Part 206: Q
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
*startup sound*
We should get back to the floor A warehouse, then.
Hey, wait...
Did you guys hear something?
What...?
It sounds like something turning on...
You're right...
Guess it was set to turn on when we opened the door.
It looks like an authentication screen.
I think we need to put in an ID and a password.
Yeah, but what?
...
...
That was when I noticed the illustration.
Oh... Of course...
This was the real 9th lion.
But... If that was the case...
VLR OST: [Consternation]
In retrospect, counting the two-headed lion as two lions was proably invalid. This is the real nineth lion.
Only one thing for it;
[Music fades out]
Damn... I couldn't figure it out.
What was the ID I needed? What was the password?
Did I know them?
Had I seen them before...? In another history?
...
...
Remember, Sigma... You need to remember...
What was the old woman's name?
What was written on the back of the card?
...
...
I suppose it might be technically possible to reach this point without having seen Quark's ending. Getting here requires you to have all of the bomb passwords, and to have seen Luna's ending, which requires you to have both of the two-headed lion keys, one of which comes from Sigma's ending, which is a prerequisite for Quark's. That said, I can't find any text in the game besides the bit we just saw for failing this prompt that doesn't directly address the old lady's ID card, so I can only assume that the game is internally going "c'mon, seriously?" here and telling you to just enter the password already.
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
VLR OST: [Clarification]
Akane...
I've been looking for her for a very long time.
...
...
He walked toward her.
Slowly, carefully, almost as if he was afraid of scaring her away, he reached out—
She's a hologram...
Tenmyouji squeezed his eyes shut.
Akane...
He closed his hand around empty air and let it fall to his side.
There was a moment of sad silence, and then she began to speak.
I've been waiting for you.
...
...
Well, I supposed that's slightly inaccurate.
What you see now is a holographic message I recorded before you came here.
Unfortunately this means I will not be able to answer your questions, at least not directly.
I hope you will understand.
...
...
You probably have a great many questions.
What day is it? Where are we?
Who is Zero, and what does he have to do with Akane Kurashiki?
But I imagine there is one question that rises above all the others...
"Why were we brought here?"
All of this was required for the success of the AB Project.
I assume you've heard the name by now, at least?
In any event, you were all needed in order to execute our plan.
The Nonary Game was necessary for the same reason.
...
...
Your question now, I imagine, is "Just what is this 'AB Project'?"
The answer to that is also simple.
Allow me to explain.
We created the AB Project for one purpose...
...What do you mean, "the past"?
The moment the words were out of my mouth I realized no one there could answer the question—not Phi, not Tenmyouji, and certainly not a pre-recorded hologram.
Have you figured out what this room is?
I assume you saw the "Q" on the door.
It stands for "Quantum."
That makes this the Quantum room.
It took me a moment to realize she'd changed subjects without even pausing.
There was nothing we could do, of course, but I still felt a twinge of frustration.
Take a look at the rear of the room. Do you see that large enclosure?
The systems that control this entire facility run on that machine.
That includes the construct you refer to as Zero Jr., as well as the GAULEMs.
All of them do their thinking in that box.
Isn't that strange, though? It seems contrary to how we perceive the world.
The "body," the thing that you see and interact with, is somewhere else.
But the mind and all its thoughts are in this box.
Perhaps humans are the same, with our minds and thoughts existing separate from our bodies.
...
...
Our "core" is in our head, of course.
We all have individual brains, think individual thoughts, and act according to individual wills.
That makes communication difficult, though.
So, we're forced to rely on inefficient mediums like language, photographs, non-verbal cues, etc, to transmit information.
Each one of us is an individual, and we have no direct connection to anyone else.
But...is that really true?
In the dimensions we are most familiar with, yes, it is. If we look at things from another, higher dimension, however...
We may all be connected after all.
Like the branches of a tree... Or a rhizome...
...
...
Imagine a horizontal cross-section of the root system of a large tree.
In the two dimensions you see, the roots all appear to be individual things, with no connection to one another.
But this isn't the case.
All the roots join together at the trunk.
In two dimensions, they appear to be separate.
But, if you look at the roots from a third, higher dimension...
You see?
Doesn't that at least seem like it could be a possibility?
...
...
I believe that is how human consciousness actually works.
Well, I'm not the only one, I suppose. Zero and I share that belief.
Tenmyouji mumbled something that sounded like nonsense.
I opened my mouth to ask him what it meant, but Akane was already talking again.
I'm referring to the fourth dimension used in Minkowski spacetime.
Connect points to one another, and you have a line.
In one dimension, the only surface you can create is that—a line.
These are two-dimensional surfaces.
Now you have a three-dimensional surface, which encompasses a volume of space.
[Music fades out]
If that was true, then what would prevent anyone from sending their consciousness backward or forward in time?
That theory is the foundation of the AB Project.
The "A" represents "after," and the "B" represents "before."
999 OST: [Morphogenetic Sorrow]
A ridiculous story made up by a mad old woman.
But look at what's happened to you.
You've seen many different worlds and timelines, haven't you Sigma?
And what about you, Phi? I know you have too...
Am I wrong?
...
...
I believe you experienced something very similar nearly half a century ago.
You sent your consciousness to the past to help save a little girl's life.
It was a long time ago, but... Perhaps you still remember?
That little girl was you, Akane...
Suddenly it felt like Phi and I were outsiders, trespassing on something we had no right to see.
Tenmyouji's face was taunt with emotion as he looked into Akane's eyes.
It seemed almost like she was looking back at him.
The final stage of the project will begin very soon.
I need to go prepare.
The next time we meet, I can tell you the rest of the story.
So come and find me. I'll be waiting.
...
...
The cat in the box...
Is it alive? Or is it dead?
Sigma, Phi... You will decide its fate.
Goodbye...
Ha ha ha... Oh, Tenmyouji. I can almost see you...
You don't need to worry. Everything's going to be okay.
I will see you again one day. I promise.
But I'm going to have to ask you to wait just a little longer.
Wait...
Akaneeeeeeeeee!
And then she was gone.
Tenmyouji collapsed to his knees, his back hunched and shaking.
I saw tears land on the white-knuckled fists he pressed against his thighs.
I kept quiet. What was there to say?
Phi and I looked at one another and nodded silently.
With a shaking hand, Tenmyouji pulled a photograph out of his pocket.
It was a picture of a girl...
After all that we'd been through, her smile was enough to break your heart.