"Hey, Lily-chan!! They are selling French bagels over there! LET'S GO!! LET'S GO!!"

  "Mi-chan, I was tearing up just now, and you ruined the moment just for a bagel?"

  Michelle didn't even hear me. She just pulled me and dragged me with enthusiasm towards a bagel stand.

  "BAGEL! BAGEL! BAGEL! LILY-CHAN, I'VE BEEN HEARING ABOUT THIS SPECIFIC TYPE OF BREAD DURING EDUCATION INSIDE THE FACILITY! AND I FELL IN LOVE FROM THE MOMENT I LEARNT ABOUT IT!!"

  Lily noticed that Michelle's eyes had changed shape into that of a bagel. She is surprised by Michelle's spirit towards the bagel.

  "(This bagel obsession really came out of nowhere. . . Oh, well, she's cute like this.)"

  We have reached the stand that sells French bagels.

  "Wait, Mi-chan!! What about the money?"

  "I have it."

  "Woah!! How do yo— Ah, never mind."

  I stopped and realized that she probably stole some money during the time stop. Michelle bought two bagels, she gave one to me. We find a bench to sit down and relax.

  We both eat the bagels together in harmony.

  “MMMMHHHHH!!!! SO GOOOOOODDD!!!!”

  “Mhhh. . . If I’m being honest, this isn’t really for me.”

  “EEEEHH?? Something’s wrong with your tongue!”

  “Um, no, it’s just my preference. . .”

  “Alright, alright!”

  After we're done, Michelle is a bit sleepy and she rests her head on my shoulder. I also rest my head on top of Michelle's head. We both then slept so soundly for a while.

  After a while, we both wake up. I feel really calm. I currently have no care in the world. Being washed away by the calmness of this situation, I came up with a certain determination.

  "Mi-chan!"

  "Hmmm?"

  "Do you really think the facility would just let go of us that easily?"

  ". . . I don't, to be honest."

  I face Michelle and grab her on both of her shoulders.

  "There will most likely be pursuers. We're gonna be chased all around the world every day and even for the rest of our lives. That's why I will protect you with everything I have. That's a promise!"

  "Lily-chan, thank you!"

  Michelle hugs me.

  "You are my one and only friend. Of course, I'll protect you!"

  I hug her back.

  .

  .

  .

  One week later. . .

  It is currently 7:30 p.m. The starry night is upon us. I and Michelle are currently staying in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Paris in France.

  For the past few days, I have been practicing and improving my Faith power on a certain ability.

  "Mi-chan! Come here for a second."

  "Hm? What's up?"

  Michelle walks to me as per my demand and sits beside me on a busted bed in the bedroom.

  "Let's open your eye bandages!"

  "Huh? Why? I don't think it's healed yet."

  "Just do it! It's gonna be fine." said Lily as she smiled.

  Michelle opens her bandages with my help. I finally get to take a good look at Michelle's horrible eye wound. It feels painful just to look at the wound. I place my right palm hovering over the wound.

  "Rewind."

  My palm brightened up in blue light as well as Michelle's eye wound. The wound undoes itself, and Michelle's eye condition returned to a state before it was injured, and the light faded away.

  "How do you feel?"

  "I. . . I don't feel anything. My left eye. . . I can see from this side again!"

  Michelle kept rubbing her left eye with her hands in disbelief.

  "You see, I've been practicing my Rewind ability in secret before I decided to heal you. I don't wanna mess it up. Sorry for enduring the wound this long."

  Michelle jumps on top and hugs me.

  "THANK YOU!!!!"

  "OUCH!!"

  Michelle's weight made me fall to the floor.

  "Ahahahaha! You're welcome."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  *Clank clank clank*

  *!*

  Suddenly, both of us hear clanking sounds. It's as if something was thrown and bounced off the floor multiple times. I and Michelle quickly got up and looked around, and I saw a hand grenade in the corner of the room.

  "MI-CHAN, GET BEHIND ME!"

  Michelle quickly did as she was told. I open my palm and summon my big clock shield in front of me.

  *BOOOOOMMMMM*

  The hand grenade exploded, and it didn't even scratch the clock shield.

  "Careful, Mi-chan! It's probably the pursuer from the facility!"

  "They sure love us, huh?"

  Three figures suddenly jump in from the giant open wall and enter the bedroom.

  "Finally found the two escaping rats."

  "Let's waste no time and capture them!"

  "How about we torture them first? We've spent every day looking for them, and it was infuriatingly exhausting."

  "Quiet! The facility's order is absolute! On your battle stance, now!"

  The three of them are female teenagers, Believers who have been trained in a separate program for military purposes. All of them prepared their stances and activated their Faith power. I smiled confidently.

  "Time stop!"

  I stop the flow of time, and everything has come to a halt yet again.

  "Well, that was easy." praises Michelle.

  "Let's get out of here, Mi-chan! We'll lose them in no time, haha!"

  Both of us jumped out of the bedroom onto the outside. When we landed, we saw that there were a lot more people waiting to ambush us. They are all wearing some kind of uniform, and they are all holding firearms.

  "Guns? Really? To capture the girl who was trained to dodge thousands of bullets coming from a minigun inside a limited space?" says Michelle.

  "They sure are giving it their all."

  "Duh, they're trying to capture the princess of time after all!"

  "Princess of time?"

  "You, silly!"

  I was happy about the nickname Michelle gave me. We proceed to run and escape our pursuer.

  .

  .

  .

  One hour later. . .

  "It's been an hour."

  "How do you know? Your time stop is still active."

  "Well, I am the princess of time. My sense of time is also more sensitive than any other human."

  "That doesn't make any sense to me, but I believe you! Hahahaha!"

  "I think we're okay for now. I'll let time move again."

