Chapter Seven: Drowning 1
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The sun sets as if it never truly rose, hiding amongst the clouds. She lies on her warm bed in absolute silence—until it is shattered by that grating, insistent sound. The phone is ringing.
She opens her exhausted eyes and reaches out to pick it up. The blank, vacant expression on her face instantly shifts into a look of profound sorrow. The time is 7:54 AM, and Loken is calling.
She whispers in a deep, weary voice: "Damn it... I don't want to go down to the university."
She answers without uttering a single word, while Loken speaks on the other end: "Kyouko... where are you? I'm waiting for you."
Her face flushes as she sighs heavily. "I'll save you the trouble. The sun has vanished, so everyone around you will disappear. Then it will become freezing cold, and the rain will pour down. After that, I'll watch you die right in front of me, and my heart will be torn apart all over again. I'm so tired of this."
A tear slips from Kyouko's eye, falling onto the phone, and a heavy silence descends.
Loken whispers through the receiver: "I believe you, Kyouko. But I will not allow you to drown in despair and let grief consume you until you die weak and helpless."
Then, his voice rises, fierce and serious: "Because that is not who you are! So how can you simply allow me to die?!"
The call disconnects.
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Kyouko finds herself already dressed. With a cold, detached expression, she stands before the mirror, tracing her own face as she whispers: "Am I even real?"
Then she clutches the phone tightly to her chest.
She wanders through her small apartment, heading straight for her sister's room. She doesn't even bother searching for her, merely telling herself: "She's disappeared. I don't know whether to fear for her, or to be relieved that she is safe outside this hell I'm trapped in."
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She strolls through the university courtyard with heavy, swaying steps. The vacant look on her face suddenly morphs into sheer surprise. The place is crowded—the people are still here. No one has vanished.
A glimmer of relief enters her chest as she wonders: Has everything returned to normal?
From afar, she catches sight of that distinct young man standing right under the clock in the center of the square. She walks toward him hesitantly, approaching his back. Loken notices the familiar sound of her footsteps and turns his head toward her—to find her with an expectant gaze, her hand pressed against her heart.
A calm smile graces his face as he says: "You are even more beautiful than I imagined."
With those words, Kyouko sheds a tear—as if it were a signal of an agony yet to end.
He steps closer, his expression a mixture of sorrow and bewilderment, and speaks gently: "Tell me everything that's in your heart."
But Kyouko simply stares deeply into his silver eyes.
The rain begins to pour. Its drops strike Kyouko's head, confirming the start of a new cycle of torment. Around her, gusts of freezing wind shake her balance, obliterating her very last ounce of hope. Her frail body shivers, trembling from both the cold and the fear.
Loken takes off his coat, drapes it over her fragile shoulders, and pulls her with him toward the faculty building, cutting through the dense crowd.
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Outside, the courtyard lies empty. Inside, the building is packed. Crowded corridors echo with the voices of students:
"Why is the power going out and the lights dimming?"
"It's freezing without the AC heating. Let's go down to the basement."
"Guys, I'm heading home."
To Loken, these words mean absolutely nothing. But to Kyouko, they toy with her mind, reigniting memories so devastating they threaten to shatter her entirely.
Loken realizes she is deeply unsettled, so he guides her upstairs to the upper floor. They enter a dark, nearly empty corridor.
Suddenly, a bizarre flash of lightning illuminates the hallway, shaking both their hearts with its deafening thunder—followed instantly by a terrifying, unnatural sound of rain.
Kyouko collapses to the floor, while Loken leaps to the window, only to witness a sight that robs him of his sanity.
The rain isn't just heavy—it is absolute madness. The clouds are emptying themselves as if being wrung out; water is spilling from the heavens like violent, massive waterfalls.
He looks down at a ground that is rapidly disappearing beneath the flood. There is no trace of anyone left.
He turns back to Kyouko, finding her frozen, completely motionless, her features entirely vacant as she whispers: "Again... again."
Loken sits down beside her, gently resting her head on his shoulder: "I'm listening."
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The roaring sound of water echoing through the university isn't coming from the earth, but from the sky—an overwhelming deluge spilling down across the world outside.
Meanwhile, inside, Loken is sprinting through the corridors of the fifth floor, aggressively sealing every single window. He moves frantically between lecture halls and offices, double-checking each one, his mind racing:
I understand now. It's a time loop where my death repeats at the exact time of the promise: 5:04 AM on September 13th.
Kyouko's earlier words flash in his mind: "I think we only need to stay alive until the next day. But the whole world will turn against us if we step outside, and even staying inside the university is useless."
He also recalls: "I tried so hard, all this time, to avoid making any mistakes, only to fall into new ones, so that in the end, you die because of me—right in front of my eyes."
He vows to himself: This time, the decision will be mine. I will protect myself, and I will protect you, so we can survive past this time.
But one thing still eludes him: What is this promise I made to you?
...What happened? How could Loken have forgotten the most important promise between them?...
