Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All rights to respective owners.
A/N: So I saw this prompt idea on Tumblr a long time ago and I thought it was very sad and a fitting set-up for angst. Sooooo I figured to give it a shot recently when it popped up again. Unfortunately in the process of all things, I decided to go off my usual script and sadly this is all angst, and I mean all angst.
A LITTLE WARNING: I will not be updating this quickly since I do have other stories I intend to finish and do so it will be a while until I update this! I know, I know really stupid but can you blame a girl for wanting to post a story?
Prompt: "Everyone is born with 3 dates on their wrist. One represents when you will accomplish your life's goal, one is when you will meet your soulmate, and one is when you will die right down to the second. Yours are all the same day within a minute of each other."
Okay so I changed it a little to fit the storyline better but I hope you all enjoy/suffer this little story. I really just wanted to help people learn about how life is short and we should enjoy it with the people who make it enjoyable so what better way to show that than using Usagi and Mamoru. And please review and tell me what you thought!
"All great achievements require time."
-Maya Angelou
Chapter One: Branded
Time in itself, was something that many took for granted, among other things in one's lifetime. But many don't understand just how important time was, how the currency it held was much more valuable than any piece of paper, or jewel, or house, or technology created in a part of the world.
What made time so sought for, so expensive, was that it could never be brought back. Once you wasted the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years...they were gone and never recreated later. You get one shot and that's it.
Even after living a whole life revolving around just time, Mamoru always questioned why he kept such meticulous daily schedules over something that he had very little of, compared to everyone else around him.
At least, that's what he thought.
With an exhausted sigh, the dark-haired med student plucked his reading glasses from where they laid on his nose. He rubbed the bridge, closing his eyes as the numbers and theories written neatly in the notebook began to blur and fade away dangerously. One more exam, just a few more weeks of interning, and all the long nights and studying would pay off.
The noises of the cafe filter back into his mind and at last he hears his waitress's repeated words.
"...like some more coffee sir?" He gazed up at the young brunette and gave a polite smile and nodded. The rich black liquid streamed into the white ceramic cup resting next to his materials. The image reminded him of those hourglass clocks, how the sand falls with each passing second, each grain representing another loss of time.
5….4….3….2….1
"Cool tattoo you have there."
Snapping out of his thoughts, Mamoru looked to the server with confused eyes before following her own eyesight to his bare wrist on his left hand, the inked numbers in all perfect order. He frowned, avoiding eye contact, "Thank you."
"Yea no problem," even as she finished filling his cup, the girl stayed and examined the numbers engraved in his skin. "What do they mean? The dates on your arm, like birthdays, deaths, or something.."
His eyes slid to his wrist resting on the table before once again, looking straight forward. "Yea something like that…"
"Mhm well I guess they're coming up rather quickly huh?" And with that last statement and friendly smile, her dark brown braid swung as she attended to another table of hers.
Mamoru felt a breath of relief being released from his lungs and he refocused on the papers in front of him, but his eyes always ended up glancing to his wrist, the numbers mocking him almost.
They was three sets of dates, two the same and one different to the others. Next to each date, they was a time that was down to the minutes. It was all in black ink and the dights laid just below his hand line and they encircled his wrist slightly.
With his shaky right hand, he clicked the home screen of his phone that was sitting off to the side. The date and time appeared and he felt his heart quicken for what felt like the tenth time that day.
15:07 Thursday, 3 April 2018
He looked from his phone screen to his wrist again.
31-05-18 23:58
31-05-18 23:59
01-06-18 24:00
He stared long and hard at those daunting numbers, mocking and laughing at him. These same numbers, the ones that appeared on his wrist one night when he was fifteen.
Street lights flooded the dark spaces of the Azabu street. Even if the certain area he was in wasn't known for any heinous street crime, the dark-haired teen nevertheless felt the hairs on his neck rise with each noise a stray cat or dog would produce in the black allies. Cursing his stupid professor for keeping their cram class longer than usual, the fifteen-year-old tugged his backpack further up his arm.
He quickened his pace, spending more time in the lighted spots, and then nearly speed walking through the dark ones in between. He almost face palmed at his actions. For the love of the gods, he was a teenage boy afraid of the dark, he really needed to grow a pair. But he was almost to his apartment building, almost. So close, so close, so close-
"Oh excuse me!"
