As soon as Souta felt solid ground beneath his feet, he opened his eyes and found himself inside a café.
This surprised him—could it be the same café where he had coffee with Kurumi earlier?
But he quickly noticed differences.
The side of the shop facing the street wasn't designed with floor-to-ceiling windows, which meant it wasn't the same place.
Night had already fallen, and the dim lighting cast a warm glow over the café's elegant interior.
Compared to a casual coffee shop, this place had a refined, high-class atmosphere. The number of customers was low, adding to its exclusivity.
Souta quickly spotted Kurumi in a corner.
She wore a Gothic-style black dress that accentuated her pale, delicate face. Sitting perfectly still, she resembled an exquisite porcelain doll.
Holding Shiroyasha in his arms, Souta approached the table where Kurumi was seated.
Shiroyasha immediately leaped from his arms and landed gracefully onto the chair Souta had pulled out.
Kurumi looked slightly surprised. "You're... Shiroyasha?"
Was Shiroyasha originally a child?
"As a Star Spirit, my form and appearance as a human are meaningless to me," Shiroyasha said, noticing the curiosity in Kurumi's eyes and waving her hand dismissively.
Then, she took a few glances at Kurumi's outfit.
Though the dress covered her curves, it couldn't fool an experienced connoisseur like Shiroyasha.
"So, you're Tokisaki Kurumi? Hmm... Even with that dress covering you, judging by your proportions and weight, your development is quite impressive! You might not have caught up to Black Rabbit, but for a sixteen-year-old girl, you're outstanding!"
Kurumi blinked in confusion, momentarily unable to process Shiroyasha's rapid topic shifts.
She instinctively asked, "Wait... you know my weight?"
"But of course!" Shiroyasha said proudly. "I am a great being who oversees the total mass of the Primordial Universe! Any Star Spirit must add a 'Super' prefix before my title. Your weight? A mere glance is all it takes for me to know."
Kurumi turned her gaze to Souta, as if silently asking: Is she always ?
Souta gave a helpless smile and pulled out a chair to sit beside Kurumi.
After Shiroyasha's comment, he found himself a little curious about Kurumi's weight.
They say, if you weigh less than 100 pounds, you're either flat-chested or short.
Kurumi's chest size was certainly... substantial, far beyond what a sixteen-year-old girl should normally have. But since she was under 160 cm tall, estimating her weight was tricky...
"Souta, you're thinking of something very rude, aren't you?"
Kurumi suddenly turned her head, staring at him intently.
"...No. I was just wondering where exactly we are."
Souta quickly changed the subject. "Thirty years ago, Tengu City shouldn't exist yet, right?"
"As for this place..." Kurumi thought for a moment before answering, "It should be the northern part of Kanagawa Prefecture. Tengu City was built on the ruins of southern Tokyo and northern Kanagawa."
"So, the spatial quake that happens in Mongolia tomorrow will spread across the ocean and affect this place too?"
Even though he already knew how insanely powerful the Eurasian Great Spacequake was, Souta still couldn't help but be amazed.
"That's not quite right."
Kurumi shook her head and explained, "The Eurasian Great Spacequake covered the central part of the Eurasian continent—including what was then Russia, China, and Mongolia. As for Japan, it was actually destroyed by subsequent smaller spacequakes. Of course, I say 'small' only in comparison—by Japanese standards, this one was around S-Class."
An S-Class spacequake was enough to wipe Tengu City off the map.
Anything higher—an SS-Class event—could sink the entire Japanese archipelago.
"Then it looks like stopping the Eurasian Great Spacequake alone won't be enough—we need to deal with this one too."
Souta furrowed his brows slightly and looked at Kurumi.
"Do you have detailed records of the spacequake events?"
"I do. I've already gathered the necessary data in advance."
Kurumi's shadow suddenly expanded, and from the inky darkness, a pale hand emerged, handing her a thick file of documents.
Souta nearly flipped the table.
That scene was straight out of a horror movie! Not great for the heart.
Kurumi, seemingly unaware of how unnerving her action was, handed the documents to Souta.
"All the recorded times and locations of the spacequakes are listed here."
Souta quickly flipped through the pages.
For about six months after the Eurasian Great Spacequake, smaller spacequakes occurred worldwide.
The major one in Japan happened six months after the Eurasian Great Spacequake.
Like an eraser wiping across the land, everything from southern Tokyo to northern Kanagawa was reduced to a circular wasteland.
From across the table, Shiroyasha leaned in to glance at the data. Her brows furrowed slightly.
"So many deaths...? This is going to be tricky."
Hearing this, Kurumi immediately asked, "Tricky? Is preventing the disaster going to be difficult?"
"The disaster itself isn't the problem. A mere spacequake? I can wave a hand and erase it," Shiroyasha said confidently, as if it was beneath her to even consider.
Her real concern lay elsewhere.
"You two have seriously considered how to stop these disasters while keeping history intact, right? If these people don't die, the sheer weight of their collective fate will cause history to shift in unimaginable ways."
"That's... something I haven't figured out yet."
Kurumi pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly troubled.
She had been struggling with this issue for a while, but no viable solution had come to mind.
At that moment, Souta spoke up.
"Actually, you're both looking at this the wrong way."
Shiroyasha turned to him. "So, you've got a solution? Let's hear it."
Kurumi also perked up, focusing her attention on him.
Meeting their expectant gazes, Souta slowly explained:
"The mission only requires that we prevent the tragedies caused by the Eurasian Great Spacequake and the deaths caused by Mio Takamiya's sephira crystals—without affecting the Spirits' existence."
"That means we don't need to preserve history exactly as it was. As long as the key causal events that led to the Spirits' births still happen, everything after that is up to us."
A slight smirk formed on his lips as he proposed an outlandish solution:
"The simplest way to solve this problem? We rescue all one hundred million people, then throw them 30 years into the future."
Kurumi took several seconds to process that.
"You're saying... take one hundred million people... and throw them 30 years forward in time?"
Across from him, Shiroyasha twitched slightly, giving Souta an exasperated look.
"You brat... You're planning to solve this problem by flipping the entire chessboard, aren't you?"
As bizarre as it sounded... it was actually a viable solution!
Souta chuckled and elaborated.
"We can do it —Shiroyasha stores all one hundred million people inside her Game Field. That way, their deaths are still technically recorded in history, meaning no butterfly effects to mess up causality.
"Then, once all the necessary events have played out, we release them back into the world 30 years later.