When you've just woken up from your own death, the first thing you feel like doing is screaming. The second thing you feel like doing is playing like it never happened. I couldn't do either.
The streets didn't change. The same couple is arguing outside the corner shop. The same delivery truck trundling along at the same time. Even the same leaf falling from the same branch. I went to school in the same manner, my gaze glancing at my phone every few minutes as if the numbers would change immediately.
7:38 a.m. Exactly like yesterday.
By the time I reached the gates, the déjà vu was unbearable. Kaoruko Waguri and Marin Kitagawa giggling together. Yukinoshita Yukino off to one side, folded arms. Ai Hoshino playing with the strap on her bag and that flawless smile. Every detail the same as before, including a girl from another school dropping a pen and bending to pick it up.
I knew what lay in store. The scream. The crowd. Subaru bleeding.
So I changed direction.
Instead of walking into the courtyard as before, I turned to the left towards the maintenance building, the site of the scream. I was there in less than a minute. It was empty except for a janitor stowing tools in a plastic container.
I checked over the roofline over the shed. The one that had left the light fixture on the ground yesterday was still there. The screws were fine. No indication of tampering.
"Hold on," I bellowed to the janitor. "Does anyone know if anybody's been messing with the roof lights?"
He glared at me like I'd asked him if space aliens had messed around with them. "No. Why?"
"No reason," I lied, taking a step back.
8:01 a.m.
Any second now, yesterday's scream would come, but it didn't. Instead, a group of girls passed by chatting, Subaru among them, alive and well. Relief hit me like a wave. Maybe I'd stopped it just by being here.
I followed her every step of the way, keeping her from even getting near the shed. She made a beeline for the door to the gym, saying hello to a friend. The girl said hello back, and that's when it occurred.
The sound was muffled, a low creaking above. I looked up and noticed one of the old basketball hoops, which hung way above the entrance to the gym, buckle. The whole metal frame sagged forward.
"Subaru!" I shouted.
She turned to me, confused, as the hoop went flying. I took off, covering the distance in seconds. I managed to catch her arm and pull her out of the way, but not quite in time.
The frame hit the side of her temple as it smashed onto the floor. She leaned against me, blood dripping down her face.
My tunnel vision. I could hear students screaming, someone shouting for a teacher. I slapped my hand on the wound, my voice rough. "Don't die. You're okay. You're- "
And the world snapped shut again.
I was sitting in my bed. 7:00 a.m.
Same dismal light. Same gaudy clock. Same date.
I lay still for an entire minute. My breath came fast. The adrenaline from both deaths still running through me.
This wasn't luck. Subaru had passed away no matter what I did, just in a different way. The universe was not going to be so gracious as to allow me to rescue her.
This loop was not to save her. It was to watch her.
I set out from my flat five minutes early, running the path from my flat to the school gates. I located myself on a bench along the courtyard, feigning to scroll my phone. The first death was a falling light. The second, a collapsing basketball hoop. Completely different locations, different causes. The only similarity was Subaru.
She arrived at 7:45 a.m., her hair bobbing with each step, chatting with Ayumi Sawatari. The two headed towards the lockers. I trailed behind them at a distance, as if in my little world, but every nerve was on high alert for immediate reaction.
At 8:10, nothing had happened. She was laughing with Kaoruko by the vending machine. I was observing the ceiling, the walls, anywhere something could happen.
8:30 - She went to the library.
9:00 - Class started.
I sat at the back, within jumping distance. My head was throbbing from scanning every object in the room and wondering how it could cause harm to someone.
It wasn't until lunchtime that the ice finally broke.
Subaru said goodbye to her peers and walked in the direction of the sports track. I followed, a meter or so behind. She stopped just beside the track, where some of the men were fiddling with hurdles. One of them knocked over a stack of metal frames by accident, and the metallic clank startled me, but they missed her by a meter. She just laughed it off.
For a moment, I consider that nothing will happen this time.
Then she went down to tie her shoe. And as if the universe had been waiting for just that position, one of the soccer goals, rusty, old, hardly held together by its bolts, leaned forward in slow motion.
I sprinted. No thinking, no hesitation. My shoulder slammed into her, knocking us both to the ground as the heavy frame crashed inches from where she'd been.
She gasped, staring at the twisted metal. I'd done it. I'd actually-
The crack of a gunshot tore the air apart.
