blackmail; shuji hanma

eight. psycho

If (Y/N) woke up in one more time in a room that was not her own (from the future, to be precise), she was going to lose her mind. There wasn't an aching in her head like she expected when she rolled out of bed, reaching up to see where the bat had struck her and finding no trace of the injury she had to have received. But the lack of pain ended up being the least of her worries, because when her left hand came into view, there was a silver band around her ring finger. She didn't wear rings all that often, considering they bothered her when she was typing, and that ring looked an awful lot like a wedding ring, which meant...

Out of habit, her tongue ran over her teeth, finding them to be braces free. 

...she was back in the future.

That couldn't be possible though, because she was certain the reason she had been sent into the past in the first place was because she had died in the future. She had thought it over and decided that her future self had been doomed, but now her whole thought process was changing again. Now she was concerned she was going crazy.

Luckily for her, one of her journals from the past, thoroughly worn and tattered, sat on her bedside table. It was the one labeled Shuji Hanma, her personal favorite, but now there were hearts around the name, an odd addition in her opinion. To ensure she really had traveled back in the past and now back into the future, she opened up to the section on the summer of 2005, smiling fondly at the sight of her notes about how annoying the delinquent was. The last one she vividly remembered writing, about how he wouldn't stop pestering her to take off her facemask around him, confirmed her suspicions. 

She closed the journal and the sight of the apparent wedding ring caught her attention again, opening up a whole other can of worms. What had she done in the past to change her life this significantly? And, more importantly, who was stupid enough to marry her?

"You slept late today. It's already five in the afternoon."

Startled by the sudden voice, (Y/N) looked up, right into the eyes of the one and only Hanma. He looked different, of course he did it had been eleven years, with his hair dyed with even more golden streaks and set in a swoop to the side. His earring was the same, but now he wore round glasses and suits, which was strange considering he was always wearing outfits that required the least amount of effort to put on. The real shocker was the identical wedding ring on his left hand, matching hers right down to the gold engravings on the side. 

"Wha-? I told you not to date me! That included marriage too!" (Y/N) exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him, confused by the vast change in her life. Out of everything that was running through her mind, latching onto the topic of him was what grounded her the most.

Hanma smirked, "Oh? It's you again. I was wondering when you would show up again."

"What do you mean by that? Hanma? Hanma?" she asked, scrambling up from the bed, nearly tripping from the blankets entangled around her.

"We're married, darling, call me Shuji," he said with a wink, before leaving the room, calling over his shoulder as he did so, "Dinner's ready by the way."

Finally freeing herself from the blankets, she followed after him out of the bedroom and into the main part of their apartment. She took a moment to admire the interior décor, seeing her own touch in some of it as well as what she assumed to be Hanma's, then made her way into the kitchen, where she found him seated at the table, scrolling through his phone. The table was set for two, so she hesitantly took the seat across from him, watching as he set his phone aside and began eating. 

Her stomach was in knots at the whole change in pace, so she refrained from eating from now. Besides, she had more important matters to deal with, like finding out how her life got to this moment, where she was married to Shuji Hanma and eating the dinner he had cooked for her. (Y/N) wanted to go back in time and figure our how this had happened, wondering how the self she left behind would do something like this. She never thought living in the past for such a brief amount of time would change her future to this extent. 

"I waited until you were eighteen to ask you out, if that's what you're worried about," Hanma said at last, between bites of his meal.

Although he was older now, he was still the same Hanma she was used to. The teasing voice he used in fights and to irritate her was as evident as ever, which made it all that easier to ease into this the new future. 

Still, that wasn't what she was worried about. "What happened after I got hit in the head with a baseball bat?"

His expression darkened, still holding a grudge from whatever had occurred in the past. "Which time?"

"That does absolutely nothing to comfort me," (Y/N) said in a deadpan, "The first time, I guess. I don't remember any other time."

"You went to the hospital, I beat the guy up. You confessed your undying love for me when I came to see how you were doing and it was all smooth sailing from there," Hanma said with a grin that didn't reach his eyes, making her think that it wasn't as pleasant as he made it seem. 

(Y/N) started eating, mindlessly placing food into her mouth with her chopsticks as she thought it all over. "I have to go back. If my hypothesis is right, then whenever I'm knocked unconscious, I'm sent either back or forward in time."

The time travel, if she was correct, should take her back to the time when she was just waking up from the baseball bat attack. That also meant she could decisively not confess her undying love, if that even happened in the first place, and get her normal future back.

"It would be entertaining to have this you around when everything went down," Hanma mused.

She gave him a relieved smile. "Great, then, can you knock me out?"