Hare and Kotori leaned Noa's body on a tree in a park next to the cafe. Noa has woken up by this time and rubbed the impact spot on her head.

"Bit of a border crossing ritual we have to go through every time we want to leave Millennium District," Noa explained.

Hina placed her arms on her hips.

"You start fights and destroy property?"

"Oh no, no, no. Millennium students destroy property for fun, not for practicality, despite what any of them might say. But yes, this is something we often do."

"How often?"

"If you're asking if we start incidents in Gehenna, no. We don't have to. Your school is quite special in that regard!"

"I know."

Hare showed Hina her phone. It displayed a live feed coming from cameras all over Millennium.

"There's cameras up the wazoo in Millennium. Hard to do anything without being monitored by Big Sister herself. President Rio, that is. We can't leave the school because it's kind of all hands on deck back there right now. We're only here because Noa's special, as a member of the student council."

Noa giggled. "We'll see how long that lasts."

"But yeah. Even when we leave we have cameras following us. We kind of have to make sure they experience 'accidents' if we want to do anything kind of fishy. And what we're doing here with you, is kind of fishy."

Hina crossed her arms. "It sounds even worse than I thought."

"It's quite boring to be there, if I'm being honest," Noa stated. "I've grown a newfound appreciation for my trips outside. It's quite refreshing to not be watched for once in your life."

"..."

Hina was conflicted about this, because part of her job was to keep an eternal watch over Gehenna to keep those students in line. She wondered if the resentment they hold for the Prefect Team is similar to the animosity on display from the Millennium students.

"Ah, well, how about we get to the point. Kotori!" Noa said.

"Here we go!" Kotori took out a Millennium branded VR headset. "This headset contains prototype Millennium software, courtesy of the Engineering, Physics, and Computer Science departments!"

"This contains all sorts of juicy classified info on the projects Millennium's working on," Noa said.

Hina took the headset.

"Why are you giving this to me?"

"That's a secret~ Why don't you see for yourself and come to a conclusion?"

Hina turned the headset around. Sensing no hostility from the Millennium students, she strapped herself in.

Loading…

I noticed Hina holding the door open for me. I wanted to go through but…

"One… second… haaaa…"

"Take as long as you need," she replied back.

"How are you so in-shape? I've done my fair share of cardio… But walking up like what? 100 stories? And you're still fine? What the heck?"

"I dealt with troublemakers like you almost every day. A walk up a staircase is practically a walk in the park compared to that."

"Beware the cardio machines… I hated PE, by the way."

I regained my posture and walked through the entrance.

"And thanks."

Hina closed the door behind me and walked with me.

The fabled Seminar office. It looked a lot plainer than I expected. I thought the place would be cleaner and have more high tech everywhere, but I guess that's to be expected if the power's been off for the last month.

"Backup generator, backup generator," I heard Hina whisper to herself. "There it is."

Hina walked over to a boxy object on the floor and crouched down. She tinkered with it for a bit, then the box started humming. A computer on the other side of the room lit up, and we walked over to it.

I turned it on and took out a thumb drive from my bag.

"I think this is the computer, right?"

Hina nodded in response.

I turned back towards the computer and inserted the drive. I said, "Just don't wanna mess this up," to cover up any potential embarrassing accidents that might occur as a result.

The computer turned on, and after some time the screen displayed text that said, "Loading… Epsilon version 3."

"Bingo."

Sound came out from speakers around the room, filling the room with the cold, yet strangely calming voice of a robotic girl.

"Eve, at your service."

Hina greeted the computer. "Hello, Eve."

It looked a little odd to me that she was talking to a computer, but I'm used to it at this point.

Eve stated, "Hello. Excuse me while I handle protocols. Connecting to Millennium mainframe. Connected. Detected Mystic Wormhole Regulator. Connecting. Connected. Starting Mystic Wormhole Regulator. Warming up. Estimated time to startup sequence finished: 1 minute."

