Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ritsu stares out through his window. It’s relatively dark outside, but he can’t even see the stars because of the light from all the streetlights.

He opens the sliding glass.

- No. Stop. Pull back. -

Ritsu stares out through his window. It’s shut. He can see the darkness outside through the glass, but he can’t see the stars because of all the light from the streetlights. It’s cold outside, he knows this. He knows this because he slid open the sliding glass. But he didn’t.

He opens it again, and steps outside onto the small balcony. It’s cold, just like he knew it would be.

- Stop. Pull back. -

Ritsu stares out through his window. He stares. He stares.

He puts his fist through the window. Impulsively. Quickly.

The glass shatters around his knuckles, loud in the cold night. His hand comes back to him cut up and bloody. It hurts. It hurts a lot. He curls around his stinging wounds and stares out through the hole he’s made in the glass. He still can just barely see the stars.

- Stop. Stop. Pull back. -

Ritsu stares out through his window. The glass is intact. His hand is fine. He runs his fingers over the glass and doesn’t feel a single crack.

The clock reads 3:24 AM. It ticks to 3:25.

Ritsu pulls.

The clock reads 3:24.

Chapter Text

“Shigeo, did you notice anything odd last night?” Ritsu asks, toeing his shoes on the wood floor to get them to settle correctly around his feet. It’s rare that he gets to walk to school in the mornings with his brother, so he stumbles a bit trying to not make Shigeo wait at the door.

“Mm? No, I didn’t.” Shigeo answers, opening the door and stepping out, but still looking back at his little brother and waiting dutifully for him, “Why, did you?”

Ritsu shakes his head, as he joins Shigeo outside and shuts the door behind him, “No, nothing.” And then he stops, and then he pulls. Just to see if he can.

Shigeo stands at the door, waiting for Ritsu, with the door shut and his hand resting on the knob. Ritsu’s shoes are in his hand and he’s staring down towards the floor at his sock clad feet.

“Do you not have student council duties this morning?” Shigeo asks, head tilted, looking curious but still pleased at the prospect of getting to walk to school with his little brother.

Ritsu smiles down at his socks, satisfied and feeling kind of giddy. He bends over to slide his shoes on so Shigeo won’t see his smile, “Yeah, nothing this morning.”

“Oh, well then we can walk together.” Shigeo says with a small smile. Ritsu knew that he would say that, he heard him say it only a few minutes ago.

“Yeah, that’d be nice.” Ritsu says, instead of asking if Shigeo had noticed anything odd last night.

After all, he already knows the answer.

Chapter Text

Ritsu doesn’t know what to do really, now that he knows what ability his powers have given to him. It’s unique, and new, and he can’t really recall his brother ever mentioning anything about being able to manipulate time.

This ability is his, all his, and he feels like he’s wasting it.

Just like how he didn’t have them in the morning, he doesn’t have student council duties after school either. It’s one of the rare days when he gets a break. He knows his brother has body improvement club and then work, so Ritsu has to walk home alone.

So, without anyone there to stop him, he goes a different way. He goes deeper into the city rather than to the road that leads to his neighborhood. He takes comfort in the tap of his shoes on concrete and tunes out the hustle and bustle of the city around him. He listens to his own footsteps and keeps walking without aim until over half an hour has passed, just a little under forty-five minutes actually. His feet ache, and his phone is buzzing with texts from his mother. It only takes around 8 to 10 minutes to walk from school to home, or home to school, after all.

Ritsu stops to sit on a low wall and look at the texts. He scrolls through them slowly. All of them are asking where he is. His mother gets visibly more worried the longer he goes without replying. The most recent text is the most upset.

- Stop. Pull back. -

Ritsu doesn’t feel it when he rewinds. It feels like blinking. One minute he’s staring down at his phone and sitting on a small stone wall in a part of the city he doesn’t know, and the next he’s at the gates of his school. Other students are walking out as well. They’re flowing like a river around him, like he’s just a rock in the way.

School has just let out, after all.

He pulls his phone from his pocket and looks at it. There are no new texts from his mother since two nights ago, when he and Shigeo had stopped by the grocery store for her and she had texted him the shopping list because Shigeo’s phone had been dead.

Ritsu sends her a quick text saying that he’ll be home soon.

Chapter Text

He discovers that he has a limit.

No matter how hard he tries, he can’t pull himself back to anything over, at most, an hour and five minutes.

It’s an odd amount of time, and seems far too short. Ritsu pulls and pulls and pulls desperately trying to get it to go further.

What use is rewinding time if you only have an hour and five minute window before things are out of your reach?

He gives up on trying to extend the time limit after exhaustion abruptly crashes over him in a wave, sending him stumbling. He manages to take the last few steps from one side of his room to his bed, and then collapses, practically boneless, on top of his mattress and comforter.

Psychic exhaustion. Ritsu hates the way he can feel his head rolling loosely on his neck or the way his feet drag behind him. He shouldn’t be in this bad of shape. One hour and five minutes doesn’t deserve this.

His brother can do things without limit, so why can’t he .

There’s a soft knock at his door, and an even softer voice floating through it before Ritsu can even reply. “Ritsu, are you alright?”

Ritsu is so tired, too tired to try and respond. He should stand up, smile, lie.

“I felt your aura flaring up,” Shigeo continues, “Can I come in?”

Ritsu grunts, trying to tell his brother no, trying to turn Shigeo away. But Shigeo hears it and thinks it’s an affirmation.

The door is only partly open when Ritsu finds the energy in himself to pull things back again. He goes all the way back another hour and five minutes, when Shigeo hadn’t been home yet and had still been at work.

He sleeps through Shigeo coming home, and through dinner.

Chapter Text

Ritsu takes it easy for awhile after that.

He doesn’t want to get carried away again, like he did when his powers first awakened, after all.

At least this time there are no thugs coming at him just asking to be beaten though.

He gets his homework done “faster,” he gets more answers correct when he’s called on in class, he figures out how to navigate the school hallways so he doesn’t run into anyone annoying or unsavory. He eats lunch with Shigeo, then rewinds, and goes to attend the class that he has at the same time Shigeo has his lunch period.

But then Ritsu finds that he’s not hungry when his own lunch period rolls around. He eats the bento anyways, unwilling to discover if he could starve himself by accident. He’d rather feel too full and be healthy than feel content and be wasting away.

And each time he pulls , no one notices. No one notices a thing. Not even Shigeo.

It’s enough to make him forget what a drag it is that his limit is an hour and five minutes.

An unused notebook that had been waiting to become a journal becomes a log of every new thing he discovers about his ability, and of little moments he’d been able to influence that he thinks are significant. The first thing on that list is the time he put his fist through the window. The second thing on that list is his lunch with Shigeo.

Ritsu sets aside a few pages at the beginning of the notebook for more technical notes. Important things like “No one but me notices when I pull back time,” “Wounds acquired do not remain after rewinding,” and “current limit as of (xx/xx/xxxx) is one hour and five minutes per rewind”

He uses one of those set aside pages for questions. These are things he has yet to and needs to test.

"Can I just put things on pause instead of rewinding every time?”

“Does what I eat or drink before rewinding still affect my body?”

“Can I extend the limit by rewinding the full amount and then trying again, like stacking them on top of each other?”

“How many times can I rewind before exhausting myself?”

“Can I somehow bring other things with me?”

“Can I somehow bring other people with me?”

The pencil hovers over the final question for a moment. He doesn’t really know if he even wants to take people with him. He kind of wants this to just be his .

Ritsu doesn’t want to think too much on that train of thought, so he flips to a new page and titles it: What to Use This For

The pencil hovers again when he’s finished with the title of the page, pausing over it. He doesn’t want to write down mundane things like “Finish homework” or “know answers to questions” or “get more sleep.”  

Hesitantly, Ritsu writes down “ Getting the upper hand in fights.”

That feels dirty though. That feels like something his brother would be disappointed in him for.

So underneath it he writes “Spending more time with Shigeo” but then he pauses again.

Do they really spend more time together if it all gets rewound in the end, and if Shigeo doesn’t even remember it? Does it count? Does it matter?

Ritsu flips to the page of questions and writes, underneath the one about bringing people with him, “ Would be helpful sometimes if other people could remember the changes too.”

There, now he has a little incentive for him to push past his selfish want to keep this ability secret.

Chapter Text

Shou never picks up on the first ring, he always picks up by at least the third, and Ritsu doesn’t know what to think about the fact that he’s called Shou often enough to know that.

“What’s up Rits?” Shou says when he answers.

Ritsu ignores the fact that Shou just called him Rits and cuts to the chase, “Are you free today? I want you to fight me.”

There’s a moment of silence. Ritsu can imagine Shou’s expression freezing as he processes the request, and then Shou laughs, “What? For real? We both know what would happen, man. I’d destroy you.”

“Yes, for real.” Ritsu frowns, “And that’s exactly why. I need to get stronger and better at fighting, and I can’t do that if I can’t fight anyone. We both know my brother wouldn’t fight me.” It would be a one sided battle, even if Ritsu managed to provoke Shigeo. Ritsu knows this from experience, from that time in the alley when he’d tried so hard to get his brother to fight him. If he were to try again, Shigeo would be on the defense the entire time as Ritsu would hammer at him and attack. Shigeo doesn’t deserve that heartbreak, not again, even if he wouldn’t remember it.

“True, true…” Shou hums, thinking about it. Then he says, “Yea, I’m free today. It’s Saturday.” He scoffs, as if the idea of anyone being busy on a Saturday is ridiculous. Then, he teases in an obnoxiously deep tone of voice, “Your place or mine?”

Ritsu snorts despite himself, “Uh, actually, don’t you think like, some place where we won’t get upset if we wreck everything would work better?” He doesn’t want to make Shou suspicious by being uncaring of where their fight takes place, but Ritsu knows that if the fight takes less than an hour, the location wouldn’t matter. It would all be fine in the end. Just like his window.

“Good thinking my smart friend. I know just the place.” Shou says.

