A Distant Memory

It was seven years ago; when the skies were dark and a young Rin stood next to his mother. He never looked at her though. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the front porch of the house he was standing outside of. 

Standing there in the door frame was a woman. She was younger than Rin's mom and had her hair tied up at the back in a ponytail. Rin couldn't see her face too well. 

She simply waved at him as his mother grabbed his hand and pulled him farther and farther away. Rin's eyes never wandered, always watching the woman as she continued to wave regardless of the distance growing ever more between them.

***

*Chirp Chirp*
Rin awoke to a harsh light flooding in through the hospital's window.

"Did you get enough rest?"

The voice came from his severely cracked phone. Rin didn't even need to look to know who was speaking to him.

"I'd ask you if my predictions were correct, but I already know they are.", his reflection said.

"Well since you're here already, can I ask you something?"

Finally turning to look at his phone, Rin only saw a normal reflection. Just before he could say anything though, he was interrupted by his own voice again. 

"Down here."

Tracing the voice back to its source, Rin dug out the glass pocket watch from under his pillow. 

"Is it something to do with this?", his reflection asked.

"Yeah... I noticed something yesterday."

He held up the watch to his face and examined the top part of it closely. There was a tiny latch there. Pulling it caused the device to open up in his palm and emanating from its core were three sets of chains. Each had their own locks attached to them with distinct shapes from the others.

"Are there keys for this thing?"

"Couldn't tell you."

Rin looked at his reflection again.

"I thought you were from the future."

"Doesn't mean I know everything about it. Sorry, can't tell you what I don't know."

-He's clearly hiding something, Rin thought.

He didn't press the issue any further though. There was something else he was even more curious about.

"I'm amazed this thing survived the crash."

Just dropping it seemed like it would be enough to shatter the watch into a million pieces. At the very least, Rin expected a couple of scratches from all the damage he'd caused. 

"Well, you remember what that trucker told you, right? About this thing being really dangerous?"

"Given your final prediction, I'm assuming it has something to do with the end of the world?"

"Bingo. Now something like that wouldn't be made of some random ordinary fragile material, would it?"

"...So, even if I had dropped the watch back then, nothing would've happened?"

His reflection chuckled slightly as he responded.

"You're lucky he was so uninformed."

"...Hmm..."

Rin sighed as he leaned back into his pillow and crossed his arms. A slight frown coated his face now. He couldn't hide his irritation when he spoke again.

"So, what do you want me to do then?"

"What do you mean?"

"About your third prediction. Did you tell me about it hoping I'd save the world?"

"You were the one who asked me for that information. So, whatever you do with it is up to you."

It took a while for Rin to decide what to say to that. He looked away before responding. 

"...I don't think I'd mind it. If the world ended."

"I figured you'd say something like that."

Silence followed, but not for long.

"Scared you're not as smart as you think you are?", his reflection asked.

Rin looked back at the watch instantly to discover his reflection was no longer there again. Looking around the room, he spotted some slight movement from the window. His reflection looked at him smugly while speaking once more.

"If you can't handle it, you can always tap out and go back to living as you were before."

Silence. 

Rin unconsciously gripped the blanket covering his legs as he let those words sink in. And after a long pause considering them, he finally let go.

"There's something we need to do.", he said.

***

*Buzz*
A man in a black suit lurched over his laptop in a dark room. On its screen, footage of the attack on the funeral hall replayed over and over again. Every time the video ended, the suited man would drag his mouse all the way to the beginning and replay it again. 

His partner stood next to him and seemed to be getting fed up with this. He rolled his eyes and hit the space bar.

"The video won't change no matter how many times you rewatch it.", he said.

"We searched the trucker, and he didn't have it, right?", the suited man asked.

"Yes, we've established this already."

"And it wasn't in the coffin either, right?"

His partner rolled his eyes. He'd probably gone through this same interaction multiple times beforehand. The suited man ignored him however, looking over the screen again and again. But no matter how many times he did, he could only come to one conclusion.

"Which means, it could've only been stolen during the funeral."

He rewound, paused, and zoomed. The coffin was now at the center of the screen. His gaze was fixed on Rin leaning over the coffin.

***

"The camera?", Rin's reflection asked.

"Yeah. I noticed it in the corner of the hall. It won't be long until those men from the funeral check the footage on it.", Rin said.

"So that's why one of them dropped in for a visit."

Rin looked at him in irritation.

"You knew they were coming and didn't tell me?"

"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, here's something else you'd probably like to know. He'll be here in about twenty minutes."

Rin stared at him in disbelief.

"Yup. That settles it. You and I can't possibly be the same person. If we were, you'd have said something earlier."

"And now that I have, rather than wasting what little time you have left complaining, how about coming up with a plan instead?"

Rin couldn't say anything to that. He was right after all. Every word they spoke wasted a precious second that they could use to figure a way out of this. Looking at the folded suit sitting next to him, Rin came up with an idea.

He grabbed it and put the watch back inside its breast pocket. 

"How about calling one of the nurses over? Then have them take the suit with the watch in it and move it out of the room for a while."

"Not good enough. Those guys will search this building from top to bottom if they have to."

Rin looked out the window. 

"Then I'll chuck it into some of the bushes outside."

"And if you can't find it again? Or worse yet, if some passerby sees you and decides to take the watch for themselves?"

"Oh, come on, what are the odds of that happening?"

"Can you honestly say it's zero?"

"I guess it's not as safe as I'd like it to be.", Rin said.

His reflection did the same as he gazed upon his past self with pity.

"Well, it was unreasonable to expect you to come up with something on such short notice. So, I'll throw you a bone just this once and tell you, a certain someone will be dropping by soon. It'll be much safer to use her."

Rin couldn't even begin to imagine who his reflection could be talking about. There was only person who came to mind at all.

"It couldn't be my mother..."

"You think I'd trust her with anything?"

"Well, who then? Unlike you, I don't know everything that'll happen and exactly when it will."

As soon as he finished talking, the door to the room slammed open. Rin jumped from the sudden noise and turned to see a woman standing there. She was young, but still quite a bit older than him.

Judging from the look of embarrassment on her face, it didn't seem like she intended to open the door with such force. Sheepishly scratching the back of her head, she turned to look at Rin.

"You haven't seen her in a long time, but you still recognize her, don't you?"

Rin couldn't tell what his reflection was talking about at first. But as the woman approached, his eyes widened. Her identity finally dawned on him.