Gunsoul

Greenery surrounded the station, its emerald grass glittering under the sunlight.

Yuan struggled to believe in his own eyes. Unlike Bucket and the other spotters, who all used binoculars to observe the place from afar from the wagon’s roof, his new eyes let him see far into the distance without assistance.

The train station looked quite similar to the one Yuan encountered in the Thunderlands, a forgotten, multi-floor ruin of cracked walls and broken windows. This one, however, was covered in creeping vines and vibrant leaves rather than rust. Yuan had never seen anything like it outside of a sect’s compound.

That alone would have been astonishing, but the area around the station raised all kinds of alarm bells. First of all, other buildings flanked the half-buried railway alongside tall trees with twisted black bark and whose branches held pale fruits that radiated with a yellow glow. Abandoned wagons and railroad cars wrapped in moss littered the ground. A vast field of grass and blooming wildflowers surrounded them, their fragrance so overwhelming that Yuan could smell it from a wide distance.

The station was enveloped in quite a lot of qi too. Not as much as a patch of Thunderlands or Arc’s Authority, but enough to rival a sect’s compound.

“I don’t see any fence, sir,” Bucket warned.

“A Barrier surrounds the station,” Yuan replied. He could see the faint flow of qi being redirected around the flower field into a bagua formation. Either the flowers themselves served as its foundations, or they simply grew over lines dug into the earth below them. “This place is dangerous.”

Unguarded greenery in the middle of the wasteland was either a trap for the unwary, or a very powerful entity’s property. Yuan doubted it was a sect compound, since its owners would have restored the buildings and put up signs to announce their allegiance. The station probably belonged to a lonely cultivator of considerable power or a spirit.

Yuan scanned the area for more details until he noticed a strange occurrence: a big statue of a spotted cat wearing a cap nearly identical to Orient’s own stood in front of the station entrance behind a set of crimson torii gates. Its bronze body remained unblemished by the growing vegetation and it radiated no small amount of qi. Yuan focused on it with his sharpened senses, reading its fluctuations until he could identify its nature.

The Stoneskin Sect kept cats to deal with vermin raiding their granaries, so he immediately recognized their peculiar smell in the air. The ambient qi carried many other peculiar signs; the taste of fresh meat on the tongue; the scent of soothing tea; and the welcoming aura of a safe place. The first bothered Yuan, but he detected neither blood nor malevolence in the air either. Strange.

A place of abundance dedicated to a cat…

“Maneki-neko,” Yuan muttered. “I think that this place is a Maneki-neko’s den.”

“A Maneki-neko?” Bucket and his fellow spotters immediately rejoiced at the news. “This is good news! Will the spirit offer us sanctuary?”

“If we don’t abuse its generosity,” Yuan replied. He had only encountered one of these benevolent cat spirits in his lifetime, when it gave his team shelter on the condition that they would leave at dawn. He had been so kind and polite, even when he warned Jaw-Long that he would turn him into a coin if he dared rub their host’s belly. “It’s not alone either.”

Yuan sensed another presence within the station, one that smelled of bloodless flesh. At least it didn’t seem hostile; a malevolent entity would have quickly corrupted the Maneki-neko’s den by now.

“Sir,” Bucket warned, his goggles pointing south. “Trouble.”

Yuan glanced away from the station and quickly noticed a set of shadows observing the spirit-train from atop a blasted hill. He mistook them for two men on motorcycles at first, until he noticed their plastic hands and faceless mannequin faces.

The scouts immediately retreated behind the hill before Yuan could shoot either of them.

“Plastic men,” Yuan said, his jaw clenching. He wasn’t looking forward to dealing with those vermin. The scavengers couldn’t keep their hands off anything reeking of oil, which they processed to build more of their own kind; and some of them could even cultivate. “How many weapons do we have?”

“That’s the one thing we don’t lack, sir,” Bucket replied. “You think they’ll attack soon?”

