Set in 2070

BREAKING NEWS: Multiple kidnappings in the Wisbech area, one of the victims a prominent professor of Dunnich University. Authorities believe the attacks are targeted, although more updates will be received later.

Radios? Camilla genuinely thought radios in modern car infotainment systems didn’t exist anymore. Or at least just weren’t used anymore - she offhandedly remembered that most radio stations moved to the internet a few years ago, of which vehicle infotainment systems now connect to by cellular. But Rinka being Rinka with her presently eighty-year old mid-engined Toyota, it doesn’t have an infotainment system - nor the safety features that litter every car produced after 2020. Just the trusty old, uh, radio and aircon. Camilla isn’t even sure if the car is legal, but she rolls with it.

“Y’know, the car is actually legal, if you were curious.”

“No no, I totally wasn’t curious or anything. Just uh, the radio thingy is kinda weird I guess.” Camilla fiddles with the centre console buttons. Actual physical buttons.

Yeah right. “Not Curious” My Ass. Albeit the car does get its fair share of looks. A petrol sports car in 2070? A rare model at that? The Toyota MR2, even back in the day, was fairly hard to come by. A twenty-something old PhD student owning a classic petrol car in the age of electric transport is just peculiar.

“Well technically, without a proper club registration it’s not legal. Thing costs a lot to drive, but I don’t really care all that much to be honest. She’s great.” Rinka makes a right on the intersection as she pats the dash, as if comforting the old car.

“We always walk to classes anyway, so… why do you even have a car? This is actually the first time I’m riding this after, say, 5 years of knowing you?” Surprisingly enough, the damn thing actually has a phone charger. Something which Camilla especially appreciates at the moment, as she plugs her nearly flat phone in.

“My uncle gave it to me before he left the country. Dunno what he does nowadays - probably a higher up in a big tech company. Always admired him. Also, driving is fun y’know? Especially driving stick in an older car like this.” People able to drive stick are few and far in between nowadays. A shame, really.

The neighbourhood scenery of good ol’ Northwood was always a sight to behold. Run-down apartment buildings, streets littered with rubbish and various other road hazards while the local homeless run rampant. What occasion would have two young girls in the shadiest part of town?

“Honestly, out of all the places her lead could have gotten us, it had to be Northwood’s abandoned mental institution. I absolutely hated that place. I had an appointment with my psychologist there when I was in middle school.”

A look of surprise covers Rinka’s face; while she knew Camilla had a few… issues, it was mostly recent as far as Rinka knows. Well, she knows extremely well in fact, considering they share similar… issues.

“I don’t really wanna pry, but…” Rinka curls her face in mild concern. She really is bad at emotions. Camilla found it extremely endearing - but it has yet to become annoying.

“I’ve told you this one before, haven’t I? It was back when students received counseling for an accident on one of our school trips. The visit to the institution probably gave us more trauma than the accident itself, to be honest. God Rinka-chan, you’re so cute when you’re worried.” Camilla giggled. Rinka tried to ignore her to no avail - a small blush dusts her cheeks, as she turns the other way trying to concentrate on her driving.

“W-well, I’m always worried for you…” Rinka whispers in the quietest of voices. The rumble of the four-cylinder petrol engine would have roared over her - if the car wasn’t stopped at a traffic light, that is.

“I’m really glad. I’m always worried for you too.” Satisfied with herself, Camilla smiles sheepishly. They enter a comfortable silence, driving through the ruins of a failed suburb.

Northwood usually isn’t as quiet as it is right now since it’s currently around Christmas time - but even then, Rinka thought it felt unusually quiet. Only a few cars have gone by them in the past ten minutes, and not many less-than-presentable looking people roamed the streets.

“Something feels kinda off about today…”

They notice a low rumble from somewhere, slowly increasing in volume. It certainly isn’t their car - the sound is fairly low in frequency, almost as if it sounded like a…

“Ah shit. It’s them. Depending on how this goes, you might wanna strap in.”

Another thing Northwood is well known for is their street racing leagues - racing gangs are notorious for ripping up the roads, even in the light of day. One particularly infamous racing gang, simply known as the ‘Muscle’, rode around town in, well, old American muscle cars.

A sleek black muscle car pulls up beside Rinka as they stop for the red light. The imposing man driving in sunglasses gestures for Rinka to roll down her window - she replies in earnest by placing her own sunglasses on.

“How ya doin Ka-kun? Fancy a bit of a race? Still have that old score to settle.” The man smiles menacingly.

“Afraid I’m a bit busy today. Maybe some other time, Kou-chan.” RInka replies with a cheeky smile.

