11 – John Titor

John Titor. That was the name of a person claiming to be a soldier from the year 2036 that appeared around the years 2000/2001.

In a certain Anime, it turned out to be an actual time traveler from the future and the story was true.

Of course, since this was Earth, that wasn't the case. Although John Titor existed, he was nothing more than a blip on the radar, brushed under the rug by the internet as another meme or tall tale.

However...

Akihabara. Sunday evening, November 3rd, 2024.

Through some last minute negotiations and an intricate web of lies, truths, and manipulations, John managed to get ahold of advertisement space for a single hour of all the monitors throughout the area, as well as manpower to instantly drop down projector screens and projectors.

Of course, those were mostly just nameless dolls that he had lying around his collection, but nobody needed to know that.

In any case, the plan was simple. At the stroke of midnight, all the clocks would freeze and time would spin back... Aesthetically, of course. It'd be pointless for it to actually do that.

But before that happened, John had to make a few more calls.

Standing in his studio, he glanced at the clock. Seven P.M. Still five hours left to go.

It seemed like his pieces on the ground were gearing things up too.

There weren't many people around... but that was fine. He could make up the numbers on his own.

More importantly...

Picking up his phone, John dialed a number. It was late in the evening, but...

"H-Hello?"

A sweet and cute voice answered on the other line.

John smiled. "Good evening, Rin. Am I bothering you?"

"No! Not at all! I was just practicing!"

"Practicing?" John frowned. He hadn't given her any songs or dances yet. Then... "An original piece?"

"Mmhm! It's one that I planned to use for auditioning before Mom got sick. Ah... you don't mind if I use it, do you?"

"Of course not."

That was adorable, actually. And also more fortunate than ever that John ran into her.

"Heehee... Ah! Wait, did you need something, Mister John?"

"Again, it's John. But I just wanted to tell you to keep an eye on Readit- Ah wait, this is Japan so that'd be Toochan, right?"

"Pardon?"

"You'll see. Anyway, stay up until midnight, alright? You'll see firsthand the scale of what you'll eventually be doing. I hope you won't be deterred."

"I told you already, Mister John! I'll take whatever you throw at me!"

"Again, John. But that's the spirit." John stared into the screen. Specifically, at the animations. "Stay awake now, alright? You'll miss the fireworks."

"Fireworks? What do-"

John hung up the phone and then stared into the display. Afterwards, he made some last minute preparations.

"Music, check. Avatar, check. Animations, check. Speech..." He paused. "...I'll be fine cribbing off of that a little, right?"

Silence. Of course, he didn't expect an answer.

"...Should be fine. Now... Time for a series of 'coincidences' to stack into an astronomical miracle."

===

11:55 PM.

Rin opened her laptop and stared at the frontpage of Toochan, frowning. "What did Mister John want me to see?"

From the tone he had, it seemed to be important.

As she was wondering what she was looking for, a thread appeared.

Rin blinked, especially seeing all the reposts of it. "That's... Is this it?"

A sketchy looking video- No, a livestream, filled with static. Clicking on it, revealed a timer. An old digital clock with orange numbers, counting down from five. As for the title of the post...

"Returning the Future from beyond the Gate?"

Rin frowned, reading the comments on stream.

[LOL what is this, Anonymous?]

[A joke video? Mods, take it down!]

A flurry of harsh comments wondering what kind of person was acting mysterious. A string of comments wondering why the video was still up. But the mods were silent, leaving even more people curious about what the stream was about.

Rin's frown deepened and she checked the name of the poster. "John... Titor?"

It couldn't have been a coincidence. The fact that Mister John called her to stay up and watch. The mysterious stream...

Rin kept watching, as curious as the other people were.

As the timer ticked down, the static began to fade, showing a figure of a person in a white lab coat with their back turned.

No, not a normal person. An animated person.

Then, just as the timer hit zero...

The lights dimmed.

Rin's eyes widened and she looked around, hearing the carbon monoxide detector and fire alarms drone. It was only for a split second, and the power didn't turn off. But there was a clear power drain.

At the same time, she turned her gaze back to the live stream. There...

[Open the Gate to new MirAIs]

A simple message was written in white across a black screen. And then-

===

"Can you hear me?" John stood up, making a show of adjusting a camera. "Good. It seems the calculations are in order."

The livestream comments were displayed in the corner of his vision and on the screen while he stepped back. Seeing them, he nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, people from twenty five years ago. Since you're reading this, it seems like the connection is stable... I was worried there because the power drained. But it seems like there's enough to handle the load."

[What the hell?]

[Is this... What kind of publicity stunt is going on?]

[Wait! Guys! Check Akihabara!]

A flurry of surprised comments. People in disbelief, people shocked...

John tucked his hands into his pocket and turned his back. "I will keep this short."

The stream display started distorting, as if the signal was dropping. But even so, John kept talking. "On a trip back from the future, I noticed that this world was distorted. What should have been is no longer. And what is now should not have been."

It wasn't a lie. The games, light novels, and Anime he could no longer watch. The ones that took their place.

He grit his teeth and clenched his fist. "This is something that I cannot allow."

[What is this? A game? A new anime?]

Seeing that, John smiled. "Oh, I assure you, this is no game. Nor is it an Anime. Instead... This is reality- Hm?" He made a show of looking at the side. "Tch. The connection is unstable."

The screen started to distort, flickering out. Of course, only in the live stream.

John turned back to the stream and said, "My name is John Titor, MirAIs operator from Earth 1202-19. To those who received this message and to those who wish to learn more..."

The screen flickered, revealing two lines.

[Project MirAIs]

openthegate

John turned around, flipping his lab coat and said, "I will see you on the other side. I. A. 0."

With that, the stream shut down. At the same time, he was sure that the people he had out in Akihabara were cleaning up the mess.

A success. He was sure of it.

This was the perfect way to advertise the project.

But...

"Argh! That was so cringe! Why did I decide to do this instead of a proper ad campaign!"

...John's self-esteem took critical damage in exchange.