[Core Memory]

'What the…'

Yuuto felt a wave of confusion hit him as he was suddenly faced with Stelle's [Nexus] without his act of consciously looking at it.

Her faint outline came into his view and a dark space suddenly appeared with fragments floating within but it looked a bit desolate.

Yuuto saw how there were hardly any fragments as the only ones present were the ones near her [Core Memory].

But his confusion didn't stem from the lack of fragments but the [Core Memory] itself.

'It's glowing really brightly…'

The [Core Memory] was glowing a bright golden color and emitted a heat that made him confused as to why he was able to feel such a strong reaction from this.

The large memory began to vibrate and an image began to appear and engrave itself onto its smooth surface and what Yuuto saw was the image of what seemed to be a Stellaron.

He saw how it continued to shine brightly and the urge to reach out grew as he was curious to why it was shining the way it was.

Lifting his hand, Yuuto reached over to [Core Memory] and as he touched its surface, his surroundings began to shift as he was transported to the exact room he was already in.

But the only difference was that he was looking at the scene of Stelle appearing out of thin air and Kafka inserting the Stellaron from a third person perspective.

[Do you mind taking care of her…]

[This seems like…]

Yuuto continued to watch a replay of the events that began to follow after Kafka had inserted the Stellaron.

Suddenly multiple kinds of emotions began to pour into him as he noticed Stelle opening her eyes.

Confusion, Curiosity, Yearning. 

All was laid bare for Yuuto to witness as he vaguely began to understand that these were the emotions Stelle had begun to feel once she had opened her eyes.

Yuuto had also felt the pulsation of the Stellaron emitting inside Stelle as if he was the one witnessing this life changing memory of hers.

The floodgate of emotions however stopped as his vision turned bright golden and distorted back to her [Nexus] where he saw the [Core Memory] begin to split itself.

Like how a cell duplicates, the bright fragment divided itself and began to float towards Yuuto.

He raised his hand and the fragment softly landed onto his palm.

'...Are you sure you want to come over to me?'

As if the fragment read his mind, it began to vibrate in a gentle manner indicating its wishes to come to him after he had witnessed what it had inside itself.

It slowly flew around Yuuto for a while before it dissolved itself over the left side of his chest and disappeared without a notice.

He wanted to look into more depth about this specific fragment however his current situation wasn't the best to allow him to do so.

"So I trust that you will watch over her?"

"Huh?"

Yuuto jumped a bit as he felt a warm breath reach his ears and noticed how Kafka was staring deeply at him.

"You seem to be thinking about something major to be zoned out like that. Do you mind sharing?"

"It's nothing too important."

"How unfortunate."

Trying his best to send out an answer, Yuuto felt a bit of sweat pour down his back as he noticed Kafka still staring at him with an unknown smile on her face.

'What's with people and staring at me for some reason…'

Yuuto grumbled to himself as he tried his best to ignore Kafka's sharp eyes boring into him and kneeled down to where Stelle was.

"She fell asleep again?"

He began to poke Stelle's cheek as he noticed that she closed her eyes once again and Kafka watched over them with a relaxed expression.

"She currently needs a bit of rest after listening to some… instructions."

"I see."

Yuuto nodded his head as he vaguely understood what she meant.

"Is it time for us to leave now?"

"Hmm… I guess it is. We finished what we needed to do so I see no need to stay any longer."

Silver Wolf interjected as Kafka replied with a thoughtful expression and turned her eyes back to Yuuto.

"Leaving so soon? I would have enjoyed your company a little longer."

"What a sweet tongue you have but unfortunately we are pretty busy at the moment."

Kafka smoothly retorted back but was strangely pleased with the way he continued to tease her despite her previous actions with her [Spirit Whisper].

'Strong infatuation? No. I see none of that through his eyes or body movements. It's more like a good bias he has towards me and even Silver Wolf.'

Despite not seeming like it, Kafka had been intently probing Yuuto down to the way he talks to his slightlest body movements all just to understand his actions more clearly.

As the reputation as a Stellaron Hunter gives the majority of the people an unfavorable impression of them so she was curious to why he acted the way he did.

'Does he have a loose screw in his head?'

Yuuto who couldn't read Kafka's thoughts about him, was quiet but felt like he was being wrongfully accused of something.

Tapping a few keys on her keyboard, Silver Wolf opened a portal that appeared out of nowhere and gestured to Kafka that she was ready to go.

However she stole one glance at Yuuto who tilted his head at her gaze.

"Is something wrong?"

"...Do you have more of that mint gum?"

"Oh? Have you become a fan of the flavor? Here."

Yuuto reached into his pocket and threw the packet towards Silver Wolf who caught the item.

"I got a ton so I'll just give you this packet."

"Thanks."

Silver Wolf's impression of him turned slightly favorable as she didn't think he would give her a whole packet.

