AN: After reading my first 5 chapters, I've noticed that my main problem is tense, I'll be doing my best to stick with past tense from now on. Let me know where I fucked up, Thank you.
~8:15 pm~
We've barely made it in time. There was something preventing Rias from teleporting us near Issei when we knew he was in trouble, so we had to sprint all the way here. Now that we were here, there was one thing left to do.
I knew what I had to do because I had done it before.
~ORC clubroom, 8:05 pm, t+0:00~
I was taking a quick nap until I was poked by… Issei? No, that is the shirt I was wearing. He took my phone out of my pocket, unlocked it, and typed like a grandpa. When he was done, he threw it back towards me. I checked it, It was an SOS to Mil-tan and a set of coordinates.
I looked back towards him and he caught a piece of crumpled up paper from the recyling bin and uncrumpled it. Once the paper was perfectly smooth he placed it on the table and gestured me to come over.
"EMERGENCY! ISSEI'S IN TROUBLE, GATHER EVERYONE, LOCATION ON PHONE!"
After a few seconds he "unwrote" the message right in front of me. He ran over backwards towards the the stack of blank printer paper, placed it on top before his sacred gear flashed for a half second, and the paper merged with the one on top. He repeated the same process for the pencil in his hand.
He ran backwards out of the door and at the point, I finally processed what happened.
OH SHIT!
I ran to my clubmates as fast as I could and burst through the door.
"Wait weren't you-" Rias started.
"We need to go, Issei's in trouble!"
~8:14 pm, t+9:00~
I ran as fast as my devil physiology would allow me. I was on the clock and I very well knew that. I checked on the watch that is my sacred gear, less than 9 minutes left. The wind was blowing on my back and the occasional puddle on the street splashed before I even set foot upon it. Truly the inverted world was a fascinating place, but I had no time to ponder it.
There was an old man yelling at me in reverse and a knocked over cart of some kind. I ran past him and I felt a thud on my back, the cart was standing and the old man was minding his own business. Crossing the street, I almost hit the back of a sedan.
~A random street, 8:07 pm, t+2:00~
We teleported, but we were nowhere near the coordinates.
"We're not there!" I quickly yell at Rias.
"Something blocked my spell and redirected it here!" Rias yelled back.
I fumbled with my phone and gotten on Google Maps.
"South on Sakura, go west on 6th until block 6-8, let's go!" I quickly ordered.
We ran in fear for Issei's life.
~6th Ave., 8:10 pm, t+5:00~
I kept on running and running like there was no tomorrow. I had literally never done something like this before, running 8 km, in 10 minutes. I looked to my right and left and… confirmation. I see myself and the rest of the peerage run backwards past me.
Once I reached Sakura, I turned south towards Kuoh while me and the others turned north. Soon enough, I made it to the doors of the old school building.
Only a few more things left to do.
~Sakura Blvd., 8:09 pm, t+4:22~
I was sweating like like a sprinkler from all of this exertion, devil physiology doesn't make up for being unathletic for most of your life. Only recently had I started any form of proper physical training under the harsh direction of Mil-tan.
When we reached the intersection, I saw my inverted self again. We all chased after him and after the 4:50 mark, we passed him.
After a few more minutes of running, I looked back to see myself crossing the street and running down the sidewalk.
Enough about the past-future, I needed to focus on the present. We reached the house on block 6-8, where Issei's bike was parked on the side of the gate.
When I passed the doorway, I saw Issei fighting for his life and a body on the wall, crucified.
I knew what I had to do because I had done it before.
ORC clubroom, 8:06 pm, t+1:41
I ran through the doors, ignoring the shocked faces of my fellow peerage members, all the way to the room where I was before.
Alright, what did I do… invert a pencil and paper and… oh, sent a message to Mil-tan!
I quickly ran up the table where we kept some office supplies at. With the help of my sacred gear, inverted a pencil and a blank piece of printer paper, ran over to the main table, and hastily wrote a message for my other self standing next to me.
"EMERGENCY! ISSEI'S IN TROUBLE, GATHER EVERYONE, LOCATION ON PHONE!"
Once he "started" to read. He backed off to the couch where the nap was taken. I gestured for him to come over. I picked up the paper, crumpled it, and threw it into the trash. I walked over to where he was.
He fumbled with his phone until it flew over to me, which I caught. Then, I looked at the coordinates in the SOS text message on the phone, and "untyped" them. I place the phone back in his pocket. Finally, I poked him a few times and he was out like a light.
I peeked at my sacred gear, 2 seconds left. Just in time.
In an instant, I was back at the house.
The lunatic was about to shoot my brother until someone pulled/pushed him, me. So I will invert again, great. Mr. Perfect takes advantage of that and slashes at the crazy bastard, no sell. The fucker was faster.
I ran up towards him and something buzzed right next to my left ear. I inverted again.
t+15 seconds
I roll right, and look towards myself, only to see a bullet fly from the wall towards the nutjob's gun. The nutjob, which I now realize is a priest of some kind, dodged Mr. Perfect's slash and stood right in front of me.
I pushed him forward and then jumped backwards. The last thing I saw him do before I ended up back where I was was him aiming the gun at Issei.
t+0 seconds
I'm back where I had started and the priest takes aim at me again. I heard some sparking behind me and made way for Akeno. She blasted away but yet again, the bastard dodged, her blow frying the crucified body behind him. He pulled out some sort of light sword and ran towards Issei.
"Kiss my ass, shitty devil!" He hollered.
