Top A/N: I would like to thank everyone who took their time to give me feedback.

Regarding the apparent factual error regarding everyone's age, if those of you who pointed this out could tell me their source of information, that would be great. My source was this wiki here: http:/k-on(dot)wikia(dot)com/wiki/K-ON!_Wiki. While it does neatly provide everyone's age, it does not provide a birth year, leaving me to assume that it is their age during first year as indeed I have. Citing a source would be very helpful because this kind of information is generally scarce and I'm trying to keep things consistent to the best of my ability. If my information regarding ages is truly incorrect then please go with it, it's kind of important for the story.

That out of the way, here's…

Chapter 2 – The One Who Disregards Time

Yui's vision slowly returned. They were still in the car and in one piece, the truck or the road were nowhere to be seen however. The car was still going forward, but it was now on a meadow, surrounded by grass in most directions, except forward, where there was a hunk of large trees becoming increasingly larger.

"Ricchan!"

Ritsu slammed the brakes, the car stopped a few meters short of a collision, both Ritsu and Yui sighed in relief.

"Is this heaven, Ricchan?" Yui asked Ritsu, staring at her with wide open eyes.

"… The car came with us to heaven?" Ritsu sneered.

"Why wouldn't it? It seemed like a nice car."

"It just tried to kill us!" Ritsu shook Yui by the shoulders.

Outside, the grass appeared to be stretching on. "But we're still alive… how did we end up here?"

"Did you steer us away at the last moment Ricchan?"

Ritsu shrugged. "I don't remember doing that… did I do it subconsciously?"

Yui imitated Ritsu's shrug.

"Well let's just get back to the road, and never use this setting again." Ritsu shifted from TS to R, released the brake, and… nothing happened.

"Huh?" Ritsu hit the throttle, nothing. A beep went off and with that the dashboard died, the clock display went along with it; before anyone could notice that the green display was now showing the year 1996. "Oh come on!" Ritsu was turning the key back and forth, to no avail.

"Ricchan, what's wrong?"

"The car's dead!" Ritsu indicated the dashboard.

Consecutive beeps started going off, the smaller battery icon on the dashboard blinking along with them and the gauge showing empty.

"Great!" Ritsu spat as she slammed the steering wheel, the horn going off momentarily. "You know what? Forget the car! I don't want it anymore! Let's just go on our way!" Ritsu pouted at the vehicle as she opened the door.

Yui was about to open her own door when she heard Ritsu yell out in discomfort. "What the heck? It's hot! Like 20 degrees hot!" She screamed as she was struggling to get her coat off.

Warm air poured over Yui as the door opened. "Aaa, you're right Ricchan!" She calmly took her own coat off. "But how is that possible?"

"I have no idea! And was it this sunny a moment ago? Wasn't the Sun already setting when we left your house?" Ritsu looked on at the sky.

"Hmm… yeah it was. Did we pass out?"

"I had to stop the car myself! Did it keep driving on its own the whole time we were out? And wouldn't someone wonder where we are?"

Yui took out her phone; it was showing the words 'No network.' Yui had never seen that happen before. "Ricchan, my phone isn't working!" She put it in Ritsu's face.

"That's odd." Ritsu reached for her own phone, sure enough, she was met with 'No network.' "Wha'? Mine's dead too!" She tried shaking it, which of course did nothing. "This is nuts!" Ritsu shoved her phone back into her pocket. "Let's just go!"

Yui and Ritsu abandoned their vehicle, going back in the direction they thought they had come from. But a road was nowhere to be found.

"Hehe... we got lost in a meadow Ricchan!" Yui grinned at Ritsu.

"We did not get lost! I can see buildings right over there, that's where we're going!" Ritsu pointed to where several rooftops could be seen in the distance.

"Yes, captain!"

They marched on towards what looked like civilization, however instead of the road, they encountered train tracks, which would be okay if the road wasn't supposed to come first. Despite the confusion, they kept going towards the buildings, eventually reaching them and a road, it turned out to be a familiar part of town.

"Okay, I know where we are now, so let's just go back to your house." Ritsu said with determination.

"But what about the rice Ricchan? And Mio-chan's birthday present!" Yui was trying to keep up with Ritsu.

"Forget about that, we almost died just now! I need someone to tell me I'm not losing my mind!"

