Kyoto, June 12/ 2022

Just like always, I was fantasizing about getting powers. I thought I would lead an easy life if I had powers, and I told myself that my life would be perfect. And just like my fantasy, I found a dungeon just on the side of my school. Nobody seems to notice, and despite knowing my parents would yell at me if I came home late, I went straight to the dungeon.

This dungeon wasn't there the day before, so I risked everything to see what's inside. As I walked, I noticed the dungeon was awfully quiet. It was dark, and each step I took echoed through the dungeon.

Despite the spooky vibes the dungeon gave me, I kept walking until I heard a voice. It was deep, and it said "do you seek power?". I didn't know where the voice came from, so I kept my guard up and said "who are you?".

The voice replied "I am you, but from the future!". The voice suddenly got closer, and I saw a black figure walking towards me. The more it got closer, the clearer it got. It was a human; he had scars all over his body and he was muscular. He also looked like me, but with longer hair.

I decided to believe him. I asked "how did you come back from the future, and why do you look like you've fought 1000 battles all at once? You look awful," I said in a joking manner. I thought since he was me, he would laugh at this, but he kept a straight face. I know he is me, but he seems more level-headed, stronger, and intelligent. Just one gaze at his face, and I knew he went through a lot.

He answered, "that's because I fought 1000 battles. I didn't risk 98% of my powers to come here and chit-chat with you. The choices you made in the future made you lose all your friends," he said that while keeping a straight face. "I came here to change the outcome of the future."

"Change the outcome of the future? You must be joking. No one can change the future; it will just find another way to happen again," I said, feeling like a genius, but that was me, and in a better form at that, so I'm pretty sure he knows he can't change the future.

He said, "you and your friends will find powers that function differently, but there is one special power you all have that doesn't need any training, and that's the ability to change the outcome of the future. It works like erasing and rewriting a new sentence in a book," he said, still keeping a straight face and maintaining composure. "I used the last of my strength to come here. I only have 1 ability, and that's to give you my memories,"

I asked, "What do you want me to do? Why did you risk 98% of your powers to come and talk to your past self? You need to explain this more; I don't understand," I said, as I was serious.

"I am cursed. If I tell you anything important, I'll die in 10 seconds. That also applies to giving you my memories. But before I do that, I need to explain how it works," he said.

He wouldn't have risked killing himself in order to show me the future, so I didn't ask him any more questions. "I'm listening," I said.

"Good," he responded. "Here is how it works: I'll put my hand in your head, and my memories will flow through you one by one. The side effect is that I'll lose my memories instead."

I interrupted, "You'll lose your memories, but..."

"It doesn't matter, I'll die anyway. So before I lose my memories, let me explain how it works. The memories I'm about to give you will be transferred in the form of emotions. I would like to give you my actual memories, but this is all I can do. I trust my emotions to guide you," he said more seriously.

I said, "How am I going to know what you want me to do if you're only giving me your emotions?"

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He answered "Emotions need triggers, and each time you find triggers, you will feel one of my emotions. Something that makes me sad might not make you sad. Think of it that way." I looked at him in doubts, then he said “look Zayn, you grew up with bad school marks and no friends. You’ve been called dumb and all other things in your past even by grownups. Sure, you have bad memories, you don’t want to remember things that you don’t pay attention to— “

“what are you trying to say?” I interrupted

He looked at me in the eyes and said “your talent doesn’t lie in school, ‘you are a genus’ in the future that’s what everybody calls you. And they were right. The thing is you don’t want to do things, and that habit of yours made you lose your friends”

He suddenly got up and put his hand on my head. He started talking in some kind of incantation, and suddenly I was in severe pain. It was like I was in hell; I was screaming, and I couldn't see a thing.

That 10 seconds felt like 10 years.

When I regained consciousness, I saw him lying on the ground. I checked his neck for a pulse, and he was dead. That was the first dead body I had ever seen - it was my own.

I took a glimpse in his left arm and found out that he has a paper, I took the paper and started reading and suddenly I started crying. I told myself ‘it must be one of his memories’. The paper had only 3 words and it said:

“Thank you, rose!”

I decided to check if he had anything else in his cloth and I found another paper it was my hand writing, and it said:

“Zayn, if you’re reading this its most likely that I gave you my memories. My curse doesn’t allow me to speak of my past but it allows me to write it in a piece of paper.

Zayn in 2 years from know you’ll find a similar dungeon, and when you do you’ll get to see an artifact, if you touch that you and your closest friends will get powers each of them functioning their own way.

After you get those powers you’ll travel back in time, and that’s when you start your journey, train every day, get stronger. And kill Aron 

Pick up my swords, you’re my past self so I’m pretty sure they will obey you. Their names are “Kabuto” and “Rengoku”

From you”

I felt a strong rage, anger and regret from that letter, it was my emotion. He had two swords I picked both of them and said “Kabuto, Rengoku go hide somewhere in my room. Don’t let no one see you”.

-break-

I walked back home, obviously I was yelled at. I went back to my room and called both Kabuto and Rengoku. My future-self had given me these swords, which meant there was something that would trigger a memory.

I started checking the swords to find if there was something extraordinary about them. I tried ordering them around. My first thought was if they could change size, so I said "Kabuto, Rengoku, get smaller"...but nothing happened.

I decided to examine the blades one at a time, starting with Kabuto. I tried different orders, but none of them seemed to work. And then I realized that when I was talking to Zayn, he didn't have two swords - he had only one. Other than that he had a watch. But when I checked his corpse the watch wasn’t there.  So I ordered: "Kabuto, change form!" Kabuto transformed into a fancy-looking metal plate.

I was surprised - did this mean I could have Kabuto with me wherever I went? I tried another order, "Kabuto, change form, pen," and the sword transformed into a pen.

Next was Rengoku. I tried to remember anything odd about Rengoku from my conversation with Zayn, but I couldn't recall anything. So I ordered Rengoku to hide for now, and then I slept in my bed.

The next day, I was getting ready to go to school. I put my headset on, changed clothes, and left early.

As I walked, I thought about what my future self had said - that people who are close to me will get powers. I'm pretty sure he meant people I had emotional connections with, like friends. But just because I'm close to them doesn't mean they're close to me.

The ones I always talk to are Rim and Yuki, so they'll probably get powers too. Should I trust them with this secret? They'd both believe me if I showed them my blades, but I don't expect them to keep quiet about it. Sooner or later, I'll tell them, because they need to be ready for whatever is coming in the future.

8 days later

I was sitting in the classroom, and I found out that Kabuto is capable of producing ink. I also noticed that whenever I do physical exercise while maintaining contact with Kabuto or Rengoku, some kind of life energy flows inside me.

Doing 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats in a single day can produce results equivalent to 10 days of the same exercise, that is if I maintain contact with one of my swords.