April 10, 2055 – 6:57 p.m.

A few hours after Jin's party came to its dramatic conclusion, Junna knocks on a door, still on the second floor of the Gotha building. A male voice from inside invites her in. "Please come in."

Junna, holding a plate with a slice of cake prepared for Jin's party, enters the room.

"I brought you a piece of cake from the party... Member of Physics Domon."

Domon is very busy, but upon hearing those words, he looks up from the books he was studying and looks at Junna. "Oh... it's you, Member of Logic Miura. Thank you for the thought."

Junna places the cake on the desk. In response, Domon invites her to sit down. "Please, have a seat."

"Thank you," replies Junna, taking a seat on a chair across the desk from where Domon is sitting.

"So you managed to make it after all... I came by at eleven this morning, as per the time written on the invitation you sent me, but no one was there."

"Unfortunately, there was a setback and the party was moved to the afternoon. In the confusion of the preparations, I must have forgotten to notify you. Please forgive me."

"Don't worry, you've already made up for it with this cake," says Domon, taking a bite of the dessert that has been brought to him.

"I'm grateful to hear you say that. You don't know how embarrassed I feel for making such a mistake."

"Come on, don't exaggerate now... it was just a little party, all in all it went well anyway. I was able to continue my research and at the same time I still got the cake, an ideal situation I dare say."

"Are you still trying to figure out how the time machine works?"

"Of course. You probably don't think much of me and hope that Jin will take my place now that he's back, but as long as I hold this position, I will continue to study that machine to understand how such a device is possible."

"Don't be silly, you know the rules of Gotha even better than I do. You are entitled to your seat on the Council until the day you die, even if Jin were to return to his former self, he could not claim it."

"What you say is true, but your presence certainly unsettles me. I had come to accept the idea that information could travel through time, however absurd and contrary to the physical theory I had always taken as a reference, but now people can travel through it too? It's something truly inconceivable, there are hundreds of formulas that prohibit it... yet it happened."

“As I said when we discussed Jin's sentence during the extraordinary Council meeting two years ago, theory loses its importance when facts prove otherwise. If Jin is here, then all those theories were simply wrong. The same logic prevents me from explaining his presence in this era, but I can only accept it. After all, something only exists when it is determined by the observer, or am I wrong?”

“Bohr's theory... chapeau. I couldn't expect anything less from another physicist like you.”

“That subject has not been mine for some time now.”

“It does belong to you, it belongs to everyone. The members of the Gotha and all their subjects are nothing more than applications of what physics teaches us. There is physics in medicine, engineering, and even law, but we cannot say that the reverse is also true. After all, physics is the basis of our very existence, not only of human beings, but also of the world and the entire universe.”

A smile appears on Junna's face. “This reminds me of someone else.”

Domon smiles too. "I can guess who it is."

"In fact, he was the one who named you as his successor. It was his last message before he left us."

"I still can't explain why he did that... I had been a real thorn in his side and Gotha's up until that point."

“Who knows... I can't say I ever fully understood what was going on in that thick skull of his. Anyway, I'd better go now, there's someone else I need to see.”

"I understand... before you leave, since we've talked about it... regarding the Council two years ago... I never told you this, but I regret what I did. Fortunately, the majority of the Gotha members chose to follow you and not me, saving Jin's life. Unfortunately, you were right… that day, I was afraid for my position, and the envy I had felt towards Jin in the past resurfaced. Perhaps I will never get over that humiliation, but being here every day, trying to figure out how the time machine works and at the same time working with the other members to keep Gotha going, I think is the right punishment for me."

“Don't worry... the 11 of us are just human beings, which is why we don't make decisions on our own.”

“Thank you for your understanding.”

"I wish you all the best in your work. Gotha is counting on you." Junna concludes, leaving Domon's office.