"You can call me Kazumi, Yuji."
"I specifically remember you telling me that we're not on a first name basis." Quotes said on one page are easily forgotten on the next, but Tokisaki never gave me permission to call her by her first name. In fact, she hated when I did it. That much I did remember. It doesn't help anyone that the majority of this story is idle banter, but what can you do. There's many people in this story.
"You're right, it's Tokisaki then."
"You just said I can call you Kazumi."
"Yeah, but I didn't before. If I don't stay true to my righteous standing, what kind of woman does that make me?"
Righteous standing my ass. That's novelty coming from the girl who was prepared to filet my neck with a box cutter. Tokisaki might not be right in the head one hundred percent. She's the type to threaten you, then get all chummy once she learns that she stands no chance against you in a fight. The whole "attacking with office supplies" thing is questionable at minimum, a national threat as maximum. I make it sound like she only carries an exacto knife or two (I say 'only' as if it's normal), but this girl's backpack is armed to the metaphorical teeth with pencils, pens, staplers, anything that can be carried in public without suspicion that can also be repurposed as a weapon. I can't imagine she would get through an airport without the police getting involved. It's not off the mark to say that a mental evaluation might be in order.
"I don't know what kind of woman that would make you, nor do I care. What is it that you need of your friend Yuji?" I could barely say that we were friends.
"We're barely friends." She said. I knew it and it still hurt.
"Anyway, what do you want?"
"You're a ghost, right?"
"More or less." To call me a ghost is the short answer.
"Well, you've demonstrated power I've never seen, so I have faith that you can help me here."
"Your faith is heavily misplaced" I thought, but didn't say.
"Yuji, can you manipulate time?"
It was then that I remembered a conversation I had with Miwa last month.
Commence flashback.
"What do you mean don't mess with time?"
"I mean it's dangerous. I don't even know if you can, but on the off chance that you find out by accident, do it as little as possible."
"Now you're just encouraging me to try it."
"I'm not."
"Maybe not on purpose. But it's like in that warning of yours you're subtly saying 'test it out for me'."
"I assure you that I'm not. The laws of time travel only dictate time travel in fiction. If time travel is real, there's no telling what could happen if you alter the past, or the future."
"Okay. If I find out that I can time travel, I'll steer clear from using it."
End of flashback.
"Are you just going to listen to Miwa blindly?"
Of course I wasn't. She may be my "boss" but I'm still my own person. But upon the thought that time is probably really delicate, I decided to heed Miwa's words on this one.
"You're actually going to listen to her? I might need to fix this bad influence." Kazumi threatened. I hadn't gotten solid evidence yet, but the office supplies were not for show, I deduced.
"Since when do you care about my personal matters?"
"I don't. I'm simply doing what a letter placed in my locker instructed me to."
"Eh, the tsundere queen with a heart of ice and an impregnable barrier is blindly following directions from a letter?" Tokisaki was a little embarrassed, which goes against my policy of "Don't embarrass girls undeserving of it". Actually. I never had such a policy. Still, maybe I went too far.
"You've done your best, Ms. Tokisaki. I'll take it from here." A voice rang from further down the hall.
"Hello again, Yuji."
"Hey, Alice."
"Sorry for the trouble. This one can be a handful."
"I know. Yuji's a pain in the ass." Then it hit. Alice wasn't talking to me.
"Husband, can we talk?"
Both Tsubasa(was in glasses form at the time) and Tokisaki were spitting out their figurative water.
"Alice, can you not talk like that? I haven't agreed to marry you."
"Oh, but you will. Also, that's Princess Alice Cheverie to you."
"Eh-"
"Kidding. Alice is fine."
From down the hall, I heard running. I had a terrible feeling that the situation was going to become even more awkward than it was to begin with. Why was Alice here at the school? Why did she address me as husband? Why was she in cohorts with Tokisaki? Then it got worse. Tamae had shown up, as if on cue, with an angry expression. "Did I hear 'husband'?" She said. Here is where the typical "It's not what I looks like!" line normally comes into play, but that's not what happened. Instead, I had felt Tsubasa leave my face. Not long after, a girl with glasses and braids came around the corner.
"Yuji, do you have a minute?"
What a quick thinker she is. "I have as many minutes as you need." I said. Like the smooth talker I am (sarcasm), I got my way out of that situation by telling them that this mysterious student none of them had seen before needed my assistance, so they let me off the hook. As a spirit, there were lots of ways to get out of that situation. One, turn invisible and book it. Two, knock out everyone in the area. Three, threaten them to let me go. None of those were optimal. Instead, The living pair of glasses had saved my skin before I could act. "Thanks," I told her.
"Don't sweat it. Serving as a decoy is only one of my many cheap tricks."
I don't know if calling your own abilities "cheap tricks" will award yourself any merit, but I didn't want to spoil all the fun school life was bringing her. Though, school life doesn't include a princess showing up on campus.
