The door opened.
Takeshi stood in the center of the classroom, staring toward the entrance as the sound of the door opening still vibrated through the room.
It was a girl with shoulder-length dark hair, slightly messy, with strands falling naturally. Eyes of a shade between pink and violet that locked onto him the moment she stepped into the classroom. She wore the same school uniform as him, but in her right hand she held something. Takeshi took a second to identify it.
It was a black dagger, with purple details on the blade and the hilt. She held it casually, no tension in her arm, as if carrying that in her hand was something she did every day.
Takeshi opened his mouth to say something, and then he saw it.
Floating above the girl's head, in the air just like the chat box that had appeared minutes earlier, was a sign. White text on a dark background, clear and visible.
[YUKI TACHIBANA]
[Life: 100%]
[Sanity: 0%]
[Trust: 0%]
He read it over and over.
The chat exploded.
[HERE SHE COMES]
[YUKI YUKI YUKI]
[run]
[he has no idea what's coming]
[LMAOOO]
[he's done for]
Takeshi looked at the girl, then at the dagger, and finally at the sign with her name. He processed all of it in the time it took Yuki Tachibana to cross the distance from the door to where he stood.
It wasn't much time.
"Wait…!"
Takeshi shouted.
Yuki didn't wait.
The movement was clean. A single motion with her right arm, direct and without pause. Takeshi barely saw the dagger move.
'Is that… my decapitated body?'
After that, a black screen.
There was no sound or sensation. An instant Takeshi couldn't measure because he had no temporal reference.
Then the text appeared.
[LOADING SAVE POINT]
The letters were white on a black background. They didn't blink, didn't move; they were just there, fixed.
Takeshi opened his eyes.
The white ceiling, smooth, without stains or cracks.
He was sitting at the same desk in the back where he had woken up the first time. His backpack hung from the back of the chair. Morning light came in through the windows with the curtains half-drawn. The classroom was empty.
He didn't move.
He had both hands resting on the desk and stared at them without doing anything. Young hands, unmarked. They were the same as before.
'Am I… alive?'
He breathed in and the air filled his lungs without issue. His heart was beating and he could feel the weight of his body on the chair, the hard wood under his thighs, the contact of his feet with the floor. Everything worked, everything was in place.
He was alive, and it made no sense that he was.
He remembered the movement of the dagger. He remembered it with a precision he didn't want. He remembered from the moment he saw Yuki Tachibana's arm move until the moment there was nothing more. He had died; that had happened.
He opened his stats.
[Life: 100%]
[Sanity: 90%]
[Points: 0]
His stomach felt heavy.
It wasn't hunger, but something closer to fear.
'Did I… die?'
He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, but the classroom was still there.
'It's okay.'
He thought, even though it wasn't entirely true.
'It's okay, I'm alive… Whatever just happened, I'm alive.'
That was something.
The chat appeared in his field of vision.
[WELCOME BACK]
[died in record time]
[someone timed that]
[he literally didn't say anything]
[didn't even try to run lmao]
[10/10 first death]
[how many more times is he gonna die today]
Takeshi read them. He said nothing. He had no one to say anything to, and he wasn't sure the chat could hear him even if he spoke.
The messages kept coming, one on top of the other, nonstop.
[poor guy]
[he still knows nothing]
[this is gonna be good]
He clenched his fists on the desk.
He was in an empty classroom, he had died once, he had returned to the same point, and he had no useful information about what was supposed to happen next.
The deity had disappeared before the door opened.
Yuki Tachibana had entered with a dagger and killed him without saying a single word.
Takeshi let out a slow breath and rested his elbows on the desk, head between his hands. He wasn't crying and didn't feel like crying. He felt like someone would explain what was going on.
But there was no one in the classroom.
Only the chat, which kept moving.
[what's he gonna do?]
[he has no idea what to do]
[clearly]
[waiting for the penny to drop]
Takeshi lifted his gaze from the desk and looked toward the front of the classroom.
'I died and went back to the beginning.'
That meant death was temporary, at least here, at least under the conditions that ruled this place. That was a relief, a strange and disturbing relief.
But the relief was there.
He was alive, so he could try again. He didn't know exactly what he was trying, but he had another chance to do something different from standing still while a girl with a dagger killed him.
"I see you've already processed the basics."
Takeshi raised his head.
The god's voice came from somewhere in the classroom. It wasn't present or visible, but the voice was there with the same calm as always.
"You have fifteen minutes."
The voice said.
Takeshi looked around without seeing anything.
"Fifteen minutes for what?"
He asked.
"To find Yuki Tachibana."
The voice replied.
"If you don't get to where she is in that time, she'll decide to come looking for you herself, and when she finds you, it won't be as quick as the first time."
Takeshi stood up.
"I don't know where she is!"
He exclaimed.
"That…"
The deity's voice said, in a tone that sounded like it was enjoying itself.
"Is your problem."
After that there was no more voice.
The chat kept moving.
[the clock is ticking]
[LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO]
[the countdown has started]
[he's gonna need luck]
Takeshi looked at the classroom door.
'So I only have fifteen minutes.'