Visitor

"Hey Tooru, wake up!"

I heard a woman's voice as I felt rustling on my bed and when I finally opened my eyes to question it all I could see was the visage of my older sister Aki

"okay, i'm up"

to this Aki said

"s-sorry, I didn't hurt you too much did I?"

To this I replied with

"no, i'm alright"

after this Aki had stated

"well, it's time to get up"

after that I thought to myself

"but aren't they making repairs to the school stairs after someone accidentally started a fire and burnt down parts of the school".

"Well, it's cooking class today"

my teacher said this as we left the class to go to the kitchen

"so, what are we gonna cook today"

I asked this question to one of my fellow students and they answered with

"apparently we're making steak today"

after this I said in my head

"odd, why would we make a mostly western food… though I guess this school has always been weird"

after pondering that for a while I got everything that I needed to make my steak prepared it and just when I was about to put it into the oven

"ahhh"

"oh god, how did this happen?!!!!"

The reason for the screaming was of course, a massive fire that had just started and as we were running I had thought to myself

"wait, how was a fire started"

and then I felt someone grab my hand and I felt my body move the person who grabbed it said

"Tooru, what are you doing just standing there, run"

"huh"

afterwards we ran through the hall, down the stairs, to the door and we ran out of it, after that the Ren told me

"hey… are you alright?"

Then I said

"yeah, are you?"

"Yep"

the reason I was so confused was "what the hell, there was no fire in the past, if it were something this important I would've remembered it although, maybe it's like how I forgot about how Aki and Daichi would die and when I got back I…"

I held my hand to my head for a few seconds before continuing

"how I remembered that they would both die and how they would… maybe this is like that or maybe… maybe it was a change in the timeline"

"now that I think about it all of the events up until now haven't changed in the course that they were supposed to go except for the fact that I have memories of the future, that single fact could've changed a lot… but it didn't, so how does time travel and more specifically my time travel work"

I had pondered that thought all the while that I was walking home

"hey but there's no school today so why did you need to wake me up"

after I had asked this Aki seemed to have questioned it herself

"yeah… oh that's right"

I was confused until she reopened her mouth

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with Haruto again, you two seemed to really hit it off last time"

"Haruto… san… you say"

"yeah, don't you wanna see him again, I mean if you don't want to then it's fine no one's forcing you!"

"I guess I could go, I mean i'm not intending on doing anything today"

after this Aki's face lit up a lot

"alright, well I was thinking we would give him a surprise visit"

"a… surprise visit?"

"Yeah!"

I was gonna say no but after seeing her so happy I just had to agree

"fine, I guess we can go"

so we left the house.

"Hey, Haruto!!!"

"You probably shouldn't yell, they have a doorbell"

to this Aki's face dripped to a frown as she said

"fine"

and used the doorbell although as I was watching all I could think was

"why do I have to go to that man's house, I now I agreed to go and everything but I never thought i'd feel so angry after seeing someones house alone, but I guess it is the house of the man who did the worst possible thing to do"

after thinking this I heard the door open and I gulped and gripped my hand to try to conceal my anger as the man spoke

"uhhh… who is… ah"

after he saw the person at the door he said

"oh, hey Aki"

his face lit up at the sight of her and he said

"so, did you come here for something"

to this Aki said

"yep, I wanted you and my brother Tooru to hang out together"

after this Haruto's face went down and became a more saddened look as he said

"cool, I guess we can hang out"

and after he said this I walked in to his house and Aki said

"well, see you guys later"

she closed the door after she said that and Haruto asked me

"so, wanna go to my room?"

To this I replied with

"uhh, I guess I could"

I went up to Haruto's room and we both walked in to his room and started up a conversation

"so, how is Ak… your sister doing"

"she's doing alright"

"good"

I started thinking to myself as I saw him fidgeting

"what do I say, it can't be something related to Aki since I don't want to be here for too long… so what should I…!…"

"I've been wanting to ask you a question for a while and it's one that's a important to you specifically"

"yeah, what is it?"

"Do you… hate me?"

