Paradox (Mikey x reader) (Tokyo Revengers)

Chapter 1

(Y/N) was a college dropout, quitting during her last year. Explaining why she would quit right before finishing boiled down to two things- a joint effort of student loan debt and the realization that her life could be much better off if she continued her part time job to cover rent and devoted the rest of her time to her studies.

College was the time to chase your dreams, they said. (Y/N) thought she would finally be free of the forced curriculum expected of her in high school. But college just failed to offer or even live up to the kind of studies she wanted to do. Even after she finished nearly everything in her boring major, she felt completely unfulfilled.

Her interests could not ever feasibly be covered in the college setting. Bringing it up to any professor would make them laugh and tell her she's been watching too much sci-fi. But she was sure her studies could break the limits of the possible, destroy the ever stubborn asymptote between human progress and the laws of the universe.

Her studies were directed at nothing else but the eventual performance of time travel. She would stop at nothing until she achieved success.

Her days were a constant flip back and forth between the karate dojo she helped teach lower belt-ranked students at, and the dash back home to open up her overflowing notebooks and remove the bookmark from the worn textbook on special relativity from her dear friend at the bookstore.

It was true that tragedies in her family's history, including that of her now deceased parents, could theoretically be prevented through time travel. However, (Y/N) knew better than to use time travel for such selfish desires. The confirmation of the multiverse theory, the true extent of the butterfly effect... such otherworldly theories and their eventual conclusions could surely satisfy her more than saving the lives of two people whom she had never seen the faces of her entire life.

All her life she had been the model kid, a top student, and then in the 6 months she had free of school thanks to quitting college- a law abiding citizen with a record as clear as the morning sky after a rainy night.

Now, she had but one ambition. Unfortunately, it was one she would most likely be forced to admit would be out of her reach.

Never would she have dreamed that her ambition would answer itself all at once- that it would result in her becoming a member of a gang of delinquents.

—-

Naoto Tachibana was an old friend of (Y/N)'s who often went out with her solely to catch up on their busy lives with each other. They had gone to the same school until (Y/N) moved away after graduating high school. The opportunity arose for her to move out of her grandparent's home and into a better neighborhood with her uncle, where she had done 3 and a half years of college away from her hometown.

Although the parting was bitter, she remembered Naoto as her only friend, the kid who she felt comfortable breaking the "gifted" kid façade with.

"Naoto!" Wiping off her forehead from her 11 AM karate session, (Y/N) greeted the detective as he walked into the small business. She had been expecting him after his text this morning.

The tatami behind them was littered with head guards, soft chest paddings, and fist and shin guards. But it was more than firm enough for the two of them to sit down on. (Y/N) laughed a little as she attempted to clean up a wider space for them.

"(Y/N), it's been a few weeks.... I'm sure you're in good health with all this exercise you do." Naoto gestured to the sparring gear she was putting away, gear meant to protect while also allowing a simulation of a fight.

"Well, you know.... It helps me remember what I've learned over the years and works as a job. And it's not like I'm half bad at it either. We won the tournament at the start of this month." Although her words were prideful, at the moment it was all small talk. She knew that today, Naoto didn't come for just small talk.