I was staring at Sakura, running away from something. Tears ran down her face as she moved past.

"I don't understand, W-Why?"

From where she came, I could see myself, chasing after her. The look on my face was an insane one, eyes wide and bloodshot.

"Please just listen to me!"

I heard myself say, and soon he too was gone.

The scene before me changed again. I looked through a window to see myself seated at a table, a police officer on the opposite side asking questions.

"So you came across the body? And you didn't get a good look at the guy who did it or where he ran off to?"

The other me shook his head.

A flicker, and then the scene changed again. Sakura sat speechless, face turning pale in shock as the other me laid on the ground, the knife that would have taken her life instead in his chest.

"No no no NO NOOOO!."

She cried out, but it was too late.

Knock-knock-knock.

The sound of the bathroom door being knocked upon pulled me out of that nightmare and back into reality.

"Hey, are you okay in there? It's been a while and just wanted to make sure you're alright."

I could hear Sakuta calling from the other side.

I washed the shampoo off, and cleared my head.

"Yeah sorry, I think I just nodded off for a little bit."

I leaned my head back and sighed.

What have I just seen? I hadn't experienced anything like that in my life, yet those three scenes felt so real.

"You know, I get it. It can be a lot to take in, even after days of seeing multiple instances of it. If you want to talk about it, I'm here to listen"

Sakuta waited after finishing, and I told him about what I just saw.

"Are you sure you weren't just day dreaming? Or maybe between everything you've experienced, the heat of the water created a hallucinatory effect?"

I thought it over a moment.

"No, this felt too real. Like I was watching some of the scenarios I had been coming up with as a way to fix this."

I got up and dried myself off.

"I think this is something Futaba would know, she's always been better at the scientific side of things."

Sakuta spoke up.

"I'll go talk to her and check on dinner, it should be done soon."

I hurried and got dressed, heading out to meet everyone for dinner.

I thought the mood at dinner might be a bit awkward, having a stranger in the group. The only person I had really eaten with outside of my family was Sakura, and even then it was only just the two of us. Now I was sitting with four people who barely knew me, yet still went out of their way to make me feel welcome.

"Did you get enough to eat? There's some more if you're still hungry."

Sakuta asked me, finishing up his own bowl moments before.

"No. I'm good, it was delicious. Thank you though."

Around the table, everyone looked to be satisfied with dinner. Throughout the meal, I listened to the four of them catch up and talk about their lives.

Mai was a famous model and an actress, and recently she had been filming some commercials in the area.

"There were plenty offers to do some shoots but they were all out of the area, I wanted to stay locally for a bit."

She poked Sakuta on the arm.

"Because someone gets a bit lonely when I'm gone for a few days."

Sakuta smiled at her.

"Are you sure it's not you getting lonely? After all, last time you… Oww!"

He cut off what he was saying as she began pinching his arm where she was poking him. He rubbed where she pinched him after she let go, though any hard feelings were clearly missing as she placed her hand over his.

Mai looked over at Rio.

"How's the academic work coming along? You mentioned you had a big project you were working on."

Rio looked away for a moment, in thought.

"It was going well, but we hit a roadblock in our research."

She looked over to me.

"I recently started an internship in my university for Quantum Science and Research Division that’s trying to uncover what causes these type of strange phenomena related to the syndrome, and coming up with ways for people to solve things by themselves. That's another reason why I'm helping you, it might help out our research get past the roadblock."

By this point, we had all finished eating. We cleaned up the table, and shortly after any sign that we had dinner was soon gone.

"Hey Kaede, we're going to keep talking for long here, you don't have to stick around."

 Sakuta looked over to his sister, dropping hints so that way we could discuss my problem.

"No problem. Also, I've to study and revise for the exams with Kotomi on laptop."

We waited until we heard the sound of the door closing.

"Sorry about the wait, I just don't want to involve her with this. She's dealt with it enough in her own life."

Sakuta finally said. I nodded, understanding enough from what he said. Rio pulled out a notebook and her phone, opening up a recording app.

