The shining Shoko Toyokawa

I hesitated about whether to invite my friends to join a club where I was alone, and I was also worried about moving.

Aine didn't think there was anything wrong with that. "Forget it, don't bully Xiao Deng. I'm actually quite interested in stars and the like."

"Eh?"

Deng was stunned for two full seconds before she realized what Aine meant. So, she said cautiously, "Want to come along? I'll prepare snacks for lunch tomorrow."

"No,"

Deng's eyes widened. She thought she had misunderstood what Aine meant. Aine simply liked the stars, not that she wanted to join the astronomy club or something.

Aine took two steps forward and passed Xiao Deng. Her pink hair swayed and rippled in Deng's sight.

The gray-haired girl subconsciously reached out her hand to her, wanting to call her back, as if Aine would be far, far away in the next moment——

The light... feels like that.

The pink-haired girl took a few more steps forward, then turned around with a wicked smile in the shadows where the sun couldn't reach her. "As long as Xiao Deng is here, we can do without snacks, but I want to be the vice president, is that okay with that?"

She made it sound like the vice president position in a club with only two people was very popular and the competition was very fierce.

Just like the bad woman in the TV series who climbs into the director's bed in order to become the vice president,

"Okay, okay."

The lamp broke free from the sad illusion and walked into the shadows, standing side by side with the pink-haired girl.

"Oh right," Deng suddenly remembered his 'mission' to find Aine, "the class monitor said that before class, we should discuss the division of labor for the summer festival."

“Eh? Summer Festival?” Aine was stunned for a moment and muttered to herself, “So, it’s already this time…”

"Anon-chan, if you don't want to go, we can..."

"Why wouldn't I want to go?" the pink-haired girl smiled brightly. "Long live the Summer Festival!"

"Go away, Xiao Deng! I don't want to suddenly see a push video of us being unsociable and acting like big shots."

After saying that, she took Xiao Deng's hand and ran down the corridor!

The speed was so fast that it seemed as if it was running away from some "monster", and it seemed as if it could not wait to attend the class meeting.

By the time the two of them held hands and pushed open the classroom door, there was already a little sweat on their foreheads. There was nothing they could do about it; the summer in Tokyo was simply too hot.

"Haha, good afternoon everyone,"

As soon as they came in, the originally noisy classroom became quiet.

Aiyin smiled awkwardly and waved to her classmates.

I don't know if it was because I was infected by her silly look,

Someone in the classroom clapped for no apparent reason, and the news quickly spread among the crowd.

Suddenly, the classroom was filled with enthusiastic applause.

Aine almost thought that she was Su Xunzong giving a speech on the stage, or Shinji-kun who was complete in his heart.

She quickly pulled the gray-haired girl to sit in the back seat, and the applause finally died down.

"What is that? A robot?"

Aiyin noticed that there was an unfinished corrugated paper humanoid model placed against the wall at the back of the classroom.

"Perhaps that's a tool for the summer festival?"

She didn't think much about it and sat back in her seat.

The chairman (class monitor) saw the last two people arrive, so he cleared his throat and said, "Considering that Chihaya and Takamatsu didn't come to class a few days ago,

Let me first introduce to them the content of our summer festival."

The monitor turned around and wrote two words on the blackboard -

Opera & MS

"So, that's a MS model?"

Aine's doubts were answered. The corrugated paper model was still in its early and more abstract stage.

"Half a year ago, the dazzling MS Cauchy appeared out of nowhere, crushing the entire fleet and the most advanced fighter planes in one fell swoop.

After that, a large number of mobile suits and their pilots flew up into the sky like stars.

There is a heroic hero who only has one Zaku and knows that he will never return, so he resolutely launches a counterattack against the colonizers.

There are also peacemakers who are about the same age as us, driving machines of the same level as our opponents to go to conflict areas to maintain peace and fight terrorism.

As ordinary people, we are far away from MS and battlefields, so let the opera take us to the MS battlefield! "

Under the podium, Aiyin unconsciously clenched her fists.

"That so-called heroic hero who resisted the colonizers was a believer who worshipped MS as a god."

"What peacemaker? We're just being led around by the nose by the big guys!"

'Towards MS?'

'To the battlefield?!'

"Do not make jokes!"

Aine stood up suddenly.

then,

Lowered his head,

She was sure that her voice was not loud, but the gazes of her classmates still stung her.

They were confused and worried.

He was puzzled as to why Aine suddenly became angry, and worried that he had done something wrong to make this former driver who had lost his family sad.

