Zerozaki Hajime and Yukimura Seiichi arrived at the entrance of a burger shop.
"The map says it's right here."
She glanced at the map, then looked up at the burger shop.
"Zerozaki-san, it looks like there's more than one."
Yukimura Seiichi looked at her screen, seeing another red dot suddenly pop up on the map. He pinched his chin and thought for a moment.
"Judging by the location, it should be over at the biggest entertainment center in Ginza."
Zerozaki Hajime frowned and stared at the map in silence, pondering what to do, but for now she had to eliminate the one inside the burger shop first.
She froze space and time, bringing everyone on the street to a complete standstill.
Though he had already witnessed Zerozaki Hajime freeze time several times, Yukimura Seiichi was still deeply amazed by her supernatural ability.
Zerozaki Hajime pushed open the door of the burger shop and immediately heard two familiar voices.
"Echizen! Run, this monster is right behind us!"
"I know! But Momoshiro-senpai! Why is everyone frozen?!"
Echizen Ryoma and Momoshiro Takeshi came running down from the second-floor corner of the burger shop, pursued by an oval-shaped Faceless Man.
Zerozaki Hajime's eyes turned sharp in an instant. She immediately rushed over to block the two of them behind her and fired several beams of light at the monster, but it nimbly dodged them.
Echizen Ryoma and Momoshiro Takeshi were left speechless, utterly stunned by the magical spectacle unfolding before them.
Zerozaki Hajime continued her attack, but the monster seemed to know she couldn't protect everyone and kept trying to close in on the tennis players.
Taking advantage of the moment Zerozaki Hajime was shielding Yukimura Seiichi, the monster seized control of Echizen Ryoma's limbs and bolted out of the burger shop.
Dammit! These monsters were getting more and more cunning!
Zerozaki Hajime had no choice but to give chase, and Yukimura Seiichi and Momoshiro Takeshi ran out of the burger shop after her.
"Yukimura-senpai! What on earth is going on?!"
Momoshiro Takeshi asked with a shocked expression, looking at the frozen pedestrians all along the street.
Yukimura Seiichi gazed at Zerozaki Hajime's retreating back with a somewhat helpless look. Explaining this in detail would be a bit complicated, but he kept it brief anyway.
"It seems our world has been invaded by monsters. Zerozaki-san—that girl in front—is here to clear them out."
Momoshiro Takeshi was thoroughly shaken, declaring that his worldview was about to shatter.
Zerozaki Hajime chased the monster all the way to the foot of the gaming and entertainment center in Ginza. After the monster took Echizen Ryoma inside the building, she lost track of its exact location.
Because the map could only show the monsters' horizontal positions, not their vertical elevations.
When Yukimura Seiichi and Momoshiro Takeshi arrived, they saw Zerozaki Hajime staring up at the gaming building with a very solemn expression.
Seeing that they had both caught up, Zerozaki Hajime handed her tennis bag to Yukimura Seiichi.
"Hold this for me, Yukimura."
As soon as her voice trailed off, Zerozaki Hajime transformed into her adult form right before their eyes.
"This... this..."
For a moment, Momoshiro Takeshi didn't know whether to mourn his shattered worldview first or marvel at the rare beauty of Zerozaki Hajime's adult form.
"You'll get used to it."
Yukimura Seiichi nodded slightly toward Zerozaki Hajime and gently comforted Momoshiro Takeshi.
Zerozaki Hajime merely glanced at Momoshiro Takeshi, having no intention of explaining anything.
The three of them walked into the ground floor of the entertainment center together. Everything was frozen—people, clocks, escalators, and every artificial and natural thing was motionless.
Zerozaki Hajime looked around. Because there were too many people and storefronts, searching would be far too troublesome. She turned around and looked at Yukimura Seiichi and Momoshiro Takeshi behind her.
She reached her hands out toward Yukimura Seiichi and Momoshiro Takeshi.
"Put your hands on mine. I need to borrow your energy."
Yukimura Seiichi didn't hesitate; he reached out and took Zerozaki Hajime's hand directly. Momoshiro Takeshi looked at Yukimura Seiichi, then at Zerozaki Hajime, before finally raising his hand to grab her wrist.
Zerozaki Hajime placed her other free hand against the building's wall, then closed her eyes and released her beams of light into the gaming center building.
The entire building began to glow with a faint white light.
