Mikomi was truly puzzled by what Sebastian had just said. He wondered how a Custodian of Time, one who sees all timelines, could have a curveball thrown his way. For someone who was supposed to protect this timeline and the world that he had shaped, how could he let something like this pass him by? Sebastian turned and faced Mikomi and showed a slight hint of emotion, something that was uncharacteristic of him.

“That look on your face. Perhaps you might want to hear me out, after all?”

“I’m listening…”

“You changed a lot of things, my dear Mikomi. You’ve caused a lot of ripples. The changes that you made didn’t just affect people like Serah, Ryan, your parents, your father’s company, et cetera. Those who were affected generated their own ripples. You caused a chain reaction and when something that big happens, the timeline itself will try to compensate. I have the power to govern the timelines but I don’t have the power to predict what they are going to do. The fact of the matter is that you changed too much. The timeline, to explain it simply, pushed the reset button. As you can tell, it didn’t completely reset everything. Your father still has the A.I., does he not?”

Mikomi sat back down and let out another heavy sigh.

“That’s not the point. You even told me that my father having the A.I. is irrelevant because I was still going to join my dad’s company and I would inherit the project anyway. Finding out who killed me has always been the ultimate goal but... “

Mikomi’s eyes began to swell up with tears.

“...but I wanted to do that with the one I loved still in my life. I just wanted her by my side. I thought that if I could find my killer and prevent my death, what kind of life would I be able to have with Serah still in it? Apparently, that was too much to ask, wasn’t it?”

Sebastian didn’t have any words for Mikomi. He stood there staring at him with his emotionless eyes, much as he had done since the very beginning. Mikomi leaned back against the bench and gazed up into the night sky. There were hardly any clouds in the sky but the stars weren’t as bright due to the lights of the campus.

“Say, Sebastian. The stars are just a bit dimmer now, aren’t they?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Sebastian tilted his head as if he were trying to understand what Mikomi meant by that. Nevertheless, Mikomi chuckled to himself and wiped the tears away from his eyes. He got up and began to walk back toward the dorm building.

“So, what are you going to do now, Mikomi?”

Mikomi stopped and looked back at Sebastian. Sebastian braced himself for a stern and defiant answer but the words that came out of Mikomi’s mouth next actually surprised Sebastian.

“I just plan on going to bed and see what tomorrow brings. After all, it’s all I can do now, isn’t it?”

Mikomi stuck his hands into his pockets and walked away from Sebastian. Sebastian shook his head and faded away like he normally would. Mikomi re-entered the building and rode the elevator back up to his floor. He made his way down the hallway and quietly re-entered his room, being careful not to wake Derek up again. He hung his coat on the wall and got back into bed. He lay there for a moment and gazed up at the ceiling.

Is this all that I’m capable of? Am I really satisfied with this?

Mikomi closed his eyes and fell asleep. Before he knew it, morning came and if it hadn’t been for Derek getting up and making noise, he would have overslept for class. He let out a yawn as he sat up in his bed. Derek, who was putting on his shirt, glanced over at him. He shook his head and let out a sigh.

“Look, man. I’m sorry I got heated last night. I don’t know what happened to you but it must have been pretty messed up if you keep having nightmares. I know I said it out of anger but maybe you really should seek some help and if you need to talk, I’ll lend you my ear, okay?”

“T-thanks.”

Derek finished getting dressed and grabbed his book bag. He slung it over his shoulder and opened the door, looking back at Mikomi.

“Better hurry and get dressed. Professor Edwards isn’t the kind of person who will let you slip in behind his back.”

With that, Derek closed the door behind him. Mikomi got up and looked at the clock. His eyes widened as he realized what time it was and that Derek was right… if he didn’t get a move on, he would be late for class. He grabbed the nearest clean shirt and pants and threw them on. He quickly put his shoes on and took a deep breath as he tried to remember what things he needed. This was his Advanced A.I. Programming class so he knew he needed a certain textbook. He quickly found his book bag and looked through it. Once he realized he had everything he needed, he grabbed his winter coat and dashed out the door.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Moments later, Mikomi arrived at his class just in time. Professor Edwards was in the middle of taking attendance when he slipped into the classroom, thinking that he had just made it be a hair’s breadth.

“Mr. Saigo. Be seated quickly or I will mark you as absent.”

"Yes, professor. Sorry, professor.”

Mikomi found his seat next to Derek who shot him a grin.

“Made it just in time. I was worried for a second,” muttered Derek under his breath.

“Okay! Open your textbooks to Chapter 13. Today we’re going to explore the parameters needed to understand how to build neural networks for machine learning….”

Professor Edwards began writing out algorithms on the blackboard as Mikomi cracked a grin.

Sorry, Derek but I could have missed this class a thousand times and still scored the highest out of everyone in this class. I remember learning the basics of Neural Networks here and I began to apply those concepts to dynamic learning. This was the foundation for the Serah A.I. that I built in the original timeline. There’s no way in hell I would forget any of this. This is the base of the code that I gave my father in that letter I wrote. I guess you could say that without Professor Edwards, there would have been no A.I., to begin with. I do owe everything to him, don’t I?

It was then that Mikomi realized something.

