Me: Hello guys, and welcome to another new fanfic! (cheers)

Yuma: Oh, what do you have for everyone today?

Me: Well, this fanfic will be about Taiki and his encounter with my representation of Canon. I didn't know what Canon would look like if it was a person, so I just did something simple. Anyway, here's the disclaimer: I don't own Taiki or the other Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal characters. I also don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. Italics are the thoughts.

Taiki: Wow, I see you're just going to start right away.

Me: Uh-huh, I'm really excited! This will be the second fanfic that's about you. And, I have more fanfic ideas that have something to do with you as well. You are my favorite character after all! (whispers) Sachi is also my favorite character… (grins)

Taiki: (smiles) Ah, thank you for doing this then.

Me: You're welcome. (turns to reader) I hope you enjoy this story and its tone.


I Don't Want to Go

"Hey, Yuma! Let's duel again some time. See ya later, Yuma!"

Everything turned black.

Darkness surrounded Taiki's vision as he lost his consciousness. It felt like hours had passed before Taiki got his conscious mind back.

Groaning, Taiki slowly opened his eyes and pushed himself off the ground. Taking a look around his surroundings, he was surprised to find that he was still at the same area near the river.

"Huh? I'm still here? I'm pretty sure I left a while ago with Uchimura-san…" Taiki murmured, a bit dazed.

Shaking his head, Taiki realized what was wrong with his situation. Where was everyone?

"Ah! Yuma? You guys? Are you still here?" he called out, swiveling his head around in search for them.

There was no response.

Taiki frowned, confusion showing on his face. "What's going on?"

"This would be my doing."

Taiki gasped and spun towards the voice. There hadn't been anybody there before, but now there was a person right behind him.

The person was wearing a grey cloak, which was worn out in some places. The cloak also hid the person's face from being seen, but judging by the voice, the person was an adult male.

"You're Kimura Taiki, correct?" the man asked, his voice soft yet firm.

The man's voice sounded wise, as if he had seen many events and knew many things. He could have been interpreted as old, but his hands that peeked out of the cloak's sleeves showed no signs of aging.

"Yes..." Taiki replied, a bit hesitant with his answer. "Who are you and how do you know my name?"

"My name is C. Anon. You may call me C though, since it's much easier that way." the man, now known as C, explained. "I make sure that timelines are in balance and running smoothly. You could say that I'm a spirit...or some sort of entity."

C shook his head, causing his hood to sway side to side, and ignored the strange look that Taiki was giving him. "Anyway, the reason why I'm here is to remove a problem that needs to be taken care of. And that problem is...you, Kimura Taiki. You're not supposed to exist."

Taiki froze, his eyes wide with shock. C knew his name because he was going to eliminate him? How absurd!

"W-What…?! You can't be serious." Taiki said as he glared at C.

"Oh, but I am! It's simple. This timeline has been slowed down, almost stopped actually, by a force. This force doesn't exist since it's blocking the flow of time and causing a problem. That force is you, Taiki. You are the reason why this timeline hasn't been moving normally." C said, justifying his answer.

"No, you're wrong! Of course I exist; I've lived here for my whole life!" Taiki exclaimed, trying to stop his accusations.

C stared at him, or at least that's what Taiki thought he was doing since he couldn't see his eyes. Within the darkness inside the hood, Taiki felt his eyes glare back at him with such intensity that almost penetrated his heart. "Listen, the energy you're emitting tells me you only exist for a day...and today's that day."

"But...that can't be right! How could I have only existed for a day when I remember my whole life?"

"You remember, huh?" C scoffed, letting out a sigh. "Then tell me some of your memories...if you really do remember them."

Taiki blinked, confused on why he would ask him to do that. A small smirk soon formed on his face though, since it would be easy just to tell him a few of his memories. Right?

"Yeah, I can tell you some. I remember when I...I…" Taiki's smirk faltered and then faded as he searched his mind. To his horror, he found that he couldn't remember a single thing.

'What…? No! Why can't I remember anything? My mind's all foggy...who am I? GAH! I don't even remember who I am?!'

"I'm waiting…"

"I...I…"

"Yes?"

"I...don't remember…"

C grinned. "See? You believe you exist, but you don't even remember your life."

"But I did...I do remember!" Taiki recovered from his shock and began to glare at him again. "The only reason I suddenly don't remember is because you took my memories away, isn't it?"

