Nathan Stromberg

"*I just want to go home...*"
— Nathan to himself

**Nathan Stromberg** (ストレンバーグ・ネイサン *Sutorenbāgu Neisan*), known as **Nath** (ナース *Nāsu*) or **Nat** (ナット *Natto*), is the main protagonist of A Fleeting Star to Chase and a former resident of the Star Lullaby planet. He flew away from his planet in a small ship, the Star Chaser. He later formed the Star Chasing Team with a group of friends, of whom he is the leader.

## Appearance

Nathan is a young, fair skinned boy of average height and weight. He has short straight blond hair with his hair line on the right side of his head. His messy bangs, hiding his thin auburn eyebrows, often get in his blue eyes which is why he carries hair clips around in his pockets, while his longest locks of hair are left framing his chubby face. He can often be seen wearing a wide smile with his eyes closed.

He is usually wearing a yellowish white shirt with three quarter sleeves than is tucked in his brown bermuda with a pair of braces. At his feet are scrapped boots of a reddish brown, with black shoelace holding them together. Sometimes, a gavroche cap of the same color can be seen on his head.

## Personality

Nathan is an enthusiastic kid full of energy. All-loving, especially of plants and animals – although they never return him the favor and will attack him or flee at his very sight – he is quick to show kindness and can be too trusting with strangers, that he welcomes with open arms without a second thought. Despite liking what he casually calls "boy's stuff" as he said his father would call it, he has shown to have rather feminine traits and gives away an embracing motherly, pure aura.

His gullibility and ease to be impressed, although problematic in the long run, don't inherently affect his determination. In fact, he's stubborn as a boar and fiercely stands for his beliefs, that he is protective of, as well as of his integrity. He knows to be firm when needed, and doesn't step back when his morals are under attack. Instead, he strikes back, but never with ill-intents. He is actually non confrontional and dislikes engaging in arguments or battles, but not because he is unsure of himself. On the contrary, he has high confidence in himself, sometimes to the point of arrogance if praised too much. It's rather because his empathy never quite lets him pick a side.

Compassionate by nature, Nathan will often offer a hand to the people needing help that he meets. He has a high charisma, that he displays whenever he can, on par with his keen leadership skills. He knows how to arouse strong emotions in others, and can make them feel equal without the need to kneel down to his level, contrary to popular belief, as he is a child. In spite of being rather new to friendship, he has a natural talent to include others and maintain a good relationship within a group.

His biggest problem comes from his lack of maturity and experience. He has trouble recognizing what is considered socially inadept, is oblivious to gender roles, stereotypes and expectations. He can come off as rude, when he is in truth genuinely confused. He had shown cowardice on several occasions when facing the unknown, as he's somewhat unopen to change, but showcases his spontaneity and boldness in situations he's comfortable, like in social interactions. When finding himself in a peaceful setting, he shows to be quite playful and finds enjoyment in reading hokey novels.

Highly emotional and energetic, he's prone to sudden fits of joy, anger, sadness or anxiety. He is passionate about many things, such as his undying love of baseball that often get him to swing his broom in the air like a baseball bat and spurt common baseball vocabulary. He's also too curious for his own good, as it often gets him in trouble, seeing as he struggles to be discreet. He often comes out as a crybaby and, in spite of generally being open to criticism, he appears to be insecure about it. When escalating into fits of panic, he displays heavy paranoia that isn't easy to soothe.

Nathan is a kinesthetic learner, which means he learns through actions rather that sight or hearing. In fact, he has trouble listening to people or reading, having a short attention span. He's not particularly logical or intelligent, but has a practical side. He's a perfectionist, only desiring to do the best and holding himself to high standarts, as he's self-disciplined. He naturally needs order to function and enjoys to be neat, yet doesn't fear to get dirty as long as he can shake it off later. It often gets him to get regarded as odd. It's not like he cared, self-assured as he is.

## History

Nathan was born on Star Lullaby's mainland, Eurona, ten years ago. From birth, he was given his teddy bear Pyn, that had laid in the attic for decades. His growth in the large domain owned by his parents, a couple of farmers well-known for the quality of their products, allowed him to develop his most noticeable abilities. From early childhood, he had always been fascinated by the stars after hearing tales of other worlds outside of his reach. Due to the isolation of his house, he hadn't been one to go look for friends and mostly played with his big sister, six years older than him, and with the animals, that spent most of their time chasing after him. Once, when he was around five years old, the whole family went to a baseball match hosted in the capital Apis, and little Nathan got the ball. He liked the sport so much that it became a motivation of his to become a player and to do a home-run one day.

Around the age of seven, he got lost into the forest while looking for a kitten he was playing with, and stumbled upon an old, still functioning spaceship. He begun to go into the forest more often, usually with things he borrowed from his parents, to give the ship a fresh new look. The only thing he decided not to change was the ship's name painted on its flank, thinking it looked cool. He usually pretended he was a notorious astronaut within the spaceship for hours. One day, he got caught by Charlotte, who then proceeded to teach him tips on how it supposedly worked, not knowing it was still functional.

