Chapter Text
A boy was walking on the field of grass, surrounded by flowers, wheat, dirt, and other natural stuff that you probably find normally in a small field surrounded by forest in every direction.
He has bright red eyes, with hair as white as a rabbit's fur. His name was Bell, and he was rolling on the ground.
Bell closes his eyes as a cloud sweeps by, blocking the sunlight from hitting his face.
Then, just like the shadow of the cloud, he felt something was looming over him... humming?
The kid opened his eyes, before he pushed himself to now sitting on the grassy ground, looking at the sky.
"Hello!" He shouted while staring at what seemed to be nothing in the air.
"Who are you?" He asked innocently, while pointing his little finger at the gray outline of an eye floating in the air that only he could see.
"..." The eye stared back at him in silence, contemplating their next choice of words.
"Chronos." The eye said, their voice coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "My name is Chronos." The voice lied, but the boy didn't know.
So the boy smiled. Full of innocence and joy.
"Hello there... Chr-cr-Cronus!" A twitch from the floating eye went unnoticed by the boy. "Nice to meet you." He extended his hand toward the floating being, seemingly oblivious to his mistake in spelling.
"No, Chronos. The ancient Greek personification of time." Chronos explained as Bell slowly brought his hand down, letting the floating eye getting distract from how sheepish he feels right now. "Not Cronus. That's a titan of the harvest."
"What's a titan?" The floating eye blinked, suddenly realizing that Titan doesn't really exist here.
"Well..." Chronos trails off his voice, trying to find a group of words to describe it. "Imagine gods, but come before and only come from the Greek pantheon." Most people think that Titans are giant humanoid monsters, but really, they're just gods, albeit older and perhaps bigger, they think?
"Ohh..." The boys murmured in understanding... not really. Before changing the subject. "So... are you a god?" The boy's heart suddenly races. Was he talking to a god this entire time?
"...technically not? Or were they?" Bell tilted his head, and fear slowly turned into confusion. "Was he a primordial essence or a god? Does he come after Gaia or was he created around the same time as Khaos..." So many big words, yet so little time for the little rabbit to understand. "I... don't know." The cricket screams out from the trees. How anticlimactic.
"...I'm confused," Bell stated, but he was enjoying it. He rarely got someone to talk to after all.
"Well, you see-" Chronos then proceeded to cough, further popping more questions into the boy's head. "Cronus and Chronos get confused with one another a lot. Like, ALOT alot. To the point where Cronus slowly turns into Kronos, the titan of time. And the original Chronos got... forgotten. I think? There are multiple versions of it that are very confusing, but hey, that's mythology for you." They finished their lengthy explanation as the cloud departed, revealing a bright sunny sky that cast upon them a ray of evening gleam.
"I like your funny word! Friend!" He exclaimed enthusiastically. "Even though I don't understand... any of it at all, I think?" The boy scratched his head, a drop of sweat appeared on his forehead.
"Mythology is weird," Chronos admitted. There are so many iterations that it was confusing at times. "At least it was a confusing type of weird, and not turning into a goose to fuck someone type of weird." The being in front of Bell chuckled to themself.
"What's a fuck?" Bell asks innocently about one of the few words easy enough for him to pronounce and comprehend without a tongue getting twisted.
The world turns silent as Chronos turns to stare at him with every bit of shock and horror from their entire being. The tension slowly grew as the floating eye slowly floated closer and closer until it was mere inches away from him.
"You'll know when you become older." Chronos returned to his usual place, any tension in the atmosphere turned back to normal, and all Bell could do was stare dumbfoundedly at the being in front of him.
"Bell!" A voice calls from the forest, specifically, his home. "Can you come'ere for a sec, your grandpa needs a hand!"
"Goodbye, Mister Cho-choro... friend!" The boy stood up and dashed into the forest ahead, running back to his home. "See you later!" He turns around briefly and waves them goodbye.
The being stares at the boy's slowly fading body into the forest, before they glance up into the sky. Their mind full of thought.
"...friend." The floating drawing of an eye whispers to themself. Chronos, that's what the name he told the boy.
"How...interesting." The false embodiment of time murmured to themself. If they have a mouth, they would've undoubtedly be smiling.
