No one knew how or why, but the fact is that Earth Eleven won.
"It was a tough fight."
"Yes."
"Be grateful. We won thanks to my hard work."
Matatagi and Minaho had both unlocked their Souls as well, with the former becoming more... expressive... truthful... snarky. But they've accepted him, and while it may take some time to get used to, the change was warmly welcomed.
Heading back to the station wasn't as rough as it was on Sandorias, perhaps because the looks the Sazanaaran were giving them weren't much different from when they first arrived. They were still judgemental and cold.
Kamata greeted them when they arrived and suddenly said that they could call back to their friends on Earth every week if they wanted to. When Matatagi asked to make the first call to his brothers, no one objected, so they each headed back to their own rooms to rest before lift off.
Right as she walked into hers, her time bracelet activated.
A very familiar laugh boomed around the room, so loudly that she immediately muted her device. After making sure no one noticed, and seeing the one on the other side of the screen calming down, she sat on her chair and unmuted it.
"Z, what the hell?" She hissed. "I don't mind your sudden calls, but you can't just howl like that! What if someone hears?"
"Isn't that the thrill, though?"
"Not if I'm the only one who'll get caught!" She sighed. "Then? What did you call for this time?"
"I'm surprised you're not mad anymore."
"I spent the whole day after you sent me back cursing at you, so I'm kind of already through it."
"So I see. But you do understand why I did it, right?"
She clicked her tongue. She didn't want to admit it, but... "Yeah. Kyousuke needs to stay on that planet if we want the galaxy to be saved, right? If you hadn't done what you did, I probably would've taken him back right then and there." She groaned. "Doesn't mean I like the direction this is going though."
"The proposal, you mean?"
"Ugh..."
"Relax. I doubt he'll marry her―"
"Of course he won't!" She cut off. "He has common sense! He wouldn't marry someone he just met, queen or not. He's not power-hungry, nor is he a player. The most he'd do is probably stall for time while either trying to find his way back here or waiting for us to come get him out of there."
"... So why are you so frustrated about this?"
"Because he's not here!" When those words fell from her lips, she felt all the tension in her body give away at once. Her head fell to the desk just as her vision started blurring. "He's not here and I can't do anything...!"
He held back from commenting, simply watching as she cried silently. This wasn't the first time she behaved this way. In fact, it happened quite a lot when they were travelling through the timelines together. Especially after that incident. She'd burst into tears at the slightest thing that reminded her of the navy haired striker, and if anyone confronted her about it, she'd come up with every excuse imaginable, anything to make herself seem less childish.
Stubborn kid.
Out of everyone in his team, Shuten was always the best at comforting her. Shinjami was a close second. Rasetsu, Org and Goblis were great at distracting her. He wasn't good at either, so the best he could do was kick the rest of his team out of the room to give her the space she probably needed. Or if they were alone, like right now, he'd just stay there and listen to whatever incoherent mutterings she wants to let out.
(It was the least he could do in their place.)
Hah! Look at me being the brother I said I never wanted to be. At times like these, he could really only laugh at himself.
He opened up a separate tab to view her timeline. The team's captain― and by extension, his captain back in their Chrono Storm days― had just left to find the next rock they needed. Checking the time frame, he deduced that they had enough time for another trip. So without thinking any further, he timewarped into her room, and before she could ask, he grabbed her by the shoulder and they timewarped back to Faram Orbius.
They landed on a roof overlooking a rather dark part of the city. The brightness of the palace and the square seemed to cast a large shadow over the area they were at. There was even a bonfire in the middle with...
Oh...
Oh.
She rubbed the last of her tears away, taking a proper look of the place. This place is...
So even fancy planets like this have slums, huh? He replied in his thoughts as he changed their clothes to blend in. And just in the nick of time too.
"What's this?" A familiar voice came from not too far below them. The clothes were different, but the voice definitely belonged to the little queen they spotted once before.
"These are the people whose assets were stolen and who lost their houses." And that voice was even more familiar.
Kimiko leaned further to take a better look. Sure enough, Tsurugi was standing beside the queen, blending in with his new outfit as well. Immediately, her first instinct was to read his thoughts. They were full of information that he had apparently collected during his time wandering the planet alone.
The queen looked up at him in shock. "Stolen? Who would do such a thing?!"
"The upper class nobles." He answered without hesitation.
"What?!"
"The upper class nobles took everything from them to maintain their own luxurious lives."
"But... that can't be..."
He paused for a moment before continuing in a lower tone. "Is this the country that your father, King Acrous, wanted to make?"
