Episode -4 A

  ? ? ? ? ?

  On the way home after leaving the study room, Rogi asked Yona.

  "Yona! Who on earth is Eat?"

  Yona thought seriously about Rogi’s question before answering.

  "Um... Eat, well... he said he came from a distant planet.

  And that he came here because he received some kind of command..."

  Rogi’s eyes sparkled. "Eek! An alien? Right?!"

  "Right! But he’s not a monster."

  Yona answered as best as he could with what he knew, but it was not nearly enough to satisfy Rogi’s endless curiosity.

  "Why did he come here? Has Teacher seen Eat too?" Rogi asked, and Yona shook his head.

  "No, not yet."

  "Why?! I feel like if Teacher saw him, we’d know the reason in detail!"

  "Um, Eat hasn’t been here that long. Has it been a little over two months?"

  Rogi looked deeply frustrated, as if she couldn’t understand.

  "What? It’s been two whole months and that’s all you know? Aren’t you curious? I have so many questions right now!"

  Yona scratched the back of his head and replied, "Now that you mention it... maybe we were just too busy playing to think about it."

  "When did you first see him?"

  Pressed by Rogi, Yona began to unravel the thread of his memory.

  "Well, so... it was when we were playing late into the night because I was going to sleep over at Dabi’s house."

  Yona recalls the scene of that night when he first encountered Eat.

  ---

  Two months earlier, Dabi’s house

  Dabi struggled up the stairs, hugging a pillow as large as himself in his arms, heading toward his room.

  When he opened the closed door, a lively commercial jingle was playing from the radio.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Inside the room, Yona had already spread books and snacks everywhere, and in the middle of it all, he was busily writing something.

  Then he kept flipping through the pages to check details before continuing to write, so focused that he didn’t even notice Dabi entering.

  Dabi carefully placed the pillow he had carried onto the blanket.

  There, proudly standing in place, was Dabi’s own “spaceship,” built by gathering e pillow in the house and stacking them high.

  Now it was time to transform into a space warrior and battle imaginary monsters. Sitting atop the spaceship, Dabi’s expression was more serious than ever.

  Dabi and Yona were absorbed in their own games, losing all sense of time, yet constantly stuffing snacks into their mouths and chewing like rabbits.

  Having completed his battle preparations, Dabi shot Yona a fierce look.

  Dabi: "Doctor, preparations for launch are complete. I request the launch order!"

  Yona: (without stopping what he was writing) "Very good, space warrior! For the peace of the universe, launch!"

  Dabi: "Then space warrior Dabi! Launching now. Buuuuung~!"

  Just as space warrior Dabi launched with great momentum, an upbeat song by the female singer T.z, beloved by children, flowed from the radio.

  Instantly swept up in the rhythm, Dabi and Yona stopped what they were doing and began dancing to the music.

  After shaking their bodies excitedly until the song ended, Dabi quickly ran back to the spaceship.

  At that moment, Yona called out to stop him from behind.

  Yona: "Who are you? How dare you set foot here!"

  Dabi gasped in surprise and hurriedly turned around to face Yona. Then, as if refusing to lose, he shouted solemnly.

  Dabi: "I am space warrior Dabi, who came here to defeat the space demon king!"

  Yona: "Gasp! So you are that space warrior!

  Yona: "But how foolish..."

  Yona: "How dare someone like you challenge the great space demon king!"

  Yona: "Before you can meet him, you must defeat me first!"

  Dabi: "You dare challenge a space warrior to a duel! Who are you!?"

  Yona: "I am Poltsris, the strongest general who serves the space demon king!"

  Dabi’s brow twitched slightly.

  Dabi: "Polchiss?"

  Yona: "Polchiss?! I said ‘Poltsris’! Pol! Ts! Ris!"

  Dabi: "Fine! Come at me, Polchiris!"

  Yona: (momentarily losing energy) "Is the name too hard? Should I change it now?"

  Dabi: "No, no~ just keep it! Let’s just do it."

  Yona: (regaining his spirit) "Very well! Come, space warrior!"

  Dabi engaged Yona in an imaginary duel with an invisible beam sword.

  But overwhelmed by General Poltsris’s momentum, Dabi was gradually pushed backward.

  As the tide turned against him, Dabi decided to transform his pillow spaceship into a robot as a last resort.

  Dabi: "You’re quite strong! Then I’ll transform!"

  Yona: "Ah! Don’t tell me you’re turning into the legendary robot!"

  Dabi: "Transform! Meteor Light!"

  Yona: (breaking character for a moment) "Huh? What does Meteor Light mean?"

  Dabi: "I don’t know either! Anyway, transform!"

  At that moment, as if by a lie made real, all the lights in the room went out at once, and darkness fell.

  Dabi: "……Huh?"

  Yona: "Ahh, it must be a blackout… I’m scared."

  Dabi: "A blackout? Why all of a sudden?"

  As the children fumbled in confusion through the darkness, searching for each other—

  Not long after, from the center of the room where nothing could be seen, a blinding white light burst forth.

  At the center of that light stood Eat, wearing a white coat and emitting light himself, in a dignified stance.

  ---

  Stopping in their tracks on the way home, Yona and Rogi sat down beneath a large willow tree.

  Yona asked Rogi,

  "What should I do? Should I keep going? It’s going to be long."

  Rogi thought for a moment, then looked at Yona.

  "Keep going. Dad’s not home right now anyway, so just continue. Go, go!"

  Yona began speaking again.

  "That was the first day I saw Eat."