It was a clear, cloudless night.
An elderly man in his twilight years stood on the rooftop balcony of a Western-style mansion, gazing out at the star-filled night sky.
Ordinarily, such a spectacular sight of starlight glittering would have been impossible to see without a long-exposure photograph. But in the old man's eyes, not even the faintest glimmer of starlight could escape his notice.
A blue shooting star appeared near Spica in Virgo, streaking across the night sky and giving off a light that magi would have found incomparably brilliant.
The meteor grew brighter and brighter, yet ordinary people failed to notice it. The old man watched it in silence, his cloak snapping in the night wind. If it continued along its predetermined course, that blue meteor would surely fall upon this town.
If it was a calamity, then he would remove it. That was what the old man thought. After all, he had no desire to see the island nation he lived in become a second South America. At his age, he certainly did not want to run around every day cleaning up after people like that stone-playing fellow.
What irony, the old man mocked himself. Mages were clearly enemies of the world, yet people still asked them to protect it.
The meteor drew closer, and its blue radiance grew ever brighter. The tall old man, who had seemed entirely ordinary before, now bore a completely different presence.
No, rather than saying he was an old man now, it would be more accurate to say that he had returned to the appearance of his youth. His graying hair turned blood-red, shining with a dazzling glow.
The surroundings around the young man warped beneath his overwhelming magical power. Even the flowers and grass in the garden grew, bloomed, and withered at impossible speeds.
If anyone had looked up at the sky from the young man's perspective, they would have seen day and night rapidly alternating, fragments of time shifting in an impossible sequence and at impossible speeds.
Yet that blue meteor continued flying toward the town at its original speed and along its original trajectory, while the young man's presence was about to reach its peak.
The instant before the meteor could affect the town, its light suddenly began to fade at a rapid pace, ultimately vanishing into nothingness.
The young man raised an eyebrow and waited for a moment, but no further strange phenomenon appeared.
His hair turned gray again, his skin grew loose, and wrinkles crawled across his cheeks like spreading roots.
The old man gave the tranquil night sky one final look, then headed down the stairs without looking back. He intended to return to his workshop and continue his work, but an abrupt, shrill telephone ring sounded through the silent mansion.
The old man frowned, walked over to the telephone, and picked up the receiver.
"It's me," the old man said coldly. "What is it?"
"...Father," a somewhat timid middle-aged man's voice came through the receiver. "The second child has been born. She's a girl too. Would you like to come see her?"
"...Forget it," the old man replied after hesitating for a moment. "Seeing this old man's face so soon after being born would be far too disappointing."
"...You jest," the middle-aged man said. "Please give this child a name, just as you did for her older sister."
The old man tilted his head back and stared at the patterns on the ceiling, thinking for a moment.
"Father?" the middle-aged man on the phone asked. "Are you still there?"
"...Call her Aoko," the old man said, recalling the light of that shooting star. "Aoko Aozaki."
Before you continue