Chapter Text
prologue.
With the knowledge of the future, what choices would you make to change the past? What actions would you do, differently, to ensure a better outcome for yourself and the people around you? The people you love?
That was the choice that was presented to Hanagaki Takemitchi. But you already know his story.
In this reset, things would be a little different. In this reset, Takemitchi would not be the one rewinding time.
Chifuyu woke up with a startle. His head panged with an unfamiliar pain as he sucked in a breath of air with a strangled noise. His eyes opened blearily to the sight of his childhood bedroom. He huffed softly and let himself adjust to the shift in environment. "What.." he mumbled to himself. Was this what was Takemitchi's time travelling? But why? Why him? Why was he here now?
'Everything was alright wasn't it? Hina.. Hina was alive!' Chifuyu thought. No. No no no. This wasn't… this didn't make sense. He stared at his palms. 'Maybe this is all just a bad dream. Yeah. That's probably it.' Chifuyu rationalised. Peke J, visibly younger, crawled up and purred next to Chifuyu. 'Nevermind. There's no way this is a dream'.
The sight of his childhood pet made his heart stutter and breath catch in his throat. He stumbled out of his bed and speed walked to the bathroom. He felt shorter. Smaller. Younger. The bathroom door swung open sharply and he was met with his own reflection - no - the reflection of his younger self. He stared. And stared. And stared. Until the sharp yell of his mom broke his thoughts, "Fuyu! Get downstairs already! Any more time and you'll be late!".
'Okay. Calm down', he tried to tell himself, swallowing the lump in his throat. 'This must be what happened to Takemitchi'. He pulled out his phone to check the date. The flimsy plastic of the older cheap flip phones, a glaring aspect of the time period, and checked the date.
1/9/2008.
September. A month away from bloody halloween. Baji's still alive. Chifuyu could probably burst into tears right here right now. He chewed the inside of his mouth and his heart raced. Holy shit. Holy shit. Was this like, Takemitchy? He travelled back in time, a month before the incident to save him right? What else could he change? Oh- Oh. This would probably also stop Mikey in the future right?' Chifuyu's mind raced. He started feeling lightheaded. 'Did Takemitchy go back too?'
He needed to calm down before he started panicking full on. 'Alright.. I'll just.. get over with school today and.. I'll mull this over afterwards..' He told himself before getting ready with jittery hands and shaky movements.
He got ready in his school uniform and stared at himself in the mirror one last time before leaving. This felt so odd. So unnerving. Is this how Takemitchy felt before? None of this felt real. He'd grown and accepted Baji's death, forgiven Kazutora, and even running a petshop with him. Now, he was thurst back into his adolescence and the trauma that came with it. Now, he was forced to live through it and see the face of the person he had shed an unimaginable amount of tears to, spent countless sleepless nights over, the face of the person that unintentionally brought upon him a grief that no teenager should have had to face.
He swallowed thickly and tried to calm down. He reminded himself that he could save Baji now. They could all.. live together. Happily. But what if he failed again? Would he be able to take it? The burden? Of having been given a chance and then having failed? For a second time? No. He can't fail this. No matter what. He's not going to. He steeled his nerves and left his house for school. He wasn't ready to see Keisuke.
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