Story Reader / Affection / Nanami: Startrail / Story
Nanami: Startrail I
>Chapter 1
Notes Lost to Paper, Land Lost to Sea
Commandant, Commandant—
You slowly open your eyes as harsh sunlight assaults your retinas, which sends another wave of dizziness through your still-groggy mind.
Attempting to move, you feel cold rebar and hard ground against your body.
A gray-haired girl blocks out the harsh light as she looks at you with a smile.
Seeing no response from you, the gray-haired girl blocks out the harsh light and pulls you up with all her might.
As you regain full consciousness and examine the surroundings, you see a vast, desolate city stretching out before you.
Commandant, you're awake! Welcome to the apocalypse!
The scent of ocean breeze wafts over. As you stand up and shake off the ringing in your head, a numbing sensation creeps up your spine.
The blinding sunlight makes your head spin, leaving you with a nagging feeling that you're forgetting something important.
There seems to be memories of you desperately searching for something, of losing something important during those days...
In this so-called apocalypse, not only have those important things slipped away, but even the memories that once held them have vanished, too.
Commandant?
Though everything else remains blank, you somehow remember that the girl before you is called Nanami.
She walks ahead of you, her ponytail bouncing cheerfully with each step.
Her joy disperses the clouds in your heart... For a moment, it's hard to tell which shines brighter—her or the sun itself.
Hmm... Let me think...
Oh, I know why!
I'm a legendary knight—a Cardman Rider! And you're my commandant!
You know, a mysterious superhero who saves the world!
She marches in place as she speaks, looking ready to embark on her heroic mission.
Now, Commandant, come on a treasure hunt with Nanami!
The Cardman Rider's Cosmic Belt!
Nanami lowers her voice mysteriously before standing tall with a beaming smile and reaching for your hand.
Let's get going first!
As you walk alongside Nanami, the scent of the ocean grows stronger. Following the salty breeze, you enter a long, dark tunnel.
As you step out of the tunnel, your eyes struggle to adjust to the dazzling sunlight.
Roaring calamities, warriors locked in battle, hideous creatures, and raging fires everywhere... These visions of the apocalypse flood your mind.
It's so high up here!
When you recollect yourself, only empty, towering buildings answer your call. Seen from above, the streets shimmer with water... This must be where the ocean's scent is coming from.
This place should have been filled with something—people who once stood shoulder to shoulder, who fought together for a cause...
Heeey! Anyooone theeeere?
Without hesitation, Nanami decides to voice her curiosity by shouting it to the world.
Her cheerful, exaggerated shout bounces playfully through the streets and quickly fill the empty city.
The echoes overlap and multiply, as if countless Nanamis are shouting all at once. Though no one answers, these echoes somehow bring the city to life.
After a moment's hesitation, you follow Nanami's lead and shout out as well.
The shouts bounce playfully through the streets. Though no one answers, they somehow bring the city to life.
Try again!
Nanami bends forward, takes a deep breath, puffs up her cheeks, and cups her hands around her mouth like a megaphone before shouting once more.
Heeey! Anyooone theeeeeere?
Huff... Puff...
Only echoes answer her call. Her cheeks remain flushed and puffed out from shouting with vigor.
As you pinch her bright, energetic cheeks, she lets out all the air she was holding in.
—Mmph!
Nanami turns around with her hands on her hips, staring at you. Her cheeks puff up again, apparently plotting something.
Hmph—Commandant—take this!
She immediately launches her counterattack. The two of you leave the platform while playfully chasing and teasing each other.
Hearing the sigh, Nanami immediately comes closer, cupping her face in her hands and examining it carefully.
Commandant, why are you suddenly sighing?
Nanami nods gently, deep in thought.
How about this! I, Nanami, will find that treasure! You probably will stop sighing once we find it!
I'm not sure why, but oh well, let's try to find the treasure first!
As she speaks, she raises her tiny fist and strikes a Superman-flying-into-space pose. Without waiting for a response, she grabs your hand and leads you away from the platform.
Stepping into the city proper, you see streets filled with bottomless seawater, and buildings tilting every which way with only their rooftops visible above the surface.
Gentle waves lap against the ruins as you and Nanami search throughout this abandoned city, unable to find any trace of human life—or any life at all...
I'd even settle for a sea monster at this point!
Nanami sticks out her tongue as she complains. After searching the entire city, you finally find traces of human habitation in a mansion situated on higher ground.
Like countless peaceful afternoons of the past, a cool breeze stirs the curtains and scattered papers, making pages flutter in the empty room.
You pick up one of the yellowed diary pages, its writing having almost entirely faded with time.
After the Great Catastrophe, only a handful of humans remained, and the sea levels continued to rise.
Thirteen years after the waters began to rise, I left the city I once called home.
There was no tsunami... no violent natural disaster.
It was an era that quietly sank into oblivion.
The land submerged beneath the waves, and the ecosystem slowly died away.
I realized then that our planet was forgetting us.
She forgot about humanity, forgot about the birds, and forgot about the earth where they once dwelled.
I, too, am slowly forgetting so many things—my loved ones, my childhood...
Along with my Cosmic Rider's Belt, all forgotten in Aerospace City.
If you truly do exist somewhere in this world, Cosmic Rider, then please look up at the starlit sky above Aerospace City once more for me.
