Chapter Text
“I made a mistake starting with a fixed event.” C4S02 placed her hand on the screen. “I thought the familiarity would help ease you into the experience but that backfired so, let’s try something different this time.” Her voice rang clearly. “Instead of going forward,” her form fluctuated with effort, “and looking at the branches of your timeline tree,” she resolidified. “Let’s go left!”
“Left?”
C4S02 clapped and mist once more floated over the scene. With a burst of light, the Mizo Mid Five, Hinata, Emma, and Yuzuha began appearing in the still-empty chairs and a new commotion took over the room as people realized that Hamada, Hanma, Mucho, and Sanzu were gone. C4S02 calmed them all down with her strange humming again. Everyone watched attentively as the being floated across the theater, setting up more drinks and snacks by each chair.
"Hello newcomers! Welcome to my theater.” She smiled widely and received a couple confused smiles in return. "It's very nice to meet you. As I’ve explained to your friends, I am a Watcher, designation C4S02. Please call me Cas. I am in charge of recording your universe and its variants." A few gave polite greetings as well, excluding Yuzuha’s whispered “What the fuck?”.
The newcomers stared on in bewildered confusion, and the rest with annoyance, as they knew this already. "I know everyone here is busy. Don’t worry, my theater is a space-time pocket. When you leave, no time will have passed in the real world.”
C4S02 continued. “I brought you all here to react to some of the stories that have been recorded. The people who were already here have reacted to a universe within your timeline, the future, so to say, but you will now be reacting to a universe with different fundamental laws than yours." A few protested, and others seemed excited. She held up a hand for silence. “This universe has abilities and entities that yours doesn’t and therefore will have events that cannot and will not happen in any of your timelines. Understood?” There was a sea of bobbing heads, plus one or two miscellaneous gestures which C4S02 took as agreements.
“Okay,” said C4S02, “the events will play on the screen, but I will need a narrator to read the recorded text. Not the dialogue though, that will be played.” There was a lot of uncomfortable shuffling. Nobody volunteered.
Eventually Hinata raised her hand. “Cas-chan, I will read.”
C4S02 looked delighted, glowing when she appeared directly in front of the girl. “Hina-chan! What a blessing, I’m so excited!” She dragged her over to a comfortable-looking chair to the side of the screen. Here’s the book. Now,” she smiled widely and placed a hand on the screen, “let’s begin.”
Hinata’s voice was equal parts amused and confused as she began to read.
Takemichi was in the past (once again) all the way in the beginning.
Takemichi’s jaw dropped. What? The screen had yet to show anything, remaining a solid blue that illuminated Hinata eerily. Both the blank screen and Hinata’s narration had the audience whispering amongst themselves in confusion.
Maybe this was the gods trying to apologise by giving him one last time to finally correct everything. He’s committed everything to memory, but he certainly doesn’t remember things going like this…
Like what?
An image appears on the screen and the Mizo Mid crew straighten in obvious interest, jabbing at and slapping each other in excitement.
“Hey Takemichi, didn’t you say you wanted a job?”
Literally why. People turn towards Takemichi with visible questions. He drops his head into his hands, exasperated and just as lost. At his age the only jobs he might get would be in food service or retail. Again. He’d rather make out with Kisaki than go back to working in retail.
“Shut up and turn around. No, I don’t know why he wants a job.”
Even Hina falls silent at the uncharacteristically curt response. The quiet lingers a few moments longer before Takemichi lifts his gaze to a crowd of bewildered stares.
“Huh? Is- is something wrong?” he bit his lip anxiously, the irritation at on-screen Takemichi’s predicament slipping away in the face of his own. “Why is everyone staring at me?”
“You okay Mitchy?”
“M-Mikey?!” Takemichi whips around to face him. “I- I’m fine!”
Mikey narrows his gaze and stares Takemitchi down for a moment. Two. Th-
He nods once and turns back to the screen. “You can keep going Hina-chan!”
The blonde stops mid-chew and stares at Yamagishi. The entire Mizo Middle 5 (or Mizo for short) were at Pizza Hut just a couple of days after Takemichi had become friends with Mikey and Draken.
“Do we have a Pizza Hut in the area?”
“Literally why do you expect me to know that, Makoto.”
Takemichi slowly chewed his food. “I mean, yeah I did.”
Takemichi slumped in his chair.
His mother was more of an absentee guardian more than a parent. She went on business trips, with each one being longer than the last. Just barely enough money for him to survive off on.
“Takemitchy, is everything okay at home?”
“Partner, you know you can come to me for anything, right?”
