Why didn’t they want the Director to know this?
Kaguya gave the question some thought. If the information that Chronoses were intelligent was to be shared with Chronos users, it might negatively affect battle. That was one possibility, of course. But if that was all, then why hadn’t this information been shared with even Technical?
“It doesn’t seem like sharing the information with those who don’t use Chronoses should have been such an issue. All they really needed to do was to keep it a secret from Charon. With that in mind, it seems odd that they kept Technical in the dark.”
An uneasy lump had settled in Kaguya’s chest. A mystery that she was absolutely determined to solve.
Why? Why hadn’t Technical been allowed to know the truth?
“Chronoses are sentient…and the heroes possess mental worlds…”
As shocking as it would be to some to learn that Chronoses are sentient, there had to be more to it than just that. Something else. Something important, just out of reach.
Chronoses and heroes. They both possessed awareness…
“Of course…!”
Kaguya’s brain may not have been as brilliant as the Director’s, but it was still of very high caliber indeed. With a flash of inspiration, Kaguya’s brain now made a sudden beeline toward the answer. Although she could not check her work, she was almost certain she had discovered the solution.
“It’s the other way around,” she said.
“The other way around?”
“Chronoses weren’t derived from heroes. Heroes exist for the sake of Chronoses.”
What were Chronoses? Were they sentient weapons randomly created from pieces of flesh taken from the heroes, who just so happened to possess a similar mental world…? Or were the heroes created so that the Chronoses could be made?
“Chronos… It’s right there in the name.”
“Chronos? The god of time…?”
“No, I don’t think that’s it. I don’t think it has anything to do with time. There is another meaning to the name.”
A portion of heroes didn’t just happen to become weapons randomly. This must have been what the heroes were intended for from the start. The entire reason they were created.
“Chronoses possess—or rather, have been instilled with—human consciousness.”
In other words…
Kaguya quickly rifled through her thoughts. She remembered once looking into how Chronoses had received their name. She had found something interesting in the documents she had uncovered, though it hadn’t made much sense to her at the time.
“Chronos is often associated with Chronus as well, the Greek god of agriculture…”
Chronus, the god who had eaten his own children. Who had instilled himself with his own children. Kaguya hadn’t understood what it meant at the time, but she could see it now—the true nature of Chronoses had been there in the name all along.
“It’s why they both have consciousness. The heroes and the Chronoses.”
It was no coincidence. It was what they were created for from the start.
Someone had created these sentient monsters in order to create sentient weapons. It all fit. Or at least it fit more than the notion that it was all a coincidence that heroes possessed mental worlds and Chronoses happened to be conscious.
“The heroes exist so that Chronoses can be created. No, let me rephrase that. The Extermination Bureau created heroes so that they could create Chronoses.”
Kaguya got out of bed swiftly, already forgetting that she had been in tears just a moment before.
“I think, maybe, the Director must have realized this. When you look at things this way, it changes everything.”
The lump in her chest began to loosen, growing lighter the more she spoke.
“It’s why the hero in that photograph seemed harmless. Heroes originally existed for humanity’s sake. They weren’t our enemies at first.”
“But then…why?” Azuma asked. It was the most obvious question. “Why have things turned out the way they have…?! With us always teetering on the verge of death…?”
“Something must have happened. Something from which there was no coming back.”
Maybe a simple miscalculation, some kind of accident. But once heroes grew dangerous and began to cause carnage, that had been the start of it all.
“What about the Extermination Bureau?” Azuma asked shakily. “Do they only exist to hide their own mistake? Just an organization dedicated to keeping all of this a secret…?”
“No, I think there must be more to them. Covering their own tracks doesn’t seem like enough of a motivation for what they’ve done.”
If the truth came out, people in the Bureau might lose positions of power, but that alone wasn’t enough of a secret to require murder. There must have been some other reason.
Something more was at stake beyond the mere fact of the Chronoses’ sentience.
Just then, one of their comms chimed. It was Azuma’s device.
It seemed to be a message, not a telephone call.
“What is it? Who is it from?” Kaguya asked.
“It’s Takanashi…”
“Second Lieutenant Takanashi? What could she want?”
Azuma did not answer. Kaguya looked away, not wanting to pry. Finally, Azuma whispered softly.
“Design specs…,” he said.
Kaguya looked up at him. “Design specs?”
“Takanashi sent data. We intentionally caused a crash, and she was asked to handle recovery.”
Before Kaguya could ask him to explain, Azuma showed her a photograph.
“This is…” Kaguya stared at the photograph and gulped.
It did indeed seem to be design specs. But that wasn’t what Haru wanted them to see—what she thought they needed to see.
A single word was written beneath the photograph.
“‘Hero.’”
It looked as if both the word written underneath the photograph and—more importantly—the photograph itself, which had apparently been included for reference purposes, were from an important section of the document.
“This is how it looked, the first hero.”
A hero—someone who saves the innocent and protects the world. The creature in the photograph fit that image perfectly. Of course, there were aberrations, but it still resembled a hero from out of a children’s show. The explanation that the first hero had resembled something from an anime had apparently been true after all. This was the starting point.
They had finally found it. The reason the creatures were named heroes. Kaguya was only starting to figure it out now. The Director must have arrived at the same answer, only with far less information to go on.
“What…what does it mean? What is this?”
Azuma looked confused. Kaguya considered the possibilities as she stood beside him.
Heroes were clearly created by human beings. And so much about the Extermination Bureau just didn’t add up. Not least of which was the fact that they had been willing to kill to keep all this a secret.
Kaguya suddenly remembered what the hero from earlier in the day had said—about being trapped in a sandbox garden.
A box, isolated from the outside. So that those inside were unable to see the truth of the situation they were in.
Didn’t that describe the state of the very Bureau itself? Of the mystery of the heroes? And, of course, of the Bureau’s test subjects—the Bureau soldiers, who were treated as practically disposable?
That was why things were the way they were.
“It’s a closed diorama…,” Kaguya said, her voice sounding distracted as she arrived at an answer. “This place…is all an experiment.”