I woke up that Saturday morning, and I felt the strange urge to go on a run. Running had never appealed to me before: I could freeze time or rewind it to suit my needs, so why would I need to be able to run? Then I remembered the day I became the target, running through that labyrinth, the dead end.

  I pushed the thought aside, got ready, and went out. Mother was just getting off work, and my sister was still fast asleep. Despite her words of adoration seeing my face when I first woke up, she was hardly ever awake before me unless she had student council activities to attend. Spring mornings in my area were brisk and slightly chilly, but after a while, I warmed up.

  I had remembered most of my neighborhood and the area surrounding it, so getting lost would be difficult. As I ran, I began to remember other things from my past life: the process to get into Makarov, my dorm there, my daily routine. We ran a lot, now that I thought of it. Maybe that's why running became so unappealing to me. I found myself at the foot of the local shrine looking up its numerous stairs.

  The shrine was about five kilometers from my house in a straight line, so I decided to turn around and go back. I took a different route on my way back and passed by a park that I used to play at as a child. There, I saw Chika out walking her dog and decided to stop. I'm not sure how, but as soon as I walked into the park, she looked straight at me and put on her mischievous smile.

  "Oh? What's this?" she asked. "Did someone miss me so much they got up early to come find me in the park?"

  Cheeky and flirty, I'm not sure why I expected anything else from her.

  "Hardly," I responded. "I was wondering why someone left their child at the park unattended so early in the morning." I walked over and sat on the bench next to where she was sitting.

  "Kazu, you really shouldn't fight the feelings you have for me. If you keep it up, I don't think I'll give you a chance when you finally succumb to them and confess to me." She kept her smile and looked away, giving a false impression of her turning up her nose.

  "Yeah, yeah, talk all you want. If that day ever comes, however unlikely it is, I'll deal with it then." A strategic choice of words, but a poor strategy when dealing with her.

  "Oh?" she turned and leaned in closer to me, touching my thigh. "So you admit you're fighting your feelings? You really shouldn't torment yourself like that, Kazu. We've been friends for such a long time; I think you know that you'll be in good hands when you confess to me."

  Her eyes pierced my own, her face was painted in a type of desire that I had only seen in anime or manga. I had fallen into her trap, and she knew it.

  "Y-y-you wouldn't know the first thing about dating, Chika," I finally pushed out. I had to think of a way out of this situation.

  I had said that she wouldn't know, but in reality, I knew nothing about dating. School and work had hardly left time for it in my past life. Our eyes remained locked, and she moved her other hand to the back of the bench.

  "No?" she continued. "I think you'll be surprised when I show you just how much I know."

  She leaned in even closer; this had quickly turned into a difficult situation and was evolving into a big problem. I sat there leaning back but paralyzed. She crept closer and closer, but cracked at the last second before she got too close to my face. She pulled back and burst into laughter.

  "Oh, Kazu, you should see your face!" Her childish laughter continued. My face turned red. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist teasing you. I know it's early, but I can't help it when I'm with you." She grabbed her sides, and her dog jumped into her lap. I sat there dumbfounded but relieved that it was all a joke. "I almost couldn't do it because you stink like sweat, but I knew I had to."

  I really wonder how the me from my past dealt with this girl.

  She continued laughing for a while, but she eventually calmed down and changed her tone.

  "Hey, Kazu," she started again, "Toshinori's bullies, did they try to attack him again? Like yesterday before he came to eat with us, what happened?" I couldn't tell her what actually happened, but I needed to let her know that he was still in danger.

  "Yeah," I replied, "two of the three guys that we saw earlier were about to gang up on him when I walked by and intervened." Not a total lie, I did walk by a window and see them about to hurt him, but I'll leave out anything about metas for now.

  "Did you fight them, Kazu?" She asked, looking me in the eyes. She was scared, a lot like she was when Denki sent one of them to the hospital; I couldn't lie to her again.

  "Yes, but it was hardly a fight. They hurt themselves more than they hurt me."

  She pulled me close. Her voice was shaking. "Please, Kazu, don't get into trouble again. I can't think about what would happen if you got kicked out." Her real self was showing: she cared a lot about this. I couldn't bear the thought of hurting her.

  "I won't. I'll keep everyone out of trouble, and we'll all stick together."

  "Good," she managed to say. She held me for another minute without saying anything.

