An Ill-Fated Bond

"Easy."

I muttered under my breath, still gripping the fire monster by the head.

"H-how...?"

Comet stared up at me with wide, trembling eyes, as if she'd just witnessed something impossible. In fairness, from her point of view, everything had happened in the blink of an eye. It had to be shocking.

Here's what had actually happened.

"Kwahahaha! Magical girl! Become my sacrifice!" — a fire monster had burst onto the scene in the middle of the ongoing misunderstanding with Comet. And the moment I laid eyes on it, I finally figured out exactly when I'd possessed this body.

Episode 1. I'd been dropped into this world at precisely episode 1.

That fire monster, appearing from the very first chapter, had burned down an apartment complex called Twilight as a way of showing the audience how dangerous monsters could be, and then gone on to fight Comet.

Since it was the first monster ever to clash with the protagonist, I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠assumed it existed to showcase Comet's strength, or at most to serve as a stepping stone for her growth. Instead, the thing turned out to be her equal in power — or stronger. Comet, the only magical girl in all of South Korea, scraped out a victory, but at the cost of horrific burns across both arms.

That, I could not allow.

Those burns went further — they left her traumatized by fire itself. So the instant the fire monster lunged at Comet, I threw myself into motion. I was going to sprint over and tackle the thing with everything I had. But right at that moment—

"!!"

My vision flooded with gold, and I saw it — something like an aura, flowing through the empty air like a river. I knew what it was the instant I saw it. That was the flow of time.

I reached out and seized that flow in my hand.

"..."

Everything stopped.

The flames whirling through the air. The firefighters scrambling in desperate motion. The debris of the apartment complex, mid-fall.

Nothing moved. Nothing at all — except one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thing. Me.

"...Amazing."

My awe at the impossible sight lasted only a moment before Comet's situation came rushing back, and I strode toward the fire monster still frozen mid-lunge at her.

His face was twisted with fury, hanging motionless in the air. One second later, and Comet would have been burned alive.

"...Whew. Alright. Eyes closed, one time only."

Steeling my resolve, I drove a knife-hand down hard onto the back of the monster's neck.

Shhk.

The neck parted as smoothly as tofu under a blade. Mercifully, there was no unpleasant sensation — but this was creepy in its own way.

The realization that I could end a living being's life this easily, the moment I set my mind to it... it didn't feel good. If anything, it only made me think I needed to be more careful.

...If I leave it like this, the misunderstanding's going to spiral out of control right in front of Comet, won't it?

It would hardly make for a pretty sight, so I dragged the body over and hurled it behind me. As for the head, still hanging there in midair...

I killed it, so I should show her, to put her at ease.

I decided to carry it. Flashing this around while shouting something like Don't worry, I took care of it! might just make me look like a reliable ally, after all.

Plan perfected, I gripped the fire monster's head and let go of the flow of time.

Vmmm...!

The world snapped back to life.

The frozen flames. The frozen firefighters. The apartment debris suspended in midair.

Everything began to move again.

Ah, I should've blocked that one.

Lucky there was nothing underneath it. From now on, I'd have to keep falling debris in mind too. Anyway — back to the present.

"H-how...?"

Faster than the blink of an eye... no, faster than that, even. In that sliver of time, she'd seen the fire monster reduced to nothing but a head, and terror drained the color from her face.

But—

"Ahh, no need to worry."

I tossed the fire monster's head up and caught it, over and over.

"I've already dealt with the monster that was interrupting our conversation."

That should clear up the misunderstanding, right?

Full of expectation, I looked down at Comet.

"M-monster..."

Her wariness shot up another level. Why, though? Why?

"...I can't just let a monster like you go free."

The fear was gone from her face now, replaced by a grave, resolute expression as she squared her stance.

"...May I be a comet that shines until its very last moment! Last Radi—"

"STOP! STOP!"

I flung out my hand and seized the flow of time again in desperation.

That was way too close.

Apparently convinced I was some kind of calamity, Comet had been about to unleash her ultimate technique — the one that cost her very life to use.

For today, I'm out.

I'd hoped to build ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a good relationship through conversation, but with a face like mine and the word monster stamped across it, getting her guard down was proving utterly impossible.

Any longer and she might genuinely throw her life away trying to destroy me. Better to retreat for today.

