I Became a Squinty-Eyed Character with Time Stop Ability.

“This is troublesome.”
I pondered while touching the dagger in my sleeve. Things had deviated considerably from the original plan.
Episode 1, ‘The Promised Day,’ while specific situations change according to the game’s randomness, Kenichi usually awakens in the school classroom.
Simultaneously with his awakening, he encounters monsters and engages in battle, with the key point being that one of the main heroines helps by sharing the burden of incoming monsters.
‘Hotaru would have gone home early to prepare for stargazing with Kenichi, and the blonde pipsqueak said she would be having tea with her followers?’
That leaves the Ancient Weapon, Sawamura Sento.
In fact, she had the highest participation rate in Episode 1 within the game.
The model student and class president, Sawamura Sento.
She also served on the library committee, so she spent the most time at school.
Today is the day when the lunar eclipse phenomenon is maximized.
While Sento, whose senses have been heightened by the moon, should naturally be drawn to Kenichi who has awakened his bloodline, it seems I’ve interpreted things too conveniently.
“So the priority has changed to me.”
I drew aggro.
And in a very unfavorable direction.
Reflecting on this belatedly, I approached Sento in front of me with my mask-like grinning face.
“This is really troublesome.”
Currently, I’m being forced to make a choice.
Whether to leave Sawamura Sento, who is demanding an answer, and run to Kenichi, or to believe in the protagonist’s resilience and continue the conversation.
‘But if Sento, who is supposed to share the monster count, remains here…’
The newly awakened Kenichi won’t be able to hold out for long.
Very rarely, he might be able to resolve it on his own, but that’s only when the monster matchup is extremely favorable, and even then, there’s a high probability of a bad ending soon after.
The protagonist dying on the first day of awakening would not only cast bad luck on the progression of “Apocalypse LoveCom,” but the Ability Nullification Demon Sword would also be completely destroyed.
Yes, the super cool and powerful demon sword would be destroyed!
“Hmm, this is really troublesome.”
“What’s troublesome?”
“While mine is much more impressive, things belonging to others always seem more desirable simply because they’re not yours.”
“…?”
Sento tilted her head with a puzzled expression, seemingly not understanding my words.
“Is that some kind of sexual innuendo?”
I corrected her judgment with a gentlemanly, kind smile.
“No, it’s a serious concern.”
Essentially, I had to choose between the protagonist and the main heroine.
If this were a conversation with an ordinary heroine, running to the protagonist wouldn’t be a big problem, but Sawamura Sento is no ordinary heroine.
She’s also a heroine who, depending on the branch point, awakens as an episode boss when she turns evil.
Whether it’s superior physical abilities or the power to stop time, I have various means at my disposal, so if I set my mind to it, evading Sento in front of me would be quite simple.
But then she would most likely awaken in a bad way and torment me.
‘If it’s a card I have to discard anyway.’
It would be right to deal with it here and now.
Having failed by being greedy and trying to have everything, it would be right to give up one of them now.
Right here, now—
‘I’ll kill the heroine.’
Gripping the dagger in my sleeve, I made my decision.
As I continued to step forward, Sento was soon within arm’s reach.
Standing right in front of her, I looked down at Sawamura Sento and met her red eyes.
As our gazes met, perhaps sensing something, Sento said with a pitiful expression:
“So, is your answer… ready?”
Simultaneously, her magical power surges.
Just like her red pupils that are about to trigger, her aura rises.
The red eye in the sky aided her.
Soon the entire street was engulfed in Sento’s magical power.
Hahaha hohohho, only the people walking in daily life around us, unaware of any circumstances, flow by like waves.
Sawamura Sento stared intently at me with her burning red pupils.
“You’d better give a good answer.”
Of course, the young lady in front of me was equally unaware of the circumstances.
If I set my mind to it, she could die in the blink of an eye, yet she draws aggro like this.
If left alone, she would become a hidden boss causing numerous casualties.
Thinking it would be right to deal with her first, I suddenly noticed a certain wavering.
“…Are you going to fight?”
Sawamura Sento’s senses are excellent.
She can read the emotions and thoughts of others just by briefly meeting their gaze.
With the power of the full moon, she couldn’t possibly miss the resolution I had formed.
The street had darkened by now.
Sento’s red eyes, hanging like the moon in the street, shook violently.
Not with anger or hostility, but with fear.
It wasn’t just me being forced to make a choice; she was in the same position.
She had risked her life to dare to know the truth.
It was like a child wielding authority while holding a bomb that could engulf even herself.
“…”
I slowly examined her appearance again.
Although she had a particularly mature appearance among girls her age, her face was still youthful, and she couldn’t hide the trembling of her pupils and hands.
She tried to raise thorns to hide her fragile heart, but unfortunately, it was detected.
Before being a hidden boss or the Ancient Weapon who might soon defect, she was a seventeen-year-old child.
I only just realized this now.
“Indeed, a series of mistakes.”
Nodding my head slowly and blaming myself, I made another decision.
Since I’ve already been greedy, let’s go all the way.
Gazing steadily into Sawamura Sento’s bright red eyes, I finally said:
“Alright, I’ll tell you. The truth!”
“…What?”
At those words, the waves of emotion reflected in Sento’s eyes grew even more intense.
Perhaps she hadn’t expected an answer at all despite demanding one from me.
Or maybe she had even read the absurd request I was about to make.
“But I’m also a bit shy! While I organize my thoughts, just for a very brief moment, please close your eyes.”
I showed three fingers with a smiling face.
“Three seconds is enough.”

