I tightened my grip on the gun until my knuckles turned white.
“…This isn’t real,” I whispered.
The thing didn’t react.
It simply stood there.
Too still.
Too solid.
Too detailed.
Dreams blurred at the edges.
This didn’t.
I felt my heartbeat slow instead of racing, as though my body was preparing for something my mind couldn’t yet understand.
Am I awake?
I shifted my weight slightly.
The floor felt cold beneath my feet.
The gun was heavy in my hands.
My room smelled exactly the same as it always did.
Everything else was real.
So why wasn’t this fading?
The android’s head tilted.
Just a fraction.
Metal moved.
The sound was soft.
Controlled.
Intentional.
Fear tightened in my chest.
“…You’re real,” I breathed.
Inside my mind, the clones stirred sharply.
Confirmed, one voice said.
This entity is not a hallucination, another added.
Non-human.
Artificial structure.
External origin.
My throat tightened.
“Then why are you here?” I whispered, even though I didn’t expect an answer.
The android took a single step forward.
The floor creaked beneath its weight.
That sound broke something inside me.
I raised the gun instinctively.
My arms remained steady even as my thoughts scattered in every direction.
This wasn’t a burglar.
This wasn’t someone I could reason with.
This wasn’t something that belonged in my world.
The android didn’t stop.
It didn’t hesitate.
It didn’t seem curious.
It simply watched.
The cold lights where its eyes should have been remained fixed on me, unwavering and emotionless.
A machine.
A thing.
Something that looked at me and saw neither a person nor a threat.
Only a target.
A point of interest.
A variable.
A chill crawled down my spine.
For the first time since I had gained this power, I felt genuinely unprepared.
Not because I lacked the strength to fight.
Not because I lacked options.
But because I didn’t understand what was standing in front of me.
And that frightened me more than any enemy ever had.
The android took another step.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Certain.
Standing there in my doorway, framed by shadow and pale hallway light, I finally understood one terrifying truth.
Whatever had been watching the fractures I left behind…
Whatever had been observing the distortions in time…
It had finally decided to stop watching.
It had come here.
To me.
And it wasn’t human enough to pretend otherwise.
For a moment, I couldn’t move.
Not because I was scared— but because my mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing.
An android stood in my doorway.
Not broken.
Not flickering.
Not uncertain.
Real.
My fingers tightened around the gun, but my arms refused to rise.
My thoughts lagged behind my instincts, trapped somewhere between this can’t be happening and it already is.
Am I dreaming?
That hesitation was enough.
The android moved.
Not fast.
Precise.
Its arm lifted smoothly, mechanical joints rotating with perfect control.
A panel shifted open in its palm.
I didn’t hear a gunshot.
I heard a sharp snap.
Light burst outward.
A net.
Thin strands of glowing energy spread through the air and wrapped around me before I could even take a step back.
The moment it touched me—
Pain exploded through my body.
Electric.
Violent.
Every muscle locked at once.
My jaw clenched painfully.
My fingers spasmed around the gun, nearly losing their grip.
I tried to move.
Nothing.
I tried to scream.
My throat seized.
The net pulsed.
Another wave of electricity tore through me.
My knees buckled.
I hit the floor hard, the impact barely registering beneath the pain flooding my nerves.
“Mizuki—!”
The voice inside my head was panicked.
“Don’t fight it,” the second voice said urgently.
“Please—every time you resist, it shocks you harder.
Stop.
Just for a second.”
I gasped.
My breath shook uncontrollably as another surge raced through the net.
My back arched involuntarily.
My own muscles had become my enemy.
“I know it hurts,” the first voice said, fear clear and raw.
“We’re here.
Listen to us.
Breathe.
You’re not alone.”
My vision blurred.
The room tilted.
I tried to speak, but the words collapsed somewhere between my mind and my lips.
The android stepped closer.
Heavy footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Unhurried.
It didn’t rush.
It didn’t need to.
“Mizuki,” the second voice whispered, her voice tight with fear.
“This thing knows exactly how to stop you.”
My fingers finally failed me.
