Some people don't speak much... but their eyes carry the weight of time."
---
It was night.
The stars blinked in the sky —
but each light felt cracked…
as if even the heavens held fractures.
Aren had quietly slipped away from camp.
Tomo asked softly,
> "Gone to overthink again?"
Aren just looked up at the sky.
> "Time never stops…
But some moments… get stuck inside you."
---
Between two cliffs stood an old tree.
No leaves. Just branches.
And a memory that refused to fade.
Aren sat beneath it, pulling out a small diary.
It belonged to his mother —
His Earth mother.
The one he never got to say goodbye to.
Inside the diary, a single line was scribbled:
> "If you ever get lost…
Look for eyes that remember."
---
Footsteps.
It was Aika.
She didn't speak.
Just sat down beside him,
Holding a softly glowing time-crystal.
> "Why do you always disappear alone?" — Aika
Aren didn't respond. Just glanced sideways.
> "You understand everything…
Yet you hide all of it." — Aika
He handed her the diary.
> "These pages have my mother's eyes.
She never truly understood me…
But she never stopped looking at me."
---
Aika flipped through the pages slowly.
She stopped at one sketch —
A tiny boy playing music.
Aren.
Below it, a line was written:
> "He doesn't cry…
But his notes do."
She paused.
> "You used to play music?" — Aika
"Only when someone was listening." — Aren
---
Silence again.
The kind that doesn't demand words.
Just hearts sitting near each other… quietly aching.
Aika placed the glowing crystal in Aren's palm.
> "This time-crystal doesn't just hold moments…
It holds feelings too."
"People like you… keep it alive."
Aren looked at her.
> "Do you understand me?"
Aika replied,
> "No.
But I feel you."
---
That night…
For the first time,
Aren closed the diary.
And Aika looked him dead in the eyes.
> "You may have landed in the past by accident…
But maybe…
this is where you were always meant to be."
---
Aren smiled faintly.
> "Maybe time didn't bring me here to escape the future…
Maybe it brought me here to remember I'm not just from the future…
I belong somewhere… in every timeline."
---
End of this Volume.