Chapter 1 – The Masks of Deception

Life in the Astral Express was thrilling.

Created by Akivili, the Aeon of Trailblaze, the Astral Express was all about exploring the universe, leaving behind Star Rail tracks for those that wanted to take part. Those that did were called the ‘Nameless’.

Centuries after the passing of the Aeon, a scientist named Himeko rediscovered the Express, and decided to take it to its logical conclusion: Use the Astral Express to gather a new group of Nameless and lend a helping hand to those that needed it.

The crew is as it follows…

Himeko. The leader of the crew of the new Astral Express, a famous scientist that dabbled as well into diplomacy, negotiation, leadership and fighting, as well being drop-dead gorgeous. Being the leader of the Astral Express, she continued to ensure that the ride was always safe and sound.

Dan Heng. The quiet and brooding Archivist of the Astral Express, a man in love of knowledge and skilled with his spear. His past used to be a mystery but during their travels, it was discovered that the man is a literal reincarnation of the former Vidyadhara High Elder of the Xianzhou Luofu, after being banished from the planet spaceship. Despite the reveal, he stood with the crew of the Astral Express, due to the fact that he was still banished. Oh well.

March 7th. A mysterious pink haired girl that Himeko found encased in six-phased ice, that couldn’t be melted through conventional means. Keyword being ‘couldn’t’, as the crew managed to find a way to do so. Once she woke up, she found out that she lost all of her memories, including her own name, so she named herself after the day she was discovered. A cheery girl with a natch for photography, eventually is discovered, or heavily implied that she is the ‘good’ version of a similar person that used to exist long ago, calling herself ‘Evernight’. Maybe. The headaches that the crew and March herself got from trying to understand could feed a small army if converted to food.

Welt Yang. Once known as the Herrscher of Reason and gifted control over gravity, things didn’t go so well with him. He and his crew were expelled and eventually he settled down at an animation studio, only for the adventure to call him again and joined the Astral Express in the hopes of finding his way back home. While still powerful, the Aeons got him beat so he remains with the crew until he gets a chance to go back.

Pom-Pom. The mysterious rabbit-like creature that conducts the Astral Express, dressed the part as well. A complete mystery, of course, it wouldn’t be the Astral Express without one. Their faith in the Astral Express is unwavering. Himeko didn’t ask any more questions, and that was that.

And finally, the Trailblazer. A mysterious (what a surprise!) entity of unknown origin, The Trailblazer was awoken from a deep sleep after the Stellaron Hunters invaded the Herta Space Station, and merged with an malevolent artifact named ‘Stellaron’. While the Trailblazer set off to find and explore the universe, the true nature came knocking quickly: Trailblazer is an artificial human, raised by Kafka, another Stellaron Hunter, and just before being merged with the artifact, Kafka removed all of their memories. Of course this would have many repercussions on their mind, but it wasn’t an issue, or at least, it wasn’t really something they could control over. Or actually gave them pause. And of course, the Trailblazer is a real goofball, very eccentric and perhaps fun personified. When these things don’t happen at all, something bad is about to go down…

As the crew was travelling, the intercom when off… And the ship came to a sudden halt.

“I detect something off inside the Astral Express.” It was the voice of Pom-Pom, the conductor. “Second car, room three, there’s an object that appeared all of sudden into the room. Please check it so we can discard it, whoever is close.”

That room was a common resting area, some beds, a couch, nothing much to it. What exactly was going on?

Thankfully, the room was close to where the Trailblazer used to rest, so they could go and check. And each room had an intercom to talk to the ship’s captain, in this case, Pom-Pom.

Strange how it seemed to appear within the common resting area as well. Within such a public area, someone else other than Pom-Pom would have texted everyone else about it. And since Pom-Pom sounded relatively calm… maybe the thing that appeared is likely harmless to them?

“…eh.”

Knowing the little guy himself, it sounded more important than playing video games on her phone. And plus, whatever this thing was could be pretty cool for her. Might as well give it a look.

Stelle

Gonna check it out. Heading to the second car now.

You guys think I might find something cool there?

With a curious smile, Stelle would send her text messages to the others of the Astral Express’s crew. Himeko, Dan Heng, March… surely a few of them were still awake to read it. They might even tag along if they felt like it. No replies for a while until March sent something.

March

Oki! Tell us if anything happens!

Then Stelle, the Trailblazer went to check exactly what this strange thing was…

creeeeeek

The door of the room didn’t seem like it was from inside the Astral Express but instead, an office space… White and prestine.

At the end of the room, a printer that looked super weird and old.

Next to it, a small monitor with a blinking green cursor and a keyboard, out of Commondore 32.

A moment of silence passed as Stelle stared at the… rather strange addition of technologies within their room. Strange enough to have it’s design stick out like a sore thumb compared to everything else.

The colors themselves wouldn’t really look out of place, had the combination of it’s styling and… admittedly, lack of charm actually attempted to match the rest of the room itself. But from what she could tell, it seemed like someone had transplanted an old (very old, now that she thought about it) office space where there was originally none. And whomeever pulled it off didn’t even bother to make it’s surroundings blend the two styles together. It just looked like someone had literally displaced part of an office space right into the Astral Express.