“Not immediately, but it’s likely.” The spirit-train was too tempting a prize for them, but also too well-defended for a small warband to take. Those plastic men would either come back with larger numbers or not at all. “Tell everyone who can fight to take positions near the windows.”

“About that, sir,” Bucket said. “We loaded up a few small artillery cannons inside Lady Orient’s wagons when we left Fleshmarket. We could mount them on the roofs.”

“It would help,” Yuan conceded. “If Orient allows it.”

“I do,” his friend’s voice echoed from the wagon beneath their feet, startling everyone. Orient’s laugh resonated across the spirit-train’s length. “Did you forget that you were standing atop my back?”

“Honestly, yeah,” Yuan replied. He was so used to communicating with her human avatar that he forgot she could see, hear, and speak through any of her wagons. “Any opinion on this place?”

“All stations are safe havens for my kind,” Orient replied. “This one beckons us with open arms.”

“The Barrier says otherwise.”

“The Barrier will let us through, Honored Guest Yuan,” Orient said calmly. “Lady Tama welcomes all trains and their passengers.”

“Lady Tama? You mean the Maneki-neko?” Yuan raised an eyebrow. “You know her?”

“No,” Orient replied with a metallic giggle. “But she knows me.”

Yuan pondered what she meant, but trusted Orient enough not to doubt her judgment. She hadn’t hesitated to ram herself into the Gun to save his life, even though she knew she stood no chance against a demigod of ultraviolence. He knew she had his back.

It’s a happy feeling, Yuan thought as Bucket and the others retreated inside the wagons through a trapdoor in the ceiling. Orient manifested them at his request to help the spotters move around. Complete mutual trust.

He had only experienced it with his old team, then Holster and Orient. It was a breath of fresh air after so many years of keeping his guard up around people for fear of betrayal or ambush. Relaxing even.

He wanted to protect Orient and Holster so they could feel safe around him too.

The spirit-train ended its pause and drove towards the station, phantom tracks manifesting over the buried railways and overlaying with them. The vehicle moved past the Barrier without any issue. The very flowers that kept it up moved around to let them pass.

As a wave of wood qi washed over him, Yuan quickly realized why this place allowed vegetation to prosper in the middle of an arid wasteland. It worked on a similar principle to Item Materialization, focusing on containing specific energies while excluding others in order to purify and maximize their concentration.

Yuan wondered if he could replicate a similar method inside Orient’s wagons. Since Holster believed they could create ‘focus rooms’ capable of concentrating qi in an area, it should be easy to build greenhouses to grow food for passengers.

The spirit-train quietly stopped in front of the station and its cat statue. Yuan climbed down from the roof right in time for hundreds of eyes to stare at him from the buildings’ windows and the trees’ branches.

Cats.

A large crowd of small, utterly normal cats walked out of the station to observe the spirit-train. Their leader soon materialized from the very statue bearing her likeness. The bronze statue then leaped off its pedestal before transforming into a being of flesh and fur, her jade eyes greeting Yuan with a friendly wink.

The Maneki-neko was quite the strange creature to look at. Her spotted fur was a palette of sandy brown, black, and white. The cap on her head was nearly identical to that of Orient’s, albeit with the emblem bearing different words written in a script Yuan could not comprehend. A beaded necklace hung around her neck, its medallion bearing a strange inscription: Kishi Eki.

The spirit’s power was less than a shadow of the Gun’s overwhelming strength, but she was deceptively mighty nonetheless. Her feminine, kind aura reminded Yuan of Orient.

“Welcome, welcome, Orient Junction TR-61!” she said with a voice that was both old and strangely childish. “Honorable Eternal Stationmaster Tama Daimyōjin, caretaker spirit of train stations, bids you, your crew, and your passengers an excellent day!”

Eternal Stationmaster? Is that a cultivation sect rank of some kind? Her greeting surprised Yuan. He used to think only Thunderlands could manifest caretaker spirits, but Orient’s earlier manifestation already disabused him of that notion. She must be a kind soul to create such a peaceful place. I best show her respect.

