Earth Calendar, July 25, 200A – In the vicinity of the solar system.
“Ah!”
Inside the vast hangar, a panicky voice rose up. “Argh, that stupid Eris. She forgot to bring food.”
The one speaking was a space alien with cat ears and a tail poking out. However, contrary to Eris, this one’s stature was along the lines of a ‘shorty’. Standing at only half the height of Eris, her body could be described as underdeveloped. Earring-like yellow tag markers dangled both from her main ears located at the parietal ridge and her auxiliary ears on the sides of her head. These tags identified her as having permanent gene control nanomachines inside her body while at the same time indicating that she had some sort of special ability.
The silver ‘jingle bell’ at the base of her throat provided proof of her being an important figure inside the warship. For any of her colleagues, just seeing how young she looked and yet how high a position she was in would most certainly engender a rather pure respect for her… No matter how it’s put, their society was one where ‘hard work and effort’ were ordinarily defined as an awful chore, resulting, of course, in this kind of reaction.
“Chaika, what’s the matter?” Another person, this one a colleague with silver hair, called out to her while nimbly springing her way across the floor of the hangar. During an emergency, this person would become an active member of the landing team, so the bell dangling at her neck was was half silver, half gold.
“Eris, that fool, took the food out during her final checks but forgot to put it back when she was leaving for Earth.”
“Ah…” The silver-haired alien carried an air of refinement while her ‘laid-back’ atmosphere was even more intense than Eris’s. “Send them off immediately.”
“That would be pointless. It’s already been a week. At this point, if she hasn’t managed to handle it on her own, she’ll have starved to death.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“I’m just joking.” The brown-haired cat-ear girl known as Chaika puffed out her perfectly flat chest. “It being Eris and all, I’m sure she’s come up with something clever. She has that sort of skill after all.”
“Are you sure ‘skill’ is the right word?”
“Huh? Having good luck or bad luck, being able to push through to the end should definitely be considered a skill.”
“Hmm.” Resting her index finger on her cheek, the silver-haired cat-ear girl considered the situation. Not being able to come up with an answer, her thoughts immediately pointed in a different direction. “But, talking about self-sufficiency here, that means she won’t have to eat food from the Soylent Green synthesizer, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Chaika nodded.
“How nice… basking in starlight, eating natural foods from nature’s plants and animals…” the silver cat muttered with a dreamy look in her eye. “Birds, fish, plants, reptiles, mammals… no doubt they’d all be tasty…”
“Mmmm…” Maybe imagining the same thing, Chaika, too, looked up at the vastness of space, an entranced look on her face.
The food synthesizer could already more or less match the outward appearance and flavour of the real thing. However, there was always a distinct ‘uncomfortable flavour’ to synthesized food that couldn’t be done away with. Not to mention, these girls had already spent a long time as ‘sailors’ on this interstellar spaceship. They had eaten synthesized food to the point where they could tell its every difference in nuanced detail and were fed up with it. From what these girls understood, with the unknown lifeforms there being so similar to themselves… or rather, having a planet where such creatures that were almost the same as them could exist, there must be many things they could eat. It was literally an ‘undiscovered world of flavour’.
“There must be cuisine we’ve never seen…”
“There’s got to be candy we’ve never seen…”
Having the same thoughts, they spoke in unison. “How nice…”
When his mother’s cell phone was picked up on the second ring, he asked, “So, what should I do?”
«It’s fine, Kio. Just let her stay for now.» Kio’s mother gave him, the entire family’s pillar of conscience and common sense, an off-the-cuff answer.
“That, you’re saying it’s fine…!?”
«Well, I actually spoke with her yesterday.» Apparently his mother had aimed at being a voice actress when she was young but had to give it up because her accent kept slipping. However, her ‘mainland accent’ just now was flawless to the point where that story seemed like a lie. «She seems like a nice girl… Manami–chan next door is pretty nice too, but for something like this, there’s a whole world out there that I think would be good for you to see and experience.»
“You, what are you imagining!?”
«Dad also seems to think highly of Eris… More importantly, all the head grannies of the Kakazu family think highly of her too.»
“Huh?” Kio stared dazedly into the handset.
The so-called “head grannies of the Kakazu family” were 3 old ladies from the main branch on the Kakazu family’s gatepost. Their names were Pot, Stove and Ox. (Nowadays, these names may be surprising, but it was common back then to name daughters after the family’s valuable belongings.) Having long since passed 100 years old, the three were still robust and full of vigour. Even now, they still operated anOkinawa soba shop together in Shuri, Naho, as well as a side business as exclusive Okinawan psychics – each a so-called “yuta“. There was a part of the family that found them frightening to the point where they refused to look them in the eye, but Kio, for some strange reason, was much loved by them. Regardless of what was going on, they would always come and show their concern for him.
“Is that true?”
«Uh-huh, yeah… Grandma Pot was even quite eager and said something like, ‘This girl should definitely stay with Ki–bou.’»
Incidentally, Ki–bou was their pet name for Kio.
“……wasn’t she just someone dad brought home when he was drunk?”
Whenever Kio’s father got drunk, he wouldn’t hold back at all and ended up bringing random things back with him before the following day. From something as small as some pub’s beer chest to something as big as the mascot doll or cutout in front of a pharmacy, he would bring anything back home. Each year he even had a history of bringing up to two wandering hobos back home with him. Once, he ran across a sympathetic US marine soldier and, despite babbling incoherently to them, ended up causing a small disturbance by bringing back the whole platoon – equipment and all.
«Well, obviously, right? Though, generally, your mom wouldn’t allow something like this.»
“Well, yeah…” While he now understood what had happened, there were still some things that Kio just couldn’t get around. “Okay, but… did you not consider the bad influence it might have in educating your child?”
«What’s this child saying.» Cheerful laughter could be heard through the handset. «How old do you think your mom was when she gave birth to you?»
“…”
«Ah, but, you know, forcing yourself on her is absolutely no good. You need to be in complete agreement, just like your mom and dad were. Without love, you’ll go sterile.»
“Um… the partner’s an alien, you know?”
«What’s wrong with that? Love can easily start as a game of tag, regardless, even if it’s the fate of the Earth that’s at stake.»
“…?” The boy cocked his head, immediately getting a grasp on the situation. To sum up, for the next little while, it seems he would be living together with the cat-ear girl. With this and that going through his head, he immediately pinned down the most important issue. “…um, what about money?”
«Ah, don’t worry about it. We’ll deposit some extra. About eighty thousand yen more should be enough, right?»
