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Whistle-!!

"First match, Blue Team victory!"

Gazing down from the rooftop of the school building, I watched a group of students playing sports in the field down below as I ate my food.

It was only lunchtime, but was it normal to have a referee despite the casualness of the game?

The sharp sound of howling wind resounded through the air as the referee blew his whistle to announce the start of the second round. Lunchtime was 45 minutes, so I suppose they would be playing two games with each being about 20 minutes in length.

With the cheerful but not glaring sun in the cerulean sky, and scant white clouds scattered throughout, it was an objectively pleasant atmosphere, the benign winds brushing tenderly against the face to cool you down.

Creak~

Suddenly, I heard the rooftop door open slowly from behind. I didn\'t need to guess who the entrant was, so I did nothing and waited.

I listened to the sound of the door closing gently before the footsteps approached me and, as if we were close, the person took an uninvited seat beside me.

"..."

"..."

A moment passed between us without a word being said. Giving a sideways glance at this person, I was surprised by the lack of complaints and other such blather.

Towards them, I opened my mouth to ask "What\'s wrong with you, then?" but was cut off before I had the chance.

"Did your plan work yet?"

What\'s this all of a sudden?

"Are you curious about the fate of time\'s master?"

"Just tell me if you\'re gonna, or shuddup if you\'re not."

Hah? Where\'s this attitude coming from?

"If you\'re going to be like that, then fine. Azaki Kiryuuin is not yet dead, but it shouldn\'t be long now."

"How much longer?"

Two weeks had passed since he stabbed himself with the poisoned blade. Taking into account how much of the poison entered his bloodstream...

"I\'d say giving him until the end of the day would be considered generous."

"...I see."

She nodded her head and said nothing more.

Well, somebody has a stick up their ass. What happened to you? Now that I think about it, she was rather quiet this morning, too. Did she wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

"Why do you care so much all of a sudden?"

To my question, Sophie Asanami hesitated.

"That... I dunno, it\'s just... I get a bad feelin\' from it, is all..."

Huh.

Azaki Kiryuuin; Is there really such a need to be worrying about a person like that at this point?

The guy was practically dead.

Although Avon Laura did not give him my "antidote" in the end―turns out she was actually smart enough to get people to find out what it was I had given her before mindlessly administering it to the patient―that did not change Kiryuuin\'s fate.

Honestly, they should have just given him the sarin to put him out of his misery sooner, but whatever can you do about the foolish doggedness of those justice-obsessed fellows?

In any case, that bad feeling... Sophie possessed no abilities such as clairvoyance or future sight, but I suppose a human\'s natural intuition is something to take into consideration.

So, I asked her.

"What makes you say that?"

If there was even a slight chance that Kiryuuin could survive... I could not allow that.

Still, it would be immensely difficult to take even the slightest action in the current circumstances. Sneaking into the Playground is not something I would do even if the world was ending, and the risk that comes with sending someone else to assassinate him is insurmountable.

"I said I dunno, dumbass! Somethin\' like it felt too easy, maybe? Honestly, it\'s prolly nothin\', but... It\'s just a feelin\' anyway, so take it as ya want."

She yelled at me as if I had done something wrong, but quickly calmed down and began moping again.

"Well, that\'s certainly helpful."

"Oh, shut up. Shouldn\'t you know more about it than me anyway?"

She was right, but I can only know about something if I ask about it. Not only that, but the wording of the question needs to be precise enough―not too vague and not filled with unnecessary details that could skew the answer―for me to get a response worth anything.

I can\'t imagine it becoming a reality, but I suppose I should start looking into it right away, just in case something really does happen.

The power of human instinct is not to be underestimated, after all, so I\'ll trust her this one time.

I decided to start with something simple; perhaps the most important question of them all:

When is Azaki Kiryuuin, the person who possesses the Measurement of Time, going to die?

My eyes naturally widened at the response.

❖─────❖─────❖

Measurement of Time.

Usually, this ability includes three main qualities.

1. To tell the time.

Needless to say, someone who manipulates time will be able to innately know what time it is, no matter the location and no matter the circumstance.

2. To pause time.

This is the primary feature of the Measurement of Time and is what most previous possessors have been renowned for. Whenever the user touches a living creature while time is frozen, it thaws.

