Time Hollow Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Ethan Kairos, known as Horō Tokio (歩郎 時尾) in Japan, is the main protagonist of Time Hollow.

Biography[]

He was born on November 22, 1990. He lives with his parents, Pamela and Timothy Kairos, in his house. Ethan was a normal high school student until the morning of his seventeenth birthday, when he woke up to find his whole world had changed; he found his parents gone, ostensibly having vanished some years ago, and that he had been living with his uncle, Derek Kairos.

Description[]

Story[]

Prologue[]

Ethan Kairos is a seventeen-year-old student at the Kako High. One morning, his parents disappear and he realizes that he now lives, and has purportedly been living, with his uncle Derek. He finds a strange pen and a set of instructions that help him go back in time. Ethan decides to use the pen to reunite with his lost parents.

Chapter 1[]

At school, Ashley and Emily surprise Ethan with a birthday gift—an ancient alarm clock. Ethan then experiences a modified time phase where Ashley ran away because of a fight she had with Emily about losing the money for Ethan's present. While trying to prevent their fight, he meets Kori, a new girl in his class, who gives her the money Ashley lost when she bumped into her. As Ethan changes the past and puts the money back in place, he prevents Ashley and Emily's fight and the present changes. They give him a birthday card instead of the clock.

Chapter 2[]

A few days later, Ethan visits Chronos with Vin, Ben and Morris. They are welcomed by the cafe's ever-cheerful waitress Olivia who tells them about how she barely escaped an accident the night before. Ethan then again experiences an altered time phase where Olivia was not able to escape from the accident. He decides to save Olivia and uses the Hollow Pen to go back to the time where he finds her bike's brakes sabotaged. To prevent her from using the bike, Ethan steals the keys. As soon as the past changes, so does the present. In the new timeline, Olivia is saved, but Lucky gets into the accident instead. He meets Jacob, Lucky's owner, at the Intersection who tells him about how a falling refrigerator killed his dog. Ethan digs a Time Hole. As soon as he gets to tighten the loose rope ends of the refrigerator that caused Lucky's death, Kori interrupts him saying she is also able to see what he can. She refuses to be able to see the Hollow Pen, however. She also confirms the flashbacks occur when someone changes the past. Ethan wonders about her true identity, but carries on with his work. With the rope ends tightened, the present changes yet again and Olivia and Lucky are both saved.

Chapter 3[]

The next day, Ethan experiences Ben killing Olivia's boyfriend, Aaron, with the pliers. Jacob, who was on a walk with Lucky that day, tells Ethan about how Ben was upset at Lucky. Ben hit and yelled at Lucky, who ran off somewhere. When he came for Jacob, Aaron intervened and the two started arguing. This resulted in Ben severely injuring Aaron with the pliers. Since Lucky had run off on his own, Ethan and Morris go in search of him. Jacob insists on coming too, but is left in Vin's care in case if someone had "questions for him". When they find Lucky, they return to the cafe. Lucky barks at the pliers lying near the parking lot. Ethan discovers the pliers and soon realizes that the murder weapon was the pair of pliers—possible the same one used to cut brake weires of Olivia's bikes. He digs back to the past and removes the pliers from the parking lot. The present changes and Ethan experiences a new flashback. This time Aaron beats up Ben instead.

In the new alternate timeline, Ethan finds himself outside Chronos, where he receives a call from Vin, who tells him about the degrading condition of Ben. Confused, Ethan asks Morris for more details. Morris tells him that Ben tried to fight Jacob, possibly over Lucky's presence. Before Ben could hurt Jacob, Aaron intervened and the two got into an argument. Aaron knocked Ben over, who hit his head and fell unconscious. Morris and Ethan decide to visit the station. They meet Kori. With Morris baffled, Kori and Ethan talk about how things did not go well. Kori asks him to try again as many times as it would take to save Ben, since he was a friend of Ethan. Before leaving, she says that he might not have the "time" for it, though. Morris, now even more puzzled, turns to Ethan. Ethan decides to tell him everything he knew. Morris agrees to keep everything a secret. They ponder over how to alter the timeline so that Ben could be saved from the argument with Jacob and eventually, Aaron. They decide to change Ben's bitterness towards dogs by saving Shiloh from the lightning strike.