Just the place turns out to be an abandoned house lot near to Shou’s huge mansion of a house that no one had ever bought or developed. It’s basically a small field of messy grass, lined on one edge by forest and on the other end by the road. Ritsu hadn’t known that Shou lived out so far from the city. They’re practically into farmland.

“Perfect, right? This way we won’t get too hurt by getting knocked into walls or concrete or anything!” Shou says, presenting the open land with a flourish of his arms.

Ritsu nods, “Yeah, it’ll do.” And then Shou slams him into the ground with an unexpected attack.

“Hah! Always be ready!” Shou shouts with a triumphant grin, as Ritsu spits dirt out and glares up at him.

Ritsu pulls things back, just to when Shou says “-knocked into walls or concrete or anything!”

“Yeah, it’ll do.” He says, and then immediately puts up the strongest barrier he can.

Shou’s fist hits it and stops, and Ritsu can see his wide blue eyes through the shimmering cold barrier.

It’s Ritsu’s turn to grin triumphantly. “Always be ready.” He says, as Shou steps backwards.

Shou looks beyond excited, and Ritsu can’t help but feeling the same. He’s already planning how to use his new ability faster and better, and he can’t wait to exercise it more while they spar.

“Bring it on.” Shou says, and Ritsu obliges.

Shou fights for an hour before they decide to call it a day. Ritsu fights for at least two.

They get snacks from the kitchen in Shou’s huge, practically empty, house. After that Ritsu can’t help but pass out, exhausted, on Shou’s couch while a terrible movie about wrestling, of all things, plays in front of them.

When Ritsu wakes up, Shou says, “We should do this again sometime.” And Ritsu agrees.

Chapter Text

The next discovery happens the next time he spars with Shou. It’s their second time, and the empty lot is ready and waiting just like the first time.

And Ritsu has already rewound at least fifteen times on the same moment already, trying desperately to correctly execute a move that he wanted to get absolutely perfect.

Shou stumbles after the fifteenth rewind, his eyes a bit glazed, and says, “Woah, deja-vu.”

Ritsu freezes, and doesn’t step to the side in time to dodge the burst of power that next comes from Shou that he’s been able to dodge the past ten times. He hits the ground and rolls, and is too busy thinking that he doesn’t get up until Shou pulls at his shoulders and helps him stand.

That night, he writes in his journal, “ People nearby when you rewind frequently may experience feelings of deja-vu. Be careful. Could lead to people noticing rewinds or remembering.”

Then in the question section he writes, “ Do only people nearby experience deja-vu or does this extend to everyone everywhere?”

It makes sense that it would extend to everyone else. That night at dinner Ritsu confirms it. Shigeo is out on one of those rare weekend jobs that Reigen calls him out of the house for, and so Ritsu asks just his parents if they had any deja-vu earlier that day.

“Hm, yknow what, I did.” His dad mumbles around a mouthful of meat and rice, “It was weird, I hate that feeling.”

His mom nods along, “Yeah, I did too. Feeling like that is rare, though, isn’t it?” They both look at each other oddly, then they both look at Ritsu oddly. His mother’s sharp eyes are already filling with suspicion.

“Were you and your brother messing around with your psychicy stuff agai-”

Then Ritsu pulls things back, so that he never asked at all.

Chapter Text

He cannot push himself.

He cannot go forward in time, or return to a point that no longer exists once he’s rewound away from it.

Ritsu understands. It makes perfect sense and lines up with many theories of time travel. Time is constantly generating itself, and the future is full of too many options with none of them set in stone enough for Ritsu to access them.

Just because he understands doesn’t mean he has to like it or be fine with it though. He writes it down in the notebook with a bit of bitterness edging its way into the more forceful lines.

It’s just another limit.

But maybe, Ritsu thinks, easing up on the pencil just a little, maybe this limit is a beneficial one. After all, if he could go backward and forward, even for only short bursts at a time, then he’d be practically unstoppable in what he could influence using his ability.

Only being able to go backward, and then having to experience time normally again to catch up to what he’d wanted to change, is keeping him humble. Or at least, Ritsu likes to think it is.

It also reminds him that he needs to be careful. A rewind cannot be undone. He needs to avoid going back too far, which shouldn’t be a problem with his one hour and five minute at a time limit.

He leans back in his chair and stares at his notes. He feels tired, and the pencil marks and words swim on the page in front of him. With a grunt, he scrubs his hands across his face and presses his fingers into his eyes until the pressure makes them ache.

Ritsu is still bitter, despite trying not to be, and he finds himself starting to wish he didn’t have this ability at all. He’d been excited at first, but now it feels like the more he learns about what rules the universe has set for him, the less he can do.

The What to Use This For list remains short. Getting the upper hand in fights. Spending more time with Shigeo. Those are the only things there.

He feels like punching his window again, just to use his ability for something , but he doesn’t.

Chapter Text

Ritsu has a terrible thought one night while lying in bed, staring up at his blank ceiling above him in the faint light that filters through the curtain over his window.

He thinks, “ What if I went back, all the way back, to That Incident? And fixed it? ”

He doesn’t know why he didn’t think about it before. It would have to be done in hour and five minute increments, over and over again, to get through the years. They’d both been young, so young, when It had happened. How long would it take for him to get there, really ?

It would take far too long.

And there wasn't even a guarantee he'd be able to make it that far back. What if this ability to pull time and rewind it stopped at the day when his powers awoke? 

It wouldn’t be worth it.

Yet Ritsu can’t help but dig his fingers into his comforter and twist the fabric ruthlessly in his grip. So many years of suffering, on both his and his brother’s part, could be avoided if he could just go back and fix it .

If he hadn’t tried to confront those teenagers.

If he hadn’t tried to calm his brother down and gotten in the way of his destruction.

If he had just -

- Pull back! -

It’s the first time he rewinds by accident.

Ritsu lies there in the dark in a cold sweat, and waits out the twenty minutes that he rewound. He doesn’t sleep the rest of the night.

The morning sun greets him mockingly by peeking through the crack in his curtains and throwing a thin sliver of light across the ceiling he’s been staring at, numbly, for hours.

Chapter Text

He breaks Shou’s nose.

By accident of course.

He rewinds so that he doesn’t but then it happens again. Shou doesn’t get a barrier up in time and Ritsu puts too much power into his fist. Then Shou’s head goes to the side and there’s a loud snap  and-

- Stop. Pull back. -

It happens again, but this time it’s not Ritsu’s fist that does it. Shou takes the punch from Ritsu into his gut and it sends him down, where his nose breaks on a rock hidden in a rough patch of ground.

“Oh man,” Shou groans, standing up and thumbing at the blood on his face while Ritsu stands, distant and horrified. His fist is still held out, but it’s no longer buzzing with energy.

Shou pokes at his nose for a moment, and then snaps it back into place with barely a wince. He grins at Ritsu, something that might have been meant to be reassuring but is just terrifying with the blood, and gives a thumbs up.

Ritsu pulls, and it happens again , even though Ritsu doesn’t put any power into his punch at all. Shou ends up taking the hit to his shoulder, not expecting it to be without psychic power, and he falls to the side carelessly into a tree that they’ve strayed too close to. His nose snaps, and he puts it back into place, then grins reassuringly and gives a thumbs up.

Ritsu pulls again, and this time, so frustrated with his inability to stop it from happening - maybe frustrated with something more than being unable to fix just this - he breaks Shou’s nose on purpose.

He feels the crack under his knuckles and it feels good .

But then he immediately feels guilty, and then he immediately pulls back.

Shou doesn’t remember Ritsu punching him with intent to hurt, but he does mumble “I feel like this has happened before, which is crazy,” While he puts his nose to rights for the sixth time.

Ritsu stares at Shou’s blood covered face and breathes heavily, “We should stop.”

Shou snorts through the blood, “We just got started.”

Ritsu won’t take no for an answer, but he’s too tired to try and persuade Shou. He pulls and pulls until he gets a time when Shou agrees.

Chapter Text

It’s time, Ritsu decides, to ask for help before it all spirals too far, and let someone else in on his secret ability.

There isn’t an opportunity to talk with Shigeo for a while, and Ritsu is nervous when he finally gets the opportunity to walk to school with his brother again.

He doesn’t know how to phrase the question he wants to try to ask.

How do you say to someone I can rewind time now and can you help me learn what to do with it or how to better control it? without the other person reacting badly?

He figured it would be worth a shot, to ask Shigeo, but now he’s feeling agitated and can’t help but keep shifting his shoulders as they walk.

Shigeo notices, “Are your shoulders sore?” He asks, pointing to them.

Ritsu shakes his head, “No, no,” But even though this is the perfect starting place, he can’t seem to say anything past that.

“Ah, I thought they might be, from all your sparring with Suzuki.” Shigeo says, not noticing Ritsu’s dilemma, dropping his hand and looking back at the street in front of him.

“Uhm, I guess they might be,” Ritsu mumbles, and rolls his stiff shoulders once more.

Now or never. Now or never.

Now, or he rewinds, and tries again.

“Shigeo, can I uhm, ask for your help with something?”

His brother’s stride pauses, and when Ritsu looks at him it’s to see a rare expression of emotion on Shigeo’s face. Somehow, his brother cycles through surprise, to hope, to worry, all in a few short seconds and with as minimal facial movements as possible. It leaves Ritsu a bit stunned.

“Of course, Ritsu.” Shigeo says, earnest. “What’s wrong?”

Wrong?

There’s nothing wrong , is there? Not really. It’s just something unknown, something he needs advice from a stronger psychic about.

“I just, I-”

Shigeo keeps staring at him.

“I can- I-”

He needs to collect himself. He’s working himself up over nothing.

He rewinds, just a bit, just a tiny yank backwards, “Of course, Ritsu. What’s wrong?” Shigeo says, and Ritsu takes a deep calming breath.

“I have a new psychic ability, and I was wondering if you could give me advice for how to control it or use it?” He says, all at once, calmly, methodically.

Shigeo’s eyes light up, “A new ability? What is it? That’s really good though, Ritsu, it means your powers are getting stronger!”

