The moment Wende entered, he saw Dan Heng beating the stuffing out of Blade-bro. The scene was utterly brutal; Blade-bro was about to be turned into a blood gourd by Cloud-Piercer! Although it was an imposter Blade, Wende felt there wasn't much difference from the real deal—both were as clingy as a dog-skin plaster, and just as unkillable...
Wende's intuition told him that even though this was a fake Blade, letting him and Dan Heng continue their mutual torture session might lead to big problems. Observing from the outside, although Dan Heng's erosion level was steadily decreasing, he still hadn't woken up, had he?
Wende scanned the entire carriage and found several bodies lying on the floor. While he didn't find one of his handy skulls, he did spot Himeko's toolbox. It must have been a remnant left behind in the dream, right?
Wende wasn't sure if his Chaos energy could manipulate it, but it turned out he could indeed control the toolbox directly.
While the two fighters were distracted, Wende quietly opened the toolbox and began rummaging for something suitable to break the stalemate.
Hmm... a drone was too big of a target. It wouldn't be good if it was discovered. There were also saws and things... what if he sawed this imposter Blade into several pieces...?
Forget it. He was afraid Dan Heng would have nightmares. It was better to use something a little gentler.
Wende found a hammer, seemingly made from an ultra-high-density alloy. Even lifting it with Chaos energy, he could feel a distinct weight to it. It was hard to imagine Himeko casually carrying this stuff around the cosmos. He finally understood why everyone who knew about the Astral Express was so respectful toward Himeko...
As the train's maintenance personnel, it's perfectly normal for me to carry a molecular saw and an alloy hammer, right?
Wende decisively grabbed the hammer. He glanced up at the two still tangled in combat, and while the imposter Blade wasn't paying attention, he silently wrapped the hammer in Chaos energy, then watched for the perfect moment...
"BONK!"
Before Dan Heng's trembling eyes, the imposter Blade collapsed to the ground, falling into a very peaceful slumber.
He wasn't dead, and it wasn't a major injury, so it probably wouldn't be enough to trigger his...
"?"
The imposter Blade dazedly scratched the back of his head, then stood up again as if nothing had happened.
"..."
"BONK! BONK-BONK-BONK-BONK! BONK!"
Wende decisively had the hammer begin some assembly-line work. Beside him, Dan Heng looked as if his entire worldview was beginning to tremble.
---o---
Taking advantage of the brief moment when the imposter Blade was "under control," Wende took the opportunity to pull a memo pad out of Himeko's toolbox. He flipped to a blank page but suddenly realized there was no pen in the toolbox. This put Wende in a difficult position. Getting Dan Heng to follow his guidance was going to be much harder than leading March and Stelle...
But a clever man always has a plan. Wende quickly came up with a solution. After "writing" his name on the memo pad, Wende slowly floated it in front of Dan Heng...
From Dan Heng's perspective, he had been locked in a "scorching and intense" duel with "Blade" when a hammer suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started plastering itself against "Blade's" head. And, as if the force wasn't enough, it relentlessly hammered "Blade" into a state that "couldn't pass censorship even with a mosaic"!
Now, a memo pad was floating before him. He recognized it; it was Himeko's... but was it serious about the name "Wende" scrawled on it with "Blade's" blood?
It was a testament to Dan Heng's strong mental fortitude. If it had been March, she probably would have fainted from fright by now.
Although the scene before him was straight out of a horror film, Dan Heng's intuition told him this probably wasn't a haunting—at least, it wasn't the ghost of a dead Wende coming to claim his life.
And so, with a tentative heart, Dan Heng spoke softly to the memo pad.
"Wende?"
The memo pad bobbed up and down, as if nodding.
"How did you end up like this?"
Dan Heng frowned, lowering the tip of Cloud-Piercer. He truly didn't understand. Through his fight with that Blade, he had already realized this was an illusion, but Wende's appearance... was clearly not a hallucination of his own.
The memo pad froze in mid-air. For a moment, Dan Heng could actually perceive a hint of difficulty from a piece of paper. Just as Wende was about to go borrow some more "pigment" from the imposter Blade, Dan Heng, realizing the next scene might not be suitable for children, quickly stopped Wende's impending action and got straight to the point.
"Are you here to help me escape this illusion?"
Under Wende's control, the memo pad bobbed up and down, nodding in affirmation.
"Then let's not waste any more time. Let's get out of here first and talk later."
Dan Heng shot a quick glance at the "Blade" who was still getting intimately acquainted with the hammer, then turned to Wende without looking back.
Through Wende's senses, he located this dream's fissure on the phonograph in the Parlor Car. He guided Dan Heng over, and as he watched him touch the crack, Wende finally let out a sigh of relief.
Now that Dan Heng was rescued, that only left Himeko, Tingyun, and Jingliu.
---o---
Returning once more to that empty space, Wende looked at the sleeping Himeko with utter astonishment.
There wasn't a single trace of erosion on Himeko's body. It was as if she was having a perfect dream. Within her dreamscape, it was as if no erosion had ever occurred...
Could it be that Sister Himeko just yeeted all the imposters that entered her dream?
For a moment, that was the only reasonable explanation Wende could come up with. It was possible Himeko had just hit them with a blast from her orbital cannon and vaporized the lot of them.
With this thought, Wende, filled with curiosity, reached his hand toward the sleeping Himeko and entered her dream.
---o---
"You say my coffee is good? Really?"
Himeko rested her chin on her hand, a gentle smile on her face as she looked at the "March" before her. This child, when did she develop such good taste?
"Of... of course... Sister Himeko's coffee is the best..."
"March," having downed the coffee in one gulp, began showering Himeko with compliments, just like the other "crew members who had drunk the coffee." She paid no mind to the fact that her companions, who had just had coffee, were now lying on the ground in agony, their forms gradually melting away...
"Oh my, is that so? If you like it, then have some more!"
Himeko covered her mouth and chuckled softly, a kind and gentle look on her face as she refilled "March's" cup to the brim.
"O... okay..."