Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A light flashed through an empty and dusty apartment, just like a laser scanning an object. Wherever the light touched, the dust and grime miraculously vanished. Instead, new furniture, kitchen utensils, and other household items appeared out of nowhere.

At last, the light bundled together, a few centimeters above the new bed, taking the shape of a human woman. Seconds later, the naked young woman born from the light fell onto the bed and woke up from the sensation. She sat up slowly and looked around with a confused expression.

“What happened just now? I felt like falling.”

The woman was disoriented, not knowing where she was. Even worse, she didn’t know who she was. All that the young woman could remember was a manga and an animated series called “Monster”, as well as the content of a book called Another Monster: Investigative Report.

A soft purple glow, which somehow appeared inside her mind, startled her out of her recollection. As the young woman concentrated on this feeling, she had a bizarre vision of a book floating gracefully in a dark space.

“Diary of Fate” was written on the cover, and the soft purple glow emanated from it. Behind the book, shining in the darkness, there were three dim stars. Each of them was seemingly connected to one of the story depictions she remembered.

As soon as the woman focused on the floating book, the cover opened, revealing symbols on the first page.

[Congratulations. You are now the Host of the Diary of Fate.

The Diary will allow you to see the Fate of the world, as it is designed to be by the “Will of the World”, in the form of stories.

As the Host, it is your duty to change the Fate of the worlds you enter by changing the story. The manner in which this is accomplished is entirely up to the Host. Will you become the reason for a worlds destruction or its salvation? Or will you die while trying to achieve your goals? The choice is yours.

Successfully altering events of the story will result in the stealing of Fate from the involved characters. This stolen Fate will manifest as so-called Skills in the Host. The manifested Skills are always random and fall into a category where the character, whose story was altered, had Skills himself.

The Host has to be very careful not to meddle in the stories too radically. The “Will of the World” is always watching and trying to ensure that everything unfolds as it intended.

The diary is using a part of the stolen Fate energy to obfuscate the Host’s actions from the “Will of the World”. Therefore, the more Fate is accumulated by the Host, the larger the actions that can be taken without getting erased due to being exposed.

This is also why the Host should tread carefully when trying to kill very important characters whose Fate is particularly strong. Like the protagonists, main antagonists, or romantic interests in the stories. They are protected by a vast amount of Fate, which can also be described as “Plot Armor”. Thus, the world itself will bend its own rules to ensure their survival. This can only be overcome if the Fate accumulated by the Host is of at least a similar level.

To allow a subtle form of influence that can not be traced back to the Host, the “Diary of Fate” grants access to copies of everything written in it to various female characters. Through your decision on what information to present inside the diary, you can influence their knowledge and thus their thinking and actions. These Copy Holders are selected by your feelings for their depictions in the stories. Reasons for selection can include: Respect, Protectiveness, Pity, Desire, Curiosity, and more.

Copy Holders are subject to various constraints:

To not reveal the existence of the Host, they can’t expose the copies or the content in it to people who are not other Copy Holders. If they attempt to do so, they will sense death approaching. As a fail-safe to protect the Host, they may be erased by the “Diary of Fate” if they still choose to reveal its existence.

Copy Holders are forbidden from maliciously hurting each other in ways that can lead to permanent injuries, severe trauma, or death.

In addition, Copy Holders can’t talk to the Host about their copies, as this will make them think that the Host is unaware of them having access to her diary. It is in the best interest of the Host not to reveal the fact that she knows they are reading along. Only in this way can complete trust in the information written in the diary be achieved.

As the Host has chosen in the binding process to the “Diary of Fate”, in exchange for deleting her previous existence and memories from the Multiverse, the Host received the conceptual level ability: Phoenix Spark.

How will you write your own story from here on out?

Best of luck.]

While the young woman was overwhelmed by the unbelievable revelations in the “Diary of Fate”, many other women and girls around the world became aware of the presence of a strange book in their own minds.

Nina Fortner was bent over, gasping for air, after running from the parking lot to the lecture hall. She was once again late for her afternoon classes due to her part-time job as a delivery driver.
Her bright blue eyes were widened in confusion as she thought about the implications of the book that had suddenly appeared.

“Fräulein Fortner, I asked you a question!” came the voice of an older man standing at the lectern.

“I’m sorry, Professor Kronecker! The 1968 Stuttgart Incident, right? The victim’s death was judged an accident on the grounds that murder requires intent. The defendant was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment, rather than a life sentence.”

“That is correct. You may sit down.”

