To the Stars and Beyond

Amidst the insistence of their subordinates and friends, Hiroshi and the two other members of his crew decided that it is time to take drastic measures.

"Despite the unfavorable weather, we will push to have the launch done tomorrow."

"We've arrived at this decision by ourselves and are ready to take whatever it may cost."

"To our people, we wish for you to understand that this is all for your sake and even if the truly unfortunate event would come to pass, we wish for you to live in peace and prosperity."

At a press conference, the three, dressed in their interior space suits and holding their helmets, gave a bow to the cameras that all flashed to save this moment into history.

["We will do this, no matter what it takes!" Esteemed leaders have announced their decision!]

The headlines of newspaper articles and the television coverage cannot stress enough how much this declaration have shaken the entire country. If it was only one of them, it could be seen as some kind of heroic sacrifice if something bad really happens, however, these three people are seen as among those who have done the greatest efforts to unify and bring peace to the country. If they are lost, Japan would lose the people that are keeping the country together.

"…You should stay, Sora-san."

"Heh… I knew already from the start that you would insist for me to be the one to stay."

"You have a wife and two children… not to mention the fact that you are the Shogun and therefore, the highest power in these lands. You deserve to be-"

"It's exactly because I have already attained those things that I am taking the possibility to end this on my own terms now."

"H-Huh?"

"You old fart… you should've just kept silent about it."

Sora's abrupt reply to Hiroshi's words earned his surprise and a snide remark from Maya.

"I may have reattained my vigor and strength, but my mind has been steadily degrading as it has now lived for two lifetimes. Sometimes, I wake up thinking that I was in the old world and have to continue looking for my wife. Slowly, my memories and personality from the old world has begun to seep into my new life and identity."

"Sora-san…"

"Which is why I insist to stay in this mission. If we succeed, I can be assured that even beyond my life, all of what we have done will be safe and secure. If the unfortunate happens, then I can leave an example for everyone else to follow."

"That is too reckless! You dare lecture me about stubbornness when you're more of an ingrate than I am?!"

"…I have no excuses to give, but I will not budge with what I have said. I will be one of the crew members whether your want to or not."

"That is not what we agreed on! Why are you so stubborn---"

"Look who's talking…"

"---!"

Stunned with Sora's retort, Hiroshi can only stand there with his mouth ajar. During the lull between the two's exchanges, Maya interjected.

"I too, won't give up on doing this. Ever since we finished what was started in the past world and all of us were reunited, I have been lost about what I am left to do now that everything has been mostly resolved. Just like Sora-san, I too, want to leave a legacy that would serve our people for decades to come."

"Not you too, Maya…"

"This fight is not for you alone to do, Hiroshi. Maybe we are stubborn ingrates or maybe we have a point after all, but as things stand, all three of us were the worst surviving victims of the past world's ugliness and unfairness… and more than anyone else, we want for such a world to not create and propagate more victims like us."

"Maya-chan is right… you're never ever alone with anything, Hiroshi. You have friends behind you and family beside you… and if he's right, you have him before you."

"…Rai-kun."

Remembering his friend who has done everything he can to give the world and its inhabitants a second chance, Hiroshi's eyes showed pain and a sense of loss.

"We still have a launch attempt to get to tomorrow. Let's head back now and get some rest."

"Right. You should do the same too, Hiroshi."

It was raining that night, as predicted by the meteorology report. The clouds were low, grounding the regular air patrol over Hitachi that was placed to guard the launch site from intruders. At the launch pad, the spacecraft was already loaded with the satellite payload, fuel and oxidizer as well as on-board oxygen systems for the crew. The only thing left half-filled was the water and food, as the rough storm tides stopped the rest of the supplies to be ferried from the port of Hitachi to the launch site.

Despite the fact that tomorrow was the launch attempt, the mission command room kept a minimum number of staff, routinely inspecting their monitors to check the spaceship and its systems that are already left in idle to remove the need to boot them up for tomorrow. While sipping on his coffee, one technician noticed someone inside the spacecraft and called his partner beside him.

