Space vs Time
“Hah! Hah! No, no way…!”
A cold wind swept through the winter morning.
“If I'm late today, I'm really, really done for…!”
Aster: “I TOLD you not to turn off your alarms, nya! Why do you keep shutting them off before the sound even registers in your head?! I overslept too, nya!”
“Well, what can I say? It's become a habit!”
Enough of that, run faster, nya! You've staked everything on the CSAT, haven't you, nya?!
Ari was sprinting at full speed toward the CSAT — the final and most important exam of her high school life. Of all nights, she'd failed to manage her condition the evening before and overslept, and only thanks to Aster, who had been sleeping beside her and woke her up, had she managed to make it out at all.
“Hey, student! You look in a hurry — hop on!”
“?! Th-thank you!”
Fortunately, it seemed a motorcycle rider was out doing volunteer service for students just like her. The helmeted rider called out to Ari and handed her a spare helmet.
“Hanguk High School?”
“Ah, yes!”
“Hold on tight! I'll be going a little fast!”
“Okay…!”
With the roar of the engine, Ari wrapped both arms around the rider's waist, wondering whether they'd make it in time. But perhaps because it was CSAT day, before long the motorcycle could go no further.
“Ah… this isn't going to work, is it…?”
“No…”
Ari stood pale with despair at the hopeless scene before her. And it was at that very moment that disaster arrived.
!! Ari—
Aster tried to call out to her urgently, and in that instant—
CRACK!
“Huh?”
A violet fissure split open in the middle of the road. And reaching out from the crack — a gnarled, withered hand the color of a dead tree.
“A m-monster! It's a kaijuuu!”
“Of all days, why TODAY, when my kid takes the CSAT…!”
“Evacuate! Today's CSAT is cancelled! Everyone, please evacuate—”
“Move your car, you bastard! There's a monster up ahead!”
“It's a kaiju! Everybody run!!”
While everyone fled in utter panic, the monster stretched out another hand and slowly revealed itself.
Sliiiiide…
Legs as skeletal and tree-like as its arms emerged from the fissure, and soon the entire body slid out into the open. A creature with a body like a dried, withered tree, draped in a dark violet cloak.
Vuuuum…
Where its head should have been, a crack shimmering with stars like the night sky sat in place, radiating an overwhelming presence.
“Oh dear! A monster… Student, you need to evacuate too, right now.”
“R-right…”
Faced with the creature's appearance and the crushing pressure emanating from the fissure, Ari nodded without thinking and ran back alongside the motorcycle rider.
But as they fled—
Magical, Comet…
A hollow voice echoed out from the crack perched atop the monster's shoulders, calling her name.
Mid-evacuation, people couldn't help but turn their heads. Every gaze was fixed on that creature.
I am… Abyss, the Herald of Space. Magical Comet, I know that you are here….
“?!”
Ari whirled her head toward Aster in shock. Aster stared back at her with equally startled eyes.
Th-that's gotta be a lie, nya…?
Aster muttered with an awkward laugh — but Abyss, as if determined to shatter that prediction, spoke again.
If you do not come out, I will erase the space containing one person every three minutes.
Abyss stretched a skeletal arm toward a nearby car. A black sphere formed before his hand, swallowed the car whole in an instant, and turned it into nothing but a crack.
“?!”
How does something like that even exist, nya?!
Watching from the side, Aster couldn't help voicing her outrage at the blatantly overpowered ability.
I will begin counting now. Three minutes.
Apparently dead serious, Abyss simply stood motionless in the middle of the road, waiting without doing anything at all.
“…I don't know what's going on, but a monster standing still is our chance! He might really kill someone every three minutes, so let's hurry, student!”
“Ah, ah! Yes!”
Ari ran with the motorcycle rider toward the nearest shelter.
“…Aster.”
Ready, nya!
The moment she called Aster's name in a small voice, the answer came back: already prepared. Ari stopped dead in her tracks immediately after.
“…For good people like them, I'm the one who has to step up.”
She murmured it while watching the rider keep running, completely unaware that she had stopped. Beside her, Aster nodded with a smile.
The world has far too many kind people to just let die, nya. Just like you, Ari, nya.
“That's right. It's for people like them that I exist.”
Ari shouted it with a radiant smile.
“The heart carried down from the comet! Transform! Magical Comet!”
Aster became a swirl of light, and in an instant Ari transformed into Magical Comet.
