Two Years Ago

"Hey."

I turned sharply as I was met with a girl with a sneaky look about her, though I didn't question it. I glared at her for a few seconds, then resumed following random boy number ten down the street towards the normal café that every random boy takes me. Whoever she was, I had no business with her.

Before I could turn the corner, I was suddenly grabbed by the wrist. She looked about a year older then me and had light hair, pretty normal.

Until she said this –

"I want to talk to you about the John Smith you met two years ago."

. . . You wouldn't be able to say no, right?

So after ditching prince charming number ten, I followed the strange girl into the café I was heading to before. Inside, I was led to a table in the corner – a pretty secluded area. Was this some secret mission or something? I started brimming with excitement at the thought.

"So you brought the brat . . . I would congratulate you but I'm not doing this for myself so I wouldn't give a shit."

My smile started descending. Who was this jerk? This wasn't John Smith right? I'm sorry, but this wasn't how I imagined him.

"I'm sorry for my college's poor behavior. He just doesn't want to be . . . here."

"Damn right I don't want to be here. I can't believe they couldn't send someone else to do this. . ."

By then, I was in utter confusion. I still somehow managed to smile at these two abnormal people. I had found something finally. Even if one of them was a jerk and the other was too formal, this could be considered a breakthrough day for me.

If only it was so . . .

"So what is it about John Smith? Is he in trouble? Is he a part of some awesome organization? Did he strike oil and it turned out to be an out-of-this-world material? Or maybe he invented time travel or found a lost soul. Just tell me something amazing he did because I would've expected that by now. Or are you just going to tell me he's fine in collage? If that's all then this whole thing was poi–"

"John Smith is dead."

My words suddenly froze in place as I heard that bastard utter those four words. John. Smith. Dead? Not possible. Why would he be dead? I swallowed deeply and glared into the jerk's gray eyes.

"I don't believe you."

"Oh, really? Well, if I could predict the future, you would definitely believe me."

"But . . . that's not possible because . . . I gave him my faith this entire time. It always works. If I want a baseball team to win, they win. If I want to get a hundred on a test then I do it. I can do anything, which means John can do anything. I'm not alone stupid! John isn't dead, how would you know?"

I was starting to ramble, grabbing the table tightly causing my fingers to turn pale. You would probably mistake me as a ghost if you saw me since I was as white as a sheet. His next words froze me in time.

"Because I killed him."

. . .

He said it with no feeling almost like a doctor telling you were going to die in three days. My eyes were glazed and the room began closing into me. I didn't know if I was staring into the eyes of a murderer or of a lier. I wanted it to be the latter but his eyes were steel bars as my widened eyes glanced over them. The girl standing beside me shifted as I remained in my frozen state.

"Who. Are. You?" I said in a cold voice.

The jerk moved his hand to support his chin on the table and sneered at me, the kind of expression an evil villain in a manga would have.

"You can call me Fujiwara, brat."

The air in the café was still frozen and I still didn't know if I was talking to a murderer. If you think about it, no one would confess to a crime so easily. From what I learned, you had to gather clues and deduced who the murderer was and how he or she committed the crime. This was too easy, so he had to be lying. I looked over to the girl that had called me over.

Her expressions didn't give anything away, her mouth was a straight line. She didn't look shocked nor did she look smug. Was she forced to do this? Did this guy threaten death to this girl or was she the partner in crime?

. . . I can't believe in them now! How could I even consider it?

I was brought out of my reverie by the waitress asking us if we needed anything. I glared at the worker like an annoying fly and sat down at the corner of the table, looking away from "Fujiwara". What a fake name, it's less believable then John Smith.

Normally, I would be running away if someone said they killed someone I knew but that's only if they said they had killed my parents or something. I don't know how many "some's" are in that sentence. Anyway, John Smith was different because he was strange. These people were evil strange. Both the type of strange I like. Don't ask why I stayed, I'll just say it was for investigation.

The girl who led me here sat beside me and across from the killer. She mumbled something to waitress about coffee and sat, staring at the painting hanging on the wall. I picked my spot of window and avoided the other two's eyes until the waitress came back to break the silence.

If I even looked back at Fujiwara, I would probably freeze again. I still had something to ask but I'll wait until either of them start talking. Guess who it was?

"So do you believe me now?"

I heard him pick up his coffee and take a sip, almost sounding like a snake.

I decided to talk to the ceiling.

"Believe you? You bring me here just to tell me you killed someone? This is either a joke or a bluff. And why would you need to tell me anyway? I barely knew him so if he's dead then it wouldn't effect my life at all. Either way, it doesn't matter if I believe you."

"You sure do talk a lot for someone who doesn't believe in logic."

I closed my mouth at this. He did have a point but how would he know that? Well, it isn't important!

"Why are you telling me this? Was I chosen for something?"

Fujiwara began to laugh and it almost made me throw up.

"Chosen? Not likely. Probably just a random lucky draw. After all, there are six billion people in this world. Heh, you must be the luckiest lottery winner alive."

Now, he's just mocking me.

"And who's she? Why is she here?"