The early sun slowly crept up the horizon as the morning god shed their first light onto the land.
Birds flew up into the sky, flowers bloom for their enrichment, morning people rise up to prepare for their lives, and-
"CHRONOS!" A nearly 8-year-old Bell Cranel shouts out for his one and only friend to appear.
The noise he makes echoes all over the mountains, bellowing in the hills, shaking the forest, and casually makes a flock of birds flee upon hearing such unexpectedly loud noise.
"Ask, and you shall receive." The familiar he heard every day echoes inside his head once more, before the same eye appears. "Good morning, Bell." The boy smiled as he rushed to his best friend up the nearby hill.
"Good morning!" Bell cheered, jumping up to grab onto his friend, only to phrase through them one more, just like many times before.
"Mybirthdaywillbesoonwillyoujoi-" His face was then planted into the ground behind Chronos. Getting a handful of grass and dirt shoved into his mouth and subsequently stopping him mid-yapping.
"...oww." The boy muttered, coughing out a spec of dirt from his mouth. "Waa Cantt Aii tough yuu?"
Chronos and Bell have been friends for quite a while now. They come to talk, leading Bell into a beautiful view of nature, and teach Bell about other stuff. They even tell him these cool jokes.
"Knock Knock," Chronos said, mimicking the sound of a door getting knocked.
"Who's there!" He asked, answering the joke.
"Doctor," Chronos answered.
"Doctor Who?" Chronos then proceeds to laugh themself senseless.
Hm, he wonders why?
"That's because I'm not connected to this world with a promise yet." They explained just as Bell stood up and pushed away the dirt that clung to his shirt.
"A promise?" Bell asks, pondering the choices of the word.
"Well, you see. When you're the embodiment of watc- time, you can't really interact with... anything really." Bell spotted the change in words. Maybe all these morning meetings start to catch up to them in their sleep schedule. "You are the first who can see and talk to me. But that doesn't mean that you can touch me, that's like trying to touch the concept of sight and experience."
"Then how..." Bell stopped his question, deciding that it was best for Chronos to answer at their own pace.
"Well, you see." The floating eye hovers down to get closer to him. "While I can't interact with you, I could have you and me make a promise. Think of it like a deal." He flies through him as a demonstration, before diving into the earth and coming back up like they're a ghost in horror stories.
"For example, I make so you'll be able to use my power over time and be able to interact with me, and you'll have to be my anchor and be able to interact using your body from time to time, like..." Chronos stops for a moment, trying to think of the best way to describe possession. "Think of a puppet to a puppeteer. Rather disturbing, I know." They admitted.
"But to be honest, I would rather it just stayed like thi-" A voice cut them off from finishing his sentence. "Done!" Bell exclaimed, excitement and happiness overflowing from his tone.
"E...Excuse me?" Chronos turns his gaze to look at their friend and-
A grey translucent paper appeared in his hand. One that they recognized.
"Wait, wha-" Chronos was alarmed. "Wait, no, hold on-" Bell pressed on the bottom right of the paper, causing it to glow in grey light.
"BELL STO-" Both of their visions come to a halt as the entire world glitches from their sight for a few seconds before everything goes back to normal.
The clearing was silent as Chronos stared at the jumping white-haired child. Only the wind entered their senses as Chronos' entire being shook.
"What have you-" They didn't finish their sentence as the white-haired child jumped up and grabbed the flabbergasted floating drawing and hugged it tightly in his chest. Before gravity does its job, causing them to tumble down the hill and lie on the ground, all the while Bell was laughing, as if his birthday had come early.
"Ha..." The boy let out a big sigh before giggling to himself as he continued to hug Chronos further.
"I can hug you now!" The boy exclaimed joyously, seemingly ignorant of the glare they received from the floating eye.
"Do..." Chronos began, disappearing and reappearing above Bell's lying body. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?!?" Their tone was laced with an undertone of rage and... concern?
"What do you mean?" The little rabbit tilted his head. "I can touch you now, we can play with each other now!" He brought his index finger to poke at them. Weirdly enough, they didn't seem to be concerned about that.
Then, without a warning. His body moves on its own.
"W-wha-" His body went stiff, and his hand suddenly shot up to poke at his cheeks.
All the while, Bell could do nothing about it.
