[Earth]
Earth was a round world filled with countless species. Water covered most of its surface, while the remaining land was divided into countries and cities where humans had built their lives.
Humanity had developed rapidly. They had created machines, constructed roads, built vehicles, developed artificial intelligence, and surrounded their cities with technology that continued to advance every year.
It was early morning, and people were already preparing for work and school. The sun had risen above the world, casting warm light across the blue sky. Birds moved between the buildings and trees, calling to one another in sounds humans did not fully understand. Children hurried through their morning routines while adults made their way into the streets.
For a short while, Earth remained peaceful.
[Japan — Tokyo]
A busy road stretched toward a large intersection controlled by traffic lights. Cars moved through the lanes while pedestrians waited at the crossing.
Inside one of the vehicles, a young man pressed harder on the accelerator.
"Jeez, slow down!" his friend shouted from the passenger seat. "You're speeding!"
"Are you not enjoying the sound of the engine?" the driver replied with a grin.
He pushed his foot down again. The engine roared, and his friend grabbed the side of his seat.
As they approached the intersection, the traffic light remained green.
"Bro, slow down!" the passenger shouted. "We're getting too close!"
"Stop being such a baby. The light is still green. We're going to make it!"
The driver pressed the accelerator again.
Then a portal opened directly ahead of them.
It appeared without warning and vanished almost immediately.
The driver's eyes widened.
"Slam on the brakes!"
He struck the brakes with all his strength, but it was too late. The car slammed into the side of the intersection barrier, lifted onto two wheels, rolled across the road, and crashed.
The impact brought traffic to a standstill. Drivers abandoned their vehicles. Pedestrians froze in the middle of the pavement and stared at the place where the portal had appeared.
A figure stood in the wreckage.
"She has wings," someone whispered.
"Is that an angel?" another person asked.
"Is this real?"
Phones rose throughout the crowd as people began recording. Someone called the police while others continued staring at the small winged figure who had fallen onto the road.
The wings had initially covered her face. Slowly, they opened.
It was Astra.
She had landed on Earth.
Astra's form flickered as she adjusted to the unfamiliar world around her. She looked across the road, confused by the vehicles, the buildings, and the gathering crowd.
Where am I? she wondered.
Her gaze moved toward the sky.
This isn't Orynx. Where did Nova send me?
Astra rose carefully and took one step forward.
The people around her moved backward at once. Some raised their phones higher while others hid behind their vehicles.
Astra looked from one face to another, then spoke in her own language.
"Vael enora - Where am i."
No one understood her.
"What is she saying?" one man asked.
A person beside him shook his head.
"That isn't the important question. Didn't you see how she appeared?"
Astra looked around more anxiously. She did not know where she was, and she had no idea whether the humans surrounding her intended to help or harm her.
She opened her wings and prepared to rise into the air.
A sharp electrical discharge struck her.
Bzzzt!
Astra's body convulsed from the sudden force. Her energy collapsed, and she fell unconscious onto the road.
A police officer stood several steps away, staring at the taser in his hand. He had expected the weapon to subdue her, but he had not expected her to fall so completely.
When Astra's eyes opened again, she looked directly at him.
Another officer hurried to his side.
"Her eyes…" the female officer whispered. "They're completely white. Is she really an angel?"
Four more officers arrived and surrounded Astra. She pushed herself upright, but the officers immediately stepped back. One of them raised another taser and fired.
Astra fell again.
After several seconds, her energy gathered enough for her to rise. She spread her wings and pulled them around herself like a shield.
The female officer stared at the wings.
"Why isn't it affecting her properly?" she asked. "She's using the wings to shield herself."
A SWAT vehicle soon arrived with an ambulance behind it. The team rushed out carrying tasers. One of the officers raised his left hand and closed it into a fist.
"Fire!"
Several tasers discharged at once.
The combined electricity struck Astra. Her wings tightened around her body, but the force overwhelmed her energy. She collapsed and lost consciousness again.
The officers secured her and carried her into the ambulance.
As the vehicle drove away, one of the people who had witnessed everything lowered his phone.
"Poor girl," he said. "She looks like a child."
[Tokyo Advanced Research Facility Headquarters — Medical Wing]
The Tokyo Advanced Research Facility, known as TARF, was a massive complex that housed several medical and scientific departments. Its main building rose more than fifteen floors above the city, and some of the most advanced research in Japan was carried out inside it.
