There Are Many Tokyos In Flower

Chapter 11: Back To His Future

It didn't get any easier, watching Rin die a third time.

Martin tried a different tack on this attempt. He scooped up the chronotanium just as the anime biker dropped it, shot his past self with the beanbag shotgun, and managed to talk Rin into driving to a nearby park.

He explained what happened to her, handed her the stone...

And a tree fell on her.

"That shouldn't be possible," BIRD said, as the little machine squinted into Rin's mechanical eye.

"Dying a third time the moment she takes the stone?" Martin asked, as he crouched down next to Rin's still form and closed her eyes. "You're right, that shouldn't be possible."

"Actually, it fits with a couple of theories I'm building about how time travel works," BIRD disagreed. "But that's not what has my circuits blowing. Look, this tree, falling in the direction it did, should be impossible. We're held on the ground by centrifugal force, it isn't real gravity. Neo Tokyo's spin should have made the tree fall in the opposite direction."

"BIRD, I've had it with whatever the hell is happening. What do I need to do to save her?"

"First, we stop and think for a bit. And as much as Rin won't remember it, you might not want to make her die over and over again as you try for the magical combination of events that keeps her alive," BIRD explained.

Martin nodded. "So, why does she keep dying?"

"My best working theory is that you can't undo the reason you picked up the time stone, I mean chronotanium," BIRD said. "And the reason you picked up the stone is to prevent her from dying."

"Wait, you're saying she has to die, or I wouldn't pick up the stone?" Martin asked.

"Pretty much. We could test my theory, but I'm pretty sure all you'll do is kill Rin over and over again, in increasingly absurd ways."

"Why absurd?"

"Her second death shouldn't have happened. Vehicles in Neo Tokyo have smart-assistants, and unlike people those robots don't suck at driving. Children can do laps across the Information Highway and be in absolutely no danger. Hell, a few of them are doing it now." BIRD pointed with its wing over at the highway they had crossed earlier. A group of school-aged children were having a race across it, and the hundreds of vehicles blitzing around them at hundreds of kilometres an hour all passed well away from the kids.

"I see what you're saying," Martin agreed.

"The first time she died, I get that. The green glow of the stone could have confused the transport truck's sensors. Possibly. It's extremely unlikely, but only in the way that occasionally a politician does something useful. But every time after, her deaths have gotten more and more absurd. Do it a few more times and we might see her get taken out by some lost space junk launched back in the 21st century."

"So you're saying fate is keeping her from getting the stone?" Martin asked.

"Possibly. But we really should try to narrow down the possible explanations, see if we can rule out some theories about how time travel works."

"So you're saying," Martin picked up the stone as he talked, and turned back to his bike. "All I have to do, to keep Rin alive, is keep her from getting the chronotanium?"

"That's a possibility, but-"

"But nothing, BIRD," Martin cut the little robot off with the click of the stone setting into the slot on his bike. He plugged in his phone, and changed the clock to ten minutes earlier. "Let's go."