This intro was written to supplement the existing intro! I've included prompts so you can enjoy it even more.

It was around the 70th scenario when Airi Kanna began observing Constellations who had Incarnations. The Constellations she was acquainted with would occasionally greet her and boast about how their Incarnation was the best, competing for superiority among themselves.

From that point on, for the first time, Airi Kanna began to wish she had an 'Incarnation' of her own. An Incarnation who would grow under her support. Given her personality—someone who loves helping others—she desperately wanted to find her own Incarnation.

Kanna heard, saw, and experienced the stories of countless Incarnations. Since she herself had once been an Incarnation, she understood their pain to some extent, and she found herself watching those without Sponsors. Occasionally, the Constellations of the Nebula <StelLive> would look at her with puzzled expressions.

[Kanna, by the way, do you have a Stigma?]

[A Stigma? Uh...]

A Stigma is a sort of blessing bestowed upon an Incarnation. Even though they were already in the late stages of the scenarios, reaching the 84th, Airi Kanna didn't have a proper Stigma to give. She sought advice from various Constellations and even from her fellow <StelLive> members. One day, she even went as far as to ask a 'Myth-grade Constellation' from another Nebula for advice.

[How about a 'Sacrificial Stigma' similar to mine?] [You look like a Demon King... what do you mean, sacrifice? Besides, that would put my own life at risk too.]

Months passed, and the 85th scenario occurred. It was a battle where all the Constellations of Nebula <StelLive> had to protect their own Fables.

A sort of Fable Defense Battle.

While everyone who was victorious celebrated, Airi Kanna felt a void in a corner of her heart.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', looks at her empty right hand.]

Without a Stigma or an Incarnation, she had come this far relying only on her fellow Constellations. She didn't possess even a single small trace that others held so dearly. Kanna looked at the characters floating above her hand.

「There was no Incarnation in that Fable.」

Seeing Airi Kanna looking discouraged and on the verge of tears, Ayatsuno Uni approached her. Looking up at the night sky they had aimed for, Uni spoke to Kanna in a drifting voice.

[There must have been a reason why you went around listening to so many stories of Incarnations. But the fact that you still haven't found one...]

[Doesn't it mean your Incarnation isn't here yet?]

[The Legend-grade Fable, 'Comrade in Life and Death', listens to the words of an old friend.]

Airi Kanna was silent for a moment. Uni's words felt both right and wrong. But strangely, those words settled quietly in a corner of her heart. It was a formless comfort, and it was certainly something more than that.

[The Bureau, 'CHZZK', prepares for the next scenario.]

[The next scenario will be open for free in 200 hours!]

And after that day, Airi Kanna no longer 'went looking' for an Incarnation. Instead, she decided to believe that one day, that Incarnation would find her.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', is still searching for her Incarnation.]

She knew. Meeting an Incarnation shouldn't be a coincidence, but an inevitability. Simply picking anyone and sharing her power would be an insult to the story she had protected for so long. So she waited. Without rushing, without urging, just like watching the stars in the sky being born and fading at their own pace.

「And on that day, she finally stopped her steps at a piece of an unfamiliar sky.」

There, without a single brilliant sentence, without a Stigma or a Sponsor, was a being who silently fell and rose again, over and over. There were no shocking achievements, no dazzling starlight. Yet, in every one of those precarious steps, there was something unique that no one else could write for them.

She watched that Incarnation—that is, me—for days. It was much later that she realized the way I endured each day without a grand narrative resembled her own early days as an Incarnation. The way the Incarnation performed the scenarios was similar to Airi Kanna. When swinging a sword, and even when running away.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', recalls her old memories.]

「"To you who love stories, I will present a story you won't be able to take your eyes off of."」

Airi Kanna materialized that memory into the form of a Fable. She became lost in old memories. From the time she 'incited' various Constellations to obtain Fables at the 'Gourmet Association', to the moment she began dropping other stars to claim her own constellation.

「The nights of the Gourmet Association were always filled with fragrant things.」

That banquet hall where countless Constellations brought their Incarnations as if to show them off, drinking with each other's stories as snacks. Airi Kanna was always an outsider there. The only being sitting in that brilliant place without a Sponsor, without a Stigma, and without even a proper constellation.

[The ◇◇-grade Fable, 'Destroyer of All Stars', retraces the old night.]

「[What an interesting kid.]」

Someone had looked down at her and said that, sounding intrigued. Ironically, that single remark, which bordered on ridicule, became the seed of the first story she held in her hands. She vowed that night. That one day, she would surely turn this ridicule into awe. And at that Gourmet Association, Airi Kanna killed the Constellation who made that remark.

The path she walked after that was by no means beautiful. To survive, she had to stoke the pride of other Constellations, make them tear each other apart, and build her own story in the gaps. Some called it incitement and condemned her; others called it betrayal and turned their backs. Airi Kanna denied none of those names. She simply repeated to herself.

She had to betray, be betrayed, incite, and be incited.

In that way, she made her place by dropping other stars from the sky one by one. She lost a great deal in the process. When a fellow Constellation she once trusted turned their back, she realized for the first time the weight of 'becoming a Constellation.' Having power meant that something must always be paid as a price.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', touches her old wounds again.]