“…that’s fine. Later then.”
After replacing the handset, the redhead cat-ear girl immediately peered hopefully at Kio’s face. “So, then, how did it go?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. They say you’re welcome to stay here for now.”
“I see.” Relieved, the girl patted her chest lightly with a sweet smile on her face.
At first returning the smile automatically, Kio suddenly remembered the incident that had happened just a few minutes earlier. Then, thinking of all the things he would have to deal with going forward, he felt just a little bit lost.
Moving time back a bit…
“A-an alien!?” Itokazu Maki’s voice shook the house. “Don’t, don’t be stupid! Where in the world would you find an alien with that kind of form!? It’s the 21st centuryalready!”
Certainly, in present-day Japan… no, anywhere in the whole world, any person seeing this girl would likely raise a similar angry shout.
“I was initially surprised as well.” replied Eris, the red-haired girl with cat ears and a tail, as she nodded in agreement. “Upon seeing all of you, we at first thought that it must be some kind of joke. We were stuck at the outer planets for three years while the council kept arguing about it over and over.”
“That, that’s nonsense!”
“No, really, that’s what I thought too. I mean somehow, in this area, we can even communicate without a translation device.” Nodding vigourously with her arms crossed, it was impossible to tell whether or not the girl really understood what Maki was upset about.
“…” Grinding her teeth to the point where you could hear them gnashing against each other, Maki had a terrible expression on her face as she glared at Eris.
“Huh? Is something the matter? Umm…”
Having a bad feeling that Eris’s follow-up words to Maki might cause something, Kio jumped in to help. “It, it’s Itokazu–sensei.”
“Ah, okay… um, are you alright, Itokazu–sensei?”
“Show, show me some proof… proof!” Maki was practically boiling as she snapped back her demand, her temples throbbing as if blood was just about to spout from them like geysers.
“Hmmm…” As the girl tilted her head in thought, they were interrupted by a shrill electronic sound coming out from a pouch on the belt around her waist.
“!” Eris’s face became a bit serious as she touched the bell that hung around the choker-like top portion of her bodysuit. With a large head and a small body… what could only be described as a stuffed animal plushie appeared in mid-air.
(A bear… no, not a bear… right?)
While Kio tilted his head in distraction, Eris went ahead with the plushie and started a conversation. “Hey, Luros, what’s the matter?”
“Aha, you see.” Speaking somewhat incoherently, the plushie was freaking out. “It’s an emergency. The ship, it’s been found.”
“What? But it was camouflaged, right?”
“Affirmative, but not with active camouflage.”
“How is the situation now?”
“I’ve been wrapped up in some kind of fibre and pulled up to the sea’s surface.”
At that time, Manami pointed round-eyed at the living room television sitting behind Kio. “That… that’s…”
“?” As Kio turned around, Maki, having calmed down a little (after being softened by the cuteness of the plushie that had appeared in the air without warning), also turned her eyes in that direction with her remaining anger.
“Ah!”
“Uh…”
«Just look at that object sparkling in champagne gold!»
Talking excitedly, the reporter on TV was someone who used to be a main anchor but was dropped due to some trouble involving women. Since then, he specialized in programs like “Local Ladies’ Creative Cooking Ideas” and “Regional Volunteer Efforts for Kids to Admire”.
The TV camera zoomed in on the scene behind him where the shiny object caught in a fishing net was just now being hauled up from the water’s surface. With a streamlined body, besides its stubby wings and a bare minimum of mechanical details, it was mostly featureless… regardless, the thing certainly seemed to fit the term ‘spaceship’. Its total length look to be around five meters.
«As could be seen earlier from the image captured by the underwater camera, the object is quite obviously man-made. Also, in light of the message we received two days ago, “We want to come play!” it’s highly likely that intelligent life from another planet has finally, finally made an appearance… isn’t that right Professor Ubusuna?»
The microphone was immediately turned toward a middle-aged gentleman standing beside him.
«The possibility certainly seems high. But there is also the possibility of this being a plot perpetrated by ○×◇△. In short, what I’m saying is that the possibilities are endless… to be frank.»
As the professor tried to continue his half-baked commentary, the announcer forcefully brought the microphone back with the words, “Thank you very much.” He then followed up by informing the audience that the salvaged object would be sent to an appropriate location (MEXT‘s research institution) for investigation that would mainly involve non-destructive examination procedures.
“Ah, my ship… it seems to be in trouble.” Eris scratched her cheek. “Getting back could become a problem… I guess there’s no helping it, Luros.”
“Yes, there’s no helping it. I think so too.”
“In that case, reactivate the system and start program Ah–24.”
“Roger, Ah–24 activated. What next?”
“Hmmm… Heh–11 should do.”
“Roger that.” With a short arm bent in a salute, the plushie disappeared.
“…uh, is that yours?”
“Yes, it is. It’s what I rode in to get here. It can’t really do much more than hop around inside the solar system, but I’ll be troubled if it just gets hauled off by someone.”
“I… guess so…”
“But it’s okay because I just gave commands to the ship’s navigation system.”
Faster than she could finish her words, the announcer raised a shout. «The, the spacecraft!»
The spacecraft, which sparkled in champagne gold, suddenly changed, becoming white. In the next moment, the net that had brought up the ship went slack as the ship softly floated above the sea’s surface. As for the net, it somehow slipped right through the hull.
«WE MEAN YOU NO HARM.»
An overly clichéd alien voice arose sounding distorted as if it had gone through an electric fan.
«HOWEVER, SINCE WE DO NOT WISH TO BE DETAINED, WE WILL NOW TAKE OUR LEAVE. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM SEARCHING FOR US.»
The announcer and crews of the surrounding fishing boats were struck dumb in amazement. The cameraman, it seemed, had the same reaction since the camera kept stupidly pointing at their backs instead of conscientiously zooming in on the spacecraft. A blink later and the spacecraft was gone. At the edge of the camera’s frame, Kio faintly recognized a tiny dot far away on the coast that appeared and then disappeared in a splash of water. But before his mind could figure out what that signified…
“I, I’m gonna get going… I’m not feeling that well today.” With no life left in her voice, Maki turned around. “Uh, Kakazu–kun, this matter of living together, this evening… no, evening the day after tomorrow… no, it’s fine. Please decide it for yourselves. I, I’m a little bit… not feeling well, so I’m gonna go home and lie down.” Wobbling back and forth, the grey-suited figure staggered out through the entranceway and disappeared.
