Chapter Thirty-Nine: I Laugh at Cheng’s Untimely Death

In my hand is a gun, in my eyes a clock, loaded with time itself.

When Kurumi Tokisaki raised her Emperor of Time toward the sky and fired, an overwhelming darkness surged from beneath her feet, rapidly spreading outward. The shadow that had merely covered the rooftop now swelled in size, instantly devouring the entire roof, stretching to the school building’s outer walls, and encroaching upon the whole campus. Soon, it swallowed the entire district surrounding the school.

The colors around began to fade, as though even the light itself had been consumed. In the blink of an eye, what had been broad daylight now seemed to plunge into a total solar eclipse; the school was shrouded in darkness so complete that one could not see a hand before their face.

At that moment, a muffled sound escaped from the lips of the students at Raizen High. It was as if their life force was being siphoned away—they were overcome by weakness, and collapsed one after another, losing consciousness completely.

“Hehe, not bad, right? This is my City Devouring Time—a barrier that consumes time itself. Anyone who steps into this domain will have their time absorbed by me.” Kurumi spoke with a tone of casual pride, as if she were doing something trivial. Su Mo noticed that within Kurumi’s left eye, the clock hand began to turn counterclockwise, making full rotations before finally stopping at the six o’clock position.

“Well? Isn’t it fascinating?”

Kurumi slowly approached Su Mo and explained, “Though my Angel grants me wondrous powers, it comes at a tremendous cost. Each use drains a great amount of my time, and my time is—my life. In other words, every use of my Angel shortens my lifespan. Fortunately, I can replenish myself by consuming the time of others, and that’s precisely what this City Devouring Time is for.”

Her words were chilling. If what she said was true, didn’t that mean all those lying in her domain were having their remaining life consumed?

Noticing the change in Su Mo’s expression, Kurumi’s features unexpectedly softened. She explained, “But don’t worry, I have no intent to take their time. I’m only making them weak; a short sleep will restore them. After all, I’ve already replenished plenty of time from you, Su Mo, enough to last me quite a while. Even the most time-consuming Twelfth Bullet can be used several times now!”

Kurumi’s words were always enigmatic, but learning she bore no malice put Su Mo at ease. He certainly didn’t want to see news the next day reporting the entire student body of Raizen High dropping dead.

“All right, now nothing will interfere with our date tomorrow. So, Su Mo, tomorrow at ten in the morning, I’ll see you at the entrance to Tenguu City Station—don’t be late.” Kurumi gave Su Mo a playful wink, then, smiling, turned and left the rooftop.

Looking down from the rooftop, the entire grounds and school building of Raizen High were littered with unconscious bodies.

Seeing this, Su Mo’s mouth twitched twice.

Once Kurumi left, a feeble voice soon sounded from the rooftop.

“Su…Su Mo~”

Origami Tobiichi, clad in her manifestation device, crawled into view. Thanks to her equipment and the protection of its field, she hadn’t collapsed like the others, but Kurumi’s domain had sapped much of her strength. The device itself was exhausting to wear; that she crawled to the rooftop at all was purely out of concern for Su Mo, driven by sheer willpower.

Upon seeing him unharmed, Origami exhaled in relief—and then fainted on the spot.

……

Because of Kurumi’s City Devouring Time, all the students of Raizen High fell into a collective coma.

Naturally, this caused an enormous stir. But faced with such supernatural power, ordinary investigations yielded nothing. It was like a paranormal event. Since Kurumi had only caused exhaustion and not casualties, the school simply announced—after some discussion—that a lab accident had released a gas causing mass unconsciousness among the students.

As a result, classes were suspended and the school closed for a week.

This was beyond Su Mo’s expectations, and he felt both amused and helpless. That Kurumi would plunge the school into chaos simply to free up time for their date—it was sheer madness.

After the incident, Su Mo returned the unconscious Origami Tobiichi to her home. Looking at this girl who had repeatedly risked her life for his safety, he felt a surge of gratitude. Unfortunately, he had a mountain of tasks to attend to and no time to thank her properly. After making sure she was settled, he hurried back to the Ratatoskr’s airborne warship.

Once retrieved by Fraxinus, he rushed to find Kotori and the others. His first words were, “What’s going on? Why is Kurumi’s affection for me maxed out? You haven’t made a mistake in your readings, have you?”

He could hardly believe Kurumi’s affection had skyrocketed, but when Reine Murasame pulled up her data, the reality was undeniable.

“Don’t worry, big brother. As long as your date with Nightmare goes well tomorrow and you seal the contract, everything will be resolved.” Kotori popped a treasured candy stick into her mouth, cheering him on.

“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one going on the date.” Su Mo rubbed his temples. He’d been on dates before—with Tohka and Yoshino, for instance—but those had been more like outings with a little sister rather than true dates.

Kurumi, however, was different: extremely dangerous, cunning, and deeply knowledgeable about humans. Winning her over on a date would be more difficult than ever before.

“Don’t worry, Ratatoskr will fully support you,” Kotori said, flashing a confident V-sign.

While Su Mo and Kotori discussed the plans for tomorrow’s date, Tohka, who had been listening, suddenly protested loudly, “I want to go on a date with Su Mo too!”

“No!” Su Mo and Kotori replied in perfect unison. They were already troubled by one date—adding Tohka would only make things impossible and create chaos.

“Why not? I want to go on a date with Su Mo!” Tohka pouted, her face clouded in disappointment.

In the original story, such words would have caused Tohka’s affection to plummet and her power to spiral out of control. But since she had already contracted with Su Mo, these problems didn’t exist. Su Mo simply patted her head and said gently, “Be good and listen. I have something very important to do tomorrow, so don’t cause trouble. Next time, I’ll go on a date with you alone, just the two of us.”

Any other girl would have slapped him for such shamelessness—openly planning a date with another girl in her presence—but Tohka was different. She was innocent about such matters. Soothed by his words, she nodded earnestly, “It’s a promise then, Su Mo. You have to take me on a date alone next time, and you can’t run off like last time.”

Clearly, she still held a grudge about their interrupted date. But there had been no choice—he’d had to rescue Yoshino.

All Su Mo could do was nod.

Yet as if fate were toying with him, just as he resolved things with Tohka, Origami Tobiichi called.

“Su Mo, tomorrow at eleven, I’ll be waiting for you in the plaza outside Tenguu Station. You promised me a date last time.”