Gacha Story (Mature Readers Only)

When We Were Young

Via skipped down the hallway, tossing her bag carelessly against the locker doors, leaving it lying across the floor. Yuyu followed suit, her bag colliding with her twin's, pushing it inches to the side as she ran down to reach Via's side. Katie was pacing down the hallway after them, mumbling about how school rules were in place for a reason, and though they were leaving, it was not an excuse to break them all. But before she could chide them, Jack came sprinting down, head in front like a bull, charging past Katie and joining the twins. Via was in the middle, Yuyu on her left and Jack on her right. Katie kept up her pace and finally reached them.

"Guys," Katie called out, slightly out of breath, but more from their carefree attitude rather than from catching up to them. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

Yuyu shot her a sly smile. "Don't tell me you forgot our names already," she teased at the vagueness of her greeting.

Jack looked over at Katie, who seemed to have eyes full of exasperation and smirked, eyes laughing at her. "Well, I mean, we're finally out. Come on, you know, you can relax a little."

"I can," Katie confirmed. "But I won't."

"Killjoy," Via commented plainly.

They turned a corner, leaving through the school's main entrance, keeping themselves out of a crowd of other school leavers.

"Isn't this a little weird?" Yuyu asked. Via shrugged, not seeming to care in the slightest. Jack mirrored the same expression as Via and shook his head to fill in for Via's lack of response. Katie spoke over them.

"What's weird?" Katie asked.

Yuyu looked pensive. "I mean, it's weird how we're in a different timeline with different versions of us and..."

"We can never go back home," Katie echoed.

"We are home," said Yuyu with a sense of finality in her tone. They headed down the alleyway, that was not swathed in shadows, the afternoon light filtering through the narrow street. The four of them crouched down behind bins, keeping themselves out of sight. "Look," Yuyu said, a smile forming on her face. "I've got an idea. Of something fun we could try."

Via's face lit up at that, and Jack could not help but feel a rush of ecstasy run through him, seeing Via's smile so bright. "Yeah," Jack said, before Via or Katie could. "What were you thinking?"

"Going back in time again," Yuyu whispered.

Katie looked thunderous and spluttered. "You cannot be serious! You cannot mess up this timeline more than it already is!"

"Actually I can," Yuyu laughed.

"Well, you shouldn't!" Katie corrected herself.

"Who cares? It's not like we're guardians of time or whatever."

Via giggled, creating a purplish glow in her hands, a time portal stretching out in front of her. Yuyu giggled too, watching in awe as her twin opened it big enough for them.

"I've calculated," Via was saying, "and this should take us back to... I don't know, maybe around the time before Arya was adopted."

"Hmm," Yuyu said. "I was thinking something else."

"What were you thinking?"

"You know... back when Mum was a kid. She was always talking about things she did that were so... chaotic."

Katie was reasonable. "We're in a different timeline. There's no way the Mum we see is gonna be like that."

Jack shrugged. "There's no harm in trying."