"Hrm? Who's that guy fiddling inside the shuttle?"

"Oh, it's Lord Iwasawa. He said he can't sleep and wanted to check everything personally."

"Hey… I know he's big and all, but didn't the director already said that not even Shogun-sama is allowed in there until tomorrow."

"Well, take a guess whose batch of guards are dispatched tonight."

"Oooh… I see. Heh, I guess even commands from your superiors take the backburner when its your daimyo who wants to get what they want done."

Inside the spacecraft, Hiroshi was check everything from the on-board computers to even the toilet facilities that would be used during the week-long odyssey to outer space. He was being the usual him, meticulous and unwilling to allow any error in his handiwork.

"Everything is green except the supplies… I guess that's better than forcing it through tonight with this stormy weather."

Outside the window of the spaceship, sharp lightning bolts lit up the sky alongside the heavy rain typical of the late Japanese summer. The noise of the thunder didn't hide the fact though that there was someone who entered the spacecraft just now.

"…I believe I told the guards downstairs that I'm the only exception they'd let in."

"Oh please, Hiroshi… You're not the only one they're loyal to."

It was no other than Chiyo, his lover and just a year ago, interim daimyo of Kiko during his retreat from the political sphere.

"…What do you want?"

"I want to talk."

"Go back to your room and let's talk later since I'm bus---"

"I don't want to. I want to talk now, and I know you don't need to busy yourself with work that will happen tomorrow anyway."

Hearing her objection, Hiroshi looked at Chiyo and saw that unlike her usual obedient demeanor, she now shows a resolute expression and an unwavering tone. Still, he didn't want to talk with her right now, so he insisted a bit more.

"We will talk later, I promise you. Come on, I'll use my cutesy tone too."

"Stop horsing around and talk to me properly. Joke again and I'll knock you out right here."

However, Chiyo really wasn't in the mood to joke, and Hiroshi knew that she would back up her threat with the aforementioned force.

"…I see. Well then, what do you want to talk about?"

"I heard everything that you talked about with the Shogun from Maya-chan. She didn't spare any detail on what it was about. Not even on the fact that you three idiots talked about at least leaving a legacy if something unfortunate happens to you in this trip."

"I really should've bought some meat buns to shut up Maya… No-"

Hearing what he said under his breath, Chiyo pulled back her fist to show that she's readying a punch which made Hiroshi flinch back. However, she didn't dole out the punch, satisfied with knowing that he didn't take her threat as empty.

"You're scary, Chiyo."

"Knowing that you now remember how it feels to be scared puts me at ease. After all, you didn't even flinch when Kyoko almost cut your head off."

Chiyo walked nearer to the window, taking care to step properly on the platforms that was placed to service the interior of the spacecraft while it's pointing up on the launch pad.

"Are you going to stop me again from doing this? I believe I already gained everyone's approval by letting Sora and Maya into the crew with me."

"I'm not here to stop you anymore. I believe in your brilliance and would pray for your safety and success just as I used to do before. However, I do want to hear those words from you even just for once."

"And what are those words?"

"…I want you to---"

Before Chiyo can say what it was, a bright flash of lightning bathed everything in sight with blinding light.

The Soaring Kirin, Japan's first spacecraft, was struck by lightning that wasn't caught by the launch tower's lightning rods. Inside, both Hiroshi and Chiyo fell from the platform after the lightning rattled everything and knocked both of them out.

"D----"

"…"

"Dir----"

"…"

"DIRECTOR!!!"

"AGH---!!!"

In the bedroom of Furutani Garou, the assigned director of the space mission, the loud knocking of someone awoke him and forced him to open the door despite his almost naked appearance.

"W-What the hell?! Why are you-"

"It's launching!"

"---!!!"

Back inside the spaceship, Hiroshi was the first to wake up and hear almost hundreds of echoing warning alerts blaring inside the crewed cockpit.