He doesn’t deserve praise for that. He puts it aside for now though, and confesses, “I can rewind time. In short amounts.”

“What, really?” Shigeo asks, in awe. And how could Ritsu have ever been worried that Shigeo would respond in any way negatively?

Ritsu nods, “Yeah, and I thought you might know how to help with it.”

Shigeo shakes his head, “Oh, well, I don’t really know much about rewinding time. Dimple might have known, but he’s still missing. But Master Reigen might be able to help, or Hanazawa. Hanazawa knows a lot about different psychic abilities and techniques, so he’ll probably know what to do with this.”

Ritsu starts feeling a bit overwhelmed again, both at the idea that Reigen or Hanazawa would have to be told about his ability, and at the way Shigeo is acting. He feels anxiety building in his chest. Shigeo is so proud of him, and hasn’t even thought to question what Ritsu has been doing with this new ability, hasn’t even thought to question Ritsu at all. Shigeo is just praising him, offering him unconditional support, as he always has and will.

“You can come with me to work tonight if you want, to ask Master Reigen about it, or we can go to the Awakening lab one of the nights Hanazawa is there teaching, and see if-”

- Stop. -

Ritsu stares at his brother’s face, at the eagerness to help. He bites his lip so hard he thinks he might have broken the skin.

He’s not as ready as he thought he was.

- Pull back. -

“Of course, Ritsu. What’s wrong?” Shigeo says.

Ritsu tightens his grip on his school bag and looks away from Shigeo. He keeps walking, forcefully putting his foot down with each step, “Nothing. Forget it, brother. Sorry to bother you.”

“O-oh. Oh, uhm, alright. If you, uh, need me though, I’m here for you.”

Ritsu doesn’t respond. His chest feels tight. He can’t figure out if its guilt or anxiety though.

They walk the rest of the way to school in silence, and Ritsu keeps his bedroom door shut after school, practicing pausing instead of rewinding by throwing objects at his wall and stopping time before they hit. He doesn’t know when Shigeo gets home.

Chapter Text

He takes another “walk” of sorts, after school, to try and reorient himself. Reprioritize.

His mother’s worried texts get ignored once more, but this time, the one hour and five minute limit goes ignored as well. Ritsu wanders, drifting, not caring about the need he feels to pull.

After a while, a text from someone other than his mother lights up his phone. His brother’s name reads in bold on the notification.

“Mom texted asking where you were. Ritsu are you alright?”

Ritsu stares down at the screen, at the question. Impulsively, he snaps his phone in half.

- Stop. Pull back. -

Quickly, not wanting to look at his phone or see the constant texts coming in any longer, Ritsu types out a message to his brother with shaking fingers.

“ I’m fine. Tell mom not to worry about where I am. I’ll be home soon.” He sends the message and then shoves his phone into his pocket all in a quick jerky motion, not even looking at the time.

When he gets home, his mother scolds him, but not intensely. She seems more resigned than anything. She’s used to Shigeo disappearing and not texting, so the fact that Ritsu now seems to be picking up the habit is something she seems to be accepting. Ritsu wonders how many times he’d have to go on a “walk” before she stops texting him in worry at all.

Shigeo is also home, but he doesn’t say anything. He’s sitting in the family room, on the couch, like he’d been waiting there. He just looks at Ritsu oddly, in a way that makes Ritsu feel like he’s being examined.

He goes to his room and doesn’t get a chance to shut the door before Shigeo is standing there in the doorway, still looking at him.

“You know, if you need help with your powers, I can help.” He says, simply, before Ritsu can turn him away, “Your aura flares up, and then you act a little… off. I only noticed it today, I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner. I was looking for it, for you, and I felt it flare up right as you texted me.”

Ritsu looks at his phone, looks at the texts, and he sees his mistake.

He had texted Shigeo before Shigeo had texted him, with a response to a text not yet sent.

It’s something so simple to slip up with, to expose himself through. Ritsu feels pathetic.

It’d take him a few pulls, but he could rewind all the way back to when he sent the text to avoid all this. But Ritsu is tired, and he doesn’t want to have to walk all the way back home again.

So he clenches his fist and stares back at his brother challengingly, defaulting to defense as he always has.

“I don’t need your help.”

Hurt flashes in Shigeo’s eyes, “You’ve been avoiding me… again,” He says, “I know something’s wrong. You almost told me when we were walking to school that one day, but now…”

Now that , that genuinely shocks Ritsu a bit. He hadn’t been avoiding Shigeo, in fact, he’d been striving to do the opposite. He’d been spending more time with him and eating lunch with him more often. He’d been putting effort into their relationship.

But he hasn’t been eating lunch or spending more time with Shigeo, at least, not to anyone else but him. The bullet point in his journal that reads “Would be helpful sometimes if other people could remember the changes too.” flashes through his mind. He accidentally rewinds.

It takes less than a minute away, to Shigeo beginning to say “I know something’s-” but he cuts himself off with a sharp breath. Ritsu, while he shakes a little bit from the accidental rewind, watches his brother’s eyes go wide, “Your aura- you did whatever it was again, didn’t you?”

Ritsu steps back, “No.”

Shigeo stays where he is, “Ritsu, please .”

Ritsu pauses things. He shuts the door in Shigeo’s face and stares at it with his heart beating faster and faster every passing second that he leaves things in stasis.

Why is he so afraid?

He opens the door back up and puts on a smile for when time resumes.

“I’m fine, nothing weird is going on, Shigeo. Don’t worry about me.”

Chapter Text

Shigeo asks him before they leave the house in the morning if they can meet at the Spirits and Such Office after school, because there’s something he needs to give him that he’d left at the office. Of course Ritsu agrees.

But then he steps in and immediately knows he’s been set up.

“Oh, Ritsu, you’re here.” Shigeo says, satisfied, the door not even having clicked shut yet. “We can get going now then.”

Ritsu watches from the corner of his eye as Reigen stands and pulls his suit jacket off from the back of his chair and then puts it on, “Get going where?” He asks his brother.

Shigeo shrugs on his own light jacket over his school uniform. The air has been getting cooler and crisper as of late. “Master and I have a job, and I thought it might be good if you came with.”

Ritsu wants to refuse, he really does. He wants to turn around and walk away.

But Shigeo thinks that Ritsu is avoiding him.

Ritsu smiles tiredly, “I have homework, but not that much. I guess I’ll come.”

Like Shigeo, he leaves his school bag in Reigen’s office, but brings his phone with him in his pocket.

Reigen pays for all of their bus tickets, and Ritsu holds down a satisfied grin at making Reigen lose money.

The bus isn’t empty, but it isn’t full either. Ritsu finds himself against the cold window, with Shigeo’s arm and shoulder against his right side in the seat beside him. Reigen sits behind them, probably so he can keep an eye on them.

“I was gonna explain the details on the way there, but I guess it’ll have to wait till we get there. Make sure you pay attention when I do, Mob.” Reigen sighs, poking at the top of Shigeo’s head from behind. Ritsu snaps a hand out before he can stop himself and smacks the hand away.

- Stop. Pull.-

He watches, glaring over the bus seat, as Reigen pokes at his brother’s head. Shigeo waves Reigen’s hand away himself, staring at Ritsu intensely.

So Ritsu shifts, and despite wanting to reassure Shigeo that he isn’t avoiding him, he turns his shoulder to his brother and presses his forehead against the glass on the other side of him. It’s smooth and thick, probably not easily breakable.

It takes awhile, and he doesn’t mean to, but he ends up nodding off. He feels exhausted nearly all of the time now, and it’s so easy to let the hum of the bus and the way the city scrolls by lull him into a doze until they arrive at their destination.

Chapter Text

Something grips his shoulder tightly and suddenly, and Ritsu jolts awake in panic.

Time freezes, by accident, but he uses the opportunity to hold it still and catch his breath. His neck aches, throbbing at the angle it’d fallen against the bus window, and he rubs at it around the hand still touching him.

“What...?”

Ritsu’s eyes follow the hand and snap up to see Shigeo shifting and moving, out of time just like he is. His brother looks disoriented, and is staring at the frozen form of his master and the last few people on the bus.

Ritsu quickly lets go of time and people begin to move again. They stand from their seats and breathe like nothing had ever happened.

Shigeo’s grip on his shoulder tightens, just a bit, “Ritsu, what was tha-”

“C’mon Mob and Mob’s brother,” Reigen interrupts as he walks past them, and for once, Ritsu finds himself feeling thankful towards the con man, “The spirits aren’t going to exorcise themselves.”

Ritsu steps awkwardly around Shigeo and out into the aisle of the bus. He begins to follow Reigen.

“Ritsu.” Shigeo says.

Ritsu’s steps pause, but only for a fraction of a second. Then, he keeps walking.

Chapter Text

He’s too busy thinking about what had happened on the bus to really pay attention when Reigen talks about the job while they’re all walking. His chest feels tight, like something is gripping his heart, and he walks a little slower than necessary so that he is behind Reigen and Shigeo, where his brother can’t see him.

It had been the fact that Shigeo had been touching him that had allowed Shigeo to step outside of time with him, Ritsu is sure of it. On one hand, he’s elated that the solution to taking people with him is that simple, but battling that elation on the other hand is the dread of Shigeo now being fully aware that there’s something big that Ritsu is not telling him.

He’s so lost in his own head, caught up in new “what ifs” and worries, that he doesn’t really notice when the hard road they’d been walking along becomes gravel and dirt. But then he looks up and sees trees, looming all around them, and realizes just truly how far they’ve gone into the mountainside.

“Wh- Why are we out so far?” Ritsu asks, without thinking, forgetting to stop himself from doing something embarrassing while Reigen is around.

Reigen and Shigeo pause and turn to look at him. Ritsu shifts under both their gazes and yet holds his ground.

“Ah, so I was right, you weren’t paying attention.” Reigen says a bit smugly.

Ritsu grits his teeth, and he doesn’t know if Reigen ignores it or just honestly doesn’t notice.

