Prologue
Under the dark night sky, a fireball soared into the heavens. I took it all in with eyes ablaze. From up there, wouldn't everything down here look utterly insignificant? Trivial problems could be dismissed with a scoff. Thinking of flowing galaxies or shooting stars made my heart float weightlessly. The heated atmosphere around me ignited my own excitement. In my mind, at least, I was piercing the clouds alongside that rocket, shedding every worldly chain and shackle. That crude hunk of metal was bound for space… beyond the sky, to places no one had ever seen. Every step a solitary ocean, humanity's first.
Could I ever go there?
Back then, it was a dream impossibly distant. All I had was a wish—to one day be as utterly free as that crude hunk of metal.
"……."
I gazed up at the sky and let out a sigh. A dull, gloomy expanse, utterly depressing. I'd never seen a single star from here. No one in this place ever bothered looking up. Even if they did, they never imagined what lay beyond.
Dreams and hopes in another world reincarnation... somewhere...
Not another world, and certainly no dreams or hopes. But it was a world reborn. And in it, my dream had only grown farther away.