Notes: Slightly unfamiliar with Japanese college application processes, so any inaccuracies there are my own mistake.

oOo

He hadn't, of course, told the full truth. He had no desire to travel back in time, that much was true. But that was because re-living any particular moment of his past wasn't particularly appealing to him. And, if the rules were to be believed, he couldn't leave that seat anyways.

But he was curious if there were people that had actually gone back in time.

What had they done?

Why did they go?

He searched up the cafe on the internet on a whim, the day after his impromptu meeting with Haruno, half expecting nothing to come of it.

He was wrong.

The cafe, apparently, had gotten its moment in the sun. A few years ago, it'd featured in a blog post by a fairly well-known blogger who'd written about the urban legend of the time-traveling cafe. He found it while searching up the place on the internet. To his surprise, it had attracted a fair amount of attention, back in the day.

In a corner alley of Chiba, there exists a cafe with a very peculiar offering on its menu. Aside from the standard fare of coffee, snacks, and various pastries, cafe Funiculi Funicula offers its patrons the ability to travel back in time.

Now, I'm sure that faithful readers of my blog will be well aware that I am a big Steins; Gate fan. And naturally, I was more than intrigued to hear about the potential of time travel existing in the real world. Of course, my hopes for actual time travel were not very high; after all, there were no phone microwaves involved! But in all seriousness, despite the impossibility of actually discovering time travel, I figured that the visit could, at the very least, prove interesting.

Cafe Funiculi Funicula proved to be very different from what I'd imagined. It is quite unassuming, a small underground cafe tucked away in a corner of a small alley in Chiba where, had it not been the exact location I had been searching for, I would likely have passed by it without a second glance.

The interior was similarly unimpressive, with walls painted a pasty yellow and a staff of only two working at the time of my visit. It did not give off an air of mystery, or excitement. It was, to put it simply, plain and boring.

It did not seem like a place that would hide secrets. But of course, looks can be deceiving.

The first thing I asked, after ordering a black coffee, was whether or not it would be possible for me to travel back in time.

The barista who had served me did not say no.

However, she did not say yes, either.

There are, apparently, rules to the time traveling cafe. And what strange rules they turned out to be!

I'm sure that most people's first instinct when faced with the possibility of time travel is, how do I benefit from the ability to change the past? Some people might try to win the lottery, or prevent an accident, or change a particular regret about their lives. I myself felt the same way; as many of you might already know, one of my biggest regrets was not applying to Waseda for my undergraduate studies, hence setting me on this path of becoming a systems engineer with a blog, rather than a full-time writer.

This would be a monumental change to my life; I had already began calculating out how exactly it would be possible for me to go back in time and somehow change the past so that I had, in fact, applied to Waseda.

But the barista stopped me in my tracks.

Because rule number one, apparently, is that no matter what happens in the past, the present cannot be changed.

It sounds unbelievable to me even now, hours after I had left that little cafe behind, writing these words down.

But the barista was very sure of herself. Any and all changes would be counteracted so that the present would never change. If I returned to the past to try to apply to Waseda, she told me that something would happen which would prevent my application from ever reaching the school. Perhaps the mailman would get lost, or my particular application would be lost or sent to the wrong location where it wouldn't be retrieved in time for Waseda's deadline.

For all intents and purposes, any changes made to the past would not hold.

Well, alright, I thought. While it was disappointing that I wouldn't be able to change the future, it wasn't as if there was nothing of interest. After all, wouldn't it make sense then, if the past couldn't be changed, to simply go to the past and change things to my heart's content?

Apparently, there was an issue with that too.

The time travel is confined to the cafe. In fact, it is confined to a particular seat in the cafe, from which the time traveler must sit for the duration of his temporal expedition. And if he so much as moved from that seat, he'd find himself instantly returned to the present.

That made things much less interesting. If I was limited to a single seat in the cafe, there was very little I could accomplish. If I couldn't leave the cafe, there was very little I could actually do.

Still, I felt that there might yet be potential. What if I invited a girl to the cafe? And then returned to the past, over and over again, to figure out how to win her affections?

The barista had shot me a dirty look before quickly and mercilessly putting an end to that dream as well.

You are only allowed to travel through time once, in your life.

Fresh out of ideas, I was quite disappointed. It seemed as though there were a million different rules to this particular brand of time travel offered by the cafe. It was impossible to take advantage of, and there were also risks involved. Risks like staying past the time limit of the time travel and suffering a terrible fate.

Would it really be worth it just to try to catch a glimpse of the past?

I decided against it, and from what I gathered I was in the majority.