Subaru's eyes bulged, mouth agape, but nothing came out. I was witnessing the red engulfing her white top before I could hear the screaming.
I glanced in the direction of the noise, too late. Someone wearing a black hoodie was already fading into the group, gun nowhere in sight.
Her body relaxed in my arms again. My brain refused to believe it.
And then the pull. The weightlessness. The world is tearing away.
7:00 a.m.
The clock glared in my face as if it was laughing at what I'd just accomplished. My hands were still trembling.
It didn't matter that I saved one. Another would be around the corner. The universe didn't care about how improbable it had to be.
If Subaru was meant to die that day… she would.
The whir of the fan, the flashing clock, the stagnant air — I didn't even twitch this time. I was already thinking in my head.
If this loop was gunning for Subaru to die, I'd ensure it never had the opportunity.
Today's run wasn't about inconspicuity. It was about being in command.
I saw her before she had even reached the school gates. Subaru Hoshina, perfect posture, clean hair, that subtle elegance that drew eyes without her exerting any effort.
She stopped when she realized I was blocking her path. With a guarded, almost suspicious expression, she looked at me.
".Do I know you?" she asked.
"No," I said bluntly. "But you will if you live through today. Walk with me."
She blinked, clearly confused. "Sorry, but-"
Not asking, I cut in, speaking over her without leaving room for misinterpretation.
Something in my eye must have alarmed her, because she followed, hesitant steps, but she followed.
We did not visit the big building. I took her rather to the old shed at the far end of the grounds, which was hidden behind dense hedges in need of trimming. No one used it any longer; too dusty, too dark, and padlocked at the front. I had removed the key from the janitor's barrow on the last round.
Inside, the air carried a faint reek of wood rot. There was one bulb suspended from the ceiling.
"You're going to stay here today," I said to her. "I'll bring you food, water, whatever you need. But you don't leave."
Her forehead wrinkled. "Why would I- "
"Because you'll die if you don't."
She stopped dead in her tracks. "That's… not funny."
"Not a joke." I kept my voice low, my tone serious. "Just trust me."
She sat down on an old folding chair after a long silence. "…Fine. But I'm calling the cops if this is some weird- "
It isn't," I said to her, already getting up to go bring her something to eat.
The morning crawled by. I checked on her every half hour, bringing her vending machine snacks and bottled tea. She sat quietly whenever I returned, surfing on her phone, glancing over at me occasionally as if she was trying to decide if I was insane or threatening.
By lunchtime, I was convinced I'd outsmarted the system. Keep her separate, no contact with whatever kills her, and we'd make it through the day.
Then, at 1:15 p.m., the light over her dimmed.
Once. Twice.
Then it popped explosively with a hard crack, raining glass down. She gasped, but I dragged her back before it could cut her.
"Accident," I grunted, though my heart was racing.
We edged towards the rear wall, clear of the swinging wires.
2:03 p.m. and a deafening creak overhead. I looked up just in time to see a ventilation pipe come free from its brackets.
"Get out!" I shoved her, the pipe crashed into the spot she'd occupied.
Her voice trembled now. ".What's going on?"
I didn't answer. Couldn't answer. This was not bad luck. This was the loop fighting me.
By 3:20, the shed felt like a death trap. Subaru was still cowering against the wall, watching me stride.
Then the hiss. Gas.
I saw the hairline fracture in an old pipe along the floor, breathing out a soft white stream. The smell hit a second later.
"Come on." I grabbed her wrist, yanking her out into the fresh air. We coughed, streaming eyes.
"You're seriously scaring me," she stuttered, shaking.
"I know," I told her. "Just… a little longer."
Sunset had occurred at 6:42 p.m. We were at the back gate, in the last of the orange light.
For a moment, I believed I'd won.
Then, at 6:45, a delivery truck came flying around the corner. Its brakes screamed as it hurtled toward the gate.
I shoved Subaru out of the way. The truck missed her, but hit a lamppost.
The post groaned. Creaked. Swayed.
It dropped directly on top of her.
There wasn't time to push her twice.
The crash was deafening.
Her scream was cut off.
7:00 a.m.
The hum of the fan. The ticking clock. Bare skin.
The universe was not only cruel.
It was after her.
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Thanks for reading. You can also give me ideas for the future or pinpoint plot holes that I may have forgotten, if you want.
Powerstones. Me. Give. Now.