The Astral Express hummed its usual melody through the void between stars.
March 7th sprawled across a passenger seat, scrolling through her camera. "Hey Dan Heng, which photo looks better for my album? The sunset on Jarilo-VI or.."
The train lurched.
March yelped, nearly dropping her camera. Metal groaned as something thudded against the front of the Express.
Then silence.
"What was that?!" March was on her feet.
Dan Heng moved toward the observation deck, hand near his weapon. "We hit something."
"Hit something? In space?!"
"POM-POM DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!" The conductor's voice shrieked from the engine room. "THERE WAS NOTHING THERE!"
Welt emerged from his room, adjusting his glasses with practiced calm. "Status?"
"Unknown impact. No visible damage, but" Dan Heng stopped at the observation window.
March pressed against the glass beside him. Her jaw dropped. "Is that a person?!"
Floating directly ahead, motionless in the void, was a young man. Dark combat attire. White hair streaked with black. Two rings glinting on his hands.
Unconscious. Or dead.
"How is he alive?" March whispered.
"Good question." Welt's expression was thoughtful, but cautious. Whatever the answer was, it wasn't normal.
"Airlock," Dan Heng ordered, already moving. "March, medical kit. Welt"
"I'll assist." The older man followed. "We're responsible. We hit him."
"We HIT someone!" Pom-Pom wailed. "This has NEVER happened!"
The airlock cycled. Dan Heng propelled himself into the void, tether line secure.
Up close, the details crystallized. Well-worn combat gear. Young face weighted with something indefinable. And those rings patterns that shifted when he looked away.
Not ordinary at all.
He secured the line and signaled. The winch engaged.
They laid him on a passenger seat. Still unconscious.
"Vitals stable," March said, relief flooding her voice. "No injuries. How?"
"That's the question." Dan Heng's tone was carefully neutral, but his eyes never left the stranger.
Stelle emerged, drawn by commotion. "Hitchhiker?"
"We hit him with the train." March checked his pulse again. "And he's fine."
"Unconscious," Welt corrected, studying the stranger with open curiosity. "But unharmed. Very unusual."
"He was just there!" Pom Pom's ears drooped. "Walking in space like a sidewalk!"
"Who walks in space?" Stelle moved closer.
"Someone who doesn't need to," Dan Heng said quietly.
The stranger's fingers twitched.
Everyone tensed.
green eyes opened storm clouds given form and stared at the ceiling. Confused. Disoriented.
He sat up slowly, hand going to his head, and looked around with polite bewilderment.
"...Where am I?"
March waved awkwardly. "Hi! You're on the Astral Express! We're so sorry—we kind of hit you? With the train?"
He blinked. Checked both rings instinctively. "...A train?"
"The Astral Express," Pom-Pom clarified nervously. "Pom Pom takes full responsibility! Though you really shouldn't walk in space lanes without looking!"
The man considered this with surprising seriousness. "I see. No harm done."
"No harm?" March stared. "We hit you!"
"I'm fine." He stood, testing his balance. "Thank you for bringing me aboard. I apologize for the trouble."
Welt stepped forward. "You were walking through open space. Alone. That's unusual."
green eyes met Welt's, and something ancient flickered there. "I've been walking for a long time."
The weight of those words settled over the car like frost.
Stelle broke the silence. "Name?"
He hesitated, as if the question required deep consideration. "Kevin. Kevin Eventide Aionios."
"Kevin," March repeated, surprised by how ordinary the name sounded for someone who looked anything but.
Welt's expression remained carefully neutral, but internally, he felt a familiar exasperation rising. Kevin. White hair. Combat outfit. Tragic backstory written all over him. Of course.
The universe had a sense of humor, apparently. Even here, across realities, that name followed him.
Honkai fallows me!!
"Kevin it is!" March's friendliness never wavered. "So where were you headed?"
Kevin looked toward the observation window. Toward endless stars.
"I'm searching for something," he said finally. "A new beginning. For those who can no longer search for themselves."
Dan Heng's eyes narrowed.
"Quite a goal," Welt said softly.
Kevin turned back. Something almost like warmth touched his expression. "Perhaps. But it's the only one I have."
"Well!" Pom Pom puffed up. "Since Pom Pom hit you, the least we can do is offer passage! The Astral Express welcomes travelers!"
"We're trailblazers," March added. "We travel to different worlds, help people, solve problems! Maybe you'll find what you're looking for with us?"
Kevin looked at each of them. March's earnest hope. Dan Heng's caution. Welt's understanding. Stelle's curiosity. Pom Pom's concern.
Something long frozen inside him stirred.
He touched the Ring of Death and Beginning unconsciously.
A collision. An unexpected meeting. Perhaps this is how new paths begin.
"If you'll have me," Kevin said quietly, "I would be honored to travel with you."
March beamed. "Welcome aboard!"
As the crew dispersed casting curious glances back Welt remained behind, adjusting his glasses thoughtfully.
Kevin noticed his gaze. The older man seemed... contemplative.
"Something on your mind?" Kevin asked quietly.
Welt smiled slightly. "Just thinking. Walking through open space, surviving a collision with the train... You're clearly not an ordinary traveler." He paused. "But everyone has their secrets. If you wish to share your story, we'll listen. If not..." He shrugged. "The Express doesn't demand explanations."
"Thank you," Kevin said, and meant it.
Welt nodded and turned to leave, then paused. "Though I will say that name of yours. Kevin." A hint of something amusement? exasperation? crossed his face. "Reminds me of someone I once knew."
He walked away before Kevin could respond.
Kevin stood alone in the passenger car.
The Emanator of Nihility looked down at his rings.
This world, he thought, a fragment of memory stirring something from before, from a life he barely remembered. I know this place. These people. I've seen this before, somehow.
The memory was hazy. Fragmented. Like recalling a dream.
I died, he realized distantly. Before Aionios. Before the rings. I was someone else. And when I died... I was reborn here on Aionios.
He'd thought it was simply another world. Another civilization on the brink of reaching the stars.
Then Nihility's shadow fell. IX's gaze turned toward him. And in that moment of becoming an Emanator, he understood.
This wasn't just another world.
This was Honkai Star Rail.
The game he'd once known in a life so distant it felt like fiction.
Kevin closed his eyes. The irony wasn't lost on him.
He'd been given a second chance at life, only to watch another world burn. To become an Emanator of the very concept he should have rejected.
But I didn't reject it, he thought. I embraced it. Because even in meaninglessness, even in the end, there can be a beginning.
Outside the window, stars continued their dance.
For the first time in longer than he could remember, Kevin allowed himself something dangerous.
Hope.