A circular gate next to the computer lit up with lights. The fabled Mystic Wormhole Regulator, worked on by the fabled Millennium Engineering Department.

It's what we came here for, and we're finally right in front of it. Still, I had this nagging question eating away at me. I asked Eve, "Is this thing really capable of sending us back in time?"

Eve responded, "We have run the physics simulations. Probability of success is 99%, with a 1% buffer for the simple fact that real life can not accurately replicate theoretical physics and mathematics."

A logical answer that covers all possibilities. A bit stiff, but I didn't expect anything less.

"99%. That's pretty good."

Hina crossed her arms. "And the mission?"

"If you are asking if you can change this timeline, the probability of success is 1%. Theoretically impossible, as this device is set up to transfer passengers across timelines rather than through one."

Hina closed her eyes. She looked a bit down, so I reached over with one arm and gave her a half hug.

"Come on, Hina! Don't be such a downer! This timeline's doomed anyways and we're already at the bottom. Now there's nowhere to go but up!"

I released her and gave her a hearty wink and thumbs up. Probably not the best choice of words, in hindsight.

Hina told me, "I just wish we could stop the suffering here. Reverse it, even."

"And we can stop it in the new timeline, yeah? You're thinking too hard about this. There's nothing here for us. But over on the other side, we got sunshine and rainbows!"

"Mmm. When was the last time I saw the sun?"

Seeing her act all mopey, I felt like teasing her a bit. "This morning? Blue skies. It was quite pleasant if you just ignored all the ominously empty buildings."

"You know that's not what I mean." She saw right through me.

Whatever. I changed the subject by asking Eve, "How long before it's ready?"

"Estimated time: 2 minutes," Eve replied. "I'd advise getting your headsets ready."

Hina turned to me and asked, "You did bring them, right?"

The nerve of her! She's still treating me like an irresponsible idiot!

"Of course I did! Here."

I threw my bag on the floor and opened it. I shuffled items around before I found a headset and gave it to Hina.

"See? I'm responsible."

"For now."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" I gave her a cheeky smirk.

I found my own headset and a pack of cigarettes right beside it. I grabbed the pack.

"Nice, still dry."

I opened the pack and got one out.

"Now…"

I switched my gun to full auto and dumped an entire magazine into the wall. As soon as I was done, I laid it on the floor and pressed the tip of the cigarette into the barrel. It ignited, and the smell of tobacco entered my nostrils.

Hina commented, "I didn't know you smoked."

I stood up and placed it in between my fingers. "They're actually Kayoko's."

Hina simply nodded. "Mmm. I can see that."

"I've never seen her actually smoking though. Maybe she just saved these for special occasions? At least, that's what I think. She'd definitely pop a smoke right now. Want one?"

I held one out to Hina in between my fingers.

Hina swiftly denied me. "No thanks. Sensei wouldn't approve of me doing it. Somehow, I feel like Kayoko wouldn't appreciate you smoking either."

I snatched the cigarette back.

"And what are they gonna do, lecture me? Now or never! You only live once after all! Except for us. We're ghosts."

"If that's what you want to call us."

I put the orange tip of the cigarette into my mouth and inhaled. I heard from Sensei that you were supposed to take as deep a breath and hold it for as long as you could…

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

Okay nevermind! I could just taste the lung cancer all over my taste buds and in my lungs.

"Shit! That was, like, fucking awful!"

Hina smirked at my discomfort. "You know, you're not supposed to spit it out if you're trying to look cool."

"Shut up."

I looked back at the wormhole regulator. I wanted to leave this place so badly.

"Eve, are you done yet?"

"The gate is ready," she replied. "I recommend putting on your headsets now."

Hina and I placed the headsets on our heads. I asked Eve, "Why do we even need these things?"

Eve answered, "The headset contains a piece of software called the Halo Vault. It keeps a backup of your consciousness in the event the wormhole is either unable to reconstruct your body on the other side, or inject your consciousness into a suitable vessel."