"I can see why you would think that…" C's voice didn't waver at Taiki's guess. "...and you are correct." Holding out his hand, C snapped his fingers together. A screen-like apparition appeared over his palm, showing images of Taiki's memories.

"Despite me stealing your memories, the fact that you don't exist still stands. Your memories aren't real, you know. They were created…" A picture of Taiki's parents holding him as a baby appeared on the screen. "...so that you would feel like you belonged in this world." Another picture formed on the screen, this time showing Taiki as a kid practicing gymnastics. Soon, tons of memories flashed on the screen one by one.

"This is why you feel like you've lived here for your whole life, even though you only existed for a day." C chuckled, slightly amused. "And your so-called friends…" An image of Yuma and his friends that had watched him duel appeared next before switching over to another familiar face.

Taiki's expression softened as an image of Sachi replaced the other memory. Her warm smile helped his heart relax for a few seconds. "Their memories were changed to fit yours. Well, someone's was changed more than the others...I'll let you guess who." C rambled on and on.

"No worries, though. Their memories will return back to normal after I deal with you." C snapped his fingers again, causing the screen to disappear into his palm. Taiki watched as C pointed his finger at his head.

"You can have your memories back. It doesn't matter if I remove them first or not, you'll still lose them when I erase you." And in a flash, Taiki felt waves of his memories flow back into his mind. After that was done, Taiki sighed with relief. The hole that he had felt when his memories were gone faded away.

'Ah, good. I can remember everything now. The situation hasn't changed though…' Taiki frowned, his mind swirling with thoughts. He grabbed his head as if he had a nightmare. 'He's...telling the truth. He really does have the power to erase me, which means...I don't exist.'

Taiki tightened the grip on his head and closed his eyes. 'What should I do?'

"Man, you are really persistent at wanting to exist. The other people were faster at accepting their fate than you…"

In a second, Taiki looked up and stopped grasping his head after hearing C's remark. "The other people? You erased more that were like me?"

"Well, yeah. They were people who were connected to your story. For example...your parents, the other gymnasts from your school… Oh, I almost forgot to mention that there was never a gymnastics building or club for your school. That's connected to you as well."

Taiki narrowed his eyes at C's pleased look. His heart pounded harder each time he heard a new piece of information. He wasn't showing it, but deep down inside, Taiki was scared. So far, he was doing a good job composing himself to be calm.

"There was also another person that I had to erase. What was his name? Eh, I think it was some Olympic gymnast..."

At that exact moment, Taiki felt his blood run cold. "U-Uchimura-san...? You deleted him?!"

"Ah, that's it! That's his name." C smirked while he pretended to be surprised. "And yes, I did delete him. He didn't exist either. Well...he does exist, but not in this world at least." Taiki stared at him blankly, a stunned look etched on his face. C just chuckled in reply while Taiki processed that fact.

"So…" C's face formed into a stern look. "Do you accept your fate?"

Taiki stayed quiet and stood still, his hands trembling as he looked down at his palms. He couldn't believe it. His life had been one huge lie...and now it was going to be stolen from him.

C rolled his eyes as Taiki continued to be silent. "Ugh… I usually don't get assigned a job to erase non-existing characters. It's all their fault! Why did they have to create this special episode?" he muttered softly to himself, annoyed.

Taiki glanced at him as he caught bits and pieces of his dialogue. Still processing everything, Taiki wasn't able to understand what he had meant by special episode. "What do you…?"

C suddenly interrupted Taiki's incoming question. "Anyway! Shall we get this over with? The hour of your existence...is upon us!" He held out his hand again, this time with his palm facing Taiki. A ball of bright energy began forming in the middle of his palm and grew with each passing second.

Taiki's heart throbbed painfully at the sight of the energy ball. He had enough. He couldn't keep calm anymore.

"Please! Don't erase me!" Taiki shouted, his voice pleading. "There's still so much I could do here!" Taiki then lowered his voice a little. "I…"

"I don't want to go."

Taiki spoke with so much pain in his voice that it made C wince. He could feel the sadness and the desperation in his words. Taiki truly wanted to stay in existence, but…

C gazed at him with pity. "I'm sorry, but it has to be this way." Sensing movement, C's eyes noticed Taiki's legs were tense and slowly inching his feet away. He was trying to escape with his life, but C wasn't going to allow that. He quickly sent some energy towards his feet and immobilized him.

