Vol. 2 Chapter 3 – April 2047, Jouhoku High School

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Noboru-kun.

I’m sorry for suddenly disappearing.

Mikako is now at the base camp on the moon.

I meant to say a proper goodbye but they came to pick me up suddenly, without any warning at all.

Late that night, on the day Noboru-kun and I took shelter from the rain and went home together, that agent came and made the unreasonable demand that I get ready in one hour. Awful, right?

My parents were angry too, saying that was ridiculous.

I hurriedly stuffed changes of clothes into a bag, and before I knew it, I was inside their car, heading for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Saitama Base.

I’d assumed saying goodbye to everyone would happen much later, after the graduation ceremony, but… it’s awful, right?

But I also think that maybe it was actually better that they took me away like I’d been kidnapped. I don’t think I could have endured waiting day by day for the enlistment date to get closer while keeping it a secret from everyone.

Besides, if it had really come time to say goodbye, I’m sure I would have cried. And if I cried, I would have whined like a spoiled child, saying I didn’t want to go.

Anyway, Mikako enlisted safely.

And I’m doing unexpectedly well.

At Saitama Base, I went through a simple enlistment procedure, was handed my issued supplies, and without even time to sleep, I was pushed onto an early-morning shuttle. After spending one night at the lunar station, four days after my “kidnapping,” I had arrived at the United Nations Space Force base camp in Mare Serenitatis.

I immediately went through orientation, and now that I’ve finally been released into my private room, I’m writing this email to Noboru-kun like this.

Of course, I wrote to my parents first, though.

I wonder if it arrived properly.

Well, I already confirmed through the email I sent my parents that messages can arrive even from the moon. But from now on, every time the fleet moves, messages will be delivered through all kinds of relay satellites, so emails sent from Noboru-kun might not always arrive successfully.

But it’s okay. Mikako plans to email often.

I’ll properly report where I am and what I’m doing, so don’t worry.

As for Mikako’s schedule from now on, training starts right away tomorrow.

I’ll be attending lectures so I can become a proper Tracer operator. I wonder when they’ll let me ride in a real one?

Well then, enjoy summer vacation.

Oops, you have entrance exams coming up, don’t you?

Don’t push yourself too hard and ruin your health.

Also, try not to have too many cold things.

Aim to break through to your first-choice school! Fight!

Well then.

From the kidnapped beautiful girl, Mikako.

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Whether she was full of energy because she was in space, or whether she really had gotten carried away, the email sent from Nagamine had a strangely high-spirited tone.

Still, whatever the circumstances, I was glad she had enlisted safely.

I immediately typed out a reply.

It was true that the communication range of mobile phones had expanded all the way into space. It was not some special feature. In a completely ordinary way, any mobile phone could communicate between space and Earth.

Even though I understood that in theory, an ordinary middle school student like me had never once had the chance to try out that function before. After all, I had never had an email friend living in space.

But I did know that now, more than thirty thousand people were constantly working in space.

That said, humanity’s advance into space beyond the moon had only happened very recently, and even when people said they worked in space, most of it was limited to the structures called space stations drifting all over low Earth orbit, and facilities on the lunar surface.

The purposes for using space were varied. Military purposes, scientific research, medical purposes, entertainment and tourism, private-sector research and development of new materials, as filming locations for the movie industry, as broadcasting bases for news organizations…

But recently, military purposes seemed to be given priority above all else.

Since the Tarsian Shock, partly to ensure the safety of flight routes, civilian shuttle flights had been restricted in total number, and civilian facilities in space and on the lunar surface were bought up one after another by the United Nations and converted into space force-related facilities.

On the other hand, the advanced scientific technology of the Tarsian civilization obtained from artifacts excavated from the Tharsis Ruins was immediately redirected into the space field, leading to remarkable progress. But the more space technology advanced like that, the more distant space became to ordinary people like us. That was because the latest technologies were monopolized entirely by NASA and the United Nations Space Force centered around the United States Space Force, and they refused to disclose anything.

Information regarding space came under regulation and, day by day, was pushed farther from the eyes of ordinary citizens.

Among that scarce space-related information, only information concerning the Tarsian Investigation Team was exceptionally abundant, and the regulations surrounding it were comparatively loose. Perhaps intentional leaks were being made in order to burn into the minds of people all over the world the idea that【we humanity are constantly exposed to the threat of the Tarsians.】

…And so, the emails arriving from Nagamine were, for me, something that made space feel close at hand.

