"You are going to be fine."

"I will figure it out."

"Come here."

"Stop waiting for things to get better!"

"Please Leon.... Don’t hurt yourself."

"Stop it now!"

Various voices ran through Leon and Rumi’s mind. It was vivid, and overlapped with others. But it was clear enough for them to identify who was speaking.

"I can’t...."

More and more voices filled in. Each one felt more deepening than before.

"It hurts me."

"Did you not realize?.. How much I love you."

"...hic... idiot..."

* * *

[Loop 01]

’This is the forest behind Irene’s house.’

Leon muttered as he moved through the trees and low bushes.

’It looks like it.’ Rumi’s voice came from just beside him.

He turned to her. She was walking next to him in her fully materialised body.

’Why did you do that? I could handle it myself.’ Leon said. He kept his voice even, knowing full well Rumi had done it for his sake.

But that did not mean he was not annoyed. Her mind was still recovering from the reset, for her to put this much strain on herself again was not a good idea.

Rumi looked at him.

’Haru. You are too weak right now.’

’Ugh...’

She was not wrong.

The amount of information packed inside those Astral Node memories was enormous. All of it was pouring into his head at rapid speed. They might feel like they were living through those years in real time, but in reality the entire transfer was happening in a matter of minutes in the outside world.

’Haah. Do you think this is loop one?’ Leon let the other problem go and focused on what was in front of them.

Before either of them could say anything else, a voice came from just behind them.

"Waaa... just when I was having a good sleep..."

It was a familiar voice. The voice felt drowsy, and felt slightly irritated.

Leon turned around, and finally saw the person.

Platinum hair going in every direction, golden eyes half open and still blinking awake, Irene walked through the bushes in a black nightgown, one hand pushing branches out of her face, the other holding a revolver loosely at her side.

She was bare leg, had messy hair, and was completely unbothered by any of it.

Leon looked at her from head to toe. His eyes settled on her nape first, then moved to her slightly exposed shoulders, then drifted toward her collarbone, and then slightly lower at her exposed cleava—

’Haaruuu.’

Rumi’s voice cut him off. She was looking at him with narrowed eyes.

’This is not the time.’ She added.

’I know.’ Leon coughed, feeling slight;y embarrassed. ’Please do not say anything further. It’s all because of this teenage body of mine.’

Rumi didn’t buy his excuse, but she didn’t ask further.

Step. Step.

Irene walked past both of them without so much as a glance. And from what Leon could tell, sge could not see either of them.

"Was that a gunshot?" She muttered to herself, moving carefully through the bushes. "Or was I dreaming..."

She found a thick tree and pressed herself against it, peering around the side.

Leon and Rumi followed and stood beside her.

They did not bother hiding.

On the other side of the tree, across a small clearing, were three figures.

Ethan, Cyan, and Leon himself. Though it was clear that they were the past version, standing over a dead bear with a brass revolver still raised.

"Hey, why did you shoot it?" Ethan said.

The past Leon turned, narrowed his eyes with complete indifference and said.

"What did you want me to do? Negotiate with the bear?"

"Hmm." Irene muttered from behind the tree, studying the three of them.

"They look like foreigners."

She gripped her revolver closer to her chest, and loaded the chamber quietly.

Step.

Her foot came down on a branch.

Crack.

"Who is there?" Past Leon’s voice cut across the clearing immediately. He had already turned and was pointing his gun directly at Irene’s position.

"Ah, damn, damn." Irene pressed herself flatter against the tree.

"Well they do not look completely harmless..." She muttered to herself. Then raised her voice.

"I live here!"

The three across the clearing took stance instantly.

"What business do you have in Evana?!" She called out.

’It’s definitely loop one.’ Rumi nodded beside Leon.

Leon nodded as he watched them.

"We are lost!" Ethan answered from across the clearing. "Can you help us find the way to the main city?"

"Oh." Irene muttered. She bit her lip for a second. Then said, "I will help. But lower your weapons first. Uh... all of them Or I am calling the military on the count of three."

"..." The three stared at each other.

"Three."

"Two."

"Alright, alright." Cyan and Ethan tossed their swords toward her side of the clearing. Past Leon followed, flipping his revolver once and tossing it over without making a fuss.

Irene peeked out, then she confirmed the situation.

She then stepped out from behind the tree with her gun still raised, sweeping it from one to the other in a slow steady arc.

"Are you all tourists?"

All three went completely still the moment they saw her.

She was in a black nightgown with her bare legs, messy platinum hair and a revolver pointed at them like it was the most natural thing in the world.

All three pairs of eyes did the exact same thing at the exact same time.

They scanned her body from top to bottom. Then all their eyes settled at exactly the same spot.

Past Leon blinked and raised both hands.

"Miss, can you lower the gun."

"No."

"What? Why not? We are unarmed."

"Because," Irene said, eyes narrowing at all three of them, "you are all staring at my chest."

