The Affect of Time
The year will be 2118, one hundred years after the world-wide controversy known as the Time Affair. The Time Affair occurred when scientists in Russia discovered the ability to transport small objects minutes into the future by overcharging them with negative energy, causing them to break apart and move forward into the future minutes equal to the amount of negative energy the object was charged with. The Russians kept this technology to themselves until one day the machine they used to charge the objects blew up, sending the machine to the year 2118 where a certain high school student would discover something that would impact his past, present and future.
It was a cold Sunday morning in the month of October in the year of 2118 when freshman Tomura Hakagure had awoken from the most frightening dream he had had in years. It was the same one he had when he had heard that 100 years ago time travel had been discovered. In the dream he remembered getting in this odd, egg-shaped pod. From there he assumed that he went back in time because he had been in an apocalyptic wasteland, but it was an odd kind of place, gears seemed to be the main thing then. He had heard of the style that it looked to be, steampunk, is what it was called. Tomura woke up at the same spot too. He heard a voice talk to him, he didn’t understand what the voice meant but it said, “Darkness closes in, only you can bring the light, Tomura…” When he heard that voice he woke up to a sharp pain in his head, it felt like he had been shot in the head. This wasn’t a familiar pain, so it scared him how much it felt real.
“Ugh…” Tomura groaned as he woke up with the worst headache possible for that morning, “what time is it?” he looked over at his clock.
“Jeez, it’s 12:00…” he told himself. Tomura slowly got up out of bed and sat on the edge for a few minutes.
“Hm, I’m alone again, I can feel it,” Tomura said. Often his mother wasn’t home. He was an only child and living with his single mother, his father left them after Tomura turned 10. His mom, Shije, was 38 and worked at a factory far downtown. She was often late getting home, so Tomura was left to make his own dinners, most of the time he made instant ramen. He stood up and threw some clothes on that he found lying on his dresser. The pile of clothes had a piece of paper on it, a note from Shije. It read, “I’m sorry I didn’t wake you up this morning, but when I looked in your room this morning you looked so peaceful, I made a veggie omelet for you too, but you’re probably going to get up late again, so it might be a good idea to heat it up. Make some toast and sausages with it too if you want, I love you Hakagure, I’ll see you when I get home tonight.”
“Yeah, I doubt it mom, but thanks anyway.” Tomura went to the kitchen and looked inside the fridge, there sat the veggie omelet. He picked it up and opened the microwave, placing the egg dish inside. Tomura set the timer for sixty seconds and pushed the start button. He wandered to the living room and turned the television on, taking a seat on the couch. When he turned on the TV, Tomura heard the microwave ding and he had to get up and go get the food. After slowly walking his way to the kitchen to get his food, he heard a knock on the door. Before he went to the door, he set the omelet on the kitchen counter.
“Ugh, why can’t I just be left alone?” Tomura asked aloud. So, he walked to the door and peered out the tiny hole in the middle of the door.
“Who is it?” Tomura questioned.
“I’ve got the mail,” replied the man standing outside. Tomura hadn’t noticed until after he opened the door that the man was wearing a mailman’s uniform.
“Just slide it through the slot, thanks,” Tomura said to the mailman.
“Alrighty then, have a mighty fine day,” the mailman said.
“Yeah, you too,” Tomura said back. A plain white envelope slid through the slit in the door, and Tomura bent down and picked it up. He looked at the envelope and it didn’t have anything written on it.
“That’s nice, no idea who it’s even from, jeez guy, next time write who you are,” Tomura said to no one. He opened the envelope and inside was $300. Dang! Thought Tomura. There was another slip of paper in the envelope it said, “To Mrs. Hakagure, I know times have been tough for you and Tomura, and I know this isn’t much, but I thought this money could help you guys,” Tomura looked at the $300 he was holding with his right hand, “don’t spend it all in one place, Mr. Kasturi,” the letter read.
Tomura spent all day lounging around the house doing nothing until 9:00 at night when his phone started ringing. He picked up.
“Hello?” Tomura asked.
“Hello? Is this Tomura Hakagure?” the voice asked.
“Maybe, who’s asking?”
“I’ll take that as a yes, now I’m going to need you to do something for me,” the voice said.
“I don’t know who you are, but I’m a big fan of suspense movies, so I assume if I hang up, you’ll keep calling me, chances are you’re an agent of some secret agency that is somehow relevant to me, clearly you know where I live considering neither my mom or I know of a “Mr. Kasturi,” nice fake name by the way,” Tomura finished.
“You know a lot Mr. Tomura, you’re right I am an agent, of the Time Travel Peace Corps.” The voice replied.
“I want nothing to do with time travel, thank you very much,”
“If you hang up-” the voice was cut off by Tomura.
“Yeah I know, you’ll kidnap my mom or something, listen buddy, my mom is all I’ve got, please just leave us alone,” Tomura explained to the man on the phone.
“You’re smart, you know that? But we’re smarter, we already have your mother, she’s alive of course, but you probably knew that already, didn’t you? Listen Tomura, we want you to help us eliminate a threat in our world that is beyond our own strength,” the man said.
“What a damn cliché, but I’ll do it, I don’t know what the threat is, or what I have to do to fight it, as long as you give me the proper instructions to do so,” Tomura said.
“Ah, I see, well you’ll need to meet us at an agreed upon location, we can discuss the details later, for now you need to get some well-deserved rest, ah and your mother will be sent home, the details of what you’re going to do have been explained to her, she fully supports your decision to help us out with this, good night Tomura sleep well,” the man hung up.
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