"..."
Itachi Uchiha watched in silence as Hayato Kawajiri crossed the zebra path and approached the luxury sports car. Hidden within his [Spirit Form] in the shadows, he was completely invisible to the human eye.
According to his previous experience, Rohan Kishibe should have appeared next to the boy in an instant.
Tap.
The scene followed the exact same trajectory as before.
Indeed, even with his [Sharingan] active, Itachi found it impossible to perceive the exact moment Rohan manifested beside Hayato.
'Is this the so called time-stop?'
Deep down, he suspected this was the true nature of his opponent's temporal manipulation, and it wasn't a threat he could afford to ignore.
However, as he watched Rohan's actions, Itachi hesitated.
Logic dictated that he should reveal himself now, just as he had before. He should use his genjutsu to trap the artist once more, inducing the trigger for [Bites the Dust] to blow him apart.
But his cautious nature kept him rooted to the spot.
Something was fundamentally wrong. Even though time had indeed been rewound, the result was a glaring anomaly.
According to Yoshikage Kira, a successful trigger of [Bites the Dust] was supposed to hurl the world back by exactly one hour.
But this current rewind had only been a jump of a few minutes. From any perspective, there was something broken about the mechanics of the loop.
'Why isn't he showing himself?'
Rohan kept his expression unchanged, repeating his previous actions with flawless precision, but he didn't see the enemy Servant manifest.
It didn't make sense.
Amber had rewound time. By all accounts, the enemy should have followed the same script as the first time.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
The hands on his watch continued to sweep forward. The moment where the previous encounter had occurred came and went. Rohan began to feel a surge of doubt.
'Assassin?'
'Everything is normal.'
Confirming that he hadn't fallen back into that eerie, silent world of the earlier illusion, he found himself unable to grasp the current situation.
Just a few minutes ago, using Amber's ability to stop time, the two of them had huddled together within the frozen world to devise a counter-strategy.
Rohan had decided to act as bait, repeating the exact actions that had led to his death.
His goal was to force the enemy Servant to reveal their abilities and their true nature.
'Killer Queen is attached to that Servant. I still don't know the specifics of Yoshikage Kira's own status.'
'If anything goes wrong, just pull the world back again.'
[My mind and spirit cannot be influenced by any abnormality.]
Within the stopped time, Rohan had used [Heaven's Door] to write this specific "setting" into Amber's being.
Ensuring his Servant could not be snared in an illusion, Rohan had summoned every ounce of his courage to enact the scene a second time.
He had even matched his movements and facial expressions perfectly. He was giving the performance of a lifetime.
But this time, even after he intercepted Hayato, the enemy remained absent.
'Did we make a mistake? Does he know?'
'I don't think so. Your movements and your expression are a perfect mirror of the first time.'
'Then...'
'Master... if an event that was supposed to occur after a rewind fails to happen...'
'There is only one logical possibility.'
Amber's voice echoed in his mind, and the realization hit Rohan like a thunderclap.
'He sensed the time rewind. He might even possess the memories of the previous iteration.'
'He's realized it's a trap, so he isn't going to show his face this time.'
Amber processed the possibilities. This was the only conclusion that fit the facts.
If the opponent didn't have temporal awareness, they would have been forced to act at the exact same chronological node.
Rohan was standing there, a wide-open target. Based on their earlier aggressiveness, there was no reason for them to let him live unless they knew what was waiting for them.
'So... the moment you use your temporal powers, he can sense it!'
Grasping the reality of the situation, Rohan's brow furrowed.
This was troublesome.
He had hoped to use the "Time Loop" as a way to safely farm information about the enemy's strengths and weaknesses.
But if the enemy was aware of the loops, that tactic was dead in the water.
'What now? If we stay here, he's never going to come out.'
'Let's wait a little longer.'
"Goku?"
Subaru Natsuki had just returned from a nearby shop when he saw Goku swatting something away with his hand.
"Oh, some old guy in a piece of paper was talking to me just now. And then something kept trying to poke me in my back, so I just shooed it away."
Goku scratched at his gi with a small hand. Subaru noticed a tiny, pinprick hole in the fabric of the boy's back.
'An old guy in a piece of paper? A Stand user?'
"It was probably just a mosquito."
"Oh, was it?"
Subaru kept his voice calm and didn't linger on it. He was far more concerned with what had happened just moments ago.
Someone had triggered a phenomenon that felt exactly like a [Return by Death].
8:25 AM.
If his memory served him correctly, it had been 8:28 AM just a few minutes ago.
'This war is going to be a lot harder than I thought.'
Subaru rested his chin in his hand, a feeling of deep unease settling over him.
The frequency of time-stops since yesterday was already abnormal. And now a full temporal rewind had occurred.
He couldn't help but wonder. Who were the other Masters and Servants, and what kind of madness were they capable of?
"!"
"What's the matter?"
Inside an abandoned residential building, Miyu looked at specialized Archer with a curious tilt of her head. Homura's expression had changed the moment they finished their meager breakfast.
"Time was rewound."
"?"
Looking at Miyu's confused expression, Homura explained her reasoning.
"Just a moment ago..."
"It was already 8:28 AM. But now the world has been reset to 8:25 AM."
Miyu followed Homura's gaze to a nearby clock.
"But... I didn't feel anything."
From the dreams of the previous night, she knew what Archer's power was. But she found herself unable to grasp the reality of a world being reset.
"It's natural that you wouldn't feel it. Only those with identical powers can usually perceive the shift."
While Miyu's abnormal magical energy was clearly beyond that of a normal human, Homura didn't press the point.
The power of time was a forbidden domain.
What truly worried her was the sequence of events.
First, there had been a long duration of stopped time, followed shortly by a full temporal rewind.
Had it all been the work of that "Maid"?
If their opponent possessed the power of both a pause and a rewind, this war would be nearly impossible to win.
While they spoke, a thin slip of paper was floating through the air outside, circling the building like a predatory bird.
'The [Arrow] couldn't even pierce that little brat...'
Yoshihiro Kira was still in a state of shock as he recalled the scene he had just witnessed.
He had never seen the [Arrow] fail so spectacularly.
In every other case, a single scratch was enough to awaken a Stand. But that boy with the pole had flesh that was so dense and resilient that the [Arrow] hadn't even been able to break the skin.
In fact, the tip of the [Arrow] had actually chipped against the boy's back.
Yoshihiro couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen anything like it.
He shook his head, deciding not to dwell on the anomaly for now. He turned his attention to the building below.
"Fine. Whatever. That Servant is clearly some kind of monster."
"But is the [Arrow]'s next target really this little girl who looks like she doesn't have a shred of power?"
"Forget the brat. Is it possible this little girl has potential that exceeds even him?"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]