Tales From The Kronos

Making sure he wasn't followed, Neige headed toward the leader's room. There was a code required that only Neige and the leader knew. Some tried to stay outside the room, waiting to see their leader come out, but she never did. Everyone accepted that they would never be able to see her for real aside from Neige and gave up. Neige inputted the code, allowing him inside her room. He closed the door behind him to make sure no one would see the room or the woman inside. Unlike the clean and shining ship, the room was dark and littered with paper and other stuff lying on the ground. Like always, the leader was wearing her mask, not even Neige was able to see her true face despite how close they were. She was sitting on her bed, waiting for Neige to bring back her diary.

"Here, I have the journal." Neige handed it to his leader, who took it promptly. She opened it to make sure it was the right one and relaxed once she was assured of its legitimacy.

"I feel better now, thank Neige." The woman looked at the cover and paused briefly before continuing "You went against my orders and changed the Fate of this world."

"I didn't want those innocent people to have an asshole as their sheriff."

The woman slapped lightly Neige with her book, before saying in a falsely angry tone "Watch your language, young man."

"Young man? You're barely older than me!" Neige sat on a chair in the room while laughing with her friend before shifting to a more serious tone "This book... Just writing in it could make any wish a reality... I know we promised not to use it but... Do you think we could bring back Kairo with it?"

"It's... Complicated." The masked girl looked around the page and showed one of them to Neige. "Look, I wrote here that Kairo would come back safely, but as you know... He didn't."

"Wait, you actually used the book?"

"I didn't want any of you to get hurt, it was just a fail-safe, but it didn't work. I'm sorry, I should have told you before using it..."

"So what does that mean?" Asked Neige with sorrow, thinking about the loss of his friend. "That Kairo isn't affected by the book? Or it doesn't work anymore?"

"No, I think it's the anomaly. Usually, this book tells the story of every world and everything that happens in them. But the anomaly... It's not at all in it, if you never told me about it, I never would have imagined it existed."

"So it's the fault of this monstrosity..."

They both stayed silent for a while to think about the dire situation they were in until cries were suddenly heard. For the first time, the woman was crying, still trying to hold her mask despite that. Her hands were shaking, making the book fall to the ground as she desperately tried to stop her tears.

"I'm scared Neige, I don't know what will happen... And it terrifies me." Neige took her in his arms, staying to her side until she felt better. It was the first time he saw her like that, but it was maybe because, for the first time, she couldn't predict what would happen.

This special book was a mystery for everyone, but it always contained everything inside it, and yet, they found one of its limits.

It reminded Neige of something, he took the diary and drawings he found in the church and showed it to his friend, in the hope of making her feel a bit better.

"I think it belongs to the anomaly. It keeps talking to me like it knew me, and look, doesn't the thing on the left in the drawing look like me?"

"Well kinda, so what?" The woman wiped her tears from under her mask before taking the drawing to look at it closely.

"Maybe the anomaly thinks I'm the person on the left, and it would mean that it's probably the person on the right."

It was hard to know what she was thinking under her mask. The woman stared at the drawing of the girl with long blond hair for a while before suddenly tearing the drawing apart and throwing it on the ground.

"Unimportant." She said, trying to sound as soulless as possible.

"Hey, what are you doing? It was important!"

"No, it wasn't." She turned away from him and faced the wall, trying her best to look busy.

"Polyetta, what's happening to you?"

"You should go with your friends."

"Are you not my friend? You always act like we barely know each other! You never even showed me your face..."

Polyetta stayed silent and took a moment before looking at Neige in the eyes and asked him in a cold tone

"Neige, like there are other versions of you in other worlds, there are other versions of me too. If someday you had to kill one of the other me, would you be able to?"

Neige stayed silent, knowing he couldn't hurt his friend, even in another world.

"You're the one going on missions, you already are going through enough stress. I'm doing it for your own good."

"I just wish you could trust me with more. It's like you're hiding something from me... Was what happened in our home world that horrible?"

The woman stayed silent, unable to answer. Neige realized he was a bit harsh on her, Kairo's death didn't help, but it was no reason for him to hurt his friend's feelings.