Bang!
Kwaaang─!
Even as he dodged the iron club of the demon repeatedly striking the classroom floor, Kenichi was dumbfounded.
‘What is this? A dream?’
A red demon suddenly appearing—it felt unreal.
Surely this couldn’t be one of those hidden camera pranks from TV programs.
The scale was too large… and too cruel to pull on an ordinary student.
Kwaaang!
…Besides, if he were to be hit by the iron club, he would one hundred percent die, so how could it be a prank?
Yes, this must be a dream.
As Kenichi, who wanted to believe that, felt a fragment from the classroom floor graze his cheek, followed by a slightly stinging pain and the sensation of blood trickling down, his spine went cold.
“…This isn’t a dream!”
Kenichi shouted in terror, yet still diligently threw himself out of the way.
Kwaaang─! As he continued to dodge the iron club falling like lightning, the red demon tilted its head.
─Unng?
Something kept missing.
The yokai’s intelligence was very low, having not yet eaten any humans, but it knew that if time continued to be delayed like this, it wouldn’t be able to eat the human.
After some thought, the demon shouted:
─Uwooeoeoeoeoeoeoe!!!!!
A fierce wind blew from the center of the demon, and as Kenichi was hit by that breath, despite there being nothing physically wrong with his body, he was suddenly gripped by anxiety.
‘…What’s this? Why did that thing suddenly shout?’
That thought was brief, as Kenichi felt some sort of sound approaching from far away.
Bang! Bang! Like something… no, some things charging fiercely…
Bang!
Bang!
Kwaaang!
─Uwooeoeoeoeoe!
“…”
Seeing the beings that soon arrived in the classroom, Kenichi was speechless.
Whether this was a dream or not, he had been trying to somehow dodge the demon and get out of the classroom.
But it seemed to have gone wrong.
As if it wasn’t challenging enough, three more demons appeared and blocked the classroom door.
“…Damn it.”
A situation so terrible that even Kenichi, who usually used proper and polite language, uttered a harsh word.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The closer the demons approached, the more violently Kenichi’s heart beat.
Clink, clink, the cross hanging from his neck also…
Shook, emitting light.

“Three seconds is enough.”
Sawamura Sento suddenly thought.
That man has good intuition.
Then he would also know what she was preparing to do, and what she was worrying about.
Yet, how did he come up with the idea of asking an enemy to close their eyes?
“…Is that all it takes?”
But Sawamura Sento decided to trust the other person in the last moment she could remain human.
She believed it wouldn’t be the worst choice, at least.
As the narrow-eyed man in front of her quietly nodded, Sento closed her eyes.
To prevent the man in front of her from finding fault, she counted the time strictly.
Soon, taking a deep breath, Sento said:
“One.”
The moment she uttered that, the narrow-eyed man, Ichimaru Shiki, drew the dagger from his sleeve.
─Time slowed down.
The movement of her lips, about to say “Two,” slowed, and not just that, but all the people walking around the street and the scenery changed to slow motion.
A world sufficiently slow.
But Shiki didn’t stop there.
He needed more time to reach the school in an instant.
Extending his hand into the void, he murmured:
“Open.”
In what was now a pitch-black world, he, with his now white hair, called for his sword.
And then,
─Time stopped.