But this idea of going to the past will forever tease my imagination. And perhaps, one day, if there is a good reason; a purpose for going, you'll find me taking advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funiculars unique offering.

This was not the only blog on the cafe. But most told the same story. Excitement at the idea of time travel. Disappointment at the risks and rules involved. And ultimately, a conclusion that the time travel either wasn't worth the risks, or was a complete hoax to begin with.

He heaved a sigh and gave up searching after two hours. While there were plenty of people that had gone out and visited the cafe, it seemed as though none of them had actually done any time traveling. Most believed it all to be a pack of lies, just like Haruno.

He could almost believe it too, but he'd always remember that young woman in the white dress. And how unnaturally disconnected she had been to the world.

He shivered. The whole thing still gave him the creeps.

oOo

Against his better judgment, he visited the cafe the very next week.

Clang-dong!

He'd forgotten about the doorbell and jumped again.

"Hello! Welcome!"

As he ducked into the rather dimly lit cafe again, he took stock of his surroundings, wondering with not a little trepidation if he'd see that same ghost again.

The crippled man was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he'd gone to the past already, or given up like Haruno had mentioned. And in the ghost's seat…

He paused.

It was a different woman sitting there today. She was gorgeous, with the features of a model; long black hair that shone despite the dim lighting and a slim, willowy figure.

There was a different woman behind the counter as well, an older woman with a kindly smile on her face.

He approached the counter and was about to ask after the details about that seat when-

"Hikigaya-kun." The soft voice behind him made him jump, before he turned around slowly and warily to face the gorgeous woman in that chair.

"H-How do you know my name?"

The woman smiled sadly. "Because I came to see you of course."

"You came… to see me?"

"Of course, I didn't expect this to actually work. But I'm here to see you. Only you."

"I… see," he replied, even though he did not, in fact, see.

An awkward silence filled the air. He didn't know how to politely tell this woman that she was out of her mind; he had never seen her before.

"How are you?" she suddenly spoke up. "You're… what… twelve? Are you doing alright? You never liked to talk about your childhood so I-"

So many questions. They washed over him like a wave, but the only thing he could think about was why did it seem like this woman knew him?

"Uhm, sorry, but do I… do I know you?"

The woman blinked in surprise. "Oh, of course. I suppose it will be a couple more years before we meet. I apologize, I just didn't expect to actually get the chance to see you again and I-"

He cut her off then, as he'd realized something.

"You…- you're coming from the future? To see me?"

"Is it that much of a surprise?"

"I mean… I didn't think it was even possible. All the articles about this cafe, all the people that came here, none of them actually went back in time. And moreover… I'm…- I mean I'm just me. I'm nobody special; in fact I'd hazard a guess that I'd be the last person somebody would travel back in time to see. So yes, it is a surprise that you are here, coming from the future, just for me."

The woman frowned.

"Don't sell yourself short, Hikigaya-kun. You're very special to plenty of people. And you saved me."

"I saved you? But you're…" He gestured helplessly, trying to convey in some way how absurd it was to him that he could help someone as gorgeously perfect as she was.

"You helped me at my lowest; you saved me when I needed it most. So I wanted to come and say thank you, for everything you've done for me. I wish it could have been sometime later, sometime when you'd already met me; maybe knew me better as a person. I… I'm not proud, after all, of everything that happened when we first met. There were a lot of things that I wished I'd done differently. And I wish that I could tell you all that, but you wouldn't understand it now anyways. But this was… this was the only chance and I-" she spread her hands helplessly.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. He wanted to say something, to comfort this woman because something was clearly making her upset.

But he had never been good at this kind of thing. He was no riajuu, after all.

She took a sip of coffee from her cup, although her eyes never left his face. He didn't really know what to say. His thoughts were all jumbled, because he hadn't really thought that time travel was possible. He hadn't thought he'd ever have a conversation with a real time traveler.

Maybe it was Haruno's influence, but he'd started to believe that the whole time-traveling cafe was a hoax too.

But here was irrefutable proof that the time travel was real, as advertised.

This woman had come to see him. The silence stretched on. He felt as though perhaps he should say something. Asked some questions. But nothing was coming to mind. So he decided to go with the simplest and easiest question.

"Uhm… could I- could I ask your na-"

He was cut off by a buzzing sound.

The woman started.

"Oh no. Time's up!"

She hurriedly began drinking from her cup.

"Wait! Who are you? Why'd-?"

But the woman's form was slowly disappearing, almost as if she were dissolving into the air. Still, she stretched out her hand to him and he grasped it, for a brief moment.

Her slim fingers wrapped around his and squeezed gently. They were warm, even as they were dissolving into mist.