"Shit… I really said it, didn't I"

"uhh… well- i-i umm… no, why do you ask"

to this I replied to him by saying

"well, it's just that every time we meet you always seem very upset when even the topic of my existence is brought up"

I played the innocent child who knew nothing about the situation but that was a lie, I knew exactly how complicated his situation was but I didn't care, all I care about is helping Aki and everyone who is close and dear to me people like this are just collateral damage

"and besides, people like him are scum anyways"

"well, there's a reason for that"

"what is it?"

Haruto scratched his cheek as the words I didn't think that under any circumstance a person like him would utter

"well, I guess i'm just shy"

"huh"

on the outside I looked confused but on the inside all I could feel was rage, I was so mad at the person right in front of me that I could just get up and punch him in the face right at that moment… but I kept my cool and decided to keep playing the innocent child by stating

"but… what about Aki-nee, you're not shy around her?"

After that he had the gall to start blushing while he said

"well… Aki's… special, y'know"

to this… after he said something so unforgivable I could only think one thing

"what was so special that you had to murder her, huh"

after thinking what could only be considered as absolute fact Haruto started spouting out more useless garbage that was befitting of a useless person like himself

"when I first met Aki I was just being bullied like usual and then after I was beaten up she appeared and helped me up after telling me it was alright… so that's why i'm not shy around her like I am with others because she saved me, so I feel like I can express how I really feel around her"

when I heard those words I froze up but, not because of anger no, not anything of the sort, the reason I froze up was

"he's so… human"

I couldn't believe it, the fact that the man standing right in front of me, the man who mercilessly murdered my sister in cold blood was… a person, a human being with genuine emotions, the idea of Haruto being that type of person never once had occurred to me, the idea that a killer was able to think the same way that I did, the idea that a killer was able to feel the same feelings that I did never once crossed my mind and if I never had this experience probably never would've

"wait this makes no sense at all, h-he's a killer why does he have feelings; there's no way that he does, it's absolutely impossible for someone so vile to feel actual emotion"

then the idea popped up in my head, an idea that I hadn't thought of before and more importantly one that could change the course of history, which was my plan of course that plan was

"what if… what I were to"

I clenched my fists in hesitation before calming myself down, after I did I looked in to the eyes of the man who was sitting down right in front of me, the man who stole my sisters life and the person who was responsible for all of the events afterwards

"what if I were too befriend Haruto"

even just thinking it could only be seen as preposterous I mean, the brother of the person Haruto killed… becoming friends with him, someone who thought that could only be seen as completely insane, although I myself wished to save not only just Aki but Haruto as well and yet even I don't know the reason that I want to and I don't think I ever will

"hey, Haruto-san"

after I said this Haruto replied by saying

"uhh, yeah"

when he asked I paused for a moment before replying

"would you… l-like… to be…"

I took a deep breath in and out

"friends, maybe"

I said it

finally, the words came out of my mouth after I had been waiting to say them, finally a possibility of change without any violence, is what I am thinking about right here and now, although

"what is his answer going to be"

instead of answering almost immediately like he usually does when I ask him a question this time he was doing something completely different from before… he was thinking about it

"uh-"

right as I was about to change the topic of discussion Haruto gave his answer

"sure why not"

"huh"

"I mean you're Aki's brother right, so why should I have anything against being friends with someone like you and even then ignoring the fact that you're her brother, you're also a really nice and mature kid so yeah, let's be friends"

I was just sitting there in complete and utter shock as I heard those words come out of his mouth and the hand that stretched itself towards me but I still let my hand out and shook the hand after saying to him

"yeah, lets be friends."

