Sunday

"Did you have to come with me to the store?"

I asked due to the fact that i'm in high school and feel as though my sister should not accompany me to a store

"well, mom told me to take you"

I replied back to her

"I guess it's fine"

as we were walking through the food isle I stumbled in to one of Aki's friend's and as I saw who it was exactly I froze up and thought to myself

"but, this is"

the person who I saw had short black hair and very bored looking eye's as though he was never really feeling happy

"hey, Haruto"

my sister called out to him in a very casual tone and the man himself replied with a faint smile saying

"oh, hey"

after that he looked at me with some anger in his eyes and I felt a bit threatened as I was about to say something along the lines of

"hey what the he-"

though before I could finish my sister said after putting her hand on my shoulder

"it's alright, he's like this with everybody he meets for the first time"

her saying those words truly calmed me down, well almost since the way he was staring at me wasn't exactly the part that I was worried about, the part I was worried about was the one where he killed my sister out of rage for some reason

"though, I guess I could try to communicate with him, now that I think about it I never really had a plan in the first place"

so I went up to him and lent out my hand so that I could give him a handshake and said

"hi, i'm Tooru"

and he replied in a tone which was practically brimming with suspicion

"yeah, my names Haruto"

I made a smirk that could show anything but happiness at the expression Haruto was making which was absolutely nothing like the expression he was making at Aki when he met her, the expression he was making at me was demonizing, brutal and most of all it was completely and utterly hateful as I stood there wondering why he looked so angry I still couldn't figure out one thing…

"why, why would he look so angry, it's not like I did anything in the past, wait that's right the past"

no, what I meant at the time wasn't my present's past but more like my past from the future, as in my future selves past, and as millions of thoughts and possibilities flew throughout my mind they all seemed to lead to a singular point

"thats it, it's the only plausible explanation for everything and it all connects to my original present too"

I changed the words that I was using towards a different type of thinking, that was analyzing

"if this happens in my original present then it must be the reason why he killed Aki, most likely after seeing Aki talk casually with another man not knowing that it was her brother he got jealous and started stalking her so afterwards he got so angry, so jealous that he grabbed a knife and sta-…. Stabbed her to… dea-"

images of a bloodied knife ran through my brain and before I could finish what I was about to say I had to go to one of the stalls of the bathroom that I was in to vomit. After I left the bathroom I met up with Aki again and we left the store together so that we could go home and as we were walking I asked myself

"so, does he really have to come with us I mean it's not like he's done anything yet, though I still feel a little bit threatened by him being here"

so as we walk down the street Aki asks Haruto and I something

"I have an idea, what if I were to leave you two alone together"

after saying this she ran off and I let out my hand and said with a worried and awkward look

"wai-"

before I finished I realized that she wouldn't be able to hear me as she wasn't in earshot

"so, you wanna… hang out… or something"

after Haruto stated that I said

"ehhhhh, this is so tense"

though instead of saying no I said

"well I guess we could, where do you wanna… ahem…. go"

"if I do hang out with him I can get more info on him and see if I can stop him from killing Aki without even getting the police involved"

anyways, as we were walking I asked him a question

"umm H-Haruto… -san"

as I said that he replied with

"yeah"

and I stated back to him with

"how about… we go in there"

I pointed at a grilled meat restaurant across the street and we walk towards the restaurant. After we sat down we started to talk about a few things and a few minutes later we get our meat and start eating, while were eating Haruto brings up a certain topic that I can't say i'm exactly fond of hearing from a person who has done something like how he has

"so, what exactly is your relationship with Aki"

I thought to myself after he asked that question

"this is what's gonna make or break this relationship; I remember in my original life that this situation happened before though in that one he asked me right away and when he did I freaked out, yelled at him and ran away which was probably the reason that he started stalking Aki in the first place"

so I answered him with

"i'm just her brother, nothing really that special"

to that answer Haruto said back to me

"oh, I see so you're her brother huh, she never told me she had one so I didn't really know"

and I said

"now that i've given you my answer how about you tell me your's, what is your relationship with Aki"

then before he answered him "obsessive boyfriend or just obsessive friend"

after thinking this he answered

"were… uh… just friends… I guess"

to this I replied

"oh, I see"

after saying this I thought to myself

"somehow this makes me angrier, knowing that my sister was killed because she made someone who didn't even confess to her or give any hints of being in love with her think that he was entitled to a relationship with her so much that the moment he saw her with another man he got so angry and so jealous that he killed her"

after saying that in my head and giving him a glare of anger I realized that he would see that I was angry and immediately calmed myself down

