Yuto awoke again to the same morning light filtering through his bedroom curtains. The same distant shout of his neighbor, the same thud of his sister dropping a book in the hallway. It was happening again. The loop.
He had already watched Aira die. More than once. The fire at the school festival had consumed her every time. But this morning, she would be alive again—unaware, untouched, innocent.
He knew what this was now. Not a dream. Not a hallucination. This was a curse. Or maybe a second chance. He hadn't decided yet.
He got ready in silence, tying his school tie with mechanical precision. Outside, the world moved as it always did, people trapped in their routines. But only Yuto was aware of the cracks behind the curtain.
At school, he saw her again.
Aira. Laughing with friends by the shoe lockers. That same sunlight in her hair. His throat tightened.
She spotted him. "Yuto! You're early today!"
He tried to smile. Failed. "Just felt like walking with you."
Aira tilted her head. "You okay?"
"No," he admitted. "But I will be."
They walked to class together, but Yuto's eyes never stopped scanning the crowd, the windows, the exits. If this was the same loop, the same timeline, the same killer might be watching already.
He had one goal: keep her alive.
But as the day passed, a disturbing realization crept in.
This version of Aira… was acting differently.
She paused in the hallway, mid-laugh, and stared at the clock. She flinched at sudden noises. At lunch, she sat closer to him than usual.
"I had the weirdest dream," she said, poking at her rice. "Everything was burning. I think I died."
Yuto's heart stopped.
She remembered.
Not fully. Not yet. But something inside her was waking up, even within the loop.
And that could change everything.
---