The room fell quiet. It felt like something cold and silent was pressing down on them from above.
“So what makes us different, then…?” Azuma asked, his voice shaking slightly.
The idea that these Chronoses, which they swung around like tools without a second thought, might in fact have minds of their own—he didn’t want to admit it might be true.
He briefly remembered his katana, now tossed haphazardly into the armory. Was there someone in there? A person inside?
Someone who had witnessed the Director’s death?
“I’ve never felt any kind of resistance. Yes, there’s physical recoil with the guns, but as for what everyone else experiences…”
Azuma trailed off. He wanted to insist that Mari was wrong, but it was difficult to do so with much confidence.
“That’s just speculation, though, right…?”
“It’s speculation, yes, but everything adds up.” Haru had never handled a Chronos and was able to consider the matter with more detachment than the others present. “The reason that none of you experience rebounds is because you were altered by the hero six years ago, correct?”
“Yes. At least, that’s what I’ve been told,” Azuma said, answering for all of them.
It was Kaguya’s theory. That also fell into the realm of speculation, but even to a layman like Azuma, her explanation seemed reasonable enough.
“Everyone in Charon contains a hero factor due to your contact with the hero from six years ago. It’s why the weapons are unable to resist you. Either that or their resistance just has no effect on you.”
“What do you mean…?”
“The reason is unclear. But even if we speculate that Chronoses are sentient and are able to reject being used by humans, it may simply be that this pushback has no effect on people who contain the so-called hero factor. Remember, even though Lieutenant Shinohara once started to turn into a hero herself, she does not actually contain the hero factor, so—”
“Stop it.” Koyuki’s voice, like a soft cry, interrupted Haru’s train of thought. “Stop talking about us like we’re monsters.”
“I’m sorry…”
Haru averted her eyes uncomfortably. No one spoke. Unable to bring themselves to agree with what she was saying, yet unable to refute her. Not even Azuma could think of anything to say that might lighten the mood.
This was all so much to process. The notion that Chronoses could contain a hero’s consciousness was already mind-boggling enough. Add to that the idea that rebounds could be an intentional manic act of resistance on the part of sentient creatures? One that was only ineffective against them because they had been, in essence, bred by the heroes?
The silence was petrifying.
As difficult as it all was to believe, there was no indication that any of it was a lie. First and foremost, why would Mari make up such a thing in the first place? And as for the Director? Well, the Director had been killed. If this were all just unhinged paranoia on her part, constructed from whole cloth, then there would have been no reason for her to meet such a fate.
“So Chronoses are sentient and can feel pain. If that’s true…,” Rindou said at last. “Could that have something to do with the fact that heroes also possess psyches of their own? The two things can’t be completely unconnected, right? That would have to be a pretty wild coincidence…”
“Well…”
Mari fell silent, seemingly uncomfortable. It wasn’t that the question had been unexpected. Rather, it seemed as if she had anticipated they would ask that but had no answer. At least, that was what her expression seemed to say.
“I don’t really know…”
“In my opinion,” Azuma continued, “this must have something to do with why the Director was killed. The Director must have learned something that was inconvenient for someone. It’s the only explanation I can think of. And that something is almost certainly what Warrant Officer Ezakura has just informed us of.”
“But why?” Mari asked, lowering her eyes in thought. “Obviously, I can understand why they wouldn’t want to let the soldiers who use Chronoses know something like this, but would that really be enough of a reason to take things this far…?”
“There’s probably something more. Something else they want to keep hidden.”
No one disagreed with that assessment.
After the others had dispersed, Azuma remained behind, leaving just himself and Kaguya.
She lay upon her hospital bed like Sleeping Beauty, the hero’s egg still in her throat.
Azuma was used to the sound. He could hear it clearly right now. Apparently, the only reason he couldn’t hear the eggs during battle was because of the static that was getting in his way, not because he had actually lost the ability.
Azuma hesitated and then stroked Kaguya’s throat lightly as she continued to slumber wearily. Of course, she did not stir.
Azuma obviously wasn’t going to do any more than that.
“I…I hope this really is just fatigue.”
Hypothetically, Kaguya had fallen into a coma from all the mental stress she had been under. However, no one knew for sure.
“It turns out the Chronoses might be sentient…,” Azuma said, taking a step away from Kaguya. “And apparently, it takes every drop of blood in a person’s body to create one. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it…?”
Azuma no longer felt very comfortable using his katana. Not to the point that he was actually going to stop. But he didn’t like it.
“You can talk to the heroes, right? I wonder if you can talk to the Chronoses as well.”
Kaguya could hear the heroes’ voices.
“How would you feel about all this if you knew, Kaguya? I mean, it’s not like we can just stop fighting at this point…”
Kaguya had attempted to use a Chronos herself several times in the past. She would probably be as shocked by this news as they were.
Azuma leaned over Kaguya as he spoke, peering down into her face. He stood up straight again. As he did so, he caught a flash of silver light out of the left-hand corner of his eye.
It was his earring. The cross-shaped accessory his sister had left for him. He took a moment now to remove it. He only took the earring off once a day before he went to sleep. But he had been so busy lately that he had been forgetting to do that. He went to stuff it into his pocket casually.
“Ah!”
Instead, he dropped it. It landed on Kaguya’s throat.
The earring was pure silver, but fortunately, it wasn’t very large and didn’t land with much weight. Kaguya’s eyes remained closed.
Apologizing to her internally, Azuma scooped up the earring and tucked it safely into his pocket.
No one said a word. It was as if time had stopped, but only within this one hospital room.
If Kaguya were to wake up now—Azuma had spoken about this with Koyuki earlier—would they finally be able to get her to stop what she had been doing?
“No. I doubt I could, at least… It’s not so easy to change a person’s heart.”
Azuma turned his back toward Kaguya. His thoughts were on today’s fight with the hero now.
He walked toward the room’s sliding door without turning around. Just as it began to rattle open beneath his hand—he heard the sound of cloth shifting behind him.
“?!”
Azuma spun around in shock. What now? What was happening?
And then he froze. Every previous thought had flown from his head.
“…Kagu…ya…”
Kaguya Shinohara had woken up.