Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Time is Gold
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Pumpkin-headed monsters sliced so finely they could be turned into pie.
This was the scene I had created.
‘Time Stop is really great for getting the timing just right.’
As the novel's story went, when Halloween rolled around, the pumpkin-headed monster showed up.
I thought Magical Comet had taken it down easily, but the pumpkin monster's special trait was ‘immortality through fear’—an overpowered ability that kept it from dying as long as anyone feared it.
This was the problem with the novel. Instead of enemies getting steadily stronger, the power inflation went all over the place.
Like facing a level 1 foe, only for levels 3, 4, 5 to hit you—or maybe 20, 10, 40, 35. No wonder you couldn't get stronger.
And the biggest issue? Comet's ultimate skill was a self-destruct move.
Unlike the other magical girls who awakened better ultimates later on, Comet's was Return of the Light—a suicide bomb.
‘Good thing I'm already out of its blast range.’
She'd imprinted that even her suicide attack couldn't take me down, so she wouldn't waste it on me anymore. But other monsters? Different story.
If it seemed like a tough one, she'd hit it with Magical Blast. If it looked like the real deal? Straight to Return of the Light.
Later, when she got fellow magical girl allies, they'd hold her back, but right now? She was just a mad sacrifice machine.
At least, being the protagonist, she somehow survived using that sacrifice skill multiple times.
‘I'll handle this event myself.’
Immortality through fear? A pumpkin swinging a scythe was fake madness.
I was the real deal—the guy with Time Stop who nearly starved to death.
Since she couldn't grow anyway and would just end up with massive trauma, I'd step in, handle it clean, and let her level up unscathed.
“Cr... Clok...?”
“Yes, that's me.”
I spun around, cape billowing toward Comet.
Her eyes trembled, just like always.
By now, the object of her fear wasn't some shattered pumpkin.
“Clok...?”
“Th-that's the clock monster, right?”
“He took out the pumpkin monster in one shot...”
“W-we're gonna die without even closing our eyes...”
The civilians were no different.
Conditional immortality couldn't beat Time Stop.
“Je... Jeeek...!”
“Oh? Up again already?”
Maybe the fear had faded a bit—only one came back to life.
“Who... who are you!!”
The pumpkin monster twisted its face in rage.
Compared to my own face right now, it was just a Halloween jack-o'-lantern prop.
“Seems you don't know your place. In that case...”
I seized the flow of time, strolled over leisurely, and chopped down on both its arms with the edge of my hand.
-Slash.
They came off smooth as butter, no issues.
I nodded in satisfaction, then released the flow of time.
“Jeehiaaaak! H-how...!”
It reacted even more violently than when its whole body had been diced up.
Ignoring it, I turned back to face Comet and the civilians.
“Looks like there's still someone here who fears that pumpkin.”
I clenched my fist—hand basically a deadly weapon now.
“Can't turn it into pie like this, so I'll have to eliminate the source.”
“Hieeek...!”
“Wh-who is it...?”
“I-I'm not scared of that pumpkin anymore!”
“M-me too...!”
The civilians clamored that it wasn't them.
I turned back to the pumpkin monster.
“Jeeik?! Wh-why isn't it regenerating...!”
“Hm, finally a satisfactory result.”
I'd perfectly erased everyone's fear of the pumpkin.
Now, all that fear was directed at me.
-Crunch!
“Jehi, eek...!”
Confirming no regeneration, I grabbed its neck and hoisted it up.
“Jehi! Sp-spare—”
“No mercy.”
-Crunch!
I jammed my other hand into its face, shattering the pumpkin head completely. The body flopped around like seaweed.
“Here, a gift for you.”
-Whoosh.
“Kyaaak?!”
I tossed the stem-body her way—no more business with it—and got a fine reaction from Comet.
“Wh-what do you think you're doing?!”
“Oh, it was a gift... Guess it didn't suit your taste.”