Ethan and Morris head to Aeon, but neither of them knew when the lightning hit, so they head for the library instead. With the details of the flashback verified, Ethan goes to the shop's back room, where the secret hideout used to be. Before he could open a hole, he is interrupted by the owner of the shop, who tells him and Morris about the two girls buying an expensive alarm clock. Ethan deduces that he was talking about Ashley and Emily buying him the present. The Hollow Pen starts to glow. As soon as he begins to dig, Morris interrupts him, pleading Ethan to help him afterwards. Ethan manages to dodge the question and digs a Hole. Using the pliers, he cuts off the rope that tied Shiloh from the secret hideout. Shiloh manages to escape the lightning strike. With the past changed, Morris fades away and the owner enters the room. Ethan and the owner exchange names and numbers. He goes to Chronos and finds everyone, except Morris, inside. When the group heads out, they find Morris, who had recently quit school and became a dog walker. When everyone leaves, Ethan meets Kori, who asks him if he was successful this time. After he asks her who she is, she reveals that she knew his father, but was not sure whether he was alive or not, and that the Hollow Pen is Ethan's legacy.

Chapter 4[]

The next morning, Ethan asks Derek about family heirlooms, in hopes for finding more about the Hollow Pen. Derek mentions that Ethan's parents had been chasing after an accident that involved the death of the mother of one of his classmates. Ethan suddenly realizes that the shop owner should not know about the two girls buying an alarm clock since the alternate timeline was wiped out. He goes back to his room to check on the present, which was not the clock the owner talked about. Ethan tells Derek about Irving, and he leaves, saying Irving had a "lot of explaining to do". In a rush, Derek leaves his study unlocked and Ethan ventures inside. He finds a note on the Hollow Pen that explains the inheritance of the pen. He realizes that "Time" actually referred to the holder's lifespan, due to which Irving looked much older than Derek even though they had been classmates once. He also finds Derek's yearbook with an image of Kori in it, along with an hourglass pendant. As soon as he leaves the study, he experiences new flashbacks.

One of the flashback depicts a bus accident. Ethan goes to the library and collects details about the bus accident. He resolves to save Mary and heads for Clockwork Hill. Ethan opens a hole and approaches Mary. Much to his surprise, she moves and explains that she too had a Hollow Pen. He asks her to move away from the bus, and she agrees. Ethan closes the hole and experiences the same flashbacks as before. He heads back to the library, only to find nothing changed even after his interference. He goes back to Clockwork Hill and digs again. He asks Mary to leave the bus quickly this time, but nothing changes. Confused, he decides to head back home.

Back at home, Ethan meets Derek, who tells him that Irving didn't know anything. Ethan decides to meet Irving and heads for Aeon, but finds it to be closed. On returning home, he is greeted by Jack Twombly, who tells him that the pop quizzes he gave Ethan were from his correspondence with Derek when Derek was one of his students. Twombly leaves and Ethan heads to his room. Next morning, Ethan feels cruddy, but goes to school.

At school, Ethan meets with Kori, who asks him about the flashbacks from the previous day. She asks if he had killed Mary, a claim he heavily negates. She decides to believe him. After school, Kori suggests Ethan to pull Mary from her time to theirs. However, this would leave her out of the flow of time. Kori reveals that she, too, was out of the flow of time. Before she could reveal who pulled her, Ethan experiences new flashbacks.

Now, Derek is dead and Ethan lives alone in the house. He meets with Kori in front of the Chronos, who seems to be touched by the Chronos sign and asks Ethan to help his uncle. Ethan finds a notice he had given Onegin, revealing him to be the murderer. He gives the Derek in the past a memo, preventing the "Chronos" bankruptcy.

In the evening, Ethan receives a call from Onegin, forcing him to meet with him at 6:00 am at the clockwork hill. After trying to kill Ethan with a knife, Derek and Kori show up, forcing Onegin to travel to the past and erasing himself by doing so. Kori then meets with Ethan at the former Aeon and tells him Onegin betrayed her. She reveals that his father was the one who pulled her through the hole and that he never fulfilled his promise of putting everything back to normal. She begs Ethan to save her and covers her face with her hands.