  When she let go, she was back to her normal self. She sprang up, spun around, and started walking her dog out of the park. Before she left, she turned and looked at me again.

  "About earlier, I am sorry for going too far. Our first kiss will be when you're good and ready."

  I looked up and saw her mischievous smile again. She walked off, and I was left on the bench. I sat there and went over what just happened... how a fifteen year old girl had my head and heart spinning.

  Is that okay? I mean, I'm in the body of a fifteen year old boy, but my mind or soul is almost twice that age... These are confusing times.

  I imagine it will stay the same or get worse if we go to the same high school, but given the alternatives, that may be the only option I have. I guess I'll have to get ready for high school soon and officially decide where I'm going: Toriyama High School.

  If memory serves, that was where everyone but Ino from my group went in my last life. She went to an all girls high school with a good college acceptance rate. Without powers, she should be safe there as well, but it would be sad to see our group split up. I sat on the bench for a little while longer thinking about where everyone ended up and how to keep them safe in this life.

  When I finished laying the foundations for a plan, I got up and ran back home. I was greeted by my mother who was about to go to bed.

  "Oh? You went for a run, sweetie?" she said in a very tired voice.

  She was making breakfast for me and my sister before she went to bed; even exhausted, she had so much strength. The power of some parents is astounding.

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  "Yes," I replied, "I just felt like running today." I helped her get everything together and set the table.

  I gave her a hug before going upstairs to grab my sister. I missed having human contact. I don't even remember when the last time that I touched someone without the intention of killing them was before I came back. I walked up the stairs and stood before the door of my former tormenter.

  "Sis, breakfast is ready," I called out. No answer.

  Of course there was no answer. She was dead to the world on the weekends unless someone managed to book some of her time in advance. I cracked the door open to avoid a repeat of a couple of nights prior. The curtains were pulled, and there was a lump on her bed. Dead to the world.

  "Sis, come on, mom made breakfast for us and wants to eat together before she goes to bed." Still no answer.

  I was wary of pulling the blankets off of her, so I uncovered her face and put my hand on it. My hand that had just helped mother carry ice cold glasses to the table. She jolted awake and squealed.

  "Mom made breakfast, let's go."

  "Zuzu," she said in a groggy voice. "Don't be so mean to your big sister, now I'm freezing. Come warm me back up."

  "It's too early for you to be weird, sis; besides, mom just got home and needs to go to bed. Come on." I turned to walk out, and she stumbled out of bed. We went downstairs and had a quiet breakfast together before mother went to bed.

  The rest of the weekend consisted of lazing around and doing homework with the exception of meditation and training my power. The homework part took all of half an hour, and that included triple checking my answers. Thankfully, since I was back in the environment, memories of everything that I was doing continued to come back. The power training, however, seemed to drag on for days even though it lasted until dusk for everyone else.

  Although my power would activate under my control, manipulating time affects how one sees and feels the passing of time. I worked on freezing time for hours on end and ensured that I could unfreeze it at will. My powers definitely came from some sort of mental muscle. That muscle was triggered by desire and emotion, but it could be activated through concentration at a price - splitting headaches.

  I worked on rewinding as well, starting with small 1-5 second jumps and working up to 1 minute jumps without the headaches. The mistake that I made was trying to skip forward. I sat in my normal meditation pose, calmed myself, and breathed.

  I had every intention of skipping forward a few seconds then rewinding and doing it again; however, when I completed the skip, the sun was up, and it was time to go to school. I wouldn't be able to rewind back far enough accurately and without consequences. I lost a whole night's worth of sleep, and I still wasn't sure if my power still worked when I was asleep or unconscious. I rushed to get ready and ran off to school yet again.

  Students cycled through the guidance counselors office to discuss high school choice during that week. When it was my time, I went to the office and waited for Mr Toshiba to speak with me. In my last life, he really pushed me to apply for Makrov Academy, but this time, I won't pay it any mind.

  "Ishigami," he started. "Your academic record is impeccable. If you applied to Makarov Academy, I have no doubt that you would be accepted. The academy has the highest college acceptance rate in the country; surely whatever institution you wanted would be at your beck and call by the time you chose."

  Mr Toshiba was a slender middle aged man and had a certain way with words, I began to remember. Students that were outstanding in one field or another were given earful after earful of silver words to get them to choose whichever school he thought they should attend. Few ended up going against his word. I know I fell for them previously, but I wouldn't be falling for them this time.

