Some people inherit money. Others, talent.
Yuto Nakagawa inherited trauma wrapped in time loops, sprinkled with existential dread, and—apparently—a superpower known as The Gift of Retrospection.
Too bad it came with a headache worse than midterms.
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Morning, Day 158 (or Loop 12.4, according to Kana)
Yuto had stopped asking what day it was. Time had become soup.
"Okay," Kana said, slapping a whiteboard in the club room. "Let's review: You've absorbed a fragment of your Shadow, which gives you time-pulses, danger-sense, and occasional villain monologues in your sleep."
"I also glow now," Yuto added, raising his hand like a student reporting a fever.
Aira frowned. "You're not just glowing. You're remembering backward."
Everyone stared.
"Retrospection," she said, eyes serious. "It's when you start seeing past events… that you haven't lived through. Other versions of your timeline. Other deaths. Other choices."
Yuto blinked. "That explains why I saw Hiro become a magical girl in my dream."
"That was real?" Hiro asked, horrified.
Yuzu nodded. "Yeah. Loop 6.3. It was beautiful."
---
Testing the Gift
That afternoon, the gang gathered behind the school, where they'd drawn a giant chalk circle, surrounded by hourglasses, egg timers, and an old VCR.
Yuto stood in the middle.
"Focus," Aira said. "Don't try to change the past. Just see it."
He closed his eyes.
---
FLASH.
The world blurred into sepia. He stood in the same spot—but it was three loops ago. The wind smelled different. The sky was overcast.
He saw himself standing with Aira. They were talking. Laughing.
And then—
She leaned in and kissed him.
---
Present
Yuto gasped and stumbled backward. "I saw… us. Kissing. That loop's already gone, but I remembered it."
Aira turned red. "That was… experimental timeline science."
Kana whistled. "Okay, that's officially the coolest power I've ever heard of."
Yuto rubbed his temples. "It's also a migraine wrapped in a therapy bill."
---
Meanwhile
In the student council office, Yuki—the cold, calculating council president—watched a glowing monitor showing Yuto's energy signature.
"It's starting," she murmured. "Retrospection was never supposed to be unlocked this early."
Her vice president, Riku, raised an eyebrow. "Should we intervene?"
"No. We observe. Let them believe they're free. And when the timeline collapses… we collect what's left."
---
Later That Night
Yuto sat under the stars with Aira. The city felt calm—too calm.
He looked at her. "Why do you think I got this power?"
Aira smiled gently. "Maybe because you never let go. You remember the pain, the mistakes. Even the moments that never happened."
"Is that a good thing?"
She leaned her head on his shoulder. "It means you're real. And if we're real… maybe the loop isn't unbreakable."
He thought of all the other versions of himself. All the endings he never got. All the beginnings he never noticed.
Maybe this time…
He'd get it right.
---
Elsewhere…
The Shadow paced.
The Masked Stranger watched the city glow.
"He's using it already," the Stranger said.
"Yes," the Shadow replied. "But he hasn't seen the worst yet."
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