"Not time travel?"
Miyu spoke after a moment of silence.
She still couldn't understand how it was not time travel. She had clearly come back to the sixteenth of December, the day before her bully tried to rape her, and the rest of the history that followed. By every definition, it was time travel... no matter how one looked at it.
Her mind struggled to make sense of it.
The clock she still clutched tightly in her hands gave a faint beep as the digits changed, but she didn't notice it... not with the sound of rain pounding against the roof of her house. Thunder roared, lightning flashed again, and the downpour grew even heavier, echoing through the quiet room.
The shadows on the cracked walls seemed to twist with each flash, stretching like ghosts in the dim light. She placed the clock back on the table and sat on the bed, trying to steady her breathing, but her thoughts were a storm of their own.
No matter how she thought or looked at it, it was time travel. How she had not time traveled made no sense at all.
I haven't time traveled... then what is this?
The man watched her quietly as the cradle chair rocked back and forth. She stared back, and from his eyes alone, she could tell that he already knew what she was thinking.
He rose slowly from the cradle chair as it began to fade away, the dark shape dissolving into the air until nothing remained.
"What I have done is time reversal," he spoke, and as if to emphasize his words, lightning flashed and thunder roared outside.
"Time reversal..." Miyu echoed softly, her mind still spinning.
"Yeah, and it's different from time travel. Instead of traveling back in time, I have reversed the very flow itself to the day before it... which falls under your wish to erase what has happened," the man explained. Then, in one sudden motion, he pinned her to the bed, her breath catching as her heart began to pound violently in her chest.
"Don't let your guard down like this. It's dangerous, you know," he murmured before finally releasing her. He watched as Miyu tried to steady herself, her breath shaky, her hands trembling. Then he continued, his tone almost casual. "To explain it better... have you ever played a video game with multiple endings? You know, different branches, good and bad outcomes, all affected by your choices, actions, or sometimes even the environment?"
She stared at him blankly, completely lost. She had never played a video game in her life. People like her could only dream of such things. She had wanted to... but she could never afford it.
The man looked at her, his expression twisting in disbelief. "Seriously? No video games at all?"
Miyu shook her head.
"Well, I should have guessed. Considering how pathetic your living conditions are... do you at least have a phone?"
"No..." was all she managed to say. She lowered her gaze, her voice quiet, almost swallowed by the sound of the rain. She didn't have a phone. She didn't have the money for one.
The man scratched his head. "Man, what a buzzkill. You really know how to kill the fun," he muttered, crossing his arms with a sigh. "You know what? I'm not even going to bother explaining what time reversal is. Let's just go with time travel if that's what your insignificant mortal brain can comprehend."
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes glinting faintly. "Even if you had actually traveled through time, which for the record you haven't, you still need to understand this. If you don't do something, then what happened before... or what was supposed to happen... will happen again."
"How am I going to do that?" Miyu asked quietly.
"Me, of course. I'm the one who shall elevate you from your suffering," the man replied, pulling her close to him. Her hands pressed against his chest... and then slipped right through him. She gasped, losing her balance and falling to the floor with a soft thud. The cold touch of a shallow puddle spread beneath her palms, the water dripping earlier from the ceiling soaking into her sleeves.
"This trick never gets old," the man laughed, now sitting casually on the bed. "That's what you get for ruining my fun, you little harlot."
He ran his hand across the bedsheet, feeling its rough fabric. "Now that I see it up close, this bed sucks even more than I thought. Still, I suppose it's better than sleeping on the floor. It might not be soft or luxurious... but at least you have one."
Miyu slowly got up, brushing off her damp sleeves. Her voice quivered as she spoke, "You said you would help me... then why do you keep tormenting me like this?" She didn't understand. How could someone who claimed to help her also be the one to hurt her, to frighten her? But then again, the man before her wasn't human... maybe his idea of help was something entirely different.
"Because I like tormenting little girls," the man said with a twisted grin. "It's always fun to torment them a bit here and there, make them cry... I mean little girls do cry when you scare the hell out of them, just like I did to you and would do again and again, as I do my business. It's my daily routine."
He snapped his fingers, and in an instant their positions switched. Miyu was suddenly sitting on the bed while he stood by its edge. He once again pinned her down, his hand on her face, gripping it tight. He brought his mouth closer to her ear and whispered, his voice low and chilling, "Now listen carefully. I am a being that exists beyond this tiny little universe of yours that is barely outside of its diapers. Even the big bang that gave birth to this realm is nothing more than a flicker of a matchstick flame, while I am a supernova that can engulf all of existence." His breath was heavy, and it sent a shiver crawling down her spine.
He then snapped his fingers once more, and she was falling again. The familiar rush of wind tore past her, cold and merciless, tugging at her clothes and hair as the sky opened around her. Above, the twin moons still hung, casting their pale light over the sprawling black city below. Its jagged towers and shadowed streets gleamed faintly, just as before, hauntingly unchanged.
Miyu didn't even scream this time. She simply shut her eyes as the ground rushed to meet her, the memory of her last fall already burned into her mind. And then, as before, everything went still. When she opened her eyes, she was back on her bed once more, her heart pounding.
"Bravo, bravo, this time you didn't scream. Now that's what I call progress," the man said, clapping his hands. "I like little girls like you. Now keeping things aside, take rest now. You don't have school today. I checked your memories, the school is closed due to heavy rain."
He was correct, she admitted internally. The school was indeed closed today due to a small renovation project, though the principal had announced it as heavy rain.
It did not really matter to her either way.
"I will come again at night to discuss what your next steps will be. I have an important business to attend," the man said, giving a bow as his form began to fade. The air around him shimmered faintly before collapsing into nothing. Yet even as his presence disappeared, his voice lingered, faint and hollow, echoing through the room.
"I hope your existence makes things more fun. I am a very lonely man... and I really do not have much to do with my never-ending life."
Miyu sat in silence long after he was gone. Her hands trembled slightly, her mind struggling to catch up with everything that had just happened. The faint ticking of the clock on the table filled the room again, the only sound besides the unending rain.
She finally let out a deep breath she had not realized she had been holding. It was too much... too much to process, too much to hear, too much to feel. Her body felt heavy, drained of all strength. For a moment, she thought about getting up, maybe changing her clothes or drying the damp patches on her sleeves, but the thought alone was exhausting.
So she stayed there...
For the next few hours, she did nothing but lie still and stare at the ceiling. The stains above her looked darker than usual, spreading like ink through the cracks. Drops of water slipped down in slow, steady intervals, their rhythm merging with the heavy downpour outside.
Lightning flashed again, followed by a long, rolling roar of thunder that shook the walls. The sound should have startled her, but it did not. Nothing really did anymore.
The world outside raged... yet inside her small room... everything stood still.