KABOOM!
“Like a comet streaking through your heart! Magical Comet, arriving!”
She landed right in front of the monster called Abyss.
“There! I came, just like you wanted!”
Ahh… so you have come. Judging by your speed, you truly were here all along. I suppose you have some sort of ability that prevents people from noticing when you transform…
“That doesn't matter! A magical girl's identity is a sacred mystery!”
I see… indeed. Well then, since you've come, I shall stop counting.
At how readily Abyss agreed to keep his word, Comet broke into a noticeably bright smile. But his words didn't end there.
Now then, I shall state my next condition.
“Yes?! Wh-what do you mean, next condition?!”
He was adding another condition. As Comet began to protest at the absurd situation, Abyss raised an index finger to silence her — and then stated it.
Cloak. Bring the Herald of Time before me.
“What?! What kind of ridiculous condition is that?!”
You have three minutes. The same as before.
“I can't accept any more of this!”
Confronted with a demand that was obviously impossible to grant, Comet immediately leveled her wand.
“Magical Blast!”
Pewww!
A blue beam of light shot out at tremendous speed. Abyss spread his palm and opened another fissure in front of himself.
Whooom!
The beam plunged straight into the crack. Then Abyss spread his other hand, and this time a fissure opened behind Comet.
Pew!
And out of that crack fired her own Magical Blast.
“Kyaah!”
Struck by her own attack, Comet went tumbling across the ground in an instant.
“Kgh…”
Unfortunately, as you are now, you cannot defeat me. Now then, I shall begin counting.
“Hyaaah!”
Comet charged at Abyss with a battle cry. But as countless fissures bloomed up around him, shielding him completely, every method of attacking him vanished.
Thirty seconds remain.
She tried attacking the cracks again and again, but nothing worked. And now less than thirty seconds remained.
There's no way that monster would actually show up…
In this utterly nonsensical situation — a monster demanding that a magical girl summon another monster — Comet bit back tears, feeling utterly powerless.
Now, ten seconds remain. Ten.
At the announcement that only ten seconds were left, Comet sank to the ground.
Even if I used Reversal Radiance, there'd be no way to stop it…
Her last-resort ultimate move, Reversal Radiance, was a self-destruction technique. Given the fissures' nature of absorbing or reflecting attacks straight back, it would have been useless.
Oh.
She racked her brain even as she sat collapsed on the ground — and somehow only five seconds remained.
Four.
Why are monsters always so… unreasonable…
Three.
The pumpkin monster, Cloak, that Abyss thing too…
Two.
Really, is there anything I can even do?
One.
Oh… it's over. I'm sorry…
Three minutes had passed. One person was about to die, and so Comet shed tears with both eyes shut tight.
And then, not long after—
Khk! Khaagh…!
A man's agonized voice rang out right beside her ear. A hollow, echoing sound — the voice of a man in terrible pain…
….
“Huh?”
Sensing that something was off, Comet desperately opened her eyes and stared ahead.
Khk, khaaagh…!
“Counting down time right in front of me… I'd say that counts as a provocation, don't you?”
There was Abyss — gripped by the throat by the clock-headed monster.
Yeah, you've gotta show up at the most dramatic moment possible. That's what makes the scene.
Abyss, the monster of Space.
I was already fully prepared for this guy.
On CSAT day, he'd appear before Magical Comet and force her to come out on the spot. With her mascot Aster's help, Comet would transform without being seen and face him — and he'd keep piling on absurd demands and ruthlessly killing people when they weren't met.
No idea why he wanted ME to come out, though.
Eh, the conditions were probably just him throwing out whatever seemed least likely to work. Anyway — I knew his entrance time, and I knew what he was going to do, so my job was simple.
I waited on standby, on the motorcycle.
Standby.
Waiting astride the bike, I watched Comet come rushing out, then picked her up on the back seat and gunned it at full speed.
I didn't know exactly where he'd appear, but I figured he'd show up near Comet — and sure enough, he emerged barely any distance from her. I played the evacuee alongside her and waited until she snuck off to transform.
Thanks to Aster's ability as a mascot, nobody could register the fact that Ari had vanished — so I simply waited for Magical Comet to make her entrance. Then, exactly as predicted, Abyss began his countdown. And since handing a time limit to me, the time-stop monster, meant absolutely nothing, I waited right up until one second remained.
Alright then. How should I mess this bastard up?