthy and disheveled, elbow-deep in a garbage bin, fishing out a rotten egg and a limp cabbage leaf. Hah. He must have fully gone Mara-struck. He'd lost his mind entirely.
The smile froze on Kafka's lips. The hand reaching for her drink hung suspended in mid-air. She sank into a silence longer than any she had experienced before.
"If that would let me experience the feeling of the hollow being filled... I am willing to try."
It would just be playing along with Stelle, after all.
Besides — this was the very reason she had joined the Stellaron Hunters. The source of her motivation all this time.
"Caelus, what do you think?"
Kafka looked gently toward the grey-haired young man, who was tapping the table in a slow, thoughtful rhythm.
If at all possible, she would rather not go dumpster-diving.
"I think I know how to let you experience the feeling of being 'complete.'"
Caelus twirled a strand of Stelle's neat, silky grey hair between his fingers, holding it lightly between his lips and turning it over.
The future that Elio couldn't see clearly — it clearly had something to do with high-rarity multi-world items. Without a doubt, what was blocking Elio's line of sight was the Potara Earrings.
Think about the earrings' effect. Think about Kafka's 'condition.'
The answer fell into place naturally.
"What needs to be done? Can you help me?"
It was the first time Caelus had ever heard undisguised anticipation in Kafka's voice.
Stelle blinked her bright, endearingly dopey golden eyes at Caelus and gave a deep, proud nod.
Mm. That's why she and 'herself' were one and the same!
So smart!
"The method is actually quite simple."
Caelus drew a light sip through his straw, draining his Wahaha in one go, then flicked the bottle backwards — it landed cleanly inside the trash can.
"It's this."
He extended a closed fist toward Kafka and smiled, his wrist turning over — like a magic trick — producing a pair of earrings from thin air.
"Oh right, of course! So that's how it gets resolved!"
Stelle thumped her right fist into her left palm, the pieces clicking into place.
"This is...?"
Kafka examined the earrings with curiosity, turning them over — clip-on style, a cascading chain of tiny pearls, the body a brilliant golden-yellow like the eyes of the twins themselves.
As accessories went, they were a fairly ordinary design. Not much of an artistic statement.
The kind of item that moves fewer than a hundred units a month on any storefront.
"A tool that can help you. Put them on and you'll understand."
Caelus smiled with a touch of mystery.
Stelle reached out and picked up one of the earrings without hesitation, clipping it onto her small, delicate ear.
Fusing with Mama — naturally, that was her job!
"Put it on the ear that mirrors Stelle-baby's."
Caelus reminded her.
"Of course~"
Kafka curled the corner of her mouth in an elegant smile, gave a soft laugh, picked up the earring from Caelus's palm, and fastened it to her left ear.
Blade, who had not joined the others around the wooden table but had been leaning against the wall of the building in silence, listening to their exchange — now raised his head. A flicker of curiosity passed through those blood-pool eyes.
And then it shifted, slowly, into astonishment.
Under Blade's bewildered and faintly unnerved gaze, Kafka and Stelle — the moment the earrings went on — were drawn together like two poles of a magnet, their forms drawn toward each other and swallowed by a white light, vanishing into it.
When the white light faded, only a single silhouette remained.
Her hair spilled to its ends in a haze of lavender mist, each strand carrying the gradient of something dipped in the Milky Way itself. Kafka's signature curls were still there, now carrying three times the languid elegance. Beneath thick, dark lashes, two jet-black irises gleamed.
Those eyes were like obsidian tempered in eternal night — and yet, as they shimmered, there would occasionally flash through them the phantom of wisteria petals falling into a deep, still pool. A color that swallowed light, and yet, when the gaze grew liquid and luminous, it scattered sparks like crushed diamonds.
Graceful, long lotus-stalk legs. A neck as delicate as a swan's. Hands pale as snow-carved jade. Elegant. Noble. Coolly distant.
"This is...?"
Blade's gaze sharpened.
Two people had become one?
Blade and Kafka had watched nearly the entire battle in the Scalegorge Waterscape — but they had observed from a distance, and had not seen the process in detail; for instance, the fusion between Jingliu and Sushang.
Witnessing this remarkable sight now, the surprise was only natural.
"So this is what it feels like... this is 'completeness'?"
A poised and graceful voice — the lavender-haired woman raised one alabaster hand to her chest, pressing it gently over her heart, as though sensing the beat within, or perhaps reaching through flesh to touch the soul that had just been made whole.
"The fusion of Stelle and Kafka — I'll just call it Stelle-fka, how does that sound—!?"
Caelus laughed, moving closer to the beauty to say something — but the words cut off abruptly. He froze where he stood, eyes snapping wide open.
In that moment — beneath Blade's gaze, which had shifted from astonishment to something edged with a faint, bone-deep chill — the lavender-haired beauty raised both hands to cup Caelus's face.
And with a smile still playing at the corners of her lips, she kissed him.
"!?"
What in the—?
Were they seriously going that far?
Blade genuinely questioned whether he had been Mara-struck this entire time — and his mind had simply never been clear to begin with.
What in the world was happening here?
Why was the one who looked like Kafka doing something like that?
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