Chapter 3: 3
"Are you alright, Tokachi? You're shaking," The teacher remarked. I was sure that she believed I was still under the mental breakdown effects, of which I had no recollection. Instead, my body was crumbling from the situation I had fallen victim to without any previous warnings. Either way, I gave her a nod, asking what happened, before I heard her recite the lines she told me before, word for word. This replay of events made the entire thing taste increasingly bitter.
There had to be a Mystic involved; that explanation is the only justifiable reason I've gone back in time. However, a Time Property was rare and, purely, a myth to any sane person. For me to end up in their trap meant that I drew the shortest stick in the world. This statement is not to mention that, also, I have yet to develop my Property after 18 years. I should be undetectable to other users...unless they know my sister.
I'll need to get in contact with her.
"...I see. Sorry for causing trouble," I told the teacher, giving her the same words I did previously. However, I stopped her before she could continue her script to add in some new lines. "I'm fine now, though. Could I, maybe, go to the bathroom before heading back into the class? I want to fix myself up and try again with my introduction." A smile appeared on her face, a sigh of relief slipping through her lips.
"Sure. What about-"
"You can tell them about my condition. I talked to my sister this morning, and she told me I could be honest, so please honor this for me." She gave an uneasy look, the words my sister gave to her before surely weighing on her conscience. Thankfully, she gave the nod. "Thank you," I said before walking off around a corner.
---Shadows of Time---
"This is Tokachi Kai. Sorry, but I'm currently busy at the moment. Please call again-" is all I heard before I hung up for the third time right outside an empty classroom. I hoped that it was just her college session going a bit later than usual. However, something worse could've happened. If there is a Time Property around, they could do a long list of bad with such an ability. Not even her Electronic Property could assist with someone who can keep repeating until they succeed.
Speaking of which, succeed with what exactly? Why would someone like that come in and try to ruin the lives my sister and I are trying to live? I concluded that I had to find my sister, even if I had no way to defend myself if this was an attack. I started walking off, heading for the exit.
"Where might you be heading off too in a hurry?" I stopped as soon as I heard someone behind me. As I turned around, my sky blue eyes once again met a shade of orange. "If you need any assistance getting back to class, I'll be happy to escort you in the right direction. I wouldn't want to see a new student get lost in this big school after all."
"I was about to head home, actually," I said, rubbing my right arm with my left hand to give my acting some grounding in reality. "You heard about my disorder, right? I told the teacher that I would head home after talking to the faculty."
"Oh. So, you were phoning your sister just now to inform her that you're heading home?"
"Yeah. She goes to the college nearb-" I stopped for a brief moment, my tongue caught by her paw. "How did you know I was calling my sister?"
"It was purely an estimated guess."
"No. A reasonable guess would be if I called a parent or other guardian. Instead, you correctly guessed that it was my sister," I told her, backing up slightly. "You're a Mystic."
She stood there for a few moments, mulling over her thoughts, before grinning from ear to ear. "I could make an understandable claim by saying that I wiretapped your phone or looked up your records via illegal means. However, for your excellent deductive skills, I'll confirm your suspicions."
"It wasn't excellent; I could tell you let that slip on purpose."
"Very sharp mind there, Watson. Now deduce why I would let my tongue intentionally flop like that. Three seconds." Once her valid point rose, I shifted my eyes around. It was a distraction! "Two. One. Zero. You failed the mystery, Sherlock, so accept your consequence!"
"You can't refer to me as bo-" Before I could finish my sentence, I felt something wrap around me. Then, I crashed into the door of the empty classroom.
Sliding across the floor, I eventually came to a hard stop against one of the desks. I let out a scream of agony, pain flowing from my right arm to my right leg. I could only look towards my attacker as she closed the door behind her and locked it, sealing me in this prison with my intended torturer. Afterward, once she walked over, she grabbed my shirt's collar and pulled me in close. "Do know that I don't intend to kill you or anything of that sort. I only wish to know of your true nature. So, if you may, reveal your Property to me. I don't believe you have the ability to refuse."
"What happened to my sister? Answer that first, then I'll answer your question," I said, having picked myself up to one knee.
"I've done nothing to your sibling."
"Bullshit! You knew that my sister is my only family. Not only that, but you've trapped me in a time loop somehow. Now, as I said, tell me where my sister is-"
"I've trapped you in a time loop...?" She looked at me, confused for a few moments before she gave an awkward laugh. Her grip on my shirt tightened. "You're playing me for a fool, Tokachi? There is no Mystic alive that can utilize time."
"Then why has everything been on repeat from the moment I came to in that classroom?" Now she was bewildered.
"What are you on about?"
"On the first go-around, I walked out of the school and tried to go back in to get my umbrella before it started raining. Then, right after going through that forest again, I ended back up in that classroom. You sent me back in time, didn't you?! Why would you do that?"
"..." She lets go of my shirt and stands up. "Sorry to inform you of the flaw in that logic you crafted, but I'm not a Time Mystic; nobody is," She said, looking at me as if I should be in a stray jacket. "If you want proof, take what just happened as a prime example." She pointed to the door.
"How does manipulating time send you through that door?" I tried to answer that question, but all that resulted was more confusion from my side. "My Property takes a physical form. Past events prove that to be the truth. If you consider that fact, I'm free from your suspicions about being a Time Mystic. Now, I'd like to offer two possibilities of my own: One, your previous mental breakdown has had some secondary effect on your brain, causing you to make up that story of yours.
Of course, if we consider your account valid, there's option two. I noticed your hand light up during your breakdown, meaning your Mystic runes are there. Since it seems like your head is all over the place, I'll remind you that an active rune shows a Property in use. Putting two and two together, we end up at one conclusion:
you're the Time Mystic."
What?! "T-That's not true! I haven't developed my Property as of now! As far as I'm concerned, I'm an ordinary high school student in his senior year! I am a Mystic, but I have no abilities!" She looked closely at me as I spoke, reading me like a copy of the latest shounen magazine. After a few moments, she started giggling.
"Holy shit. I can't believe you're real," She said, my heart dropping as she accepted it as reality. However, I tried my hardest not to believe her. She was manipulating me. She had to be tricking me, continuing to keep my sister's location hidden.
It was then that my phone rang in my pocket. Pulling it out and looking past the cracked screen, I saw my sister's name. I rushed to pick it up. "KAI! KAI! Are you alright?!" I exclaimed, listening carefully to see if she was in any danger.
"Uh, yeah. Why are you screaming? Did something happen on your first day?" She said, a sigh escaping me upon knowing that she was okay. Unfortunately, that reinforced the theory that the girl in front of me laid out. Have I really awoken to a Time Property...?
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