I'm a magical girl in the future

Chapter 90 The Information Gap of Time Stop

No, I can't rush it.

Meteor tried hard to calm herself down.

Thinking about it carefully, since Noah couldn't possibly have escaped from here... then how exactly did she disappear?

The key point is that I had absolutely no idea what happened during those 5 seconds when I stopped.

This is the information gap caused by time stoppage.

Thinking of this, Meteorite closed her eyes and began to recall her conversation with Noah after a certain battle, about time stop...

*

"Huff... huff..."

Meteor stood on the roof of the skyscraper, breathing slightly.

At the bottom of the skyscraper lies the remains of a defeated monster.

"You've worked hard, Meteorite."

Noah's voice came from behind her; she seemed quite calm and composed.

"...Tch." Meteor turned back somewhat displeased. "Isn't it because you stopped time, Captain, but didn't actually do anything?"

In Meteorite's view, Noah's time stop ability is almost invincible. As long as this ability exists, any battle should be over the instant it begins. The protracted battle like today's is entirely the result of the captain not giving it her all.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Noah walked over to her and sat down on the railing next to her, swinging her legs casually. "I did make a move, but there was a child trapped under that building, and I didn't attack the monster directly in order to move her."

"If I completely ignore the child and attack the monster directly, I can severely injure it, but I won't be able to kill it instantly. Then the child might... die at the monster's hands."

She turned her head and smiled as she looked at the meteor.

"We magical girls are there to protect humanity. That's the fundamental purpose of defeating the monsters. If we simply focus on defeating monsters without considering the lives of ordinary people, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse?"

Upon hearing this, Meteor couldn't say anything, but she still asked the question that had been bothering her—

"Captain, you saved a child... I... how come I didn't see it?"

Of course, Meteorite asked this question not because she doubted Noah's bragging, but because she genuinely hadn't seen Noah take any similar actions.

"Because the child is under the monster's body. If you look down from above, the monster's body blocks the view, so of course you can't see the child."

Noah looked down at the carcasses of the calamity beasts at the bottom of the building.

"Moreover, you won't feel it when I stop time, so you won't see the process of me rescuing that child."

Meteorite nodded thoughtfully. Indeed, from her perspective, Noah rushed to the side of the Disaster Beast and then immediately flew up to indicate that "I've stopped time for 5 seconds, the rest is up to you." It was a rather inexplicable thing, and she never expected that Noah would save someone in the middle.

"That's because... only the captain knows what happened in the time stop." Meteorite lowered her head, her tone filled with a hint of envy. "Captain, you have such a strong mental fortitude... battles end in an instant."

"Powerful..." Noah smiled, then turned and asked a question—

"Meteorite, what do you think is the most powerful aspect of the 'time stop' ability?"

"Is that even a question?" Meteorite answered without hesitation. "Of course, it's about delivering a fatal blow before the opponent can react at all. First come, first served... isn't that the strongest strategy?"

This is the most intuitive conclusion that anyone who has fought Noah would reach.

However, with the information about Noah's ability to stop time being so widespread, magical girls are usually wary of this ability when conflicts arise.

After hearing Meteor's answer, Noah slowly shook her head.

"That's not right."

"Huh?"

"Or rather, half right," Noah corrected. "Launching an attack in a moment of frozen time is indeed the most direct application. However, that's not the 'essence'."

Noah jumped down from the railing and changed her position so that her back was against the railing.

"The essence of time stop does not entirely stem from the 'attack' itself, but from the 'information gap' it creates."

"Information gap?"

"That's right," Noah began to explain. "Suppose I have an enemy in front of me, and then he suddenly gets torn to pieces and dies. Why do you think that would happen?"

"Then it must have been Captain who stopped time and killed the opponent," Meteorite said matter-of-factly.

"That's right." Noah nodded. "However, you deduced the process from the result, even if you didn't see it."

"Of course, this also involves whether others know that I can stop time. If they don't know that I can stop time, they'll just be confused by the deaths in front of me. My point is based on the assumption that you already know that I can stop time."

Others can only see the 'result.' But the 'process' that led to that result, for me, was a real five seconds. Others can only guess what I did based on the 'result.'

"Then what does this have to do with the 'information gap' and 'the essence of time stop' that you mentioned, Captain?" Meteor scratched his head.

"Because the power of time-stopping ability lies in the fact that 'others cannot stop me, nor can they see what I have done.'"

"The enemy can devise countermeasures against my actions during time stop in advance. In fact, those who know about my time stop ability beforehand and prepare accordingly can indeed negate the advantage of time stop. However, they cannot stop my other actions."

"In those five seconds of time stop that belong only to me, I can do anything."

Noah looked out into the distance of the city.

"No one can observe what I do. Others can only infer what I did based on the 'results'."

"The enemy was torn to pieces, so I must have done it. My body suddenly appeared in another place, so I must have moved it there."

"However, if something happens that has an 'unpredictable outcome,' then it becomes very difficult to judge. For example, this time I rescued a child and then put the child in a safe area. You can't tell from the outcome what I did during the time stop."

"Either I hide, or you can't find me. After all, if you can't deduce my actions from the outcome, you'll have no idea what I did."

*

The meteorite ended its recollection and slowly opened its eyes.

The confusion in her eyes disappeared.

--I see.

From the very beginning, I fell into a mental trap.

I had a preconceived notion that Noah activated the time stop to escape.

However, Noah did not escape at all.

The meteorite stopped searching for distant places and instead looked down at the earth below.

She looked carefully at the ground.

Not far from where Noah finally collapsed, there was a patch of land about two or three square meters in size. The color of the soil on that patch seemed to be slightly darker than the surrounding soil.

It's as if the soil there had just been turned over and then hastily covered up again.

These subtle differences are not easily noticed unless viewed from above like this.

"I see... You didn't escape, Captain."

The next moment, the meteorite plummeted vertically from the sky, slamming heavily onto the earth.

"—Come out here!"

A large amount of soil and gravel shot into the sky, and amidst the swirling dust, a figure was blasted out of the ground by the violent impact.

Noah flew into the air and barely managed to steady herself. She looked down at the meteorite slowly retracting its fist, her face devoid of any smile.

"You're just hiding."

Meteorite raised her head, her gaze refocusing on Noah.