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Once upon a time, there was a little princess who lived upon a comet drifting through space. She had no name nor any memories and spent her days asleep, dreaming about the world that existed beyond the tiny place she called her home. She was not lonely for she does not remember what it meant to be lonely but is a life dreaming truly with living when the waking world seemed so out of reach for her?
One day, the comet shot through space and came across a shooting star travelling towards a distant kingdom in the cosmos. The star stopped next to the comet and a queen in white awoke the princess with a charming song of her people. When the princess opened her eyes and was greeted by the queen and her subjects, the first thing they asked was for name of the girl encased in ice.
“My apologies, travellers from afar, I don’t have a name to give you.” The princess touched her heart and solemnly responded to the queen.
“What a strange thing to say, my princess. All living beings in this world have a name, do they not?” The queen’s grand sage questioned the girl.
“I do not, sir, I’m sorry to bear such news. I only have a title and this comet to prove my existence to you.”
What a strange girl, the queen’s dragon must have been thinking to himself then. The creature looked at the girl with cautious eyes, unsure whether to trust her words or not. A princess with no memory of her past, a princess who made empty space her home? What a suspicious thing it must have been to a dragon like him.
The shooting star was restless, wanting to reach the kingdom on the other side of the universe as quickly as possible but the three adventurers knew better than to leave a lost girl stranded on her own in an empty void of nothingness. The queen waved her hand and her subjects stepped back from the girl. She reached her hand out to the princess and gave her a choice that would shape her from that day on.
“Come with us, dear princess. Let us explore this realm together and blaze forth in a fiery adventure.” The queen offered to the young girl in the comet.
“What an offer to give to a stranger, good queen. I don’t know if I should accept or not.” The princess lowered her head and stared down at her icy form.
“Would it be more comforting to you to live a life locked away in ice? A birdcage with no wind or light?” The dragon questioned her and the princess covered her eyes.
For a girl who had only known the darkness and cold, a being that had only known the frozen comet as her home, she knew the only answer that would be true to her was within the grasp of the queen and her caring subordinates. So, without a second moment of hesitation, she reached her hand out to the lady in white and-
“March! Dinner is almost ready, hurry up!” Dan Heng’s voice called out from outside her room’s door.
“Ah! I-I’ll be out in a second! I-I just need to get my photos uploaded!” She shouted back, quickly tucking the journal into a compartment inside of her desk.
She had been trying to come up with a good story for a while now, wanting to branch out a little with her hobbies even if it was just a little bit. Ms Himeko was the one who encouraged her to try journaling to help her put her thoughts down into words. Even if she doesn’t keep it as a hobby for long, it might give her ideas of what else she wanted to do to pass the time when travelling.
After all, the life of a Nameless was a thankless one and, when not travelling from place to place all the time, life can get a little cramped and idle on the Express, especially when in heavy proximity to your fellow Express members. Himeko told her that it was best to do something to help pass the time more quickly, whether it’s helping catalogue the data banks or just drinking tea and listening to the radio, whatever would help her feel a bit more at ease, she should take it for the sake of her own sanity if needed be.
So, after thinking it over more, March started journalling to herself… well, it started off as journalling but it… sort of evolved in its own. From the first page to her most recent, it went from basic diary entries about her day to day life and turned into random titbits she heard from Mr Yang and some strange musings she heard Dan Heng ramble on about when he believed no one was listening.
And then it turned into recipes she had collected from random planets, little sketches of old photographs she had taken a long time ago and, the most recent entry turned into a fairytale she decided to write because she couldn’t think of anything else to put into her book. She guessed it spawned from a moment of weakness for her. A moment where she didn’t really know what she was writing but just let her pen move on its own then. She just… felt the need to put her thoughts into words…
“March, are you ready yet?” She heard Dan Heng knock on her door again.
“A-Ah! Y-Yeah! Don’t be so demanding!” She shot up from her desk and ran to the door.
Opening it, she was greeted by her friend sighing to himself and beginning to usher her towards the main parlour area where they were gathered to eat. Stelle was already there, chatting with Mr Yang about their recent adventures. She seemed quite frustrated as she described needing to fight off a giant bug beneath Herta’s Space Station but Mr Yang listened intently as always and gave her a little smile of amusement as Stelle recounted her harrowing experience.