And the little queen began crying. "What... should I do...?"
He didn't answer her. Instead, he left her to think for herself at the entrance, and started talking to the locals. He seemed to have met them before. She continued to read his thoughts as he went around, talking to them and handing them some food he bought along the way.
Apparently, he had been badgered by the little queen to become king, even though he wasn't even from this planet. He had tried to refuse, but she was persistent. Stubborn. So he changed tactics and tried to figure out why she wanted him to be king so badly. He found out after investigating the city on his own the day before that his face reminded the people of this planet of their late king. Perhaps she believed that if they had the same face, they'd have the same wisdom to lead the kingdom.
That's some bullshit.
I thought you'd say that. Zanark replied. I'm not surprised she has that sort of mindset, though. She looks like a spoiled brat.
Are you reading his mind too?
Nope. I'm reading yours as you're reading his.
She took that as a cue to continue reading.
That discovery was only one of many. He found out through various sources about the selfish nobles he had just mentioned. At first, of course, the locals were wary of him. But pieces of the puzzle accumulated over time, and the moment he found this place, they all fell into place immediately.
The children in the slums immediately took a liking to him. How could they not? Upon a minute of discovering their situation, he left to spend all the money he was given to provide food for them all. Today was the same.
They're all taking good care of each other. His more direct thoughts came. That's good. Now, we need to find the names of the culprits and prove their crimes... I never thought things would end up this way. The navy haired boy turned back to the queen, who was still standing by the entrance to the alley. I did what I could. All that's left is how she'll handle this. I have no intention of becoming king, but she has a hell of a long way to go before she becomes a real queen to her people... She could hear him mentally sighing. As if the black hole wasn't enough to worry about...
She couldn't help a small smile. It's just like him to worry more about others―
I sure hope Kimiko, Tenma, and the others are doing better than we are. They say Earth won against that water planet, so they just have to get through two more before getting here... Deities above, if you're there, I am once again begging you not to let Kimiko do anything stupid while I'm not around. I hope Aoi's doing a good job being her impulse control.
She felt one eye twitching as she held back the urge to yell into his brain. It didn't help that Zanark was smirking from beside her.
How do you think he'll react if he finds out you're colluding with his fake?
I don't care. He won't find out.
Are you sure about that?
Fuck off.
Language.
She rolled her eyes at that. Zanark of all people was telling her to watch her mouth? That's one thing she would never take seriously.
Well, at least you're feeling better now.
Her head snapped back up at him just as he pushed on the red button on his sphere device again.
"Wait―!" Her hand grabbed nothing but air as the rest of her body fell to her bed back in the Galaxy Nauts Gou. For a second, she simply sat there, dumbfounded. Then, she buried her face in her pillow, muffling a scream. How is he both the worst and yet the most caring brother I have?!
Just then, a few knocks came. "Kimiko-san?"
Oh great, now it's his ancestor. She took a deep breath. "One second!" She sat up and took a few seconds to steady her blood pressure. After all, Ichikawa did nothing wrong. Then, after fixing her appearance, to make sure nothing seems off, she opened the door. "What's wrong, Ichikawa-san?"
"The captain has returned and is calling for the rest of us to meet him in the central car."
"Returned?"
"It appears he had found another stone."
"Oh..." She nodded slightly, understanding why Zanark had to send her back that fast (though she hated to admit it). "Alright then. Let's go."
But before she could take another step, her shoulder was caught by a single hand. Turning back, she found Ichikawa with a rather worried look on his face. "Is something the matter?"
She blinked as she kept her expression as neutral as she could. "No? Why do you ask?"
"Your eyes seem a little weary... Almost as if you had been crying."
Crap. I know he's good at reading expressions, but I didn't know he was this good. She gave her best smile. "I'm fine. They just sting a little because I slept for a bit, so I'm still getting used to the light."
"I see..." If he still doubted her, he didn't mention it.
So, she decided to grab on his sleeve and drag him to the meeting room.
~~~~~
They arrived right around the time another argument between Tenma and Mizukawa broke out. Tenma said that he believed Katora was guiding him, which eventually led to Mizukawa taking out that clown doll again. Just as he stood on the table, his reflection appeared on the inactive screen.
Except that his reflection wasn't a clown at all.
It was a tall man with black hair and dark violet eyes. There were also goggles on his head, presumably to match the lab coat he was wearing. Really, he could pass off as a good looking human had it not been for the pointy ears.
"This is my true form." Potomuri had turned around so that it seemed as if it was the reflection talking. And with how different his voice was to the clown's, they really could believe it.