"Guh." Ethan and Cyan looked away immediately.

Past Leon shot them both a sideways glance.

"It was an impulse." He said flatly. "We were passing through and a bear attacked us. I shot it for our safety."

It went back and forth for a full fifteen minutes.

Eventually Irene lowered the gun.

"Hmm. That makes sense." She said, looking at them over one final time. "Alright. I will take you to the edge of the city. You can wait outside my house for now. It is nearby."

She turned and led all three of them through the trees toward the modular house at the centre of the forest.

Leon watched them go from where he stood.

The next moment, Irene asked the three several questions, did a short introduction, and gave them all a ride to the city.

The scene changed.

[Loop 02]

Leon and Rumi found themselves looking at a teenage girl covered in bandages, eyes shut, laying on a hospital bed.

"Who did this?" Irene asked the figure seated just beside the girl.

"We do not know." The figure said. "There are others like her on this floor. She is the fifty seventh case."

She stood up from her chair and moved to stand in front of Irene. Her elven ears twitched as she adjusted her glasses.

"Irene. Can you look into this case?"

"I..."

Before Irene replied, the scene changed again.

[Loop: 07]

"What do you mean we are in a loop?"

Irene voiced out in confusion, crossing her arms looking at the three who she just found in the forest.

Ethan once again explained.

"The whole city is stuck in a loop for some reason..."

He explained to Irene early on, of how they were looping for a week now, what they discovered, and what was about to happen to them.

Ethan laid out everything in front of her.

Cyan and the past Leon watched him explain it. From their eyes it was clear they had agreed to this.

’That is a good strategy.’ Rumi said as she looked at the scene, and Leon had to agree.

’Well, from his perspective, the quest has been progressing the more they solve the case.’

And after every reset, his quest progress reset to zero as well.

Leon from Irene’s memories could clearly see the distress Ethan was having. They could not blame him though, for the past few loops they were failing to finish it.

It seemed harder than it looked. You just had 24 hours in your bucket to do everything, once that time crossed all progress you had, the people you had met, he bonds you had created would all vanish, like they never happened.

The current Leon looked toward the past Leon. He was not doing anything for the time being, he did not even speak, just nodded along with Ethan and occasionally answered if Ethan asked him something.

That being said, he wondered what mistake his past version made to take this step, what he encountered. Clearly it was something he never expected.

For the rest of Loop 07, Rumi and Leon watched how they convinced Irene, though it did take them more than six hours to fully gain her trust.

But at the end...

They failed.

[Loop 203]

"Why...?"

Ethan muttered as he looked toward the time prism in his hand. It displayed the remaining time as 15 minutes.

"My progress... it did not even cross 50% this time..."

He was standing alone at the edge of Irene’s agency roof looking at the dark sky.

"What am I doing wrong..." he muttered. Then he glanced behind him. "Miss Irene... what is our goal? What are we fighting for? You know... don’t you."

The memories that Leon and Rumi were watching came from Irene’s perspective. They got to see through what she witnessed over all the loops.

To Ethan’s world, Irene did not say anything.

Ethan continued, gripping the time prism.

"You are hiding something, aren’t you? Dr. Anise... she must have told you right?"

Leon, Cyan and the others were not here on the roof. It was just the two of them.

Rumi and the current Leon looked at them in silence like ghosts.

"What are you hiding from us? What have you been hiding from us from all those loops for half a year now!"

Ethan raised his voice.

"I can tell! You and Leon are the same kind! You keep things to yourselves! Leon acts like he knows everything, like he can see the future of what happened. I never questioned him before, but now... can you not see that sharing it with us will help so many people? We can save them. I can help. So tell me..."

’Haru, what loop is this?’

’He said half a year. Somewhere around Loop 200 then.’

But he could tell it was way past the early stages, for Ethan to act this way. He felt broken, distant. Even Leon and Cyan were not beside him now.

This made Leon wonder exactly what went between them. Clearly he could not see his past self having a fight with him. No... more like, it felt to him like it was all his doing.

What was he planning? And whatever mistake he made, how bad did it get?

"Ethan." Irene finally called out his name.

"I do not have any recollection of what my past self did in all those loops."

She was right. Along with the rest of Evana’s citizens, her memories reset as well.

’So that means she had not yet learned how to store memories...’ Leon thought to himself.

Irene continued.

"But if you think me telling you what happened will help, then so be it."

"Huh?" Ethan was stunned.

Irene continued in the same tone. She walked toward him at the edge, gazed down at the city square and said.

"For you this might have happened more than centuries ago... But for Dr. Anise it happened yesterday."

"...What exactly happened?" He asked.

Irene glanced at him. "The thing we are fighting. Dreamweaver. He came to Evana yesterday to make a deal with Dr. Anise."

.

.

[A/N: Sorry, took me a while to plot this arc. Now that I am finished, I will do a tiny mass release soon.]