Chapter 5[]

At school, Ethan encounters with the new Onegin, now by the name of Jack Twombly. After he disappeared, he first kills Morris, then Ashley and Emily, while Ethan is the one claimed to be the culprit. After they saved Morris, Ashley, and Emily, Ethan sits within the Chronos in company of his friends. As he receives a call from Kori, they joke about her being his girlfriend, while he avoids a statement. A new flashback occurs; now, Derek was murdered again. When meeting with Kori at the library, she seems to be sad and Ethan remarks her speaking of Derek in a very familiar way. Kori begs Ethan to let her go through the hole to save Derek, with Ethan asking her to come back save and sound. He then figures out that she and Derek might have been a couple. When Ethan tries to rescue his parents, Jack appears and stabs Ethan. Protecting him from any more harm, Kori embraces Ethan and gets kicked again and again. Jack jokes about Ethan being so precious to Kori and that they would make a nicer couple than her and Derek. Kori states that she hates Jack and that he annoys her. The furious Jack then tries to beat Kori but is stopped by Derek. Ethan apologizes to Kori that he is not Derek, and Kori is touched by his feelings for her. After closing the hole, Jack yells that Ethan has to die and tries to stab him with his knife; however, Kori protects Ethan embracing him, being mortally wounded. While fading away, she tells Ethan that she believes in him being able to save her, and that she is certain of her and Derek being able to meet again at Chronos. As she fades away, her hourglass necklace falls down and Jack runs away, his eyes covered with his hands.

Chapter 6[]

It is revealed that Kori and Derek were a couple nineteen years ago and that Ethan's father pulled Kori through the time hole so Derek would not commit suicide. When his mother remarks how sweet the couple was, Ethan seems to be displeased. When Ethan tries to save Kori, he sees no other alternative than pulling Kori through the hole again. Saddened, he realizes that the Kori he had known is now gone and that he will never see her again. As Kori thanks Ethan for saving her, he tells her that he only wanted her to be "where she belongs to". He then states that she indeed looks like Mary Onegin.

While trying to save Kori for good, Derek volunteers to go through the time hole and saves her from the crash. When everything turned back to normal, Ethan receives a letter that says Derek has married Kori and now carries the "Chronos" together with her; he states that he knows about Ethan's feelings for Kori and that he acknowledges them.

Ethan's feelings[]

Ethan seems to hold strong feelings for Kori, whether she returns them or not. It is often hinted that Ethan feels more than friendship for Kori, and even Jack (Onegin) jokes about them being a nice couple. At a certain point in the game, he apologizes that he can not be his uncle Derek, a sentence touching Kori deeply. Ethan seems to be jealous of his uncle for being Kori's lover, and he seems to be displeased after his mother stating that Derek and Kori were such a nice couple. As for Ethan and Kori being hero and heroine, and meeting together in the opening while standing close to each other often, it can be interpreted that they are a couple, though. In Japanese culture, it is often shown to be very romantic if the couple loves each other even after one has faded away; to show the bond between them, it is often occurring that the couple is able to meet each other again or that the one faded away is now able to come back. In case of Kori, it can be interpreted - since no one has ever specified the girl in the ending - that Kori indeed came back to meet Ethan again by breaking the rules of time, while her future self is married with Derek, so everybody is finally happy. As the game consists of Ethan trying to make everybody happy without caring about his own happiness, it could be interpreted as a final piece of happiness for Ethan himself, having created a future that pleases himself fully, too.

Name[]

  • Ethan's Japanese name, Tokio Horō, is a play on phrase "toki no horō" (時 の 歩廊), which literally translates into "passage of time.

Notes[]

  • It remains unclear who sent the Hollow Pen to Ethan: while the letter he receives is subscribed by his father, Irving Onegin claims that he and Kori have given him the Hollow Pen to fast, while in the ending, it becomes clear that the future Ethan has sent the Hollow Pen to his past self. Who sent the Hollow Pen in the beginning before Ethan got the pen, remains unclear.


Advertisement