Tales From The Kronos

"Neige! It's time to wake up!" Sepide violently shook Neige, who suddenly woke up in a hurry.

"Sepide? What is it? Something happened?"

The girl shook her head "No, but everyone is gathering in the main hall, there's a party there, you remember?"

"I think so... It's because of... Intersomething, right?"

"Yes, even Silva is already there, let's go!"

"Silva's there... Is Polyetta there too?"

"I don't know, but Emely kept bothering me to bring you, so you need to come!"

Neige groaned and stood up, still visibly tired "Fine, let's go."

Everyone was gathered in the hall, aside from the leader. There were some people that Sepide never met before, but not a lot. Despite its huge size, the ship didn't have a lot of members. They all seemed to be gathered around Silva and Emely, the two of which were getting into an argument.

"Your 'internet' doesn't even work, and then you complain about my painting."

"Well at least I'm useful, I don't just goof around in other worlds!"

Feeling that the argument would last for a while, Neige decided that it would be better to interrupt them before it escalated more.

"Emely, I was searching for you. I need help to understand how your 'internet' works."

"Wait, I was busy with-"

Despite her complaint, Emely was dragged away by Neige, where neither she nor Silva would be able to argue. Silva was a bit confused but then hurried toward Sepide with a smile on her face.

"Sepide? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me." Answered the girl "But what happened? Why were you arguing together?"

"Oh, it's nothing, we're always like that. Her internet didn't work, so I just annoyed her. But most importantly, I'm hungry, let's go eat something!"

Sepide nodded their head, the tables around had a lot of food, and everyone seemed to have a good moment. Sepide couldn't remember if she had ever been to a party before, she really couldn't remember anything. There were so many different kinds of food that she didn't know what to eat, she ended up picking a kind of chocolate. It didn't seem like much at first, but when she ate it, she realized it was the best thing she ever tasted. She continued eating them without stopping, like nothing could stop her.

"You're enjoying my food I see." Sepide turned toward the voice, her mouth still full of chocolate. It was a woman wearing an apron, her hair and eyes both a profound black, but Sepide had never seen her before today "You must be the new girl, we never got the chance to meet, you can call me Ina, I'm the cook here."

"I'm Sepide, nice to meet you." The girl bowed down after introducing herself, surprising the woman.

"There's no need for such politeness. We're in the same group after all. Enjoy the food all you want, I made more than enough."

"Thank you."

"It's nothing, you know, it feels quite strange. Before you arrived, I was the most recent member. I joined a year ago, but I still feel like a new member too." The woman smiled softly at Sepide before suddenly looking at her watch "Oh my, I still need to get the cake out of the oven. Please enjoy the food, maybe we'll see each other around the ship someday."

Sepide waved at Ina, and once the woman left, she turned toward Silva. The blind was being scolded by Gwyn while they were talking and seemed visibly annoyed.

"You should eat more, now is a good opportunity for you."

"Yeah... I will..." Noticing that Sepide's conversation was over, she quickly went toward her to escape her scolding "Sepide! We should introduce you to the others, let's start with the pilot, he's really cute!"

"Silva, don't ignore me." The doctor tried talking with her, but Silva took her friend with her, and they left for another part of the ship.

Silva was walking in the hallways accompanied by Sepide. She was making weird noises, and calling weird names along the way, which worried Sepide a bit.

"Where are you? Where is my good boy?"

"Is good boy his name?" Asked Sepide, a bit concerned for her friend's mental health.

"No, not at all. It's just a nickname I gave him." Silva suddenly stopped and started to run in a seemingly random direction "Follow me! I heard him!"

The chase continued for a while until Silva managed to grab a ginger cat, it didn't seem really happy to be grabbed, and was even more annoyed when Silva showed him to Sepide.

"That's our pilot, Cinnamon! Isn't he so cute?"

"The pilot... Is a cat? Does he have anything special? Does he speak?" Sepide had some trouble understanding how a cat could be a pilot, but she saw some weird things, so she wasn't really surprised if the cat was smart.

"Why would he talk? It's a cat."

"So can he understand complex things?"

"No... It's a cat. Isn't he cute?" Silva felt a bit sad that Sepide didn't share her enthusiasm for the cat but suddenly realized why she acted like that "Oh, is it because he's the pilot? Don't worry, we just orbit around this sun, we don't actually need any piloting done."

The cat managed to escape from her arms and ran away as if his life depended on it.

"Oh, Cinnamon must be hungry."

"I think it's more because you grabbed him forcefully..."

"Maybe, but it's not important. I think we only have one person left to introduce you to, and then you should have met everyone! He must be in the main hall with the others, let's go!"

Sepide tried to find Cinnamon the cat, but he had already disappeared. She followed her friend, curious to see who the last person was.

The two returned to the hall, Silva searched for someone and managed to find him. It was a man with short silver hair, with scars on his face. But even despite his harsh appearance, he seemed like a kind person.

"Shiro! What are you doing all alone?"

