Waking Up

"Pom Pom, what do you think about this?" asked the now teenager called Himeko, looking at the special tank where the floating purple soul was stored.

It had passed a day, and under Pom Pom's instructions, the soul had been placed in a stasis tank where it wouldn't die.

"He is Master" Pom Pom said in his usual high-pitched voice while crossing his arms. "We need to help him."

"I heard you the first time" grumbled Himeko, not liking the idea of someone appearing all of a sudden and 'stealing' HER train, the one she had spent money and time repairing by herself.

She had been travelling for a few years alone, met a lot of people and made a name for herself as one of the new Nameless, the followers of Akivili who follow the Path of the Trailblaze.

So indeed, knowing that this...thing, was Pom Pom's 'Master' didn't sit well with her. Not one bit.

"....." but she was a kind woman at heart, and seeing the purple soul gently floating in the tank so lifelessly, she couldn't bring herself not to help whoever this soul belonged to.

But, how to help this soul?

She had a lot of contacts she had made through sheer effort, talent and luck, so she might have some idea of what to do.

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"So that's why you came to me" a small puppet resembling a little girl with purple hair spoke apathetically.

"Yes Madam Herta" Himeko respectfully nodded towards the members of the Genius Society, the organization formed by those Nous the Aeon of Erudition chose.

"What do you want me to do exactly?" Madam Herta blandly replied, looking at the soul. "It's not that unusual to find some lost soul, why should I help this one?"

"This one is special" Himeko tried to show confidence, so the little chance she had of avoidin-

"Why?"

And now Himeko was stumped.

Pom Pom only felt that this soul was a 'Master' of the train of some kind, and Himeko personally thought this soul belonged to a former nameless, and was the next owner of the star rail it was her duty to help her predecessor.

But as the reason this soul was special...

"I..." Himeko desperately tried to find a reason, but she gave up with a sigh.

All she knew was that this soul had been detected by Pom Pom, and as much as she knew, soul physiology was not one of them.

"I will help you" Herta's words shocked Himeko, who looked at the puppet in front of her. "But should I require something of the Star Rail or its crew, you will give it to me."

Himeko bit her lip, as she knew how much a favour was worth, but finally nodded.

'You better be worth it' she thought glaring at the soul peacefully chilling inside a tank.

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He opened his eyes, only to see a purple-haired girl looking down at him.

"Everything went alright" the girl said blandly. "My part is done, I made a body his soul seemed to remember."

"Thank you, the Star Rail won't forget this" a beautiful red-headed girl said with a cramped smile.

The purple-headed one left the room, so ?? was now alone with Himeko.

"How are you?" Himeko asked, masking her anger, as she couldn't even begin to imagine the amount of anxiousness this 'revived' person must be in.

But there was something inside her bubbling with excitement.

How many stories did this person have to tell?

What kinds of adventures did he have?

How did he die? Was he fighting cosmic beings able to unravel reality by their mere presence?

"Who are you" the man with black hair and grey eyes asked looking at Himeko's red eyes.

"Himeko, your successor" Himeko smiled, as she had just taken for granted that the person in front of her, a tall guy who seemed to be her age, was her predecessor. Her senpai, as some people might call it.

"....." the man looked blankly at Himeko, who patiently waited.

Until she didn't wait more, she had many things to ask, and a debt that this man was going to help repay.

"Can you tell me your name?" she politely asked.

"No" was all she got.

The man curtly replied, not reacting when Himeko's face twitched.

"May I know the reason?" Himeko felt a few screws on her head keeping her anger in place get slowly unscrewed.

"Don't remember" the man replied, not caring about Himeko anymore and looking around the room.

Himeko cursed the moment Pom Pom detected this soul. Only now did she realize that taking care of the inert soul in a tank would be way easier than taking care of an amnesiac mind.

Of course, she was going to help this person, but maybe having left him inside the tank as a soul could have helped her sanity.

"Perfect" she muttered feeling her eyebrow twitch, making the man look at her.

"Why are you angry?" he asked, making Himeko look at the man with surprise.

After all, she was quite good at negotiating, and her poker face was second to none.

Well, maybe Madam Herta's, but she had no feelings other than interest or boredom, so she didn't count.

"Why do you say so?" asked Himeko, now forgetting her anger at owing a favour for 'free'.

"Don't know" the man replied apathetically, his grey eyes looking at Himeko's pondering ones.

"..." but Himeko was too smart to let this go as a 'coincidence'.

No, this man was hiding something, maybe lost in his amnesia, but she was going to get to the end.

If this man was her predecessor, there was no way he would be this simple.

"I guess you don't know your name?" Himeko asked with a small smile.

"No" the man replied blandly, still looking at Himeko's face.

'He is quite handsome' noted Himeko, looking at the man's facial structure and glossy black hair.

But the body the man was using was nothing more than a puppet his soul controlled, no funny thing would happen.

"How about I give you a name?" Himeko proposed.

The man didn't reply, but the faintest of nods gave Himeko the light green to go ahead.

