He took it off, and covered it with a white cloth. "Thief.." I accidentally said out loud. His head turned at my voice, and looked at me.

"No, boy, what are you even doing here? This is merely a replica I bought here, and wanted to get to my grandkid-"

"There are no souvenirs of that mask here. And besides," I looked at the mask in his hand. I felt rooted to the spot in fear again. No doubt about it. It was the mask. "I can tell it's the real one."

I finally realised what felt off about the replica he somehow put in the glass. "The replica has more distance between its eye sockets, it wouldn't be able to function as a mask"

"...Very perceptive, indeed." The old man said, his happy demeanour now completely gone. He stood up, straightening his back as much as his body would let him. He stared at me for a few seconds.. and then he was gone. 

He vanished out of sight only to appear right in front of me. I looked up at him, seeing the pure bloodlust in his eyes. But there was also a hint of something else. Was that... hesitation? He raised his hand in the air. I felt the same glare I felt from the mask, but this time it was just one person. Were his eyes always azure-colored? 

As if to answer me, his eyecolor flickered, and he closed them. He put his hand back down, and and opened his eyes. They were a normal hazel now. 

"Here's the deal, kid. You're gonna take this mask," He said, handing it to me. "and give it to Tomoya Abakiri. Seeing how you care for him, you must be best friends or something. Just tell him it's a souvenir you bought here as a gift for him. Make sure only that child puts on the mask." He said, threateningly. "Now, go ahead. I'll be behind you, watching."

We walked out of the staff room, and I saw them waiting at the door. Just as I was gonna wave to them, they headed out, seemingly deciding to wait outside. 

I sped up my walking to get there in time, surely enough, the old man was walking behind me. I got out of the door. 

"Hey, To-" my words were cut short by the sight in front of me as the voices around me got louder.

Right there, in the middle of the road, Tomoya was on the ground, staring at a truck about to run him over.

I didn't think about what I did much. The only scenes that came to mind were the mask being supernatural, appearing and disappearing from the old man's face, and how he appeared before me so quickly in the room. 

I put the mask on my face, and ran, with nothing but the faint hope that I can somehow use whatever power this mask provides.

All I remember was taking one step. Just one. I heard the old man raise his voice in anger, but that was soon drowned out, just like the screams of the rest of the class. 

I felt encased in a glass statue, like it was melted over me and carved while I was inside. I felt frozen and binded by invisible shackles. 

I almost fell off the stairs. I barely caught my step in time, but I was still confused. I kind of expected Haruno to try and catch me, but when I looked back, I was caught by surprise instead.

Everything was slow. Not super slow, but significantly much slower. 'I could save Tomoya like this,' I thought. 'I could figure out this later.'

I ran towards Tomoya. One step, two steps. By the third step, I was right beside him. If everything was slow, would I be able to move him in time? He was slightly heavier than average, but I was still weak. Maybe if I held his collar and pulled him and ran, I'd be able to?

I took a hold of his collar, and pulled. It felt like I was pulling a giant boulder. I stopped pulling and stood beside him, collar still in hand.

I took a deep breath, and ran as fast as I could, hoping the speed would make up for my lack of strength. I can tell you it definitely did, but not exactly how I'd imagined. 

I ran, but the next split second everything around me was a mixed blend of colors. The colors and flashing lights hurt my eyes and head, it felt like my senses were being overwhelmed. 

I stopped immediately, and everything went back to normal.. except it wasn't. 

We were no longer in front of the museum, but we were in the middle of a street I didn't recognise. Gradually, everything gained speed again, and things went back to normal. 

"What just happened? Where am I?" I heard behind me on the ground. I almost forgot about Tomoya. He looked back up at me. "Yamato? What's happening? Why do you have that thing on? I could've sworn I was just-" 

"I'll explain in a bit, but for now," I said, pulling him up by the hand. "Let's just figure out how we can go back" 

"I know this place, don't worry." He said, seeming to calm down. "I came here with mom before, there should be a train station around the corner here." 

"Okay, let's go" 

We got a ticket with the little money we had just in case, and sat down waiting for the train. In the meanwhile, I filled him in on what happened.

