Time Unraveled: Riku and Sari's Road to Justice

"Time for Round Two, Riku."

I look at the crowd of people outside and sigh. Then, I grab my cell phone from my pocket and dial a number. It rings but nobody picks it up.

"You know where to find me. And please tell your friends to back off. They're making me nervous."

The line goes dead and I head back inside the bar. My friend Sari is sitting there with a smile on her face. She's cute in a way, but there's something about her that makes me really uncomfortable.

I take a seat next to her, "Alright what's going on?" I ask her as I sit down. "Where are you getting all this money from? Are you doing drugs or something?"

"It's not drugs," she says with an obnoxious laugh, "It's like...time travel." She says it as if it were obvious. But then again, maybe it is.

I look over at the bartender and nod my head towards Sari and he nods back at me. He knows who she is and what she does. Nobody can touch her here, at least not on his watch.

"Time travel? What-" I'm cut off by Sari thrusting a small black box into my face.

"Time travel!" She exclaims, "See for yourself!" She puts the box on the table between us and opens it up so we can both see the contents of the box. It's empty except for a glass ball that looks like some sort of ball lightning trapped within an incredibly clear piece of crystal.

"What is this?!" I ask her out loud as I pick up the object from inside the box and stare at it in disbelief. It was beautiful, but also very unsettling at the same time because it felt like someone had just shoved it right into my hand without warning and now here I am holding onto something that felt like it could burn my skin off at any moment if I let go of it too quickly. The whole thing made me feel more anxious than anything else so I put it back down on the table after only a few moments of staring at it in awe of its beauty and its power to make me so anxious that I almost wouldn't want to touch it ever again after seeing how dangerous it looked while being so immaculately clean and clear that holding onto such a thing made me feel as if my soul was being cleansed with every second that passed by as I held onto that beautiful ball of energy in front of me while also feeling as though death itself was seconds away should I ever let go of that glass ball filled with lightning stuck inside some sort of crystal ball which seemed to be full of some sort of liquid that glowed eerily as if there were small fires burning within what would have been air bubbles trapped inside water if this had been water trapped inside a sphere filled with smoke instead of some sort of bright gas trapped in what seemed like nothingness except for everything trapped within nothingness trapped within itself pushed outward by something pushing inward which looked like space trying to crush itself upon itself after traveling too far from itself which was moving forward toward itself while being pulled backwards toward spacespace which was surrounded by nothingness which was surrounded by everything which was moving towards everything which was moving away from everything which was moving away from nothingness which was moving towards nothingness -

Sari snaps her fingers in front of my face and waves her arms around until finally she grabs hold of my shoulders and shakes them hard enough to make me flinch before taking hold of my face with both hands and staring intensely into my eyes until finally she breaks eye contact, leans back against her chair, crosses her arms together behind her head, exhales deeply through clenched teeth while slowly shaking them back-and-forth along with her head while looking up towards one side of the ceiling before slowly bringing them down again until they're resting against what should have been the tabletop since there wasn't actually anything on top of our table besides our drinks but instead there was this glass ball with lightning stuck inside an orb filled with smoke which looked like flames surrounded by fog surrounded by dust which contained water filled with air filled with fire surrounded by dust surrounded by fog surrounded by air which was floating inside an ocean underneath an atmosphere surrounded by space surrounding us all containing us all holding us all together inside itself holding us apart from one another separated by our differences held together by our similarities until finally we find ourselves connected once again forced together only when we move outside ourselves into others' minds where we find ourselves alone in those other minds thinking thoughts not our own until those thoughts are thrown back out into space where we find ourselves chasing thoughts we didn't think ourselves but heard from others chasing thoughts we thought not realizing they were thoughts borrowed from another mind until finally we realize those thoughts are ours again given life as words spoken aloud into existence screaming about issues everyone else is screaming about too screaming about things nobody cares about screaming about things no one else cares about either screaming about things we care about screaming about things no one else cares about either screaming about things no one else cares about while ignoring problems they do care about while ignoring problems they don't care about either ignoring problems they think they care about while ignoring problems they don't care about either ignoring problems they think they care about while ignoring problems they don't care about either ignoring problems because they're too big ignored because they're too small ignored because they're too big ignored because they're too small ignored because they're too big ignored because they're too small ignored because they're too big ignored because they're too small ignored because they're too big ignored because they're too small ignored because they're too big ignored because they're too small ignored because they're too big ignored because they're too small ignored because their wrong ignore cause their right ignore cause their wrong ignore cause their right ignore cause their wrong ignore cause their right ignore cause their wrong ignore cause their right ignore cause their wrong ignore cause their right avoid cause its stupid avoid cause its pointless avoid cause its dumb avoid cause its futile avoid cause its slow avoid cause its boring avoid cause its hard avoid cause its scary avoid cause its normal avoid cause its different avoid cause its weird avoid cause its unique avoid causing trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble avoiding trouble while doing nothing but talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking talking -

She stops shaking me around long enough to take a breath before bursting into laughter all over again beginning once again with, "Time travel!" Somehow she manages to stop laughing long enough to say these words, "See! We went back in time! An entire day has gone by since you first sat down here! Time travel! See! See! See! See!" By this point she's practically crying tears of joy for herself as well as for having caught me completely off guard. That thing must have been worth a fortune obviously worth more than whatever ridiculous price she paid for it especially considering how much effort must have been put into making something so beautiful yet so ugly at the same time all at once or perhaps whatever powers made up this object simply carried some sort of ugliness within itself that emanated outward flooding anyone who came close enough to be affected by it or perhaps maybe even anyone who wasn't affected by it instead affecting people who noticed other people behaving oddly due to being affected directly or indirectly or perhaps also maybe even people who weren't affected directly or indirectly at all but noticed other people behaving oddly anyway due to being influenced by people who were themselves acting oddly inspired not by whatever caused those other people to act strangely but instead simply inspired themselves without knowing why without understanding why without even caring why without even thinking why without knowing thought without thinking thought without caring thought without caring thought without thinking thought without understanding thought without understanding thought without caring thought without caring thought without thinking thought -

Ah yes, where were we? Right! One day has gone buy since Sari bought said glass orb containing lightning trapped within an orb filled with smoke filled with water filled with air containing fire surrounded by space surrounding earth on earth surrounded by space in space surrounded by space-space around earth on earth around not just earth but also around mars venus neptune pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto pluto ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect ect -

"Can we go somewhere?" I ask Sari abruptly interrupting whatever ramblings were just pouring out onto paper before anything else could be brought up for discussion concerning our recent trip back in time thanks to whoever created this glass orb full...of...something...or...other...or...whatever..."Time travel!" I exclaim myself in agreement with Sari before continuing, "Let's just leave town for now." And so we did leaving behind whatever happened between now and whenever we left last night when we talked about stuff that seems funny now but doesn't seem funny anymore now that morning has arrived and alcohol is wearing off along with whatever happened last night is already fading fast from memory so there's probably no point in writing any further down whatever happened last night except for maybe when