"It's easier to record everything said, any missed detail could be a big help."

Rio drank some of her water in front of her before continuing.

"As of now, we have two main problems to solve. One, how to get you out of the syndrome and back to your normal life. Two, what we can do so that tomorrow morning, we won't have to start from scratch."

She wrote on the paper the two problems and circled them.

"The second should be our first priority, as the chances of us solving this the first time around isn't high."

Sakuta nodded, beside him Mai looked deep in thought.

"What if we write ourselves letters?"

Sakuta asked, but Rio was already shaking her head.

"I don't think that will work, if the receipt for his stay at the net cafe was gone in the morning then chances are the letters will be gone as well."

She paused for a moment, then looked over to me.

"We can try having you write the letters instead, if you don't mind the extra work."

I nodded, having to write a few letters was no problem.

"Just tell me what to write and I'll get it done."

Rio took 3 pages from the notebook and handed them over to me.

"We'll do the letters afterwards, so just hold onto these for later."

I set the pages to the side, and looked back at Rio.

"There's probably something I should say before we move onto the next problem."

Everyone's eyes looked to me.

"When I was getting cleaned up earlier, something happened. I saw things that never happened, but they felt real. Like events that could happen but haven't yet."

Rio picked up her pen.

"Do you remember what they were?"

She asked, ready to begin writing. I thought back to the scenes from the bath.

"It was three different scenes, in all three I was watching myself like a bystander. I couldn't interact with anyone or anything, but they were all so vivid and realistic. The first one..."

I paused remembering the look on Sakura's face. The confusion and pain, the tears falling, the crazed look on my own face as I chased after her.

"It looked like I was trying to talk to Sakura, but it didn't go so well. She was confused and scared, running away from me. I didn't see what was said, just the aftermath."

As Rio wrote down what I said, Mai spoke up.

"Did it look like a place you recognized?"

I thought back to the first scene, but there was nothing familiar.

"No sorry, the main focus was her and I. Nothing else really stood out."

Rio tapped her pen against her open hand, finished writing the first scene.

"The second scene I saw was in a police station. I was being questioned about finding her and what I saw. I didn't see much but the tone of the officer didn't make it seem that it was going well for me."

I thought back to the second scene. The clock on the wall in that room showing it was 10:23 pm, so I must have been there for hours being questioned.

"You said that you called the police before, but you didn't stick around to talk to them in person right?"

Rio asked, recalling what I had told her previously. I nodded, and she took some more notes down.

"Was there anything else you saw?"

I didn't want to remember the third scene, but I knew it might help figuring things out.

"The third scene..."

I took a deep breath.

"In the third scene, I saw Sakura sitting next to me. And this time, I was the one who was stabbed."

Everyone fell silent after that, the only sound was Rio writing in the notebook. Finally she placed her pen down.

"That's the first time this has happened?"

I nodded.

"Do you have any idea about why it happened?"

Rio mused for a moment, and then looked back to me.

"This is only a theory, but I think this might be another side effect of your interaction with yourself. You're already looping in time, so I think those scenes you saw were possibilities that you could end up in. By being in the warm water and relaxing your mind, it opened you up to the ripples caused by the rock you threw when you tried to talk to yourself."

She paused for a moment, and any hopes I had were quickly dashed.

"I would try to avoid that from happening again. We don't know what effect it could have on you, seeing different possible futures. Even if you see the optimal solution, you probably won't see everything leading to it. That means if you try to copy it, you could create an outcome that's completely different."

"So no long baths and no meditation, got it."

I sighed, though relieved at the same time. I had no idea what else I would see the next time it happened, and the thought that even seeing the best path could be ruined if I tried to recreate it turned me off from wanting to go through the experience even more.

Sensing that my mood had gone down, Sakuta spoke up.

"So what can we do about the first problem? We need to find a way for him to save Sakura but it seems like there's already some roadblocks."

Next to him, Mai agreed.

"If you're right Rio, and those scenes really are possibilities, we need to be careful to avoid them."