Startled, Takemichi’s gaze drifts between Mitsuya and Chifuyu. “Everything’s fine, I promise! Our universe isn’t like that.”
Mitsuya’s brow furrows.
“R-really!” Takemichi insists. “It must be one of the fundamental differences of that universe. I promise, I’m not short on money.”
“Good,” Mikey interjects. He would feel guilty if he were worsening Takemitchi’s financial situation by making him pay for everything. “Let me know if that changes.”
Takemichi nods frantically.
Mikey would keep a closer eye. Should anything happen, Draken was a perfectly capable piggy bank.
Chifuyu looks away from Takemichi. Takemichi hadn't said anything about his mom. Just the money.
In his original and even the last timeline, his cousin would practically live with him and give him money to splurge with or to feed himself. Though in this timeline his cousin and him are distant and less-friendly.
(He wonders if this was because he time traveled using Mikey instead of Naoto)
That was another mention of time-travel, mused Kisaki. Was this also one of the fundamental differences between universes?
Takemichi watches Hina thoughtfully as she reads. Assuming that his ability to time travel in the universe she was reading from worked similarly to the way it did in their universe, that meant that his journeys weren’t reliant on Naoto specifically. He trades glances with Chifuyu, who seems to be thinking along the same lines. They have some hypotheses to test when they leave the entity’s theatre, now.
So, he desperately needed money. His eyes narrowed at Yamagishi, who was wearing the Pizza Hut uniform. This was another weird occurrence in this timeline where Yamagishi had a job.
Yamagishi rested his chin in the middle of his palm. “Well, you could always-”
“Do you want a job?”
Scattered swears from the audience at the sudden and unfamiliar voice. A scan of the theatre reveals that none of them had any idea who the speaker was.
The entirety of Mizo Middle, except for Yamagishi, jumped out of their skin. A man appeared out of nowhere like a sauce stain. Takemichi almost had to do a double take since the man looked exactly like Kurt Cobain, the famous rock singer, but if he was a depressed and angry college student.
Yuzuha laughs at the description, drawing a quizzical glance from her brother. “What?” she scowled at him, “It’s accurate! He looks like a Walmart Cobain.”
Hakkai stares blankly at her for a moment before turning away. He had no idea what Kurt Cobain looked like. Behind him, Takemichi watches the exchange with poorly concealed amusement, though he is soon distracted by an elbow in the gut.
“Ow! What do you want?” He turns to Chifuyu with a grimace.
“Who is Kurt Cobain?”
“An American rock artist, like Hina said.” Takemichi frowns. “Why did you elbow me?”
Chifuyu only looks more curious than he did at the beginning. “Hina didn’t say he was American; how did you know he was American?” His nose scrunches as he realizes something else. “Wait, you listen to American rock music?”
“Grunge, technically.”
“What the fuck is grunge?” Takemichi ignores Chifuyu’s whining now, returning his attention to Hina and the scene on the theatre screen.
Yamagishi's face lit up. “Chris! I thought you were busy trying to become one with the pepperoni on the ground in the kitchen?”
“Yamagishi… what?”
The boy whips around indignantly to scowl at Makoto. “How am I supposed to know, dude? I don’t know this guy!”
Akkun rolls his eyes as Makoto argues back, “You do there!”
“It’s a different universe.” Yamagishi grinds out between his teeth. Takuya and Akkun, on either side of the pair, share a quick look before knocking the two’s heads together. The subsequent “ow!” is ignored as Hina continues to read.
The man, Chris, scowled. His nails dug into his styrofoam cup, which Takemichi could only assume from the smell that it was coffee. Something told Takemichi that the man was only seconds away from pouring the coffee on top of Yamagishi's head.
Yamagishi scowled at the amused narration, even as his friends heckled and agreed.
Akkun raised a brow. “Who even are you?”
Chris's eyes flickered towards Akkun. There was something about his eyes. An overwhelming blue, like his, but Takemichi's internal alarms went off. His instincts telling him it probably wasn’t a good idea to have his attention on you.
The air in the room grew tense. Never let it be said that Takemichi had any sense of self-preservation; however, his instincts were rather sharp for how often he tended to ignore them.
Chris (is that even his name?) took one long and loud sip of his coffee. “I’m the manager,” He speaks, and he almost has that type of deep voice you would hear in a crime documentary. “And you four.” his eyes flickering between them. “Are hired.”
“What?” Takemichi intelligently sputtered out.
“Yeah, what?” exclaimed Makoto.
“Free pizza and desserts,” He says, as if that’s going to convince four teenagers from doing a minimum wage job. But alas, he was absolutely correct, as all four of them agreed to the job in a heartbeat.