[Voice]

[undyingcrow]

[In the middle of a restless night, Akechi addresses the radio.]

One thing has become abundantly clear since my arrival: the vast majority of us hail from different times, if not different worlds.

[He pauses, letting that sink in.]

For instance, I'm from Japan in the year 2017. However, it is specifically the same version of Japan shared by Akihiko Sanada and Naoto Shirogane... in the future. That places the three of us in a shared reality, but not the same point in time.

However, our version of Japan has endured a number of odd, even supernatural occurrences, such as a "Dark Hour" and, more recently, the vigilante work of a group of "Phantom Thieves" who quite literally changed the hearts of wicked adults through the use of a parallel, cognitive world.

[His voice remains calm, if tinged with a subtle weariness.]

But that is far from universal. In my time here, I have encountered a talking turtle from a world where yokai and mutants are real. I've spoken with someone who had been sent into a digital world, like an isekai protagonist. I even had to explain the concept of religion to Serph-san, as well what a horse is.

[...]

All this to say, it may be worthwhile to cross reference the worlds and time periods we hail from. If nothing else, it may help us discern patterns that could in turn heighten our understanding of our present circumstances.

Comments

[serialmurderbot]

Sure.

It's not a world, it's a collection of planets and stations in loose alliance and marked by corporate control and treaties.

[Akechi's not wrong about the capitalization though.]

[undyingcrow]

[Well then. That's an interesting nugget of information.]

I've heard of such concepts, but where I'm from, they're a distant dream. One that captures the imagination and inspires art and literature, but far from our level of technology.

[Though, rather than send SecUnit on an existential rollercoaster...]

I do believe Roger-san's world may share some overlap, however. He even mentioned a galactic war.

[serialmurderbot]

[Personally SecUnit still suspects that most of these people are from seeded colonies that have been abandoned but survived for just long enough that their arrival on their home planet has become a matter of fable, rather than of direct personal memory - but the evidence is mounting up against that theory in a way it doesn't want to sit down and quantify just yet.

But that second point is by far the more immediate concern.]

What else did Roger say about it.

[undyingcrow]

[It takes a moment for Akechi to respond, as he tries to succinctly organize the information he gathered during that initial meeting.]

Let's see... He spoke of a Galactic Civil War, of clone wars... I believe he also mentioned something about a "First Order" and his genuine surprise that no one here seemed to know of them.

[serialmurderbot]

[Yeah that definitely sounds like the plot of some show.]

Doesn't sound familiar. As far as I know no one's had a war about cloning.

[undyingcrow]

Likewise. Cloning where I'm from is often limited to animals, and certainly not on a scale broad enough to facilitate a war.

[But the Metaverse aside, his world is fairly mundane. Perhaps that's to be expected.]

[serialmurderbot]

[It thinks, but doesn't say, that the only part of that the Corporation Rim would fight over would be whether they could make cloning proprietary.]

Anything else you need for your dataset?

[undyingcrow]

I suppose that's enough to start. I'll have to ruminate on more structured followup questions.

[He blows a small sigh.]

Then there's the matter of our transformations and how they relate to us, but that's an entirely different can of worms.

[serialmurderbot]

Right. Share it when it's done.

[And that's... more or less what counts as a sign-off for SecUnit, it seems.]