Astra had been taken to the medical wing.
"This is unbelievable," Kurogawa said as he watched her through the transparent glass. "An angel."
Kurogawa owned TARF and also held a high-ranking position within the military. He had seen unusual cases before, but nothing that resembled the being lying unconscious inside the examination room.
"We still need to determine what she is," Sakura replied. "We need to understand her structure, identify what sustains her, and find out where she came from."
Sakura was a medical-imaging specialist. She stood beside Kurogawa with several doctors and researchers while Astra remained motionless on the examination bed.
Kurogawa kept his gaze on her.
The examination began.
Sakura worked with two senior doctors—Dr. Elias Morgan, a biomedical scientist, and Dr. Aiko Tanaka, a physicist—while several junior doctors assisted them with the equipment and collected the results.
They began with a CT scan. Astra was placed inside the large, doughnut-shaped machine, and the scanner moved around her, using X-rays from multiple angles to create images of her internal structure.
When the scan ended, the technicians brought Astra out and transferred the results to Sakura.
"Organize everything," Sakura instructed the junior doctors. "We'll compare these results with the next test."
They prepared the MRI scanner next. Its long tunnel surrounded Astra as the machine used a powerful magnetic field and radio waves to produce detailed images of soft structures.
When the scan finished, Sakura immediately examined the results.
Her expression changed.
"Run it again."
The doctors repeated the process, but the results did not change.
Sakura stared at the screens before raising her hand.
"Give me the image from the previous scan."
A technician handed it to her. Sakura studied it while the other doctors gathered around the monitor.
Dr. Elias Morgan frowned.
"I don't understand. How is she still functioning?"
They repeated the MRI scan once more. The results remained the same.
After several minutes, the doctors sat in silence, looking through the glass at Astra.
Sakura finally spoke.
"Let's try an ultrasound."
This time, Sakura performed the examination herself. She sat beside Astra and moved the probe across her form, scanning her chest, abdomen, limbs, and head while the monitor displayed the internal images.
The results confused her even more.
Astra did not possess the human structures the equipment had been designed to identify. There was no ordinary heart, no blood, and no recognizable bone structure. There was also no normal brain pattern.
Instead, the scan showed a circular core-like structure surrounded by countless channels. The channels extended throughout Astra's form, carrying an energy the machine could not classify.
Sakura stared at the monitor.
The other doctors stared with her.
"Is this really possible?" one of the junior doctors asked.
Sakura shook her head slowly.
"Apparently, it is. But she isn't human. I still don't understand what we're looking at."
Dr. Elias Morgan folded his arms.
"Anything with a functioning form should have something sustaining it. Let's use the spectrometer."
Dr. Aiko Tanaka nodded.
"I agree. At the very least, it should tell us what is flowing through those channels."
They connected Astra to the spectrometer and began the next examination. The researchers watched the monitor, then looked through the glass toward Astra, then returned their attention to the readings.
The system struggled to process the results.
Aiko leaned closer to the screen.
"I don't think any of these tests will work on her," he said. "But I have a theory."
Sakura, Elias, and the junior doctors turned toward him.
Before Aiko could continue, Commander Kurogawa entered the observation room. He walked toward the group and looked through the transparent glass separating them from Astra's room.
"Do you have any results?" he asked.
Sakura sighed.
"We have results, but none of them make sense."
She looked at Astra for a long moment.
"This being has no heart, no vital fluid, and no pulse. Her form does not rely on oxygen, and the scans cannot identify a bone structure or a brain. There is a circular core inside her, but I don't know whether it is an organ or something else entirely."
She pointed toward the images on the monitor.
"There are countless channels throughout her body, but we can't determine what they carry. The spectrometer returned an error when it tried to identify the substance. Her entire structure is complicated, and the equipment cannot interpret it."
Kurogawa stared at Astra through the glass.
"So she isn't from Earth."
Sakura's expression tightened.
"That is the only conclusion I can reach."
Kurogawa remained silent for a moment. Then he took out his phone and dialed a number.
Everyone continued watching Astra while the call connected.
When the person answered, Kurogawa spoke one name.
"Lyla."
To be continued…