Clockwork Maiden, Literally.

Stopping Time Flow

"Yaaaaaaawn... oooohh... what time is it now..." I lazily reached the clock on the desk beside my bed... "Oh... it's still five in the morning... yaaaawn..."

--Empor Apartment, Helmington City, 0520 hours--

I took a sip of coffee that I just made. My hair's so messy, my eyelids having a hard time to remain open. I only wore my mini dress and my bunny-flippers whenever I'm home. I took the cup of coffee onto my single-dining table and then turned on the radio.

"What am I even doing so early in the morning...?" I lazed on my chair while drinking the coffee. "I bet everyone's still sleeping now..."

I saw the brooch from yesterday, I put it on the dining table for some reason. "What am I supposed to do with this thing...?" I lazily thought of what I'm gonna do with the crimson-black brooch.

Wait-wait-wait...

What if... What if this brooch... What if this brooch has a tracking mechanism? A-And it shows to whoever owns it its current location...?!

Uh-oh.

My body got perspiration running down all of sudden. Geez, calm down me! It's just a speculation... *ding-dong* "EEEEK!!!"

T-T-The doorbell's ringing... *ding-dong* "Hii!" It's scary, scary, scary! It must be some tracker or some sort! I... must use my magic to get out of this... but wait...

My magecraft, the [Clockwork Phase] has a limited amount of time that I could go back into. I can go back as far as two hours into the past but it'll result in me being incapacitated, and if I force my self to back into yesterday... I might end up killing myself!

Bad-bad-bad-bad-bad... *ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong*

"Oh, FINE! I've decided. I'll open the door!" I took my jacket from the coatrack and went to the door.

I unlocked the door and pulled it reaaally slow...

The door creaks open, I halted myself when the door's opened at one feet wide. I scaredly asked, "W-W-W-W-Who...?"

"Food catering."

. . .

"Oh. Ohohohoh..." I sighed in relief. Phew, I just remembered, I woke up at five to receive my breakfast. I opened the door wide, letting the old woman come inside.

"Good god, you take it too long to open the door, it's cold in these hallways, you know?"

"Eheheheheh~ Pardon me, granny. I thought it was someone else."

"That's just mean of you. Do that again and I won't deliver you food, capiche?"

"Uehhh? I'm sorry, granny! I promise, I won't do that again."

"Oh, young'uns. What did you read last night, huh? Some horror novels?" Granny asked.

I shaked my head in refusal, but I couldn't tell her about the Crimson Meister brooch I got.

"S-So...! What's cooking, granny?"

"Hm? Oh! It's your favorite dish, dear. Helmington Omelet."

"Oh, really?! Thank you, granny!"

"Ahahah, you're welcome, my dear. Now you'd better eat it up before it gets cold, or else you'll make this old-hag sad, gyahahah." Granny puts the catering on the table and left my room.

"Farewell, then. Remember to put my catering in front of your room once you're done. Bye now~!" Granny steps outside and walks through the hallway.

I waved my hands at her, bidding her goodbye.

I closed the door and began eating my breakfast. Oh, boy, it's REALLY good. Granny's cooking is second to none!

My granny is the owner of this apartment and my caretaker ever since I separated from my parents. She loves to cook for everyone in her apartment. She's also the one who caused me to wake up early in the morning. She always says that if we don't wake up early 'our sustenance will be pegged to chicken'.

After finishing my breakfast and my coffee, I take a bath and prepare myself to go, although it's still very early in the morning. I wore my usual brown dress, my hat and my gloves. Okay, time to go!

. . .

--Streets Of Helmington, 0640 hours--

I somehow took the brooch along with me, who knows I might stumble upon the meisters again, right?

"Hum~ humumum~" I hummed in my heart while toddling on the quiet streets in the morning. The air is fresher at these particular times, where steam factories haven't start their operations.

I went upstairs that connects the lower and upper part of the city.

Hm... somehow... it's strangely too quiet... the upper city houses pretty much hundreds of thousand workers in here, why nobody's insight? What's going on here?

*RRRATATATATAT* *BANG* *BANG*

"Hiii! G-Gunfire?! W-What's happening here?!" I ducked down and covered my head. What the heck's going on here...?

Suddenly, someone ran down the road with a revolver with him, he carried a straw sack on his back, I got too confused and a bit scared...

"C-Crap, he's aiming that gun at me... n-no!"

*BANG*

It happened too fast... not even a chance was given for me to return back in time... I gave myself into god... who knows I would get shot by a big gun... but, hey. At least, it's not painful-

"Hey, lady, are you alright? Speak up! Hey!"

I heard someone's voice... a handsome voice I'd say. Is it the angels greeting me into heaven...?

*BANG* *BANG*

A gunshot was heard, it shocked me into realization... in front of my face appears a really handsome man... what a masculine angel, I thought. But did angel wear soldier helmets, though?

