Work Text:
Late at night…
Cafe POV
Generally speaking, when Agnes Tachyon entered into the abandoned classroom she shared with Manhattan Cafe, she entered in one of a few specific moods. Moods such as: Smug Superiority, Intense Focus, Hiding the Pain or Scientific Glee. After years of being in the same space as the woman, Cafe generally had a good read on Tachyon’s current emotional state, though even she wasn’t perfect at it.
And yet, tonight seemed to be an (in)auspicious eve, as Tachyon entered into their shared domicile with an expression that was usually only seen on those who knew her: Irritated Exasperation. Slamming the door open, the scientist stomped her way towards her computer chair, her hands clenched in fists ready to lay out the next person who talked to her wrong. It was an unusual expression on the auburn Uma’s face, and the sight of it sent Cafe’s mind into overdrive. Who or what could have made Tachyon so irritated that she would outwardly express it in such a fashion?
The coffee lover hesitated to ask that question out loud, but she didn’t need to worry. The scientist in front of her opened her mouth first. “Cafe, I do believe that my trainer may, in fact, be one of the greatest ignoramuses on the face of the earth.”
The occultist blinked at the statement, but replied anyway. She could guess that her next two hours would be filled with nothing but Tachyon complaining about her trainer. “And what made you think that?”
Centimeter by agonizing centimeter, Tachyon turned her chair to look Cafe directly in the eyes. For a few seconds, she said nothing and just stared. But even she couldn’t handle the silence anymore, and answered, “Cafe, my trainer is a time traveler.”
“What.”
“A time traveler. My trainer is a time traveler, and not only did I only find this out by grabbing onto their arm when they traveled back, they never even tested if they could bring people with them in the first place!” Tachyon stood back up, pacing around the tiny shared space as she continued to expound. “Imagine, Cafe! Imagine if you had the ability to defy the laws of entropy and return to a point in your past, or even THE past, where you could change things for the better! How many great tragedies could be prevented, if you were able to provide knowledge of the future to the right people?”
As the scientist continued on with her rant, Cafe’s head tilted in thought. Beside her, her Friend did the same, albeit in the opposite direction. Now that she thought about it, there had always been something about Tachyon’s trainer that felt strange. An intense feeling of deja vu when they first met, an odd feeling of peace even during the most chaotic circumstances. What had seemed like mere quirks before now softly clicked together into a more cohesive whole.
From any other person, she would have dismissed the claim of time travel entirely. In any other circumstance, she would have assumed that Tachyon was playing a joke on her in the name of some “experiment.” Yet, the scientist in this moment was far too emotional for it to be false. She wasn’t that good of an actor, if you really knew what to look for. Beyond that, Cafe had been exposed to many a supernatural occurrence in her lifetime. Compared to ghosts and magic, how unbelievable was time travel? But if what Tachyon said was true, her current attitude towards the human seemed a bit overblown.
“Are you upset because they never told you about being a time traveler? Or is it something about the time travel that you don’t like?” The coffee lover asked, interrupting Tachyon’s rant. If going back into the past was accomplished through supernatural methods, she could see why Tachyon didn’t like it. The researcher preferred relying on methods that could be observed and reproduced (even if only by a few such as herself). The supernatural avoided those concepts when possible, with a few exceptions.
The auburn Uma scoffed. “I am hardly a petty enough creature to be upset about someone keeping secrets.” Strangely, very very strangely, Cafe didn’t believe her. Funny that. “But yes, there are several factors about their form of time travel that I have issues with. I could write a paper on all of the issues I have with it!” Tachyon’s pacing intensified as she wore grooves into the flooring beneath her. Well, not yet, but at her current acceleration it was sure to happen.
“First of course is the method through which the process of temporal movement occurs. Alarm clocks, Cafe, my trainer uses alarm clocks to activate their power! Of all the things-”
The occultist cut in, “How do they use them?” Tachyon paused once more to take in the question, and Cafe elaborated further. “Do they use alarm clocks just as an implement, or are the clocks destroyed in the process?”
Red eyes glanced up to the ceiling in thought as a potent mind rewound itself to remember the details. “Destroyed, the clocks are destroyed. My trainer said that the clock is disintegrated and remains so after the rewind. They actually own half a truck’s worth of alarm clocks in their apartment for precisely this purpose.”
Cafe nodded. “Makes sense, it’s a sacrifice then. The magic won’t function without a cost paid upfront.” Now it was her turn to look at the ceiling as she considered how to word it in a more ‘scientific’ manner. After a few seconds, she had her example. “If it helps, think of it as not ‘defying entropy.’ There’s still a material cost to it, so entropy is still being satisfied. Like how ‘perpetual motion’ machines still need a push to start.”