As the last survivor of that era, the diary's author eventually succumbed to illness. The pages chronicle this quiet, unremarkable truth.
When you recall having just explored the city with Nanami, it's just as the diary's author described—the buildings here have long been abandoned, most homes submerged beneath the waters...
No birds in the sky, no fish in the sea, and the city stands bare—not even moss remains...
When you step out of the room, the tide reaches up to your knees. Soon, this city, too, will slowly sink beneath the waves.
Commandant?
Noticing the bewilderment in your eyes, Nanami stops her patrol.
As if she had absorbed the sunlight itself, her body radiates with the warmth of the sun, filling your embrace with a gentle, soothing heat.
Eh? Why the tight squeeze all of a sudden? It's not like Nanami's going anywhere!
Even as she mumbles these words, she laughs and pats you on the back.
...!
I see... Mother Earth is crying... In this world, only Nanami and Commandant remain...
Yeah! Let's totally do that!
Excited, she shows you the photo she just found—it captures a child wearing an awesome belt while striking the classic transformation pose of Cardman Rider.
It's a super special collaboration between Cardman Rider and Aerospace City! Just insert the starship model into the belt's launch bay, and the transformation's ready to go!
This modest home is filled with yellowed photographs and pages upon pages of notes. Despite all these efforts to preserve memories, the planet has long since forgotten this house's owner.
You take one last, long look at the room where loose pages dance in the air.
Commandant? Did you forget something here?
The owner is long gone, leaving behind nothing but an endless silence.
Yeah... once Nanami and Commandant leave...
"This place will melt into the sea too..." Nanami bites her lip and falls into a timely silence.
All these photos and notes will fall into the ocean's embrace and slowly fade from Earth's memory...
I want to keep these memories together with you, Commandant.
Chapter 71 May We Forget No More
The tide has receded.
Looking out the window, you see that the water has stopped rising. Rather than maintaining its current level, the tide is pulling back.
Whoa!
Nanami excitedly presses against the window. Her body emanates a faint glow, appearing somewhat translucent.
Grandma Earth has stopped crying now.
In the blink of an eye, her body returns to normal. You can't help but wonder if you were just seeing things.
We can now go treasure hunting on a motorcycle, Commandant!
While you're still lost in thought, Nanami has already wheeled out a sleek motorcycle from the nearby garage and is trying to start it up.
Commandant, let's go! We've got treasure to find!
The motorcycle races along the coastal road as the ocean breeze sweeps away the earlier gloom. Nanami sits in front of you, completely focused on steering the bike.
I feel like a Cosmic Rider riding like this.
You just haven't seen one that rides motorcycles, hehe!
As Nanami speaks, she slams down on the accelerator—
CAN'T—HEAR—YOU!
Hm-hmmm, now this is what Cardman Rider's all about!
The engine roars with excitement, the wind whistles past your ears, and you feel like you're ready to take flight at any moment.
—The motorcycle suddenly lurches violently—
Commandant, you'd better hold on tight to Nanami—these are all mountain roads—
People living around here have all apparently moved up the mountains since the tides came.
The guardrails along the road rise higher and higher, with some already submerged in water... As the tide rises, even the usable roads keep climbing higher into the mountains.
Yep! At this speed, we'll make it to Aerospace City by sunset.
The ecosystem withers away piece by piece, with not even seabirds remaining in sight.
In this vast world, the two lonely souls huddle together as the setting sun stretches their shadows endlessly across the ground.
Looking down, you can barely see the houses under the shimmering waters—just as the diary's owner wrote, Earth's civilization is slowly being forgotten by Earth itself...
The two of you arrive at a beach as the sun sets.
Strange... The belt should be right here, according to the coordinates...
Nanami furrows her brow as she carefully studies the yellowed map, examining an area marked with a red circle—what was once dry land.
Roger that! Nanami is entering Diving Mode!
Nanami takes hold of your hand once more and rushes toward the ocean.
The protective suit's basic diving function activates as Nanami guides you by the hand, and together the two of you plunge into the vast ocean.
The ruins of Aerospace City lie scattered across the ocean floor, along with the civilization it once held—silently accepting what Earth has forgotten.
Nanami finally digs out a rust-covered metal briefcase from an unremarkable pile of ruins and cheerfully blows bubbles your way in celebration.
Inside the briefcase lies the Cosmic Rider's Belt. To both your relief, it has somehow remained untouched by the ocean's corruption—as if the planet itself had chosen to preserve it in its memory.
Commandant, Nanami really loves spending time with you like this!
Back on shore, having found what the two of you came looking for, you take a leisurely stroll along the beach together.
The sea level continues its silent rise, waves dancing with the wind against the shore, as an indescribable emptiness wells up inside of you.
But... Nanami feels like something's missing...
She looks up at the sky, where layers of clouds obscure any trace of stars. While the two of you have found the belt, you cannot show its owner the starlit sky they once knew.
Thunder rumbles in the distance. Something stirs within you. This is spring thunder... a sign that, perhaps, all of nature will awake once more in no time.
Now that we've finally found the belt, Commandant, do you have a wish?
Nanami turns around with a smile and frames you between her thumbs and index fingers like she's recording a precious moment.