“I, uh, me too. I’m going to head back.” Manami said as she was left standing by herself. “But… it’s true; you really are an alien from outer space.”
“Umm, but I haven’t given you any proof yet. Is that okay? …ah, but I can’t make body doubles, I can’t phase through walls, and I can’t do anything like give off sparks or shoot beams from my eyes.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve already seen plenty.”
“?”
“Kio–chi, take care.” Leaving aside the thoroughly confused Eris, Manami returned to her house as well.
“But, what did you come here for? …could it be, an invasion?” Kio was now munching on the giant spam and egg rice balls his mom had prepared earlier. While asking his question, he washed it down with a light miso soup.
“Of course not. We just want to establish friendly contact.” While likewise chowing down on the kombu wrapped spam and egg rice balls, Eris laughed. “If we did something like that, our entire species would be wiped out by the Galactic Sentience Federation.
“…what’s that?”
“It’s a special organization led by the Orsonians, a race that’s evolved to the point where they became spirit life-forms. They’re really scary, you know… however, normally, they act very kind… they were actually the ones who introduced us to this planet.”
“Really…” Thinking they sounded quite meddlesome, Kio nodded his head anyway. “Speaking of which, what are your people called, Eris?”
“Well, we always just called ourselves ‘Earthlings’, but that could get confusing so we decided to call ourselves ‘Catians’ instead.”
Certainly, considering that their language system was completely the same, it wouldn’t be surprising if they also called their planet ‘Earth’; it would just be confusing for conversation.
“But I’m glad… Earth sure is a nice place. The average temperature is around thirty degrees, it’s not too far away from the star, and each day is twenty-four hours. We can even communicate using the same language here in Japan.”
“Is that so?” Even though Kio was not overly concerned with the world’s realities, the TV would daily report on things like environmental destruction, pollution and war. Thinking about these, he didn’t feel like the Earth was that great.
“When talking about weaknesses, instead of good and evil being determined by each individual’s nature and judgement, religion is the strong deciding factor. I wonder if your scientific development is being influenced and held back by that?”
“Hmm.” Kio lapsed into thought. This carefree-looking girl actually had some thoughtful insight into the things she saw.
“But, that being as it is, the future ahead is still bright!”
“Is that so?”
“Yep, I’m sure of it.” Eris brought another rice ball into her hand while smiling and laughing. Nibbling a bit, she asked, “Um, this… there’s none of that red, chewy, sour stuff in here, right?” while wearing a slightly nervous expression.
“Ah, pickled plum? Don’t worry, my mom doesn’t like her rice balls having pickled plum in them, so we don’t put them in.”
“…thank goodness.” Sighing in relief, the girl bit into the rice ball. “Oh, this abura miso, it’s so yummy~”
“…forget it.”
Returning home, Manami went back into her room on the second floor, shutting the door with her hand behind her back. “Aliens, spacecraft… my life has nothing to do with those kinds of things. Yeah.” She nodded repeatedly. This particular girl’s room was somewhat strange. While there was some girly furniture around, other things were mixed in as well.
Guns, that is.
These guns were not real, of course, but model guns. Included were gas guns and electric guns that looked almost more real than their real steel counterparts – even matching the weight of the originals by having almost all of their parts swapped out piece by piece with metal ones. Calling her a gun enthusiast would be wrong. In her case, the guns were more like the Government Official Regular Position Exam Study Guide you might normally see on a bookshelf. They were there for the sake of achieving a splendid outcome for her ‘future plan’.
“That’s right, that’s just how it is.” Muttering to herself, Manami went towards her plain desk and sat down.
“Meeooww♪” Eris let out an involuntary sigh befitting of a girl with cat ears as she rolled around on the tatami mats in the sitting room. “Ahh, stuffing myself and rolling around like this, it feels so purrrfect~”
Facing up after rolling back and forth for a while, the girl stretched widely. “So awesome… Especially since there was a short while after landing on this earth where I could’t enjoy these things at all.”
“Come to think of it, when did you arrive here?” Carrying some after-dinner cold barley tea, Kio’s face had reddened somewhat. Rolling around without a care, Eris’s body was quite… no, it was absurdly pretty making her sexiness especially stand out. Although quiet, he was still a 16-year-old boy… well, even though it couldn’t be helped if he thought of various things, he was unwilling to just accept it.
“Hmm, about 8 days ago? Yup.” With a soft moan, Eris stretched herself out again. As she stretched, her huge breasts strained upwards and yet still resisted splaying apart. “Ugh, it was really bad, you know… Even though being dropped off in the mountains was good for avoiding people’s notice, it also meant I had no one to call out to when I had carelessly forgotten my food packages and ended up with an empty stomach. At the same time, headquarters was pressuring me to investigate quickly.”
“You carelessly forgot to pack food…?” Like anyone would be, Kio felt appropriately shocked. For an adventurer heading off to an unknown land, shouldn’t guaranteeing a safe food supply be of maximum priority?
“Yeah.” Eris nodded deeply. “In the end, I had to start thinking of acquiring a local food supply, but… I don’t like killing animals. And besides, I’m a bad shot.” Sitting herself up on the tatami, the girl laughed awkwardly while scratching her head.
“Just as I was seriously thinking that I was going to starve to death, Aura–san… Ah, um, that was a cat-person I happened to meet… Anyway, Aura–san told me where Kio’s group were and said, ‘If it’s those people, you’ll be fine.'”
“A cat-person? Aura?”
“Ah, I’m sorry, it was a cat, not a person.” Laughing merrily and sticking out her tongue, Eris corrected herself. Conversing with a cat – it should, perhaps, be natural for a girl with cat ears. But still…
“A cat… Aura?” Kio’s eyes went round. “Um, was it a Scottish Fold… by any chance? Did it have folded ears? The collar has a rune… I mean, a strange character engraved on it and it looks like it’s wearing white tabi on the ends of its feet.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure what tabi are, but the ends of its feet were white, its ears drooped, and there was a strange character engraved on its collar.”
“That cat… I was wondering where it ran off to. So that’s where.” Kio sighed.
Aura was the name of the cat raised in his house. Since it was a kitten, it always enjoyed wandering off. It was common for it to leave suddenly and first come back up to two weeks later. At first, Kio and the rest of the family would search around desperately, but now it was just “the usual” and they left it alone. Now too, even after it had given directions to Eris, they still didn’t know where it was.
“Haa…”
A strange cat, even as a kitten it would look like a philosopher as it stared off toward some distant place. While that figure gave off a deep impression, this was above and beyond. As its owner, Kio was one part appreciative and one part astonished.
