Ad Astra Per Aspera Chapter 1A

Ad Astra Per Aspera Chapter 1A: Destiny

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Shinobu Hazuki
 * Shinobu's Robot
 * Shatou
 * Chiharu Harukaze (cameo)
 * Ichigo Moesaki (cameo)
 * A weird rabbit with 3 eyes

Summary
A long time ago, the world was at war with the empire who came from space. Humanity tried to beat them, but ended up losing. As a result the world was conquered and had become a peaceful planet under the empires control, who won't allow humanity to create any more weapons until now.

There is a boy named Shinobu Hazuki, a honest boy who live in this era. He discusses with his best friend, Shatou about the world getting brainwashed by the empire, making the world become too peaceful, which resulted in many manga not ending and continuing to expand the stories. Both of them became friends since elementary school. Because Shinobu's mom is ill, Shinobu is in the care of a nursing robot, which he thinks of her as a second mother after his real mother passes away. But sometimes the robot breaks down, so he learned how to fix her, which made him gain knowledge in fixing machines. One day he's fixing his classmate's pet robot. She asks Shinobu why he has knowledge in fixing things, to which he answers that its because he's always fixing his mother. This makes the whole class misunderstand him and start to bully him, but only Shatou stood by his side and became close to him. When both of them grow up, they promise to go to space and become the stars together. On the way home, Shinobu suddenly sees a shooting star fall close to him. He runs to his home and checks the news, but he can't find anything relating to the shooting star.

The next day, Shinobu comes to meet Shatou in the ruin and finds out that Shatou discovered a weapon to rebel against the empire, which he found by following the shooting star from the previous night. While Shatou goes to get something important for his rebellion, Shinobu decides to send the weapon to the empire before Shatou is able to use it since he doesn't want his friend to become a traitor. He goes inside the weapon to search for a way to move it and discovers a weird rabbit with 3 eyes inside. After realizing how to control it, he moves the weapon and meets the empires robot soldiers. He tells the robots that he accidentally found the weapon and wanted to give it back to the empire. But the empires soldiers decide to exterminate him and tell him that no matter the reason, if a human gets their hands on a weapon, that human will be exterminated. What will happen to Shinobu?

Trivia

 * During his conversation with Shatou, Shinobu mentions that he is reading Gl*ss Mask. This is a reference to the manga series Glass Mask.
 * When Shatou mentions to Shinobu that high school students could earn a salary of 1,800 yen an hour, Chiharu Harukaze and Ichigo Moesaki from Kenjiro Hata's other works Hayate no Gotoku! and Sore ga Seiyuu! make a cameo appearance.
 * Additionally, during this scene, Ichigo is seen applying for a job at "WcDonald's". This is a parody of the restaurant McDonald's.
 * Afterwards, Shatou tells Shinobu that if the war against the empire had continued the series "Hunter * Hunter" and "Ber*erk" would be finished. These are references to the two series Hunter × Hunter and Berserk.
 * During Shinobu's flashback, his classmates call him an "AIB*". This is a reference to the robotic pet AIBO.