the guts to try

1

It was somewhere in the spring of 8th grade that Chiaki had started disliking trains. Maybe he might've even hated bikes, if he wasn't so interested in them. Of course, one might think his sudden opinion of trains isn't justified--but it was his opinion, and besides--

He had a perfectly good reason for hating trains.

It was somewhere in the spring of 8th grade that a student named Makoto Kanno had been hit by a train. Her bike hit the railroad crossing, and she went flying in front of the train, they said. Must've been something with the brakes on that bike, they said. Such a tragedy, they said.

Chiaki didn't need anyone to tell him. He was there.

Blood. Screaming. Disbelief. Frozen. Kousuke shaking him, but sounding nothing like his usual calm self. He still had around 70 jumps. He recalled what they told him:

"Every jump is important, Chiaki, only use them in a case where you absolutely need to--" But if this wasn't an emergency, he didn't know what was.

He would fix this. 70 jumps? 70 was a big number. Surely, he wouldn't get in any trouble by using just one. "You need to learn that some things are just meant to occur--" Fuck that.

"Ch-Chiaki? What the hell are you doing?" Ignoring his friend, he ran--and almost instinctively, he leapt. And so the spring of 8th grade passed by peacefully.

Needless to say, Makoto spent the next few weeks testing his "psychic powers" that somehow knew the brake on her bike was broken. Kousuke only shook his head, believing a more logical explanation: Chiaki had simply stolen her bike before. After all, there was only one person in the entire school who used their own name as the lock code, and they both knew who it was.

Still, the thought scared him. Some things were just meant to occur? No matter what? If someone from the future were to stop that thing from occurring, would it be okay? It wouldn't happen again, right?

He spent the remainder of 8th grade and half of 9th grade always at least two or three strides away from her, making sure time had no other method of killing her. Of course, he eventually stopped when she began violently protesting due to the rumors that started as a result of his actions. To be honest, he wouldn't mind if those rumors continued.

As time went on, he eventually reverted to spending most of his time outside of school in the museum, waiting to see the painting he had went back in time for. It became obvious that there would probably be no more train accidents in the town, and Makoto would start believing he was a stalker if he kept popping up near her randomly, anyway.

Chiaki loved his life in the past. Yes, it started out rough when he was bullied for his accent, his funny-colored hair, and his complete inability to do anything teenagers did before his time, but that all changed when he met Makoto and Kousuke. They taught him about a great game called baseball, even if they were pretty much only playing catch.

And they all became the best of friends.