April 10, 2055 – 8:02 p.m.

Shortly after, Junna finds herself in front of Jin's room and takes a deep breath before entering. When she does, she finds Jin sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for her.

"Finally! You're late" Jin exclaims, his face wearing an extremely serious expression.

"I'm sorry... with everything that's happened, I've been busy, but now I'm here just for you." Junna sits down on the bed next to him. "I imagine you have a lot of questions considering what you heard today, right?"

"Of course! That guy, Satō, even talked about a time machine!"

"Okay, I'll tell you everything. To be honest, I had already decided to do so tonight. After all, it was part of our agreement. You completed your studies, and now it's up to me to explain what happened between 2025 and 2053, but let's not do it here... Follow me."Junna gets up and leads Jin to a door on the second floor, where the various laboratories and offices of the Gotha members are located. Once inside that room, the two find themselves in a laboratory with a strange machine in the center, while sheets of paper with notes and project drawings hang on the walls throughout the room. Junna takes another deep breath, then begins to tell Jin everything.

"I'll start by talking about the two of us. To be honest, I can't tell you everything, because before 2035 I didn't even know you, even though we lived in the same city. You should know that 2025 was a special year for me too... on the night between June 2 and 3, my parents were killed during a robbery in our home. I managed to save myself by hiding in the closet. At that time, violence was commonplace, partly because the economic crisis had taken away jobs and possessions from many people. Walking around the streets, it was easy to find numerous homeless people begging for money. In any case, after my parents' death, I started living with my aunt and uncle, staying in Osaka."

Jin gasps when he hears the story and remembers hearing the news on the television on the morning of the day he was transported to 2053.

“Every year on June 3, I was always sad, but you always told me the story of the scar that marked your face. You got it on that very day, falling inside an abandoned factory. Both of us, for one reason or another, continued to remember that cursed day in 2025 perfectly.”

"Oh yes, the scar... I've heard several people mention it since I've been here."

"Anyway, I was in high school at the time, but I started to be afraid of everything and isolated myself from all my classmates. In short, I was always alone, fantasizing every day about finding a way to bring my parents back to life. I remember that the idea of building a time machine often crossed my mind. I think that's why I became passionate about physics, and once I finished high school, I chose that subject as my university course. You and I first came into contact after I graduated. In fact, I joined the research laboratory that you had founded together with Kenji and Misaki, your best friends.”

Jin gasps again, and this time he can't hold back. "So you know them? Please tell me where they are right now!"

"I'm getting to that... As I was saying, I joined your research lab. You were a genius, so it's no surprise that you had already founded something like that at such a young age. The name of that lab was Gotha. Jin... you are the founder of all this."

"R-really?"

"Of course. It's funny to think that a small lab like that, formed by a few friends, now controls the fate of an entire nation."

"Incredible... I sensed that I had played an important role in these 28 years, but I never thought I was behind it all."

“Actually, things aren't all roses and sunshine. Back then, I started working with you because I was attracted to your project. Gotha was an acronym for <<Guide On Time's HAzards>> and your goal was to fully understand how time worked, which is really crazy when you think about it. However, even though there wasn't much money, you managed to capture my attention by dealing with such a subject, but what really impressed me was when I revealed myself and showed you the time machine you had managed to build.”

"Was I really able to do something like that?"

"Of course, and now it's right here in front of your eyes" Junna replies, placing a hand on the machine in the center of the room. "But don't think that this is the answer to why you're here. This machine is based on a laser system and can only transmit information from a few minutes in the past in binary code."

"It's still amazing that this contraption can send messages through time."

"Yes, even though you were the only one who really understood it. We were more like assistants, but in our own way we were essential. Without your friends, you wouldn't have found the motivation to do anything. You proved that just now... you studied so quickly just to find out what happened to Kenji and Misaki."

Jin smiles. “Yes, I really love them, I can't wait to see them again.”

Here, Junna's gaze becomes more somber. "At the time, we were very torn about what to do with the time machine. You were aware of the dangers that such a device could bring to the whole world, so much so that the very meaning of Gotha pointed to it, but everything changed on December 22, 2036. That time, the four of us went out to celebrate. Kenji and Misaki were expecting their first child, or rather, twins to be honest."

"W-what? Kenji and Misaki were together? Why?" Jin asks, shocked as never before by the unexpected news that his friends were a couple.

"W-well, because they loved each other..." Junna replied, taken aback.

"That bastard Kenji... I knew her long before he did, it was my turn to end up with Misaki!"

"You never told me about it, but you probably loved them both so much that you decided to take a step back so as not to stand in the way of their happiness."

"Anyway, I'll give him a piece of my mind as soon as I see him... that's no way to treat friends, and Misaki too... what the hell got into her? She spent the whole of high school calling him a maniac and then she ended up with him, I really don't understand..."

