Haruka wakes up in the Alexo-verse (the one with Ferio stones, mages, etc.) feeling completely drained — not just physically tired, but mentally exhausted in a way he's never felt before.
He slowly realizes the reason: while his body in Alexo was "sleeping," his soul was actively controlling his rotting corpse in the original universe (the one where everyone died).
That means he never actually rested. His mind has been running on two fronts at once, and the fatigue is catching up hard. His stomach was aching, as if it had a hole in it.
He remembers how he was controlling his very own dead body. He was climbing up from his grave on the original universe where he once lived.
His eyes burn, his head throbs, and he has phantom pains (aches in places where his dead body was injured). He checks the mirror and sees his reflection looking unusually pale and tired, even though he "slept" all night.
He mutters to himself: "...I didn't sleep at all, did I?"
He sits on the bed, grappling with the disarray of his memories. Fragments seep into his mind—crawling out of the grave, swarmed by the stench of decay, the suffocating chill of the earth, and the agonizing awareness of his lifeless limbs. He remembers desperately searching the graves of Yume, Saito, Aurel, and all those he failed. The realization hits him like a knife: his soul never found solace; it remained trapped in a relentless cycle, animating a corpse in the original universe while his Alexo body languished in a wretched state of idleness. He feels a deep loathing for himself, a hatred that gnaws at his insides—a constant reminder that he is merely a puppet, haunted by the absence of true life, lost in a void of despair.
In a moment of harrowing clarity, he understood that the true essence of this Alexo-verse vessel had been extinguished—snuffed out by his own hand. The grotesque irony clawed at him: while the body continued to breathe, his own soul was the malevolent force keeping it alive, a hideous mockery of existence. He had danced on the precipice of death twice, and yet, he was condemned to live, shackled to a reality that felt like a relentless purgatory. Each heartbeat echoed with a profound emptiness, a reminder that he had tasted the abyss once in flesh and twice in spirit, and yet here he remained—a hollow shell filled with an unbearable self-loathing, a prisoner of his own making.
The thing that worried him the most was... how still doesn't know how Erythal Crimson works... he remembers when he first saw that he was being punched by the bullies from his classroom but then he blinked and found himself few seconds earlier, there again when he saved Yume from staircase he later on had Erythal Crimson's vision that Aurel falls down and when he goes he sees that Aurel had already broken his limbs.
But wasn't it Chrono Split's job to show the happenings ahead?
After thinking for a while he understood something
He is unsure if that is the case.
Haruka: "So, let's clarify: the multiverse is like a forest. Universes within it are the trees, and the branches represent timelines. Erythal Crimson is related to this concept as I see it."
After refreshing himself, he went downstairs to find Jack had already prepared breakfast for him. For some reason, seeing Jack made Haruka feel a bit uneasy. Haruka ate breakfast and then left for school.
Everyone was present.
Yume was, too.
But today, for some reason, she took the seat next to Haruka's.
Haruka was taken aback... but he didn't ask her anything.
Yume broke the silence.
Yume: "Haruka... You see I am having these weird dreams about you... weird meaning... really weird."
She said that out of the blue so bluntly but there again at the end she was blushing.
Yume: "Well, it's not that— Stupid, stop getting weird thoughts!"
Haruka: "But I didn't even say anyt—"
Yume: "SHH! Don't talk when elders are talking...okay, so where was I?"
Haruka: "Dreams about me—"
Yume cuts him mid-sentence.
Yume: "SHUT up! You don't have to remind me of it. Okay, so... umm... I saw that i was riding with you on a bicycle... it felt like many days, many months... till one moment or... day i suppose? We crashed...I was in a hospital... and my dreams got more blurry."
Haruka: "Oh... weird dream... but have you seen yourself... talking with another... you?"
Haruka felt a wave of regret wash over his face the moment the question slipped from his lips...
Yume: "Yes... She was talking about some things like... I was talking... or she... My other self was saying she was missing you... But.... how do you know about that?"
Yume's suspicion evolved from mere curiosity to something deeper. She sensed intuitively that something was off.