Back on the Astral Express.
Yuki, freshly showered and thoroughly relaxed, sat comfortably in the parlor car sipping the rich coffee Himeko had brewed, looking completely at ease with the universe.
Off to the side, March 7th sat with her pink hair still slightly damp from a shower of her own. Her cheeks were tinged a deep, furious pink, and she was staring fixedly at Yuki's profile.
Her gradient eyes flickered with a heavy hint of shyness—as if something profoundly, deeply embarrassing had just happened to her. If it weren't so utterly mortifying to bring up out loud in front of the others, she would have pounced on him and bitten a massive chunk out of his shoulder right then and there.
Earlier, she had rushed back onto the Express and headed straight for Yuki's room, fiercely determined to get some serious answers about exactly what had happened between him and Kafka.
But when she got to his door, she found it securely locked. No matter how much she loudly called out and pounded her fists, Yuki didn't respond.
Frustrated and bubbling with anxious jealousy, March ended up forcing the electronic lock open with her Six-Phased Ice powers and barged right in.
The absolute moment she stepped inside the bathroom, she profoundly regretted it.
Because there stood Yuki—actually right in the middle of a shower.
Absolutely mortified, her face burning like a dying star, she immediately spun around to flee.
But Yuki didn't let her go.
Instead, with a completely unfair abuse of his speed and strength, he pulled her right into the running water and casually suggested they simply wash up together to save time.
How could a relatively pure-hearted, easily flustered girl like March possibly handle a situation like that?
She put up a token physical fight (and quickly found she literally couldn't move him a single inch). There was absolutely no way she could overpower Yuki's grip. In the end, under the warm spray of the shower, he had completely and utterly had his way.
Thinking back on exactly what had just happened in that steaming bathroom, March still couldn't believe it had all gone down so fast—before she'd even had a second to properly, mentally prepare herself for such a massive step.
Still, what was done was done, and March ultimately decided to just happily go with the flow. He was hers now, after all.
As that highly possessive thought crossed her mind, the intense urge to bite him faded into something sweeter. Her tense expression softened considerably, and she found herself resting her chin in her hands, looking at him with a deeply gentle, entirely smitten smile instead.
Jingliu, sitting quietly across the cabin, watched March's sudden, extreme mood swing with a highly strange expression.
Is this young girl losing her mind? Her emotional state is completely all over the place… she's probably absolutely not cut out for the rigid discipline of swordsmanship.
Jingliu was busy clinically evaluating March's mental potential as a future swordswoman, completely missing the massive, intimate shift in dynamics that had just occurred between March and Yuki.
Himeko, however, noticed every single detail.
But the elegant Navigator only smiled softly and filed the observation quietly away in her sharp mind. Out loud, she professionally asked Yuki about Kafka instead.
Yuki didn't say much about Kafka's "treatment" or the ultimate goals of the Stellaron Hunters. He simply told them with absolute certainty that the Stellaron Hunters bore no actual hostility toward the Astral Express crew, and that Himeko and the others didn't need to excessively worry about their movements or Elio's scripts going forward.
Himeko didn't fully understand why Yuki wouldn't elaborate on the details of his deal with Kafka, but she was tactful and trusting enough not to press him further on the matter.
After that, Himeko filled Yuki in on everything that had happened down on Planet Gokan with the IPC and Madam Jade while he was "busy" with Kafka.
Of course, none of it had actually escaped Yuki's cosmic notice. Still, he listened patiently and attentively as she spoke, happily chatting with her all the while.
Once the serious conversation finally wound down, the group officially held a small, cozy welcome party for Jingliu.
Pom-Pom had prepared a massive, generous spread of delicious, galaxy-famous food in the dining car.
Jingliu sat quietly, watching the incredibly warm, familial atmosphere on the train, feeling a sudden, deep stir of forgotten emotion in her chest.
Ever since her exile from the Luofu, she had spent countless, agonizing centuries wandering the cold universe—sleeping alone under alien stars, enduring one harsh, bloody journey after another, constantly battling the madness of her mara.
Now, quite unexpectedly, her mara was completely suppressed, and she had found herself warmly welcomed aboard the legendary Astral Express. And here, surrounded by these strange, kind people, she felt something she hadn't felt since the days of the High-Cloud Quintet—a genuine sense of home.
A faint, involuntary, and truly beautiful smile appeared on her usually glacial expression.
"This! I want this one! Feed it to me!" March stood proudly beside Yuki, aggressively pointing at the small, frosted Starlight Cake currently resting in his hand.
"There are plenty more exactly like it on the plate right in front of you. Can't you just grab one yourself?" Yuki raised a teasing eyebrow at her demanding tone.
"Geez! This beautiful girl specifically wants the one currently in your hand!"
"Isn't that completely obvious?!"
"You're so incredibly dense, you're never gonna find a girlfriend! You'll die alone!" March planted her hands firmly on her hips, looking at him with highly exaggerated, mock concern.
Yuki watched the adorable little drama queen perform and shook his head helplessly.
After absolutely everything that had just intimately happened between them in the shower an hour ago, she still had the sheer nerve to stand there and claim he'd die alone.
