April 2.
Again.
Ren didn't sit up in panic this time.
He just turned his head slowly and stared at the calendar, as if it were mocking him. The date hadn't changed, but the weight it carried grew heavier with every loop.
**April 2.**
Like a curse written in ink no one else could see.
---
He left the house early. Too early for school, too early for birdsong. The sky was still grey when he arrived at the field.
The **stone** was gone.
He knelt where he'd etched the message.
Nothing.
Not even a scratch.
His heart sank — not from surprise, but from confirmation.
The loop **reset everything**. Every trace. Every clue.
Every scream.
---
But one thing never reset.
**Serika Mizuno.**
---
She was always there.
Always quiet. Always calm.
Always watching.
Ren noticed it the second he stepped into the classroom — her eyes flicking toward him and then away. Too smooth. Too practiced.
In past loops, he'd ignored her. Thought she was just distant.
But now… he was starting to *see*.
During lunch, he followed her — subtly. He watched her sit on the edge of the sports field, knees tucked to her chest, staring at the wind moving through the grass.
She looked peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Ren sat down a few feet away. Didn't speak.
Minutes passed.
Finally, she said, without turning:
"You're not hiding very well."
Ren's breath caught. "You knew I was here?"
"I always know," Serika said softly.
More silence.
Ren shifted slightly. "You've been through it too, haven't you?"
She turned her head slowly. Her eyes met his — dark, unreadable.
"You should've never existed in this story."
The wind stopped.
---
Ren blinked. "What?"
"You're an error," she said plainly, like it was a fact she'd memorized long ago. "You were never meant to be the one who stayed. But something glitched. Something *broke.*"
He tried to stand, but his knees trembled.
"Who *are* you?" he asked.
She tilted her head, amused. "I'm the one trying to restore balance."
Ren's fists clenched. "You're killing him. Every time."
She shrugged. "The world wants Yuu dead. I'm just making sure it happens the way it's *meant* to."
---
There it was.
Cold. Sharp. Honest.
Ren stepped forward. "Then I'll stop you."
Serika smiled faintly. "You've tried. Again and again. And every time, you loop back."
Ren's voice cracked. "Why?!"
"Because you're a ghost," she said. "A shadow stitched into someone else's role."
She stood.
"You don't belong here, Ren Ayato. You *never did.*"
And then she walked away, leaving Ren standing in a field that no longer felt like grass — just fragments of a story being rewritten around him.
---
That night, Ren scratched a different message into his skin.
**Don't trust the girl.**
Even if the world forgot, **his body wouldn't.**
---
> "You weren't meant to be here."
---
**April 2.**
Again.