After a dozen seconds, Zerozaki Hajime suddenly opened her eyes.
"Found them. Both of them are on the sixth floor!"
Seeing this, Yukimura Seiichi and Momoshiro Takeshi let go of her hands. Zerozaki Hajime looked at them.
"I've already used my energy to seal off the building. You two go wait outside first, just in case they come down and attack you."
Momoshiro Takeshi was about to refuse when Yukimura Seiichi stopped him.
"Alright. Please be careful with everything, Zerozaki-san."
With that, he signaled Momoshiro Takeshi to walk out of the building with him.
Once they had left, Zerozaki Hajime turned and ran toward the escalator. Leveraging the architecture of the building, she leaped up to the sixth floor in no time.
"Yukimura-senpai! How can we just let a girl go fight monsters by herself?!"
Momoshiro Takeshi was extremely worried about Echizen Ryoma's condition, though of course he also wanted to see more of Zerozaki Hajime's supernatural abilities.
"Back at the burger shop, if there hadn't been so many of us, Zerozaki-san wouldn't have left an opening for the monster to control that boy."
Yukimura Seiichi gazed at the building, patiently explaining to Momoshiro Takeshi.
Momoshiro Takeshi thought back and realized that was indeed the case. He let out a heavy sigh and had no choice but to sit down on the steps in front of the main entrance, lost in thought.
Upon arriving on the sixth floor, Zerozaki Hajime immediately began searching for the monster according to the map's location. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the two monsters hadn't met up with each other yet.
That meant she could strike first and destroy them one by one, preventing the monsters from pooling their energy and transmitting it to the Faceless Man.
She headed straight to the billiards hall closest to her. As soon as she walked in, she saw three boys around Yukimura Seiichi's age swinging billiard cues to drive off another monster.
Zerozaki Hajime felt a slight pang of doubt. Could people who played billiards see monsters too? She remembered that only playing tennis allowed for that, didn't it?
The monster caught sight of Zerozaki Hajime behind the boys and scurried about in a panic.
The boys looked confused, then turned around to see Zerozaki Hajime unleash a dozen beams of light, instantly annihilating the monster.
The three of them were extremely shocked, but they quickly calmed down. One of the silver-grey-haired boys stepped forward.
"Oh? Who on earth are you? What's going on here?"
Zerozaki Hajime didn't answer. She gave them a cold glance, turned around, and left the billiards hall to go find the monster holding Echizen Ryoma hostage.
"I feel like she's... a bit familiar, Tezuka."
Fuji Shusuke rarely opened his eyes, his ice-blue gaze captivating and piercing.
"Yeah... she is."
Tezuka Kunimitsu watched the direction in which Zerozaki Hajime had vanished, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"I suspect this whole thing has something to do with that woman just now. But where have you guys seen her before?"
Atobe Keigo stood nearby with a deep frown. He surveyed the billiards hall and discovered that, aside from himself, Tezuka Kunimitsu, and Fuji Shusuke, everyone else—including time itself—was frozen still.
Fuji Shusuke resumed his usual smiling expression and reminisced.
"Well... she looks a bit like Yukimura's girlfriend. They might be related. Right, Tezuka?"
"Yeah... probably."
Tezuka Kunimitsu nodded.
"Ha? How on earth does this drag Yukimura into it?!"
Atobe Keigo's frown deepened even further. Why did things feel like they were getting more and more complicated?
Just as the three of them were still wondering what was going on with Zerozaki Hajime and the frozen world,
Echizen Ryoma suddenly appeared outside the entrance of the billiards hall, with Zerozaki Hajime right behind him.
Since the billiards hall had glass doors, the three of them could clearly see Zerozaki Hajime chasing Echizen Ryoma while continuously firing various beams of light at him, yet Echizen Ryoma dodged them all with extreme agility.
Seeing this scene, the three of them opened their eyes wide in shock once again.
"Echizen is in danger! Tezuka, let's hurry over!"
With that, Fuji Shusuke and Tezuka Kunimitsu ran out of the billiards hall to give chase in Zerozaki Hajime's direction, and Atobe Keigo, wanting to figure out what was going on, hurried to follow them.
Knowing these monsters were likely released by the Faceless Man to gather energy, Zerozaki Hajime held back nothing at all.
As far as she was concerned, monsters should be eliminated as quickly as possible; besides, her light beams couldn't harm the people of this world anyway.