Not to mention the strange printer that was on display, too… Or at least, it looks like a printer. One that’s connected to a computer that’s recognizable, yet different enoguh to not be the Commondore 32 she once heard of.

“…Ooookay…” It wasn’t hostile, but she wasn’t sure if it was friendly either. It was just there. Sitting, waiting for a pair of hands to make use of it.

Stelle

Gonna be honest, I dunno if I can explain what I’m looking at.

At least without confusing you guys.

Looks like someone just plopped a part of an office right into the room. And there’s some weird big printer at the center of it.

And it looks like it’s connected to a computer too?

You guys think I should give it a try?

Well, that got both Dan and Himeko interested.

Dan

Wait a moment.

Himeko

We’ll be there, don’t do anything.

---

After a few minutes, the other three were with Stelle in the room.

March, Dan and Himeko studied the object.

“Huh, this is a printer?” March asked, poking it. No response from it, however.

Dan nodded. “Seems to be. It is all yellowed and everything, it might have been placed somewhere for ages.”

“I’m more concerned… About the room. It’s no longer the normal room it was but now it looks like someone set up an old office space.” Himeko said.

“Whatever it is, I can feel it’s strange!” Pom-Pom said through the intercom. “Like it’s some sort of really powerful object!”

Dan looked at Stelle. “Are you going to use it? Print some books for us?”

‘Set up’ sounds too nice of a word compared to what they’re seeing. It looks like someone literally cut out a chunk of the office space and placed it before them, rather than actually building one with it’s surrounding furniture in mind.

But it was here, and it’s definitely not going away. And considering the blinking input on the screen, it was still waiting for someone’s input to use it…

“Hmm… maybe I could get it to print a Light Novel I’ve been wanting to read…” Walking over to the keyboard and small monitor, Stelle would type in the Light Novel’s title, just to see if it actually works…

clack clack clack
psssst
CLANK!

The shutters opened to show exactly the Light Novel book that Stelle asked for.

March grabbed it and the shutters closed.

“‘A Space Adventure and a Half Painted Bear 3’?” March said, reading the book’s title. “Is this it?”

Dan and Himeko were quietly impressed from it, however.

“Fascinating…” Himeko said. “Pom-Pom said it was a ‘really powerful object’… They are usually not wrong, and I believe that is the case here…”

Dan had a hand on his chin. “Indeed. I wonder why it picked us though. Is it flexing or something?”

“Yep. That’s definitely the one, alright…” Stelle said, her eyes locked onto the book with palpable amazement. It may have been just a book for any of them to read, but… it didn’t seem like there was any paper on the printer that needed refilling, was there? Not to mention it was the hardcover version, too. Not exactly possible without a more elaborate process of manufacturing. The kind that an old printer such as this one just… couldn’t have been equipped with.

But if it was powerful enough to choose the Astral Express as it’s home, then…

“…maybe it sees us as it’s ‘Chosen Ones’?” Stelle smiled, resting a hand on her hip. “Maybe we’re missing some kind of prophecy that the printer hasn’t told us. Could be the case, y’know?”

“Well, that is gonna be incredible if we talk to the Stellaron Hunters.” March chuckled. “They are gonna flip so badly!”

Dan pondered. “Something so powerful shouldn’t be allowed to exist…”

Himeko chuckled. “Look who is talking, Dan… But I get the point… Doesn’t look like we can do anything about it, however. Certainly doesn’t look movable.”

March smiled. “Let’s use it, guys! Like a lot! We could do a lot of stuff with it!”

Dan and Himeko looked at each other. “Well, we don’t know how long it’ll be picking us… So March isn’t exactly wrong there. Even if I disagree with using it, it would be a waste not to. At least testing the waters…” He said.

March chuckled. “He’s curious! I know you are, Dan!”

Dan looked away for a moment. Stelle rolled her eyes, teasingly nudging Dan with her elbow. “Aww, c’mon… what’s the worst that could happen? Sure, as powerful as it is, it’s looking a little mysterious with how it got here. But it probably wouldn’t any of us if we got a bit curious.”

In fact, since she was the one that got to try it out first…

“You know what? Maybe you should give it a try.” She said, stepping aside to give Dan a clear view of the monitor and keyboard. “Put in whatever you’d wanna make from it. Maybe we could make something more than just books out of it?”

Dan looked at the printer and imagined what he could do with it. “Hm. Books are possible… What about weapons?”

clack clack clack
psssst
CLANK!

After typing, the shutters opened to show a spear similar to the one he used, but in a different color. Himeko grabbed it.

“Impressive…” She mused, handling it for a moment. “Well, I guess March is right… But what can we do?”

March smirked a bit and looked at Stelle. “Stelle, dear… What would you like to do?” And then smirked even more, the two girls were very much in sync with some things…

Oh…

Oh, Stelle knew that sort of look from March. She recognized those sort of half-lidded, devious eyes all too well.