The gun slipped from my hand and struck the floor with a dull metallic sound.
“No—”
One of them breathed the word like a prayer.
The net pulsed again.
Another wave of agony surged through my body.
This time, I stopped fighting.
Not because I wanted to.
Because I understood.
“This isn’t meant to kill you,” the first voice said quietly.
“It’s restraining you.”
The android hadn’t attacked randomly.
It hadn’t acted out of fear.
It had come prepared.
Prepared specifically for me.
The android loomed above me now, its shadow cutting across my vision.
For a moment, it simply stood there.
Watching.
Analyzing.
Then it spoke.
“Mizuki.”
My name.
Flat.
Precise.
Certain.
A chill ran through me, deeper than the electricity ever could.
It knew who I was.
I lay there, trapped inside my own body.
Heart pounding.
Breath uneven.
Unable to move.
Unable to fight.
And inside my head— only two voices remained.
Worried.
Protective.
Terrified of losing me.
“We’re still here,” one said firmly.
“And we’re not letting go,” the other promised.
I held onto those words.
Because whatever this thing was— it hadn’t come unprepared.
And this time…
I wasn’t facing it alone.
I lay on the floor, barely able to breathe.
The electric net still wrapped around my body, humming softly, alive.
Every muscle trembled beneath the current, waiting for the next pulse of pain.
The android stepped closer.
Its shadow fell over me, blocking the weak light spilling in from the hallway.
Even without looking directly at it, I could feel its presence.
Heavy.
Deliberate.
Absolute.
Then it bent down.
My breath caught.
Its hand closed around my gun.
I felt it leave my fingers.
Not because I let go— because my body could no longer hold on.
The metal scraped softly against the floor as it lifted the weapon away from me.
My heart sank as I watched it disappear into the android’s grasp, reduced to something small and helpless in its hand.
“No…”
I tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
The android straightened.
For a moment, it simply stood there.
Then something on its arm shifted.
Panels slid open with a quiet mechanical sound.
A compartment.
Storage.
Cold white lights flickered faintly inside.
And then—
I saw it.
My breath stopped.
A small gun.
Matte.
Compact.
Familiar.
The one I had given to Noa.
My vision blurred instantly.
No.
The word screamed through my mind.
No.
No.
No.
The android held it calmly, as though it were nothing more than another object it had already processed.
Already collected.
Already taken.
My chest tightened so hard it hurt.
Why does it have that?
Thoughts crashed into one another.
Sharp.
Chaotic.
Panicked.
Did it find her first?
Did it attack her?
Did she use it?
Is she alive?
Fear spread through me faster than the electricity ever could.
Inside my head, the two voices reacted immediately.
Not calm.
Not analytical.
Terrified.
“Mizuki…” one whispered.
“This shouldn’t be possible,” the other said, her voice shaking.
“How did it get that?”
I tried to move.
I had to move.
I had to know.
The moment my muscles tensed—
The net screamed.
Electricity surged violently through every strand at once.
Far stronger than before.
Pain exploded through my body.
My back arched uncontrollably as the shock tore through every nerve, swallowing my breath and scattering my thoughts.
“Stop—please!” one voice cried.
“Don’t fight it!” the other begged.
“It’s increasing the current!”
I didn’t care.
Noa.
That single name filled my mind.
Brighter than the pain.
Stronger than the fear.
The android tilted its head slightly.
As if it were observing my reaction.
As if it had expected this.
As if it were confirming something.
The current surged again.
My vision shattered into white.
I felt myself collapse harder against the floor, whatever strength I had left draining away all at once.
The voices grew distant.
“Mizuki—stay with us—”
“Please—don’t go—”
Their words felt farther away with every passing second.
The last thing I saw was the android standing over me.
My gun in one hand.
And Noa’s small gun secured inside its compartment.
The last thing I felt wasn’t pain.
It was fear.
Fear for her.
Then the darkness closed in.
And I lost consciousness.
Morning light touched my eyes.
Soft.
Ordinary.
For a moment, I didn’t understand why I was breathing.
Then I gasped and sat upright.
My room.
