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Mumei killed Fauna.

Don’t misunderstand, this was never her intention, nor did she desire it, but it was the truth. An undeniable, hard fact that was unable to be skirted around.

Mumei caused Fauna’s death. Everyone, especially Mumei herself, knew this well.

Kronii wasn’t completely sure how it got to this point. She was never too interested on the handlings of planet Earth, let alone the matters concerning humanity. As far as she was concerned, she only had one job, and that was to keep the current flow of time going. She was the one that caused the force of time to affect everything that existed, the very fuel that protected everything from eternal stagnation, the one thing that kept the well-oiled machine of reality, of existence, going. The force that pushed everything into motion, the force that invented motion in the first place.

And she was proud of it.

Proud of how nothing would work without her around. Proud of how everything, even her fellow council members, were fueled by the blessing she bestowed. What her fellow members did on their own, whether it was space or nature or civilization, didn’t matter much to her. It wasn’t part of her domain after all, she only needed to do one thing, and that was what she did.

This didn’t mean she disliked her fellow council members, of course. On the contrary, she considered every single one of them close friends, the only beings she could ever put her trust on. It’s just that… well, she couldn’t really help but feel superior to them, could she? Not when all of them were under her blessings. She felt that the domains of others, while necessary, were like toys to her. The council members could make what they wanted, and she still respected their work, but they would never escape from her influence.

So, when the news came that Fauna had expired, she was shocked. She wasn’t aware of how bad things had gotten down on Earth. It was because of this reason that when Bae called an emergency for all members to immediately attend, the location of said meeting being a small forest glade of dried grass and sad trees, she didn’t know how to react. There, in the middle of the glade, was Mumei, holding with trembling hands a dagger with blood dripping out of it. Hugging her was the body of Fauna, blood slowly dripping out of her chest as she still held Mumei strongly against her, as if protecting her from something, or comforting her as she usually did.

Everyone could tell that she was no longer breathing, and yet her presence was as bright as a flickering candle in the darkest night.

“Mumei…” Said Bae quietly, slowly reaching out a hand for her to take.

However, it didn’t seem like that action registered on her mind as she kept her position still, tremors shaking her whole body. Kronii noticed that she was pale, as if a sickness had run through her soul. She was sweating a cold sweat, and terror filled her dilated eyes over what she had just done. Most notably, however, was how she still held the dagger in both hands, the blood dripping from it forever staining her gloves with a mix of her seemingly never-ending cascade of tears. Even as Sana and Bae approached her, she didn’t seem to react to their advances, trapped on the prison that was her mind. Kronii knew she should do something to help, but she genuinely didn’t know how.

Still wanting to make at least an attempt at helping her dear friend, she said the first thing that came to her mind. “It’s… not your fault, Mumei.” Kronii said, hoping to get some kind of reaction out of her.

As soon as the words slipped out of her mouth, Mumei flipped her head towards Kronii in an aggressive way, her eyes staring at Kronii so she could see the mixture of her eyes amongst her tears. Sadness. Fear. Regret. Despair. Despite this, Kronii could tell that the most prominent emotion of all was full-blown anger. A glare so deep, so furious that froze her on the spot. Mumei’s glare eventually left Kronii’s eyes and changed focus to her hands, glaring at them with disgust.

Following that, in a tone of voice so frail, so defeated, yet still resounded throughout the entire forest, Mumei answered Kronii.

“Of course it is. I killed her.”

And silence took its domain once more as Mumei hanged her head on Fauna’s colder arms, one last time.

It’s been a week since that day, and Kronii had pieced together what happened to Fauna.

Turns out, civilization and nature weren’t as compatible as Fauna and Mumei had initially hoped. In order for civilization to thrive they had to overcome each obstacle that was presented towards them, including their dependence on nature. As for nature, it desires for a certain order and equilibrium to take place, where every living being can have its role and purpose in this planet. And yet, humanity rejected that purpose and rose up over the others, taking control and manipulation away from nature for their own goals. If one of the two were to rise up over the other then the other would fall, an unavoidable negative correlation. Because of this nature and civilization, or, rather, Fauna and Mumei, were truly fated to be incompatible with the other, Kronii concluded. It wasn’t that she was happy with the result, nor that she wished for things to end this way, but it was unavoidable. Thinking of the what ifs and the what could’ve beens was meaningless now. It would change nothing.

Kronii knew that the rest understood this as well. Even Mumei should’ve realized it by now that it wasn’t going to end in any other way. Sure, she didn’t know exactly what happened at the glade, but Kronii did have a good idea of what occurred. Nature had been weakened for a long time now, and it was no secret that Fauna was more and more sickly each meeting. Her end was near, and nobody could prevent it now.

And because everyone understood this, she would’ve expected for them to keep on working. Reality must keep its course, and time doesn’t stop for anything. Can’t stop for anything. So, there was never another choice in the matter, their roles hadn’t ended yet and they wouldn’t end for a long while. They had to keep going, regardless of if they wanted to or not.

Yet, there was one exception. Ever since they had come back to their home, Mumei had not left her room a single time for the whole week. She had become a hermit, a being that wanted to be left alone and had nothing to give to the ones outside. Sana, Bae and herself have tried to get her out of her room on multiple attempts, either by food, entertainment or by imposing a sense of duty, yet none of it had worked. The girl was inconsolable, and Kronii was at a loss of what to do. She wanted to help her dear friend, yet nothing that they did seemed to work. Hell, at times their attempts were met with contempt, the reward for their efforts being a door shut on their face.

Which led her to the current situation, which is standing outside of the aforementioned door as she thinks on what to do. She cares for her and seeing her in pain these last few days has been painful for her as well, yet she doesn’t know what to do. She’s tried to appeal to her logical side, but it was completely ignored. She’s tried to help her by cracking jokes and trying to make the atmosphere better, but the only thing she gained was a glare. Last day, she tried to appeal to her duty, thinking that if she starts performing her work then she’ll eventually feel better and go back to normal. And while that definitely got the strongest reaction out of her, she wouldn’t say that being kicked out of the room with some colorful language coming out of Mumei’s mouth was the reaction she wanted to achieve.

So, she was lost. She didn’t know how to alleviate the pain in her friend’s heart, especially because she didn’t really get why she was so hurt. When she said that it wasn’t Mumei’s fault, she genuinely meant it. Nobody blamed her over what happened, and she’s sure that Fauna wouldn’t have blamed her either, she loved Mumei too much for that, so where was all of this hurt coming from?

She sighed as she rested her forehead on the door, wishing for sudden enlightenment over how to handle this mess. As busy as she was over her own thoughts, however, she missed the sounds of footsteps on the opposite side of the door and lost balance when the door suddenly opened. Regaining her balance, Kronii looked at an annoyed Mumei as a small blush appeared on her own face over the embarrassment.

“Are you going to keep standing there or what?” Mumei asked with a hint of hostility. It was clear that she still held what happened yesterday against her.

Mumei, for her part, looked like a mess. Sprawled, unkempt hair spraying towards seemingly random directions. Big, dark bags adorned her face under her bloodshot eyes, taking a notorious contrast over her worryingly pale complexion. She looked sick, and her posture indicated a lack of care as she seemed to be slightly hunched over.

Kronii, in a panicked state of mind, said the first thing that came through her head. “O-oh, Mumei! It’s nice to see you here. Lovely weather we’re having, right?”

Kronii wanted to kick herself in the face.

Usually, this would lead to Mumei poking fun at Kronii’s lack of social skills, where she would laugh and tease Kronii in good nature until she calmed down, usually with Kronii laughing at her own mistake as well eventually.

Instead, Mumei glances towards Kronii with tired, bloodshot eyes. “Well, you certainly seem to be doing well.” She says in a bitter tone, unbefitting of her usual self. Despite the cold welcome, she still moved aside to let Kronii enter her room.

Kronii gently touches her face, near her eyes. Now that she thinks about it, she hasn’t really cried, has she? She’s also rather sure that Bae and Sana are the same as her in that regard as well. It’s not that they don’t care about Fauna or that they were unaffected by the whole thing. Even if she didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with her most of the time, she was still her close friend and she misses her. She really does. But Kronii knew that all things will come to its eventual end, all of council understood this, it’s just that Fauna’s end came before any of them. Because of this, she treasured her memories of Fauna and looked back at them fondly. Yes, Fauna’s time ended, and nothing would change that, but isn’t that the reason why we should appreciate what once was? Yes, she missed her, but it was a fond kind of missing, where Kronii was glad that she got to experience the things she did with Fauna. Because of that, she wasn’t particularly sad about it, and she’s confident that Sana and Bae feel the same way. It’s just the way things are, after all, there’s not much to do about it.

Therefore, nobody blamed Mumei.

“It wasn’t your fault, Mumei.” Kronii said softly as she spoke before realizing it. “What happened to Fauna… it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It’s just the way how things went.”

Mumei’s eyes glared at Kronii as she responded. “Could you stop saying that?! That it was just how things went, that there was nothing that could have been done, that it was how things were meant to be… I’m sick of hearing all of that!” A tremble starts sneaking into her voice as she tries to push it down. “I killed her, Kronii. For all of you to come and say that there was no other choice, that it was unavoidable, that I shouldn’t feel bad about it… You all know nothing! Truth is, I could have done something about it. I could have saved her if I didn’t keep making mistakes after mistakes after stupid mistakes! If I had just done things differently, then…” She trails off, fresh tears pooling on her tired eyes as she glances away. “You don’t get it. None of you do.” She says as she glances towards a certain part of her bedroom wall. “Not even Fauna.” She whispered.

She moved her head at the direction that Mumei was glancing, where a picture hanged on the wall. It was a beautiful shot of the morning sun among the mountains. The skies were blue, and the ground was green as plentiful vegetation surrounded the mountains, a single waterfall transforming into a river as it coursed its journey. It was an astonishing sight, one where someone could get lost in for hours.

It’s a place that no longer exists. It probably stopped existing for a long time now.

“She counted on me, you know?” Said Mumei as she keeps her stare at the picture. “She said that she trusted me. That whatever happened, she would be proud of me. Even her last words were never spiteful, she said that this wasn’t my fault, that I shouldn’t blame myself for this.” She starts to shake her head as she looks at the ground. “You don’t get it. None of you do.” She repeated.

Mumei looked outright miserable as she kept her head hanging, staring at the floor. And yet, even now Kronii wasn’t sure what to say. Nothing that came up to her mind was useful, and because of that a heavy silence took place on the room.

As Kronii tried to desperately figure out something, Mumei looked at her with a sad smile. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain to deal with this last week, I don’t mean to take it out on you and the others. I know all of you are trying to make me feel better, and I appreciate it, I truly do, but… it’s just hard, you know?”

That’s the thing, Kronii didn’t really know.

“Well…” Kronii said, having an idea of what she wanted to tell, but not sure on how to do it. “Do you think that Fauna would have liked for you to be like this?” The moment she said that Kronii realized that she was standing on thin ice as Mumei tensed up. “She told you to not blame yourself, didn’t she? If she saw you now, I’m sure she’d start reprimanding you for feeling guilty. She would have liked for you to be happier, for you to remember her fondly rather than remembering her in a painful way, wouldn’t she?” Kronii said, hoping that she understood what she wanted to tell her.

Mumei, however, didn’t quite agree with her. “Well it’s not like she can tell me this stuff herself now, can she?” She said self-deprecatingly. “It’s doesn’t matter how I should remember her, or if I would make her sad by the way I’m acting. None of it matters because she can’t notice it anymore, can she? She’s gone, and she’s not coming back.” Mumei quickly dried her eyes with the back of her hand. “I just… wish she was still here.” A pause separated them as Mumei shrugged her shoulders. “That’s all, really.”