I texted Tamae "Don't worry about that girl who called me husband, she's just confused." and walked away with Tsubasa escorting me to make sure I wasn't bothered. Tsubasa is, if anything, the Swiss Army Knife of glasses that is also a high school girl. She has many purposes.
Perhaps I shouldn't talk as if Tsubasa's main value comes from her usefulness. That makes it seem like I view her as an object, and I've already discussed that it isn't true.
Tamae texted back "Okay, I don't care what others girls do as long as I'm your bride"
I decided to leave interpreting what "I don't care what other girls do" meant for another day.
Just when I thought I was free, she appeared in front of me.
"Alice, how did you go around the school so fast? I know you didn't run past me to get ahead."
"Secret."
What Alice didn't say was "Who's that girl with you?" because like the genius she is, Tsubasa is excellent at switching from girl to glasses and vice versa when needed. That is to say, she has nice reflexes.
"So, what brings you to my school?"
"I'll be straightforward. I want you to prevent another war."
"Again?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because war is bad?"
She had me beat.
Nothing could penetrate that sound logic. War can be good sometimes, I guess, but I mainly view war as bad since it takes a lot of thinking for a good example of war to come to mind.
"True, but why me?"
"Why choose anyone but the almighty Sasaki Yuji for such a task?"
"Because I might say no."
"I see. So that's why all the girls in your class call you Joseph No-Testes."
Hold on. What kinda nickname is that? And since when did anyone call me that?
"You can push whatever nicknames you want onto me, it won't guarantee my compliance."
"Come on. I even brought my mom."
From behind a classroom door the head of Alice's mother, the queen of the War God Faction, Minerva, swung out, waved and said "Hello." Why did she bring her mom for this?
"Because this important to me."
"Are you a psychic?" I asked, although this wasn't the first time someone coincidentally read the narration.
"Nope. I just have good intuition." So that's what it was.
"So, how do I stop this war? have either parties attacked?"
"Oh, yeah. The war already started."
"Then how am I supposed to prevent it?"
"Easy. Go back in time and make negotiations."
"Just what do you think I'm capable of?"
"I don't know, maybe time travel?"
"Was your original plan to put Tokisaki up to something?"
"Yes." she said, with a sigh.
"Can you keep my friends- er, classmates out of this stuff?"
"From now on, sure."
"So about this time travel, you think I can do it?"
"As far as anyone knows, no magic or technique that allows time travel exists." She knew that, and still went with time travel as her plan A. That's a commendable level of idiocy.
"But if anyone could do it, it would be you."
"Even if I can time travel, a problem still exists."
"What would that be?"
"Miwa told me not to."
"I don't know who Miwa is, but why did she tell you that?"
"Because changing the past can screw with timelines and alter the present and future, all that stuff. Basically it's dangerous."
"True, but it's the only way to stop this war."
"I can't just pick a side and defeat the enemy?"
"That would ruin relationships between the WGF and the world's nations one way or another."
Since when was it publicly announced that I'm a fully fledged member of the WGF? I did Alice a favor once, I guess that's all it takes to be acknowledged as a ride or die supporter.
"And I can't enter the war as a third party and beat the shit out of both sides?"
"Do you want to make yourself look horrible?"
"I suppose not."
"Exactly, so this leaves us with time travel as the only option."
"Which may not even exist. I hope you have a backup plan when this backfires."
"I'll take care of that if push comes to shove." She said it as if time travel was an absolute, and anything else is a last ditch effort. A lackadaisical attitude like that is one that will get you killed.
Assuming that both school and home were bad places to time travel, I went to the park after school. It was also the same park that I had played at as a child years back. Ready to time travel, I began to do what I normally do whenever I'm uncertain about something. So, I thought about it really hard. Time travel. Time travel. Time travel. Time travel. A large, spectral clock appeared before me. It seemed that I could do anything if I thought hard about it. It appeared a so-called magic for time travel really does exist. As the sole user of this ability (as far as I know), I named it "Moment's Respite". Unfortunately, I had no idea how to use this large clock. I wanted to go back a few days to before this war started, so naturally I concentrated on rewinding time. As I did, I heard the hands on the black, shadowy clock tick backwards. As the hands began to move backwards, and rapidly increase in speed, an door formed on the bottom of the clock. As I approached the door, I thought "Sorry, Miwa. I'm probably making a mistake." and continued onward. As I approached the door and opened it, a bright light came shooting out. Blinded for a second, I recovered and marched through. As I passed in, I felt the clock disappear with my entrance.
When the light inside faded, I was in the park. Yet, it was different. The trees were plentiful unlike they were before, and the playground equipment was brand new looking, and not rusted. I was taking in my surroundings, and was getting an idea of how far I might have went back versus how far I wanted to go back. It was then that I saw a familiar looking little boy sitting down, smiling and talking with a familiar looking little girl. Then I noticed in the distance another familiar looking little girl with purple hair about to approach the two children.
"This event is much further back than I intended to go." I thought.