"Argh… What the…"

["Imminent launch! Imminent launch! Seal the cabin now! Seal the cabin now!"]

"-!!!"

Despite his utter lack of knowledge about what is happening, his mind snapped into tackling the alerts as he climbed up on the platforms to reach the door of the cabin.

"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!!!"

He can see the main monitor of the control panel counting down a glitched launch counter, making him expend more force to get up on the platforms. Once there, he hit the switch which should pull away the bridge from the spacecraft, but it never activated.

"Damn it! Did the strike toast the system!?"

Hiroshi opened the access panel inside the switch and there, activated something labelled as "manual override". From there, a small crank came out and with all the strength that he can muster, he made it turn to both pull the bridge away and close the cabin doors sealed.

Once he secured that, he heard a groan from below and saw that Chiyo has come back to consciousness too. 

"Chiyo!"

"Argh… W-what…?"

"Open that panel down there! The one with the oxygen symbol!"

"W-what?!"

"Hurry up or we will die!"

Once she heard that, Chiyo stood up and did as she was instructed, opening the panel to see several buttons and small monitors.

"W-What should I do?!"

"Wait for my signal and push the button labelled as "master pressure"! We have to get the cabin to the proper atmospheric pressure so we can breathe properly in space!"

"W-What do you mean "in space"?!"

"The lightning fried almost all systems! We're launching now!"

At the moment when the two had no other choice but to launch out, Garou finally arrived with an acceptable set of clothes and addressed what was happening.

"What the hell is happening!? Why did it begin launch out all of a sudden?!"

"Lightning strike, sir! The lightning rods didn't catch a big one and it hit the spacecraft! Everything in our panels are now glitched!"

"Tch! It's such a massive waste but we have no other choice. Set off the self-destruction protocol! We have to atleast-"

"STOP!!!"

"H-huh?!"

Before the technician who just arrived with him started the self-destruction sequence, someone tackled the technician down and cancelled the protocol.

"Don't destroy the spaceship! Someone is there!"

"S-someone? Who?!"

"Iwasawa-sama is there! Along with Chiyo-sama!"

"T-those two…! Patch me with the internal speakers!"

"Yes, sir!"

Moments after his order, a video and audio feed from inside the cabin showed the two desperately getting everything sorted in order to survive the sudden launch.

"Hiroshi-dono! Hiroshi-dono! Can you hear me?!"

"*Bzzttt-!* I can hear you *Bzzzttt-!* but everything is fuzzy and cut off! *Bzzzttt-!* Most of the systems here *Bzzzttt* but we can still launch! Allow it on your side before *Bzzzttt-!* and we blow up because of it!"

Hiroshi's plea was clear despite the static-filled audio. He wanted mission control to permit the launch so the engines can fire up instead of triggering the automatic termination system and the entire ship blows up along with them.

"I understand… secure yourself before the timer goes zero! Everything from here on out will be a very wild ride! We'll do our best on our side here too!"

"*Bzzzttt-!* Got it! *Bzzzttt-!*"

Once that exchange ended, everyone became silent as Garou shouted with his raspy commander's voice.

"What the hell are you waiting for?! Set up everything for the launch! Clear everything with the air force and navy! We don't want any plane or blimp colliding with our manned spacecraft!"

"""Yes, sir!!!"""

"Contact the Shogun right this instant! Tell his maids that they'd either wake him up or the launch will wake him up!"

"Yes, director!"

As things are developing in the mission control room, inside the cabin, everything was being handled quickly as the launch timer ticked down closer and closer to the launch sequence.

"Alright, that's the last of it!"

"Grab my hand, Chiyo!"

"O-Okay!"

Hiroshi pulled up Chiyo to the chairs and there, secured her restraints first before sitting down and attending to his own next. By that time, the thundering noise of the man-made rocket engines has drowned out the noise of torrential downpour of rain and lightning, lighting up the launch pad with bright light and earth-shattering noise.

["T minus… 10 seconds! 9… 8… 7…!"

