Amelia Watson's Another Worldline: After the Time Loop, It's You
Amelia Watson, the time-traveling detective, finally escapes the endless time loop. She thinks she's found the perfect, peaceful worldline to settle down in—until she realizes her next-door neighbor and new partner is Iris, the girl she was absolutely forbidden from getting close to in any other timeline!
Amelia knows the rules. In every single loop she's experienced, the cool, perfect, and secretly obsessive detective-in-training Iris has confessed her love for her. And every single time, that
Amelia Watson's Another Worldline: After the Time Loop, It's You - The Junior Next Door is a Time Bomb
Clang.
The sound of a frying pan bounced off the wall.
Watson Amelia felt the inside of her eyelids glow red as she drifted in a haze. Morning sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains. She rolled over. The clock by her pillow read 7:12. The old-model pulse meter she'd fallen asleep wearing on her left wrist felt slightly cold against her skin.
*(Morning already, huh.)*
Her nose twitched. The smell of butter. Then, the aroma of miso soup stock. This twenty-seven-year-old apartment building—Corpo Mizunashi, a twelve-minute walk from Fuchigami Station along the Misogi River—had thin walls. The daily life of the neighbor in Room 202, sounds and smells and all, came through crystal clear.
"Senpai, it's morning. Are you awake?"
A voice, then a knock-knock at the door.
Amelia sat up. Her brown short hair, exploding with bedhead, bounced wildly, and her favorite star-shaped pin holding back her bangs had slipped out of place. Her amber eyes were still half-closed.
"I'm awake."
Her voice came out hoarse, a little low.
She opened the curtains as she answered. Fuchigami's morning was overcast and gloomy. The distant sound of a train whistle drifted from the station. This city, on the western edge of the Tama Hills, was forty-five minutes from the city center. A core city of 280,000 people, its east side packed with houses, its west side stretching into gentle hills and wooded groves. Amelia had moved here about two weeks ago.
"Breakfast is almost ready! I tried making Japanese-style scrambled eggs this morning. I think they turned out well, but I'm not sure if they'll suit your taste, senpai..."
The voice through the wall came muffled, followed by the pleasant tap-tap of a knife chopping something.
Amelia pulled off the T-shirt she used as pajamas and let out a small sigh.
*(Iris does this every morning.)*
She took a deep breath of the butter and miso soup smells filling the room. It smelled good. Honestly, it smelled good. But that was exactly why her stomach felt just a little heavy.
She opened the front door, and it was exactly as she expected.
*"Let's do our best again today, senpai 😊 I'll bring breakfast at 7:30. Please be awake by then! P.S. I'm worried about whether you took your cold medicine before bed last night."*
A handwritten sticky note, on a small yellow piece of paper, in round handwriting.
"...Is she even watching my room?"
She muttered it without thinking, then immediately shook her head. Probably not. She was just worried. That was the kind of person she was.
Amelia peeled off the note. Her fingertips trembled slightly.
This was—nothing. Just a scrap of paper.
She told herself that, trying to crumple it up. But her fingers, of their own accord, carefully smoothed it out. All the notes she'd received before were stored in her drawer, too. She couldn't throw them away.
*(How did it come to this?)*
Amelia pulled open the heavy wooden drawer and gently added today's note to the collection. Beneath the stack of notes, an old silver pocket watch lay sleeping. For now, it was still motionless.
Inside this drawer, her current peace and her past hell coexisted.
Amelia murmured in her heart. Four thousand times. She'd repeated that damn time loop four thousand times. The same three months, thousands of times over. And each time, she'd witnessed the absolute ending they called the true history.
True history—according to the Temporal Research Society, it was the rail on which the world progressed most stably. On that rail, Iris always went berserk to protect Amelia. In that accursed September Knot incident, where seven people vanished in seven days of September, she always twisted the culprit's evidence, erased it, and left it forever unsolved. It was always like that.
*(At the center of that hell, she was always there.)*
Amelia closed her eyes.
But now, it was different. She'd finally managed to reach a worldline that deviated from the true history, and here in Fuchigami, she'd at last obtained a peaceful daily life.
And yet.
The person who moved in next door was, of all people, Iris.
And this Iris was strangely straightforward, adored Amelia, and wanted to take care of her from morning till night. Even though she didn't have a shred of memory about the loops.
"Senpai? It's ready over here. Would you like to eat together?"
Another knock.
Amelia casually pulled a three-quarter-sleeve cut-and-sew over her head and put on cargo pants. Beige and olive green. Today's outfit prioritized ease of movement. She smoothed her hair with her fingers to hide the bedhead and re-pinned the star pin. The old burn scar on her neck peeked through a gap in the fabric.
*(There was a fire early in the loops, wasn't there.)*
She didn't really want to remember that anymore.
"It's open."
The door opened.
Standing in the hallway was Iris, her glossy black hair reaching her waist, a single braid on the right side tucked under her ear. Her clear silver eyes seemed to glow faintly in the dim hallway. Whether that was due to her high Chronosense or just Amelia's imagination, she wasn't sure.
She was 168 centimeters tall. A full head taller than the petite Amelia. And yet, when Iris looked at Amelia, her gaze was as sweet as a puppy's.
"Good morning. Have you washed your face?"
"Not yet."
"That's no good. If you eat while you're still half-asleep..."
"Alright, alright."
Amelia scratched her head. She always felt somehow off-balance in front of Iris. During the loops, their relationship had been much more tense.
This Iris was just a pure, slightly meddlesome kouhai.
But.
*(I can't fall for her. I can't.)*
Amelia chanted that spell in her heart again today.
In the afternoon, Amelia was walking through the Nanatsuji shopping street at the south exit of the station.