  Before I turn off my time stop, someone other than the two of us appears in front of us.

  "Excuse me, young ladies."

  "Huh?"

  Both of us responded in wonder and looked ahead.

  A man is approaching us casually.

  "I heard that you two are being chased, is that correct?"

  "Y-Yes, we are." Michelle responds.

  Michelle took a glance at me and saw that my face was full of fear. She has never seen that expression on my face before.

  "What's wrong, Lily-chan?" Michelle asks as she puts her hand on my shoulder.

  "Mi-chan, do you realize what is happening now?"

  "Hm? I. . . don't actually."

  "Someone other than you can talk and move freely within my time stop."

  Michelle was shocked by the realization that I delivered.

  "I have always purposely made it so you did not get affected by my time stop. Yet someone that we don't know about just freely approaches us as if nothing happened."

  "Don't make such scary faces, young ladies. I am here to help."

  "W-Who are you?"

  The man suddenly teleports behind us. He lowers his head down and whispers, "Let's get you back home to the facility!"

  Suddenly, all of us disappear from the spot. I arrived alone in a dark room.

  "WHAT?"

  I look around in the darkness. My eyes were slowly adapting to it until I was finally able to see.

  I'm inside a gray room with a 7x7 meters in square size where there is a glass wall in the 3/4th portion of the room dividing the room into one bigger space and one smaller space.

  I look closely at the glass wall. Behind it, I saw Michelle was bound to a chair. Someone was standing next to her, a man wearing a lab coat. All of these happened in an instant.

  "MI-CHAN!"

  "LILY-CHAN!"

  "We meet again, Experiment#496. Have you been well? How much stronger have you become?"

  "RELEASE MI-CHAN THIS INSTANCE!"

  "That's not how a seven-year-old girl is supposed to speak. Perhaps I should teach you some manners. Or better yet, let's introduce you to this concept called consequences!"

  The man pulls out a surgical knife from his lab coat pocket. He immediately stabs Michelle's left eye.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKHHHH!!"

  At that moment, I immediately made an expression no seven-year-old girl should have ever made. I was furious.

  I put my right hand to the side, clench my fist, and summon a giant light blue clock-hand sword. I immediately launch my giant clock hand sword towards the man behind the glass door with all of my strength. The giant clock hand sword flew at an unbelievable speed, but the man didn't react at all because the sword never reached him. My giant clock hand sword breaks apart before it even touches the window.

  "What?"

  The man from before appeared behind me.

  "This is the kid? You sure she can get stronger?"

  "Yes. We have arranged a specific program to make her stronger, even more so than she already is. I can be somewhat certain she will even be within the same ranks as you. Give it a few years."

  "That is a very high bar to set. You know what happens if she fails?"

  "Do not worry. To us, failure is mere data and references for the next ones."

  The man with the lab coat and the man who took us here are having a conversation that I completely have no idea about.

  "YOU!"

  I turn around and show my anger towards the man behind me.

  Upon further look, the man's hair was pale blue, and it was slightly wavy at the ends of each of his hair strands. His hair almost reaches his shoulders. He has a serious and determined expression on his face. 183cm. 77kg. Slightly visible muscles all over his body. He wears a pale brown jacket over a white V-Neck T-Shirt, a pair of pale blue jeans, and a pair of dark brown loafers. He has slightly visible facial hair under his chin.

  "Young lady, from now on, you will do as you are told by that man!"

  "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

  I clench my fist, and it shines bright blue. I punch the air towards the man. From my punch, a giant clock hand sword came out and launched towards the man. It travels at a speed faster than light. It was supposed to kill the man instantly.

  *!*

  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKHHHH!!!"

  I lost half of my face, half of my torso, my left hand is entirely gone, and even my left leg. I have been completely cut in two. The giant sword was supposed to kill the man. All I could think about was that my giant sword was thrown back at me and cut me instead. I was on the verge of death in an instant.

  "Don't die!" said the man.

  Suddenly, my whole body began to reconstruct itself back to normal. All of the pain was gone. I no longer have any wounds. I am completely fine.

  "(This. . . is like my Rewind ability.)"

  I was fueled with fear. Someone who is this strong has made me this powerless in a matter of seconds.

  "Kneel!"

  My body moved on its own, and I was forced to kneel to him.

  "HNNNGGGHHH!!"

  I tried to move my body to not obey, but to no avail.

  "Stand!"

  My body suddenly stands up on its own. The man pulled up my hair and glared at me viciously.

  "I am saying this once again. Listen to what the man behind the glass told you. You will do as you were told!"

  The man throws me across the room.

  "AKH!"

  My body hit the glass wall and fell on the floor. I stand up slowly and face the man behind the glass wall.

  "Now then, Experiment#496."

  The man in the lab coat pulls out a syringe that has green liquid inside it and injects it into Michelle.

  "AAKKHH!!"

  "MI-CHAN!"

  "This is a potent poison. The effect of this poison will cause this girl to drift between life and death. She will be half awake and half asleep. She is paralyzed and can't lift even the tiniest bit of her fingers. So, here's the deal."

  The man pulls out another syringe, but this time, it has pink liquid inside.

  "The poison will kill Michelle in the next 24 hours, and this antidote right here is going to prolong her life for another 24 hours, but I won't give her this."

  "What do you want?"

  "Experiment#496, we will give you missions every day, assassination missions to be exact. If you successfully finish your mission, I will inject Michelle with the antidote. But if you fail, even ONCE, we will let Michelle die, and her death will be on you."

  I was struck by a harsh realization that befalls me.

  I have no choice but to accept the condition.

  I have to protect Michelle at all costs.

  I will defeat that man.

  I will have my revenge on everyone in the facility.

  I swear I will free her from all of these.