Himeko • Nova

Some fight side by side, some keep watch. The Trailblaze is never a lonely voyage.

She paints a trailblazing miracle. The silver rail stretches on, and the Nameless set sail once more, illuminating the galaxy's eternal night.

At the end of the line, she looks back once again. The dream of setting forth has never run aground.

The girl's world had shrunk to just herself.

The hospital's stark white sheets and curtains were like cold, impassive walls, sealing her off from the warm faces she kept in her memories.

"Don't worry, Himeko. You're smart. You'll catch up even if you miss a few days!"

"Himeko, you have to get better soon. We're still doing the model contest together!"

"Himeko... we graduated without you..."

Only the cold, mechanical beeping of monitors filled the room. She let her thoughts drift back to the stranded Express she had discovered, and kept sketching out those visions of setting sail.

"Cosmic Station, now arriving at Cosmic Station!"

A uniformed attendant rang the bell as a howling wind swept in from the distance. Though it was a little cold, she was still waving at the Express with barely contained exhilaration.

"Himeko! Himeko, get on board!"

A red-haired girl leaned out from the window, and a moment later, a firm hand pulled her up.

In the blink of an eye, she found herself sinking into the Express's plush red velvet seat, face to face with a girl who seemed a little older, light flickering in her eyes.

"Himeko, wanna take the wheel and head somewhere far away?" The familiar stranger asked with a smile.

Yes! The word nearly tumbled right out of her. She wanted to talk, to have friends, to find companions, to put into words the ache in her body and the hollow longing in her heart. She wanted to run, to escape, to scream...

"Come with me. Let's leave this place together." She hadn't said a word, yet somehow, the girl across from her seemed to have heard every last one of them.

The girl felt a hand take hers, and her body seemed to dissolve into a night breeze, light as a feather, as though she were flying, guided by that gentle touch.

Together, they brushed the wings of Cygnus and drifted through the heart of the Rosette Nebula. Icy comets streaked past the moon like a cascade of glittering gemstones. When the storm rolled in, the girl held her hand tight, weaving through the shattered debris of planetary rings, and when the skies grew calm again, the two of them watched the meteors of Sagittarius streak across the peaceful harbor...

"She's so brave... just like the Navigators I've read about..."

Wishes are like paint, each longing a stroke to shape the ideal into being.

She breaks into a violent coughing fit, struggling to keep her brush steady.

The time she has left before she can no longer move freely is limited, and in order to get the Express to start running again, she can only allocate this remaining time to the last second.

"I'm so jealous of Motoko. No need for treatments or sleep... That must free up so much time!"

The girl known as Motoko gently patted her on the head.

"Well that's exactly why you imagenated me, silly... I'll help you make your dream of reaching the stars come true."

She burned through her own time.

First was the Express, newly-restored. Its once-rusted, corroded hull had transformed into a comfortable home.

With the Starblazer's blueprint recovered, crafting a prototype was now within reach.

But the engine still lacked the fuel needed for Trailblazing, and the countdown timer for her life was already ticking down.

They turned their eyes to Phantasmoon Games. Even if the Weathering Curse could never be healed, perhaps, in that ceremony under the gaze of the gods, the Astral Express could carry them away into the cosmos.

But the bloodstained tragedy played out cycle after cycle. The Supplicant known as the Herald of Death massacred his way through Dovebrook, turning arcadia into a crimson purgatory.

One by one, the innocent fell to the devil's hands, their howls and screams carried away by the wind.

She slumped against the rubble as her life bled silently from her wounds. Her vision went blurry, and through the smoke and ash, she searched for that familiar silhouette. Motoko stood there, fire reflected in her eyes. And her reflection, too, was within those eyes.

"Do you remember the Trailblaze pledge we read?" Barely clinging to life, she reached out toward Motoko.

"Even if we don't gain the upper hand, we'll fight for right. Even when there are wheels within wheels, go ahead. Get it pulverized..."

"Isn't that a little childish... I'm not even one of the Nameless yet..."

She looked at Motoko the way one looks at a Navigator who lights up the long night.

"Himeko, you don't have to journey far to be one of the Nameless. And similarly, Trailblazing doesn't only begin with setting sail..."

Under the hopeful gazes of those around, the Wishpower of Trailblazing drew the final stroke upon the "Starblazer."

The giant of Pegana descended from the sky, smashing the frenzied killer into pieces. Beneath the glow of the Phantasmoon, the Express soared into deep space.

But this time, only a single soul made the departure.

