The school bell rang as usual.
Students moved through the halls as usual.
Everything followed its normal rhythm.
But Kael Thorn stopped in the corridor.
"…Didn't we already pass here?"
Lyra looked around.
"No? This is the hallway to class."
Kael frowned.
"I feel like I've walked this exact moment before."
At the same time, Ocean Counter walked past them.
Calm.
Unbothered.
Normal.
He didn't react.
Inside the structure of the world, a simple rule activated:
"Events must not repeat without cause."
It checked.
It compared.
It tried to confirm duplication.
And paused.
Because every reference point it checked gave slightly different answers.
Not wrong.
Just not stable enough to confirm repetition.
Kiyo Jian watched from afar, his expression tightening.
"…It's not repetition."
He narrowed his eyes.
"It's that continuity cannot fully lock onto him."
Ocean opened his classroom door.
Nothing unusual happened.
The lesson continued.
But Kael quietly stopped writing for a moment… unsure if he had already written that sentence before.