As Astra began to come down the steps, those in the room who were there for Astra's previous banquets noticed something strange.
They saw Astra Sera moving towards the giant metal door! Soon enough, she eventually exited!
Astra had never done this in any of the previous banquets, so it came to a surprise to those who were at Astra's previous halls.
For those who weren't, this was their first time seeing Astra at the banquet. They just turned their heads, wondering where she'll be going next. With no signs of shock or confusion, they began to pay attention to the announcer.
Nonetheless, all those in the banquet believed that Astra was going to come back, since she still had other activities to announce. So, everyone simply wondered where she was going to go, and left it at that. Well, except for a couple of stubborn reporters and journalists who followed her to the door.
Fortunately, they didn't follow Astra outside of the banquet.
"Now, as we wait for Dr. Sera to come back," The announcer wasted no time and proceeded with the rest of the program for the evening, despite Astra's disappearance.
"Let me introduce to you, a new revelation in both fusion technology and artificial intelligence, Fusion Super Intelligence, or 'F.S.I.' for short! Designed by none other than Dr. Himiko Tanaka, a genius among geniuses! This will help us not only be more efficient in science and astronomy work, but this may even help us kickstart a new branch of energy technology! Give it up for him as I invite him to the stage!" The announcer said with excitement, followed by an enthusiastic applause.
"They chose a talker to go next, even though he wasn't supposed to be next. The announcer doesn't seem that confident that Astra is coming back…" Aria softly made a conclusion in her head as she clapped.
However, while she and Xavier clapped softly, something was on their minds.
They both felt as if something was off!
They didn't know Astra that well—not much more than any of those in the hall, but they were her coworkers. It was natural for them to be more attached to Astra personally than anyone else, and this attachment to her allowed them to worry about why she would leave so suddenly.
They both exchanged glances towards each other, and simply looked at the metal door that was closed shut.
Aria leaned closer to Xavier. "Now…do you think that's something she'd usually do? Maybe she's going to the bathroom? What do you think?" Aria said under her breath. "I don't think she's coming back anytime soon."
"I'm not sure, but I don't exactly think so," Xavier whispered back. "I doubt she'd simply just leave like that. But then again, I don't understand 90% of the things she does usually."
"…I don't think this is something she'd usually do. I think there's a good chance she's affected by that 'thing' earlier, and maybe everything that's going on here is messing with her thought process. I mean, it makes sense for an introvert like her." Aria quickly moved away from Xavier as she crossed her arms.
Xavier placed his finger under his chin as he proceeded to think for a few seconds. He then leaned closer to Aria, whose gaze never left the announcer. "You're right. While we can't go by whether or not this is out of character…" Xavier paused for a second.
"...I guess it is reasonable to assume what you're saying is correct, based on what just happened an hour earlier…it likely hasn't even been an hour since that thing happened. Plus, it seems most people here were confused by it."
Suddenly, without a word being said, Aria picked up her purse and got up from her seat. She then quietly and politely pushes the seat back into the table while the announcer was speaking. In a cautious motion, she calmly walked over to the large metal door.
All Xavier did was look with a slightly open mouth as Aria left the table.
"Wait, she wants to go look for her…? Didn't she just say that it's reasonable to assume she's leaving to organize her thought process…" Xavier sighed. Without having any further thoughts, he began to get up from his seat.
"Sorry, I have to use the bathroom." Mimicking Aria, he quickly and efficiently made his way toward the door. After approaching it in a somewhat peculiar fashion, he exited the banquet.
Luckily, no one really paid any attention to Aria or Xavier when they left.
As Xavier left, he could've heard the sounds of the announcer and other things going on in the banquet being drowned out by the walls of the hall.
"Excellent, you followed me. I almost didn't expect that. We're going to find Astra." Aria said with confidence, before Xavier could even turn his head to look at her.
"…Why?" Xavier quickly turned his head toward Aria as his eyebrow raised.
"Let's walk and talk," Aria wasted no time before beginning to move. Xavier, still confused and wanting answers, began to follow her.
"To answer your question," Half a minute passed by before Aria opened her mouth. "Wouldn't it make sense for us to try and look for her at this moment if we truly want to understand her?"
