Morning sunlight slipped lazily through the kitchen window, casting golden rectangles across the breakfast table.
"Asahi! Good morning!" he said, forcing a smile. It didn't quite reach his eyes.
His mother blinked, tilting her head."…Oh? You're so energetic today. What happened?"
From behind the newspaper, his father chuckled."Don't tell me—you saw a beautiful girl in your dreams?" His laugh was light, teasing.
Asahi's forced grin twitched. "Huh? No!"
But then—he grew serious. The mask slipped.
"Dad," he said.
The rustle of paper stopped. His father looked up, surprised.
"I'm coming with you to the office today."
Silence fell like a blade.
His mother stiffened. "What?! But what about school—?"
"Just this once," Asahi said gently, eyes locked onto hers. "One last time. Please…"
She hesitated. There was something in his voice. Something final.
His father sighed, eyes narrowing. Then, with a half-smile, he shrugged."If he's insisting that much…"
Asahi clenched his fist beneath the table, holding back a storm.
(Yes… Thank you, Dad.)
After breakfast, father and son stepped into the cool morning air. The sky above was a soft, perfect blue—too perfect.
Everything looked normal.
Too normal.
As they walked toward the car, Asahi's heart beat faster.
(The plan is simple.)First, save Father.Then, return home—and save Mom.
But…
(I don't know when she dies.)
The thought burrowed into his chest like a hook.
His grip tightened around his bag.
(This is a race against time.)
The Railway Station – A Silent Prelude
The station was nearly empty.
Too empty.
Only a few scattered silhouettes stood far away, unmoving.
Asahi's skin prickled.
"This is strange," he murmured.
His father waved it off. "Platform No. 6."
They walked together. His father smirked.
"Wanna hold my hand?" he joked.
Asahi blinked, half-laughing. "C'mon, Dad…"
But his father grabbed his hand anyway—warm, firm, safe.
Asahi didn't pull away.
He wanted to remember this warmth.
He didn't want to forget.
Platform No. 6 – A Place of Death
They arrived.
Silence.
Buzzing lights above. Blue tiles. Still air that reeked of abandonment.
Asahi's breath caught.
(There's no one here.)
His pulse thundered."Dad… something's wrong."
But his father just laughed. "You're overthinking. Some days are like this."
(No. Not like this.)
There were no staff. No announcements. No vendors. No sound.
Only emptiness.
Their voices echoed unnaturally.
Even his father's laugh bounced too many times, like a taunt from the void.
The announcement finally came—"The next train will arrive at… 10:05 AM."
The voice glitched, distorted at the end.
Five minutes.
His father stretched, yawning. "You're afraid, aren't you?"
Asahi flinched. "No…!"
His father grinned. "It's written all over your face."
Before Asahi could retort—
A hand.
A hand that wasn't his.
A hand that didn't belong.
A hand that appeared out of thin air—grabbing his father's shoulder.
Then—
SHOVE.
And then—
SPLAT.
Blood exploded onto the blue tiles.
Asahi stood frozen.
The train had already passed.
The silence afterward was deafening.
He looked down.
In his hand…In his trembling, blood-soaked hand—
Was his father's severed hand.
Still holding his.
His knees buckled.
Then—
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The scream tore through his lungs.
His mind broke.
(Who pushed him?! Where did that hand come from?!)
But no one answered.
Only silence.
And blood.
He stumbled out of the station.
Still holding the hand.
The sky cracked.
Rain fell like knives.
He didn't run.
He walked.
Step by step. A corpse in motion.
The weight of his father's death anchored every footfall.
But he couldn't stop.
He had to save her.
(Mom… please be safe…)
The front door was open.
The hallway smelled like lavender and death.
His heart pounded so loud it drowned the rain.
Room by room.
Empty.
Kitchen.Bathroom.Hallway.
Then—
Living Room.
He froze.
He couldn't breathe.
His soul cracked.
His mother hung from the ceiling.
Her eyes were open.
Staring at him.
Her hands were bruised. Her nails torn from struggle.Tears stained her cheeks.
The rope around her neck was too perfect.
Too clean.
A murder?A suicide?
It didn't matter.
She was gone.
The Collapse
Asahi fell to his knees.
His vision blurred.
He screamed.
Again. And again.
His voice wasn't human anymore.
He clawed at his own face.
Tore at his skin.
Blood ran down his cheeks—but he didn't feel it.
He only felt loss.
He gripped her legs with shaking hands.
"Mom…""Mom…""Mom…!"
He screamed her name like a prayer to a broken god.
But she didn't move.
The End of a Son
He collapsed.
The severed hand still in his grasp.
The rain pounded the roof. Thunder roared like grief.
"I'm tired…""I can't do it anymore…"
He lay there, on the floor.
Unmoving. Unfeeling.
Until—
Darkness took him.
The White Void – A Hollow Return
Asahi's eyes fluttered open.
White.
The void.
The Dimensional Dream.
And in front of him, like a ghost—
Future Asahi stood waiting.
Expressionless.
He tilted his head.
"…You came back."
FA's expression remained stoic.
But something in his posture shifted, the air around him suddenly heavier.
Slowly, he exhaled, the sound reverberating through the emptiness of the white void.
Then, in a voice that was almost a whisper, FA spoke.
"I'll loop it," FA declared, his words deliberate, calm.
But before he continued, his gaze sharpened, and he locked eyes with Asahi.
"But I'll say one thing first."
A heavy pause followed, the silence thick and suffocating.
Then FA spoke again, his tone cutting through the stillness.
"You're not getting enough sleep."
Asahi's heart skipped a beat. His jaw tightened, but he refused to show how much those words pierced him.
"So what?" Asahi's voice came out low, laced with anger and frustration, the weight of endless sleepless nights gnawing at his mind.
