It Seems I Can't Escape the Loop. But the Loop Can't Escape Me Either, You Know?

Long time no see.

“......Loop?”

In spite of myself, I repeat Omake-sama's murmur.

Loop.

I know the meaning of that word.

I've heard it in my previous life, too.

<......Yes. It's a loop, Emi. In this mansion, time...... time, is, repeating.>

“Ufufu~! This ring, it's really cute! The openwork Mr. Lizard is just so stylish~!”

“Isn't that wonderful, Keranko!”

“......Fufufu, young Miss Keranko...... you must take good care of that ring, you know?”

What nonsense are you saying, Omake-sama.

......I couldn't laugh it off like that.

Because the scummy family's conversation I can overhear coming from inside the mansion doesn't differ from what I heard just before, not by a single word.

So much so that I'm made to understand, beyond any room for doubt, that time is repeating.

......Time, repeats?

It doesn't make sense.

What is that?

It is a phenomenon far beyond human understanding.

I can't think of a single way to deal with it.

It doesn't seem like a problem that punching, can solve.

A hopeless unfairness, with no means to resist.

I sense something vast and incomprehensible behind this phenomenon, and in spite of myself, goosebumps rise.

<Let's flee, Emi. From this mansion. Right now, immediately.>

Omake-sama suggested this to me, her tone remaining dead serious.

Will you at least tell me why?

<Most likely, once you are caught in this loop, you cannot escape. For all eternity.>

I can't escape?

<Yes, you cannot escape. For all eternity, though even putting it that way is odd. Time does not move forward, so the future never arrives.>

I...... can't quite imagine it......

<......Anyway, you will end up repeating the same stretch of time endlessly. Every future you were meant to have will vanish, and watching that crappy tragedy from before will become the entirety of your life.>

............

I turned my back to the mansion and bolted into the mist at full speed.

Because, I hate that.

I can't stand a life like that.

<Fortunately, it seems you have gone through the repeat with your memories of last time intact. This means that you have not yet been completely absorbed into the loop.>

Listening to Omake-sama's words, I run, and run.

Pushing through the mist drifting in the air, kicking up the snow beneath my feet, I flee, flee, flee.

<If it's you as you are now, not yet completely absorbed, then perhaps......!!>

Omake-sama's voice is still tense.

That alone is enough for me to understand that the phenomenon I've been dragged into is seriously bad.

In the end, I know it's awful of me, but what matters most to me is me and Omake-sama.

To survive, I'll kill and eat anything, and I'll flee even if it means throwing everything else away.

That's exactly why, this time too, I'm fleeing.

I don't feel a shred of guilt.

I'll probably end up abandoning the people in that mansion, but so what.

I just want to survive.

I want to move forward toward the future.

With that single-minded determination, I continued running through the endless mist and snow.

But, still.

“............No way......”

Faced with the reality spread out before me, one I never wanted to see, I murmured that in spite of myself.

I should have been running through the mist at full speed with my back to the mansion.

And yet.

And yet, before I knew it, I was standing frozen in front of a mansion with an exterior that could only be described as, well, ‘strange’.

That mansion's roof is bright red. Bright, bright red. Also, the window frames and other key spots are painted red too.

And the walls are slathered in bright yellow, with red polka dots painted here and there.

With pure white snow piled up all around it, the exterior stands out all the more bizarrely.

“Stop it, Keranko!!”

“H, how cruel, Karashia Onee-sama...... Don't be so rough, okay? Look, my palm, it's gone all red......”

“Oh my! How awful, Keranko-chan! Let's treat that injury right away, shall we?”

“How pitiable, young Miss Keranko......”

Conversations I don't even want to hear are drifting out from the mansion.

In other words, I couldn't escape.

Time is looping again......

<......I see, so it isn't...... the kind you can escape just by putting distance between you......>

Omake-sama murmurs regretfully.

I couldn't escape.

The weight of that result presses down on my back, and in spite of myself, I drop to both knees in the snow.

......Am I going to be like this for the rest of my life?

Eventually, will I lose even the sense that it's looping, and just keep doing the same things?

What kind of life is that?

<......Emi.>

Emptiness and despair occupy my heart.

The rational part of me, which usually keeps up appearances by staying bright and cheerful, vanishes somewhere.

......And what wells up from the depths of my heart is anger toward this hopeless, unreasonable reality.

<......Emi!>

What the hell.

What do you mean, loop.

Don't screw with me.

Don't screw with me!

Why do I have to be dragged into some incomprehensible thing like this!?

Why do I have to hand over my future to some incomprehensible phenomenon!?

No! No!! I don't want that, no!!!

Killing intent, which I usually keep suppressed, leaks from my body along with murky black magic power, beginning to swirl and drift around me.

<Emi! ......Emi!!>

Seeing me like that.

Omake-sama.

<Wonderful...... that's the spirit, Emi!!>

Praised me, like that.

............Eh?

<Emi, it is true that we just failed to escape the loop. But...... that does not mean that we have been completely captured by this loop space.>

Omake-sama speaks to me gently, as if guiding me.

Eh? Eh? Is that so?

<Yes. It is, you know?>

............

I pulled back the killing intent and magic power swirling around me.

Ah, okay.

So that's how it is......

Kind of...... I went and blew my top over a misunderstanding all on my own, and it's a little embarrassing......

<If we cannot escape by running, we simply try another method. Things have a ‘cause’. Even if it is a supernatural phenomenon like a time loop, it is the same.>

............Ahh......

Yeah, so it is.

I see, I see.

Alright...... alright, let's switch gears.

Switched!

So? What does that mean, Omake-sama?

<In other words, if we can just find the ‘cause’ of the loop and do something about it......>

The loop, gets, undone?

<Exactly. And that is something that only you, whose spirit has not yet been captured by the loop, can do!>

......I see.

I stand up and brush the snow off my knees.

And then, I glare, at the mansion with the strange exterior!

I get it, Omake-sama.

Bring it on!

I'll find the cause of the loop and put a stop to this never-ending crappy tragedy!

Me, that's who!!

Loop phenomenon! Brace yourself!

From now on, I......!

am gonna crush you to bits!!!

<Yes, Emi! I shall support you with all my might using my overflowing deductive powers, which I have cultivated by watching Isekai Reincarnation Broadcasts all this time! Let's do our best together!!>

........................

............We're bound to struggle, huh......

<What did you saay!>

The loop phenomenon has been marked as an enemy by Emi.

How will she beat an opponent (an opponent......?) of a different sort from before?

Good luck!