Chapter 5: a short breath

Narrator's Pov

"How is Stelle doing?"

"She's fine, unconscious, Dan Heng is keeping an eye on her."

Welt pushed up his glasses as he looked to Ryan, who had his arms crossed a bit confused.

"What happened to her? When she shielded March..."

"The Stellaron inside of her activated" Welt explained and have a small sigh "it probably was because of stress, or maybe it's something else we're unaware of"

"What is a Stellaron?"

"Oh right, I forgot you are not from this dimension... it'll take a while to answer that, so I'll give you a full introduction later, for now, it'd be wise to rest...I see you've completely recovered." Welt looked slightly down towards Ryan's completely healed arm.

"Only physically, I still have to replenish all my magic and energy, it'll take not more than 2 days." He sighed a bit tired. "I barely had enough magic to completely heal myself, but right now I have almost nothing."

"Don't push yourself if you don't have to, Ryan, the situation is completely safe now, the Legion retreated as soon as the Doomsday Beast got defeated." Welt explained and Ryan nodded with his head a bit.

"Good..." He smiled a bit but then looked at Welt. "Mr.Yang...I have a question"

"Yes? What is it?"

"The Antimatter Legion...are they really following the Aeon Nanook?" Ryan asked with a small frown.

"Yes...Ryan, listen to me, Aeons are mysterious being even for those serving them, even Emanators might never know the true intentions of those who they serve." Welt explained a bit concerned.

"What is an Emanator?"

"Aeons can personally bestow powers to mortals, thus, turning them into Emanators, they are still not even close to being as strong as Aeons, but they are still stronger than average fighters" he sighed heavily and looked more seriously at Ryan. "Don't tell me you're planning to-"

"I'm not going to seek a fight against Aeons, Mr.Yang I just...want to be informed...if I truly am going to become an Aeon...then I have to know as much as I can, right?"

He was lying...and Welt realized "if you really are in process of becoming an Aeon...then be sure to know what kind of Aeon you'll be, what kind of path you'll forge, and what kind of Emanators you'll give birth to, you'll have people following you, some will do it for good reasons, others for bad reasons, it won't be easy...know that." Welt spoke and then smiled and gave a small bump on Ryan's forehead with the cane. "If you ever need help, remember that the Express will give you a hand."

"Thanks...Mr.Yang, I'll make sure to remember that." Ryan too smiled a bit.

"Good, now, let's go and speak with the others, I heard that the owner of the station is going to finally come." He spoke and then started to slowly walk away.

"Herta, right?" Ryan started to walk alongside Welt.

"That's right, I suppose Asta spoke about her?"

"Yes...from what I heard she's...an interesting person...pretty self-centered"

"You're not wrong, be careful around her...we'll tell her about your situation so she might as well kidnap you so she can get a chance of recording and witnessing the birth of a new Aeon..." He sighed heavily and then looked at Ryan. "My condolences"

"Those condolences don't make me feel better..." Ryan smiled a bit nervously at Welt.

"Oh right, I almost forgot" he put his hand inside one of his pockets and then pulled out a phone, offering it to Ryan. "You'll need this, it's a cellphone"

"Uh? What is it for?" He accepted the phone and looked at it tilting his head to the side.

"Various things, you can speak with me and other people at long distances, you can take pictures, record videos, watch videos, and play videogames..."

"Uh...and how do I use it?"

"I...still have problems with the phone, but I'll try to teach you all I know...it already has added the number of all of us in the Express, so you can talk to us whenever you want."

"Ohhhh~ oh look, here's March!" Ryan smiled excitedly and seeing the small keyboard he decided to send her a text after figuring out how to.

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[Ryan]

"Hey March! This is Ryan"

"Mr.Yang gave me a phone"

[March 7th]

"Ryan~! Yes I know, it was actually my idea, I realized that having a future Aeon in my contacts might be something I could brag about in the future."

"Like the 'I knew him before he was popular!' Kind of stuff, do you get what I mean?"

[Ryan]

"No"

[March 7th]

"Figured, anyways, I'll be eating something, you can join me later if you want and I'll teach you all you want about using a phone!"

[Ryan]

"Thanks, Welt will be teaching me all he knows, so if I still have doubts I'll go to you"

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With that last message, he put the phone in one of the inside pockets of his Kimono, and looked slightly up towards Welt.

"Well Mr.Yang, how do I play games with the phone?" Ryan looked up a bit excited to the man.

"Let me introduce you to the game, Candy Crush"

Almost an entire hour later, one of Herta's multiple puppets opened her eyes, she looked at herself and then at her surroundings, then she scoffed a bit irritated.