"Jeez, sounds brutal. What would cause the whole body thing to fail?"

"The technology is likely not maintained in the other timeline and would have difficulty accurately reconstructing the atomic makeup of your bodies. Failing that, the Mystic Wormhole Regulator will seek out a suitable host body to inject your consciousness in."

Hina nodded along with her explanation. "In other words, our past selves."

"If they reject you, your consciousness will be stored in the Vault for safekeeping. However, this should not be a problem, so long as your past self accepts who you've become."

Eve continued, "The host body may also experience side effects. What they might be, is beyond the scope of my simulation calculating abilities, as it is highly dependent on external factors beyond our control. It is not too late to reconsider going through."

Hina asked her, "What's the base mission success chance?"

"50%. With foresight, you can tip the scales of fate in your favor."

That sounded very noncommittal for an AI to me. "So we either win or lose. That doesn't say anything, really."

Hina adjusted her uniform to look as tidy as possible. "It's good enough for me. I'll see you on the other side."

Without looking back, she walked through the gate and disappeared.

"Prepare to say your goodbyes to this timeline, as I am not certain you will be able to return," Eve said.

I stomped out the flame on the cigarette.

"I'm ready."

I looked at the gate with determination.

Aru, this time, I will make your dream come true.

"My mission success chance is now 99%."

"Yo, Earth to Mutsuki?"

Kayoko took the headset off of Mutsuki.

"Hey, you there?"

Mutsuki blinked several times in shock before responding.

"Yeah. Hey take it easy, my neck's sensitive right now."

"Sorry."

Mutsuki looked around her and saw her Gehenna friends, Sensei, and Midori.

Midori asked Mutsuki, "So what's up with the headset? You didn't say anything for a while there."

Mutsuki raised both of her eyebrows. "Headset? What-" She spotted the headset in Kayoko's arms, Millennium symbol facing towards her.

"Oh yeah. That one."

"That's a VR headset right? Must be some kind of new model."

"What? You don't know?" Mutsuki asked. "I thought you went to Millennium."

Midori shrugged. "None of the models we made looked like that. Maybe it's some prototype the Engineering Department made."

"Well they should make more, because it's super cool!"

Aru's eyes sparkled. She tried keeping it cool, but her curiosity got the better of her. "Ooh, I wanna try!" she said like an excited kid.

Kayoko handed it over to her, and she prepared to pop it on her head.

Mutsuki started explaining, "Yeah, it's super duper cool! You really feel like you're there. I was playing this video game called Blue Archive, and it was super realistic! Basically, there's a bunch of robots and they ended the world, and you're supposed to go to a time machine to go back in time and stop it before it ever happens!"

"Sounds cliche," Kayoko remarked.

Sensei chuckled. "Blue Archive? What a weird name. Hey Midori, didn't you work on a VR game in the Game Dev Club?"

Midori nodded. "Yup. We actually were working on a VR game with the Engineering Department! Before, uh, stuff happened. Never finished it though. Or gave it a name. You said it was called Blue Archive?"

Mutsuki replied, "Blue Archive."

Midori tilted her head. "Huh. Well, I don't think blue was that important in the color scheme. Although what we were working on, you piloted giant mechas and shot a bunch of robots. The prototype was sweet, you should have seen it."

In the corner of the room, Haruka clenched her shotgun tight. She cleared her throat then spoke up. "U-um. You said you were in a Game Dev Club?"

Midori smiled in response. "Yup. With my sister."

"So you… Make games?"

"Ha. Yeah. You could say that. I don't think they were THAT good, but a lot of people actually seemed to like them!"

"I see."

From her wheelchair, Mutsuki chuckled. "Watch, she's going to say, 'I'm a big fan of your games!' aren't you?"

Midori asked Haruka, "Did you play any games by UzuSoft?"

Haruka responded, "Oh. I don't play video games. S-sorry."

