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1. A Golden Ball of Fluff, or: A Sweet Intruder
One week after the incident.
The artificial morning light of Subaru Station filtered gently into the Silver Anchor's main bedroom.
Ledea Mace was asleep in her bed, holding her favorite stuffed Pom — the orange one, round and soft — pressed close to her chest.
Or so she had been.
"Mm... nn..."
She surfaced from deep sleep slowly, and when she opened her eyes, what she found pressed against her face was not orange. It was gold. Vivid, unmistakable gold.
She shifted her gaze. The Pom was on the pillow beside her — upright, precisely arranged, undisturbed.
Ledea's brain allocated several seconds to processing what it was seeing, and arrived at the following conclusion: the golden object was the top of Shutia Mace's head. Shutia was asleep against Ledea's favorite silk pajamas, cheek pressed in, expression unguarded, producing a small damp patch that had no business being there.
"......Shutia."
The voice that came out was floor-level.
"...mm... sis's... pajamas... smell so... good... mnya..."
"Wake up. You habitual trespassing electronic-lock-breaking criminal."
"Myah—?!"
Ledea found a patch of cheek and pinched it without mercy. Shutia produced a sound of genuine suffering and came entirely awake.
"That hurts — that really hurts — what kind of alarm clock does that first thing in the morning—!"
"That is my line. I will, at great personal cost, tolerate the general phenomenon of you holding onto me. I will not tolerate drool on my hand-made silk pajamas. You will go directly into the washing machine."
"The pajamas are so comfortable it's basically their fault—!"
Shutia pressed both hands to her reddened cheek, eyes watering, and mounted her defense.
There was not a trace left of the person who, one week ago, had been moving through a military firefight against Vizalde's frontline interceptors. Not one particle of Mail Noa remained.
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2. Two Stars' Wake, or: The Gears of a Normal Day
"— and therefore drool is categorically unacceptable. This precedes any question of odd-job professional standards. It is a matter of basic dignity as a person."
The Silver Anchor's cockpit. Ledea was running through the console checks and still, in a technical sense, complaining. In the adjacent seat, Shutia sat with her hands together in the posture of someone apologizing, though the smile she was failing to suppress suggested the apology was not entirely sincere.
The burns and the head wound — the things that had made Ledea cry at the dock — were entirely gone. The station's medical capsules had handled them completely. Shutia's skin was smooth and unmarked again.
"All right, that's enough. We have work. And they're waiting for us."
Just beside the Silver Anchor's berth sat a second ship — dull silver, slightly battered in outline, currently surrounded by autonomous maintenance bots throwing sparks as they worked over the exterior plating.
The Luna Geist.
After the battle, it had been brought into the cargo dock for repair — and now it was being rebuilt, repainted, restored. The ship that had been hidden was hidden no longer. It was being made into the Mace sisters' second wing.
The Silver Anchor lifted clear of Subaru Station and moved into open space.
Today's job: construction assistance for a large commercial hologram advertising tower being installed on the station's outer ring. The work came directly from Alnilam Heavy Industries.
The Silver Anchor moved through the metal framework with Ledea's usual precision, holding position exactly where the work required. Shutia's anchor placed oversized exterior panels into their bolt housings without a millimeter of error.
"Hey, look at that — the Mace sisters again. They've got panels the size of that going in at half the time we'd take by hand—"
"Good piloting's wasted on odd-job work. Hey, you two — appreciate you being out here today!"
"We appreciate the kind words," Ledea answered through the comm. "A commitment to doing the work properly is what we do, whatever the site."
The morning work finished cleanly. In the shadow of the advertising tower, they took a short break — cold space tea in the cockpit, the quiet of a job going well.
The console chimed. Incoming communication.
On the main monitor: Sati, work goggles pushed up on her forehead, ponytail swinging, enormous smile.
"Hey, Ledea, Shutia! On a break? So listen — I got hold of a really good military-grade energy core through the certified junk guild — not a gray-market thing at all — and I was thinking, your current core is a bit dated, especially after you pushed the field to max output in that last fight — want me to swap it in? Special price for you two. Labor's free."
"An energy core." Ledea set down her cup and thought for a moment. "Our current one has been showing its age, and the field deployment did put considerable strain on it—"
"Right, exactly! This is my top pick — I've got a slot open for you two right now!"
"That's generous, but are you certain? Giving us priority over other clients at that price doesn't seem fair to them—"
Sati's grin shifted into something deliberately mischievous, and she turned her gaze directly to Shutia.
"Of course I'm sure! You're our best regulars. And besides — Shutia promised me she'd make me her official little sister eventually, so—"
"PFFF—?!"