"I love you," she murmured, before she disappeared.

And then the young woman in the white dress was back in the seat.

Had it all been a dream? He looked around wildly, only to find the older woman behind the counter smirked at him, having heard everything.

"You must be a lucky lad."

"I-what?"

"That girl, she was a real looker wasn't she? You must have quite the happy future ahead of you."

Oh. Right. Her parting words.

He couldn't help the blush that rose to his cheeks. He knew what love looked like; he'd found his dad's old stash of magazines once. Those images were still seared into his mind. Was that… were they… in the future…?

She was beautiful. And she seemed nice. And she loved him. What more could he ask for? It sounded like a situation straight out of the light novels that he liked to read.

"Hey, kid, get your head out of the clouds. You've got a few years before you're going to be old enough to romance anybody, you got that?"

That jolted him out of his thoughts, as he returned to the counter.

"Do you know who that was?"

The woman looked at him and shrugged, "How should I know? Honestly, you'd probably have a better idea than I would. She showed up only a few minutes before you got here."

He wondered who it was. He wasn't exactly on speaking terms with many girls. Or rather, he was on speaking terms with exactly one girl. And the woman didn't really look like Haruno.

"Can I get you anything, by the way?"

"Uhm…a hot chocolate please," he requested.

"Sure. Two hundred yen."

He passed over a couple coins. "So time travel… how exactly does it work?"

The woman busied herself making the hot chocolate.

"You sit in that chair. I pour the coffee, and you go back to the past. You finish the coffee before it gets cold, and then you're back here, as if you never left. Simple enough, really."

"But the rules…"

"Ah, so you do know about the rules."

"I've been here before, yes."

The woman spread her hands. "Then I'm not entirely sure what to tell you. You should know everything about how things work with that seat, right?"

"Err… I guess I know about the rules. But… they don't really make much sense to me."

"Oh? I rather thought that they were fairly straightforward."

She started ticking them off one by one on her fingers.

"First, no matter what happens when you travel to the past, it will not change the present."

"But then what's the point?"

"The point of time travel? Does there have to be one?" the woman wondered aloud.

"Of course there has to be one. I mean, people have become ghosts because of it, right?"

"Oh, that…" the woman trailed off, seemingly lost in thought.

"Yeah, that. Why would anyone take such a massive risk if there was nothing to be gained from it?"

She glanced at him, "You'll understand when you're older."

He clenched his fists. He was really sick of hearing that.

"Everyone always acts as if there's some age that I have to reach and then I'll suddenly understand a whole bunch of things that I didn't when I was younger. Why can't you just explain it to me now?"

He knew he sounded about as whiny and childish as possible, but he didn't care. He didn't want to hear this whole "when you're older" spiel from someone other than his parents as well.

The woman handed him a steaming cup filled with dark liquid.

"Huh?"

"Your hot chocolate."

"Oh, thanks."

The woman began to wash the saucepan she'd used for the hot chocolate.

He was about to open his mouth to protest again when the doorbell sounded again.

Clang-dong.

He jumped again, nearly spilling hot chocolate all over himself.

"Hello. Welcome! Oh, hey Akari-chan! Welcome back."

It was the bored barista girl from his initial visit, whose name was apparently Akari, except she looked more upset than bored as she walked in, although she did try to return the older woman's greeting with a forced smile.

"Hey Kei-chan."

"How did things go with your parents?"

Akari shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm sure they'll come around someday," Kei was smiling sympathetically.

Akari gave a short nod, before seeming to notice him for the first time.

"Oh hey, I remember you. You were here during the winter, weren't you? I didn't expect to see you again."

"Ah, hi," he responded awkwardly.

"So you're here again, huh? Would've thought that Kanda-kun would've scared you off for good."

"Kanda-kun?"

"The cripple. You met him last time, did you not?"

"Ah, right."

He hadn't forgotten; neither his words nor his unsightly smile.

"W-where is he now?" he asked.

Akari shrugged. "Who knows? He got his wish and we haven't seen him since."

"His wish? You mean he went back in time?"

Akari nodded, already seemingly losing interest in the conversation.

"What did he want? Why did he go to the past?" he asked.

Akari glanced at him.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Our young customer has been laboring under this idea that there must be some sort of reason for people to go to the past." Kei joined the conversation with an infuriatingly patronizing tone.

"That true?" Akari asked him.

He flushed red. "I just don't know why people would take the risk of becoming a ghost just to go back in time when they can't even change their life or anything like that."

Akari's eyes flashed, and to his surprise and confusion he found real anger there.

