Heaven’s Path

As Astra began to come down the steps, those in the room who were there for Astra's previous banquets noticed something strange.

They saw Astra Sera moving towards the giant metal door! Soon enough, she eventually exited!

Astra has never done this in any of the previous banquets, so it came to a surprise to those who were at Astra's previous halls.

For those who weren't, this was their first time seeing Astra at the banquet. They just turned their heads, wondering where she'll be going next. They then began to pay attention to the announcer.

Nonetheless, they all believed that Astra was going to come back, since she still had other activities to announce. So, mostly everyone simply wondered where she was going to go, and left it at that. Well, except for a couple of stubborn reporters and journalists who followed her to the door. 

Fortunately, they didn't follow Astra outside of the banquet.

"Now, as we wait for Dr. Sera to come back," The announcer wasted no time and proceeded with the rest of the program for the evening, despite Astra's disappearance. 

"Let me introduce to you, a new revelation in both fusion technology and artificial intelligence, Fusion Super Intelligence, or 'F.S.I.' for short! Designed by none other than Dr. Himiko Tanaka, a genius among geniuses! This will help us not only be more efficient in science and astronomy work, but this may even help us kickstart a new branch of energy technology! Give it up for him as I invite him to the stage!" The announcer said with excitement, followed by an enthusiastic applause.

"They chose a talker to go next, even though he wasn't supposed to be next. The announcer doesn't seem that confident that Astra is coming back…" Aria softly made a conclusion in her head as she clapped.

However, while she and Xavier clapped softly, something was on their minds. 

They both felt as if something was off!

They didn't know Astra well—not much more than any of those in the hall, but they were her coworkers. It was natural for them to be more attached to Astra personally than anyone else, and this attachment to her allowed them to worry about why she would leave so suddenly.

They both exchanged glances towards each other, and simply looked at the metal door that was closed shut.

Aria leaned closer to Xavier. "Now…do you think that's something she'd usually do? Maybe she's going to the bathroom? What do you think?" Aria says under her breath. "I don't think she's coming back anytime soon."

"I'm not sure, but I don't exactly think so," Xavier whispers back. "I doubt she'd simply just leave like that. But then again, I don't understand 90% of the things she does usually."

"…I don't think this is something she'd usually do. I think there's a good chance she's affected by that 'thing' earlier, and maybe everything that's going on here is messing with her thought process. I mean, it makes sense for an introvert like her." Aria moves away from Xavier and then crosses her arms.

Xavier puts his finger under his chin and thinks for a few seconds. He then leaned closer to Aria, whose gaze never left the announcer. "You're right. While we can't go by whether or not this is out of character…" Xavier pauses for a second. 

"I guess it is reasonable to assume what you're saying is correct, based on what just happened an hour earlier…it likely hasn't even been an hour since that thing happened. Plus, it seems most people here were confused by it."

Suddenly, without saying a word, Aria picks up her purse, gets up from her seat and quietly pushes the seat back into the table while the announcer is speaking. She then begins to start moving toward the giant metal door.

All Xavier did was look with a confused face as Aria left the table.

"Wait, she wants to go look for her…? Didn't she just say that it's reasonable to assume she's leaving to organize her thought process…" Xavier sighs and begins to get up from his seat.

"Sorry, I have to use the bathroom." Xavier also heads towards the door, and subsequently exits after he approaches it.

No one really paid any attention to Aria or Xavier when they left.

As Xavier left, he could've heard the sounds of the announcer and other things going on in the banquet being drowned out by the walls of the hall.

"Excellent, you followed me. I almost didn't expect that. We're going to find Astra." Aria says with confidence, before Xavier could even turn his head.

"…Why?" Xavier quickly turns his head toward Aria, while his eyebrow raised.

"Let's walk and talk," Aria wasted no time before beginning to move. Xavier, still confused and wanting answers, began following her.

"To answer your question," Half a minute passed by before Aria opened her mouth. "Wouldn't it make sense for us to try and look for her at this moment if we truly want to understand her?"

They both walked past the lobby, heading to where the closest bathroom was. It was on the first floor.