And even in spite of their company, she couldn’t really care how much they’d give her the side-eye for what she had in mind. Because if the printer could truly make anything… then…

“Don’t mind if I do~ Heheheh…~” Her cheeky fingers typed onto the beige keys before her, giggling to herself as she willed the machine into creating whatever their synchronized brain cells had in mind.

Such as… something that was very innocent. Definitely normal for a girl like her to make from the printer itself.

A lifelike, attachable dildo. Attachable in the sense that any girl could just place it on their crotch, and have it act like real genitals to their senses. Surely the printer would oblige, right?

clack clack clack
psssst
CLANK!

March grabbed it from the shutters and showed it. Dan looked at it, puzzled.

“That’s a penis, isn’t it?” He asked. “Why would you do this?”

March smiled. “You’re not the only one curious… Maybe one for Himeko too, Stelle! And yourself!”

Himeko protested. “The first thing you two think about is sex? March, Stelle, please behave yourselves…”

March somewhat ignored her. The somewhat part was solved by this: “Also, make some pills that makes not get addicted to sex, so that Himeko doesn’t complain that we’re doing it all the time…~”

Wow, she was a horndog! Maybe holding a dildo got her a bit too excited.

Knowing March… and probably Evernight too, since she might be even kinkier… Stelle would doubt those pills would stop her brain from wandering to places where it shouldn’t. But just in case if they needed it…

“Anti-sex addiction pills, coming right up…!” Clack clack clack clack clack…!

Regardless of whatever exasperation Dan or Himeko would send her way, she was still going to commit to her idea. Because why shouldn’t she? Might as well just make use of this opportunity…!

clack clack clack
psssst
CLANK!

March grabbed the other dildos and four bottles, filled to the brim with pills. The label outside of them was exactly that, ‘Anti-sex addiction pills’.

Dan chuckled and looked at Himeko. “You can’t really blame them for this…”

Himeko sighed. “I suppose…” Then grabbed the dildo made for her.

March looked at Dan… And smirked again. “Stelle, Dan is still a guy… Think we could fix that somehow?”

“Hmm…” Stelle hummed to herself. They definitely could, but… in what sort of way would they be able to fix the problem? Someway that could be fun for all of them?

Oh! Wait, she’s got an idea…!

Clack clack clack clack clack… “How about…” Clack! Stelle confirmed her input with the single press of a button, grinning like a mischievous child while waiting for the printing to finish. “A gender-bending mask that anyone could wear? If an attachable dildo is possible, then maybe a mask that could fuse with your face and flip your gender could work…!”

clack clack clack
psssst
CLANK!

Not one but four masks were made, one for each of them.

March grabbed them and it was all fine. “They feel nice…!”

Dan noticed that. “Wait. Did you ask for four masks, or just one, Stelle?” That made Himeko look a bit concerned. Was the printer aware of the people next to it?

Stelle would shrug at the question. “I dunno. I just asked for it to make genderbending masks for… wait…”

Now that she thought about it, that does sound a bit strange. How the hell does it know there were four people present within the room itself?

“It’s not trying to kill us, but since you ended up mentioning that part… I dunno if I like what you’re implying there, Dan.” Stelle said, “Because that would explain why Pom-Pom said it was powerful. Even if it’s not doing anything else but to… Print objects for us? It’s weird.”

“Maybe it wants us to use it… It’s testing us, somehow… Somewhat.” Dan concluded. But did take a mask off March’s hands.

“We should lock this room down. And make sure that only the four of us should get inside at anytime.” Himeko said. “So we’re not caught abusing this. Deal?”

March nodded. “Yes, better that way…!”

Then Himeko looked at Stelle. In any other case, Stelle would have whined and at least try to coax Himeko against doing such a thing. Because really, what’s the harm in letting any of them make use of this printer? But considering what they’re now aware of, both in an explicit and implicit manner… It didn’t exactly sound like a good idea for any lone individual to abuse it’s powers. Far from it.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m against that.” Stelle couldn’t help but to agree. They couldn’t joke around with this issue. “If this thing’s getting used, the rest of us should be around to keep an eye on things. Or maybe to stop one of us if we’re making a mistake.” Which, knowing what she and March ended up doing… They certainly almost did, considering their increasing temptations.

“Yes. I’m glad you agree. Let’s lock this room down.” Himeko spoke with a nod.

---

CLICK

“There.” Himeko said, with the key being pocketed. Dan, Stelle and March were all out of the room as well, with Dan with his mask, Himeko with her mask and dildo, same with Stelle and March.

“Now, you two should behave a bit, okay?” Dan said. “I know I am curious, so I’ll be giving a shot with this mask in private…”

Himeko nodded. “Yes. If you are gonna do anything, stay in your rooms.”

March nodded as well. “Alright! If you want to check if the masks work, we could go to my own room, I guess?”

“Heheheh…~”

‘In private’, he says… Such might be Dan’s words, but Stelle knew exactly why he would ask for skme privacy. Just like how she herself would ask for some privacy with the life-like dildo she had made.

“Well, suit yourself then, Dan~” With a cheeky, knowing grin, Stelle would tease Dan with a slight lean forward. She already knows the man couldn’t resist. There’s no way he could.

