Work Text:
#4
"I really haven't decided on lunch yet. Have you tried the new restaurant down the street?"
"Not yet, but I've heard good things."
Rin tries to tune out the Chief and Shu's conversation – she's already heard it three times before – to concentrate on starting to run some simulations on her computer. She types out some notes, hoping it'll help her remember more details of the machine she just examined again a few minutes ago. Well, a few minutes ago from her perspective.
Her mind is buzzing with different theories to solve the problem.
"Rin, do you want to join us? We're going out to lunch," Chief interrupts.
"No thanks." She barely looks away from the screen. It only wastes time when she tries to explain what's happening.
"You really shouldn't skip a meal," Shu says, sounding concerned.
"I'll just grab something later," she brushes him off.
There is a silence where she's sure they must be exchanging worried glances before the Chief finally offers, "Let us know if you change your mind and want us to bring you something."
She nods, but doesn't look away from her computer screen. A moment later, she hears the door close, and then silence returns to the office.
Rin sighs and glances at the clock, mentally calculating how much time she has left to fix this problem. She glances over to Youpi, still offline in the midst of a software upgrade, unable to provide any assistance.
She resists the urge to glance over at Yuma's empty desk.
The computer beeps and Rin focuses on the simulations again. The results are almost the same as the last time she did this, even with the variations she's made this time. She tweaks the program, makes a few more notes, and then watches the clock again. Time continues to tick away.
The corner of an opened envelope peeks out from underneath a pile of nearby papers. Not quite as hidden as she'd wanted it. Annoyed, she tosses it out of sight into one of her desk drawers.
After another half hour, she admits all this work might be a dead-end. So she jumps up and runs out of the office, heading back to the source of the problem.
A few people call out greetings as she passes, but she doesn't have time to stop and say hello. She continues running down the street, turning one corner after another until she arrives at the old warehouse where she'd first stumbled across the mysterious piece of abandoned alien technology just a few hours ago. At the time, she had foolishly fiddled with it instead of calling the rest of her team for assistance with a proper examination.
It had activated somehow, and now she's stuck.
Rin steps forward and begins examining it up close again, removing panels and prodding at the circuits underneath. She tries so hard to memorize the patterns.
If she weren't fighting against the clock and feeling regret about her hasty actions that put all this into motion, she might actually love digging into a fun challenge like this.
But then time runs out, and before she can even make her way back to the office again, the whole world dissolves away into nothing.
***
#6
"I really haven't decided on lunch yet. Have you tried the new restaurant down the street?"
"Not yet, but I've heard good things."
By this point, Rin thinks she has a good understanding of the machine's power source and most of its controls. She still can't figure out how to shut it down properly, but it feels like she's making progress.
She brushes off the offer for lunch. She stuffs the open envelope in the drawer. She avoids looking at Yuma's desk.
It's roughly two hours before the loop resets, and she can't waste it on taking a break for food or fretting over other things. She can't even waste it on spending time explaining the situation to the Chief and Shu, who ask too many questions to accomplish anything vital before everything resets and they forget again.
Yuma, she thinks, would have believed her immediately. He never hesitated to jump into action, no matter how strange the circumstances. In hindsight, she supposes that everything is probably a little bit easier to believe, no matter how outlandish, when you're fused with an alien and able to turn into a giant to fight kaiju.
She swivels in her seat so that she's not tempted once more to look over at his empty desk that's only good for gathering dust these days.
Rin continues working, running simulations on her computer on different ways to break the loop. She doesn't want to accidentally damage the machine and then be trapped forever, the only one who knows they're reliving the same two hours over and over and over again.
It would be helpful if her written notes would carry over from loop to loop, but they don't. She's got to rely on memorizing the machine.
Time runs out again while she's still working at her desk, and the whole world dissolves away into nothing.
***
#9
"I really haven't decided on lunch yet. Have you tried the new restaurant down the street?"
"Not yet, but I've heard good things."
Rin is tired.
She buries her face in her hands for a long moment and swallows her mounting frustration.
No matter what she tries, nothing seems to work.
"Rin, do you want to join us? We're going out to lunch," Chief interrupts.
The question startles her and she accidentally knocks over a stack of papers on her desk. She'd gotten so swept up wallowing in her frustration that she forgot he was going to invite her to eat.
She catches a glimpse of the opened envelope now exposed amidst all the scattered papers, and hastily shoves it in her pocket before the Chief or Shu can catch a glimpse of it.
"Sorry, I have an errand I need to run," she lies and then leaves before they have a chance to say anything else.
She steps outside and chooses a different direction than the one she's been taking to the warehouse over and over again each loop. This time she's going to take a break. It doesn't matter, after all, what she does. When the two hours are up, she'll be back at the beginning again.
Rin weaves her way slowly through the streets, taking note of shopkeepers she knows and stores she likes to visit. The familiarity is usually comforting, but right now everything is too familiar while stuck in an endless time loop.
Her feet eventually lead her to a park and she slumps down onto the bench at a picnic table. She tries to clear her head, to think about anything else other than the loop problem for a while.
The park overlooks a good portion of Hoshimoto City, and her eyes are automatically drawn to the empty space in the distance where the Monohorn used to be. The giant relic from almost 17 years ago had been a mainstay of the skyline well before Rin had even moved here. She's glad it's gone now – disposed of in Arc's last battle before he and Yuma left – but its absence still feels weird.
