"What's that one?"
Katsuragi Narioki looked up at the sky where his daughter was pointing. "I don't know, Misato. You'd have to ask someone else," he answered curtly.
"Oh." Misato's arm lowered to hang limply by her side, though her eyes remained directed at the endless black velvet of the sky above them. The feeling in her nose had fled, and her cheeks were tingling with the threat to do the same, but she did not head back inside.
"Ikari's already gone with the sample."
"No doubt the bastard will try and claim all the credit."
Misato glanced briefly at her father and the man he was talking to. They were always in an unhappy mood, so deep in their work, they couldn't see how wonderful the sky was.
Being stuck in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do, wasn't something she would have really wanted to do, but now that she was there, standing on a flat, frozen field beneath the most beautiful thing she had ever seen...
"Come inside, Misato. I won't tolerate you getting sick because you weren't smart enough to keep warm."
"But it's--"
"No backtalk. Inside."
There was no arguing with her father when he took that tone, even though he treated her like a pet more than his daughter. As if she was too stupid to come in from the cold...
He took her arm and began walking toward the shelters. "This isn't a vacation; this is work. I can't let you act so irresponsibly."
Misato had tuned out her father's words and was staring back at the sky as she trudged toward the shelter. There was still that formation of stars, winking periodically down at her.
They looked like jewels, sometimes flashing blue, sometimes red. If it were at all possible, she would have liked to stay there, even if it was too cold, and watch those stars hang in the sky...
The door was shut, and her father was pulling her away from the tiny window and back to their meager quarters.
If only... Stars so bright... Winking endlessly... Red and blue over and over...
So bright against the sky... But not brighter than... than...
Stars so bright... Red and blue endlessly... Winking over and over... Sky so dark...
So dark...
So dark...
Except for the stars.
"She's completely catatonic. No response to outside stimulus at all." The doctor wore a grim look on his face as he looked at the slack features of the girl.
"How long has she been like this?"
"It's been over seven months now, and there haven't been any signs of improvement."
The other doctor nodded. "Tragic."
The two watched the girl as she stared at something very far away.
The stars, so bright, against the sky...
munificent - generous, quality of being generous