And since they’ve got one of those masks for herself and March…

“Then let’s just head to your room, March.” She said to her good friend, “You think anyone will notice us doing things in your room?”

“I doubt it, if I’m honest. We can just close the doors~” March said, chuckling, grabbing Stelle by the hand, and walking her to the room.

The familiar sight of pink colored room of March 7th, with pictures all over the place, some of her best memories with the crew and several people they met over their adventures.

“So… What are we doing~?” She chuckled again.

• ➡️ Try the mask out.
• ➡️ “I’m not sure if this is a good idea…”
• ✅ Try the mask immediately.

In most times, it would certainly pay to be a bit careful when handling anomalous items. Especially when said anomalous item the result of a strange entity that decided to show up unannounced, and made the Astral Express its new home.

This was not one of those times. Even if the sane part of a person would say otherwise.

“This!” Stelle cheered, already shoving the mask upon her own face. As some people would say: You Only Live Once.

“…!” March exclaimed from how quickly Stelle pulled up the mask to her face.

But something amusing happened, Stelle was instead met with a selection of people she could turn into! It was like the mask was completely electronic and covered her face with a video game Heads-Up Display. The options were not that big at least initially.

• ➡️ “Sparkle”
• ➡️ “Himeko”
• ✅ “March 7th”

Maybe for the sake of messing with the friend right next to her… she could afford to maybe look like her. Assuming this mask actually works.

“Now, watch this…~” She grinned under the mask, dramatically covering a part of it with her palm. As if she was posing at the same time.

Almost like she was being digitally altered, Stelle’s clothes and body were completely and utterly altered to be an exactly replica of her friend, March 7th.

Once the transformation ended, March had her mouth agape at her friend.

“Stelle, what did you do??? Why are you me all of a sudden???” She was more flabbergasted than angry seeing this.

…oh, right. She hadn’t really thought about it that much, didn’t she?

“Well, I kinda just went with the option that had your name on it, since I assumed it would… turn me into… you…?”

Slowly, Stelle would look down towards her own body, and… yes, that’s definitely March’s clothes. And she was more than sure she was speaking in her voice, too.

“Wow, that actually worked?! I thought it would’ve just changed my face!” She said, reaching to feel her hair. And sure enough, they were a pale white color instead of a dark gray. “Looks like the mask worked. And the weirdest part is that this was just one of the options I could’ve picked!”

“Huh?” March tilted her head. “Wait, it gave you options? Is it a contextual thing?” She asked.

And just like a video game Heads-Up Display, other options showed up. Stelle would quickly recognize these from Silver Wolf’s games, but it was in her vision. What did she call it beforehand, ‘Augmented Reality’?

The mask appeared to be a really incredible technology based object, considering she could check the weather, location via GPS, and also have information of the person in front of her, aka her bestie, March.

Name: March 7th

Current Status: Alive

Current Emotion: Confusion

Possible Action: Explain the situation.

It even had a recommendation on how to respond. Then, a little message icon showed up, and opened itself to her.

Message received from Dan Heng

‘Stelle, I put on the mask, did it give you options to modify yourself too?’

Which meant that chances are, he might’ve turned into one of them just to try it out.

‘Heheh…’

Sending messages…

‘Yep. Right now, I kinda felt like messing with March, so I ended up turning into her.’

‘Oh yeah, speaking of turning into someone else… who did you ended up turning into? Was it Himeko?’

She would most certainly bet Himeko was the one that Dan Heng had turned into.

‘Heheheh…~’

“From what I can see, it’s definitely a contextual thing… you ever did those ‘Augmented Reality’ games with Silver Wolf before? Because it’s kinda like that, but so, so much cooler.” Stelle grinned.

“Oh! I remember those, yeah!” March said, and put on the mask as well.

This time, Stelle would see what happened during her own change, with March’s form getting a bunch of digital squares that would essentially encased her body and eventually alter her to be…

Firefly. Wait, wasn’t she dead by this point? This could get dangerous.

“How do I look, Stelle?” She asked, smiling.

• ➡️ “You turned into Firefly???”
• ✅ “This is kinda dangerous…”
• ➡️ “You look as hot as ever!”

‘Ohh…’

On second thought, maybe Himeko really did have a point with these masks. If it was able to replicate the deceased such as Firefly, then who knows whom else it would be able to replicate.

“Uhh… eheheh… I dunno if I’m liking this now…” Stelle nervously smiled, looking at the girl before her, from top to bottom to see if there’s any flaws… nope. March was, for all intents and purposes, essentially Firefly with this transformation.

“I mean, it has been pretty fun for us to do this, but… maybe it’s best if we turn into people that are still alive. Wouldn’t you agree?” Stelle carefully suggested to March, visibly uncomfortable with the implications.

“I mean…” She said with Firefly’s voice. “It did give me the option. And I wanted to see if it would work… Meaning that it taps into our memories…”

Considering that Dan sent her a message, he did test it and-

knock knock knock

A clearly female voice came from other side of the door.

