Episode 1: Starfall
The air inside the space observatory was still—too still.
Monitors hummed with soft blue light, blinking across the curved glass walls like quiet stars, reflecting off polished steel. Dr. Aria Noelle Hoshino, lead astrophysicist of the Astros Project, stared at a slowly rotating hologram of a neutron star on her screen. Her dark eyes didn't blink. Her gloved fingers moved rapidly on the glass interface as equations spilled across it, white symbols dancing over a spinning model of atomic particles.
"Singularity holds. Phase alignment confirmed. Quantum field is stable," she murmured, her voice sharp, practiced. "All systems green. Today's the day."
Behind her, the door slid open with a soft hiss. A young man poked his head in, hair sticking up in all directions. "Doctor Hoshino! The Director just cleared the Phase Leap test. They're waiting for you downstairs."
Aria didn't react immediately. Her mind was half-buried in formulas. Then, she exhaled, pushed her glasses higher, and nodded. "Alright. Let's go rewrite the limits of the universe."
It was raining.
Hours later, the lab had cleared out, her data uploaded, backup drives stored. She stood at the crosswalk near the institute's bus terminal, umbrella in hand, face tilted upward toward the silver clouds. Cold rain tapped against her skin, as if trying to pull her back from the warmth of success.
She didn't hear the engine.
She only saw the blinding headlights, felt her body move too late—and in that final second, her trained mind calmly observed a single thought:
"So this is how it ends. Not in the stars, but under them."
Impact. Darkness. Silence.
🌑
She heard birds.
Warmth spread across her skin—sunlight? Her eyelashes fluttered, and the world around her came into blurred focus. She wasn't lying on cold pavement or in a hospital. No metal. No machines.
Instead, she felt silk sheets, the scent of lilies, and the gentle rhythm of birdsong outside an open window. Her body was smaller—her limbs delicate, her voice soft and high when she gasped.
A woman with golden hair and eyes the color of springtime turned toward her, expression blooming with radiant relief.
"Elara! My sweet moonlight, you're awake!"
Elara?
Moonlight?
The woman scooped her into a warm embrace, tears streaming freely. A man soon followed—a tall figure with silver hair and a strong jaw. His golden eyes were fierce, but now they softened like honey warmed in sunlight.
"My little one," he whispered. "Thank the heavens… my daughter is awake."
Daughter?
More footsteps. Older, heavier. An elderly man with sharp cheekbones and wise, weathered eyes strode in—flanked by five boys, all tall, all carrying different weapons or robes, their faces equally stunned.
"Elara's awake?!" the youngest brother yelled, rushing to her side.
"My baby sister!" said another, scooping her up while the woman scolded him gently for being too rough.
And all the while, Aria—now Elara—watched in stunned silence.
"This is... a noble house," she thought. "I'm a child again. Reincarnated? This... this isn't Earth."
She stared down at her hands. Smaller. Softer. Then glanced in the polished mirror beside the bed. White hair. Pale silver eyes. A strange mark on her wrist—glowing faintly with an unfamiliar glyph.
Her heart beat faster.
This wasn't some dream. It was too vivid, too real. She remembered the crash, the light, the moment her atoms scattered.
"I'm not just alive again," she realized. "I'm... somewhere else."
That night, her mother sang her to sleep with a lullaby about elemental spirits and sleeping stars. But Elara didn't sleep.
She lay awake, staring at the moon outside the window, a thousand questions spinning like galaxies in her mind.
"New world. New life. Elements… Awakening…? My name is Elara Vaelcrest. And this world… it feels like it runs on laws I was never allowed to play with."
She smiled softly, resting her hand against her chest.
"This time… I'll go beyond the stars."
🌠 End of Episode 1