“Ah, March! You’re here! Where have you been the entire day?” The young Trailblazer clasped her hands together and Mr Yang’s attention shifted to the others instead.
“You seem a little jittery today, March, are you alright?” Mr Yang asked her with a concerned smile.
“March has been in her room a lot more than usual.” Dan Heng stated, quite matter of fact.
“Leave her alone, you three. If March wants her privacy, she should be allowed it.” Himeko chimed in, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder in a reassuring manner.
Quietly thanking Himeko beneath her breath, she sat down at the table and gave everyone her signature cheery smile. She knew that they were asking her because it’s out of character for her to be locking herself away in her room for so long but, at the same time, she just felt the need to figure out how her story was going to end…
The princess took the queen’s hand that day and agreed to travel with her and her friends across the cosmos together. They saw many things together, different planets with different people and different creatures that walked and crawled and swam and flew. Trees that stretch up towards the sky with gigantic flowers or waterfalls that flowed upwards into caves filled with purple and green gems.
In due time, the friends of the queen became the princess’s friends as well. They became a family for the princess who she trusted and relied on with her life and they relied on her just as much too. They saw many things together and each little adventure they had together, the princess collected into mirror shards which she hung within the shooting star to keep as precious memories she hoped to keep for the rest of time. They were precious to her, as precious as the people connected to the shards were to her.
A knock at the door caught her attention once more. It was quiet on the other side but, somehow, she just knew who had come to see her then. As the door opened, Stelle walked her way inside and shot March a little smile. She seemed a little lost in thought then but she could sort of guess what she had come to talk about.
“So how was your visit to the space station?” March asked with a little grin.
“Terrible! I nearly got eaten by a giant bug!” Stelle instantly shouted but it wasn’t what she came to talk to her about.
“I heard! Mr Yang seemed disturbed while you were ranting to him earlier too!”
“Mr Yang understood my pain! But, uh… are you alright yourself? You’ve been a little more reclusive than usual recently…”
“Ah, that… don’t worry about it too much! I just feel like I need to… get some things sorted in my head is all!”
“You seem quite reluctant to tell me about it.”
“That’s because it’s a private matter! Hmph, you shouldn’t be asking someone about their private matters so much!”
“Alright, alright. I understand that… but Welt and I wanted you to know that, if anything is bothering you, we’re here to help. Okay?”
She knew that, how could she not? They were always there for her when she needed them the most. From the day they found her in the ice to the day they found Stelle on the space station… Dan Heng, Mr Yang, Himeko… and now, Stelle as well. They were a family, the only one she had ever known… the only one she really needed to feel like herself…
They found a trash panda trapped within the depths of a giant, mechanical beast. The beast once belonged to a talking puppet who danced and sang to the beast to keep it calm but, that day, the beast was very angry as evil bugs infested its stomach, making it very ill. The shooting star came to rescue the puppet’s friend from the infestation and, along the way, the princess and the dragon found the raccoon within the beast’s belly.
“Come with us and you will never be alone again!” The princess declared to the little creature.
The raccoon was skittish at first but, once freed from the belly of the beast, the little creature agreed to follow the shooting star and its passengers on their journey to another world. Though, before she left, she took the princess and the dragon by the hand and warned them of her pains and worries.
Though the princess understood the fears of Destruction the raccoon had, she felt no need to dwell on the matter any longer. For she was the princess’s friend and the friend of the shooting star. There was nothing the racoon could say or do that would change that fact within the girl’s mind.
“I don’t know… mm… um…” March tapped her pen upon the table, staining the white surface lightly in blue.
Maybe she should start writing about the situation in Belobog with the people and the Stellaron. Or maybe talk about the situation on the Xianzhou Luofu with the Stellaron Hunters and the local people. Or maybe she should skip everything and mention what happened in Penacony. But… it just didn’t feel like it fit what she wanted to talk about… the people there, the people they had met, they were special to her, of course, but it didn’t fit the story she was trying to tell…
One night, the princess sat alone at the edge of the shooting star, looking out at the galaxy in the far distant. It shone like a star from far away and swirled with colour and light. The queen sat beside her and asked her what she saw and the princess responded in a kind yet melancholy tone.
