The witch parries the blow with a paper sword she gets out of nowhere and uses the force of the parry to launch herself even farther away laughing as more paper cranes flock out from under her skirt to harass Yamanaka.

Haru loops a bowstring around Yamanaka's off-wrist and pulls it snug.

"RAURRHGH," she's hollering, but she notices time's stopped before she risks friendly fire. "- you guys have an idea?"

"Witch seems to be trying to protect its body, best guess is beheading still I think? So we need to create an opening."

"It looked like I had a clear shot but it's fast."

"Yeah. We can't do platforms and stuff in stopped time, turns out, but maybe we can get some out sidereal, then stop again, and use them as leverage with Haru's strings to trap her so you can go in for the kill?"

"Do you see something I should be anchoring to or do I just play out a lot of it and hold on?"

"Play out a lot of it and maybe use summoned platforms for anchors? Problem is she'll flee so we need to get a lot of coverage with them, if we just try to platform jump to her she'll keep fleeing, we need to block her off from all directions."

"I haven't tried making platforms with notches that would suffice to hold a string in place but I guess it's maybe possible - Yamanaka-san, can you reshape them like that, do you know?"

"You can, yeah, but it takes more attention so it might be hard to do in the instant before Iwasaki-san stops us again."

"Could they just have holes? That you could pass string through? Would that be easier to do quickly?"

"Not appreciably, I don't think."

"I don't know if I have better ideas."

"I'll just try to make lots of notched or punctured light thingies as fast as I can and make do with that to get it webbed up."

"Yeah. —if she's fleeing Yamanaka-san she'll be going in a direction with a speed, she can't teleport," he thinks, "so if we make enough of those in the direction she's moving towards quickly enough that she can't react to the sudden appearance of the web in stopped time it's game over." He hopes.

"I hope you're right."

"I am." Overconfidence is only embarrassing when you're wrong, but it's always good for morale. "Ready when you guys are."

Haru scans the battlefield, selecting locations, and: "Ready."

Sword up. "Ready."

"It's showtime."

If the witch is confused by their seeming teleportation and the way her minions get taken down, she does not show it. She continues her performance, gliding effortlessly through the air as if dancing to music only she can hear, and all the while her paper and glass minions multiply to replace their fallen brethren.

Golden diamonds appear in the air around her, each with a hole in the middle, one two three four five six seven eight -

Yamanaka's sword flashes through the air -

She flies, she shoots, she attacks—

Time stops.