"Shinichi-san, Shinichi-san..."
Hearing someone call his name, Shinichi Mochizuki, who had been dozing against the airplane seat, groggily opened his eyes and saw the student sitting beside him.
"What is it?"
Hoshi Yuichiro grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.
"Professor! We're almost there!"
Almost there...
Did that mean they were back in Japan?
Wrapped in a blanket, Shinichi Mochizuki turned his head expressionlessly and looked out the window beside him.
Outside lay the runway and terminal buildings of Kansai International Airport. There was no doubt that they had already arrived in Japan.
At that moment, the cabin broadcast announced their arrival.
Shinichi Mochizuki stuffed the blanket into his student's hands, took the gold-rimmed glasses from his collar and put them on, unfastened his seatbelt, and rose from his seat. Under the flight attendant's guidance, he followed the crowd toward the exit.
It had probably been half a month ago.
He vaguely remembered that, around the time the incident on Mars had just happened, his student Hoshi Yuichiro had flown all the way to Hua Nation to earnestly ask him to return to Kyoto University and continue teaching.
Thinking that he would no longer have the chance to speak with Lu Zhou about the future of the Quantum Encryption Algorithm, Shinichi Mochizuki, who had remained in Jinling University's library for another half month, ultimately chose to return home.
There was nothing there worth staying for anymore.
The televisions hanging in the terminal waiting hall were showing the latest news.
When he had left Japan, the television had still been reporting clues about "aliens" discovered on Mars. Yet in only a few short months, the news had already evolved into topics such as "the Human Federation convenes its second member-state representatives' conference," "establishing an integrated land, sea, air, and space defense