Chapter 23

**Chapter 23** is the twenty-third chapter of the *Astra Lost in Space* manga. It is the fifth chapter of the Arispade Arc and, in the compiled volumes, the fifth chapter of the third volume.

## Synopsis

As Luca and Ulgar stare at each other and the crew stares at Luca, his breasts still exposed, Ulgar stutters, dumbfounded, asking if Luca is a girl. Before Luca can answer, however, the ground beneath their feet begins to tremble, as the crew begins to panic, holding onto each other for dear life. When the dust settles, Luca and Ulgar have not fallen to the ground or moved at all, save for Luca putting his vest back on.

Luca answers Ulgar's question by clarifying that he is not a girl but adding that, by the same token, he is not a boy either. This stirs a spark of recognition in Quitterie, who utters the word "intersex"; Funicia, standing next to her, does not know what the word means, so Quitterie, still looking at Luca, explains that Luca's physical sex is ambiguous. Still talking to Ulgar, Luca explains that his father has two reasons for his callousness toward Luca. The first reason is his intersexuality, which he was forced to reveal to his parents when middle school when he first noticed the differences in his physical development from those of the other boys. His parents took him to a hospital, where he and his parents were told he was intersex.

Zack notes that Luca has always worn his vest around them, now realizing he wore it to hide his breasts, and Quitterie remembers that Luca claimed he could not swim, now understanding his reason. Luca, still talking to Ulgar, cites the second reason his father treats him coldly: he was adopted by his parents, and has no biological relation to them. He was the child of an artist who was friends with Marco Esposito and his wife; when their friend became unable to financially support Luca, the childless Marco adopted him, believing that he was adopting a potential heir. When the Espositos later had a biological son of their own, Riccardo, and then discovered Luca was not biologically male, Marco emotionally abandoned Luca, transferring all his affections to Riccardo. As all of this is told, Kanata silently focuses on Luca's being adopted, noting that Funicia was also adopted and that yet another of them has issues with their family. He wonders if these details have something to do with the reason they are here.

Ulgar demands to know why he hid his intersexuality from them, to which Luca counters that he had not hidden anything: all his public records list him as male, and he identifies as such, opting not to have the records changed because he feels no compulsion to do so. He does say that the ways he thinks and feels fluctuate from male to female, as his emotions and feelings of attraction have focused on both Aries and Kanata over the course of the trip. He states that, while he is not terribly concerned about how his body will change, confident that he will continue to be himself, no matter what happens.

His father, however, will never see it that way; since he was adopted purely for the purpose of being an heir, and since his intersexuality prevents him from being the heir, he had no purpose to his father, who no longer cares if he lives or dies. Ulgar tries to protest this logic, beginning to claim that no parent could possibly hate their children, but he suddenly realizes that he himself has just offered a personal example of just such a behavior to Luca, and his protest dies on his lips. Luca already knows that Ulgar understands his familial situation, and, with tears running down his face, tells Ulgar that it would bring him an unspeakable joy to know that his father genuinely grieved over his death.

His chance at revenge utterly destroyed, Ulgar drops the gun and falls to his knees. He remembers a day he spent with Finn: his brother took him to the top of a hill overlooking the city, where the prevailing wind blew from the city toward them. Finn told him it was where he went to vent his frustrations by yelling, as the wind prevented anyone else from hearing his voice and asked Ulgar to do the same. Crying as he remembers, Ulgar throws his head back and screams as Luca cries silently in front of him.

Having watched all this in front of him, Kanata continues thinking about what connects them all. He no longer thinks it can be a parental detail, as Aries' mother seems to care deeply about her, nor do parental woes seem to be something worth killing a child over. As he tries to think of something, he sees something in the distance that catches his attention; the ocean in the distance has risen sharply. Immediately, he orders everybody to return to the *Astra* and lower the gangway, yelling to Luca and Ulgar to do the same. A monstrous tsunami has risen from the ocean and is bearing down on the beach and the crew.