Chapter 32. Time failure.

Chapter 32. Time failure.

That night I slept very soundly, but in the morning I woke up from a rather loud slam of the door. Most likely it was Mika who came in, because Karou was still lying on the bed. But then I noticed that we were not lying in a decent position at all… Karou was hugging me, half naked herself… Yes, it's clear that Mika was embarrassed and slammed the door. I got out of bed, removing Kara's hand from my body.

A couple of minutes later I was already going down the stairs. On the way up this very staircase, I heard Mika coming down this very staircase, it didn't last long. So I finally went down this long staircase and saw that Mika and Karou were already standing outside and doing something on the playground. But… Karou was just lying on the bed and didn't even give a sign that she was going to wake up.

When I finally went outside, I ran up to the girls and started asking how long they had been standing on the street.

- Yes, it's been two hours already… I came to wake you up, and for some reason you were sleeping so soundly with Karou, then a few minutes later Karou came down. And yes, Fukishito is still sleeping… We have arranged a game for children here in order to somehow change the situation and not be sad about what happened earlier. – Mika was saying, although it would have been impossible to get her to talk with such a simple question earlier.

- Listen up, there's something wrong here… I remember going down the stairs right after Mika slammed the door, but… you say it's been a couple of hours… How is this possible?

- Maybe Nila woke up? Did you use your card? – Karou made a guess.

«A good guess, but wouldn't Nila have started looking for us right away?» I think I would have.

After these reflections, I decided to look at my watch, but I saw that the second hand was going about five times faster than usual, going through the entire cycle in 12 real seconds. It looks like someone is really affecting the time. But who? We left Kara with the children and went to the hospital. We ran along the empty corridor again and again disturbing the peace of Nila, we began to look for the «Time Paradox» map in her things. A few minutes later, Miku called out to me, saying that she had found a map. But she looked all yellowed with age. A new «time acceleration» effect was printed on it. Taking out my book, I read in it that this effect accelerates time first by three, then by five, then by ten times. The cycles are reset once every one real hour.

But that wasn't all we found in this map. On the other side, a new message was also formed on it: «You will meet me in a few minutes near the playground.» After reading it, I realized that it was a message from Nila from an alternate past. Mika and I ran as fast as we could to where Nila had assigned us. Once on the spot, we saw a conflict between parents and Kara, who just wanted to play with the children, and everyone tried to beat her. When I got closer, I said it wasn't who they thought it was. All the people dispersed and Nila got out of the crowd. But it wasn't Nila from the past, but rather from the future. She has grown up, her face has become more mature and also the shapes have changed a little.

- Akishito! How glad I am to see you! I am Nila from the future two years ahead. I woke up by your standards about a week after these events. But unfortunately everything went according to a bad scenario… The time paradox created another terrible copy of Ari, who decided to completely end humanity. You, Akishito, resisted this and died from Ari's explosive sword. That Ari is more cruel than the previous one, killed the entire human people and killed himself. But by some miracle, all of us were saved, except for you, Akishito. Therefore, I decided to use another version of the time paradox and accelerated the time so that I could somehow help you with this terrible war, and maybe even prevent the appearance of a new Ari.

- So… Wait a minute… I'm trying to make sense of all the information… it turns out that the time paradox played into our hands and a new Ari appeared? But how… You're unconscious at the moment and you don't have access to that card.

- Indeed, I don't have access to that card, but my sister Mika created this paradox after seeing you and Karou lying in bed. It didn't happen on purpose, just bad emotions reacted to the map change. So there's nothing to blame Mika for… In general, after a few resets of the cycle, my «real» body will wake up and it will change this future, in which you will die Akishito. I really hope so. – with tears in her eyes, Nila said and rushed into my arms.

The first cycle was nearing its end and our traveler Nila was about to leave through her map back to the future. I stopped her and said:

— If something happens to me after these events, take care of me, Nila.

She smiled and said, okay. And she left.

We stood and looked at each other with startled eyes. We arrived in complete shock from what was happening, and another cycle passed. We returned to the hotel and sat in the lobby of an empty hotel and only occasionally changed the newspaper that was lying there. Kaji also approached us with questions, but we all kept silent so as not to disturb him, because he had suffered enough last time in this world. The rather boring atmosphere lasted exactly until the fourth cycle passed. This time, Zetsu came up to us and informed us that Nila's condition had recovered.

We rushed back to the hospital and lo… Nila was already sitting and calmly eating the food that had been prepared at the hospital.

- Ooo, Akishito, glad to see you and you girls too. This is some kind of horror… I've been in a coma for so many days… I didn't eat anything… So bon appetit to me…» she said and then she started eating her soup. The girls sat and looked at Nila with tears in their eyes.

- Girls, why are you crying, do you also want to eat? I can share it.

- Nila, that's not really the problem at all…

— Well, what is it…

— In fact, we are very glad to see you healthy. And secondly, you came from the past and told us that I died in the future by the hand of Ari.

— So Ari died, as I was told, how could you die from him?

— This is his new version, created by your card. We need to get rid of this effect as soon as possible, otherwise I may face the same fate as in the version you told me about from the future.

- I can't really figure out this map myself… give me a book, maybe she'll decide to help us somehow with removing the effect.

But as soon as I gave her the book in my hand, she opened and showed the following: The effect will not be canceled. A new Ari has already been created in your world. The only method is to fight with a new type of cards.

But then the message is interrupted.

And what is this new type of card? We will soon be able to find out this already in our world…