| Summary | - On a routine debris collection run, Yuri Mihairokov finds a compass, the only keepsake of his deceased wife, floating in space. In the process of retrieving it, he endangers his life and is rescued by Hachirota "Hachimaki" Hoshino. Hachimaki breaks his ankle while retrieving a derelict satellite and is sent to the Space Physiology Research Hospital, where he meets Harry Roland and Nono. Hachimaki and Fee Carmichael witness Roland's suicide on the Moon's surface by decompression sickness. Fee's quest to find somewhere to smoke on the moon is thwarted by a terrorist organization that has been bombing smoking areas; she is further infuriated to learn the same terrorists have diverted a satellite onto a collision course with a space station, in order to destroy it and cause Kessler syndrome. She stops the terrorist plan by ramming her debris collection ship, the Toy Box, into the satellite and knocking it off course, sacrificing the Toy Box in the process. Hachimaki, Yuri, and Fee return to Earth, where Yuri stays with Hachimaki's family. He helps Kyutaro Hoshino, Hachimaki's younger brother and amateur rocketeer, with his latest rocket, which leads him to a philosophical conclusion. An accident sends Hachimaki hurtling through space during a solar flare. He is retrieved with negligible physical effects, but is diagnosed with Deep Space Disorder, a mental disorder that can cripple an EVA astronaut. Yuri and Fee take Hachimaki to a space engine manufacturing facility and show him the Tandem Mirror Engine, which will be installed in the Von Braun for the Jupitur Exploration Mission. Seeing this, Hachimaki resolves to join the Mission and gets over his Deep Space Disorder.
- Werner Locksmith finds Hachimaki while looking for Hachimaki's father, Goro Hoshino, to recruit him as the captain of the Von Braun. It turns out that Goro hid from Locksmith in the Toy Box 2. A meltdown of the Tandem Mirror Engine results in a very large explosion on the Moon, which Locksmith unsympathetically shrugs off as a minor setback. Fresh recruit Ai Tanabe is added to the crew of the Toy Box 2 as a replacement for Hachimaki when he leaves to become a Jupiter Mission candidate, and he trains her in debris collection. When Hachimaki and Yuri find a space coffin containing the renowned astronaut Ibun Fadran, the astronaut's daughter wishes to send the coffin back into deep space, but Tanabe convinces her otherwise with an idealistic speech. At the trials for the Jupiter Exploration Mission, Hachimaki and Hakim Ashmead witness a terrorist bombing of an elevator in the training facility. Hachimaki finds out that Hakim is behind it, but cannot bring himself to kill Hakim when he has the chance, allowing Hakim to complete his bombing mission. Hachimaki and Tanabe become entangled in a Space Defence Front plot to kill Goro in his apartment on the Moon. Goro manages to stay one step ahead of his would-be assassins until Hakim re-appears. Hachimaki subdues Hakim, but is stopped from killing him by Tanabe. After being accepted in the Jupiter Exploration Mission, Hachimaki and his co-pilot Leonov crash on to the Moon's surface. Leonov is badly injured in the crash, and Hachimaki tries to carry him to safety before being rescued by Toy Box 2. Goro and Hachimaki return to Earth and their family, where Hachimaki visits Leonov in the hospital and meets his mother. Hachimaki has a nightmare about drifting in space untethered , after which he takes a midnight bike ride. After swerving to avoid a truck, he runs off the road and into the ocean, where he comes to a metaphysical realization.
- Part 1
Tanabe meets and befriends The Baron, a fellow debris hauler who claims he is an alien from the planet Retikle on a mission to make a hundred friends on Earth. Werner Locksmith visits the grave of his associate killed in the Tandem Mirror Engine explosion, where the associate's sister threatens to kill him. After returning from a holiday on Earth, Fee and the crew of Toy Box 2 find a piece of classified debris, a United States Navy orbital mine. With a space war looming, Fee leads an anti-war movement to prevent Kessler Syndrome and becomes a media sensation when Colonel Sanders uses her as a hero of the anti-war movement, without her consent.
; Part 2
Fee recounts her experience with her uncle in the American South, particularly the racism that he encountered as an unemployed, reclusive black man living in the woods. The crew of Toy Box 2 are returned to Earth, where Fee goes home to her family and attempts to resume her life as a mother. She crashes her motorcycle while avoiding a dog, but she befriends the dog and drags her motorcycle back home. The captain of Von Braun struggles with the speech he will give when the ship reaches Jupiter, resulting in him being hospitalized with a stomach ulcer. While trying to break up a fight, Hachimaki is accidentally punched and, just before passing out, has a flash of eloquence that causes the captain to give him the privilege of writing and delivering the speech. Locksmith visits a priest, formerly a scientist, to recruit him for his mission to Saturn. Hachimaki makes his speech when Von Braun arrives at Jupiter, concluding that he's perfectly satisfied with what he already has, and giving up on his dream of owning his own spaceship.
- Hachimaki faints during a Jupiter Mission press conference after remembering seeing a mortally injured cat after it was hit by a car, and becomes uncertain about the mission. To recover his passion for it, he goes on a vision quest on the lunar surface and speaks to his representation of God. A flashback shows how Tanabe came to be adopted by her parents after being left anonymously on their doorstep. In the present, Tanabe runs experiments with several animals on behalf of a university, as well as another ship's pet cat, on the Toy Box 2. She attempts to give the cat to her father, but it runs off. After his vision quest, Hachimaki returns with an "incredible state of spiritual discipline," but begins losing weight. His crewmates on Von Braun, led by Goro, try to break this by giving him pornography, but Hachimaki simply shrugs it off. Alarmed by his new stoicism, crewmate Sally offers herself to him, but Hachimaki realizes he desires Tanabe instead, and his appetite returns. He leaves the Jupiter Mission Complex to visit Tanabe on Toy Box 2, but she is on holiday. He follows her to Earth and visits her at her parents' home. Hachimaki and Tanabe go on an EVA together for nostalgia, and Hachimaki proposes to her while they are playing shiritori. Hachimaki and Goro make their final visit to their hometown before the launch of the Von Braun. The Extra Phase shows a young Goro on Mars, where he and his senpai organize the first Martian baseball game, and the subsequent first home run on Mars. These events coincide with Hachimaki's birth and reveal the origin of his name.
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