Nina walked over to her regular seat, while she managed to open up the book with a thought.
On the first page, the three constraints on the Copy Holders were listed. She read them while sitting down beside her friend Peter, who was staring at her with a lovestruck look, like most of the time.

‘So I am not the only one with this thing in my head? Or it could be a delusion of my own. This sucks. I just managed to almost overcome that nightmare that has been haunting me forever, and now this happens. I should probably talk to Dr. Geitel about it.’

Yet as soon as she resolved to discuss the issue with her psychiatrist, Nina felt as if a cold hand grasped her heart. It felt like this hand would crush her heart instantly if she chose to reveal the existence of the diary, just like it said in the rules.

Overcome with dread, Nina started shivering, and cold sweat built up on her forehead and the back of her neck. As soon as she accepted that this diary and its rules are real and decided not to risk telling someone about it, the feeling vanished instantly, as if it had never been there.

Nina covered her face with shaking hands and took deep breaths to stop herself from hyperventilating due to the close brush with death.

Peter, who had seen the change that overcame the usually joyful woman, asked her with concern, “Nina, is everything alright? You suddenly went pale, as if you would collapse any moment. Should I bring you to the infirmary?”

“No, I just remembered something very terrifying; everything is okay now,” she said, managing an uneasy smile to reassure Peter.

At the same time in Ruhenheim, behind the butcher counter of the Müller Food Store, Elsa Schmitt was scrutinizing the book in her mind. Her eyes lit up with a mischievous glimmer and anticipation.

‘Will finally something interesting happen in this boring town?’

Not daring enough to try and tell someone about it, she instead turned the first page, which opened to something titled the status page, according to the heading.

In another lecture hall on the Friedrich-Immanuel-Campus in Munich, Lotte Frank was also busy analyzing the status page.

‘Interesting. It assigned numerical values to my Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. Isn’t this a bit like a game?’

After she adjusted her big, round glasses, Lotte scrunched up her face in contemplation.

‘This is all well and good, but without a reference, I don’t really know if my stats are good or bad. Everything is at 0.5 except for Intelligence, which stands at 0.7. I should try to find other Copy Holders, as the diary calls us, to understand it better. But how to do so, if I am not allowed to talk about it?’

In a villa in Düsseldorf, Eva Heinemann slept on the couch, surrounded by empty bottles of wine, and cradled her engagement photo with Kenzo Tenma in her bosom. Obviously, she had once again stared at it while drinking the whole night. She was too out of it to wake up to the feeling of the slightly glowing diary in her mind.

In a monastery located in southern France, the blue eyes of a blond woman were opened wide in fear.
The mature woman ran on the pathways of the monastery until she reached her destination. Shivering in terror, she approached the nun on duty.

“Sister, please, I need to make a confession!”

Quite unsettled by the state of the long-time guest in front of her, the old nun led the woman into the confessional and entered on the other side of the screen.

“Please speak your mind, I haven’t seen you so disturbed for quite some time.”

Yet for a long time, there only came the sounds of crying and sobbing from the other side of the screen.

The distressed woman was sure of it. This thing that appeared inside her mind has to have something to do with the Monster that tortured her and stole her children! The man who tortured her psychologically until she almost broke apart completely, to the point she is at right now, where she doesn’t even know her own name.

Yes, it must have been him! He had planted this devilish thing, that tried to kill her if she spoke about it, in her mind somehow. More evidence that only here was she safe from this devil. In a monastery, praying every day that he may not find her again.

After she composed herself, she decided to never let her mind stray into the direction of the fiendish book. To keep it sealed forever.

Thanking the nun for her patience, she instead talked about the one thing she always did when going to the confessional.

“Sister, I miss my children so much. Do you think they are still alive after all these years?”

Many similar incidents happened throughout Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

All had one thing in common. The book in the women’s minds all had the same bold letters on the cover:

“Diary of Kate Verdandi”

Chapter Text

Over an hour has passed since the diary appeared, and most of the women have managed to calm down in the meantime.
Those who tried to go against the rules and sensed their death approaching were still somewhat shaken, though.

At this time, the soft purple glow reappeared in their minds. When they concentrated on this feeling, the diary opened to a new page where symbols started to form, as if someone was writing in it.

This newest event managed to wake up the sleeping Eva Heinemann, who had a perplexed expression while scrutinizing the thing in her mind. Then she suddenly started to laugh loudly before talking to herself.
“Eva, you’ve really done it now. You managed to drink to the point of brain damage!”