They followed the road north and took a right as they would to get to the street where Yui lived. As they walked, buildings were decreasing in number and size. Soon the walkway ended, Ritsu was now sweating, not so much from the heat as from the concern. Yui was just looking around in disorientation. They kept going, and shortly thereafter the asphalt road gave way to gravel and then dirt, leading off into the wilderness that they had come from not 10 minutes ago.

Ritsu was aghast; she was frantically looking back for any turns that she might have missed, but there weren't any. "Yui… I'm not losing my mind, am I?"

"No Ricchan, my street is gone! What could have happened to it?" Yui was jumping back and forth trying to find her way.

"It can't be… this has got to be some sort of mistake, let's go to my house instead!"

Ritsu ran back to the city, Yui chasing after her. "Ricchan slow down! I can't keep up with you!"

They ran through the streets, as they did Yui bumped into a girl at an intersection. "Sorry excuse me sorry!" She yelled before resuming her chase after Ritsu, the girl didn't get a chance to say anything, but something about her gave Yui a strange feeling, she noticed that the girl was carrying a guitar case on her back. Yui didn't have time to think about it, she could hardly keep up with Ritsu as it was.

Ritsu felt relieved, she recognized the street she was now on as her own, and she could even see her house in the distance. "Phew… alright! We're here!" Ritsu didn't pay any attention to her surroundings; she just ran up to the house and checked the mailbox. As she had expected, it said 'Tainaka', she ran up to the front door.

As Ritsu was taking her key out Yui finally caught up with her. "*Wheeze*… Ricchan! We made it!" Yui looked around. "Weren't there some trees growing right around here?"

Ritsu didn't look back, she tried to insert the key into the lock… it didn't fit. "This can't be happening… this is a joke, right? This is Mio paying me back for forgetting her birthday!" Ritsu said in dismay.

As Ritsu vainly tried to open the door, a middle-aged man in a suit was passing by her and Yui, he looked at them. "What are you two doing?"

Ritsu jolted. "Uh- nothing, nothing! I live here! I just misplaced my keys, that's all!"

"Is that so? I live two houses away, I know the people that live here and I've never seen you before!"

"Um…" Ritsu swallowed hard.

The man was glaring at her. "So, are you going to tell me what you are doing or am I going to call the-?"

"Whoa, whoa… mister, what's that?" Ritsu suddenly pointed behind the man, making an amazed face.

The man turned around, as did Yui. Ritsu instantly grabbed Yui's hand and ran down the street. "Ricchan! What are you- " Yui was taken by surprise. The man yelled after them but couldn't keep up.

Reaching an intersection, and with Yui out of breath again, Ritsu decided that they got away safely. She looked lost again. "So… your entire street no longer exists, and I'm no longer a resident of my own house."

Yui frowned, as if in concentration. "Captain! We've gone back in time!" Her expression was now completely serious, and her fists clenched in front of her.

"What?" Ritsu was even more lost now.

"What was the date you gave the car?"

"It was… May 3, 1996…"

"That's right! I used to live on the other side of town until 2001, we moved to our new house when it was built!"

Yui jumped in front of a woman that was walking by them. "Excuse me! What's today's date?"

The woman was startled by Yui's sudden question, but she answered. "It's May 3rd…"

Yui went back to Ritsu. "See Ricchan?"

Ritsu was amazed. "So… that car was… a time machine?" Suddenly everything made sense to her. The control panel in the car, Yui's neighborhood not being there, her key not fitting, the little things she noticed, it all seemed natural. "That is the coolest thing ever! But it means we have to go back to it! Come on!"

They rushed once again, this time back to where they had started; Yui thought she was going to die. They exited town and, as they pushed through the grass, to their relief they found the DeLorean where they had left it.

"Oh thank god, it's still here." Ritsu ran to the car, opening the door. She found the key in the ignition and pulled it out. "But we can't do anything. It's out of power."

"I think we may need to ask someone to help us Ricchan."

"Yes I think you're right." Ritsu agreed. "But who can we ask? I don't think our parents would react very well if they found us 14 years older. We're supposed to be like… 3 now."

Yui got into the passenger seat again, finally able to settle down. They both just sat in the car for a while, thinking.