3. To slow or hasten time.

A lesser form of pausing, this is not freezing time entirely but merely slowing it for everyone except the user or quickening it for only themselves. The degree to which time can be slowed or hastened depends on the user\'s experience and training with the Measurement.

That is all.

These are the three basic features of the Measurement of Time.

Despite being a powerful Concept, there are no grandiose abilities such as time travel―being able to visit the future or rewind into the past.

Because time flows as a river, humans swept up in its course.

There is no way for a singular human to reverse the flow of a river from within.

The river flows towards an inevitable conclusion. Although there are tributaries that branch out into alternative possibilities and other timelines, they all lead to the sea in the end.

The Measurement of Time lends one human a raft and a paddle.

Pausing time is possible if the human with the raft paddles against the river―they can muster just enough force and resistance to stay afloat in one location.

By paddling a little bit slower, you can slow time, and by paddling a little bit faster, you can speed it up.

However, at the end of the day, with nothing but a raft and a paddle, it is impossible to overpower the rapids and rewind time.

But, there is a case.

A scenario in which one could theoretically travel to a previous section of the river.

The river is unimaginably vast, and so it would not be possible if all you possessed was a mere raft and paddle, but...

If the raft was upgraded, and you could now attach an engine to the raft, would it become a different story?

Wouldn\'t you then have the potential to fight the currents and head upstream?

Of course, the engine would need some fuel after a while, so you might not be able to do it often, but for once and for all, finally...

Time reversal.

―Wouldn\'t it be possible to fight the flow of time?

❖─────❖─────❖

「The individual \'Azaki Kiryuuin\' died three seconds ago」

Huh.

See? I said there was nothing to be concerned about.

"You worried for nothing. He died just now."

Sophie looked at me, her wavering gaze still uncertain.

"Ya sure...?"

"There\'s no problem."

"Sure, but y\'know... I just... I dunno, it just doesn\'t seem right..."

Again. Her persistent staring was putting me off, so I sighed.

What\'s the big deal?

That perturbed expression of hers, despite me telling her the guy was dead, remained. I didn\'t understand why.

"Listen, how long are you going to be like this? How many times will it take me to give you the same answer before you realise that nothing is going to happen?"

She was concerned that Azaki Kiryuuin could somehow come back from the dead―I get that, but it is simply not possible.

"Once a person dies, their Measurement fades away alongside the soul. It isn\'t possible for someone to die and come back to life due to the Measurement disappearing instantly upon death."

That was the truth, and it wasn\'t something that could be changed so easily.

If you die, you die.

The only hypothetical exception to that rule would be if someone who isn\'t dead brings the dead person back to life, but something like that isn\'t exactly commonplace, is it?

Out of all the Measurements that currently exist right now, there\'s only one that has that power.

Having finished my lunch, I rose to my feet. Watching over the sports match taking place on the field below, I addressed Sophie\'s concerns for the final time.

"Time is dead. If you\'re going to keep pointlessly worrying, don\'t bring it up to my face. Just continue working and training as you have been and you\'ll see that there was never anything to worry about."

She craned her neck to look up at me from her seated position and roughly ruffled her blonde hair with a grunt.

"Argh, fuckin\' hell... Fine, then."

Jumping up, she put her hands in the pockets of her loose cardigan and offered me a deal.

"Just... Keep an eye on the situation, \'kay? Somethin\' about it really just doesn\'t sit right with me, so if you do that, I\'ll shut the hell up about it. Pinky promise. In fact, just check again right now."

She still went on about it, saying that checking isn\'t going to hurt even a fly, but what she was begging me to do was something I was already planning on doing anyway, so it was fine.

Making sure that he was genuinely dead took me no effort, after all, and it was good to take caution that my knowledge is as updated as it can be.

"That\'s fine."

In order to soothe her concerns, at least for the immediate future, I agreed with her that I should do it right away, and thus I asked:

Is the Concept of Time, Azaki Kiryuuin, dead?

The instant after I asked that question―

One moment later.

「The individual \'Azaki Kiryuuin\' is alive」

―My brain froze at the sentence reflected in my eyes.