“That’s it.” Mia breathed out in relief, glad to finally have that off her chest. Finally done with explaining every last detail she could remember. She went over everything, from their mother dying, to meeting a summoned hero, all the way to the explosion and the mishaps that happened from there, to where she was at now, sitting on a bed with her sister.
She fell back on the bed, glancing over to Ria who had been staring up at the ceiling for a while, wordlessly listening until the dead of night.
“Mom, died…?”
“She shouldn’t be dead now.” Mia said, thinking back “don’t know where she is.”
“And, I went after you…and just barely missed you?”
“Mn, with a dryad or something.” Mia shrugged “Still don’t know what happened, head was fuzzy and there was…well…” she shook the gruesome sight from her mind, not wanting to remember that for too long.
“then the explosion…”
“Big, and spreads toxic. Very bad.”
Ria sat up “and auntie, she’s…”
Mia shrugged “Unreliable, but nothing new.”
“And you don’t go back to question her because?” Ria leaned closer “force things out of her?”
“Too strong” she frowned, remembering how easily she burnt her to a crisp the last time, and that was without an apparent weakness to fire “has to be done a certain way to even get her to talk.” Mia spat “forest around the shrine is, weird.”
“So you like, know, what is going to happen always?”
“No. Only what I’ve seen before.” Mia paused “And this is a first…”
“Hmm, and the proof is?”
[Loaded slot 2]
“Proof?” Mia pulled Ria’s hand to the side, shaking their conjoined hands, pointing out the window which showed just the barest remains of day light “Not much more proof than this.”
Ria stared at her sister’s hand, slowly letting go “You…could have put me to sleep, knocked me out, put a spell on me to think time was reset I-“
*Smack*
Ria shot up, seeing her sister clutch her hand that was biggening to redden and swell “M-Mia what di-“
“That was the hardest.”
“Eh?”
Mia raised her hand, beat red and sore “Just tried to hit you the hardest I could, barely felt it, can’t knock you out.” Mia clutched her hand, squinting as the pain set in “Broke my hand too…wrist? Something is broken.”
Ria blinked “M-Mia! why did you do that!” Ria leaped out of bed “We need to get a doctor or at least some bi-“
[Loaded slot 2]
“-ndings….” Ria leaned back, Mia shoving her now perfectly fine hand in her face.
“Now it’s fine.” Mia smiled innocently “All better.”
“Y-you!” Ria puffed up her cheeks “You could have healed that!”
“Nope, can’t heal, remember?” Mia smirked “And, only magic right now is fire, ice, time, and water. No mental magic at all…. Unlike our aunt.” Mia spat.
[Unless you count wiping this whole conversation from her mind by loading slot 3, or slot 1.]
“Not helping.” Mia glared off in a random direction.
“…?” Ria followed her gaze, seeing nothing “and that was?”
“Oh, Ami. Part of the skill… I think?” Mia tapped her head, that was getting muddled “Supposed to be an assist mode but…hm, hard to say.” Shaking her head, Mia added “She’s the one that did the spider dungeon stuff, at the end.”
[I am completely innocent and harmless assist mode of the skill, Time, always at your beck and call.]
‘Sure.’ Mia knew she could not trust that at all.
Ria stared at her for a hot minute, debating on whether to take her seriously on that or not “Riiight, got any proof on that one?”
“Well…she can take over my body but the last time that happened it didn’t end well… for the others involved.” She still had nightmares of those cat beastkin.
[Recommendation: Loan the body for 1 minute and I’ll have her fully convinced and cooperative.}
‘…are you threatening my sister? And why are you talking like that again?!’
[Statement: No harm was intended nor implied.]
[Answer: For old times’ sake.]
“That is a no, not doing that.” Shaking her entire body in refusal, Mia stated her firm stance on that matter “hope it never comes to it. Don’t want to imagine what she will do to get you to believe.”
Ria crossed her arms “So, let’s say I believe you, then what? What was the point of even telling me?”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“Wanted… you to know.” Mia bowed her head down, her ears laying flat on her head “Was scared to… felt, lonely, afraid, horrible…” She looked away, retreating into a ball by bringing her knees close “If believed… hope you could help, save the village, save mom and dad, all the people kidnapped.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm down “and maybe… can help train faster, and if you get strong enough can take back all the way to the start.”
“…” Ria stood silently, before she began to pace “Train how?”
“Skills carry over, spend a year training one skill, go back and it keeps the level.” Mia pointed at her “Maybe, if we try…will do the same for you? Ami won’t tell for sure…” She looked out the window “Doesn’t tell everything, don’t know what is possible or not.”
Ria listened, then sighed “Fine.”
Mia perked up “You believe me?”
“It is hard not to.” She bluntly said “turning back time… “she clutched her chest “All those feelings you had in the moment, when you…load? All of that just, vanishes…” she raised her hand, staring at her open palm as she opened and closed it “I felt angry, sad, scared…but it just… gets reset…I can’t even freak out properly.” She chuckled, now stroking her arm.
“Get used to it.” Mia nodded to herself.
“That isn’t a good thing.” Ria said dryly “I am…oh it comes back.” Ria fell back, landing on the floor and laughing to herself “This is insane…” She suddenly shot up, pointing at her she shouted “So wait! Am I still the older one?! How old are you?”
Mia blinked, taken aback “I uh,11? I think? From what I remember.” She uncurled herself “But I AM eight, Time travel doesn’t matter.” She stated.
“Heh, good.” Ria flopped on her back “One condition, just to make sure this isn’t some prank.”
“Hmn?” Mia crooked her head to the side “What?”
Ria slowly sat up, her finger firmly planted on Mia “I want to talk to Ami.”
[Recommendation: Do it.]
“No!” Mia jumped off the bed “That is a really bad idea! The worst idea!”