“But that’s not going happen, is it?” Kronii fired back, not understanding why Mumei was pained by it. “Fauna’s gone, nothing we could do now will change that. Letting yourself think over things that can no longer happen isn’t going to help anyone, much less help you. You need to realize that the only thing you’re accomplishing is harming yourself, you need to get your mind over the things you can do over the things you can’t anymore.” Kronii’s arms were spread, gesturing at Mumei, pleading for her to understand her reasoning.

Yet, Mumei clenched her fist as she glared fiercer at Kronii. Even Kronii, with her… limited social skills, could tell that she had stepped over a line of some kind.

“Well, I’m not like you alright?! I can’t just… order myself to think otherwise, I’m not like you or Sana or Bae that are able to just see the positive side and keep going with your lives. I can’t do that! I know it’s meaningless, I know thinking like this doesn’t help anyone, but I can’t help it! The thoughts are just there, sticking inside my head. Every time I sleep, Every time I blink, I…” She trailed off, the fuel in her body drained as she slumped back into the wall, sitting in the floor. She pinched her forehead with her hand as she threw her head back. “It’s not that I won’t stop thinking about it, I just can’t.”

Kronii looked at the girl with pity as Mumei stayed slumped on the floor, soft sobs coursing through her body. She didn’t know what to say anymore. The atmosphere of the room was suffocating, a strangely claustrophobic feeling of no escape, a feeling of extreme loneliness. For Kronii, Mumei felt so far away that she might as well be alone on the room, with no means of reaching her.

The silence of the room continued on for what felt hours until Mumei spoke, a sound no louder than a whisper. “…You mentioned there was no other way to fix this, that it was impossible to bring Fauna back. But that’s just not true, is it?” Whispered Mumei as she looked at Kronii in her eyes, the first glimmer of hope that she has seen on Mumei since that day.

It felt like she was being stared at her very soul.

And she knew exactly what Mumei was referring to. “You already know I can’t do that.” Kronii answered as she shakes her head.

“And why not? You’re time, how is there anything that could impede you from doing it?” Mumei pushed, clinging and fighting to maintain her newly gained hope with tooth and nail. “Why is it that you can’t go back?”

“Because there are rules, Mumei.” Kronii responded with seriousness. They were entering on deep, dangerous waters now. “We can’t just break them, they exist for a reason.”

“To hell with the rules! That reason is not nearly good enough and you know it!” Yelled Mumei, pointing a finger at Kronii’s chest. “Don’t even try to hide behind them, if you are opposed to time travel then say it with your own words!” Mumei challenged Kronii, staring right in her eyes.

Staring back, Kronii let out a sigh she was containing. Mumei had a point, she didn’t nearly care as much about some self-made rules as she pretended to be. The real reason she was so opposed to the idea was because… “Even if I were to travel back, nothing would change. Time is a constant flow that cannot be stopped. Even if you were to walk ten kilometers in the opposite direction of a river, if you were to follow the flow you would end up in the same place, every time. It’s useless to go back because it will just end up the same as it is now.” Explained Kronii, trying to reason with Mumei.

But Mumei still didn’t back down. “Have you ever gone back in time, Kronii?” She asked, still staring at her soul.

Flinching slightly, Kronii averted her gaze. “Well, no. But…”

Seeing an opening, Mumei kept up the pressure. “Then you don’t actually know what would happen, do you? What you just spouted was just theory, nothing more.”

Kronii shaked her head, slightly offended. “Theory? I’m time, Mumei. Trust me when I say that I know what I’m talking about.”

“If you’re so sure about it,” Mumei continued undeterred, and Kronii felt like she suddenly stepped onto a trap. “Then let’s make a bet. In that drawer,” Mumei pointed to a drawer on the corner of the room. “I’ll show you a drawing after this. If you’re right, then if were to go back and end up at exactly this point of time, you should already know what this drawing is. If you do know it, then…” Mumei averted her glance momentarily. “Then I’ll give up. I’ll… try and start again, I’ll keep doing my duties as I did before.”

“This is ridiculous. I’m not going to screw with the rules just because of a dumb bet.”

Mumei instantly went back to staring her eyes, face to face. For a moment, she ready to argue, to keep fighting until Kronii conceded, to never give up. But she was tired. She was so, so tired. So, with a frail voice, Mumei pleaded. “Please Kronii, I’m begging you here. I’m asking you to do it just one time, just once. As long as I know that there’s a possibility, even the slightest chance, I can’t not take it. I can’t rest until I know I’ve exhausted all of my options.” She hanged her head and pressed it against Kronii’s chest.

“Please.”

Kronii closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn’t like seeing Mumei like this. Even if she didn’t quite understand her, she was still one of her closest friends. Maybe even the closest of them all. Seeing her like this and not being able to help was painful in ways Kronii hadn’t known until now.

Except that now she did have a way to help her, didn’t she?

“…Do you even know what would happen to this timeline if I did that? What would happen to Earth, to Sana and Bae, to you? You will get erased. All of reality will. Sure, an identical version of you will take your place, but it wouldn’t be this version of you. Are you honestly willing to risk all of this for something that has no chance of happening?” Mumei could tell that Kronii wasn’t joking around. This wasn’t a threat, or an attempt at dissuading her. It was genuine, complete worry and care, it was not said to repel her from the idea, but to inform her of what she was getting into.

“…I am.” And Mumei was more than willing to go into the fire. Kronii could see it in her eyes. The knowledge that comes with civilization, that everything that has been build up will inevitably crumble. And from the dust and ashes, a new kingdom will be rebuilt over the foundation of the previous one, only for it to perish to the same fate as its previous one. But each one is stronger, and wiser than the previous one. Using the foundation led by previous mistakes to build and pave a new future. In essence, what was civilization aside from this key fact? Mumei was ready to crumble, if only to pave the way for a better future.

“I see.” Was all Kronii could say. It might be selfish to make such a gigantic decision with only the two of them. Scratch that, it was, absolutely, a hundred percent selfish of them to do this without even considering consulting the others. She just hoped that they would understand why she was doing this. “Then I’ll do it. I’ll go back in time.”

A surprised expression surfaced in Mumei who expected much more resistance from Kronii. That same expression quickly turned into a grin as she quickly hugged Kronii, who, for once in her life, welcomed the hug and gave it back. It was a long time since Kronii saw Mumei smile so happily. Even before the end of Fauna, Mumei was so preoccupied with the current situation that she rarely smiled even back then. It was nice.

“I still have no doubts about how things will end up, you know? I genuinely don’t think that this will work”

“Still, the fact that you’re willing to try means a lot to me. Thank you, Kronii.”

The two of them kept hugging each other for a long period of time, both of them knowing the true meaning of this act. A goodbye.

Eventually, Kronii separated herself from Mumei. This action was meant as a signal that it was time to go. A signal to indicate that the bet had started.

Mumei slowly walked towards the drawer and took a single piece of paper from inside. It wasn’t a crumpled paper by any means, but it’s age clearly showed on its edges and it’s fading colors.

“Just to make sure, you don’t know what it is that I’m holding, do you?” Mumei glanced at Kronii, trying to find a sign on her face in the case she decided to lie.

Kronii had no reason for that, however. “No, I don’t”

Letting out a breath, Mumei handed the paper towards Kronii. Inside it, she could see a detailed drawing of all council members. Even Fauna was there. Everyone was smiling brightly in the drawing, huddled together as if it was a group picture. It was a nostalgic drawing. It wasn’t about a particular moment, nor it was a particular memory. It was just… them, fooling around as they did from time to time.

For a short moment, an unknown feeling appeared on Kronii’s heart.

She ignored it.

After engraving that drawing on her mind, she passed it to Mumei, who looked at Kronii expectantly.

Kronii, not really knowing what to say for the moment, said a simple goodbye. “Well, goodbye then Mumei.”

Smiling encouragingly, Mumei shared the message, “Bye Kronii. I hope you have good luck.”

Standing there, blinking twice, Kronii decided that there was nothing left to say now. So, raising her arm above her head, she closed her eyes and…

Snapped her fingers.

Fauna killed Mumei.

She didn’t mean for it to happen, and yet the fact remained: She caused her death.

It… wasn’t supposed to happen either. That’s not how time is supposed to work.

Kronii had gone back in time at Mumei’s request, if only to help her realize the truth. And yet, Mumei died. Mumei.

What was going on?

When she travelled back in time, she hadn’t chosen a specific time to arrive. It kind of came to her naturally. It wasn’t the date of a particular event or something like that. It was just a normal day in council, the reason she arrived here was just… instinct.

Well, putting that aside, when she arrived at the past, she realized that they were in the middle of a council meeting. And Fauna was there. She knew what to expect from time travel, this was the reason she was going back after all, but that didn’t change that seeing a friend of yours sitting there calmly, as if nothing has happened, was an… experience, you could say. Even if she didn’t like to admit it, it did shock her somewhat.

But well, that changed nothing in the end. Fauna is going to expire, eventually, and there’s nothing she could do about it. It was how things are fated to go, no matter how much you go back in the river, it will still lead you the same way once you hop into it. So she just, waited for time to catch up.

Which leads to the current situation, which is, well…

Well, it is a fucking mess, honestly.

She just didn’t understand how this happened in the first place. She was time. She knew how these things worked, knew the intricacies of its machinations. So, why? It doesn’t make any sense.

Well, she would have to worry about that later. Right now, there was a bigger matter to attend to. Mainly, the fact that Fauna is alive and that Mumei is gone.

It’s only been a few days since then, and Fauna hasn’t left her side this whole time. It was different than Fauna’s end. For Fauna, Mumei had killed her, and everyone could tell that she was dead. Mumei, however, was physically fine. There was no wound, no sickness, she was as healthy as ever. Mentally, however, was a completely different story. She wasn’t there anymore, instead, there’s a body that constantly stares at the ceiling, blinking being the only movement that she does now.

Heading towards her bedroom, she knocks on the door. Not for Mumei, but for her caretaker. After not hearing anything back, she takes it as an invitation and decides to open the door and enter the room. Inside it, she can see Fauna standing in a chair next to Mumei, who was still staring blankly at the ceiling. The first thing she could tell was that Fauna look awful. She remembered seeing her with a sickly expression on the previous time, but this was a different kind of awful. She looked unkempt and tired, as if she hadn’t slept in a long time.

She also looked very angry.

“Oh, so now you show up.” Fauna said, not even trying to hide the venom on her voice.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Said Kronii defensively.

“It means that you took your sweet time in coming here to see Mumei.” Fauna glared at her, not dropping eye contact.

Kronii didn’t step away from the challenge, as she stared back, “I had heard from Sana about what happened. I don’t see a reason on why I should’ve hurried.”

Fauna’s eyes widened as she then closed her eyes. She let out a deep sigh that she held. “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t.” It wasn’t meant to be a judgmental sentence, or a sarcastic one. It was a genuine agreement to what she said, she didn’t think Kronii would care about these kinds of things.

Fauna’s interest swapped back to Mumei, brushing her hair as she laid down unconscious, almost like a doll. Humanity had lost against nature. Attempting to fight back, Fauna used more force than she should have. Tsunamis wrecked the coast, earthquakes destroyed mountains and storms blew through steel. And because there were no humans left, civilization stopped once and for all. The reason why she was stuck like this wasn’t only because civilization was gone, however. If that were enough, then Mumei would have simply died by now. The reason for Mumei’s actual state was because, despite the extinction of humanity, their records and their knowledge still lived on. It would just… never be used, ever again.

Civilization was gone. Dead. Forgotten history. Now, only dust and dirt will be able to read its passages.

“So, what reason did you come here then?” Fauna said, still brushing Mumei’s hair.

Well, she couldn’t very well tell her that she came here to investigate why time is behaving as it is. Not only would that require to do a lengthy amount of explanation, but she was also pretty sure that Fauna would most likely not like her answer.