“Chickening out today huh? I get it, I get it. Wouldn’t wanna disturb the ol’ missus now wouldn't we?”

“...Is that a challenge?”

Rinka never really liked the revving tone of muscle car engines - in general, they’re way too loud and bassy, which penetrates walls as if they were never an obstacle. In comparison, her MR2’s engine is the epitome of the trusty inline-four; a clean, raspy tone, and most importantly, not that loud.

“I guess a short one wouldn’t hurt.” Rinka rolls her window back up.

“W-wait, Rinka-chan? What are you doing?” Camilla shifts uncomfortably in her seat, clutching her seatbelt.

“Ever wanted to know how to launch a manual car?” Depressing the clutch in first gear, Rinka revs the engine.

“I don’t even know how to drive!”

“Oh, true, I guess. But basically, you rev up to five or six k’s and LET GO OF THE CLUTCH!”

“Hell yeah! That was insane! I always love racing that guy, the only dude who knows how to chill in that whole gang of theirs.”

“That was nowhere near ‘chill’! You do this regularly?!?!!?!? I know you like cars and stuff, but I didn’t know you actually raced!” From the dazed look on her face, Rinka couldn’t tell if she was disappointed or thrilled. Maybe both?

“Well… I may or may not drive around here once every few months... And I may or may not be infamous around these parts…” Rinka tries her hardest to whistle herself out of this one. Who was she kidding though? Being involved in illegal activity is already a hard enough bombshell to swallow by itself.

Camilla sighs. “I guess it can’t be helped… I honestly should have expected this given the things you’re interested in…” Yeah, I mean, who the hell would be into all sorts of niche things just because ‘normies kinda cringe tbh’?

“Why do you make it sound like I’m a lost cause? I’m not that bad, right? Like, if you compare me to other people in the stuff I’m into, I could literally be outed as a traitor to their cause.”

“I guess that’s true. You do have a girlfriend, after all.” Camilla absolutely savours the embarrassed expression on Rinka’s face.

“W-well anyway, we’re almost there now. Kou-chan is still following us for some reason, maybe he wants to talk for a bit.”

“Speaking of which, you said you’re infamous around here? You obviously race a lot, but that doesn’t mean you’d be infamous… And you call this guy Kou-chan? How close are you to these guys?”

“Uhhhh… they’re friends, I guess. And about the infamous thing… well… I guess you could say I’m one of the top racers around here… and the funny thing is I don’t actually race all that much compared to drifting competitions. That’s where I’m supposedly crowned ‘the best’. I don’t really know about that title to be honest. Northwood’s racing leagues aren't all that well-known throughout the country, so there’s bound to be better drivers.”

“I think being considered the best driver in any area is a pretty good achievement if you ask me… but that's just expected of you isn’t it? Rinka-chan, PhD student, Drift King, a girl of many talents.”

“Ahahaha… yeah, well look at yourself. Club president, an actual doctor of psychology and probably some sort of crazy magical practitioner. If only my stupid professor didn’t just straight up disappear last week…”

“That’s why we’re here though right? To find your missing professor? I mean, I would have loved to come here just for club activities, but that’s sort of turned into some hilarious euphemism on our part...”

“AHEM- we’re here now…”

The two cars pull up to the run-down building’s courtyard. A singular cherry tree stands at the rounded pavement to the entrance, its surroundings covered in overgrown weeds. Stepping out of the car, Rinka places her hat atop her head.

“Seems like you have more than the old score to settle now, huh Kou-chan?” Rinka grins at the man.

“That old rustbucket of yours still goes, doesn’t she? Always surprises me how fast that thing actually is. Anyways, I just wanted to tell you there’s gonna be a drift event next week, some guys from down south are coming over to drive. You’ll be there right?”

“Yeah, about that… I’ll be gone for the foreseeable future, I think. Now’s probably the best time to tell you if uh… you never see me again, don’t come looking for me?” Rinka glances back at Camilla, shrugging in nonchalance.

“I don’t really know how I’m supposed to respond to that… but everyone would love to see you around for the event.” He shrugs it off as her usual antics.

“Yeah, sorry. Dunno if I’ll be around since I’ll be really busy.”

“Ah well, there’s always a next time. I’ll go tell the others as well, so see you around. ”

Neither Rinka nor Camilla are so sure about that… every passing week for the past month, they’ve practically been preparing for the worst - preparing for the inevitable collapse of their timeline.

--

It started off with the small things. Misplaced items. Street signs and store signs changing. Things you would brush off as though they were rebranding, simply being replaced or something being misplaced. But the frequency of the events placed an uneasy feeling at the back of Rinka’s mind. Camilla noticed it too - in fact, she’d been more astute in her observations. Not only do things change inexplicably, but it seems as if the people around them don’t realise it; as if it had always been the same to them.

