Drifting Between Silence and Stars

Setsuka and her party leave her world using an unusual form of transport: a spaceship shaped like a cube inside a larger transparent cube. Her party encounters human forces clashing with the Purple Cosmo group, with the battle continuing even outside Setsuka’s fabricated worlds. The human forces make way for her party to escape far from the conflict. The allied human forces plan to send a small team alongside her party, but they are cut off and destroyed, leaving Setsuka’s party completely alone while traversing space.

Setsuka decides to search for her sister, parents, and home planet. However, many long years—or even decades—pass without success. She realizes how vast the universe truly is, and that despite having seen many people before, it does not lessen how lonely such a vast universe can be. They recall their memories, especially Setsuka, who fully regains hers. The journey becomes quiet, lonely, and cold—sometimes requiring jackets, sometimes warmth from nearby dead stars.

The male aware MC suddenly becomes sick and must be frozen temporarily, while the female aware MC begins losing her memories. Setsuka cries repeatedly as these events unfold. She speaks to herself, completely alone. Although the female MC can still speak, her speech regresses to that of a child as her memories fade. Setsuka feels helpless, and in one of her final cries, nearly out of breath, she stands alone on a scenic moon with a nebula-filled background—a painful scene for the viewer.

The cube-within-a-cube spaceship runs out of power and drifts for a long time. Everything inside becomes quiet as the ship slowly drifts into a black hole. Things become strange as they are spaghettified and drawn into the singularity. Inside the black hole is a complete black void. Strangely, the spaceship “crashes” somewhere within it. One by one, fires light up and approach the ship, as if inspecting the wreckage. As Setsuka realizes what the fires are, she sees they are torches held by red, traditional Japanese ogres.

The ogres ask, “Are you lost? Do you need help?” Setsuka hesitates—not because she is afraid, but because she does not want to admit her struggle or trouble others. The viewers hear her internal monologue as she wrestles with this, until she finally admits defeat and cries for help: “Yes… yes… I need your help,” shedding many tears.

The scene shifts to everyone walking together toward the ogres’ homes. Setsuka is visibly sweating as she herself becomes ill. One female ogre wearing a mask speaks to Setsuka, telling her to get some rest, but Setsuka insists she is fine. The ogre realizes Setsuka is stubborn and instead shifts the conversation, recalling memories of hopelessness and how flowers in this place led her to meet other ogres who cherish the hope flowers bring. She explains that it does not hurt to ask for help.

[Setsuka later realizes that the female ogres in the group are actually female humans wearing ogre masks, while the males are real traditional Japanese ogres. This is revealed when a female ogre removes her mask, showing a completely blank white face with no eyes, mouth, or facial features resembling a human.]

As Setsuka thanks the female ogre for her companionship, she begins to see the ogre group more clearly. She notices the female aware MC playing with ogre children, her behavior now childlike due to memory loss, while the frozen male aware MC is being carried on a building-sized stretcher, similar to a Bon Odori-style platform carried by men with a large structure in the middle.

Bit by bit, as they approach the ogre home base in the middle of the black void, the surroundings grow brighter. The ground gradually becomes more solid, covered with vegetation and flowers.

The traveling ogre group, led by their leader, is greeted by a cold vice chieftain and others who say, “Another human?” The ogre leader responds enthusiastically, “Yes, another human.” Setsuka asks what they mean by “another human.” The ogres introduce Setsuka and her party to another individual, who turns out to be a White Cosmo refugee.

The lost White Cosmo man insists he was not lost, but instead became trapped there while attempting to overthrow a corrupted planet and reunite with his friends. During his time in the black hole, he discovered the peace of the ogre tribe. He explains that the moment he leaves this place using another broken prototype fabricator, both allies and enemies will detect his presence. Setsuka interrupts, asking if there is a fabricator down here.

The ogre tribe, Setsuka, and her party want to leave, but the White Cosmo man hesitates. After an emotional episode within the black hole, the White Cosmo man, the ogre tribe, and Setsuka’s party agree to leave together. Just minutes after exiting the black hole, they are confronted by the White Cosmo man’s enemies, announcing that the Cosmo Emperor has returned.

A battle erupts immediately after their escape. They reunite with members and forces of the hidden White Cosmo group. Setsuka’s cube-within-a-cube transport becomes operational again thanks to the ogres’ repairs. Everyone departs in their own ships, though many lives are lost.

Suddenly, two neutron stars merge violently and explode, damaging both allies and enemies and pushing them far apart.

The evil leader of the Purple Cosmo consults a “mirror, mirror”–like entity, but in the form of a super AI. He asks who the most powerful being is. The super AGI/ASI/AI replies, “Not you—your sire.” Suddenly, a sword stored in the Purple Cosmo treasury launches violently toward Setsuka and her party.