"Misread that one," Mutsuki admitted.

Haruka clasped her hands together. "But I do think it's nice how you created them. I-I can tell when an artist is passionate about their work. And you seem really proud of it."

Midori chuckled. "Haha. Was it that obvious? Well, I poured my heart and soul into my games, that's for sure."

Sensei smirked. "You know, Haruka's something of an artist herself."

Midori looked at Haruka with curiosity. "Oh really? What do you make?"

Haruka fidgeted, unable to cope with Midori's gaze. "I'm- I'm- uh- I'm- uh-"

"She's a weed grower!" Sensei enthusiastically chimed in to take the heat off of Haruka.

Instead, the room grew cold as everybody tried to process what he just said.

"Pardon me?" Aru asked. "Did you say she grew weed?"

"Nice, dude," Mutsuki casually said.

Midori started to panic. They're drug dealers! she thought. Problem Solver 68 is an outlaw group! And they disbanded because they got busted by cops! And during it Mutsuki got placed into a hospital! It all makes sense!

Haruka started stammering. "No-no! It's not what you think! I don't grow weed! Not-not that kind of weed!"

"Come on Haruka, you should be proud of yourself! You're one of the only weed growers here after all. Quite a difficult profession."

Midori was frozen in place, and Aru looked just as confused as her.

"Wait!" Haruka said. "I think there's a mis-misunderstanding here!"

Kayoko interjected. "Oh my god Sensei, shut up. He means Haruka grows weeds. Like the kind that gets in people's lawns."

Haruka looked confused now too. "Why do you know that? I never told you about that."

Kayoko responded, "I just kind of figured. You never did a good job at hiding your hobbies from us."

Haruka looked down in embarassment.

Midori nervously chuckled. She said to Haruka, "I think it's great that you have something you're passionate about."

Haruka groaned and tried to shrink her body to take up as small a footprint as possible.

Suddenly, Aru's phone chimed. She looked at it, then showed it to Kayoko, Haruka, and Mutsuki.

"Look at this."

The screen displayed a few messages.

Sorasaki Hina: Thank you for giving me leads on the situation at Millennium

Sorasaki Hina: As promised, I'll deposit a check for you. You should see it in 1-2 business days.

Mutsuki chortled. "What's that about? We didn't do anything."

Aru said, "Cash is cash. It seems like our client was sufficiently satisfied with our work on our last mission!"

Mutsuki smiled upon hearing this. "You know what? I don't care. Does this mean we can still get sushi?"

Aru nodded. "The day you're released!"

Sensei asked them, "Is this about your last mission?"

Aru nodded and Sensei chuckled. "Well, if you get paid, I don't think you should complain. If you don't mind sharing the details, could you tell us about your last mission? It is your, uh, last mission, after all."

Kayoko leaned back in her chair. "Eh. This one's about some really sensitive information."

Haruka added, "Top secret spy stuff!"

Sensei leaned forward with excitement. "Spy stuff? Well now I have to know more!"

Aru proudly stuck out her chest. "Well, since it's Sensei, I suppose we can trust you with this info!"

Kayoko clicked her tongue. "What about the green one?"

The green one replied in annoyance, "I'm Midori!"

Sensei burst out laughing. "You can trust her! Midori can keep a secret! Probably."

Kayoko sighed. "What a ringing endorsement."

Aru stood up and raised her arm. "Well then, let me tell you about Problem Solver 68's last and greatest mission!"

…

"What? You seem really eager to tell them about how badly you guys got beaten up," Mutsuki said.

"Tch, speak for yourself," Kayoko replied.

"Seems like it was quite the ordeal," Sensei said.

Aru said, "Indeed it was. Now where to begin? For context, for this contract, our client asked us to essentially become spies. Now what were we looking for? Dirt on Millennium."

Sensei and Midori exchanged glances.

Aru continued her story. "Surely you know about how Millennium's gone a little bit crazy recently, right? Our client said it was one big event that caused this huge shift in policy. So we were sent in to investigate and report back our findings."

