Chapter Text
Just 6 seconds?
Gotcha.
You’ll listen to everything I say as if guided by me, it turns me on.
Huh..???
Mafuyu decided to get out of that conversation before unpacking whatever that was. She placed her stopwatch in her pocket, and made sure to keep an eye out for the students. The students that ruined everything.
_______
The rock hit her, which means they won’t try to throw paper at her this class period. However, after they get a chance, they will come up to talk to her. That’s when I come in.
So scary. Maybe pay attention to your math lesson, the teachers talking.
I’ve been through it as many times as I haven’t skipped, I’m sure I’ll be fine.
Heh.
Say, you never told me your name. Nor did you tell me why I can’t tell Kanade about my time abilities.. Now’s a good time, just as any on the clock.
It really isn’t. If you were sure you wanted to know, you wouldn’t be so desperate.
Are you suggesting I’m usually patient?
I’m suggesting you’re weak since Kanade’s last..well, you know. You want to find this oneee.. Very small detail, stop her fate, but you’re trapped. Inside this box, you are trapped. Almost necromancing under my encouragement, you. are. trapped.
It's no metaphoric applause, you are cursed, as if a father collapsed and cursed you with a gift of music.
You just figured out sympathy. That's it. That’s your cage.
It’s not sympathy. I looked at timelines where Kanade wasn’t in her predicament, and she always ended up saving me. Not anybody else, just me. Mizuki and Ena left, Kanade stayed.
So you’re repaying what she hasn’t done for this timeline?
I'm repaying her sentiment.
That you have yet to no knowledge if she has presently.
I am SAVING Kanade.
You’re just following your narrative.
_______
Mafuyu huffed as she felt frustration coursing through her, throbbing as it got to her head. What is this stupid voice? Why does she have it.. She finally looked up, noticing everyone was packing up their stuff. Great, she’ll talk with Kanade in the hallway to avoid the students.
Mafuyu rushed out of the classroom, and waited for Kanade to walk. She grabbed her stopwatch. Everything should be accurate, 6 seconds forward, 6 seconds behind, it would be the same events. What could be so small that Kanade found..
“Ah, Kanade!” Mafuyu yelled over, and Kanade’s eyes lit up. Kanade strided over, and looked around.
“So many people I don’t know, I’m glad to have you here..” Still caught up with slight suspicion of earlier, Kanade looked at Mafuyu’s stopwatch. Grazing over the time past button, she pressed the stopwatch button.
Mafuyu looked at it from the start. 17 seconds until Kanade could break canon. The most inconsistent response was from these moments, where she inspected the watch.
“What does this one do?..I’ve never seen..3 buttons on a stopwatch,” Kanade began, grazing over the third–the most clicked one for Mafuyu. Mafuyu swallowed, and shrugged.
“Could just be for clicking, but I dunno. Pretty old one I found in my room,” She couldn’t give too much. But then she remembered. Saying something about the watch will affect the canon, so if it goes wrong…
“Or it could be a time travel option, haha.”
Ah??
Kanade didn’t laugh, and instead looked more intrigued. “It seemed like it got something off your chest saying that.” She then averted her gaze. “It's not truly a travel option, right?”
Mafuyu laughed, albeit nervously, and grazed her finger over it. “Don’t be silly, Kanade, there’s no such thing.”
Kanade nodded, fidgeting with something in her pocket. She needed to find who kept switching the time back…it was her task. “Let me have it.”
“Huh? No!”
Dramaaa..
Kanade held her hand out.
“I said give it to me. Please.”
“No! Its a family sacred,”
“It’s NOT, and it could put holes in the universe.”
“What holes?? Universe?? Says who.”
“Says ME!”
As people surrounded the fight, Mafuyu realized. This is disrupting the canon..too disrupting.. But she could always make a run for it. So seeing the exit door open, she ran straight there.
“MAFUYU!”
Kanade huffed, and then grabbed the object out of her pocket. Secured the timekeeper name, just had to secure the timekeeper.
Praying, she then ran after her. Clicking the item, she quickly predicted where Mafuyu was. Behind an alleyway, predictable.
…
Taking a shortcut, Kanade stumbled into it, taking hard and heavy breaths. Mafuyu stood there, not having this happen in a timeline. Spinning the clocks base, she prepared to click the Timeback option–
“WAIT!” Kanade screamed out, her body racking with a plea to stop the activity. “Timekeeper..You’re the timekeeper. I’ve seen these days hundreds of times, just..please.. Don’t click it right now.”
Mafuyu backed up, her thumb putting pressure but never enough to press it. “Kanade.. I heard there was someone out for me.”
“What? No, I’m not a foe.”
“Oh.”
Kanade huffed, and then grabbed Mafuyu’s wrist. “How far back can you go??? 4? 5?”
“7 days,” Mafuyu asserted quickly and predominantly. Taking her completely back would take her to July 25th, which she wasn’t sure was good or worse. Not remembering anything from those days, it would be entirely new for her.
“I'm a predictor! Here's my,” Kanade paused, showing her pen. “Pen..the pen I use. Look, every timekeeper has a determination they have to keep using it, but I just need one favor from you. Every time we go back, there's something I keep mistaking on August 1st. Specifically at 25:00. I just need you to rewind before then, right before then.”
Mafuyu digested the information, and then gripped taut around the clock. “Is it what keeps leading to what happens on August 7th..”
“Yes! And what I need is just simply 30 minutes before 25:00, 00:30.”
“That's..out of my pow’r. I can only time travel to times I’ve woken up..” Mafuyu mumbled, looking at the chain that was connected to nothing. She connected it to her sleeve, it just seemed reasonable.
“Completely out, or just a lot of manifestation??” Kanade desperately needed whatever she asked for, and she was probably willing to kill for it. Mafuyu swallowed, and then shrugged.
“You’re asking for a ton right now,” Mafuyu took a pause to listen to the usual voice in her head. But it didn’t speak.
“Maybe..”
Kanade interrupted, and then grabbed Mafuyu’s wrist.
“Click back. Reset this morning. Go back to August 1st, the time you first woke up. NOW.”