[Time to check out how this “Diary of Fate” works.

Oh interesting! I just need to think about what I want to write, and it automatically appears.

I’m still a bit confused, though. According to my status page, the only language I know is German, and these symbols here are definitely not from the German alphabet. Yet I can understand them perfectly fine. They don’t really feel like a language; instead, they imprint the meaning that is supposed to be conveyed with them directly into my mind.

Whatever.
I can’t do anything about it and don’t understand it.

How does one write a diary?
I have no idea.
Maybe I should write a bit about myself first?]

The writing in the diary paused at this point.

In Hamburg, the company president of the publisher “Vierzig” had also been wondering about this question.
Especially because they mostly published books for children, Szilvia Brosche was fascinated by this function of the symbols.
After all, it is hard for adult authors to write in a way that is intuitive to understand for children, so they often rely on pictures to convey their meaning.
If Szilvia could somehow learn to use these symbols in real writing, wouldn’t this revolutionize the whole industry?

A young librarian in Munich, who is working inside the Friedrich-Immanuel-Library, dared to dream even bigger.
Freya Schwind has loved reading since she was a child, and the idea of an alphabet that could eliminate language barriers through intuitive understanding made her very excited.
After all, how many books couldn’t she read because there was no translation?
Smiling to herself as she organized the books returned to the library today, Freya kept imagining her personal utopia.
At least until the diary started to glow once more.

[Writing about myself is also a bit complicated. After all, I don’t really know anything about myself.

Not long ago, I woke up in this apartment, and then this “Diary of Fate” appeared in my mind.
It is written here that I was someone else before, but during the binding process to the diary, this person chose to have her existence and memories erased in exchange for the skill Phoenix Spark on my status page.

So the only things I know about myself are what is written on the status page and the documents I found on the dinner table.
According to my passport and ID card, my name is indeed Kate Verdandi, as it says on my status.

There are also the three stories that I can remember. Apparently, these stories are a representation of what the so-called “Will of the World” has planned for the Fate of this world.
To be honest, what is depicted in these stories is quite frightening.
Yet a completely useless person like me, without any memories or connections, is supposed to change this Fate.

At least the diary helps to keep me hidden from the “Will of the World” as long as I don’t act too radically.
Also, for every story event that I manage to change, I will receive a Skill.
Here is where the Phoenix Spark comes in. Thanks to it, the diary selects various female characters from the story in this world based on my feelings for them, and they will also receive the same Skills as a reward as I do.

This makes me believe that the person who gave up their own self was doing so to help them.
Therefore, even if I have nothing to do with this person anymore, I’m going to try to respect their wishes when deciding how I will act.

There seems to be more to the Phoenix Spark than this, but everything else applies only if they end up pledging themselves to me, but I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.]

In Frankfurt, a woman who was slowly earning a reputation as an assassin under the name “Carmen” was busy sharpening daggers that she could easily hide in her clothing.

‘If this Kate really doesn’t mean me any harm by planting this thing in my mind, maybe I shouldn’t kill her after all.
Having a kill-switch inside me is still a threat, though.’

She held the dagger she was working on into the light to inspect her handiwork.
In the end, she decided to wait a bit longer before taking action.
If Kate’s diary entry could be believed, the book appearing inside “Carmen” is supposed to somehow be of help to her, after all.

In a border town between Germany and the Czech Republic, which was infamous for the prostitution happening there, a girl was locked in a room.
Olga Svobodova was reading Kate’s diary while crying and whispering to herself.

“Please, if you really are as you write, then help me to escape from this town. I can’t take it anymore.”

Olga folded her hands and prayed for someone, anyone, to rescue her.
Sadly, there was no way for Kate to hear her prayers…

[My other Skills are essentially just two.

One of them is Arithmetic at Level 2, which allows me to use simple math.
Without this, I would probably run into many problems in my life!

The other one is even more crucial.
It is the Language Skill: German.
This one is further broken down into subcategories, with the most important ones being Listening and Speaking, both at Level 3.

It seems like these Skills are more complicated and detailed than I thought at first.
On the other hand, their rating system is relatively simple, with a maximum level of 5 that can be reached in this world.

I don’t need to write those things in my diary, as they are on my status page anyway.
What I wanted to say is that I thankfully have the minimum Skills necessary to communicate in this country.

Because according to the ID card and the property deed for the apartment, which was among the other documents, my address is Fischergasse 8 in Heidelberg, Germany.