  "Mr Toshiba," I began. "I have decided that I want to go to Toriyama High School. As selfish as it may seem, I would like to stay closer to my family and friends before I go to college."

  "Oh? What do you have in mind for college? Engineering? Medicine? Business? Surely whatever it is, Makarov Academy can ensure that you succeed in your endeavors." His responses were quick and calculated, leaving little room for argument.

  "I would eventually like to go into economics and law; however, Toriyama High School will be more than sufficient in preparing me for my future."

  "I ask that you keep Makarov Academy in your consideration and prepare an application at the very least, Ishigami. It would be a shame to miss out on such an opportunity."

  "Yes sir, I will do that," I said knowing good and well that nothing would ever drag me back there. I left the office with an uneasy feeling. Something about him didn't seem right, almost as if he was trying to force me into Makarov Academy.

  Did their network span to junior high schools? It would explain how they so easily brought in metas, talented or otherwise.

  That day was another day that everyone had club activities, so I walked home alone. Toshinori had joined the library committee since joining our group, so he had somewhere else to be safe from his bullies. I walked through one of the shopping districts because I wanted to grab groceries to help mother make something special on her days off.

  The district was especially busy, people rushing from store to store grabbing their own groceries and the like, shop owners attracting attention and giving samples. The district was vastly different from the market I went to in my past life. It was closer to the crowded streets I walked when I was on assignment.

  Crowds are the perfect place to blend in; all you have to do is stay within a couple of years of the fashion trends and keep your head hidden. The noise drowns out your steps, people mask your scent, and the constant motion makes insertion and exit child's play.

  As I was thinking back on the nightmare, I heard voices that were clearly out of place coming from an alleyway. One, maybe two girls, three guys, likely older than them. The former was a quaking voice and the latter was filled with venom. In other words, more trouble. I walked toward the voices and peeked into the alley.

  Unfortunately, I was right. Trouble. The three guys surrounded the two girls. To make matters worse, they were girls from my school, Ino and a friend of hers presumably. I had no option of getting a policeman involved: they always took too long to find and get to the scene. Time to change my past again.

  "Stop playing hard to get, now," one dirtbag said. "Come have some fun with us, girls."

  The second started to reach for Ino who slapped his hand away and stood against them defiantly.

  "Keep your creepy hands to yourself and get away from us!" she said. Her friend was clearly terrified.

  "Of course they want to come with us," the third dirtbag said to the first. "Just look at how they're dressed. Everyone knows gals dress slutty to let everyone know they're easy and always want some action."

  "Don't make us get rough, now," the first one said with poison in his voice.

  "I think you've made big enough fools of yourselves as is," I chimed in.

  "And who do you think you are, huh? Can't you see we're just having a nice chat with these ladies?" Dirtbag one asked, glaring at me.

  The other two stood up and blocked off my most direct route to get the girls out of there. The other way was a dead end, so they were ultimately trapped. Ino knelt down and tried to comfort her friend.

  Without any other provocation, the second dirtbag ran at me and wound up a punch. I slid out of the way, caught his hand, used his momentum against him, and slammed him face first into the wall. He fell like a sack of bricks. The other two didn't even give any warning as they rushed me together.

  One pulled out a switchblade knife and the other a pair of brass knuckles. I quickly calmed myself out of any emotion I had built up. In. Out. The blade was close to my gut, and the knuckles were close to my face.

  Way too close, I really need to get faster with my powers.

  I walked around the two of them and moved the knuckles to hit the first's face. The knife was easy enough to take without messing with his hand too much. I cleaned it up a bit with his shirt and pocketed it: I left all my knives in my previous life, and I needed something to protect myself and others with. I found a brick and hit the second one in the back of the head. Best case scenario, the two of them are knocked out too.

  I stayed away from where they were attacking and resumed time. Perfectly, the third still hit the first and knocked him out, and the third kept going and crashed since he was also knocked out. Three dirtbags down. I looked at Ino and her friend.

  "You're safe now, let's go." I reached out my hand. They ran to me.

  "Thank you, Kazuma," Ino said. "Come on, Kaori, let's get out of here," she said to her friend.

  They ran by me as I made sure the three stayed down, but I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Her friend, Hojo Kaori, stared into my eyes like a child that had just seen a superhero. There was something about that look. For the first time in my life, I was happy that I was a meta.