The man goes on, “As I was saying to Mob, who was being a model listener, the couple that hired us just moved out here recently for the quiet. But there’s an old abandoned shrine nearby that’s been making frightening sounds, so they called us to handle it.”

“They couldn’t have called out anyone else?” Ritsu asks.

With a shake of his head, his brother interrupts, “We’re the only psychic business that would come out to this forest.” He says.

Ritsu tries his best to breathe evenly. The fact that they’re in the middle of nowhere is fine. The fact that they're only out here because Reigen is a cheap fraud who will take any job is fine. It’s all fine. It's not, but it's fine.

After a moment, with a breath, Ritsu asks, “And that’s basically it?”

Reigen nods, “Other than a few smaller details, yeah, that’s pretty much-”

Ritsu doesn’t even wait for Reigen to finish his sentence before rewinding to back when he’d been walking in a daze and hadn’t yet exposed the fact that he hadn’t been listening.

When time resumes though, Shigeo’s shoulders tense and he turns to snap his gaze onto Ritsu.

The very next moment Shigeo trips, not seeing the rock in his path. He wheels his arms a bit comically while Ritsu blinks his eyes in surprise.

He’s known his brother is clumsy. But seeing the clumsiness in action is always a bit of a shock to his systems for some reason. Like when he watches his brother struggle working out.

“Woah, careful there, can’t have you go rolling through the forest now.” Reigen says, steadying Shigeo with hands on his shoulders, a moment before Ritsu can recover and steady his brother with his own psychic powers.

Ritsu debates internally for a moment about rewinding again, just so that he can be the one to catch Shigeo so that his brother can see that he still cares.

Shigeo smiles gratefully, yet so simply, at his master though.

So Ritsu decides against a rewind, and lets time go free from his mental grip.

Chapter Text

The shrine certainly is old.

It’s all one level, as most old shrines tend to be, but because of it’s odd position in the woods on the mountainside, there are creaky old wooden stairs past the typical stone stairs, and they lead higher than normal into the shrine’s main entrance. Ritsu eyes the creaky wooden beams of the structure, eaten away by the years and by nature, with wariness.

He’s tempted, very tempted, to simply use his powers to bring the whole place down. If there’s no place to haunt, surely the spirits will dissipate.

He just wants to get this over with and get home, where he can shut himself in his room and tear his notes about time travel apart and then try to make a plan to regain just a bit of control of the situation.

Reigen is the first to go up the stairs, and they creak frighteningly beneath his feet. Ritsu sees Shigeo’s aura swirl into being, but only slightly. It clings to him and chimes lowly, as if on standby, as Shigeo watches his master climb the precarious wooden steps.

When Reigen makes it to the top safely, Shigeo steps out of the way to allow Ritsu to go up. Ritsu steps around his brother and does his best not to flinch at the creaks when they start up again, but beneath his feet this time. But he’s always been a jumpy person. He can’t help it.

“Alright, since you’re with us tonight, Mob’s brother, I’ll have you do this.” Reigen says when they’re all at the top. “Try to sense where the spirit is in this shrine, it’s a good exercise.” Beside the man, Shigeo nods in support.

Ritsu feels like he’s being ganged up on. He’s felt like that since he stepped into Reigen’s office earlier that day.

It’s not too late to pull himself back. It had only been a little over an hour since they had left. He could do it in maybe one pull.

Instead, he sighs, and lets his aura spread out through the shrine. It flows through the nooks and cracks like water, but solid enough to poke and prod. Everything feels fuzzy though, and not quite real.

“I’m not sure… I think there’s too much spiritual energy in general to get a good read on where it is.” Ritsu says after another moment of desperately trying to feel out the shrine with his aura.

Shigeo’s brows furrow, and Ritsu sees his brother’s aura spread out and attempt to find the spirit as well. He retracts the spinning colors a moment later with an agreeing nod.

Reigen frowns at the shrine as if it had personally offended him, “What? Great. Guess we’ll have to search the place on our own.”

They split up. Reigen decides that he’ll go around the outside, while Shigeo and Ritsu can take the inside. Ritsu makes sure to walk right at his brother’s shoulder as they step down the dark hall and further into the shrine.

Chapter Text

“What kind of spirit do you think it is?” Ritsu asks, as they descend further into the shrine. It had seemed large from the outside, but not this large, and Ritsu is on edge. The spirit might be distorting it, twisting it for its own purposes.

“Well, it’s so loud that people down the hill hear it, and Master said that some kids who tried to explore this shrine a year or so ago got badly hurt too... So it’s probably some kind of stronger poltergeist. ” Shigeo mumbles, aura still tight and ready around him,

Ritsu doesn’t really know how to do that yet - how to have his power undulate through and around him like an intimidating offensive shield. He only knows how to call them into being when he’s actively using them.

And as much as he dislikes being tricked into coming along, Ritsu is interested in finally seeing his brother actually exorcise something. He’s seen his brother fight other espers, seen him go all out, but never exorcise a spirit. He wonders how different it is. If it’s simple or a process.

A dull scrape drags him from his thoughts and pulls both brothers’ attention into the darkness ahead of them. It’s the only warning they get before the spirit materializes and, before they can react, opens its sharp toothed mouth and shrieks.

Shigeo staggers, hands going up to clap around his ears, aura lashing out and powers causing the wood floor beneath him to crack.

Ritsu puts a stop to it before it can get any worse.

- Stop! Pull back. -

But the shrieking just continues, it transcends the rewind and just keeps going, this time interrupting Shigeo saying “-probably some kind of-” and shattering the air with its piercing sound.

The spirit looks like a lizard of some kind, with bulging eyes and a curling reptilian tail. Its claws are sharp and dug into the wall of the building, gouging deep gashes in the soft and rotting wood, and its mouth is full of hundreds of sharp teeth.

Caught off guard, Shigeo’s powers lash out again with much less control than he usually has, and they whip at the spirit as best they can while Shigeo is crouched with his hands over his ears.

The spirit dodges. It skitters up the wall, across the ceiling, and then back down into the darkness, shrieking all the way.

“Ritsu! Are you alright?!” Shigeo asks in worry, as the sound fades enough for them to both stand and not be handicapped by its closeness.

Ritsu nods, staring down where the spirit fled, “Yeah, and I guess we found the spirit.”

Chapter Text

They head back to the mouth of the shrine, Shigeo determined to go get Reigen.

“Stay here, please.” Shigeo says to Ritsu, before turning and quickly disappearing around the side of the shrine off in the direction Reigen had gone. Reigen had gone off towards the other small stone structures that are dotted around and probably had been used for decoration, but he’s not visible through the trees.  

So Ritsu stays. He stands just inside, looking out through the wide open doors into the trees the surround. He waits for his brother and Reigen to return so that they can all confront the spirit together.

He waits.

And he waits.

And he waits until he can’t anymore, when the spirit decides to take matters into it’s own claws and manifests above him to shriek.

Frightened, Ritsu tries to look up too fast and falls backwards. The spirit drops down in front of him, backing him back into the dark shrine, still shrieking at a piercing volume.

So Ritsu lashes out, “Get away!” he tosses out an arm, sending a wave of teal and jagged shapes at the spirit. The spirit fades from view, similarly to how Shou is prone to do during fights, and the attack completely misses.

Its lizard-like appearance suddenly seems to make more sense. It’s a grotesque mockery of a chameleon - one that has a habit of shrieking and also possibly has murderous tendencies.

Ritsu doesn’t care for the spirit’s motivations. He stands and braces himself, ready to try to utilize all that he learned while sparring with Shou; to utilize all that he learned about using his new ability to get the upper hand in fights.

The spirit bleeds back into visibility to the side of him, and he attacks.

It disappears again, then reappears in front of him. It shrieks and screams so loudly that Ritsu can’t help but lose his cool and let out a yell in return as he fires off another attack.

And right then, his brother walks back around the open doorway.

All of Ritsu’s sparring with Shou and practicing on his aim has been for naught it seems. His power misses the spirit entirely, as the nasty little thing zips out of the way and lets Ritsu’s attack, strengthened by frustration and anger, continue on its straight path right into Shigeo’s chest.

Ritsu reaches out to pull just a little too late. He watches his brother’s eyes widen almost in slow motion before Shigeo is blasted backwards and hits the ground with an echoing painful thud.

Chapter Text

There’s only enough time before Ritsu rewinds for the spirit to cackle somewhere in the space around him while Reigen goes down on one knee beside Shigeo’s prone form.

A blink, and Ritsu is back to facing the spirit on his own, the lizard-like creature positioned in front of him and still cackling.

Ritsu doesn’t rise to the bait as the spirit hangs around the doorway, obviously aware of what had happened and trying to get Ritsu to hurt Shigeo again. Instead, he turns and runs back deeper into the shrine. He won’t make the mistake of hurting his brother a second time.

The cackling blends right into more shrieking, but the spirit doesn’t seem to follow Ritsu. Ritsu stops, breathing heavily, and turns to look back at the mouth of the shrine to see where it went.

Shigeo comes around the corner then, and Ritsu watches as when the spirit tries to drop down on him he swipes it out of existence easily with two pointed fingers and a bothered furrow in his brow.

But then Shigeo notices Ritsu, and, concernedly, takes a step towards him.

The wood breaks beneath Shigeo’s feet. It had been old and already cracking, and hadn’t been able to endure any more abuse. Shigeo disappears from Reigen and Ritsu’s sight with a crash and cut off yelp.

This time, Ritsu rewinds all the way to before Shigeo had left to find Reigen.

“Ritsu? What’s wrong?” Shigeo asks, as to him Ritsu is abruptly pale and breathing heavily.

“Nothing, nothing.” Ritsu says, “I’ll come with you to get Reigen.”

Shigeo stares at him, “I didn’t say anything about going to get Master Reigen yet.”

Ritsu feels too frazzled by seeing his brother drop through broken wood to care that he’s messed up yet again. He reaches out shakily, grips his brother’s wrist, and pulls him out of the shrine.