"*Bzzzttt-!* You're clear for launch! We may not be able to contact you until you shut off the machines in the moon, so this comes genuinely from me Hiroshi! Good luck to the both of you! *Bzzzttt-!*"

After that last message, the great deal of G-forces began to assail both Hiroshi and Chiyo as the rocket engines blared out and launched the enormous Soaring Kirin spaceship to the sky.

"3 Gs… 4 Gs… 5 Gs…!"

The incredible amount of force affected the two of them as they began to accelerate from mere tens of kilometers per hour to almost tens of thousands in the span of several moments.

"Thirty thousand meters… climbing out of the troposphere at a steady 5500 km/h!"

Showing her capability as an engineer, Chiyo shouted out everything she can see in her monitors to Hiroshi who took over the work of the damaged propulsion systems.

"Are we stuck in that speed?"

"Y-Yeah! It's not climbing faster than it should!"

"Hold on! I'm overriding it! Kh-!"

Hiroshi took over the rocket engine controls and made it throttle more in order to break the tug-of-war between the rocket and gravity. As soon as that happened, the 5500 km/h speed climbed quickly to 7000 km/h and they shot past the mesosphere.

At that moment, not even the static from ground control can be heard from their radios. They are now inside the storm of recordings broadcasting from the moon. Additionally, the G-forces pressing them to their seats are now less and allowed them to move with less restraint.

"Wooow… S-So beautiful…"

Right around the 80-kilometer altitude level, the main window in front of the manned cabin was filled with beautiful aurorae lights.

"…Wanna take a picture of it?"

"I-I can?!"

Hiroshi rummaged at the storage drawer beneath his seat and there, fished out a high-definition digital camera.

"Dori-kun made me one. He said I should bring it and snap pictures from here. Alright, go snap some nice ones."

Hiroshi handed the camera to Chiyo, and she quickly snapped magnificent photos of the aurorae lights as well as the earth slowly receding below them. However, Hiroshi called out to her to get back to her work for a moment.

"Chiyo. Tell me our altitude and speed."

"A-Ah! One hundred and ten kilometers of altitude… capping out at 9000 km/h on speed."

"Alright… prepare for stage one separation! I'll ignite stage two on your mark!"

"Right… Separation complete! Ignite stage two!"

"Aye-aye! Igniting stage two!"

Even from inside the cabin, the feeling of their vehicle becoming so much lighter after the boosters and tanks were separated can be felt. At the ignition of the second rocket stage, the rocket has almost beaten earth's gravity in their game of tug-of-war.

"Speed climbing to over twelve thousand kilometers per hour… steadily increasing."

"Alright pull out the navigation panel. I need to see if we're clear to align towards the moon."

"On it. Oh… sorry, how can I do that again?"

"No need to apologize… Beside the telemetry controls, there is---"

With Hiroshi's direction, Chiyo pressed a series of buttons that changed the panels from altitude and speed to navigations where it showed the icons of several nearby heavenly bodies such as the earth, the sun and their target, the moon.

"All of these are so advanced… although it's too bad that we can't get touch-screen panels."

"Dori-kun was adamant about not installing touch-screen panels here. It said that they're too power-hungry and fragile… and when it comes to buttons and sliders, we may end up slipping our fingers and causing accidents because of it."

"Ah, that makes sense. Whoa…"

After they escaped earth's gravitational pull and attained a fast enough speed to not only counter but exceed the force that gravity is exerting on them, the unsecured objects in the cabin began to float around. Seeing this, Chiyo had a bright, child-like smile on her face as she looked at Hiroshi, wordlessly asking him permission to undo her seatbelt.

"Haah… Sure thing, but you better clean up the mess back there. The least we want to happen now is for one of those objects to hit something sensitive."

"Yay!"

As soon as she was given permission, Chiyo hopped off her chair and into the spacious cabin behind the control module. At first, she swam in weightlessness, did somersaults and danced around like a ballerina but she didn't forget Hiroshi's order to grab the scattered mess of objects and place them inside the storage cabinets and drawers.

