The alarm clock didn't ring. Kaito stared at it intently ten minutes before the scheduled time, daring the machine to make a sound.
07:14... 07:15.
BEEP.
Kaito turned it off with a slap that could have broken the clock if he had invested a little more force.
June 27th.
He sat up amidst the tangled sheets. "Damage Analysis," he said to the empty room.
The closet door opened slowly. Fia peeked out, looking like a child who knows she broke an expensive vase.
"The System confirms a total reset," she whispered. "Target Memories: Preserved. Chosen One Memories: Preserved. Mai Sakurajima Memories: Erased. Bathroom Status: Dirty."
Kaito closed his eyes. "The bathroom is dirty."
That was the last straw. He had manipulated reality, destroyed his social reputation, and endured the "weekend fisherman" fashion just to have a clean bathroom. And now, the universe had reverted the cleanliness. The dirt had traveled through time to haunt him.
"Get up, Fia," Kaito ordered, standing up. "We are not going to school today."
"What? But the 'Public Confession' event..."
"Canceled. The shock strategy failed. The villain strategy failed. Koga proved that her aversion to pain is greater than her shame." Kaito put on jeans and a simple black t-shirt. No uniform. "If she wants to play God with the calendar, I'm going to stop playing by her rules."
Tomoe Koga stood in front of the shoe lockers, trembling.
It was June 27th again. She knew. She tasted the bitter flavor of the reset in her mouth.
She remembered everything. She remembered the humiliation in the courtyard (which now never happened). She remembered the fishing vest (which was now back at the store). She remembered, with a sharp pain in her chest, Kaito's cold words from the day before—or in the future she erased.
"You are a coward, Tomoe Koga."
She clutched the strap of her bag. She expected to see him walk in at any moment. Expected him to march up to her, stand on a bench, and shout to the whole school that she was a fraud. She was ready for the punishment. She deserved it, right? She had run away.
But time passed. The bell rang. The hallway emptied.
Kaito didn't appear.
Koga's panic shifted shape. From "fear of confrontation" to "fear of abandonment."
"Where is he?" she whispered.
If he didn't come, would the loop continue? Or worse... what if he gave up on her? If he decided she wasn't even worth the effort of humiliating?
Her phone vibrated.
It wasn't a message from Rena. It wasn't from Maezawa.
It was from a number she hadn't saved in this timeline, but her heart recognized immediately.
Velcro Demon: Shichirigahama Beach. In front of the vending machine. 30 minutes. If you don't come, I'm going to your house and telling your mother about the lost child incident.
Koga swallowed hard. Threatening to tell her mom. It was low. It was petty.
It was exactly what she needed to move her legs.
Shichirigahama Beach was windy. The sky was an annoyingly perfect blue, the same blue as three days ago. The ocean beat against the sand with a regularity that Kaito found hypnotic and, by contrast, enviable.
Kaito sat on the retaining wall, drinking canned coffee. Fia, in invisible mode (but present, unfortunately), narrated the landscape.
"The ocean is vast! Is it a metaphor for the infinity of your suffering, Kaito?"
"It is a mass of saltwater, Fia. Stop projecting."
He saw Koga arriving. She was still in her school uniform, which made her stand out among the surfers and tourists. She was running, hair messed up by the wind, face red.
She stopped a few meters from him, panting. She looked at him cautiously, as if he were going to pull out a gun or a megaphone.
"You skipped class," she accused, catching her breath.
"I am an amateur time traveler trapped in Groundhog Day," Kaito replied, crushing the empty coffee can. "School attendance laws do not apply to me."
He hopped down from the wall and stood in front of her.
Koga took a step back. "What are you going to do? Are you going to yell at me again? Tell me I'm pathetic? Break up with me before we even start?"
"No," Kaito said. "Yelling wastes energy. And breaking up with you is impossible because technically, on this day, we never started."
He began walking toward the sand. "Come."
"Where to?"
"To walk. Apparently, sea breeze helps oxygenate the brain. And yours is clearly suffering from logical hypoxia."
They walked along the shore. The sound of the waves drowned out the noise of the nearby highway. Koga kept a safe distance of two meters. Kaito looked at the horizon.
"Why did you reset?" Kaito asked, without looking at her. His voice held no anger. Just exhaustion.
Koga hugged herself. "Because... because it hurt."
"Pain is a biological feedback mechanism," Kaito said. "It indicates damage. But it also indicates reality."
"I didn't want to be the dumped girl," she blurted out, voice trembling. "You said I would be the victim, that they would pity me... but I saw the way they looked at you. And then at me. I felt... exposed. I felt alone. And then I thought: 'If I could go back... if I could do it differently...' and then..."
"And then you woke up this morning," Kaito finished. "And the problem is still here. Maezawa is still going to ask you out. Your friends are still superficial. And I am still here, only more irritated and with a dirty bathroom."
He stopped and turned to her.
"Koga, do you understand what you are doing? You aren't just repeating a day. You are trapping me in it."
Koga looked at the sand. "I... I know."
"You know, but you don't care. Or didn't care enough." Kaito sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I have a life, you know? I have games to beat. I have eggs to cook. I have an annoying goddess to keep in a closet. I have a future, however mediocre and apathetic it may be. And you are stealing that from me because you are afraid of being uncomfortable for a week."
His frankness hit her differently this time. Yesterday, he was cruel to push her away. Today, he was just being honest about his own burnout. He didn't seem like the invincible villain. He seemed like a tired boy.
"I am not an NPC in your social simulation game, Koga," he said, looking her in the eyes. "I am real. And I am exhausted by you."
Koga felt the tears coming, but this time, she didn't hold them back. And she didn't try to run away.
