Shhhh… Hahhh… Wednesday, in the classroom. Just as the fourth-period chime was about to finish ringing—or maybe not quite—a massive declaration flew at him from the next seat over. "[excited] Today at lunch, we're summoning aliens on the rooftop!" Iatsu stopped sucking milk through the straw of his milk carton. In the seat beside him, Hoshino Hikari was clutching some kind of enormous object. A cardboard box wrapped round and round with aluminum foil—an object that looked deeply unreliable even to an amateur's eyes. "…What is that." "[excited] An antenna! I made it with my dad yesterday!" She beamed as she held up the shoddy antenna. The star-shaped hairpin on the left side of her hair swayed. Beneath her fluffy brown short bob, her large eyes glittered with curiosity. *(Impossible.)* Iatsu muttered inwardly. To the Dark Lord who had once overseen faster-than-light communications, it was pitifully primitive, pathetic, and— "[excited] Iatsu-kun, you're coming too!" "I refuse." "Ehhh, why why?" "I have things to do during lunch—" "[sarcastic] Psychic power training? Or UFO research?" "…No. I absolutely will not summon aliens or anything of the sort." Hikari puffed out her cheeks. But the next moment, she flashed her fangs in a sly grin. "[gentle] The rooftop key was kind of open, you know. For some reason." Iatsu's eyebrow twitched. "…You opened it without permission?" "No no. It was already broken! So, probably God is saying 'go.' It's destiny!" "What kind of god." He sighed. The nape of his neck felt itchy. The *shhh* of breath leaking from his mouth—a habit when he'd given up on something. Hikari leaned in close. At a distance utterly devoid of any concept of personal space, her brown eyes peered into Iatsu. "[gentle] Iatsu-kun, you always eat lunch alone, right?" His breath caught. "[gentle] I was like that too, before. But now I have you, Iatsu-kun. So—" She readjusted her grip on the cardboard antenna, cradling it like prey. "[excited] Today, for sure, let's become friends with aliens together!" Iatsu didn't answer. He simply lifted his heavy body from the chair. "…Fine. Just until lunch ends." Hikari bounced. Her star-shaped hairpin sparkled, catching the sunlight from the window. —This was the beginning of everything. … On the rooftop, a lukewarm spring breeze was blowing. Beyond the fence, Sagami Bay was visible. Blue, vast, a mass of water utterly unlike space. Iatsu gazed at the scene without any particular emotion. "[excited] Here, here! Sit here!" Hikari patted the concrete floor. Resigned, Iatsu sat down beside her. He sat cross-legged. Hikari sat in *seiza*, the antenna resting on her lap. The sky was perfectly clear, without a single cloud. There were no spaceships anywhere trying to make contact at a time like this. *(Does she really think she can communicate with that?)* Iatsu glanced sideways at the antenna. No wires, no chips—just a lump of aluminum foil. There was no way it could pick up anything. But Hikari's face was utterly serious. "[serious] Okay… I'm starting." She took a deep breath. Raising the antenna with both hands, she aimed it at the sky. And then— "[excited] Commencing contact! To the intelligent lifeforms from Alpha Star! Are you receiving—?!" Her voice was swallowed by the blue sky. "This is Earth, Japan, Hoshimigaoka High School transmitting! Requesting response! Over, over, over—!!" …No reply. Of course not. But Hikari didn't give up. She changed the antenna's angle, raised the pitch of her voice, and even continued transmitting while hopping on one foot. Iatsu simply watched her in silence. In the Galactic Empire, such a pointless act would have been grounds for immediate execution. Ignoring communication protocols, no encryption, calling out without even knowing who was on the other end—the work of a madman. But. Why? The corner of his mouth lifted, just a little. Without even realizing it himself, a faint smile had appeared on Iatsu's face. A smile no one in the Galactic Empire had ever seen—just an ordinary human's, ordinary smile. "[surprised] …Ah." Hikari dropped the antenna. It clattered. "[surprised] You smiled just now! You smiled, didn't you?!" "What are you—" "You smiled! Your mouth went just a little, like this—" She used her own fingers to tug the corner of her mouth upward. A clumsy shape, like a crescent moon. "Wrong. I absolutely did not smile—" "[laughing] You smiled, you smiled! Iatsu-kun can smile! What a huge discovery!" Hikari bounced up and down. The antenna rattled with each hop. Her eyes sparkled like a scientist who had discovered a new lifeform at the edge of the universe. Iatsu was at a loss for words. *(I… smiled?)* Impossible. He had thrown himself into the dark side, killed his emotions, pursued only power. And yet, deep in his chest, a gentle warmth spread. It was similar to that small light he'd felt yesterday when she'd picked up his eraser. But slightly different. Lighter, softer—a warmth he couldn't quite name. *(Is this what the humans of this planet…)* He started to think it, then stopped. "[gentle] Hey, hey, Iatsu-kun. Where do you think aliens come from?" Hikari suddenly asked with a serious face. Still holding the antenna, she tilted her head. "What do you mean, where." "[gentle] I mean, there are tons of stars, right? Out of all of them, where are aliens most likely to be? I think, after all, maybe a bright star. Like Sirius, or Vega." Iatsu was silent for a moment. Beyond the fence, the horizon of Sagami Bay glittered. A white ship was visible in the distance. Further beyond that, the dark void spreading outside the atmosphere—he had once traveled through it freely. "…Not Sirius." Before he knew it, the words had slipped out. "[surprised] Huh?" "Sirius is a binary system. The distance between the primary and secondary stars is too close. The probability of intelligent life arising is extremely