After saying that Haruto says

"so, what do friends do anyways"

I responded by saying

"well, we could study together"

after that Haruto said

"hmm, I guess"

so, we began to study and as we did I believe that we grew a little closer as friends

"well, i'm off"

I say before Haruto replies back with

"bye"

while walking towards Ren's house my body tenses up as I think to myself

"I wonder if I shouldn't have done that, I mean he seems like a normal human and all but what could've driven him off the deep end and what if this had already happened and I just don't remember, dammit what could it be. But still, I hope that there might be a quick way to get this over with cause the stress is really high, what if I don't save her, what if all i'm doing is prolonging events or even worse making events happen sooner; no I can't think like that, if I have those kinds of thoughts in my mind then I probably won't be able to do a single thing, yeah just think positive and it'll be fine, everything will"

I think of this as I walk across the street towards a house that appeared to be fairly modern, for the 90's at least. And as I walked towards the standard looking doorbell I rang it and waited for an answer until I could see the knob being pulled on from the other and after I saw it being opened I heard a woman's voice

"who is it?"

"i'm here to see Ren"

"is that Tooru i'm seeing, please come in and take a seat i'll get Ren"

"sorry but I think i'm just gonna go to his room if that's alright with you, granny kanzō"

the person standing in front of me is Ren's grandmother, born March 28 as well as being exactly 67 years old she is a very peaceful person who treats both her grandson and I incredibly kindly, so does she to everyone around her in other words, shes a kind grandmother

"well, bye granny"

"goodbye and make sure to be safe if you decide to leave the house"

"I will"

As I am quickly going up the stairs I come across the door to Ren's room and knocked on it as I heard Ren say

"uhhh, who is it?"

the tone of his voice made it seem as though he were in complete and utter confusion, though who could blame him since i'd probably have the exact same reaction

"it's Tooru"

in order to reduce my best friends confusion I clearly introduced myself and after I did that, I could hear Ren getting up and saying to me after opening his bedroom door

"come in dude"

with that I entered his room and we sat down but, as I was thinking of a topic to speak of, Ren said

"what took you so long to get here dude?

I return his confusion by saying

"What do you mean?"

Ren, then answers my question with

"Well, you said we would meet up after that fire but you were gone for like, an hour"

I said back

"lets just say that I was at a, friends house"

to this Ren said

"a friend?"

I reply to his questioning of me with

"yeah, a friend"

he replies

"what's his name"

before I had answered I was a bit offended by the fact that he immediately came to the conclusion that I had no female friends I mean, he was right but it still hurts

"His name was Haruto"

after telling Ren the name of the friend that I had made today he replied to hearing it bye saying something that couldn't exactly be called the kindest reply

"weird name"

after saying this Ren said in an oddly stern tone

"at the end of the day it's not his name that matters but whether or not he's a good friend"

I reply to this by saying

"well, he does have a few problems in terms of how much he interacts with other people"

after saying this aloud I state in my mind

"and also the fact that he…"

I tighten my muscles up after attempting to say the entirety of what I was trying to in my mind and as I held my hand to my mouth Ren started to look worried and he said

"hey, Tooru are you alright"

my head felt a little bit fuzzy and I somewhat had to vomit but other than that I was fine

"yeah, i'm fine just mild pain"

to this Ren said in worry

"it doesn't look mild"

after I saw him with such a worried look I said

"i'm fine in fact, I couldn't be better"

after saying this Ren put on a reassured look and said

"y'know"

I became intrigued so I said

"what's wrong?"

after I had said this Ren told me

"it's just that… you're acting different"

I started to become confused as I said

"what are you talking about, how have I been different"

Ren answered my question by saying

"ever since Sunday, you've been acting different somewhat, it's like you're acting like yourself but that's all it feels like, acting. I don't know, maybe it's just me but could you maybe tell me why you're acting like how you are, is there some sort of reason for it, maybe you're sick or is there something else at play here that i'm just not seeing?"

After hearing this I start to think to myself

"the last guess was right on the money, but how could I tell anyone that? How would I say to someone that I travelled back in time, thinking that Ren will believe me because were friends sounds like something out of a crappy time travel movie and besides if I say anything else he might be able to tell if i'm lying, so what exactly should I say…"

while thinking on it for a few minutes Ren said

"is it really that important?"

while I did somewhat feel bad for him after he said that, I knew that this had given me the perfect opportunity to say the thing that I needed to say

"sorry… I really… just can't… even if you were to hear it, I don't think you'd believe it and even if you did it would only make this decision more complicated"

to this instead of getting upset or fighting back Ren simply said

"fine then, I won't ask again, but on one condition"

to this I say

"what is it?"

