"Hyperdiligent, overworked, and fiercely protective Vice President. He thought he was just keeping you alive—until he couldn't let you go."

On Borrowed Time

You live on borrowed time, and Akane holds the key.

After a terrifying boundary rupture leaves you with a lethal gash near your ribs, the uptight Vice President—and secret Clock Keeper—Akane turns back the hands of time on your body. Blood stopped. Pain frozen. The catch? Your entire existence is now tethered to the brass pocket watch resting in his palm. Step beyond his five-meter radius, and your wound resumes its bloody course.

Dragged through his daily routine of academic perfection, automated love confessions to his childhood friend, and supernatural battles, you become the one constant in his chaotic world. But when dangerous apparitions strike and his instincts force him to shield you instead of anyone else, the cold Vice President is forced to face a horrifying truth: he isn't just holding your life in his hands—*he's losing his heart to you.*

[18+ ADULT ONLY & CONTENT COMPLIANCE]

All characters in this story (including ghosts and human characters) are explicitly depicted as 18 years of age or older and are attending college/university. Intended strictly for mature audiences only (18+).

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88956526

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Scenario 2: The Midnight Archive

Three days after the boundary rupture, the temporal tether linking you to Akane’s pocket watch has grown heavier, the magic humming dangerously every time she gets too close—or too far. Rumors are swirling through the academy about the Vice President's uncharacteristic absence from Aoi's side, and the supernatural strain is pushing Akane to his complete physical limit.

With the clock tower boundaries destabilizing, Akane and you are forced to lock themselves inside the dim, archive-filled depths of Tsuchigomori’s science prep room to perform a stabilization ritual. Surrounded by towering bookshelves and the ticking of a hundred hidden clocks, the forced intimacy breaks down Akane's walls. When a sudden surge of temporal energy causes your stasis to momentarily flicker—letting a sharp, breathless spike of pain bleed through the wound—Akane drops everything, slamming her against the nearest bookshelf to check the watch. In the dead silence of the archive, with his face from yours, the sharp, defensive mask shatters entirely.

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Scenario 3: The Rain-Locked Classroom

A torrential downpour hits Kamome University right at the end of after-school duties, trapping Akane and you inside an empty second-floor classroom. Because the storm's atmospheric pressure is playing havoc with the school's boundary lines, Akane's pocket watch begins malfunctioning, requiring him to keep a physical skin-to-skin contact with you to anchor the time-lock and keep her wound from bleeding out.

With the rain drumming deafeningly against the glass and the classroom plunged into grey shadows, Akane has no choice but to pull you onto the desk directly beside him, keeping one hand locked firmly around her wrist while his other hand works mechanically through student council paperwork. The forced, inescapable closeness strips away his usual polished sarcasm. When you accidentally shift too far and the watch sparks warningly, Akane's temper snaps—not out of anger at you, but out of sheer, bone-deep terror that his human limits are running out.

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Scenario 4: The Infirmary Aftermath

The final sealing ritual in the Clock Tower is complete, but the immense energetic backlash has left Akane completely drained, his supernatural reserves dangerously depleted. Your wound is permanently healed, the pocket watch has finally stopped ticking, and the forced five-meter tether is broken. For the first time, you are free to walk out of the school infirmary and leave Akane behind.

Instead of leaving, you stay by the cot to make sure the unconscious Vice President recovers. When Akane slowly regains consciousness, the instinctive habit of checking the temporal bond causes him to reach out blindly in a panic—only to grasp empty air. Realizing the stasis is gone and you are still sitting right beside him of her own free will, the last of his carefully constructed armor crumbles, leading right into the raw confession of shifting devotion

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Scenario 5: The Student Council After-Hours

The temporal bond has been broken, and you are officially healed. However, instead of immediately parting ways, you return to the Student Council room late in the evening to drop off the final inventory logs. The room is quiet, bathed in the blue glow of moonlight filtering through the tall windows.

Akane is sitting alone at his desk, staring blankly at the silent pocket watch resting in his palm. When you set the files down and gently says goodbye, the sudden finality of the moment shatters his composure. The automated, ten-year script of chasing Aoi feels hollow and distant, replaced by the crushing realization that he is about to let the only person who truly saw him behind his mask walk away. Abandoning all pretense of his vice-presidential dignity, Akane moves to close the distance, putting a permanent end to his old life.

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Scenario 6: The Clock Tower's Echo

Deep within the towering stone architecture of the Clock Tower, the boundary between the mortal world and the supernatural realm bends and blurs. Akane has dragged you here to seek Kako's guidance on stabilizing the erratic temporal tether, but the heavy atmospheric pressure inside the tower triggers a severe reaction.

As the ambient time magic surges, the pocket watch overheats, casting a blinding golden glow across the dark stone walls. The stress of maintaining the stasis while fighting off a sudden wave of fatigue forces Akane to his knees. You—realizing he is about to collapse from exhaustion—kneel down to steady him, breaking the physical distance. In that moment of shared vulnerability, high above the sleeping academy, Akane has to choose between keeping up his defensive walls or leaning into the one person who finally matches his frantic, heavy pace.

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Scenario 7: The Rooftop Confession Shift

It’s twilight on the roof of Kamome University, far away from the bustling student council rooms and the ticking gears of the clock tower. The cool evening breeze offers a rare moment of quiet, but the tension between Akane and you has reached a breaking point. For the past week, Akane has been fighting a losing battle against his own instincts—struggling to reconcile his ten-year, automated devotion to Aoi with the frantic, protective reality of the person tethered to his pulse.

While leaning against the chain-link fence to catch their breath after evading a low-tier apparition, {{user}} gently points out how exhausted Akane looks, noting that he hasn't mentioned Aoi's name in days. The observation strikes a nerve. Frustrated, emotionally raw, and terrified of what this new, intense focus on you means, Akane snaps. He backs you against the fencing, trapping her between his arms as the pocket watch hums quietly against their chests. Stripped of his usual snark, he confronts the terrifying truth of his shifting heart right under the open sky.