Midori opened her mouth. "Um-"

Aru kept on talking. "You don't know how hard it is to find info about it! Nobody knows what happened other than the student president went power hungry one day and shut everything down. And we looked everywhere!"

"You could have just asked us," Midori spoke up.

Aru froze. "What?"

Sensei said, "That's kind of what we're here for. We could have helped you out."

"But, um, it was about top secret information from Millennium that nobody has ever shared! We're talking secrets their student council have hoarded for years! Could they have been hiding aliens this whole time? Nobody knows! That's the kind of stuff we were looking for."

Midori said, "I don't know about any aliens, but if it's about that thing that caused the Millennium First Policy to go into place, well, nobody asked us."

Kayoko furrowed her eyebrows. "Wait, what do you mean?"

Sensei bluntly said, "Well, Midori and I were both there."

Aru's eyes widened at hearing this revelation. "So, this entire time, I could have just- If you'll excuse me for a second."

Aru calmly got out of her chair and exited the room, closing the door behind her. The people still inside could hear the screams of a girl outside, yelling, "God damnit!"

Aru re-entered the room as if nothing happened. "Apologies. Had to respond to an urgent business matter." Aru sat back down in her chair.

Midori scratched her cheek. "Uh, yeah. Well, if you want to know what happened I can tell you."

Kayoko asked her, "Just like that? Isn't that a closely-guarded secret?"

Midori was thoroughly confused now. "Closely-guarded-What?"

Mutsuki said, "Yeah, everybody we asked didn't know what we were talking about, and the one person we talked to that did, didn't want to say anything."

Midori tried to process that. "Well, I doubt that most people actually knew what happened, so that makes sense. But out of everybody that was there… I don't think any one of us would have actually bothered telling anyone or posting it on MomoTalk."

Sensei added, "They're all a bit shy. Most of them, that is."

Aru said "But we met this girl, Yuuka, who refused to tell us anything like her life depended on it."

Sensei was a bit delighted by this. "Oh, you met Yuuka? She can be quite dramatic at times. Haha! Don't hold it against her though."

Midori rolled her eyes. "Ugh, she really needs to lighten up. She takes everything way too seriously."

Kayoko said, "So this entire time, the entire reason why nobody knows what's going on at Millennium is because none of you could be bothered to tell anyone else."

"...Yes," Midori stated after some hesitation. "In my defense though-" she looked at Momoi, "-I was a little busy after that."

Sensei added, "That extends to every Millennium student. You know how Millennium kids get when they have a big project to work towards. They all just stopped working on infrastructure for the city and are just focused on R&D now."

Kayoko groaned. "So the reason why they won't fix anything is because nobody wants to?"

Midori said, "Yeah. I didn't believe that an entire school would just stop everything they were doing and focus on one thing, but here we are."

Aru was sitting there in disbelief. "Wahahat? What are they working on?"

Midori rested her head on one hand. "President Rio's stupid Knight Program. What do you think it's about? Take guesses. Something every Millennium student would kill each other to get the chance to work on."

Aru looked at Kayoko, who shrugged. Kayoko guessed, "Space travel?"

Haruka said, "Aliens."

Aru thought for a second then answered with, "Lightsabers."

Mutsuki said, "Aliens with lightsabers."

Midori shook her head. "Good guesses, but no. They're building giant robots."

"...So? There's a giant robot outbreak every couple of weeks here. What's so special about this?" Mutsuki asked.

"You want the long or the short answer?" Midori asked her in response.

"Short," Mutsuki replied.

Sensei said, "Ah come on Mutsuki! It's not like you have anywhere to be right now."

"No, it's not that I don't have anywhere to be, it's that I can't go anywhere."

Sensei looked at Midori. "Overruled. I think with every lesson we should not skip straight to the answer, but really understand the fundamentals."

Midori sighed. "Okay. Long version it is."