Rising Rays of the New Century: Tale of the Japanese Empire

Shining Night Kamaitachi

April 22

Astronomy Club, 2nd floor of the Cultural Hall, Yokohama Hisui Gakuen High School

At last, the proper activities of the Astronomy Club have begun. Today, on the memorable first day of activities, three club members and their advisor gathered in the club room.

'...For dinner, I prepared beef stroganoff in the refrigerator. Sorry, please heat it up and enjoy it.'

Teru sent a message to Ryuji. Even though she knew this beforehand, she felt incredibly uncomfortable not being home at the time she usually had dinner. After sending the message, Teru quickly put her cell phone away in her bag. Teru and Koba are sitting side by side at a long folding table. A bit further away was Tsukigami sitting in a pipe chair. Their gazes were focused on the club president, Yadoya, standing in front of the whiteboard.

"Sorry to interrupt your weekend, but as I announced in my message, I am going to do field work tomorrow evening as soon as possible. The location is Sea Park and I will aim to photograph the Lyrid Meteor Shower which will peak at 9 o'clock at night tomorrow afternoon."

Yadoya had decided to photograph the meteor shower as his first activity. He then began to explain about meteor showers.

Meteor showers are a group of meteors that occur when the earth crosses the "dust trail" of stardust left behind by comets and asteroids orbiting the sun. They appear in a radial pattern centered on a single point on the celestial sphere. Therefore, the frequency of each meteor shower is basically once a year, although the scale varies from year to year. The Lyrids Meteor Shower is a rather minor meteor shower that is not one of the three major meteor showers.

"On the day of the tour, we will meet at Yokohama Station at 5 o'clock afternoon and depart for the site. The peak time is 9 o'clock at night, so we will photograph until 11 o'clock. The last train will be around that time. When we succeed in photographing, we will post a notice on the school's public relations board."

'.........'

Yadoya explained the plan for the day. Teru listened to his explanation with bated breath. She had basically gone straight home after school in elementary and junior high school, and had never gone out on holidays either.

'Ryūjin-sama laughed and told me to be careful, but...'

When Teru told her about Saturday's activities, Ryuji permitted her to go out late at night with a smile. Of course, she would be accompanied by an advisor, Tsukigami, which may have put his mind at ease. However, Teru was somewhat uneasy.

"As the club was officially recognized as a club activity, we were asked to post a record of our activities on the school's website. And... we received an application for an interview from the newspaper club... Kadoma-san, the newspaper club wants to feature you in their article."

"...! Me?"

Her name was suddenly mentioned, and Teru couldn't help but speak out.

"Haha, the news club is going to be focusing on the Ice Queen?"

The new astronomy club, chosen by a pretty girl who doesn't want anything to do with anyone and advised by the school's most handsome teacher, was the subject of rumors among the upperclassmen.

"Well, we'll talk about that later. For now, tomorrow, everyone, be on time."

"Yes."

Tsukigami, who had been silent, summed up the day's activities. The day's club activities came to an end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 23, around 17:00

Yokohama Station, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture