A group drifted through the boundless sea of stars.
Only when you were truly out in the universe could you grasp just how vast it was.
The longer they drifted through space, the more Tetsuya and the others lost their sense of time.
They kept opening gates, crossing one star system after another.
They witnessed stars dying, watched supernovae erupt, saw seas of stars made entirely of diamonds, and even found planets flowing with liquid gold.
The universe was vast enough to contain everything. Anything you could imagine, and anything you could not, existed within it.
But after seeing so many of those wonders, they had begun to grow numb.
On a planet, the five of them sat on wooden chairs Hashirama had created, watching a red sun slowly sink into a green sea.
They simply watched, the mood heavy. There was no helping it; they had been drifting through space for far too long.
Their exhaustion was not physical, but a weariness born of mental numbness.
That feeling lingered in their hearts, forcing them to stop and catch their breath.
Seeing this, Tetsuya spoke with a smile.
"Hey, I just remembered a pretty interesting little story. Want to hear it?"
Hashirama leaned back in his chair and replied wearily.
"Let's hear it."
Looking at the star that had vanished below the horizon, Tetsuya began.
"This is a story I heard when I visited another world.
Supposedly, in a world with highly advanced technology, the people had developed the means to explore the infinite universe.
But they knew all too well that once humans entered space, they would lose their bearings, so no one was willing to explore the infinite universe.
Then the protagonist came along. For the sake of the person he loved, he committed a terrible crime.
The