Tachyon tilted her head, but eventually she conceded the point with a nod. “Regardless, there are still several issues which I have with the matter. Primarily, with how they utilize their outrageous power.” In a flash, the scientist was up in the occultist’s personal space, staring her dead in the eyes with hands on her shoulders. “Do you know how I found out about this ability of theirs, Cafe?”
The coffee lover was, by now, used to this, albeit still slightly irritated at the intrusion. “No, Tachyon. I’m psychic, not telepathic.” Her Friend moved itself around to plop its chin on top of her head, though of course the brunette couldn’t see this.
“Some would argue that those words mean the same thing, but regardless, the situation I found myself in today, or rather the today-that-once-was, was…”
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A Discarded Day…
Sad. What Tachyon was seeing before her was to a degree humorous, but mostly sad.
There her trainer was, on their hands and knees before Maruzensky, a Tracen alumni who currently looked rather frightened. Which was understandable, when you had someone in this position in front of you, in public, and begging you for a date.
“Please please please please please-” came the unending chant, as the ‘magic word’ truly had the magical properties needed to make this match occur. There were students in the hallway who surrounded the two, watching the display and recording it on their phones. It would likely become a major source of embarrassment for the retired racer if it got truly viral. More importantly for Tachyon, it would likely cause problems for her trainer in the future, but for the moment she was content to just watch and observe.
Eventually the older Uma broke out of her stupor to say, in a far more stiff fashion than she had ever talked to anyone else, “Sorry. I’m… not interested in seeing anyone right now.” The response gave her the window of opportunity she needed to turn around and walk away, leaving Tachyon’s trainer there on the linoleum floor. The bystanders all gossipped amongst themselves about what happened as Tachyon finally walked towards her would-be instructor.
“Quite an interesting effort there, Trainer,” she said with her practiced smile. “A futile one, but interesting all the same.” She put her hand on the back of the human’s neck, tapping away at it like a spider crawling a wall.
To her surprise, the trainer just shrugged. “Eh, it was worth a try. Rudolf and Tazuna were the same when I tried it with them,” Tachyon’s fingers paused their routine on the trainer’s skin as she processed that information, while the bystanders gasped at the revelation. “But I’ve tried every other method before, and this was the last shot I had. Oh well,” they began, pulling out an alarm clock of all things from their jacket pocket. “It’s not like anyone will remember this anyways.”
Cradling the clock from the bottom with one hand, the other hand was raised in the air above it, before coming down with an echoing CRUNCH-
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“Once that occurred, I woke up in my bedroom this morning, the same morning I had already experienced once before,” Tachyon concluded. “The moment I woke up, I sent them a text demanding a meeting after school to find out what happened. It was there that they explained their ability to me and what they used it for.”
Halfway through the story, Cafe’s eyes had hardened. By the end of it, her eyes were like flint. “If I’m understanding things right, your trainer is not only harassing women with dating requests, they are escaping all consequences of it by using time travel?” Was the trainer practicing some dark art, sacrificing infants to an eldritch god? No, but what they were doing was certainly a sort of petty maliciousness. Or severe obtuseness, she wasn’t sure.
The scientist rolled her eyes. “If ONLY it was so simple, it would at least make sense. There have always been people desperate enough for love to resort to tactics like that. No, that is yet one example of a long list of casual rewinds. A list I only learned about after threatening to terminate my contract with them if they didn’t explain what happened to me-” She cut herself off, and corrected with “What happened today,” but Cafe took note of the odd slip.
Saving it for later, she instead continued the conversation. “And what else have they done, exactly?”
Tachyon drew in a deep breath, and Cafe held herself firm to endure through a sizable nine-course meal of examples.
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One Morning…
Trainer opened the ajar door to the office building, all prepared for the training ahead with notes aplenty. Or at least, they had been, before the plastic bucket perched precariously overhead fell down, dumping its contents onto the trainer and their notes. Sputtering at the sudden shock of cold, they could hear a familiar laugh in the distance, and their anger turned into exasperation.
“Seriously, Gold Ship? A bucket over the doorframe? Isn’t that one of the most overplayed pranks out there?” They muttered. (Un)Surprisingly, the Uma in question heard them loud and clear.
“It’s a classic for a reason, Trainer! People never expect it! Gold Ship, Out!” From there, the silver-haired creature of Chaos bound away in tiny hops on all fours, much like a rabbit or… or… or something else that also jumped on four legs! The trainer just sighed before pulling an alarm clock out of their coat.