"Wouldn't we be bothering her in this way, though?" Xavier asks a good question.

"Maybe. But if we want any chance to get to know her better, now would be the time. Especially if she's trying to deal with something she doesn't fully understand yet."

Xavier and Aria arrive at the first floor women's bathroom.

"Wait here, I'll check to see if she's inside of here." Aria promptly enters the bathroom. After about 20 seconds, she exits and shakes her head, signaling that Astra isn't in there.

They then decide to head to where her room is, and see if she's in there.

"So, you believe that this will help make us understand her more?" Xavier asks.

"Not just that, it'll let her know that we want to understand her also." Aria responds.

"I assume she already knows that…" Xavier narrowed his eyes in doubt.

"Maybe…but a little more effort wouldn't hurt, wouldn't it?"

After about 5 minutes of fast walking, they were able to reach Astra's room. Aria knocked first, and then Xavier knocked after her. They then tried to call out to her, but there was no response.

Not wasting any time, they split up and went to many other bathrooms and other potential places like labs that Astra would likely be. But this was to no success as they haven't seen, or even heard her anywhere. 

They even attempted to call her on their phones, but she wasn't picking up. At their final location, they met up back again to the fourth floor bathroom. There was a window next to the elevator, its faint blue light flowing through the hallway. 

After seeing each other, without even saying a word to each other, they stopped to catch their breath as they were both breathing heavily. This was partly due to tiredness and partly due to frustration.

Where could Astra even be? 

At the same time, they wondered whether this had anything to do with the pale Astra from before. For a second, they thought that she would've turned pale again and that's why she left.

But they didn't dwell too much about this, since it seems Astra herself was shocked about her being pale. It didn't seem like she knew when she would suddenly turn pale again, otherwise she wouldn't have even been in her room.

Besides, they need to find her first before coming up with theories. They were in an even worse predicament since there wasn't much time left before she had to make her second announcement.

"It doesn't seem like she's in there either. And I think that's the last one…" Aria said outside of the fourth floor bathroom, lowering her head in defeat after looking for 30 minutes. 

"W-why don't we just go back?" Xavier anxiously says with an exasperated look on his face. "Clearly we won't be able to find her. I'd say we spare ourselves the trouble and try to at least get some food…"

"…" Aria said nothing in response, her head still lowered.

"We don't have any idea how she thinks. I'd like to know more about her also, but evidently it's completely in vain. I'd say she needs to try and reach out to us before we try to reach out to her, especially when she's so…" Xavier paused for a few seconds.

"She's so what?" Aria asks with curiosity as she brings her head up from her lowered position.

"…She's so different. She's a genius in all aspects, basically perfect in all aspects…why do we have to try and do all of this to reach her? If she was trying to connect with us, this would be so much easier…" Xavier stares intently into Aria's eyes.

"Are you saying she's obligated to try and connect with us?" Aria asks, genuinely confused.

"I'm saying that she should put in some effort in trying to reach us too…if the situations were reversed, do you think that she would do the same thing?" Xavier said with a wavering voice.

"No." Aria didn't even hesitate with her answer.

"So why are we doing all of this?" Xavier asked while spreading his arms out momentarily and bringing them back out. "Why should we put in so much effort when she wouldn't do the same for us?"

Aria then walks toward the window that was next to the elevator. She looks outside of the window with a poker expression, admiring the beauty of the Milky Way and the starry night sky. The light of the sky illuminated her face beautifully, casting a shadow on her back.

"You and Astra are two completely different beings, Astra and I are two completely different beings, and it's not just surface level things like looks and status. Heh, even though I would like for her to be more normal, this is the truth."

Xavier continues to stare at Aria, wondering what she's getting at.

"You said it yourself, Astra is different," Aria says with an emotionless tone as she continues to look at the Milky Way, its light reflecting off of her emerald eyes. 

"Which would mean that the things she'd do for us are different from the things we'd do for her. Sure, she wouldn't be running around looking for us, sure she wouldn't tell us about what happened with that thing…but why does she have to do those things to show that she cares?" Aria paused before continuing again. 

