I Time-Leaped Back to High School with My Childhood Friend–Turned–Wife, But I Don’t Know Why We Returned to the Past. Also, My Wife as a High Schooler Is Kinda Sexy.

“Chiho!”

I woke up with a scream and found myself in a familiar room again.

A tatami-floored room.

A futon laid upon it.

An old study desk.

A Fate calendar on the wall.

And a noisy battery-powered alarm clock.

Reaching out to stop the alarm clock raging above my head, I checked its date and time. However, I felt like I knew the date and time without having to look at it.

Sure enough, the clock showed—Friday, July 13, 2007, 7:10 AM.

“…I’ve returned.”

I had come back to the moment when the time leap began again.To that moment two days ago when I suddenly got lost in this strange past.

This was troublesome.

Failed the mission and started over from the beginning.

This was certainly one of the patterns of time leap.

Wasn’t this what they call a “loop story”?

A time leap that repeated a specific date and time until conditions were met.

Having a time limit made deduction and action easier—but content-wise, with companions dying, confronting heinous crimes, or requiring flawless completion, it fell nto the most difficult category of time leap stories.

Why did it have to be a loop story of all things.

No, that’s not the issue right now.

That’s not what I’m lamenting about.

I immediately jumped up from my futon and looked out the open window. What I needed to confirm most of all was the safety of my beloved.

I could see Chiho’s family home. And her room through the window directly opposite.

“…Chiho! Please, somehow come back!”

Desperately, I searched for her figure in her room. But inside the window, in that girlish room filled with pastel-colored furniture, I couldn’t find my beloved wife.

So, had Chiho truly vanished from this world?

Had it become impossible for her and me to return to the future where we once were?

I couldn’t find Chiho anywhere in this world—neither the Chiho in a yukata who had disappeared during the Gion Festival, nor the Chiho in pajamas who had leapt through the window into my room in the previous loop.

No, not yet.

Don’t give up yet.

The world had just looped.

There’s a possibility that she too has revived in this looped world.

Believe in that possibility. No matter how hopeless it might seem.

Otherwise, I, I would—

I quickly changed into my uniform, grabbed my school bag, ran down the stairs, and left the house.

My destination was Chiho’s house. Pushing past the short brown gate, I stood in front of the entrance. Standing before the door, I pressed the button on the intercom with a camera.

The melodic alarm echoed through the morning streets. But there was no response.

Before 8 AM. At this hour, both my father-in-law and mother-in-law should still be at home.

Yet why was no one answering the intercom?

“Damn it! What are you doing?!”

I went around to the courtyard, trampling on the well-maintained lush green lawn, and approached the window facing the living room. A window as tall as a person, with white lace curtains drawn, on top of the veranda. From there, I peered into Chiho’s house—and despaired.

There was absolutely no sign of life in the living room of Chiho’s house.

The lights were off, and the TV wasn’t on. There was no sound of ham or bacon being cooked from the system kitchen, and there wasn’t a single human figure to be seen.

Indeed, not even a trace of human breath lingered there. As if the Chiho family had fled in the night.

The living room of Chiho’s house was empty. No, not just the living room.

The Nishijima house was wrapped in uninhabited silence. Unable to believe it, I headed to the garage of Chiho’s house.

Under the roof with light-blocking panels, my father-in-law’s prized sedan was still parked. If they had fled in the night, they would have escaped by car, or at worst, sold it beforehand.

This silence was probably not due to a midnight escape. They had suddenly disappeared one day, in an instant.

Just like Chiho who had vanished during the Gion Festival. They had been suddenly ejected from the world, made as if they never existed.

Of course, this was only my imagination. But I had something close to certainty. The world had been reset again. We had entered the next loop.

I had returned again to July 13th of my second year of high school. Yet only Chiho and her family were missing, as if they had been left out of this world. Only they had been made to not exist in this looped world.

What is going on here? Driving me into this situation, what exactly do they want me to do in this past?

More importantly— Chiho! Why did you and your family have to disappear?!

“So you really did disappear. Into the twilight of that Gion Festival.”

Shaking off my sorrow, I organized the situation. Time had certainly been rewound.

I had lost Chiho, witnessed that mysterious scene, and returned here again. The reason for Chiho’s disappearance was unknown. After she disappeared, an event occurred that forcibly returned me to the starting time.

Considering that my memories of the time spent with her haven’t been erased, it’s unlikely that someone attacked by changing the past. Also, there’s a high possibility that she has escaped to a different world line or from the rules of time leap. However, this contains a lot of hopeful speculation.

And—that woman in a bunny suit with a white hoodie I saw under the tracks at Minami-Ibaraki Station.

There’s no evidence, but it was probably her who forcibly returned me to the starting time. If she’s the one who called us using Chiho’s phone number and made us jump through time and space with her mysterious ability, she seems capable of such a feat. Rather, she might be the only one who could do it. Considering the immediate circumstances, that woman was definitely suspicious.

She must be the mastermind behind this time leap.

Who exactly was she?

No, more importantly, that face of hers. That was undoubtedly Tendoji-san.

Was she the mastermind controlling this time leap?

Chiho’s close friend, Tendoji-san?

