'Alright, alright, power couple, slay.'

Caelus got distracted just for a split second, watching Dan Heng and y/n fight Fragmentum Monsters further ahead so that Gepard and the Silvermane Guards would have less of a challenge dealing with the ones that got past.

They covered one another, filling blind spots and remaining close but far enough to fight without difficulty.

When y/n attacked, Dan Heng defended.

When y/n defended, Dan Heng attacked.

They fought without skipping a single beat, in sync as though they could read one another's minds with just a glance.

'So cool...!' Caelus thought in
Amazmenst before March shoved his head down just before a Fragmentum creature could cut it right off, "March-!"

"Pay attention, you'll get killed gawking like that!" she snapped, "Ugh, how many of them are there?!"

"The more the merrier!" Seele exclaimed as she took out a whole line of Fragmentum creatures one by one in quick succession, "These guys are nothing! Hold the line!"

"💩! Mimi" y/n shrieked as she punched a Fragmentum creature's head right off to grab the one directly behind it, "Where's Mimi?!"

"Right here, I'll give it right back to you, just stay focused!" Serval called out to her somewhere in the fray.

A couple more minutes of non stop battle and they had a little break, a bunch of Silvermane Guards laying on the ground in exhaustion while the little group caught their breath.

...and y/n threw up in the corner.

Maybe she had a concussion. Gepard had been hitting her pretty hard during their brief fight minutes before.

Gepard wasn't doing too well, he was pretty sure y/n broke one of his ribs and caused some internal bleeding when she managed to hit him directly.

Serval was worriedly watching over her brother before finally glancing at the group with a, "Outsiders, Seele, make a run for it before the next wave of monsters comes!"

"Huh? What about you?" March questioned, "Weren't you going to go looking for the Stellaron with us?"

"My brother can't hold the next wave back by himself. He wasted a lot of energy on us, so..." Serval gave her brother a worried look.

Y/n raised her hand, "I can stay."

Dan Heng gave her an incredulous look but she was already wandering over to join the siblings.

"You wanted to see the Stellaron, right? You go on ahead, you and Cocolia have got history so I imagine that if it comes to it, you'd be able to save her from that nasty little thing." y/n told the woman, "I thrive in situations like this, so all I ask is that you ensure my buddies have a safe trip to the Stellaron's location."

"Y/n, I don't think leaving you here is a good idea." Dan Heng began in a careful tone and y/n waved him off.

"You never think anything is a good idea, but I'd hate for something to happen to Geppie here because I beat him down so badly." y/n exclaimed giving the young man a little grin, "Don't worry about me, you all go on ahead! Quickly, now! Give that snake a good mollywhopping for me!"

"You've got it!" March declared before ushering the others along, "Come on now, everyone, we've gotta get to that Stellaron quick!"

"Stay safe!" Caelus called over his shoulder.

As they hurried off, y/n glanced at the exhausted Gepard and guided him over to a crate where she help him sit.

"The second wave..." Gepard forced out as y/n searched for something to ease the pain, "The second... wave... it's coming... I have to..!"

"No, no, just sit here and rest. You'll need a moment to pull yourself together." y/n hummed as she took some snow and pat Gepard's cheeks with it, "I'll handle the second wave."

Gepard winced, peering at her through one half-lidded eye as she pressed a cold hand against his cheek, "You... really are insane, aren't you?"

"Believe me, I'm quite the impressive soldier." y/n hummed with a playful little wink, "I may not look like it, or act like if, but I can take on an entire army— no, an entire world on my own!"

Gepard blinked once, scanning y/n's face before chuckling quietly, "Goodness, you really are insane... ah, but I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised. You risked getting arrested just so you could get a little plush back, after all."

"Excuse you, Mister, Mimi is my best buddy. My certified no-cheating-in-chess lookout and my melatonin when my breathing melatonin doesn't want to hold me." y/n replied with a little huff.

"More monsters are headed our way!" one of the guards shouted and a bunch immediately ran to prepare themselves for battle.

Gepard began to get up, ready to join them, but was eased back down by y/n who gave him a stern look.

"Stay here. Rest." she ordered before walking on away, mentally preparing herself for the world of pain that was awaiting her.

'She really doesn't intend to take on all those Fragmentum monsters by herself, does she?' Gepard wondered as the woman approached all the soldiers.

