**Chapter 35: The Stars Are Souls**
If one wants to participate in the study trip, then one must first return to school for classes; this is essential.
Having understood this, Nagine carefully expressed to her family her desire to return to school tomorrow while on the way home.
Nagine knew that her wish was somewhat willful and selfish, as she was completely disregarding her family’s feelings.
But there was a strong urge in her mind pushing her forward.
—She must make contact with Kanade as soon as possible.
She didn’t know what it represented, but it felt as if not doing so would lead to something irreversible.
To her surprise, her parents readily agreed to Nagine’s request.
It seemed they had anticipated this.
While Nagine felt grateful that they indulged her, she also worried about her parents spoiling her.
Would this really not spoil the child?
On the way home, she was also taken to buy a new phone.
Her previous phone had been destroyed in the car accident; it was smashed to pieces.
Yet she had emerged unscathed from the accident, which was truly astonishing.
However, it seemed no one wanted to figure out why that happened—not the doctors, not the police, and not even her own parents.
Considering all the past car accidents, there were always one or two people who emerged unscathed.
That was “normal.” The dark purple starlight flickered slightly.
Though Nagine’s old phone could not be saved, fortunately, her data could be imported to the new phone via the cloud.
Once she got her new phone and opened LINE, she was astonished by the countless messages from those who cared about her.
She didn’t expect to be so well-loved and that so many people would be concerned about her.
The names of these friends and groups were somewhat familiar to Nagine as she had noted them in her diary and could roughly identify who they were.
One group named “Super Self-Research” caught her attention greatly.
…..
The night grew deeper.
After reassuring all her friends and the group of her safety on the chat app, she found herself unable to sleep and went to the living room.
Her movement seemed to wake Sayaka, who was also unable to sleep.
“Can’t sleep?” Sayaka appeared in the living room, slowly making her way toward Nagine.
This scene reminded Sayaka of little Nagine from years ago.
As a child, Nagine often had trouble sleeping at night.
Back then, as her older sister, Sayaka would always—
“Do you want to go out and see the stars? Just like before?” Sayaka smiled, extending her hand to Nagine.
She pushed open the living room’s floor-to-ceiling window.
Outside was a small balcony.
Sayaka led Nagine outside.
The night breeze felt a bit chilly.
Both Sayaka and Nagine instinctively pulled up their collars.
At that late hour, the surrounding shops and streetlights had already shut down.
It was dark all around.
The two stood on the balcony, looking down at the city.
Kawano City seemed somewhat quiet in the night.
Looking up, in a night when the moon was not particularly bright, countless bright stars adorned the night sky, shining like jewels splattered on a pitch-black curtain.
“Gorgeous…,” Nagine couldn’t help but whisper in awe as she gazed at the starlit sky.
Meanwhile, Sayaka leaned against the balcony railing and said softly, “Little Nagine still loves the stars like before~”
“Do I… like the stars?” Nagine echoed curiously.
“Yes, I remember when little Nagine told me a story…” A reminiscent smile appeared on Sayaka’s pretty face.
“Every star in the sky actually represents a person’s soul—”
“…Soul? Isn’t it life?” Nagine asked back inquisitively.
She had heard similar statements before.
Every star in the sky represents a life, and each falling meteor signifies a life disappearing from the world.
Hearing this, Sayaka chuckled softly, “Right? I asked the same thing back then. Shouldn’t it be life?”
“But you firmly repeated—”
“The stars are souls.”
“They are the only proof of everyone existing in this world.”
The gentle night breeze brushed against Nagine’s face, lightly lifting her bangs, revealing her eyes that sparkled like the brilliant starry sky.
At that moment, Nagine’s dark eyes shimmered with countless dazzling starlights.
…..
…..
At the same time, in Kanade’s room.
Kanade was quietly staring at the screen of his phone, which displayed the “Super Self-Research” LINE group.
Nagine had posted after a long absence.
She reported her safety to everyone.
Although she had not yet regained her memory, she seemed to have a habit of writing in her diary.
After reading her diary, she could now communicate “normally” with everyone in the group.
Kanade didn’t know how to face Nagine from now on.
When Nagine rejected his confession and fled from him, there was definitely a moment deep inside him when he thought—
“If only I hadn’t confessed to her.”
And now, it seemed like his wish had come true.
Nagine had lost her memory of his confession.
To her, he was still that childhood friend.
Kanade had never told anyone about confessing to Nagine.
Not even Renji or Yukino; he could not bring himself to say it.
Because at that time, he probably held a little glimmer of hope in his heart—
“As long as it’s not spoken, this might just be a dream.”
“Damn it!!” Kanade thought of this and suddenly slammed his fist against the wall.
It was all his fault.
Not only did he put Nagine in a car accident, but he had also made the despicable wish that caused her to lose her memory.
“What should I do…”
The phone vibrating pulled Kanade back to reality.
It was a notification of a new message on LINE.
The person sending him a message was Alice.
Tonight, she had learned about the recent events concerning him and Nagine and the background behind Nagine’s amnesia in the “Super Self-Research” group chat.
Except for the part about his confession to Nagine.
“Tsukimi, are you okay? It’s not your fault; you don’t have to feel too guilty.”
Perhaps sensing his unease, kind-hearted Alice specifically sent him a comforting message.
But every word of concern from Alice made Kanade feel even more torment.
He was clearly the “perpetrator,” yet everyone looked at him with the eyes of a “victim.”
…..
…..
On the other side of the earth.
Alice Astrea put down her phone.
“What happened?” DD-chan, who floated beside her, asked curiously.
“Nagine seems to have been in a car accident recently and lost her memory,” Alice explained, lowering her eyelids, feeling somewhat sad.
“Ah!?” DD-chan couldn’t control her expression at that moment upon hearing this.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, no, I was just thinking that if I were still there, maybe I could help her recover her memory…”
During the time that DD-chan and Alice had been partners, she had honestly told Alice about her abilities.
DD-chan had the ability to probe and draw out others’ memories, so it could indeed help with memory recovery.
“DD-chan, while I understand your good intentions, as we are ability users—”
“We can’t interfere with ordinary people using supernatural powers, right?” DD-chan completed the second half of that sentence.
This was one of the rules followed by the ability users’ organization, using superpowers only on extraordinary beings.
But that carbon-based entity was not an ordinary person! DD-chan thought to herself, also curious about what Alice intended to do.
As for the “really having a car accident and losing her memory” narrative, DD-chan found it impossible.
The credibility of that was as absurd as a small fishing boat crashing a revived evil god back into its slumber from the deep sea.
For Alice, while she was very worried about Nagine’s current situation, there was an even more important matter waiting for her to resolve.
With the authorization of the “Academy,” she led an elite team of ability users together with DD-chan to investigate the artificial deity project.
Alice found clues in fragments and, following those clues, located the source of this project.
Northern Europe.