Even though I understood logically that messages could be delivered, sending an email toward the lunar surface was something I had never done before. Would it really arrive safely? Immediately after sending the email late at night, I ran outside and looked up at the night sky. A thin crescent moon, about three days old, weakly peeked out low in the sky.

At that moment, I truly realized that Nagamine had gone very far away.

──Nagamine is all the way up there.

However, what I mainly felt was the sense of distance separating us. I hardly spared any thought to what kind of feelings Nagamine herself might have had after being thrown into an unfamiliar environment and forced into a life completely different from the one she had until yesterday.

After that, for half a year, we encouraged each other in a positive way and continued exchanging emails.

One of us became a Tracer pilot, while the other aimed to become a high school student, praising each other’s daily efforts and cheering one another on.

But honestly speaking, my feelings were complicated.

It was not for some simple reason like not being able to meet directly.

While I worried about Nagamine’s safety, at the same time I envied her and even resented her.

What Nagamine was doing might have been difficult, but it was something admirable, backed by the noble purpose and mission of contributing to humanity. Compared to that, what I was doing existed only for the plain and petty goal of my own future. And on top of that, Nagamine’s future was guaranteed, while I did not even have any guarantee that I would become a high school student.

Nagamine has it good, doesn’t she? I genuinely envied her like that sometimes.

And besides, while I was desperately struggling with vocabulary notebooks trying to memorize even one more English word, if the notification sound suddenly rang, honestly, I could not help but think, give me a break already.

The day’s training menu and results. Her reflections on mistakes. The dinner menu and her score for its taste. Gossip and nicknames about each instructor. Nagamine’s personal weather forecasts based on the appearance of Earth and the movement of clouds as seen from the moon…

Yet not a single one of those topics had anything to do with an exam student like me, nor were they of any use whatsoever.

Unable to endure that situation, around the time the new year had begun and there were less than two months left until the actual entrance exams, I was the one who suggested that we take a break from exchanging emails for a while. I hated myself for being such a selfish, narrow-minded person.

I did not want to use my email exchanges with Nagamine as an excuse but it may be true that I had been unable to concentrate on studying for the entrance exams. My final push right before the exams did not produce much in the way of results.

Still dominated by a half-hearted feeling of【somehow, it’ll work out】I reached the day of the entrance exam, and in the end, it somehow did work out. I passed my first-choice school.

Spring came, and I officially became a high school student.

I conveniently interpreted it as maybe Nagamine’s encouraging emails had worked.

Honestly, I was such a selfish guy.

I was not certain whether her training on the lunar surface was still continuing, but at any rate, I sent a short email toward the base camp to tell her that I had passed. However, that email did not reach Nagamine. Nagamine had already left the lunar camp and was aboard the Lysithea, heading for the next camp location. A small email mix-up occurred.

But Nagamine had remembered the day of my exam results announcement, and the next day she sent me a short email saying that she was aboard the Lysithea and asking whether I had passed or failed. I replied right away.

Then, as though trying to fill the two-month blank all at once, Nagamine sent me an insanely long reply, so long that it could not even fit into my phone’s memory.

The message had dates written into it like a diary. She must have been writing and saving it every day. And the amount she wrote had grown larger with each passing day.

I read through it over three days in between preparing for enrollment, started writing replies several times, left them unfinished halfway through, and ended up reaching the entrance ceremony. I scrapped all the half-written emails and, for the time being, sent a short message telling her only that I had safely become a high school student. I added,『Details about high school life will be in my next email.』

Honestly, I had no sincerity at all.

Long before I had secured my own acceptance, Nagamine had safely completed her basic training on the moon.

Walking, running, going prone, getting up, standing, kicking, jumping, turning, stopping still, grabbing, pushing, pulling close, throwing, thrusting, swinging around, cutting, crushing in her grip…

She had been thoroughly trained in the Tracer’s basic movements, and with excellent results, she seemed to have been recognized as a proper Tracer pilot.

As expected from people carefully selected from all over the world, most of the trainees apparently mastered Tracer operation. However, that did not mean there were no dropouts at all. There were some who were injured in accidents during training, some who fell into depression after struggling with poor results and were sent back to Earth, and some who could not endure the harsh training and apparently ran away from the camp.

When I heard stories like that, I thought Nagamine might truly have been suited for it. Nagamine’s patience had already been proven back in our middle school club activities.

