By the fourth time Rishiro died, panic wasn't what came first anymore.
It had worn itself out somewhere along the way, replaced by something quieter that didn't waste time reacting. Instead of freezing or running, his thoughts moved first, trying to catch what stayed the same.
Every reset dragged him back to the same moment.
8:17 PM. His apartment. The same rejection email sitting open on his laptop, its glow cutting through the dim room. Outside, the neon lights stretched across Tokyo like nothing in the world had changed.
At first, he tried to explain it away. Coincidence. Bad luck. Maybe something wrong with his head.
But patterns don't repeat this cleanly by accident.
"This isn't random."
Rishiro leaned back slightly, eyes still on the screen as his thoughts lined up one after another.
"I'm being returning by death."
Something was hunting him.
And no matter what he did—no matter how early he moved, how differently he acted—it always found him.
On the fifth attempt, he stopped playing along.
No rushing. No second-guessing.
He stepped outside like he already knew what was waiting.
The night air touched against his skin, cool and steady, carrying the usual sounds of the city. Cars passed. Lights flickered. People walked by without a second glance.
Everything looked normal.
Too normal.
Rishiro walked straight into the middle of the street and stopped under a flickering streetlight. The light above him buzzed faintly, casting uneven shadows across the ground.
He didn't move.
"…Come out."
The words weren't loud, but they didn't need to be.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
A car rolled past in the distance. Someone laughed somewhere behind him. The city kept moving like it always did, completely unaware.
Rishiro exhaled through his nose, a faint smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth.
"Great. Now I'm talking to mys—"
The light above him flickered.
Once.
Then again.
The glow stuttered, dimmed—
And everything went out.
The street dropped into darkness so suddenly it felt like something had swallowed the light whole.
At the same time, the air changed.
It wasn't just colder.
It felt wrong.
Like something had slipped into the space around him, pressing in from all sides.
Rishiro's expression didn't change, but his eyes sharpened slightly.
"…There you are."
Something moved in the night.
Not fast.
Without any noise.
Just enough to be seen.
A shape peeled itself away from the space between buildings and stepped forward into what little light remained.
The closer it got, the less human it looked.
Its body was stretched thin, unnaturally long, like it had been pulled past its limits. Its arms hung low, dragging across the ground with a faint scraping sound that echoed in the silence.
Each step felt delayed, like its joints didn't quite line up with the movement.
And its face—
There was something there.
But the darkness around it shifted constantly, wrapping over it, hiding whatever should have been visible.
Not shadow.
Something thicker.
Something that moved.
Rishiro didn't step back.
His heartbeat picked up, sharp and heavy, but his feet stayed planted.
"So you're the one killing me."
The creature didn't react.
It didn't speak.
It just kept walking.
One step.
Then another.
With each movement, the air seemed to tighten, like the space between them was being pulled inward.
Rishiro rolled his shoulders slightly, forcing the tension out.
"…You know this is rude, right?"
His voice stayed steady.
"You could at least introduce yourself before stabbing someone."
The creature stopped.
For a split second, everything froze.
Then—
It vanished.
No buildup.
No warning.
One moment it was standing there—
The next it was in front of him.
The impact came instantly.
Something tore through his chest with enough force to lift him clean off the ground. The shock hit before the pain did, knocking the breath out of him as his body was thrown backward.
He hit the pavement hard, the sound echoing through the empty street.
"…So fast…"
The words barely left his mouth.
Warmth spread across his shirt, thick and heavy, dripping down as his vision blurred at the edges. The world tilted, stretching slightly out of shape as everything started to fade.
The darkness came faster this time.
But just before it closed in—
A voice cut through.
Soft.
Calm.
Almost bored.
"That's enough."
Everything stopped.
The creature froze mid-motion, its body locking in place as if something invisible had grabbed hold of it.
Rishiro's vision shifted slightly, just enough to see past it.
She stood there.
The old woman.
A few steps behind the creature, completely at ease, like she had been there the entire time.
Her posture was relaxed.
Her expression gentle.
But her eyes—
There was something in them that didn't match the rest.
"…You again…" Rishiro muttered, his voice barely holding together.
The creature moved back.
Not by choice.
It stepped away like something forced it to, like resistance wasn't an option.
The old woman let out a small sigh.
"You're still too early."
She didn't raise her voice.
She didn't need to.
The weight behind those words settled into the space around them.
The creature didn't hesitate.
It disappeared into the darkness, its form breaking apart into nothing like it had never been there.
Silence returned.
Rishiro's body gave out, collapsing fully onto the pavement. Blood spread beneath him, warm at first, then quickly cooling against the ground.
His breathing slowed.
Each breath came thinner than the last.
But his thoughts stayed clear.
Too clear.
He looked up at her.
And then he laughed.
It came out rough, uneven, breaking halfway through.
"…So…"
He swallowed, the taste of iron thick in his mouth.
"You could control it."
The old woman didn't respond.
She just watched him.
Rishiro's smile widened slightly, even as his vision darkened.
"…You could have stopped it before."
"But you didn't."
His eyes narrowed just a fraction.
"So tell me something…"
His voice dropped lower, weaker, but still steady enough.
"…Are you the one behind this?"
The old woman tilted her head.
Then she smiled.
The same quiet, unreadable smile as before.
"…Do you finally believe me now?"
Rishiro didn't answer.
He couldn't.
The darkness had already taken him.
End of chapter 3