They both walked past the lobby, heading to where the closest bathroom was. It was on the first floor.
"Wouldn't we be bothering her in this way, though?" Xavier felt as if he asked a good question.
"Maybe. But if we want any chance to get to know her better, now would be the time. Especially if she's trying to deal with something she doesn't fully understand yet."
Xavier and Aria quickly approached the first floor women's bathroom.
"Wait here, I'll check to see if she's inside of here." Aria promptly entered the bathroom. After about 20 seconds, she exited and shook her head, subtly signaling that Astra wasn't in there.
They then decide to head to where her room was to see if she was in there.
"So, you believe that this will help make us understand her more?" Xavier asked.
"Not just that, it'll let her know that we want to understand her also." Aria responded.
"I assume she already knows that…" Xavier narrowed his eyes in doubt.
"Maybe…but a little more effort wouldn't hurt, wouldn't it?"
After about 5 minutes of fast walking, they were able to reach Astra's room. Aria knocked first, and then Xavier knocked after her. They tried to call out to her, but there was no response.
Not wasting any time, they split up and went to many other bathrooms and other potential places like labs that Astra would likely be. But this was fruitless. They hadn't seen, or even heard her anywhere.
They even attempted to call her on their phones, but she wasn't picking up. At their final location, they met up back again to the fourth floor bathroom. There was a window next to the elevator, its faint blue light flowing through the hallway.
After they saw each other, without even saying a word to each other, they stopped to catch their breath as they were both breathing heavily. This was partly due to tiredness and partly due to frustration.
"Where could Astra even be?" This thought rested in the heads of both coworkers.
At the same time, they wondered whether this had anything to do with the pale Astra from before. For a second, they thought that she would've turned pale again and that's why she left.
But they didn't dwell on this, since it seemed as if Astra herself was shocked about her being pale. It didn't seem like she knew when she would suddenly turn pale again, otherwise she wouldn't have even been in her room.
Besides, they needed to find her first before coming up with theories. They were in an even worse predicament since there wasn't much time left before she had to make her second announcement.
"It doesn't seem like she's in there either. And I think that's the last one…" Aria said outside of the fourth floor bathroom, lowering her head in defeat after looking for about thirty minutes.
"Why don't we just go back?" With a wavering voice and half closed eyes, Xavier had expressed his thoughts. He continued, "Clearly we won't be able to find her. I'd say we spare ourselves the trouble and try to at least get some food…"
"…" Aria said nothing in response, her head still lowered.
"We don't have any idea how she thinks. I'd like to know more about her also, but evidently it's completely in vain. I'd say she needs to try and reach out to us before we try to reach out to her, especially when she's so…" Xavier paused for a few seconds.
"She's so what?" Aria asked with a raised eyebrow.
"…She's so different. She's a genius in all aspects, basically perfect in all aspects…why do we have to try and do all of this to reach her? If she was trying to connect with us, this would be so much easier…" Xavier stared intently into Aria's eyes as he said honestly.
"Are you saying she's obligated to try and connect with us?" Aria asked, genuinely confused.
"I'm saying that she should put in some effort in trying to reach us too…if the situations were reversed, do you think that she would do the same thing?" Xavier said as his voice lowered.
"No." Aria didn't even hesitate with her answer.
"So why are we doing all of this?" Xavier asked while spreading his arms out momentarily and bringing them back out. "Why should we put in so much effort when she wouldn't do the same for us?"
Aria then walked toward the window that was next to the elevator. She gazed outside of the window with a poker expression, admiring the beauty of the Milky Way and the starry night sky. The light of the sky illuminated her face beautifully, casting a shadow on her back.
"You and Astra are two completely different beings, Astra and I are two completely different beings, and it's not just surface level things like looks and status. Heh, even though I would like for her to be more normal, this is the truth."
Xavier continued to stare at Aria's back.
"You said it yourself, Astra is different," Aria says with an emotionless tone as she continued to look at the Milky Way, its light reflecting off of her emerald eyes.
"Which would mean that the things she'd do for us are different from the things we'd do for her. Sure, she wouldn't be running around looking for us, sure she wouldn't tell us about what happened with that thing…but why does she have to do those things to show that she cares?" Aria paused before continuing again.
