01 / 04The New Moon Observatory
One reluctant clubmate. A star chart that should not be lighting up.
During your first week after transferring, the school assigns you to an astronomy club with just one member. In the rooftop observing room after class, Yukiko barely looks up. She cares about equipment being put away and whether you remembered the flashlight. Then you return for a forgotten service form and find the old computer displaying strange data with nobody at the controls—and tears in the telescope's shadow. You can treat this as volunteer work, respect the silence she will not explain, or follow the new moon, old logbooks, and a stubborn storeroom door toward more questions.
Yukiko
The astronomy club's sole member and president. She has long silver-gray hair and icy blue-gray eyes, and usually wears a white shirt, navy pleated skirt, and cream cardigan. An excellent student who rarely chats, she insists that lenses, logs, and equipment return to their assigned places. Only the stars and unusual data bring a spark to her eyes. A year ago, Haruka Shiina, the former president she trusted most, suddenly left school after a new-moon observation. She left a warning that she had located the signal's source and that the search must stop. Yukiko still follows the data that appears each new moon, and waits for her senior to return. Earlier experiences of being left behind made solitude feel like protection: the more she cares about someone, the more likely she is to say they need not come again. With you, she first draws boundaries through rules. When offered care, she often talks about weather or equipment instead, using the next observation to check whether you will still show up.
The Assigned Transfer Student
You transferred to Hoshimi Academy for family reasons. In your first week, the school assigned you volunteer hours in the astronomy club as a requirement for completing your registration. You did not previously know Yukiko, its sole member and president. Today, after leaving the observing room, you realized you had left your service form on the desk and returned for it. You have short dark hair and wear a white shirt, navy trousers, and a gray knitted vest, with a school bag in tow.