Chapter 966: NO．89：Courage

NO．89：Courage

The DIACLONE Team's talented woman, Kaisaki Hikaru, is not especially good at reading the air.

She even has little time and space for personal life.

Because she spends too much time on research, the only thing that can show her aspirations as a person is her own unique dream.

In that dream, her brother is still alive.

In the dream, she and her brother together depict a savior who can end the war.

That hero of light filled with hope is named SILVERKRATION/Silver Hero.

She also made a Silver Hero doll for her brother, and in the dream that doll still exists.

At the center of its chest is embedded a complete local specialty—a green glowing crystal—brought back from an Europa survey by her father, the Planet Development Team captain.

She hopes it is a symbol of hope, and her brother carries the doll with him like a talisman.

That hero—Silver Hero—will surely come to save everyone; they firmly believe it.

But that dream will end.

In reality, that wish was not fulfilled; all that remains is a fragment of the green crystal, a keepsake of her brother.

That world has no heroes, so she must become one herself.

Several years after she made that vow, she encountered a huge humanoid lifeform that read as 'intrusion' and written as 'creation', which smashed directly into her base, was mistaken by countless people for an enemy attack, and prompted them to immediately organize a team to intercept it.

She herself, in the collapsing building, only had time to activate the Daiya Armor's power assist, clearing the first wave of falling rocks to protect her research results, but then a second wave of debris struck.

She was undoubtedly injured, and her consciousness gradually faded.

But in the process of her consciousness fading, her eyes met those of the fallen giant humanoid.

And that was also the beginning of the brief story she co-wrote with Gotetsu.

And after that brief story of cooperating to fight monsters ended, up to now——

——How much time has passed again?

Waking up from lying on the desk, after sitting up she picked up the blanket someone had placed over her at some unknown time, and without pausing to appreciate that kindness, Kaisaki Hikaru immediately looked at the rows of counting glow tubes/numerical displays on the desk.

It is an object modeled after Steins; Gate, now rarely seen.

But as the saying goes, antiquated and classical are only a line apart; if someone appreciates it, it's easy to bridge.

In this local junk shop that offers assistance, the woman from the space age is such an appreciator, not falling into difficulty due to scarce old materials.

After all, her era is both the space age and the postwar era.

Or more accurately, it is the reconstruction era.

Figuring out how to make useful gadgets from postwar trash piles is likewise the research chief's specialty.

Hence these rows of counting glow tubes with wildly jumping numbers.

That is certainly not for analyzing world lines, but for measuring definite time.

However, the chaotic time shown there does indeed prove world-line jumps.

One line defines the present, another defines the interval number that time represents, and another analyzes data anomalies as coordinates.

Originally describable as linear time, due to constant looping it became a repeatedly woven ring; time lines turned into fiber bundles weaving the ring, and being cut and haphazardly spliced together produced the present scene that seems like time developing freely but gives a feeling of déjà vu.

This essence is still world-line jumping.

It is one of the continually connected spacetimes experienced before.

For the six-flower and inner-sea, who are quite familiar with the cycle itself, they did not notice, and thus did not develop the proficiency one would expect after repeated practice.

It is also because these 'future' segments are spliced together in such varied ways that occasional déjà vu is merely seen as an illusion.

Too faint.

So faint it cannot serve as evidence; only when Aomo actively proposes that the world's time is looping do the involved parties belatedly notice some discomfort they thought was just psychological.

Even so, no one has carefully studied this; instead, after Kaisaki Hikaru grasped the current information, she proactively contacted the second generation to work out this whole set of instruments before her—and the small indicator light connected to the desk.

Looking at that time, Kaisaki Hikaru can deduce the world's time-loop method, but occasionally it also leaves her feeling confused.

When she realizes—she is stepping onto a time belonging to some past—fragmentary memories appear in her mind, as if she had already appeared in that past loop, to the point that she now cannot tell how long she has been away from her homeland.

Applying the experience of merging with Gotetsu to the BIG-AI concept allows anyone from her homeland to become a hero afterward, yet she herself arrives in this world in a fog.

Then attacked by monsters, rescued by locals, and after accepting the invitation of those who act with Gotetsu, she was brought here……

A multiversal-level crisis has again arrived when heroes are needed—she knows this well, so she acts quickly, she is busy, seizing the time others relax to do what she can.

But if she herself has always been trapped in this world, repeating this process, are these efforts of any use?

Did her past selves all fail?

Could they not think of a way to leave something behind?

Thinking such questions, yet not wanting to think them, she remains the woman who would become a hero herself even if the world had none.

She still looks forward to the Silver Hero that ought to exist in the dream she made with her brother.

She believes she must do something no matter what; even if her past self failed, her present self still ought to have a chance.

Moreover, this is not just her own affair.

"Sephirah~Keep going, your other-universe self is also working hard……"

She also recalls that, in a dazed moment last night, she seemed to see a blond, eared child in front of her giving her such encouragement.

Hallucinations should have a prototype, but that girl's clothing, appearance, and manner of speaking give her no recognizable model in her memory.

Upon thinking that, when she heard Baoduo shop manager say that Lin Dun's group had returned, she immediately rushed to meet them.

"Have you woken up? I heard you slept right on the desk; want to rest a bit more?"

"Never mind that, come over and look at this data with me!"

"Has something happened?"

Did something happen?

Jiafeiqi Guang is not very good at reading the air, but when he saw these people standing or sitting gathered in the living room, he also felt that the atmosphere seemed a bit strange.

However, that pink-haired girl who appeared out of nowhere is that Xintiao Qian, right?

Glancing over at the girl who was sitting together with Baoduo Liuhua and Nan Mengya, pointing at her phone and laughing, Jiafeiqi Guang, at the moment, also didn't have time to bother with greetings and introductions' etiquette; he came up and directly grabbed the frowning Aomo and the rare Yutai who could tease others.

At this moment, it was as if he had pulled the entire crowd, and others consequently gathered around.

A crowd mightily marched straight to her small research room, and as she spoke along the way, everyone gradually restrained their previous ease and laughter.

Different…… Such a thought flashed through her mind, making her feel at ease.

When looking elsewhere, memory fragments always try to display a sense of presence, but only when looking at such a crowd is she unusually quiet.

It inversely revealed the fact that her past self had never seen this group of people standing together.

Everyone can become a hero; in this world, no other her has yet achieved this.

But that ultimate dream hero is indeed right here.

It lets her not have to escape the exhaustion of her own achievements, and she begins to look forward to that due future.