Chapter Text

They find Reigen, and then Ritsu gives in to his urge to tear the shrine apart.

“It’s easier this way.” He says seriously, as he snaps a wooden beam with a twist of his fist, not looking at Shigeo while he does so. Reigen makes some kind of comment, but Ritsu doesn’t care enough to really listen. He’s too focused.

The shrine comes down easily, and then the shrieking starts.

The spirit claws its way up out of the rubble and heads straight for Ritsu, eyes spinning madly and teeth exposed in its threatening open mouth. Ritsu is ready though.

What he isn’t ready for, is for Shigeo to get in between him and the spirit.

The spirit’s teeth scrape across Shigeo’s barrier, and when Shigeo lowers it so he can perform the exorcism, it slices its claws through Shigeo’s arm right before it disappears in a twist of technicolor. Shigeo stays silent aside from a single unidentifiable sound that is gone as quickly as it is heard. He’s never been one to vocalize his pain, but there’s so much blood.

- Pull back. -

Ritsu shoves his brother back with his power when the spirit comes out of the rubble of the old shrine. But he can’t put up a barrier and hold Shigeo back at the same time, so the spirit ends up barreling into him.

Sharp pain explodes everywhere.

An instant later the spirit is off of him, tossed away by Shigeo who is ruthlessly and mercilessly twisting it with his powers. Ritsu groans and lets his head fall back against the ground, and squints through the haze that’s fallen over his eyes as his brother exorcises the same spirit for the third time.

Shigeo doesn’t calm down once the spirit is gone though. He comes over to Ritsu and kneels down, hands shaking as they hover over Ritsu’s chest. Words are being babbled, from both Shigeo and Reigen at Ritsu’s other side, but Ritsu can’t hear anything. The only thing he knows is that Shigeo isn’t calming down, and is in fact getting more worked up as time goes on. In the air above them, wood and rubble are orbiting chaotically.

Ritsu stares up into his brother’s face, and when his eyes meet with Shigeo’s blindingly bright white ones, he accidentally rewinds.

Chapter Text

He snaps awake, the cold bus window a shock to his systems after his head had just been resting on rocks and dirt. Shigeo’s hand is on his shoulder and he doesn’t know if everyone around him has just continued moving after being paused or if it’s before that.

“Ritsu?”

Ritsu turns and- Shigeo is fine. He’s calm. His hair is flat on his head and the deep red-brown irises that Ritsu is familiar with are visible.

“We can’t go.” He blurts, thinking of his brother’s limp body and of shrieking chameleon spirits and of falling apart shrines, “We can’t go exorcise this spirit.”

Exhaustion crashes over him after he says that, smacking into him like a wall, and he wavers, leaning forward and nearly crashing into the seat in front of him. Shigeo catches him, “What do you mean?”

“No can do,” Reigen says, poking his face over the top of the bus chairs and leaning over them while everyone else is getting off of the bus, “It’s bad business to not follow through on a job you’ve already agreed to do.”

Ritsu snaps, “It’s bad business to let your employee get hurt on the job, too.” He cannot bring himself to turn to face Reigen, and lets his brother maneuver him so he’s sitting securely with his back against his seat once more, “But you let it happen all the time.”

“Hey now, that’s uncalled for.” Reigen says with a frown that Ritsu doesn’t see, “What’s got you so twisted up all of a sudden?”

Ritsu doesn’t know how to answer. He doesn’t know how to explain how he knows how badly things will go if they go to the old abandoned shrine. The universe is determined to hurt them through what should be a simple job, and although Ritsu couldn’t prevent Shou’s nose from breaking he’s desperate to prevent this.

Maybe this is karma for all of his meddling with time.

Maybe this is all his fault.

He rewinds again.

Chapter Text

“Ritsu stop it.” Shigeo says, desperately.

They’re standing in the office, and Ritsu has just walked in. His knees definitely bruise when he folds and hits the ground.

“You’ll get hurt. I’ll get hurt. We can’t go.” He breathes, wheezing, as he fights to stay awake.

“Mob, what’s up with your brother?” Reigen asks from across the room.

Shigeo ignores him, and tries to console Ritsu, “Whatever it is, everything will be alright. I’ve been hurt before and healed fine, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You won’t, though!” Ritsu snaps. Shigeo flinches in surprise but Ritsu is too tired and scared to rewind again and undo his harsh tone of voice, “I hurt you one time, then another time you fell, then you got hurt again and then when I got hurt you lost control and-”

“Ritsu!”

The office walls crack, as Ritsu himself loses control. They bend inwards, books falling from the small shelves and the glass of the television breaking as it’s snapped in half. Ritsu stares at it all in shock.

He’s only seen this level of destruction from when Shigeo has lost control.

Desperate to fix it, he reaches out and pulls , but manages only a few minutes.

But then the walls crack all over again.

He has to fix this. He has to. He has the ability.

He tries again, and again, and aga-

“Stop it!”

Shigeo’s hands are on either side of his face, and both their powers surge together. Then, they’re gone.

Chapter Text

It’s quiet out, and warm. It feels like summer.

“I’m sorry.” Ritsu whispers, with his eyes fluttering and body sagging. Shigeo holds him up, small arms around his torso.

They are standing outside their house. Ritsu doesn’t know when they are, but they are both very young.

“I’m sorry. I told you one time, but then I undid it. I should’ve let it stick.” Ritsu bites his lip, “And now look at what I did.” He feels vulnerable and emotional in a way he hasn’t felt in years.

Shigeo must be confused, but Ritsu feels him still gripping him tightly, “Don’t cry, don’t cry. It’s alright.”

“It’s not!” Ritsu gasps, tears breaking free and sliding down his cheeks, “You always do that! You always forgive me or trust me before I’ve even done anything to earn it!” He leans forward and presses his forehead into Shigeo’s chest, burying his small face in his older brother’s shirt. He’s truly, truly , beyond exhausted now. Consciousness is barely in his grasp. If Shigeo responds, Ritsu’s not sure if he would hear him or not.

So he’s grateful when Shigeo, as slowly and as carefully as his child arms and legs can, lowers them both to the ground. The grass of their small front yard bends easily and is crushed beneath them as they both slump down.

“You haven’t done anything to make me not forgive or trust you, though.” Shigeo says, softly, “I don’t know what’s going on really, but I just want to help.”

And Ritsu curls in tighter, grips his brother’s shirt closer, “There’s nothing now, nothing you can do.”

He cannot push himself, he knows this. It’s written down as a bolded, underlined bullet point in a journal that no longer exists.

Him and his brother are stuck now, in the past.

“I’ve really messed up this time.” Ritsu hisses, hating himself.

The worst part is that Shigeo isn’t angry with him, isn’t upset with him. Shigeo is never angry with him, never upset with him.

Ritsu throws his head up, nearly bashing his forehead and Shigeo’s chin together. The world spins around him as dizziness consumes him, and when it rights itself he shouts, “Be angry!”

Shigeo blinks, his eyes round and wide.

“Be angry!” Ritsu shouts again, letting go of Shigeo’s shirt and beating his small fists against his brother’s chest weakly, “Tell me I messed up! I should’ve told you sooner, should’ve asked for help sooner! Shouldn’t have tried to keep it a secret!”

Shigeo winces and looks hurt, though he’s not in physical pain. Ritsu isn’t doing any physical harm to him at all. “No- why w-”

Ritsu interrupts him with another impact of his fists on Shigeo’s chest. He tries to say more, but his tears are too much for him now, and he deflates. He knows Shigeo won’t fight him, has known that for forever. Just as predicted when Ritsu had been deciding on Shou for a sparring partner, Shigeo is simply letting Ritsu hammer away at him without fighting back.

“I’m sorry.” He chokes out, apologizing again. He’s still so tired, and his eyes are shut now, unable to open again. Ritsu doesn’t know when he closed them.

One of Shigeo’s hands runs through his hair soothingly, but Ritsu doesn’t miss the way it shakes. Shigeo says nothing, and Ritsu falls unconscious in the silence, face still wet with tears but too far gone to be embarrassed about it.

Chapter Text

He wakes up in his bed.

For a moment, everything is alright. The room is dark, but there are little glow-in-the-dark stars above him, stuck to his ceiling, that haven’t been there in years.

With sudden panic, Ritsu surges upwards and tries to get out of his bed all in a single motion. His legs shake and he trips, getting tangled in his bed sheets and hitting the floor painfully.

Out of habit, he tries to rewind, tries to pull time back to him so that he can avoid the bruise that is no doubt going to form on his arm where he hit the floor.

Nothing happens.

The panic doubles. He squirms and pushes his way out of the entanglement of blankets until he’s free and then rushes over to yank open his bedroom door.

He can already tell that there’s no one else in the house but his brother. Their parents must have gone to work or somewhere else while he’d been asleep, he doesn’t really care at the moment for the specifics. Shigeo’s aura, while usually kept suppressed and muted, is flowing freely with the absence of their parents, and is buzzing with tension.

Ritsu can easily pinpoint his brother in the kitchen, following the chiming purple hues all the way there. Shigeo is sitting at the table they eat their meals at, looking too small in his seat, with a glass half full of milk sitting in front of him.

“Shigeo,” Ritsu says, feeling like he’s just ran a marathon rather than the short hallway from his room to the kitchen, “What- what day is it?”

He wants to pull the words back as soon as he says them- he should have asked if Shigeo was alright first. But his ability still isn’t responding to him. All of his powers aren’t responding to him.

Ritsu pushes aside the panic as it rises again by focusing on his brother. Shigeo has raised his head and is looking at him, but Ritsu feels invisible to his brother’s vacant stare.

“You’re awake…” Shigeo whispers, sounding relieved but still absent, like his mind is somewhere else entirely. “I’m glad. I was worried. You passed out and, and we’re young- I didn’t know what to do so I -”

Ritsu walks forward, trying to help his brother focus by putting himself further into Shigeo’s space. He swallows around what feels like coarse sand in his throat and repeats his question, “Brother- Shigeo- what day is it? Please?”

