Mikomi began his new class at MUT along with Derek. Everything that Professor Edwards was teaching wasn’t anything he didn’t already know. Still, it was nice to have a bit of a refresher course. He felt that maybe there could have been something he had missed the first time around and it would benefit him in the long run. Even though he was going through college, he knew that a certain day was fast approaching. The day of his father’s death happened this year and the moment of truth would soon be upon him. He would be able to answer the question if the surgery his father received would truly cause him to avert a crisis.

As the days grew closer, Mikomi began to act a bit differently. While Mikomi once entertained thoughts that he was in complete control, he realized that he had to squander those thoughts in order to prevent Sebastian from interfering.

In fact, he even dwelled upon the fact that he hadn’t seen Sebastian in over a year. It seemed that every time they confronted each other, they were at odds. Perhaps, Sebastian finally caved and decided to start protecting the world that Mikomi had created. Despite those thoughts, he knew that even though a path was laid before him, it would never be complete. His one true failure was the one that stung the most but it was that failure that gave rise to his determination to prevent anything else from ever happening to the ones he loved and cherished.

As the moment of truth approached, that happiness began to slip away. Mikomi tried his best to hide it, but Derek had gotten pretty good at reading him. After all, he was the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. One week before the day his father died in the original timeline, Mikomi became ominously quiet. He would lay in bed at night with his eyes open, unable to sleep. The nerves began to gnaw away at him little by little. He began to show up for class day after day with bags under his eyes. He couldn’t hide his emotions any longer. While he did his best to contain them, the physical signs were all there and anyone could tell that something just wasn’t right just by taking one look at him.

It was a Friday afternoon. His father died in just three days on a Monday in the original timeline. Mikomi slowly got up from his seat at the conclusion of Professor Edwards’ lecture. He shuffled like a zombie out of the classroom when all of a sudden, he grabbed the wall and fell against it. Some of the other students noticed this and immediately ran over to him. This drew Derek’s attention and he rushed over and got underneath Mikomi’s arm, bracing him.

“Come on. I’ll get you back to the dorm.”

Derek knew that Mikomi was in no shape to talk. Even though he saw the signs day after day, he couldn’t bring himself to ask him what was bothering him. Deep down, he knew he wouldn’t tell him anything… even though they had become good friends. That’s just the kind of person he was. It was a bit of a struggle but Derek managed to get him back to their room where he brought him over to his bed. As soon as he let go, Mikomi's face planted on top of it, and instantly fell asleep. His body couldn’t take much more and simply gave out. Derek stood over him and shook his head

“Am I truly a friend to you, Mikomi? It’s okay to talk to me, you know.”

Derek grabbed him by the legs and swung them onto the bed. He grabbed a blanket off of his and covered him with it. Derek let out a heavy sigh as he folded his arms and looked down at him.

“You’re going to owe me lunch for a week because of this you know. Don’t worry if you can’t hear me. I’ll make sure to remind you properly when you wake up.”

As Mikomi slept, he began to dream.

Mikomi was sitting in the cafeteria at college. He had a tray of food sitting in front of him that consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich with dill pickle slices, a diet soda, and a snack-sized bag of potato chips. He was reading a textbook given to him by Professor Edwards on the new discovery of dynamic algorithms in advanced artificial intelligence.

He closed his book and noticed that he had some free time before the start of his next class. He headed back to his dorm where he noticed the red light blinking on his answering machine. He sat on his bed and pressed the button, leaning back up against the wall and letting out a heavy sigh. He sat back up when he recognized his mother’s voice but there was something different about it.

Karoline’s words quivered with every syllable. Once he knew that something was wrong, he listened as intently as possible.

“Mikomi, I’m sorry to call you in the middle of class but I have some bad news. Your father passed out behind his desk at work and they had to rush him to the hospital. I’m heading there now but the doctor told me to bring any family over immediately because it doesn’t look good. Mikomi… please… I need you right now. I don’t know what to do.”

Mikomi instantly stopped the playback of the message and rewound the answering machine. He listened to the beginning of the message that alerted him of the date and time.

“First message sent today at 10:28 am.”

He looked at his clock and saw that it was well past Noon. He audibly gasped as he grabbed his coat and his car keys and bolted out the door as fast as possible. He didn’t even bother closing the door to his dorm room as he ran as fast as he could for the exit. Fortunately, during his stay in college in this timeline, Mikomi’s dorm was on the first floor of the building. He didn’t have to wait for an elevator but even if he did, he probably would have just taken the stairs.

He drew attention to himself as he ran as fast as he could out to the parking lot. He hopped in his car and quickly fired it up. He did a quick check around him to make sure that he was in the clear and sped off to the hospital. Mikomi had broken many speed laws but he didn’t care. If he got pulled over, he would have begged for a police escort. He wanted to get there by any means necessary and who could blame him for wanting to do so?

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The drive was painfully long. Under normal speeds, it was at least thirty minutes to an hour away, depending on traffic. Of course, since Mikomi was in a hurry, the traffic was heavy that day. He made excessive use of his horn as he begged and pleaded with other drivers to get out of the way. Due to the heavy traffic, every second that passed felt like an eternity. Not knowing what was happening was the worst feeling in the world. He knew the situation was quite serious and he wished that there was just some way to instantly get there but the fact that he couldn’t only frustrated him further.

He pulled into the hospital nearly forty-five minutes later. He rushed in through the emergency entrance and approached the desk asking which room Ryunosuke Saigo was in. The nurse checked the records and a solemn look came over her face. She told Mikomi to follow her and at that moment, his heart sank. He began to quiver as he walked with the nurse. She brought him around a corner to a room where the curtain was closed. The nurse poked her head in.

“There’s someone named Mikomi here.”

“Yes, that’s my son.”