“Stelle, March? It’s Dan. We absolutely need to talk about this…”

March went to open the door for Dan only to see a woman that was quite familiar to all of them. The fellow Galaxy Ranger Acheron.

“Okay… Wait a second… Why did you pick Acheron of all people, Dan???” March said.

And the female in front of March shrieked a bit. “What the h- Firefly?!”

“No, it’s March… I’m just using her form…” She shook her head.

Dan walked inside the room, and looked at the other March, aka Stelle. “And that is Stelle, right?”

• ➡️ “Why did you turn into Acheron?”
• ➡️ “I think we should talk to Himeko…”
• ✅ “You’re so hot now, Dan…!”

And now, the silly and probably horny part of Stelle has returned to the forefront. Bafflingly enough, it was almost as easy as flicking a switch within the back of her brain.

Hence why such words ended up leaving her lips far too easily than any of them would have liked. She’s probably a couple years too old to let out her inner hormonal teenager in such a way.

“…oh, crap. I said that out loud.” She said, looking much more apologetic as she covered her mouth. And yet, even in spite of her embarrassment… she couldn’t bear to look away from Acheron’s charming appeal.

“But I can’t help it, though! I knew you’d probably pick one of the hottest girls in the Express, but I didn’t expect you to go for Acheron!” She exclaimed.

The expressive Dan, after seeing Firefly, went not as much as expressive and got quite unamused seeing what Stelle said.

“I was more doubting that it could do it and turns out I was wrong to doubt it.” She replied. “Meaning that this printer is more than dangerous, Pom-Pom was more than correct to doubt this object as well.”

From Stelle’s vision, everything was fine but a little pop-up showed up.

Unlock more features when everyone given a mask uses it.

“Huh? Did you see that popup, Stelle?” March (as Firefly) as asked the two.

“Yeah, I saw it too. That means that Himeko hasn’t tried it yet.” Dan replied.

• ✅ Go fetch Himeko.
• ➡️ Investigate more options in the mask.
• ➡️ Try to remove the mask.

It’s doubtful she would ever consider removing the mask, so such a possibility would be thrown out the window. And investigating more options would be the most obvious option for her to do, considering she’s only used this mask for all of ten minutes by this point.

But considering the popup implied she hadn’t been given the full set of features just yet…

Might as well try to kill two birds with one stone, right?

“You know what? Let’s go ahead and find Himeko, then.” The Stelle-turned-March smiled, motioning the Acheron double to follow her. “I know she warned us about this mask, but come on… she just needs to try this!”

“I suppose so.” Dan-Acheron said with a nod.

---

“Let’s see if I get this right,” Himeko said to the three in front of her, now inside her own office, instead of March’s room, “This mask is not just for gender-bending but outright modifying bodies and clothes.”

“And additional features might trigger if all of us use it.” Dan-Acheron replied.

“C’mon! Give it a shot, Himeko!” March-Firefly said, being her happy self.

“Right…” She looked at the Stelle-March and put the mask on. Without much issue, the digital transformation effect got ahold of her and changed her into…

Silver Wolf.

“Woah.” March-Firefly said, surprised from it.

Shared Information feature permanently unlocked.

SI allows mask users to copy skills and memories of the disguise to the wearer.

“Did you all get that? We can literally be the person, memories and skills wise as well.” Dan-Acheron said. “I suppose we could quickly swap between the disguises, meaning we could employ them into battle if we wished.”

• ➡️ Try to copy skills.
• ➡️ Try to copy memories.
• ✅ “Wait a second… that is way too dangerous… I love it!”

It has to be said that whatever the printer was capable of, it’s power couldn’t be allowed to be given to the wrong hands. Much less the creations that could easily come out of it, all from a few keystrokes and what amounts to a few seconds of patience.

But that’s the pessimistic way of looking at things. A better way to look at their situation was how much fun they were going to have.

“This means we’ll be able to turn into whomever we want. And no one’s ever gonna suspect us in being a body double in the first place!” Stelle happily said. “Dan! Maybe you could try to see if you could do the Acheron’s attacks? Maybe we could try to stack multiple copies of someone in case if we needed to fight!”

“Hm. Might as well. Give me a moment.”

Once Dan decided to step away to the middle of the room, something amusing happened.

The Acheron face she was using got covered by the same digital squares that covered their bodies and suddenly, her sword was summoned in a similar fashion, digital squares forming it in. And after that, she grabbed it, showing it to the other three ladies in front of her.

“My name is Acheron, part of the Galaxy Rangers. If you intend to strike me down, you better be ready for what is to come.”

The voice and demeanor were a complete match, instead of Dan being in the room, it really sounded like it was the real Acheron.

March-Firefly clapped her hand at Dan-Acheron. “Wowee Dan! That was amazing…! You even got her sword…!”

Himeko-Silver Wolf looked quite impressive, and quickly hid it. “Yes, it is dangerous… I fail to find an usage for this… And no, sex is not included.”

• ✅ “We could try to get more information about our enemies.”
• ➡️ “We could try to get back at Sparxie.”
• ➡️ “We could try to cause some havoc!”