"She did choose us to be her coworkers after all, despite the fact that we barely know her. And despite the fact that she barely knows us, we're doing this for her."

Aria then proceeds to look back at Xavier, a shadow forming in front of her body as the light from the sky touches her back. "Perhaps…in this specific way, this makes us two and Astra, not so different after all. And maybe, this same way of thinking can help us to make Astra understand herself a little bit more. We're all human, after all." 

Aria looks back at the night sky.

"Fundamentally, we're all the same…caring for each other…"

"So, what are you saying?"

Aria turns towards Xavier again.

"I'm saying that perhaps Astra just wants someone to be there for her in moments like these. As far as we know, she doesn't have any friends, or even family that she can reliably talk to. She's always in her room, watching the sky, reading books, making theories, or…" Aria paused for a few seconds, knowing that she ran out of normal things to say that she knows Astra likes doing. 

"Or…doing something else that she likes. If we are there for her now, it'll give us a proper opportunity to help her understand herself outside of such methods." Aria continued with her thought anyway.

Xavier looks to the side, while his eyebrows creased.

"But how can we expect to be there for her reliably when she doesn't trust us…"

"How can we expect her to trust us when we're not there for her reliably?" Aria asked, her tone becoming more passionate.

A short silence ensued before Xavier sighed.

"Why did you come to follow me? You knew I was going to look for Astra, right?" Aria spoke up to Xavier with a reasonable question. "You're complaining about this, but you spent effort to help me look for her. Even now, if you truly had enough doubts, you would've left instead of entertaining this discussion."

Xavier promptly looked back up towards Aria upon hearing those words. He placed his hand on his chin, in a thinking position.

"You still have a hope in finding her, right?" Aria persisted.

"…" Xavier stood speechless.

Aria continued to look at him, slowly getting more frustrated.

"Xavier, we're running out of time. If you don't want to tell me why, just tell me already!" Aria raised her voice, which shocked Xavier slightly.

However, he still didn't respond.

After a few seconds she sighs and begins moving away from the window.

"I'm going to go look for Astra, I can't waste time on you trying to-" Aria says as she was about to move past Xavier, but she got interrupted.

"Wait." Xavier began to move to the window. As he approached it, he placed his hand on the window, pointing to the Milky Way. "She likes looking at the night sky, right? If she's not in her room, then…"

Aria looks back at him and widens her mouth and eyes in surprise.

"You're right! But why would she be outside? A snowstorm was projected to pass by here…" Aria then narrows her eyes in slight confusion.

"Well, only Dr. Sera would do something like that, right?" Xavier then turns around toward the elevator and presses a button on the elevator. "We don't have much time before she eventually might get hurt due to the snowstorm! She's a genius but that doesn't mean she's mentally sane right now…!"

Aria felt her heart drop. She knew exactly what this meant. They didn't even consider her coming back if the snowstorm actually hit the facility.

"Let's go, then!" She goes behind Xavier who was right in front of the elevator door, waiting for it.

Ting! Whoosh…

The elevator door opened up.

As it did, they walked in.

Xavier pressed the ground floor button. As he does, a "whooshing" sound was heard as the door closed.

In the elevator, there was tense silence.

They knew if they were to go outside, they'd have to face freezing temperatures before an impending snowstorm…and they didn't have the time to find equipment.

Aria sighs, but then chuckles slightly, trying to lighten the mood. "Who knew that you would've found out a way after all of that complaining you did? It turns out you did want to find her. Were you trying to make excuses not to see her again? Don't you have any shame?" Aria then took on a mischievous grin and approached Xavier, teasing him.

"Shut up." Xavier said as he didn't even look back at Aria while he waited on the elevator to open up again.

The truth is, what Aria implied was right.

Xavier was afraid of seeing Astra again. And as if it branched off from his previous fear, he was subconsciously afraid that his very small distrust in his heart would've grown if this attempt to find her failed. 

He was afraid of both his failure and of his perceived idea of Astra not trusting him.

But his respect and care for Astra never left him.

Ding! The elevator made its signature sound, and it opened to reveal the lobby.