She said something to them, something Gepard couldn't hear, but what she said became pretty obvious when all the soldiers backed off, leaving y/n as the lone individual at the gate.

'I'm tired.' she thought, unable to keep the itty bitty voice in the back of her mind, 'Tired. It hurts. So tired.'

She grimaced as the monsters of the second wave came into view. Ahh, her vision was doing that thing again... wavering, darkening, twisting and distorting.

Y/n tried to blink the tones of gold and confusion away, but they persisted as the Fragmentum creatures shifted as well. Shifting... shifting... ahh, it hurt.

Concussion.

Y/n definitely had a concussion.

She gritted her teeth, forcefully yanking herself back to reality as her enemies approached her rapidly while the guard behind her got a little frantic.

Hurt, hurt, hurt, it hurt...

Burning, burning, y/n's veins were on fire.

Her hand twitched, reaching out in search of Dan Heng to give her hand a squeeze just to keep her grounded in reality. Or perhaps March who would link pinkies with her and give her one of her encouraging little smiles.

Or her troublesome ▇▇ who would brush his hand with her's only for a split second, just long enough to bring y/n back to her senses—

'Wait... who?' y/n wondered, the pain subsiding just long enough for her to focus on the closest enemy and grab ahold, thus beginning another long fight she'd have to take a nap to recover from later, 'Huh, that thought is gone, but... the pain is gone too.'

Ha. If only Caelus could relate.

Dude was HURTING as him and the others battled it out with a bunch of Fragmentum creatures, this big 🍑 robot blasting them every other minute.

Why were there so many?!

"Really starting to wish we didn't let y/n stay behind!" Caelus called out as the massive robot reared back its arm, preparing to give them all the Rebecca treatment, only to get its arm 🚚ed up by random 🍑 air strike.

(Whenever Himeko uses her ult, I think of that one "Biden Blast!" audio, and I lose my mind—)

"Oh! It's Himeko!" March exclaimed.

Right on cue, some fuzzy transmission came through with Himeko's voice, "Hello? Can— you he—ar me-? The signal—— is terri—ble..."

"Himeko! About time you helped us out." March said with a pout, earning a little scowl from Caelus.

"Shush, the queen is speaking."

"Enjoy your kneecaps while you still have them."

"What— are you talking about — Welt and I have— been up on the st—r rail m—ssing you thi—s whole time—!" Himeko replied as Caelus's eyes sparkled, "You—ve got quite—- the Trail—blaz—ng expedition on your ha—ds."

'Mr. Yang missed us, y/n, he missed us!' Caelus thought with joy, to which March gave him a little eugh look.

"So, how does this big g—uy work? Or, more imp—tantly, how do you stop him from w—king? Over to you guys, I guess!"

Caelus nodded to Bronya, girlie was getting brainwashed a couple minutes ago, and she nodded back.

Five seconds later... Caelus was running up that damn robot arm like Smalltengu was running away from Genya and Tanjiro.

Dude was laying the moves on all the Fragmentum monsters that got in his way, but for the ones he couldn't avoid, Bronya, Seele and Serval were putting some work in.

As he was running up, the robot began to sit up a lil and... oop, gravity was kicking. Smh, you've got a whole Stellaron in your gut and you can't work against gravity?

Seele was ready though, grabbing onto him, swinging him around, and flinging him further up into the robot. Dude hit the ground running, jumping out of the way just before the giant robot's other arm could crush him, and he made a leap for where Cocolia was chilling— see was I did there — only to miss and fall off. Again.

Oh, there was Cloud Piercer!

Caelus grabbed ahold of the polearm wedged into the robot, swung his 🍑 right back up and landed before Cocolia. Whew, safe.

'Well. Not safe.' Caelus corrected himself as Cocolia went through a whole magical girl transformation, turning into some weird ice thing or whatever, "Oh."

"Behold... the power granted by them!" this woman was on some 💩, "Listen to the power surge... sing...! The Stellaron's promise is the only hope for this world! Just as it wiped out the Antimatter Legion 700 years ago... so too will it-!" Bonk

Well, more like a WHAM

Caelus had blitzed her and smacked the 💩 out of her face with his bat, sending this weird ice witch lady to the ground. Fr canceled out her levitation hacks.

"You-!"

WHAM

"THE STELLARON-!"

WHAM

"JUST AS—!"