Ritsu was no longer very worried about their situation, she figured they would be able to just recharge the vehicle's battery and be on their way. She agreed to Yui's idea of going to someone for help because she figured it would be good to get set on their way by someone familiar with this period.

Suddenly, Yui called out. "Sawa-chan!"

"Huh?" Ritsu looked at her. "Sawa-chan?"

"Yeah! She's supposed to be about our age now, isn't she? And we know that she went… goes to our school!"

"Well… yes, but what are we going to tell her? That we're her students from the future?"

"… Why not?"

"Sometimes I forget who I'm talking to." Ritsu sighed with a smile. "Alright! I can't think of anything else, let's go to the school and see if we can find her."

They exited the car and Ritsu looked at it. "We can't move the car… I guess we'll just leave it here again."

"Ricchan… can we leave some of our things in it? I'm really tired from all the running." Yui still couldn't quite catch her breath.

"Yeah, I think we could, I doubt anyone will even find it out here." They left their coats and other winter accessories in the car, and Ritsu locked it.

They got back to the city, this time set for their will-be school, hoping to meet their will-be club advisor and homeroom teacher, Yamanaka Sawako.

In truth, Yui didn't really know how Sawako might be able to help them, but she didn't want herself and her friend to be alone in this time in which they're not supposed to exist as they are. She wanted to meet someone who wasn't lost in this period.

As Yui and Ritsu were heading for Sakura High, Ritsu noticed something, something that triggered an immense feeling of nostalgia in her. They were passing by her old kindergarten. She stopped at the gate.

"Yui!" She called to her friend who kept on walking.

"Oh, what's the matter Ricchan?"

"Look! This is the kindergarten where Mio and I used to go, this is where we met, I think it was right around this time!" Ritsu gazed at the courtyard and the playground that was part of it.

"This sure brings back memories, hey Yui, let's go in for a few minutes!" Ritsu was pointing at the front door of the building.

"Sure Ricchan, I want to see it too!" Yui skipped after Ritsu.

They got inside, the entrance hall was mostly empty, the children apparently already in their classrooms, there was only a single woman at the front desk. Yui and Ritsu paid her no mind; they were just looking around the hall.

Eventually, she called out to them. "Can I help you two?"

Ritsu turned to her. "Oh, um… I'm Tainaka Ritsu's older sister, I wanted to see the kindergarten my sister attends!" She said.

"The troublemaker? We really can't restrain her, I hope she's not like that at home too." The woman told Ritsu.

"Uh… yeah…" Ritsu felt a little uncomfortable now, Yui gave her a small giggle.

While Ritsu was busy with the reception lady, Yui noticed someone else come in. It was a young woman with long black hair, maybe in her mid-twenties; walking with her was her daughter, who looked no more than four and very similar in appearance. The daughter appeared to be uncomfortable, trying to hide behind her mother. Yui's face instantly lit up.

Mio-chan!

Yui crouched and gave Mio the sweetest smile she could, Mio noticed her and looked at her surprisedly, but neither of them said anything.

Aaa… she's so cute!

Mio stopped her mother halfway to the front desk; the mother crouched and looked Mio in the eyes. "Mio, please… we talked about this. I know it's hard for you, but we can't put this off for another year. Please, try to be strong, I'm sure you'll meet some nice children here."

When Ritsu heard Mio's name uttered her heart skipped a beat. She turned around and the sight before her sent her into an excited state, she couldn't hold it. "Mio! You're here!"

Mio was now once again hiding behind her mother, who was looking at Ritsu with concern. "W-Who are you? How do you know my daughter?"

Ritsu suddenly realized she just got ahead of herself in more than one way. "Er… I'm…"

Mio's mother turned to her daughter. "Mio, do you know this woman?" Mio just shook her head quickly. Now-angry eyes were on Ritsu again. "Are you a stalker?"

Ritsu was horrified by that question, she tried to respond before her brain could fully process things. "No! I'm a time tra- I mean…"

Mio's mother was now disgusted. "Y-You're insane! Let's go Mio, I'm not sending you here where this psychopath has free access!" They turned to leave, passing by a distressed Yui.

Yui couldn't believe what she had just seen. Without warning she began feeling lightheaded, screeching in her ears, and shortly after, her vision blacked out. She fell to her knees, pressing hands to her temples in pain. When she came to, Ritsu was standing over her, looking at her worriedly.