The day before his departure, he argued with his parents about the time he was spending in the forest, neglecting his duties and schoolwork. To rectify his behavior, they grounded him at home in hope spending less time outside would set him straight. However, he couldn't accept it and flew from home to live in the ship for a while. Unfortunately, a mishandling turned the ship on and made it quit the planet, knocking Nathan off in the process.

## Powers and Abilities

### Ether Gear

**Resonance Ether Gear** (共振のエーテルギア *Kyōshin no Ēterugia*) : By using this Ether Gear, Nathan can 'resonate' with nearby ether, granting him their most distinctive abilities as well as some characteristic features such as the eye and hair color, a piece of clothing, etc... While resonating with inanimate things or beings and animals is shown to be rather easy to archieve, yet pretty useless as it only gives Nathan a slight boost in several notable capacities, resonating with humans has prouven to be quite the feat. There must be a bound of some sort between the two individuals, and strong feelings of any sort must be shared. However, resonating too much with another being can escalate into a fusion of the two ethers, which in return can have devastating effects on both parties. It is known to be more common in the Mochi Cosmos than elsewhere.

* **Echo Technique** (エコーの術 *Ekō no Jutsu*) : This 'upgrade', as Nathan called it, grants him the ability to call upon known ether no matter how long the distance between them is. It can only be archieved if the bound between the two individuals is so thick and genuine that no distance can sever it. However, since he lacks the proximity and shared feelings normally necessary to use another's ether, it can consequently be considered a shadow of the other's ether, and far less powerful.

### Natural Abilities

**Enhanced Durability :** Nathan is known among his peers for his durability in both fights and everyday life. According to him, it's his early life being kicked around by animals and kids alike that shaped him into his current, durable self. He has been shown to survive being thrown against walls at high speed, buried under rubble and kicked by trained adults with little damage. He also could keep fighting after taking serious, otherwise endangering wounds that would have left him bleeding out on the ground. The true testament of his durability was shown when the Star Chaser, while being patched up, collapsed on the boy and Nathan, after having being taken out of under the ship, was shown to have remained almost unscathed if for the large but superficial gashes on his legs and waist.

**Enhanced Speed :** Although not being particularly striking like his strenght or durability, Nathan has accomplished feats of speed beyond normal for a boy his age. He was able to get out of the way of a speeding ship without the help of his broom, and was shown on multiple occasions to be able to close great distances in the blink of an eye or to dodge swift blows from an opponent.

**Enhanced Reflexes :** As well as his speed, Nathan is not especially known for his keen reflexes. He has yet been acknowledged to possess them, such as when he dodged blows from trained adult thugs and various animals with sharp senses.

**Enhanced Strenght :** Nathan has been noticeable many times for his displays of strenght above any normal boy his age. He was shown to be able to carry pieces of metal that must have been around his weight with ease, to break various times solid structures and furniture, as well as knocking unconscious people by accident more than once. It was first believed to only be Nathan's natural clumsiness at work. For a long time, Nathan was unknowledgeful of this natural strenght due to witnessing his sister pull greater displays of strenght before his eyes and thus, believing he was having an average level of strenght. It is still unknown if Star Lullaby's inhabitants also possess strenght above average, but it is highly possible considering their farming abilities.

## Equipment

**Artificially Modified Broom :** A plain looking broom at first glance, that is yet equipped with a system allowing Nathan to ride it and fly by pressing buttons modifying the gravity applied to the object. Later, a few extra decorations were added to the broom to make it look less average. Being made of steel inside of its wooden shell due to the engine contained in it for it to be able to clean up on its own, it's a surprisingly effective weapon when used to hit someone.

**Pyn :** A brown, average teddy bear that Nathan carries around to sleep with. Usually left in the spaceship for Nathan not to lose it. Besides the emotional value it has, it's heavily implied that it hides a much greater treasure, but it's yet unknown if this assumption is true.

**Key :** Nathan carries a regular, rusty key with him at all times. He wears it close to his chest, under his shirt, in a necklace. It was later revealed that it was a spare key of his house's door that he took with him in case he ever wanted to go back when he flew away.

## Trivia

* Nathan comes from the hebrew "netha" that means "gift of god". Stromberg, on the other hand, is german : it comes from "strom", "current, flow", and "berg", "mountain, hill".
* If Nathan had a theme, it would be "the Luma and the Hat" from Super Mario Galaxy 2. The second theme that would play during dramatic moments would be A Girl's Wish from Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru.
* Nathan and Luma are voiced by Mariya Ise and Miyu Tomita, who also voiced Reg and Riko from Made in Abyss, from which A Fleeting Star to Chase takes some inspirations.
* Nathan's undying love of baseball and endless energy was inspired by Jyushimatsu Matsuno, from Osomatsu-san.
* According to Cachou, Nathan's ether aura is a vivid blue that reminds him a cornflower.

## Quotes

* *"I just want to go home..."*— Nathan to himself