"Alright, it seems like we can cut off the engines now."

After confirming that they have enough momentum to continue in their journey, Hiroshi deactivated the engines of the rocket's second stage and pulled out numerous gauges, monitoring programs and control panels on the monitors in front of him.

"…It's good that nothing in the engine and fuel sections are damaged. Life support and crew comfort is alright too, save for the water filtration system… but I think that can be fixed somehow. Navigations is a bit rattled, but it just needs a limited reboot, it seems… wait, what?"

After seeing what words the next panel contained, Hiroshi whispered curses under his breath. With there not being any extra noise in the cabin, Chiyo heard it and wondered why he suddenly doled out such words.

"What's up, Hiro-kun? Why the abrupt tone all of a sudden?"

"…The communication system."

"Hrm? What's up with it?"

Hiroshi's answer scared even Chiyo.

"It was fried by the lightning strike. From the dish antenna array to the wires and the dedicated system controls. It's unrepairable."

Back on earth, the truth about the accidental launch reached only the ears of the highest leaders of Japan. However, with the scale of the launch and the sheer noise that it produced, everyone in Hitachi and by sunrise, all of Japan, knew that the launch has happened but not why, and they knew that it was bound to cause confusion and some unsavory rumors.

"This emergency meeting was formed for that very purpose…"

Gathered around the meeting room of the imperial palace was the Shogunate and all present leaders of the alliance. Although with how sudden everything was, none of them even had any time to dress up properly and thus, the meeting looked more like a slumber party with the men wearing cotton shirt and pajamas and the women wearing a woolen coat over their traditional night garments.

"…Before we start dissecting this nonsense, I have a question."

"What a coincidence, so do I…"

However, the atmosphere between everyone betrayed the ridiculous outfits of the attending members. Particularly for Kusanagi Kyoko and Shimura Nobisuke.

"How the hell did that launch happen?!!"

"We demand an explanation, Director Furutani!"

"Krgh!"

The pressure exuded by the two was enough to make Garou gnash his teeth in frustration. He may have been crushed completely by it if not for Sora interceding in the feud.

"I've already sent my men to investigate the manner completely. For now, we have the eyewitness accounts of the staff on the mission control center who said that a lightning strike hit the rocket and shot a few systems to trick the computers into setting off the launch sequence."

Hearing his explanation, the two calmed down enough to listen to the rest of what he has to say. With the two letting up their pressuring aura, Sora spoke out about what happened.

"Upon the request of Hiroshi who feared that the already activated engines that are releasing fuel and oxidizer may end up blowing up the entire launch complex, he asked for Garou to allow the launch sequence. If you ask me, the fact that we're still alive was due to that fact that Garou trusted his gut instinct to follow Hiroshi's words."

"And yet, we could've at least been informed about it… no matter the urgency, Iwasawa is on board the spacecraft and he could've been saved by escaping from the rocket."

"Kusanagi-dono is right. If there was ample time for him to seal the cabin and set up everything for a successful launch, that time could've been used to reach and save him."

Sora was about to reply to the two's musings when one of his men who just entered the room approached him from behind and whispered to him.

"Uhuh… I see, I see… Well then, have the others put it into an official report and send it to our esteemed leaders…"

"Yes, Shogun-sama."

"…We're willing to wait for the official report, but I'd respectfully ask you to tell us what the initial findings are, if possible."

Knowing what could've been spoken there, Nobisuke told Sora to spare them of the complex explanation and cut to the chase.

"My men just found out that it seems like he had lesser time than expected if your metric of him escaping the rocket was him setting up everything. There was someone else in the cabin when the lightning hit and the launch sequence was set off."

"And who is this person?"

"It's your cousin, General Shimura."

"WHAT!?"

"Lady Aoyama Chiyo was there as well and has joined Hiro-kun in his trip to space."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

At the distance of seventy-five thousand kilometers from earth, the spacecraft named "Soaring Kirin", continued to its destination, pushed by its unimpeded momentum that is also building up little by little to the speed of over eleven kilometers per hour.

