“Don’t worry.
We’re the Astral Express Crew.
We don’t scare easy.”
March 7th thumped her chest with pride, a brilliant grin spreading across her face.
Stelle looked at March 7th, then at Dan Heng, and drew a long breath.
She was still lost in a fog, following on instinct the advice of that strange white-haired girl, running all over the space station with two people who claimed to be passengers of the Astral Express.
She’d also helped herself to an abandoned baseball bat along the way, as a weapon.
Together they had rescued Arlan and finally made it back to the Master Control Zone.
Now they were in the wander-around-and-see-what-happens phase.
Curiosity about Felutina got the better of Stelle, and she brought up the ghost with March 7th and Dan Heng.
“Have either of you seen a girl with white hair and red eyes?
Really pretty… a ghost?”
“A gh-gh-ghost?!”
March 7th’s radiant smile froze solid.
She waved both hands frantically and turned to the ever-dependable Dan Heng for backup.
“Hahaha, let’s not joke about stuff like that, ghosts absolutely do not exist, right, Professor Dan Heng—”
“No.
They do exist.”
Dan Heng shook his head and looked at Stelle, explaining with complete seriousness, “The universe holds all kinds of life.
Plenty of those organisms get mistaken for ghosts.”
“But she talked to me… and she walked right through both of you!” Stelle argued her case.
The touch of Felutina’s hand around hers had been so soft, so gentle.
She refused to accept that Felutina was some bizarre space creature.
“Please stop saying terrifying things.” March 7th was trembling.
What did she mean, walked right through her?
“When did you see her?” Dan Heng asked.
Stelle answered, “Right when the two of us first met.”
“Then it may have been a protective hallucination, brought on by unfamiliar surroundings.” Dan Heng thought it over carefully and offered what struck him as the most reasonable explanation.
“A… a hallucination?”
The light went out of Stelle’s face.
The sight of her like that was more than March 7th could stand.
The pink-haired girl jabbed Dan Heng with her elbow.
“Hey, I think you’re about to make her cry.
Say something comforting, quick.”
Dan Heng: “…”
Stelle shook her head, ready to say she was fine — and then, at the edge of her vision, past March 7th and Dan Heng, by coincidence or by fate, she caught sight of the white-haired girl standing not far away.
“Wait—”
The word left Stelle before she knew it.
She stepped forward, brushed straight past March 7th and Dan Heng, and took off after Felutina.
…
Stelle never found Felutina.
What she found instead was the edge of the safe zone, and past it, a Destruction Legion Voidranger drifting on patrol.
By rights, she was no pushover.
A Voidranger of that grade posed no real threat to her.
But her mind was elsewhere, and in that half-second of distraction the Voidranger found its opening.
She reacted fast, swinging the baseball bat and sending the thing flying, but she came away with a few scrapes.
With the enemy dealt with, Stelle started scanning the area again, hunting for any trace Felutina might have left behind.
There was nothing.
Not a single sign of her.
Defeat settled over Stelle.
Maybe that figure really had been nothing but a delusion… though she didn’t understand how that would even work.
She was hanging her head, turning to go back, when that familiar, lovely voice sounded beside her ear.
“Hey.
Over here.”
A slender frame, a black formal dress, a thigh ring.
The girl stood beneath the lights, her long white hair catching the glow like a moon hanging in the dark.
Felutina, making her entrance.
She had picked this moment deliberately, a window where nobody else could interfere and she could have Stelle to herself.
No competing with the other characters for screen time.
On top of that, she’d spent a while working out her own role in all this.
Finding a niche that didn’t collide with any of the existing Star Rail characters turned out to be surprisingly hard.
“Are you my hallucination?” Stelle asked, out of nowhere.
The question sounded rude at first pass, but one look into those clear, guileless eyes and Felutina let it go.
“That depends on how you understand the word ‘hallucination,’ and how you want to define me.”
Felutina kept her radiant smile, small hands clasped behind her back, and drifted closer to Stelle with an airy lilt in her voice.
Close enough that they could feel each other breathe.
Close enough to be called intimate.
Color rose in Stelle’s cheeks, but she gathered her nerve and reached out to poke Felutina’s arm.
Soft, smooth, and warm with a body heat that was undeniably real.
“You feel super real to me.
But nobody else can see you.” Stelle pointed back the way she’d come.
“Not Dan Heng, not March 7th.”
“That’s because you’re the special one.”
Felutina blinked, and the hand behind her back came out to catch Stelle’s scraped one, gently.
“You’re hurt.
How did you manage to be that careless?”
She lifted a finger and traced it lightly across the scrape.
Like a magic trick, the broken skin knit itself back to smooth.
Cutting it close.
Any later and it would have healed on its own.
Felutina withdrew her finger, her smile widening.
She raised that same finger and wagged it slowly.
“All right, I can’t stay long, so business first.
Something big is coming from outside.
Be ready for it.”
“Something big?”
Stelle had meant to press further about who Felutina was, but the words yanked her attention clean off course.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Felutina said.
She considered a moment, then added, “Very soon.
Really.”
The words had barely left her when the floor shuddered underfoot, as though something outside had begun hammering on the station.
“See?
I wasn’t lying.”
Felutina took Stelle’s hand again, speaking a little faster now — not urgent, still warm, just nudging the plot along.
“One last thing.
A cheat code, for you.
Whenever you feel like you need it, call out my name.”
“…Your name?” Stelle didn’t quite follow.
“That’s right.
Remember it well.
Felutina.
And since it’s a cheat code, you can’t go throwing it around, or else…”
“Or else…” Stelle swallowed, her body drawing tight.
“Or else I’ll be very sad.”
Beaming, Felutina gave Stelle a little push and stepped backward herself.
And just as she had arrived, she was simply gone from in front of Stelle.
Stelle stared blankly at the space where she’d been.
“Stelle!”
The bright call dragged her back to reality.
She whipped around and saw March 7th running toward her, waving.
“…March 7th?”
“Ugh, no time to explain!
The Doomsday Beast is attacking!
Long story short, come with us, now!”
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