Instead, Kronii said a half-truth. “I came to see Mumei, see if there have been any changes.”

Fauna sadly shaked her head. “There haven’t. I don’t think there will be either.”

Kronii was confused. “Wait, if you think nothing will happen then why are you taking care of her?”

Fauna gritted her teeth, then took a deep breath to calm herself down. “…Tell me Kronii, how do you feel when you see her?”

Kronii raised an eyebrow at the question, before glancing back at Mumei. Honestly, if it wasn’t because of her blank staring, then she wouldn’t have thought there was anything wrong with her. As for how she felt… “Well, I feel sad obviously. Mumei was my friend, of course I would’ve liked for things to be different, but-”

“But they aren’t, are they?” Fauna finished her thoughts for her. Kronii nodded. “That’s why there’s no need to be held down by those feelings. They wouldn’t change anything now, after all.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Said Kronii, still staring at Mumei’s face. Despite it all, she still felt a hint of something unrecognizable in her heart.

Fauna stayed quiet, closing her eyes and letting out a small sigh. Then, she continued brushing Mumei’s hair. Kronii stayed standing there, not knowing exactly what to do. After a minute had passed and none of them said anything, Kronii thought that she should leave.

As soon as she tried moving, however, Fauna spoke. “Kronii, I have a proposal for you.” Kronii could tell that she was being serious now.

“What is it?” Said Kronii, already having a good idea of what she was going to say.

“You’re able to control time, aren’t you? I want you to go back in time and save Mumei.” She said, going straight to the point.

“That’s… not how time works. If I go back in time, things will still end up the same.” Although she would admit to herself that it wasn’t as simple as she initially thought.

“Then, I won’t ask you to only go back in time.” She said, now staring directly in her eyes. “Once you go back, I want you to kill me.”

Kronii’s blood froze.

“W…What?” Kronii muttered.

“You heard me.” She whispered, still not breaking eye contact.

“Are you insane, why would I ever do that?!” Kronii exclaimed, confusion hinted on her voice.

“Because I killed her, Kronii. And if I were to die, then I wouldn’t be able to do that.” She was still talking in that infuriatingly calm voice. “Besides, I know that you aren’t very fond of me, so it’s like hitting two birds with one stone, right?”

Kronii was speechless. “I… Fauna. You do know that I still consider you my friend, right? I would never do something like that to you.” Kronii shaked her head. “I’ll try to go back in time and see what I can do, but please, don’t ever say something like that again.”

Fauna’s smile was still alarmingly gentle. “Shame, I kinda wished you would’ve agreed to it. But still, thank you.” She said as she went back to brush Mumei’s hair

She was scared. Fauna was creeping her out like nothing else has ever done before. The way that she smiled, the way that she casually mentioned how she wished she would’ve died. This was not the Fauna she knew.

Not wanting to stay here for much longer, Kronii snapped her fingers.

Mumei killed Fauna.

She could’ve won the bet by now. She knew about the drawing in her drawer, after all. But now, it wasn’t only about saving someone. Something weird was happening to the flow of time itself, and she needed to figure it out.

She snapped her fingers.

.

.

.

Fauna killed Mumei.

She wasn’t as scary this time. It must’ve been because she was there the moment Mumei died rather than days late like before.

She snapped her fingers.

.

.

.

Mumei killed Fauna.

She hadn’t noticed, but Mumei was surprisingly competent at her work. She always seemed like a person that didn’t take things too seriously in her eyes, but she couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

She snapped her fingers.

.

.

.

Mumei killed Fauna.

This time, Fauna and Kronii actually got on good terms. After giving her a chance, it turned out that Fauna was quite easy to hang around with. They just had to clear the bad blood between them first.

She snapped her fingers.

.

.

.

Mumei killed Fauna.

Mumei was good company. She didn’t back down when she was challenged, and she always spoke what was on her mind. It was refreshing.

She snapped her fingers.

.

.

.

Fauna killed Mumei

She was beginning to really enjoy her time with Fauna. She was surprisingly witty and eccentric in ways that she hadn’t imagined at first. It was always a pleasure to hang out with her.

She snapped her fingers

…She wasn’t making any progress in her investigation.

No matter how much times she looped, things were always different. Either by a slight margin or by a major one, like who ends up dead.

At first, she thought it was an alternating pattern. Fauna, Mumei, Fauna, Mumei, so on and so forth. But then it turned out it wasn’t always like that. There was a time where Fauna died three times in a row, even.

And if things were to progress as she suspected they would, then Mumei would die twice in a row now.

“Aaaaagh!” She yelled while scratching her head. Why was time working so… strangely? Why couldn’t she figure it out?

“Hey, Kronii! Don’t just yell out of the blue like that, some people are trying to read.” Yelled Bae, who was sitting at the other side of the council’s living room, waving a book that she clearly wanted to talk about.

Screw it, she won’t get anywhere doing laps around her head anyways.

“So, what are you reading?” Said Kronii as she feigned uninterest.

“I’m glad you asked!” Said Bae as she took a sit closer to Kronii, not having to yell across the room to communicate anymore. “It’s a thing that humans wrote about. They call it a thought experiment.”

Thought experiment? “What’s that?” asked Kronii.

“It’s some fake scenario that they invent in order to ask themselves questions about it.” Said Bae, shrugging.

“That sounds… dumb.”

“Well, there are dumber things out there, so I don’t see no problem.” Bae said before continuing on explaining, a mischievous look on her eyes. “This is a thought experiment called the Laplace’s Demon.”

“And what is it about?” Asked Kronii again, feeling like she should’ve maybe just left Bae alone.

“Well! The experiment goes as follows. You know about how atoms make up the universe, right? I’m sure Sana has talked about it plenty.” Kronii nodded. “Good, good. Now, Imagine that there’s some kind of demon that can see these atoms. Every single one that exists. This demon can also not only see where these atoms are, but how where they’re going to move. It can see not their momentum as well.” Kronii suddenly had a bad feeling of where this was going.

“Now, since this demon can see every atom that exists and their momentum, the thought experiment goes that this demon should be able to tell everything that happened, is happening and what’s going to happen. This demon is, essentially, able to see all of time because it can calculate everything. The conclusion being that, since there’s only one flow of time, like you yourself have said so many times, then there can only be one possible future, the one the atoms follow. Isn’t that interesting, Kronii?” Said Bae, her tone no longer indicating mirth.

Kronii froze up. The look on Bae’s face was neither joking, nor mischievous. It was completely serious.

“There is one mistake, however. And that mistake is the following: it’s all bullshit. You want to know why, Kronii?” Kronii glanced at Bae’s eyes, who betrayed no feelings.

“Because I’m a bigger demon. I can move the atoms at will, and I can also tell when someone moves them in a way that I don’t like.” Bae kept staring at Kronii’s eyes. “You’ve really made a mess of things, haven’t you Kronii?”

“I don’t know what you’re talki-“

“Drop the bullshit, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Time travelling left and right, causing a mess of things, who do you think you are?” Bae asked, her eyes still not betraying anything.

“I…” Kronii was speechless. “I don’t-“

A small snicker went past Bae’s mouth, and Kronii instantly understood what was going on.

“You’re just messing with me, aren’t you?” Said Kronii with a tired look.

Bae’s response, however, was a full belly laugh, loudly laughing at Kronii.

“Oh man, your reactions are the best! Your face!” She managed to say before starting to roll on the ground, legs kicking up. “Oh, I’m dying over here. Help, please!”

Kronii just sighed and snapped her fingers, fast-forwarding time. She could see how Bae started to roll around the floor at high speeds, taking an embarrassingly long amount of time before she got up on her feet.

Kronii snapped her fingers again, and everything went back to normal.

“So, what was that all bout then, Bae?”

“Oh, sorry. I just wanted to mess with you.” Bae said, finally recovering from her laugh. “Well, that and some payback I guess, you really have messed things up.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’m talking about timelines, dummy. The things you’ve started to create left and right.” Explained Bae.

“Timelines?” What are those?

“Wait, you genuinely don’t know about them?” Said Bae astonished.

“No, I don’t.” Kronii said somewhat peeved. She felt like she was being laughed at for not knowing that, and she didn’t like it.

“It’s what happens when time separates itself. Many times, the flow of time will divide itself and diverge from the source. That’s called a timeline.”

“Wait, no. Time only goes one way. If you were to go back at any point in time, then you would eventually end up at the same point.”

“Well, that’s only if you keep yourself to one specific timeline.” Shrugged Bae.

“I… No! I’m time itself, how is it possible that you could know more than me.” Exclaimed Kronii, not believing what she was hearing.

“Because I’m also a part of making timelines.” Calmly said Bae, the serious expression appearing once more on her face. “Timelines are not an event caused purely by time. They’re caused by mixing time with chaos, time and chance. When I said that I’m the one that moves the atoms, I wasn’t lying. I’m the one that rolls the dice, the one that decides where to go. It’s also the reason I could tell that you’ve been changing the flow, I can sense it after all.”

This… was too much for Kronii. There were things about time that she didn’t know about? It felt ridiculous. But then, something caught Kronii’s attention. She was the one that moved the atoms? She was the one that rolled the dice?

Didn’t that mean…

Fury took hold of Kronii as she stood up and walked towards Bae, who seemed shocked at the sudden hostility.

Kronii looked down upon Bae, who was currently sitting in a chair. Without making a move, but making sure that she had nowhere to escape, Kronii spoke. “If you are the one that decides the future, then doesn’t that mean that you are the one that’s… that’s-“

“I will stop you right there, Kronii.” Bae put a palm up. “Indeed, I’m the one who decides the future, but I have no idea what that future entails. My only ability in this is to roll the dice, but I cannot tell what results those dies will give.” She gave a sympathetic smile. “But apparently, my rolls have been really shitty if you got this worked up. I’m sorry.”

Kronii looked at her for a moment to see if she was hiding anything. After concluding that no, she wasn’t hiding things, she let out a big sigh and slumped over the chair she just stood up from. “…Sorry as well, I got angry for a moment there.”

“All good. I would like to say that I can help you with your situation, but like I just said, I can only roll the dice. I can’t see the result I get, so I’m not really much help. What I can tell you, however, is that it’s been your influence that has been changing the dices rolls. Your actions have consequences, and you can change the future. That, I can guarantee you.”

“…Thanks.” Kronii said.

“That said, going back to what I was talking about at first, I must admit that Mumei and Fauna absolutely outdid themselves with humanity. The whole Laplace’s Demon thing might be wrong, but it is still scarily accurate to how I work. Humanity is pretty damn scary, honestly.” Said Bae, trying to lift up the mood.

“Eh, they’re alright I guess.” Kronii shrugged. If being honest, she didn’t really care about humans that much.

“You shouldn’t underestimate them Kronii.” Bae gave a small chuckle to herself. “Hell, they even found out about timelines way before you did.”

Kronii flinched a little bit. “Well, it’s only one thing. Everyone has a fluke from time to time.” Kronii said, ego rising through her chest.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Bae said, flipping a page of her book. ”Humanity is still well learned about physics, life and death cycles, history, timelines… There’s plenty of concepts out there that use ‘time’ after all.”

…Huh?

She… didn’t know much about any of those.

Wait…

Bae, after noticing the silence, glanced at Kronii whose inner thoughts were made obvious on her face. Seeing that, she gave Kronii a pitying glance.

“You know,” Bae started. “Things have been like that for a while now. A long while. Everyone’s been using time as a tool to invent things. Sana invented physics, motion in particular, I invented timelines, Mumei invented history, Fauna invented life cycles. We’ve all been using time as a way to create new things. And it’s not only time, either. I used Sana’s space to create what humans call the chaos theory. Mumei used nature to create agriculture. Fauna and Sana even used time together to create the day and night cycle, as well as seasons. All of this are our creations, and we’ve been using other’s skills in order to make even more stuff. This is nothing new.” Bae explained. It was important for Kronii to realize this, she thought.