Why?

“I have no idea.”

Once again, I faced the perplexing mystery of the time leap. Even though I had looped once, I hadn’t come any closer to understanding the mystery of the time leap. It was frustrating and humiliating.

I lost Chiho because I was powerless. I couldn’t resist or fight back, and she and I were torn apart. I wanted to protect my wife as her husband.

I wanted to return to the future we had built together.

Yet, I couldn’t fulfill my responsibility to protect her.

Why did I marry Chiho?

Wasn’t it to make her happy? Wasn’t it to protect her from such unhappiness and injustice? Yet, I ran away, misunderstood, got carried away, and ended up losing Chiho.

“You idiot!”

I punched the concrete wall of Chiho’s house with my right fist. I struck it as if to punish my own inadequacy. But my strength was insufficient to create pain that could bury the regret welling up from deep within me.

Was everything already useless? Was it too late?

Just then—

“…Huh?”

Behind me. I quickly turned around when I sensed someone at the entrance to Chiho’s house.

A small shadow, shorter than the gate, was peering into the house.

Who was it?

Could it be Tendoji-san?

No, why would she be at Chiho’s house so early in the morning?

Whatever the case, I couldn’t ignore it. I immediately peered into the entrance of Chiho’s house to confirm who it was.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“Eek! N-no! I was just curious about what was inside! Um, sorry, Chiho-san’s father—”

But the person I confronted with intense anger surprisingly admitted to snooping around the house and apologized for it.

I recognized that tone and voice. No, more than recognize—I had heard it so often that I could tell who it was by reflex.

Yes.

The person peeking into Chiho’s house was—

“Huh? Senpai? Why are you at Chiho’s house—”

“Aizawa? No, why are you here—”

It was Ikuna Aizawa , the junior to Chiho and I who had become my ally in the previous loop.

Apparently, she had stopped by Chiho’s house before coming to mine. But she was suspiciously early.

No, it couldn’t be. Could this possibly mean—

It wasn’t just our imagination that our words trailed off naturally. We both looked like we had rushed out of our homes.

Why had we left in such a hurry? Thinking about myself, I could imagine Aizawa’s situation too.

Ah, what a thing.

No doubt about it.

Differences appearing in the second loop compared to the first was a common trope in time leap stories. But could something like this really happen?

The reason Aizawa hurried to Chiho’s house. There could only be one explanation. And for me, that reason could be interpreted as hope.

Wiping the despair from my face, I asked Aizawa.

“Aizawa! Do you possibly have memories from the previous loop?”

“Senpai! You’re the Senpai who went to the Gion Festival with Chiho-san! You saw Chiho-san disappear too! So you hurried here to investigate!”

“That’s right! Yes, Aizawa!”

“Senpai!”

Aizawa opened the gate to Chiho’s house and entered the garden. Her tense expression melted away as she ran toward me. When I embraced the small junior against my chest, she began crying loudly.

It couldn’t be helped.

Even though Aizawa had acted calmly and rationally during the Gion Festival and that mysterious night, ultimately she was a sensitive girl at heart.

Having someone close disappear and being unexpectedly caught up in a time leap. Naturally, she was distraught by these unexpected events.

Anxiety poured out of her like a breaking dam. Once again, I became her boyfriend and accepted her anxiety.

At the same time, I let my own anxieties flow away with her tears.

“Senpai! Senpai, Senpai! Chiho-san! Chiho-san!”

“It’s okay, Aizawa! You said it yourself! Chiho is surely alive! Both you and I remember Chiho! She’s definitely safe! It’s still okay! We can still get Chiho back!”

As she cried, she spoke of the Gion Festival and that night. The regret of not being able to save Chiho. But that wasn’t all.

Despite her grief, she was still looking forward. She was grateful to have her memories and to have come to this world after the loop. Yes, Aizawa’s feelings were now the same as mine.

Aizawa wiped her soaked face with her small hands. After crying her heart out, she looked at me with determined eyes and declared.

“Senpai! I’ll take Chiho-san’s place! I’ll face this time leap with you instead of Chiho-san! Let’s definitely get Chiho-san back together! Let’s get back the future of you and Chiho-san!”

“…Yeah! It’s a promise, Aizawa!”

In her eyes, shining with the morning sun, I saw hope amidst this despair. It was a small hope. But it was also an incredibly reliable hope.

Apparently, in this time leap, you could bring something back from the previous loop. The ace of hearts unexpectedly mixed into my hand. I strongly sensed that Aizawa might become the silver bullet to shatter this series of time leaps.

Thank you, Aizawa.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming here.

Thank you for remembering that past, the previous loop, and Chiho.

Nothing could be more reassuring.

Now that Chiho was gone, Aizawa’s cooperation was very welcome and heartening. We would definitely escape this time leap together.

It was okay. If she could think calmly on that evening when Chiho disappeared, she could do this. With Aizawa, I felt I could still face this unreasonable time leap.

I felt this as I put my arm around Aizawa’s shoulder. The time was still before we had met in the first loop.

Thus, in the town still ruled by silence, the two of us vowed to conquer the second loop together.

To get Chiho back.

To get our future back.