The sky at the end of February keeps a pale pink glow for a while, even after the sun has gone down.
At the edge of Dragon God’s Pond, Kopo stood breathing out white air, looking up at the western sky. In the fading light of dusk , points of light began to glow, one after another. He lifted a finger to count them, but the February air was too cold, and he quickly pulled it back.
“Six of them, all in a row. That’s rare.”
A low voice came from the railing behind him.
Hasshi had landed there, wings folded. Kopo hadn’t even noticed him arrive.
“My wing bones have ached all morning. They always do, before a special night.”
“…Can you eat those stars?” Kopo asked, half seriously.
“Who knows. But all six are pointing the same direction tonight — only tonight — even though each one travels its own, completely different orbit .”
Hasshi tilted his head and glanced down at the surface of the pond. The points of light blurred slowly in its rippling water.
“Just pointing the same way?”
“Just pointing the same way. But—”
Hasshi gave one wing a shake and rose slowly into the air.
“Seen from high enough up, it really does form a straight line.”
His voice dissolved into the evening sky, leaving Kopo alone at the water’s edge. amid his own white breath, the six lights stayed right where they were, silent, still in their row.
Margin note: That night, thinking about “wing bones,” Kopo quietly pressed on his own knee.
【Today’s Drop】
- Planetary Alignment (Planet Parade): At dusk on February 28, 2026, six planets — Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — appeared, as seen from Earth, to line up in the sky. Scattered across the western horizon after sunset, they would have formed a single straight line if viewed from high enough above. An alignment of six or more planets like this happens only once every several years.
This is an English translation of “翼骨の予報”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).