Chapter 27
[Sejin... Please take good care of XXX... You're XX, so... You can do it...]
-Flash
"Kuh, kuh-hup, ack."
The time when the foul energy of a nightmare flowed through my brain and controlled my body was forcibly brought to an end, and my body, freed from the dream's control, began moving frantically.
I pulled my arms out of the sleeping bag and reached for the small packet of medicine and water I always kept by my pillow before going to sleep, but when I felt something rising from my stomach first, I hurriedly got up and headed for the bathroom.
"Ugh... hic..."
After sitting on the bathroom floor for quite a while, I finally managed to get up and come out. The nauseating sensation was making its way back up through my esophagus and mouth, and the disgusting smell peculiar to stomach acid refused to disappear even after I washed it away with water.
"God... fuck..."
Dreams were a truly strange thing.
Even when something that could never happen in reality was happening, the me inside the dream didn't realize there was anything strange about it.
Sometimes, I even thought that I would rather this were a dream, but even then, the world of dreams would not break apart.
A dream is a space created by the human unconscious that binds a person while they sleep.
A space created by the unconscious of someone with an already ruined state of mind could only be just as ruined.
If reality was fucking awful, it would've been nice if at least the refuge were beautiful.
But the place I'd fled to as an escape was in that state, so my insomnia had no choice but to return day after day.
-Clink
-Gulp-gulp
Whether it was the medicine or the water, I hoped that whatever did the job would wash away that disgusting feeling, and I downed an entire bottle of spring water despite feeling as though I couldn't breathe.
...What time is it?"
[3 a.m...]
"I woke up in the middle of the night. I've already used up today's sleep anyway."
Even Tokkaengi, who normally hated being asked the time, answered obediently at times like this.
There was nothing for either of us to gain by fighting. After eight years of carrying out a con in which we colluded to deceive the entire world, we knew each other well.
Which parts not to touch. And in what state I shouldn't be touched.
Tokkaengi and I were bound as equals by our contract, but because Tokkaengi felt a much greater psychological debt toward me, I had more say in things.
Under normal circumstances, mascots were forbidden from making magical-girl contracts with men. But both Tokkaengi and I had reasons to do so, and Tokkaengi had wronged me. The fact that the current fake Alice could exist was rooted in Tokkaengi's attempt to repay that psychological debt by violating the mascot taboo.
Even after all this time, I had no intention of forgiving Tokkaengi.
We merely used each other out of mutual necessity.
I couldn't forgive Tokkaengi for failing to do their job as a mascot.
If Tokkaengi had done the job properly from the start, I wouldn't be living like this, dependent on medication.
-Rustle...
...Why does the world keep throwing one fucking thing after another at me?"
I don't like the phrase Murphy's law.
The world was already a place where shitty things happened one after another, so why bother organizing that fact into a phrase?
Anyway, something very serious had happened.
I had run out of cigarettes.
* * *
-Jingle
"Mmm... Huh! W-welcome!"
...Yes."
"Oh, it was you, Mr. Sejin. Cigarettes? Ten packs of MalXboro, right?"
"That's right."
I didn't particularly like getting close to other people.
I didn't like caring about others, and I didn't like others caring about me.
Just being alone and quiet, doing what needed to be done.
Whether I was happy, I preferred to be happy alone; whether I was sad, sad alone; and whether I was in pain, in pain alone.
Because the pain of feeling something tear inside me when I lost someone was greater than the joy of sharing something good with them.
Especially in times like these, it took even more courage to form relationships with other people.
No matter how hard magical girls worked, as long as Abyss Ones continued to appear, casualties were bound to keep occurring.
These days, it was hardly unusual for a colleague who had been laughing and chatting beside you one day to suddenly stop answering their phone, followed by news of their death.
-Growl
"Oh, are you hungry?"
"......"
"If you don't have anything urgent to do, would you like to have some ramen with me? I usually get off at three, but I have to stay another two hours to repay you for covering my shift when I had an emergency last time... It's the middle of the night, so there aren't many customers anyway. What do you say? We're neighbors, after all."
It was an offer I would normally have refused without hesitation.
But why hadn't I been able to bring myself to refuse it outright?
Was it because my mind was exhausted from the nightmare I'd just suffered? Because my empty stomach, after throwing up everything inside it, was demanding food? Because I'd already accepted the tent and sleeping bag, and my conscience pricked at me for refusing another request? Or was it all of those reasons?
Twelve hours ago, magical girl Alice had been smiling brightly while basking in the respectful gazes of her fellow magical girls, excitedly chattering away as she taught a class. The real me, the exact opposite of Alice, couldn't refuse other people's offers nearly as skillfully.