"Oi! Yui! What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Ricchan." Yui got back to her feet. "What did you say to Mio-chan's mother?"

Ritsu was now eyeing her quizzically. "Whose mother?"

"Huh? Mio-chan's mother Ricchan! You were just talking to her!" Yui was confused.

"Um… I did just talk to a woman. But I don't think I knew her, or a 'Mio'. Why was I even talking to her?"

They then noticed that the receptionist was giving them an offended stare. "Could I ask you two to leave?" They did.

Outside, Yui resumed interrogating Ritsu. "Ricchan, what happened to you? How can you not know who Mio-chan is! She's your best friend!" Yui was desperately trying to get to Ritsu.

"Yui I really don't know where you're coming from. I don't know a 'Mio' and I never did! There isn't even a 'Mio' in our class!" Ritsu looked sincerely unaware.

"How can you say that Ricchan? Mio-chan and you have known each other since you were little, and I've known both of you for three years now! We're the Light Music Club! You, Mio-chan, Mugi-chan, Azu-nyan and me! We all play in a band together!"

"Yui… did the heat get to you? I suppose by 'Mugi-chan' you mean Tsumugi, that rich blonde girl that nobody ever talks to? And by 'Azu-nyan' you mean your sister's friend Azusa? But we have never been in any club with any of them! And band? What band? I can't even play any instruments!"

Yui's pupils contracted at this, she stopped for a moment, then gasped in horror.

Oh no… if this is Ricchan and Mio-chan's old kindergarten, and my Ricchan just scared little Mio-chan away, then that means… she changed history!

"Ricchan, when did we meet?" She asked urgently.

"Huh? We met in second year, when we got put in the same class."

Yui was put in a state of extreme fright by this confirmation of her suspicions. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was alone, like everything might actually fall apart.

No… I don't want to be alone!

Yui didn't know what to do, so she did the only thing that came to her mind that would provide comfort. She hugged Ritsu. But as soon as she did, Ritsu lost her breath. Yui didn't know what she had done wrong but she backed off. Ritsu looked like she was being suffocated by an invisible force, then she suddenly exhaled. She turned to Yui.

"Yui… what just happened? I have memories of a life that shouldn't have happened! The Light Music Club, Mio, it's all gone!" Ritsu looked completely off-course, her memories of the original timeline apparently restored, then her eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Oh no! It's my fault, I just scared them away!"

Yui was momentarily overtaken by a sense of intense alleviation, she wasn't alone; her Ricchan was back. But the state of things and what just happened quickly came back to her.

"Ricchan, get a grip! We have to go after Mio-chan and her mother!" Yui pointed in the direction that would lead to Mio's house.

They went as fast as they could.

"Yui, did you restore my memories? How did you do that?" Ristu asked as they ran.

"I don't know Ricchan! My memories didn't change!" Yui said, giving the best shrug she could while running.

As fast as they went, they didn't encounter Mio or her mother along the way. They found themselves in front of Mio's house.

"What will we do Ricchan?" Yui asked.

"We have to try to talk to Mio's mother, there's no other way. Damn, why did she have to be paranoid like Mio? Okay, I just have to relax and talk to her and it'll work out!"

Ritsu approached the front door and reluctantly hit the doorbell. The door opened after a few seconds, it was Mio's mother, whose face became struck with terror as soon as she saw Ritsu.

"Y-You! What are you doing here? How do you know where we live?" She yelled hysterically.

"No please, just hear me out, this is a misunderstanding! You have to-"

"I will call the police! Leave us alone!"

Ritsu earned herself a door slammed to her face and not much more. She went back to Yui.

"This won't do us any good, will it?" She said.

"Ricchan, maybe we should go see Sawa-chan, she might know what to do." Yui suggested.

"She doesn't even know what to do 14 years later!" Ritsu retorted. "But it doesn't look like we can do anything else here right now, except maybe get arrested."

They proceeded towards Sakura High, arriving there they found the courtyard crawling with students; apparently it was lunch break time.

"Good thing we still have our uniforms, we'll fit right in. It seems uniforms changed little over the years here." Ritsu said.