“I see people far away. Many people with many different lives.” She told her, gently closing her eyes even for just a little bit.
“Then why are you sad, dear princess? Why do you seem so gloomy?” The queen asked her.
“Because, my queen… because…”
She didn’t know how to tell this story… she didn’t know what she was writing nor did she really know why she felt the need to write it… was it her own frustration over how blank she felt her existence was? Was it because she feared the day when the travelling ends and the people she once knew leave the Express? Was it the worry that she’d never have the answer she was looking for? Did she even want to hear the answer if she had the chance to find it? What sort of answer was she even seeking anyway?
It didn’t make sense, this story’s existence didn’t make sense. She could tear the pages then and there and forget she had ever even wrote such a story to begin with. Even then, what good would that bring? To tear through a journal that she had worked so hard on, it would bring her no security.
“Ugh, this is so annoying!” She shut the book and tossed it to the side of her room.
It thudded against the wall and flopped back in her chair. What was she thinking anyway? To write such a pathetic children’s novel. It wasn’t as though she was trying to get it published or anything, she just wrote the story for fun, right? So why did she want to find its ending anyway? If she never finished the story, it would still be fine, right?
Maybe she could end it simply that the shooting star carried on off into the future and the people on it explored the universe forever! The shooting star would be happy and the people onboard would be too! The princess would always be around her beloved family and they’d be together forever like she wanted them to.
But she wasn’t a naïve child either and, even if she wrote it like a fairytale for children, she knew that, even if the shooting star continued to travel across the sky, the queen would one day have to disembark as well as the sage and the dragon and even the princess… one way or another, the story will come to an end one day and March would find herself needing to face that future even if it feels far away at that moment…
Who will she be then? To not be a Nameless, to not be going from place to place like she had been from her earliest memories, it felt like a nightmare to someone like her. It was the purpose Himeko gave to her when she took her under her wing and she found her place in that perfectly created puzzle piece the Astral Express created for itself after so many years. What would she be without it?
“I don’t know… I’m scared…” She quietly whimpered to herself.
“March, are you alright?” She heard Dan Heng’s voice from the other side of her door.
“Huh? H-Hey, don’t spy on me like that!”
“Sorry, I just… I thought I heard you crying so I came to check up on you.”
“Dan Heng… mm… sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you…”
“Don’t be like that. Can I come in?”
“Not right now but… um… can we talk for a while?”
Dan Heng didn’t reply then but she heard him slide himself to sit against her door and she moved herself closer so she could hear him better. Even with a barrier between them, she still felt comforted by his presence there. He was so suspicious of her when they first met each other and she guessed she couldn’t blame him for it with everything he had gone through in his own past.
He was the careful and cautious guard of the Astral Express and, to him, she was the carefree and overly excited member they had picked up in the middle of space for no other reason than she was just there to be picked up at. They were so different back then and even more different in the present and yet neither of them would have wanted it any other way now.
“One day, when the journey comes to an end… would we still be friends, Dan Heng?” She asked him, quietly.
“That’s… quite a thing to be thinking about. Is this what has been bothering you?” He asked her back but she wasn’t sure how to answer.
“No… no, it’s not that specifically but it came to me just now while I was… thinking…”
“March, such questions are years away and we shouldn’t be lingering on those thoughts for too long.”
“But still, when the day comes, would we still be friends?”
Dan Heng paused for a moment and March could almost picture him staring down the hall with a furrowed look on his face as though he was questioning if March had completely lost her sanity or not. She heard some other footsteps coming down the hall too and heard Dan Heng greet Himeko as she passed them by, not questioning why the young man was sitting on the floor and talking to her door.
He thought for a moment on how he should respond, she could sense it even if Dan Heng didn’t say a word. She took her own time to think about the people she cared about the most. Mr Yang and his stories and thoughts, Ms Himeko and her kind and thoughtful advices, Stelle and her crazy ideas and fun loving attitude, and Dan Heng who was always there when they needed him the most.
