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The Astral Express’ adventure through Amphoreus had been far more stressful than any of you had imagined. You had known that it would have to be somewhat exhilarating, of course you had. The entire reason the crew had decided on going to Amphoreus was to refuel on “Trailblaze Juice”, as March had put it. What none of you were expecting, was a universe-ending computer algorithm that required the efforts of the Nameless, the Xianzhou, the IPC, and the Genius Society to put an end to. It was safe to say that after that chapter of the story had concluded, the Express crew needed a rest.
However, despite your exhaustion telling you to sleep, you simply couldn’t, or maybe, wouldn’t. While the journey in Amphoreus had certainly been bombastic, it didn’t feel fulfilling. Not to you, at least. In fact, you were rather certain that it had been fulfilling for everyone but you. March 7th had uncovered a buried piece of herself, Dan Heng had made peace with his past, and Stelle was able to tell the story of the Eternal Land across the cosmos. But you couldn’t rest with what you knew about the nature of the simulation. You had to find out more. Surely there was something you were missing, there was no feasible way anything on that scale was feasible. And maybe, just maybe, if you were able to recreate the simulation, there was a chance you could bring a better ending for all of the friends lost along the way.
You sat at the desk in your room, scanning through lines of code on your computer screen that you had copied from the imprinted lines in the original copy of “As I’ve Written”. The IPC had censored them in the public release, of course, but you were lucky to have the authentic piece well within your grasp. The code was damn-near unusable, though. So many missing words, commands, indecipherable sentences. Whatever that Lygus man had coded his simulation in, it certainly wasn’t a coding language you were familiar with. You tried your best to use what you did know to fill in the gaps; the simulation had been created for the Anti-Life Equation to find out how life developed, so it could learn to destroy. But, you had little experience with iterative learning programs, so you were left clueless. Just as you were about to slam the laptop shut, you heard a knock on your door.
“Y/N?” You recognised the voice as Stelle.
“…come in,” you muttered. The door swung open to reveal the Genesis’ Author herself. She looked at your desk with a mildly confused expression.
“So that’s where the book went,” she comments. “What’cha doing with it?”
You glanced up at her, then back at the screen. “I’m trying to work out all this code.”
“The code in the book?”
“Yeah.”
“So that’s why you needed my copy.”
You looked back up at her again. In her eyes, you could sense some apprehension. It made sense, given what this very code caused. You started explaining your efforts to her.
“If I can figure out what any of this says, how any of this was done, I could have a chance at recreating the simulation and-“
“Hold on- recreating? Are you insane?” Stelle looked at you like you had just stabbed her.
“What?” You shoot back. “No, I’m not insane! If we could find a way to recreate it, we could find a way to help the Chrysos Heirs out of it, they could still be alive!”
“Oh… so it’s about them, huh?” The grey-haired girl diverted her gaze slightly.
“I just… wish we could have done more for them. They didn’t deserve their fates.”
“I know, Y/N, I know,” Stelle took a seat on your bed. “I wish we didn’t have to leave them . behind too. But we can’t bring them back now, even if you do pull a computing miracle out of your-“
“But that’s just… that’s just so hard to believe,” you spun around in your chair, fully facing her. “They’re people, there has to be a way to get them back somehow.”
“Look, Y/N… we can’t bring the Heirs back, but they’re still here. They’re with us in here,” Stelle pointed to your chest, your heart, “and in here,” then to the book. “The cosmos knows their names and their sacrifices. They’re living on, and I’m damn sure they wouldn’t want you obsessing over how to reconstruct them. So lets focus on our next stop, okay? We’re about to hold a meeting.”
“Right,” you muttered back. You knew Stelle was right in this argument. The code was simply unworkable, and even if you managed to get it running, would you have any idea how to extract the Heirs from the simulation? Would they even remember you and the crew, or your journey together?
“Come on,” Stelle stood up, walking over to the door. “We’re Trailblazers, right? Still got a whole future to figure out. No point dwelling on the past for too long.”
And with that, she left the room, leaving you alone. “Still got a whole future to figure out”… that was easy for her to say, but it applied to you, too. You shut your laptop and began walking to the Party Car for the discussion on the Express’ next destination. One day, you’ll figure out how to give the Heirs the true ending they deserve. But for now, there was nothing you could do but trailblaze your way into the future yet to be written.