Shutia sprayed space tea across the cockpit floor.
"I didn't — that's not — Sati, what are you saying?! Don't make things up, sis's eyes are doing something extremely alarming right now—!"
"Haha! See you at the dock!"
The call ended. Shutia's tea was on the floor.
Ledea looked at her sister. Then she let out a small, exasperated, completely fond laugh. Sati finding new ways to embarrass Shutia, Shutia responding with her entire being — these small pointless exchanges were, Ledea thought, among the things she valued most in the world right now.
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3. The Noise of Stars, or: Loud Neighbors
"Alright. Stop panicking and come back to the afternoon work."
"Ugh — Sati is so mean... oh, but sis laughed, so that's okay..."
Shutia exhaled with relief and reached for the crane arm's control system.
Then a voice came through the open public work channel — high, imperious, exactly as capable of cutting through ambient noise as it had always been.
"Excuse me! The alignment on that right-side panel is entirely without elegance! Tilt it — fifteen degrees, no, thirty degrees, to express the aesthetic of the cosmos—!"
On the other side of the work barrier, floating serenely away from the actual work: the Golden Star, and Katrine, gesturing.
"...She's here again," Shutia said, with the tone of someone confronting something inevitable.
"I can hear you, you deranged stalker little-sister-type—!!"
Katrine's comm found the Silver Anchor with uncanny precision. On the monitor she had her dramatic fan open and was pointing.
"My artistic sensibility — which is, as everyone knows, the finest in the galaxy — is simply beyond what any ordinary odd-job operator could appreciate! Shall we finally settle this, here in Subaru's own star sea, whose work is superior—?!"
Ledea and Shutia looked at each other.
Then, from behind Katrine's feed, a flat, unhurried girl's voice layered in:
"...gold-paint lady. the welding on this block isn't done. you're loud. move your hands."
"Oh — Kanoa," Ledea said, noticing the Aqua Ignition's navy hull at the edge of the monitor.
"That's right, miss! Save the speeches and get the crane moving — we've got a deadline—!"
The surrounding work crew added their own commentary, and Katrine's face went red. "A deadline?! You dare speak to me of such a mundane concept—!"
"Katrine, it's not nice to disrupt everyone's work~ Come on, let's do our section first~"
Asphi's voice arrived at its usual unhurried pace, and the Aqua Ignition extended its large manipulator arms from the underside and clamped them firmly around the Golden Star's hull.
"Wait—?! I'm going, I'm going, you don't need to drag me — ohohohoHOHO—!"
Katrine's signature laugh, somewhat distorted by distress, echoed away as the Aqua Ignition towed the Golden Star toward a different work zone.
As they went, Kanoa looked back toward the Silver Anchor's comm with a deliberate expression.
"...small sis. next time at Gaming Galaxy, I'll settle things properly. try not to embarrass yourself in front of Shutia before then."
The moment those words landed, Ledea produced a smile that was, technically, perfect in every formal sense.
The vein at her temple suggested alternate feelings.
"I'll look forward to it. After I finish dismantling you in the game, I intend to invite Asphi for a proper adult tea."
"I would like to attend as well!" Katrine, from somewhere out of frame, into a channel no one had invited her to.
"Sis! You can't invite Asphi for tea! She seems wonderful and warm but that's exactly why she's the most dangerous one — you'll get completely outmaneuvered—!"
Shutia was pulling on Ledea's sleeve with visible urgency.
In the corner of the comm screen, Asphi watched all of it with her hand at her cheek and her smile exactly as it always was — warm, patient, and appearing to see everything perfectly clearly.
The work finished on schedule, without incident, with the usual amount of noise.
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4. A Knight's Temptation, or: A Little Sister's Terms
The new hologram tower came to life in the distance, filling open space with color. The Mace sisters' ship turned for home.
One more incoming communication. Not the public channel. Not the guild line. The encryption indicator was doing something unusual.
On the screen: Lumie Alnilam.
"Good work today, Mace sisters. The site team gave an excellent report."
"Lumie. Thank you for calling."
Ledea answered warmly, then noticed the encryption indicator again, and her brow moved.
"...Lumie, forgive me — is this a fully encrypted private channel? Not a guild official line?"
Lumie, caught, let her gaze wander for a moment. Then her cheeks went the color of something ripe.
"Yes... I wanted to contact you directly, without going through the guild or the management bureau, and I asked Father to arrange it. Just a small imposition on his authority—"
"...That is an abuse of executive privilege."
Ledea said it with a level of sincerity that suggested she was genuinely slightly alarmed.
