Chronos Ruler (時間の支配者)

Victo! Hey, Victo! Where the hell are you?!

3/15 16:24

Get out here, damn it!

Your son is worried to death about you!

Would you please stop? This is humiliating.

There's nothing to be humiliated about!

This is no different than a son worrying about his dad!

What's wrong with a big brother worrying about his little brother?

Don't just decide I'm your little brother!

Ah, I commend you on a job well done, Kiri and Blaze.

Victo is safe as well, so please don't worry.

You have now completed your test.

Test?

Oh, now, don't make that face.

This wasn't what I wanted, either.

But the master ordered me to test the extent of your skills.

I had no choice but to set all this up.

Well, now you know.

I realize this is upsetting to you,

but my beloved school uniforms were taken hostage! I had no choice!

Is there no one remotely normal in Chronos?

Now, all joking aside...

Kiri, you and Victo have come here

in search of his past, correct?

More specifically, you want

to acquire the record of Victo's work here.

That's right.

That record is indeed kept here.

But everything in it was written in strange characters

that may or may not be some sort of code.

Chronos's technology division has been trying to analyze it,

but we've yet to uncover a way to decipher it.

Since he was rarely present at headquarters,

Victo was, and always has been, a man of many mysteries.

We didn't even know he had a son.

So all I can tell you at this time is that we don't know anything about his past.

I do apologize.

I guess it really won't be that simple.

He is currently working with the technology division to attempt to decipher his record.

Perhaps he, himself, may be able to read it.

Victo can?

He really is desperate

to get back the time and memories that were taken from him.

Oh, Kiri!

Glad to see you're safe.

The technology division's nothing but babes.

Care to join us?

Oh? Who's this?

This is my pure-hearted son, dear Stiller.

I told you, my name is Wendy.

Was twelve years long enough for you to forget?

Sorry about that. I'll write it down.

And what about the little cutie over there?

Um, my name is Laner.

I was still a young child twelve years ago,

so you might not remember me.

I would never forget a beauty like you.

Gosh, Victo, you're embarrassing me!

And how about the blonde there?

My name's Isabele.

Um... is the promise you made that night twelve years ago still in effect?

Huh? What promise?

You're going to make me say it? You're so mean...

You old lecher!

Just die already!

Dear me. I'm working, you know.

Or are you jealous, you mopey boy?

MB for short.

Give me that!

I'll decipher it!

It's no use. I can't see any logic or regularity in it.

I can't entrust this to Victo.

I'll have to do it.

Snake, I'd like to ask you a question about Horologues.

What would that be?

A few days ago, in a town called C'est La Vie,

we encountered the Horologue that took Victo's time.

It was enormous and white all over.

It could even speak.

It was clearly nothing like the Horologues we'd encountered before.

Have any Horologues like that ever appeared before?

All white and able to speak...

I'm sorry, but I haven't heard of any accounts that might answer your question.

Except...

Except?

I have had a few encounters with Horologues that had linguistic capabilities.

As you know, the principal diet of Horologues is human time.

They act instinctively and have no will of their own.

But it seems that, with every bit of time they consume,

they also take in a proportionate amount of memories,

which eventually leads to the development of consciousness.

Of course, a thousand years' worth of time makes a Horologue animal-like,

and at that stage, the sprouting of simple emotions

and emergence of learning ability have been observed.

And once they've consumed five thousand years' worth of time,

it's said that they can understand human language and even speak with them.

But this is only what I've seen in written accounts

and heard directly from our master.

In twenty years, I have not encountered a Horologue that could speak.

I see.

Do you believe

that if you defeat the Horologue that consumed Victo's time,

you can regain the time he's lost?

I thought as much.

I can't deny that. If you defeat a Horologue,

it may be possible to reclaim the time that it had devoured.

In particular, if you defeat one that has just recently fed,

there is data pointing to a high probability that the time it had eaten can be reclaimed.

But if too much time passes after it has been consumed,

recovery is no longer possible.

There is no precedent for time being reclaimed after that point.

Realistically, how long might one have to recover time once a Horologue has taken it?

The time limit we have arrived at after many years of experimentation is...

sixty seconds, maximum.

Time can only be reclaimed

if the Horologue is defeated within sixty seconds after consuming it...

Doesn't that mean it's hopeless?

Is that Victo's room?

Victo, I'm coming in.

Victo?

Oh, it's you, Kiri. You're still up?

Good timing. I was just starting to get a clear picture.

You mean you actually deciphered it?!

Yep. These characters were my own suggestion a long time ago.

Each symbol represents three letters of the alphabet.

Is there some sort of rule for how they're assigned?

These are all girls' names.

I wrote the names of all the girls I met that year in order

and assigned one character to every three letters.

I get it!

You were trying to decipher your memories of twelve years ago earlier!

That's why you were getting the names of girls you met back then!

Exactly!

I wasn't just playing around.

I was gathering information, in all seriousness.

Of course, while I did decipher it,

it was all stuff about girls.

There was hardly anything in it about the work I did here.

Oh, come on!

But this day here...

July 21st, 2002.

This is the only date with a detailed record.

Six days before it happened!

Which means this is...

Yes. It was the last mission I carried out.

Great! Then there must be some other clues here!

Like the location and mission description,

as well as information on the white Horologue!

Yeah. In fact, I did find something of interest.

Records from the plane you boarded on the day of the mission!

It has the airport, the time of your flight, and your ticket information, too.

The destination was...

Couljours?

My hometown.

Darling!

Got a second?

Darling?

What brings you here? And why so formal?

I just came to say goodbye.

I found information about twelve years ago.

I'm thinking of going to Couljours.

I see. Well, I wish you the best.

Snake told me something about this UNIQUE in my chest.

He said that with it, the battle against the Horologues could quickly end.

I realize that, but...

Just give me one month.

If I fail to reclaim my time from the Horologue by then,

I swear to return UNIQUE to you.

A commendable attitude.

Don't worry. Even if UNIQUE is returned,

it would only increase my own fighting capability.

It wouldn't have much of an effect in the strategic sense.

Since the new Oath of Time model came into use,

our agents have been returning home alive at a vastly increased rate.