Story Reader / Affection / Nanami: Starfarer / Story
Nanami: Starfarer VI
The ocean reveals her fury. The water pressure pushes the sparse air in your lungs out before pushing seawater in, forbidding you to breathe.
Darkness, coldness, and silence surround you, dragging you further down.
You see shapes and figures flashing before your eyes.
Living or dead, familiar or otherwise, faces you remember being to walk toward you.
In your daze, you seem to hear someone calling you.
Co... me... hand...
You feel a solid, metallic grip on your palm before a force pulls you upward—
You escape the freezing water, breathing intensely, grasping for long-lost air. Bright, scarlet light casts away the darkness.
You look up and find a giant red star encompassing your vision.
That's right. It's a sign that it's entering its last days.
Nanami, wearing an astronaut uniform, stands next to you.
Would you like that, Commandant?
Ebullism, deadly radiation, and extreme temperature could have easily torn your body apart.
Instead, you are breathing perfectly fine in space. That defies all common sense.
Nanami has pulled some tricks so that you can move normally in space, Commandant.
I've been preparing this for a very long time. The moment has finally arrived.
Nanami looks at you, slowly extending you a hand.
Commandant, will you come with Nanami for a ride?
Hearing that, Nanami pauses for a second before grabbing your hand tightly—so tight that you even feel a slight pain.
Hm!
The universe is a huge place.
That is nothing new. You thought you knew this better than anyone else, having lived in Babylonia for so long.
But you have no idea.
With Nanami's "tricks," you get to witness all the wonders of the universe, and you cannot help but feel astonished—at first.
Nebulas formed from cosmic dust, crystal-clear white dwarves, star-devouring black holes, and galaxies, clashing and merging together...
But the most wonderful views become mundane when you observe them on the scale of the universe.
Lights and shades from billions of years ago created this infinite cage, bounding everything within the speed of light.
What you are seeing is but echoes of the past. You are perhaps just chasing phantoms.
The images caught by your eyes are merely remnants from eons ago. You are like the insect trapped in amber, jettisoned across time, forgotten.
...Where does reality begin?
The only things that ground you are the warmth you receive from your palm and the silver figure you see before you.
As if noticing something, Nanami stops moving forward.
I think that's all the time we have for a "walk." Time for you to go home, Commandant.
Nanami's going to accelerate, Commandant. Don't let go.
Um... Maybe a little less tight...
The scenery before you turns blue as all the stars transform into red streaks when they go past you, merging into the crimson nebula behind.
This is a "redshift," visible only when you accelerate to a certain speed. The blue in the distance signifies the future, while the red behind you indicates the past.
The kaleidoscopic sight before you is bewitching, shattering any sense of dimension.
By the time your vision returns to normal, you find a familiar blue planet before you.
Time to go back, Commandant.
She lets go of your hand and gives you a gentle push, sending you into the gravitational pull of the planet, and you fall toward Earth.
A sudden panic arises within you, and you shout at the tiny figure.
Nanami is going to stay here, but...
The girl winks, acting like her usual mischievous self.
Always...
You can no longer hear what she says clearly. Your mind crashes into a giant white light.
Com...
You feel your body swaying. A blurred figure shifts before you, and you realize someone is carrying you to the sofa as your senses return.
You're awake, Commandant! How do you feel?
Your final space journey has left you feeling uncertain still. Although the familiar sights of your office surround you, you cannot tell if you are back in the real world.
Of course. Look.
Nanami grabs some documents from the desk and hands them to you.
These are the files you were still working on. Do you remember?
Nanami might have installed many scenarios into Maple, but it's still impossible to replicate the details of the paperwork that even you weren't expecting, Commandant.
You take a closer look, and the progress made on those documents is the same as you remember. You are out of the simulation, it seems.
Well then, Nanami's leaving, Commandant.
Nanami says that as she drags Maple out the door.
She sounded... contrite for some reason?
But before you can ask her about it, Nanami has vanished from your door.
Despite the many questions you have, you figure the proper thing to do is be patient and wait if she is not willing to disclose the truth to you yet.
Heading back to your desk, you find a cup of steaming coffee.
You grab the cup and take a sip—
Caught by surprise, you spray the coffee all over the place.
Nanami is searching for something among Maple's tangled wires.
Hm... Where did I put it?
Tips: Maple's connection port is behind the right handle.
Ah, there it is! You're brilliant, Maple!
Thank you for your compliment, Nanami. I recommend removing your screwdriver from the casing of my central processor unit, given that it is not where the port is.
Hehe. Begin data transfer...
Nanami must keep these memories safe and sound.
A question: Your storage unit also contains the relevant memories, Nanami. Why are you downloading Maple's data?
Maple thinks that it is pointless and a waste of resources.
That's not a waste, Maple. Everyone would do the same if they could know more about each other this way.
No one would care for their personal gain on this.
"This"?
You'll understand when you grow up, Maple!
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