Chapter 121: Ascension

Hikari turned to look at Hiroyuki and said, "I am assuming that you are indeed Hiroyuki. You were in a coma at the hospital for twelve days. During those twelve blank days, you fell into a dream. You lived, worked, and grew there; by your own account, you spent over twenty years in that place."

"After all, it was a dream. Twelve consecutive days of coma are enough for you to live out more than twenty years within a dream. The timeline of a dream is fluid; it fast-forwards and slows down. It is entirely possible to compress those twelve short days into twenty-plus years."

"Twenty-plus years is also enough for you to forget the past."

"You believe you are the 'you' from that dream—the 'you' that is not 'Hiroyuki'—and you continued to believe so even after you woke up."

"That is all."

"Doesn't that also make sense?"

Hiroyuki sat there, deep in thought. Hikari did not disturb him; he simply waited, patient as ever.

"So, Hikari, your conclusion is that I am Hiroyuki, but I have amnesia, which is why I've forgotten everything from my childhood. And because of a dream that lasted over twenty years, I began to see myself as... the version of me from that dream?"

Hikari watched Hiroyuki, then spoke again:

"Have you noticed that my hypothesis holds just as true if we apply it to Taiga?"

"...??"

Hiroyuki felt as if Hikari had suddenly swerved the steering wheel, and he was nearly thrown off balance by the unexpected turn.

"Taiga had a special experience just like you did. Perhaps he was also in that dream, drifting through those twenty-plus years with you, unaware of the truth. He, too, lost his memory and forgot his past. Perhaps that dream was so real... so real that he convinced himself he was that human from the dream. He forgot that he was a giant, and instead, believed he was a human."

"I am truly curious... what kind of dream could be so immersive that it made you both forget your pasts, accept new identities, and refuse to let go of those identities even after waking up?"

"..."

For a moment, Hiroyuki wanted to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat.

It wasn't a dream...

How could that real world be a dream? Now, a character from a science fiction television series was telling him that the world he considered real was nothing more than a passing fancy, that those twenty-plus years of joys and sorrows were merely a phantom dream. How could Hiroyuki accept that?

"Of course, I have no proof. These are all my speculations."

Hikari swerved the wheel again. This time, Hiroyuki was prepared and did not get thrown off, though his dazed expression brightened, and he looked at Hikari with a hint of complaint. After all, this Giant of Light was a world-renowned scientist; Hiroyuki found himself subconsciously believing whatever he said.

"So, the conclusion of my medical report is... Taiga is indeed with me. He is inside my body, and we have merged."

Together in that dream, as the same human being, living through twenty-plus cycles of the seasons.

"While that is roughly the meaning, your phrasing is not entirely accurate."

Hikari took out the Ultra Medal again and explained, "I think this might make it easier for you to understand. Forget what it is; for a moment, just see it as a simple cylinder."

Hiroyuki nodded, listening intently.

"From this side, it is a circle."

At that moment, a beam of light projected from behind, casting the shadow of the disc onto the wall.

"But, when I rotate it ninety degrees—"

The shadow on the wall shifted from a circle into a rectangle as the disc turned.

"Looking at it this way, it is a rectangle."

"A rectangle and a circle—these are the two projections of a three-dimensional cylinder onto a two-dimensional world. Two completely different two-dimensional shapes can coexist on a single three-dimensional object."

"Imagine that this rectangle is you, Hiroyuki, and the circle from before is Taiga."

Hikari turned off the spotlight and placed the empty Ultra Medal, which was over a meter in diameter, in front of Hiroyuki.

"And your true form is this."

Hikari summarized, "This is the hypothesis I have formed based on your medical report—your merger with Taiga is not a simple fusion, nor is it a binding."

In the Nebula Particle Project, the process of an Ultra Warrior becoming nebula particles and residing within a lifeform is called "binding."

"This is an ascension."

Hikari spoke with conviction, clearly confident in this deduction that existed only in theoretical formulas.

"For some reason, you have become one and ascended to a higher dimension."

"Your true essence is that of a four-dimensional being. Through some method, you and Taiga merged, and the result of that merger is that you ascended from two three-dimensional beings into one four-dimensional being."

"A four-dimensional being cannot exist within three-dimensional space, so you were displaced. Your true essence does not actually exist anywhere in this world."

This was the other possibility Hikari hadn't voiced—the possibility beyond the dream theory. That was the mysterious four-dimensional space, the place where Hiroyuki and the others had truly lived for those twenty-plus years.

But compared to a four-dimensional space, Hikari preferred to believe it was a dream. Imagine if there were a mind-bending four-dimensional space where its inhabitants could observe the past, present, and future of this three-dimensional world—wouldn't that be terrifying?

Hikari could only be grateful that the one who had stumbled into that "four-dimensional space" and returned with information was one of their own.

"The you I see before me right now is merely a projection—a projection of the four-dimensional being you became after ascending, cast into this three-dimensional world. I can only perceive this projection, because higher dimensions can observe lower ones, but lower dimensions cannot observe higher ones."

"Perhaps, if you were to simply turn slightly, you would become Taiga, just like the shifting projection of this disc."