Originally Posted by MK-95-
^Not necessarily. Let's create a hypothetical and for said hypothetical, we're assuming the opponent:
1. Knows about her ability beforehand.
2. Given that they had prep time, has prepared specific countermeasures and strategies because they are familiar with the nature of her ability.
Now that that's out of the way, We've established that they have a plan prepped beforehand and has prepared various methods of attack as a countermeasure. Considering that the opponent can tell when she uses her ability (she becomes visibly tired), even if they can't tell which loop they're currently on (could be 2nd or could be 10th for all they know), whenever they can confirm that they've entered or assume to have entered a new loop, even if they can't tell with absolute certainty, at the very least, they should use a different method of attack each time. That's the entire purpose of preparing a counter-strategy beforehand.
For example, an opponent with zero intel on the ability may repeat "pattern 1" over and over again because they have no idea what her ability is, but someone who's intimately familiar with the ability and has a counter-strategy prepped, can have 10 different attack patterns prepped in advance and every time they accurately deduce or assume that they're in a new loop, then they simply keep using different attack patterns.
You're correct in saying that the opponent will have no memories of having used "pattern 2", but that's what planning and strategy is for. If they're thinking 3-4 steps ahead, then they should always assume or have taken into consideration that they may already be in the 3rd, 4th or Xth loop, even if they may only on the 2nd (in this specific scenario, it's better to always be thinking ahead, even if you're overthinking the situation. Since the ability you're up against is time manipulation, getting ahead of yourself is ideal in this case. It literally becomes a situation where you have to out-think yourself. Best example of this is Lelouch's rematch with Mao in chess in Code Geass).
i.e. It isn't as black and white as you're making it out to be. What makes you think that Himari will linearly and predictably cycle through all of her possible attack patterns one after the other? Nothing's stopping her from using "pattern 10" or "pattern 9" after realizing that "pattern 1" was undone. It may seem random to jump straight to "pattern 9" after just using "pattern 1", but that in itself is a viable strategy. If she feels like they've entered another loop, instead of using "pattern 9" this time, she assumes she's used it already and uses "pattern 4" instead. Rinse and repeat.
The obvious downside to this is that if you out-think yourself to the point that you're in doubt about whether you've exhausted all of your options or not, but that's exactly why I said that this particular strategy is reserved for intellectual/analytical-type characters as they'd be able to adjust and fine-tune as they go along. From what we've seen of Himari, we're given no reason to think that she'd be able to pull off a strategy as complex as this one.
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