"Then you should consider yourself lucky that you don't know the reason."

What was she going on about?

Meanwhile, Kei hurriedly pushed Akari into the kitchen.

"Alright, alright, that's enough Akari. He's too young to understand."

After a bit more mumbling, she came bustling back out to the counter.

"I'm sorry dear, but you'll have to excuse Akari, she's going through a bit of a rough patch right now."

"Right," he muttered, sliding out of his seat.

He needed to leave. These people…

"Oh, you're leaving? But what about-"

He didn't linger to hear the end of her sentence.

oOo

They were back at the library. This time, she was the one that found him, sitting at the same table they'd occupied only a week or so again. She'd startled him by wrapping her arms around him and covering his eyes with her hands.

"Guess who?" she had whispered in a voice that sent shivers up his spine.

"A demon."

"Guess again!"

He gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Haruno-san?"

"You're no fun at all, Hikigaya-kun."

His eyesight returned to bestow the image of a pouting Haruno who'd slid into the seat next to his.

"And you're way too touchy."

"You're really grouchy today. Did something bad happen?"

"No."

She glanced over at the textbooks strewn across the table, and then grinned mischievously.

"So how did your exams go?"

He tossed his pencil away.

"Terribly," he grunted, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Ehh? I always took you for a smart one, Hikigaya-kun."

"Forgive me for not living up to your expectations."

"So what is it that you're reviewing? Maybe I can help!"

"The only way you could help is if you could somehow go back in time and give me the answers to the free answer section of that stupid math exam."

They were both silent for a moment. And then they both spoke at once.

"Do you think-"

"It won't work."

"-that…-huh? Why? Why won't it work?"

"Because of the rules."

"You still believe in those rules?"

"Is there a reason why I shouldn't?"

She gave a long-suffering sigh. "I thought I already went over this."

"Yeah well, the time travel's real."

Haruno froze.

"Sorry?"

"I said, time travel is real," he repeated.

"H-How do you know? Did you go back in time? I thought you said you weren't interested in going back?"

He shook his head. "It wasn't me. But I went back to the cafe. And someone came to see me."

"Came… from the future?"

"Mhm," he nodded.

"How do you know?"

"They sat in the seat."

"The one with the ghost lady?"

"Yes."

"Was the ghost lady there?"

"Nope. Not until the meeting was over."

"And then she came back?"

"More like she was sitting in the seat all along. But the future woman was just borrowing it."

"Hikigaya-kun. You're not making sense."

"Well, I'm pretty sure she came from the future. She certainly talked like it."

"Did you know this woman?"

"No."

"So then how do you know she came from the future?"

He groaned.

"Look, do you believe me or not?"

"Of course I do!" Haruno reassured him. "I'm just curious about what kind of girlfriend you'll have in the future, Hikigaya-kun!"

He buried his head back in his arms so that she couldn't tease him any further. He didn't want to admit that the woman was all he could think about for the past few days.

Haruno, of course, didn't miss his reaction.

"Ara ara, I actually guessed it correctly. It was your girlfriend! Who was it? You know your onee-san's very upset that you're dallying with other girls, you know?"

He gave her the stink eye.

"Don't you already have a boyfriend?"

"Details details," she waved her hand airily. "Boyfriends can come and go, but there's only been one Hikigaya-kun!"

"So why can't I also have a girlfriend?"

"Because then your Onee-san will be heartbroken! You wouldn't be so heartless as to make your Onee-san cry, would you?" she made her eyes big and watery; the epitome of a broken-hearted woman. He would've probably felt guilty enough to backtrack on his previous statement if he didn't know her better.

"You're a big girl, you'll get over it."

She pouted, and managed to force out a couple of crocodile tears.

He gave another groan and went back to writing down some figures.

Haruno wouldn't let him go that easily though.

She prodded him again.

"So, so who was it? Who was the lucky lady that stole Hikigaya-kun's heart away from his poor Onee-san?"

"There wasn't any stealing involved," he deadpanned.

"No stealing?! Are you saying that you've already been unfaithful to me?"

"Nah, I'm saying that it was you in the cafe. You're the girl that stole my heart away in that cafe."

He'd meant it as a joke, a sort of revenge for all of her teasing. But even he was surprised by her reaction.

For once, it was Haruno that was stunned speechless. For once it was Haruno that was turning red from embarrassment.

And for once, it was Haruno who busied herself with her textbooks, pretending to be too busy.

He couldn't hide the satisfied smirk that rose unbidden on his face, nor could he quite understand why he was filled with an inexplicable lingering happiness that stayed with him for the rest of the day.

oOo