#02: UFO Romance in the Night Sky
After she finished stowing her textbooks, the dark-haired girl glanced out the window again.
– "If you weren't here, Merry, it sure would feel like a waste to be inside."
On a cool, dusky night like this, it was easy to imagine that many interesting youkai and ghosts might be roaming. However, even for the eccentric team of Renko Usami and Maribel Hearn (Merry), who usually acted as paranormal investigators, a bit of time must be set aside to act like normal college students.
Although outdoor adventures sound exciting and romantic to most people, from a certain perspective, maybe there was something romantic about the normalcy of a night in.
– "Oh! Was that a shooting star?"
Merry had risen to join Renko by the window.
– "Huh? I didn't see one."
The eyes of the extraordinarily perceptive astronomer should never have missed it. She may have blinked at a key moment, or else been preoccupied with other thoughts.
– "I saw something. Maybe it was a UFO."
– "Sure. UFO means unidentified flying object. So if there was something flying that wasn't a star, and we don't know what it was, then it was a UFO. Now, whether it was an alien spacecraft is another story, but that could be worth following up on."
– "Was it unidentified? I thought it was undefined."
– "Was it?"
Renko was rather certain it wasn't but, after hours of listening to physics, her study companion deserved the turn to indulge in her own relativistic specialty. Besides, Renko enjoyed listening to Merry's ideas. However out-there, she could always sense some truth behind them.
– "If it's undefined, that's even better. You see, an object with no identity of its own can be whatever we want it to be…"
Both girls gazed intently at the spot in the sky where the UFO had either passed or not passed.
– "Hm. If I were to wish it was a star, so as to make it a star, would that be a waste of the wish I could've made on it?"
– "…Is this the kind of thing you worry about often, Merry?"
– "Mm… But seriously, there was a wish I wanted to make…"
The image of the night sky was slowly sinking itself into her consciousness, making her feel as if she should be sleepy. She gave a quiet yawn, and let her arm slide across the window's ledge so that it rested on Renko's own.