Shigeo falls silent, and Ritsu’s hands shake.

“The summer before…” Shigeo whispers, before going silent again. He seems more present now though, and his eyes beg Ritsu to understand.

And Ritsu does, “ Before? ”

Shigeo simply nods, pale and empty.

And Ritsu? Ritsu doesn't know how to feel. 

Chapter Text

He has to scrabble a little bit to climb up into the seat at the table next to his brother. Shigeo lifts him, gently, carefully, with his powers, and sets him down on the chair.

It dazes Ritsu a bit, further than he’s already dazed, his mind moving at a thousand miles per hour as he thinks about the fact that they are now before The Incident.

Shigeo gets his attention with a hand reaching out and resting on Ritsu’s arm before it grips Ritsu’s sleep shirt sleeve a little more tightly, a little more urgently “Ritsu, you need to explain. You know what happened and I need you to explain it.” Shigeo says, trying to sound forceful but the shake in his voice betraying him. It seems that being so young has loosened Shigeo’s control over his emotions and left him feeling vulnerable as well.

Ritsu doesn’t move to pry Shigeo’s fingers out of his sleeve. He lets his brother hold on as he swallows and stares hard at the table in front of him in resignation.

“I…” He said the words once before, all he has to do is say them again. There’s a new weight to them now though that Ritsu knows he will never be able to take them back. “I developed the ability to rewind time, in short amounts. And I was keeping it a secret while I learned how to use it.”

Shigeo stares at him, not awed and eager to help as he had been the first time Ritsu had told him of his ability. Now, Ritsu can’t read what his brother could possibly be feeling in reaction. Some part of him still wants Shigeo to get angry at him.

“And then, something happened on that exorcism you wanted me to come with you on-”

“Because I was worried about you.” Shigeo whispers suddenly and urgently, interrupting Ritsu for the first time in Ritsu’s memory. His brother has never been one to speak out of turn, or talk over people, but not this time, “I wanted you to come with to show you that I could help, that Master Reigen could help-” He comes to a halt, the rest of Ritsu’s words processing, and his tone changes as he asks in worry, “What- what went wrong?”

Ritsu shakes his head, not wanting to think about it, “It doesn’t matter now. What matters is that I tried to fix it and messed up.” He clenches his little fists against his knees, resisting the urge to bash his hand into the table in front of him. His shoulder already is bruising from his fall from his bed, and it’d help nothing to startle his brother only to injure himself further. “And then I dragged you into it, and we’ve gone too far back and I don’t know how we did, but now we’re- we’re-”

He doesn’t want to say it. Shigeo says it for him.

“Stuck…”

Ritsu nods.

But then he remembers.

“Before that though. We’re stuck before that. ” He breathes. Shigeo stiffens at his side.

He’d given up on the thought of fixing it, but now...

“It’s perfect.” Ritsu says, feeling a little crazed now when he turns to Shigeo. He wants to reach out and grip Shigeo’s shoulders and make him understand. “We’re stuck, so we might as well make the most of it. None of - none of that has to happen. We can avoid it altogether!”

Shigeo looks uncomfortable and on the verge of upset, “I don’t think that that will work.” He says.

“Why not?” Ritsu says, “It will . We’d be closer, we’d be happier. None of- none of the suffering we both went through will have to happen, brother. Don’t you want that?”

Shigeo shakes his head, slowly, “But it already has.”

It’s like a small bomb being dropped into Ritsu’s reality. He recoils, and Shigeo takes his silence as a chance to continue, “We remember it. We’re the people we are after it happened. We wouldn’t change, we’d just…” Shigeo finally lets go of Ritsu’s sleeve to rubs his hands together- a nervous habit - and the skin is quickly becoming red, “We’d just be faking it. And everything else would- It might not end up like it does. It might end up worse. We don’t know because everything would be different.”

Ritsu stares at Shigeo, saying nothing.

“We need to try and find a way back. To our time.” Shigeo insists. “We can’t try and live our lives again Ritsu. We can’t.”

At that, Ritsu can’t help himself. He barks out a harsh, small mockery of a laugh, “We’re stuck! I’ve tried going forward before, and it’s not possible. We’re stuck as stuck can be, so why don’t we just try? ”

Shigeo is still upset, but his face goes as carefully blank as a young child’s face can. His aura stiffens and thickens with his building emotions.

A lick of purple dances too close, and Ritsu, remembering his powerlessness, jolts off of the chair and shuffles away a bit too quickly.

Everything falls still and silent. Shigeo’s aura recedes back in, sucked backwards, and presses as close to Shigeo’s skin as Shigeo can get it to be.

Then, Shigeo says in a small voice, “See?”

Chapter Text

Their parents come home at different times.  Their mother sooner than their father.

She makes dinner and asks if Ritsu can help, because Shigeo had bent all the silverware that morning and she doesn’t trust him in the kitchen today. Ritsu throws Shigeo a sharp look - he hadn’t known - and Shigeo looks away.

So Ritsu stands, shorter than he’s used to, against the kitchen counter while his mother chops up vegetables and slides them into the pan on the stove. He holds whatever she needs him to hold, remaining a quiet and dutiful helper.

“Gosh, what’s with the two of you today?” She asks Ritsu at one point, “Did something happen yesterday while you were out playing? You’re both acting like totally different people.”

At dinner, Shigeo twists up each spoon that is handed to him. They bend and distort into mangled shapes that are unable to be fixed without psychic powers, and Ritsu watches as no matter how hard Shigeo tries he just can't seem to smooth them out in a satisfactory way.

After dinner, as their mother cleans, Ritsu dares to approach Shigeo again. Shigeo sees him coming and goes down the hall a bit, away from their mother’s capable ears, and that’s where Ritsu meets him.

“You know I’m not scared of you anymore, right?” Ritsu says, quietly, wringing small fingers.

Shigeo is quiet and empty again, just as he had been when Ritsu had found him sitting at the table alone earlier. His emotions are tucked away in a way they shouldn’t be yet. He nods, but doesn’t seem genuine about it.

“I didn’t mean to upset you.” Ritsu lets go of his own fingers and reaches out, grabbing Shigeo’s wrist carefully to show Shigeo that he really isn’t afraid. “I just- I thought if we could do it over again…” He sighs and looks down, “I thought things could be better.”

“I understand.” Shigeo says, not fighting Ritsu’s grip, but not reciprocating either. His arm feels limp and complacent in Ritsu’s hand, “I understand wanting that.”

“Do you think... if we found Dimple, or another esper, that they could help us get back?” Ritsu suggests. He doesn’t volunteer Reigen. They both know that the man has no real spiritual ability and wouldn’t be able to help them right now beyond give half-hearted advice to two little kids he doesn’t really know. Hanazawa and Shou are also out, both of them being young themselves. Even if they had been options though, Ritsu wouldn't have wanted to ask their help. He’s never liked Hanazawa’s attitude , and Shou was probably still with Claw at this time.

Shigeo shakes his head, “I don’t think so. I don’t know where he could be, and I don’t know if there’s anyone else who would even know anything about this kind of thing. This time traveling thing.” He makes a vague, muted gesture with his free hand, to represent “time travel.”

Ritsu knew that his ability was unique, but it feels more final coming from his more powerful brother.

“What should we do then?” Ritsu asks.

Slowly, Shigeo’s arm shifts, and his hand finally is in Ritsu’s and is gripping it tightly back in reassurance and support. “Well, we’re on our own, I think. So, anything. I guess?” He says, more of a question than an actual solution, “We won’t know if something works until we try?”

Ritsu shakes his head, “We need to be more careful about this than that. We could end up going further back, or messing something else up. Plus, I don’t think I- I don’t think I have my powers anymore. They weren’t awakened when we were this young.” His voice gets a bit too loud when he admits it, and their mother pokes her head into the hallway to raise a suspicious eyebrow at them. They both fall quiet, and blink back at her innocently until she goes back into the kitchen.

“We should sleep,” Shigeo insists softly, “And work on this tomorrow.”

Ritsu scowls, “I feel like I’ve slept enough.” He’s still tired, all the way to his bones, from the overuse of his ability, but not as unbearably exhausted as he had been before.

“In my experience, sleeping more than you need to is always better than sleeping less.” Shigeo advises, “Sometimes I pass out after using my powers too much too though, and don’t want to sleep again, but it’s important that you still try to.”

Ritsu runs a hand over his young face in a way only a tired teenager can, “You’re right.” He says after a moment, feeling another part of the pedestal he always wrongfully places his brother on crumble with the very human admission that Shigeo too gets tired after using his powers too much. Ritsu had known that, had seen it, but it still seems that Shigeo’s ability is limitless to him no matter how much he tries to not think of it that way.

“Tomorrow, we’ll fix this.” Shigeo reassures him, squeezing Ritsu’s hand. Ritsu doesn’t want to wait that long, but he accepts it.

Chapter Text

The park nearby their neighborhood, that they both know to be practically abandoned when they’re teenagers, is bustling with activity today. Kids their age that they know are everywhere, climbing on the structures and having fun with friends in the summer heat.

Both Shigeo and Ritsu stand on the edge, Shigeo’s face blank but internal counter steadily going up, and Ritsu’s face scrunched in open disappointment.

“There are so many little kids.” He grumbles. He’s never been good with children. Or with other people in general. People assume that he is, because he’s popular and smiles well for tiny children when he encounters them, but he’s really not.

“Ritsu, you’re a kid.” Shigeo reminds him. But he’s not one to talk, he’s never been good with young children or other people either. He’s even worse than Ritsu is.

When Ritsu sees Tsubomi in the distance is when he decides to drag Shigeo away from the park. He doesn’t need his brother getting flustered and being distracted.

“We need to find a better place to work stuff out.” He grumbles as they walk down the street, thinking longingly of the empty lot where he and Shou had been sparring in the future.

“Maybe school? It’ll be pretty empty right now, right?” Shigeo suggests.