According to my status page, I am 18 years old right now, and my ID says my birthday is February 13th, 1977.
If I am understanding this correctly, this means it is at least already February in 1995 or even later in the year.

Oh no! I have to go outside and verify the date.
There are so many things to do, and if I am too late, it would mean I failed to save the lives of many people!]

In Hamburg, Hannah Meyer, who was a journalist and newscaster for the TV channel DNN, started to get antsy.

First of all, her instinct as a journalist was to get to the root of this diary phenomenon.
Now that she knew where this mysterious Kate Verdandi lived, Hannah had trouble holding herself back from taking a train to Heidelberg to conduct an interview with the young woman.
But remembering the terror she experienced when she wanted to talk about the diary with one of her colleagues, Hannah didn’t dare to also violate the third rule of the diary.
This rule forbade the Copy Holders from acting in unnatural ways, which could reveal their access to the contents of her diary to Kate Verdandi.

Secondly, the talk about people’s lives being on the line made her even more nervous.
Comparing it with her own status page, Hannah could hardly believe that an 18-year-old had so few Skills.
But as Kate’s previous existence was erased, it may be possible.

Yet this didn’t reassure Hannah Meyer at all!
This girl doesn’t even have basic Skills like riding a bicycle, or knowledge in history or other school subjects.
How was a woman like that supposed to save other people?

Just like Kate herself wrote in the earlier diary entry, she was utterly useless!

The young woman in question was quite nervous as she stood naked in front of the wardrobe.
This would be her first time wearing clothes after all!
Luckily for Kate, she at least knew how the characters in the stories looked when they were dressed. Thus allowing Kate to understand how she was supposed to put them on.

After once more skimming through her memories of the manga and animation with the open wardrobe in front of her, she stumbled upon the scene of “Carmen” in the strip club.
Silently thanking this woman in her heart, Kate realized that the type of clothing she was confused about was called a bra, a kind of underwear.
If “Carmen” wasn’t depicted like this, Kate may have judged those clothes as unnecessary, as no character seemed to wear them.
Causing her to go outside without it, which would have been a bit embarrassing now that she understood it.

It took Kate a few minutes to put on the bra correctly, as she had only this one scene from the front as a reference.
Her Intelligence was rated at 0.5, like all of Kate’s other attributes, but a bra wasn’t intuitive to use since nobody showed her how.

The other clothes were comparatively easy, until Kate was putting on her shoes.
She realized she didn’t know how to tie the shoelaces…

Frustrated, Kate switched from the sneakers she thought would look good with her jeans to a pair of simple white slip-ons.

A few minutes later, the diary of the Copy Holders glowed once more.

[Dressing myself for the first time was quite the adventure, but I did accomplish it successfully!
I’m feeling quite good about myself right now, after overcoming this first hurdle in my life!
Although I do need to find someone to teach me how to tie shoelaces, it was kind of sad that I couldn’t wear the shoes I wanted to.]

In Frankfurt, a young Asian girl was picked up from pre-school by her father while reading this.
Tung Lam thought to herself that she had been dressing herself for a long time, even though she was much younger than Kate.

This caused her to grin widely and ask her father, who was holding her by the hand, “Daddy, daddy! I can dress myself all alone! I can even tie my shoes! Are you proud of me?”

Tung’s father was bewildered by this question, but there was no way he would let a chance to compliment his cute daughter slip through his fingers.

“Of course! You make me proud every day!”

Afterward, they walked home through the Turkish quarter, talking animatedly with big smiles on both of their faces.

Chapter Text

A young woman was standing in front of her apartment door, with one hand on the door handle.
Pressing it down, she pulled, and nothing happened.
Tilting her head to the side with a puzzled expression, she pushed instead.
The door stayed shut.

Kate was confused. She was sure that this was how people opened doors.
At least it worked for all the other doors inside her apartment.
Looking down, she noticed the key that was inserted in the keyhole.
Turning it a few times, she heard a click, pulled the key out, and put it in her pocket.

She pondered for a moment if adding her embarrassing moments into the diary would make it more believable to the Copy Holders that Kate didn’t know they were reading along.
Making her decision, she opened the door and stepped out of her apartment for the first time in her life.
Shortly afterward, a new entry began to appear in the diary.

[It seems like this “Diary of Fate” put some thought into preparing everything for me in a way that helps me understand my surroundings even without any memories.
After all, the important documents like my ID card, passport, and such were all neatly arranged on the dinner table.