"Dammit, she's not conscious, must've been shocked by the gun sound. Hang in there, I'll get a medic ASAP."

He left me. Great. An angel dumped me. How sad...

All of sudden my head gets hurt so bad... grrraaargh...!

"I'm... I'm still alive...? Oh god!"

I realized I was lying on the brick road, I didn't die? What miracle is this? I checked my body, only to find out that I wasn't shot by the sack-carrier. Thank god. Then... that handsome helmet-wearing angel must've been a dream... phew, get yourself together, ME!

I stood up and patted my clothing. That straw-sucker, where did he go?

I rushed into the road beams, luckily, I spotted him running away. He's not far, though. He must've gone down through this carved pillar.

I decided to chase him down by using the strong cable leading downwards. I glided down using a hanger I found lying on the street just now.

“Steady, just steady… and… off I go! Wheeeee—oh, wait…”

Fries! Bad idea, I couldn't control my speed of descent, but it's supposed to be good, I could catch him in no time!

I let my grip off the hanger and ram myself onto the sack-carrier, plunging him sideways.

He gets up confusedly, probably out of concussion. "W-Who..?!" He doesn't seem to remember me... he pulled his revolver out and aimed at me. He's ready to shoot.

Good. I had begun activating my magecraft earlier. See my belt starts emitting light.

"Oh, you shouldn't be thinking that you're winning, OK? Guns are scary if you couldn't deflect them.” I said confidently.

“You crazy woman! Have at you!” The guy shots out.

*BANG *BANG *BANG

“…but if you can stop their move... they wouldn't be scary!" I pull my hand sideways, activating my next magecraft attack!

[Clockwork Phase Two - Time Stop!]

An illusion of clock appears. The clock rotation slows down… slower and slower during its appearance and finally ticks into a final stop. Everything around me slows down to an extent where they don't move anymore.

The world's time has been stopped.

Only I and non-living things that I touch that don't get affected by the stop of time.

I tread slowly, flying my smug face as I get closer to the shooter. "You like to shoot people without thinking first, eh?" I looked at this guy, geez he looks quite panicked. Well, not every day you can see a girl sliding down the road using a hanger and crashes onto you.

So now I picked his revolver gun from his hand that looked frozen. “UUWWOOH!”

The gun entered my world. I nearly dropped it to the ground due to its heavy weight. Good thing I am ‘quite’ trained in gunnery. But still, I never expect a revolver would be this hard to pick.

"D-Damn... it's heavy... Boy, your arms are tough to carry this into the open, huh?" I managed to steady my footings and hold the gun normally.

"Well, then. Why don't you try having a taste of your own medicine?" I targeted his leg from point blank. “Don’t worry. Eva won’t hurt you… too much.” I said ending my sentence with a pull of a trigger, thus, he’s history.

*BANG*

The bullet that launched from the gun's muzzle stopped moving, of course, anything that leaves my touch will freeze inside the stopped time.

I put his heavy gun back at his hand facing backwards. After that, I left the scene and ran into the city. After reaching a certain distance, I stopped and turned around.

[Clockwork - Continue!]

And so, the time has begun to move again, returning the flow of time to normal.

I didn't bother looking at the straw-sack runner. I just want to teach him a lesson to not bother me while I'm strolling around.

And here we go, back to the city again! Yeehaw!

. . .

Meanwhile, the straw-sack guy...

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!" He grunted in pain from his left leg being shot. He screams in extreme pain for his tibia and calf destroyed and all bleeding endlessly, yet he didn't know what happened to him, all he does now is just screaming in pain.

"There he is! He's down there, lying on the ground! Arrest him!"

The policemen arrived a couple seconds after the time starts moving again. They’re extremely shocked to see the suspect was groaning painfully. Without further ado, the policemen quickly contacted a quick evacuation for the criminal suspect. One of them stands a man wearing a military helmet, "Officer, I've found one civilian got shocked by the shooter, please send medic to the highway!"

Later, the man arrived on the highway with an ambulance, but what he saw is nothing more than an empty highway. The girl he saw previously has disappeared.

"H-Huh...? I swear I was protecting a girl from the gunfire, what in the world—

"—Oh, dear boy, you're mornin-dreamin'?" The ambulance driver asked, "I swear I saw her, in fact I was with her!"

"There, there... Nobody's here or there! Either you're daydreamin' or the girl you mentioned didn't even exist. What kind of women in this city that would wake up this early, eh?"

"T-That's true, though..." The man agrees, although he did remember pretty clear that he was protecting a girl from being shot. He wonders where did she go...

He holds his head, the ambulance driver might be right, he must've been hallucinating. He didn't get enough sleep last night, so it must be it. He dismisses the area and the mysterious girl together with the ambulance and headed back to the crime scene.

The crime suspect was then accused for an attempt of armed robbery. Even though he was sounding highly about a girl that appeared ‘out of nowhere’, his words are not considered, because he is a criminal where he could’ve been lying, so thought the policemen.