FA's eyes never wavered. "You've already looped three times," he said, his voice carrying an eerie calm. "Basically… you've been awake for three days straight."
Asahi's body tensed, the words sinking into his consciousness like stones dropped into an abyss.
"And even if you sleep," FA continued, his voice now colder than ever, "you'll only get ten to fifteen minutes."
The words fell like a final judgment.
"And that's not even deep sleep."
Asahi's breath grew erratic. His fists clenched at his sides. Every muscle in his body trembled with the need to fight—fight against the truth, fight against the breaking point that seemed inevitable.
He stood frozen in the white void, staring back at FA, his reflection mirrored in the future self's eyes.
A suffocating silence followed, and the coldness in FA's voice deepened.
"You realize what's happening, don't you?" FA asked, his voice a deep, chilling tone.
Asahi stayed silent, his body shaking as doubt gnawed at his insides. His mind spun in circles.
FA's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "You're running on borrowed time," he continued. "You haven't slept in three days."
A suffocating pause. Then FA stepped closer, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper. "It won't kill you, but it will break you."
Asahi's heart beat erratically in his chest as the weight of FA's words crushed his resolve. His body was at its breaking point, every cell screaming for rest, yet the loop dragged him further into madness.
"Your mind will crumble before your body does," FA whispered, his words a final blow. "Your perception will distort. You will see things that don't exist. And you won't even know… if you're still awake."
The truth sank into Asahi like a dagger to the heart. His thoughts spiraled into darkness, his body trembling under the unbearable weight of his reality.
FA's voice, now a low growl, finished, "You don't have to answer. I already know what you're thinking."
Asahi flinched as FA's faint, mocking smile twisted into something cruel. "After all," he murmured, his voice a cold reflection of Asahi's own soul, "You are me."
Asahi's breath hitched, his chest tightening. He turned his head away, the exhaustion finally catching up with him.
"Just loop the time," Asahi muttered, his voice empty, drained of any emotion. His shoulders sagged under the weight of it all. "I'm done."
FA studied him for a moment, then smiled, a cruel, predatory grin. "Good luck."
FA closed his eyes.
A searing pain erupted in Asahi's skull, a sharp, unbearable ache as if his mind was being torn apart, rewritten, erased. The pain was all-consuming. He could feel his existence crumbling, everything he was, everything he had been, splintering.
Asahi screamed.
"Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggghhh!!"
His hands clawed at his head, his skull feeling like it was being split open.
And then—
Darkness.
Asahi awoke with a violent jolt, gasping for air. His heart thundered in his chest as his eyes snapped open to the sterile ceiling above him. The warmth of his bed felt unnervingly familiar.
8:30 AM.
It was the same time. The same place. The same loop.
He lay still, staring blankly at the ceiling, his breath shaky and shallow. The reality of it hit him harder than ever.
"Same time," Asahi muttered, his voice hollow, devoid of any emotion. "Same place. Same loop."
The weight of the moment pressed down on him. He pulled the bedsheet over his head, a futile attempt to shield himself from the truth. His body trembled, and his mind, still swirling from the torment, screamed in agony.
"I can't do it anymore."
He whispered, the words escaping from his lips as a broken confession. "If I stay with my mom, my dad dies… If I go with my dad, my mom dies…"
His fists clenched tighter, nails digging into his palms.
"What can I even do?!" His voice cracked with the strain of it all. His tears welled up, but he refused to let them fall. "I'm useless. I'm just a fucking idiot!!"
A sudden knock at the door shattered the tension. His mother's voice called from the other side, soft and kind, but with a slight concern.
"Come on! It's time for school!"
There was no response.
The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating.
Then, from under the bedsheet, a faint whisper escaped Asahi's lips. "Mom… leave me alone."
His mother paused, sensing something was off in his tone. She stepped closer, her voice shaking with concern.
"What?" she asked. "Asahi… what happened to you?"
No response.
His mother, heart heavy, reached out to pull back the bedsheet. What she saw shattered her.
Asahi—her son—lay in his bed, pale, hollow-eyed, broken.
"Did… did you sleep?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, tears welling in her eyes.
Asahi's voice, broken and lifeless, barely made it past his cracked lips. "I slept."
His mother's breath hitched, the relief short-lived as Asahi's next words hit her like a slap.
"I slept… over and over again. But nothing worked."
He gripped the sheets in tight fists, his breath growing shaky again. "I'm here. Trapped. A useless man."
His mother's heart shattered, but she said nothing. Instead, she sat beside him, her hand resting gently on his shoulder.
She looked at him with love, the kind of love that only a mother could have. "You're trying your best," she whispered softly, her voice full of pain but unwavering.
She smiled, a small, broken smile. "Even though you failed… you tried. You tried again."
Tears welled in her eyes. "You didn't give up… because it's important to you, right?"
Her fingers brushed his hair back gently.
Her voice, warm and soft, was the anchor he desperately needed. "That's what makes you my son."
Asahi's chest tightened, and for the first time in what felt like forever, he let himself break. His vision blurred, his hands shaking as they reached for her.
"Mom!" he cried, his voice breaking.
And he pulled her into an embrace, desperate, terrified of losing her, of being lost forever in the endless loop of pain.
His body shook with the release he had denied for so long.
His mother, holding him close, gently stroked his hair. "It's okay… It's okay…"
For a moment, just a moment, Asahi wasn't a time traveler, a broken man, or a slave to the loop. He was simply her son.
And as his sobs subsided, a vow burned deep within him.
No matter what... even if I have to sell my soul... I will save you. Dad... and HIM.
The future—whatever it was—would not steal them from him.
The time loop would break.
And he would make sure of it.