“Y-you think I'd like something like this?!”
“Hm, seems I don't quite get women's preferences...”
“Man or woman, I wouldn't take trash like this!”
Her resolve and fear from before? Gone. Now her face was beet red as she shrieked at me.
About two minutes later, she finally hardened her expression again.
“...So, what's your goal?”
“My goal?”
“Yes. I don't think a monster like you took out that pumpkin out of the goodness of your heart. You must have some ulterior motive.”
“Motive, huh...”
The answer was set, but I dragged it out, pretending to think.
Just as her patience hit its limit, I snapped my fingers right on cue.
-Snap!
“I'm buying time.”
“What...?”
“Magical Comet, you wouldn't know, but I've been watching you for a long time.”
“!!”
“I know all about how a magical girl's powers grow.”
“What...”
“But monsters won't wait for you to get stronger.”
Might as well lean into the shady, untrustworthy image.
“I'm buying you time to grow strong enough.”
“Gr... grow...?”
“Yes.”
“...Why would a monster like you do that?”
“Why? Isn't it obvious?”
Time for the classic monster moment.
“Time is precious. The more you have, the better—and once it's gone, it doesn't come back.”
“!!”
“But monsters kill people, shortening their time. You're the one protecting it, Magical Comet.”
“So in the end, it's some unknown desire driving you...”
“Isn't that what monsters do? And since I'm not harming anyone, I trust you'll understand.”
My carefully crafted answer—three days and nights of pondering—made her expression turn serious.
“...Maybe not as bad a monster as I thought...?”
Huh.
‘What? Is the misunderstanding clearing up already?’
“So please, don't waste your precious time sacrificing yourself for others.”
I gave her one last heartfelt piece of advice, and her face went blank.
Maybe now we could be friends and team up—
That hopeful thought was spinning when—
“Return of the—”
“?!?! No, damn it—”
Magical Comet suddenly tried to self-destruct again, so I desperately seized time's flow.
In the frozen time, I slowly walked toward her.
“What's the problem?”
No answer, of course—this was more a complaint than a question.
I thought I'd nailed the speech, so what went wrong?
“Guess I'll have to head out again today...”
I'm no lolicon villain—why does it always end like this?
***
“...Gone again.”
Just like a clock head—time-related powers, huh.
Comet bit her lower lip.
‘Almost got fooled by wishful thinking.’
After hearing Clok's goal, she'd thought it overlapped somewhat with her own as a magical girl.
Saving people bought time, defeating monsters prevented time loss.
Seemed like even a monster could team up with her... but
‘Never trust what monsters say.’
She'd been burned badly by monsters before—no way she'd fall for their sweet-talking lies.
That monster's final words.
“So please, don't waste your precious time sacrificing yourself for others.”
Telling her not to waste time on sacrifices—she'd lost her rationality for a moment.
Sacrifice.
To Comet, sacrifice was something she could never separate from herself.
Her ultimate, Return of the Light—a so-called ‘suicide skill’—was deeply tied to her psyche.
Before she became a magical girl, shortly after starting middle school.
“M-Mommy... M-Mom...”
A massive fire had broken out in the apartment where she and her family lived.
And unfortunately, she was the only one home at the time.
Her dual-income parents were both at work when the fire hit the empty house.
The young girl hadn't evacuated fast enough and was crying alone on the flame-filled stairs.
That was when.
“A-ri!”
A familiar voice called to her.
It belonged to the older brother she sometimes ran into in the elevator.
He rushed to her desperately, piggybacked her, and bolted down the stairs.
“Time... Is there enough time? Feels like we're short on time...”
Muttering anxiously, he raced down the stairs.
For some reason, her memory cut off midway.
But when she opened her eyes again, she was already in an ambulance heading to the hospital.
After treatment, when she saw the news later.
[Kim sacrificed himself to save a child from the same apartment as the building began to collapse—]
That's when she learned he'd sacrificed himself for her.