No Time Like The Present

I give up on chasing the boy and walk back to my home, rubbing my watch most of the way there. These once familiar streets feel overwhelming to me right now. The loud noise and bright lights assault my senses. My memories are fuzzy but it feels like a week since I’ve been in my own time. So much has happened to me, but there’s no time to think about it out here. Has no time at all passed since I’ve been gone, really? It doesn’t matter, all my energy is drained. All I want to do is go home and sleep in my own bed. Hota makes sure to congratulate me on all my hard work. He’s nice; I’m happy he’s my ally through all of this.

The loud background noise of the crowds fades away as I get closer to my neighborhood. I feel a bit better already. The comfort of home relaxes me as I approach. I didn’t eat much at the café but I have no appetite anyway. I plan to go right to bed after all. Tomorrow is Saturday so I don’t even have to worry about school in the morning. Oh, that’s right. I’m supposed to meet my friends. I’ll message them later.

I open the front door and announce that I’m home to my grandparents. Grandma is watching television in the living room while eating homemade sweets. Grandpa is probably in bed already. I weakly walk over and pat my parent’s alter.

“Oh, Runa! Did you have too much fun with your friends? You seem absolutely tuckered.”

“Yeah, I’m ok, Grandma. Just tired, is all.”

“Try one of these manju. It’ll give you your energy back, I can guarantee it.” She hold one out to me. I happily accept. Her cooking has never let me down. I thank her and head to my room.

After getting settled, I open my phone to message my friends. I sit on my bed as Hota snuggles up next to me as a rabbit. I pet his head and he smiles. He seems tuckered out as well. I start typing on my phone.

Runa: Are we still meeting tomorrow? Where/when?

Ageha: Yes! How about by the park with that flower wall around noon? That place is so aesthetic.

Yona: I can’t make it tomorrow actually. Something came up.

Runa: Oh, ok. No problem, Yona. I’ll be there tomorrow. Night guys.

Yona has something suddenly come up? Yona never has anything to do. She’s always the one complaining about how bored she is. Maybe it’s something delicate like a family emergency. I’ll ask her about it at school later. I sigh and fall back onto my bed.

“I’m showing you off to my friend tomorrow, Hota. She thought your watch form looked really cool.”

“Sounds fun. I’ll try to look my best and get tons of bunny beauty sleep tonight.”

I lay there thinking about that mysterious boy I saw with the Dust Bunny. “Why would people make contracts with Dust Bunnies, Hota? Aren’t they evil compared to your kind?”

“You know I don’t understand you humans very well to guess at why. I had to study quite a bit to learn some conversation skills to persuade people like you into making contracts with me. I learned people trust talking bunnies more than talking watches.”

“You say that but you were teasing me a lot about Hayahiko… What did you do before? Just jump at people and say ‘make a contract with me!’ or something?”

“You were just so obvious, that’s why I knew. As for what I used to do, it’s too embarrassing to say. But I will say that Dust Bunnies aren’t evil and Time Hoppers aren’t good, per say. It’s just the natural flow of things. Older memories are not thought about often and so are more likely to be affected by rest energy. They tamper with love memories since they are powerful and can gather more rest energy than other types of memories. So they go in and tamper with them and it will create other memories to generate rest energy.”

“Oh, and they are pure rest energy so they are just attracted to it, right? And you are pure kinetic energy so your instincts tell you to remove it.” Although I’m not sure if memories are like physical objects that can gain energy, but I’ll let that slide.

“That’s the gist of it. So if I could tell the world one thing, it’s to try and think of their love memories often! Gotta get that kinetic energy a flowin’.”

“But why make a fake love interest in their memories?” I yawn into my hand.

“It’s not so much them making new memories as the owner forgetting their original memories and confusing them.”

“I see. I see.” I don’t think I really get it but I’m too tired to think anymore. I get cozy under the covers and start to drift off to sleep. A boy who’s very dear to me appears in my head and gives me a gentle smile. I feel a deep bittersweet emotion. There’s no denying it; he was my first crush. I’ll probably never see him again, nor should I try to in this time. I’ll try to keep his memory alive inside of me at the very least.

I wake up in the morning feeling completely refreshed. Truly the power of not having to wake up early to an alarm does wonders. I take my time getting out of bed until I see the time on my phone. It’s almost noon already?! There goes my easy Saturday morning. I quickly pull some clothes with green on them out of my closet and try to ignore the mess I’m creating. I put my talking, time-hopping watch around my wrist and head out my door.

I rush out to the kitchen to see if I can grab something fast. I look around and notice the manju, calling my name. I decide to eat more of those delicious leftover manju while telling my grandparents that I’m going out with friends today. It’s not the healthiest breakfast in the world, but I am only a weak-willed girl who’s running late.

As I dust around my parent’s alter, I start to wonder. Did I perhaps pass by my grandparents in the crowd when I was in the 70s? I wish I could have seen them. If I go to the 80s, would I get to see my parents as children? While the thought is cute, I doubt I could keep my emotions in check if I did. I leave before I think about it too hard.

I make it to the park after a long walk. I’m late, but I’m sure Ageha will forgive me. It’s the biggest park in our area, but I head to our usual meeting spot and hope she’s there. I look around and see her playing on her phone sitting on the benches. Ageha always looks so fashionable, like she could be a model. Her white vest with a green dress shirt underneath and black skirt suit her so well. Her long, black hair flutters in the wind. Even when it gets in her face, she looks so cool.

“Ageha! Did I keep you waiting?” I run over and wave at her.

“Runa! You precious soul, you only keep me waiting half an hour!!” She slams her phone in her bag.