"So, you're telling me.. you're now a superhuman with the ability to slow down time?" He asked.

"I think it might be speed, considering what happened when I pulled you away, but yeah." I replied.

"And I was the one who was supposed to put the mask on?" 

"Umm, yep." 

"So, you took my superpowers." 

"I guess you could say that." 

He leaned back on the bench, and slowly melted off of it. "Man, I could've been the new Flash." 

"If it makes you feel better, I don't run with electricity coursing through my body and around me." I said, just staring at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, that's true," he sighed. "Can I put it on now, maybe I can get powers too." 

"I don't think so, the old man was pretty insistent that only you wear it," I said, feeling guilty and afraid at the thought of the old worker. "But you can go ahead and try." 

I handed him the mask, and he put it on. Nothing happened, from my perspective at least. "Do you feel anything?" I asked.

"Nope," he sighed, taking it off. "I won't forget this." he said. I almost took him seriously.

The train arrived, and we got on. We arrived back about half an hour later. We walked from the other side of the road towards the museum, to make it look like we walked there. 

Some of our classmates were still there, the teacher seemed to be looking for us. The truck was parked and the driver was helping. The workers were out too. I noticed the old man standing at the very back of the crowd, looking grim. That's when I got an idea.

"They never saw me walk out. I can run in there and pretend to walk out" 

"What about me? I was almost run over in front of them" Tomoya asked.

"Here," I dirtied my hand and rubbed it across his clothes and face. "Just pretend you rolled away and sat behind that mailbox until you calmed down. Shock, it's only normal" I said, cheekily. 

"Alright then," he said.

I put on the mask, and got in a running position. I got up, and ran. Then I stopped.

Why was everyone moving normally? Did it not work? Was it just a fluke? I looked back at Tomoya. He just looked at me confused. "Why aren't you running?" 

"I can't" I replied, still trying to think about what went wrong. I racked my head for anything. Did it need to be an emergency to work? No, then the old man couldn't have swiftly moved to me like that. Focus, Yamato. Focus! More urgent than that, what do we do now?

"Do you know what your powers do? Think about everything that happened so far." Tomoya said. "We know you can move quickly, but there must be more to it than that." 

He closed his eyes to think, and then opened them, gasping. "Hypnosis!" 

"Hypnosis?" I repeated.

"When I first saw the mask, it was like I was hypnotised, and I almost put it on before any of you even appeared to stop me. That means-" 

"-we could try hypnotising them into forgetting what even happened." I finished his sentence.

"Exactly! C'mon let's go" 

We passed the road behind the truck, away from sight. We snuck up behind them, and walked into the crowd. When they noticed us, they immediately bombarded us with questions.

I was about to take out the mask and put it on, and that's when it hit me. I can't just put the mask on in front of everyone like that. But then again, the old man had moved so quickly, even without the mask. Could I really do it without the mask? Well, I have nothing to lose anyway.

I raised both my hands and aimed it at them. I didn't know a chant or anything to activate, so I just kept chanting "forget" over and over in my head, praying it would work. 

"..forget forget forget." I accidentally said aloud. 

I think saying I wished the earth would open up and swallow me whole would be an understatement.

The rest all just stared at me with raised eyebrows and 

dumbstruck expressions. That's when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Well, none of that matters right now," I heard the old man's voice behind me. "What matters is that they're okay now." 

"Yeah, you're right, sir." Our teacher sighed. Color seemed to be returning back to his face. "Well, we've been delayed long enough. It's time to head back home." 

When I woke up in the morning, I didn't think I'd be this happy to hear those words.

*****

We got on the bus, and we started heading back home. Haruno's ears and nose looked a little red, and his eyes seemed a little glassy. Was he crying?

Kosuki seemed normal, but from time to time I'd notice glance at us. Aww, he was worried too. I'm touched.

The bus seemed quiet the whole way. I would've normally appreciated the quiet, but I really hated their stares.

Usually, I'd bury myself behind the pages of a book, but even that felt uselessly tiring. I wanted to sleep.

I told Tomoya to wake me up, and rested my head on his shoulder. It was sharp and rock hard, but I was too tired and fell asleep anyway.