Erased - What Could've Been (Satoru x Kayo)

Chapter 1

John Smith was an outsider there. Japan was a place that he didn't know very well, but he needed to get out of Texas, he studied Japanese online and he made it work with relative ease. He unfortunately became homeless quickly as he couldn't escape his financial struggles and he now lives in a bit of a hobo town near a bridge and he's the occasional substitute for the fifth grade class at Mikoto elementary school. Luckily he has a friend who lends him clothes and even once offered to make John his roommate. John refused the offer but accepted the house key and took Sawada's address as his own. He and his other homeless friends are talking when they see a rather curious sight, lights under the bridge?

"What do you think they are, John?" Okashi asks.

"Trouble. You still got that tape recorder, Yakato?"

"Yeah."

"Give it here, I'm gonna check it out. You three follow me." Yakato hands him the tape recorder and he straps on his snowshoes.

They go to investigate, following John Smith in the dark night towards the light source, there's someone inside of it. The other men stay as John moves towards the car, thanking his ex-wife for the snowshoes he got when she booted him. He puts his ear against the door and turns on the recorder. "You know, I still can't believe it, you anticipated all my plans and destroyed them one by one. I'm stunned how easily you caught me. A little boy like you. It's almost like you can see the future or something."

"This guy's crazy as a bullbat." John mutters.

"I wanna make sure you understand why you have to die. Yes, you ruined my plans, but this has nothing to do with revenge. Believe me, I do respect you. But if I can't satisfy my needs the usual way, I need to find an alternative."

"You don't have to do this, you said the game was over!"

"That's a fucking kid!" John whispers. Ducking down further as the door on the other side of the car opens.

"The children of this town are safe. Thanks to you. Satoru, so congratulations, you got what you wanted, and as for what I wanted, I still get to kill someone for my sake and on my terms." John looks over at his friends and puts his fist up quickly. They nod and start towards the probable murderer.

"Yashiro! I'm not gonna die until I see you hanged for what you've done!"

"Yes well, keep telling yourself that." John takes off his jacket and puts the recorder in its pocket. Then the car starts moving and Yashiro sees John while the kid yells after him. "Well look what we have here." He swings but gets dodged and punched in the throat as the hobos are upon the creeper, John punches him three times, the final being right on the nose and smashing it, blood and snot cover John's fist.

"You don't brawl with someone from Texas, you sonofabitch!" Then he runs towards the rapidly submerging car, diving in. He somehow gets through the door, and tries to unbuckle the kid to no avail. Fuck. As he pulls his knife, he steals from the air pocket and starts cutting the seatbelt, getting through and pulling the boy out of the car. (A/N: At this moment, he's back in the future, and this is twelve year old Satoru now impacted by the maturity of his 29 year old counterpart) When they're on shore, John immediately starts CPR, stealing a look at his friends who have just knocked out the murderer. "Yakato get the police, Gyuniku, Okashi make sure he stays down." They nod firmly and start getting to action. He stops chest compressions and listens, still not breathing. "Shit, I gotta do mouth-to-mouth. Sorry about the whiskey, kid." he plugs Satoru's nose and blows into his mouth three times before going back to chest compressions, he finally spits out the water after two cycles. "Okashi, get my coat, stop recording. Hey, kid. You okay?"

"Are you... God?"

"I wish I were. We just saved you. I punched the guy's lights out." He hears sirens, "That's the police. We have everything on recording... well maybe not everything, but enough. You're good enough evidence for the rest." Okashi hands him the coat and John wraps it around Satoru. "Keep warm, yeah? This is hog killing weather."