Venous

Venous: Chrono Stone I

This was supposed to be one chapter... but it got too long, so the second part will come later. Eventually XD

Now, enjoy!

~'0'~

''Are you the reason why Raimon's gone all weird?''

''That's right.''

The strange boy – Alpha, he said his name was – stares at him blankly when Tenma narrows his eyes angrily. ''I'll never let you erase soccer! Turn everyone back to normal!''

He remembers their blank stares, the confusion when he spoke to them, and swallows thickly. ''Give soccer back!'' he says, instead of following that line of thinking.

''No,'' states Alpha and holds out a hand, his voice and expression as monotone as it's been the whole time. ''What we must do is the exact opposite. The total annihilation of soccer.''

He feels nauseous and the brunet swallows, trying to get rid of the feeling. ''That's...'' he clenches his fists, trying to stop their shaking. ''I won't let you!''

But then Alpha is holding something, some small, black disk with a red button, and as he throws it into the air he says, ''you cannot resist me,'' and a ball shape forms. It lands in front of the purple-haired boy and Tenma has barely a second to notice the different buttons on it, when Alpha pushes one of them and the ball starts glowing with a bright red energy. ''Time Warp Mode.''

He shoots it towards the brunet and Tenma steps backwards, but trips on the staircase. The world lurches sharply and a bright red light fills his vision, Alpha's face the last thing he sees, and for a few seconds that feel like hours, he's gone.

When he comes back to his senses, he can feel the wind in his hair, hear the cries of the seagulls, feel the salty wind on his lips.

His eyes snap open because he knows this.

Blue sky, as opposed to the evening's orange glow from a moment before, the bright, sparkling blue sea, lazy cotton clouds drifting through the sky.

He knows this, as well as he knows his room in Kogarashi Manor. Even if it's impossible, even if his mind tells him that he can't have traveled from Tokyo to Okinawa in barely a minute, he knows this place like the back of his hand.

Home.

  ~'0'~  

Tenma's staring at the world of sparkling colors beyond the window of the Inazuma TM Caravan and while he's awed by its beauty, there's too much going on in his head to really notice.

''Don't worry. You survived.''

That's what Alpha had said, after stopping Gouenji's attempt to save the brunet's younger self.

Despite everything that just happened, he can't help but focus on that part.

You survived. Nothing about how long, or the repercussions.

It should've been reassuring, in the least, but instead, Tenma can only remember the doctor visit where he was diagnosed with hemophilia. That was when he was five.

The accident happened when he was three.

Part of him wonders how that went down, in this world. You survived could've meant so many things.

It probably isn't a good sign for his mental stability if he's thinking so much about his possible death.

But the other option is remembering the pain.