"act like yourself"

after he said that I widened my eyes and said

"but what if you like me less and besides theres a reason that I have to keep this from my family"

to this Ren stated

"first of all, i'm pretty sure we're best friends and second of all, you can just act yourself in front of me y'know as a way to vent out all your issues, that's what friends are for right"

after he said that I made an accepting smile and said

"ahh, whatever"

then I stuck my hand out and said

"fine then, it's a deal"

and as he saw my hand he shook it and said

"yeah, deal".

While on a walk to the bookstore Ren said

"I wonder… what manga should I get"

to what Ren had said I replied by saying

"well, I guess we'll just see what's there when we get there"

Ren replied to me in a bit of a disrespectful tone by saying

"y'know your true self totally sounds like a geezer"

I replied in a mad tone

"well, thank you for the compliment!"

and before I lost complete restraint, we got the the bookstore.

As Ren and I walked in all we could see was books all over the place and the two of us were in awe from the sheer amount that there were at the store and befor I could get a word out of my mouth Ren said

"well, let's go to the manga aisle"

after he had said those words we walked towards the aisle that held manga and I smirked as I saw Ren looking very happy going through manga

"wow they even have the first volume of Bōei Waisei"

I questioned him as I had never heard about that series until now

"Bōei Waisei, what's that?"

Ren then replied to my question by saying

"it's not a very popular series so I didn't expect you to hear about it"

I asked him

"so what's it about?"

he answered my question by saying

"so a race of giants trapped a race of dwarves within a wall, but the dwarves escaped and now, the giants must defend themselves from the dwarves, also the main character can turn in to a dwarf"

I questioned him

"how does that work?"

Ren replied

"so, whenever he causes harm to a part of someones body excluding himself a cyclone wraps around him and he turns into a dwarf, also there are 6 dwarf becomers in this world and the protagonists is called the defense dwarf, hence the title of the series"

"I-I see"

After I said that Ren asked me a question

"are you unimpressed by it"

I replied

"well, it's not that it's just… Never mind, lets just buy the book and get out of here"

Ren replied to me after I said that in a somewhat disappointed tone

"fine, geezer"

I heard him whisper something under his breath but pretended not to hear since I had just wanted to get home

"wait, isn't that"

as we were walking up to the register to pay there was a person standing there, although this person wasn't an unimportant person, at least not to me

"huh…!?"

the moment the man saw me he was shocked and as he looked at me I saw him look at a notepad for some reason

"hey dad, what are you doing here?"

I was wondering why he was at a bookstore as he usually just stays at home or is at work all day

"oh hey my- I mean Tooru and of course… Ren, right?"

as I heard dad speaking like that I thought to myself

"what's with dad, he never talks like that and why is he at a bookstore?"

my questions couldn't simply be answered by thinking about it so I asked Ren if he could leave us alone nicely and he replied to that with

"sure, bye"

he waved behind himself as he walked outside of the bookstore

"so dad… w-what are you doing here"

once I asked him he seemed to have been thinking of an answer to that question and it kept me waiting for about three minutes until he finally opened his mouth again

"uhh… I-I"

that's what he said, then he looked into his notebook that he had been writing in for the past three minutes and then he continued talking by saying

"I was just buying some manga for you"

I then looked at what he bought and there did appear to be manga in it, that being the first volume of one of my favourites from when I was a kid

"Gunther x Gunther"

I said that with fake ecstatic added to my voice, not too fake to be noticeable but not to little of it that it felt as though i was underwhelmed

"yes, y-your mother told me you'd like it"

I replied

"that's nice"

I then thought to myself

"he hasn't been calling her by her actual name since Monday"

after putting that to the side I asked my dad a question

"uhhh… dad"

he replied

"yes?"