The various procedures that came with enrollment, buying textbooks and a commuter pass, filling out documents to submit, and other troublesome tasks had finally settled down. I had gradually started remembering the names of my homeroom teacher, subject teachers, and classmates, and I had begun to adjust to my new environment and lifestyle. At last, I found enough room in my heart to think about writing a long email to Nagamine.

By that time, Nagamine had finished moving to Mars, and the next stage of her training had begun.

From the daily emails Nagamine sent me, I could tell that her training was becoming more serious. I could also tell that the training content was leaning heavily toward combat exercises.

I felt a faint sense of unease.

For what purpose had they trained a thousand Tracer pilots?

Tracers were originally supposed to have been developed as all-environment mobile units for planetary exploration, but depending on their optional equipment, their nature as combat machines became even stronger.

If they encountered the Tarsians, were Nagamine and the others being trained as soldiers under the assumption that they would end up fighting them?

Yes. Thinking about it, Nagamine and the other selected members belonged to the United Nations Space Force.

Would the Tarsian Investigation Team be able to encounter the Tarsians?

The possibility probably could not be said to be completely zero.

The basis for that lay in the existence of Shortcut Anchors, and in the fact that the United Nations Space Force knew the locations of several of them.

In fact, it was said that the Tarsians had come to Mars through a Shortcut Anchor.

That meant that if they followed the Shortcut Anchors in reverse, they would eventually be able to reach the place the Tarsians had departed from.

By the way, a Shortcut Anchor was a warp gate that connected two points in outer space. Its existence had been discovered near Mars’s orbital path shortly after the Tarsian attack, as a moving singularity, and it had not been made public until very recently. Since finding one meant there were probably others, a vigorous search for Shortcut Anchors within the solar system was carried out, quickly making use of the newly completed ships that had incorporated Tarsian technology.

Probably, or rather, this is only my guess, but I think a major reason full-scale Tarsian exploration is finally being carried out now, six years after the Tarsian attack, is that all the necessary tools are finally in place. In other words, Shortcut Anchors have been found even beyond the solar system and they are trying to investigate even farther ahead or deeper beyond them.

…Phew.

Even Mars, where Nagamine is now, feels far away, yet beyond the solar system is so distant it makes me feel faint. No, honestly, I can’t even imagine that distance in any real sense.

Is the Tarsian Investigation Team, made up of ten ships and one thousand crew members, seriously about to set off into deep space?

If so, when will Nagamine be able to return to Earth?

Of course, even if it is a place so far away that the distance makes you dizzy, the Shortcut Anchor is what shortens that distance all at once. In a sense, it is instant teleportation, so perhaps it is not far in terms of time. The thing that bothers me, though, is that according to rumors, every Shortcut Anchor is one-way. In other words, there is no express ticket prepared for the trip home.

To begin with, there are still many unknown mysteries surrounding Shortcut Anchors.

It is almost certain that they are artificial singularities, but they probably are not simply tunnels bored through outer space. There should be some kind of external control mechanism, but how they are maintained and managed has not been clarified at all. In any case, the feeling is only about as vague as,『We don’t understand the theory, but there’s a convenient shortcut here, so let’s try using it.』

To say something even more frightening, although several Shortcut Anchors have been found, apparently none of those passages have been tested with humans aboard yet. Exploration probes loaded with transmitters are sent into the discovered Shortcut Anchors, and if they safely emerge somewhere in space, they immediately send back radio signals. However, those signals only return at the speed of light, so naturally there are also probes that were sent in and still have not replied about where they arrived.

That means that aside from Shortcut Anchors whose exits are already known, there is no guarantee of safety at all. Of course, even with a Shortcut Anchor whose exit has been found, all that means is that one machine happened to arrive safely. No one can say for sure whether fragile cargo would arrive safely too.

Which means Nagamine and the others will be plunging into the tunnel on their very first real attempt.

Hey, hey, is that really going to be okay?

And even if they safely arrive somewhere, what are they planning to do about the return trip?

Will the way back be by local train? No, even if I say 『local train』since it’s the latest ship, the Lysithea, it would return at sub-light speed, but…

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Nagamine, are you doing well?

I’ve gotten pretty used to Jouhoku High School.

I just received your last email from the Mars base.

After school, I stayed behind in the classroom.

I’m replying right away so it reaches you in time before your departure.

That said, there isn’t anything especially urgent I need to tell you from my side.

Ah, the reason I’m staying behind alone in the classroom right now is because I’m unsure what to do about club activities.