“Salt middle school?” Ritsu asks, just to clarify. Neither he nor Shigeo are in middle school yet, technically, but he knows his brother probably isn’t thinking of the tiny building where they’d had classes before graduating up to middle school.

Shigeo nods, “I don’t think a lot of people will want to be there during the summer, so the school yard might be empty, for in case we need to do bigger things.”

It’s not a bad idea. Ritsu nods, agreeing, “Alright, let’s go.”

The school isn’t totally abandoned - there are still some cars parked around back that probably belong to faculty, but other than that, there aren’t any other children in sight. Ritsu sighs in relief and slumps down on one of the benches in the yard, Shigeo sitting down beside him a moment later.

“I think it was me.”

The sudden statement startles Ritsu a bit, and he looks at Shigeo, “What was you?”

“That made you take us back so far through time.” Shigeo clarifies, looking down, eyes shadowed by his bangs. “I can kind of, push my power into other things sometimes, and amplify other people’s powers I think? Well, I guess I know now, because, I think that’s what happened.”

Ritsu remembers the surge of power he’d felt, back when Reigen’s office had been breaking and reforming and then breaking all over again, and Shigeo had put his hands on his face. It made sense.

Suddenly, an idea appearing in his mind, Ritsu hops up from the bench and spins to face Shigeo, “Do you think you could give me some of your power and jump start my powers that way?”

Shigeo leans back, exposing his eyes again, showing that they’ve gone a bit round. He doesn’t seem to have expected this as Ritsu’s reaction, “Do you really think that would work?”

Ritsu nods, “Why wouldn’t it?”

“Uhm, well, how did your powers awaken the first time?” Shigeo looks nervous, “I don’t want to mess up and hurt you, or just end up giving you my powers temporarily, like I did with Master Reigen that one time.”

Ritsu immediately remembers what time his brother is talking about; that time with the 7th Division, when Reigen had suddenly seemed all powerful and had been able to take down all of the enemy espers without breaking even a bit of a sweat, and Ritsu had known Reigen had no powers.

The fact that that was only a fraction of his brother’s powers....

With a shake of his head, Ritsu shakes away those thoughts and sets his stance firmly in determination. He stands in front of his brother, his hands in little fists, ready, “I can take it. The first time I awakened it was with Dimple’s help - he kinda half possessed me, and helped me get down the blocks holding my power back.” He doesn’t mention the fact that he’d been internally tormented by his own guilt at the time as well, and that that had helped his powers along. Shigeo doesn’t need to know of his suffering.

Shigeo still looks nervous, “Ritsu, I don’t know…”

Huffing, Ritsu gets even more determined, “It’s the only idea we’ve got right now, we might as well try it before we try to think of anything else. I’ll be fine!”

His voice is getting louder, and Ritsu tries to take a step back and calm himself down. But before he can, finally, thankfully, Shigeo takes a long breath and says, “Okay.”

Then, Shigeo moves before Ritsu can even react. He moves as if, if he didn’t move right in that moment, he might never get the courage to. His hand shoots out, quickly, and grabs one of Ritsu’s fists.

Power flows into Ritsu immediately, and it’s too much.

Ritsu hates that he passes out. Again. For what feels like the millionth time. He hates it even more because he knows Shigeo will definitely blame himself for it this time. But he doesn't get to think on that for too long before he sways and falls. 

Chapter Text

“Did it work?” Is the first thing Ritsu rasps when he wakes up.

He’s lying on the bench that Shigeo had been sitting on, staring at the sky. Suddenly, his brother’s face looms in his view, blocking the sun and becoming a dark backlit shape above him.

“I don’t know. I hope it did, because I’m not doing that again, Ritsu.” Shigeo says, as forcefully as he can. Ritsu can tell though, he can tell that Shigeo had been scared. “Deliberately pushing my power into you was a bad idea. I think we’re too young right now, your body must not be able to handle psychic powers yet.”

“I’m fine, just like I said I would be.” Ritsu reassures kindly, before his voice drops to a lower grumble, “If yours can handle it, mine should be able to.”

He pushes himself up when Shigeo leans away. “I’m glad you’re alright. Try using them maybe?” Shigeo says, either having not heard Ritsu’s grumble, blatantly ignoring the bitterness in Ritsu’s voice, or simply unable to read the tone.

Ritsu settles upright, sitting on the bench, and Shigeo sits down next to him. He focuses and reaches a hand out, eyes set on a forgotten ball on the edge of the schoolyard.

For a moment, there’s nothing. Ritsu pushes mentally with all his might, frustration boiling and bubbling inside him the longer that the familiar cool colors and jagged shapes of his aura don’t flash into view. Not even his brother’s aura is appearing. It’s as if Shigeo never pushed any of his power into Ritsu at all.

“Damnit.” Ritsu hisses, letting his arm drop, glaring at the ball. If this doesn’t work, then he’s sure that nothing will.

He stands up, reaching his hand out to try again, “C’mon.” He growls, staring at the ball.

Shigeo looks between the ball and Ritsu, back and forth, and then stands up too.

He says something to Ritsu, Ritsu knows he does, but he’s too busy already stomping across the yard.

“Move!” He snaps at the ball, coming closer, that boiling and bubbling feeling getting stronger.

The ball won’t move though. It won’t move.

The ball won’t move. The spoons won’t bend. The ball won’t move . The spoons won’t bend . Time won’t go forwards, time won’t even go backwards anymore. What are they supposed to do if he can’t manipulate time?

Why don’t his powers ever just listen to him?

Ritsu yells, and the feeling that had been building up inside of him finally bursts, right as the ball also bursts, exploding open in a blaze of cyan and purple.

Chapter Text

His powers keep the small fire-like shape made of his aura going for at least another minute before it fades out.

“It worked.” Ritsu says, full of relief. He relaxes his hands, not realizing he’d clenched his fists. His little nails had left small crescent indents against his palms.

He’s glad it was as easy as simply getting Shigeo to trigger Ritsu’s powers using his own. He feels like there was probably more to it than just that though, but he doesn’t want to try and think about it. The guilt and frustration towards himself that still churns, sedated for now, in the pit of his stomach says it all.

Spinning on his heel, Ritsu faces Shigeo again. His brother is staring past him, still focused on the exploded ball. Pieces of rubber litter the grass in a brutal fashion.

Ritsu looks back at the ball as well, and suddenly is oh so tempted.

“Don’t.”

Shigeo stops him, and Ritsu notices what he’d been doing. His aura, new and untethered, had been flaring up around him as if he’d been about to pull back time. Shigeo’s aura is in the air now, gripping Ritsu’s powers tightly, keeping him grounded but still seeming hesitant to grip onto Ritsu himself.

“I wasn’t going to.” Ritsu defends a bit half-heartedly. He hadn’t been, but he’d been thinking about it. He had been staring at the broken up ball and wondering if he could put it back together, desperate to flex his powers now that he’d remembered what a rush it was to use them. “But we still have to test it at some point, to make sure I can do it again.”

“Not right now though.” Shigeo’s aura trembles and fluctuates, “If you go back too far you’ll lose your powers again.”

Right, and he’d even been the one to say they had to be careful.

“Alright.” Ritsu surrenders, “But we need to keep thinking of what to do while we wait.” He needs a plan, he needs something solid to fall back on, rather than him and Shigeo just having nothing but hopelessness.

Shigeo nods, and finally retracts his aura. His control is, of course, far above Ritsu’s control, but Ritsu can see the bits and pieces of color and power that break off and float out of Shigeo’s range. Shigeo looks tense and wary of himself, and Ritsu realizes that he hasn’t stopped looking like that since they’d arrived in the past.

It’s finally driven home for Ritsu that they need to get back to their own time. Being stuck in the past, younger, feels like being set back. All the progress they’ve both made, all the challenges they’ve overcome, are nothing now.

But they can’t go forward, so maybe…

“I wonder, if we went back all at once, like we did when you amplified my power, if it could somehow loop around and put us back in our correct time…” Ritsu says, partly to Shigeo, partly to himself.

“If that didn’t work though, where would it leave us?” Shigeo asks, “We’d be babies…” He looks horrified - as horrified as he can - at the prospect of being an infant again.

“Then maybe, with your power amplifying mine, we can try and get it to go forward?”

Shigeo thinks about it for a moment before agreeing, “It might just not have worked before because you don’t have enough power.”

Ritsu tries not to get defensive about that. He knows that his brother is just speaking bluntly, as he tends to do without thought.

Without waiting or saying anything more, Ritsu reaches out a hand towards Shigeo. Shigeo, though, pulls back, “Right now? But I thought-”

“If we don’t go forward, we don’t go forward. It’s not as risky as trying to go backward.” Ritsu explains, and then grabs his brother’s hand tightly before Shigeo can pull away any further. “When I say go, you push, and I’ll push too.”

Shigeo takes a deep breath, and then meets Ritsu’s eyes, “Alright. Alright. I’m ready. But Ritsu, when we get back-”

“Go!”

He feels Shigeo startle, and then feels the more familiar feeling of his brother’s power pouring into him through their linked hands. For a moment, Ritsu wavers, feeling weak and overwhelmed again, unable to focus.

They should have waited. He’d been impatient. They don’t even know if he has his ability yet.

Hoping for luck, Ritsu does his best to dig the fingers of his new-born power into time. Then, when he has a good grip, he shoves with all his might.

Chapter Text

Time shatters around them, fracturing and breaking like glass as they crash through it from the past back to the moment that they left from. Ritsu staggers when they stop, his feet going out from under him, and he swears he can feel blood on his knuckles.

Shigeo falls too, down, backwards, collapsing onto the floor of Reigen’s office. The room is a mess, broken and torn apart, but just as they had left it.

“I can’t believe it.” Ritsu says, eyes wide. He sits up, hands trembling against the cold tile. “It- we pushed- Shigeo we made it!”

Shigeo stays lying on his back on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. He’s not unconscious, but he doesn’t respond either.

Ritsu looks at him, and it takes a moment to process that his brother isn’t getting up.