"You're right," she whispered.
Kaito blinked. "What?"
"You're right!" she shouted, voice breaking against the wind. "I am a coward! I am selfish! I use the reset like an 'undo' button because I can't handle the consequences of my choices!"
She fell to her knees in the sand, dirtying her uniform. She didn't care.
"I know you're tired!" she sobbed. "I am too! I'm tired of pretending to laugh! I'm tired of looking at the clock waiting for the day to end! But... but it's so hard, Kaito! It's so scary! If I lose my place in the group, who am I? I am nobody! I am just a boring girl from the countryside trying to look cool!"
Kaito watched her cry.
"SYSTEM ALERT: TARGET HAS REACHED BREAKING POINT," Fia whispered, not shouting this time. "SHE IS BEING HONEST. FOR THE FIRST TIME, SHE IS NOT ACTING."
Kaito looked at the girl in the sand. A teenager terrified by the idea of being irrelevant.
It was troublesome and loud.
But for the first time, it was logical. Her fear made sense.
Kaito sighed. He walked over to her and crouched down. He didn't hug her (Rule 1).
He just reached out and gave her a light, clumsy flick on the forehead.
Koga stopped crying, surprised, bringing a hand to her forehead. "Ow..."
"You aren't nobody," Kaito said. "You are the girl who forced me to eat an octopus-shaped bento. You are the girl who cleaned my bathroom with hate in her heart. You are the girl who looked ridiculous in a fishing vest and laughed about it."
He stood up, brushing sand off his pants.
"You have already been real with me, Koga. You have already survived being yourself in front of me. And I am the most critical and unpleasant person you know. If you can handle me judging you, you can handle Rena and Yuka."
Koga looked at him, eyes red and swollen. His words weren't kind, they weren't sweet. But they were facts.
"But... what if I end up alone?" she asked, voice small.
"Then you end up alone," Kaito said, with the simple brutality of truth. "Being alone is better than being trapped in the same day with people you don't even like. I stay alone all the time. It's peaceful. No one bugs you."
He extended a hand to her.
"Get up. You are dirtying your uniform and tomorrow is a school day. If you reset again to clean your skirt, I swear I will throw your phone into the sea."
Koga looked at his hand.
She thought of Maezawa. Thought of Rena's fake smile. Thought of the suffocating safety of June 27th.
And then she thought of the 28th. The unknown day. The day she could be excluded, ignored, ridiculed. The day she would be alone.
But also the day Kaito would be free. The day she could use the fishing vest as pajamas. The day time would move forward.
"You're right," she said again, firmer this time. "I can't keep restarting whenever something I don't like happens. That is... spoiled brat stuff."
She grabbed his hand. His hand was cold and dry. He pulled her up with an efficient motion.
"So," Kaito said, letting go of her hand immediately. "What are we going to do?"
Koga took a deep breath, wiping her face with the back of her hand. She looked at the sea, then at Kaito. A new kind of determination shone in her eyes. Not the determination to run, but to end it.
"We are going to break up," she said. "But not because you are a villain. And not with a scandal."
"Oh yeah? And what is your genius plan?"
"We are going to break up because..." she thought for a moment, and then a sad but genuine smile appeared. "Because I realized I deserve someone who likes my bento. And you deserve someone who... well, someone who can stand your apathy. Like Sakurajima-senpai."
Kaito raised an eyebrow. "Don't involve third parties."
"We are going back to school," Koga decided. "Now. There is still time for lunch break. And I am going to tell them we broke up. And when Maezawa comes... I am going to say no. And if they exclude me..."
She trembled, but clenched her fists.
"...If they exclude me, I will become a pariah. But I will be a pariah on June 28th."
"Approval granted," Kaito said. "Logically sound plan. Let's go."
They walked back to the train station. The silence between them wasn't tense, nor comfortable.
When they arrived at school, lunch break was halfway through. Koga went to the bathroom to clean up. Kaito waited in the courtyard, leaning against his usual bench, watching the clock.
When Koga came out, she didn't look like a popularity queen. Her uniform was rumpled, eyes swollen. But she walked with her head held high.
She went to her group of friends. Kaito couldn't hear what she said, but he saw the gestures. He saw the confusion on Rena and Yuka's faces. Saw the expression of shock when Koga shook her head negatively.
Then, Maezawa approached. The trigger moment.
Koga turned to him. They spoke for less than a minute. Maezawa looked offended, then disdainful. He laughed and walked away, taking the group with him.
Koga stood there, alone in the middle of the courtyard. The group walked away. No one looked back.
She was isolated. Exactly as she feared.
Kaito watched. He felt a pang of... respect? Maybe. She had pulled the trigger on her own social guillotine.
Koga looked around, saw she was alone, and then her eyes met Kaito's across the courtyard.
She just nodded, a brief, solemn movement.
It was over.
Kaito nodded back.
The bell rang. The day continued. The afternoon passed. And when night came, and Kaito lay in his bed, he waited.
He looked at the clock. 11:59 PM.
The minute lasted an eternity.
00:00.
00:01.
The date on the phone changed.
June 28th.
Kaito released the breath he didn't even know he was holding. The loop had broken. Time was moving forward.
"Mission accomplished," Fia whispered, appearing on the ceiling, looking exhausted. "Affinity Bonus received: 'Mutual Respect'."
"I don't want respect," Kaito muttered, pulling the blanket over his head. "I want to sleep. And tomorrow, I want my bathroom actually clean."
Peace, finally, seemed possible. Or at least, a new form of problems that didn't repeat every 24 hours. And that, for Kaito, was already a victory.
________________________________________
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