"For that, I will give it to you, my dear Kairi. Use this information wisely."
Right... I’m the captain now.
"So, are you saying you’re not rewriting my past—you’re just dragging the future to a different space to control what I want to do with it?"
"Don’t say it as if these are cruel things to do."
Yes, you are.
"Never mind, let’s sort this out quickly. As I said, there are three ways to save her."
She nodded quickly, a grave expression etched across her face.
"One of them has been eliminated due to the limitation of the evidence—that your Void Rifter breaks space to create the impression of time changing."
"Oh, you really learned that far. Well done."
Your cryptic way of explaining couldn’t help them understand, though.
"What’s with that, dear?"
"No, nothing."
"All right. Now, tell me your genius plan, my dear Kairi. I’m especially curious when you learned the limits to these inventions I made."
She was right. It’s my turn to flip the page—perhaps even reverse the odds I do have.
So, these were the three ways I had to propose instead.
"The first one was supposed to be you using the Void Rifter with me to alter the timeline. But turns out that wouldn’t be possible."
"Second, I triggered myself with this Return-by-Memory ability so I could have enough interval to save Helena by jumping right onto her—as I failed to save her, if my memory serves correctly."
"You almost saved her," Selene said. Her words cut like a sharp blade.
"Barely, but not close enough. Supposedly, you should have done so earlier, yet this ridiculous experimentation of yours brought me to this."
Hey, you are not the only one with a problem.
I mean, I’ve literally been suffering from this what-the-f*ck.
I couldn’t believe this so-called logical Selene would call me out for doing such a sensible thing.
"It was far from being sensible. But at least, it got this Kairi-esque act of yours."
Okay, since when did she learn anything about ’-esque’ in Nordic?
"So, did you love that kind of move, big Sis? I’m gonna do that again. That’s exactly what the second plan is all about."
"Yes, you are being ridiculous. You were lucky the first time. The second time—who knows. It might be even worse, especially when you decided to do this all alone. Next, your third plan."
I exhaled before continuing with my own point.
"We will go there together."
"Hm? Is that all you have about this plan?"
"No, but I’m glad you’re asking, my beloved Selene."
Got ya, you motherf*cker.
Her face suddenly flushed, but then she regained her composure.
"Uhm, it’s not the right time to dwell on these sisterly jokes from now on, my dear little Kairi. All right, tell me what you mean by doing this together."
She probably knew the gist of this. Because if she didn’t, she wouldn’t entertain this idea. I mean, isn’t it obvious? Her Rifter is literally a stasis that can move—a mobile vehicle that travels through space by being the anti-space.
"Wait, no... no way. You cannot be serious, right? I already told you about its limitations!"
I knew it. She realized it all along—the idea that could bring her back to life wasn’t to confront her directly, but rather...
"Yes. Let’s do this together."
"No, explain the logic to me. Use your logic. No intuition, please."
That would be troublesome enough...
The idea of explaining my logic to her is like asking an apple how a pear tastes when they’re not exactly the same thing.
"Bad analogy, Kairi."
"I know."
"Now quick. Don’t waste my ’time’ here. Explain it to me."
"If we want to save Helena, it has to do with my position before saving her, right?"
She nodded quickly.
"Now, let’s consider a superposition that will allow me to ideally save her from misery. And to do so, it requires your Rifter basically."
"But how did we get there?"
"I mean, it’s easy, right? You simply need to go back to the past with me."
She was stunned by the conclusion.
"How?"
"Something lewd like holding hands would do. I’ll use transcription to transfer this ability temporarily with you, so we can share this together—albeit not equally."
Her eyebrows raised, seemingly intrigued by my explanation.
"And will you guarantee that this ability will be safe for me? Also, you yourself don’t understand the full extent of your so-called Return-by-Memory ability."
"I probably do."
"We don’t play with dice here, Kairi. Don’t gamble without exactitude or certainty. It’s both your and Helena’s lives on the line here."
She was right. Whatever risk I had taken—it would have been detrimental for any possible consequence that could theoretically happen in the future, practically speaking.
However, my pragmatic self possessed this highly inflated ego to prove that this could work.
"We need to calculate the interval first."
I took a long pause before continuing.
"Suppose that the interval equals the time-loss compensation. This means that whatever checkpoint needs to be reached must follow a specific, given amount of time for me to return using my consciousness."
"Apparently, if I were to apply all your theories in question—since the copy would leave a trace when transferred back to my consciousness—this would imply that when such an ability is shared, you will still have a fragment of mine. But this fragment would help and complete the loss I have."
I mean, this is simple. Let’s say that if the memory transferred was incomplete and I had to deduce what was going on—and suppose the loss was approximately between ten to ninety percent—this would imply the fragments of memory loss might also be transferred.
"So you’re insinuating I’d serve as some sort of backup just in case you did forget. That’s brilliant. But should I tell you that there’s one loophole to this logic of yours?"
Hold on, what do you mean by loophole?
I couldn’t wrap my thoughts around it—it was perfect, from my point of view.
"What is it then?"
"If this so-called hypothesis of yours is true, then it means you and I are going to bend time—that is, a moving cliff—according to your own memory. However, this also requires you to sacrifice something in return. What is it exactly, then?"
Ah, of course... the law of equivalent exchange.
Seriously, I never really considered that. But if it were to make sense, what would be lost might be something dear to me.
"In return, I’d probably lose this current time of me getting dragged with you. And unless you reminded me, I wouldn’t remember."
"Also, kidnapping Helena from the said timeline wouldn’t be an easy feat. But after seeing the way you created Tachyon with your hand, I might understand the way I could pull this off."
"I see. So, to return, it requires me to use this power while holding your hand tightly?"
"Hm... maybe not holding hands. Should be something where our proximity is close enough that the boundary between us might collapse."
Something so powerful—so much so it could share a similar sensation to kissing. The collapse of a boundary that might be able to retain the said memory, despite partially, to the specific event whereas Helena suicide might happen.
"I see. Superposition huh? Tell me more."
"Well, it’s a theory whereas a thing is considered to have the most ideal placement in the universe, something like an ideal state."
"That explanation seems vague but are you referring to the fact that your position to save Helena wasn’t ideal to begin with, Kairi?"
"You might be able to say that. However, the idea was definitely to save her from the trouble, obviously."
"Very well. I shall indulge to this idea then."
"So, shall we demonstrate it?"
"Sure."
My mind more or less had been a scramble as of late, considering there were some issues by the way I explained things. Not to mention I barely stuttered, implying that something went wrong with my memory. But I couldn’t exactly gauge it for what it was.
"Are you okay?"
"I’m fine. Maybe my mind has been hazy."
"I think you should be careful everytime you are going to use it. Remember that you just consider yourself lucky to reach this far. Anyway, about the act that you referred to not a long time ago..."
"What about hugging? It seems to represent the idea of such a collapse when it comes to the boundary very well."
"And by the time I shoot you with the ultra-high concentrated emmision of light, you and I will both have our memories transferred, with mine mimicking the fragments of your power."
Why does that word sounds awfully familiar.
It seems that her vocabulary truly mixed with mine, so much so I clearly recognized that from a meme somewhere.
"Sure, let’s do it then."
I initiated holding her hands as she got closer to me, almost kissing as the boundary collapsed.