“Ahaha, sorry about that… I love your outfit, by the way!” I compliment her, trying to smooth things over.

“I suppose I’ll forgive you this time. You chose some excellent clothing, too. Sad that Yona couldn’t come as well. I wanted to see what she would wear.” Yona does normally dress a bit like a vampire allergic to the sun. If she came today, I imagine she would probably be in a long black dress with green earrings.

“I know. I hope she’s ok. Maybe she’s sick.” I say as we make our way to the flower wall across the grass.

“Maybe… love sickness?”Ageha looks at me with quite the expression and I gasp.

“You think Yona found a crush?” I whisper to her.

“Anything is possible in this beautiful reality we live in.” She flips her hair at that statement.

That’s certainly true. I learned that the hard way just earlier this week. We make it to our destination and Ageha pulls out her phone tripod from her backpack. The wall is pretty high and stretches out quite a ways. It’s covered in green vines with small white flowers. It’s a popular spot for girls and couples to take pictures. Luckily, it’s relatively empty today.

“Let’s see your new watch, Runa. I haven’t gotten a good look at it yet.” She mentions while setting her phone up.

“Oh yeah, sure.” I walk over to her and hold out my wrist. I stare at its green shine in the sun. This watch means so much to me now. I can’t believe I was going to leave it in that alley when it first started talking to me.

“It really is quite lovely. Why would it just be lying around?” Ageha reaches out to touch the details around the face.

A while glow emits from my watch as soon as Ageha touches it. What? Why? We both gasp in surprise. The light continues to shine and grow. Hota transforms into his rabbit form in my hands. What is he doing?? Ageha steps back in confusion. I can’t help but yell out Hota’s name. Please stop scaring my friend!!

“Howdy there, Runa’s friend. Ageha, right? Don’t be afraid! I’m just a talking bunny, nothing dangerous.” He raises his little paws in submission.

“What? Runa, did you know your watch is also a talking bunny?”

“Um…yes?”

Ageha’s eyes light up. “That’s so amazing! Is it battery-powered? Solar-powered? It feels so real!” She plays with his ears and paws. Hota giggles. She definitely has the wrong idea. I’m not sure what to say really.

“This time period is nice with your advanced technology. People used to freak out and think I was some sort of demon all the time. I’m lucky I’m pretty smash resistant.” Hota enjoys being poked and prodded for a bit before hopping off my hands and landing in a cool pose. Ageha seems excited.

He points to Ageha. “Listen up, Ageha! I’m no mere bunny, I’m a Time Hopper. I travel inside people’s memories and get help from humans like you for their love troubles made by Dust Bunnies. Only special individuals like Runa and yourself can see my rabbit form. Runa already made a contract with me and has gone on a few time hops.”

I look worryingly to Ageha. How is she taking all of this nonsense sounding explanation? I know I was freaked out at first. What if she thinks I’m pulling an elaborate prank on her?

Ageha leans in close to Hota. “Incredible! That is the best, most romantic thing I’ve ever heard! Runa, why didn’t you tell me about all of your adventures? So I can come with Runa the next time if I make a contract with you?” I didn’t have to worry at all. I should have known she would act like this. She hasn’t even heard the full details yet.

Hota fills her in on all of the details of the energy rabbits and memory worlds. Ageha just gets more interested by the word. I ask Hota why he didn’t tell me he could make multiple contracts at once. I didn’t know I had to be worried about someone touching him and he suddenly start glowing on me. He says I never asked so it never came up. For that, I get Ageha to tug on his ears with me, one ear between the two of us. Hota yells uncle before long. Smash resistant, but still feels pain I see.

Ageha wants to try going into a memory world but only after the photo-shoot first. I guess we did come all the way here already. We try to take a picture with Hota in rabbit form but it seems he doesn’t appear in photos. We have fun taking pictures in all kinds of poses with him as a watch on each other wrists instead. After she puts everything back into her bag, we head into town to look for people with black clouds over their heads.

“Going into memories to fix people’s old romance origins. It’s like we are cupids of fate. This is so exciting.” Ageha looks through the crowds of people we pass along the way.

“But if we pick wrong, then there’s no second chances. That person’s love will be forever ruined. Aren’t you worried about that?” I know that fear nearly paralyzed me at first.

“Not really. I have complete confidence in myself in being able to pick out a true love. I have consumed more romance fiction than anyone else I know, including you.” She’s got me there. I spend a lot of time lazing about online while she watches and reads things like it’s her job.

“Hm. Just be careful with that kind of thinking. Fiction and reality are pretty different a lot of the time. I appreciate the confidence though. It will get you far in life.” Hota speaks his sage wisdom from my wrist.

We take the train to go further into town where the popular districts are. More people means a higher chance of finding a victim. There’s not many people I’ve seen affected compared to the amount of people I’ve seen in a day. I wonder if there are not as many of these energy bunnies running around as Hota’s high number led me to believe. Or maybe there are more Time Hoppers than Dust Bunnies? I’ll have to ask him later.

Ageha leads us in all sorts of directions like a hyper dog. We stare into the windows of cafes and wander all over the streets looking intensely at all the crowds. We turn around in embarrassment when we lock eyes with someone. Hopefully people chalk it up to normal middle school behavior.

We duck into a large clothing shop when a sensation freezes me in my tracks. I saw someone with the same cold smile as I saw yesterday. He’s with a cute, short girl looking at clothes down the hall. It looks like a date. Ageha wonders what’s up and calls out to me. The longer I watch them, it seems more and more like I’m looking at the same boy on a date with Yona.