"I can move your body," Chronos stated as a fact. Looming over him threateningly and... it scares him.
"I can feel your every breath, hear your every thought, and do anything that you don't want." They said, Bell's heart rate slowly fastened as his body walked toward the floating grey eye.
"I could've used it to go kill someone, and no one would've thought that I'm doing it." A step forward, the grass below him gets flattened under his boots.
"I could've used your body to commit atrocities after atrocities, burning villages, and other horrendous action all the while being free as a bird in the sky." Another step forward, getting closer to the glaring being that was currently controlling his body.
"I could've use you own body to torture you, before killing you and ending your life!" They are now inches apart. The grey eye was shaking, undoubtedly with rage.
Bell, with eyes as wide as a plate, stares at his friend in alarm.
The silence was so loud that his ears started ringing. The tension in the area thickens as his heartrate accelerate more and more.
"...Why?" The voice cut through the air like a knife through butter.
"Wh-why would you do such a thing?" Chronos asked, stuttering with shaking voices.
The tension in the air slowly changed. No longer was it filled with frustration, anger, and animosity.
It was full of guilt.
"...would you do it?" Bell asked, earning the floating being's attention.
"What?" Chronos inquired, blinking a few times at the boy before him.
"Would you do all the things you said?" Bell asked his best friend, staring up at the floating embodiment of time before him with tears threatening to come out.
"Of course not!" They exclaimed. "Why would I? I would rather watch and view from afar than get involved. It's-" They got cut off by the child.
"Then why do I have to fear?" A drop of tear crept down his cheek, falling to the ground and watering the grass below. "I can finally hug you and play with you! Isn't that awesome?" He extends both of his hands to envelop the floating Chronos, who continues to stay silent.
"*Gasp* I can invite you to my birthday party!" His eyes lit up, yet the tears still stained his face. "You're the first person I've ever invited!" The hand that clamped his friend slowly pulled closer to the boy's chest.
"You're the first friend I've ever had." He whispered as the being from afar stared at the boy with an unreadable expression. It must've been hard to express their feeling when their only body part was a singular, floating, flat drawing in the air.
"You're the only friend I had..." The boy once again hugged his friend, feeling the countless blades of grass prickling their skin as they lay on the ground, crying with a puffy nose.
"Please..." He pleaded to his best friend, closing his eyes as tears dampened his sight.
"Please... don't be what you said..." The boy pleaded one more, begs to all that is above and below.
Both of them stay like that. A child and a thing, in the middle of a valley. Surrounded by nature, hills, mountains, and the calming morning gale.
"Do you... Really trust me that much?" The voice below his chin asked him, the feeling of something shaking in front of his chest resonated all over his body.
"Yes! You're my best friend!" The soon-to-be 9-year-old exclaimed. "Of course I trust you! You are the best."
"..." Both of them stayed silent, listening to the birds singing and the cold early breeze of the day entering their senses.
"...Thank you, Bell." A smile crept up from the child's face as the floating grey eye gently floated out of his grasp.
"But please, don't go around accepting deals like exchanging candy. Especially in a world where gods and spirits exist." He warned the boy, who slowly rose up, now sitting on the grass with crossed legs.
"Do you understand?" The boys nodded, wiping away his tears and tossing away the mucus that got stuck in their noses.
"Good." Chronos descended, then proceeded to get hugged like before. This time, it seems to be mutual, as much of a mutual as someone with no arms at least.
"You're lucky I'm an outsider here, else they'll take full advantage of your innocence." Chronos huffed out, all the while still getting lightly crushed by the white-haired boy.
"What do you mean by an outside?" The floating eye pupils shrink, and a metaphoric sweat appears on their being.
They disappear from his embrace and reappear on top of him, floating above like the rest of his time with him.
"That..." Bell listened closely, eager to learn more about his close friend, who he now... shared his life with? He's still trying to understand the implications behind his action.
"... will unfortunately be for another time." A sweatdrop appeared on his forehead as he sulked, staring at the ground before staring into his best friend's iris with an extended pinky finger.
"...promise?"
"Promise."
Bell smiles, before staring at his own hand in embarrassment. No matter how long it has been, he's still acting as if his friend has arms to shake.