"I'm sorry Polyetta... I think we should both rest for today."

"Yes, I'm sure Silva is perverting Sepide, you should go stop her."

Neige smiled softly and took a part of the drawing of the nun with long blond hair off the ground. He was sure that this woman was the anomaly they were fighting against. After giving a short hug to his friend, Neige left the room. Once he was in the hallway, Neige took his phone and called his friend. He didn't want to be alone, he knew it was better for him to be with Silva.

"Silva, where are you?"

"In my room with Sepide, I'm showing her my paintings, you want to join?"

"Sure, it's been a while since I saw your art."

Neige joined Silva and Sepide in the blind girl's room. He didn't come often here, it was mostly to get his friend before going on a mission. It was full of paintings, not all completed. Most of them were abstract art, Neige often said it was just paint on the canvas while Silva always argued it was art. But some paintings depicted people, landscapes, or what she imagined them to look like since she never saw any of them.

"Oh, Neige!" Said Silva, noticing him enter her room "I was showing my art to Sepide!"

"It's... Interesting." Sepide tried her hardest to not offend Silva at the sight of the weirdly made paintings. but even despite her best efforts to hide her confusion, Silva noticed and quickly tried to reassure her new friend.

"Don't worry, I just paint for fun, I know it doesn't look good."

Neige looked at the paintings around the room until one caught his attention. It was a woman with black hair, surprisingly detailed. It looked like something that a great artist would paint, which was unusual for Silva. He looked at the name of the painting written below it and asked his friend about it.

"Sister? You have a sister Silva?"

"Oh, this one." Said Silva, almost disappointed. "It's just something before our mission. I felt inspired, but don't pay attention to it, it doesn't mean anything."

"You're sure? It looks really nice." Replied Neige, wondering why she didn't seem proud of it.

"It's just... It's not like me."

Neige could understand what she meant, it really looked so different from the other pieces. It was still something she did, but she looked like she didn't want to think about it any further.

"Anyway, that's all I painted lately!" Silva said before sitting on the ground after showing all her work, looking pretty tired. "There were too many missions on the same day for me."

"Wasn't it only two for you?" Asked Sepide, a bit concerned about her friend's endurance.

"That's two more than my limit. I swear that usually, we get like one every month. The world must be really messed up."

"And it will only get worse." Said Neige "The anomaly that we saw in this empty world, and this Silv that stole your watch. They're going to cause inconsistency in the universe."

"Well next time the leader's calling us, I'm not going." Silva looked annoyed and lay down on the ground, exaggerating her fatigue.

"So, what will you do with the rest of your day?" Asked Sepide. It was her first full day on the ship and she didn't really know what to do, so she wanted to know what her friends would do to decide what to do herself.

"Sleeping." Sepide was surprised, Silva drank so much coffee, and yet she was still tired. Her body must work in a weird way. She then looked at Neige, silently asking him to answer.

"I..." Neige looked at the drawing of the nun with long yellow hair. He wanted to know who was the anomaly that caused so many problems but knew that the leader would never allow him.

"I want to explore this world, the world where the other me didn't die, and meet this nun."

The other two looked at the drawing he showed them, and then looked at him, confused. Silva had no idea what Neige was holding but could imagine it was related to this woman.

"Why? You have a crush on her?"

"No! I think... I think she's the anomaly."

"The one that attacked Kairo?" Silva stood up and seemed suddenly ready for action "Let's kick her ass then!"

"Don't tell me you will do that. It will cause more problems than it will solve, even if she is the anomaly in one world doesn't mean she will become one in all the parallel worlds."

"Don't worry Sepide," Said Neige, trying to sound as reassuring as he could. "I just want to see her and try to understand when the parallel universe formed. So, will you come with me?"

Silva eagerly accepted while Sepide stayed unsure. She thought for a while, before accepting too.

"I will too, but it's only to make sure you don't mess up anything, and if you do, I'll tell the leader."

"Perfect, let's go then. I think the world was 11081999x, so we just have to remove the x and we'll be able to go in the original."

"I hope the leader won't catch us." Said Silva, still a bit worried despite her excitation.