Volume One, Chapter Ninety: The Mysterious Astronaut

“Shut up!”

Taiga, raised from childhood under the advanced education of the Land of Light, would never swallow such twisted logic.

That was right—it was all twisted logic.

Seeing him like this, Tregear let out a deep sigh and shoved him away.

In truth, he had not used much force at all.

Yet who could have expected Taiga to shatter into light from the impact and revert to his human host form.

“How fragile,” Tregear said with a regretful shake of his head.

He had meant to amuse himself a little longer; who would have thought it would end so quickly?

Well then...

“Son of Taro, until next time.”

Tregear cast one last glance at Hiroyuki, then slowly drifted up into the air and vanished.

“Who exactly was he?” Hiroyuki asked between ragged breaths.

“His name is Tregear,” Taiga said painfully. “He’s the one who made me lose the most important companion I had.”

...

Returning to human form, Kirisaki descended into a park.

He was just about to leave when a childish voice drew his gaze.

Ahead, on top of a large pipe, sat a little girl.

Her face was still tender with youth, and in her bright eyes shone a lovely hope for the future.

“Little Bunny, will you always be my friend?”

The girl murmured to the rabbit doll in her hands, then hugged it tightly to her chest.

“Friend...”

That single word rooted Kirisaki to the spot. Countless scenes with Taro rose unbidden in his mind.

Back then, they had ventured together, grown together, shared everything, even sneaked peeks at female Ultras bathing; there was scarcely any mischief they had not done.

But everything changed after they entered that ancient ruin.

He began to hunger for power, yet fate had given him the body of a Blue.

He had watched with his own eyes as Taro grew stronger by the day, went out on missions across the universe, then undertook the work of a true emissary of light and returned to boast of it.

And he could only pretend to be happy for his friend while inside he endured torment beyond measure.

That was not what he wanted.

Kirisaki walked up to the little girl and conjured a balloon out of thin air.

“Is this for me?” she asked with a beaming smile.

He said nothing, only placed the balloon in her hand and passed by her side.

“Thank you!” the girl cried, turning to call after his retreating back.

But in the next instant, her world was swallowed by a thunderous explosion.

Kirisaki’s eyes gradually turned cold. He had always possessed the heart to pursue truth, yet never had it felt as clear to him as it did at this moment.

He lifted his head and once more took on the form of Tregear, appearing in the vacuum beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

Less than two kilometers ahead of him drifted a man in a spacesuit.

Around him floated shattered debris, as though he had been attacked.

“Earthling, answer me. Will you go on drifting through space, or...”

At the sight of Tregear, the eyes behind the glass visor flew wide open.

They were webbed with ruptured blood vessels, red to the core.

And in them burned an almost unbearable hatred.

“I... will kill you!”

...

“This is the deposit!”

At the sight of the check their president slapped down on the table, both Hiroyuki and Homare stared in astonishment.

“I’m not seeing things, am I? Ten million yen!” Hiroyuki rubbed his eyes hard.

Homare immediately snatched up the check to verify whether it was real.

It was the first time either of them had ever seen such a sum.

More importantly, this was only the deposit.

“Everyone, applause, please!” President Kana was beside herself with delight, smiling more brightly than a flower in bloom.

Once the initial shock passed, Hiroyuki hurriedly asked, “President, what’s the assignment?”

“A protection detail.” Kana picked up a slip of paper and laid it before the two of them.

“The Cosmic Technology Research Institute... that famous venture company that’s been making a name for itself lately?”

“That’s the one.” Kana nodded. “I hear they’ve recently taken a strong interest in space development.”

Rika also came over and pointed at the photo. “The president who caused a stir by launching a commemorative rocket on his own birthday—that’s him, right?”

“I heard people online tore him apart for creating extra debris for no reason.”

“Um... what exactly is debris?” Hiroyuki asked, puzzled.

“Put simply, garbage in space,” Rika explained. “They say there’s an enormous amount of trash floating around Earth.”

“Exactly,” Homare added. “Rocket wreckage, decommissioned satellites, and so on.”

“Right, right. Collectively it’s called space debris.”

“And it’s one of the worst side effects of space development,” Kana said, stepping over at that moment.

Hiroyuki nodded slowly to show he understood, but he still could not help asking, “If he’s that rich, why would he need a tiny company like ours to protect him?”

“Here’s why.” Kana inserted a flash drive into the computer, and an image immediately appeared on the screen.

It seemed to be outer space. An astronaut was floating there with a dark expression on his face.

“You are a sinner!”

“Think carefully about the crimes you’ve committed!”

As the voice ended, another clip began to play.

A rocket bearing the words Happy Birthday flew straight into a space station.

Then the voice sounded again.

“This is the crime you committed. I will kill you with my own hands!”

The footage ended there.

Hiroyuki froze for a moment and asked blankly, “What is this supposed to mean?”

“The mysterious explosion at the orbital station last month was caused by our client,” Kana explained.

“That man was one half of the married couple living aboard the station.”

“So the accident was caused by the president’s birthday rocket?”

“Then does that mean the victim wants to kill the president out of revenge?”

“Wait,” Homare cut in suddenly. “If it really is that man, then how did he get back to Earth?”

Everyone knew a human being could not simply fall back to Earth directly from space.

If an accident happened out there, all one could do was wait alone for death.

“And that,” Kana said, “is exactly the problem. The video we just watched may well have been made with computer effects.”

“In other words, someone may be deliberately stirring up trouble for the president as a prank.”

“But just in case, he decided to hire us.”

Hiroyuki frowned and said with some resistance, “He’s the chief culprit behind an air-and-space disaster. Are we really going to protect someone like that?”

“Come on, are you stupid?” Homare rose to his feet, righteous and severe. “Our job has nothing to do with a client’s character. If they pay, then we do the job and we do it properly.”