So, What Are You Gonna Do About It

So what are you gonna do about it.

In the end, the shaman who had made the viewers—and me—flinch hadn't been some final mastermind after all. He was simply a villager who had survived the collapse of the dungeon by pure chance. But the very fact that he'd survived at all was a slip-up on the part of the raccoons who managed the dungeon, and it seemed they'd elevated him into an important NPC to bury the mistake. That way, a being who would otherwise have been left dangling could naturally fold into the dungeon, and everything would go back to normal without a hitch.

"So where exactly is this Gio?"

He was the final destination of the notes and letters—and the one who had supposedly fled into a gap in time. Where on earth was Gio?

The shaman turned his head with a bitter expression.

"Bearing with it in a place where time flows slowly is no easy feat. For a human, doubly so."

"Then that means..."

"I did try to help him, but I have my own restrictions. I couldn't stop him from losing his self."

Unless you were something that transcended life itself, like Myoshin, enduring decades, even centuries, in a void of nothingness was simply beyond anyone. Even the shaman before me was, at the very least, no longer human.

Gio had never fled into the gap of time until the bitter end. The instant the Kraken triggered its Territorialization, he had used the watch's power to escape into the space it offered.

And then—

"...Time was tighter than I thought."

Fifteen hours since the Kraken had begun affecting the village. In that brief span, Gio had lost himself.

Chaaaaaa....

"The owner of this ship should have been aboard. But as you can see, no one is. He's melted into this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ship—into this very space."

"..."

"I urged him, again and again, to calibrate the time difference... but he was an ordinary human. Crude tuning could only carry him so far."

This 'watch' had been born from a user's skill, the shaman's sorcery, and a special power handed down by the raccoons, all fused into a single object. For an ordinary human to wield it fully was next to impossible.

We could conceivably bring Gio back through resurrection or divine magic, but he was already one with this space. To treat him, we'd have to lay hands on the entire space itself.

And if we touched the space, a failure message would pop right up.

"So if we act before the Territorialization happens, we can save Gio."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"You planning to turn back time?"

"Not exactly turning it. Well—call it that."

Regression, save-loading—people could dress it up in whatever words they liked, but actually rewinding time was impossible. All it really meant was erasing memories and resetting every circumstance and element to match how they'd been before. In book terms, even if you declared regression on page five, you didn't travel back to page one; you simply turned to page six.

As if he had anticipated the question, the shaman traced a violet sorcery onto the floor. It was far more refined than the formula written on the note—nothing like the crude thing Gio had shown us. With this, we might actually be able to sidestep the Kraken completely—the one we could suppress, but had no proper way to kill.

"Why are you showing me this only now?"

"Because the time difference is different. The me who showed it to Gio and the me standing here now are entirely different people."

"..."

"Which point in time do you intend to aim for?"

"Before we fight the Kraken. Day two, 17:50, would be ideal."

The moment I'd found Gio's second note and young Lily had begun to truly grasp the calamity. At that point, the Kraken had not yet fixed its Gaze—so through this sorcery, we might slip free of its authority altogether.

But the shaman shook his head.

"No. Go to the very beginning."

"...? By the beginning, you mean day one?"

"I do."

"On day one, the constraint of plausibility would bind me."

Day-one me was no Dreamland Fairy. Altering young Lily's thoughts a little—that was the full extent of what I could do. What was I supposed to accomplish while unable to cast even one proper spell?

"Day two is too late. The calamity hasn't even approached yet. Only that moment makes it possible."

"Hmm..."

"You know the ship is carrying gems in transit. Draw the sorcery directly through them. With your power, it is more than doable."

"So by power, you mean—"

"The wristwatch."

The shaman pointed at the watch hanging on my wrist.

"That watch is something you brought with you. The only thing in this world that exists outside of it. That is why it can reach."

"...Don't tell me."

"Go back. Set the current time, then let it run its course. And I will lend you my hand, so that you may use my power."

I checked the wristwatch. The current time was...

Quite a lot of time had passed since I'd entered this place, yet not even a single 'minute' had flowed here. The system, however, told a different story.

