The world had just shattered. Airi, crushed by a falling light fixture in the mall – a place I thought I'd rendered utterly safe – was a gaping wound in my reality. For a moment, a gut-wrenching, absolute moment, I simply existed as pure despair. It was around 5:30 PM. Then, the hacker in me, the part that refused to accept an unsolvable problem, flickered to life.
No. It's not impossible. It's a redirect. A system is fighting back. I didn't fail because it was inevitable; I failed because I lacked enough data. I need to understand the rules of this 'fixed point' protocol. Every system has a flaw. Every code can be broken.
My hand, slick with sweat, found my burner phone. The screen glowed, E.R.I.S waiting. The slider was still locked at '24 Hours' from my desperate act in the last loop. This meant I was bound to this duration for another two days, but I could use it as many times as I needed, given the one-minute cooldown.
Tap. CONFIRM. The familiar, nauseating WHUMMMM tore through the air, scrambling my senses. The walls melted, colors smeared, and sound became a guttural roar before snapping back into place. I blinked. I was back in the mall, exactly 24 hours earlier: 5:30 PM the previous day. The evening I had celebrated my first "save" of Airi from Route 17, then redirected her to the park, then to the mall. My head throbbed, already reeling from the accumulated failures.
The immediate relief was minimal, swiftly replaced by a gnawing impatience. Airi's death was still a full day away, tomorrow afternoon. My intervention window, the precious hours of school, were still in the future. I had to live through this evening, knowing what was coming. Every minute spent just existing, felt like a waste of precious time. The exhaustion was already setting in, deeper than before.
The next morning, the "doomed day" again, I was even more disheveled. My new plan was born from the chilling realization that my "safe zones" were futile. Airi had died in the park, then in the mall. Both "secure" environments I'd chosen. My hacker's brain concluded: Indoor environments are not safe. Or, more specifically, any static structure can become lethal. The environment itself is being weaponized.
My plan: keep her outdoors and away from any structures. I would orchestrate a reason for her to spend the entire afternoon at the school's sprawling, open-air sports field for extra practice, or to take a long walk through a sprawling, open park (a different one, far from urban centers). I even considered subtly influencing the local weather app on her phone to show a forecast of perfect, sunny weather to make an outdoor activity more appealing.
I was a wreck. Classes became background noise I mostly skipped. My focus was singular. I knew I looked it. My eyes, usually bright with mischief, felt gritty, perpetually bloodshot, ringed with exhaustion. I was constantly on my burner phone, eyes darting, muttering scenarios and probabilities to myself.
"Shou?" Tanaka's voice, grounded and concerned, cut through my internal buzz during lunch. He stood over my table, his brow furrowed, his usual exasperated look replaced by genuine worry. "You good? You look like you're trying to debug your own brain. And you missed History and Chemistry."
I didn't even look up, just waved a dismissive hand. "New coding project, Taka. Super complex. Running simulations. Can't talk." I knew I sounded agitated, alienating, but I couldn't stop. The phantom image of Airi, crushed in the park, then the mall, was too real.
He sighed, but didn't leave. "It's about Airi, isn't it? You've been… weird since she got here. And now you're talking to yourself. Is something going on?"
"Nothing you'd understand, Tanaka!" I snapped, finally glancing at him, my voice strained. His face was a mask of deepening concern, but I couldn't explain. How could I? I had to find the pattern.
I spent the entire day executing my new plan. With careful manipulation and a few judicious micro-loops, I managed to steer Airi towards the school's vast, open sports field. She was there for extra practice with the track team, perfectly exposed to nothing but the sky above and the grass beneath. I watched her from the edge of the field, a strained sense of relief washing over me. No falling objects. No stray trucks. Nothing.
Then, it happened. A sudden, violent, localized microburst of wind materialized from nowhere, hitting only that section of the field. It wasn't a normal gust; it was like a focused, invisible punch from the sky, strong enough to uproot a decades-old oak tree at the far edge of the field, a tree that had stood firm through countless storms.
CRACK! A terrifying sound of splitting wood, followed by the rustling of leaves and the groan of splintering branches. A final, dull THUD.
Airi, caught mid-stride, had no time to react. She was crushed instantly by the falling tree.
My scream died in my throat, swallowed by the roar of displaced air and breaking wood. No. No. No! I stared, numb with horror. It wasn't just a new location; it was an entirely new category of accident, seemingly defying all logic. It wasn't a 'redirect' of an existing threat. It was generating new ones. It was proactively creating death. This was beyond 'bad luck.' It was deliberate. It was active. It was intelligent. It was enforcing a rule.
My body was trembling. My hands were slick with sweat. I looked like I'd just crawled out of a storm drain. It was around 6:00 PM.
