Time has stopped.
Snow poured over summer, and I was the only one who could move.
Alien intone played in an unnerving midriff, an eerie sensation too torturing for the common psychology and overdramatic for romance. Serene enough for an escapist personality. Cumbersome for the need to save the world.
I let out a sigh when I stepped out of the house.
I will be late for school.
I stopped time in order to prevent exactly that.
If only the school made adjustments to the unjust schedule, none of this would have happened.
This was home─a side of the world you didn't know existed.
I lay my eyes across a field of living statues.
The woman in the bakery served her customers, bearing an irrevocable scorn on her face. Kids from the neighborhood frolicked around enjoying their last day of summer break, boys and girls my age bought their popsicles from a convenience store, and there was the store clerk manning the cash register─yet a bill in hand. I could easily grab myself some pocket money if I wanted to.
Some others here and there, people I know and don't know were busy with their daily lives.
All the butterflies are dead.
There's nothing anyone in my position could do other than treat them as exhibits.
I was fine with all of it.
Everything in it.
I didn't mind the setting.
And, I thought.
"I could live here forever."
"Eep─!"
Then the contradiction occurred: I wasn't alone, much to annoyance.
I could have sworn I heard an escaped gremlin, but the disappointment came in such a sorry state of white dish towel. Small dress and a straw hat, then to the flapped down bag and small limbs spread across the snow. What showed up was a human, a million miles away from being a ghost or a goblin.
The little girl tripped over a rock, a mere pebble─or frankly, she tripped on flat ground.
"Hey, were you a shovel in your past life?" I joked, notwithstanding the continued chuckle. "And, oh! So you're wearing stripes today, huh?"
The gremlin noticed that I was behind.
"Eep, a pervert! Ah─!" A shoe found itself flying towards my face─which I dodged. "Keep your eyes out where they're locked on right now!"
"So you like cats, dish towel gremlin?"
"Who are you calling a dish towel gremlin, you stupid monkey!? I'm the most ladylike of every girl you've met!" Fiercely declared, she elegantly posed in her one-piece dress and fanciful straw hat.
Her eyes churned a passionate intention to thrust a knife under someone's collarbone.
And I'm not scared.
"Do I know you?" I asked her, curious hence the nonchalance.
"Huh?!" And like a spark between cosmic stones hitting each other, the girl answered in exasperation. "I swear I'm going to kill you, Shiro!"
"…"
"What are you staring at, punk!?"
"You are going to kill me?"
"Of course, I will kill you!" she insisted, ecstatic in her tone. "Jeez! Since when did you get so low as to become a pervert?"
"Okay…Then, who the hell are you?"
"No, this is a pain in the butt! Would that be your regiment of teasing me for the day, Shiro?!"
She stomped her foot wayward, and scandalously stated her precious name─
"Ugh, it's me!" She stomped her foot wayward, and scandalously stated her precious name. "Your hope and savior… Nayami Ayanami! You were trying to raise me back from the dead, remember?"
"Yeah, whatever you say, Lightning McQueen."
"...What?"
I didn't know her, after all.
"Ugh, more importantly, apologize for seeing my panties!"
I looked sideways, appalled. "Please blame yourself for being a shovel in your past life."
"Gah─! You saw my panties! Unforgivable, unforgivable! Annoyingly unforgivable!"
I didn't say anything back.
"I'm going to alert the patrol!"
She continued to whine, administering her rights as a citizen of Japan and an alleged resident of Nichiyoubi. In her perfect discomfort, she flailed her head as if traumatized. Totally, a cumbersome person to deal with─one amalgamated from both my older sister and our ever annoying little sister.
The bottom line, can someone take her away?
I guess there isn't anyone interested.
"...Ugh, this is the worst. My morning has been ruined!"
I'm taking all the blame when I should be the victim.
I just smiled.
"How bad can you be, and how worse can you become for obstructing a little girl in a hurry?"
Little kids, especially on her level of being annoying, can only be cumbersome. I decided to get swayed by the ride. I asked, "Now, why were you in a hurry?"
No matter what I do now, the ritual didn't work and has to be taken down.
When the sole purpose for it was to clear my thoughts away from problems, I'm offered a dysfunctional character instead.
No forgiveness for utter failures: although when the frustration becomes a harmless child, I suppose she shouldn't be yeeted to nonexistence.
"Hmph, I don't think there was even a time that I wasn't rushing off to school!" she replied fast, still being fastidious.
"You're doing it despite being aware?"
In any case, since I stopped time, her excuse doesn't work.
"Um well, you know… I guess it's a force of habit? Pardon me for being born this way, idiot!"
"I don't know why you're rushing but are you gonna let yourself be late by bantering to an idiot?"
"...Hmm, to be honest, with a world like this, I don't even know why I'm in a hurry."
I don't have the luxury to think why I'm not rushing besides all the points. Being stuck in a time cage and walking on snow during September is a fairly common occurrence. Like most premonitions, it's nothing grand as to fret about.
"Such a blunder, makes me wonder, ah─! It rhymes!" Nayami blurted out, thoughts given out loud.
And so, the uninterested contrarian synchronized, "What the heck, Nayami. It really rhymes."
"Hmph! You're not a good person! Okay, let me heal your soul!" She extended her hand, wholly regarding her willingness to console me of my worries. "Is there something that's bugging your mind, Shiro?!"
"Yeah. You."
She puffed her cheeks, then yelled in complete dismay, "...My, why are you so mean?!"
"You're the reason why I'm being mean."
I don't know why but she felt joyous with my statement and still posed the same question. "No, I'm not! What's bugging your mind, you big idiot?!"
I shot her off. "What are you, the devil?"
Stare, and stare back.
"Hey, would it kill you if you're not gonna be mean to me even for a day?"
Who knows? It's entirely moronic, the eccentricity to lush out is not even something I can answer by the drop of a hat. I sighed, and only patted her head.
"Uoh?!" Her shock emerged in utter surprise, and looked up. "What in hell is your objective, rewarding me like that?"
"Yeah, serves you right."
I walked onwards, away from the uneventful barricade set by the dishtowel gremlin.
Snow White had his time cheaply bought by the goblin─and he hates it.
But time has stopped so she exerted an effort too futile.
I might as well laugh at her.
"Shiro! Come pick us up when you're done, 'kay?"
"Yeah, I'll be," I said, waving a hand. "But I think that's on you."
I huffed a sigh, and looked back. Nayami Ayanami and I, Shirayukihime Otogibanashi, stared at each other. Mirroring each other's chagrins. Which may have said we knew what was going on─we didn't have to spell it out for each other.
"Tomorrow," and yet, I spelled out. "I'll be waiting for you to kill me, too."