Time.

A flowing river that no one can stop or turn back.

The past can't be changed. The future can't be known.

Unless you're a yubiwa.

He knew who the yubiwas were. Everyone knew it. The headquarters of the Jikan Guild was located in every major city. There were rules that all yubiwas followed and that everyone else had to follow as well.

However, it wasn't until a year after his brother's death that he saw the yubiwa in action for the first time. He could sense them like any hikouri. Humans and shapeshifters couldn't feel their magic. And they couldn't watch the time freeze.

But hikouri are their descendants. The yubiwa gene is always passed on to children of the same gender as the yubiwa. Otherwise, the child becomes a hikouri and passes on their powers. And shapeshifters, well, they come out of nowhere and you never know, when your friend will suddenly turn into a beautiful orange-blue phoenix.

And then you find feathers in every nook and cranny of your flat. Or your other friend will find a girlfriend, who thinks that blue skin is better than normal and pink hair goes well with it.

He sighed and picked up that orange-blue feather from the floor. Which one it was in the last week? Should he tell Shoguri to keep an eye on Akiichi or he'll turn him into a pillow?

Of course he'll only scare him like that. He was hikouri, hikouri heal and do cold compresses, they don't pluck their best friend's boyfriends off their feathers.

What was he thinking about? Ah yes, about meeting the yubiwa, who saved his life. He remembered that they had a black kitsune mask with gold patterns on it. And that they smiled at him. And then they just left.

He went to the Jikan Guild to ask about this yubiwa. Was he going to die under the wheels of that car? Who saved him?

The Guild told him that any yubiwa had such a mission. They tracked everyone down and finally found out who it was, but they didn't tell him anything. Those are the rules. All they told him was that the yubiwa wasn't on a mission, at least not one where his life was at stake. Well, they did it out of their own free will.

Yuume thought that this yubiwa must have been a really good person. Even though he didn't even know what gender they were. They were wearing a mask like every yubiwa, when using their magic. He saw their back, not their chest, so he couldn't see, if they had breasts or not. They were wearing a kimono, so the outfit didn't give him any clues either. They had no facial hair. They didn't talk. Just an enigmatic, smiling slightly chubby yubiwa, who helped him out of their own free will.

He stuck Akiichi's feather into the orchid pot and checked if he had all the documents. In the end, he managed to get all the necessary signatures and, above all, money.

Yes. His brother died almost five years ago in a car accident. He was traveling with his pregnant wife and a little daughter. Shiori was five years old.

The drunk driver killed everyone on the spot. Little Toyota didn't stand a chance against the mini van. So it doesn't matter that they sentenced this traffic lunatic to many years in prison. It won't bring his loved ones back.

But yubiwas can turn the tide. They can make these two cars never collide.

He just has to call them.