Even money has been provided!
Along with the other essential items, there was a wallet containing 100 Deutsche Mark in cash, as well as a type of bank card that I saw Eva Heinemann receive in the story.

I think I understand how cash works, although I don’t know how much 100 DM can buy.
The only time money is really discussed in the story, the mentioned sums are much larger, so I fear it won’t amount to much.

According to the bank statement, the card was on top of, my bank account has 1.000 DM on it.
It’s just a bit worrisome that I don’t understand how to use it.
I can’t give the card away like one does with cash, right?

There was also a note beside it which read PIN: 6927.
Whatever this is supposed to mean.
At least with it written down here in the diary, I will never forget it, in case I need this weird sequence of letters and numbers in the future.

Most importantly, however, was that the door leading out of the apartment was locked from the inside!
It probably would’ve slipped my mind that some doors need a key to open, therefore locking myself out of my own home.

Thankfully, I knew this could happen because of the scene involving Eva Heinemann, whose bag was stolen, causing her to lose the key to her hotel room.
Therefore, I directly put the key into my pocket to make sure I won’t lose it.]

Eva Heinemann had just lit a cigarette while slumped on the couch in her living room.
Surprised that this mysterious Kate Verdandi mentioned her by name, Eva raised her eyebrows.
Then she tried her best to remember if there was a time when her bag was stolen.
It happened once, but there definitely was no hotel room key involved.

‘Does this woman really have some information about the Fate of the world?
It feels implausible, but would it be weirder than a diary floating inside my mind? One that even starts to write about me now?
Maybe I should cut back on the alcohol. I’m already starting to imagine things.’

Olga Svobodova collapsed onto the bed after reading the last few entries in the diary.
Earlier, she hoped that the owner of the mystical book appearing inside her mind might be able to help her escape, but it was probably more useful to pray for a miracle rather than for someone like Kate to rescue her.
With her newly found hope destroyed, she stared blankly at the ceiling and tried her best not to think about what would happen to her if the door to her room opened again tonight.

Helene Berg, on the other hand, felt quite good after reading about Kate Verdandi.
She knew herself that she wasn’t very smart, but at least she was more useful than this Kate.
Also, understanding those symbols in the diary was way easier for her than when she had to read back in school.
Smiling to herself and thinking that she wasn’t that dumb after all, Helene flicked through the new BRAVO magazine her mother bought for her.
Fascinated by all the pictures, Helene was busy taking out the Brad Pitt poster from the magazine.
Thereby skipping over the alarming report concerning a 16-year-old drug addict, an attempt to warn other young readers of the ways they may be lured onto this path.

[So this is what it’s like to be outside!

The sensation of the wind upon my skin and how it is tussling my hair.
The almost imperceptible sound of the river flowing at the end of the street mixed with the sound of cars driving by on the larger street nearby.
The sunlight on my skin.

I love that I can feel all these new sensations.
Even the cold, which prompted me to return into the house to put on a jacket and scarf, is something I am thankful for.

Isn’t being alive a wonderful thing?

Oh! A real person!]

In Heidelberg, a young woman was smiling brightly and waving enthusiastically toward an older man, who was walking by.
“Hello! Could you please tell me where I can buy a newspaper in the area?”

While Kate had her first conversation with an actual human, Bianka Müller made her way back from the nurse’s break room to the psychology ward, where she worked at the Eisler-Memorial-Hospital in Düsseldorf.
She spent most of her days in the last years with suffering people, who are also often depressed, working more and more overtime.
Bianka cared a lot about her patients, but sometimes she resented the conditions of her career.
Especially after her latest boyfriend left her last month, like the others before him, mainly because Bianka was always at work, and when she was at home, she was exhausted and just wanted to relax.

Reading about the pure joy of being alive as experienced by Kate gave her pause.
Yes, when was the last time she stopped and was simply thankful for being alive and healthy?

Bianka decided to take a little detour around the small park on the hospital grounds, where she often took her patients for some fresh air.
She just stood there, eyes closed, face tilted upward to let the winter sun shine on her skin.
Not thinking about anything.
Just luxuriating in the feeling of being alive and sensing everything around her, causing her to smile slightly at how good it felt.

This was the scene that her colleague and friend Emilia Fischer came across.
Interested in what her friend was up to, Emilia approached her while holding a jar filled with the cookies she had baked yesterday.

Hearing the sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel path approaching her, Bianka opened her eyes and turned toward Emilia.

“Hi Emi, done for the day?”
When Bianka saw the full cookie jar in the other woman’s hand, she raised one eyebrow.

