Simple and crude though it was, the message was easy to understand. Maybe she'd known it all along, maybe she'd just needed to hear it somewhere that wasn't inside her own head, but somehow it all clicked.

"N-no, no Alita-hime, I understand," she assured the other girl. Really, she was a far better friend than Kagura could have wished for in her own time and place.

"I have to find the right star for me, right? Even... even if it isn't easy now."