“Greetings, Honorable Eternal Stationmaster Tama,” Yuan replied with a deep bow. “I am Yuan Guang, a passenger on this spirit-train. I humbly ask for your hospitality.”

“Of course, of course, you are most welcome!” The Maneki-neko purred with happiness, her body radiating a peaceful and relaxing smell. “Come out, come out!”

The door to the engine opened, with Orient and Holster stepping out together to greet their host with bright wide smiles.

Yuan’s eyes widened in shock.

Orient had stepped off from the train.

“How is this possible?” Yuan muttered under his breath, his shock suddenly replaced with concern. “Are you well, Orient?”

“Thank you for your concern, Honored Guest Yuan, but I am fine,” Orient replied before bowing in front of the Maneki-neko. “It is an honor to meet you once again, Lady Tama, and you have my deepest gratitude for inviting my spirit to wander inside your abode.”

“You are welcome, welcome, Orient Junction TR-61,” Tama replied with a purring chuckle. “Every train may share my home.”

“I am surprised you would remember my name after all these years,” Orient replied. A group of passengers led by Bucket climbed off the train behind her, now that they figured they wouldn’t suffer an ambush. “I was worried that you would misremember me. We last met when the world was a much larger place.”

“I never forget a train, never, never!” Lady Tama nodded to herself. “I’m so glad you became a spirit too! So smart and so strong too! So very elegant!”

Orient giggled. “You are too kind, Lady Tama.”

Yuan noticed that the other cats had found the courage to greet Orient’s passengers. Holster stared at them with a mix of childish wonder and apprehension. It was probably her first time seeing a feline in the flesh.

Her fear didn’t last long. A brave spotted cat quickly rubbed its fur against her leg, which encouraged Holster to pet it in return. Her adorable smile warmed Yuan’s heart.

The zealous glint in Bucket’s eyes, not so much. The strange man’s glance switched from Orient to Tama back and forth, his hands trembling with what Yuan identified as religious enthusiasm. Those were the same looks he used to make at Gunsouls.

Yuan had a bad feeling about this.

“How many stations do you watch over, Honorable Lady Tama?” Yuan asked out of curiosity. She hadn’t manifested in the Thunderlands nor near Arc’s Authority, so he wondered how far her reach extended.

“All those bearing my image!” The cat spirit hummed a strange tune to herself, her face the very picture of happiness. “I was just a regular cat once, Super Stationmaster at Kishi Station! Then I died and humans raised me to godhood with treats and prayers, until one day the Spiral danced and let me meow back! A hundred stations I watch over now, yes yes!”

So Eternal Stationmaster was indeed a sect rank. It must have once been an extremely powerful organization for one of their pet cats to become a caretaker spirit capable of protecting multiple places at once.

“Mordy, Mordy!” Tama called out to the station. “Come out, come out! We have visitors!”

“I have heard,” a deep, powerful voice answered from within the building. “Make yourself at home, travelers.”

A monster lumbered out of the station.

Yuan immediately adopted a fighting stance the moment it came into view. The beast was a rolling hill of mauve skin, fat, and brawn assembled in a shape that resembled a mix between a toad and an obese man; all while wrapped in an ornate golden cloak. His flesh gleamed with qi that smelled of both filth and freshly butchered meat, while his face stretched into traits that reminded Yuan of a bat with crimson eyes.

It was his pendant that caught Yuan’s eyes, however, and caused more than a few people to draw their weapons. Its golden medallion bore the infamous emblem of a pair of jaws eating the earth.

The monster showed no fear or tension. In fact, he greeted them with a genial smile full of sharp teeth.

“I am Mordiggian,” he introduced himself. “A humble Sin-Eater cultivator, and your host for the day.”

One of the Sky-Biter’s followers stood before them.