Chapter 11 - Reika Remembers Too Much

📦 Flashback: The Moment the Crystal Activated

The moment Kentarō used the third memory crystal, a pulse of blue light spread through the school grounds. Time hesitated.Clocks paused.Conversations reset.

And in that ripple, Sarah blinked—like something inside her cracked.

"Kentarō…?" she whispered."Why do I remember your voice in the middle of a fire?"

But the real aftershock didn't hit Sarah.

It hit Reika.

🧬 The Awakening Begins – Reika's Room

Reika collapsed to the floor that night, screaming in her sleep.

In her mind, she was falling—falling through endless timelines.Each one showing her a different life.Different deaths.Different versions of herself.

One where she and Kentarō dated.

One where she betrayed Sarah to Chronos.

One where she died protecting both of them.

One where she stabbed Sarah to protect Kentarō.

"Why am I all of them?""Which one is me?"

When she awoke, her mirror shattered—not from impact, but from contradiction.

🧍‍♀️ Confrontation with Sarah – Classroom Hallway

Reika approached Sarah the next morning. Her eyes had changed—haunted, glassy, dangerous.

"You remember," Sarah said softly.

Reika nodded. "I remember too much."

Sarah stepped back. "That means you're not safe anymore."

Reika laughed bitterly. "Safe? You erased me in three timelines. Why should I want to be safe?"

Kentarō arrived—too late.

"Both of you… stop. We're not enemies."

But Reika turned to him.

Her voice shook. "You keep saying that. But in my memories… you chose her every time."

He froze.

"Then why do I still love you?"

🕯️ Reika's Breaking Point

Reika wandered through the streets that night, clutching a small vial—a time seal, designed to suppress unstable memories. A gift from Chronos, from a forgotten world line.

But she hesitated.

"What if remembering is the only real part of me left?"

As she sat at the bus stop, her hand trembled.

In one memory, she saw herself holding Kentarō's hand during a rooftop sunset.In another, she stood over Sarah's lifeless body, crying.

"I don't want to be a villain…But I'm not the heroine either."

🧨 Meanwhile – Chronos Activation Protocol

Back in the Chronos control tower, Mira watched Reika's memory logs flicker out of control.

Professor Hoshikawa turned grim.

"She's nearing fractal collapse. A self-aware paradox."

Kurogami Renzō sharpened his blade. "Want me to end her?"

Mira shook her head.

"Not yet. Let her choose. That's the point."

Hoshikawa: "You believe she'll choose to forget?"

Mira, eyes narrowed:

"No.I believe she'll choose to become something… worse."

💔 Final Scene – Reika's Choice

Back at her room, Reika sat with the time seal in one hand… and Kentarō's old sketch in the other.

"I could go back," she whispered."Erase it all. Be normal again."

But she didn't.

Instead, she tossed the seal out the window.

Then carved a word into her mirror with a shard of memory glass:

"Anchor."

A new fracture appeared in the timeline.

Reika was no longer just remembering.

She had become an anchor.