Lumie, undeterred, leaned toward the screen and directed her full attention to the golden-haired figure in the co-pilot's seat.
"So — Shutia. About the proposition I mentioned before. My knight. I would be very glad to have you. And Ledea, naturally, would be welcomed into our household as well, under the finest terms we can offer—"
"Ugh—"
Shutia received this head-on, with her arm in its sling, and visibly lost structural integrity.
"That's — I'm truly honored, it really is — but I — my purpose, so to speak, is working as an odd-job operator with sis, so I'm not sure I can — that is to say—"
She couldn't quite get to the refusal. She couldn't quite not refuse.
Lumie watched this process with increasing color in her cheeks, and then pressed both hands together in front of her chest.
"...I see. If you're going to be that firm about it — perhaps the order of things is simply wrong? Should I become your little sister first?"
"...Pardon?"
"I've heard this. That your style, as an odd-job operator, is to begin with little sister — build the relationship — and from there, over time, arrive at knight. A wonderful system. I would happily follow it."
"Who told you that?! Where did that completely fictional system come from?!"
The temperature in the cockpit went somewhere well below comfortable.
"......Hm. Shutia." Ledea's neck moved, with considerable deliberateness, until she was looking directly at her sister. The silver eyes were not reflecting much light. "So you've been developing a methodology. For acquiring little sisters. Across the entire station. Without my knowledge."
"I haven't! That system doesn't exist and I didn't create it! Was it Sati?! Was it Katrine?! Sis, please — I need you to believe me — the only person who is my older sister in my soul in this world and in all of recorded history is Ledea Mace and no one else — I swear on everything—!!"
Shutia was, at this point, something very close to full prostration.
Through the screen, Lumie watched the whole thing reach its peak, and then dissolved into real laughter — the kind she probably didn't have occasion for very often.
Ledea's expression came back to its usual warmth, and she smiled.
"Hehe. I'm only teasing. ...But please, let's stay close. Both of you. Mace sisters."
"We'd like that very much. Thank you, Lumie."
The call ended gently.
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5. A Rainbow Crystal, or: A Sister's Gaze
"Hahhh... I genuinely thought that was it. Sis's eyes just then were actively reducing my survival probability to single digits..."
Shutia exhaled and reached for the cold space tea she hadn't spilled and drank deeply.
The ordinary air of the cockpit settled back in. And into that ordinary air, a question that had been sitting quietly in Shutia's mind for a week finally surfaced.
"Hey, sis. ...Can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"How did you find me? The Luna Geist's position — you knew exactly where I was, and the timing was perfect. How?"
Ledea let go of the controls and turned her chair to face her sister directly.
"Isn't it obvious." She said it the way she might say the sky was above them. "Shutia, you've always placed tracking devices on my things. My clothes. My belongings. Haven't you."
"...Oh."
Shutia went completely still. The cup trembled slightly in her hand.
"I mean... ahaha... tracking devices... did I...? I wonder if... ahahahaha..."
"Don't try to dodge this. I am your older sister."
Ledea's exasperation was complete and genuine. But the eyes that looked at her sister held something else entirely — a depth of warmth that didn't have a name for itself.
"You are not the only one who worries. My little sister, who had been acting strangely, leaving alone — of course her older sister was going to be concerned. And furthermore—"
She paused.
"When I was reviewing the dock systems — looking at the traces of whatever you had installed in the Silver Anchor's deepest compartment — the back-channel protocol you had used left a path I could trace. That's how the field's presence made itself known. And that's how I found the route to you."
She stood. She walked to where Shutia was sitting and reached up, and let her fingers rest against the bandaged forehead — gently, with more care than the situation technically required.
"Even if your past was harder than mine. Even if your experience and your ability are greater than mine in ways I may never close. Even if you are, technically, my older sister—"
She met Shutia's eyes.
"Right now, your older sister is me."
"..."
The tears that came from Shutia's golden eyes this time were not the tears of a battle ending. They were something quieter and more total than that.
Whatever she had done. Whatever she still carried. Whatever the dark parts of herself she could not name — this person would love her and call herself her sister anyway. That fact had reached somewhere nothing else could reach.
"Yeah... yeah. Sis..."
"Yes, yes. No crying. And absolutely no wiping it on the pajamas."
They laughed.
Behind them, on a shelf in the cabin, sat the old adventure book — the one that had given Shutia the courage to keep going through all the years of searching.
And beside it: the Stellite they had found together, deep in an asteroid field no one had charted, that no one else had ever seen — casting its quiet rainbow light across the interior of the Silver Anchor, blessing whatever came next, and shining on without end.
(Final chapter — complete)