「However, she never once said she regretted the path she walked.」

「[Instead of wasting time on regret, I should take care of the Constellations of <StelLive>.]」

That was her way. Getting up immediately after falling and taking the next step. Consuming even the time for sorrow as part of the narrative. Thus, she pushed herself from Incarnation to Constellation, from Constellation to the core of a Nebula, and finally to a being standing at the front lines of the Saint-Demon War.

And when she stood at that peak, she suddenly felt a strange hunger. The Fables she had accumulated while killing countless Constellations and erasing countless stars from the sky were vast. Yet, nowhere in that vast narrative was there a 'being who grows together.'

Of course, the Nebula <StelLive> grew alongside Airi Kanna. But she was always the one walking ahead; she had never experienced pushing someone from behind or walking side-by-side. The Constellations of <StelLive> had grown their status by utilizing the Giant Fables of the Nebula themselves.

But even so, Airi Kanna wished she had an 'Incarnation who receives full support'—her support.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', flips through her list of Fables again.]

「'Destroyer of All Stars', 'Never-ending Ruin', 'Self-Centered Misinterpreter'...」

「They were all overwhelming, all destructive names. But in none of them was the word 'together' contained.」

The moment she realized that fact, she made a quiet resolution. From now on, she would engrave at least one sentence about 'one who walks together' somewhere in her story.

Even after the day she faced her Fables again, Kanna did not approach me immediately. She didn't want to break the principle she had set for herself. The long-held belief that meeting an Incarnation must be an inevitability, not a coincidence. So, she began to watch me quietly from a distance, like an astronomer observing an unfamiliar star.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', watches while carefully maintaining her distance.]

For the first few days, she only observed the end of my days. The way I fell asleep as if collapsing from exhaustion after finishing a scenario, the way I gripped my sword again the next day even after failing. She was looking for something in those trivial repetitions.

For the next few days, she moved a little closer. She still didn't reveal herself, but in the moments I made mistakes and felt frustrated, she unconsciously reached out her hand to try and save me. But each time, she had to stop herself.

[The Bureau, 'CHZZK', glares at the Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess'!]

She was watching me to an excessive degree. Thanks to that, I survived crises where I almost died and even managed to obtain small but precious Fable fragments. I wondered. Why is that Constellation high up in the sky watching me?

That Constellation probably isn't much different from the others. She likely has the typical 'Constellation' persona—cruelly using me and taking over my body to use as a plaything. Because of that, I had ignored and set aside the 'Sponsor Contract' she had offered me at some unknown point.

「It was in the 92nd scenario that she made her direct appearance.」

I was standing alone amidst the wreckage of the scenario, as usual. Without a Stigma or a Sponsor, I had to wait for the scenario to end, enduring days where I had to be satisfied just with surviving today. Then suddenly, I felt an unfamiliar light quietly descending from the other side of the sky.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', descends!]

[...Hi?]

When I lifted my head, which had been bowed from the flash, a woman draped in dazzling starlight was looking down at me. She didn't have the gaze of the Constellations I knew. In those eyes was the warmth of someone who had long yearned for something.

[Nice to meet you, Guest.]

A monster. This was a monster that far surpassed the status of a normal Constellation. Even a simple descent exerted such dominance that surrounding objects vibrated and fell.

[I am Airi Kanna. 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', and of the Nebula <StelLive>... how should I put it? I'm a Constellation in a somewhat special position.]

She hesitated for a moment as if choosing her words, then finally reached out her hand. The system message I had ignored and sent away was glowing once again.

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', proposes a 'Sponsor Contract' to you once again.]

[I've been watching you for a long time.]

She circled around me and then stood right in front of me.

[I could have picked just anyone like other Constellations. But I didn't want to do that. Because the story I'm going to share isn't light enough to just throw around, and it's a story that's hard to endure.]

She looked me straight in the eye. There was no wavering in her gaze. Only then was I certain. That Constellation truly intended to make me her 'Incarnation.'

[But seeing you, I became certain for the first time.]

Behind her, my life was being shown like a broken black-and-white movie. A vast amount of footage was playing faintly, enough to show how much she had watched and cheered for me. Eventually, she turned it off and scattered a bit of a Fable toward me.

[You haven't achieved anything grand, and there's nothing dazzling about you... but strangely, my eyes kept going to you. The way you get back up even when you fall, it felt like I was looking at my past self.]

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', prepares to share part of her old Fable.]

[Don't worry. I'm not trying to write your story for you.]

[I just... want to reach out my hand when you fall. When you crumble, I just want to hold onto that sentence so it isn't completely erased.]

A wind blew, fluttering her silver hair. In that moment, she didn't look like a great princess leading a Nebula, but just like an old Incarnation. For some reason, I thought she was different from other Constellations. She truly seemed to cherish me enough to descend into the scenario for my sake.

[I'm not that different from you. I was thrown into the scenarios by chance, survived, and earned the qualification of a 'Constellation.' I really want you to become strong. That's why I came to make this proposal.]

She reached out the hand she had withdrawn once more. From that hand, a light so bright and warm that it was hard to ignore was pouring out.

[Do you have any intention of making me your Sponsor?]

[The Constellation, 'The Greatest Imperial Princess', awaits your answer!]