retracing steps | Arisu Ryouhei x Chishiya Shuntaro

Chapter 1

Soulmate clock
-in which there's birthday gifts, teary farewells, unexpected soulmates and university holidays

Arisu Ryouhei patiently rapped his hands against the door of Chota Segawa's apartment.

The door opened to reveal the casually dressed male who rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he smiled softly at Arisu.

"Happy birthday!" Arisu shoved the gift box in his hands towards Chota while he made his way inside the apartment, waving hello to Chota's current girlfriend, a short pink haired woman.

Chota let out a surprised gasp as he opened the gift to reveal a collector's edition of his current favourite manga, "Just for this gift, you're gonna get two slices of cake today."

"Hey! Don't I get a slice? I brought drinks after all." Karube slid a hand through the closing door and then entered the room while proudly showing off the alcohol held in his hand.

"It's literally 9 in the morning on a weekend," Chota's girlfriend said as she side eyed them while getting ready for work.

"Gotta be happy hour somewhere," Karube Daikichi opened the door again for her as she put on her shoes.

"He just got the drink 'cause he wanted to visit Emi at the bar," Arisu laughed as he nudged Karube who flipped him off.

"Well, I'm off to work, clean up the dishes after eating. Happy birthday again, babe." With that the pink haired girl was gone through the apartment door.

_____

"Well, now that your girlfriend isn't here," Arisu stood in the middle of the room as he took out an envelope from his pocket and showed it off proudly to Chota, "here is the actual gift from me and Karube for you."

Chota took the envelope and widened his eyes as he saw the ticket, "we thought that your girlfriend and you'd appreciate the vacation together and you know that'd also take your mother off your back for some days."

Chota's eyes watered, "Thank you guys, I appreciate it but still it's too expensive, I don't think that we can-"

"It's already all booked under your name! It's three weeks away so that also gives you enough time to get leave from the company, you always work so hard man, you deserve a break." Karube rubbed Chota's back soothingly as he tried to convince him.

As Chota nodded in acquiescence, Arisu felt his chest become lighter as if a heavy burden was being removed. He had done his best and pulled all strings he could to make sure Karube would be away from Tokyo for a business trip while he had now successfully half succeeded in his plans of packing Chota and his girlfriend away from Tokyo as well during the day of the accident.

If all was well, then he'd make sure that this time his friends wouldn't die in the hell that was the borderland death games.

_____

As the day of the catastrophe came closer, Arisu felt himself being uncertain despite his preparations.

Maybe he should've went away from Tokyo himself but honestly he couldn't live with himself when he knew that there were some deaths that he could've prevented but didn't due to his cowardice.

Besides, as the day came closer so did his soulmate clock has the timer come closer to zero. It made him realise that his soulmate was definitely someone who was going to be in the borderlands this time.

_____

Last time, well, last life to be exact, Arisu's clock had the timer set at infinity which had meant that his soulmate had no chance of meeting him before his death or either died before his birth or he was one of those rare people who were unfortunate enough to not be blessed with one.

It had been the reason for him being bullied and growing up withdrawn finding solace in playing games and delving himself in the world of fantasy.

This time though, when it was time for him to see his soulmate clock, he was shocked to see that his mark had actual time on it instead of the cursed infinity mark.

He had smiled then, hoping that this time he'd be blessed with more good things like this.

_____

Waving his friends goodbye on their way out of Tokyo was very emotional for him. He hugged them tighter then was medically acceptable.

"Hey, calm down, Arisu. What'd your fans say if they see that your eyes are so red as if you've been bullied?" Chota teased as he was bundled in a hug between Arisu and Karube.

"Or as if you're high." Karube laughed on the far side of the hug.

After rebirth, Arisu had started sports from a young age while actively playing puzzle games and such to make sure his mind always stayed sharp.

While he had frantically competed in sports during his early and middle school days, during high school he also made some small time to put up videos of his game plays in social platforms.

He remembered the boom of social media during the days before the borderland games and he took full advantage of his knowledge as he built a career out of gaming.

His sports achievements and well kept appearance along with the fact that he still had to meet his soulmate had made him pretty popular in his work. Paired with him actively gaming every free second he got was heaven sent for his rising career.

During university, Arisu had taken a double degree in Psychology and Criminal justice and honestly it was slightly kicking his ass but he'd survive them when he was able to survive borderlands.

_____

He was thankfully in a three day vacation because of 100 years of the founding of his university or some equally 'important' reason for which Arisu was thankful to.

He honestly didn't fancy missing classes just so he could go to Shibuya station so he could enter borderland exactly like he did in his last lifetime.

God knew his attendance was already suffering enough due to his fucked up sleep schedule.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Okay, I just couldn't resist writing a reborn soulmate Arisu x Chishiya fix it au because yes. Did anyone ask for this? No. Did I deliver anyways? YES!

[Unedited]