"The date was the 12th of June, 2028, 3:35 PM. Ryomen Akuzawa, a nineteen-year-old Japanese and African American man. Visited his grandmother, Mao Akuzawa, an eighty-one-year-old Japanese woman, to help her with making her signature apricot pie. Until he got kicked out of the kitchen, so Mao could focus on finishing the pie."

  Emiko and Bao were so cute back then. Now they're just pain-in-the-ass mini-me junior high dropouts. I can't believe they dyed their hair to match mine and still want me to spoil them. Twelve-year-old light skin Idols, I swear. Fucking having me be their bodyguard while wanting to be spoiled. Ryomen flipped through pages of the scrapbook. Man, I look so weird without tattoos. Just when did I start working out? This photo looks like it was taken when I was seven, but I look like I've already been doing calisthenics. Did I hate my old man that much? Ryomen flipped through more pages of the scrapbook.

  Did mom have tattoos and piercings during primary school? And she fought me about getting tattoos when I asked for them in Junior high! Ryomen looked over his mother's pictures. "Ryomen, dear. Are you looking at pictures of Akari?" Mao walked into the living room with chai tea and two slices of apricot pie. "Did mom really have tattoos and piercings back in her primary years?" Ryomen placed the scrapbook onto the coffee table.

  "Akari did, it was her gift for her fifth birthday." Mao sat down, "And mom fought me on the topic of me getting tattoos." Ryomen spoke between bites. "Well, Akari was a delinquent back in her school years. She probably thought that looking like a delinquent made her one." Mao sipped her tea. "I was probably a worse delinquent without my tattoos. Thanks to my bastard of a father for leaving my mom when Emiko and Bao were born to go back to America." Ryomen scoffed.

  "I never liked your father. He reminded me too much of your grandfather. Though your mother was too enticed by his pink hair, platinum eyes, and ethnicity to listen to my words. But it led to all of my grandchildren having a beautiful combination of crimson-platinum eyes. Along with Emiko's silver hair, Bao's pink hair, and your pink and silver hair. Although you inherited more of your father's ethnicity than Emiko and Bao did. By the way, have you found a girlfriend yet?" Mao asked, "Nope. I haven't found anyone who piques my interest yet." Ryomen finished his tea.

  "So, what happened between you and grandpa again? I forgot what my mom said about it." Ryomen finished his pie. "Would you like some more pie before I tell you?" Mao stood up, "Sure." Ryomen nodded.

  "As Mao retold her past about being in an arranged marriage with Kosaki Fujimoto and Kosaki cheating on her with his childhood friend, Yuki Amanai. Ryomen noticed that it was time for him to head back to his apartment in Shibuya. As he got to a crosswalk leading to the Dotonbori district, Ryomen felt a strange thing under his foot."

  Who the fuck litters on a crosswalk? Ryomen looked down. "Eh? A broken hourglass?" Ryomen picked up the hourglass, "Who the hell can't wait to get to Dotonbori to throw away a broken hourglass? How do you cleanly break the glass of an hourglass but roughly break the steel of an hourglass?" Ryomen looked around, seeing a completely different Japan than he was used to.

  Did I get hit by a white truck while I was looking at the hourglass? Ryomen walked back to the sidewalk, shoving the broken hourglass in his coat pocket. "A bus stop, let me check where in Japan I am...and what the date is." Ryomen walked over to the bus stop. "Let's see. Osaka bus schedule for the 12th of June, 1965." Ryomen looked over the schedule. Wait a minute, Osaka? Wait, 1965!? Ryomen grabbed his head. My attire doesn't match this time period at all. My White Air Forces won't even come out for another seventeen years. Actually, Earl Lloyd debuted in the NBA fifteen years ago on my birthday. Why am I thinking about Basketball? I don't even like Basketball. Ryomen walked away from the bus stop.

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  As Ryomen continued to walk along the sidewalk of Osaka, he hit his head on a lamppost. Breaking out of thought as he fell unconscious for a few minutes. Feeling a strange sensation on his cheek, Ryomen woke up to see a woman squatting next to him, stroking his cheek.

  "Mister, are you okay?" The woman removed her hand from Ryomen's cheek, "I'm okay, I'm okay, miss." Ryomen smiled, getting up. He looks very strange but also...familiar? Thick and spikey lower-back length silver hair with pink streaks and pink tips, crimson-platinum eyes, and a very muscular figure. He must be at least 198.12cm with a...Japanese and African American ethnicity? I've never seen someone like this before. And his clothing is weird. A sleeveless black fur coat with crimson stripes, a golden dragon pendant, baggy white pants, and white shoes that I've never seen before. Along with those black line tattoos across his chin, shoulders, arms, chest, and sides. He reminds me of a character that could appear in my favorite manga. Ryomen noticed the woman's gaze lingering on his body.

  Hmm, I thought crimson eyes and silver hair were pretty much unheard of in Japan during 1965. She's about 5'6 and maybe around my age. Which makes her breasts size fucking impressive, they're like what, FF-cups? Her hair is as long as mine, with bangs just below her thin eyebrows, she has crow's eyelashes, very pretty features, pale skin, a slim waist, slender hips, and from the reflection of that store's window, a big, round ass. Her school outfit looks good on her, too. A button-up white shirt, a long-sleeved medium pink sweater, a dark grey skirt, and brown school shoes...wait a minute. I've seen these clothes somewhere. Ryomen took a closer look at the woman.

  I knew it, I saw her in grandma's scrapbook...wait, it's 1965, 63 years in the past. Grandma was sixty-two when I was born, meaning grandma was thirty-eight when mom was born in 1985. Grandma would be eighteen in 1965, and her house would be down the block, since she always lived in her childhood home. Hold up...this woman is grandma! I saw this outfit when Emiko asked about grandma's old school clothes! Ryomen took a step back.

  "You've been lying here for about 10 minutes...are you okay?" Mao's hand moved up to Ryomen's forehead, feeling a small bump. "You have a bump on your forehead...do you need help?" Mao tilted her head. "I'm...I'm alright, miss." Ryomen scratched the back of his head. You're telling that grandpa cheated on grandma when she looks like this!? What the hell does Yuki Amanai look like then? Aphrodite?

  "Oh, thank goodness. I was worried. You don't look like anyone from around here... Are you lost? Can I help you find your way?" Mao closed her eyes, speaking in a soft tone. "I'm not...technically I'm not lost, but I am in a way." Ryomen looked away from Mao.

  What did Bao say about time travel again? If you meet your past self, you both cease to exist or something like that. Dammit, I should've focused more on time travel than on finding an exact equation to bring the concept of infinity to reality. And I told Bao that her nerdy hobby was too hypothetical for her to focus on. Some prodigy I am. There was something about going back before your parents were born...was it that you no longer have relations with anyone? Or was it that you no longer exist in the order of the universe? I just remember Bao arguing with me about it being a great form of immortality until you're born. Ryomen sighed.

  "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Mao Akuzawa." Mao stuck her hand out, "My name is...Ryomen Hitowari?" Ryomen lied, shaking Mao's hand.