“Oh fuck… He used it to his advantage more than I thought…” 

 

They heard the familiar voice of Emilia entering the basement.

 

*If she sees this then we’re fucked.*

 

After tying Kurono up, Ren had gone to Emilia's house and told her that Ren wanted to say something to her and he wanted her to meet him in the basement. “Who are you again?” Emilia seemed to be confused after all. She was always helpful to everyone around school and was probably the most popular person in the school. She always tried to remember names but this man's face didn’t even look familiar to her. “Just go.” Robert left. 

 

The memory of the entity was sent to her counterpart in the school for when the time would come for her to go to the basement. The counterpart’s body had been disposed of by Robert in the previous timeline.

 

“Wha-” Emilia’s eyes widened with shock at the scene before her eyes. Tears started pouring out of her eyes. “Ren… Ren… REN!!!” She ran over to the lifeless body on the chair and removed the bag. “No no no no nononononononono… What the fuck…” Her face was buried in Ren’s 

 

“Shit. Shiro, we need to run!”

 

Emilia turned her head towards Shiro and Kurono. 

 

“You did this.” Emilia grabbed the bloodied knife that was laying on the floor and stabbed it straight through her neck. Her body falling on top of Ren’s.

 

“What kind of Romeo and Juliet shit is this?” Kurono looked on in horror.

 

{Creak}

 

A black rope wrapped around the chair, the floorboards fell down into a deep pit, Shiro, Ena and Kurono following. The chair with the two bodies remained suspended in the air.

 

“What just happened…” Shiro’s head was light from the fall, she got up and looked out of the empty white cell she had ended up in. 

 

“What the.” Kurono was across from her in a separate cell, they both looked down the infinite hallway of white cells, even the bars had been painted white.

 

“Where are we?”

 

“I don’t- did we just fall through the floor…?”

 

“Yes, but what happened to the wood?”

 

“This has to be Robert again… It has to have been a set up, if he knows the time loops and most likely knows they are NPCs…”

 

“Speaking of which, what happened to Ena?”

 

Ena was in the back of Kurono’s cell. After tying Shiro up Ena seemed to have completely frozen, her eyes were still open and she didn’t fall when they went through the floor.

 

“Glitch..?”

 

“Yeah, that makes about as much sense as everything else happening.”

 

“I’m surprised you believe what I said…”

 

“Even if there was no evidence to back up your claims, I would’ve believed you.” They both sat down next to the bars, leaning against the wall.

 

“Thank you…”

 

*Oh shit I have to…*

 

“I figured out why we’re in this situation… But it’s probably why you died in the last timeline…”

 

“Huh? I started to randomly claw myself, you’re saying that was you?”

 

Shiro looked down at her feet. “Yes… I… We have a much bigger problem… Did you see the papers in your mailbox or maybe on your table…?”

 

“The one about the murder?”

 

“Who was on that…?”

 

“A guy with black hair.”

 

“Do you remember what you look like…?”

 

“No, no I don’t?”

 

“I saw a paper with a girl with long white hair… You have bla- well dark brown hair…”

 

Tears started to stream out of Shiro’s eyes.

 

“You don’t mean.”

 

“`Sniff` We were killed…”

 

A clear liquid poured from his eyes as he buried his head in his legs.

 

“I think the animal ears and tail are a way to differentiate us from the NPCs… Some sort of link between our souls or some dumb shit like that…”

 

“WHY THE FUCK!?”

 

“Kurono…”

 

“Do you remember how we died?”

 

“No… I can’t even remember what I was doing at the lake…”

 

“I can’t remember either…”

 

Shiro bittersweetly smiled at Kurono through her tears. “Don’t start copying how I talk…”

 

Kurono looked up at her, returning the smile. “At least we’ve got each other here, right?”

 

“This probably is the best worst case scenario I could’ve ended up in during all this shit…”

 

“Haha I guess you're right.”

 

“We need to find out what happened that day…”

 

“You broke down last loop didn’t you?”

 

“We can feel the same pain… I-I’m sorry if it hurt…” Shiro looked down again.

 

“That’s the first time I’ve heard you stutter in a while. I can understand, if I had figured that out myself I wouldn’t want to live either.”

