Part 16: Loop Logic

Fifteen minutes earlier. The Organization's headquarters.

Kurose moved through the common area with his usual measured pace, coffee in hand.

He took his seat at the long, round steel table without a word, his sharp gaze sweeping over the empty seats.

Fuse was the only one present, excluding him.

She was swinging her legs under her chair, a chocolate biscuit held between her fingers. Her presence, bright and carefree, contrasted starkly against the heavy atmosphere that lingered over the base.

The moment of silence was broken by the sharp ring of Kurose's phone.

He checked the caller ID. It was Shougo Narita.

Without hesitation, he answered, his posture rigid, disciplined.

"Narita. Report."

His voice was calm, but the weight behind it was unmistakable.

A beat of hesitation on the other end. Then, "The target… escaped. He's currently in a hospital receiving treatment."

Kurose's fingers tightened slightly around his cup. "What?" His tone remained steady, but there was an edge to it now. "Explain."

"A girl we've never seen before intervened."

A girl? His mind immediately shifted to the most likely scenario. An ability user.

"What was her ability?"

Fuse perked up slightly at the question, clearly interested.

"That's the thing," Narita continued, voice still uncertain. "She didn't use one."

Kurose's grip on his phone tightened. "Clarify."

"She was… ordinary. At least, she showed no signs of an ability."

Impossible. Narita and Hayama, failing against a single civilian? He knew their capabilities. Even Hayama alone could crush the average person. Yet a single girl had not only gotten away but had dragged a half-dead man with her in the process?

It wasn't adding up.

"Explain yourself," he ordered.

Narita exhaled, as if frustrated by the memory. "She figured out the weakness of Hayama's ability after seeing it once. I also underestimated her at first, so I didn't use my own ability immediately. They ran into the crowded station area, and by the time we located them again, there was a commotion at the entrance. She used that as an opening to spray pepper spray at Hayama. He hesitated for just a second, and by the time we pushed through the crowd, they were gone."

Clever. Too clever for an ordinary person.

Kurose didn't respond immediately. He was already thinking ahead.

"I checked the surveillance cameras," Narita continued. "Found footage of her and another girl helping the target into a taxi. Just now, I traced the taxi's route. It dropped them off at a hospital. That's where he is now."

Kurose stood up. "I'll handle it."

Narita hesitated. "Shouldn't we send Arakawa instead?"

"She's not here. It would take too long."

"Understood."

"You'll receive a heavy punishment if this girl turns out to be nothing special." Kurose's voice was cold, final. "Find out who she is. Where she lives. Everything. If she's a loose end, we cut her off before it becomes a problem for Sir Takatora."

"Understood."

Click.

Kurose had ended the call with a sharp click.

"Did you find someone else with an ability?" Fuse asked, her tone noticeably more cheerful than the situation warranted.

Kurose turned slightly, glancing at the small girl sitting at the table.

She was fourteen—about to enter high school—but slightly smaller than most of her peers. Short, shoulder length, reddish-brown hair, slightly messy but naturally soft. Large, grayish-brown eyes, always filled with determination. A child, but not naive.

"It hasn't been confirmed yet," he replied.

"Aww…" She slumped slightly.

Kurose didn't say anything else. He reached for the black file on the nearby desk and turned toward the exit.

If this 'ordinary girl' had the ability to slip past the Organization's grasp…

Then she wouldn't stay ordinary for long.

------------------------------------------

Twenty-five minutes minutes later. At the hospital.

The sterile glow of hospital lights had become all too familiar.

Connie leaned back against the cold plastic chair in the waiting area, eyes unfocused as she tried to gather her thoughts. The night had been long—too long—but at least the System had confirmed Takeshi was still alive.

For now.

Ayaka sat next to her, hands clasped tightly together on her lap, staring at nothing in particular. Neither of them had spoken in a while.

Takeshi wasn't going anywhere. Even if they had figured out what he should tell his parents, it didn't solve anything. A transfer to another hospital was out of the question. And even if they somehow pulled it off…

The Organization would find them in less than an hour. They had already managed to find this hospital in less than half that time.

A simple relocation wouldn't be enough.

They needed to stop Kurose tomorrow, either outside or inside the hospital.

It worked well that tomorrow was a Saturday, at least they didn't have to go to school.

Connie exhaled, rubbing the back of her neck. "We should go home."

Ayaka looked at her, skeptical. "Just like that?"

Connie forced a small shrug. "What else can we do? The hospital isn't going to let us stay overnight. And even if they did, we're just sitting ducks here."

Ayaka didn't look convinced, but she didn't argue. She probably understood that lingering wouldn't accomplish anything.

"…Fine," Ayaka muttered, standing up.

"Come on, I'll walk you home first."

The streets were quieter than usual.

