Chapter 3: Time is On My Side

Airi was woken up by a heavy weight falling onto her. She slowly opened her eyes to see a tanned girl with short jet black hair and brown eyes staring at her with a smile.

“Wake up, sleepy head!”

“Makoto? What are you doing in my room?”

“Your mom let me in. It’s already two in the afternoon. We’ve gotta figure out how to work that thing.”

“Right, got it. Now please get off of me so I can get dressed.”

“Sure thing, boss! Don’t worry about me sneaking a peak either, hehe.”

“You’re such a weirdo, Mako-chan.”

As Airi changed from her pajamas into a tee shirt and pair of sweatpants, Makoto was busy messing with the Timeagotchi while hanging upside down off of the end of the bed.

“So, you just set a time, hit the button, and it works, right?”

“As far as I understand it, yeah.”

“But you can only go back to a time in the same day.”

“Yep.” Airi said flatly.

“And this thing only works once each day?”

“From what I’ve gathered, that seems to be the case.”

“Ok, so what if we hacked it?”

“What?” Airi asked, quickly turning to look at Makoto as she flipped herself onto the floor, now sitting with her legs crossed.

“Yeah, you know, like they do in the movies and stuff? You do some cool hacker stuff to make it so you can go back to any time you want!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to try, right?”

“Sure, if there was a way to actually do it. I mean, do you see a USB port or anything on it, because I sure don’t.”

Makoto stared at the device for a bit, turning it slowly in her hands.

“Ok, you have a point. Scratch that off the list.”

“So there’s a list now?”

“Yes, but only metaphorically. Unless you want me to make a list.”

“What are we even doing anyway? Should we really be messing with this thing? I mean, what if it explodes and causes time to get all messed up, and there’s some alternate future where everything is evil or something?”

“Really? Who was the one making fun of me for talking about movies and stuff earlier?”

“Shut up. I’m just saying it could be dangerous.”

“Alright, I get it. What if we try something else.”

“Like what?”

“So you know how every time you’ve gone back in time that thing has stayed with you?”

“Yeah, that’s typically how time machines work. I think.”

“Well, what if it also brought back any items you were holding at the time?”

“Hmm.” Airi thought to herself for a moment. “That’d be pretty OP if I could do that.”

“Well, it couldn’t hurt to try, right?”

“Sure, but what would we even try it with?”

Makoto thought while looking around the room.

“I’ve got it! Where’s your wallet?”

“Huh? What do you need that for?”

“Here it is!”

Airi tried to retrieve it from Makoto, but with no luck.

“Come on Mako-chan, give it back!”

“Alright, here ya go! Hehe.”

“What’s with that look? What did you do?”

“I put all of my money into your wallet.”

“What are you planning?”

“Well, if whatever you’re holding goes back in time with you, then if you go back in time with our money, then maybe we’ll have double the money! Think about it, we could be rich!”

“I don’t think that’s how it works. I mean, the first time I went back, my grandpa didn’t have this anymore, it was something else.”

“Well, maybe that’s a special case. After all, imagine how much chaos there would be if you had two of these things. Come on, just try it.”

“Alright fine, hold on.”

Airi grabbed the wallet, set the time on the Timeagotchi for three minutes earlier and hit the confirm button. She was engulfed in a flash of white, before seeing Makoto in front of her.

“I’ve got the wallet right here.” Airi said.

“Oh, so I already told you then. Cool, did it work?”

They both opened the wallets they were holding and both contained the same amount of money.

“Holy crap, it worked!” Makoto cheered.

“Well then, I guess it did. I thought that would have gone differently.”

“We have got to do this every day now.”

“But what if something else happens that we’d want to fix? Like, what if you died again and I couldn’t bring you back?”

“Then you’d be even richer. Come on, think of all the retro games you could buy. You could even get the one where the kid has psychic powers and that weird little creature with the bow says ‘boing’ all of the time.”

Airi thought to herself for a moment. It was true, she could become richer and richer with each passing day, but what if she needed her power for something else?

“Hey, speaking of me dying,” Makoto started, snapping Airi out of her daydreaming, “what do you think happened to the other me?”

“What other you?”

“Well, obviously I told you about the wallet thing and you went back in time, so that means there’s another me that’s living a few minutes in the future, right?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, if you’re the Airi from her timeline, but you’re here now in this timeline, does that mean in the other timeline you just went missing? Or maybe that timeline doesn’t exist anymore and we’re living in the main timeline.”

“Stop it Mako-chan, you’re hurting my head. Besides, I’d rather not think about it. You’re you in all timelines, and I’m me in all timelines. That’s all that matters, right?”

“I guess so. It’s just interesting to think about what happens to the other versions of us. Well, I guess just me.”

“I’m sure whatever has happened, they’re all fine. I mean, they are you after all. You’re the strongest person I know, Mako-chan.”

“Airi…”

Makoto sat there, staring at Airi, who was beaming the most genuine smile she’d ever seen from anyone.

The two girls spent the rest of the day talking about anime and playing video games. They went on and on for hours before Makoto had to leave.

“Well, my parents are gonna be worried about me if I don’t get home soon. We’ll hang out again tomorrow.”

“Sure thing. See you then.”

Makoto left and made her way to the station. As she walked, she couldn’t help but think to herself.

“Man… So I’m supposed to be dead, huh? Getting hit by a car must have been one hell of a way to go. But, Airi was there to save me. Should I really be alive then?”

Makoto tripped over a misaligned sidewalk paver, falling straight onto her face.

“Damn it! Man, that hurt. Someone should really fix that thing.” She thought as she got up, trying to rub away the pain from her nose.

“I guess I shouldn’t worry about it too much. It’s weird knowing that I shouldn’t be here anymore, but if it means I get to spend more time with Airi, I’m not gonna complain about it.”