WHAM

Caelus smacked her each time before she could finish her sentence, practically throwing the woman around each time he slapped her with that damn bat of his.

"Lady, I could not care less. Let's get this boss fight over so I can get back to the Astral Express, okay?" Caelus sighed, raising his bat to hit the woman again.

"Enough!" Cocolia shouted, some big 🍑 ice spears appearing around her before Caelus could hit her again, "Let me bestow upon you... despair!"

"Oh, her voice lines went back to normal." Caelus mumbled before getting stabbed through the gut with this big 🍑 ice lance.

Dude stumbled back, teetered off the edge, and fell.

Anyways, he kinda blacked out and ended up on this strange plane of existence with floating space pollution— oh, that was just rocks. Hm...

"Is this..." Caelus squinted, "Was that mushroom soup I had made of mushrooms or shrooms? Am I high?"

Idk bro, you tell me.

Caelus shook his head, "Mm... to think I blacked out while fighting that snake ♀🐶. Y/n would not be happy about that one, but... isn't this the same spot I saw that fine 🍑 mf Nanook back when I took that hit for March back at the Space Station."

He decided to wander along, ignoring the little memories that appeared as he walked past. Oh! There was Gepard, poor baby...

All the little memories included Cocolia, she seemed really sick in the head now that Caelus got a look at all the strange visions. See, now he really wanted to beat her 🍑.

As he approached the center of the swirling spiral of star dust and uh space 💩, he saw a little kid gazing at a pillar of warm light at the center.

It was the Guardians' Will.

...
Caelus did not know how he knew that.

'Should've labeled it as shroom soup, damn.'

"The city is drowning in tears..." the Guardians murmured, "The power of the Preservation is fading. We could not defy the will of the Stellaron after all."

"Damn. That sucks." Caelus commented, "Hey, uh, do you know where the exit is? I still need to beat Cocolia's 🍑. I've got full permission since she abandoned the Preservation, right."

"Ah, a believer, I see."

"Actually, I'm atheist—"

"The Fragmentum had been expanding for the past 700 years. There is no faith or wealth left for our successors. Only... despair..."

"Mm. Wow. Okay."

"To see the home we vowed to preserve wither away... than in itself is torture." the will murmured as Caelus strolled past, "Not to mention the haunting whisper of temptation..."

"You want that torture to end, eh? Then I've gotta get back and handle that Stellaron." Caelus hummed before gesturing to the bean of light further away, "That's... a lance, right? Mind if I borrow it?"

"You... you are but a stranger to us..." the will breathed, "And yet, you seem to bond your destiny to ours... so be it. What is there to lose when so much has already been lost? Go on, touch the light of the Amber, trailblazer. See if your will can attract their gaze."

Caelus shrugged, wandering over to the lance and giving it a curious look. Huh, looked like the thing Cocolia stabbed him with before the shrooms kicked in.

He tried grabbing it.

"DAMN!" he recoiled, "That's hot-!"

He tried again, holding on tighter as he strained to pull it from the ground. Just a little more...!

Oh!

He could see them, Qlipoth. Looked like a bunch of rocks, but he could tell that they were looking right at him.

Caelus awoke, enveloped in warmth as he fell only to land on another part of the robot and skid safely to a halt.

"Oh. I'm back..." he breathed, before peering over the edge to shout down, "I'm okay!"

"I don't care if you're okay, finish this so we can get this over with!!!" March shouted back up at him, punching the air, "Get a good hit in for me!"

"Yeah, yeah, I've got it!" he snapped back before turning back to the floating ice witch thing, 'Easy boss battle, absolutely. I wonder how y/n is doing down there.'

Yo.

Why did you jinx it?

. 　。　　⋆　　•　 　ﾟ　　。 .　.　.　。 .　。
⋆　　　。　　 ⋆。　 ඞ 。　 . • .  .   ⁎ 。　. 　。　.　　⋆. 　　。 .　 .　　 .  ⋆.   。.   ⁎ 。•　 　ﾟ　　。

If Gepard thought y/n was crazy when she took on six waves of Fragmentum monsters alone so the Silvermane Guards and Gepard could get a breather, he definitely thought she was crazy now.

The Silvermane Guards had joined the battling once more, forcing the monsters back while Gepard hastily tended to the train guard's more life threatening injuries.

"I knew you were crazy, but not this crazy—!"

