It was still daylight, but Kazuma had a feeling that man would attack him again once it went dark. Kazuma decided to go to the town square where he was confronted by that woman. The sky grew dark and Kazuma was getting very anxious. He waited there for a few minutes before he noticed something, a note, lay on top of a bin. It was a sticky note that simply read: 'duck'. Immediately Kazuma dropped to the ground in a crouched position and heard a loud gunshot. As he got back up, he saw the white hooded man drop to his knees and somehow disappear as if it was some kind of glitch in the universe itself.
Kazuma swiftly twisted round to see the woman in the black coat lower her gun and place it in her pocket. "Thanks" said Kazuma. The woman walked up to him. Her hood covering her eyes. "Who are you?" asked Kazuma attempting to look beneath the woman's hood. in reaction she hid her face. "Someone from the dark" she replied in a stern voice. In any other situation Kazuma would have laughed at such a ridiculous statement. But this was real. He didn't have a clue what she meant by those words, and a part of him didn't want to. "What's your name" he asked. "I can't tell you my true name, not yet, for now just call me Sakura" she said. Kazuma chuckled. "What a coincidence, that's my girlfriend's favourite flower" he said. "She's not your girlfriend! she's not even supposed to be alive!" Sakura shouted angrily. Kazuma was stunned, not only by her break in composure but also by the fact that she seemed to be aware of the situation. Now that Kazuma knew she was no ordinary woman he needed to ask her as many questions as possible. "What was that note all about?" he asked. "I knew that at 4:09 you would walk over to that bin and that white hooded man would attempt to shoot you, so I thought I would leave you a note to warn you" Sakura replied. "How the hell is that even possible?!" asked Kazuma slightly jumping backwards in shock. "So you can predict the future?!" asked Kazuma. "Not predict, more like see, I often think predict means that what you see is uncertain where as I know that these events are going to happen." What Sakura was saying seemed impossible, but after everything that Kazuma had seen, he had to believe her. "After saving your friend you created an alternate reality, a reality that was never supposed to exist, that's where we are now, and that's why I tried to stop you the night before you went back in time" she said.
"I have a question, have you forgotten anything that you know of?" Sakura asked. Kazuma paused. "For some reason I can't seem to remember saving Kiah"
"hmm. Then that means it's already started" said Sakura rubbing her chin. "What?" asked Kazuma. Sakura sighed and shook her head. "You people mess around with time and claim you want to make a better future, yet you know nothing. Nothing about time or space or the universe. I don't have much time so I'll try to explain as much as I can. Time and the universe is not a lifeless object, it's alive, sentient, like a living machine, so when part of it breaks or malfunctions it attempts to repair itself" she explained. "I don't understand" said Kazuma rubbing the sides of his head. "Look, when you went back to that day and saved Kiah you changed a fixed point in time, an event that must never be changed or prevented. But you changed it, causing a miniscule part of time to fracture, and in an attempt to fix it time erased all memory of the event to be erased from your mind. By changing this point in time you created a different timeline, a parallel world, that's where we are now, a word where Kiah never died and Jax never committed suicide. But this timeline was never supposed to exist, the longer you stay here the more time will break and the more it will try to repair itself, meaning that the longer you stay here the more you will forget untill the memories of your past life will eventually fade and disappear."
Kazuma couldn't believe what he was hearing. Different timelines, parallel worlds, none of it made any sense. Sakura gently pulled out a fob watch from the pocket of her shiny, black leather coat. She clicked it open and sighed. "It seems we're out of time, don't worry, I know we will meet again" she said before waving goodbye and disappearing before Kazuma's eyes in the same glitchy manner as the white hooded man.
Shocked by the things he had been told he decided to go home. The streets were empty. As he walked Kazuma passed by a bookshop. As he looked in the window he realised that 'Trains', the manga he worked so hard on, never existed in this world. He began to realise how different his life was in this world and how much he missed his old life. But Kiah and Jax were here, although it was strange he knew that he would adjust to it and continued the walk home.
As he approached his apartment a young woman walked past him, and as he looked at her their eyes met. She had kind eyes and short brown hair. Could it be... Kira? It was Kira. Kazuma opened his mouth to say something, something like hello or how are you before remembering what Sakura had told him, 'this is a parallel world, a different timeline' in this world Kazuma never met Kira and so once again he began to realise how much he missed his old life, before shrugging it off and entering his apartment building.
Kazuma collapsed on to his bed and tried to fall asleep, but each time he closed his eyes his mind filled with all of the things that Sakura told him. He desperately attempted to make sense of it all but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't. Just as he was about to drift off there was a knock on the door.