Wait a minute. Even to this day, the A.I. hasn’t been released to the public. Dad announced the A.I. a couple of years ago but he still couldn’t get it off the ground. Now that I think about it… it was a technological limitation. I don’t know how he got it up and running for a demonstration that one day but I remember working with even more powerful computers than what he had when I gave him the code.

I remember this lesson. Professor Edwards is going to teach us that there have been significant advancements in neural networks in the past few months. He made it very clear that the information in our textbooks was rendered outdated due to these advancements and that he was going to let us be the first class to learn about these new techniques. I, essentially, gave my father a code that wasn’t meant to run on his current equipment! I can’t believe I made such an oversight! What if that was the catalyst that created a great unbalance in the timeline? What if trying to save Serah was the breaking point that pushed that balance over the edge and the world responded by re-aligning everything with her death? If that’s the case, then I….

Mikomi blinked a few times to snap himself out of his thoughts. Derek even took notice that Mikomi had spaced out for a moment but once he saw he was back to normal, he went back to paying attention to Professor Edwards’ lecture.

Before Mikomi knew it, the end-of-class bell rang and the lecture came to an end. Derek stood up and nudged Mikomi as he was still lost in thought.

“Hey… boy meets world. Let’s go?”

Mikomi looked around for a second and realized everyone was leaving. Mikomi apologized and threw everything into his bag. The two of them walked back to their dorm together where Derek became curious about Mikomi’s little daydreaming adventure.

“So, what was that all about?”

Mikomi turned his attention to him and shot him a puzzled look, hoping that he wouldn’t pry too much into his spacing out but Derek pressed the issue when he thought that Mikomi was trying to play dumb.

“Don’t give me that look, man. I saw you sitting there staring off into space. Sure, it may have looked like you were paying attention but I know a zombie look when I see one. You know this is a pretty advanced class, right? You keep spacing out like that and it’s your money that’s going to be flushed down the drain.”

Mikomi shook his head and cracked a grin.

“Neural networking has radically changed over the past few months. Rather than manually creating algorithms and having users constantly input data, you can now use dynamic algorithms to allow the software to take in its own input, compile the data and compute it in machine language. The inverse is also true about the conversion of machine language into an output such as audio or phonetics. These textbooks have been rendered outdated by these new advancements. Instead of sitting there listening to Professor Edwards, maybe you should be asking me for lessons.”

Derek stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn’t believe what Mikomi had just said.

“How do you know any of that? Professor Edwards hasn’t mentioned anything about advancements. I’ve never seen any paper or article published on the subject, either.”

Mikomi cracked a grin because this was a situation he was all too familiar with. His memory quickly flashed back to spending the afternoon in Ryan’s bedroom, watching him play VX

Command and giving him the clues he needed to beat the first boss. Mikomi channeled his fourteen-year-old self and cracked a smile.

“Isn’t it obvious, Derek? I’m from the future.”

With that, Mikomi walked away. Derek had the most confused look on his face. Once he realized he was being left behind, he quickened his pace and caught up with Mikomi.

“Seriously? That’s your answer? You’re from the future? C’mon… now I know that you’re pulling my leg with this nonsense.”

“Fine… if you don’t believe me then how about a wager then? When we get back from holiday break, if Professor Edwards talks to us about advancements in neural networks and our textbooks being outdated, you’ll have to buy me lunch for a week. If he doesn’t, and I’m proven to be full of it, then I’ll buy you lunch for a week. Deal?”

Mikomi extended his hand. Derek was a bit concerned that Mikomi would be so quick to make a challenge like this but something in the back of his mind felt that Mikomi was just trying to dance around the subject and not reveal the real reason why he was spaced out during class. That’s when he decided to up the ante.

“I’ll shake your hand on one condition. If I win the bet, not only do you buy me lunch for a week but you tell me why you spaced out and what those nightmares are all about.”

Mikomi knew that there was no way he would lose. The timeline was rebalanced and things should be normal from here on out. Mikomi grinned and shook Derek’s hand, sealing the deal.

“Fine by me but I don’t intend on losing this. I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you find out that I’m right.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see once the holiday break is over. Speaking of which, what are your plans for the next week?”

“I’m going to be heading back home to visit my parents and see some friends. I know classes only started a little over a month ago, but I didn’t go home for Thanksgiving so I kind of owe it to them. Plus, I also didn’t go home for my birthday, either.”

“Do you hate your family or something?”

“No. It’s nothing like that. A lot of stuff happened over my summer vacation, though. I kind of… didn’t want to go back but I can’t keep running forever.”

“Anything to do with those nightmares of yours?”

“Win the bet and find out.”

Derek let out a sigh and nodded as the two of them entered the dorm building. They made their way up to their room where they unpacked everything. Derek didn’t bother removing his winter coat as he planned to head out to grab a bite to eat. He offered to treat Mikomi as an apology for getting heated during the night but he politely declined stating that he wanted to get caught up on some sleep.

Derek shrugged his shoulders and exited their room. Mikomi laid down on the bed and closed his eyes. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep. A mere nap turned into a long slumber as the next time Mikomi opened his eyes, it was Saturday morning. He groggily turned over and noticed that Derek was still sleeping even though it was almost nine in the morning. The holiday break had officially begun and Mikomi had a couple of hours of driving ahead of him. For the first time since college began, he was headed back home.