Causing some havoc, as tempting as it was, would have likely earned her two separate dopeslaps of discipline, each one likely coming from Himeko and Dan Heng right here. Not only that, but as much as she was tempted to get back at Sparxie right away, she needed more reasons to keep these benefits. More reasons that didn’t just devolve into pure revenge.

Hence why a broader strokes sort of function was a rather valuable input.

“Well? Sounds like a good idea, right?” Stelle asked. “We could maybe use it to predict where they are within an area, maybe even tap into their comms… it’s not just for sex, that’s for sure.” She confidently smiled, letting the others name the other figures he hadn’t even gotten into yet.

Himeko-Silver Wolf pondered. “Hm. That makes too much sense…” She even had a hand on her chin. “Why would this thing be even here…”

March-Firefly scoffed her. “Himeko, you worry too much! Now that we have a really cool thing, we should use it more! And it is like Stelle said, we could get the drop on people.”

This caused Himeko to flinch a tiny bit. “I’ll admit that this could be very useful…”

Before that thought could continue, Dan-Acheron interrupted with her own words. “Stelle is right. This can be prove useful, considering that we can summon memories and skills. The question now is: What should be our plans with it?”

• ✅ “An information heist.”
• ➡️ “Infiltrate somewhere for a while?”
• ➡️ “Perhaps make more of these masks and give to other trusted partners of ours?”

Stelle spoke up with optimistic confidence and curiosity. Because so far, they’ve mostly proved the usefulness of these masks through theories and a little bit of practical tests. And even then, it wasn’t by much.

If she wanted to see if they could actually use these things well, then there’s only one way they could find out.

“I feel like even if we know how these masks work, we’ll need to see if we can actually use them for our purposes first. Sooooo we’ll use ’em in the one way they’d be a massive boon in~” Stelle added. “We’d know right away if these masks would turn out to make our lives way easier.”

“Not gonna ask Kafka if she wants one?” March-Firefly asked before a bunch of digital squares appeared around her and changed her form into… Kafka.

“I think I’d like it, Stelle~” She replied, using Kafka’s real voice as well.

“Gulp…”

A few beads of sweat would roll down Stelle’s face, feeling somewhat intimidated by the vixen smile March-Kafka was showing to her.

If this was how the real Kafka would react to the masks themselves, she would be dangerous if left unsupervised…

“You… You sure Kafka would be the best choice with these things? She’s an adult and all, but err…” Stelle trailed off from her words. It certainly felt like her brain was just… running wild today…

To reply her, March-Kafka stopped smiling like a vixen and more like the girl they were used to. “There’s no way you’d do this and not involve Kafka…”

Himeko-Silver Wolf nodded. “March is right, she has been helpful to you and us. Also, Welt and Pom-Pom might need ones too…” Himeko said, looking at how nice March-Kafka looked like.

Dan-Acheron nodded. “If we’re gonna do a information heist, we need all the help we can get. Convincing Welt and Pom-Pom might be difficult, but I’m sure you can do it, Stelle.” She said, before disengaging from the Acheron look, back to his own. “Ah… This is much better. Familiar, even.” He said.

“Are you giving Silver Wolf and Kafka a call, Stelle?” Himeko-Silver Wolf asked Stelle.

• ✅ Call Kafka
• ➡️ “I want to have some more fun with this first.”
• ➡️ “Maybe I should make more before I call them…”

Maybe she should find out if Kafka would actually want these masks. Surely, Stelle wouldn’t end up regretting giving one to her, right? Right?

“Y-Yeah, just a sec…” Stelle nodded, pulling out her phone to make a call. It might be hypocritical of her to feel this way, but a part of her was somewhat hoping she might happen to be busy today…

This was made interesting because of a nice feature that existed in this mask, she could make a call from the mask, because one she picked her phone, it connected to it in a hands free deal.

riiiing riiing

“Ah, Stelle~” The voice of the real Kafka appeared in her ears automatically, like she was using a headphone. “It feels like an eternity since I received a phonecall from you! Usually you just show up uninvited, not that I’m complaining. What’s up?”

Damnit, she actually picked up the phone. Well, might as well commit since they’ve already agreed to it. “Heya, Kafka~” Stelle greeted the woman back through the call, “Say… what if I told you that, right now, we’ve got… let’s say interesting devices that could help you out when it comes to infiltration. Pretty weird devices, now that I think about it. Would you be interested in trying ’em out?”

“Oh? Well, I might. Do I have to pay anything for them?” She asked over the call. “From what you’re saying, it sounds pretty impressive.”

Wait a second, Stelle was copying March’s face and voice, how come Kafka didn’t pick that up? Perhaps the mask could separate them if needed to be, which was impressive on itself.

“Ehhh, well, no. You don’t really need to pay for them… wait–” Stelle paused midway through her words, having just realized she was still looking and sounding like March at the moment. And yet, it doesn’t really seem like Kafka was noticing the changes. This was getting really weird…

“Say, uh… did you notice how different I’m sounding right now? We could probably do a video call if you want, but right now, I’m not exactly Stelle.” She asked. (edited)

“I haven’t noticed anything, you sound like yourself…” Ah, it was true, the mask did change that for the call. “I guess we could a video call, I suppose?” Kafka pressed one button and the audio call turned into a video call. “Wait… Is that March 7th?” Kafka asked. “Is this the thing you’re talking about? Hmmm… Interesting indeed…!” She looked very amused at Stelle-March.