 

Shiro looked back up. “Haha I don’t think I had a choice to not live when I’m dead and in a time loop… But this talk is really comforting me…”

 

“You laughed.” Kurono’s tears had stopped. “If it wasn’t for how soothing your voice is I probably would’ve completely broken down.”

 

Shiro's face was painted red. “I’m glad I could help…”

 

There was silence for a few seconds.

 

“How do we get out of here..?”

 

“We could try time looping.”

 

“True, but there’s nothing here we can quickly kill ourselves with…”

 

“Wait Robert didn’t want us to die so he could emotionally destroy us.”

 

“You’re saying there’s a chance we will get food or water…”

 

“If we’re lucky then we may get a plate or glass.”

 

“I thought it was more likely for us to have to eat on the floor…”

 

“He didn’t tie us up properly. I don’t think he knows how kidnapping works in the slightest.”

 

“And yet we’re in a prison… I think…”

 

“He may have been faking the tying up, but either way I doubt he can revive himself even if he can somehow loop with us.”

 

“So he may have used an NPC to keep us captive…”

 

“And the NPCs can probably only do things depending on how important they are.”

 

“That’s why Ena, Ren and Emilia seem to have more dimensions than that athletic guy… But what are they important for…”

 

“Speaking of that, we need to find a way to regain our memories.”

 

“Agreed… So it’s most likely that someone will bring us actually well served food or water…”

 

“Yes.”

 

*I want to tell him that I love him but this situation destroys my chances… I’m glad that he’s the one who ended up here… But at the same time that means he died… Fuck this place…*

 

About 3 hours of idol chit-chat later.

 

“Sh-Shiro, K-Kurono.”

 

“Ena?” They both jumped at her sudden movement.

 

“I-I’m not Ena though, I-I’m just a s-souless e-entity composed of her m-memories.”

 

“Wait, how do you know…?”

 

“I-I was told by a voice in a dream. H-He told me about w-what I am. And gave m-me all of E-Ena’s memories up until y-you died.”

 

“Do you die when we do in this world?”

 

“Y-yes, d-due to h-him telling m-me I should r-remember.”

 

“But what happens to your other NPC…?”

 

“M-me a-and this w-worlds o-original K-Kurono only had o-one entity because we-we’re the cl-closets people to you.”

 

“Did the voice say anything else?”

 

“I-It seemed like he was i-in a rush, he s-said “Wish, Purgatory, Soul, Kill.” that was all.”

 

“Weird…”

 

“Oh shit, we need to shut.”

 

A blonde girl walked into the hallway.

 

“I get that they’re NPCs and have multiple assets but this is freaky as fuck.”

 

“I didn’t expect him to use Emilia again…”

 

She didn’t say anything as she lent over and placed a glass of water in Shiro’s cell and 2 in Ena and Kurono’s. She walked back out.

 

“Definitely being used…”

 

“I’ll kill myself, you’ve died enough and Ena shouldn’t feel a thing.”

 

{Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick}

 

“I want to try something first… Kurono, yell out to Emilia…”

 

“Ok. EMILIA!!!!”

 

Shiro threw the glass she had up the shaft they had fallen down and hit Emilia and Ren’s dead bodies, knocking Emilia’s off the chair.

 

`Bang!`

 

“Sh-Shiiro, what are you?”

 

“Shh…”

 

{Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick}

 

Emilia came running down the hall. ‘What is-” She approached the body and turned it around. “Ahhhhh!!” Her face was horrified, her body started to cave in on itself. Twisting into a bloody mess that disappeared into thin air.

 

“So they die when they see their other selves...”

 

“So that's what that was about.”

 

“I-I’m glad I-I only have o-one self.”

 

“Ok, Kurono, time for us to die… I have an idea for next timeline but I don’t know if I like it…”

 

“Text me early in the morning. Ena. Robert will have his guard down because he thinks you’re a proper NPC so you should be able to stop him if he tries anything.”

 

“Y-yep.”

 

{Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick}

Kurono smashed the already damaged  glass against the bars and stabbed the glass through his neck, killing him and Shiro.