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 Oddness of the Antiquarian Bookshop and the Yearning for a Blank Space
From beyond the wall came the crisp, rhythmic sound of a kitchen knife.
A steady *tap-tap-tap*. Then the sizzle of something frying. The rich aroma of butter slipped through the thin walls of this twenty-seven-year-old apartment building, drifting all the way into Watson Amelia's room.
The clock by her pillow read 7:10.
Lying face-down on her bed, Amelia turned only her head to the side, staring blankly at the wall. Her short brown hair was a mess against the pillow, and her favorite star-shaped pin had slipped loose.
*(There she goes again, using the kitchen without asking...)*
*What the hell*, she thought.
Memories of last night surfaced. She distinctly remembered telling her to "go back to your own room and sleep." She'd been pretty cold about it, too. And yet, here she was the next morning, making breakfast like always. That positivity—or maybe sheer relentlessness.
Actually, wasn't that clock a little *too* precise?
Iris Ashford woke up every morning at exactly seven o'clock, and by 7:10 she had a knife in her hand. Not a single minute's deviation. Amelia knew this for a fact—she'd looped four thousand times, after all. This girl's internal clock had to be made of chronometer parts or something.
A knock came at the door.
"Senpai, it's morning. Are you awake?"
Amelia pushed herself upright. She smoothed down her explosive bedhead with her fingers and fixed the star pin back in place. She pulled on her cargo pants and threw a cut-and-sew top over her head. Beige and olive green. Even she could tell today's outfit radiated a distinct lack of motivation.
"I'm up."
Her voice came out hoarse, a little lower than usual.
She opened the front door.
Just as expected.
*Senpai, I'm worried about the state of your fridge. You were even out of eggs 😨 Let's go shopping at the shopping district today! P.S. I'll bring breakfast at 7:30. Please make sure you eat it!*
The message was written in round, neat handwriting on a yellow sticky note.
"...Checking the contents of my fridge? What are you, my mom?"
She couldn't help but direct that jab at the sticky note before letting out a small sigh.
*(This kind of thing... it's bad for my heart.)*
It was just a sticky note. A yellow, seven-centimeter square of paper. But this little scrap was crammed full of Iris's feelings—her desire to *make sure Senpai eats properly*. Every time she received one, something in Amelia's chest tightened.
Amelia tucked the sticky note into a drawer. As she opened it, her eyes fell on a silver pocket watch. An old timepiece with a small crack in the glass of its face. She'd somehow come into possession of it when she escaped the loop. For now, it sat there, silent and still.
Last night, it had moved on its own.
Just once. *Click*.
*(I'm overthinking it. Had to be my imagination.)*
She told herself that and closed the drawer.
Breakfast, as always, was in Amelia's room.
Laid out on the low table were fluffy scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and a hearty miso soup packed with ingredients. Iris made everything in her own kitchen in Room 202, then carried it over on a tray. The walls were so thin that all the wonderful cooking smells leaked right through, making the wait a special kind of torture.
"Itadakimasu!"
Iris's face lit up as she picked up her chopsticks.
Today, she'd braided her waist-length black hair only on the right side. It seemed to be her go-to style for cooking. Her clear silver eyes sparkled in the morning light. She wore a white blouse and a navy long skirt. She'd apparently come over still wearing her apron, and the cloth hanging from her neck added a touch of everyday life to her appearance.
"...Itadakimasu."
Amelia took a bite of the eggs.
*(Why is this so damn good? What the hell. This is cheating. Even with four thousand loops of experience, I can't handle this flavor.)*
She launched a full-scale mental tirade.
Iris stared intently at Amelia's face. Like a cat waiting for a verdict on whether the food was good, she looked up at her with upturned eyes.
"...Well? How is it?"
Her tone was polite, but her eyes were practically screaming, "Say it's delicious!"
"...It's good."
"Oh, I'm so glad!"
She smiled happily. That smile was a little too dazzling, and Amelia instinctively took a sip of her miso soup. Hiding her face behind the bowl, she thought to herself:
*(This is bad. If this happens every morning, I'm seriously going to get attached.)*
After they finished eating, while Iris was making tea, Amelia opened the small refrigerator in the corner of the room.
It was almost empty.
Not just eggs—she was out of milk, too. The vegetable drawer held only a quarter of a cabbage she'd bought a while ago. The freezer contained nothing but ice trays and cold packs.
"Senpai, are you eating properly? Your fridge is completely empty."
A voice came from behind her. She turned to see Iris standing there with a worried look.
"I am eating. I had a rice ball from the supermarket for lunch yesterday."
"That's all?! That won't do. You have to eat proper meals. You'll ruin your health."
Iris puffed out her cheeks as she spoke.
*(Wait, why are you getting mad? That's cute, damn it.)*
"...I've decided. We're going shopping today. We'll buy fresh ingredients at the shopping district and fill your fridge. You're coming with me, Senpai. You have no veto power."
"Hold on, I definitely have veto power."
"You don't."
An immediate reply.
Her silver eyes blazed with intensity. Those were the eyes of someone who absolutely would not back down. Amelia's powers of observation, honed over four thousand loops, told her so.
"...Fine. I'll go, alright?"
It was past ten in the morning when the two of them left the apartment.
The sky over Fuchigami City was overcast again today. Moisture-laden air clung to her skin. Even though it was almost May, the city was strangely muggy. Perhaps because it was situated on the western edge of the Tama Hills, the wind blowing through from the eastern residential areas sometimes felt lukewarm.
