“Is that everyone?” asked a chubby person to someone who has a contrast to his body shape.

“I think so, Mr. Davide. You can start the meeting now,” replied his assistant, who wore a white coat.

He walks towards the wooden podium in front of the assembled audience and assesses everyone’s face again. Less than 50 people gathered, including Arisa, Rita, Rio, and Valerie. His eyes were so keen to identify everyone in front of him as his memory matched the information he had seen in his communication ring.

Young and old, most of the volunteers from the future residing in Tantoris have already come to this hall. Some of them discussed on their own until Mr. Davide was seen in public.

“Thank you for coming here, dear volunteers. In accordance with the invitations that you all have received in each of your communication rings, there are important things that must be conveyed personally. I know it will be easier if we do the conference online. However, in order for us to have a safer atmosphere, I decided to meet face-to-face with all of you. Once again, thank you for coming.”

Emphasis on the word ‘safe’ made Rio think about the current safety of this time travel project. Still, he had absolutely no idea about the real reason for the person on the podium called the volunteers residing in Tantoris like this. The message broadcast is also ambiguous, so no other information can be obtained.

I know there’s a severe situation coming up. Perhaps it’s because Vemia knows my real identity and the truth about people coming to this timeline? No, I don’t think these people knew about that.

Like Rio, Valerie and Rita also got a big question mark when they arrived in this hall. They remained silent to listen and waited for Mr. Davide to explain everything.

“We’ll go straight to the matter. As one of the leaders of the police division from the future, which my service area is including Tantoris City, I received two fairly significant reports. One of them is about the unstable record of the past. Mr Rochel, please?”

“Let me explain.”

Someone wearing a white coat is going closer to the podium. He taps on his communication ring to display a projection that can be viewed by the entire audience. They clearly see a few statistics data and some other relevant information.

Rio swallowed his saliva when he saw the data.

Mr. Rochel continued. “The numbers you see right now are the total of complaints related to the record of the past, which is obviously being sent to our scientists. This phenomenon occurs not only in Tantoris, but also in other neighboring cities. It’s not even a hundred cases yet. However, it is still quite concerning. The confidentiality of our identity is essential to be kept. If any information is leaked, I could say there will definitely be chaos in this timeline.”

His hand, equipped with white gloves, pressed the projection screen to open a few more additional screens. “Most of the complaints also say that some native resident of this timeline has come back to their senses. So, they recognize that the volunteers are a stranger to them, not their real family nor a work colleague.”

Arisa realized that the complaint about existential loss due to an unstable record of the past only has one submission reported–meaning no one besides her experienced the same thing. Still, she’s not saying anything about that and keeps listening.

The man in a white coat continues. “This situation can actually be solved by rewriting the said record of the past program. Sadly, to rewrite means it’ll take a long time, for a few years. As the number of complaints continues to grow, scientists are trying to implement an emergency patch for the unstable record of the past one by one.”

“I’m sure some of you are also suffering because of this inconvenience. I had read the summary of the reports and some of them came from this city,” Mr. Davide added.

The audience started to get a little noisy hearing that revelation. Each one issued their own hypothesis regarding this unfortunate event. Except for Rio and Arisa, who really understand what it feels like to have unstable Records of the Past. Instead of making baseless, empty assumptions, it’s better to focus on continuing to listen.

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The chubby man claps his hands a few times to get the audience’s attention back. “Regarding the cause of this damage, we are still in the middle of the investigation. In the meantime, I kindly encourage everyone here to always stay alert and inform us if someone who should know you begins to forget your identity. Our humble advice is to refrain from from any unimportant interaction with the person affected by the unstable record of the past for a while.”

A boisterous voice responded immediately to the police’s suggestion. After a few minutes of unsolicited opinions from the audience, Mr. Davide cleared his throat to calm everyone down as he gandered around the room one last time.

“That is all from me. Stay safe and alert, don’t be careless. Everyone can return to their respective activities. Thank you very much for coming.”

A small commotion is still happening in the hall. Some of them approached Mr. Davide personally to discuss several things related to this matter. While the others decided to leave.

Rio, Valerie, and Rita prefer to wait for the crowd to exit before moving from their seats.

The blonde man noticed someone he knew pretty well among the people leaving the room, so Valerie waved her hand.

“Hey, Arisa!”

“Ah, Rio and Valerie. And–”

The gaze of the two girls met. Rita’s internal alarm gives her a quick alert as she meets Arisa for the first time. Meanwhile, Arisa is still trying to recognize the girl with dark hair. However, Arisa is confident that they have never met before.

No… you don’t have to do anything. Arisa was Rio’s classmate back then… I was too defensive, Rita thought, trying to calm herself down.

So, Rita reaches out her hand for a handshake. Not to forget, she also gives her usual smile–with a lot of effort to make it natural.

“I am Rita. Rio and Valerie’s friends. Nice to meet you.”

“...”

Arisa greets the handshake without any comment and pulls Rita closer. Seeing this, Valerie and Rio’s eyes widen.

“Why are you gave me a made-up smile like that?” Arisa whispers softly so only Rita can hear.

“…!”

Rita hastily withdrew her hand and took a step back.

“…hah?” Rio and Valerie were getting more and more confused. “You two, is there something wrong?”

“N-no! It’s okay. Ha ha ha!” Rita replied with a forced laugh.

The two guys look at each other and shrug their shoulders since neither Valerie nor Rio have any slight idea. And then, Valerie checks his watch and grins mischievously.

“Now, this is a rare occasion. While the four of us are here now, how about we grab some bites together? Arisa, you’re not in a hurry, right?”

“What a nice idea. That’s right. I’ve got a permit for today so I don’t need to go back to school.”

“It’s decided, then! Let’s go !” Valerie exclaimed.

“Where are we going?” Rio asked curiously.

Valerie smiled widely.

Shortly after, in a food court. Valerie’s mouth almost sucked a whole of his noodle before looking at the three people seriously.

“The point is, there’s something I want to discuss with you all.”

“Chew your food first,” said Rio curtly. Valerie swallowed it quickly before clearing his throat.

“Okay. We know that there is a shocking announcement today from the future police division. Mr. Chloride—”

“Mr. Davide,” corrected Rio.

“Right, I mean Mr. Davide called every volunteer in this town because of the emergency. From his explanation, we know that it’s not just Arisa and Rio that are experiencing the record of the past’s anomaly. But, there are others too!”

“Are we really not supposed to travel to the past with a large number of people? The experimental results that scientists claimed are also for those who time-travel in small groups, right?” asked Rita worriedly.

“It’s too soon to conclude that. We really lacking data regarding this. The scientists also don’t know much because they are also busy fixing the record of the past one by one,” Rio answered.

“It’s worrisome, isn’t it? It’s true that we don’t have any solution for this situation. But, what if it’s my next turn to experience the unstable record of the past? It’ll definitely hinder me during my date!”

The three friends exchanged opinions and guesses about why this anomaly occurred in the first place. Supposedly, the record of the past is a future scientist’s program that has been tested many times and proven reliable. However, this mandatory pseudo-hierarchy for the volunteers seems to have a significant flaw that most scientists couldn’t detect before.

Arisa, who is listening to their discussion while crushing her ice cream, has some ideas that could lead in another direction. She remembers someone who pointed a laser gun at her face the other day. His threat to sabotage this humanity’s most remarkable project revolved around in her head.

After the last bite of the cold snack, Arisa catches the attention of those three people.

“I have a reasonable guess as to why this anomaly could happen. Perhaps, this someone did something to our record of the past so that time travel can fail,” she claimed.

Rio, Valerie, and Rita don’t expect that information to come from Arisa.