Ahhh! I can finally breathe properly again. My head's all cleared up too!

We managed to get out of there somehow. Thank goodness I could reach the window.

But is the device okay? You didn't follow the proper procedure to shut it down, right? I can't believe you just yanked the plug out.

It's fine, it's fine. I've forced it to reset before when I didn't know what else to do, and it's never broken from that.

Didn't you break a different device when you did that before, though?

Huh? Err, uhh, did I? Who knows. Ahaha…

You're someone involved in making things as well for the time being, so please treat the device with more care.

Hopefully it's not broken after being forced to shut down just now.

Right. It might be incomplete, but it is a device people only dream of and you've worked hard to make it. It'd be a shame if it got scrapped before even seeing the light of day.

Well, even if the device happens to break down and the research gets put on hold, I still might be able to write a little something up based on my experience today.

E-Eli, I already asked you earlier in the chief's office, but I'd really appreciate it if you didn't…

Eli! Here you go! Have these!

Huh? Are these mikan oranges from the device? Really? All of these are for me?

Yup. So please keep anything you know about the device under wraps a little longer. In return, you'll be the first person we tell if the research produces any results!

…Okay, I'll be waiting then. Make sure you let my magazine have exclusive coverage when that happens.

For sure!

By the way, these mikan oranges aren't normal ones, are they? I wonder if something will happen if I eat them.

Time will stop based on how much you eat! Maybe.

Maybe, eh? *Giggle* As a journalist for a science magazine, I'll test out the effects on myself. Thanks for giving me so much insight today!

[Fade in/out.]

*Munch* *Munch* Geez, no matter how many of these mikan oranges we eat, they just never end.

I feel like I've run out of ideas for making desserts with them. Maybe I'll use them in some normal cooking, then.

These mikan oranges still happen to be top-secret material, so we can't just give them out to our neighbors. Let's all buckle down and eat them up.

But the composition of these mikan oranges was no different from regular ones when we looked into them, right? Their nutritional values were through the roof, though.

It doesn't feel like time has stopped or anything. Argh. It looks like it's gonna take a while before we produce any results.

Oh, I just got a message. It's from Eli!

It's been a while since we last spoke, Chika. I hope everyone back at the lab is doing well. I contacted you today because I have something to report to you.

Remember the mikan oranges you gave me the other day when I visited? Time really did stop when I ate them!

I ate one before I started writing my article, and when I looked at the clock after I finished writing, barely any time had passed.

Have you completed that device? Please let me drop by again for some more research and interviews. Oh, the magazine will be on sale next Monday. Let the others know too!

What's the meaning of this? Time stopped for Eli, yet nothing happens for us?

Yeah. If anything, I guess I've been feeling as fit as a fiddle lately, but that's about it.

Maybe when she ate the highly-nutritious mikan oranges, she got a boost of power and managed to finish writing her article in a flash!

That's a possibility! I guess you could call that some form of time manipulation. You control how you feel the flow of time!

In other words, we messed up, but it wasn't a failure! We've taken another step towards our goal!

All right! Let's get to another day of making close to home, close to heart inventions, everyone!

Yeah!