08 Shopping
Shaking his shoulder.
Small hand.
Who it belongs to—Jin cannot tell, still half in dreams.
"Jin, Jin"
A voice calling his name.
He opens his eyes.
A face identical to Rei—momentary surprise—then silver hair, and he realizes it is Mio.
"...Mio? What is it? Toilet?"
He says, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and Mio shakes her head.
"Jin, I was floating."
"Floating?"
He tilts his head, unsure what that means.
Mio frowns, as if something is off.
"Ah, was being carried?"
"Right. That's it."
Hearing "carried," he recalls the dream he had just moments ago.
The day he lost his fiancée, Rei, and his comrades.
People he can no longer meet—only in dreams now.
"A nightmare?"
"Of course not."
He strokes Mio's head.
Her other hand brushes the ring hanging from her chest.
"A truly wonderful dream, that was."
She said it, her expression utterly bewildered—then, moments later, succumbed to sleepiness.
Her head swam.
Lying her down on the bed, she obediently closed her eyes.
"There. Plenty of time until morning. Sleep now."
"Uh-huh..."
For some time now, she’d been woken abruptly by alarms in the middle of the night.
She still wasn’t fully accustomed to this house, but even so, she should be sleeping better than in the shelter.
"...Really, what’s going on here, anyway?"
First, the number of encounters with ASID isn’t particularly high.
The migrant fleet itself avoids the regions believed to be ASID habitats.
Expeditionary units are dispatched regularly to investigate those zones.
If a large group is detected, the choice is either to evade or eliminate.
Re-routing the entire convoy consumes an immense amount of energy.
Even its size alone makes movement a strain.
The combat Jin participated in two weeks prior stemmed from a group evading prior surveys and making contact with the convoy.
The humanoid ASID attack reported a week earlier.
The convoy had not yet completed replenishment from the previous engagement.
Emergency override consumes the convoy’s stored ether—last resort.
The command hierarchy chose energy preservation over personnel loss.
The miscalculation was the continued pursuit.
The convoy has already been attacked twice.
This time, the defense force is prepared, and the defensive line has not been breached.
The attacks continue, despite no decisive elimination of the enemy.
"Would be nice if we could shake them off soon."
Jin is unaffected by stamina, but Mio occasionally shows signs of strain from sleep deprivation during the day.
The change in environment alone is exhausting—she seems pitiful, even.
These assaults should end as soon as possible.
The next morning, the two awaken and consume breakfast cubes.
Mio swallows with a peculiar expression.
A token resistance, perhaps.
She rinses her mouth with orange juice labeled 100% juice.
Jin sips coffee, catching his breath.
Suddenly, he notices Mio staring intently at his hands.
"What is it, Mio?"
"Is that black one tasty?"
"Tastes good to me."
She likely finds it bitter. Regardless, Mio leans forward and presses her lips to Jin’s cup.
And as expected, she made a sour face.
"Bitter…"
"Drink before I stop you. And stop eating or drinking someone else’s things without permission. It’s impolite."
"Yes, sir…"
Being scolded after swallowing something unpleasant felt slightly pitiful.
But Jin’s view remained that it was even more pitiful to do something wrong and never be called out on it.
"Then, what shall we do today…"
In the past few days, he had bought everything Mio needed for daily life, except for the shelter. Shopping was mostly finished.
Only the miscellaneous luxuries remained—
"Come to think of it…"
He had bought only necessities. He hadn’t purchased any toys that children usually liked.
Realizing this, Jin lightly clicked his tongue, careful not to let Mio hear.
In the past two weeks, Mio had seemed like a child with little desire for possessions.
But that couldn’t be right, Jin thought, looking back at himself.
He had not considered that she might simply be good at enduring.
"Alright, Mio. Today we're going shopping."
Once decided, Jin’s actions were swift.
A wide-area map of the immigrant vessel projected onto his retina.
He searched for a toy shop and reviewed its reputation.
On a ship where most purchases were handled via commerce network, a store that maintained a physical presence had some distinguishing feature.
The one Jin selected was a shop within the fleet—indeed, across the entire convoy, even beyond it—displaying every conceivable stuffed animal.
