| On Dec. 24 more and more small craft have been leaving the mothership, leading to a state of alarm in Tokyo. The Christmas party at Ai's takes place, and Kiho tells the other girls about Kahiruimaki's theories of how aliens may already be living among the human population and a massive coverup is underway to conceal it--all when she just wanted a boyfriend. She and Ontan get into another argument. A fairly large, more-or-less cubical craft seperates from the mothership; the people at SES are not confident that the Fujin-7 system can vaporize such a large vessel, but the military brass order it to fire anyway. The craft is damaged but careens out of control and crashes within the city. Soldiers search for alien survivors at the crash site. Kadode hears on TV that Kiho was among those killed in the crash. The next day Ontan behaves like usual and seems unaware of the tragedy, but it turns out she has known about it all along. Ontan's brother, Hiroshi, has created a fake internet personality, 'Puniko' (I think) which he uses to embarass politicians and celebrities. He notes that an internet friend, 'Yuminba'/Yumiko, is taking an important university entrance exam, and he meets her in person to encourage her. Yumiko suspects that he is Puniko, but he does not admit it. Both Ontan and Kadode are taking a similar exam and both are overjoyed when they fail it. The Japanese military breaks off a joint investigation of the mothership with the US, and it is implied that Japan will launch some sort of attack of its own upon it. Rumors about aliens within society are spreading rapidly since the recent crash, and troops are ordered to try harder to capture any. Ontan uses the alien device she recovered to try to speak to the mothership. She denigrates humans but says humans and the aliens may need to join forces at some point to resist some greater joint enemy. She is surprised by the disguised alien who says he agrees. When he asks her where she is from she undergoes a mind-blowing experience in which she flashes back to what seems to be the day in elementary school when she first met Kadode after both thought they saw a spherical UFO. When she snaps out of it the alien is gone. He is flying away and says this girl is probably a 'shifter'. |
