---
11:09:00 AM.
Ren's pulse thundered in his ears.
His breath came in short, sharp bursts as he stood by the window, watching. Waiting.
The same courtyard. The same students. But now, it all looked… staged. Like actors unknowingly waiting for their cue to die.
Ten seconds.
He counted them like gunshots in his mind.
One.
Two.
Three—
The boy in the hoodie walked through the quad. Same as before.
Four.
Five.
His foot caught on the same stone—stumbled forward.
Six.
Seven.
The scream was coming.
Eight—
Ren slammed his hand against the glass. "MOVE!"
Nine.
The courtyard boy turned up at the sound, confused—
Ten.
A shriek tore the air, but not from outside.
This time, it was inside the classroom.
Aya.
Ren spun around.
One of the students—Yamato—was convulsing in midair. His desk had been crushed underneath him like paper. His eyes rolled back, mouth open in a soundless scream. His skin glowed faint blue.
A system glitch?
No. This wasn't like before.
This was worse.
From the back wall, the black-clad figure emerged—not by crashing through the roof, but by phasing through it. Like it had already learned.
The mask gleamed under the flickering lights.
> "TARGET IDENTIFIED: TEMPORAL OUTLIER."
"PRIORITY: HIGH."
It looked straight at Ren.
---
Time slowed.
Not like before—not rewound, but distorted. Warped, like his whole body had been dropped underwater.
Ren felt his knees give out. A pulse hit the back of his skull like someone had jammed a tuning fork into his brain. His vision fractured—layered with overlapping images.
The classroom.
The courtyard.
The rooftop.
Blood.
Aya.
Aya screaming.
Aya dead—
> "STOP!"
The thought didn't come from him.
It invaded.
And suddenly, everything shattered again—
---
< SYSTEM INTERRUPT >
> Temporal Interference Detected
Sequence Skipped: +4 seconds
Defensive Protocol: Activated
Trait "Chrono Binding" — Temporary Stabilization
---
Ren's eyes snapped open. He was still in the classroom.
But time was frozen.
Literally.
Aya stood mid-sprint, hovering inches from the floor. The teacher's mouth was open in a mid-shout. Raindrops hung motionless against the window.
Ren stood at the eye of the storm. Alone.
No sound. No movement. Just—
Clink.
He turned.
The masked creature had moved again. Closer. Time meant nothing to it.
Ren's legs acted before logic could form. He ran.
Shoving open the classroom door, he bolted into the hallway, nearly slipping on the slick floor. The lights above flickered violently. The world was caught in a stuttering beat—frames looping and skipping like a corrupted video.
Somewhere behind him, the thing followed.
Not with footsteps.
Just... appearing.
Teleporting short distances like time itself bent to its will.
> "Temporal Host Resistance: 12%"
"Initiating Extraction."
"No, no, no—"
Ren's breath tore from his lungs. His body screamed at him to stop, but adrenaline shoved him forward. He vaulted a stair rail and landed hard, nearly rolling an ankle, but kept going.
He needed distance. He needed time to—
> Time to what?
To survive?
To understand?
To reset again?
---
A corridor blurred past—he ducked into the science wing, where the windows were tinted and the labs left untouched during midterms.
He slammed the door behind him. Locked it.
He backed into the shadows between tall counters and watched the light under the door.
No movement.
No shadow.
And then—
> "You don't belong here."
Ren nearly screamed.
The voice came from inside the lab.
He spun.
A girl stood by the emergency exit. Thin, dark ponytail. Green eyes sharp enough to cut through time itself.
She wasn't from their school. Not in uniform. And she had armor—sleek, dark, faintly glowing with pale veins of energy.
> "You're the anomaly," she said, eyes narrowing. "The system's chasing you. Which means you've already looped, haven't you?"
Ren's chest rose and fell. "…Who the hell are you?"
The girl tilted her head, tapping a badge on her chest.
> UNIT-07: FRACTAL ORDER Classification: Observer
"I'm Kira," she said, stepping forward. "And if we want to survive your next ten minutes, you better start talking fast."