I have to submit my application by the end of today.

I had planned to continue kendo but I’m wavering a little.

It’s not that I’ve gotten tired of it but I want to try other possibilities too.

I only took a quick look at their practice, but the kyudo club seemed kind of interesting. Somehow,

I feel like you’re going to scold me for having no consistency.

Next is the Europa base on Jupiter, you said?

Of course, I knew at least that the United Nations Space Force had expanded as far as Jupiter, but this is the first I’ve heard of there being a base on Europa.

Isn’t this classified information?

I’m a little nervous that after being censored, I’ll eventually start getting emails full of blacked-out sections. (Just kidding.) I’m praying you arrive safely on Europa.

Well then.

Aiming to become a stealth swordsman…Terao Noboru.

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Noboru-kun.

I’m on Europa now.

They haven’t told us clearly yet, but I don’t think we’ll be here for very long. It seems like almost all of the ground training ended at the Mars camp and what we’ll mainly do on Europa is launch and landing training.

And, actually, my duties combined with training have already begun.

We’re organized into five teams rotating in four-hour shifts.

There are ten pairs of Tracer launch catapults on the ship’s sides.

So exactly twenty people wait on standby while still inside their Tracers. I don’t think anything will happen, but as part of training, sortie orders can be given without warning.

Actually, I’m on that duty right now.

I’m nervous because the launch order could come at any moment.

This is as far as the relay bases go.

But even though it’s called a base, it’s just a station floating there, not a camp set up on the surface, so we won’t be getting off the ship.

Life aboard the ship feels like being locked inside some office in the city and forced to work twenty-four hours a day, so it feels a little suffocating, but I’m finding some things to enjoy in my own way.

I mentioned this before but I’ve made a friend too.

Ah, don’t worry. She’s a female friend named Satomi-san, two years older than me.

Though the crew really is only girls.

But since I’m the youngest, maybe they’re just treating me like the tagalong kid.

During navigation, our range of movement is restricted, so it’s mostly back and forth between our private rooms and the lunch room. We’re not even allowed to look outside.

Right now we’re moored, so the restrictions have been lifted, and I’m using my free time to enjoy the view of Jupiter. Jupiter isn’t boring to look at up close. Clouds of superheated gas swirl dynamically, and the striped patterns on its surface change from moment to moment. It’s beautiful.

Oh, and I also saw the flux tube. It’s the largest lightning in the solar system, falling from Jupiter toward Io. It was incredibly powerful.

Noboru-kun, I heard you joined the kyudo club?

I wonder if the kyudo club has lots of girls after all?

Kyudo is a sport popular with girls, after all.

If things had gone normally, Mikako would have gone to Jouhoku High School together with Noboru-kun too.

Sometimes, you know, when I’m all alone inside the Tracer like this,

I start thinking,『Where am I?』,『What am I doing in a place like this?』

Is it just homesickness?

The next destination is probably Pluto.

I’m getting farther and farther away from you, Noboru-kun.

Well then, next time from Pluto (?).

From homesick Mikako.

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Are you doing well?

It’s true that the kyudo club is ruled by girls.

As an underclassman, I’m shrinking down like a borrowed cat.

Soon, my first trial since entering high school, midterm exams, will be coming up. Compared to middle school, the content in every subject has become much harder. Cramming the night before probably won’t be of much use anymore.

There are some people around me who are taking it easy, but there are also people who, from the moment they entered school, have changed the look in their eyes and are working hard with university entrance exams already in mind. As for me, I still haven’t thought about the future at all.

Nagamine, you don’t seem very energetic.

Don’t think about things so seriously.

Tell me what Pluto is like again.

I’m looking forward to your report.

Give my regards to Satomi-san.

My future is undecided… Terao Noboru.

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All things considered, I’m enjoying high school life.

I’m buried in the everyday life of a high school student.

Nagamine is far away, beyond distant space, living a military life.

What kind of relationship do we have?

The distance between us keeps growing farther, and the time we spend being unable to meet passes by without mercy.

A classmate who, one day, suddenly transferred far away and disappeared from the classroom. Is that what Nagamine is to me? We keep exchanging letters for a while, but the topics we have in common gradually decrease. Eventually, the gaps between our letters grow longer, and before we know it, the correspondence fades away from both sides. Will things end up like that with Nagamine too?

But I feel like that isn’t all there is.

At the very least, right now, Nagamine needs me.

And I…