A/N: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, c22 - fic where a character fails a target

Lack of Time

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He ran but he didn't make it in time.

He dug but he didn't make it in time.

One moment they were running, almost there. The next moment, it had all crumbled away, all gone. The crushing guilt was yet to come. The tears were yet to come. It was just desperation, disbelief – she had to be under that rubble and fine so he had to dig her out of there…

But he wouldn't be in time, even if the falling bit of wall didn't strike him in the head. He wouldn't be in time even if he had superhuman strength and could move all that which separated them away in an instant. He wouldn't be in time because she was dead before the weight of the building fell on top of her, dead because her power had just exploded out of her and taken her life with it…

He wouldn't be in time even if they'd used that godly speed of Jojirou's because they wouldn't have been able to stop Ayumi's power from exploding like it had.

All their powers came with side effects but none of them were as destructive as that.

He didn't see that at first. He didn't see that for a long time and that only made the hopelessness worse.

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Someone could turn back time. Someone in that hospital. He woke in desperation and that power clung to his desperation and took him back. He was running again. His steps tottered, wavered, but Nao and Jojirou's were steady as they dashed ahead.

He watched the distance slowly grow, the building of the middle school slowly come into view.

He watched as, in the other timeline, they arrived far too late, in time only to see it crumble to their feet.

'Faster!' he cried, his voice dampened by pants of dizziness and fatigue from two timelines combined, but Nao and Jojirou heard him anyway. The class president gave a nod and a jerk of her head. Jojirou's eyes glowed and he vanished. His superpower. His speed.

His own power was such a useless thing here, so he only collapsed to his knees and watched. The building collapsed anyway. Jojirou disappeared with the building. They dragged him out of there and to the hospital, and the pale, lifeless, Ayumi in his arms as well.

When they declared her dead, he screamed.

Someone heard that scream and turned time back again.

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He was running. Running. They had to get there fast enough but it hadn't worked last time, with Jojirou's speed.

He almost wished he'd had enough time to ask why, but there wasn't that time. They had to save Ayumi. He had to save Ayumi. But his power wouldn't let him get there in time.

An idea struck him. One he should have known wouldn't work if only he'd recalled the flying boy but he didn't. He was only thinking about Ayumi. About reaching her in time.

Nao nodded at Jojirou. Jojirou sped up, then stumbled and fell. Nao cried in alarm and looked back.

He crawled to his feet, cursing the second limitation to his already limited power. Or the third. It didn't matter anyhow. It didn't work.

Only Nao didn't see the building collapse. She was still looking between Yuu and Jojirou, trying to pierce something together.

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He didn't remember going to the hospital this time but time rewound nonetheless. He found himself running again, behind Nao, behind Jojirou. Running and trying frantically to find a way to get up there in time, to get to Ayumi –

'Take me,' he panted at Jojirou. 'Take me up there.'

He grabbed the other's wrist and that speed dragged them both up the building.

And his breath caught as the other stumbled into another girl. Ayumi was still there. There and alive.

He stumbled towards her. Ayumi look at him, her eye rimmed red, her hair blue –

Her hair was brown, not blue. Except it was glowing blue.

And then everything was falling, and he was waking in the hospital, and screaming and time was rewinding again.

But it wasn't good enough. He needed more, more time. Time to think. Time to plan. Time to stop. He couldn't get that time. It was always running to the building, watching it fall.

.

As soon as he felt his feet running he yelled at Jojirou to use his power, and he did with Yuu (and Nao, using her own power to hide from Yuu) in hand. He crashed into the other girl again. Ayumi was pressed flat against the unbroken windowpane and he struggled to his feet.

It had to be enough time. That was all there was; he couldn't possibly get any more through his own merit or the merit of the friends he had with him.

But her hair began to glow nonetheless, even through Yuu's garbled attempt to comfort her, to tell her it was safe, it was okay, it would be fine…

It wouldn't be. He reached her and held her tight and saw her red-rimmed eyes colour red in their entirety and the ground crumble beneath their feet.

He woke up in the hospital again. He screamed: he'd failed again. And time rewound again, except this time there was a hand holding his wrist, pulling him to a stop.

He did stop, breathless and dizzy and desperate. Nao gave him a sad look. 'Enough,' she said. 'This is enough.'

'We have to save –'

She put a finger to his lips. Jojirou stared between the two of them, confused. 'It's impossible,' she said softly. 'You've tried everything you could.'

It wasn't impossible. It couldn't be impossible.

But Nao shook her head of Jojirou. Nao still held Yuu's wrist. 'I saw,' she whispered, voice heavy. 'I saw what happened and even if you get there, you don't have the time to calm her.'

The building groaned. Nao stepped forward, hiding the view from Yuu who'd collapsed to his knees.

'We found the girl at the hospital who'd turned back time. We found her limits. Even if we brought her here, now, we wouldn't be able to make time go back any further.' Her voice was shaking slightly but otherwise calm. She'd had time to come to terms with it all, time Yuu constantly missed in his unconsciousness.

The building fell. Yuu didn't see it but he heard the deafening crack, and saw the dust it blew.

'I'm sorry.' Her lip wavered. He bowed his head.

Why hadn't he struggled past them and gone? He could have. Nao was small. Jojirou was fast but not agile. He could have made it past them. But he'd never have made it in time. Nao was right about that. And he'd tried. If he had more time to think maybe he could come up with something. Maybe they could, together.

But he never did think of a way to make use of such a slim window of time, and eventually he gave up thinking about how to save her and thought instead of all the time he'd had, before – all the time he'd wasted.