Tales From The Kronos

In the middle of the night, the leader suddenly called Neige and his group. They had to wake up in a hurry because of the call and did their best to come as soon as possible. Unlike usual, the leader wasn't displayed on the screen but was physically here, looking visibly distressed. When she saw the three friends here, she tried her best to explain without panicking.

"Shiro... He's..."

"Where is he?" Neige asked, understanding the urgency of the situation.

"1410... 2001... Neige, you shouldn't go. Silva and Sepide will manage..."

"Are you kidding? I'm going too."

Neige left in a hurry without hearing more from his leader, followed by his friends. Once they were ready, they jumped into this unknown world and were ready to bring back Shiro safely.

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"There's a town in ruin in front of us. It seems like no one is here. This world seems dead for a while now. I think I'll name it..."

"I've been here before." Neige said, interrupting Sepide's report "I can't remember why, but I know I came here before..."

"Then I shall name it the Nostalgic Lands, until you remember at least."

"Doesn't sound too bad." Agreed Silva "We should go then, Shiro must be somewhere here."

Neige looked at the familiar scene in front of him silently. Ignoring his friends, his body moved toward one of the houses by reflex. His friends followed him, worried about his behavior.

"Neige, are you okay?"

Instead of answering Sepide's question, Neige pointed at the ruins of a burned house in front of him.

"I used to go there with Yada. We would take a sandwich from the baker and come in front of this house. It would block the sun and let us eat in peace."

"Yada? The leader?" Neige answered Silva's question by nodding his head weakly "Neige... Is it your home world?"

Looking at the ruins around him, Neige tried his best to remember but couldn't achieve anything.

"I don't know. Maybe we just came for a few days... Let's find Shiro."

The group stayed together, wandering in the town. Neige stopped again after walking for a few minutes, staring at another house. It was half burned but still in a relatively good state compared to the rest. Without thinking, he entered the house and sat on the bed inside it. He pointed at a chair in front of a desk under the curious eyes of his friends.

"Yada would sit here and write, I'd sit on her bed and ask her to finish so we could walk together."

Neige stood up and left the house, a saddened expression on his face.

"If it's my world, why can't I remember it? I want to... I want to know what happened... I'll need to talk about it to Polyetta."

The three stayed silent, looking at the moon in the sky. It lasted for a moment until Silva suddenly tensed up, her weapon in hand.

"We're not alone, there are two people there!"

"Two?"

Neige and Sepide Followed their friend toward the sound she heard, hoping they would find Shiro there.

The group made its way toward another part of the village. Kairo and Shiro were both here, visibly talking about something before being interrupted.

"Neige? It's not-" Before Shiro could finish his sentence, Kairo cut his words with his own.

"What are you doing here?"

The cold words from Kairo incentivized the group to aim their weapons at him. Kairo stayed confident while Shiro cowered in fear behind him. Neige took a deep breath, preparing himself for everything that could happen.

"We came to get Shiro back!"

"Get Shiro back? What did the leader tell you?"

"Well..." Neige paused for a moment, trying to remember her words "She didn't say much, only where he was."

Kairo pushed Shiro toward them, visibly surprising him.

"You can take him back."

"Take me back?!" Shiro asked Kairo, offended "I told you everything I know, what don't you help me?"

"I got what I needed, thanks."

Kairo left using his watch before anyone could catch him. The group turned toward Shiro, with judgment in their eyes.

"What did you tell him and what are you doing here?"

"Wait Neige, you have to believe me, the leader is not as clean as you think!"

"How so?" Neige asked, still holding his gun in his hand.

"She's trying to hide something from us in this world! With Emely and the others, we found her diary. We didn't look much at it but I sneaked into her room and read it. I didn't really understand everything but she talked about a Yada that died in this world."

"What?" Neige put down his gun and rushed at Shiro. His hand gripped his shoulders tightly, visibly hurting him "Yada died? In this world?"

"Yes... It was written that it was the secret the leader needed to hide... Can you stop? You're hurting me."

Neige released his grip and took back his weapon under the confused gaze of his friends.

"Yada? But isn't the leader's real name?"

"The leader's real name?" Shiro reacted to Silva's words, sharing their surprise "But how can this be?"

"I..." Neige's respiration was getting faster and faster, his hands were shaking, and his eyes were trembling "She didn't..." Memories were getting to him. His, but also the anomaly's. All suddenly made sense to him. Without thinking, he ran suddenly somewhere else. His friends did their best to catch up to him, trying not to lose him in this empty world.

The group managed to reach Neige, standing in the middle of the ruins of a church. When his friends approached him, his empty voice echoed in the silence.

"She was there, lying on the floor... I... I didn't have a choice..."

The sound of footsteps behind them turned everyone's attention toward them. The leader was leading the march, followed by the rest of the ship's crew.

"I wish we could have delayed it forever..."

"Leader? Why is everyone here?"

"I wish I knew!" Emely answered to Silva's question "She just said 'Let's go to this random world!' She didn't even say it was so cold here!"

"It's not a random world. This is Neige's and my world."

The woman walked softly toward Neige under the gaze of the others. She walked beside him and faced the broken stained glass of the church.

"It's about Neige and I, but also about you all. I think you all need to hear this story, the day our lives changed."

"Come on, you wrote all day... I want to walk beside the river."

Neige said annoyed while looking at his friend writing in her diary. She took her time to write the letters carefully, only answering when she finished her sentence.

"You can go walk alone."

"But it's not fun..."

The woman chuckled and put down the feather she used to write with before standing up from her chair.

"Alright, I could use a walk."

Neige happily stood up and followed his friend outside. They walked alongside the river in front of Yada's house, enjoying each other's company.

"What did you write in your diary today?"

"It was a dream I had, it's a bit embarrassing though, I need time before I can admit it."

The two friends smiled at each other, continuing their calm still together. The soothing sound of the river appeased the heart of the two friends, treading the delicate road of their tranquil life. Everything stayed that way for as far as they could remember but for once, something unexpected happened. Something fell on Neige's head, prompting him to look around. There wasn't anyone around, except for this book that came from visibly nowhere.

"Is that a weird joke?" Neige took the book and read it out loud to her curious friend.

"Chapter 1: I woke up at 6 am like usual, preparing myself to go to work after a short week-end. I wouldn't say I hate my job but saying I like it would be lying, if I could I would just go far away and never look back."

Neige closed the book after a few lines, deeming it uninteresting.

"Just a bad story that someone wrote, the owner probably didn't mean to hit me with it."

Yada took it from Neige's hand, reading the different pages of the book.

"It's not a story, it's multiple. Look, there's even one where the character is named like you!"

"It's weird, I hope it's just a coincidence. I don't want anyone writing stories about me."

"I'll just keep it around, we can always see later. It's pretty late too, we should go sleep."

"You're right, I'll come see you tomorrow again."

"I can't wait!"

Yada said with a smile, watching her friends walk away. She stared at the book in her hand and wondered what it was, it seemed strange to see Neige's name inside it.