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Down on the flooded ground floor, Kyouko struggles to wade through the freezing water between the cafeteria shelves, gathering whatever food she can find. She works tirelessly, hauling the provisions to the upper floors.
Up on the faculty rooftop, water is pooling rapidly; the drainage systems are utterly failing to keep up with the sheer density of the storm.
He climbs the waterlogged stairs until he reaches the top, immediately noticing the crisis: the water is on the verge of breaching the building through the roof doors and ventilation ducts.
He paces the rooftop, his body completely drenched by the rain, deep in thought. As he walks, his foot strikes an iron pipe. He picks it up, and a sudden idea strikes him.
He heads to the edge of the roof and violently smashes the iron pipe against the base of the parapet wall. He repeats the blows until he creates a hole through which the water can escape downwards. He moves to another corner and does it again. His sweat has now completely mixed with the rain.
He has roamed across five entire floors, forcing shut hundreds of windows and smashing out more than forty drainage holes.
Meanwhile, Kyouko is inside one of the offices, next to a fireplace, laying her soaked clothes around it to dry while tidying up the space.
Night falls swiftly before the two can reunite.
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Loken patrols the corridors of the first floor, double-checking the locked windows. He notices cars floating outside, swept away by the raging current. He grimaces: The water level has risen much faster than I expected. We don't have the luxury of time.
He continues his patrol, calling out her name: "Kyouko!... Where are you?"
He hears a deep voice calling back from one of the hallways, coming from the direction of the staff offices.
Kyouko welcomes him into a warm, neatly arranged room. Despite its small size, his chest swells with relief, and he smiles at her beautiful effort. Chuckling, he says: "I didn't want you to exhaust yourself, but... thank you."
She finds herself smiling back, even amidst all her sorrow. He sneezes mid-sentence: "Well then, all that's left is for me to fetch the food from downstairs. I won't be long."
Kyouko sneezes as well, opening a cabinet now stuffed with food instead of books and files. Loken laughs: "You've put in immense effort, but it seems we both caught a cold."
Kyouko replies with a warm smile: "Dry your clothes while I prepare the food."
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While they eat their snacks, Loken speaks up: "I found some fuel, a small generator, and a few useful things on the upper floors. We still have some electricity from the backup generator, but it could flood at any moment."
Kyouko replies anxiously: "Please, do not go near any generator. Let's try to understand what's happening first."
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Time passes, the hands of the wall clock spinning rapidly as they discuss their situation—until it strikes 1:00 AM.
Exhausted, Loken lies down on the floor to sleep. He notices Kyouko staring blankly at the clock and whispers: "You look exhausted. Try to get some sleep."
She leans closer to him, resting her hand on his white hair. Her cheeks flush red as she holds her breath and closes her eyes:
"I will not wait until 5:00 AM. Tell me the promise we agreed upon... right now."
His face turns crimson, tension visible on his features as he buries his head under the blanket, thinking: What am I supposed to say? I have no idea what promise she means!... I shouldn't hurt her feelings.
He takes a deep breath, trying to compose himself, and says gently:
"You deserve a better time and place. So, once we figure out how everyone vanished, and once we break this repeating time loop you told me about, I will honestly tell you about the promise."
Silence fills the room. The flickering glow of the fireplace stirs a memory of a very similar day within her mind. She sits off to the side, curling up into a ball, and whispers softly: "Alright... I truly hope so."
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The moon, hidden between the clouds, loses its light entirely amidst the torrential rain. The land is empty, devoid of any living creature—save for the two lonely souls imprisoned inside a colossal building.
The continuous sound of rain lashing against the window paints a mesmerizing atmosphere inside the room, where they both lie asleep. Until Kyouko, still curled in a ball, opens her tired eyes and looks at the wall clock: It is 4:30 AM.
Her expression shifts instantly. She unlocks her phone to check something, searching with wide, confused eyes as she thinks: Where is the alarm I set for this exact time months ago? The phone should be ringing right now... How did I not notice this earlier?
...Something is wrong...
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Kyouko shakes Loken's shoulders to wake him: "Loken... come on, wake up."
He murmurs back with sleepy eyes: "Don't be scared, I haven't died yet."
But as he feels her hands trembling violently against his shoulder, he jolts upright and snaps his gaze to the clock, suddenly realizing: It seems we don't have much time left.
The hands of the clock spin, and with every passing minute, the tension mounts so intensely that her heartbeat becomes clearly audible to Loken. He wipes her sweating forehead—cold sweat trickling down her pale face. He wraps the blanket securely around her and pulls her closer to the fireplace, constantly reassuring her.
...It is getting closer... 4:59:40... She grips his hand with all her might, pulling it tight against her chest as she screams: "Hold onto me—the building is going to collapse!!"
...3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
That final second was agonizingly long... breathless... so incredibly long that it felt... as if it were standing still...
They stare into each other's eyes, completely thunderstruck.
The clock had stopped.
Kyouko pulls out her phone with trembling hands, and both stare at its small screen in absolute bewilderment:
The time: 4:59 AM... Time had completely stopped here.
Did time just freeze?!
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To be continued...