Ren had lost track of how times he had lived through his year as Joker.
It had taken a couple of years before he had been convinced the loop was in fact happening, the first time he woke up back home, a couple of weeks before running into Shido, after returning from the groups roadtrip, he had assumed it was all just a dream.
The Metaverse?
Mementos?
Shadows and Personas?
And then waking up before it all happened?
It had to be a dream.
And then the same things had happened.
Again and again.
At least it meant he had top grades in every subject (except PE), even learning English to the level of a native speaker.
Which led to now, his umpteenth visit to Hawaii, and flicking through the televisions channels to find something to watch.
In the end he found a film just about to start.
A comedy named 'Groundhog Day'...
]
The film had ended, but Ren was still staring at the screen.
The protagonist had been just like him, trapped in an unending cycle (of a day rather than a year), that would reset upon reaching the end, or dying beforehand.
Like that time he messed up the questioning with Sae.
And how had the weatherman escaped?
Simply by romancing the female lead.
Could it really be something so simple?
Ren had never quite gone so far as to try romancing any of the girls surrounding him.
The other Phantom Thieves risked the team breaking apart, and he wasn't going to start a relationship with someone he would have to lie to all the time.
But maybe, just maybe, this was the way out.
]
A few loops later
Ren rubbed at the side of his face where he'd just been slapped.
The problem, he'd discovered, was that he didn't know exactly who he needed to romance to leave the loops, and the trouble with romancing a different girl each time was that he sometimes muddled their likes, dislikes and home environments…