There is no time in Ohtori. Clocks litter the walls - perhaps in abundance - but each one points to a different number. They represent countless distant spots in the world, without rhyme and season. Sometimes they tickle faster, others - slower, always to their discreet tune.
The worst offenders hang on his classroom wall - with three hours, five minutes, and exactly half a second difference between them - and sing a symphony of "Tick-tick-tick!" and no "Tock!" in sound.
As Miki flips over the next page of their book - they have learned the lesson by heart and already dove in the next one - the class ends.
The teacher lets the students out. They start packing their possessions, before moving on to the next subject. It is usually history, except when it is art or geography.
For the first time, Miki pays attention to the mismatched concert of the clocks. Each one moves in a different tempo.

---

"What is your opinion, Mr. President?"
Miki has shared their observations twice. The first time, they and Touga are waiting for the rest of the student council. Juri and Saionji are running late, lost in the scrawls of time.
It earns them a laugh - more sincere than Touga will allow in the future. "Is the stress affecting you, Miki?" he asks in a comforting voice. One step that lasts for eternity later, the President is looming over them, holding their chin. "Perhaps you should drop your college-level classes."
For Touga, they are going mad. Still, Miki protests. "Just think of it! When did our classes follow a schedule?"
"If you obsess over it so much," Touga's voice slides over Miki's skin, slick like oil, "you could buy your own watch. Perhaps you will solve the mystery of school's missing hours."
And he climbs in the elevator, leaving Miki with more ideas than they can use.

---

The classes should end at five p.m. Sometimes they drag on for days without end, other times the teacher does not start them. Miki counts the days on their calendar, the days until their graduation. They never change, trapping Miki in the middle of the year.
"Did you hear? Did you hear?"
The only way to count the dates begins. Those girls stage their plays at the same time every day - twenty-hours pauses between the performances.
Miki bases their watch on them, the only sense in a stiff, confusing world.

---

It is Wednesday. Biology. They always have biology first on Wednesday, unless the class is maths - which is all the time, except when the literature teacher comes. The bell rings - 13 minutes and 43 seconds earlier than the schedule.
Miss Juri is waiting in the hall. "Do you want her?" she asks, spinning her rose ring.
"The Rose Bride?" Miki nods. "Miss Juri, we all want her."
"Take her if you can. I will wait for you in the arena if your classes end."
Accepting her own strange challenge, she leaves. The bell for the next class rings, trapping Miki in the room until time sees fit to free them.

---

Orange petals fall on the ground.
"I am sorry," Juri says. "I should not have pushed her onto you."

---

Miki has been engaged once.
They are calculating time, moving minutes and seconds between columns, and balancing hours with days.
Himemiya is cooking, her eyes focused on the eerie-colored pot.
"Can you help me please?" Miki calls for her. The Rose Bride should know the school secrets. "Do you think time acts strangely? The clocks move slower than my stopwatch."
She drops the ladle and puts a fist on her waist. "Karou-sama," she puts on the smirk Kouze wears, "time is the same as it has always been. Maybe you are the strange one."
For an eternal second, her hair colors blue and her eyes sparkle like the sea. Kouze's image slips through Miki's fingers, fleeing to drag their attention. But this time, they can pull her close, order her to stay by his side, and punish her if she refuses to be theirs… After all, they are engaged.
They press their thumb on the rose crest with such force that the mark needs days to heal. The pain cuts the words in their throat.
Then Himemiya speaks again and Miki is clenching their fists, barely holding himself.
"But, Kaoru-sama, how do you know your own stopwatch is accurate?"

---

Time trickles - a second faster through one stopwatch and age slower through the other.
Blue petals surround Miki's body like a halo.
Himemiya has a new fiancé. The Sword has a new champion.
At some point later - when time breaks through the large dam and flows over the school castle - Miki will leave the stage and slump back into their normal life. Tomorrow, they have a test - in chemistry, unless they have P.E.
Then, if then even exists, they will hone their skills and win her again.