“But… why wasn’t I aware of this?” Kronii asked, incredulous.

“Because you didn’t listen. Every time someone tried to talk to you about something time related, you would shrug them away because you were so sure you were right.” Bae said neutrally.

Kronii was shocked.

She thought of herself as the most prominent force that existed, the one thing that made everything work. Yet, when she heard of all the other council members using time not as a power to be afraid of, not as a limit of their domains, but rather as a tool of their inventions, as a foundation to create new, exciting things, then what did that make of her? She was no longer the one that held power over the other heads, she was the steppingstone for everyone else to shine. They manipulated time to their will, they molded and created things using time that she wasn’t even aware that could be done. She became a tool, at the mercy of the respective masters in their craft.

She always thought she was above everyone else, she was proud of being the single most important force that existed, yet suddenly everything seemed out of her reach now. Time was her domain, and yet there were things that she didn’t even think that existed because of her arrogance. She put on her cape, she put on her crown, she took a seat on her throne and announced herself as the king. And yet, she never bothered once to look above her head, only because she was afraid to see everything that was out of her kingdom’s reach.

“I’ll let you be for a while.” Bae said, standing up of her chair. “Ah, one last thing. Try to give humanity a chance, yeah?” Bae said, before leaving the room.

Kronii stood there for what felt like an eternity, staring at the other side of the room as she tried to keep her thoughts together. It had been… a revelation, to say the least. She still didn’t know what to do of it, if she was being honest. But, if she there was something she knew, it was that sitting here wouldn’t help her much.

At the very least, now she knew the reason why time behaved the way it did. She was swapping from timeline to timeline, most of them converging at what seemed to be like a key point. Fauna and Mumei’s death. Maybe… Maybe Mumei was right? Perhaps there is a way to save both, Fauna and Mumei.

She had to at least give it a try.

Besides, it was already time to leave.

She could tell the signs of civilization’s crumbling. Mumei has been much more lethargic lately, and much more forgetful than usual. She was starting to forget things almost by the hour, at this point.

…Might as well just reset the timeline now, thought Kronii as she snapped her fingers.

It was supposed to be a relaxing stroll, something to clear her head a little bit and reorganize her thoughts. She kind of went too far back this time, so she decided to take a nice stroll before going back to the time she was supposed to arrive at. Just… a quick night stroll through some human streets on a lazy attempt to get a better idea of what humans truly were like. That was the idea at first, until she suddenly heard a loud bang on a near darkly lit alley. Startled out of her thoughts, Kronii started to look around her surroundings and quickly noticed that she was in the middle of a downtrodden part of town. The buildings around her seemed abandoned, and if the rotting of the wooden boards, the rusting of the metal feces, where anything to go by, this part of town had been abandoned for a long time now. Snapping out of her thoughts, she decided to go and investigate the source of the sound, a rather easy task to do since the sound of rapid footsteps where also resounding towards the same direction. After going through a stretch gap between two buildings, she was suddenly assaulted by a strong smell of sulfur as she managed to barely catch sight of a group of four hooded people running towards the other end of the alley.

However, instead of following the suspicious group of people, her attention was diverted to a body lying on the floor some few meters away of her feet. Kronii rapidly went to check on the body as surprise took her when she noticed the pool of blood accumulating on the floor. It didn’t take a medical professional to know what had just happened here, Kronii thought. Checking on the body, she noticed that it belonged to a short, blond-haired girl who was wearing what appeared to be a blood-stained shirt and skirt underneath a brown-colored coat and hat, that is if the hat dropped on the floor next to her was indeed hers. The girl had her eyes open with an expression of pain as her hands clutched at her chest, where blood continued to seep through her clothes as a gun lay next to her. The girl had died a quick death, having perished before Kronii even arrived at the scene.

Kronii had heard of guns before, she wasn’t that ignorant of the human world after all, but she hadn’t seen their efficacy in removing a life. It was terrifying if she was being honest. Seeing the body next to her feet, she wondered what it was that brought her here. What it was she was trying to accomplish. What dreams, what aspirations did she have that no longer exists? For some reason, a slight feeling of hurt rose through Kronii as she continued looking at the corpse. Was it that her life had ended so abruptly, so unfairly? This part of town looked empty, and it would be a while before someone found the body. It would probably be decomposed by that point. The feeling of hurt inside Kronii kept increasing more and more as she kept thinking. This whole thing was just… awful, for lack of better words.

And what she was about to do was probably even more awful, honestly. Bae’s words have been stuck on her mind this whole time, about the capability of humans and their ability to perceive things differently. Although she’s pretty sure that when Bae said to give humans some credit, she didn’t mean to do what she was going to do now.

Man, Bae is going to be pissed, isn’t she?

Snapping her fingers, time started to flow on the opposite direction as everything went backwards. As if a video was playing on reverse, she could see the hooded figures running backwards to where she is, she saw how the body got up, how the blood started to seep back into her body as the bullet went out of her chest back into the gun’s chamber. She saw the hooded figure point a gun at her before the gun cluttered on the floor flied back into the blonde girl’s hand after one of the figures grappled with her arm. How both sides seemed to argue for a bit while the girl had a gun of her own pointed at one of them, before pocketing said gain on a pocket inside her jacket. How they seemed to be discussing something peacefully before the girl walked backwards into the street. Seeing her leave, Kronii followed the girl until she was a bit more far away from the alley they were just in, and suddenly stopped time.

After placing herself near the wall, she snapped her fingers as time went back to flow as normal. The blonde girl seemed to be deeply in thought on her own head as she walked the streets, not noticing Kronii’s presence.

“Hey there, stop for a second.” Kronii said as she startles the girl out of her thoughts. With a quick spin, the girl looks at her with wide eyes before narrowing in suspicion.

“Sorry, I’m a bit busy at the moment.” The girl answered curtly.

“Don’t worry, it won’t take long.” Kronii said with ease as she headed closer towards the girl, placing herself near the headlight. “I just have a question to ask you.”

The blonde quickly inspected Kronii as she glanced at her profile up and down. “Whatever you’re selling, I’m not interested.” She said as she started once more to move forward towards her destination.

Kronii suppressed a sigh as the girl started to leave once more. “Are you looking for some hooded people?” She asked, waiting for the bait to be eaten.

The girl stopped suddenly as she looked at Kronii once more, weariness being mixed with the previous suspicious look in her eyes. “…Who are you?”

Kronii ignored the question as she looked at her blue eyes. She decided to go straight to the point. “You’re going to die if you go. They’re armed, you know?”

The girl narrowed her eyes even more as a one of her hands was subtly placed on her jacket’s inner pocket. The place where her gun was, Kronii noticed. “Is that a threat?” The girl asked.

“It’s a warning, but you can take it as you will.” Kronii answered back, having already expected for the girl to not believe her.

“Well, thanks for the advice, I guess. But I’ll be fine on my own.” The girl said, not moving her eyes nor her hand inside the jacket.

“You won’t.” The girl glared harder. “That’s why I’m going to let you borrow something.” She says as she puts her hand behind her to summon one of her clocks. She notices that the movement made the other girl tense up, so she quickly brings her hand back out so she could see what she was holding.

The blonde stared at the object on Kronii’s hand before raising an eyebrow. “I already told you I’m not interested in your wares.”

“And I already told you that I’m not selling this to you. Consider it a… temporal gift. I might come back to retrieve it eventually, but I’ll let you hold it for now.” Kronii says as she throws the clock in an arc for the other girl to catch.

The girl catches it without much effort as she immediately starts inspecting the object. She wasn’t sure why, but she could immediately tell that it was extremely valuable.

“It has a button on the side. If you ever feel like you’re in danger, press it.” Kronii continued. “Don’t press it too late, however. It might save you from a bad situation, but it won’t do you much good if you do it when you’re already wounded.”

The girl still stared at the clock as she started to caress the button on the side. She thought about replying with a snarky response or disregard the woman’s actions as an elaborate joke, but instead the words that came out of her mouth were genuine gratitude. “Thanks.”

Both of them stood silently as the girl took off the hand of her jacket and pocketed the clock on one of her many pockets. Then, the girl looked up to Kronii as she asked her a question. “Hey, what’s your name?”

Kronii pondered about answering the question before concluding that it wasn’t of importance. “It’s Kronii.”

The girl gave her a quizzical look as she answered. What a strange name, was what she was probably thinking. “Well, I’m Ame. Amelia Watson.” Ame said as she introduced herself. “By the way, you still haven’t exactly said what this is supposed to do.” She pointed towards the pocket that held the clock.

Kronii, in response, just gave her a half-smile. “You’ll see soon enough.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Bae exclaimed loudly as a shocked expression took place on her face.

“As I said,” Kronii shrugs, not as nonchalant as she probably meant it. “I gave a time machine to a human.”

“Kronii… That’s…” Sana murmured at a loss of words.

“Are you insane?! We can’t just go around giving godly powers to some humans just because we feel like it!” Bae yelled, exasperation filling her voice.

“Weren’t you the one that told me to give humanity a chance?” Kronii fired back.

“When did I say that?” Asked Bae, a look of confusion on her face. Right, this wasn’t the Bae that told her this. Disregarding the doubt, Bae continued. ”Regardless, even if I did say that you know very well that’s not what I meant! Who knows what’s going to happen now?” Bae looked at the other members, looking for backup. “Sana, Fauna, Mumei. Don’t any of you see the problem with this as well?”

Mumei, who seemed to be acting distracted until Bae called her name, startled as she came up with an input to the conversation while Bae looked at her. “I mean…” Mumei rambled. “Things are fine right now, aren’t they? I would imagine that if a time machine started wreaking havoc on reality, then we would have noticed by now. As far as I can tell, nothing of note has happened lately so the time machine hasn’t had any particular effect on the past.” Mumei finished, her ramblings coming to an end.

And well, she had a point.

Bae gave a defeated sigh as she glanced back at Kronii, finally calming down. “…Fine then. What’s done is done anyways, so there’s not much to do about it. If that time machine was truly used to cause harm, then it would’ve already caused it in the past.” Bae slumped on her chair, clearly still unhappy with the situation.

“Look,” Kronii said, feeling guilty over upsetting her friend so much. “I know that I wasn’t supposed to do that. I promise you, whatever it is that happens with the time machine, I’ll take responsibility for it.”

“Well yeah. I already took that for granted.” Bae said, pinching her forehead. She could feel a headache coming. “I think I’m going to go take a nap, I just want to not think for a while.” Bae stood up as she started heading towards the door that contained hallway leading to their rooms.

“Also, Kronii?” Bae called as she stood on the doorway.

“Yes?”

“I hope you find whatever it is that you’re searching for.” Said bae as she exited the council meeting.

“So…” Fauna said, stirring her cup of tea with a spoon. “You’ve been time travelling, then?”

Currently, both Fauna and Kronii were relaxing inside Fauna’s room, calmly drinking a cup of tea that Fauna had just brewed after having been invited to her room.

Kronii glanced at her, keeping her composure as she tried to see how she figured it out. “How could you tell?”

“Well, for one thing you’re acting different than how you usually act.” Fauna said. “I was sure that you would reject my offer for a cup of tea, saying that I had some kind of ulterior motive for inviting you.”

“Would I be wrong? You just recently asked me to confirm whether I’m a time traveler or not.”

“Well, I mean-“ Fauna said, flustered at getting caught by her own words. “It’s not a bad ulterior motive. I was just curious.”