The girl looked up from her coffee to give me the same smile she did when she called out to me.

"I just had to go get you."

"Why couldn't he get me himself?"

"Well it's . . . complicated."

I huffed at this answer and glared at my coffee. I hate coffee.

I was wondering if this Fujiwara fellow was going to describe the event of killing John Smith but it seemed as if it wasn't worth his time. The waitress came over once again to see if we wanted our coffee's refilled but I'd rather suck dirt then drink coffee – twice in a row no doubt. This really isn't my day.

The entire time I didn't dare look over to Fujiwara's menacing smile. It was as if a devil had inhabited his body and once it had left for other prey, he still remained one. The ceiling and window really was my friend the entire time I sat there.

After thirty minutes of dead silence, I decided to start a conversation back up again. I needed answers but just talking to him was a headache. He was so cryptic.

"Why did you kill him – if I believe you of course."

I saw the booth's fabric move as Fujiwara shifted his position, probably into something more sinister.

"It was necessary. If he didn't die, then I wouldn't have a home to go home to."

There he goes with the cryptic words again.

"John wasn't letting you go home? Why didn't you just ask, stupid?"

"Because my home is in the future and if certain things do no occur, then I would cease to exist. Think of it this way, I was preserving the six billion lives with a single death. What would you do in that situation, brat?"

First of all, I would rather you died. Second of all, a time traveler? Yeah, you really are convincing me. If I said anything though, he would rant on about my "not accepting reality" as an excuse again. And thirdly, I wish he would stop calling me brat. I glanced at the girl once again.

"So you're from the future too?"

"Not exactly since I'm not a part of your future."

"A slider then?"

"Well . . . not by my own power. I still do not quite understand but I believe it to be like this."

The girl suddenly pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen from her bag.

"Let's say that this is time line alpha. I'll just draw it here."

She drew a line with an "α" mark and drew a dot at the end of it.

"This is the point from which we time traveled which is about two years into the future. Technically, all we did was travel backwards on this line."

She traced the line back and started writing a dot with "two years prior" beside it.

"Lets say that we change a 'predetermined event' as Fujiwara calls them. Normally, that wouldn't be possible since they are 'predetermined' and can not possible be changed. In other words, we would only become a factor in that predetermined event if we time traveled to that point. Almost like drawing an extra picture in a flip book."

She lifted the pen off the paper and began grabbing the ends of it.

"However, let's say that we changed events that were not predetermined but the events that ended up being factors in the predetermined events, almost like destroying the cause instead of the effect. Anyone could meddle with a cause, almost like messing with the batter of a cake before popping it in the oven creating an entirly new flavor. Sorry, but I need to create metaphors or else you would be lost."

I'm not stupid you know.

"Anyway, this is what we are doing –"

She took the paper that she had grabbed and ripped it in half.

"– we are medaling with the cause –"

She took a pen and wrote in "beta" on the half that had "two years prior" on it.

"– and creating an entirely new effect."

. . . I know she probably enjoyed the whole theatrics of that speech . . . but she isn't a time traveler. Anyone could think that up and spiel about it as if time travel was real, just look at the sci-fi books of today.

I know I wanted this stuff to be real but . . . that was because I didn't think it was real. I just thought John Smith was someone with the same mind set as me, not someone who was part of the mind set.

"But doesn't that destroy your world? How are you going to get back now?"

I didn't sound worried about them to be honest, I was just catching a mistake in that elongated theory. Fujiwara, who had been silent the entire time, replied.

"TPDD, Time Plane Destruction Device."

I decided to peer towards him – just this once. His face was a bit more relaxed then when he had confessed so I relaxed as well. He sighed.

"I really hate explaining something I already know to some thirteen year old."

I was fourteen but whatever.

"Anyway, think of time and space as a layer. One layer is time. Multiple layers is space. TPDD destroys a part of that layer and moves you to either a layer very, very similar or to a layer completely different. You seem to be separating the two as time traveling and sliding but in reality, the TPDD does both."

Well now, that's amazing. Now he's saying he's a slider as well. Maybe they're both just crazy and they happened to see John Smith help me that night? Not possible since I snuck into the security room to remove the evidence that some other person helped me and no one was on them besides me and John. So they couldn't have been there.

Are they really time travelers? And is Fujiwara really a murderer? This is just crazy. I would've liked it if we had time traveled to the renaissance or something but evil plotting for some unknown reason? I don't even know what this "predetermined event" they're talking about is. Why don't you tell me that first?

Fujiwara sneered at me again. I'm starting to hate that.

"Why, that predetermined event doesn't exist anymore."

He got up with hands in pockets as he headed towards the automatic doors. The girl placed money down onto the table.

"This is just an apology. Though, I do think you deserve it."

. . . Deserve what?

Phew, did it. I never really had any characters ramble about time theories and stuff before so if I made a stupid contridiction, please tell me. Now we know why Kyon wasn't sitting in front of Haruhi. Wonder what's going to happen? (Yeah, I'm trying to sound dramatic, but I don't think it's working) Keep your eyes open for the next chapter!