Tap. CONFIRM. The familiar WHUMMMM. I was back, exactly 24 hours earlier: 6:00 PM yesterday. The exhaustion was a heavy cloak, but now it was laced with a cold, desperate rage.
I endured the night, consumed by a furious, single-minded analysis. Okay. The environment itself is dynamic. It's not just objects, it's forces of nature. So, what's left? What if I keep her isolated entirely? What if I take her home and she just… stays there?
The next morning, the "doomed day" again, I was almost skeletal, my eyes sunken and bloodshot, constant tremors in my hands. I approached Airi immediately after school, inventing a frantic excuse. "My, uh, my mom really needs help with something at home, and she's insisting I bring a friend. Please, Airi, it would really help me out. Just for a few hours. We could watch a movie." It was clumsy, desperate, but she, seeing my clear distress, agreed, giving me a worried look.
I practically dragged her home, my eyes darting, my mind screaming. Tanaka saw me, tried to speak, but I just pushed past him. My objective: get her inside my room. It was the most controlled environment I could imagine. No traffic, no falling trees, no faulty light fixtures. Just four walls and me.
We sat in my room. I put on a movie, but I barely registered it. Every shadow, every creak of the house, every faint sound from outside had me on edge. Airi, bless her sweet heart, noticed.
"Kaito-kun? Are you okay? You seem… really stressed." She reached out, her hand hovering over my arm, a gentle concern in her eyes.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I mumbled, pulling away slightly. No. Not fine. I'm fighting a ghost.
Then, a sudden, piercing POP! erupted from the kitchen downstairs. A smell of gas, faint at first, began to seep into my room. A faulty water heater, maybe? A pipe bursting? Something that shouldn't happen, not now, not here.
No. No!
"Kaito-kun, what's that smell?" Airi asked, a tremor in her voice. She started to stand, her eyes wide with alarm.
"Gas! Get out!" I yelled, scrambling to my feet, grabbing her hand. My heart hammered. We had to move. Now. "Come on! Quickly!"
I yanked her towards the bedroom door, pulling her along. The gas smell was growing stronger, acrid and metallic. We burst into the hallway, coughing as the scent burned my throat. The floorboards creaked ominously beneath our feet.
"What's happening?" Airi gasped, stumbling a little, her grip tight on my hand. Her eyes darted around, terrified.
"I don't know! Just run!" I shouted, pulling her faster towards the stairs. One step, two steps. We were almost there. The ground floor, the front door, fresh air, safety.
Sound: A low hiss, quickly growing louder, vibrating through the floor. The lights in the hallway flickered violently, plunging us into momentary darkness before flaring back to life.
"Shou-kun!" Airi cried out, her voice filled with pure panic. Just as we reached the bottom step, my foot caught on a loose, raised floorboard. I stumbled, pulling Airi with me. She cried out, her foot twisting beneath her. She went down, collapsing in a heap just inches from the front door.
"Airi!" I screamed, lunging for her, desperate to pull her up, to drag her out. But at that exact moment, the hiss turned into a roar.
WHUMMMM! A deafening explosion ripped through the house. The floor buckled violently beneath me. Flames erupted from the kitchen, tearing through the floorboards, consuming the air with searing heat and blinding light. A massive, splintered beam, dislodged by the blast, crashed down from the ceiling. It fell directly into the gap between Airi, sprawled on the floor, and me, who was just regaining my footing, severing us.
"Kaito-kun!" Airi screamed, her face contorted in terror, as the roaring inferno consumed the space where she lay. The heat was infernal, the smoke choking. I could see her, just beyond the impassable barrier of flaming wood, trapped, consumed by the hungry orange glow. Her hand, which had been reaching for mine, dropped.
My scream was a raw, primal sound of agony. Airi. Gone. Again. In my own home.
I stared, my vision blurring with tears and rage, at the inferno raging inches from my face. My phone, miraculously intact in my pocket, vibrated with a new notification. I pulled it out, my numb fingers finding the familiar icon.
'The Slider Cooldown has reset!'
Another 24 hours. Another chance to watch her die.
My mind was a whirlwind of frantic equations, desperate theories. It wasn't random. It wasn't bad luck. It's fighting back. It's learning. It's adapting to my interventions. This wasn't fate, it was a protocol. An AI. Something within E.R.I.S was enforcing this. It wasn't just a physical threat; it was a quantum one.
My resolve hardened into something grim, almost insane. I stared at my phone, the E.R.I.S icon glowing. I was defeated, but not broken. If I couldn't stop it from the outside, if I couldn't control the variables, then I had to go deeper. Into the system itself.
Next time, I vowed, my eyes burning with a chilling resolve, I'm not just saving her. I'm taking down the system that's killing her.