“So,” Kronii put the conversation back on track. “You just thought that I was a time traveler because I’m acting differently around you?” Said Kronii with disbelief. “Besides, I’ve been hanging with you for a while now. Maybe I just trust that you won’t mean any harm. Would that really be so hard to believe?“ Kronii said, somewhat hurt.

Fauna looked like she bit something sour, as she mentally hit herself for her wording. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I know you’ve been doing an effort for us to get closer. And I genuinely appreciate it, it really means a lot to me.” She glanced back at Kronii, who seemed to have accepted the apology. “But what I don’t get is why did you make such an effort in the first place? I know for a fact that you weren’t too fond of me back then, and I admit that, while I still cared about you, I shared the same feeling as well.”

“That was a question that I had for a while now.” Fauna continued. ”I just couldn’t figure it out, and asking directly about it seemed… well rude. It was only now, after the fact that you gave a time machine to someone, that I realized that you were a time traveler as well.”

“How so?” Asked Kronii curiously.

“I know you Kronii. You would never risk such a thing unless you had done it yourself.” Fauna smiled fondly at her friend.

Kronii gave a smile back as she awkwardly took a sip of her cup of tea, attempting to hold her composure as she drank the scalding liquid before checking its temperature, the tea immediately burning her tongue. Thankfully, it seemed that Fauna didn’t notice.

“And?” Asked Fauna, interest glimmering in her eyes. “How does it work? The time travelling.”

“What do you mean how does it work? I go back in time, that’s all there is to it.” Kronii answered.

Fauna rolled her eyes. “’That’s all there is to it’? C’mon you know that it’s not that simple. For example, what happens to the future that you leave?”

Kronii flinched at the question, not knowing how Fauna would take the answer. “Well…” She thought about making a white lie for Fauna, but the genuine curiosity that her eyes contained made it impossible to say anything but the truth. “…They disappear. Everything that they are, everything that they will become, is erased.” Kronii closes her eyes, expecting to be judged for her actions by Fauna.

Instead, understanding came from Fauna’s voice. “I see, so that’s how it works.” A sympathetic face started showing. “You’ve had it tough, haven’t you?”

“Huh.” Said Kronii, not expecting that answer. She was genuinely surprised. “You know, out of all people, I thought you would be the one that disliked that idea the most.”

Fauna made a smile in which her kindness and patience showed through her face. “Well, I can see why you’d think that. It seems ‘unnatural’ at first glance, doesn’t it?”

“At first glance? What do you mean by that?”

“Mmh” Fauna hummed to herself, trying to think of a way to explain it. “Well, have you heard of this human thought experiment called Ship of Theseus?”

What is it with everyone and their human thought experiments all of a sudden? Lately, it seemed like everyone were talking about them.

“Can’t say I’m familiar with it.”

“It’s not a complex idea.” Fauna explained. “Let’s say you have a ship. It’s your first and trustworthy ship, so whenever it takes damages, you decide to repair them with new parts instead of buying a new ship. You repeat this cycle many times, the ship gets damages, you repair it with new parts, so on and so on. Eventually, however, you notice that every single part of the ship you bought at first has been replaced by other parts. Not a single part of the old ship is in this ship of yours. In this case, is this still the ship you had at first or is it another ship?” Fauna finished the explanation, waiting patiently for her answer. With all the time that Kronii has spent with Fauna lately, she could also tell that Fauna was also excited about her answer as well, even if it didn’t show in her face. It showed on the hopping of her feet, and the tapping of her fingers. Fauna liked this kind of things, Kronii noticed. Because of it, she thought she should give her a serious answer.

Noticing that Fauna was still waiting for an answer, Kronii lightly coughed in order to hide her light blushing. “Mmh, that’s tough. I mean, I guess it’s a new ship? If none of the old parts are there, then it’s no different than buying another ship.”

Fauna slightly tilted her head, curious of Kronii’s answer. “Well, let me change the question a little bit. Tell me, are you Kronii?”

What a strange question, Kronii thought. “Well, yeah. Of course I’m me.”

“Right? Anyone would say the same.” Fauna nodded. “Now tell me, are you the same person now compared to the one you were before?”

Kronii was about to answer ‘Well, of course’ before taking a moment and think of what Fauna meant. Was she really the same person that she was before? The same person that thought she knew everything there ought to know, the person that thought she was above everyone else. The ungrateful person that always took things for granted. Was she really still her?

No. Kronii decided. I’m better than that now.

“No, I wouldn’t say I am.” Kronii answered.

“Right?” Fauna smiled, clearly enjoying the conversation. “But you still consider your past self as ‘Kronii’, don’t you?”

Kronii nodded.

“I think the same way, which is why I don’t really mind you using time travel. Past Fauna, present Fauna, future Fauna… None of them are the same person, but we’re all still Fauna, aren’t we? The person that I am now will eventually disappear from this world, and future Fauna will take its place. But I’m still Fauna. I’m still me. From my point of view, I don’t think that time travel is that much different. You’re taking my present self and changing it into another version of myself, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still myself. I think that, while unexpected, it’s still entirely natural.” Fauna finished explaining as she takes a sip of her tea.

As for Kronii, she started pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to make sense of what Fauna was saying. She got the gist of it, but it still confused her a little bit.

Man, she wasn’t good at this whole thought experiment thing, was she?

“You know,” Kronii said after a slight pause. “While I get the idea behind it, I still think that changing a little ship is a completely different matter and caliber than… whatever existential bullshit you just threw at me.” Said Kronii in jest.

Fauna started to giggle, which then lead to a full-on laugh. “Well, you’re right about that, I guess.” Said Fauna between laughs.

Funny, seeing Fauna’s laugh made her want to laugh as well. It made her feel light inside, as if all the pressure, all the anxiety she’s been going through disappeared at once. Both of them began laughing loudly, each one’s laugh increasing the others laughter. It was addicting, a simple happiness that has been a rare occurrence for a while now. She remembers taking it for granted before all of this mess happened, not thinking that it was a big deal or something. But now she knew to enjoy it, wanting to take hold onto the feeling to its fullest capacity. She didn’t know how long it would last, after all. By now, she knew this kind of happiness could end at a moment’s notice.

And it did. In the corner of her eye, she saw a sight that removed the elation that she was feeling until just now.

Glancing at the side of Fauna’s room, she could see it. Sense it. In the corner, a small, frail plant giving out on life, withering slowly as its inevitable fate was upon it. It was running out of time.

The image of Fauna stabbed in her chest surfaced on her mind. This timeline was running out of time as well, wasn’t it?

Noticing her eye movements, Fauna followed Kronii’s point of interest and let out a small sigh, a sad smile spreading through her face.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Said Fauna knowingly.

Kronii glance back at her and looked at her eyes. They were calm, she noticed. “You still have plenty of time until that happens, but…”

“But I passed the point of no return, you mean?” Fauna completed the phrase for her. “I could tell as well, nature isn’t going to recover from this.”

“And you’re alright with that?” Kronii asked, a note of disbelief on her voice. Fauna got it right, whenever she got to this point in time, everything went downhill.

“Well, of course I’m not.” Fauna said as a matter of fact. “I’m quite fond of living, if you couldn’t tell” Said Fauna, trying to improve the atmosphere’s mood with a little joke.

Kronii didn’t find it funny at all.

“But.” Fauna continued. “There is not much I can do about it, can I? My fate is already sealed.” She closed her eyes. “Might as well make the best of the time I’ve got left, wouldn’t you say? To live without regrets.” Fauna opened her eyes and smiled, a calm expression of understanding on her face.

And previously, Kronii would have left it there. Fauna was a mature woman. Someone who calmly understood the reality of the situation and made the best out of it.

But now, she knew better. Knew Fauna better. She could see beyond the mask of calmness on her face, the way she hid her hands on her back once she noticed they were shaking, the way the corner of her lips twitched from time to time. The way she had trouble maintaining eye contact after a while. She could tell that Fauna was hiding something from her.

She was afraid. Kronii wasn’t blind to it now.

So Kronii stood up from her seat and stood next to Fauna’s, where she gently grabbed her arm and pulled the hand that was hiding on her back. Ignoring Fauna’s surprised expression, she kneeled next to her and softly, ever so softly, took Fauna’s hand onto her own and held it. As she caressed the bump of her knuckles with her thumb, Kronii could tell that Fauna’s hand was still shaking.

And softly she whispered to Fauna, who seemed frozen from Kronii’s actions. “You don’t have to lie to me, you know?”

Fauna let out a shaky breath, intensely staring at Kronii’s hand as she kept caressing her knuckles. It was a simple touch, and yet she could tell the amount of genuine care that Kronii had for her. The caring expression of her face, the softness and warmth of her hand, everything became too much.

And the dam broke.

The feelings that she had contained, the feelings that she safely kept out of anyone’s reach in order not to harm them, were spilling out and there was nothing she could do. She wanted to appear in control, she didn’t want to worry any of her friends. But that didn’t stop the fear, the feeling of helplessness, to take a hold of her. It was killing her on the inside, and now it was finally free.

Fauna’s tears were silent, a part of her still trying to resist the urge to show her inner feelings. They were tears of fear, of anger, of frustration. They were not happy tears at all. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want any of this to happen. She wished she could live happily as she always did, a world where the council could always be together.

Fauna still wasn’t able to put these negative feelings to words. But as Kronii intertwined her fingers onto hers, her grip tightening as Fauna let her tears out, she knew that, at the very least, Kronii understood her. That Kronii didn’t mind the burden.

In fact, letting Kronii see her like this, letting Kronii watch her weakness, meant a lot to her.

They kept like that for a while, until Fauna’s tears stopped rolling from her face. Gently taking a napkin on the side of the table, Kronii presented it to Fauna as she gratefully took it and dried her tears. Both of them stayed at each other’s side, the silence between them expressing more than words ever could.

That was until Kronii tried to accommodate herself by slightly shifting positions and noticed a bit too late that her legs had gone numb from the position she was at. She fumbled her feet and fell down on her butt as Fauna stared at her, their hands getting separated by the distance.

A giggle came out from Fauna’s mouth at Kronii’s expense, watching her awkwardly try to stretch her legs across the floor for the numbness to go away. It wasn’t a full laugh, nor was it particularly funny, but seeing that she made Fauna smile, even for a little bit, filled Kronii’s chest.

It gave her enough courage as well.

“Hey,” Kronii said, her heart almost beating out of her chest, feeling heat rising up to her face. “I have another thought experiment for you. What if… the concept of time and the concept of nature were to come together, then what would happen?”

Fauna smiled as she sat next to Kronii in the floor, her hand immediately searching for Kronii’s. She had a big, dumb smile on her face and a bright flush on her cheeks. “Wow, you really thought that you were being clever over that line, don’t you?” Teased Fauna.

“Hey, I can see that you’re blushing so clearly some of it worked.” Kronii shot back, slowly approaching her head towards Fauna.

“I guess I can’t deny that, can I?” Fauna said, closing the distance between the two of them, their faces barely apart from each other. “But.” Fauna whispered, as they were getting closer and closer. “To answer your question, I guess there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?“ Their lips were barely a gap away, their eyes fixing over the other person’s lips, breaths mixing with each other, awaiting for someone to act.

And Fauna, tired of waiting, closed the gap between their lips and kissed her.

It felt like being ripped to pieces.

Seeing Fauna there, the woman she came to love, bleeding from her chest life seeped away from her body in this, oh so familiar, forest glade. It hurt. It hurt like nothing else she has ever experienced before. She could tell when the moment was close. Fauna did as well, it was hard not to. The wilted plants of her bedroom, the sickly pale look of her face, the lack of the usual luster her hair had. They were all announcing the coming of the end, and there was nothing they could do to stop it beyond making the best out of their remaining time.

All the smiles, all the moments spent together, they were all memories now. They were all a part of her head now, nothing more.

