The city pounded with movements. Sunday had emptied people from their homes and poured them into Shibuya. The crowd pressed from all directions. Men and women, teens and adults, couples and families. Trains hissed in the distance. Voices and laughter clashed against the hurried footsteps. Passersby stopped to bow before the Jizō statue. Girls filled the salons. Some touched up for dates, others for a night's work, and a few just for the pleasure of feeling pretty. Elders crowded around the lottery booths. Some cheered with tickets held high, others groaned over their losses. Children wriggled between them, asking for scraps and leftover change from the winners.
"Hey! If you're gonna talk shit, give the money!"
A boy shouted suddenly. The crowd glanced over for a second, then went back to their own business. The man, still whining about his small win, tossed some coins at the boy and returned to the booth. The boy snatched up whatever he could find on the floor and dashed away from the crowd. Left, right, left again. He weaved through the streets until he reached a net café. He slipped inside. Knocked on a small door and entered a room where three other boys were waiting.
"You're late, Matsura!" the first one called.
"Sorry, Takumi! Today was full of scrubs," Matsura replied.
"What'd you tell them?" the second one asked.
"I saw some skinny punk whining, so I just shouted, 'Give me the money!' right in his face."
"Haha! Did he freak out?" the third one laughed.
"Looks like it… and I got whatever he had!" Matsura said, smiling.
"What'd you use today, Usagi?" Matsura asked, tossing the coins onto the mattress.
"I NEED TO BUY MEDICINE FOR MY MOM!" Usagi said, half-mocking as the others smirked.
"Why not take it from her? Pretty sure those idiots hand her extra," the second boy replied.
"You know I don't want her dirty money!" Usagi shot back.
"Enough of that, Makoto!" Takumi snapped.
Matsura, Takumi, Usagi, and Makoto were third-year junior high students at Shoto School. They always met at the net café whenever there was something important to discuss. Sometimes, even skipped school for these important meetings.
"You guys brought it?" Takumi asked, eyes scanning the group. One by one, they dug into their backpacks, hands remaining over the contents for a moment too long, as if waiting for something or someone.
"3… 2… 1…" They counted in unison. In a sudden burst, the mattress was covered with clocks of every kind. Wristwatches, alarm clocks, small radio timers, even a few wall clocks. The boys lined up the clocks side by side, each one leaning in to check the time. "See! I told you!" Matsura said, pointing at the clocks one after another. "They're all stuck on 6:45!"
"Hmph!" They all sighed in unison. Then again, louder. And again, each one heavier than the last. After a few seconds of silence, Takumi opened his laptop and started typing. "Camera, Usagi!" he ordered. Usagi quickly pulled it out, snapping pictures and recording clips of the clocks, zooming in on each frozen hand. "USB!" Takumi shouted. Makoto plugged in the cable, one end into the camera, the other into the computer. "Matsura!" Takumi barked.
"Sunday, February 6th, 2037!" Matsura shot back, stiff as a soldier firing off orders. "Solid evidence! Pictures and videos of frozen clocks!"
Takumi typed Matsura's words, uploaded the files, hit "enter," and logged off.
"Now, we have to know what kind of experiment they were doing!" He said.
"First, we need a name!" Usagi suggested.
The four stared at each other for a beat.
"FTX," Makoto suddenly declared.
"FTX?" the others echoed.
"Frozen Time Experiment!" Makoto answered.
"Ohhh!" the three exclaimed.
Matsura pulled out a notebook, flipped it open, and put on his glasses. He uncapped his pen and wrote "FTX" on the first page. The others sat around him, elbows on knees, as if waiting for him to start a lecture.
"Listen up, fellas!" Matsura announced. "According to our completely legitimate and not-at-all made-up research, time froze last Sunday at exactly 6:45!"
"How do we know it was a minute?" Makoto asked.
"Good question!" Matsura nodded seriously. "We don't. But the hands of every device twitch between 6:45 and 6:46, so...we guessed!"
"My mom's microwave is working fine!" Makoto said.
"I checked a bunch of phones... They're all normal!" Takumi added.
"Indeed!" Matsura exclaimed, "That means FTX affected old tech!"
"Are we really calling it FTX?" The three retorted.
"Usagi, your turn!" Matsura said, pointing at Usagi.
Usagi straightened up and cleared his throat. "According to several, uh, highly reliable sources on 4chan, Reddit, and Twitter… time froze while they were connected to the wire. At first, they thought their PCs had crashed. But then someone noticed their microwaves and alarm clocks were frozen too. And I quote: 'Our computers froze for about fifty-three seconds. We thought the processors were dead, but it wasn't just the computers… it was time itself.'"
The four stared at each other for a beat again.
"Who are we dealing with?" Takumi asked.
"A top-secret society!" Makoto guessed.
"The government!" Usagi added.
"Aliens?" Matsura threw in, just to top it off.
"Possibly all three…" Takumi said gravely. "Anyway, the point is...someone clearly messed with the time. We need to figure out two things. One: Are we dealing with an enemy or a friend? Two: What was their goal? A time freeze? A time skip? Or time travel?"
"Time travel?" The three said together in disbelief.
"Not impossible!" Takumi replied. "It might sound ridiculous, because it is! But the evidence speaks for itself!"
Matsura leaned forward. "Do we actually know anything about time travel?"
The silence filled the room. "Good!" Matsura declared. "That's our next research topic!"
"One last point!" Usagi cut in, trying to sound serious. "We're witnesses to something huge… If we tell anyone at school, at home, or anywhere, they'll just laugh and think we're… You know, full-on chunibyo!"
Everyone nodded.
"End of meeting!" Takumi shouted as he stood up. "We still have loads of homework for tomorrow!"
"It's Monday again," Makoto muttered in a depressing tone.
The four began packing up.
"You know… I wish time had actually frozen last Sunday," Makoto added.
"WHAT?" The three shouted together.