“March?” She heard his voice from the other side.
“Yeah?” She answered him without needing to even think about it.
“If we ever were separated… if our journey ever comes to an end, one way or another… I’ll come find you, all of you, so we could journey together once more.”
“That’s- “
“Do you really think it’s so simple? We chose to journey because of our own reasons but this Express had bonded us in a way that cannot be fathomed so easily, March 7th.”
“Dan Heng…”
“You are a part of this journey as we all are. We are a family, one that will continue to blaze through the stars until our very ends. Even then, I don’t think we’ll leave this Express so easily either. Pom-Pom will have to pry me from my cabin if they truly want me gone.”
She couldn’t help but laugh when she heard him say that. Of all the people to declare such a thing, she didn’t think it would be him of all people to do so. He must have heard her laugh because she could hear his tone shift back to his usual once more as she heard him stand back up from the door.
“Don’t think of such things just yet, March. It will be far into the future when you’ll have to ponder such matters. Even then, I don’t think you or I will depart anytime soon.” He told her.
He was right, it’s still too early to be thinking of such things. She didn’t even know why she started thinking of such things in the first place. She had a place among them, a travelling Nameless who followed the light of the Trailblaze and the teachings THEY had left behind. She should take it as it was and understand where she felt like she belonged the most.
A shooting star shot through the sky from galaxy to galaxy, world after world, taking in the sights, helping those who needed them, and learning things they would have never thought of before. The princess sat at the edge of the shooting star, looking out towards a galaxy far off in the distance. The queen came and sat beside her and asked her what she saw With a gentle tone, the princess answered her in kind.
“I see people far away. Many people with many different lives.” She told her, gently closing her eyes even for just a little bit.
“Then why are you sad, dear princess? Why do you seem so gloomy?” The queen asked her.
“Because I’m afraid of being lonely, my queen. I’m afraid of what the future might bring to me.”
As a girl with no true name or memory, she feared the day the shooting star no longer shined for her or the people she had grown to love and cherish. The queen looked at her and laughed while the others came and gathered around the young girl. The dragon reached his hand out and helped the girl onto her feet before making a declaration to her and the others who were there to hear his words too.
“Princess, don’t be silly. You are one of us and we are a part of this shooting star’s travels. From the day we took you from your comet, you have become one of us.” He told her, truly.
“No matter where you go, no matter where your journey takes you, you will always be our princess and we your family.” The sage added in response.
“No matter what- “
“No matter where you go, you are a Trailblazer.” Himeko said as the others smiled in response.
“So don’t feel down, March. You’re stuck with us!” Stelle added, chuckling to herself.
“Guys…” March looked at them as tears welled up in her eyes.
The Astral Express shone brightly above their heads as the group gathered together to comfort their pink and blue friend who seemed to really need their hug. The life of a Nameless is a thankless and difficult one. Still, for one young girl with no name or memory of her past, it’s the only life she had ever lived.
She felt Himeko tighten her embrace around her and felt Stelle drag Dan Heng closer when he tried to get away. She laughed as she could see the people she cared about surrounding her and hear the Astral Express call to them, reminding them that it was there and they were there waiting for them to board once again.
“Let’s continue on, shall we?” Himeko reminded them as she readied herself to return back to the Express above.
“Take your time if you need it.” Mr Yang added, noticing a strange look on March’s face.
“Right!” The girl called to them back as she took out a small notebook from her bag.
Looking it over, she quietly added one last entry into it before she dropped it on the ground while the others were not looking and followed the crew back up to the Express where their journey would continue onward into the great unknown once more.
The girl looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star shine brightly up ahead. Eternally, it travels from world to world, from place to place, only stopping for a little while before it shines on, reminding a dreamy girl of the wide and waking world around her.
Her journey is still going on and she doesn’t know where the shooting star will take her next in the endless wandering of the universe. Still, so long as she can travel with her friends, she no longer feels the need to fear for what the future may hold for her. After all, with so many people around her now, she no longer needs to dream about a world out of reach to her anymore.