"Is this really the closest puppet to the main control zone? I remember telling everyone to not move my puppets! Ugh...anyways, I'll have to walk and scold everyone on the way" she scoffed but then started to slowly walk towards the control zone.

She started to slowly walk around the station, with the intention to get to the main control zone to speak directly to Asta, some researchers have her a few looks, some scared because of the angry expression she seemed to have, others seemed relieved of seeing her (like how they should), and quite a lot of them looked at her with respect, but between all those researchers, a singular boy seemed to be completely clueless, his gaze completely fixated onto he phone he held with both hands, apparently playing a game.

"Uh? Asta hired a new janitor or something? Haven't seen him before...meh, probably he's not interesting" Herta sighed and kept walking

The boy was about to fall from the bridge, she was about to tell him to stop and probably scold him for slacking on his job, but as soon as he put a feet outside of the bridge, a magic circle appeared under him, he kept walking on the circle as if it was a simple floor, more and more circles appeared to let him keep walking, until he reached the bridge on the other side of the room, and kept walking on the normal floor...still looking at the phone.

"...what did I just witness?"

She had to know what the hell he just did, it was something...irregular and something she didn't know, that made her start to follow him, trying to catch up to him and use whatever method she thought would be useful to make that boy tell her what he did.

"Ah! Madam Herta! Here you are"

She immediately turned around and looked at one of the researchers.

"What? What is it, unnamed researcher n°153?" She crossed her arms above her chest looking up at the researchers.

"Miss Himeko, from the Astral Express has been looking for you"

"Oh right, she spoke about a special girl that had a Stellaron inside..." She scoffed a bit and then looked at the boy...but he was already nowhere to be found.

Stellaron? Or mysterious janitor? Stellaron or Janitor? Stellaron or Janitor?

She will probably bump onto that janitor again at some point (preferably when he's actually doing his work), so Stellaron it is.

"Fine, I'll go immediately" she spoke and then started to walk leaving the researcher behind her. "Soon Janitor...soon"

Ryan, simply kept walking now inside of a Hall, with his eyes fixed on the screen of his phone...he was already in the level 48 of the mobile game that Welt had presented to him, moving around candies to make combinations of the same kinds of candies, special candies that varied depending on the amount of candies you got to combine.

"This is actually kind of addicting..."

As he kept playing the game, he looked slightly to the upwards part of the screen, seeing how he had just gotten a message from Himeko.

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[Himeko]

"Ryan, could you please come to the main control zone?"

"Herta is coming here and I would like you to meet her, she could be of help to you."

[Ryan]

"Sure Miss Himeko, i'm going, just let me finish a few more levels and I'll go."

[Himeko]

"Try to not be late, she loses interest very quickly"

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On the other side of the conversation, Himeko sighed a bit...maybe it was a bad idea to give him a phone?

She looked slightly up from the phone, seeing how Herta slowly approached her until she stopped in front of her with a hand on her waist.

"The Stellaron girl Is still dead?"

"She's...not dead, Madam Herta" she looked down onto her a bit nervous.

"A shame, that means I can't dissect her, opportunity lost I guess" she looked away rubbing her chin.

"I have to take Stelle and Ryan out of here." Her eye ticked a bit at her words.

"Anyways, while that Stellaron sleeps, I want to ask something." She looked up towards Himeko.

"Hmm? What is it?" She crossed her arms a bit curious.

"Did Asta hired a janitor capable of walking on air thanks to spontaneously appearing circles with engraving from unknown origin and language?"

"...excuse me?" She blinked a bit, not really understanding.

"Ugh...how could I put it so you understood?" She rubs her chin a bit. "I saw a white-haired boy walking through the air while he made his own floor using floating circles."

"Does she...mean Ryan? I didn't know he could do that..." She smiled a bit nervously. "He's...not a janitor, Madam Herta..."

"Does that mean he's part of that train of yours, then?"

"Not...really, I think it'd be better if I explained his situation alongside you, I think you'd find him very um...interesting" she smiled nervously not really wanting to let her see Ryan.

"Here I am, Miss Himeko" Ryan smiled as he entered into the main control zone and looked at both of them be quickly approached. "I suppose that this woman is Herta?"

"Oh? You didn't know me and yet recognized me?" Herta looked up to Ryan slightly curious. "Good Job, Janitor."

"J-Janitor?" He seemed to be confused.

Himeko sighed but then spoke. "This is Madam Herta, Ryan, she might be able to help you"

"Should I remind you that I do not do charity?" Herta crosses her arms above her chest looking at Himeko.

"Would she be able to tell if I'm turning into an Aeon or not?"

