Sound suddenly vanished around him, plunging the world into an eerie standstill. Everyone stood frozen, their expressions remaining in the fragile timeline with them. Objects, and vehicles, and even the wind succumbed to the same static fate. A chill rolled into the young man’s spine.

“You’ve done well, not talking too much,” a familiar voice said. Mortem manifested a few feet in front of Clyde. The young man’s eyes widened. Mortem smiled then said in a sing-song voice, “ta-da!” The creature inspected Harumi and the others, nodded, then turned back to Clyde. “Through the power of friendship.” The little man laughed.

“Oh fuck off,” Clyde snapped, his face burning of embarrassment. “Which one of your masters is behind this joke?”

“Beats me,” Mortem said with a shrug. “Look, puny human, I’d love to stick around and hold your hand like a whittle baby-waby, but I’m just here for a quick check-up. I have no intention of stopping the timeline longer than it needs to be.”

Clyde noticed that the red aura from before wasn’t around the creature. Red aura…almost like a hostile enemy. He analyzed Mortem.

[Entity unknown. It is imperative not to engage this creature. Let the meaning of its name be your hint.]

Mortem shook his head. Suddenly the most excruciating pain sent Clyde to his knees, holding his head, screaming. An impossible headache which felt like boulders smashing against his skull threatened to incapacitate the young man. He fell to his back, convulsing.

[Your HP has dropped to 10%]

Just as quickly as the pain came, it vanished, then Mortem was hovering over Clyde’s face.

“Next time, I won’t be so lenient when you analyze your better. Remember the saying, don’t shoot the messenger. Well think of it backwards. And my fingers are quite twitchy.”

[Your HP has been restored to 25%.]

Clyde stood up, but still stared at Morten with defiance in his eyes. He wasn’t going to let a cheap trick like that cause him to act like a pansy in front of this creature. That’s what he wanted. Clyde still felt the fear deep within his gut but did his best to keep it at bay.

“Anyway,” Mortem said, “you’ve passed the checkup. It may be a while before I come back but do try to be past level fifteen or twenty—you’re embarrassing me. The Viper will wipe the floor with you if you goof off. Take your school and friends more naturally and seriously and you’ll probably earn more experience.” Mortem shook his head. “Damn puny humans. Annoying. The lot of you. Sheesh.” The creature shimmered, vanished, and time returned.

Clyde dropped to a knee, gaining the shocked attention of the others surrounding him. Harumi knelt to his side, closed her eyes, and chanted, her delicate hands pressed against his chest. She gave him a worried look upon when she opened her eyes.

“Healing wave.”

The warmth breathily surrounded him like a coat then he felt vitality return to him.

[Your HP has been restored to 55%. Your HP is slowly restoring over time.]

“You were fine a moment ago,” Toru said. “Kitome hardly put a scratch on you.”

Kitome gave the nonchalant rich boy a glare of daggers. No effect. She harrumphed anime girl-style then pinched his cheek. Toru stared back at her blankly, which seemed to make the blue-haired girl angrier.

Clyde shook his head, let out a breath, then stood.

“Thank you,” he said to Harumi. He forced his thoughts to remain in check. He totally didn’t notice the nearly-adorable glistening eyes the pink-haired young woman gave him out of worry. That’s what he told himself. “So, we’re doing this thing at eight, right? And you too, magical girl?”

Toru snickered, then put on a blank expression when Kitome looked at him.

“We were going to wait at my place,” Harumi said, but seemed to regret her phrasing. Clyde wasn’t dense but didn’t care. He knew what she meant. If it wasn’t for Toru’s blank expression, he would’ve cracked a risky joke.

His phone buzzed. He struggled to hold his laughter at Chika’s joke about a certain history teacher, but a slight snicker escaped him. He cleared his throat.

“I guess I’ll see you at eight.” Everyone stared at him. “What?”

“We’re headed the same way,” Harumi said.

“I’ve got one more stop,” Clyde lied.

“Shall we go with?” Kitome said, soliciting a glare from Clyde.

“I can do without the chaperone,” he said.

Somehow, Harumi ended up shopping for supplies with him, despite Clyde’s protests. Toru explained that certain things such as medicine, foods, and drinks could restore health on the spot. As much as the guy annoyed him, he had a point. Too bad that reminded Clyde about the printer. He needed to find a way out of this situation and fast. His answer didn’t take long to appear.

A familiar redhead girl blabbed to a guy in a suit with a voice that made him want to melt into his happy place. A happy place with waffles and bacon and sushi and—Clyde shook himself out of the trance. To think the charisma girl had an effect so far away. He analyzed her.

Name: Melody

Level: 10

Type: sweet talker.

Relationship: utter hatred.

HP: 100%

MP: 100%

Stats: Relationship isn’t high enough. You better hope this girl doesn’t decide to kill you.

Special abilities: Relationship isn’t high enough. And it will never be. Try having sex with her? Hahahahaha, yeah right, kid. She’d chop it off. And it may be the only way to fix this relationship.

Skills: You know, you could always program me to just display what’s necessary. Masochist.

Magic abilities: see above. Idiot boy.

Clyde was reaching his limit with the sassy prompts. Hell, they were starting get creative with their rejections. A little too creative.

“I’m not dealing with her again,” Clyde said. “That charisma is too much.”

The young man watched as the suited man handed the redhead a wad of cash, eyes moved with false joy.

“Let’s confront her,” Harumi said, grabbing Clyde’s arm right as he mustered the energy to step back outside.

“I’m just going to stay out of the way.”

“You!” the redhead pointed at Clyde and then laid on the dramatics, radiating a wave of nearly unstoppable charismatic energy. Clyde wasn’t sure if this was how charisma actually worked. “That’s the man who was really mean to me. Embarrassed me in tears.”

Three large, muscle-heavy men started toward the young man, eyes full of mania. Clyde quickly analyzed them.