Junna blurts out and interrupts Jin, yelling at him. “Now shut up and listen!”

"W-what's gotten into you now?"

“That night...” Junna swallows hard, showing how difficult it is for her to talk about this subject. “On December 22, 2036... Misaki died...”

Jin's expression also changes completely and he remains motionless as a stone, listening to Junna's trembling voice as she recounts the details of the story.

"We were walking home after a short stroll when a man tried to pickpocket Misaki. She instinctively didn't let go, so the robber stabbed her with a knife before managing to escape. The whole thing lasted only a few seconds. None of us even understood what was happening, let alone could prevent it."

"So Misaki died?" Jin asks in a whisper, his eyes wide.

"Yes, they rushed her to the hospital, but there was nothing they could do for her. At least they managed to deliver her babies, even if prematurely. Fortunately, they are still doing well."

"I don't believe it... she can't be dead" Jin keeps repeating.

"Unfortunately, that's the way it is. Even though we had a time machine on our side, we couldn't change things. That evening, you rushed to the lab, trying to use the machine to send a message that could warn you and save Misaki, but it was all in vain. As I already told you, the machine could only operate with a time lag of a few minutes, and we were too far from the lab to make it in time, not to mention the fact that we would have had to be there when the message was received, but in those frantic moments, even someone like you stopped thinking clearly.

“She can't really be dead... what was the point of building such a machine if I couldn't even help the person I loved...”

“You're using the same words I said to you back then when I made you understand that it was all useless.”

Junna sighs and sits down on a chair in the laboratory, then continues speaking. “But even from the most arid soil, a wonderful flower can bloom. From that moment on, you started working all day, every day, with the goal of perfecting your machine and understanding how it could best be applied. By then, the idea of an ideal society had already formed in your mind, one where everyone could live in safety, the one we know today. First, you needed money, so you started making big bets online, managing to earn staggering amounts, obviously using your machine. It wasn't very ethical, but by then, problems like that no longer bothered you... so little by little, Gotha became an increasingly influential laboratory. With that money, you were also able to set up a private militia, known today as the Gotha police. Finally, in 2041, you led a coup d'état and announced the existence of the time machine to the whole world. The following year, you organized the Council of 11 Members, and from there, a new constitution, a new economic plan, and everything else began to be built. After an initial period of unrest, which was mainly due to fear of something different from democracy, the population began to accept this new form of government, and within a few months almost everyone was already on your side, looking forward with enthusiasm to the birth of an ideal society where oppression is prevented.”

“So that's how it went...”

Despite what you were doing, some opponents remained. For example, the current Member of Physics Domon proclaimed himself your rival at the time and tried in every way to gain access to the time machine, at least until you decided to grant his wish.

“That Domon is the guy who wanted to sentence me to death when you removed me from the Resistance, right?”

“That's the one. Anyway, back to the story... you gave him a week of free access to the machine, also giving him the opportunity to freely consult your notes and the project. If he had managed to make it work, you would have left your position as a member of the Gotha Physics Department to him. Needless to say, it was too good to be true. Domon accepted the challenge, but he couldn't even turn the machine on. I think that was the day his hatred for you was born. It was a real humiliation for him."

Jin wanders around the room and looks at the papers scattered around. “All the notes in the room were written in the language I invented with Misaki and Kenji. I understand why no one ever managed to figure out how it worked. There is no logic in that language, only words and characters invented by us. Basically, without an explanation of their meanings, it is impossible to understand."

“I was never able to understand it either. Even though I worked with you, you never wanted to teach it to me... You always said that the fewer people who could use the time machine, the safer the world would be.”

Jin, who was continuing to wander around the laboratory looking at his old notes, paused at a project where he saw the draft design of a machine different from the one in the room. After a few seconds spent staring at that sheet of paper, Junna caught his attention, continuing to explain the events between 2025 and 2053.

"After the humiliation inflicted on Domon, Gotha's activities resumed. The beacon that continued to guide you was always the desire for revenge against that company that had taken a criminal turn and was responsible for Misaki's death. In those days, severe penalties were approved for those who broke the law. Initially, the death penalty was only for murderers, but after a short time, your thirst for justice led you to extend it to all crimes that harmed someone else, thus using capital punishment also in response to theft, drunk driving, damage to property... in short, almost anything that was recognized as a crime. The Member of the Judiciary Suzuki had his work cut out for him during that period.”

Junna stops talking for a moment; in fact, even for her, it is not easy to relive those moments, but after catching her breath, she continues her story.