“Mhm~ I was a little confused that you didn’t notice, but I guess the mask I’m wearing had already accounted for that little problem.” Stelle-March nodded, swiping her banks of white to the side. In Kafka’s eyes, it probably feels extremely weird to see her talk in Stelle’s real voice…

“And speaking of the mask itself…” Stelle-March teasingly narrowed her eyes, before managing to turn back into her real form before Kafka’s very eyes. And within seconds, too!

“Ta-dah! That was actually the mask doing the work for me. All I needed to do was to give a mental command, and I’m back as the Stelle you’ve always known!” She cheered, all while reaching for her face to take the mask off. “You’re gonna love this thing. Trust me.”

“Woah, what the….” She was very surprised seeing the change, it was to herself too. “Okay, I’m convinced… Send me a few of these if you can. One for me and one for Silver.” She asked over the video call. “Oh, sorry… I have to go, she’s calling me for something right now. Might be important, seeing that she sent me over 6 messages asking for me. Send it over, okay?”

click

Kafka hung up the call. With her convinced of it, there were a few more to give out a mask to.

• ➡️ Call Jade.
• ➡️ Call Welt.
• ✅ Talk to Pom-Pom.

Stelle knew for a fact that Pom-Pom was not gonna be happy when shown the mask and it’s capabilities. They were already a bit upset at their little intruding printer, having forcefully taken a part of the Astral Express itself as it’s home. Regardless of their permission before, or even after the fact. Maybe the mask could do wonders in terms of helping another’s mood…

“Hey, guys? I’m gonna go see if Pom-Pom’s interested to use these masks. And hopefully not get mad over it… eheheh…” Stelle nervously laughed. “You guys can go ahead and hold the fort here while I look for them. Sounds good?”

“I suppose?” Himeko-Silver Wolf said. “Good luck though.” She nodded.

“C’mon Himeko! Let’s try out different looks! You too Dan!” March-Kafka said, smiling a lot. She was having a lot of fun with this.

Dan groaned. “Fine…”

Stelle left Himeko’s office to look for Pom-Pom, not before taking the key from Himeko. And look, she didn’t have to go far, as Pom-Pom was at the second car, room three’s entrance, looking at it apprehensively. Then he saw Stelle-Kafka walking or rather powerwalking to them, they turned out.

“I know it’s you Stelle. I can see through its deception…!” The little creature said, being a bit… Nervous about it.

Oh, right. She probably should’ve stopped looking like Kafka at this point. Whoopsies…!

“Eheheh, it’s okay Pom-Pom! I wasn’t going to mess with you or anything!” Stelle apologetically smiled, turning back into her normal form while quickly taking off her mask. “See? I just wanted to show you how cool this mask is…!”

Meanwhile, behind that smile was a girl that internally prayed she wasn’t going to have her ass kicked by the Express’s conductor…

“No! Pom-Pom said that a bad thing is inside this room. Pom-Pom wants to get rid of it!” There was no convincing the conductor that easily. Maybe something else was needed.

• ✅ Give Pom-Pom the mask.
• ➡️ Show the printer to Pom-Pom.
• ➡️ Use the mask to turn into Pom-Pom.

Maybe the conductor would be a bit happier by trying out the mask? Surely Pom-Pom would understand by getting a hands-on feel with it, right?

“Can’t you at least try the stuff that it makes first?” Stelle said, offering a mask to him. “Here. Go ahead and wear it, and you’ll see what I mean, Pom-Pom.”

“I… Uh…” Welp, Pom-Pom was handled the mask. “Stelle…” Then looked up at the girl. “F-Fine. If you say it’s safe, Pom-Pom will give it a shot.”

Once Pom-Pom put the mask in their face, a few gasps were given out. “Ooh… This is very nice… What does this do?”

With a small prompt… Those digital squares surrounded Pom-Pom until the little creature turned into a much taller person. A real person as well, being…

Black Swan. “Woah.” She said, even with her voice changed, then wiggled her fingers. “What’s this? I turned into Black Swan? Is this what this mask thing can do, Stelle?” She asked.

Okay! Looks like their conductor was actually interested with the mask! That was already progress in her eyes.

“Yep~! That’s what the mask is able to let you do!” Stelle nodded, “In fact, any capabilities from the person you’ve turned into is now something you can do as well. Go ahead! Try to sense out Black Swan’s power and you’ll see what I mean!”

“Let me try…” Pom-Pom-Black Swan made a hand sweep motion and summoned tarot cards. “Huh…?! I can do her tarot reading thing?!” The creature was incredibly surprised by this. “You’re kidding me, Stelle. That evil thing made this mask? This is actually… Good?” She said with a lot of conflict in her voice. “I… I guess we could keep it…? You’d make one for me too, right?”

