13 Adolescence
"Rewriting the past?"
Kou murmured, lost in thought.
Just moments ago, the members of Kou's group had each worn their own expressions after hearing Jin's prediction.
The most common reaction was disbelief at the idea of time leaps.
"Still, the Second Fleet is moving so aggressively, and there's that guy's report. It's probably possible."
"Who's 'that guy'?"
"Ah, probably Captain too. You'll know when you meet him."
Jin's response remained deliberately vague, but he quickly regained composure and resumed the conversation.
"The Second Fleet now has all the necessary elements in hand. Whether it's a matter of resolving things through time... I can't say for sure."
Sharon seemed the most knowledgeable among the Third Fleet, yet even she only possessed basic understanding.
Details were likely known only to Harold and those near him.
She remains unaccounted for. No chance to exchange opinions—no way to confirm anything.
"I still can't believe Mio was an ASID."
"…Me neither. She wasn't just a fellow single."
It was a fact hard to accept without having seen the original body firsthand.
"But she's not the enemy. Brother."
"I know that. Don't worry."
Kou ruffled Shu's head roughly, scattering his hair.
"You've known her since you were this tall. Mio couldn't do something people dislike, could she?"
That was precisely why.
"I just can't wrap my head around siding with someone who went to such lengths—breaking away from the Instructor like that."
Kou spoke, skeptical. The other three nodded in agreement.
The Mio they knew didn't align with this.
She should have been the kind to scold someone for doing something like this.
Jin sighed, shoulders dropping in resignation.
"...My secret was exposed to Mio."
"Debt."
“Wrong.”
“Criminal record.”
“Wrong.”
“Womanizing.”
“Wrong!”
Rejecting each of the three fools’ words with growing desperation, Jin answered as if grasping at straw.
“...He’s not my biological child.”
“Seriously?”
No one had thought they looked alike—no common traits at all, they’d all assumed.
But seeing that level of obsession, the idea that they shared no blood at all hadn’t occurred to anyone.
“Even if it got out to Higashi...?”
“No, he knows that himself. He had a dead fiancée. The resemblance is exact... or perhaps, maybe—”
a reincarnation.
Jin spoke as if choking on blood.
After hearing the origin of ASID’s soul, Shu and Yuria had only been able to conclude it was something of that nature.
Kou and May, however, seemed to have a different impression.
"If that's the case... it might mean he's somewhere out there in this universe too."
"Even if he is... he'd be hundreds of light-years away."
He was thinking of the other May who had disappeared during ASID's assault.
Both spoke in heavy tones, voicing a possibility that could exist.
If that were true...
Would it be pain? Or would it be nothing at all to the one experiencing it?
At least in Mio's case, there was no trace of what might be called memories of a previous life.
"My student... they said he was taken as a substitute for Rei. I couldn't answer right away. I'd thought of that myself."
He was complaining to his pupil and the friend of his daughter. The thought of his own insignificance brought tears to his eyes.
"That's why he's trying to rewrite the past... to make Rei's death never have happened."
"Wait—hold on. Instructor. If reincarnation is real, then that means the guy from Tōgō—"
"Then he wouldn’t be born at all."
May exhaled, the words heavy with resignation.
"Even the Instructor would be at a loss for words."
No matter how carefully the phrasing, it amounted to suicide.
May understood that Jin couldn’t remain calm after hearing such words from her daughter.
"Meaning that’s it, then."
Kou, having heard the full account, spoke as if it were nothing.
"Mio’s resistance phase, that’s what this is."
"Yeah... I see. Mio’s definitely in her resistance phase."
"Exactly. Well, if you force it, it fits. But still—"
"This is resistance phase...!"
The seasoned, relentless barrage of logic made Jin believe it. Resistance phase—this was something extraordinary.
"No, no. Not one that drags an entire fleet into it..."
Guard quietly interjects toward the elderly man's rambling, though likely no one is listening.
"Anyway, jokes aside..."
May shrugged her shoulders.
"The Instructor won't let it continue. That's certain."
It was phrased as a question, yet May did not expect an answer.
"If left unchecked, the Second Fleet will enact past alteration. We'll live in a changed world without ever knowing it."
"…Probably just as well, though. Even without awareness, a life with less suffering is assured."
Predictable. A steady calm.
Sending information to the past. To those in the past, it would be foreknowledge of the future.
With that, every ASID assault could be avoided.
Knowing the future means no surprise encounters are possible.
How many lives could be saved by that alone.
...but it would inevitably be abused, wouldn’t it? Once someone believes they can monopolize their own benefit...
Or rather, wouldn’t someone try to take it as soon as it’s believed possible?
Time jump isn’t divine intervention. Not some miracle.
It’s a human-made technology. Reproducible. Repeatable.
It cannot be monopolized by a single faction.
Someone will always be left out. Someone excluded from the benefit.
Who can claim that minority won’t spark conflict?
And that conflict will surely be suppressed—unwittingly—by those who wield time jump.
No. Not surely.
The Second Fleet... whatever that is. The Laitera Project aims at exactly that. Altering the past, erasing recent events, concealing time jump technology. Sounds like the plot of a villain, doesn’t it?
Preventing human interference with the past? Impossible.
Watching the world change without power to stop it—watching without even realizing one has watched.
"I want peace, but I won’t accept a world shaped by someone else’s choice."
That’s what Shu says.
Whoever controls time jump technology will decide what kind of world it becomes.
A paradise shaped by someone else’s ideal—
"Aah. I’m sorry, but I won’t have that."
Completely at odds with Jin’s vision.
"Please. Help me. I can’t do this alone—I can’t reach Mio without your help."
Alone, he’d be scattered, powerless.
Without someone else’s hand, Jin cannot act.
"Do you remember, Instructor? Eight years ago, when you meddled, trying to reconcile me and Kou."
"...Yes. I remember."
"If the Instructor hadn't interfered back then, I never would have reconciled with Kou. We wouldn't have married. I certainly wouldn't have met Junpei."
May smiled as she listed the outcomes born from Jin's actions.
"I said back then, 'If you and Mio have a fight, I'll mediate for you.'"
"Did you?..."
Jin didn't remember the details, but May nodded with unwavering confidence.
"That's right. The time to keep a promise has come. Yes, let's show them how well we can resolve a parent-child quarrel!"
Jin felt his confidence falter in the face of May's certainty.
"Alright, I guess I'm stuck with your plan... But I feel the same way. I'll help."
"Thank you. Lieutenant Sasamori..."
The quiet, yet firm nod from Kou—reassuring, steadfast.
Jin recalled the events of eight years prior, lost in reflection.
"I think Mio truly loves Captain in her heart."
Yuria says it.
"Captain loves Mio too. To be in love with each other and yet unable to be happy—that I won’t allow in front of me!"
"Ah, Yuria’s love brain, I haven’t seen it in a while."
"I... was wrong. For a while now, I haven’t been happy because I had love. I sought love because I wanted to be happy. That’s why marriage won’t work without love first."
Ignoring Yuria’s sudden monologue, Shu nodded, his expression firm, as if reaching a decision.
"I have something I want to say to Tōgō too."
Jin bowed deeply in response to the four of them.
"...Thank you."
He wants to show this to Mio.
There’s no one waiting for her. That’s a lie.
There’s no place to return to. That’s impossible.
Not here.
A small circle that hopes she comes back.
But how to make Mio believe it—was the greatest challenge.