“Come on, just for one minute.” Ria rolled her eyes “I want to personally talk to the thing keeping my sister company. Oup.” Ria bent over and got up off the ground “Besides, this crap is already insane, but it explains a lot. You changing, the double titles, everything.” She gave a forced smile, clearly not holding herself together “You can also just reset everything if it goes bad, and I’ll forget. RIGHT?”
“…this is the first time we have done this…” Mia meekly replied.
“…” Ria turned away, rubbing the back of her head “…sorry, didn’t mean it like that…” she knelt beside her sister, placing an arm on her shoulder “But please, just this one thing and only for a minute.”
“This is a, really, really, really, bad idea.” Mia stated, trying to hammer in the point to give up on this.
“Please.” Ria begged “I really need to se it for myself.”
“…” Mia sighed, taking a hold of her sister’s hand that was on her shoulder. “Only for a minute.”
[Saved to slot 2]
“Yeah, only for a minute.” Ria smiled “Just want to talk.”
“Fine.”
[Give control to assist mode? {Ami) for one minute? Y/N]
‘No funny business, she just wants to talk.’
[Ami will be on her best behavior]
Mia, full of regret and knowing this could go very, very wrong… hit yes.
- - -
Ria watched her sister be silent for a moment, this was the last thing she had a hard time believing, that someone else was inside her sister and manipulating her. Granted, everything else was not easy to believe either, far from it, on the inside she was freaking out and it didn’t help with her emotions getting reset everytime she wanted to scream but-!
No, it is fine.
You’re the big sis, you gotta be calm, cool, collected. Set the good example, just like daddy told me.
…
Nope, still freaking out.
What did she mean she was time traveling? She went from the future to now?!Did she even exist?! Everyone was dead? Mom and auntie?! An invasion and weird lights? The lights and invasion are real but what the fuck is toxic?! And a nuke?! Is this real?! Then to top it off, someone ELSE was manipulating her in her own mind? No, not on her watch.
“Ahem.”
Ria snapped out of it, hearing her sister speak she turned her attention to her but immediately knew something was different. Her sister’s face was, while lovable, was dull. Only the extreme of emotions could get her to express what was on her mind on her face, she knew that to be true. And while she had made markable improvements since being free of the brain washing and living on her own…
That open-eyed smile did not belong to her sister.
“Greetings. First let me fix a mistake my master has made…if you don’t mind~” Mia? Reached for Ria’s hand, carefully removing it from her shoulder “There, now we only have a minute but-“
Ria threw a punch, her fist colliding with a floating icy plate mere inches away from Mia’s? face.
“-A minute is a long time.” Mia, no, Ami smirked “My my my~ I do wonder what that was for?” Ami chuckled “That would have hit Mia, but fortunately, or should I say…”
A blink, and Ria was back to mere seconds before, her hand on Mia’s shoulder, but found herself surrounded by icicles sticking out of the ground, all pointed to her. She slowly withdrew her hand, glaring at Ami, forcing herself to remain angry.
“Unfortunately, you are dealing with me.” Ami smirked that quickly dissolved as she shrugged, spinning over to the bed “Luckily I have promised to be on my best behavior, I must regain some trust that I never intended on losing.” Ami huffed “You try and help someone-“she suddenly paused, seemingly having realized something, she started to laugh to herself.
The spikes around Ria bloomed into ice flowers, all with smiling faces with their tongues sticking out at their center.
Ria glared, she was convinced, this wasn’t her sister “You, stop fucking with my sister.”
“Ah, that’s all you wanted to say?” Ami puffed up her cheeks “I am only ever helping, I don’t know why the two of you get hung up on that.”
“You’re manipulating her.” Ria spat “I don’t know why or what for, bu-“
“Let me stop you right there.” Suddenly, all the ice pillars stacked on top of Ria, moving so fast she didn’t even realize she was stuck until she was.
‘T-this bitch!’ Ria struggled, wondering how she managed to do that.
“You look confused, we can slow time, remember? If I am guessing right, your Dex is slightly higher than Mia’s is right now.” She smirked “You can’t dodge that. Anyways running out of time, so behave.”
Ria helplessly watched as Ami approached, each step she was getting higher, stepping on ice steps to look down on her.
“You just now found out about all of this, you don’t understand anything, Mia even barely understands what she knows, sorry I am not privileged enough to sit down and explain every damn thing she sees,” she poked Ria’s forehead, leaving her finger there “But I, and by extension, Time is not the cause of all your problems. So, stop blaming me for it, without Time you two would have been dead a long time ago.” Ami glared, then winked “If you still believe I am, then please, convince Mia to let me out and I’ll play with you for real next time.”
Ria was back holding Mia’s shoulder, she let go, falling backwards onto her butt. Like everything else that she had been told tonight, she was more confused than she had been in her entire life. Did she jump to conclusions? Did she push the blame onto Ami or did Ami just gaslight her…
Ria clutched her head “That…was a bad idea.” Ria said, finding the only thing she could do now was to laugh.
“…Could have been worse, way worse.” Her sister, Mia, replied “Didn’t kill you for the full minute.”
“…Aha…” Ria fell onto her back.
Yeah, She could see that happening.
“I don’t know where to even begin with handling this…” she admitted.
“…Want to forget?”
Ria turned her head towards her, her sister staring at the floor and away from her, her shaved tail firmly tucked between her legs “…no…” Ria forced herself to get up “I can’t… leave you like this.” She brought her sister into a hug “It- it will be hard but…it’s ok.”
Mia shuffled in her embrace, looking up at her “R-really?”
“Yeah, plus.” Ria smirked, clenching her fist “I really want to hit Ami in the face.”
“…you mean hit me in the face?”
“Nope!” Ria broke out laughing, trying to push the encroaching existential dread out of her mind.