More letters!

'To my favourite redhead, who would still be the best even if I knew more than one.

I am pleased to inform you that Keith, the one who you so graciously gave his name to, has acquired a fleshly body!'

"..." Himeko had to re-read the letter, because she couldn't believe what she had read.

Was there a way to get a new body for a soul?

She didn't believe it was possible, as a LOT of arrogant assholes who were dying of old age would sell their families to get a new body.

Still, if Keith had been able to acquire a new one after all these years with a malfunctioning one, she could only be happy for him.

'And believe it or not, it is top-notch.

People here are a bit...wary about it, but I have no problem.

Of course, it might as well be because I am pissing them off with my jumps, holds, and tackles, but never mind.'

'That sounds like Keith is still the same' thought Himeko with a fond smile.

'I even have a private nurse!

Of course, if you ask anyone else, she is a biologist the whole universe knows about, and bla bla bla.

The truth is that I'm getting health checks every single day, so intensively I sometimes need to reject some very intrusive tests.

I value my asshole's integrity, and the only thing that will pass through it is my shit (because now I can take a dump), and to the outside, nothing will ever enter there.

Of course, once again, people will say that she is only taking samples of my body to check for some unexpected changes my apparently out-of-the-norm soul might change inside it, but I prefer to stick with my version.'

'Out of the norm soul?' wondered a worried Himeko. 'I wonder if something changed while he was with his new...group.'

Himeko had found Keith's soul early in her travels, it was only after he left she found some people who might know a lot about souls.

They were a small 'study group', something she would have ignored had it not been for Keith's presence in her life and her search for a possible cause for Keith's body malfunctioning, but nevertheless, she now knew a lot about souls, even if it was merely hypothesis and conjectures.

So hearing an 'out of the norm' soul description raised red flags in Himeko's mind.

'I knew Keith was not a common existence, after all his soul, as weak as it was back then, was still detected by the Star Rail and recognised as a 'Master'' thought Himeko. 'I will try to write him for a change.'

'But hear, and be elated, because I am training now!

Yes, indeed, the mighty Keith is learning from a swordsman how to use a sword!

He is grumpy and a suicidal person who is unable to kill himself, you might know of him, or specifically about his wanted poster.

Name: Blade

Occupation: Murderer

Reward: A one followed by a lot of zeroes

Anyway, I will try to help him if I can in the future.

Even if he doesn't say it, I think he feels close to me, maybe like....distant cousins?

Of course, I know why it is, he was so stupid to eat the piece of the corpse of an Emanator of the Abundance, and now no matter how he tries, he can't die.

I can somehow understand his reasons, after all, he wanted to keep returning to the battlefield to protect his country and instead, he was kicked out because he...well, ate the fragment of an Emanator belonging to the faction that had been mortal enemies with his country for millennia, and acquired the immortality the Luofu hates so much.

And now, he wants to die.

Hmm...now that I write it, it must be hard. Well, I will deal with it in the future.

We got another 2 additions.

One of them is a brat, that is all.

She likes her games too much, so I confiscated them.

Oh, how sweet was her fuming expression, how delectable her anger, and how delicious her despair was when she realised I wouldn't budge.

She also has a poster.

Name: Silverwolf

Occupation: Game addict (yes, her case is so bad it can be called an occupation), and hacker in her free time.

Reward: I don't really care.

But she seems to have a difficult past too, so I let her play an hour each day.

After that, she needs to read or exercise for as long as she wants to play.

Want to play 2 hours? Read for 2 hours.

It's the adult's job to make sure the children grow up healthy and can enjoy their childhood.

No, redhead, I know what you are thinking.

I'm an adult no matter how much my personality seems like one of a kid.

Well, to be fair, Silverwolf is around 15 or 16, but she looks like a kid, so she is one in my eyes.

And nobody seems to dislike my 'education' method (except her), so I will keep 'educating' her.

Even if she doesn't say it, I can sense how she is starting to enjoy a bit the exercise, little by little.

Probably.

Anyway, enough of the squirt who seems to be traumatised every time she sees me, there is one last addition.

Stelle.

She is a little kid rummaging through trash cans Kafka and I found in a planet near our destination.

I asked offered her some money for her to buy some food, and the reply I got shocked me.

'Are you dumb? Why does the fact that I'm searching in a trash can mean that I have no food? This is my hobby'

You will probably understand how surprised we were (I will talk about the not-so-squirt anymore later).

Of course, seeing a child (again, she was probably a teenager) searching through the trash cans as a hobby made me question her sanity, so I very politely asked.

'Are you retarded?'

As I said, very politely.

'You wouldn't understand the magic of looking into trash cans. Every trash can is a closed box, which might contain every single item in the universe.'

'Yes, yes, Schroedinger's cat, that is too overused now' I replied. 'If those possibilities are going to disappear the moment you open the lid to look inside, why would you look inside it? Would it be better sleeping with the thought of what might be inside?'

'Of course not. It's the moment just before you open it when you get the high (Yes, she described it as such). You need to look inside to confirm that indeed there is nothing inside, so tomorrow you can get another high. If I didn't open it, wouldn't I only get one high tomorrow? Think handsome yet dumb man, think.'

So with that, I decided to give up on her.

And instead it was my usual companion the one that took a shine to her.

Name: Kafka (I don't think even she remembers her true name)

Occupation: Murderer (once again)

Likes: Hurt baddies, classical music, coats and jackets, her sunglasses, and looks elegant even in battle.

Dislikes: Me, my antics, my actions, my thoughts and my presence.