Not unnaturally so, but enough that it put Connie on edge. Maybe she was just paranoid after everything that had happened, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

Ayaka must have noticed her stiffness because she sighed, kicking a stray pebble down the sidewalk. "You keep looking around like someone's about to jump us."

"Can you blame me?" Connie muttered.

That earned a half-hearted laugh. "Fair enough."

They kept walking in relative silence after that. Ayaka seemed lost in thought, her expression still tense, but she wasn't pressing for more answers this time.

She doubted that Ayaka was satisfied with just what she had told her back at the hospital. Maybe she thought this was not the right moment.

Either way, Connie was thankful for that.

It wasn't long before they reached Ayaka's house. Connie waited until she stepped inside before finally turning back, heading toward her own home.

And that's when it hit.

It wasn't immediate—more like a slow, creeping sensation.

That now-familiar feeling of wrongness.

Connie froze in place.

The world around her suddenly felt… too still. The air, the lights, the distant hum of the city—it was all too quiet.

Her stomach twisted.

A death flag had activated.

She immediately snapped her head around, scanning her surroundings.

Where was it? What was happening?

Nothing looked unusual. The street was empty except for a few distant streetlights flickering. There were no strange figures, no shadows lurking around the corner.

But the feeling wouldn't leave.

A sharp snap echoed from above.

Connie barely had time to look up before a power line cable violently ripped loose, sending a cascade of sparks raining down.

Her body moved on instinct.

She jumped back just in time, the wire crashing onto the pavement inches from where she had been standing. It writhed and crackled, sending streaks of raw electricity dancing across the ground.

Too close.

Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears.

She barely had a second to catch her breath before—

BOOM.

A nearby fire hydrant exploded.

Water gushed into the air, spraying everywhere.

The electrified ground lit up instantly.

The realization barely had time to sink in before a sharp, burning shock surged through her body.

Agony.

A split second of unbearable, searing pain—

The world blinked.

The scent of coffee. The sound of soft chatter. The dim, warm glow of a café.

Connie's eyes snapped open.

Connie's fingers dug into the wooden table, breath caught in her throat. Her vision blurred, her mind still stuck in the moment before she died.

The crackle of electricity. The pain. The sudden, searing heat.

But it was gone.

Replaced by warm air, light conversations, the distant hum of a coffee machine.

She wasn't outside in the street anymore.

She was back.

Back before Takeshi was poisoned.

Back before everything.

A slow, dreadful realization sank in.

This isn't right.

The reset shouldn't have taken her this far. It had always pulled her back to the last unresolved death flag—never beyond that.

So why?

Why was she here?

Why had all that progress been erased?

A shaky breath left her lips as she reached for her phone, hands trembling.

She already knew what she was going to see.

But that didn't make it any easier.

Her fingers swiped across the screen, opening her messages.

[Death Flag Resolved. Points: 22.]

Twenty-two.

Her entire body went cold.

That wasn't right.

That wasn't possible.

She had twenty-nine points. She had earned those points. She had saved Takeshi. She had gone through the hell of dragging his nearly unconscious body to a hospital, risking her life against an unknown enemy—

So where were those points now?

It was as if they had never existed at all.

Her breathing felt too shallow.

Did she… imagine it? No. That's impossible.

The pain, the exhaustion, the overwhelming fear of being hunted down. None of it had been fake.

Her mind spun wildly, searching for answers.

Did the System reset everything because she failed? No, that wasn't it. She had failed plenty of times before, and the resets had always taken her back to the most recent checkpoint.

Then why?

What was different this time?

Her thoughts were spiraling—

"Connie?"

The voice snapped her out of her daze.

She flinched, her eyes darting across the table.

Ayaka was staring at her, brow furrowed in concern.

For a second, Connie couldn't process it.

Right. Ayaka was here.

She had been sitting across from her, before all of this started.

And now, she was staring at her like she had grown a second head.

"Why do you look like you've just seen a ghost?" Ayaka asked.

Connie opened her mouth—then closed it again.

Her pulse was still too fast. Her skin was still tingling with the phantom sensation of being electrocuted.

She tried to swallow down the panic, to steady herself.

But what the hell was she supposed to say?

How could she even explain this?

She had died. Again. But this time, instead of being sent back a few minutes or even half an hour, she had been thrown all the way back here.

What the hell is going on?

She forced a small, strained laugh. "Uh… I just… spaced out for a second."

Ayaka raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, okay. Sure."

She didn't sound convinced.

Connie didn't blame her.

Because even she didn't believe herself.

Her grip tightened around her phone.

Her mind screamed with questions she couldn't answer.

Why did I loop this far back?

Why did I lose those points?

Why did I have to be the one going through this?

For the first time since this nightmare began—

She felt like her mind wouldn't last until she saw the end of it all.