Mikomi heard the pain in his mother’s voice. He braced himself for the worst-case scenario. The nurse drew the curtain back and the first sight that he saw was his father lying there motionless with his eyes closed. Next to his father was his mother who sat there in a chair with her head pointed down to the floor. She slowly lifted her head with tears in her eyes and she muttered the words Mikomi didn’t want to hear.

“Your father didn’t make it. He left us, Mikomi.”

He slowly approached his father’s bed. All he could do was stare at his motionless body. As he looked at him, he hoped and prayed that he would move or turn his head to look at him but there was no response. No machines were hooked up to him to monitor his vitals. He knew at that moment that he was too late.

Mikomi dropped to his knees while gripping the footboard of the bed. Tears welled up in his eyes as his mother walked over and comforted him. All he could do was embrace her. Suddenly, Mikomi’s vision began to blur. Everything became bright white when suddenly…

Mikomi let out a terrifying scream. His body was covered in a cold sweat from head to toe. He quickly looked around the room and noticed that Derek had shaken him awake. Mikomi was breathing heavily, his heart racing. He still was unaware of where he was even though he saw Derek and the familiar surroundings.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, bud. I saw you tossing and turning and decided to wake you. Besides, you’ve been asleep for nearly sixteen hours.”

He heard Derek’s voice and it instantly calmed him down but as soon as his anxiety began to subside, a sharp, piercing pain rushed through his forehead. He grasped at his head and folded up into the fetal position on his bed. Derek immediately knelt on the floor next to him and asked what the problem was but Mikomi couldn’t hear a word Derek was saying.

This pain. I’ve felt it before. When my memories of Serah returned to me, my head felt like someone was squeezing it inside of a vice. Why is this happening now, though!? That dream… those memories were never sealed away. I could recall that day as if it happened yesterday so why is my head hurting so much?

Unlike the previous episode six years ago, the pain subsided rather quickly. Derek’s words became clear as he rolled over onto his back and sprawled out on his bed. Mikomi’s breathing decreased back to normal levels as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of relief.

“Mikomi! Talk to me! What’s going on!?”

Mikomi groggily answered Derek. His voice was a bit broken from the experience.

“It’s been a long time since I felt one of those. I just had a quick migraine. Must have been caused by sleep deprivation.”

“Mikomi… I’m the one who dragged you back to the dorms after you nearly collapsed back on Friday. I never thought to pry into your personal life but if you are truly my friend, won’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”

Mikomi sat back up in his bed. He was still a little bit dizzy from the episode he just experienced but it only took a moment or two for him to regain his composure.

“I’m sorry if I’ve been acting weird. I’m coming up on the anniversary of someone’s death. Someone that was very close to me. Ever since they died, I only blamed myself for it because I couldn’t do anything to stop it. The date of their death is on Monday so I guess I’ll just be a bother for the whole weekend. I can go home until then if it bothers you.”

“Well, if you left you’d probably have to turn right back around.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s about 12:30 am, making it officially Sunday. You’ve been out since 4 pm on Friday.”

Mikomi quickly grabbed his alarm clock and noticed that the date on there did, indeed, read May 7, 2000. Mikomi realized that the day his father died was, technically, tomorrow. Sure, he had to go through all of Sunday but it meant one more night where he knew he wouldn’t be getting any sleep.

He shook his head and excused himself, stating that he wanted to go outside and get some fresh air. Derek let him go but by the time he got to the door, his stomach growled. He realized he hadn’t eaten anything since Friday and the pain of hunger set in rapidly. The growl was audible to the point where Derek heard it across the room.

“Look… I bought you lunch for a week a year ago. I’m willing to make an exception just one more time but after this, you owe me lunch for a week.”

“A whole week!?”

“Are you forgetting just who it was that carried you back up here? I even went the extra step and gave you one of my now sweat-soaked blankets.”

“Ah... sorry. I’ll wash it for you and.... thanks. I really could use a meal right now. I’ll definitely return the favor.”

They walked down to the dorm's cafeteria which was always open at MUT. It was there to accommodate the students who pulled all-nighters and needed nourishment to study. Derek bought Mikomi a trifecta of turkey sandwiches and plopped them down in front of him.

“Here ya go.”

Mikomi cracked a subtle grin and then tore into the sandwiches as though they were his final meal. Derek even scooted back in his chair just to make sure that he wasn’t inadvertently pulled into the never-ending maw that was Mikomi’s mouth. After he finished his sandwiches at a near-record pace, the two of them returned back to their room. Even though he had slept for nearly a day and a half, he was still tired. Mikomi felt that this would be his best bet to get any semblance of sleep.

And slept he did.

When he woke up, he felt a bit refreshed. He glanced over at his clock to check the time but instead, he found a note there from Derek. He pulled the note off the clock, ignoring the time. He figured Derek had gone out for the day and was just letting him know where he was. Mikomi looked at the note and read it out loud.

“Don’t worry about class. I’ll tell Professor Edwards that you fell ill and that you needed the day to recover. I’ll tack on an extra day of lunch that you owe me for this.”

Mikomi shook his head before it hit him. He looked at his alarm clock and the first thing he noticed was the time that read 12:46 pm. Next to the time was the date of May 8, 2000. Mikomi quickly looked for his answering machine but realized that he didn’t have one in this timeline. Mikomi’s heart raced and picked up the phone. He immediately dialed the number to his father’s office, hoping that someone would pick up.

The phone rang once with no answer. It rang twice with no answer still. Mikomi began to panic, but when the phone rang a third time, someone picked up. Before that person could extend a typical Hello, Mikomi blurted out.

“Dad! Tell me that’s you!”

“Mikomi? No… this is Alice. Didn’t anyone tell you?”

When Mikomi heard those words, his heart rate increased instantly and the color drained from his skin. He braced himself for failure once again.