Thirty minutes ahead of the wristwatch. Presumably, matching that time was the answer.

Clank!

I drew out my hammer. To return to the beginning, I had to fail—and to fail, I had to strike this space. My target was the Kraken, far off in the distance, staring this way while spewing out its eerie noises. Since I was going back anyway, I figured I'd feed it one good hit on the way out.

The shaman ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠glared at me as if in warning.

"Remember this well. The window I can open for you is a mere instant. It is an ability born of the power the raccoon granted me long ago. Miss this moment, and no matter how many times you rewind, I can never do it for you again."

"Don't worry."

Crafting sorceries was my specialty. It did rub me a little the wrong way that we'd decided to tell young Lily the truth, but...

She's probably watching already anyway.

If she was anything like me, she'd understand this choice.

WHUM!

I swung the hammer at the Kraken, divine power packed to the very brim.

KROOOOOAR...!

Crack-crack-crack! Space shuddered, and the Kraken's body—a weak avatar, nothing more—rocked violently as if it were shattering to pieces.

And then—

WHAP!

Day 1. 07:15.

Splash... splash...

The smell of the sea drifted in from every direction along with the sound of waves. Adults wandered here and there across the deck, tending to the ship, and the sky hung a little dark. Around four in the afternoon, the day slowly brightening wouldn't have been strange—

"Huh?"

I checked my wristwatch. 7:15. The watch's time didn't match. No—I was sure it was four in the afternoon, so why didn't the watch agree? Wait, it was four in the afternoon and the sky was dark? Hadn't they said we'd arrive in broad daylight?

"???"

Bewildered, I climbed down from the deck and headed back to my room. Far off in the distance I could see Uncle waving at me cheerfully, but my head was too muddled for pleasantries right now.

Creeeak... Thump!

I flopped onto the soft bed and stared at the watch.

It was definitely four in the afternoon...

"Maybe I just haven't slept enough."

I thumped my head lightly with my fist, then figured I'd simply try turning the watch's crown. I was still hopelessly confused, but the thing claimed it was six in the evening—turning it should sort that out, right?

Click.

"..."

Nothing happened.

As I stared at the watch in a daze, its second hand began ticking away, tick-tock, tick-tock. Come to think of it, Dad had bought this watch from another continent. Made of some special material, apparently—it glimmered with a rare violet sheen, smooth as glass, and wonderfully pleasant to the touch. I should ask him to buy other trinkets like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it when my birthday came around...

Tick.

"...Huh?"

Light burst from the watch! I squeezed my eyes shut against the blinding glare, and somehow I had the strange sensation of endlessly rising, rising—

Incomprehensible phrases. A massive wave of information crashed over me, dizziness swept through my head, and I collapsed. The dreamland...? The last thing I saw was a fairy from a storybook before consciousness slipped away entirely.

I swiftly surveyed the body I'd taken over. A hastily assembled message unlike the usual ones covered my view—and the last line hadn't even come from the system itself.

One minute, then...

"That's plenty."

A staggeringly short span of time, but more than enough for me. I immediately activated Stage 4 and began drawing the sorcery with divine power. It was fairly complex even with the shaman's refinements, yet it took less than ten seconds to lay down the entire formula.

Thud-rumble!

Then I stretched out my hand, found the gem steeped in the sky's power stowed somewhere aboard the ship, and pulled it here. I set it down upon each of the six branching sectors of the sorcery. The gems responded, their colors flickering in bright pulses, and I forced the vast divinity steeped in my soul into the formula.

That took thirty seconds. With the sorcery prepared, thirty seconds still remained.

With about twenty seconds left, I looked toward the watch—toward the shaman who was, presumably, watching me right back.

"Any last words to leave me with?"

"...See you again, someday."

The sorcery flared to life. A colossal violet formula spread across the entire harbor and surged onward, swallowing even the tiny subcontinent whole. Far in the distance, I could feel it—the real one, not some avatar—roaring out its boundless fury.

So what are you gonna do about it?

What else could you do besides let me pass—or get struck by lightning and go to sleep? I burst out laughing inside for no particular reason, and then I felt the ownership slip away.

Ring!