[Honkai: Star Rail] Nowhere to Run

Novel blurb:

They first met in a sea of stars outside a docking point for the Xianzhou Luofu.

At the time, Dan Heng had just been reborn. The amnesia that came with the Vidyadhara cycle of reincarnation had made him forget everything.

Dan Heng amicably held out his hand to the man in purple before him.

"Hello, I'm Dan Heng."

The man curled his lips into a smile, his red eyes full of amusement.

He handed Dan Heng a spear, the very one that would later pierce his body countless times.

Holding Dan Heng by the wrist, he guided the spearpoint into his chest again and again.

In the blinding red, Dan Heng felt that burning heart gradually stop beating.

"My name is Blade. The sharpest point of a blade is what my name means."

Those were Blade's final words.

-

They met again when Dan Heng had been exiled from his homeland for who knew how many times.

That planet was locked in perpetual frost. Dan Heng brushed the snow off the ground with his hand, wanting to test the thickness of the ice beneath it.

That was when Blade appeared.

Still dressed in purple, still wearing that unchanging smile.

Dan Heng fought him for a long time, but Blade still managed to seize his wrist, and the spearpoint pierced his chest once more.

As warm droplets fell and melted the ice, Dan Heng got the answer he wanted.

-

The third time, the fourth time...

Blade never tired of playing out the same old scene, while Dan Heng went from shock at first to calm and indifference.

Who knew how many times it had been when the spear was stained with Blade's blood again? This time, Dan Heng pulled the spearpoint right out.

"When will the next death come? I'm growing a little impatient waiting."

What Blade didn't know was that after he lost consciousness, the man before him, whose expression was as usual and whose eyes were utterly calm, would tremble as he crouched down and gently soothed his scarred chest over and over.

"It must hurt..."

#He wanted to run, but there was nowhere to run to#

"Mr. Dan Heng really is an odd person."

"As the Astral Express travels through the vast sea of stars, he's the only one who always sits silently gazing out the window, as if none of it has anything to do with him. But we've heard him say with our own ears that he's waiting for an old friend."

The girl aboard the Astral Express smiled brightly as she spoke.

"That must be a very important friend to Mr. Dan Heng."

PS: Probably a short story. This blurb was saved on 6/11, and may be changed when the story begins.

Theme: Cherish life.