"Don't worry, Geppie, I'm just cosplaying Rengoku! That's all! It's no biggie, so you don't need to worry!"

Taking on six waves of monsters alone when already feeling exhausted did have his consequences, and y/n was no exception to them.

She literally lost an eye, but she didn't seem bothered in the slightest, only sitting there and just trying to lighten the mood while a panicked Gepard hurried to stop the bleeding.

Despite her outwardly happy mood and goofy little smile as she tried to ease Gepard's worries, the way she held onto the crate she was seated on gave away how she was faring internally.

She was beginning to see things she knew weren't there. It was getting difficult to tell the difference between what was real and what wasn't.

'Get up... finish what you started...' something in her mind seethed, its voice feeling like knives piercing every individual nerve in her body, 'Kill them all... no matter how many more come to replace the ones you have felled, kill them all...'

Itchy. Her back was itchy. Was she getting leaves again?

'Yeesh, what a hater...' y/n thought wearily before carefully tapping Gepard's shoulder, "Look, Gepard, I'm fine. I can still fight. Losing an eye is hardly a hindrance, so don't worry about me."

"Are... are you sure?"

"Very." y/n grinned, "Let's go for it!"

Gepard seemed hesitant, but y/n didn't wait for him, standing up and making her way towards the gates.

As y/n approached, squinting against the snow, the world around her kept changing. Snow turned to ash and scorched earth, the Silvermane Guards and Fragmentum creatures alike turned into twisted creatures that reeked of ▇▇▇▇▇. Y/n was trying her best to stay focused, to keep her grip on reality, but it was becoming very... very difficult.

Before they could get close to the fight outside the gates, Gepard paused after seeing y/n's confident facade beginning to crumble as the pain in her eyes— ahem— eye, became clearer and clearer.

"Y/n."

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

A heavy sigh, followed by some soft rustling before Mimi'a little plush face popped into y/n's line of sight.

The glitches in reality came to an abrupt halt as y/n stared owlishly at her little plush, watching as Gepard gently took its little arms and moved them to rest them on her cheeks.

"You're very strong, y/n, super strong!" came Gepard's voice, high pitched and squeaky as he held Mimi, "But even the strongest people have to rely on others from time to time! Like you rely on me to go to sleep!"

"Pfft-!"

Gepard peeked out from behind Mimi sheepishly, his cheeks tinted pink as he knelt in front of the h/c haired woman, "You can go back out there and fight, but..." he cleared his throat, "You can rely on me for support. Let me be your shield."

"Haa... I don't know..." y/n sighed playfully with a shake of her head, "I'd have to see what Mimi thinks."

She placed a hand on her plush, her hand brushing against Gepard's as she turned Mimi toward him.

Y/n cleared her throat before exclaiming in a tiny voice, "We would love to have you as our shield! Let's go kill some Fragmentum Creatures!!!"

Gepard stood up again, his cheeks still tinted red, though he offered y/n a smile, "There's my answer, I suppose."

Shield... her shield.

A promise had been made before, one similar, but not quite the same. Mimi had been there to witness it as well.

Hm, well, y/n didn't seem to be able to remember it at the moment. That wasn't a problem, it'd return later.

It was a long while before the monsters stopped coming and the little Cocolia Attack Group returned from their battle against Cocolia.

Seele and a disheartened Serval we're both helping a clearly exhausted Bronya walk while the Trailblaze trio were in the lead.

"Any sign of y/n?" March inquired as she scanned the area in search of her friend, "I don't see her yet..."

"Me neither..." Caelus murmured with a frown before exchanging a worried look with March, "You don't think... OW!"

March had punched him in his stomach, right where Cocolia 🚚ing stabbed him. He wasn't bleeding or anything, the only evidence suggesting he'd been stabbed there was the hole in his shirt and the scar on his belly.

"Don't even suggest that! Y/n wouldn't have croaked and died here!" March snapped before looking to Dan Heng, "Right?"

The young man didn't reply, still searching, before relief surged through his gaze. The duo followed his line of sight and found y/n standing with a bunch of Silvermane Guards, Gepard beside her.

"There she is!" March breathed before waving happily, "Y/nnn! Over here! Over here!"

Y/n blinked, glancing their way as Caelus and March ran to her. She smile, turning fully towards them, "Hey, guys!"

They took