He nearly yelped in all suddenness of the friendly feminine voice. In the limited light that was provided for him, the teen was able to see the outline of the girl he had bumped into while in his haste of fear; she had bright blonde endless hair that was almost white but that could be just the street lights, and her eyes were round and blue with flecks of what looked to be shining grey. Plus the large white coat she had donned, appearing almost as a cape, completed the heavenly look of her. A sight, she was.
"Oh yea I'm sorry," he apologized after regaining his composer, thanking the dark settings hiding his blush, "I was rushing, my bad."
"Oh it's okay," her soft melody of a voice rang out, making him avoid her eyesight even more. "You probably do that a lot huh? I mean, I think everyone kind of rushes through life, like their time is running or something?"
He furrowed his eyebrows, perplexed at her innocent statement. "Yes, I guess."
The girl shrugged her slim shoulders, a smile still on her face apparently. "Maybe we should just enjoy our time, our lives more. I mean time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters."
He nodded his head, eyes darting to the sidewalk. "Yea, interesting I get it."
Taking a few steps away from the her, ready to walk away, she spoke again and it sent chills down his body.
"I don't think you do get it Mamoru."
Shocked? Yes. Confused? Yes. Scared? Hell yes. Somehow he still has the guts to turn around and fully face the girl who had a stoic look painted on her features. He felt the shivers up and down his spine at the intense look that almost hit your soul. "How d-do you know my name?"
No feeling was in his legs and in the blink of an eye, the girl was in front of him, eye glazed with grey completely. "I'm sorry I have to do this."
Her hand shot out and grasped his wrist, clenching so hard that he almost went to his knees. Suddenly his mind went fuzzy and her profile blurred in his eyes. The arm she held began to burn painfully, as if his flesh had been set on fire, and he really did go on his knees as the sensation intensified to great heights that he could no longer stand it.
"Wha-what are you doing to m-me?!"
"Please understand Mamoru," she said, his hearing starting to fail him. "You will in due time but for now you have to know the value of your time. You're wasting it and maybe this...will…you...to her..."
And then black.
The next morning he woke up in his bed, with the three sets of dates and times, all three times within a minute of each other. First thought was that somehow he got a tattoo last night, maybe out drinking with Motoki. But then he remembered very dimly of the girl he bumped into coming home.
The burning sensation coming back with vengeance…..
What had she done to him? What were the dates and times? What did they mean?
As far as he could tell, Mamoru had concluded that it wasn't a tattoo but an indented mark on his skin, as if his flesh had been burned into. Branded.
The paranoia that had set in was all-consuming and suffocating. He had nightmares of clocks reaching midnight, a countdown to one running in his head. It was as if his days had gotten shorter all of sudden; daylight seemed to stream into his windows more earlier in the mornings but nightfall in kin seemed to bestow upon him quicker than before. More of the time, he felt insane, crazy, delusional until finally seeking help on what exactly had happened to him that night.
He sought out the help from a shrine maiden, the thought of even going to a doctor was definitely a no; all that he would receive would be anxiety pills, tattoo removal recommendations, or a trip to the psyche ward over his teenage delusions of an unearthly being branding him.
It was there at the Hikawa Shrine, that Mamoru was finally given the knowledge of what exactly happened that night and what the encounter had meant. More importantly, he learned what the unknown dates and times meant on his arm, but after knowing, he wished that he didn't.
After leaving, it was then that he began to obsessively schedule and plan out his daily life, down to the seconds so that his time was never wasted.
Coming back to his present mind, Mamoru cast a glance to his bare wrist, the ink that laid there still so thick and bold, never diminishing. One day, three sets of time, for the three most important events in his life.
On May 31, 2018, at 23:58, Mamoru Chiba will accomplish his life goal.
On May 31, 2018, at 23:59, Mamoru Chiba will fall in love.
And on June 1, 2018, at 24:00, Mamoru Chiba will die.
And after nearly a decade later, he was running out of time.
Eckkk I know it's kind of out there and I haven't really done too much with angst/fantasy stories (usually I put humor here and there but I'm afraid it will be very limited in this fic) so bare with me I guess. The times will go by 24 hours obviously. So hopefully I update this at some point? I have a lot of other stories I need to tend to but I just wanted this out in the open for the heck of it so I'm sorry. If you want the next update, it'll probably be after I finish both "The Speech Dilemma" and "Checkmate" since they were first. So please no pitchforks in the reviews lol I don't leave fics unfinished even if it takes a while for me so this will be updated….just not soon. But please leave a review and tell me what you thought! Are you interested or did it fall flat? I'll see ya when I'll see ya!