The four-hundred-meter arcade was lined with seventy-two shops. From a greengrocer to an old toy store, it was a street packed with the scent of daily life. Perhaps because it was a weekday, there were few people around, and the sound of a loudspeaker announcing a sale at the "Fresh Marukawa" supermarket echoed in the distance.
Amelia pushed open the door of a coffee shop in the middle of the shopping street.
*Clink-clank.*
"Welcome. Ah, it's Amelia."
From the back of the counter, an older man with his white shirt sleeves rolled up appeared. Touno Genta, the master of the café "Lampe Noire." A former detective, he now gathered the town's gossip while brewing blended coffee.
"A blend."
"Coming right up."
Amelia sat in a window seat at the back. She could look down on the shopping street arcade from the window. Under the overcast sky, people hurried past.
Coffee was brought to her. Four hundred eighty yen.
"Touno-san, have there been any strange stories lately?"
Amelia asked as she picked up her cup. Touno exhaled a puff of cigarette smoke.
"Strange stories... let's see. You're always like this, aren't you. Good at sniffing out the scent of an incident."
"Occupational hazard."
"There's been a weird rumor lately. Young women, apparently vanishing on the streets at night."
Amelia's fingers stopped.
The black liquid in the cup rippled slightly.
"Vanishing?"
"Yeah. Suddenly, like smoke. Well, it might just be a drunkard's tall tale."
Touno laughed.
The next moment, a headache struck Amelia.
A sharp pain throbbed deep in her temple. The second hand of the old pendulum clock on the wall—for just an instant, in Amelia's eyes, it seemed to move backward. Tick, tick, tick. The pulse meter on her left wrist showed no reaction. Was it still too faint?
*(My Chronosense... reacted?)*
This was a perceptual disturbance that only occurred when something close to a temporal anomaly was present. Amelia gritted her back teeth and endured the pain.
"Hey, you alright? You look pale."
"It's nothing."
Amelia feigned calm and sipped her coffee.
*(Not every rumor is true. But...)*
An alarm was ringing deep in her heart. The September Knot incident that happened in the true history. Seven people vanishing in seven days of September. Young women disappearing on the streets at night—it always started like that.
"Touno-san, is there anyone who knows more about that rumor?"
"Who knows. But a young officer at the south exit police box seemed concerned about something. You've got connections in the police too, right?"
The face of Sergeant Yarimizu Hayato came to mind. Maybe she'd ask him next time.
Thinking that, Amelia took another sip of coffee. Only an ominous foreboding settled heavily in her stomach.
Night fell.
Today, there had been zero requests for the Amelia Detective Agency—that is, this combined home and office, Room 201. Well, some days were like that. She was a small-time detective relying solely on referrals from the Verite Law Office or word of mouth. Her average monthly income was 250,000 yen. She was barely scraping by in this apartment with its 52,000 yen rent.
"Senpai! How about dinner together?! I made hamburg steak!"
A cheerful voice from beyond the door.
*(Again?)*
Amelia gave a wry smile. This was already routine.
"Sure, let's eat here."
Iris came in carrying a tray. A steaming hamburg steak. A side of broccoli and glazed carrots. And miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed. The rice was freshly cooked, glistening.
Seeing it all laid out on the low table, Amelia caught her breath for a moment.
*(Why...)*
The hamburg steak sauce was a sweet Japanese-style one. Amelia's favorite flavor. The broccoli had just a little mayonnaise on the side, the way Amelia liked it. The miso soup ingredients were the exact type of tofu Amelia always bought at the supermarket.
"Here, eat before it gets cold. Be careful, the miso soup is hot."
Iris sat formally on the opposite side of the table, gazing at Amelia with silver eyes full of anticipation.
Amelia timidly picked up her chopsticks.
She cut the hamburg steak into a bite-sized piece and brought it to her mouth.
"...It's good."
Her honest thought slipped out.
By the time she thought *oh crap*, it was too late.
"Yes! It was worth researching all of senpai's favorite things!"
Iris's face lit up instantly, and she made a small victory pose. Usually cool and mature, it was only at times like this that she looked her age, an innocent nineteen-year-old.
"...Researching? Where?"
"Like what senpai always buys at the supermarket, what you always order at Lampe Noire, and I also asked the landlord, Kurusu-san."
"What are you, a stalker?"
"Not a stalker, just a kouhai."
Watching Iris say that with a laugh, Amelia shuddered internally.
*(Is this a coincidence? No, it's not.)*
Iris, who shouldn't have any memory of the true history, was unconsciously tracing Amelia's preferences perfectly. The memories of sharing a table thousands of times during the loops—memories that should be gone now—were ingrained somewhere in Iris's very cells.
*(A blank yearning, huh.)*
That was what Amelia called it.
"Senpai, there are seconds, so please don't hold back."
Iris smiled brightly.
She heard a small crack form in the wall around her heart.
After the meal, as Iris was making tea, she suddenly looked up.
"Senpai, do you have something troubling you? I can lend an ear."
Her silver eyes were direct.
*(Lend an ear, huh.)*
For a moment, Amelia's mind went completely blank.
Should she tell her everything? About the loops, about the true history. About how Iris always strayed from the path because of her.
But—Amelia had seen the future that awaited beyond that, four thousand times.
If she told her, it would lead to that ending again.
"It's your imagination. Don't think about unnecessary things. Just go back to your room and sleep."
She deliberately said it coldly.
The smile vanished from Iris's face. Her silver eyes looked slightly wet.
"...Is that so. I'm sorry for asking something unnecessary."
"...Yeah."
Iris cleared the dishes and left, looking somewhat dejected.
The door c
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