"But where do you think Sawa-chan could be? Where do we look for her?" Yui asked as they walked towards the main entrance.

"I'm not sure… what year is she? How old is she in 2010?" They got inside.

"I think she was 26 when she became our advisor, that would make her 29 now… er… in 14 years!" Yui tried to remember, stopping by the lockers.

"So she's 15 now? That means she's a freshman. We should check the first year classrooms!"

Passing through hallways, they encountered a door, the sign behind it labeled 1-1. "Might as well start here." Ritsu said, reaching to open it.

The classroom was mostly empty, only a few girls quietly eating their lunches, none of them resembling Sawako. "Not this one, huh?" Yui said as they left.

1-2 was nearby, Yui and Ritsu started checking the front row as they got in, but then they heard growling in the back row. "Sheesh, why did I have to get sorted into this class where I don't know anyone! And none of my friends even come to visit me, how boring…"

It was a girl with long brown hair and matching eyes, wearing a pair of glasses. She was sitting by herself next to the window in the second to last row, looking grumbly. There was no mistake, that was Yamanaka Sawako.

Yui ran straight up to her, Ritsu following behind. "Sawa-chan!"

"Oh! Someone did come to see me!" Sawako looked up at Yui. "No, wait, I don't know you… Yes I do, you're the one that ran into me this morning!" Her scowl returned.

"Oh, that was you Sawa-chan! I knew you looked familiar!"

"Look, Yui probably isn't the best one to explain this. Would you come with us somewhere where we can talk?" Ritsu interrupted.

"I don't know. What is this about?" Sawako looked at Ritsu skeptically.

"It's complicated, I'll explain everything though, just come with us!" Ritsu tried to assure her.

"Well okay, anything to get away from this boredom." Sawako picked up her lunch box and finished it in a few bites. "Let's see what you've come up with that involves me." Standing up, Sawako was maybe a centimeter shorter than Yui.

Ritsu and Yui led Sawako to the part of school they knew best, the music room.

"Are you two members of the Light Music Club? If you are going to try to persuade me to join it then save your breath, I was going to join this club anyway." Sawako said as they stopped in front of the music room door.

Ritsu and Yui both grimaced at the irony. "Well… it's… not quite like that." Ritsu said.

We will be members of the Light Music Club!" Yui said.

"So… you want me to join it with you? Why?" Sawako of course didn't understand.

"No, Yui means it literally! The two of us are from the year 2010, where we are members of the club and you are our advisor and teacher, we came here in a time machine, but it no longer works, we need someone to help us fix it!" Ritsu said, lifting her right hand up.

"… So, you two are selling dope, are pretty high on it yourselves, and are trying to make me buy some, is that it?" Sawako deadpanned.

"Er… no I mean it!"

"Come on! This is a pretty fancy joke but I've had enough, I'm going back to my classroom."

Sawako turned to leave, but then she heard Ritsu whisper behind her. "We know you like him…"

"W-What?" She turned back.

"We know you like that guy, you've probably confessed to him recently, and he rejected you. You told us the whole story when we forc- I mean asked you to be our club advisor!" Ritsu said in creepy monotone.

"I haven't told anyone about that…" Sawako said, her face slightly shocked now.

"Come on, believe us! We can show you the time machine!" Ritsu went on.

"Where is it?"

"On a meadow… outside of town."

Sawako knit her eyebrows. "This sounds very much like a ploy to get me away from any prying eyes and then do things to me." She sighed. "But okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I can't go anywhere right now though, I still have classes for three hours."

"That's okay, we've got a lot of time. We'll meet you afterwards." Ritsu said. Sawako went back down the stairs, leaving Ritsu and Yui alone in front of the music room.

"Ricchan… I'm hungry, can we go get something to eat?" Yui said.

Ritsu could feel her own stomach growl. "Yeah, good idea. Let's go to the cafeteria."

Yui and Ritsu took the stairs down and headed for the school restaurant.

Bottom A/N: Well that was chapter 2, have some background information:

Yui's timeline-independent memory and memory restoration powers are not magic, it will all be explained (much) later in the story, as will the origin of the time machine itself, and no, nobody broke into Emmett Brown's garage, it's only a DeLorean because I like that car and am also a twat with no imagination.

Again, thanks go to TastyChainsaws for the beta-read.