When the narrator was in eighth grade, aliens arrived on Earth. Having already abandoned language, they cannot communicate with humans, but when they hear a voice — especially a woman's voice — they excrete beautiful stones called "jewels." Fleeing a hometown she despises, the narrator moves to the city and, in exchange for scholarship support, takes a job at an alien shop, reading aloud to the aliens and collecting the jewels they produce. The warmth of her coworker Canaria and a new connection with a kind young man named Ryou-chan color her days, yet her longing for the abandoned hometown only grows. A cruel mother, a grandmother who raised her, bullying classmates, a neighbor woman called Noro-chan — these memories will not let go. When the narrator learns of Noro-chan's death and returns home, she realizes that the city too was never truly the place she yearned for. The next day, she accepts the aliens' invitation to emigrate to their world.

A piercing memoir in search of a place to call home.

Yusuke Ariga, manager of a local supermarket, discovers that his only daughter Kayoko is secretly the magical girl heroine "Kaleid Mercy", fighting against the alien invaders known as "Dislanders". Determined to protect her, he boards the alien spacecraft to negotiate a ceasefire—only to uncover the shocking truth about the Dislanders' true nature. This SF comedy blends the conventions of the hero genre with themes of parental love and the power of dialogue, winning the 20th Shosetsu Gendai Long-Form Newcomer Award.

Mercy, far stronger than any villain, quickly became the people's hero. But when her father discovers the truth, he takes matters into his own hands.