Chrono Journal Entry #20
Arc: Pulse Divergence
Theme: 残像の記録 (Phantom Record) – I heard a song that never existed — but still felt like mine.
The melody came from nowhere.
I wasn’t singing.
I wasn’t even thinking.
But I heard it.
Like someone pressed play on a recording I never made.
The harmonica on the table pulsed once — just once — and the air around it shifted.
I swear it wasn’t mine.
But every note felt like a memory I’d lost long ago.
That’s the trap of this arc, I think.
It doesn’t show you ghosts.
It shows you possibilities.
I started to hum along, reflexively.
And suddenly — I knew the next line.
Not because I wrote it.
Because somewhere, another me did.
Another Rei. Another timeline.
One who chose to stay silent in Arc 01.
One who never found the harmonica, but whispered her melodies into glass instead.
And now she’s bleeding into me.
Her song isn’t finished.
Mine isn’t either.
But the system doesn’t care which of us completes it.
It just wants someone to sing.
That’s how they get us.
Not with suppression.
With echoes.
Reflections of who we could be, twisted just enough to feel more right than who we are now.
I spent an hour trying to write the melody down.
Half the notes vanished after I sang them.
Not corrupted.
Withdrawn.
Like that version of me realized I didn’t deserve to keep her song.
Watch “Phantom Record” – MV Main Version
Watch “Phantom Record” – Alternate Echo Version
How do you hold on to your truth
when a version of you that never existed sings louder than you?