"Sorry for accidently giving you the offer, that's my bad..." Chronos admitted his fault. Apologizing to Bell with sincerity. "It's okay." Bell accepts it before another thought enters his head.
"Now!" With enough of those interjections, Bell turns to Chronos with expectation sparking behind those red eyes of his. "Can you show me your power?"
"Hm...let's see." Chronos starts to look around before spotting the tree quite far away from them.
"See that tree?" Bell turned his head to the tree about 5 houses away from him and nodded.
"Now, watch." "Wha-"
The world around him glitches, twisted, separated into multiple boxes of sky and grey. Before everything turned to normal, albeit a little bit different.
He turned around, and he was behind the said tree.
The little rabbit looked past the tree to see the hill that he was previously occupying, seemingly traversing here in a mere millisecond.
"OH THAT WAS SO COOL!" He exclaimed as Chronos chuckled lightly at the child's antic.
That was when the boy spotted the giant mountain so high that it went through the clouds; if he were to guess, it would've taken him about a day or two to reach its top.
"Can I go over there?" He pointed at the top of the mountain, its tips sticking out like a spear to heaven.
"Give me a sec." Bell waited as his friend disappeared, probably searching for a safe spot for him to go.
Just a few seconds later, the same shifting happened once again.
Pure grey square and aspect of the mountain views appear in his vision like a cutout of a realistic drawing of the forest and mountain views before everything turns back to normal once more.
And it was breathtaking.
Surrounding him was the sky without clouds, the horizon curve upon itself as the zenith above was painted deep blue. Separating above and below like night and day was happening at the same time.
Everything was so small! And vast! He could spot Grandpa's home and the nearby village from here! Without turning his head!
All of it was beneath him, beneath the clouds. Is this what watching Genkai from the perspective of a god was like?
"THIS IS AWESOME!" Star practically replaced his pupils as he looked at the clouds below him.
His birthday is next week! And it's going to be the most amazing thing since his last birthday.
Bell couldn't wait!
The forest was burning.
Grandpa was dead.
The village was scorching.
He heard screaming.
"CHRONOS!" Bell screams, running through the village calling for his friend to help him.
But nobody came.
"CHRONOS! WHERE ARE YOU!" The little rabbit screamed again, the flame flaring like a tidal wave hitting the shore.
"PLEASE!" He pleaded to the only friend he thought was listening.
"Chro-" A gigantic wind staggered him from behind as a low growling sound echoed from behind him.
He turned around, but it was too late.
A single tail swipe sends him into the rubble of what used to be a house. Impacting through the last remaining pillar of the house.
"Ch...ron...os..." He muttered with pained breath as the rubble of stone and bricks slowly fell above him.
"...Bell?"
"Ple...ase... give m...me... str...nght!" He prayed, not to the gods that he never met, but to the only friend that he had.
"Bell! Help me!"
"P..lease..." More and more rubble slowly falls down, engulfing his surroundings with rocks, bricks, wood, and glass shards.
"Help me, please!"
"He..lp... me..." With that last word, the ceiling crumbled to the floor, falling on top of him with a loud
"..."
The air was cackling with flames, the roar of a monster bellows inside the town, embraced by Hades, and the voice of a child fell into silence.
"I'm sorry."
*Shink*
The giant ruins of the ceiling got cut in half, before it all turned to dust by thousands upon thousands of slashes, turning the ruins into dust.
And from the broken building, there was an old man.
He has grey and white hair; his face was covered by a thick white veil covering his face. He dressed in a long white kimono, covered in red and blue.
The old man sheathed his Odachi before looking around his surroundings, feeling the fizzing air around his being like space and time itself was shifting around him.
"Where..." The old man stuttered, coughing up a few smokes out of his old lungs, "Am I..." He thought he had escaped to the corner of the eastern world. Far from everything. Why would someone want anything to do with him-
He remembers that house.
He remembers this road.
It was his childhood village.
"Why am I-" His voice got cut off as a sudden sensation overwhelmed him.
Pain.
Then suddenly, the old man was gone. Replaced by a 14-year-old dungeon adventurer of the Hestia family, trashing in pain on the ground.
And just as quick as he came, he was gone. The fabric of reality shifted and revealed another person that come forth from the boy's previous space.