"I've put some thought into it, and thanks to the new info I've come a little closer to understanding. The first scene seems like you tried to talk to her but ended up saying too much, possibly a future where you've repeated this day so many times that it became too much to handle. Someone who has no idea about the syndrome trying to understand would be confused, and possibly scared that you've gone insane."

"The second scene is easier to avoid, as you didn't call the police on your true first day before the syndrome started, so no matter what they'll still show up. Plus, it's probably best for your mental state to not see that again."

I nodded, having to see her there on the street once was enough for a lifetime.

"The third scene is something you really need to avoid, though I can understand why it happened. The problem is, we don't know what would happen if you die while stuck in this loop. Will the you that's currently going through the same day also die? If not, how do you explain dying in front of her and being totally fine the next day?"

Rio sighed.

"I'm glad you told us about the scenes you saw. It may not have given us a golden solution, but it does help."

She placed her hands underneath her chin.

"I think our best option right now is trial and error. I don't see enough to come up with any good answers, so we'll need some more data first."

Mai stood up, grabbing a kettle from the cupboard above the stove and filling it with water, before placing it on the stove.

"I think we could use some tea and a short break."

Sakuta stood up as well, but instead of heading towards his fiancé he sat down next to me.

"If you're feeling up to it, we can write my letter now. It'll be short and simple, don't worry."

Beside me, Rio stood up and stretched.

"Knowing you Sakuta, if it was anything other than short and simple I'd be worried."

Mai laughed, grabbing four cups and saucers from the cupboard.

"Now now Rio, be nice. Teasing him is my job after all, unless you're trying to steal that from me."

Rio went over to the stove, and she and Mai then began to talk amongst themselves. Beside me, Sakuta merely smiled.

"You get used to it after a while. We may not seem like it, but Futaba and I go way back. She's one of my closest friends, though she may try to deny that if you ask her."

He winked, and leaned forward.

"Anyways, about that letter."

As the water for the tea was being boiled, Sakuta told me what to write for his letter. As promised, it was short and simple, only taking up a third of the page.

"So who are Tomoe and Sara? Those names have come up a few times."

I asked Sakuta after finishing up his letter. I could see over at the stove that Rio and Mai had stopped talking for a moment, listening in to what Sakuta had to say.

"Tomoe Koga was my junior at school, we had an encounter one morning and because of that ended up in a situation somewhat like yours. Because of the syndrome, I ended up repeating a day a few times, though in the end everything went back to normal."

“And Sara Himeji was my student when I used to teach at a Cram school near the station. Her adolescence syndrome was…”

Sakuta looked over at Mai as he said this, clearly trying to avoid saying anything that might lead to him being pinched or poked.

“Well, I-It was complicated. I mean she could read people’s minds and I could read hers.”

Luckily for Sakuta, the kettle began to whistle, saving him. The two girls headed back to the table, filling the cups with the now hot tea. Thanking Mai as she handed me a cup and saucer, I could smell the aroma of the tea coming from the cup in front of me. The taste was unlike any that I had before, and it was obvious from the look on my face.

"The tea was a gift from a film I worked on, the director had some connections and managed to get some for the cast. Normally it's impossible to find, they don't actually carry it in stores."

Mai said, noticing my expression after taking a drink.

"It's very good."

I probably would never had a chance to experience this flavor of tea, so I was grateful.

As we sat in silence, enjoying the tea, a thought came to mind.

"I wish Sakura was here to experience this."

She would have loved that I was spending time with other people than just her, and I made up my mind that when all of this was over, I'd bring her around to meet these people who were helping me.

"If it's not a problem, I was wondering if when this was all done that we could do this again with Sakura."

Sakuta and Mai looked at each other and nodded.

"Of course, that would be really nice."

Beside me, Rio nodded as well.

"It would be totally silly to do all this work and not even get to meet her."

I smiled, looking forward to that day. Sakuta added "Futaba, you can invite Toranosuke, it can be a triple date."

Rio made a face at him.

"I'll think about it."