"What about...Kiana?" she mischievously said, saying a name that didn't belong to the gender of this man.

Even if he hid the secrets of the universe, she still needed to pay Herta, so a little teeny bit of payback was allowed right?

"No" the man frowned, sensing that the woman in front of him had 'impure' reasons to say that name.

It wasn't a certainty, more like a keen intuition, just like he felt the woman was angry earlier.

But....there was something he liked about the name, a certain sense of familiarity, something that made him like the association of sounds.

"K...K....." he tried to pronounce the same sound that parked a sense of familiarity within him.

"Your name starts with 'K'?" Himeko quickly deduced the man's intention, realizing that the day she could unravel the mystery of the man in front of her wasn't that far. Maybe if she gave him a name closer to the one he once had, the process would go faster. "Kay?"

But the man didn't react.

"Kanith?"

Again, no reaction.

"Kirschurr?"

Nope.

"Keith?"

The man's eyes slightly widened, sensing that the word the woman just uttered felt somehow familiar.

"Keith it is then" Himeko nodded, having a name to call the mysterious man in front of her.

The man looked at Himeko with what Himeko thought was approval, and things were settled.

"....." but the man felt something missing in that name, something he would try to find for as long as he lived.

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"And this is the Herta's Space Station" Himeko said, making the man look around in wonder.

Keith had only seen the small white room, and while he knew how to talk, he was almost a blank slate.

Seeing the huge space made out of pure steel was amazing, but there was something even more mesmerizing than the beautifully built, and that was the scene he could see through the wide transparent windows.

A huge expanse of pure black with some light on it, each one representing a star, and a huge blue sphere that Himeko would later tell him was called Blue, the planet Herta came from.

Himeko watched with a soft smile the now-named Keith approach the window to get a better look, as she had once done the same.

She came from a down-to-earth planet, and the first time she had seen outer space had been an eye-opening scene, a scene that she would remember for all her life. She didn't want to speak to Keith now as she didn't want to distract him from taking this scenery with his eyes, as this was only his moment.

"Woof!"

So imagine her shock when a small dog she knew was called Peppy collided with Keith's leg, making him fall to the ground.

She had to wonder if this man was somehow cursed because she couldn't find another explanation.

"Peppy!"

A tanned boy with a nervous expression quickly ran towards the place where the man was standing up.

There was no blood, as it was still a puppet, one that Herta built reading the appearance the man had while being alive.

"I'm sorry!" the nervous boy said, not knowing how important the man who just fell was.

Madam Herta was an incredibly famous and important person, so absolutely everyone in this station was important to some degree, be it their academic talent or their money.

"Don't worry" the man calmly said, and kept moving towards the window.

He was just 'born' in this world, he was still a clean slate and as such his personality, reactions and thoughts needed to mature with the weight of experience.

"Don't mind him" Himeko approached with a reassuring expression seeing the boy hug the puppy to his chest. "You are Arlan right?"

"Y-You know me?" the now-named Arlan spoke with surprise, the lack of experience not having hardened him yet.

"I talked with Miss Asta a while ago, she mentioned the quiet boy who despite lacking the academic ability she had, his bravery and willingness to defend the people around him makes him equally as valuable" Himeko said with a smile, making Arlan look down in embarrassment.

"She is too kind" he quietly said, but looked at the man who was now looking through the window with fascination and curiosity similar to a child's. "I'm sorry about this, Peppy just recovered from a serious illness, and she has too much energy."

"Don't worry about him" Himeko said, petting the puppy in Arlan's arms, who liked her hand. 'That's my job' she thought inwardly with a bit of exasperation.

"Arlan, they need you in the Cryomantic Department" a man approached and said with a somewhat hurried expression.

"I need to go" Arlan said, and receiving Himeko's reassuring smile he left, Peppy happily barking in his arms.

Meanwhile, Keith was in a trance.

While others would look in astonishment at the beautiful planet Blue, he only felt it was a nuisance.

"How is it?" asked Himeko, looking at Blue, the only thing that could be seen clearly from the pace Station as the stars were a common sight. "Is it beautiful? I heard that Blue is the planet Herta came from."

"I don't care" the man said, and only now did Himeko realize that Keith was looking in another direction.

"You like the stars?" she inquired, thinking that maybe she could glean some information about Keith based on what he liked.

"No, they are obstructing my view" and yet, Keith's answer opened more questions than answers it gave.

"What are you looking at?" asked Himeko, trying to see what else could be seen, and what was Keith looking at with so much fascination.

"The black void" Keith answered, looking at a particularly empty area where no stars could mar the sight.

"...why?" Himeko had to admit she didn't expect that answer. Why was Keith looking at the area where literally nothing could be seen?

"It feels...nostalgic" Keith answered after thinking for a while.

There was something in the nothingness, in the emptiness, that called him.

'Maybe it was an echo of a particularly strong experience, or maybe his instinct as a Nameless' mused Himeko, who started to feel pangs of hunger. "Want to eat something?"

"Yes" Keith replied, as a puppet he could eat, but he didn't need it. "I want fried tofu."