This is a sentence from a novel:

> 警察署に連れてこられてから何分も経つのに、[智也]{ともや}の心臓は早撃ちをやめなかった。

"Even though several minutes had passed since he was brought in the station,
Tomoya's heart was still beating fast."

Time _has already_ passed, so why is 経つ not in some sort of past form?

`警察署に連れてこられてから何分も経っているのに、智也の心臓は早撃ちをやめなかった。` seems more natural to me.

Also, it's probably unrelated, but isn't it weird that the first part of the
sentence has 智也 as an implicit subject, but the topic of the sentence is
智也の心臓?

Wouldn't `警察署に連れてこられてから何分も経っているのに、智也は心臓が早撃ちをやめなかった。` be more natural? Or maybe
`智也の心臓は` does not make 智也の心臓 the topic and is used to mark emphasis?...
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2022-09-22T11:20:09.293
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2022-09-22T11:20:09.293
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question
grammar tense
何分も経つのに...なかった。Why not 経った or 経っている?