The same way Yuma's absence still looms large.
He's somewhere out in space, light-years and light-years away, saving someone else's home now.
Rin misses her friend. Yuma had been a near-constant presence in her life since he joined SKIP. They used to talk all the time, sharing old childhood memories or giving recommendations on places to visit or trading advice when something was worrying them. She laughs a little, thinking about the time Yuma once called her in a panic over his broken microwave, asking for suggestions on how to fix it.
The amusement from the memory quickly shifts and settles into a familiar melancholy.
She wonders if this is how all her old friends felt whenever she moved away as a kid. She moved so often that each place felt like a new adventure, so she never gave herself time to dwell on the places and people that were suddenly out of her life forever. She never gave herself the time to experience that awful feeling of being the one left behind. Like cracks appearing on a porcelain doll, damaged in a way that's never quite fixable.
She doesn't know how to deal with all these new feelings now.
Rin pulls the crumpled envelope out of her pocket, finally allowing herself the time to consider it again.
Inside is an acceptance letter for a mechanical engineering program on the other side of the country. She had applied three weeks ago in a fit of loneliness, thinking about how she doesn't know when Yuma will return home, if ever. Thinking about how Shu could get called back and reassigned by the GDF at any time. Thinking about how kaiju appearances are dwindling enough that she's afraid the Chief might retire and then the SKIP Hoshimoto Branch gets shut down.
If she leaves before the rest of them do, maybe it'll hurt her less.
But Rin hadn't actually expected to be accepted to the program. And now she's faced with the reality of making a decision.
Packing up and moving used to be second nature to her, as easy as breathing. But Hoshimoto City has become home after all these years.
But will it still feel like home if she might be the only one left here eventually?
Her eyes drift back again to the empty space where the Monohorn once stood. What would Yuma say about its absence if he were here now?
Good riddance, right?
It had been, after all, a reminder of what happened to his parents. A constant reminder of the worst day of his life.
Rin frowns. Actually, Yuma isn't one to spew vitriol at things he hates, even if the feeling would be justified. She revises her speculation.
Yuma would probably say something about how, given enough time, the land where the Monohorn once stood will heal itself. Plants and trees will grow back, providing homes for new animals to move in. After a while, maybe they'll all forget what that space looked like before. The new Monohorn-less horizon will look normal.
It just takes time to adjust.
Yuma's imagination always gave him the best perspectives on how to move forward even when it feels like everything else is crumbling.
Rin stands to leave the park, but gazes over her shoulder again at the changed horizon in the distance. Then the whole world dissolves away into nothing once more.
***
#10
"I really haven't decided on lunch yet. Have you tried the new restaurant down the street?"
"Not yet, but I've heard good things."
Yuma's way of looking at the world is still on her mind when the loop starts over.
The first time she heard Shu and the Chief have this conversation about lunch was before the time loop started. She'd originally brushed off their offer to join them too because she'd been so torn up about the program acceptance letter, and she was afraid she'd admit the whole thing to them in a moment of weakness. So instead, she'd left the office to take a walk, wishing she'd had more time to think things over, and then stumbled across the warehouse and the time loop machine.
She needs to try again to shut it down.
"Rin, do you want to join us? We're going out to lunch," Chief interrupts.
"I wish I could but there's something I need to take care of first," she answers, and then rushes towards the door before they ask any more questions.
But she does allow herself just a second to glance at Yuma's empty desk. She imagines he'd give her a nod of encouragement if he were here.
Rin arrives at the warehouse and marches forward directly to the mysterious machine. She's dug around in its guts long enough that she feels like she knows every single nook and cranny now.
There have been plenty of things she's avoided thinking about recently, and it's only been these time loops that have given her the opportunity to finally confront them. Maybe the aliens who made this machine simply needed a few extra hours in the day to work things out. Maybe she accidentally activated the machine because she needed some extra time to think too.
She feels like she understands things better now.
Rin disconnects one wire and reconnects it elsewhere, and then flips a switch. She holds her breath in anticipation as the machine suddenly disappears, and the whole world dissolves away into nothing one last time.
***
#0
"I really haven't decided on lunch yet. Have you tried the new restaurant down the street?"
"Not yet, but I've heard good things."
Rin lets out the breath she'd been holding, feeling a weight off her shoulders. She has no proof but she's pretty sure time is moving like it should again.
She pulls the envelope out from underneath the stack of papers and then tosses it straight into the trash.
There's no need for her to run away from
Hoshimoto City. She just needs to give it time until she adjusts to how things are now.
"Rin, do you want to join us? We're going out to lunch," Chief interrupts.
"Yeah," she nods with a smile. "I'd like that."
"I'm glad," Shu says. "It's been a while since we all had a meal together."
It has, hasn't it? How long had Rin been wallowing in worries and loneliness that she hadn't even noticed she'd pulled away from her friends before now?
The Chief grabs his jacket and heads for the door. "It'll be my treat."
"Good. I'm starving!" Rin replies.
She gives Yuma's empty desk one last glance before she follows them out of the office. She doesn't know when he'll be back, but she'll adjust to his absence.
It just takes time.