low." "…Huh?" "Vega is also too young. The star's age is four hundred fifty million years. Even if a planetary system formed, there isn't enough time for life to evolve intelligence." Hikari's mouth hung open. Iatsu couldn't stop. "Arcturus has potential. Approximately thirty-six light-years away. One of the most stable systems in the Orion Arm. However—" "[excited] W-wait, wait, wait!" Hikari pulled a notebook from her uniform pocket. A small memo pad with a cat illustration on it. She gripped a ballpoint pen. "[excited] Arc… turus? How do you write that?" "…There are no kanji for it." "Then, is katakana okay?" "Do as you like." She began taking notes desperately. Her tongue poked out slightly as her round handwriting raced across the page. Iatsu continued. The structure of the Orion Arm, the arrangement of the galaxy's spiral arms, the coordinates of the Empire's major star systems. Memories from his past spilled out as if a dam had broken. Hikari scribbled it all into her notebook, determined not to miss a single word. Star names, distances, spectral classifications— Before he knew it, Iatsu had kept talking until the chime rang, signaling the end of lunch break. "…And, well, that's how it is." Having finished speaking, Iatsu suddenly came to his senses. *(I've done it now.)* An inconceivable blunder. Knowledge practically equivalent to the Galactic Empire's classified intelligence—why, in a place like this— But Hikari stared at her notebook in silence for a while. Then, slowly, she looked up. Her eyes were slightly different from their usual sparkling curiosity. "[gentle] Hey, Iatsu-kun." "…What." "[gentle] Which book was that in?" Iatsu's throat tightened sharply. "It's not in any book." Silence. The rooftop wind passed between them. Hikari's short bob swayed softly. Her star-shaped hairpin glinted. "[serious] …I see." Saying only that, she closed her notebook. Then, she picked up the antenna again and stood. "[gentle] Well then, let's pack up soon. Can't skip afternoon classes." "…You're not going to ask?" "Ask what?" "…No, never mind." Hikari smiled warmly. "[gentle] Secrets are things you can tell when you feel like telling them, you know." Without another word, she began noisily packing up the antenna. When a piece of aluminum foil peeled off and blew away in the wind, she chased after it in a fluster. *(Trust… is it?)* Iatsu stood rooted to the spot, watching her back. In the Empire, holding information meant control. Secrets were weapons, and concealing them was the iron rule of survival. But this small Earth girl. She simply conveyed, "If you don't want to talk, you don't have to," and left everything else behind. Deep in his chest, warmer than before, a heat spread. —This was the moment Iatsu first experienced friendship on Earth. … The next morning, Thursday. The classroom atmosphere was the same as always. When Iatsu took his seat, the classmates around him kept their distance as usual, blatantly averting their eyes. But he was used to that by now. Only the seat next to him was empty. *(Hoshino Hikari… late?)* The chime rang. First period started, then ended. Still, she didn't come. A small thorn of unease pricked deep in his chest. "Hey, is Hoshino-san off today?" "I saw her in the hallway earlier. She looked really pale, though—" The girls' conversation reached his ears. At the end of second period, Iatsu stood up. He went out into the hallway. He walked through the crowd in silence. Somewhere, voices murmured. "They said she was taken to the nurse's office." "Thirty-eight point seven degrees. Isn't that pretty bad?" Iatsu's feet stopped. The nurse's office. Before he knew it, he was running. Without even the composure to lighten his body with the Force, he simply kept breathing as he pushed through the hallway. When he arrived in front of the nurse's office, the door opened just as the school nurse was coming out. "…Hoshino Hikari." The nurse looked at Iatsu with surprise. "Ah, you're a classmate? She's sleeping now. A high fever of unknown cause. She needs to rest quietly for a while—" He didn't hear the rest. Iatsu stood frozen. *(Yesterday, on the rooftop—)* The wind had been strong then. It was still a chilly season, and she'd been dressed lightly. Dropping the antenna, chasing aluminum foil, constantly moving around— *(Is it my fault?)* If he hadn't accepted her lunch invitation. If they hadn't gone to the rooftop. No—had his own Force affected her in some way? He didn't know. He didn't know anything. The noise of the hallway receded like a tide pulling back. As classmates gazed worriedly at the nurse's office door and eventually dispersed, only Iatsu remained, unable to move. At that moment. *Click, click, click.* Regular footsteps approached from behind. "—It's your fault." A cold voice. He turned around. At the end of the hallway, backlit by the overcast light streaming through the window, a female student stood. Silver straight hair extending to the middle of her back, tied into a single ponytail with a white ribbon. Her translucent silver eyes, cold enough to freeze whatever they looked at, fixed directly on Iatsu. The student council president—Shirogane Akane. Her gloved hands held student council documents. Her expression didn't waver in the slightest. Only deep within her eyes flickered something like a pale blue flame. "…What are you—" "Don't you understand? You're hurting her. Now, and from now on." Her voice held neither anger nor surprise. Only cold certainty. "Wrong. I—" "[cold] I told you not to get close to her." She stepped forward. She was about 162 centimeters tall, shorter than Iatsu. But her presence was like a wall. "[cold] The power you hold corrodes the humans of this world. If you lack self-awareness, then distance yourself immediately." Words failed him. He had no material to argue with. Yesterday, Iatsu had indeed used the Force,