Although Echizen Ryoma's expression remained calm, his worldview had already been smashed to smithereens.
Having his body controlled by some unknown monster from who-knows-where, and being "hunted down" by a woman with supernatural powers—it was just too surreal!
The scariest part was that this monster controlling his body had actually opened a window on the sixth floor and was trying to climb out!
"Echizen!"
Fuji Shusuke and Tezuka Kunimitsu thought Echizen Ryoma was being driven to jump from the building by Zerozaki Hajime, so they immediately raised their cues and swung them toward Zerozaki Hajime.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
Zerozaki Hajime dodged backward, looking at the two of them with a puzzled expression.
Seeing Zerozaki Hajime step back, the three of them immediately blocked the space between her and Echizen Ryoma.
"As if you aren't the one forcing this kid to jump!"
Atobe Keigo raised his cue, pointing it at Zerozaki Hajime with a sharp glare.
"Help!"
Echizen Ryoma's voice rang out from behind the three of them. The monster was utterly terrified of Zerozaki Hajime and ultimately controlled Echizen Ryoma to climb out the window and jump.
Zerozaki Hajime hurriedly pushed past Atobe Keigo, Fuji Shusuke, and Tezuka Kunimitsu, who were blocking the window.
With a single bound, she leaped out the window, plunging from the sixth floor after Echizen Ryoma.
The three boys slumped over the windowsill, staring at Zerozaki Hajime in disbelief.
The moment Yukimura Seiichi saw Zerozaki Hajime jump from the sixth floor, he felt as though his heart was about to leap out of his throat.
"Ech-Echizen, how could he..."
Beside him, Momoshiro Takeshi trembled, too terrified to string together a complete sentence.
Using the wall for leverage, Zerozaki Hajime executed a rapid series of spring-like bounces and dives, hurtling toward Echizen Ryoma.
Because of gravity, the monster was unable to flexibly control Echizen Ryoma's body, and Zerozaki Hajime quickly obliterated it with a beam of light.
At a height close to the third floor, Zerozaki Hajime caught Echizen Ryoma's hand and scooped him into a bridal carry against her chest.
The two of them were still falling rapidly. After diving a little further, Zerozaki Hajime bent her knees and sprang toward a tree on the ground floor. Using the tree's elasticity to cushion their fall, she finally landed steadily on her feet.
The moment she landed, Zerozaki Hajime deactivated the spatial-temporal freeze.
Yukimura Seiichi and Momoshiro Takeshi hurried over in a panic. Looking at Echizen Ryoma in Zerozaki Hajime's arms, Momoshiro Takeshi's face lit up with a mix of shock and joy.
"Great! Echizen! You're safe! That's so awesome!"
Then he looked at Zerozaki Hajime, nearly brought to tears.
"Thank you so much, Big Sis Zerozaki, for saving this kid Echizen!"
Zerozaki Hajime was momentarily taken aback, then the corners of her mouth curved upward.
"Don't mention it."
At that moment, Echizen Ryoma was staring blankly at Zerozaki Hajime's profile. Hearing her cool yet gentle voice, he snapped back to reality and realized he was still being carried bridal-style by her. The tips of his ears turned red.
"Hey, can you put me down now..."
Zerozaki Hajime's attention had been on Momoshiro Takeshi and Yukimura Seiichi, and only then did she realize she had forgotten to put Echizen Ryoma down.
Seeing Echizen Ryoma looking somewhat shy, she let out a chuckle and bent down slightly to set him on his feet.
Echizen Ryoma said with a hint of embarrassment,
"Thanks, big sis."
"You can just call me Zerozaki."
Zerozaki Hajime looked at Echizen Ryoma speechlessly. He was clearly cute, so why did his words have to be so utterly punch-able?
Perhaps because the atmosphere was no longer so tense, Echizen Ryoma looked up at Zerozaki Hajime and blinked his amber cat-like eyes.
"Oh, thanks, Big Sis Zerozaki."
......
Whatever, she wasn't going to bicker with a little brat, Zerozaki Hajime thought. Calling her big sis wasn't wrong anyway; she really was much older than all of them.
Yukimura Seiichi was just about to ask Zerozaki Hajime about her jumping out of the building when he saw Atobe Keigo, Tezuka Kunimitsu, and Fuji Shusuke running in their direction.