"You can't avoid your fate. I have made sure of that." C said, watching Taiki struggle to move. He eventually gave up on moving his feet and stared at C with fear. Like the saying goes, Taiki was literally staring at his fate in the eyes.

And as seconds passed by, his fate took action and…

"Sayonara, Kimura Taiki."

...fired the energy without hesitation.

The energy shot out like a laser beam and headed toward its destination. It got closer to its target, and then...hit it like a direct attack. Taiki let out a long scream-like yell as the energy collided into him and engulfed his whole body, which caused him to fly backwards from the power of the blast. He could feel the energy eating away at his existence and the pain from it increasing like fire.

Time seemed to slow down as he flew backwards. During this slow motion, Taiki's thoughts shot through his head like a bullet.

'So...this is the end, huh? I had a lot of things I wanted to do...' Taiki chuckled under his breath. 'Yuma...I had heard about you before we dueled. You were popular in your own way. As I kept to myself, I would hear and see people being amused at your antics.' Images of Yuma failing at the jumping blocks, the underwater breath challenge, and other things popped into his brain. 'Arigatou for helping me understand. I guess...we won't be able to duel each other ever again. Our first duel was to be our last one, but...I honestly was looking forward at dueling you again.'

'Those friends of yours...' An image of Sei, Kotori, Tetsuo, and Takashi standing on the sidelines watching the duel came into view. 'They look like the kind of friends that stick with you no matter what. I bet they do, since you're a good person… I wonder what it would have been like to be friends with you guys. Oh wait, Sachi probably would have introduced me considering the fact that they were her friends too...'

'Sachi...' Images of Sachi smiling next to him emerged. 'You were the first friend I ever had. You helped me open up a little when we first met. Since then, you helped me feel like I wasn't alone and that I would have someone to talk to. You were special to me. We even had the same dream...to become great gymnasts and win the gold at the Olympics.' The images of her faded away and were replaced with images of them practicing gymnastics together. But then, it transitioned into a scene that made Taiki feel sick to his stomach.

Taiki gazed at the memory as it showed him leaving the gymnastics building with anger. He saw himself bump into Yuma and knock him into the ground. They started to yell and argue right afterward. Taiki watched as Sachi dashed over to stop himself and listened to the worriment in her voice when she asked about practice. Taiki then heard himself shout at her to shut up and watched again as he stomped away to the doors.

'I let my frustration get the best of me...and as a result...' Taiki cringed as he remembered the hurt look on Sachi's face from his words. He never wanted to see her be sad, especially if it was because of him. 'I was planning to apologize for upsetting her. The next day, I would had returned to practice and explained to Sachi my reasons for quitting. Everything would have been fine afterwards. I could have met her friends and introduced myself better, get to know them more, and duel Yuma again. Maybe I could have helped out with some events, but now…!'

Taiki let out a huff of disappointment and slightly grimaced from the pain. 'Huh, I wonder how Sachi would have reacted if I told her I met Uchimura-san...' This thought helped move his lips from a grimace to a sad smile. 'However, Uchimura-san doesn't exist either...' It was quite shocking to hear that the person he respected and looked up to didn't exist. Sachi probably would be in shock too if she heard that…

'But...I don't care if it's true that he doesn't exist. To me, he did exist! These memories...' All of Taiki's memories flashed one by one in his mind as if it were a slideshow. 'It doesn't matter if they are fake...they are still my memories! They were created just for me. I know I'll lose them after I'm erased, but… I'll keep them close to my heart to the very end. And Sachi… I want to see you one more time, but it's too late. If I knew I was going to leave forever, I would have said goodbye. I wish I could do that and apologize… Arigatou for everything...you guys...'

And with that, time returned back to normal. Taiki slammed into the ground and laid still on his back, his body numb with pain. He stared up into the sky with a peaceful look on his face, and then slowly closed his eyes.

Everything turned white. But as his vision was going out and his consciousness was lost, Taiki whispered one final word from his lips.

"K...Kat...to...bin...gu…"


Taiki: …

Sachi: (goes to comfort him with a hug)

Me: Ah, gomen. Too much sad tone? (faces reader) I hope you understood why I wrote this story and its tone. Another one of these will be written soon, but after that there will be a happy one. No worries, Taiki-kun!

Sachi: Please review and we'll see you later.