“Yes, I’m on my way home.”
Emilia noticed the look on Bianka’s face and explained.
“Dr. Tenma took sick leave today.
I guess you also heard about the incident where the patient he operated on at the Neue-Rhine-Hospital was killed, along with the police officer, who was supposed to watch over him?
The newspaper said that this patient was an essential witness to the series of middle-aged couple murders.”

“Yeah, it was all over the news. It is a criminal case spanning all of Germany after all.
So you baked some cookies to cheer up Dr. Tenma?”

Bashfully, Emilia cradled the jar in her arms and nodded.

“Emilia, you are already 34 now. How long will you act like a shy schoolgirl when it comes to your boss?
You had a crush on Dr. Tenma since the first day you worked with him in the operating room.
I still remember catching you crying in the break room after he got engaged to director Heinemann’s daughter back then.
I also understand that you fear being rejected after pining for him for such a long time, but staring at him from the side and baking him treats as a show of affection didn’t net you anything after almost ten years.
Either you get more aggressive, or you should think about giving up on him. We’re already not young anymore!”

Being called out by Bianka like this, the timid Emilia was a bit offended.
She didn’t want to hear relationship advice from her friend who just had another boyfriend break up with her.
But before responding with a biting remark, she thought better of it, as she didn’t want to poke the wound in Bianka’s heart.

“But Dr. Tenma always smiled and looked so thankful when I made these treats for him.
Also, he gets dragged to all of these dates by Dr. Becker, yet he never had a relationship with any of the women he met.
Maybe he is just waiting for me, who is always by his side, to make my intentions clear?”

Bianka could only sigh at the mental gymnastics of the hopelessly infatuated Emilia.

“Well, then, let’s just hope you are right. Still, that would mean you have to be more assertive.”

“Enough about me. What were you doing just now, Bianka? You looked quite happy while standing here.”

“Oh, I took some time to just sense the world around me, you know? It occurred to me that it had been a long time since I simply appreciated the feeling of being alive. It was surprisingly enjoyable.”

The sound of the cookie jar dropping onto the gravel path was heard as Emilia grabbed Bianka’s shoulders with both hands.

“Bianka… did you read that somewhere not long ago?”

Surprised, Bianka stared at her friend.
She was a bit scared because she had already experienced the sense of dread for violating the first rule of the diary earlier today.
So Bianka only nodded and pointed a finger at her temple.

Emilia was similarly shocked, her hands putting more pressure on Bianka’s shoulders.
This reaction gave Bianka the courage needed to say it out loud.

“Emilia, are you a Copy Holder too?”

After she nodded, Emilia looked around the park, as if she was about to be caught doing something illegal.

“Come to my house after your shift is over. I don’t think it’s good to talk about this outside.”

The friends made plans for the evening and parted ways, leaving behind a forgotten cookie jar on the ground.
At least they now knew that the diary really wasn’t just a figment of their imagination.
But why would both of them receive this diary?
It also wrote about someone called Eva Heinemann before. Could it be the ex-fiancée of Dr. Tenma, whom they knew in the past?

In the meantime, Kate Verdandi managed to accomplish her first purchase in a supermarket.
Even though she hadn’t experienced it for herself yet, she knew that humans would experience thirst and hunger if they didn’t eat and drink regularly. Therefore, she purchased some sandwiches like those she saw in the story and a few drinks.
But the main purchase was, of course, the most recent newspaper of the Heidelberg Post.

Looking at the date, February 13th, 1995, she already felt some pressure.

After returning to her home, Kate read the newspaper while eating food for the first time.
She was delighted by the taste of the simple sandwich and once again felt like being alive was the best.
Kate closed her eyes and fully concentrated on the act of eating before returning to reading.

Already on the second page, Kate stumbled upon the article about Adolf Junkers, who was the only witness to the so-called middle-aged couple murders, found shot to death in an abandoned building last Friday evening.

Kate took a deep breath to calm down and accepted that this was an event she couldn’t do anything about, just like the other ones that happened before 1995.
According to how the “Diary of Fate” explained the importance of the amount of Fate a person has, Kate would probably not be able to do anything to save Junkers anyway, as both Tenma and Johan were directly involved.

Going through her memories of the story, Kate decided on her next course of action.
She really wanted to get to know Nina Fortner now that she was in Heidelberg anyway, but sadly, this had to wait.
Kate packed the travel bag she had found earlier at the bottom of her wardrobe, as there was a chance she could make a difference in Munich at this point in time.