The Loop

Chapter 2: The Confusion.

This isn't the first moment in his life that he'd ever felt such searing pain. But it is the first in ages that it felt brand new. With a heaved breath, he allowed his active power to take control and make sure no more blood spilled over.

Once he calmed down, he reflected on his actions just now. "What the fuck was I doing, talking to an inanimate object like that?" His lips grew into a thin line. His frustration had gotten the better of him. He cannot let that happen again.

Slumped on the tiled floor, back against the wooden cupboard, he stared at the wall clock from afar. Watching even the smallest movements. The ticking grew louder and louder. He watches as the sun gets higher and higher up in the sky. And he watches it go further down as well.

Not once did he move from his position. Merely counting the amount of seconds he'd have to endure left. And hours have passed since, but he plans to wait for more hours to pass. And he waits for another day to come, a day where he has his back on this trusted board of his.

And then midnight comes.

^8^

The blaring sound of the alarm clock echoed through the room. Accelerator opened his eyes, and sighed out loud he did. His fingers rubbed the bridge in-between his eyes. He'd noticed that the wound was no longer there.

So It came again.

He needs to start thinking outside the box even more, considering options that one wouldn't even think of. Such options are some of the most outrageous things even he doubts he could pull off.

What he'd gathered so far was that, every time midnight was reached, the day immediately restarted back to this moment. So a sort of countdown was started, and he has at the very most, 14 hours and a half of time before it ends and restarts the day.

This could be a case of Occam's razor, where the answer to a seemingly complicated dilemma turns out to be the simplest of answers. And that answer would be...

"Could the countdown have been started manually by an outside force?" Possible. But another question pops out from this. What kind of machine would reverse time itself? The very nature of time has been a mystery to mankind for many centuries until a man with crazy looking hair from the land of the Huns came up with a theory.

Which, I tell you, to pull off, would require you to have the universe to move in a circle. But too bad, the universe only expands and would not merry-go-round unless done by a Level 6 with a power similar to his.

So a machine is completely out of the question. What about ESP powers then? This question can be denied because of the same problem as the last question. Only a Level 6 could pull off such feats.

Whatever theories he has were all turned off by this single problem. The lack of capabilities to pull such a level of achievements. Maybe he set the bar too high? Could be. But it is the only sensible answer he could think of.

The presence of a Level 6 is an impossibility. There's no record of such individuals in Academy City. Not one was ever created. From the beginning of Academy City up until now, the highest achievement one can obtain is becoming the pillars of power, which is the Level 5s.

Until he can gather enough information and come up with a proper solution, he will need to do whatever he can think of. Maybe then, just maybe, he'd stumble, perhaps accidentally, upon the right answer for this annoying problem.

So he started with the one he could do right away. Which is to not get out of the bed. At all. A similar concept as the last two but taken to a more extreme level.

Time burns extremely slowly when you have nothing to do. His lips are sticking together from the lack of use, and his skin is dry from being dehydrated. His neck is really stiff from constantly bent by the pillow.