"I think… i'll be leaving now"

though no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't, after he said something like that my anger just couldn't stop so I left the store after he paid so that I could meet back up with Aki. A few minutes after all of that I met up with Aki again

"so, was it fun"

after she asked that I said in my head

"define 'fun'"

and after that I stated aloud

"well, I wouldn't call it fun but I guess it was an ok experience"

"well that's good, Haruto's a nice guy but he's pretty shy so he comes across as a bit rude, t-though once you get to know him better i'm sure you'll become good friends"

after she said that I said in my mind

"yeah, i'm sure that his hands and handcuffs would make an even better friendship"

we continued walking until we reached our destination which was… my friends house, after knocking on the door a few times Ren opened the door saying

"hey, you wanna come in now"

and I said

"alright"

and stepped into his house after taking my shoes off and my sister told me with a very casual tone in her voice

"well i'm off, have fun"

and then she left after I told her

"be safe when you get home"

after saying this and closing Ren's door he told me

"y'now you really care about her don't you?"

To which I replied

"yeah, she's my sister why wouldn't I"

and Ren said

"well, I guess you're right"

and we walked up the stairs to his room so that we could study for the exams later.

"Uhhhh, i'm bored"

after he stated that I said

"aren't you the one who said that we should study together"

"I did but I didn't think it'd be this hard; how's your's going along?"

"I got everything right immediately"

"hahaha very funny- wait what! B-but how, are you some kind of genius"

after that freak out I said

"no, I just listen, if you did too I think you could've gotten everything correct as well"

"whatever, you wanna go to an arcade or something"

"I guess"

"alright, no more studying let's go to the arcade"

so I got up and Ren and I left to go to the arcade though when we were walking I saw someone

"hey, Daichi"

"huh, oh hey, Tooru and Ren's here too, were you guy's going somewhere?"

I replied to him with

"we were about to go to the arcade and I was wondering if you wanted to come too"

"uhhh, I guess I could"

so we all went to the arcade together and hung out.

"How did you both beat be so utterly"

Ren said

"maybe you're just bad at video games"

"maybe, also these are called arcade games not video games"

"yeah, yeah whatever"

Daichi's phone started ringing so he took it out of his pocket and answered it, the person who was on the phone was

"it's Aki, apparently she's been waiting outside for an hour and can't find you guys"

after he said that I glared at Ren

"hey don't look at me like that, either way it's her fault for waiting for an hour"

after he said this my brother said to him

"no, I think it's your fault for being here for an entire hour without even thinking about telling me that Aki was going to be looking for you guy's"

we both said

"sorry"

and we got up from the seat we were on and I asked Daichi to give the phone to me, once he did I told my sister

"hey, we're just at an arcade"

after this I told her the exact location after finding a map to the city and we met outside of the arcade but before we got to each other and after I stepped out of the arcade itself I thought

"wait, this place… isn't it"

when I saw this my eyes widened

"it… it's the same building but as an arcade"

the building in front of me, while on the outside it was very tall in reality it was simply an arcade, but the size of the building wasn't the thing that I was shocked about, the part that I was shocked about was the fact that this building was the same one from when I was an adult about 20 years from now

"wow this building is really tall, especially for just an arcade"

after Ren said that Daichi said

"well, there are probably apartments up there or it's being used as a storage area"

"yeah, it is pretty cool, though that wasn't exactly the part that I was so shocked about"

after I said this Daichi asked me

"what do you mean by that"

to which I replied

"well… uhhh… I guess all I can really answer to that is to give it 20 years or so and see what happens"

after I stated this Ren said

"you say that like you know what's going to happen to it"

"what I mean is, imagine in a few years what something like this could become, look at tree across the road imagine that they took it out of the roots and made a street sign or even use the tree itself to make a power line"

after saying this Ren said as a reply to what I had just stated

"well, I guess you're right, it is an interesting thought"

I smiled after he said that and when I was about to say something he started running after saying

"c'mon guys let's go"

and I said

"what do you- h-hey wait up"

I too started running and so did Daichi, the thing that we were running towards was nothing in particular

"ahh, cough, cough"

as I stood there or more so to speak sat there with the body of my best friend bleeding out due to being hit by a train I said while crying and holding my friend who had his sides bleeding out from the attempt to run inside of a closed train door

"i-it's gonna be alright, I promise it'll be alright"

as I was trying to tell him that it was okay and that everything was gonna be fine he said

"T-Tooru?"