"Well then, until the next time we meet."

"Goodbye."

Sending Yuuto off with a few words, Silver Wolf and Kafka entered the portal without wasting a second.

The portal closed and a faint blue spark was all that's left, leaving only Stelle and Yuuto alone in the room.

"I should probably check up on what Dan Heng and March are doing."

Taking his phone, he sent a message to Dan Heng and a reply came right away.

It read that the two did their best to assist Arlan in the evacuation of the researchers and were successful in bringing all of them towards the Master Control Room.

"It looks like Arlan this time wasn't injured so that's a good sign. But the elevator is broken so we still need to travel towards the top floor so we can also enter the Master Control Room."

Noticing that the elevator situation was the same as the game, he told the two that he will be meeting them at their coordinations they have sent shortly and turned off his phone.

He glanced at Stelle who was still sleeping and felt like this might be a good time in checking what that bright fragment brought inside him.

Yuuto closed his eyes and searched his body for the fragment and after searching for a bit he found it station near his left chest.

He interacted with it for a bit and found that it did nothing so far but that was until he used energy from the [Memory of the World].

The fragment suddenly snapped and turned into a faint glimmer before sending sensations of sharp pain throughout his whole body.

"Kuh–!!"

He was already used to some degree of pain due to his non stop training before coming to Herta's Space Station but Yuuto still activated his [Heal] to help him alleviate this sudden pain.

As if a hidden organ in his body suddenly became active and branched itself onto his system, Yuuto tried to not make a single sound as he placed all his energy in using his [Heal]. 

Yuuto did his best to endure this feeling until it finally ended.

Cold sweat appeared and Yuuto took in a couple of breaths before finally sensing the changes that happened.

Yuuto felt like the sensations of a foreign object pulsating and after inspecting his body he noticed a faint ball of energy that was different from the ones he's used to.

It was a decently large object that gave off a faint golden glow but Yuuto was able to see that the energy inside it was almost nonexistent. 

However the thing that shocked him was it was something he wasn't unaware of but something he was familiar with.

"...This..this is a Stellaron isn't it..?"

Although it didn't have the immense energy compared to the one Stelle has, it was still undoubtedly a Stelleron as he felt a very destructive energy it had within.

"But how is my body able to handle something like this?"

Intrigued by this phenomenon, Yuuto began to explore every corner of this new discovery.

His body felt a bit stronger but nothing too significant but the changes were more so the object within him.

After looking for quite some time, he noticed that the outer structure had a strong glass like composition that was similar to the surface of the [Core Memory] he had received from Stelle.

"So this Stelleron was probably formed through the [Core Memory] I've gotten from Stelle."

He found it pretty understandable that Stelle's [Core Memory] was the moment where she had received the Stelleron from Kafka so it was a crucial event that formed her existence from now on.

However what he found interesting was he was able to get a reaction from this memory even when he couldn't do so with the other people he had met before.

"Maybe it was because I was here to witness the moment so I gained some sort of permission to access it."

Yuuto thought his theory was probable as it made sense and his thoughts began to drift off as he thought about how powerful acquiring a [Core Memory] was.

"If I got a 'Stelleron' from Stelle… I wonder what I'll get from the other individuals in this universe… But I can't just witness an event that has already passed so there must be some other way to get a reaction from that memory… " 

Yuuto closed his eyes as his brain began to turn towards this discovery while he continued to explore this new object he had required.

***

'Kafka..? Where..'

Feeling her groggy body wake up, Stelle opened her blurry golden eyes and looked at her surroundings to find out where she was.

Her eyes began to focus and she noticed that she was in a room where she was seated down against a cold metal wall.

She continued to look around when she found that she was not alone in this room.

A man with deep purple hair had his eyes closed as he also leaned against the wall and Stelle just stared at him with a look that bore into him.

Yuuto opened his eyes as he felt a gaze land on him and a faint smile grew on his face as he noticed the person he was waiting for woke up.

"How are you, do you feel anything off?"

"...."

Stelle continued to silently look at him before finally shaking her head.

"Where.. are we?"

"Hmm.."

Thinking about her question, Yuuto began to explain to Stelle where she was while also briefly introducing himself.

"We should start moving towards the control room where we can meet some of my allies."

"Alright."

"There's the Antimatter Legion still roaming around so…"

Yuuto walked out of the room where the Stelleron was sealed and looked around for a specific weapon to give Stelle.

"There it is."

A large black baseball bat that contained golden engravings was laying on the ground and Yuuto passed it towards Stelle who was staring at the object curiously.

"You think you can fight with this?"

"Hmm."

Stelle swung the bat a few times before humming in approval.

'She sure does match her image…'

Yuuto briefly thought in his head before opening the door to exit out of the room they were in to meet up with Dan Heng and March.