Aine didn't feel embarrassed, nor did she feel angry.

Because, these classmates of hers just don’t know anything…

She just felt lonely and out of tune with her peers...

But, she still has Xiao Deng, and Xiao Deng who understands her, by her side.

So...it's okay...

"Don't be ridiculous,"

Aine… smiled.

"The mobile suits we pilot are the most advanced, right, Xiao Deng?"

She would not feel happy even if she got angry at her classmates who knew nothing.

Tell them that the battlefield is cruel?

In the textbook,

novel,

comics,

There are several movies and TV series every year.

But...it doesn't make much sense.

Only those who have truly seen "hell" can understand the cruelty of the battlefield.

Aine sincerely hoped that they would not understand, until... forever.

Chapter 127: The Universe, the Stars, and the Girl's Hope

In a slightly awkward atmosphere, the first-grade class A started the afternoon class.

As the summer festival is coming soon, the students are feeling uneasy.

The physics teacher quickly gave up the idea of ​​teaching the students about thermodynamics in the hot summer.

She was about 25-6 years old, and was considered to be of the same generation as the students. She had a cheerful personality and her thoughts were described by other teachers as wild and imaginative.

"Ahem," she cleared her throat and said seriously, "I heard that your program for this year's summer festival is an opera about MS. I think the story should be set in space. Do you know why?"

Seeing the physics teacher start bragging again, the students who were dull or distracted immediately became energetic.

"The universe is vast and deep, so from a storytelling perspective, it's easier to create captivating stories, and it's less likely to create a sense of dissonance, because when things happen in the universe, people subconsciously think of them as happening in the future."

The physics teacher was a little embarrassed to hear a student give such a "liberal arts" answer.

She gathered her thoughts and changed her tone of questioning, "Do you think District 11 is big?"

The physics teacher was cunning and didn't set up any reference objects.

The students looked at each other, and in the end most of them shook their heads, saying that they didn't think it was a big deal.

Unlike the people in the Southern Dynasty next door, most high school students in District 11 still have some idea of ​​the land area of ​​District 11.

There are countless countries in the world that are larger than District 11.

"So do you think the territory of Mao is large?"

Without giving the students time to think, she asked a second question.

This time, the majority of people thought it was big, because compared with District 11, the land area of ​​Damao is simply astonishingly large, a full 46 times that of District 11.

Most of the students took the previously mentioned 11th zone as the reference system, and thus concluded that the land area of ​​​​Da Mao is very large.

Seeing that his narrative trick was successful, the physics teacher began to finish it up -

"How does such a huge fur compare to the blue planet beneath our feet?"

“It only takes up one-tenth of the land area!”

This time she didn't wait for the students to answer.

"And the Earth, so vast and gentle, is just an insignificant pebble in the solar system..."

"Why do I say that the background of MS must be in the universe?" She looked around at the confused students and announced her answer, "Because the universe is so quiet, even if humans explore for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, they will most likely not reach its boundaries.

Humans have only landed on the moon, just like the primitive people tens of thousands of years ago, who took a few hours to row to a nearby island with driftwood.

The vastness of the universe is far greater than that of a few primitive people on Earth!

In that infinitely free sea of ​​stars, there is room for infinite possibilities."

Most of the students in Class A of Grade 1 just felt that the universe was really big.

The vastness of the universe is something they have known since kindergarten and elementary school.

But few have a real sense of what this means to be human.

In fact, for most people, District 11 or even Tokyo is big enough.

Not to mention the universe,

Going into space is a very distant thing even for young people like them.

Even if the technology gradually matures, in the next few decades, going into space will be more expensive for ordinary people than traveling around the world.

How many people in this world have the spare money and time to travel around the world?

Let alone traveling around the world, only a few of the eight billion people on earth have ever taken a plane.

The gravity of reality is too heavy.

"Infinitely wide..."

Aine thought about the border town that had turned into hell.

Although there are big powers interfering, they are undoubtedly the victims of territorial disputes.

"If everyone's territory were infinitely larger, or if there were unlimited resources waiting for everyone to exploit, would wars never happen?"

The nuclear attack that killed the pink-haired girl's parents was caused by a territorial dispute.

"In the end, humanity, bound to this small planet by Earth's gravity, only continues to repeat tragedy and spreads sorrow..."

Aine clenched her fists, but this time, it wasn’t out of confusion or sadness, but out of hope—

"Rather than endless revenge and fighting, wouldn't it be more meaningful to fly into space?!"

Aine stood up suddenly and rushed to the podium amidst everyone's astonished gazes.