"I was killed by the serial killer?"
Fu Zhu was completely stunned. Wasn't he the serial killer?
What was this? Did I kill myself?
No, Fu Zhu immediately realized. There was only one person who could pull off something this absurd: Sparkle.
He had borrowed her identity, and she knew the entirety of his plan. Only she had the ability to pull this off.
"Alright, I get it. Give me your location, I'm coming to find you now."
Since he had already figured out who the culprit was, Fu Zhu certainly wasn't going to let her get away with it. Pranking him? Sparkle had better prepare for her butt to be turned into a blooming flower.
"Okay, big bro..."
Xing was typing, but as she did, she seemed to notice Firefly peering into the video call from the edge of the screen. Xing blinked, then pointed at the Firefly in the video with a look of disbelief. "Big bro, the pretty girl standing next to you, could she be..."
Before Xing could finish, Fu Zhu had already received the location she sent and hung up the call directly.
Xing stared at the dark screen of her phone. Her own reflection in the sleek, black surface blinked back at her, just as bewildered.
"How is my new best friend with my big brother?"
The shock of seeing Firefly with Fu Zhu again was in no way less than the shock she'd felt when she first discovered March 7th had a crush on her big brother.
Something was very, very wrong here!
---o---
A dozen or so minutes later, Fu Zhu, along with Firefly and Acheron, found Xing's group beneath the statue of the Clockie. Before Fu Zhu had even gotten close, Xing was already waving at him excitedly from a distance.
"Big bro, over here!"
Fu Zhu led his group over. As the two parties converged, they all looked at the newcomers in the other's team.
Fu Zhu's gaze fell on a mature woman in a purple turban standing next to Himeko, while Himeko and the others' eyes landed on Firefly and Acheron, who were with Fu Zhu.
Fu Zhu was the first to speak, asking Himeko's group about the mysterious woman in the turban. Although he had already learned her name and faction from his minimap, the reason she was with them was still a mystery.
[Garden of Recollection - Black Swan]
"Himeko, who is this lady with you?"
Black Swan took a proactive step forward. However, her movement was less like walking and more like... floating.
"Black Swan, a Memokeeper from the Garden of Recollection. I wish to cooperate with the Astral Express, so I am temporarily traveling with Ms. Himeko. Of course, Ms. Himeko has not yet given me her reply."
Fu Zhu nodded understandingly. As long as she wasn't some unknown person with a mysterious identity, it was fine. He then turned his head to look at Firefly and Acheron beside him, his gaze lingering on Firefly.
Although Acheron being an Envoy of Nihility was more shocking, she was ultimately just a passerby with little connection to the group. Firefly, on the other hand, was different. She was a Stellaron Hunter, the Astral Express's "mortal enemy."
"You tell them yourself. I don't want to hide things from my companions."
At first, Xing was just happy to see her big brother reunited with his real self, Firefly. She was about to greet him when she heard Fu Zhu say this. She immediately sensed that things were not as simple as they seemed.
Himeko and the others also realized that Firefly's identity was likely not what it seemed, and they all turned their focus onto her.
Firefly looked at the gazes of the group, her expression hesitant. After a long, conflicted moment, she finally worked up the courage to speak. "My name is Firefly. I am also... Sam, of the Stellaron Hunters. I'm sorry for hiding it from you before."
The second half of her sentence was directed at Xing.
Firefly thought that after revealing her true identity, the group would show some hostility towards her. But in reality, Himeko and the others just nodded with understanding, and that was it. They didn't even say a few words of questioning.
The contrast left Firefly a bit surprised. She couldn't help but ask, "Don't you have anything to say? I'm a Stellaron Hunter... in a sense, I'm an enemy of the Express."
Welt calmly spread his hands. "That is true. But an enemy is not always an enemy. What's more, the one who brought you here is Fu Zhu, and we don't see any restraints on you. That is enough to prove my point."
Xing also crossed her arms, grinning with her teeth showing. "My big bro trusts you, and I trust my big bro. That means I trust you too!"
March 7th also nodded in agreement from the side, but when she looked at Firefly, her words carried a hint of jealousy.
"Be that as it may, why do you always bring back pretty girls, Fu Zhu?"
Fu Zhu didn't know how to respond to March 7th's question. He could only let out a dry cough and shift everyone's attention to Acheron.
"And there's this one. Acheron, will you introduce yourself, or should I do it for you?"
Acheron spoke up, "You can call me Acheron, a Galaxy Ranger. I am traveling with Mr. Fu Zhu due to some coincidences."
Just as Acheron was introducing her fake identity, she secretly sent a message to Fu Zhu.
"Mr. Fu Zhu, please help me maintain this identity as a Galaxy Ranger for the time being. I need to meet the real Galaxy Rangers to hand something over to them, so I must impersonate them to get their attention."
Fine. Since Acheron had asked so politely, Fu Zhu agreed.
Just as everyone had finished their self-introductions, a television with two arms and two legs suddenly walked over from the side. Its screen displayed a chibi-style avatar of Sparkle.
"Hehe, so sorry to interrupt your chat But the great Sparkle has some bad news to tell you"
Fu Zhu and the others immediately focused their attention on the television. The chibi-style Sparkle on the screen seemed to come to life, her eyes swiveling to land on Fu Zhu.
"Hehe, to the members of the Express, your progress is currently the slowest If you don't speed things up, be careful that someone else gets the legacy. When that happens, don't come crying to the great Sparkle for not warning you"
Fu Zhu crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at the Sparkle on the television. "What are you trying to do?"
Sparkle hummed, her eyes fixed on Fu Zhu. "The great Sparkle just wants to prove that even without a certain someone, she can still put on an interesting performance!"
"Do you want to know the truth of everything? Then go find it! The great Sparkle has hidden everything in this Memoria bubble!"
A Memoria bubble suddenly emerged from the television and hovered in front of the group. The television then let out a burst of sparks and declared itself broken.
"If~ you're not afraid of dying, then come find the great Sparkle!"