Also likes: Me, even if she doesn't admit it, she would have asked for a role change inside our little group otherwise.

Reward: The biggest one in the universe (she likes to piss off important people)

As you can see, I know more about her than the rest, but what can I do?

She has been by my side for a few years now, and she isn't the squirt I found in Pteruges-V.

She is still the 'calm' woman who hides all her feelings under a mask of 'aloofness', and yet, I find no trouble sensing her emotions.

Ah, now that I think about it.

Do you remember I could tell when someone was lying, if they had hostile thoughts, and a vague sensation of what they were feeling if they were strong enough?

Well, it seems it has gotten a bit stronger, I can somehow feel some traces of other very strong emotions like hate, disgust of ecstasy (not the sexual kind you pervert, maybe elation or joy is the right word), but they can be a bit weaker now, and I can still sense them.

I know I should probably inspect more about it, but I am too busy training, I like the feeling of my body moving, blood pumping through my veins, muscles stressing, to... you get it.

And my body responds to it quite well, I'm growing stronger on top of the growing process due to my soul growing (too many things are growing, I know).

Also, speaking of growing, little big Keith also came back, even if much to my dismay, he is still single.

Anyway, that is my life now, and I remember your promise, you owe me a dance, as I have a good body now. And based on what I feel when a member of the opposite gender (some of the same one too, but as much as I respect all ways of life, I can't honestly say I am considering them) is quite handsome too.

But I feel obliged to make a clarification, with women, I am not talking about the members of my little band of misfits.

We have a psychopathic woman with hypnosis powers who get a high killing corrupt people while listening to classic music, a trash junkie who gets a high searching trash cans every day and likes to team up with Kafka to gang up on me every day too, which seems to have made them develop a strangely close relationship almost to the point of being called sisters, a kid obsessed with video games even if with my efforts that is slowly changing, a guy? who has left behind his past as a BDSM lover (in the receiving side), a grumpy suicidal guy who can't kill himself even if his life depends on it (hehe), and finally the great me, who has turned out to be a training maniac who is turning everyone around me mad.

Oh, of course, we also have a mad scientist who wouldn't sleep if I didn't threaten her with not giving up my blood (can you believe she even asked for semen one time? Don't worry, I threatened to leave this base without any company, and knowing how many troubles I get in I probably wouldn't be able to come back in one piece, which seems to have scared her quite a bit).

So there it is, that is my life right now.

We are getting a new girl soon, and from what I've heard she is terminally ill and needs to be inside a Gundam (you know, those cool robots) to stay alive because it works as her medical pod, but I think I can blackmail the mad scientist to help her.

So, how did your side go?

I kept an ear (now I have 2, and true ones) open, and asked around to learn what you were up to.

I heard you acted as an intermediator between the Luofu and the IPC, and helped sweeten a deal that turned out to be almost impossibly hard mid-way.

Well, congratulations on that, it was amazing, but you might not be that elated when you know it was our fault to start with.

You see, there was a member of the Luofu who had pretty shady business deals, so Kafka, with Silverwolf's help, decided to poke around it a bit, and Silverwolf, being the nerdy child she is (even if she is 15), was able to leak all that man's information.

At this point I didn't know you were already involved, so well, I did what I do best, piss people off.

What better than to send this information to the IPC?

You know, those arrogant assholes who think they are entitled to 'keep peace' in the universe.

I thought this man would need to face the IPC, for obvious reasons. He would need to face the Luofu's anti-corruption department or whatever it's called, and he would need to face the Luofu once again, because he might make the Luofu lose a pretty important deal, and it would drag the country's reputation underground.

So yeah...sorry for that.

Still, you were able to triumph even when all odds were stacked against you.

Again, I'm sorry.

Anyway, even we started to hear about the Astral Express and the beautiful red-headed captain of it, so I think you can call your goal to make a name for yourself a success.

Just...write to me okay?

My teacher is too grumpy, Silverwolf avoids me, Kafka and Stelle are always together ganging up on me, I fear going alone to the mad scientist place and the boss of this place is busy lately.

Lastly, our newest incorporation who arrives in a month will probably not be the brightest star around. (But don't worry, I will make sure she goes to the next world with a happy smile. Well, probably the mad scientist can do something about it).

What I want to say is that everyone here avoid, attacks or ignores me (I know I earned it, and will continue doing it), so send a letter, please.

Pretty please.

Goodbye, from your now-bodied friend, Keith (even if that name has started to grate my ears recently, it's almost like I feel it doesn't belong to me anymore, but I still appreciate a lot how you gave it to me.)

PS; I sent you the body I used all those years with you, you can sell it for money or return it to Herta, the mad scientist here said it won't reveal anything dangerous and it's still valuable. Just tell her that biology is better than crystallography or whatever shit she is investigating now.

PPS; I didn't want to say this before, as I knew you wouldn't be able to calmly read the rest of the letter. You probably are wondering, why would anyone who ate the fragment of a corpse (you know, my teacher, even if he would die before admitting it. Yes, I said it correctly, even his immortality will wear off before he admits it, as impossible as it sounds) feel a familiarity with you?

Weeell, you see..... the mad scientist earned her name.

The material she used to craft my body was a casual fragment of an Emanator of the Abundance, so now there is a risk of an Aeon chasing after me.

Tehe.'

"...." Himeko decided to burn the letter.

"Wasn't it from your friend?" asked Welt, sitting in front of Himeko in the Astral Express. "You waited for a while for that letter."

"..." Himeko's dead eyes made Welt choke on his drink. "What letter are you talking about?"