“Well, I needed a mood booster anyway, I guess,” they whispered to themselves, before CRUNCH-
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That Same Day, At Lunch…
Taking a bite of their turkey sandwich, the trainer’s mouth twisted a bit at the taste of it. Grabbing a napkin, they spat the bit of it out into the cloth and grimaced. “Something must have been off with the turkey today. I thought the cooks would have caught that beforehand?” They had opted to go to the cafeteria for lunch instead of heading off-campus to avoid the travel times, but it seems their meal choice was a poor one.
They eyed the line of students coming through, debating whether or not it was worth it to wait in that long procession and waste more of their precious lunch break. In the end, they shrugged and pulled out another alarm clock. “I’ll make sure to choose the fried chicken next time.”
CRUNCH-
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Still That Same Day, in the Afternoon…
The trainer was hard at work finishing the paperwork needed to reserve track time for Tachyon, their pen sweeping through the pages in familiar strokes. A harsh thud hit the walls of their office, causing them to flinch. Which, of course, caused their pen to veer off course and mangle their signature. They could only sigh at the error. They would need to get a new copy for that particular page of the reservation form and do it again.
…Or…
Taking out yet another alarm clock, they muttered “It’s just to make sure I don’t waste paper. Yeah, that’s it.”
CRUNCH-
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Yet Again That Same Day, in the Morning…
As the Trainer got onto the train which would take them from their apartment to Tracen’s campus, they let out a yawn. Soon after, their eyes widened, as the smell of their own breath wafted back to them. Huh, must have forgotten to brush their teeth after that latest reset. Strangely, that fact didn’t ruin their mood like it would for most people…
Then again, it would also be rather rude of them to turn up to work with halitosis. Right? Right. Better do things over again right this time, just to avoid causing any issues. They reached inside their coat pocket for the alarm clock they never left without, pulling out the device with barely-hidden glee. “I probably forgot to do something else important anyways,” they tried to justify to themselves.
CRUNCH-
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Yes, It Really IS The Same Day, But At Night!
The trainer had gotten everything ready for bed. Shower, check. Pajamas, check. Brushed Teeth? Double-check. Phone on the charge? Definitely checked.
With nothing left to stop them from getting some much-needed rest, they walked out of their apartment’s bathroom towards the bedroom. The lights were off, but they were unnecessary. The trainer had memorized the dimensions of the space well enough that there was no chance of-
BANG
-they held back a scream, as their big toe impacted the door frame. It didn’t feel like it was broken or anything (it was quite literally part of their job to know when that happened), but it certainly hurt. With a huff, they turned around, fully intent on grabbing some ice from the freezer to cool the injury down, before stopping. Stopping at staring through the darkness to the barely visible pile of boxed alarm clocks which took up a good portion of their apartment space.
“Well…” they said softly, “I could get some ice and wait for my toe to stop hurting, which would mean that I’ll take a lot longer to fall asleep. Or…” in the unilluminated room, no light was present to reflect off of their pearly grin. They carefully crept towards their clock stash, not wanting to hit another toe on any object in their living space.
CRUNCH-
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“They really are that wasteful with their clocks?” questioned Cafe, a bit stunned at the sequence of events that had apparently occurred over just one day.
Tachyon sighed, plumping her rear end onto the couch seat next to the other Uma. “Apparently, yes. From what they say, they’ve got an ongoing subscription to some service which provides them with more clocks on a monthly basis, but it’s still rather egregious how willing they are to abuse their ability. And that’s…” she cut herself off, filling the room with silence.
Nothing was said for almost a minute, as the scientist deliberated on how she was going to say her next point. Before Cafe could disturb the peace, she finally spoke up again. “Cafe, have you ever been on analgesics before?” When the coffee lover looked confused, Tachyon clarified, “the common name for them is ‘painkillers.’”
Cafe furrowed her brow at the strange tangent. “Only some mild ones, when I was younger. It was during one of my weakness spells, and I had caught quite a bad case of the flu. They needed to put me in the hospital overnight to monitor the situation, and I was given the bare minimum needed to sleep through the night.”
The researcher hummed at her answer. “I’ve been on the ‘stronger’ varieties once before, when I was in the hospital after injuring my leg as a child. There is… a feeling of joy that occurs in several of these formulas. Not just because the pain is gone, but a signal to the mind to stimulate the hedonistic hotspots, the ‘pleasure centers’ that make us feel good. It’s a part of why addiction to these substances is so common. It’s not just taking away the pain to return to neutral, it’s replacing the pain with bliss.”
