The voice of the teacher echoed through the room—dull, distant, like a far-off memory fading into static.
Kaito stared blankly at the blackboard. The chalk squeaked, but the sound didn't reach him. His pen rested between his fingers, unmoving, its tip hovering over paper stained with half-finished notes from another loop.
"…Why am I here again?"
He blinked slowly. His eyes moved to the window. The same soft sunlight. The same clouds. The same faint breeze fluttering through the cracked pane.
But everything was wrong.
He hadn't died this time.
No blood. No blade. No collapse.
Just a few words—a sentence he tried to say—and in that instant, reality shattered.
"I didn't even die… I just tried to tell her."
His heart beat faster. He gritted his teeth and pressed his fingers into the desk.
"I just said I've been resetting time… and then everything disappeared."
Darkness. Cold. A crushing silence. Then light. And he was back here again. Always back here.
Back at the start.
The reset point.
Kaito sat still for a long moment, letting the weight of the truth fall over him like a curtain made of lead. His body trembled, not from fear—but from the unbearable sense of helplessness.
"This isn't just about dying anymore…"
He placed a hand over his chest, feeling the phantom memory of the knife—the death he remembered too clearly, the pain etched into his soul like a scar.
"…Even talking about it sends me back."
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to steady his breathing.
"This power… this curse…"
He slapped his cheeks hard. A sharp sting. It grounded him.
"Kaito," he whispered to himself. "Don't panic. Your fear doesn't matter. Your death doesn't matter."
"The only thing that matters… is saving them."
His mind jumped to Sayuri's smile. To Airi's laugh. Ryuu's blade. The pain. The failure.
The emptiness.
"I won't let it happen again."
Not like that.
Not ever again.
An Hour Later
The bell rang, snapping him out of his thoughts like a gunshot. Students stirred, voices rising in chatter, chairs scraping the floor.
But Kaito didn't hesitate this time.
He stood the moment class ended and crossed the room with quick, firm steps.
"Airi!" he called.
She turned, halfway through packing her bag. "Hmm? What is it?"
"We need to talk," he said, eyes sharp and serious.
Airi blinked, startled by his tone. "Uh… okay?"
She walked up to him with a light smile. "You're acting weird again, y'know?"
Kaito leaned in, lowering his voice. "Airi, I've been resetting the ti—"
And just like that, it happened.
Again.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
No time to breathe.
No time to scream.
Reset Point – Classroom
Light returned. The sound of chalk on the board. The teacher's droning voice.
Kaito sat in his seat once more.
"…"
He didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Didn't even blink.
"…It happened again."
This time, he didn't clench his fists. He didn't shout. There was no panic left.
Only resignation.
And realization.
"There are rules."
He closed his eyes and let the truths arrange themselves in his mind.
"One… if I die, I reset."
"Two… if I try to tell someone about the reset, I reset immediately."
His thoughts clicked into place.
"This classroom… this day… it's the checkpoint."
Like a cursed save point in a game. No matter how far he ran, how much he suffered, he would always come back here.
It didn't matter if he died screaming or if he whispered the truth.
It would always be here.
This time.
This moment.
These people, unaware.
Airi.
Sayuri.
The teacher.
Everyone smiled like nothing was wrong.
Only Kaito remembered.
Only he suffered.
He gripped the edge of his desk until his fingers hurt.
"…I'm trapped."
His eyes slid toward Airi.
She sat beside him again. Smiling faintly. Doodling in the corner of her notebook.
Alive.
Untouched.
Oblivious.
And yet, he remembered watching her die.
Over and over.
And he couldn't tell her.
He couldn't scream.
He couldn't even whisper it.
This power—this cruel, relentless loop—had one condition:
Suffer alone.
Kaito's chest tightened.
Was this punishment?
Or mercy?
Was the power giving him chances… or mocking his failure?
Would it ever end?
"…No."
He stood abruptly.
A student turned to glance at him, but he didn't care.
His vision blurred with emotion—fear, frustration, grief—but through it all, something burned stronger.
Resolve.
"I won't give up."
He walked out of the classroom like a ghost. Wandering the halls of a world that refused to remember.
"I'll find a way."
Even if the rules crushed him.
Even if the resets tore his mind apart.
Even if he had to relive the pain a hundred more times—
He would not stop.
"I will save her."
"I will protect everyone."
Even if they never knew.
Even if they never remembered.
Even if it broke him.
He walked past a window and paused. Outside, the cherry blossoms had started to bloom.
He stared at them for a long time.
And then, quietly, he smiled.
"…I'm still here."
And as long as he was here—
He would fight.