Shota loved gazing at the night sky. In his quiet countryside town, the vast heavens stretched endlessly above, offering an escape from the noise of the world. But what he looked forward to most was the annual meteor shower each summer.
One night, as he lay watching the familiar celestial dance, a sudden burst of brilliant light tore through the sky. The streak of light, unlike anything he’d seen before, plummeted deep into the nearby forest.
“What… was that?”
Driven by curiosity, Shota ventured into the forest to investigate. What he found was beyond his wildest imagination—a glowing orb, roughly a meter in diameter, pulsating with shifting geometric patterns within its transparent surface. As he approached, a gentle voice emanated from the orb.
“I am Lumiel, a guardian of the stars.”
Astonished yet intrigued, Shota listened as Lumiel explained that it maintained the delicate balance that allowed the stars to follow their cosmic paths. But something, or someone, was distorting the stars’ energy, and Earth had already begun to feel the effects.
“Shota, I need your help. You must find the ‘Key’ to reconnect the flow of stellar energy and restore balance to the universe.”
Before Shota could respond, Lumiel placed a shimmering crystal of light onto his chest. In an instant, he felt an overwhelming sensation—like the entire night sky had poured into his heart. The Key was now a part of him, and with it, he held the power to mend the disturbances affecting the stars.
From that moment on, Shota’s ordinary life took a fantastical turn. Every night, under Lumiel’s guidance, he embarked on cosmic journeys, recalibrating the energies of distant stars, saving celestial bodies on the brink of collapse, and even communicating with extraterrestrial life.
Through these adventures, Shota came to realize that the night sky was not just a beautiful backdrop, but a complex web of life, energy, and existence, all interconnected.
Still, one question lingered in his mind. “Why me?” he asked Lumiel one night.
Lumiel’s voice was calm yet resolute.
“You do not possess any special power. But it is precisely because you love the stars purely, without expectation, that you are worthy of this mission.”
Eventually, Shota’s greatest challenge arrived—the ultimate distortion threatening the balance of the entire solar system. At its core was an immense black hole pulling everything into its crushing embrace. The battle to restore balance was intense, pushing him to his limits. But with Lumiel’s support, he harnessed the full power of the Key within him and succeeded in stabilizing the black hole, saving countless celestial systems from ruin.
As the journey reached its end, Lumiel knew it was time to depart. “Because of you, the stars can shine once more,” it said, before vanishing beyond the cosmos.
That night, Shota gazed at the sky once more, noticing how the stars twinkled brighter than ever before. He smiled, placing a hand over his heart, feeling the quiet presence of the connection he had forged with the universe.
Even though his adventure had ended, he knew he would always be a part of the stars.