He gave her a flat look of pure, concentrated disdain.
"What's with that look?!"
"Am I wrong?!"
"Conductor! Back me up here! Tell him he's dense!" March pouted, clearly unhappy with the way he was looking at her like she was a complete idiot.
Pom-Pom, upon hearing their title aggressively shouted, quickly hugged their precious plate of Pom-Pom Pie to their chest and immediately started shuffling away down the aisle.
"Pom-Pom absolutely does not understand this complicated romantic stuff! Pom!"
"Pom-Pom only cares about protecting the Pom-Pom Pie! Pom!" They clutched the pastry tightly, looking at March as if they genuinely feared the pink-haired girl might violently snatch it away in her current mood.
March stared at the fleeing rabbit-creature, utterly speechless.
"Fine. Just live out your life completely alone with your pie, then."
"Pom-Pom is perfectly happy to do exactly that! Pom!" the conductor yelled back from the safety of the hallway.
Realizing there was absolutely no reasoning with Pom-Pom when food was involved, March gave up.
She turned back around, fully ready to firmly insist that Yuki personally feed her the delicious Starlight Cake—only to abruptly see Himeko standing on Yuki's other side, leaning in gracefully and taking a delicate bite directly out of the cake in his hand.
She completely stole my move!!!
March's gradient eyes went wide in absolute, betrayed shock.
"Himeko! How could you?!" March immediately launched into a loud, flustered protest against the elegant Navigator.
Himeko simply smiled sweetly, delicately chewing the pastry and showing absolutely no trace of guilt or embarrassment for the blatant theft.
"Oh, little March, seeing how much you desperately loved that specific cake, I just really wanted to try it myself."
"I don't usually eat sweets, you know. It looked special." Her smooth tone carried no hint of backing down—if anything, she expertly made her blatant teasing sound perfectly, logically reasonable.
"What?! If you suddenly wanted to try it, you could've just grabbed one from the massive plate!" March couldn't help but fire the exact same logic right back at her.
Yuki quietly chimed in from the middle with a perfectly timed, deadpan remark: "I literally just said the exact same thing to you a minute ago."
March's expression flickered with immense, trapped embarrassment.
Himeko, meanwhile, completely ignored March and gave Yuki a bright, incredibly knowing smile.
"My womanly intuition simply tells me that the one specifically held in Yuki's hand tastes infinitely better."
Her bold words left March momentarily completely speechless and severely outclassed.
Eventually, March decided not to argue further with the master and simply, grumpily demanded that Yuki personally feed her a completely different one to make up for the theft.
Yuki wasn't so genuinely dense that he couldn't take a blatant hint. He'd only been playfully teasing March earlier to rile her up.
So, he easily picked up another frosted cake from the silver plate and gently, affectionately fed it to her.
That domestic gesture finally calmed the jealous girl down, bringing a smug smile to her lips.
But Himeko, absolutely not one to be outdone in this sudden, silent competition, immediately made the exact same request.
Yuki sighed, amused, and obliged, feeding the Navigator a small cake as well.
Whether it was completely intentional or not, Yuki kept getting the distinct, hyper-sensitive feeling that Himeko's soft tongue was deliberately brushing against his fingers as she took the bites—which made things deliciously, dangerously awkward.
Just like that, Yuki went from feeding Himeko to feeding March, back and forth, caught completely in the middle of their unspoken war for his attention.
Watching him go through all that ridiculous, domestic trouble with the two beautiful women, Jingliu couldn't help but let out a quiet, genuine laugh from her seat.
That beautiful sound was when Yuki suddenly remembered she was sitting right there, too.
Without thinking, he automatically picked up a third cake and brought it directly to Jingliu's pale lips.
Jingliu flinched slightly in surprise, her crimson eyes meeting his golden ones as if to clearly ask: What exactly are you doing?
"Uh… let's just say I'm treating everyone on the crew equally." Yuki quickly scrambled for a flimsy excuse to ease the sudden awkwardness.
Damn my hand, he thought to himself. Moved completely on muscle memory.
Jingliu looked equally uncomfortable at his flimsy words, especially upon catching the sudden, highly intense, laser-focused looks March and Himeko were both giving her from the sidelines. For a long moment, she really didn't know whether to accept the offered food or not.
After a few tense seconds of hesitation, Jingliu slowly, gracefully parted her lips.
Yuki took the cue, gently feeding her the cake before quickly, respectfully pulling his hand back.
Jingliu bit down softly on the sweet pastry. The cake fundamentally tasted the same as it always did—but somehow, for some inexplicable reason, it also tasted just a little bit better than usual.
And so, the strange, wonderful welcome party lasted a full two hours, ending in a deeply cheerful, warm atmosphere of eating, drinking, and genuine laughter.
Everyone had a truly wonderful time—well, everyone except for a certain fluffy train conductor of pseudo-Aeonic status, who was quietly, safely forgotten in the corner with their pie.
Afterward, as the Express hummed peacefully through the cosmos, Yuki bid a temporary farewell to the others, stepped into his room, and seamlessly left the Honkai: Star Rail universe, returning to his original life in the Date A Live world.