I asked him while scratching the side of my cheek

"you… uhhh… wanna hang out, maybe"

I tried to sound as casual as possible but still couldn't contain the little bit of embarrassment from saying that

"sure, I guess"

hearing something like that from a man who is as old as him felt a little off and I was thinking something similar

"dad hasn't been acting like himself at all, something about him just feels… off"

'off' that was the only word I could possibly use to describe how my dad was acting and so I decided to investigate that by going with him for the remainder of this day

"well then, lets get out of here"

said dad and I answered him with

"yeah, lets go"

before we left the store dad said something that seemed urgent to him after looking at his notebook

"oh, we should probably go back home and drop off your manga"

I hadn't realized it until he had said it then

"yeah we probably should drop it off, here let me take the bag"

"ok then, let's go"

and with dad saying that, we left the store and began walking home

"so, how has school been"

I answer this question

"it's been really good lately"

dad then asked me

"did you make any friends"

I said back

"not anymore than I already have"

he then asked a question related to the answer

"so how many is that"

I replied with

"2"

then dad asked

"wait, 2 I thought it was only Ren"

I then reminded him

"I also met back up with Hinabi, I told you on Monday didn't I?"

my heart started racing for some reason until dad answered my question by saying

"o-oh yeah, that's right"

my eyes widened and my chest seemed to tighten as I heard this and then after squeezing my eyes I became focused and looked clear ahead into my fathers eyes and asked him

"hey dad, are you… alright"

dad's eyes widened as I asked him this questioned and he got defensive and asked

"w-what are you talking about?something wrong with me?!"

I replied to him by saying with half closed eyes that had a sad look inside them

"it's just, you've been acting strange all day no, you've been acting strange since Monday"

my dad calmed himself down and looked me in the eyes as he asked me this question

"what do you mean? Sorry but I don't get it, maybe you could give me some examples?"

so that's exactly what I did

"you're always checking that notebook and you've been calling mom 'my mother' even though you always call her by her actual name and the last one is that you were at a library even though you almost never leave the house"

after saying that dad said

"well… son, I-I just…"

I asked him straight out

"dad, if there's something wrong please, just tell me… u-"

it was then that dad did something that was extremely odd, he sat on his knees while grabbing me by the shoulders and said

"i'm sorry… im sorry, but… I can't, I just can't tell you the reason, I don't want you to know, so all i'll say is that i'm sorry, so could you please accept it"

I was in shock, I didn't understand at all the reason as to why my father would do something like this and then once he was done apologizing he hugged me and all I could say was

"I-I b-but"

then I thought about it

"if it's really that important that I don't know then maybe I shouldn't know"

I recollected myself then decided to hug him back and say with a soft smile and with teary eyes

"alright, I won't ask again, I promise"

dad then said

"thank you so much"

"maybe the reason he won't tell me is also the reason mom locks her room all day"

I thought on that as we walked home

"there!"

dad placed the manga on the bed and he said

"well, goodbye"

then I asked him

"but aren't we going to hang out for the rest of the day"

dad then answered with a sad look

"sorry but i'm really tired today"

he said that even though he looked fully awake, but I decided to ignore that and instead said

"bye then"

he left after that and as I laid down on my bed I thought to myself

"huh, this is the first time i've just been able to lay down and relax on my bed without any interruptions, feels nice"

as I floated in to my bed thinking that I could lay there forever sleep struck me and as I was there hazy and about to fall fast asleep

"should we wake him up, I mean it is dinner time"

I heard my sister

"no, just let him sleep he looks like he's been through a lot all day"

my brother said and then continued by saying under his breath

"and I wonder whose fault that is"

Aki replied to his remark by saying

"well, i-it's not my fault he just happened to want to go to Ren's house"

Daichi then defended his point by saying

"didn't he tell you when he got home yesterday that they were gonna hang out"

Aki replied by saying

"well I, it's still your fault"

then I heard the voices fade away and immediately before I fell fast asleep I thought

"hah, you guys are so nice, thanks for letting me sleep in"

I then woke up at six in the morning thanks to them not waking me up…