Yoru sat in the corner of the Parlor Car after the meeting. His eyes hands held on his head, his mind racing.
"This isn't how the story went."
Did something change? What went wrong? These were things Yoru could only think of as the Express was making its final preparations.
"Fine. Take it in stride, I suppose," Yoru murmured to himself. If he was going to survive, he would need to be reactive as well as proactive.
First thing first, he would need to reroll his ability. He still had 4 rolls to play around with, and if he was going to Penacony, he wouldn't be able to bring a fly with him.
Pulling the system screen back up, Yoru navigates to the roll page.
He stared at the roll button, debating whether to reroll. Although he did want to test out the new ability, it would be better to get used to another one suited better for Penacony.
"And I did break the fly's wings."
[Yeah. Good one.]
"Why can you read my mind?"
No response. This system really liked to irk him.
Before Yoru clicked anything, a thought came to his head. "Right. I need to check my pay."
Standing from the corner, Yoru moved through the Parlor car to reach where he set his items down.
Rustling inside, he brought out the same card Asta had given to him. With a quick check, a hologram appeared above the card.
1 million credits.
Yoru's eyes lit up, like lights on a Christmas tree. That was another 10 rolls.
However, it wouldn't be the best idea to completely dump 1 million credits into 'useless' ability rolls.
Weighing his options, Yoru decided to dump half of his credits into 'useless' ability rolls. With the remaining 500k credits on the card, he put it back into his bag.
"Time to do another roll, yay!"
Navigating back to his roll page, Yoru clicked the roll button without hesitation.
The hologram blanks out for a small while, before reappearing.
"New Ability: Sleep Transfer"
"With all these different things, couldn't you give me something that is remotely useful?"
He swapped to the information tab.
"Sleep Transfer - Anytime you fall asleep, your spirit moves to a random inanimate object until you wake back up."
"Well this was useful for nothing," Yoru thought, his hand moving to his forehead. "Better roll again."
"The train is about to warp! Please find your seat!"
A voice echoed from the ceiling before Yoru could roll. The Astral Express was about to make their jump.
He moves towards the couches, sitting across from Stelle, who had seated herself when the announcement was made.
"The train is about to make the jump!"
"5... 4... 3..."
The car started to shake. Light objects began to jump and move as the shaking continued.
"2..."
A small wave of energy soon came over Yoru, the Express car glowing blue for a split second.
"1..!"
The train lurched forward, before it all went dark.
Yoru opened his eyes, but he didn't see the Express.
"Huh? Where am I?"
He tried to move his hand. He tried to stand up.
"I can't move? What is this—"
"Did the script change?"
A girl's voice cut through the air.
"A little. It seems something changed. Plan still stands for you to head to Penacony," Kafka's familiar voice said.
After much struggle, Yoru finally was able to move his head, or at least, what he thought was his head.
Sitting in front of a mirror, was a young woman with long, silvery-blonde hair with a teal ombre that reaches her waist. Her eyes were a mix of deep ocean blue and sunset pink.
And there Yoru was, seated on her head. Not as himself, but a headband.
"... this doesn't seem very random. WHY AM I ON FIREFLY?!"
"I still experience three deaths?"
"Mhm. Silver Wolf will help you get into Penacony."
Firefly nodded, standing up from the mirror. "Alright. I'll do my best."
She started to move towards the door in the small room, before she paused. "Kafka, was there anything else in the script? That I should know of?"
"Hm," Kafka hummed, her face as unchanging as ever. "A new player has joined the Express. Maybe you'll find them interesting?"
"Is it Stelle?"
"No, it's someone Wolfie and I encountered on Herta's station."
"You know," Yoru thought, his mind only able to listen and watch. "Feels both scary and nice to be talked about by a famous criminal organization."
"Alright. I'll go find Silver Wolf," Firefly said with a finished tone, opening the door.
"She might be fighting Bladie in the main room for those cookies I made," she commented with a light chuckle.
Firefly strode down the hallway, Yoru forced to follow along as the headband on her head.
"Get your own cookies! This is GG's for you, bud."
"... Kafka handed them to me first."
When Firefly entered the room, her eyes settled on Blade and Silver Wolf having a stare down. Silver Wolf held a plate of cookies in her hands, moving them away from Blade.
"Are you two..?"
"What?" Silver Wolf snaps, her eyes darting over to Firefly. "I'm in the middle of something important!"
"I need to get into Penacony..."
"Argh, fine!" Silver Wolf shoves the plate of cookies back into Blade's hands. "Don't let it get to your head."
Blade stood there, the plate of cookies now in his grasp. With a look that Yoru could only describe as petty smugness, he turned around to walk away.
"I don't think I ever want to see that face on Blade. Again."
Yoru blinked, and he's suddenly face to face with Stelle. His right cheek stung like hell. No longer was he on Firefly's head.
"Ow! Did you smack me?"
"No," Stelle said, moving backwards. "I punched you."
"Well rude. Why?"
"We're in Asdonia now. You fell asleep because of the memoria, like me."
Yoru turned to look outside the window. There stood a massive hotel.
"I'm about to go check in with the others," Stelle said, offering a hand to Yoru. "Come on."
A brief sigh left Yoru's mouth, but he accepted her outstretched hand.
"Fine. But I'm still not forgiving you for hitting me."