He gets to his feet and goes to Shigeo, ignoring as Reigen begins to rant about the room’s state of destruction and about how he’s feeling really intense deja-vu. All the relief and joy Ritsu had felt at easily coming back to the present is gone now. And now Reigen is coming over across the room, coming closer.

“Stay away.” Ritsu snaps, hunching down by Shigeo, remembering when Reigen had kneeled by Shigeo’s side when Ritsu had accidentally hit him with his power at the abandoned shrine. There’s nothing wrong this time though. Nothing. Shigeo must just be dazed. There’s no reason for Reigen and his concern to be near.

Reigen takes a step back, and puts his hands up, “Mob’s little brot-”

“Ritsu.” Ritsu snaps, unable to take it anymore.

Instead of being intimidated though, Reigen’s gaze softens. “Ritsu,” He says, “You know me, have I ever hurt you or your brother? I don’t know what’s going on, but I just want to check on Mob.”

Begrudgingly, Ritsu lets Reigen come over. The man bends down at Shigeo’s other side, and then waves a hand above Shigeo’s eyes, “Mob, you with me buddy?”

Shigeo blinks, “Yes.” He says, quietly, like there’s a weight on his chest.

Reigen sits back on his heels, “You alright?”

Instead of answering, Shigeo sits up. It looks as if it takes a herculean amount of effort.

Then, he turns to Ritsu. Ritsu tenses, but all Shigeo does is hug him. It's a good hug, gentle and warm like Shigeo always is, and Ritsu feels himself sink into the embrace and allows himself to stop thinking so much for a moment and simply hug his brother back. 

Chapter Text

The journal with all his notes on his ability exists again, and is right where he left it, sitting in his room in his bottom desk drawer. Ritsu picks it up the moment he and Shigeo return from Reigen’s office after convincing the man to cancel the job trip to the abandoned shrine.

An hour or so later, he’s in his brother’s room and shoving the journal into his brother’s hands, “Here.” Ritsu says, before he can over think his decision. “All the info about my ability. You deserve to know all about it.”

He’d made a few adjustments first though, of course. He added in the notes “Can go backwards through longer lengths of time with Shigeo’s help,”  “Can go forward with Shigeo’s help,” and “Can bring people with me if we are in physical contact.” He doesn’t know how his brother will react to the new notes - or all of the notes in general - but it isn’t fair for Ritsu to keep this from him anymore.

“Oh.” Shigeo blinks at the journal being offered to him, before taking it. He holds it like it’s dangerous, “Thank you Ritsu. Is, uh, everything you’ve rewound in here too?”

“Only a few of the times. The most significant ones.” Ritsu says. The first thing on that list is him punching through his window. His brother certainly isn’t going to react well to that.

But he hopes that when Shigeo sees just how much time Ritsu had dedicated to getting stronger, and getting closer to him, that he’ll understand a little better.

“You know you don’t- that I-” Shigeo struggles with his words for a moment, fingers clenching around the journal, “This isn’t necessary, Ritsu. If you want to keep this to yourself, that’s okay. I told you before that I- that you haven’t done anything to make me not trust you.”

But Shigeo’s expression is tight, and his grip on the journal is as well. Ritsu says, “I know, but, just, after everything, I thought that you’d want to know how it all started.”

Shigeo shakes his head, then pauses, then shrugs. “I don’t really… I don’t really need to know, I think.”

Ritsu hears “I don’t want to know.”

“Just. Read through it if you get time, I guess?” Ritsu suggests, all of a sudden feeling like the air in the room is thick and soupy. He reaches behind him and opens Shigeo’s bedroom door, then steps backwards out of it.

“Ritsu.”

Ritsu stops, right foot just barely over the threshold, “Yeah Shigeo?”

Shigeo’s head is bowed, “I’m… sorry. For not letting us stay and change what happened.”

Not letting-?

“No, you were right though.” Ritsu admits. It’s hard for him sometimes to admit when he was wrong, but he can’t let his brother sit here in his room in the dark and blame himself, “Nothing would have changed. It would’ve been useless, and it would’ve sucked having to live our lives again.”

Shigeo shrugs, fingers running over the journal cover, “I’m sorry that what happened hurt us both so much, then.”

Ritsu feels like all the thick and soupy air he’d been breathing only moments ago is being sucked out of him now.

“You don’t have to be.” Ritsu says, weakly, “I know we don’t talk about it much, but it wasn’t your fault. I know that now.”

Shigeo doesn’t respond. So Ritsu leaves after a moment of silence. He doesn’t know what else to do.

He feels a bit wrecked when he shuts the door of his own room, but doesn’t dare do anything that would need to be rewound.

Chapter Text

Shou doesn’t let him weasel out of their - what is now - scheduled Saturday spar sessions.

Ritsu feels like a million years have passed between the previous Saturday and today. He stands on the sidewalk, with his hands in his pockets and his face bundled down in a scarf, and glares Shou down when the other boy tries to nudge him into moving.

“No.”

“C’mon though, you were making tons of good progress with actually focusing where you sent your energy.” Shou whines, poking at Ritsu’s side. “What’s got you more grumpy than usual today, huh? Did someone insult your brother again or something?”

Ritsu frowns, and shoots Shou a glare when he mentions Shigeo. Shou grins, teasingly, and holds his hands up in surrender. But his eyes are sharp in the way that they get when he’s being very serious about something, the way that Ritsu always notices. Shou is analyzing him.

It doesn’t help that Shou’s nose is still bruised. His intense stare and the bruises make Shou look a little frightening.

“If you don’t acknowledge it, that’s kinda like running away. And I never took you for a runner, Rits.”

Ritsu looks away, “Don’t call me that.” He grumbles, so he doesn’t have to focus on the other part of what Shou said. “Yknow what, fine, let's go spar.” It would get Shou off his case and also be better than thinking about how he felt about everything that had happened. He didn’t even know how he was feeling.

He kind of wants to do something reckless.

“That’s what I’m talkin about!” Shou cheers, thumping him in the shoulder with a fist. But his eyes are still intense in that serious way. He’s grinning, but abruptly calms, “Yknow, you have a pretty bad habit of overthinking stuff, and seeing issues where there aren’t any. Can’t let that stuff get in the way of your life.” Shou shrugs, before he’s spinning and already walking away, down the sidewalk.

Ritsu gapes at the sudden assessment and quickly follows, “Hey- wh- no I don’t.” He blurts in defense, but Shou is always too much for him to keep up with.

“Mhm, yeah you do.” Shou isn’t looking at him, “So, whatever’s goin on. Whatever the deal is with your brother this time.” He waves a hand in the air a bit, “Just don’t overthink it.”

At that, Ritsu freezes in his tracks. He’s surprised he doesn’t accidentally freeze time too.

Is he really this transparent, that everyone knows whenever he’s having issues with Shigeo?

“Overthinking!” Comes a sudden shout, interrupting his spiraling thoughts, and then Shou is flicking Ritsu in the forehead. Ritsu recoils, yelping and rubbing at the point of impact.

And Shou is already practically a block away from him somehow, speeding away.

“I’ll show you overthinking.” Ritsu grumbles, before tearing off down the street after his friend, trying to fight down the grin that’s appearing on his face as Shou turns and sticks his tongue out at him.

Shou’s not the best at comfort or advice, but sometimes, he knows the perfect way to snap Ritsu out of whatever mood he’s in. Ritsu appreciates it every time.

Chapter Text

Ritsu begins to rewind things again. Small things. He’s trying to not overthink, trying to take Shou’s words to heart. Shou deserves to know about his ability too, as a thank you, as a show of trust, but Ritsu is trying to think of one thing at a time. He's trying to take things simply, as they come. 

So, it's the little things. 

Kamuro tries to corner him and ask him about something after the student council meeting.

- Stop. Pull. -

His pencil rolls off his desk.

- Stop. Pull. -

Little things. Small things. Tiny moments. Just so he can get used to it again. Just so that he’s ready when he needs to be, and not afraid.

Then, all too soon, he’s standing at the door of his brother’s classroom, while other students are leaving to eat lunch elsewhere. Shigeo notices him approach, and looks at Ritsu questioningly. Shigeo's face has a few scratches on it, and his arm is bandaged, from him and Reigen going back on their own to take care of the spirit in the abandoned shrine, but he's otherwise fine. Ritsu is grateful that Shigeo doesn’t call him out for rewinding small things all day, though he no doubt had noticed. He’s waiting for Ritsu to come to him this time.

Ritsu won’t let him down. “Brother, let's have lunch together.” He says.

Shigeo’s brows furrow, just a bit, “But, don’t you have a class right now?” He says, like he’s said every time in the past.

This time though, Ritsu is going to let him remember that he said it, “Yeah, but I can just, pull time back when we’re done, and go to class. It’s worked before. I... It’s in my notebook.”

For a terrifying moment, Shigeo is unreadable, but then, his eyes soften. “Yes, I read about it. And I was wrong, earlier, for saying I didn’t need to know. I’m glad you’re letting me see your notes. Thank you.” Shigeo had been more genuine when thanking people, lately, more sincere and careful with his words. Then, Shigeo stands up and begins to pull over a desk and chair to slot them next to his own, for Ritsu to sit at.

Ritsu finds himself relieved, the tension falling out of his shoulders. He doesn’t sit down quite just yet though. “It’s alright. Uhm, and what do you think, about my notes? About my ability?”  

Shigeo is already back in his own seat, and pops open the top of his bento, “Mm, some of the stuff was worrying,” He says, rolling his chop sticks between his fingers, looking down at the desk, “... but I think your ability really is incredible, Ritsu. At least, when we’re not stuck years in the past.” He looks up at Ritsu, reserved, testing.

And Ritsu laughs. He can’t help it. It’s not a true laugh of amusement, more of a way to get out all the pent up energy inside him. Emotions are swelling within him and he knows there’s still a lot left unsaid, a lot more to answer to, but right now, he’s just glad that things aren’t ruined. “I agree.”

Slowly, Shigeo smiles back at him, and Ritsu finally sits down to spend some legitimate time with his big brother.