“But, like Aura–san said, everyone was really nice. They immediately brought me some food and let me join in the fun. Singing and dancing together… really, it was great… Kio’s mom and dad are really nice people. Kio, too.”
“…thank you.” With mixed feelings, Kio held out a cup containing the cold barley tea to Eris.
“No, the one saying thanks should be me.”
“Come to think of it, I guess that’s right.” Kio laughed.
Eris smiled as well and drank down the barley tea.
“…so, what are your plans for today?”
“Hmm, I don’t have any plans in particular.”
“Then, it might be wrong since you just got here, but I have a quick errand to run… I don’t suppose you could house-sit for me? Just being here is fine. You don’t need to answer the phone, and if anybody comes knocking, just ignore them.”
“…okay. But from what I know, isn’t that a bit different from what it means to house-sit…?”
“Well, your current appearance is kinda…”
“Oh, I see, because I’m an alien from space.” Eris nodded repeatedly to show that she understood. Apparently, she didn’t really think about how much her cat ears and tail stood out, not to mention her body’s proportions.
“You’re welcome to eat anything inside the refrigerator. Just don’t light the stove or anything.” Saying that, Kio thought it sounded a little like someone admonishing an elementary school student. Speaking of which, Kio remembered his elementary school days when the first time he was left to watch over the house on his own his mom delivered a similar speech.
“Got it!” Eris answered cheerfully, raising her hand. Were she to quietly maintain a stern face, she might have looked like a ‘grown up woman’, but it was difficult to see her usual self as being older than Kio.
“Well then, feel free to roll around.” Kio said, feeling his mouth form itself into a broad smile.
“Roger thaaat♪” At this point, Eris turned over onto her stomach, linked her arms together under her head like a pillow and closed her eyes. “Then, Kio–san, I’m just going to go ahead and sleep for a bit.”
“Okay… but, is that all right?”
“Yep. Today’s a day off from everything including my investigation.”
“Alright then.” Smiling, Kio left the room.
Heavy steps soon turned into ones full of purpose. That’s right, now was not the time to be shocked. Running to get up the concrete steps, the woman opened up the door to her place. Laying right at the border where Naha and it’s neighbouring city, Tomigusuku, rubbed up against each other, her second floor ‘2K’ (6 tatami, 2 room) apartment. The place, which cost 40,000 yen in rent, was stacked with a forest of bookshelves. In the kitchen, in the rooms – there were books everywhere. While many of the books were related to pedagogy, psychology and computing, there were many novels as well. Then there were many technical and reference books besides. Regarding all these books, they were not just there for decoration. Rather, they had each been read at least twice and would occasionally be pulled out again at random.
The woman threaded her way through the bookshelves and entered her wooden-floored work area. Here, too, with the exception of the closet, all three remaining walls were filled with books. Inside the closet, the only spot clear of bookshelves, a 20 in. monitor sat attached to a PC with a television next to it.
Turning on the monitor, she then fired up her PC. A short time later, “Good morning, Captain.” came out in a calm and steady, yet somewhat clumsy male voice. The startup sound was something she had painstakingly set up on her own. She had taken the audio from a past video tape recording of 2001: A Space Odyssey which she had made when it was broadcast on a New Year late-night television program. After carefully filtering out the background noise, she was left with the voice of the late great voice actor, Kaneuchi Yoshio.
“Morning, HAL.” Muttering quietly to herself, she immediately connected to the web. Various messages about things like new email notifications and unplanned events were immediately displayed on the screen, but these were all ignored in favour of starting up a piece of software. It was an online game set in space where one could freely perform trades and wage war. While it had already fallen from the height of its popularity, there was still a deeply rooted fan base.
“It’s so bogged down.” Seeing the slow movement of her player character (which held the position of a minister’s secretary on a planetary cruiser), she could immediately tell how crowded the server was. And no wonder. Everyone should have seen that coverage and, even more so, it was summer vacation right now. Middle and high school students, the largest free-spending and time-wasting portion of society, would one-by-one head to the internet in order to exchange their information and views as quickly as possible. (The former aside, the latter was just for getting in on the fun.)
“…bah, come on!” Expressing her irritation by moving her optical mouse around, she waited for her character to enter the conference room. Immediately upon entering, she opened up, impatiently, a window and typed in the keyword for the chat room. Jumping across from there, she entered in yet another keyword. After repeating this several times, she finally entered the top secret locked down chat room.
Already, her character had been completely covered in a triangular hat that went over her whole head and an ankle-length robe. While the clothes swap was completely on the character side, not hers, and was only supposed to be a joke at the level of self mockery, it ended up signifying something else – that of a mood change.
«Hello, Ender here.»
She started by sending her greetings.
«Hello, Ender–san.»
For each colleague who had entered already, she greeted them one by one and received their individual responses.
«The TV broadcast, did you see it?»
«I saw it.»
Another group member entered the conversation.
«It’s too bad. If it wasn’t like that, I’d be more excited.»
«Agreed.»
«About that… I saw, or rather, I actually met the person.»
The moment the enter key was pressed, the chat room exploded.
«What do you mean?»
«Did you talk to them?»
«Where was it?» «Did it really end up looking like that?» «Did it really meow and stuff?»
The chat log quickly filled up with comments flowing at a staggering pace.
«She did look like that, but she actually spoke Japanese.»
«!»
Once again, the chat room became noisy with lots of loud comments. Pulling herself together, she provided the information she had piece by piece. With a measure of passion, a declaration was then made.
«Unacceptable. Having this kind of existence be our first contact partner is unacceptable.»
«Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.»
«If possible, please lend me some people. Don’t we have any comrades within the Marine Corps in Okinawa?»
«There aren’t any in the Marine Corps, unfortunately.» The chat room’s leader regretfully typed in his answer.
«The Marine Corps has nothing but muscles-for-brains idiots and anime otakus.»
«However, we should have some people in the Navy and Air Force that can be used.»
«In that case, go and contact those people.»
«Understood… Then, how will you move, Ender–san.»
«I, as well, will involve myself directly in carrying out the plan.»
With a feeling of pride, she hit the enter key.
«Understood… then we’ll proceed like this.»
«I will make a sincere effort to prevent civilian casualties.» Forestalling anyone else’s comment, she quickly posted her message.
«Do your best, Ender–san.»
«Don’t give up, Ender–san.»
«You can do it.»
While receiving their sendoffs, she sent her parting words.
«Everything for the sake of a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
Earth Calendar, July 25, 200A – In the vicinity of the solar system.
