VOLUME 3
Chapter 1: Part 6
I planned to sleep through the Planetarium trip, since I wasn’t especially interested, but the lady giving the lecture had a prettier voice than I expected, and as she explained the mythology behind the Summer Triangle Constellation, I actually found myself paying attention.
“Oohhh!! Really?! That’s amazing, isn’t it Aikawa?!”
Tomonori took every single possible opportunity to yell out her impressions. I heard chuckles coming from all around us at her child-like responses, but as for me, I was just embarra.s.sed.
“Tomonori, calm down a little…”
“D-don’t call me Tomonori at a place like this!”
So where should I call her that, then?
“Anyways, just calm down a bit.”
But my advice went unheeded… She really was a kid.
Geez, you’re the only one who’s making this much of a fuss, you know. Just look around you. Everyone around you is really calm and quie-
“Ugh, dammit! When are we going to see a red comet?!”
Everyone around us was quie-
“Also, what’s up with that Big Dipper?! There’s not enough of Alcor!”
I guess there was one other loud and annoying person here.
Just hearing that voice was enough to make me almost fall out of my chair. It was the last voice I wanted to hear, and I could feel the sudden strong urge to run away.
“Haruna, please calm down a bit.”
“But, but! They haven’t even talked about Namek! (1) I majored in the Namek language in school too!”
You could study the Namek language at Matelis Magical Academy? I sort of wanted to take that cla.s.s too… No, no, no, stop thinking like that.
I’d just ignore her.
Yes… No one else is here. No one else… is here…
The lady up front began to talk about the story of Altair and Vega, and I thought back to Tanabata. (2) When I thought about Tanabata, I wondered what Yuu was doing. I really wanted to see her. I really wanted to see her and talk with her.
Altair and Vega were fifteen light-years apart. Even though Orihime and Hikoboshi were so far from each other, they still desperately tried to meet each other. If I just knew how, I also would…
But I couldn’t just stand there and think gloomy thoughts like that.
“Veeeegaaa.”
Don’t say that like you’re saying “Sega.” (3)
“The NEC Wega!” (4)
Don’t say that like you’re some overly-excited company president. Also, Sony made the Wega.
“What about Iscandar? (5) I don’t care about Shadaloo’s leader (6) or these specks that they tell you sort of look like animals if you squint hard enough. They should focus on the proper stars!”
Why was it that this girl just couldn’t tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction?
…Dammit… I really wanted to turn back and yell at her.
“Aikawa, what’s wrong? Your face… It looks really stiff for some reason…”
Tomonori seemed pretty worried about me. Although she was part of the reason why my face looked like this.
“Nah, everything’s fine.”
I was just about to turn around and yell, “That’s a different Vega!” over and over and over, but Tomonori’s voice brought me back to myself.
Nice going, me. You actually got through that without bursting. Good job.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES
(1) Fictional planet in Dragonball.
(2) In j.a.panese mythology, Altair and Vega are supposed to represent two separated lovers, Orihime and Hikoboshi. This story is also the foundation of the j.a.panese holiday Tanabata.
(3) Used in some Sega commercials around the time of the Mega Drive/Gensis and in the start-up logo to some games.
(4) A television brand, although I think it’s been discontinued.
(5) Planet in the anime s.p.a.ce Battleship Yamato.
(6) A Street Fighter reference. Shadaloo is the evil organization’s name in the game, and at one point one of its commanders was named Vega. (He’s known as M. Bison outside of j.a.pan due to a three-way name switch.)