"She did choose us to be her coworkers after all, despite the fact that we barely know her. And despite the fact that she barely knows us, we're doing this for her."
Not long after she said this, a shadow slowly formed in front of her body as she turned to face Xavier—the light from the night sky touching her back. With a sigh, she continued, "Perhaps…in this specific way, this makes us two and Astra, not so different after all. And maybe, this same way of thinking can help us to make Astra understand herself a little bit more. We're all human, after all."
Aria looked back at the night sky.
"Fundamentally, we're all the same…caring for each other…"
"So, what are you saying?"
Aria turned towards Xavier again.
"I'm saying that perhaps Astra just wants someone to be there for her in moments like these. As far as we know, she doesn't have any friends, or even family that she can reliably talk to. She's always in her room, watching the sky, reading books, making theories, or…" Aria paused for a few seconds, knowing that she ran out of normal things to say that she knows Astra likes doing.
"Or…doing something else that she likes. If we are there for her now, it'll give us a proper opportunity to help her understand herself outside of such methods." Aria continued with her thought anyway.
Xavier looked to the side while his eyebrows creased.
"But how can we expect to be there for her reliably when she doesn't trust us…"
"How can we expect her to trust us when we're not there for her reliably?" Aria asked, her tone becoming more passionate.
A short silence ensued before Xavier sighed.
"Why did you come to follow me? You knew I was going to look for Astra, right?" Aria spoke up to Xavier with a reasonable question. "You're complaining about this, but you spent effort to help me look for her. Even now, if you truly had enough doubts, you would've left instead of entertaining this discussion."
Xavier promptly looked back up towards Aria upon hearing those words. He placed his hand on his chin, in a thinking position.
"You still have a hope in finding her, right?" Aria persisted.
"…" Xavier stood speechless.
Aria continued to look at him, slowly getting more frustrated.
"Xavier, we're running out of time. If you don't want to tell me why, just tell me already!" Aria raised her voice, which shocked Xavier slightly.
However, he still didn't respond.
After a few seconds she sighed and began to move from the window.
"I'm going to go look for Astra, I can't waste time on you trying to-" Aria said as she was about to move past Xavier, but she got interrupted.
"Wait." Xavier began to move to the window. As he approached it, he placed his hand on the window, pointing to the Milky Way. "She likes looking at the night sky, right? If she's not in her room, then…"
Aria looks back at him and widens her mouth and eyes in surprise.
"You're right! But why would she be outside? A snowstorm was projected to pass by here…" Aria then narrowed her eyes in confusion.
"Well, only Dr. Sera would do something like that, right?" Xavier then hurriedly stepped towards the elevator, as he lifted his hand to press a button on it.
Tap.
As if he was in a rush, he quickly pressed the button on the elevator.
"We don't have much time before she eventually might get hurt due to the snowstorm! She's a genius but that doesn't mean she's mentally sane right now…!"
Aria felt her heart drop. She knew exactly what this meant. They didn't even consider her coming back if the snowstorm actually hit the facility.
"Let's go, then!" She didn't hesitate to stand behind Xavier who was right in front of the elevator door, waiting for it.
Ting! Whoosh…
The elevator door opened up.
As it did, they walked in.
Xavier pressed the ground floor button. As he does, a "whooshing" sound was heard as the door closed.
In the elevator, there was tense silence.
They knew if they were to go outside, they'd have to face freezing temperatures before an impending snowstorm…and they didn't have the time to find equipment.
Aria sighed. After realizing her situation, she chuckled slightly, trying to lighten the mood. "Who knew that you would've found out a way after all of that complaining you did? It turns out you did want to find her. Were you trying to make excuses not to see her again? Don't you have any shame?" Aria then took on a mischievous grin and approached Xavier, teasing him.
"Shut up." Xavier said as he didn't even look back at Aria while he waited on the elevator to open up again.
The truth is, what Aria implied was right.
Xavier was afraid of seeing Astra again. And as if it branched off from his previous fear, he was subconsciously afraid that his very small distrust in his heart would've grown if this attempt to find her failed.
He was afraid of both his failure and of his perceived idea of Astra not trusting him.
But his respect and care for Astra never left him.
Ding! The elevator made its signature sound, and it opened to reveal the lobby.