Rias tried to prepare her big black ball of death but it was too late, the nutjob was within slashing distance of my brother. I fed energy into my sacred gear and time slowed to a standstill.
…
It was too late, my brother's head was already half off of his body.
…
It happened again… my brother died again because I was too weak.
I'm so fucking useless. How could I have let this happen again? Why did I let him leave that door!?
why? why? Why? WHY? WHY!?
FUCKING DAMNIT!
…
…
…
It had been so long… It could have been hours, it could have been days. I just sat there waiting for infinitesimal units of time to pass by. But nothing could be done. The fate of the future is guaranteed to happen and the reality of the past has already been written. No amount of inversion or time traveling baloney will bring my brother back.
If only I was a little faster!
…
…
…
I finally noticed that the nun was here, but it doesn't matter. Her presence didn't change anything.
So I kept on grieving, and I kept on crying.
…
…
…
I can't think in here… I've awoken and slept so many times. The only thing I could do to distract myself is the useless information I found out by being here for so long.
I don't need to sleep.
I don't need to eat.
I don't need to breath.
I don't age.
And I can't do anything so save my brother.
Those were the facts, and they were immutable.
…
…
…
It had to have been at least a month now at this point. I think of all the times I'd ignored my brother because I was an edgy little shit, blaming everything except myself for the bad things in life.
I should have done so many things in this new life. But there's no chance now.
Fate had been written and reality was set in stone.
…
…
…
Nothing.
I felt nothing.
What I could do was nothing, so that is what I felt.
The horror on everyone's face, the last vestiges of life fading from Issei's eyes, the splatters of blood forming constellations in the air, and the mania of the butcher priest as he slaughtered my brother. All of this was a monument to my failure.
And it didn't even faze me anymore.
…
…
…
I stared at the sunset staying still…
bzzt
...What?
…
bzzt
It was my sacred gear. I looked towards it.
{HEY ASSHOLE}
HOLY FUCK THAT'S LOUD!
This was extremely shocking as I haven't heard a voice other than my own for so long.
{You've been doing jack shit for fucking forever!}
"Mumkey?"
{Do I have to hold your hand for this, you little shit?}
"You fucking dickhead! I can't fucking rewrite history no matter how much inverting I do!"
{Of course you fucking can!}
"Oh shut the fuck up!"
…
Wait…
…
"Actually, don't! Tell me! Now!"
{Perhaps I won't, since you're being a huge flappy cunt right now}
"Come on! PLEASE!" I begged on my hands and knees, without any dignity.
…
{…Fine, I'll tell you. Just fucking stop doing that, it's disgusting.}
I threw the biggest damn parade internally.
{Alright, so you know how you can both invert yourself and other things and people, right?}
I nodded in affirmation.
{There's also a way to rewrite reality in a way through an ability called {Rewrite}. This allows you to revert something to a previous state or change a part of reality. As long as you can remove or create the cause within 15 seconds, forwards or backwards, that effect remains. Cool, right? Now fucking get off your lazy ass and save the red dr- your brother.}
"The wha-?"
{DROP IT!}
Okay, okay, Fuck!
Alright, let's do this!
{Rewrite!}
I allowed time to resume to normal speed and immediately invert.
t+0:15
I saw the blood spraying back into Issei as the psychopath slashed his throat. I rushed towards the fucker and delivered the haymaker of the ages. He flied towards the wall. I ran towards him and punched and kicked him over and over again and didn't stop.
I look at my sacred gear, time's up
t+0:00
I'm back and I saw my brother alive, standing there in shock. I turned around and saw everyone had a confused look on their face. The priest was still on the broken wall, slowly getting back up despite his injuries.
Now at this point, I was mad. Apocalyptically mad. More pissed than I ever was at that crow bitch Yuuma. I took advantage of everyone's inaction and rushed up to the priest. I took his gun off the ground and kicked away his sword.
I glanced next to me and saw myself frogmarching a copy of the psycho in reverse. So when it was time, I inverted both of us and dragged him along.
"What the fuck did yo-!"
I grip on his injured arm.
"Ah! Fuck! Fuck! Shit! Cunt!" he cursed.
I enjoyed his suffering much more than a healthy person should. I dragged his ass all the way to the railing of the balcony on the second floor. I pointed his gun towards him.
"Who the fuck are you!?"
"Suck my dick!"
bang
I had put a bullet in his leg.
"AHH! FUCK!"
"WHO. ARE. YOU?"
"Freed Sellzen, you worthless piece of shit!"
Good, an actual answer this time.
"Who do you work for?" I point the gun towards him.
He looks down on the concrete below.
"You're not gonna do shit!" He taunted.
"Try me."
{Rewrite!}
t+0:15
His bleeding body appeared on the ground, blood flowing towards a hole in his head.
I made him look at himself.
"You have 14 seconds, answer the question!"
He stays silent.
5 seconds passed.
10 seconds.
11.
12.
At the corner of my eye I saw myself walking backwards towards the both of us. His body starts to fly up towards the balcony. I aimed the gun.
"Wait! I'll tell!"
I uninverted both of us.
{Rewrite!}
t+0:01
We were instantly back in the room with everyone else. Unfortunately, I didn't account for one thing.
Freed bumrushed me, took the gun out of my hand and shot me right in the stomach. I collapsed onto the ground and the world started to get blurry.
"HIRO!" I heard from… somewhere.
Why am I such an Idiot?
AN: Well this chapter was an absolute mindfuck to write, took a while to even wrap my head around some of the concepts. I probably shouldn't do this shit as a noob writer but fuck it, go big or go home. See ya next chapter.