It’s been a week since then, and she had yet to leave her room. Sana and Bae still came to her, bringing food and necessities, but conversations were short and unpleasant. Kronii didn’t want to talk, she didn’t want to do anything. There was only one thing she wanted, and it wasn’t going to happen.

Even if she did travel back time, it would not be this Fauna.

She heard a knock on her door, and she instantly groaned out loud. She hoped it wasn’t Sana.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that, besides her, Sana was the one most out of touch with humanity. Sana had recently come to her and told her that Fauna wouldn’t have liked to see her like this. That this wouldn’t bring Fauna back. It pissed her off.

It’s not that she hated Sana or anything if that kind. She was her close friend, and she was really thankful of the effort she’s been doing for putting up with her and trying to lift her spirits. Sana cared, and she was grateful for it.

She just didn’t want to talk to her right now.

Honestly, looking back now, she realized how insensitive she was the first time it happened. Pushing her own ideals onto Mumei, as if her answers were the cure that she lacked. She was so stupid.

There was another knock on the door, interrupting her self-deprecating thoughts.

Sighing, Kronii got up from her bed and opened the door. Surprisingly enough, Mumei was the one on the other side. She looked like shit.

Kronii probably looked the same as well.

“I have a proposal.” Was the first thing that came from Mumei’s mouth, her voice raspy, as if she hadn’t used it for a long time.

Kronii could tell why it was that she came here.

“You know,” Kronii said, as if ignoring what Mumei just said. “In the corner of your room, in your drawer, there’s a drawing inside.” She proceeds to describe the content of the drawing, Mumei’s confused expression slowly turning into understanding, and then defeat.

When she finished, Mumei was biting her lips as she clenched her fist. She closed her eyes, and let out a deep breath.

“Even still, you can’t let it end like this, Kronii.” Mumei said, fixing her stare at Kronii’s.

“What am I supposed to do, Mumei? It always ends like this. Either Fauna dies by your hand, or you die by hers.” Kronii said, sighing to herself.

Mumei’s eyes widened. “You mean to say… that I’ve died before?”

Kronii could only nod.

Mumei was silent for a while, processing the meaning of this fact.

“Wait… but that means-” Said Mumei, hope glimmering in her eyes. “That means this can be fixed. If there’s a possibility for Fauna to survive, then surely there’s a world out there where nothing happens! A world where both of us can live!”

“There isn’t.” Kronii’s answered clearly. “Either you die, or she dies. There’s no other option.”

Mumei was not deterred by her answer. “Tell me, Kronii. The first time this happened, did you agree to this time travel thing at first?” Mumei asked, knowing already the answer to her question.

“…No. I said that it was useless to try and change time. That it wouldn’t matter in the end.”

“But you were wrong, weren’t you?” Mumei guessed, pushing the lead she had.

Kronii shaked her head. “Where are you going with this? Are you implying that I-“

“That you’re wrong about there being no other option, yes.” Mumei nodded, confident on her theory.

And before she could speak, Mumei continued. “I know that you feel like there’s no other way out, that you’re trapped in here. But even still, you can’t give up, Kronii. You need to keep searching, to keep pushing on. You’re the only one who can.” Mumei started tearing up. “Please don’t give up. I know that there’s a solution out there. I know it.”

Kronii was about to say something, but held her tongue as she realized that there wasn’t anything she could say about it. Deep down, Kronii agreed with her. She also believed that there was another way to fix this mess, she wouldn’t have kept at it this long if she hadn’t.

But… Even then. “Even then, Fauna will not come back.” Kronii said, with her eyes closed, trying to suppress the emotions that were rising up. “Not this Fauna.”

Silence. Then, “Fauna is Fauna, Kronii. Wherever it is you may find her, It’ll still be Fauna.” Said Mumei quietly.

…Fauna had said something similar, hadn’t she? She couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. Fauna and Mumei were rather similar in some ways.

“…Hey, tell me.” Kronii said, wanting to ask one final thing before leaving. “What happened in the glade between the two of you.”

Mumei’s eyes widened before giving a sad smile. “She told me to kill her, once and for all. She said that things were just going to get worse and worse for her, and rather than to keep fighting this meaningless fight, she would instead prefer for civilization to thrive without anything holding it down. She wanted for me to be free of her.” Mumei glanced at the floor. “I didn’t want to keep making her suffer, so I did it.” A beat of silence filled the room, as Mumei looked back at Kronii. “She also told me that whatever it is that you chose to do, she would be proud of you, and she would always love you. Sorry, for not telling you this sooner.”

Kronii simply nodded her head as she listened. It relieved one of the many weights on her shoulder to hear that. At the very least, she got Fauna’s goodbye.

Kronii was determined. “Alright then. Goodbye, Mumei.” Kronii said goodbye as she pressed her fingers together. She didn’t want to stay longer than necessary, she didn’t want to stop and think about what she was doing. She needed to act.

Mumei simply gave a small smile through her tears and quietly waved at her with her hand.

Kronii closed her eyes and snapped her fingers.

“Wow, you look like shit.”

Kronii screamed for her dear life when she suddenly heard a voice next to her. She was in the time continuum, a place where no one but here could enter. Who on earth was that voice?

Panickily turning around, she was suddenly face to face with Ame, who was wearing a large grin on her face as she began to cackle.

“Oh.. Oh my…Your face!” She managed to say, holding her stomach with both of her hands. “Your scream. It’s so good!”

“W-Wha… What the hell are you doing here?!” Kronii asked, her heart still beating out of her chest.

“What do you mean what I’m doing here. I’m just using the thing you gave me.” Said Ame, keeping her hands in her pockets. Kronii could tell that, even now, the girl was playing it cautiously. She didn’t want to show the clock, she didn’t want it taken away.

Kronii decided to dissipate those fears. “I’m not going to take the clock from you, you know?” She said, pointing with her head to the pocket that most likely contained the object. “You don’t need to hide it from me.”

“Ah, so you’re changing the subject in order to ignore what just happened, huh?” Ame said smugly. She was also right. After gloating for a bit, she decided to drop it. “Well, regardless, I am thankful.”

“I just hope you haven’t been using it for anything that would make my job harder.” Kronii said. It was a warning, don’t get too comfortable with it, is what she meant to say.

Ame just smiled. “Got it, boss.”

“Please don’t ever call me that.” She groaned as she felt the time continuum beginning to close. They didn’t even get to say a goodbye.

Her eyes met up with Fauna’s for the first time in this loop. They were alone in the council room, early for the scheduled meeting of the week. Those eyes felt unfamiliar now.

Her eyes were gentle and friendly, but it also showed a clear distance between the two of them. It did not betray her inner feelings, if it did then Kronii would be able to tell the glimmer of caution in her eyes. Even a small spark of coldness.

She had forgotten that she and Fauna did not get along well before.

It felt like a cruel joke.

She couldn’t face Fauna as she was now. Each time she saw her, each time she heard her, her heart clenched. So whenever Fauna was in the room, Kronii found an excuse to leave. She just couldn’t handle it.

Mumei was the first one to notice.

Well, that’s not exactly true. In reality, Fauna was the first one to notice, but by wanting to approach the situation with delicacy, she turned to Mumei for help. Mumei was more than glad to take upon the task as well. Mumei would follow Kronii around whenever she evaded Fauna and, instead of interrogating her why she was doing what she was doing, she just offered support and company, waiting for Kronii to tell her herself.

Eventually, she began spending almost all of her time with Mumei. She hadn’t forgotten about Fauna, but Mumei at least kept her mind out of it. She had even begun to enjoy herself, starting to laugh out loud about other things, and being able of making Mumei laugh also made her feel good. She hadn’t even realized how weighed down she was by the whole Fauna business before. It was… liberating.

She didn’t notice it at first, but she was starting to have a huge crush on Mumei.

And when she did notice it, she felt troubled. Was she somehow being… disloyal to Fauna for having these feelings? That Fauna wasn’t here anymore, but the one in the present was also Fauna, wasn’t she? Kronii sighed. She wasn’t going to get anywhere at this rate if she kept running circles on her own head.

And it might have sounded counterintuitive, but she decided to seek advice from Fauna.

“Love advice?” Said Fauna surprised.

“Feelings advice.” Corrected Kronii, flushing red. This might have been a mistake, after all.

Fauna gave a regrettable smile. “I’m sorry Kronii, but I can’t say I have much experience in that department. I haven’t dated anyone before.” Well, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. If someone at council ever got into a relationship, then it would’ve stopped being a secret in a maximum period of 24 hours.

“Still, I want to hear your thoughts on it.” Insisted Kronii. If anything, her thoughts on the matter were the most important to her.

Fauna hesitated for a second, doubting herself if she really could offer the advice she needed, but eventually let out a small sigh. “Well, if you don’t mind my potentially awful takes, then sure. What do you want to talk about?”

Kronii explained her situation without giving key information to the best of her ability. Sadly, the best of her ability wasn’t exactly good work. And again, in council it wasn’t hard to guess who was talking about who. Because of this, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, Fauna would not question it. If Kronii didn’t want to reveal that information, then she would not press her on it.

“So…” Said Fauna, trying to recap. “There’s this person that you were in love with and started to date for a long time, but eventually the both of you broke up. This break up wasn’t because you stopped loving each other, but because of external causes. After this break up, you found out that your partner doesn’t have any memory of you two together, and they’re even starting to act somewhat differently than how you remember them. However, they’re still the same person, that, you insisted, can’t be denied. Anyways, you couldn’t face your partner now, the difference in memories being a gap too big to cross, but you still yearned for her. This is when our third character appears. This third person manages to grab your attention and notices you’re struggling with your previous partner. This causes you to start having feeling for this third person now, and you’re not sure if you should be feeling like this.” Fauna finished her recap, sipping her cup of tea to moisturize her throat. “Did I get everything?”

Wow. She… had given out way too much information, hadn’t she? Kronii was blushing like a tomato, and could only nod at Fauna’s question.

“…Well, if you ask me, I think it’s a completely natural thing to happen, isn’t it?” Fauna said with a smile.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean having feelings for both of these persons. They are both very important to you, so of course you fell in love with them.” Kronii was about to speak, but Fauna interrupted her. “And before you say something akin to, but you’re supposed to love only one person!, then let me tell you that depends on the person in question. For many humans, they believe that their partner should love them and only them. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, but not everyone is the same. In my opinion, for example, I believe that people should love who they love. For me, it’s really that simple.”

“So… You think I should date this third person?” Asked Kronii.

“Well, if you other partner agrees with me, then yes, there shouldn’t be a problem. But even if they don’t, it’s not like you’re dating right now so it shouldn’t be a problem either way.” Said Fauna cheerily.

“However, I really think you should share all of this with this third person if you’re going ahead with it. You should be open with your girlfriend at all times.” Finished Fauna.

Kronii stayed quiet, letting her words wash over her. So, that’s how it works? Was it really fine for her to embrace her feelings for Mumei?

Well, if even Fauna is giving her blessing, then who was she to say no? Aside from that, however, there was the problem of telling Fauna… well, basically everything.

Sensing Kronii’s discomfort, Fauna comforted her. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to interpret or try to guess anything of what you just said. If you ever want to come and tell me though, then door is open.” Fauna smiled.

Yeah. She definitely still has feelings for her.

Returning to her room, Kronii decided to call Mumei over to chat for a bit. At first, they didn’t really do anything of much note. Just a couple of jokes, a couple of jabs. A couple of bad jokes. But Kronii eventually decided to go through with it and tell her everything. All from the start.

As she talked, as she began explaining everything that has happened, Mumei suddenly hugged her. It was then that she realized she had been crying for a while now. Not being able to finish all her story, but managing to tell all those important matters, she crumpled over Mumei and held her. Letting out all the emotions she had saved up. And through all of it, Mumei held her, drawing circles on her back with her hand.

