I can't really put into words what I saw, I can describe it as seeing everything at once. My mind melted into the vision, as if I were experiencing all the probable futures at the same time. For the most part I reacted the same, did all the same actions.
What surprised me most, was the fact that in every future, I knew exactly where to move and what to do. The only difference being other peoples actions, the footsteps of the Giants and who they attacked.
And in every future, Rika took charge and led us all to focus down one of the Giants, the specific Giant varied. Rika seemed to know each and every person's Variant, what they could and couldn't do, it was weird and oddly disturbing watching her effortlessly understand people.
She genuinely felt like a different person, just what kind of Variant did she get? Funny enough, Rika used her Variant not once in any timeline, not a single bit.
I was able to witness one person in every possible future having some kind of ‘Hero’ moment, where they went out in a glory holding off the Giants, except for Rika.
This was the point where my actions started to diverge, it was aching my head to witness. Depending on the person that sacrificed themselves, I would either let them and leave with the others, or I would run back, drag them away and sacrifice myself instead.
After this point in the future sight, I was getting dangerously close to watching myself die a near innumerable amount of times. I forced myself to snap out of it, think of it like if you're in a dream and you force yourself awake.
Staring at the ground before me, not a moment had passed. Noise rang in my ears, the sound of the others activating their cool abilities, I knew each and every one of them. My movements felt robotic and slow ‘I know exactly what is about to happen’ ran through my head.
“So that's what it does. Crazy.” I mutter to myself, unable to hear Rika calling out to me. That is until she shook me out of my trance and yelled at me “TAKUMI! TA-KU-MI!”
I stared at her, Rika definitely was different. It has to do with her Variant. her eyebrows furrowed “You got blood coming out your nose” I knew that, I’ve seen it a million times before, a mere seconds ago. “Rika…” I saw as I vigorously attempted to get the blood off my face with my arms.
“Yeah? What is it?” Rika was trying to calm down a girl who was panicking. Using the cuffs of my blazer, I wipe the red onto the black cloth. “I think you already know what my Variant is. So I'm going to tell you right now, your plan will fail, one of us will die in this room.” I stared at her with a serious expression. I said this in the future as well, but I didn't understand why.
Now I do, Rika’s Variant is something far more powerful than mine, more powerful than anyone else in this room. But it isn't omnipotent, there are slim chances all of us make it. But those futures are heavily dependent on luck, who does what and how, at the end of the day, if we are not careful, this battle will end in death.
The Giants step forward, my head jerks towards the direction of the sound instinctively, once you know your next move, it becomes like a prison for your movement. I feel like a puppet of my own ‘free’ will.
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“Ryo! Come with me, I have a plan.” I grab the guy's arm and yank him along with me as I run away from the bus aimlessly, well not aimlessly, i've seen myself do this a million times. “What? Why are we-” I grabbed him by the collar and made him face me, the Giants movement shakes the room, yet I am not fazed.
The others call out to us, Rika quiets them down “He knows what he's doing, let him be.”
“Use your Variant, create metal pipes and help me distract the Giants.” Ryo looked confused for a second, before fully absorbing what I had asked of him. Just like the vision, he got to work, putting his hands together instinctively and slowly pulling them apart.
A bright teal-ish glow from both his palms, in between the hands were a cylinder of metal, slowly growing out as it formed into existence. I don't exactly know the conditions of the Variant, but I do know that it creates stuff.
“Here” Ryo said breathlessly, passing me a pipe before getting to work on making his own. It seems using the Variant is just as taxing on everyone as it is with me. Looking at an action a million times through a vision, makes seeing it unfold in reality a bit fake.
I feel like a puppet, lost all sense of free will, I dance to my own orders. Because I know exactly what path to take, I take the best path possible, if that makes any sense whatsoever.
Raising my arms up with the metal, hollow pipe in my hands. I smashed it into the ground without warning, a loud reverberating ‘Clang’ boomed across the room. This got the attention of a few Giants, but it's still not enough.
According to most the visions, Rika leads everyone into battle with one Giant, unable to keep up with the constant barrage of attacks, it gets stunned and everyone runs through the archway, to safety. But this future did not come without a price…
Ryo finished his pipe and began clobbering it onto the floor with me. I raised my pipe in one hand like a club, and began yelling like a caveman. Howling and shouting as loud as I could, I must look insane right now.
That seemed to do the trick however, distracting both my enemies and allies. Almost all the Giants took a step in my direction. Making low-pitched grunting noises, I must sound like a loud insect to them or something.
A fraction of a second later, my pipe was snatched away by a blur of black, white and red, the colors of our uniform. Thats Naoki Ishida, his Variant seems to be super speed. The blur had that kind of noise like a supercar passing by, the fading in and out of a ‘Zoom’ noise.
Naoki circled the room, just at the feets of the Giants, before smashing the pipe into one of the Giants toes, the pipe bent into a 30 degree angle and was a bit crumpled I think. He did this in a few of the futures as well.
“Take that you big oaf! HAHA!” Naoki ran back as soon as he said that, probably to get instructions from Rika. The Giant acted like a person who stubbed their toe in slow motion, quite amusing and terrifying at the same time. The louding shrieking in low pitches almost deafened me.
“NAOKI! GRAB EVERYONE AND MOVE THEM ONE BY ONE PAST THE GIANT!” I shouted from my spot, now without a pipe. Naoki listened to what I proposed and acted with haste. Moving everyone, starting with the driver, then the attendant, Ms Minami and so on.
It was about this time that I grabbed Ryo’s pipe and asked him to join the others. I ran around the room clanging the pipe against the floor. I could feel my free will slowly come back to me, no longer a puppet, no longer a slave to my own visions.
Breaking the shackles that I set on myself, my movements felt faster, I glided across the room. The Giants smashed their clubs down to strike me but it did not matter, I was just too free to be contained by silly fear.