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Although he was exposed, Asakura didn't care.
Originally, transforming into Ayano Mitsuki's appearance with Polyjuice Potion was just to prevent the other party from escaping by 'rewinding time' the moment he approached Chihaya Asagumo.
Although he wasn't sure about the conditions for the other party's ability to activate, based on the last memory of the previous week, Asakura believed it was mostly related to the pocket watch in the other party's hand.
Since that was the case, regardless of anything else, sealing that pocket watch would be enough—just like restricting Yuigahama Yui's Golem, as long as it was wrapped with the Magic "Scale" to cut off the connection between the pocket watch and Chihaya Asagumo, it should be able to seal the pocket watch to a certain extent.
Therefore, as long as the other party entered the range of his Magic, and he could ensure the maximum distance for the Magic to hit, it didn't matter whether his identity had been exposed or not.
As long as he could seal the other party's time-reversal ability, the rest was not an issue.
So he picked up the pocket watch from the ground and slowly walked towards the girl.
—Chihaya Asagumo's Perspective—
The situation was bad.
Chihaya Asagumo tried to suppress the panic in her heart and immediately turned to escape.
Losing the pocket watch didn't matter; as long as she wasn't caught, whether it was making a thermite bomb or using bathroom supplies to create some poisonous gas, there would always be a way to get the item back from the other party.
"Chihaya-san," but at this moment, 'Ayano Mitsuki' spoke unhurriedly, "You wouldn't want Ayano's skin to be damaged, would you?"
Chihaya Asagumo turned her head and saw that 'Ayano Mitsuki' had pulled out a fruit knife from somewhere, aiming it at his own face, as if he would self-harm the next moment.
Could this monster have stolen Ayano-kun's body?
Chihaya Asagumo's body stiffened. Her heart was in a fierce struggle; her rationality told her that being caught at this moment was the worst, but her emotions prevented her from allowing Ayano Mitsuki's physical body to be destroyed—if she could so easily disregard Ayano Mitsuki's safety, she wouldn't have 'restarted' so many times with unknown superpowers from the beginning.
And the moment she stopped due to the contradiction in her heart, the girl already knew she was finished.
Generally speaking, a girl's physical fitness is naturally inferior to that of a male of the same age. Once the other party got close, she had already lost hope of escaping.
"If I can be at your disposal, can you let Ayano-kun go?" Chihaya Asagumo made a gesture of surrender, "At least return Ayano-kun's body to him..."
"About that, I actually lied to you."
As a result, 'Ayano Mitsuki' revealed a malicious smile. He tugged at his cheek: "This body is my own; I just transformed into this appearance through a Magic potion. As for Ayano, that guy should be being dragged by his childhood sweetheart to confess by the lake right now."
By the way, because there was no help from Asakura, the fireflies this week could only be spat out by the golem snake Napoleon—although the effect was much worse than Asakura's full sky of stars in previous weeks, presumably that dog... cough, childhood sweethearts wouldn't mind.
Secondly, also because Asakura was here blocking Chihaya Asagumo, Yuigahama Yui, who was afraid of the dark, couldn't follow Lemon Yakishio and her partner alone, and Yanami, as a Muggle, certainly couldn't go along. Gokou needed to suppress Yanami and take care of her two younger sisters, so in the end, Yukino Yukinoshita, who knew some inside information, had to help Yuigahama Yui go together. For this, Asakura even owed her a small favor.
Chihaya Asagumo's small face darkened, and her gaze began to wander over Asakura's body, seemingly considering which part would be most effective for self-defense techniques.
"Alright, although you might not believe it, I have no ill intentions," Asakura clapped his hands, forcefully shifting the other party's attention from below the belt to his hands: "Rather, I'm here to save you."
"Save me?" The girl frowned.
"No matter what kind of Magic, abusing it like you do will definitely not end well, especially for a large-scale type like yours. Don't you feel it yourself?"
"Magic?" Chihaya Asagumo said as if realizing something, "So it's not a superpower..."
Asakura keenly noticed that the other party did not refute his words; it seemed she herself had vaguely sensed something amiss.
But then the girl frowned again: "But didn't you also guess that the 'restart' ability requires that pocket watch to activate? Then it's not my power, it's purely the power of that pocket watch, isn't it? And it..."
Chihaya Asagumo said, glancing at Asakura's hand holding the pocket watch, clearly implying, 'It's already with you, I can't use it to activate superpowers anymore.'
"Excuse me."
Asakura said softly. Before the girl understood what he meant, she saw 'Ayano Mitsuki' in front of her take off his glasses, first looking at the pocket watch in his hand, then quickly glancing at her.
It was just a glance, less than a second, yet it made Chihaya Asagumo feel as if she had been seen through completely...
No, rather than being seen naked, it felt more like being thoroughly observed from the inside out, from every tiny cell and muscle fiber in her body to her heart and brain. That feeling was too strange, making the girl instinctively break out in goosebumps.
The entire process took less than two seconds before he put his glasses back on.
The girl keenly noticed that 'Ayano Mitsuki' in front of her was breathing much more rapidly, and cold sweat was beading on his forehead, as if that brief moment had consumed a large amount of his physical and mental energy.
"The situation is pretty much as I expected." Asakura didn't notice Chihaya Asagumo's unusual gaze; he just said softly while regulating his breathing, "This pocket watch is just the materialization of your Magic, similar to a Horcrux. Its ability is essentially still the power of your Magic. Also, your Magic is still running until now."
"But I'm not rewinding time now..." The girl subconsciously wanted to retort, but Asakura interrupted her.
"To put it in a simple, easy-to-understand analogy, it's like a television. When you 'restart'… is that what you call it? Anyway, when you activate your ability, it's like using a remote control, which is to say, the pocket watch, to change the channel. But before you change the channel, the TV is still playing a program; it's still on. Only when the TV is turned off will your Magic stop working."
Actually, the situation was much more complex. For example, although Asakura made it sound like the girl was jumping between timelines, in reality, there was only one timeline from beginning to end. Her ability was closer to the classic time reversal, and the note Asakura hid inside the Golem snake Napoleon was proof. If it were changing timelines, the note would not exist.
However, he couldn't think of any other more appropriate analogies for the time being.
"And now the biggest problem is that when the TV is turned off… that is, the moment the Magic ends," Asakura's voice became serious: "you will be drained of your own 'time' by your Magic due to a huge magical power deficit, and you will disappear from this world."
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