“...So that text, right. It’s supposed to have a low chance of appearing when you start or reset the game?”

Camilla holds an old game cartridge from the last century - an old classic JRPG, Shin Megami Tensei. Rinka is sure it’s an original cartridge, as her grandmother gave it to her and she was the ultimate gaming freak. Rinka could probably net in some serious cash if she sold her grandma’s old collection, but it would be insanely disrespectful as a fellow gamer herself.

“Wow, that’s an old rumour. I’m surprised you know it. The rumour’s fake though, it was debunked a long time ago by someone who dug into the game’s code. And even then, since the text only appears on startup I don’t think there’d be a way to randomly generate any numbers, cause the only way those old consoles could on startup was to take inputs of the user to generate the numbers. But since it appears before the user can even press the start button, there’s no way at all.”

“Well I guess when you put it that way, it seems pretty obvious, huh?” Camilla looks a bit disappointed. She always liked creepy-pasta type things and Rinka has no clue why, but she’s terrified of that part of her.

“People have also said it could’ve been an anti-piracy measure that was removed in later productions of the ga-”

Lo and behold, the fabled text on startup - a repeating string of red “TURNITOFF” splashes across the screen. Accompanied by a buzzing static sound, it would’ve probably scared Rinka shitless if she was by herself.

“What the hell? This is just cursed. There’s no way right?” Rinka is bewildered, and maybe a bit scared.

“Hah! Maybe the rumour is true. But it’s never been confirmed right? All the videos online are just recreations or something.” Camilla seems to be enjoying herself. Totally not because Rinka’s trying not to look scared (she’s so cute when she’s like that).

“I’m gonna post this on Ttwatter. There’s just no way this is real, maybe grandma’s cartridge is fake or something.”

“If there was one thing you were more addicted to than me, it would be Ttwatter…” Her girlfriend really couldn’t keep herself off of the app, much to her chagrin. Although to be fair, neither could she herself…

“W-wait, why are these people saying this is a real thing? I swear I know it’s been debunked, I saw the article of the guy who went through the code!”

“They’re trolling you again aren’t they?” Camilla chuckles.

“No wait, someone’s linked me to an article of one of the original devs admitting they put it there for piracy prevention. I’ve never seen this before actually but I swear I would have known about it…”

Rinka swipes the article from her phone to her computer, and reads it from the screen. It details how the developer added extra bits of information on startup as a piracy prevention measure for all genuinely produced versions of the game.

“I don’t get it. It says here the dev put it for all produced versions of the game. Didn’t the rumour say it was only for the first few produced versions?”

Rinka seems to be searching for something else though - Camilla doesn’t know why she’s so frantic, but she’s starting to feel it too. Something just doesn’t feel right.

“The blog post about the code… it doesn’t exist. I can’t find it even though I’ve bookmarked the blog.” She sinks into her chair, jitters coming along slowly. It didn’t make sense, and neither Camilla nor Rinka liked it.

“I don't want to jump to conclusions, so maybe you might have deleted the bookmark by accident?”

“It’s not even that. I know the website address, and it doesn’t exist at all. As if it got wiped from existence somehow. Also can’t find a trace of the person that runs the blog.” Rinka types away furiously at the computer, presumably still doing her thing. “Funny thing is, it seems like there are so many people who know about this. I remember it being a very niche topic, but looking around sites now it seems everyone knows about this… it’s even on a top ten list for god's sake.”

“Well trends always come and go unexpectedly… I’m more interested in the fact that the person who ran the blog seems to just have disappeared.”

“Yeah. I followed them on Ttwatter as well, but I can’t find them on my following list.”

Well, they both knew very well people had a habit of disappearing from the internet without a trace. “W-wait… no one knows about the blog? I know some of the followers of the blog who talk about it but it seems like they have never even seen it. All their twats changed.”

Now that’s weird. There’s bound to be people talking about the blog’s disappearance if there was ever any following. Camilla doesn’t like this at all… it just keeps happening over and over again.

“Mia, please tell me we’re not crazy for this. Why the hell do things keep changing around us as if they’ve been like that forever? What is this crazy Mandela Effect type shit that only happens to us?”

ideas: camilla and rinka come from an alternate worldline and timeline Leon;s coc world: city of somerset Rinka’s phd supervisor disappears, she is from another world (she’s zhi) Camilla recently finished her phd, nothing to do but laze around and wait for rinka to finish hers (and find work obviously)