“Ah!”
Inside the vast hangar, a panicky voice rose up. “Argh, that stupid Eris. She forgot to bring food.”
The one speaking was a space alien with cat ears and a tail poking out. However, contrary to Eris, this one’s stature was along the lines of a ‘shorty’. Standing at only half the height of Eris, her body could be described as underdeveloped. Earring-like yellow tag markers dangled both from her main ears located at the parietal ridge and her auxiliary ears on the sides of her head. These tags identified her as having permanent gene control nanomachines inside her body while at the same time indicating that she had some sort of special ability.
The silver ‘jingle bell’ at the base of her throat provided proof of her being an important figure inside the warship. For any of her colleagues, just seeing how young she looked and yet how high a position she was in would most certainly engender a rather pure respect for her… No matter how it’s put, their society was one where ‘hard work and effort’ were ordinarily defined as an awful chore, resulting, of course, in this kind of reaction.
“Chaika, what’s the matter?” Another person, this one a colleague with silver hair, called out to her while nimbly springing her way across the floor of the hangar. During an emergency, this person would become an active member of the landing team, so the bell dangling at her neck was was half silver, half gold.
“Eris, that fool, took the food out during her final checks but forgot to put it back when she was leaving for Earth.”
“Ah…” The silver-haired alien carried an air of refinement while her ‘laid-back’ atmosphere was even more intense than Eris’s. “Send them off immediately.”
“That would be pointless. It’s already been a week. At this point, if she hasn’t managed to handle it on her own, she’ll have starved to death.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“I’m just joking.” The brown-haired cat-ear girl known as Chaika puffed out her perfectly flat chest. “It being Eris and all, I’m sure she’s come up with something clever. She has that sort of skill after all.”
“Are you sure ‘skill’ is the right word?”
“Huh? Having good luck or bad luck, being able to push through to the end should definitely be considered a skill.”
“Hmm.” Resting her index finger on her cheek, the silver-haired cat-ear girl considered the situation. Not being able to come up with an answer, her thoughts immediately pointed in a different direction. “But, talking about self-sufficiency here, that means she won’t have to eat food from the Soylent Green synthesizer, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Chaika nodded.
“How nice… basking in starlight, eating natural foods from nature’s plants and animals…” the silver cat muttered with a dreamy look in her eye. “Birds, fish, plants, reptiles, mammals… no doubt they’d all be tasty…”
“Mmmm…” Maybe imagining the same thing, Chaika, too, looked up at the vastness of space, an entranced look on her face.
The food synthesizer could already more or less match the outward appearance and flavour of the real thing. However, there was always a distinct ‘uncomfortable flavour’ to synthesized food that couldn’t be done away with. Not to mention, these girls had already spent a long time as ‘sailors’ on this interstellar spaceship. They had eaten synthesized food to the point where they could tell its every difference in nuanced detail and were fed up with it. From what these girls understood, with the unknown lifeforms there being so similar to themselves… or rather, having a planet where such creatures that were almost the same as them could exist, there must be many things they could eat. It was literally an ‘undiscovered world of flavour’.
“There must be cuisine we’ve never seen…”
“There’s got to be candy we’ve never seen…”
Having the same thoughts, they spoke in unison. “How nice…”
When his mother’s cell phone was picked up on the second ring, he asked, “So, what should I do?”
«It’s fine, Kio. Just let her stay for now.» Kio’s mother gave him, the entire family’s pillar of conscience and common sense, an off-the-cuff answer.
“That, you’re saying it’s fine…!?”
«Well, I actually spoke with her yesterday.» Apparently his mother had aimed at being a voice actress when she was young but had to give it up because her accent kept slipping. However, her ‘mainland accent’ just now was flawless to the point where that story seemed like a lie. «She seems like a nice girl… Manami–chan next door is pretty nice too, but for something like this, there’s a whole world out there that I think would be good for you to see and experience.»
“You, what are you imagining!?”
«Dad also seems to think highly of Eris… More importantly, all the head grannies of the Kakazu family think highly of her too.»
“Huh?” Kio stared dazedly into the handset.
The so-called “head grannies of the Kakazu family” were 3 old ladies from the main branch on the Kakazu family’s gatepost. Their names were Pot, Stove and Ox. (Nowadays, these names may be surprising, but it was common back then to name daughters after the family’s valuable belongings.) Having long since passed 100 years old, the three were still robust and full of vigour. Even now, they still operated anOkinawa soba shop together in Shuri, Naho, as well as a side business as exclusive Okinawan psychics – each a so-called “yuta“. There was a part of the family that found them frightening to the point where they refused to look them in the eye, but Kio, for some strange reason, was much loved by them. Regardless of what was going on, they would always come and show their concern for him.
“Is that true?”
«Uh-huh, yeah… Grandma Pot was even quite eager and said something like, ‘This girl should definitely stay with Ki–bou.’»
Incidentally, Ki–bou was their pet name for Kio.
“……wasn’t she just someone dad brought home when he was drunk?”
Whenever Kio’s father got drunk, he wouldn’t hold back at all and ended up bringing random things back with him before the following day. From something as small as some pub’s beer chest to something as big as the mascot doll or cutout in front of a pharmacy, he would bring anything back home. Each year he even had a history of bringing up to two wandering hobos back home with him. Once, he ran across a sympathetic US marine soldier and, despite babbling incoherently to them, ended up causing a small disturbance by bringing back the whole platoon – equipment and all.
«Well, obviously, right? Though, generally, your mom wouldn’t allow something like this.»
“Well, yeah…” While he now understood what had happened, there were still some things that Kio just couldn’t get around. “Okay, but… did you not consider the bad influence it might have in educating your child?”
«What’s this child saying.» Cheerful laughter could be heard through the handset. «How old do you think your mom was when she gave birth to you?»
“…”
«Ah, but, you know, forcing yourself on her is absolutely no good. You need to be in complete agreement, just like your mom and dad were. Without love, you’ll go sterile.»
“Um… the partner’s an alien, you know?”
«What’s wrong with that? Love can easily start as a game of tag, regardless, even if it’s the fate of the Earth that’s at stake.»
“…?” The boy cocked his head, immediately getting a grasp on the situation. To sum up, for the next little while, it seems he would be living together with the cat-ear girl. With this and that going through his head, he immediately pinned down the most important issue. “…um, what about money?”
«Ah, don’t worry about it. We’ll deposit some extra. About eighty thousand yen more should be enough, right?»