Eventually, she stopped crying. And once she did, Mumei asked a somewhat insensitive yet still very her question.

“Now that you’ve stopped, can I kiss you now?”

And, before even waiting for an answer, she pressed her lips against Kronii’s.

This time, Mumei died.

It still hurt like being ripped to pieces.

Kronii was standing besides her on the bed, her empty eyes that used to look at her with so much love hurting her terribly.

It hurt so much.

Fauna was also with her, brushing Mumei’s hair like she usually did when she died. She now understood why she did that.

Looking at Fauna, she decided that if she’s going to reset at least she should confess to everything.

So she did. She told her everything as well.

And as a single tear started falling out of Fauna’s eyes, Kronii snapped her fingers.

“Hey, Ame. What is death to you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“What else would I be talking about? I asked you a question.”

“Well, it’s a strange question.”

“Just answer it”

“Alright, alright. If I had to say, it’s the end of someone.”

“So are the end of someone and the death of someone the same?”

“Absolutely not.”

“…Are you fucking with me?”

“No, no! I meant, when someone dies it’s the end of someone else.”

“Explain.”

“ When someone close to you dies, then it’s not only one, singular life that ends. It’s the lives of every person that interacted with them. If someone close to you dies, if someone that always had your back dies, then you die with them. You become someone different, you are no longer the same person that you were back then.”

“…I see.”

“Personally, I think human beings can’t live truly alone. I just don’t think it’s possible. We are, by nature, social animals. We seek others to share things and feel protected. In a way, I think that your life is held not by yourself, but by those around you. If suddenly, everyone that was close to you, if everyone that you loved suddenly disappeared, then can you truly say that you’re living in that moment?”

“So when you mourn someone…”

“Well, of course you’re still mourning the person itself. It would be quite rude not to, I think. But still, when you mourn someone you also mourn the opportunities lost. The what ifs, the what could’ve been. In a way, you are not exactly mourning the you that died with her, although it still should be considered, but you’re mourning the her that died within you. That’s why mourning hurts so much, a part of ourselves just died after all.

“So that’s why it hurts so much?”

“…Yeah.”

“…Looks like our time is running out. Thanks for the talk, Ame.”

“Whenever you want, Kronii”

Mumei and Fauna killed each other.

It was the worst possible scenario.

She had screwed up big time. She tried to get close to both, Fauna and Mumei, in order to save them. To finally defeat this cursed fate that was playing the three of them as fools. But, somehow, it had made things even worse. This time, they both engaged on a hostile war after something ended up souring their relationship. They had become enemies, no longer holding any care for the other. It was bad.

Earth’s forest burned in chemical fire, and its cities were buried under the fury of natural disasters. Storms, earthquakes, bombs and radiation ended up destroying the whole world. Humanity and nature died, and now nothing was left.

“But you’re not going to stop there, are you?” Ame asked, sitting in crossed legs on the floor of the time continuum, her arm propped up as she rested her head on her hand. They have crossed ways plenty of times now, and even considered the blonde a friend by now.

“No.” Kronii said, determination never flickering. If anything, this gave her hope. There now was another way that this could end besides the other two outcomes, and now she was sure that the must be a fourth. “I’ll just try again.”

Ame looked at her sympathetically. “Still, I wish there was something I could do something for you. I owe you, after all.”

“Thanks, I appreciate the sentiment.” Kronii said, gaining a smile from Ame. It was nearly time to keep going. To go back to the fray, and search for that future that she so desperately wanted.

She wouldn’t rest until she reached it.

Mumei sometimes forgot about the things she had done. Sometimes, this meant her relationship with the other council members.

Kronii would just have to remember it for her. She snapped her fingers

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.

They may not seem like it, but Fauna and Mumei were both extremely jealous persons.

She wouldn’t commit this mistake again. She snapped her fingers

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Fauna was scared of hurting Mumei, that was always the main cause of her demise.

She just needed to show her that there was no cause for worry. She snapped her fingers.

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Mumei couldn’t simply take control of humanity. Their whole shtick was independence after all, so if she could directly interfere with them then there would’ve been no point to humans at all. She could, however, guide them. But, sometimes, guiding them could only do as much as sailing a boat in the middle of a storm could do. There were many times that humanity was just out of her hands control.

Kronii had to consider all of this for the next attempts. She snapped her fingers.

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On this loop, she saw something new. On her attempts to save them, she had not realized how close Fauna and Mumei had become. She saw them holding hands, whispering to each other and then giggling about it together, sneaking a kiss where they thought no one had seen them. Turns out, she was a pretty good wingman when it came down to it, and teasing them about their relationship was surprisingly fun. She couldn’t deny, however, the feeling of loneliness that crept up on her chest.

Either way, it was too late. This loop had already gone through the point of no return. She snapped her fingers

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No good. This loop is no good.

She snapped her fingers.

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She realized that she hasn’t seen Ame in a while. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t really want to talk to her right now.

She snapped her fingers.

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This isn’t right, this won’t work.

She snapped her fingers.

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She doesn’t get it. Why is this so hard? She’s doing everything in her power to help both of them, but no matter how much she tries to protect them, one of them will always die. Either Mumei guides civilization to the point where nature is no longer needed, or civilization is trampled under the weight of nature’s law. She doesn’t know what to do anymore. She’s emptied out her options.

She snapped her fingers.

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She snapped her fingers.

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What if she was wrong? What if there’s really no way to save both of them. What if-

She can’t have such thoughts. She snapped her fingers

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She’s tired.

She snapped her fingers.

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Lately, everything’s been a blur. She’s not sure, but she feels like she’s been doing the same thing over and over again, as if she repeated it enough something would eventually change. She’s tired, and her motivation is faltering.

She’s so tired.

She’s been looping back the moment she realizes that she’s past the point of no return. Whenever something goes wrong, or she screwed something up, she would just… give up and try again. There was no need to continue on a loop that she knew was doomed. There was no point to it.

She sighed as she slumped back on her seat. Currently, she was hanging around the council’s living room, trying to catch a breath for herself. This timeline was already ruined, having gone past the point of no return. She could see the plants starting to wither, to see civilization prospering beyond all. Fauna was going to die at this rate.

And it kept being one of the most painful things she’s experienced.

She loved Fauna and Mumei, she had recognized that a long time ago. Each time she saw one of them die, her heart broke more and more. She didn’t know what to do anymore, it felt like she has truly exhausted all of her options. Does she have to choose between the two of them? To decide who will die and who gets to live?

She could never make a cruel choice like that. But what else was she to do then?

She should probably reset the timeline already. Nothing she does now will change the result, so why waste time here? Why keep going on a road that lead to a dead end? She should go to the past. She should snap her fingers right now.

But she couldn’t. She was too tired for that.

Instead, she was left watching the walls of the room, mindlessly looking at her surroundings. She heard some chatter at the end of the hallway getting louder, but she couldn’t distinguish what they were saying over the constant buzz that was in her head.

She didn’t even notice when one of the voice’s owners started shaking her on the shoulder, trying to catch her attention.

Kronii languidly rolled her head to the side to see Fauna, a deep expression concern on her face. “Are you alright, Kronii?”

“Why do you ask that?” Kronii said in a reflex.

Mumei looked at her, deep concern written clearly on her face as well. “You’re crying.” She observed.

Surprised, Kronii gently placed her hand on her face, noticing that, in fact, tears were rolling down her eyes. A lot of tears.

“Oh… I didn’t notice.” Kronii said, as she shortly after began to giggle to herself. Her giggles then transformed into chuckles, which then transformed into full-fledged laughs. She began laughing hard. And when the other two began to hug her, to gently caress her in order to comfort her, she also realized that she started crying even harder. Which, in turn, made her laugh louder still.

It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t funny in the slightest.

She began to break down and started yelling, trying to push her feelings, no matter which, out of her body. She yelled about everything. About her experiences, about her hopes, about her despair.

She told them everything that day. How she began looping in this fucking cycle for who know how long. About how this loop was doomed now that it passed the point of no return. About how she had seen each of them die repeatedly. About how she loved the two of them. About how they were lovers once.

Everything.

She didn’t travel back this time. Despite there being no chance of saving Fauna now, she still stayed here.

Not because she didn’t want to, but because Mumei asked her to.

When she told them everything, they comforted her until she was back on her feet, even if ‘being back on her feet’ actually meant a crying mess. They were completely understanding of her situation, and wanted to help Kronii by whatever means they could. They never once doubted her.

She really did love them. She would do anything for them.

Even when she told them that Fauna was going to die in the somewhat near future, they didn’t even flinch. They looked at each other in the eye, and then claimed the following:

“”Not this time.””

Ever since then, they’ve been working together exhaustedly in order to fix things. They spent day and night together thinking of a solution. They frequently asked Kronii about her experiences as well, in order to not commit the same mistakes they’ve previously done. They were giving it their all, no matter how seemingly hopeless it was. After a few years, Kronii realized why. For her, saving the earth was something she could try an infinite amount of times.

But for Mumei and Fauna, this was the one and only shot at making things right. So, she would also put in her best effort. For them.

So they worked, and worked and kept on working. And even when they were too tired to keep going, even when things kept looking bad, they never stopped working. Failure wasn’t an option anymore, because it wasn’t about them anymore. It was about Kronii as well. If they failed this time as well, then Kronii would keep on going, keep on suffering for who knows how long. They couldn’t, not under any circumstances, fail now.

And yet, Fauna looked more and more sick as time passed by. Time was running out, and they weren’t beating the odds.

Currently, both Mumei and her were attending to Fauna, who was having another high fever in her bed. Another forest burned down, and nature was suffering. She looked tired, more tired than had ever seen her. Mumei, as well, had deep bags under her eyes, stress clearly affecting her looks. Both of them were overworking themselves, and it pained Kronii to see them like this. She didn’t want to impose on them, didn’t want to put this burden on them, but that didn’t stop them from exerting themselves. Having been lost in thoughts she didn’t notice Fauna’s hand slowly approaching hers, a weak grip firmly holding her.

They were cold.

“Don’t look so sad, Kronii. I’m still here, you know?” Fauna said weakly in an attempt to lighten the mood of the room. It didn’t work too well.

Despite that, Mumei still smiled and kissed Fauna on her head. “Yup. And you’re not going anywhere.”

With their recent time spent together, the three of them had become quite close with each other. They relied upon each other for their needs and support. They had become inseparable, but that didn’t mean they were on a romantic relationship. As it turns out, none of them wanted to commit to something until they were successful. For Fauna and Mumei, they felt that they would become complacent with the situation if they started dating. They needed every kind of motivation to push them forward if this was going to work.

As for Kronii, she didn’t think she would be capable of recovering if she saw them die after becoming lovers again.

Actually, she was starting to think that she wouldn’t be able to keep going regardless of it.

Kronii was startled out of her thoughts as she felt Fauna’s thumb caressing the back of her hand. “You left us again. What are you thinking about that’s making you so distracted?” Asked Fauna, she was trying to hide it, but both her and Mumei could tell that she was in pain.

Kronii pressed her lips together in a line. “…One of the reasons that the both of you are doing this is because neither of you want me to see me like that again, right?” Kronii said, knowing that everyone in the room knew what that moment referred to. “If that’s the case, then… Then no matter what happens, I won’t loop back this time.” Stated Kronii, looking at both of them. “So… at the very least, neither of you will have to worry about me in that regard.” As soon as she said that she felt a sharp feeling digging into the back of her hand, where Fauna had pressed her nail into her with a disapproving pout on her face.

Mumei, for her part, shook her head in a disappointed manner. “You still don’t get it, do you? This isn’t about making the best out of a bad situation. We’re going to get through this, and we’re going to do that without sacrificing anything. Anything less than that is unacceptable.“ Mumei said as she planted her feet on the ground. Fauna was nodding next to her.