Inside the spacecraft are two souls who was thrown into this situation by a total accident. For the man, Iwasawa Hiroshi, he was only there to perform the final checks in the cabin. For the woman, Aoyama Chiyo, she was there to talk to Hiroshi in order to gauge his willingness to follow through in this thing that he started… as well as something that she was unable to say before the lightning strike that sent them to space happened.

"I didn't think that it would fit me… Back then, Maya-chan was skinnier than me."

"Just appreciate the fact that it was a good fit. You fitting into the internal suit means that you can also wear the external suit and mobility pack."

"Oh yeah… you mentioned that I also have to wear that one, didn't you?"

"Yeah… I can only do a little of the repairing from the inside. There are some few damages that require a "spacewalk". One thing that I can thank Sora's intuition of insisting for external suits and equipment, he must've seen the possibility of out-the-craft damages."

After Hiroshi closed the program on the panel that showed the damaged parts of the spacecraft that required servicing outside, he took his internal suit and locked himself inside a small dressing closet. Moments later, he came out, wearing the same, gray-colored skintight suit and beckoned for Chiyo to come with him towards the rear of the cabin where the airlock is located.

"These spacesuits are quite heavy and difficult to wear. I'll help you get into one first then you help me when it's my turn. Hold onto the bars above your head."

"O-Okay…"

From a locker, Hiroshi took out the external spacesuit that was supposed to be for Maya and wrapped it around Chiyo's body. Given its purpose of protecting its wearer from all kinds of dangers in deep space as well as letting them live and work out in the vacuum, it was heavy, dense and a total pain to wear.

"…Don't move."

"S-Sorry, it's a bit ticklish there."

"Endure it for a moment, I need to do this properly."

"O-Okay."

After the suit for her lower and upper body was secured, the only thing left was the helmet.

"After wearing the helmet, I need to pressurize the entire suit as well as turn on the life support systems. Can you hold your breath for two or so minutes?"

"I can. Tell me when the take a deep breath."

Hiroshi took the heavy helmet and placed it above Chiyo's head before nodding to her. She took a deep breath, and the helmet was put into the airlock mounts on the collar of the suit. Acting quickly, Hiroshi pressed a series of buttons on the panel on the chest of the suit. Before the two minutes was over, all three of the small light bulbs lit up with a green color, showing that it was complete. After that, he took a small earpiece and spoke into it.

"Hello, can you hear me from inside there?"

["Y-yeah, I can hear you well. Wait, how are our radios working?"]

"It's a shortwave radio, it only works within a hundred meters. Set that aside for a moment, can you breathe in there? Is the pressure good or should I tweak it?"

["It's good enough. I don't feel short of breath or overpressured."]

"How about the temperature? Is it too hot or too cold?"

["Nothing of the sort… although it does feel claustrophobic now that I am inside of it."]

"Alright. I'll suit up too. Help me up in setting the systems on."

"Gotcha."

Hiroshi wore his external spacesuit with the help of Chiyo and after ten minutes, both of them nodded to each other.

["Let's go?"]

["Yeah. I'm ready."]

With a press of a button inside the airlock compartment, all of the air inside the room was sucked out and they waited until the light bulb on the door leading to the outside turned green.

["Alright. From here on out, listen well to me. We only have two hour's worth of oxygen in our suits and even with the anti-radiation lining, we still run the risk of becoming a microwaved lunch inside our suits if we stay out for too long.]

["A-alright. I understand."]

["At best, I want to wrap this up by one hour and at worst, we can cut it with one and a half… however, if we can't fix everything by that time, I want you to head inside first and wait for me here."]

["I'll do it if you promise that you'll also head in after I do."]

["I will. I'm not leaving you behind… not again."]

After hearing that, Chiyo was taken aback for a moment until the lightbulb of the airlock turned green and Hiroshi opened the hatch door leading to the outside.

["Well then, let's get started."]