Chapter 104: The Retrograde Refrain
The Bureau was built to monitor the forward march of destiny, but at 07:00 Cycles, the "March" became a Moonwalk. The Giant Silver Hourglass in the center of the Lobby didn't just stand there; it defied the very laws of gravity. The sand—fine, violet grains of "Chronal Dust"—wasn't falling; it was streaming upward from the bottom bulb to the top.
"Commissioner!" Assistant Yue's voice sounded like a record being spun backward. "!GNIDNREWIR. ERA. EW .YROTS. EHT. SI. OS. DNA. SRAWKCAB. GNIVOM. SI. EMIT. THE. 'RETROGRADE. REFRAIN'. HAS. BEGUN. WE. ARE. 'UN-WRITING'. THE. PRESENT. TO. FIX. A. 'PAST. TYPO'. IF. WE. DON'T. INTERVENE, WE. WILL. DISAPPEAR. INTO. OUR. OWN. PROLOGUE!"
The De-Evolution of the Lobby
The room began to "Undo" itself in 7.5% increments.
The Muse watched in horror as her neon-blue hair shortened, turned brown, and eventually became a single "Potential Spark" in a jar. "Ne Job! I'm losing my 'Development'! I'm becoming a 'Basic Character Concept' again!"
Architect Ao Bing saw the marble pillars of the Lobby turn back into crates of raw stone. "My work! It's being 'Un-Built'! I'm losing my 100-chapter seniority!"
Pip was shrinking into a smaller, even squeakier version of themselves, clutching a wrench that was slowly turning into a drawing of a wrench.
Ne Job felt his own memories being "Deleted." He looked at his desk; the stacks of completed trajectories were flying back into the "Unassigned" bin. The "Grand Jubilee" was being erased. The "Anti-Bureau" was being "Un-Defeated."
The 7.5% Anchor of the Semicolon
The Hourglass was a Correctional Engine. It had detected a "Fatal Error" in Chapter 4—a minor typo in a trajectory that was now causing the "Volume 2" reality to collapse. To fix the typo, it was deleting everything that had happened since.
"I won't let a hundred chapters of growth be 'Backspaced'!" Ne Job roared, though his voice was becoming higher and more youthful.
He pulled out the Semicolon. Because the Semicolon is the "Bridge between the Before and After," it was the only thing that could Stand Still while the clock moved backward.
"Assistant Yue! Initiate the 'Fixed-Point Protocol'! Junior... wait, Junior is currently just a 'Thought' in the Muse's head!"
The Clause of Persistence
Ne Job realized he couldn't stop Time, but he could Punctuate it. He didn't try to push the sand down; he used the Semicolon to Staple the Present to the Past.
He fired a burst of violet light that acted as a Chronal Suture. He linked his current self—the Head Archivist who had survived 103 chapters—to the "Ne Job" of Chapter 4.
"I am the Semicolon!" Ne Job yelled into the reverse-wind. "I am the connection! The past is not a 'Mistake' to be erased; it is a Foundation to be built upon! I will fix the typo, but I will Keep the Growth!"
He channeled the power of the "And." He didn't "Un-Write" the last 100 chapters; he turned them into a 7.5% Sub-Clause that the Hourglass was forced to carry back with it.
The Restoration of the Refrain
The upward stream of sand hit the Semicolon's shield and stalled. The violet light forced the Hourglass to rotate.
CLUNK.
The sand began to fall downward again. Time snapped forward, accelerating through a century of memories in a matter of seconds. The Muse's hair flashed from brown back to neon-violet. Ao Bing's pillars reconstructed themselves. Pip grew back into their wrench-wielding self.
The typo in Chapter 4 was fixed—not by erasing the story, but by adding a "Correction Note" in the margins.
The Archivist's Log
Ne Job sat back in his chair, feeling 100% like his old (older) self. The Hourglass had shrunk into a small, silver egg-timer on his desk.
LOG: CHAPTER 104 SUMMARY.
STATUS: Time-loop stabilized. Narrative integrity maintained.
NOTE: You can't fix the past by deleting it; you fix it by writing a better future.
OBSERVATION: Going backward is much more exhausting than going forward. My knees are 7.5% more 'Vintage' than they were ten minutes ago.
P.S.: Assistant Yue is still speaking in reverse occasionally. She says it's 7.5% more 'Avant-Garde.'
The Muse leaned over his shoulder, her hair glowing with a relieved, neon-violet light. "That was close, Ne Job. I almost forgot I was a main character."
Ne Job looked at the Semicolon. It was glowing with a timeless, persistent violet.
"History is a draft, Muse, but we are the final ink," Ne Job said. "Now, why is Assistant Yue sounding a 7.5% alarm and why has a Giant Silver Question Mark appeared on the 'Front Cover' of the Bureau, and why is it currently asking 'Who is Ne Job?'"