But the girl named Hammie just smiled cheekily and even showed a peace sign to the one who said it, which was her friend Lucky. And just as her friend had stated, it was indeed the fourth time for that week that she decided to head to the planetarium in town.
For some reason, there was something in that place that was urging her to go back. And for the fourth time that week, she was trying her best to figure out what was it. Sadly, she was yet to discover the answer to that.
"I can't believe you'd skip our last class just for this," Lucky grumbled even more that only made Hammie sigh exasperatingly before rashly facing him.
Of course, with that-including the fact that Hammie's intense stare could truly scare anyone, had only shut Lucky up for a while. But that intense stare slowly softened before noticing that, once again, she had stopped in front of a displayed poster of a certain constellation. When Hammie finally realized that, she looked at it with such longing eyes that she didn't know where could that kind of longing had possibly originated.
"Hammie, are you okay?" Lucky asked, now surely done out of concern.
It took a while for Hammie to even say something about that. She just remained staring at the poster of the Scorpius constellation. That part of the hallway mostly featured the 88 constellations and for the past weeks, she'd done nothing but to stare at it each time she would go to that planetarium.
"I wonder why... I keep doing this..." Hammie muttered in a wistful tone that she wouldn't understand where it could've come from.
Lucky approached her and tapped her head before rufflling her hair. If she were in her usual hyperactive self, she would've thrown a fit about that. But today was different. The gesture seemed to have calmed her down for some reason, and she was grateful for that.
"You know, this could really mean something to you/," Lucky said soon after that broke the silence between them.
That was when Hammie faced her friend with a frown as soon as his words registered in her mind. "What do you mean?"
"Maybe this constellation has something to do with your past life."
Hammie frowned upon hearing that. "My... past life?"
Lucky nodded and faced the poster that Hammie was looking at. "Well, this was just an assumption. But there's that possibility, you know."
I've never thought about that. Hammie gave Lucky's words a careful thought. As he said, it was possible. But what kind of past life could she possibly have which has a relation to that particular constellation?
"Anyway, it was just one possibility. There could be other hidden reasons for you to do this."
But Hammie remained silent as she stared once more at the poster. If one would ask her, she could keep up doing this all day. And yet at the end of all that, she was sure no answer would come to her.
In order not to bore her friend any longer than necessary, the girl decided to just tour the planetarium and take her off about other things. Perhaps it would've been the best idea for her to do the thinking all alone and without interferences named Lucky. Thankfully, Lucky stopped grumbling beside her after that. In fact, they were able to enjoy the tour they did together.
It was nearly closing time when Hammie and Lucky decided to leave the place. However, her friend suddenly ended up leaving her to go home all alone because of a call from one of his friends about some trouble. She didn't dare ask about it despite her curiosity. Besides, she was sure Lucky would mention it to her tomorrow. There wasn't anything that the guy hadn't mentioned to her concerning his troubles ever since they became friends.
So she ended up walking alone as she headed home. Hammie was doing it slightly slow for some reason. Once again, her mind wandered to that Scorpius Constellation poster. At that point, she heaved quite a deep sigh. This time, because of frustration.
Seriously, what was wrong with her? Why couldn't she stop thinking about it?
Before she knew it, she reached a certain bookstore where she spotted a book written by the famous author Raptor 283. Though she was quite sure that it was just a pseudonym or even a website username. In any case, this was her favorite author and she was glad that Raptor was able to have another novel released.
For a long time now, she had been a fan of Raptor's fantasy-sci fi novel series titled "Ultimate Saviors", in which each novel featured one warrior chosen by the Kyutama to save the universe from evil. From what she remembered in one of the author's note printed on the novel, the series would have a total of 12 books. By far, she managed to collect and read 9 of the series' books.
And now, she could see that Raptor had her tenth novel released.
But then, she couldn't hide the surprise she felt upon reading the title of that novel.
"No way... Am I being played on?" Hammie muttered, her eyes widened as she remained staring at the book displayed on the show window of that bookstore.
Scorpius System's Poison Star.
That was the title of the book and honestly speaking, her mind turned blank upon reading that. It didn't take her long to decide to buy it. But this time, she could feel that she had a different purpose in doing so. For now, she wouldn't think about that.
Hammie started reading it as soon as she spotted a bench on the park which was a part of her route going home. But she couldn't ignore the fact that her heart began beating fast as she laid eyes on the book cover's illustration.
It was a silhouette of a man with a scorpion tail.
"I know I've seen this figure before..." Hammie could only say as she ran a finger on the silhouette itself.
At the same time, however, her mind suddenly several visions that only made her close her eyes tight as the pain started to sear.
"W-what is this?!"
"Just run, Hammie!"
"No way! I'm not going to leave you!"
"I said run!"
Those voices... Hammie was definitely sure about it. One of them belonged to her! But who could've owned the other voice? Though she could only discern sounds from those visions, she was able to know something from there.
Something terrible was happening, and most of it involved explosions.
Hammie closed her eyes once more. This time, with the purpose of letting those visions appear in her mind.
Hammie's eyes widened in shock as soon as the bright light coming from the Daikan dissipated. But the shock she felt wasn't because of that.
"Stinger!" she screamed before dashing towards the falling body of the said warrior.
She was just in time to catch him.
"Stinger! Stinger, wake up!" Hammie called out frantically, not noticing that her tears were starting to fall one by one.
However, even Hammie's desperate call wasn't enough to wake Stinger up. Once more, she was surprised to see the wound that he sustained upon blocking the Daikan's beam attack.
"Don't do this, Stinger!"
When Hammie snapped her eyes open, she realized that she was panting for some reason. Along with that, she could feel her heart increasing the rate of its beating.
"What was that?" Hammie could only asked to herself as she tried clearing her thoughts once again.
Though she succeeded this time, it only made her feel that Lucky was right about her having a past life. But was it possible for her past life to have the same name as the one she had in this life?
"Stinger, huh...? I wonder who he is..."
Just as she was thinking about that, it only made her unaware that several people were watching her--most of them with sad eyes. Two of those people--a man with a scorpion tail and a female android--were just watching the girl somewhere near the bench where Hammie was sitting.
"Only Lucky and Hammie were the ones who still needed to be awakened from this illusion. But then..."
"Figuring out a way to get out of this illusory dimension is another of our problem. But Stinger, what do you think will happen to Hammie-chan once she finally recalled everything? You nearly died defending her from that Daikan. And now you're the one trying to do everything to make her remember."
All Stinger could do was to sigh at Raptor's words as she looked at Hammie once again. "We just have to prepare ourselves. I don't think there's any other way we can deal with this situation. Whatever happens, I'll protect Hammie."
For now, that was Stinger's resolve in which Raptor could only agreed on. It seemed that the only thing all of them could do was to wait for the time the rest of their comrades could finally recall everything and realize the illusion surrounding them.
I'll do everything I can to make you remember, Hammie. Whatever it takes, I'll make sure I'd protect you with my life.
But Stinger couldn't help wishing that Hammie shouldn't make him wait long before she recalled everything.
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