Honkai: Star Rail, My Journey with Tom - Chapter 2

Just as Tom was about to nuzzle its way up from his shin to his thigh, Li Ye quickly put a stop to it.

“Hold it, Tom.”

“Stay right there. Don’t move.”

Hearing the command, Tom froze in place. Then, as if realizing it might be a little dirty from its long journey, it reached behind its back and pulled out a red mat. It laid it on the ground, sat neatly within its borders, and tucked its paws close to its chest like a well-mannered hamster.

It then gazed up at Li Ye with big, expectant eyes.

At the same time, information about Tom popped up in Li Ye’s vision.

[Passenger: Tom]

[Nicknames: Tom the Tank, Fake Veteran, Big Spud, Super Blue Cat, Aruba King, etc.]

[Description: A character from “Tom and Jerry” and its spin-offs. A British Shorthair with all-around skills, Tom has a love-hate relationship with Jerry, making them both rivals and partners in crime.]

[Bonus: Since you’ve got this character, you receive 10 Star Rail Passes related to them.]

Li Ye had recognized Tom the second he saw him, but seeing this official description confirmed it beyond a doubt.

And now, he had ten more passes in hand.

Still, those could wait. Right now, Tom needed to get settled in.

Li Ye quickly picked up on something. Tom had probably traveled quite a distance to get here. Even though the cat perked up the moment it saw him, acting as if nothing was wrong, Li Ye noticed how Tom kept sneaking glances at the bottle of milk beside him.

He got the message.

Without hesitation, Li Ye picked up the bottle and handed it over.

“Here, Tom. You must be exhausted.”

He reached out and gave Tom’s head a light pat.

Tom’s eyes widened in shock. It pointed at itself as if asking, “Wait, this is for me?”

Li Ye nodded. “Yeah, it’s yours.”

Tom didn’t waste another second the moment it got confirmation. Tilting its head back, Tom popped the bottle open and gulped it down straight from the source.

“Slurp, slurp…”

The very last drop of milk stubbornly clung to the bottle’s rim, stretching out like it was trying to escape, but in the end, gravity won. The drop fell into Tom’s mouth, sealing its victory.

Tom set the empty bottle down, its eyes drifting shut in pure satisfaction as it licked his lips.

Meanwhile, Li Ye turned his attention to the ten passes he had received. It was about time to try using them.

To his surprise, he didn’t have to physically insert the passes anywhere. The moment he focused on them, ten items from Tom’s world materialized around him.

Eight of them glowed blue, while two had a rare, shimmering purple hue.

Curious, he reached for the nearest blue-glowing item.

[Tom’s bed: Tom’s favorite place to nap. Sleeping here guarantees relaxation—unless Jerry is around, of course.]

Li Ye placed the cat bed in front of Tom.

Tom’s reaction was priceless. It stuck a finger into his mouth, eyes going wide in disbelief, then started circling the bed as if trying to figure out how in the world it had ended up here.

After all, when Tom left home, he hadn’t packed it.

The other blue items weren’t even worth mentioning. They were either just bottles of milk or other ordinary things, nothing particularly special.

But everything here was straight out of Tom’s world.

Taking a few steps forward, Li Ye bent down and picked up one of the two items emitting a purple glow.

[Tom’s Rapier: With this sword in hand, you can duel anyone and hold your own—for a while, at least.]

Li Ye’s eyes lit up at the sight of it.

Finally! A legendary weapon from a world of slapstick chaos.

Sure, people liked to say that cartoon characters were invincible, but the truth was—only Tom was. If push came to shove, Li Ye had no way of relying on that same invulnerability. One wrong move, and he could be done for.

But now he had a rapier that could level the playing field, at least for a short time. A much-needed lifeline.

Tom’s ears twitched as Li Ye lifted the sword. Its eyes gleamed and reached behind in a flash, dramatically pulling out a classic swashbuckler’s hat—the kind D’Artagnan might wear. With a theatrical flourish, it planted it on its head, then reached behind itself again and produced an identical rapier. It spun the sword around a few times, showing off some impressive swordplay, clearly inviting Li Ye to a duel.

Li Ye chuckled. “Tom, let’s have that duel another time. I’ve got things to take care of now.”

Hearing that, Tom nodded eagerly, bobbing its head like a pecking chick before sheathing its rapier.

Filled with anticipation, Li Ye continued his search. After a bit of digging, his gaze landed on something tiny wedged next to a wedge of cheese. Squinting, he realized what it was.

A firecracker.

And not just any firecracker. It was the size of an ant.

Carefully, he pinched it between his thumb and index finger and lifted it.

[Tuffy’s Firecracker: Trust me, this thing packs a punch.]

Tom caught sight of the tiny explosive, and something in its memory seemed to click, causing its pupils to shrink. Its jaw was unhinged and dropped comically low while its entire face stretched outward in sheer horror.

Then it started to panic.

Its legs spun in place like miniature tornadoes as he zipped over, grabbed the firecracker, and hurled it as far as it could. Without hesitation, it scooped Li Ye up like a football and bolted for the train’s exit.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rocked the Astral Express.

Where the reinforced, supposedly indestructible train doors once stood, there was now a cartoonishly perfect outline of Tom and Li Ye.

The two of them were floating in the vast emptiness of space.

Li Ye tried to speak but nothing came out, since there was no oxygen.

Of all the ways he could’ve died, Li Ye hadn’t expected this. Not self-sacrifice, not a dramatic final stand. It looked like he was about to meet his end thanks to Tom’s sheer stupidity.

Flashes of Li Ye’s life zipped through his mind like a movie reel. Meanwhile, Tom was still running as if nothing had changed, its feet moving effortlessly across the nonexistent ground.

Then, finally, it noticed.

Tom skidded to a stop, glancing around. Its ears twitched as it felt something off. When Tom looked back, its fur bristled in sheer terror.

Li Ye’s soul, an ethereal, glowing blue version of himself was already floating out of his body, drifting away like a ghost escaping its shell.

“Ahhhh!”

Tom let out a high-pitched, glass-shattering shriek. Its fur stood on end, every strand quivering.

Without wasting another second, it snatched Li Ye’s lifeless body, tucked him under its arm, and started paddling through space as if it was swimming through water to head straight back toward the train.

Somehow, miraculously, they made it back.

Tom tumbled through the hole they’d left in the Astral Express, landing hard on the floor. Scrambling, it plopped Li Ye down and got to work.

Tom grabbed Li Ye’s drifting soul and shoved it back into his mouth like stuffing a pillowcase. Then it flipped Li Ye’s eyelids up, checked his tongue, whipped out a stethoscope from nowhere, and listened to his heartbeat.

Only when Tom heard the reassuring “thump, thump” did it finally exhale. It wiped its forehead, sending a cascade of sweat splattering onto the floor, forming a tiny puddle.

A long silence followed.

Eventually, Li Ye stirred, groggy and disoriented. He slowly sat up while blinking in confusion. A blanket had somehow been draped over him, and in the distance, Tom was frantically sweeping up the mess, acting as if nothing had happened.

Li Ye was utterly speechless as he looked at the cat.