Replaced by a 32-year-old rogue mercenary wearing a hunter cloak holding a rapier and an enchanted saber.
"Wha-" The guy didn't even manage to finish his first words before he collapsed to the ground, feeling every single fiber of his body screaming in pure agony. Like the feeling of getting ripped apart on the existential level.
Another formed blinked into existence, this time is an 18-year-old adventurer holding a white crystal-like handle, dripping with liquid metal. Looking around in confusion, shivering at the phantom pain he has no idea where it is coming from.
"W-where am I?" He stutters out, holding out his blade, high on guard. "Come out already, you don't scare m-" The newly adult burst forth a scream from his throat as his body flickered in and out of existence.
*Gasp*
The newly 9-year-old Bell Cranel staggered to the ground, his body flickering with grey and blue after images.
He slowly pushes himself up from the ground, flinching lightly at the needling pain inflicted upon him every time he moves.
Step after step, the boy tried to flee, to run, to try anything for the pain to go away.
Before a looming shadow swooped past him.
"Wha-" A roar and a gigantic gust of wind push past him, creating a giant cloud of dust that envelops him.
Once the dust had settled, the form of the monster appeared before Bell.
It has a wing of a demon, head of a serpent, horn of a deer, tail of a lizard, claw of a bear, scale as hard as steel...
And the eyes of a monster.
It roars at him before using its wings to dash forward. It claw meres moments away from him.
The world holds its breath in anticipation as once again, the very existence itself shifts and contorts.
*Swoosh*
A singular line of blue appeared on the monster's body, separating its arm from the rest of its body.
*Screeeee*
Flashes of blue erupt from the line, exploding the beast through its skin into the flesh, causing its own appendage to get flung into the air.
It roars in great pain, feeling the loss of its right arm and right wing, staggering back as it face it first foe that could actually fight back.
The 9-year-old child, now a 68-year-old man grabbing onto his sheathed Odachi, gritting his teeth as pain and agony consume him. His very existence was glitching, as if existence itself was perplexed about what they're looking at.
He unsheathed his blade and rushed toward the monster. Before the world erupts into a blinding blue light.
*Gasp*
Rapid breathing was all Bell Cranel's could hear in this moment as he awoke from his slumber.
He looks around his bedroom before letting out a long, heavy sigh.
Bell was inside his bedroom, inside Hestia Familia churches, inside Orario.
A sigh of relief escaped him before the need to use the toilet inserted itself into his brain in what seemed to be the middle of the night.
Bell Cranel, the only member of the Hestia familia, stood up from his bed, still in his pajamas, and slowly walked toward the toilet.
5 minutes later
The sound of running water bellows inside his head as he washes his hands.
Bell quickly closed the tab after he was done, and just then, decided to look inside the mirror.
He... grows up. Not that much from 5 years ago, but still, it was definitely a change.
The baby fat grows thinner, his body grows taller, his pain tolerance grows to an absurdly abnormal degree, and...
Then, the air starts to shift.
"Oh no-" Bell grit his teeth, static entered his ears as an overwhelming surge of pain enveloped his entire being.
He screams inside his mind, pushing down the pain as his body morphs through space and time itself.
His strength increases, his height grows a few notches, and his clothes morph into a white kimono with his face covered in a white veil.
Bell Cranel, now in the age of 68, looks up to stare at his own reflection.
A red glowing iris glares back through the side opening of the veil, gripping the side of the sink so hard it's starting to crack.
Hatred, pain, sorrow, grief, guilt, loneliness, madness, and everything in between linger in the air like a cloud of poison. Unseen yet could've killed someone if moved closer.
Then the flicker comes once again.
The old Bell silently screams a voiceless cry of agony as more and more static consumes him, attacking both his flesh and his mind as countless feelings unfelt by him since the day of old started to invade his thoughts again.
*Huff* *Huff*
And then the 14-year-old Bell Cranel came back, flinching away the phantom pain invading his senses.
He closed his eyes, feeling the burning agony slowly disappearing, before being able to finally calm himself down.
With his business done, he slowly walked out of the toilet, climbed up the stairs into his room, and jumped into bed once more. Praying for a dreamless rest. He got a dungeon to run tomorrow after all.