“After four years of Gotha rule, more than 1 million people had been executed, and it was at that moment that Kenji, the first Member of the Gotha of Mathematics and your best friend, decided to abandon you. He said he no longer recognized you, that Misaki would not have wanted this, that he could no longer be responsible for the deaths of so many people. He opposed microchips and satellite recognition, creating an organization that could bring together all the people who shared his ideals, namely the Resistance."

“So I lost him too? In fact, Kenji even became my enemy.”

“I wouldn't say that... after all, you could have made them disappear at any moment, they were always just a few hundred people hiding somewhere. If they were never captured and executed, it was precisely because Kenji was your friend and your influence on the Gotha Council was total, no one ever dared to oppose you. However, we couldn't just sit back and take the Resistance's attacks. Even though they were peaceful, they could destabilize Gotha's control, so we limited ourselves to capturing a few of them from time to time during their leafleting and graffiti activities. Unfortunately, during one of these operations, things got out of hand. On August 26, 2052, one of our police officers lost his mind. Some colleagues who were present that night said that for him, Gotha was like a religion to be followed blindly and that he hated the Resistance with all his heart, the only remaining threat to a completely just world. So, instead of following orders to use stop guns, he started shooting wildly at the Resistance with a firearm, killing five people, among whom, unfortunately, was Kenji.”

“So Kenji is dead too...”

“Unfortunately, those of us at the top giving orders don't always consider variables such as individual emotions. You've already witnessed something similar, remember? Lieutenant Morita and his subordinate Hoshino.”

“Yes.”

“Like them, the policeman who killed Kenji was also executed, but that wasn't enough to stop you from being consumed by remorse. You felt guilty for Misaki's death and even responsible for Kenji's. So, even though you knew the Gotha was the right thing to do, you left after that incident.”

"I left the Gotha?"

"Yes, to join the Resistance. I don't know what happened there, but in some ways I'm surprised they accepted you, since you were their number one enemy and you had killed their leader. Among other things, I know that position was taken by Kenji and Misaki's children, even though they were very young. You should know them, having spent a few months with them..."

"Mitsuo and Keina?" Jin asks incredulously.

"Exactly! Anyway, I have to admit that your about-face put us in a very difficult position. At that point, none of us were able to use the time machine, and Domon was appointed as the physics member, in accordance with a request you had left us in writing before you fled. We were left with the knowledge that the only man who had managed to create this ideal world in such a short time was also the only one capable of destroying it. From that day on, you became the most wanted man, and the Gotha's attacks on the Resistance became much more frequent and violent than in the past. The goal was to eliminate them completely, and in about a year we managed to condemn almost 80% of their members to death. At that point, however, perhaps feeling once again that you were the cause of everything, before we could launch the final attack on the few remaining members of the Resistance, I decided to bring you to the Gotha headquarters alone, and before our eyes, you slit your throat with a knife and committed suicide.”

Hearing what happened to him, Jin has a nervous reaction and even risks vomiting.

“That gesture, however, spared the lives of the rest of the Resistance. Since your escape had made me the most influential person on the Gotha Council, being the only one left of the founding group, I convinced the other members to stop the attacks and essentially let the Resistance continue to live. Come to think of it, a few flyers couldn't worry us in any way. Most of the population was happy with our way of governing and saw those few opponents as crazy fanatics, so that was my farewell gift to you."

“I-I can't believe I did all these things.”

"You suffered greatly, but you also created the best thing human beings could ever wish for" says Junna, hugging him tightly.

"Anyway, you haven't explained how I got back here."

"I don't have an answer for that... I really have no idea, maybe it was just a coincidence. Your time machine can only transmit information, nothing more."

"So I created all this, but I'm alone... without Misaki, without Kenji, without my parents..."

Junna gets up and approaches Jin, then looks him firmly in the eyes and expresses her thoughts. "Don't talk nonsense... you have me!"

After saying this, Junna kisses Jin, who instinctively pulls away. "W-what are you doing?"

“I'm sorry, it's just that remembering this story brought my feelings back to the surface... you know, Jin... I've always loved you. I never managed to tell you, so when you reappeared, I promised myself I would.”

Jin doesn't know what to say, so Junna, blushing with embarrassment, speaks again. "B-but it's probably inappropriate. Actually, you're not exactly the same Jin I knew... that's why I hope you can make different choices. I saved you because we need you again. Without someone who knows how to use the time machine, Gotha's rule could be over tomorrow."

"So that's why you want me here."

"Yes, now that you know everything, you can think about it a little. I suggest you take a walk around town tomorrow and see for yourself how wonderful this world is. It will be up to you to decide whether to try to preserve it or not. Tomorrow I have to attend an extraordinary Council meeting, and when you return there will be important news."

"What kind?"

"Surprise," exclaims Junna, winking and immediately leaving the room.

Jin stays in the laboratory and sits down in the middle of it, leaning his back against the time machine.

"Did I really do all those things?"