COTE: Fragments

Fragment: Temporal Twist

Temporal Twist

On the day of his graduation from Advanced Nurturing High School, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka is mysteriously booted backwards in time to the very first day of high school... Along with everybody else in his class. Naturally, everything goes completely off the rails.

—-

It happened so smoothly and without warning I almost failed to realize it. One moment, I was standing quietly on a stage, listening to the Chairman- Sakayanagi, who had been reinstated after the fiasco that was my second year- give a speech in which he extolled both my own personal virtues and the ability of my class standing behind me.

Class A, of course. Once I had decided to take a more active hand in things, my victory became an inevitable thing. Still, though, our development as a class was... Unprecedented, to say the least. I turned my head to look at them, burning their proud, excited faces into my mind. After all, this was probably the last time that I would ever be able to see them again, despite their declared intents to never stop being friends with one another.

Then, I blinked. And suddenly, I was in a very familiar classroom.
—-

I paused for the slightest of moments, bewildered. My mind ran through calculations, flickering through possibilities as rapidly as I could. Around me, my classmates began yelling in surprise and confusion. Absently, I noted that we had all likely experienced the same phenomenon. I also noticed the presence of a couple students who had explicitly not graduated with our class.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, had written out a simple fact that I considered to be applicable in this absurd situation.

He stated:

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

It wasn't a perfectly working theory that I had developed in this short time frame, but in the absence of other explanations, I had come to a conclusion.

I stood up and made eye contact with several significant personalities. Yousuke, Chiaki, Suzune, Kei. Understanding my intent, they quietly and quickly went into action corralling the rest of the class for me. In under a second, total silence had overtaken the room. I cleared my throat.

"... Time travel." Shocked glances flew around as people digested my declaration. However, despite the absurdity of my claim, nobody contradicted me. Nobody, of course, except one boy who burst out in an angered yell.

"Time travel? What the fuck?"

Haruki Yamauchi had thrown himself out of his seat to scream at me. I had almost forgotten about this eyesore, so little of an impression he had left before his unsightly expulsion. He gesticulated ferociously in front of me, sending spittle flying onto my face.

"And for that matter, why are you all listening to him? Ayanokoji is a fucking nobody, look at him! This asshole got me expelled! Why the FUCK am I here!"

... Hmm.

He was having a difficult time adapting to the situation, I noticed. Another one of his many flaws that had seen him expelled. Ignoring him, I turned to meet Kei's questioning gaze and inclined my head slightly. Her face split into a vicious grin. In the background, Hirata let out a disappointed sigh, but made no move to intervene.

Significant looks traveled around the class. A liability was found within the unified whole, and steps were being taken to correct it. Fed up with my continuous disregard of his presence, Yamauchi wound up his arm to deliver a physical blow.

I slipped under the punch to stand behind him and he stumbled forwards- directly into the grasp of a waiting Horikita, who casually tossed him into the air, using his momentum to perform a textbook Judo Throw over her own shoulder.