Part 214: [continued]
VLR OST: [Consternation]Listen in: [English/Japanese]
This isn't New Year's Eve in 2028.
Today is January 27th.
In '29?
No.
Don't tell me...'30?
Still no.
Then just what year is this?!
...
...
That would mean we were abducted more than forty-five years ago!
I don't blame you if you don't believe me.
But it's the truth.
How can you be sure...?
It's not that hard.
Quark and I left Earth on January 23rd, 2074.
Solar eclipses are easy to predict.
That's just science.
Nobody can change that.
That's a long story...
About forty-five years ago, on April 13th, 2029, there were eighteen annihiliation reactors operating in various parts of the world.
The explosion was about 180,000 times as powerful as the atom bomb they dropped on Hiroshima.
Wh...what? Why?
I suppose it started a few months before that.
[Music fades out]
On December 31st, 2028, there was an accident.
...Well, "accident" doesn't quite convey the right sense of the thing...
The point is, Radical-6 claimed its first victims there, then escaped.
Didn't take long for it to spread to the rest of the world.
But eventually, it also makes you kill yourself.
VLR OST: [Blue Bird Lamentation]
Some people would take a dive off a building or shoot themselves in the head. You know, the classics.
But for some it was poison, or fire, or asphyxiation, or the noose...
Plenty of people jumped in front of trains or cars.
One pilot on a passenger airline drove his plane into the ground.
Most forms of transportation ground to a halt pretty fast.
That meant food couldn't get distributed, and thousands of people who weren't even infected died from starvation.
Everywhere you went there were just...piles of corpses, covered in flies and rats and crows.
I don't know what Hell's like, but I imagine it's a lot like that.
...
...
They got a hold of some radios, and organized a couple meetings.
There was only one thing to discuss, of course.
How could they get rid of Radical-6?
The answer, they decided, was purification.
They figured they could just roast the surface of the earth, and that'd kill the virus off for good.
That plan was to detonate all eighteen annihilation reactors.
But I've got my own theories.
I think that the bombers had already been infected...
And when they died, they took billions with them. The ultimate "if I die, you're coming with me" gesture, I suppose.
I'd bet you money they'd all lost it long before they got to the reactors.
Killing most of the world, no matter how bad things had gotten, was not a sane plan. Even if it wasn't directly responsible, Radical-6 killed most of the people on Earth.
...
...
Anyway, why it happened isn't that important. Point is, it happened.
The explosions threw a ton of crap up into the stratosphere, where it joined up with smoke and ash from all the fires.
It blotted out the sun for seven years.
Plants withered, and animals died by the millions.
The few humans who were left banded together to survive.
Eventually they were over, though. The sky cleared and the sun came back.
Plants started blooming again, and the animals that hadn't died out completely began to reappear.
Things weren't quite back to normal, though.
It's been 45 years now, but there's still quite a bit of dust and ash in the air.
That's what you're seeing.
Blue and green light have short wavelengths, and they scatter when they run into debris in the air.
Red light, on the other hand, has a longer wavelength, which means it'll get a lot farther when the air's dirty.
So there you are.
The Earth looks red because that's the only color of light that can make it through the atmosphere.
...
...
I was speechless. What could I possibly say?
There was no reason for Tenmyouji to lie to us.
So we were standing on the Moon...
Looking at the Earth.
It was 2074.
But...why?
Why were we there?
Why were we then?
[Music fades out]
I was so lost in thought I barely noticed Phi's approach.
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
I think I figured something out.
A window popped up on the inside of my helmet with "WHISPER" in the corner.
She seemed to be using a circuit only we could hear.
Yeah? What is it?
I figured out why there's an extra "e."
An extra "e"...? Oh, you mean the graffiti...
Yeah, the one on floor B.
999 OST: [Digital Root]
What's Anna say this time?
Goddamnit Sigma! Knock it off!
...
...
"Memento mori if the nineth lion ate the sun."
If you rearrange the letters, you get...
"The man on the moon rules the infinite time."
See?
You need six "e"s to get that.
So they stuck an extra one in "ninth."
"The man on the moon rules the infinite time."
Hm...
Remember what she was telling us?
To transport the consciousnesses of two people into the past. Those two people are you, Sigma, and you, Phi.
My God you're slow. You don't get it?
They're saying we rule the infinite time.
Infinite time...
They weren't just talking about having us jump a couple hours.
I think they're planning to send us back. Way back.
W-Wait a minute...
Are you saying you think they're going to send us back 45 years?
Yeah. I'd bet on it.
I think so.
...
...
That doesn't make sense, though...
I mean, we came from that same time period—before it, actually.
So why bring us here and then send us back?
[Music fades out]
Let's go pay her a visit.
Do you know where she is?
I've...got an idea.
...?
C'mon, think. Remember what she said when she gave you the key?
VLR OST: [Strain]
We turned and ran back in to the pressure exchange chamber, the others following close behind.
What... What are you doing...?
Did you forget something...?
We're going to go have a talk with somebody.
Who...?
You really need me to spell it out?
The person behind all this.
...What?
I'll take that as a yes.
Let me accompany you, then.
Wait. Why do you know about Akane?
I'll tell you when we get there.
Now, if you please...
You folks just said the magic word.
So am I.
Yeah.
You know her real well.
Wait... You... You're not...
You're serious...? What the hell is going on?!
Argh! Shut up!
Just shut up! Come if you want to! We don't need to do roll call!
Once we get there, Akane can explain everything!
With that, we headed back through the airlock.
Again, we made our way through the three chambers, only backward this time.
Then, finally, we climbed out of our suits and onto the lift.
The number nine door on floor A is shut forever once the game ends.
Assuming Zero Jr. was telling the truth, of course...
But the door on floor B...
Yeah. I thought we might be able to take the lift to it, and it looks like I was right.
Any idea where Akane might be?
Yeah. The grave.
Y-You mean the grave in the garden...?
Yeah. Don't worry.
I don't think she's buried there or anything.
Chances are she's alive. Just...in the grave...
...
...
Anyway, let's move! To the garden!