"Yeah, what is it"

"Tooru… why… why are… Tooru, why are you crying"

"huh"

I said as I felt tears streaming down my face and I said

"I-I don't know they just star-"

I fell to the ground as I continued to cry and Ren said after patting me on the back

"dude, what happened, i'm worried about you right now, we were just running and you all of a sudden started balling your eyes out"

"i'm sorry, it's just that you're here and so is Daichi and Aki and everyone else too"

Daichi stated in confusion

"of course were all here, why wouldn't we be"

after he said this I said

"I don't know, it's just that i'm so happy that you're all still here"

they appeared to be confused by my use of the word 'still' though while I was crying my sister found us and the first thing she did after seeing me in this state was

"oh my god, are you okay!"

And she ran towards me as I said

"huh"

she hugged me as tight as humanly possible and said

"I don't know what happened but i'm here"

she was really nice and tried very hard not to squeeze to tight, even if that does retract my earlier statement

"ha"

I chuckled and everyone around me made a confused face but still, I couldn't stop laughing

"hahahahahahahahahahah, thank's you guy's, I really needed something like that"

after I said this Ren stated

"I don't know why you started crying all of a sudden but if you're alright then I guess were alright too"

I wiped my tears and said

"thank's, and besides my crying is nothing you need to worry about cause in the end the reason I was crying in the first place was because I was happy, get it those were happy tears"

to that Daichi said

"anyway we should really be getting back home, it's getting really late"

after he said that I said after standing up

"yeah, let's go"

and as we were walking back I told myself

"there's nothing that I need to worry about and there's nothing that any of them need to worry about either, as long as i'm here they'll all be safe I promised that yesterday and i'm not gonna give up now, as long as there exist's even the slightest possibility of saving my friends, saving my family and as long as there remains the possibility of giving myself a better future then i'll take it, I swear that I won't let this second chance go to waste"

after I thought this is my head we walked to Ren's house

"well, it was fun bye"

to this I said

"see you tomorrow"

and we left so that we could go to our house instead

"sorry guys but i've gotta go early I still have work"

to this Aki said in a worried tone

"make sure to be safe"

"I will"

Daichi said as he rolled his eyes, he was most likely wondering why she was acting like the older one, though we still continued walking

"so, why were you really crying"

"huh"

"I could tell that you were somewhat lying when you told me that they were happy tears and besides when I saw you crying, that wasn't the face of a person who was happy"

after she said that I took a deep breath and said

"it was because… I was worried about you guy's"

"worried?"

"It's just that… I was scared that I might lose you and the thought of that made me worry"

"well it's fine, because I promise that we're never gonna leave you"

"really, you promise"

I said that in the most genuine tone possible and to that request that I had made Aki said

"yeah, promise"

and we walked home together

"well, we're finally here"

I said

"yeah, it was a long day i'm really tired"

Aki said this in the most tired way

"well, i'm going to bed now see you- ah"

I felt Aki tug on my shirt and say

"you forgot to take off your shoes"

I said

"oh, sorry"

and I took them off before running up the stairs and thinking to myself

"well, it was a long day again, first I was in a shopping mall with my sister then in a grilled meat restaurant with the person who killed her, then after that I went to study with Ren"

after that I stated out loud

"ahhh, i'm really tired"

and I laid in bed.

"Daichi, what are you doing"

"i'm sorry, but I have to do this, it's the only way and besides what's the point of anything"

after he said this Daichi took a nose dive towards the ground, I saw his head burst right in front of my eyes and I screamed

"ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

my eyes widened as I woke up in a cold sweat

"it was… a dream"

after saying that I stated in my head

"oh yeah that doesn't happen for another year, right after mom right… but I wonder, where was dad?"

after this it took me about three hours to fall back to sleep, though after I did I woke up in the morning ready to go to school, if not a little tired.