“…that’s fine. Later then.”
After replacing the handset, the redhead cat-ear girl immediately peered hopefully at Kio’s face. “So, then, how did it go?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. They say you’re welcome to stay here for now.”
“I see.” Relieved, the girl patted her chest lightly with a sweet smile on her face.
At first returning the smile automatically, Kio suddenly remembered the incident that had happened just a few minutes earlier. Then, thinking of all the things he would have to deal with going forward, he felt just a little bit lost.
Moving time back a bit…
“A-an alien!?” Itokazu Maki’s voice shook the house. “Don’t, don’t be stupid! Where in the world would you find an alien with that kind of form!? It’s the 21st centuryalready!”
Certainly, in present-day Japan… no, anywhere in the whole world, any person seeing this girl would likely raise a similar angry shout.
“I was initially surprised as well.” replied Eris, the red-haired girl with cat ears and a tail, as she nodded in agreement. “Upon seeing all of you, we at first thought that it must be some kind of joke. We were stuck at the outer planets for three years while the council kept arguing about it over and over.”
“That, that’s nonsense!”
“No, really, that’s what I thought too. I mean somehow, in this area, we can even communicate without a translation device.” Nodding vigourously with her arms crossed, it was impossible to tell whether or not the girl really understood what Maki was upset about.
“…” Grinding her teeth to the point where you could hear them gnashing against each other, Maki had a terrible expression on her face as she glared at Eris.
“Huh? Is something the matter? Umm…”
Having a bad feeling that Eris’s follow-up words to Maki might cause something, Kio jumped in to help. “It, it’s Itokazu–sensei.”
“Ah, okay… um, are you alright, Itokazu–sensei?”
“Show, show me some proof… proof!” Maki was practically boiling as she snapped back her demand, her temples throbbing as if blood was just about to spout from them like geysers.
“Hmmm…” As the girl tilted her head in thought, they were interrupted by a shrill electronic sound coming out from a pouch on the belt around her waist.
“!” Eris’s face became a bit serious as she touched the bell that hung around the choker-like top portion of her bodysuit. With a large head and a small body… what could only be described as a stuffed animal plushie appeared in mid-air.
(A bear… no, not a bear… right?)
While Kio tilted his head in distraction, Eris went ahead with the plushie and started a conversation. “Hey, Luros, what’s the matter?”
“Aha, you see.” Speaking somewhat incoherently, the plushie was freaking out. “It’s an emergency. The ship, it’s been found.”
“What? But it was camouflaged, right?”
“Affirmative, but not with active camouflage.”
“How is the situation now?”
“I’ve been wrapped up in some kind of fibre and pulled up to the sea’s surface.”
At that time, Manami pointed round-eyed at the living room television sitting behind Kio. “That… that’s…”
“?” As Kio turned around, Maki, having calmed down a little (after being softened by the cuteness of the plushie that had appeared in the air without warning), also turned her eyes in that direction with her remaining anger.
“Ah!”
“Uh…”
«Just look at that object sparkling in champagne gold!»
Talking excitedly, the reporter on TV was someone who used to be a main anchor but was dropped due to some trouble involving women. Since then, he specialized in programs like “Local Ladies’ Creative Cooking Ideas” and “Regional Volunteer Efforts for Kids to Admire”.
The TV camera zoomed in on the scene behind him where the shiny object caught in a fishing net was just now being hauled up from the water’s surface. With a streamlined body, besides its stubby wings and a bare minimum of mechanical details, it was mostly featureless… regardless, the thing certainly seemed to fit the term ‘spaceship’. Its total length look to be around five meters.
«As could be seen earlier from the image captured by the underwater camera, the object is quite obviously man-made. Also, in light of the message we received two days ago, “We want to come play!” it’s highly likely that intelligent life from another planet has finally, finally made an appearance… isn’t that right Professor Ubusuna?»
The microphone was immediately turned toward a middle-aged gentleman standing beside him.
«The possibility certainly seems high. But there is also the possibility of this being a plot perpetrated by ○×◇△. In short, what I’m saying is that the possibilities are endless… to be frank.»
As the professor tried to continue his half-baked commentary, the announcer forcefully brought the microphone back with the words, “Thank you very much.” He then followed up by informing the audience that the salvaged object would be sent to an appropriate location (MEXT‘s research institution) for investigation that would mainly involve non-destructive examination procedures.
“Ah, my ship… it seems to be in trouble.” Eris scratched her cheek. “Getting back could become a problem… I guess there’s no helping it, Luros.”
“Yes, there’s no helping it. I think so too.”
“In that case, reactivate the system and start program Ah–24.”
“Roger, Ah–24 activated. What next?”
“Hmmm… Heh–11 should do.”
“Roger that.” With a short arm bent in a salute, the plushie disappeared.
“…uh, is that yours?”
“Yes, it is. It’s what I rode in to get here. It can’t really do much more than hop around inside the solar system, but I’ll be troubled if it just gets hauled off by someone.”
“I… guess so…”
“But it’s okay because I just gave commands to the ship’s navigation system.”
Faster than she could finish her words, the announcer raised a shout. «The, the spacecraft!»
The spacecraft, which sparkled in champagne gold, suddenly changed, becoming white. In the next moment, the net that had brought up the ship went slack as the ship softly floated above the sea’s surface. As for the net, it somehow slipped right through the hull.
«WE MEAN YOU NO HARM.»
An overly clichéd alien voice arose sounding distorted as if it had gone through an electric fan.
«HOWEVER, SINCE WE DO NOT WISH TO BE DETAINED, WE WILL NOW TAKE OUR LEAVE. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM SEARCHING FOR US.»
The announcer and crews of the surrounding fishing boats were struck dumb in amazement. The cameraman, it seemed, had the same reaction since the camera kept stupidly pointing at their backs instead of conscientiously zooming in on the spacecraft. A blink later and the spacecraft was gone. At the edge of the camera’s frame, Kio faintly recognized a tiny dot far away on the coast that appeared and then disappeared in a splash of water. But before his mind could figure out what that signified…
“I, I’m gonna get going… I’m not feeling that well today.” With no life left in her voice, Maki turned around. “Uh, Kakazu–kun, this matter of living together, this evening… no, evening the day after tomorrow… no, it’s fine. Please decide it for yourselves. I, I’m a little bit… not feeling well, so I’m gonna go home and lie down.” Wobbling back and forth, the grey-suited figure staggered out through the entranceway and disappeared.
“I, uh, me too. I’m going to head back.” Manami said as she was left standing by herself. “But… it’s true; you really are an alien from outer space.”
