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KT67: Hakone Base after a long time
—- Arakawa Kouki Point of View —-
“Here, you also need to look at these”
There is a pile of documents in front of me. Since my personal terminal is broken, I cannot send nor receive data so mom prints out all the documents and stack them in front of me. At another desk, macho is in there with also piles of documents the same way as I am and was grinning while looking at me. Looks like that muscle head is enjoying this…
“And these are the complaints from the Academy City Defense Forces. Ah, sorry! I almost forgot, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is requesting to return the submarine which you got on board to get here”
“Ano~ mom…”
“While you are gone, the VR Technology Department was held up so there are also a pile of documents from them so make sure to check on it. Also, what else──”
Yabai, mom is angry. I don’t know what to do when she is angry like this. My mom is smiling when I look at her but her eyes are saying otherwise. I tried to ask for help from Alice who is in the corner of the room but when our eyes met she look the other way. Kon who is being held by Alice is also covering her face with her tail. (TN: “Yabai” literally means “Dangerous” but it is also a slang word to express strong expression. It can be used in both positive and negative way but it is only used when you are talking to someone who you are really close with. For negative way, you use it as a expletive which will roughly translate it as “damn” or “shit” in English. For positive way, you can use it the same way as “amazing” or use it to express positive expression to whatever you are pertaining to. Damn, Japanese is hard to explain but I hope you get the gist of it)
It is hopeless to ask for help even to the Captain and Anton-san who are standing behind me because they are frozen like statues.
“I’m sorry……”
When I said that one word, mom stopped piling up the documents and looked at me.
“Your voice is too low to hear, did you say something?”
“For being selfish, I’m sorry! I beg of you, please help me!”
“You need help? You went to Russia on your own and did something dangerous. When I decided to help you, you told me that you will handle everything by yourself right? Moreover, You blew up the former capital of another country on a grand scale then suddenly came back riding a secretly kept submarine”
“Yes…”
“──Very well. Learn from this and promise me never to do everything on your own again. Understand?”
“Yes”
Looks like she will finally forgive me. Mom takes off her white coat, sits in a chair and cross her legs. She was then looking straight at the Captain who was behind me. It was silent for a while, then she finally opened her mouth.
“Captain Yurya, when Kouki had a meeting with the Russian Government I overheard the conversation through his terminal. Is the Polonium Case true?”
“I was a former member of Russian Federation Army, I’m Captain Yurya Altamonowa. My identification number at that time was──”
Captain, there are no more Maritime Self-Defense Forces so you don’t need to pretend that you are under my command anymore. Please stop provoking my mother. Look, the light on mom’s eyes are gone. I wonder if she is angry again…
“Captain, it’s fine to answer mom’s question. Please answer all of the questions”
“It is true. It was a highly classified information. It was not supposed to be used but that case was an operation for my unit and the decision was left to us”
“I see… Why does Ko-chan knows that kind of highly classified information?”
This time, I was asked instead of the Captain. This question, How should I answer? Maybe I should tell mom everything just like what I told the Captain. However, thinking that there are spies in Noah, it is possible that one of them is in this room listening to us…
“I heard a rumor, that there is an operation like that”
“Rumor huh… Ma~ whatever, you can go Ko-chan. I’m done lecturing you, it’s now the turn of Alice-chan and the others to scold you now”
On those words, Alice and Kon had a happy expression on their face but my heart actually stop for a sec when I heard it. Looks like Captain will answer more questions. I am so nervous and my mouth is dry but I still left my seat in a hurry so that mom will not start lecturing me again. When I look at the Captain’s face before I left the room, she was expressionless as always. It made made me smile for a bit. I think she will be fine, I believe that she will not say anything related to my secret──
—- Arakawa Miki Point of View —-
After Kouki left the room and couldn’t hear his footsteps in the corridor anymore, the Captain spoke to me again.
“I thought that child has the foresight to see the future… and it is not only a certain future but all branch of future which are affected by human actions”
“Fumu, that was interesting”
“Yes, but what’s more interesting is this. What that child can see is apparently the past… but it might be more accurate to say that he knows the past. It is like he is presently experiencing the past”
The Captain seemed to be upset for a moment. No matter how you look at it, looks like he knows something about Kouki.
“I believe Kouki already told you that we made a base on a different world. Actually, in that world, that child always know the optimal solution on every situation”
“In a different world?”
“Yes. Making preparation, taking action and leaving results. I’m a parent so at first I just thought that he is really a genius but because of this incident I am now certain. He is abnormal. Why did he go to an opposite direction when he escaped the building(hotel)? Why does he know the case about the Polonium? Why everything is always convenient for that child?”
In my words, the Captain seems to be thinking about something. I love Kouki from the bottom of my heart. I will help him in whatever way I can for him to take his path of life but that kid won’t tell us anything and that’s really frustrating. When I said that to the Captain, she finally opens her mouth as if she is having a hard time.
“I have an agreement with Arakawa. That’s why I cannot tell you what he said to me but I will not deny your guess”
If she is not going to deny it, that means what I am thinking is correct? If he had experience something similar to this world then where could that world be?
“…Did Arakawa said his reason for joining the Interracial war in another world?”
“Eh? At the very least he said the he wants everyone to live peacefully while laughing”
“Let’s just say what you are thinking right now is correct. In that case, can you tell if this world is a place where everyone can ‘live peacefully while laughing’?”
I was surprised by what she said. That means Kouki is… from the future of this world that has walked a different history? And he alone, is trying to change the past──
“I thought hard about it base on what I heard from Arakawa and you. Would we really notice New World if that guy did not take any action? If we haven’t notice, what do you think could have happened?”
“That kid is trying to correct history, however he keeps on failing and trying again…”
That’s why that child can keep doing the best course of action unless something unexpected happens. It is possible that he had knowledge about the polonium case because he experience it himself? I now understand the uneasiness that I experience when Kouki was born. I wonder how long did Kouki suffer? How many “death” did he experience when he had such eyes upon birth──