Living A Dead Dream (Baji x OC)

2

I was, once again, met with bright lights. Though it wasn't the sight of a badminton court this time, it was a hospital room. Some nurses and a doctor came in and did a few tests to make sure I was all right before, eventually, discharging me. There was nothing wrong with me and they couldn't figure out why I blacked out like that.

It was nighttime, just like it was before I blacked out. That was weird. I should probably call Take. I don't know what it was, but something was telling me to call him. To make sure he was alright. Maybe it was just the twin thing. I dug into my pocket and found my smartphone. Not my old flip phone this time. I found his number and dialed it as I continued walking. On the third ring, he picked up.

"Hey, Sis, what's up?" he asked.

"Are you alright?"

"Huh? Yeah. Why do you ask?" He sounded a little confused.

"I just had a feeling," I sighed. "And the weirdest thing happened to me. I blacked out at the fabrics store and woke up at the hospital about an hour ago."

"Holy crap, are you alright?!" 

"Yeah, they said everything was fine. But I ended up having a flashback to 2005. Isn't that crazy?" I chuckled.

"Really...?"

"Yeah?" I questioned.

It was silent on the other end for a moment before he asked me to meet up with him. Having nothing else to do, I agreed. The place was a good distance away, so I had to get a taxi. The ride went by smoothly with the driver staying quiet and me just making story notes and sketching out character designs. If this turns out to be some time travel junk, I'll start believing in all the supernatural.

Finally, I arrived at the building and stepped out of the car to see Take's usual dorky face along with an older version of that kid I had seen just a few minutes ago. "Time travel?" I asked. Take didn't know anyone like this guy when we were kids, as far as I knew, and I could just tell by the look on his face that he was going to tell me something unbelievable.

"How did you know?" he asked, baffled.

"You saw me right as you shook his hand, right?" I asked pointing to the man. "Whatever happened with you also happened with me. Besides, that's not how 14-year-old you would've reacted to me saying "Hey"."

"Well, it looks like we don't have to explain too much," the man said before turning to me. "I'm Naoto Tachibana. I don't know how, but it seems like my handshake can cause both of you to time travel."

"Makes sense," I shrugged.

"How?" Take asked.

"Well, just a few hours ago, I heard he died. My phone gave me a little news article about the incident. But, here he is, alive and well."

After a few more moments, we went inside the building and Naoto began explaining everything he knew. I, on the other hand, was hyper-fixated on making rough drafts for next week's chapter.

"Are you even listening?" Naoto asked, bringing me out of my work.

"Not at all," I bluntly answered. "I think I took ibuprofen instead of my Addoroll, so I can't focus much outside of what I'm doing." I really need to put the ibuprofen in the bathroom. "If you have a fidget toy, that might help."

Surprisingly, he had a Rubix cube and I messed with that while he explained everything.

~

The night passed as Naoto had us reading and memorizing things about the Tokyo Majin gang. 

"Okay, my brain's fried," I groaned.

"I need you two to memorize everything about the Tokyo Majin gang," Naoto said.

"I know, but my brain's at its limit. Any more and I won't remember anything."

"Same here," Take sighed as he leaned back in his chair.

It doesn't help that I had to work on chapters last night too. If we're going into the past, I gotta have some chapters done in advance, or else the publishers will get mad at me and Sayu.

He gave us some final debriefings on Manjiro Sano and Tetta Kiseki before outstretching his hand for Take to shake.

"Only you can save my sister," he said before Take grasped it.

The next moment, I heard a buzzing sound. "You sure you want this? It isn't temporary."

Oh, shit. This is the day I got my tattoo. I had drawn the design myself and eventually got my parent's permission and the chore money to get it. It was a tribal-styled fox that I had gotten just for my love of foxes. "Yeah," I nodded.

~

After he was finished, I left the parlor as excited as I had been the first time. By now, the sun was starting to set. I took out my phone and texted Take, but after a few minutes, there was no reply. I went through my contacts and eventually came across Akkun. After a ring, he picked up.

"Hey, Akkun," I said as I continued walking.

"Hey, Daju, what's up?" he asked with a bit of strain in his voice.

"Are you with Take right now?"

"No, those guys in Toman made us leave. He's probably still at the fighting ring though."

"Shit... Alright, thanks," I said before hanging up. The fighting ring was near the school, right? I asked myself as I began running for where I thought it was.

After a while, it got dark and no one was at the place. "He must've run off," I sighed. Hopefully, he's not chickening out and going to Naoto.

Not knowing where he was, and not being able to get ahold of him, I headed home for the night. This is just all bizarre. I've written a character or two that time traveled, but I never thought I'd be doing it myself. Who knew that in the real world where stuff like this only exists in books, that we'd be able to time travel with a simple handshake? And is it only Take that can activate it? Or can I as well? "Well," I sighed, "Time travel was always a weird subject for me to grasp. I just won't overthink it." And Manjiro Sano? I might've actually seen him before... Didn't he go by Mikey? Or something like that? Yeah... I definitely remember that absent look in his eyes. But when? Damn, my bad sense of time!

As I came to a crosswalk, I looked at the time on my phone. 19:32 July 6th, 2005. I really did go 12 years in the past. The light changed and I began my way across. As I did, a motorcycle slowed to a stop a few feet away. Curious, and wanting to keep track of my surroundings, I looked over and was surprised at who it was. Huh. Manjiro Sano. He definitely didn't give off any bad vibes. He just looked like your typical delinquent. Without giving it much more thought, I finished crossing the street, feeling a gaze on me until the motorcycle drove off. If we're gonna do this, one or both of us will have to join Toman. We could figure out what's going on on the inside and change it before things go awry. This is even more of a reason to thank the human gene pool at this point. To get in with the boys, it's a hell of a lot easier if your a boy, or at least look and act like one. I've always been a tomboy and prone to fights, so I should be able to easily fit in.