“Umm, but I haven’t given you any proof yet. Is that okay? …ah, but I can’t make body doubles, I can’t phase through walls, and I can’t do anything like give off sparks or shoot beams from my eyes.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve already seen plenty.”
“?”
“Kio–chi, take care.” Leaving aside the thoroughly confused Eris, Manami returned to her house as well.
“But, what did you come here for? …could it be, an invasion?” Kio was now munching on the giant spam and egg rice balls his mom had prepared earlier. While asking his question, he washed it down with a light miso soup.
“Of course not. We just want to establish friendly contact.” While likewise chowing down on the kombu wrapped spam and egg rice balls, Eris laughed. “If we did something like that, our entire species would be wiped out by the Galactic Sentience Federation.
“…what’s that?”
“It’s a special organization led by the Orsonians, a race that’s evolved to the point where they became spirit life-forms. They’re really scary, you know… however, normally, they act very kind… they were actually the ones who introduced us to this planet.”
“Really…” Thinking they sounded quite meddlesome, Kio nodded his head anyway. “Speaking of which, what are your people called, Eris?”
“Well, we always just called ourselves ‘Earthlings’, but that could get confusing so we decided to call ourselves ‘Catians’ instead.”
Certainly, considering that their language system was completely the same, it wouldn’t be surprising if they also called their planet ‘Earth’; it would just be confusing for conversation.
“But I’m glad… Earth sure is a nice place. The average temperature is around thirty degrees, it’s not too far away from the star, and each day is twenty-four hours. We can even communicate using the same language here in Japan.”
“Is that so?” Even though Kio was not overly concerned with the world’s realities, the TV would daily report on things like environmental destruction, pollution and war. Thinking about these, he didn’t feel like the Earth was that great.
“When talking about weaknesses, instead of good and evil being determined by each individual’s nature and judgement, religion is the strong deciding factor. I wonder if your scientific development is being influenced and held back by that?”
“Hmm.” Kio lapsed into thought. This carefree-looking girl actually had some thoughtful insight into the things she saw.
“But, that being as it is, the future ahead is still bright!”
“Is that so?”
“Yep, I’m sure of it.” Eris brought another rice ball into her hand while smiling and laughing. Nibbling a bit, she asked, “Um, this… there’s none of that red, chewy, sour stuff in here, right?” while wearing a slightly nervous expression.
“Ah, pickled plum? Don’t worry, my mom doesn’t like her rice balls having pickled plum in them, so we don’t put them in.”
“…thank goodness.” Sighing in relief, the girl bit into the rice ball. “Oh, this abura miso, it’s so yummy~”
“…forget it.”
Returning home, Manami went back into her room on the second floor, shutting the door with her hand behind her back. “Aliens, spacecraft… my life has nothing to do with those kinds of things. Yeah.” She nodded repeatedly. This particular girl’s room was somewhat strange. While there was some girly furniture around, other things were mixed in as well.
Guns, that is.
These guns were not real, of course, but model guns. Included were gas guns and electric guns that looked almost more real than their real steel counterparts – even matching the weight of the originals by having almost all of their parts swapped out piece by piece with metal ones. Calling her a gun enthusiast would be wrong. In her case, the guns were more like the Government Official Regular Position Exam Study Guide you might normally see on a bookshelf. They were there for the sake of achieving a splendid outcome for her ‘future plan’.
“That’s right, that’s just how it is.” Muttering to herself, Manami went towards her plain desk and sat down.
“Meeooww♪” Eris let out an involuntary sigh befitting of a girl with cat ears as she rolled around on the tatami mats in the sitting room. “Ahh, stuffing myself and rolling around like this, it feels so purrrfect~”
Facing up after rolling back and forth for a while, the girl stretched widely. “So awesome… Especially since there was a short while after landing on this earth where I could’t enjoy these things at all.”
“Come to think of it, when did you arrive here?” Carrying some after-dinner cold barley tea, Kio’s face had reddened somewhat. Rolling around without a care, Eris’s body was quite… no, it was absurdly pretty making her sexiness especially stand out. Although quiet, he was still a 16-year-old boy… well, even though it couldn’t be helped if he thought of various things, he was unwilling to just accept it.
“Hmm, about 8 days ago? Yup.” With a soft moan, Eris stretched herself out again. As she stretched, her huge breasts strained upwards and yet still resisted splaying apart. “Ugh, it was really bad, you know… Even though being dropped off in the mountains was good for avoiding people’s notice, it also meant I had no one to call out to when I had carelessly forgotten my food packages and ended up with an empty stomach. At the same time, headquarters was pressuring me to investigate quickly.”
“You carelessly forgot to pack food…?” Like anyone would be, Kio felt appropriately shocked. For an adventurer heading off to an unknown land, shouldn’t guaranteeing a safe food supply be of maximum priority?
“Yeah.” Eris nodded deeply. “In the end, I had to start thinking of acquiring a local food supply, but… I don’t like killing animals. And besides, I’m a bad shot.” Sitting herself up on the tatami, the girl laughed awkwardly while scratching her head.
“Just as I was seriously thinking that I was going to starve to death, Aura–san… Ah, um, that was a cat-person I happened to meet… Anyway, Aura–san told me where Kio’s group were and said, ‘If it’s those people, you’ll be fine.'”
“A cat-person? Aura?”
“Ah, I’m sorry, it was a cat, not a person.” Laughing merrily and sticking out her tongue, Eris corrected herself. Conversing with a cat – it should, perhaps, be natural for a girl with cat ears. But still…
“A cat… Aura?” Kio’s eyes went round. “Um, was it a Scottish Fold… by any chance? Did it have folded ears? The collar has a rune… I mean, a strange character engraved on it and it looks like it’s wearing white tabi on the ends of its feet.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure what tabi are, but the ends of its feet were white, its ears drooped, and there was a strange character engraved on its collar.”
“That cat… I was wondering where it ran off to. So that’s where.” Kio sighed.
Aura was the name of the cat raised in his house. Since it was a kitten, it always enjoyed wandering off. It was common for it to leave suddenly and first come back up to two weeks later. At first, Kio and the rest of the family would search around desperately, but now it was just “the usual” and they left it alone. Now too, even after it had given directions to Eris, they still didn’t know where it was.
“Haa…”
A strange cat, even as a kitten it would look like a philosopher as it stared off toward some distant place. While that figure gave off a deep impression, this was above and beyond. As its owner, Kio was one part appreciative and one part astonished.
