š Location: Rooftop Clocktower ā 11:52 PM
The city skyline shimmered, unstable. Lights flickered in Morse code.The sky above was splitāhalf starlit, half a fractured void.
Sarah sat alone at the edge of the rooftop, staring at her pocket watch.It tickedābackward.
11:52... 11:51...
Behind her, KentarÅ, Reika, and Mira stood silently.
Chronos wasn't attacking anymore.Because time itselfā¦ had started collapsing.
š Chronos' Plan Revealed
Mira finally spoke:
"Chronos didn't want to erase you. It wanted to return time to its 'unified origin.'"
"Timeline Zero."
The original timeline.
Before KentarÅ ever met Sarah.Before the loops.Before the anchors.
Before love bent time.
"Your pocket watch is syncing to that point," Mira said."At midnight, it will force convergence. All timelines collapse into one."
Sarah's hands shook. "What happens to the other versions of us?"
Mira didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
They already knew.
š® Reika's Decision
Reika stepped forward, calm now. She no longer trembled.
"I'm the unstable one. Let me anchor it. Let me collapse into the singularity. You two survive."
But KentarÅ stopped her.
"No. You're not just fragments. You're Reika. You're real."
Sarah looked at both of them, heart torn.
"I can try something. A time-latch jump. I pull us into a timeline before the divergence... but I'll lose control."
KentarÅ: "And if it fails?"
Sarah: "Then everything ends at midnight."
š„ The Final Sequence ā The Jump
They held hands.KentarÅ. Sarah. Reika.
Sarah closed her eyes and whispered:
"1365625. Show me the one where we all survive."
The watch struck 11:59.
It glowed goldā¦ then cracked.
Time screamed.
Buildings reversed. Skies rewound. Their memories began pouring into each other.
ā Sarah remembering every KentarÅ who died.ā Reika seeing every version of herself breaking.ā KentarÅ watching himself fade in timelines where he never existed.
"Pleaseā¦" he begged. "Just one world."
š The Convergence
Thenā
Silence.
šļø A Peaceful World ā World Line Unknown
Birds chirped.
KentarÅ opened his eyes.
He was lying on the grass near the university.
Sarah was beside himāsmiling.
"You're still here."
He nodded. "So are you."
Footsteps.
Reika walked up holding coffee and said teasingly, "You two always skipping morning lectures?"
They laughed.
No one wore Chronos black.No memory crystals.No broken time.
Justā¦ normal.
And Sarah's watch?
It wasn't ticking anymore.
Because there was no more countdown.
This was the world they fought to reach.
Maybe not perfect.
But real.
Together.
Alive.
ā ~Ayan
š Volume 2 Completed: The Lives We Keep Losing