Success! The conductor was going to let them keep the printer and mask! Now they’re not gonna be in trouble anymore. Although this did make her wonder what Pom-Pom’s gonna end up doing with the printer. Maybe they got some ideas of his own…

“Pom-Pom… The reason I was trying to look for you is to see you’d be okay with us using the mask.” Stelle said to the conductor, seemingly rather annoyed. “Of course I’d make one for you. I just wanted to know if you’d be okay with it first.”

Pom-Pom frowned a bit. “This thing is still dangerous, I still think we should get rid of it… But if it can make us good stuff, I guess it’s fine?”

Seemingly, Pom-Pom agreed. The Black Swan vanished with the digital squares and Pom-Pom was back, before taking off the mask and giving it back to Stelle. “This one is yours, right? If you make one for Pom-Pom, Welt needs one too. I’ll call him and tell him about it, he said he wouldn’t be away for too long.”

“Then that’s perfect! If we show him how the mask is supposed to work, he’ll be more than interested in trying it out.” Stelle cheered, taking the mask back from Pom-Pom’s hands as she continued. “Now I’ll have to make three extra masks, since Kafka’s interested too…”

Wait, if they were okay with keeping the printer, then they might be interested in making some stuff of his own as well!

“Actually, the ‘thing’ that came into the Astral Express isn’t just capable of making the mask. It’s capable of making anything! You can even try it and find out for yourself!” Stelle said. Hopefully, even as much of a stickler Pom-Pom could be, they were willing to experiment on this occasion…

“Agh. I don’t know, Stelle. Pom-Pom still thinks this is evil…” Even if they were convinced, the unshakable feeling from Pom-Pom was still there. “Maybe if you are with me, perhaps Pom-Pom will feel better…”

Pom-Pom took the key from Stelle, jumped and unlocked the door to the room. The door opened to show that the printer was still there to be used. “W-Wait… Is it a old-style printer?” Pom-Pom clearly didn’t know what it looked like.

“Well, at first you’d think that’d be the case…” Stelle said, patting the terminal-looking screen as if it was a puppy she was proud of using.

“But nope! It only looks like an old-style printer, but I bet you’ve never heard of a printer that could make practically anything you’d ask from it.” She said, already putting her hands on the keyboard. “Here, watch this. What sort of thing you’d want this printer to make for you?”

“Hmmm… Pom-Pom would like a stool!” The little conductor asked Stelle to make something.

clack clack clack
psssst
CLANK!

A little wooden stool was made fairly quickly.

“Wooooahhh…! That is incredible, Stelle! Pom-Pom still get bad vibes from this but it’s definitely impressive!” Pom-Pom replied, amazed, on top of the stool, now with same height as Stelle. “Make masks for the people you need to make, Stelle.”

“Oh come on, Pom-Pom! I’m telling you, it’s not necessarily bad vibes coming from the printer itself.” Stelle rolled her eyes. But regardless, since he specifically asked it himself…

clack clack clack clack clack… “Three transformation masks, coming right up!”

And, enter! Now to just wait until it finishes printing…

clack clack clack
psssst
CLANK!

Another three masks were created, Pom-Pom grabbed them all and put one on. It vanished on their face. “Okay, that still works like yours… Pom-Pom can be anyone from the Express? Impressive.”

They handed the other two masks to Stelle. Ah, she forgot one for Silver Wolf. “Oh, wait. Whoops…” Right. Just one more for Silver Wolf and she’ll be all done with the printer.

clack, clack, clack
psssst
CLANK!

“Aaaaand there we go! We got one for you, one for Welt, another one for Kafka… And finally, another one for Silver Wolf!” She said, putting the mask away in her jacket. “Assuming she’s around for us to give a mask to her, at least.”

“Pom-Pom believes that miss Kafka will certainly give it to Silver Wolf when she sees the other.” Pom-Pom nodded. “The bad vibes are still there but Pom-Pom will ignore it for now, due to how useful this object can be.”

With everything done in the room, it was time to leave and lock it down.

Pom-Pom went away for a moment and returned with a yellow tape saying ‘RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL, DO NOT ENTER’, taping it like it was a police crime scene. The tape itself should work against the visitors for the Express. Stelle wasn’t really sure if it could ward off the especially curious kinds of people. Hopefully it does, because if not, then it’s probably not gonna end well. And that’s putting it lightly.

“There. No one should enter for now, even visitors.” Pom-Pom said. “Pom-Pom will join you with Himeko and talk about what we’ll do next with this. Pom-Pom assumes that Stelle has a plan with these masks, right?”

“Yeah. Me and the others discussed about what we should do with the masks themselves, and we ended up decided to do an information heist with them~” She said, tapping her mask with a knuckle. “Think about it. If this is enough to convince anyone that we’re someone else, we could use it to infiltrate places way more easily. Stealth wouldn’t even be that much trouble for us!”

“Pom-Pom supposes so! If anyone can replicate skills, there’s a lot that could be done.” The two walked away to the Himeko’s office, where March was having a lot of fun, trying out the limits of the masks.

From a distance, they could hear Dan groaning from the office. Definitely a good time.