BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Epilogue

...It was like she was sinking, or maybe floating.

Like she was falling, or maybe soaring.

As she felt like she was being embraced in someone's soft arms... she heard a voice.

──Can you hear me?

A strict, powerful... and gentle voice.

It drew her attention, and she opened her weightless eyelids. She saw a faint light, then she was inside a room she had no memory of ever being in.

It was too dim for her to see clearly, but she thought that she could make out a line of some sort of rectangular devices and some red and green lamps shedding candy-colored light.

She was surrounded on all four sides by walls, neither seeing the light of the sun nor feeling the wind on her skin. She thought... that she'd rather be out somewhere more open than in a place like this. For instance, the path leading from the courtyard to the Cathedral would've been nice. She liked how the sunlight had filtered through the leaves there. Or maybe the little hill overlooking the town would've been good; whenever a gentle breeze blew over it, the grass on top would sway like waves.

──Hey, are you listening to me? Celica A. Mercury!

The voice called out to her. It called her name. Like an electric shock running through her, all the feeling came back to her body in a flash. Blood flowed all the way to her toes, and body heat returned all the way to her fingertips.

Her consciousness returned like she had suddenly leapt up through the surface of water, and she── no, and Celica blinked several times in surprise.

"Um... huh? Do you, mean me?"

She was confused by the sudden influx of colors, feelings, and smells. She had been floating inside of some strange device this whole time, looking like she was standing on her tip-toes, but now gravity suddenly took hold. Celica plopped down onto a circular metal plate, leaning forward.

Where was she?

She couldn't grasp what she was doing right now, and her mind was finally starting to ask questions. The bare skin of her legs extending out of her skirt felt the cold metal beneath her.

(Just a moment ago, I... I was in some sort of empty, pure white place...)

Indeed, her memory wasn't failing her: she remembered how, until moments before, she had been in a mysterious world of whiteness. She had thought that she was looking at a reflection in a mirror, but then her reflection returned to reality without her somehow, leaving her alone. The next thing she knew, she was in this room she'd never seen before.

She had thought that she had gotten quite used to handling the unexpected, but this situation she had suddenly found herself in was throwing her for a loop. She didn't even think to get up as someone walked from the corner of the room to stand before her.

Reflexively lifting her head, she looked up at the person standing in front of her.

At first glance, she was a dainty girl, but there was no innocence or sweetness in her eyes. Her expression was well-guarded and dispassionate. She had an unmistakably adult aura, and Celica got the feeling that this girl was much older than her.

Her white outfit looked well-worn on her slender body, and she had distinct bags under her eyes. She looked like a burnt-out researcher, and the faces of Celica's scientist father and her zealous researcher sister came to her mind.

"Celica A. Mercury, right?"

As Celica listened to this voice that she had heard again and again deep within her mind, she noticed something long and thin swaying behind the woman's back. It was a tail.

It was cat-like, split into two partway down, and was white at the tips. This time, Celica thought of Jubei. Now that she looked a little closer, she saw little triangular pink ears peeking out of her tied-up hair of the same color. The way they were slightly bent forward was very cute.

If Nine were here, she would have loved them. Unconsciously letting her mouth open a little as she thought that, Celica gave a firm nod to answer her question.

"Oh, yes, I am. Who are you?"

"Hm... looks like her consciousness is stable. No problem with the brain waves either. Not too bad, all in all."

Checking something on the meters off to her side, she swished her tails and stuck some sort of lollipop into her mouth.

Turning back to face Celica with a complicated look on her face, she opened her mouth again. Her face looked a lot like Nine's did when she was about to give a complicated explanation.

"...My name is Kokonoe. Welcome to a future without a future, O you who have strayed outside of your rightful place in Logic..."

"──And have become a Phantom of TimeChronophantasma"

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