“But, like Aura–san said, everyone was really nice. They immediately brought me some food and let me join in the fun. Singing and dancing together… really, it was great… Kio’s mom and dad are really nice people. Kio, too.”
“…thank you.” With mixed feelings, Kio held out a cup containing the cold barley tea to Eris.
“No, the one saying thanks should be me.”
“Come to think of it, I guess that’s right.” Kio laughed.
Eris smiled as well and drank down the barley tea.
“…so, what are your plans for today?”
“Hmm, I don’t have any plans in particular.”
“Then, it might be wrong since you just got here, but I have a quick errand to run… I don’t suppose you could house-sit for me? Just being here is fine. You don’t need to answer the phone, and if anybody comes knocking, just ignore them.”
“…okay. But from what I know, isn’t that a bit different from what it means to house-sit…?”
“Well, your current appearance is kinda…”
“Oh, I see, because I’m an alien from space.” Eris nodded repeatedly to show that she understood. Apparently, she didn’t really think about how much her cat ears and tail stood out, not to mention her body’s proportions.
“You’re welcome to eat anything inside the refrigerator. Just don’t light the stove or anything.” Saying that, Kio thought it sounded a little like someone admonishing an elementary school student. Speaking of which, Kio remembered his elementary school days when the first time he was left to watch over the house on his own his mom delivered a similar speech.
“Got it!” Eris answered cheerfully, raising her hand. Were she to quietly maintain a stern face, she might have looked like a ‘grown up woman’, but it was difficult to see her usual self as being older than Kio.
“Well then, feel free to roll around.” Kio said, feeling his mouth form itself into a broad smile.
“Roger thaaat♪” At this point, Eris turned over onto her stomach, linked her arms together under her head like a pillow and closed her eyes. “Then, Kio–san, I’m just going to go ahead and sleep for a bit.”
“Okay… but, is that all right?”
“Yep. Today’s a day off from everything including my investigation.”
“Alright then.” Smiling, Kio left the room.
Heavy steps soon turned into ones full of purpose. That’s right, now was not the time to be shocked. Running to get up the concrete steps, the woman opened up the door to her place. Laying right at the border where Naha and it’s neighbouring city, Tomigusuku, rubbed up against each other, her second floor ‘2K’ (6 tatami, 2 room) apartment. The place, which cost 40,000 yen in rent, was stacked with a forest of bookshelves. In the kitchen, in the rooms – there were books everywhere. While many of the books were related to pedagogy, psychology and computing, there were many novels as well. Then there were many technical and reference books besides. Regarding all these books, they were not just there for decoration. Rather, they had each been read at least twice and would occasionally be pulled out again at random.
The woman threaded her way through the bookshelves and entered her wooden-floored work area. Here, too, with the exception of the closet, all three remaining walls were filled with books. Inside the closet, the only spot clear of bookshelves, a 20 in. monitor sat attached to a PC with a television next to it.
Turning on the monitor, she then fired up her PC. A short time later, “Good morning, Captain.” came out in a calm and steady, yet somewhat clumsy male voice. The startup sound was something she had painstakingly set up on her own. She had taken the audio from a past video tape recording of 2001: A Space Odyssey which she had made when it was broadcast on a New Year late-night television program. After carefully filtering out the background noise, she was left with the voice of the late great voice actor, Kaneuchi Yoshio.
“Morning, HAL.” Muttering quietly to herself, she immediately connected to the web. Various messages about things like new email notifications and unplanned events were immediately displayed on the screen, but these were all ignored in favour of starting up a piece of software. It was an online game set in space where one could freely perform trades and wage war. While it had already fallen from the height of its popularity, there was still a deeply rooted fan base.
“It’s so bogged down.” Seeing the slow movement of her player character (which held the position of a minister’s secretary on a planetary cruiser), she could immediately tell how crowded the server was. And no wonder. Everyone should have seen that coverage and, even more so, it was summer vacation right now. Middle and high school students, the largest free-spending and time-wasting portion of society, would one-by-one head to the internet in order to exchange their information and views as quickly as possible. (The former aside, the latter was just for getting in on the fun.)
“…bah, come on!” Expressing her irritation by moving her optical mouse around, she waited for her character to enter the conference room. Immediately upon entering, she opened up, impatiently, a window and typed in the keyword for the chat room. Jumping across from there, she entered in yet another keyword. After repeating this several times, she finally entered the top secret locked down chat room.
Already, her character had been completely covered in a triangular hat that went over her whole head and an ankle-length robe. While the clothes swap was completely on the character side, not hers, and was only supposed to be a joke at the level of self mockery, it ended up signifying something else – that of a mood change.
«Hello, Ender here.»
She started by sending her greetings.
«Hello, Ender–san.»
For each colleague who had entered already, she greeted them one by one and received their individual responses.
«The TV broadcast, did you see it?»
«I saw it.»
Another group member entered the conversation.
«It’s too bad. If it wasn’t like that, I’d be more excited.»
«Agreed.»
«About that… I saw, or rather, I actually met the person.»
The moment the enter key was pressed, the chat room exploded.
«What do you mean?»
«Did you talk to them?»
«Where was it?» «Did it really end up looking like that?» «Did it really meow and stuff?»
The chat log quickly filled up with comments flowing at a staggering pace.
«She did look like that, but she actually spoke Japanese.»
«!»
Once again, the chat room became noisy with lots of loud comments. Pulling herself together, she provided the information she had piece by piece. With a measure of passion, a declaration was then made.
«Unacceptable. Having this kind of existence be our first contact partner is unacceptable.»
«Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.» «Agreed.»
«If possible, please lend me some people. Don’t we have any comrades within the Marine Corps in Okinawa?»
«There aren’t any in the Marine Corps, unfortunately.» The chat room’s leader regretfully typed in his answer.
«The Marine Corps has nothing but muscles-for-brains idiots and anime otakus.»
«However, we should have some people in the Navy and Air Force that can be used.»
«In that case, go and contact those people.»
«Understood… Then, how will you move, Ender–san.»
«I, as well, will involve myself directly in carrying out the plan.»
With a feeling of pride, she hit the enter key.
«Understood… then we’ll proceed like this.»
«I will make a sincere effort to prevent civilian casualties.» Forestalling anyone else’s comment, she quickly posted her message.
«Do your best, Ender–san.»
«Don’t give up, Ender–san.»
«You can do it.»
While receiving their sendoffs, she sent her parting words.
«Everything for the sake of a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
«For a beautiful contact.»
