Each chapter of this story is based off of a song from the Xenoblade series, is an effort to mimic the Hifuu Club Albums. So it's recommended to give each song a listen to with the relevant chapter.
Everyday Life
Xenoblade Chronicles
"Merry! Merry!"
The young woman on the couch woke up. Already she regretted her nap. Not only did her neck ache, but her head felt fuzzy.
Her name was Maribel Hearn, and she held the ability to perceive boundaries. Through her dreams she could travel to places thought unreal, and though not always safe, they were always memorable.
She could not remember what she had dreamed about.
That disconcerting thought left her as the face of her partner, Renko Usami, peeked over the couch. Her trademark black hat with its white ribbon was askew, and her dark hair was a tangled bird's nest. Unabashed glee made Renko brilliant in expression, like the sun at noon, and Maribel already felt like going back to sleep. Her attempts were thwarted with the letter that Renko shoved into her face.
"Look!"
Renko Usami and Maribel Hearn were once members of the Secret Sealing Club: a club devoted to finding and exposing the boundaries of the world. Such things were forbidden, in the modern world where everything that could be learned had been learned, and everything that couldn't be learned was disregarded as nonsense.
The club had disbanded, nearly a decade ago, when they had graduated from university. It was difficult to maintain a club when all the members left at once.
They had since lived together. Leaving their dreary old town and moving into a dreary old flat in a dreary new place. They had made it home, over the years. Tomes of occult knowledge and physics textbooks were scattered in equal parts, both equally incomprehensible. In the windowsill grew plants that Maribel had taken from her dream journeys. They were harder to take care of than the synthetic plants that were most common nowadays, but Maribel insisted that their fragility made them all the more precious. Priceless, if only because no one would buy a real plant when they could buy its hardier modern version, genetically altered to survive in the present day.
Maribel Hearn, the woman who could perceive and travel through boundaries. And Renko Usami, the woman who knew when and where she was so long as she could see the Moon and stars. Though nowadays, most people knew Renko as Doctor Usami, a young but leading figure in the field of Grand Unified Physics.
If there were people who knew Maribel, then most knew her as "Dr Latency", the hermit author of an account of unbelievable travels to other worlds. Only one person truly knew her.
And so, the letter-
"A position onboard the Rhadamanthus?" Maribel exclaimed, looking up from it.
The First Low Orbit Station Rhadamanthus. The last place in the world where humanity still sought the unknown. Though to say "in the world" might have been misleading.
Renko might as well have been prancing around the apartment. In fact, it seemed like she would at any moment. She could be surprisingly childish. Maribel couldn't help but smile. She stumbled as Renko threw herself at her, and returned the hug happily.
"You know what this means, Merry?" Renko said, holding Maribel at arm's length.
"Huh?"
"We'll finally have that zero gravity coffee date~" Renko said coyly.
"You still remember that?" Maribel asked, surprised. Moon tours had been a thing for a decade now, though if anything the price had only grown. Though they had once been to the Moon by using Maribel's ability, it hadn't exactly been the date Maribel had fantasized about.
"Of course!" Renko said. "Though Rhadamanthus isn't quite zero gravity. Actually, it'll mostly be like being on Earth. Except we'll be at the very top of the heavens!"
"We?" Maribel asked, the word finally sinking in. Renko gave her a strange look.
"Well duh!" she scoffed. "I'm not going to leave you here, after all."
"Would they really let me come?" Maribel wondered. "Renko, you're practically in love with the Rhadamanthus. You shouldn't let me-"
"I wouldn't go anywhere without you!" Renko exclaimed. "Besides, the Aoidos Institute allows researchers to take their families up there. After all, it's the farthest settlement humanity has created so far."
"Isn't the Moon farther away?" Maribel asked. "And then there are some of the worlds beyond the boundary."
"Do humans live in such worlds?" Renko wondered, before shaking her head. "Besides, even if some humans live on the Moon nowadays, they aren't really settlements. They are hotels and resorts and research stations."
"Rhadamanthus is a research station," Maribel pointed out.
"You're being pedantic," Renko accused, to which Maribel smiled. "Rhadamanthus is special! And think about what research we can do there! So, pack your things up! We're going to space!"
