Just Three Seconds Suffice
Just three seconds would be enough.
"This is quite troubling."
He fiddled with the dagger hidden in his sleeve, deep in thought. Things had veered far from the original plan.
In Episode 1, "The Day of the Promise," the specifics varied due to the game's randomness, but Kenichi usually awakened in the school classroom. Right upon awakening, he'd encounter monsters and dive into battle—and the key point was that one of the main heroines would share the burden of the swarming foes.
'Hotaru's probably already gone home with Kenichi to prepare for stargazing, and that blonde brat said she was having tea with her lackeys?'
That left the Ancient Weapon, Sawamura Cento. In fact, she had the highest participation rate in Episode 1 within the game. The model student and class rep, Sawamura Cento, also served on the library committee, so she spent the most time lingering at school.
Today was the day of the total lunar eclipse at its peak. Cento, her senses heightened by the moon, should have been naturally drawn to Kenichi upon his bloodline awakening—yet it seemed she'd interpreted things entirely to her own liking.
"My priority's been switched to her."
He'd pulled aggro. And in the worst possible way.
Reflecting anew, he advanced toward Cento ahead with the grinning mask of a smile plastered on his face.
"This is truly troubling."
Right now, he was being forced into a choice. Ignore Sawamura Cento, who was demanding an answer, and rush to Kenichi? Or trust in the protagonist's potential and chat with her first?
'But if Cento—who's supposed to help split the mob count reasonably—is here...'
Freshly awakened, Kenichi couldn't hold out long. Rarely, he could solo it if the monsters' affinities were perfect, but that often led straight to a bad end soon after.
The protagonist dying on day one? It'd curse "Endwalker" with bad luck from the start, and wreck the incompetence of that Demon Sword to boot.
Yeah—the super strong, badass Demon Sword gets destroyed!
"Hmm, this is truly troubling."
"What's so troubling?"
"Mine's far superior, but people always covet others' possessions just because they're not their own."
"...?"
Unable to grasp his words, Cento tilted her head with a puzzled expression.
"Is that a sex joke?"
With a gentlemanly, gentle smile, he corrected her assumption.
"No, a serious dilemma."
Essentially, a choice between the protagonist and a main heroine. With a normal heroine, he could just bolt to the protagonist without issue—but Sawamura Cento wasn't normal. Depending on the branch, she could turn into the Episode boss, a corrupted dark heroine.
Whether superior physical prowess or time-stop ability, he had plenty of options. If he wanted, dodging the Cento before him would be trivial.
But nine times out of ten, she'd awaken badly and torment him.
'If it's a hand I have to discard anyway.'
Handling her here and now was the right call. Greedily chasing everything had led to failure, so it was time to abandon one.
Right here—
Kill the heroine.
Gripping the dagger in his sleeve, he steeled his resolve.
Stepping forward steadily, he soon closed the distance to Cento. Standing right before her, he looked down at Sawamura Cento, meeting her red eyes.
As their gazes locked, sensing something instinctively, she spoke with a pitiful expression.
"So... have you got your answer... ready?"
At the same moment, her mana surged. Her momentum rose like her red eyes, on the verge of erupting.
The red eye in the sky aided her. Soon, the entire street was engulfed in Cento's mana.
Hahaha, oblivious pedestrians went about their daily lives, flowing past like waves.
Sawamura Cento stared intently at him, her scarlet pupils ablaze.
"You'd better give the right answer."
Of course, the girl before him was equally clueless. If he willed it, she could die in the blink of an eye—yet she'd pulled this aggro.
Left unchecked, she'd become a hidden boss racking up countless casualties.
Convinced that striking first was right, he suddenly spotted a tremor in her.
"...Are you going to fight?"
Sawamura Cento's senses were sharp. Just from a brief eye contact, she could read emotions and thoughts.
Empowered by the full moon's mana, she couldn't miss the resolve he'd harbored.
The darkening street. Like the moon risen over it, Cento's red eyes shook fiercely.