"EHHH?!"
Kimiko nodded slightly, running through all the possibilities she could think of. The main one being, "The clown isn't like Mizukawa-san, in which it doesn't have a soul to balance out Potomuri-san's soul, so his aura overtook its form... is what I want to say, but a reflection is made by the bouncing of light particles on a solid object. The solid object in question should be the clown doll sitting on the table right now, so how?!"
"We're in space." Manuuba called from the back, playing his role as Tsurugi Kyousuke. "Don't overthink it."
"That doesn't answer anything!"
Potomuri didn't seem to care as his mind was preoccupied by the earlier argument. "I have already told you that my home planet, Kiel, was swallowed up by a variant black hole. At the time, I was a scientist in the midst of inventing the Cosmic Plasma Photon Beam that would save Kiel."
"Cosmic... Plasma... P-Photon Beam?"
She wanted to give Kusaka a pat on the back. Yeah, you got that right.
"It is a weapon that can erase a black hole."
Erase a―?! Kimiko felt her eyes narrowing as soon as they went wide. Is that how the galaxy would be saved?
"Progress was going well, but I ran into an impasse at the last stage. While the structure of the photon beam was ready, I was unable to create mythril, a metal that can withstand containing the Cosmic Plasma's enormous energy. The leader of Kiel's governing body deemed that we would be unable to make it in time, and they made a unanimous agreement that Princess Katora alone would be saved so that she may rebuild our home one day. We made for her the last lifeboat that could shake off the black hole's pull. However, she refused, saying that as Princess of the planet, she could not bear to leave Kiel to perish alone. Instead, she said that it was me who had to survive, in order to save others who might one day go through a similar crisis such as ours back then. And with that, Princess Katora forced me to escape. She had decided that someone like me was worth more than her own life! But the force of the black hole was stronger than anticipated, and I managed to escape with only my soul intact... That is why it is impossible for Princess Katora to be alive. There was no other way for her to have escaped from there. She could only have been swallowed up by the black hole along with my home planet. As I would have..."
"Potomuri..." Tenma, however tragic the story was, stood his ground. "But it's Katora who's guiding us to save the galaxy!"
"Then why is it you? Why does Princess Katora not show herself to me?"
"I don't know, but..."
"I cannot bring myself to believe that Princess Katora is still alive."
"Potomuri..."
"Teleportation." Kimiko accidentally blurted out the words she was thinking.
"What?" And it got the attention of the entire room.
"I-I was just thinking that..." She took a deep breath, putting her thoughts in order to explain properly. "It might be possible that she might've teleported out. Maybe not by her own free will, but if there was someone out there who wanted... or needed, the princess to be alive, then... Maybe they teleported her out of there just as the planet was sucked in."
"And what proof do you have of such claims?" The man in the reflection narrowed his eyes at her, to which she could only shrug.
"None. I'm just saying that both of you have a fifty-fifty percent chance of being right." She said matter-of-factly. "I understand that, as a scientist, what you see is what you believe. But from the story you keep telling us, you didn't see Princess Katora herself perish. You only believe she is no longer here because of her words, and the planet getting destroyed."
"That's..."
"On the other hand, as subjective as this sounds, I know Tenma isn't a liar. He wouldn't have such a firm belief in something that he didn't understand if he hadn't met the princess."
"Kimiko..."
She gave the captain a wry smile. "Don't thank me. It's still a pretty surreal thing. I also have my doubts," That was a lie. She had zero doubts as she had already seen Katora in his memories. "But I've known you long enough to know just what kind of person you are."
"So what is it that you are trying to say?" Potomuri asked.
She turned back to him with a thumbs up. "Simple, really. Stop fighting and just do whatever you want to do."
"... Eh?"
"Huh?"
"What?"
She rolled her eyes at all the blank stares she got. "Oh, come on! If Potomuri can't believe it, then he shouldn't have to force himself to. And if Tenma believes it, then he shouldn't be shunned for it. Basically, just follow your heart and stay out of each other's way! Potomuri can focus on supporting us in our matches as Mizukawa Minori the manager, and Tenma can keep collecting rocks since that's what Princess Katora seemed to be telling him to do."
"That does seem to be the best option." Ichikawa spoke up for the first time in the entire conversation. "Your debates do not seem to lead anywhere, so it might be good to leave each other to their own businesses."
"Thank you, dear student." She couldn't help herself from reaching up and ruffling his green hair, earning a rather uncomfortable look from him. "Anyone have any objections?"
No one spoke up, so she took that as a 'no'.