The teenage girl's Trailblazing was fraught with thorns.

With the silver rail blocked, she had no choice but to feel her way through the universe, remapping the astral charts.

She had once been lost in desolate frontier worlds, venturing in and out of dangerous ruins just to scrape together dwindling supplies.

And now, once again, she was to press on alone.

She was targeted by space pirates, and in those moments of imminent peril, she did everything to shake off those desperadoes, those relics of the Energy War.

She once faced a Swarm that darkened the sky. The silver rails that she painstakingly repaired over months were destroyed in an instant.

She reached out to help a world on the brink of being devoured by a black hole, only to be mistaken for a malevolent visitor from beyond, and nearly lost her life at the edge of the black hole.

"Am I really the one meant to walk this path?"

At the tail end of her dreams of the Phantasmoon Games, she would often see another version of herself at the helm of the Express, soaring off into the deep reaches of space.

Yet, whenever they reunited in those dreams, that graceful and poised Navigator would always look back at her with eyes full of encouragement—

"Is the Rosette Nebula of the Celestial Comet System as beautiful as we always dreamed it would be?

"Are the silver rails you repaired forging bonds between worlds long cut off from one another?

"I know that your fearless Trailblazing saved an entire people from their destiny..."

"But I... don't know how much longer I can hold on..." She sighs wearily.

"Don't you remember? 'Nameless' was never just one person's name. Just as the flame of the Trailblaze set you ablaze, so will it set others ablaze too."

Outside the window, the wings of Cygnus shimmered, and icy comets streaked past the moon like a cascade of glittering gemstones.

She steered the Express through the shattered debris of planetary rings, and when she finally reached the peaceful harbor, the meteors of Sagittarius happened to cascade down.

Welt and his golden-haired companion stepped aboard the Express.

When the Express fell into peril, the taciturn Dan Heng took down the beast with a single strike. In that moment, she saw the fire inside him, and offered him the navigator's invitation.

She rescued March 7th, adrift in the cosmos, and from that day on, the trailblazing expedition took on the hue of March's vibrant color.

Guided by destiny, she crossed paths with Trailblazer at the space station. Somehow, the feeling that this brave, free-spirited child would bring endless surprises in the future never left her.

Jarilo-VI, the Xianzhou Luofu, Penacony, Amphoreus... More and more people walk alongside the "Trailblaze," and she has found companions truly worthy of being called "family," and her name has been engraved across countless worlds.

By all accounts, this was a miracle, and one that she hoped wholeheartedly would never end.

She returned to the point of departure.

She knew the shadow of Destruction had never truly left, just as the bliss in Planarcadia was only a result of postponed calamity.

She witnessed the return of the Herald of Death, her homeland lacerated in the maw of the beast.

She uncovered the root of the curse, trembling as she accepted the truth of her family's tragedy.

But this was an entirely unprecedented apocalypse. It made her face the possibility of losing her companions, Trailblazer most of all. She couldn't understand why the fate of the cosmos had to rest on his/her shoulders. All she knew was that he/she was now family, forever.

So, once again, she chose to carry it all alone, just as she always used to say:

"Traveling always has an end point. When it happens, I'll smile and say goodbye to everyone."

Amidst the mockery of the world falling into utter silence, the Starblazer reached its limit, and the Express crashed once more.

Before the farewell, she embraced Trailblazer and made a wish to the Stellaron to guard the Trailblaze.

The stars grew hazy in a crimson mist, and she became as weak as she once was.

"It's been so long. You've grown up... and become even more remarkable than I ever was."

For a fleeting moment, she thought she could feel the girl's warmth again as if she were still there, watching over her in silence.

"I think I've finally gotten a little closer to you."

She couldn't help but pour out everything that had happened since they parted: The paths walked by the legendary Navigators, now trodden by her own feet; the wonders she had once only dreamed of, witnessed with her own eyes; the companions she had found, those kindred spirits, people she could truly trust...

"Just as you once traded your destiny for mine, I would trade my destiny for my companions'..."

"But look, your companions aren't about to let you go anywhere."

Trailblazer's wish moved her to tears.

The unyielding defiance of the Nameless set her blood ablaze once more.

"Where your journey ends, mine begins anew..."

Two warm hands withdrew gently from her back, and the girl smiled with quiet tenderness, their silhouette slowly merging with each other.

"If there's nothing ahead of us..."

She became one with the ideal she had always strived toward, as her companions reached out their hands and cried out together,

"Then we'll Trailblaze a path forward with our own hands!"