Chapter 9 - The Memory Crystal

🌌 Time Drift Detected – Transitioning from World Line 44 → ?

The kiss had barely faded from his lips when Kentarō was yanked through a tunnel of blinding light. Voices whispered through him—some familiar, some unknown:

"He's resisting extraction—"

"His memory anchor is unstable—"

"Where did he get the second crystal?!"

Then—

Darkness.

🛌 Unknown Timeline – A Cracked Reality

Kentarō awoke on a hospital bed, monitors humming quietly beside him. But something was off—the machines blinked in reverse, nurses walked backward, and clocks ticked up from midnight.

A broken timeline.

He sat up.

There, on the tray table beside him, lay a small, pulsing crystal orb—blue, like the one Sarah always carried.

Only this one had a red fracture running through its core.

"The second crystal," Kentarō whispered.

He didn't remember finding it.

"So how is it here?"

He touched it.

And the room exploded with visions.

🧠 Memory Sequence Initiated

He was no longer in the room.

He was reliving someone else's life.

A world line he'd never seen before—

🕯️ Flash Memory: World Line 0

A battlefield.

Rain.

Sarah, covered in blood, kneeling beside a mortally wounded Kentarō.

"They lied to us," he whispered."Chronos was never meant to protect time… only control it."

Sarah cried out, placing the crystal on his chest.

"I'll fix it," she swore."Even if it takes a thousand lives… I'll find the world where you live."

That was the beginning.

Timeline Zero.

Where it all began.Where Sarah made the deal with Chronos.Where she started breaking the rules.

And now—Kentaro remembered it too.

🌀 Memory Collapse – Back to Present

The vision ended with a painful shock. He fell back onto the bed, panting.

His phone buzzed.

It was a message. From Yūto.

But... Yūto had been erased.

"Found the 3rd crystal. They're hunting me. Reika remembers too. Don't trust anyone wearing time marks."

Attached: coordinates. A safe zone outside the city.

"Survive. Remember. Reach 1365625."

Kentarō gripped the crystal tightly.

📼 Meanwhile – Chronos Control Room

Professor Hoshikawa stood in silence, watching the monitor flicker red.

Behind him, Mira—glowing faintly—watched the memory replay.

"He saw World Line Zero," she said."That shouldn't be possible."

Hoshikawa's face darkened. "If he unlocks the full chain of memory crystals, the anchor point of 1365625 will fully awaken."

Kurogami Renzō, standing at the door, cracked his knuckles.

"Shall I erase him?"

The professor turned.

"No. It's too late for that."

"We'll erase the girl."

💠 Final Scene – Kentarō in the Mirror

He stood before the mirror, the blue crystal pulsing in his hand.

"Sarah… you started this to save me."

He looked into his own reflection—something glowing behind his left eye.

"Now it's my turn to save you."