"Oooh."
Mio’s eyes lit up as she stood in an orange dress.
Her excitement at seeing so many stuffed animals was unmistakable.
"Jin-jin, so many fluffies!"
"Stuffed animals. Stuffed animals."
"Stuffed animals, so many!"
As she repeated herself, Mio pointed at the same thing and tugged on Jin’s left sleeve.
"Yet there are truly too many..."
A sea of stuffed animals arranged like flooring in the entrance display area.
Beyond, shelves lined with a diverse array of plush figures.
"...Are there ASID ones here too?"
Jin frowned, eyebrows tightening. Who would buy this, he wondered.
The quantity seemed small, but still, it was hard to believe.
The manufacturer's name read Byron Company.
A name that felt vaguely familiar—yet not quite.
"Jin, let's go over there!"
"Ah, wait, wait. You can't just go ahead on your own."
Jin followed Mio, who had already stepped forward impatiently.
The store was wide. Worse, the shelves of stuffed animals obstructed the view.
It would be easy to lose each other.
"Don't drift apart."
"Got it!"
Mio raised her left hand, nodding seriously to confirm.
Jin wondered if she'd be alright.
He had immediately adopted an optimistic stance, thinking it was fine—after all, she’d been well-behaved so far.
“Jin, what’s this?”
“Ah… a lion, maybe?”
“What about this one?”
“A elephant, that’s clear.”
“And this?”
“Metosetopoporon.”
From animals native to the homeworld, to exotic species discovered on a foreign planet during the migration, restored by the emigrant fleet.
Even obscure, lesser-known creatures—ones even Jin didn’t recognize—were represented in plush form.
Glancing around, he spotted the plush of the assault frame he’d ridden only days ago—the Raven.
“…Does a girl actually like this kind of thing?”
If it were a boy, he’d likely go for a full-action figure instead. The market value was unclear.
Still, it was something he’d entrusted his life to. He couldn’t afford indifference.
“Hey, Mio. How about this one?”
He turned to ask the girl who should have been to his left.
“…?”
But there was no Mio. Instead, a girl he didn’t recognize stood there.
A face like someone searching for a lost star.
Look to the right. Not there.
Look left again. Not there.
"Ah—strayed...!"
Jin’s expression pales slightly.
He returns the stuffed animal to the shelf and scrambles to search.
Thirty seconds after Jin runs off.
Mio returns.
Drifting dazed, carried by the unmeasured tension.
She recalls Jin’s instruction halfway back.
"Jin... not here...?"
Mio glances around, uncertain.
"Yeah, together."
She tilts her head, confirming the scene matches the one ninety-six seconds prior.
"Where did he go?"
She recalls the conversation with Jin.
"Lost? Stay put where you are."
"What's lost?"
"Lost means... when you’re separated from someone you were with."
"Got it. If lost, stay still."
Mio’s eyes widened as she recalled it.
“Terrible… Jin, lost.”
The idea that she herself might be lost had not occurred to her.
“Have to find him.”
Bathed in unfounded confidence that Jin would remain still, Mio resumed moving.
She walked between shelves.
But at her height, the shelves still concealed her completely.
The efficiency of the search was poor.
Another factor confusing her.
“Oo, so cute…”
She occasionally paused, distracted by stuffed animals along the path.
Picking up and hugging displayed samples consumed time.
Fundamentally, Mio was still a preschooler; her stride was small.
The search progressed at a glacial pace.
—Which was, for Jin, nearly immobile, a fortunate circumstance.
“What is this…?”
Gazing at a stuffed animal with numerous legs, Mio hesitated, about to ask Jin.
Mio recalled that Jin was lost, and remembered her own current mission.
"That's right— I must find Jin."
She tried to return the stuffed animal to the shelf, but it would not fit.
After being held once, the inner section had collapsed and settled deeper, hidden from Mio’s view.
She forced it in, but it would not go, and the toy was pushed back out.
She caught it, then fell backward onto her haunches.
"Mmmmm."
She grunted without changing expression.
She wanted to say something like, *What kind of person are you, making me stumble like this?*
"Are you all right?"
A voice came from above, as Mio lay still, still grunting.