First, though—

"Guess I'm just going to have to run."

This time-stop business was great and all, but it came with no movement ability. Which meant my only option was to stop time and sprint at full power.

Destination...

I hadn't picked one, but I figured anywhere away from here would do.

The monster before her is dangerous.

Which means it has to be destroyed, here and now.

Magical Comet swallowed hard at that thought and made her decision. Even if her own body crumbled to dust for it, she would take that monster down before she fell.

And so, Magical Comet resolved to use the final technique her Mascot had warned her about.

Before the monster could so much as lift a finger, she raced through the incantation.

"Eh...?"

Faster than a single blink, the monster was gone.

Did it hide itself?

A perfectly reasonable deduction. She held her guard, waiting for Cloak to strike.

I won't let my guard down.

There were still so many people around. Firefighters battling the blaze with hoses in hand. Civilians evacuating. Even reporters up above, broadcasting the situation live from a helicopter.

One wrong move from her as a magical girl, and every last one of them could die. This was the monster who had beheaded the fire monster before anyone had even realized what it was.

And so Magical Comet kept her staff raised and her guard up, and up, and up—

"Thank you, Magical Comet! Thanks to you, we were able to put out the fire safely!"

—until the firefighters finished extinguishing the blaze, until the crowd's thanks and applause washed over her. He never appeared.

"Why...?"

It was the most anticlimactic ending of her entire career.

"Uuuugh! What even was that monster?!"

Comet — real name Kim Ari — hurled herself onto her bed the moment she got home. Loosening the stiff collar of her school uniform, she stared up at the ceiling.

And there, drifting into her field of view, was a cat-shaped Mascot with fluffy blue fur. Aste, Comet's Mascot.

"Aste! What am I supposed to do?!"

She snatched Aste up and started nuzzling her cheek against him without a moment's delay. Aste pushed her away with a pawful of jelly.

"Mmmh... but the CSAT is right around the corner, and now a monster that's obviously calamity-class just shows up out of nowhere..."

Magical girl or not, she was still a high school girl cramming for the college entrance exams like all her friends. And with a monster of presumed calamity-class now appearing on top of everything, her stress was anything but small.

"Man... I wish I were a cat like you..."

"Right, right... you are stubbier and cuter than other cats, though..."

"Kyaah! S-sorry, sorry! Stop hitting me!"

Whether he'd been scratched too hard or simply offended, Aste unleashed a relentless barrage of Nyaa-Punches at Ari. After roughly thirty seconds of taking the beating, he calmed down and spoke again.

"Me? Why?"

"What kind of logic is that? Pfft."

Ari burst out laughing at the sheer nonsense of it. The two of them traded pointless chatter for a good long while — and thanks to that, her mood improved considerably.

"Haaah... yeah. If it shows up again, I'll just fight it then."

"Yeah, yeah. I got it, I got it..."

And so, in the days that followed, Ari was able to live out her days as an ordinary high school girl. Time flowed on — until, before she knew it, the day of the September mock exam arrived.

"What?!"

A monster had appeared.

A warning blared from the school speakers, and staff and students alike began to evacuate. And the monster had chosen, of all places, a hamburger joint nearby.

"...Aste."

When Ari called softly, Aste nodded with a fully prepped and ready look, and the two of them slipped away toward the bathrooms.

"A heart carried on from the comet! Transform! Magical Comet!"

The instant her words ended, Aste transformed into a swirl of blue light that wrapped around Ari's entire body.

Ari's pale-blue bob lengthened into long twin-tails of deep blue, her school uniform dissolving into a billowing, frilled dress. And finally, a staff set with a comet-shaped jewel took shape in her hand.

She flung open the bathroom window and launched into the sky, soaring off to the rescue.

"Kyaaaaah! Somebody save me!"

"Why does working part-time here mean this?!"

"Mom, I'm sorry... I think I'm going to die here..."

People weeping, wailing, fainting, praying, and screaming at each other right in front of me. The part-timers of McDoria, the fast-food joint I'd wandered into.

"...Hmm."

How had things come to this?

"Well, this is a bit of a problem, isn't it? You see, I'm rather hungry..."

"KYAAAAAH!"

"I'msorryI'mnotdeliciousI'msorryI'mnotdeliciousI'msorryI'mnotdelicious—"

No, damn it. I just want a hamburger.