My bed.
No electric net.
No android.
No pain tearing through my body.
My chest rose and fell rapidly as I looked around.
The desk.
The chair.
The curtains.
The faint morning sunlight spilling through the window.
Normal.
Too normal.
My hands trembled as I looked down at myself.
Alive.
I swallowed hard and turned toward the clock on my desk.
The numbers stared back at me.
I froze.
“…No.”
My heartbeat quickened.
I leaned forward and checked again.
The date.
Four days earlier.
Four days before last night.
Four days before the android.
Four days before the net.
Four days before everything went wrong.
My breath came shallow.
“It happened again,” I whispered.
Not a dream.
Not imagination.
A return.
The realization settled heavily inside me.
My body felt different.
Not tired.
Not weak.
Layered.
As though something new had been added to me while I wasn’t looking.
Then I felt it.
A presence.
Close.
Too close.
My head turned slowly.
Someone was lying on the floor beside my bed.
My chest tightened.
She looked exactly like me.
The same hair.
The same face.
But she wasn’t wearing my school uniform.
She wore the clothes I had slept in last night.
The same clothes I had been wearing when the android attacked.
My stomach dropped.
Above her head, faint and almost transparent, hovered a number.
4
“…Four.”
The word barely left my lips.
I knew what it meant before my mind could argue.
Another death.
Another return.
Another version.
Slowly, I slid off the bed and knelt beside her.
My hands trembled as I reached out.
Warm.
She was warm.
Real.
Her chest rose and fell slowly, like someone lost in a deep sleep.
Not gone.
Not dead.
Just…
Finished.
“This is the fourth time,” I murmured.
The words felt unreal.
Yet the proof was right in front of me.
Memories lined up inside my head without effort.
The crossing.
The truck.
The android.
The electric net.
…
Noa’s gun.
Inside its arm.
Fear tightened around my chest again.
“…Noa.”
My fingers curled into fists.
I wasn’t relieved.
I wasn’t calm.
I was terrified.
Because this meant something worse than before.
The world hadn’t corrected itself.
It had pushed back harder.
Every return was becoming more complicated.
More dangerous.
More expensive.
And now, lying beside my bed, marked with a number I couldn’t ignore, was proof that every return left something behind.
I wasn’t resetting anymore.
I was accumulating.
The thought sent a chill through me.
How many more?
How many versions of me would appear before something finally broke?
How many deaths would it take before there wasn’t enough of me left to return?
I looked down at Clone No.
4.
At myself.
And a cold certainty settled deep inside me.
“This one wasn’t an accident,” I said quietly.
The morning outside remained peaceful.
Birds chirped.
Sunlight warmed the room.
The world had gone back four days as though nothing had happened.
But I hadn’t.
I remembered everything.
The fear.
The pain.
The android.
And most importantly—
Noa’s gun.
Somewhere, in this earlier version of time—
Noa was still out there.
Unaware.
Unprotected.
Living through a normal morning without knowing what was coming.
And the thing that had taken her gun…
was still moving.
Still searching.
Still hunting.
I slowly straightened to my feet.
The fear was still there.
But something else had replaced the helplessness.
Resolve.
My eyes hardened.
“This time,” I said softly,
“I don’t wait.”
The number 4 hovered silently above the sleeping clone.
Outside, the world continued as though nothing had happened.
But for me— everything had changed.
And the day began again.
Hello everyone!
First, I’d like to apologize for uploading this chapter about 10 hours later than usual.
Thank you for your patience and continued support.
Chapter 21 is a major milestone for Arc 3.
The previous chapters focused on building the foundation of the arc, developing Mizuki and Noa’s relationship, and showing the calm before the storm.
Now, the storm has finally arrived.
The mysterious visitor has revealed itself, and for the first time, Mizuki is facing an enemy that seems to understand her powers far better than she expected.
But perhaps the biggest mystery left behind by this chapter is: How did the android obtain Noa’s gun?
The answer to that question—and many others—will begin to unfold as Arc 3 moves forward.
Every bit of support helps the story grow.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and theories.
See you in the next chapter!