She stared down at her knees, her hands clutching the insides of the overly long sleeves of her lab coat. “When I woke up this morning after being rewound back, I felt like I was on those drugs once again. I should have been panicking at the sudden change from being somewhere else and then waking up the next moment. I should have been feeling irritated with how my trainer was acting prior. And yet, I couldn’t feel any of that. It was all drowned beneath an unusual, artificial joy that dominated my mental landscape. I felt like I could soar over the clouds, that I could do anything, even while my inner voice screamed that something was wrong.”
Tachyon turned her head to look Cafe in the eyes once more. “Cafe, I don’t think my trainer merely has a poor habit of abusing their powers. I think their powers give them a high that they are constantly chasing, whether they are conscious of it or not.”
The black-haired Uma couldn’t hold back a grimace at the thought, not about the trainer being an addict, but rather about a kind of parallel to her own situation. She loved coffee, loved brewing it, loved drinking it, everything. But even she knew the amounts she drank weren’t exactly healthy. Already she suffered headaches when she didn’t get her fix, and had issues with dehydration when she hadn’t enough water to go alongside her brews. Combining that an induced state of euphoria, as well as the inability to suffer the consequences of any mistakes?
She could see how addictive that could be.
“And the worst part about all of this is…” Tachyon began again with her final point, a pout overtaking her expression. “How many times have my trainer and I met each other for the first time? My first impression of them I could remember being quite good, but is that because we truly clicked as a pair? Or is it because they practiced countless times to achieve the right words needed to make me sign on with them? How much of any of our interactions have been truly unscripted?”
“And why did they pick you as their trainee?” Cafe questioned. “Is there a limit to how far back they can go back in time? Is it just the morning of the day their power is activated, or can it go back farther than that?”
“I did ask that question in our meeting after classes,” Tachyon scowled, “but they dodged the question whenever I brought it up. I should have pressed them harder on it. In fact,” she pulled out her cell phone, typing up what had to be a text towards her trainer.
A few minutes later, a ding indicated that the trainer had responded back. The scientist took a look at the response, her scowl deepening, as her hands went to the phone’s keyboard once again. Several seconds later, another chirp from the device, and her eyes flew open in shock. She quickly raised the device to Cafe’s eyes, startling the coffee lover with the sudden motion. But the other Uma’s alacrity did not shock even a tenth as much as what the texts actually said.
Tachyon: Trainer, you avoided the question when I asked you about it in our meeting earlier today. How far back can you go when rewinding time?
Trainer: Not much. Just about… 3-4 years or so?
Tachyon: How did you even find out about that duration before?
Trainer: Eh, it was around when I first got started training Umas with Manhattan Cafe. After she bombed at the Arc in her senior year, I figured it was time to move onto someone else, and it worked!
Cafe’s jaw was agape as she read the text again. She had never been trained by Tachyon’s trainer before. She had yet to admit to anyone about her feelings regarding the Prix de l’Arc. And yet… “...My deja vu.”
Tachyon leapt up to reach for one of her clipboards, desperate to write down notes. “A possible side effect of the rewinds? Long-term exposure as trainer and trainee in the prior timeline? Your innate supernatural senses feeling that something is wrong? But then, why would Trainer even admit-”
CRUNCH-
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Two Years Back…
As several Umamusume ran practice scrimmages on the track, one trainer in particular observed them with careful eyes. Those eyes took in the efforts of every participant, but one in particular had already captured their attention long before this timeline ever happened. When training was done, the trainer walked up to the railing, across which one of the trainees stood, drinking from her water bottle to rehydrate.
“Hey there,” the trainer said with a smile. “That was a pretty good showing on the track.”
The student blinked a bit surprised that someone would have wanted to talk with her of all people. Especially a trainer, as seen by the Tracen Academy badge pinned to their coat. “Really? I didn’t think I did all that well. Shouldn’t you want to go talk with Agnes Tachyon? Everyone seems eager to recruit her.”
The trainer shrugged. “Eh, I think she’s a bit overblown, personally. Don’t think we would vibe together very well, you know?” They pointed at the Uma, declaring “You, on the other hand, have potential. I can see it, and with my help, I’m sure that you’ll be able to get the perfect run you deserve.”
The Uma blinked in surprise at that bold declaration. “Really? You… you really believe that?”
They gave a practiced smile in response. “Of course I do. Trust me, if we work together, we can achieve anything.” With a wave of their hand in her direction, they asked, “So, what’s your name?”
The bashful girl blushed a little at the other person’s confidence, but nonetheless responded. “Well, you can call me Dantsu Flame, Trainer-san.”