I Stand at the Forefront of Popularity Supremacy

"Elisa, do you like Academy City?" Mikoto asked.

"Mm." Elisa said, "I actually don't remember anything from before three years ago. Even my name was given to me by the staff at the care facility."

"I didn't know what had happened or who I was. But being able to live in an Academy City like this... I felt that was already an indescribable miracle for me."

That miracle was so beautiful.

"So, Elisa, you like music?"

"Mm, because I... only have music."

This was a borrowed life.

And in this life, the only thing she possessed... was that tiny, insignificant bit.

"That's not true." Mikoto said. "The world... is beautiful. As long as you're alive, your life has meaning."

"But—"

Elisa wanted to say something else, but Mikoto covered her lips with a finger.

"Please don't say something so sad as only having music."

Mikoto glanced at Elisa, then turned back to look at the sky.

Elisa looked up at the sky as well.

"Elisa... is a miracle. The existence of this world is also a miracle. That we were able to meet among nearly ten billion people... that too is a miracle," Mikoto said.

"A miracle...?"

Did miracles truly exist?

And what lay behind this miracle?

"Mikoto, are you going to do something?" Elisa noticed that Mikoto had sat up.

"Ah, didn't I say it before?—I'll make the universe shine for you."

The starlight grew denser and denser.

The sky darkened.

Then, more stars began to appear.

And then more and more, until there were countless of them.

The gathering stars were humanity's wishes.

At last, an even more brilliant Milky Way spread across the sky.

The stars blanketed the heavens, while the Milky Way flowed overhead.

The miserly night slowly unveiled its canvas.

Starlight became a river, and