Not with rage or hostility, but fear.
Forced into a choice, she was no different. She'd staked her life to uncover the truth—like a child clutching a bomb that could engulf even herself, bluffing bravado.
"..."
He slowly scanned her again. Among girls her age, her figure was unusually mature, yet her face remained youthful, unable to hide the trembling in her pupils and hands.
She bristled with thorns to shield her fragile heart, but sadly, it was exposed.
Before hidden boss on the verge of betrayal, Ancient Weapon—such titles, she was a seventeen-year-old kid.
He only realized it now.
"Indeed, a chain of blunders."
Slowly nodding in self-reproach, he reached a new decision.
Since he'd gotten greedy, might as well go all in.
Meeting Sawamura Cento's scarlet eyes steadily, he finally said it.
"Very well, I'll tell you. The truth!"
"...What?"
At his words, the waves in her eyes grew fiercer. Had she demanded an answer while expecting nothing? Or had she already read the absurd demand he'd make?
"But I'm a bit shy too! Just close your eyes for a moment while I gather my thoughts."
Smiling, he held up three fingers.
"Just three seconds will suffice."
BOOM!
KABOOOM—!
Dodging the goblin's iron club slamming repeatedly into the classroom floor, Kenichi was utterly dumbfounded.
What the hell is this? A dream?
A red goblin out of nowhere? It didn't feel real. No way it was a hidden camera prank from TV—not with this scale... and too brutal for a mere student.
KABOOOM!
...Plus, getting hit by that club would 100% kill him. Who'd pull a prank like that?
Yeah, definitely a dream.
As Kenichi desperately wanted to believe, a shard from the classroom floor grazed his cheek. The slight stinging pain that followed, and the trickle of blood down his face, sent chills down his spine.
"...This ain't a dream!"
Kenichi bellowed in horror but diligently threw himself aside.
KABOOOM—!
As he kept evading the lightning-fast swings, the red goblin tilted its head.
—Huh?
Something kept missing. The yokai, yet to devour any human, had low intelligence—but it knew prolonged delay meant no meal.
After pondering, the goblin roared.
—GRRAAAAAHHH!!!!!
Fierce winds whipped around the goblin, and despite no visible change, Kenichi felt a sudden unease.
'...What? Why'd it yell all of a sudden?'
The thought was fleeting; he sensed sounds approaching from afar.
BOOM! BOOM!
Something... no, somethings charging fiercely...
BOOM! BOOM! KABOOOM!
—GRRAAAAHHH!
"..."
Seeing the arrivals flood the classroom, Kenichi was speechless.
Dream or not, he'd been trying to slip past the goblin and escape—but it looked impossible now.
Already overwhelming, and now three more goblins blocked the door.
"...Shit, damn it."
Even Kenichi, with his clean speech habits, cursed at the dire situation.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
As the goblins closed in, Kenichi's heart pounded wildly. The cross around his neck swayed, clink, clink, glowing and pulsing.
"Just three seconds will suffice."
Sawamura Cento suddenly thought: that man had sharp instincts. He'd know what she'd resolved to do, and what worried her.
Yet asking an enemy to close their eyes—what kind of idea was that?
"...That'll do it?"
But at this final moment to remain human, Sawamura Cento chose to trust him. At least, it wasn't the worst option.
As the narrow-eyed man before her nodded quietly, Cento shut her eyes.
To prevent any nitpicking, she counted meticulously.
Deeply inhaling, she intoned.
"One."
The instant she did, the narrow-eyed man, Ichimaru Shiki, drew the dagger from his sleeve.
—Time slowed.
Her lips, poised to say "two," slowed; not just her, but every pedestrian and the scenery shifted to slow motion.
A sufficiently sluggish world.
But Shiki didn't stop there. To reach the school in an instant, he needed more time.
Reaching into empty air, he murmured.
"Open."
In the pitch-black world, his hair turned white as he summoned his sword.
And—
time stopped.