"Whatdidyoujustsay?" Herta almost immediately looked up at Ryan, her words coming out so fast it was barely understandable.

"You see Madam Herta, Ryan here comes from a different dimension, he doesn't belong to any part of this universe, he was taken from his home by an unknown entity that said he'd become an Aeon." Himeko explained while looking down at Herta with a small smirk.

"You better not be lying, Himeko." Herta frowned. "What proof do you have?"

"Well, first of all, we found him in a chunk of Ice in the middle of space, he has already started to show incredible abilities, quickened healing, capable of using magic, and if I'm correct, said magic was capable of deflecting and stopping a distress call from the station, he probably has more abilities we are unaware of." Himeko crossed her arms. "If you truly want to check any sign of him becoming an Aeon...you're allowed to, but nothing dangerous, please."

"Hmph! You, Janitor! Come with me, Himeko, send the Stellaron girl to me when she wakes up." Herta spoke with a small, very small, tiny piece of excitement on her voice, she then started to walk away.

"Should I uh...follow her?" Ryan spoke a bit nervous looking at Himeko.

"Yes...you should" Himeko sighed a bit. "My condolences."

"Mr.Yang said the same..." He thought nervously and then started to follow Herta.

A few minutes later, Ryan sat on a medical bed, various machines around him, Herta went to a console and started to press a few keys before looking at Ryan.

"Take off your upper clothes."

"Uh...sure" a bit nervously he took off the coat and then folded the kimono around his waist.

Herta nodded with her head and then went to Ryan, standing in her toes she grabbed a hanging screen and pulled it slightly down, making the screen face Ryan.

"This will record your energy levels, your pulse, amount of oxygen in your blood, your neural activity, and any irregularities in your celular conposition" Herta spoke and went to the screen. "Do you understand?"

"No"

"Goo-...what the actual fuck?" She spoke as she saw the screen on the console, she then looked at Ryan and then at the console again. "You're... certainly no regular human, or lifelong species, or any other humanoid species, your celular conposition seems normal, but this takes you as just...pure energy" she narrowed her eyes. "Not only that, you're not only pure energy, you exude an infinite amount energy, that could've been what stopped the signal from the station...but there's something weird, could you please show me some of that 'Magic' Himeko said you had?"

"Uhm...sure" he lifted up his hand an a small frame appeared on top of it.

"Amazing...it's the same kind of energy you're radiating, but you're not the one generating Infinite energy...it's something on your left shoulder."

Ryan tensed up a bit and drive his right hand to his left shoulder, looking down at it, he could still see a small mark of a hand imprinted on his shoulder.

"It's...a curse, it's supposed to freeze me as long as I feel guilt, it hasn't been acting every since I came here, but if you say that it's radiating magic...then it means it's still active but for some reason it doesn't affect me..." Ryan spoke softly and then sighed.

"Can I cut your arm off?"

"E-Excuse me?" Ryan blinked a bit looking at Herta.

"I asked if I could cut your arm off, if that 'curse' as you call it, keeps radiating infinite energy, I could use it for the station, or for something even bigger, don't worry, we can give you a prosthetic arm."

"I'd very much prefer to keep my arm, thanks..." Ryan smiled nervously and Herta simply scoffed.

"A shame...anyways, your body structure seems normal, your cells are a bit weird, they are what they normally are but...they are surrounded and made out of something, as you would put it, you're a 'Magic' based entity, can you reproduce?" Herta asked while looking at the console.

"I'm...uh...not sure"

"Are you able to have intercourse?"

"You're taking too much freedom with questions, you know that right?" Ryan looked a bit irritated at Herta.

"A shame you don't have a Heartbeat, I would've able to know if that was a yes or a no by looking at it."

"Ugh...yes"

"Interesting...how would a child born from you be like? Would it also be composed of 'Magic'? Would it be a regular being or a mixture of both?"

"Don't ask like if I knew the answers" Ryan rubbed his forehead a bit.

"I suggest you to have intercourse, imagine the possibilities! You're basically a new species, and if you truly end up becoming an Aeon, you could be one that it's active with humanity, how do you think a child from an Aeon and a Mortal would be like? Would it be another Aeon? an Emanator? Or something else entirely? I'm very tempted to not let Himeko take you and chain you up right here" Herta spoke with her eyes still fixated onto the screen. "Well, to continue checking your body and any other irregularities...I need you to remove all your clothes."

"....I don't really have a say anymore, do I?"

"Correct, you don't" Herta responded looking at the defeated Ryan.

"Damnit."

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A/N: And that's today chapter! Ryan got a phone, got promoted from Janitor to Experiment 'volunteer' and Herta has a new toy.

Anyways, Hope you enjoyed!