It was about a ten-minute walk from Corpo Mizunashi to the Nanatsuji Shopping District. They headed south along the walking path by the Misogi River, crossed the bridge, and came out at the south exit of the station. From there, passing under the arcade led straight into the shopping district.
An old sign reading "Nanatsuji Shopping District" hung at the arcade entrance. It stretched roughly four hundred meters in total. Over seventy shops lined the street, though shuttered, vacant storefronts stood out here and there.
Still, it was reasonably lively during the day. An older lady carrying shopping bags, an old man pushing his bicycle, a group of middle schoolers in uniform. In front of the greengrocer's, a vigorous voice called out, "Today's bargain! One bag of tomatoes, one hundred yen!"
"Senpai, first we hit the supermarket. Fresh Marukawa should be having their Wednesday sale. Eggs are cheap."
Iris said this happily, sticking close to Amelia's side.
"Where do you even get this information?"
"The Marukawa flyers come every Tuesday. And I heard about it from Marutomi, the set-meal restaurant."
"Marutomi? The place with the 750-yen daily special?"
"Yes. They let me study cooking there for your sake, Senpai. The owner's wife is very kind; she taught me how to make dashi stock."
*(Since when did she blend in so well? Is my kouhai some kind of communication monster?)*
Amelia was half-impressed when Iris suddenly reached out her arm. Her slender, white fingers tried to entwine with Amelia's.
"Senpai, is it okay if I hold your arm?"
"No."
Amelia quickly pulled her arm away.
Iris pouted.
"Why not? I just wanted to make sure I didn't trip..."
"I'm not gonna trip. How uncoordinated do you think I am?"
"Senpai, you're so mean."
"Mean is fine. Come on, let's get to the supermarket."
Amelia started walking briskly. She could feel her cheeks growing slightly warm.
*(Stop it. That kind of direct approach is seriously bad for my heart. It'll startle the trauma I've been carrying for four thousand loops right awake.)*
Grumbling internally, Amelia walked through the shopping district.
The books lined up in front of the shop rustled, even though there was no wind.
It happened as they passed by the used bookstore "Urashima-dou."
Iris suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"Senpai."
Her tone had changed. The sweet quality from moments ago was gone, replaced by a sudden seriousness—her detective face.
"Look at that display window. The arrangement of books is different from when we passed here thirty minutes ago."
Amelia stopped too.
"What is?"
"The book on top of the flat stack was *An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Causality*. But now, *The Strange History of Quantum Theory*, which was next to it, is on top. Even though no one seems to have touched it."
—That was the moment.
A small pain shot through Amelia's left temple.
A throb.
It was like déjà vu, but sharper. An illusion, as if she'd glimpsed the hands of a clock spinning backward out of the corner of her eye. Her Chronosense—her innate perceptual ability to detect signs of temporal anomalies—was reacting faintly.
*(Is this... residual traces of a time rift?)*
Her heart pounded heavily.
Temporal anomalies. Phenomena where time rewound, stopped locally, or where the worldline itself shifted slightly. It was completely unrecognized by the general public, and most people couldn't even perceive it. Only Chronosense holders, born at a rate of one in 180,000, could detect it.
And Iris's words just now indicated that she also possessed that power—more than that, she was perceiving minute temporal changes with a precision that exceeded normal Chronosense.
"You're imagining things."
Amelia said it calmly, feigning nonchalance.
"Someone probably just picked it up and put it back as they passed by. That's all."
"But—"
Iris tried to press the issue.
"I said, you're imagining things."
Amelia said it a bit more forcefully and started walking.
Iris stood rooted to the spot for a moment, but quickly jogged to catch up.
"...I'm really sensitive to this kind of strange feeling. I don't know why."
Falling into step beside her, Iris murmured.
Tilting her head, looking puzzled even to herself.
"For a while now, I've had moments where I feel like the clock hands suddenly moved backward, or a scene I was just looking at seems slightly different. Things like that. It's like... my head feels fuzzy..."
Amelia's throat went completely dry.
*(Inside her... memories of the prime history—they're still there.)*
Prime history. The flow of time where the world progresses most stably, the way things were "supposed to be." In that history, Iris always went rogue to protect Amelia. An ending she'd seen thousands of times across four thousand loops. Driven by her feelings for Amelia, Iris would destroy the evidence of the September Knot Incident, leaving it eternally unsolved. That was the fixed future of the prime history.
In this current worldline, that history hadn't happened yet. Iris didn't have those memories. ...And yet, her Chronosense was perceiving a past that should have been erased.
A blank longing.
That's what Amelia called it. She remembered on a soul level. But she couldn't recall it as concrete memories. So Iris was left with only a sense of wrongness she couldn't explain.
*(I can't let her get any closer to temporal anomalies. Absolutely not.)*
"You're overthinking it. More importantly, look, we're almost at Marukawa. What're we gonna do if the egg sale sells out first thing in the morning?"
Amelia deliberately used a light tone and gave Iris a pat on the back.
In the end, the shopping proceeded at Iris's pace.
Inside the "Fresh Marukawa" supermarket, Iris pushed the cart with practiced ease. First, a pack of eggs from the egg corner ("It's the Wednesday sale, so they're forty yen cheaper than usual!" she explained proudly), then spin
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