David woke up gasping.
His breath hitched like he'd been underwater for hours. The ceiling was the same — gray cracked plaster above a stiff academy dorm bed — but the air felt wrong. Off. Too still.
He sat up. Heartbeat rattling in his chest like a faulty vending machine. The sheets were tangled around his legs. The clock read 6:49 AM. The same time he'd first woken up in this cursed world.
"No way…" he muttered.
He stood and stumbled to the window. Outside, Seiryu Academy's campus stretched out. Calm and ordinary. The students were gathering like always. Some chatting in uniforms. Others dragging their feet with bags under their eyes. The sun had just started to rise over the rooftops.
Everything looked the same but he didn't feel the same.
His fingers trembled. The last thing he remembered was Airi. Her body. Her warmth. Her hands in his hair. Her voice trembling in his ear. The kind of night that couldn't be erased.
But when he reached over instinctively —
The bed was empty.
No Airi. No signs she'd ever been there. Not a hair. Not a note. Not even a system notification saying "Achievement Unlocked: Lost Your V-Card."
Just silence.
David glanced at his phone. The H-System was still functioning. Glowing faintly on the screen.
-Day 1
-Disruption Level: 0
-Affection Levels: RESET
-Active Routes: None
"What… the hell?"
The interface blinked again.
New World Activated: Parallel Timeline – Route Divergence Detected
Memory Transfer: David Only
Time State: Locked (External Worlds Frozen)
Main Quest: Investigate Route Variants
So he wasn't crazy. Or maybe he was. But at least the system confirmed it.
This was a different version of the same world.
Like a save file loaded from the beginning — but only he remembered the chaos that had come before.
David pulled on his uniform slowly. His muscles still aching from the memory of last night. It had been real to him. The heat. The softness. The way Airi whispered his name like it was something sacred. But now…
Now he was alone again.
Outside, campus life moved on. He walked through it like a ghost. Eyes scanning faces. Yuuto waved from across the courtyard like nothing had ever happened. Airi passed him in the hallway — eyes down, lost in a book. Her face blank.
She didn't look at him.
Didn't remember.
David's stomach twisted. He couldn't even say hi. Not without sounding insane.
He wandered until his feet took him to the courtyard near the vending machines. The same path he'd walked back on day two. Where he'd first collided with a whirlwind of sarcasm. Sunglasses. Flirt flags.
Reika Saionji.
And right on cue, she appeared.
Same red tank top. Same high ponytail. Same devil-may-care strut like she owned the damn campus.
But when she saw him?
Nothing.
No grin. No teasing. Just a flicker of curiosity as she adjusted her sunglasses and kept walking.
David hesitated.
Then stepped into her path.
Reika stopped. Brow raised.
"Uh, can I help you?" she asked. Voice flat. Vaguely annoyed.
"You don't remember me," David said. It wasn't a question.
She gave him a look like he'd just told her he was a time-traveling llama.
"Should I?"
David's throat tightened. "We met before. Sort of. You flirted with me by a bush. There was a spider. You invited me to the beach."
Reika stared at him.
Then she laughed.
A short sharp bark of disbelief.
"Dude, if that's a pickup line, it sucks."
"It's not — I swear. I'm telling the truth."
"Cool. And I'm the queen of Mars." She brushed past him. "Later, creep."
David stood frozen. Watching her go. The smell of her shampoo hit him like a truck full of bittersweet deja vu.
The system pinged.
-Event Triggered: Unexpected Reunion
-Route Status: Reika – Locked
-Memory Sync: 0%
-Affection: Neutral
"You're kidding me."
He turned toward the vending machine and slammed a coin in with more force than necessary. The banana milk that dropped out felt like a cosmic insult.
He cracked it open and sat down on the same bench he'd collapsed on days — or was it timelines? — ago.
Reika didn't remember.
Airi didn't remember.
Yuuto? Clueless as ever.
But he remembered everything.
And the system had reset him on purpose.
"Okay," David muttered. "Fine. You want me to play again? I'll play."
He opened the H-System's main menu.
-Shop: UNLOCKED
-Currency: 100,000 yen
-Inventory: Restored
-Bonus Item: Route Divergence Compass
A new item appeared. A sleek compass-like tool that shimmered with faint energy. It pulsed softly. Its needle pointing toward —
He turned slowly.
It was pointing straight at Reika.
-New Main Mission: Reika Route (Variant)
-Condition: Breakthrough Memory Wall
-Reward: Access to World Merge Function
World merge?
He had no idea what that meant. But it sounded big.
David looked down at the compass.
Then at the direction Reika had gone.
"Alright Saionji," he whispered. "Round two. Let's see if lightning strikes twice."