A small smile formed on Kronii’s face, as she let out a defeated sigh. They were right, in a way.

If they were going through this, if this was really her last, final attempt, then it was time for Kronii to start believing it as well.

It was similar to all the other times this had happened. The brown-colored plants, the oppressing feeling of unclean air, the sun shining too brightly into the glade.

This is where Fauna dies.

Nature was at a critical state. All of council were at the now infamous forest glade, bringing Fauna to the one place closest to nature life. She was breathing heavily, her eyes starting to glaze and lose sight.

Nature was dying.

Yet not everything was the same. This time, it took a much longer amount of time before Fauna got to this point. The other times, Fauna would have already asked for Mumei to kill her in order to end this prolonged fight. But not this time. Even now, Fauna was still fighting to keep her consciousness, clinging to her life, refusing to be defeated by this curse.

Mumei wasn’t here either. She said that there was something she had to do and left in a hurry without really explaining herself.

And, unlike all the other times, Kronii had still not lost her hope. This time, it’s going to work. She kept repeating herself.

Sana and Bae, meanwhile, were trying to distract the humans that surrounded the glade. She hadn’t noticed before, but thinking about it, it made sense that the humans would fight for the last natural resources on earth would bring the end of nature. That meant that, currently, only her and Fauna were at the glade. Her job was to keep her conscious, after all.

Fauna was shaking with each breath she took, and her eyes were starting to dart around. “Kronii? Where are you?” She asked frailly

“I’m here.” Kronii said, grabbing her hand and tightening the grip. “I’m right here with you.”

“Oh… What a shame, I can’t see you very well now.” Fauna managed to say before getting a coughing fit.

“Don’t talk. You need all the strength you can get.” Kronii said, desperation leaking in her voice.

Fauna just smiled. “I… Didn’t think that it would be this hard. Now I can see why you were so adamant in why this would fail.”

“It won’t, alright?! It’ll be alright, you’ll be fine!” Said Kronii, scared of the reason why she was still talking.

“I’m… I’m beginning to doubt it, if I’m being honest.” Fauna said with guilt. “Kind of pathetic, right? I was the one that said everything would be alright.” Fauna struggled to talk with her labored breaths

“Just… shut up. Please…” Kronii begged. Fauna smiled back at her general direction and stayed quiet. The only sign that she was still there was the weak grip she had on Kronii’s hand. Once silence had taken place, Kronii did the only thing that she could do. Hope. Hope for them to finally, finally end this never-ending nightmare.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of locomotives and heavy machinery moving through the dried forest.

At first, she wondered what had happened to Bae and Sana, but then she saw Mumei sprinting towards the clearing, together with an unexpected partner following close behind her.

“Mumei?! What’s Ame doing here?” Kronii said in surprise.

“She’s here to help! We’ve brought a group of humans with us, and right now they’re working on a structure that will help us save Fauna! We just need to hold on for a little bit longer and everything will be alright!” She turned her head and looked at Ame. “Ame, this is the place where most of nature’s life energy is. I need you to go back and tell the humans to protect this zone right now.”

“On it!” Ame said as she began sprinting towards the forest.

“Fauna, I’m here!” Mumei said as she quickly placed herself on Fauna’s side. “We’ve done it, it’s finally going to be alright now. You just need to hold on for a little longer, ok?” Mumei said, tears spilling out of her eyes. Fauna, however, didn’t react to her.

In fact, Kronii had just now realized that Fauna’s hand had gone limp for a while now.

“…Fauna?” Mumei brokenly whispered in a small voice.

Fauna was still.

“Mumei, how long until the structure is finished?!” Kronii asked quickly, time being of the essence.

“T-two hours, at the very least. It won’t be any faster than that.” Mumei crumbled onto the floor, falling on her knees. “I… Fauna, I…” Mumei mumbled, opening her mouth but nothing coming out. A crestfallen expression formed on her face, the taste of defeat so bitter that she couldn’t handle it. The hope she had just moments ago disintegrating in an instant.

Kronii however, refused to let it go. She was finally, finally, at the finish line. She would not fail now, no matter what.

No. Matter. What.

She quickly grabbed both, Mumei and Fauna’s hands, and concentrated. Everything outside of them was meaningless, everything that mattered was in this little bubble that the three made. She imagined that bubble, something that covered the three of them and nothing else. Without breaking this mental image, she sped up time. Normally, whenever she changed time it affected only her, but now, she wasn’t only herself. She was everything that the other two considered her to be. She was what they thought of her, she was what they loved of her. She belonged to them. In the same fashion, they belonged to her as well. What she loved of them was part of what each of them were.

She was part of their world, and they were hers. It was an undeniable fact.

And everything besides the three of them moved forward. The brambles of a tree without leaves started shaking in an unordinary way. The wind that blew was furious and fast. The clouds moved at abnormal speeds. Motion was in place, and they became the observers. Soon enough, a sort of bubble appeared above their heads, covering the entire forest in its domain.

It felt… nice. It felt like taking a stroll through an abandoned trail, where nature started to retake the path that was once formed. She wasn’t Fauna, but even she could tell that life would be flourishing here.

Changing time to its normal state, Mumei stared at the sky as she saw the giant bubble above their head. Just now, she realized what had just happened.

Shaking her head, she went straight to checking on Fauna’s state. She still wasn’t awake, but Mumei didn’t care about that. That’s because she was breathing. That sole, singular fact made her break down in tears of relief. She instantly grabbed Fauna’s other hand and held it dearly with her own two. They made it. It worked.

For Kronii, it didn’t feel real. So used she was to the sight of blood, the sight of two persons holding each other in a final goodbye. She was so used to the sight of defeat that it didn’t register for a moment. And then, when it finally did, she cried. For a long time, she had internally thought if there ever was an end to her journey, that she was destined to repeat failure after failure until acceptance. For so long, she had internally given up.

But now, seeing the sight of Mumei crying her heart out, not in tears of sadness, but of joy, she realized. She had finally reached the end of this damned race. She finally got to see the sight that the perilous, agonizing trail she was on hand to offer.

And it was beautiful.

.

.

An alarm blared. Not only once, but twice now.

She hated waking up to the shrilling sound of an alarm. And she hated it much more when the damned alarm was supposed to be off today.

Groaning sleepily, she mumbled. “Mumei, did you forget to turn off the alarm today?”

No response.

Great.

As the alarm continued to blare, Kronii decided to open her eyes and turn off the hell machine herself. Only to realize that the alarm was atop a bedtable on Mumei’s side of the bed.

Fantastic.

“Mmh.” Mumei groaned, still clearly sleepy. “Kronii, can you turn off the alarm already?”

She was going to kill her.

“Yeah Kronii.” Fauna said, voice far too articulate for her to have just woken up. A small giggle was filtrating through her voice as well. “Why haven’t you turned it off yet?”

Scratch that, she was going to becoming a serial killer today.

Not even considering leaving the warmth of the bed covers, Kronii started climbing atop her green-haired girlfriend, who let out an oomph and a small giggle, and tried to reach for the bedside table that still had that fucking blaring alarm. When she noticed that she wasn’t going to reach it from her position she moved forward even more, supporting her weight not only on Fauna, but also on Mumei who was at the other side of the bed. Once she was practically laying over her two girlfriends, did she manage to grab the alarm and, by pure strength of will, pressed the off button rather than throwing it against the wall.

Needless to say, the three of them were wide awake at this point.

“Oh.” Mumei said, her head finally clearing out of the numbing sleep. “I forgot that we didn’t have work today.”

“You don’t say.” Said Kronii sarcastically.

“Now, now. It’s not all bad. At least now we get to enjoy more of this day.” Fauna said, trying to see the positive side of things.

Kronii wasn’t having it. “Oh, screw that. I’m going back to sleep, see you in, like, an hour or something.” She said as she took her original spot on the bed and cocooned with the covers.

Sadly for her, Fauna also wasn’t having it. ”Oh no you don’t.” She rapidly took off the beds covers, letting the chill air of the room seep into Kronii’s warm body.

Kronii instantly curled up from the cold and sent a glare to Fauna. “…I hate you.”

Fauna responded by pecking a small kiss on her lips. “No you don’t.” She said while smiling smugly.

All the while, Mumei had become an unintended victim of the battle, having her warm covers taken from her because of Fauna’s attack. In retaliation, when Fauna put her guard down she immediately attached herself to her ticklish side, sending her down as she tickled her furiously.

After that, it was a mess. All three of them started to pile themselves over the other as each of them attempted to tickle the other.

As it turned out, today was their tenth anniversary since they got together. This also meant that it’s been a whole eleven years since that happened. After stabilizing Fauna, Mumei told her what had happened. It turns out, Mumei had been making a considerable effort in guiding humanity towards saving and cohabiting with nature. Sadly, however, such drastic change wasn’t going to take form in time for actually saving nature. Humanity was slow with this kind of things, Mumei explained. Thanks to her guidance, however, there was a group of activists that had started a global movement towards saving the planet. In fact, the very same activists were the one that showed up that day and built the dome. The problem was, however, that Mumei didn’t actually have a way to contact the authorities of this organization in order to have them help. She could have shown up there herself, and she did, but the only thing she gained by doing that were weird stares as a weird girl with no background started telling them what to do.

That’s where Ame came in. Apparently, despite her present time being much, much, more into the past, she had traveled to the future in order to ‘help save nature’. And despite having been from the past she somehow had big influence in this world as she was able to instantly move the organization in accordance with what Mumei said. Something that, honestly, is even more peculiar. What on earth has she been doing with that clock?

Still, Ame was a strong ally for council, so nobody really felt the need to supervise her anymore. What she did with her powers, that was only for her to know.

Once everything had cleared, Fauna still had to recover from her sickness. Even if the dome served its purpose in stabilizing the last remains of nature, it did only that. Stabilize. After returning, Fauna was still hostage to a coma. It was more than disheartening at first, but they soon figured out that Fauna’s condition was improving little by little.

Because of that, Mumei and Kronii decided to put the question of their relationship on hold until Fauna woke up.

Meanwhile, Mumei was still working hard on making humanity more in touch with nature. Wanting to surprise Fauna whenever she woke up. If she remembered correctly, she called the project solarpunk.

Time passed, and eventually, after exactly one year, Fauna woke up. She wasn’t in a good state, obviously. She was still bedridden for a while, and she wasn’t exactly the picture of healthy. But she was alive. She was recovering. That was enough for everyone there.

They also became girlfriends that day, even if it was clear that it was a long time coming. They loved each other, and everyone (even Bae and Sana) knew that. Mumei especially likes to tease her by saying that she saved Fauna with the power of love. It never failed to make her blush.

Nowadays Fauna was still weakened, she couldn’t exercise herself too much or she would faint. But aside from that, she was pretty much capable of doing everything on her own. She’s even began joking about her situation recently, using it as an excuse to be lazy and what not.

These last ten years have been the best Kronii had ever had by far. It was unbelievable how much she was enjoying her day to day now. So unbelievable, in fact, that if her past self were ever to see her, then she would think that it’s some kind of prank being played on her. She was having the time of her life.

And she knew that this is going to end, eventually. Everything does, after all. At some point, civilization or nature will stop existing. But that didn’t matter much to her now. Even if it does eventually happen, Kronii doubts that she’s ever going to travel back into the past again. Don’t get her wrong, it’s not that she’s not willing to go over all that again because she doesn’t want to. It’s just that she’s another person now, she doesn’t belong in that world anymore. That’s past Kronii’s world, not hers.

In the end, the only thing she achieved was buying the other two more time in this universe. And if she ever had to go through that hell again in order to buy them even more time, even if it was a year, even if it was a day, then she would gladly do it all over again.