Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Help
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“Like a comet streaking through your heart! Magical Comet, making her entrance!”
While I was locked in battle with the Firecracker Monster, Magical Comet burst onto the scene and stole its attention.
‘Now.’
Thanks to that, I could keep exploiting the Firecracker Monster's openings and close in without much trouble. I grabbed its wrist easily.
The Firecracker Monster's eyes widened in obvious panic.
“Gotcha.”
I said it in a casual tone, and the thing desperately fired off fireworks from both hands.
But the more wildly it sprayed those fireworks, the weaker they got. I held on tight to its wrist and endured.
-Boom! Boom!
‘You're done.’
I didn't even bother defending, just took it head-on, and not a scratch on me.
Realizing its mistake, it tried to prepare a proper attack. I reached out, seized its throat, and started squeezing harder.
“Gurk…!”
I was about to rip its neck clean off with raw grip strength when Comet jumped in.
“I'll punish you two for terrorizing the citizens!”
Magical Comet was gearing up for Magical Blast.
“Magical-”
Before she could finish her chant, I punched my hand straight through the Firecracker Monster's chest.
-Squelch!
“Gahk…!”
As expected from something specialized in long-range area attacks, it pierced clean through without issue.
I pulled my hand back out, then sliced off both its arms.
-Slash!
“Gaaahhh! Wh-what the fuuuck…!”
“I told you it was time for your fate.”
“H-hel...p me…”
Just moments ago, this monster had been taunting me endlessly, and now here it was, pathetically begging a magical girl for help.
“Uh, um…?”
Comet looked utterly baffled, glancing around uncertainly as she tried to figure out what to do.
But her hesitation didn't last long.
“Kiyoooo! If that's how it's gonna be, you can die with—!”
The Firecracker Monster made its final desperate struggle, shoving its firecracker head right into my mouth.
“This'll pack a nuclear bomb's punch, you fucking Clok!! Golden time—three seconds!!!”
“!! Wait—!”
Magical Comet freaked out and charged toward us.
‘Not enough time.’
It said three seconds, but this thing was gonna blow right now.
Just like in the original story.
‘Why'd my power crap out all of a sudden!?’
The situation was dire, so I wrapped the monster's body as best I could with my own and my cape.
At that instant, its head started swelling up like it was about to explode.
“...?”
And then... it stopped.
To be precise, it wasn't just the monster that stopped.
“Aw, shit. It worked.”
Time had frozen.
Even while grappling the thing, I'd been testing the flow of time with one hand. Perfect timing—the freeze kicked in and halted its explosion.
‘First things first, let's carve this one up.’
I had no idea why Time Stop had failed earlier, so better to handle what I could while I had the chance.
-Slash!
The Firecracker Monster wasn't the type to explode if jostled wrong, so I sliced its firecracker head off thin, like filleting a fish.
‘Whew, safe for now.’
We'd nearly had a nuke drop in the middle of downtown.
‘Of all the monsters, it had to crap out right when I was hunting this one...’
The Firecracker Monster was a tough customer even in the original story.
By mid-story, despite Magical Comet having backup, they couldn't take it down easily.
The magical girls had barely worn it down with strategy and a beatdown, driving it to the brink of death. But just like now, it went for a suicide explosion in its death throes.
Of course, Comet didn't stand by—she sacrificed herself to stop it.
In the end, Comet ended up in a vegetative state for a while, hospitalized. When she woke, her right eye was blind. Magical girls' bodies don't break easily, so she got off light.
She didn't even fully block the blast, so the aftermath crippled her parents.
It was a goddamn awful episode.
“Still...”
I turned to Comet, her face more desperate than anyone's.
She'd have lost an eye like in the original if things had gone even a little wrong.
“...Trying to prevent it nearly caused an even quicker disaster.”
Looked like I'd head home for today and dig deeper into my Time Stop ability.
“...? What the hell? Why's it different now?”
Once I got home, I headed straight to the bathroom and tried prying off the clock embedded in my face again.
I'd figured maybe there was some monster backstory making my skull visible or something, but this time, the mirror showed just my normal face. No skull.
A handsome blond guy.
No skull in sight.
“...No clue.”
Just in case, I shifted to human form. Worked perfectly.
“Alright, time to run every experiment I can think of.”
I couldn't risk another screw-up like this, so I tested every damn thing related to my powers.
‘College entrance exams are still a ways off...’
Stay in Time Stop continuously.
Toggle Time Stop on and off.
Turn the clock hands on my face backward.
Try Time Stop in human form.
Detach face clock, then shift to human form.
And so on. Here's what I figured out:
First. While Time Stop is active, the me inside the clock gradually turns to a skull. When it's fully skeletal, Time Stop ends. Looks like my inner head acts as a battery gauge.
Second. Time Stop works in human form too. But the duration is way shorter than in monster form.
Third. After Time Stop ends, my face slowly regenerates. Except after going full skull, it doesn't fully restore, but I can still use the power.
That's the gist.
‘Sucks that there are limits... but if I'm careful, this should be manageable.’
Even if overused, it auto-releases, but my face clock showed I could keep it going for about a month no problem.
The power crapped out this time because I'd left Time Stop on for over a month while monster-hunting.
‘And I'd taken out over two hundred monsters...’
Killing them didn't take long, but traveling did.
I wiped out every monster whose locations were in the novel, plus roadside stragglers, chance encounters, pulled people from accident scenes, put out fires instead of firefighters, disarmed bank robbers, and right when I went looking for the Firecracker Monster to wrap things up—bam, Time Stop ended.
I'd paused here and there to eat, but yeah, I'd overdone it.
Moderation from now on.
Still, I'd cleared out a ton of potential threats, so as long as I avoided repeats like this, it'd be fine to keep going.
“Everyone else lived a day, and I solo'd over a month.”
For all those experiments, since time was stopped, barely a day had passed in real time.
From Comet's perspective, she'd just finished her fight with the Firecracker Monster and be hitting the hay.
“...Time for some rest?”
Hell, I'd used my time harder than anyone.
“...Tonight's midnight snack: pig's feet.”
No incidents for a while, so I could chill too.
“Huuu... I'm totally drained...”
[Cheer up-nyang! No disasters happened-nyang!]
“That doesn't help at all...”
[Then stop whining about it-nyang! How many times already-nyang?!]
After changing into pajamas, A-ri flopped onto her bed. Aste, fed up with her umpteenth complaint, finally snapped.
[That clock-head was just abnormally strong-nyang! You're plenty powerful too, A-ri-nyang!]
“...But if Clok hadn't shown up this time, our whole city would've been wiped out.”
[Why're you stressing about monsters fighting each other and nearly causing trouble-nyang?!]
“I'm a magical girl...”
[Sigh... You're too nice for your own good-nyang.]
Aste was about to lecture her more, but seeing how utterly wiped out A-ri looked, it softened and patted her with a paw, looking apologetic.
“Stronger monsters keep popping up, and I'm the only magical girl around...”
[A-ri...]
“...Maybe I should ask for help from the girls in Japan next door.”
Magical Comet was Korea's first and only magical girl. Other countries had multiples.
Japan, the magical girl homeland, had five in total.
“...No, this means I gotta step up even more.”
[A-ri...!]
Just seconds ago she'd been wallowing, but A-ri slapped her cheeks and steeled herself.
Watching her, her mascot Aste thought:
‘Looks like I gotta swallow my pride and ask that annoying puppy bitch for help, even if it kills me-nyang...!’
Korea could probably use a second magical girl soon.