"Silva, it's you... You know I don't like social interaction..." The man named Shiro noticed Sepide, and looked at her intensively for a moment "I'm sorry, have we met before?"

"No, I'm Sepide, I'm new here. We never met before."

"I guess I have to introduce myself then." The man let out a sigh, before introducing himself "I'm Shiro, usually I stay in my room... I'm the one who takes care of your weapons, so if you need help with something, you can come to me." Shiro tried making a smile, but it was obvious he wasn't used to it. He looked around the room for a moment and continued talking "You're friends with Neige you two, right? Where is he?"

"Neige? He's with Emely, I don't know what they're doing."

"I see." Shiro seemed a bit disappointed at Silva's answer, until suddenly, a familiar voice headed toward them.

"You're here, I searched for you two, but I couldn't find you."

"Neige, you're here at the right moment, Shiro was searching for you!" Silva said with a smile, surprising Neige.

"What is it?"

Shiro looked a bit embarrassed and was visibly blushing, trying his best to dodge Neige's gaze "Well... It's... How is your firearm?"

"My gun? It's working. If it had a problem I'd tell you."

"I see... It's good. I'll... Go do something, see you later." As if he was in a hurry, Shiro ran away somewhere else. Neige looked at him going, a bit worried.

"Does he hate me?" Asked Neige "It's always like that with him."

"I don't think it's hate hehe." Said Silva with a perverted voice.

"Silva, you should stop reading weird stuff, it's messing with your mind. Anyway, We're just waiting for Polyetta and then Emely will officially start the internet. I'm not sure what it does, all I know is that we'll be able to talk with the leader while on mission."

"But will The leader really come?" Asked Sepide "Doesn't she never leave her room?"

"Usually she stays in it, yeah, but I made sure she'll come." Neige opened a bag and showed it to his friends, inside were a bunch of cables "She won't be able to play any games until she comes out, and I also stole her light bulb, so she'll have to go out eventually.

"And what if she doesn't? And even if she does, we're going to get punished for that!" Sepide panicked a bit, she knew the leader was kind, but she could be scary sometimes.

"It's fine, trust me."

The group waited for a while, so much so that they actually wondered if she'd show up.

Everyone just talked together and enjoyed the moment of peace that the party brought. But finally, after a while, the leader arrived in the hall with her mask on. She wore solemn clothes black as if she was going to a funeral. Everyone's gaze was locked on her, they couldn't believe their leader was actually here, it was the first time they had seen her for most of them. Noticing that she was the center of attention, she quickly went to Neige and tried to hide behind him.

"Neige... You're too small to cover me."

"It's because you're too tall."

"I can't believe I actually had to go out. You stole everything in my room and I didn't notice!"

Everyone gathered around, still in shock about what was happening in front of them. Emely was the first one to ask what everyone was thinking.

"Leader? Is that you? What are you doing outside your room?"

The leader was at a loss for words, her heart rate spiked, and the only thing that brought her a bit of comfort was her friend, which she was holding tightly.

"Well... You contributed a lot to us, and not only you... Everyone on this ship is working so hard, so... I decided that I couldn't stay that way forever." She put her hand on her mask, she took a deep breath and finally revealed her face to everyone. She tried acting courageous, but right after, she hid her face behind Neige.

"I'm sorry! It was a mistake! It's so embarrassing!"

"No, it's not." Silva's voice surprised the leader, who slowly tried to leave her hiding place "I think that it shows how much you care for us. Even if I can't see your face."

Seeing everyone agreeing seemed to relieve her heart, she still was uncomfortable, but she felt way better.

"Hey, we should officially launch internet now! You'll see, it's my greatest invention!" Emely hurried toward her laptop, with everyone else following her. Polyetta stayed a bit behind, still holding onto Neige.

"I... Didn't expect everything to go that way... But, I don't regret it. Thanks, Neige, I really don't know how my life would be without you. I'll do everything for you."

"It's nothing, let's go, I don't want to miss whatever is happening!"

"Yes, I'm curious too."

Everyone was around the small computer and all started a countdown. As they got closer to zero, the excitation started going up. It wasn't about internet in itself, but more because it was a rare moment they had together. When the countdown was over, Emely finally pressed the enter key and acclaimed in a more than happy voice.

"Finally, we are connected with other worlds now!"

After she said that, the screen on the computer changed, revealing a girl looking eerily like Silva. The others didn't know, but Neige and Sepide recognized Silv, one of their enemies.

"Are we connected now? I don't think we are." At Silv's word, another girl, looking very similar to Emely entered in the field of view.

"Yes, you are live now."

"Hey, who are you?" Emely yelled, more than annoyed at them.

"I'm hearing a voice, is it normal?" Silv looked like she had trouble with technology, annoying both Emely and her other self.

"Yes, it's the people you're trying to talk with..."

"That's perfect! Finally, we meet! My name is Silv, and you'd love to stop me, I'm sure. So, let's make a deal!"

Everyone's excitation suddenly died, replaced by worry. Most of them didn't even know this Silv, but everyone knew it could only mean trouble.