"There's a word, "world."" "Until middle school" "I thought the "world" was a place with cell phone signals." "But I wonder why..." "I can't reach anyone on my cell." "Hello?" "Hey..." "Is anyone there?" "How far do I have to go?" "I'm lonely." "Noboru?" "I'm going home." "So..." "Where am I?" "Oh yeah..." "I'm not in that world anymore." "Wait, Noboru!" "Nagamine..." "How did you do in the finals?" ""July 2046"" "How did you do in the finals?" ""July 2046"" "How did you do in the finals?" ""July 2046"" "I did great in the finals." "Then we can go to..." "The same high school?" "!" "Maybe..." "Look, Noboru." "A spaceship." "That must be the Lysithea of the UN Space Army." "I wonder if they recruited anyone from this town." "Yeah..." "It's going to travel beyond the solar system." "Yeah..." "I heard it's going after the aliens that attacked Mars." "Yeah..." "Where do you think the Tarsians come from?" "Yeah..." "You're not interested?" "A little..." "Let's stop by the convenience store." "Yeah..." "Where should we eat?" "The bus stop." "Joining the kendo team in high school too?" "I don't know yet." "How about you?" "I'm going to." "You should too." "You're good." "You just want to be in the same club as me." "What are you talking about?" "Should we go home?" "Okay." "It stopped raining." "Look." "The sky!" "They're Tracers." " So pretty." " Yeah." "Guess what?" "Noboru..." "I'm... going aboard one of them." ""April 2047, Mars"" "There it is!" "Hit it!" "Noboru, we went through a training program on Mars." "After all, I am a Select Member so I did pretty well." "I saw Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris." "Sightseeing on Mars!" "I saw the Tarsian Ruins too, of course." "I saw them so often in textbooks but I can't believe I saw them for real." "I realize how the solar system isn't just for us humans." "The 2039 exploration unit was destroyed by the Tarsians here." "We're now pursuing them with technology acquired from them." "I've gotten used to life on the Lysithea." "We came to Jupiter after the training on Mars." "We're taking a break in a base on Europa." "I never get bored gazing at Jupiter's clouds." "The flux tube between Io and Jupiter is amazing too." "The biggest lightning in the solar system!" "Will it reach him?" "It's from Nagamine..." "Mikako Nagamine was a classmate and a good friend in middle school." "I was hoping we could go to the same high school..." "But she's on Jupiter now." "She was recruited by the UN to be a Select Member of its space army and joined a huge fleet of stars/ups to go after the Tarsians." "To think about it, she was pretty smart and athletic but the UN Space Army?" "!" "It's kind of a crazy story." "We're departing Jupiter." "The Lysithea is headed way beyond Pluto." "The specific destination is still confidential." "It's going to take longer for the emails to reach you but 6 months at most from the Oort Cloud, which is farthest." ""lt's like airmail of the 20th century so it'll be okay."" "What's okay?" "I spent the first semester of high school exchanging emails with Mikako." "No new messages." "The farther Mikako travels away from Earth the longer it takes for us to exchange emails." "No new messages." "It's just that..." "All I do is wait for her emails." ""August 2047, near Pluto"" "Noboru, I'm on Pluto in the farthest reaches of the solar system." "We left Earth half a year ago and have continued our surveillance since Jupiter but we haven't found any traces of the Tarsians anywhere." "But Noboru..." "To tell you the truth" "I wish we don't find them so we could go back to Earth." "What?" "The enemy?" "Really?" "I have to go too?" "I have to get him." "What's that?" "A whole year between Noboru and me!" "I have to email him!" "I have to get him." "Or we won't make it." "I have to go back." ""Checking mailbox..."" ""Time required to send email:" "1 year, 16 days, 12 hrs"" "It'll take a year for this email to reach you." "From Sirius, it'll take 8 years one way." "Noboru..." "Will you forget about me?" ""August 2048"" "A year passed and it's summer again." "I stopped waiting for Mikako 's emails this past winter." "I haven't heard from her for a whole year." "It's from Mikako..." "The first one in a year." ""..." "The Lysithea just made a 1-light-year warp..."" ""The Lysithea... "" "The Lysithea is going to make a long-distance warp." "Our destination is Sirius, 8.6 light years away." "When you get this email, I'll already be on Sirius." "Now it'll take 8 years and 7 months to send emails to each other." "I'm sorry." "We're kind of like lovers separated on Earth and in space." "I think we only had eyes for each other since middle school." "But..." "8 years at the speed of fight..." "It's no different from eternity." "The time lag gets bigger between Mikako and me." "So I set up goals." "To make my heart much harder, colder, and stronger." "To stop knocking on a door I know won't open." "To become an adult on my own." "Since last century, we knew Sirius had its own planets" ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." ""August 2047 Sirius Alpha  Beta Star Systems"" "but we're the first ones to see them with our own eyes." "Agharta, the 4th planet of the Sirius System..." "Agharta's sky, clouds, and sea look like Earth's." "Even so, they're complete!" "y different." "I'm getting farther away from Noboru in time and distance." "I want to go in the rain..." "Go to the convenience store together and eat ice cream..." "Noboru..." ""To the 24-year-old Noboru from the 15-year-old Mikako"" ""I still love you very much..."" ""Sending mail..."" "Reach him!" "Me?" "So..." "We finally made it here." "Growing up can be painful sometimes but I'm sure you'll make it much, much farther to other galaxies and other universes even." "Okay?" "So come with me." "I want to entrust it to you." "But all I want to do is see Noboru again." "I want to tell him "I love you."" "Don't worry." "You'll see him again." "I don't understand!" ""Space Technology Magazine"" ""Space Army wins battle against Tarsians 8 years ago"" ""Serious damage, return to Earth questionable"" "That one summer day, I remember thinking 8 years was an eternity." "My life has had its share of uncertainties but my goals from that day remain the same." "I did what I had to and next month, I'm finally joining the fleet." ""You've got mail"" "Mikako..." ""Hello to the 24-year-old Noboru from the 15-year-old Mikako"" "There were only 2 lines in her email, the rest was noise." "But it's still a miracle, I think." "Mikako, I..." "You know, Noboru..." "I miss so many things." "Because there's nothing here." "For example..." "For example, summer clouds, the cold rain, the scent of an autumn breeze..." "The sound of rain on the umbrella and the soft, spring soil..." "The peaceful feeling in a late-night convenience store..." "And also the chilly air after school..." "The smell of a blackboard eraser..." "The distant sound of a truck at night..." "The smell of asphalt in the afternoon rain..." "Noboru. .." "I wanted to..." "I wanted to... share them with you forever, Mikako..." "The fleet is sinking!" "I have to protect the Lysithea!" "Noboru..." "We're far apart, so very, very far apart but..." "Thoughts may be able to transcend time and distance." "Have you ever felt that way?" "If it can happen even for an instant what would I think about?" "What would Mikako think about?" "We're thinking the same thing, right?" "Noboru..." "I'm right here."