-Slurp...
...If you don't mind, may I ask you one question?"
...Let's hear it."
"Did something happen to you? You look really pale... And, um... you have tear marks, too."
"?!"
Startled, I hurriedly wiped at the corners of my eyes and felt the unmistakable traces of dried tears.
"Was it... a heartbreak or something...?"
"I don't keep one of those."
"Oh, you didn't have a girlfriend? I thought you would."
".........No, I don't."
"Really? That's surprising. Someone like you would normally have one, I thought... Ah! S-sorry. I wasn't trying to tease you. I was genuinely curious... You are handsome enough, so I was surprised when you said you didn't have one..."
"..."
It wasn't as though I didn't know. I'd heard compliments about my appearance until I was sick of them from a young age.
I'd never had anything like a girlfriend.
I could have found one if I'd wanted to, but I never had the opportunity, and I lived without any particular desire to make one until my life became what it was now.
...I'm sorry. I must be annoying, right? I've tried to fix it, but it's harder than it looks. I guess I just like talking to other people."
There were people like that. People who simply liked talking to others.
And I didn't like people like that.
[XX! As for what happened to Alice today...]
...An unpleasant memory began to surface.
"I'll pay."
"Huh? I'm paying. You don't have to bother..."
"I'll pay."
"...Yes, I understa..."
It was then, while an unpleasant feeling rose from within and my mental strength was being gnawed away in real time.
-Hummm...
-Flinch!
A familiar aura.
Space twisted, and the peculiar sensation produced when a monster from another dimension, one that did not belong to this world, coveted this world's resources and punched a hole through to the other side was so distinct that anyone near the hole could instinctively feel it.
The range in which that sensation could be felt was generally enough for the Abyss One to cause damage, and its intensity grew the closer one was to the hole and the higher the rank of the Abyss One emerging from it.
It was a familiar aura, but magical girls rarely experienced this sensation themselves.
Magical girls were dispatched to areas where Abyss Ones had already appeared, and this sensation spread at the very moment an Abyss One appeared.
In other words, the fact that I could feel this sensation now meant...
[Sejin!!]
"Get away!!!!"
-Grab!
-Crash!!
<Grrrrr!!!>
The woman who had been right beside me pulled me into her arms and rolled across the floor, while the Abyss One smashed through the window and attacked us. The two events happened only a split second apart.
'Transformation...'
...was impossible right now.
There was someone right beside me.
Alice's power could disable CCTV cameras, but it couldn't disable people's eyes.
She was my next-door neighbor—someone who, if not a close friend, at least knew basic information about me. She wasn't a complete stranger.
Transforming into Alice right in front of someone who plainly knew that I was a man would... require an enormous amount of resolve.
-Squeeze
I didn't know the exact rank of the Abyss One that had appeared, but if it was E-rank or below, I had enough time to escape at full speed while taking one person with me and hold out until a nearby magical girl arrived.
If it was any higher than that...
"Mr. Sejin! Are you hurt anywhere?! Mr. Sejin!!"
...I could sense magical power.
But I didn't transform.
Yet if magical power could be sensed, then...?
-Fwoosh
"Wait just a moment! Over there in the corner... No, stay right beside me! I'll protect you!"
...Mia?"
"Huh?! You know me?! I've hardly met anyone who knows me... Ah, I'll tell you later!"
<Grrrrrrrr!!!!!>
'Oh, damn.'
I'd accidentally acted as though I knew her.
And it was a situation shocking enough to make me do that.
The woman who had moved in next door not long ago was the same person as the junior and stalkerish fan who had even submitted an application just to follow Alice wherever she went.
-Shiver
I suddenly realized that I had somehow managed not to get caught until now.
Come to think of it, the time when this woman moved in and the time when the magical girl Mia began appearing unusually often near Alice had been quite similar, yet I hadn't noticed.
Aside from that, the only things connecting the two were that they were both short and had surprisingly ample figures for their height. It would've been unreasonable for me to conclude they were the same person based on that alone.
Even if people like that weren't common, identifying someone just by their figure would be strange, wouldn't it?
No, let's stop talking about her figure in a dangerous situation.
"Hng... Divine Hammer!"
-Bang!
<Yelp!>
Fortunately, the Abyss One that appeared was a low-level D-rank individual, and Mia was a B-rank magical girl, so it looked as though it would be defeated without difficulty.
-Fizzle...
"Phew... Mr. Sejin, are you all right? You aren't hurt anywhere, are you? Did any fragments hit you...?"
"I'm... okay."
"You must've been really startled. I wasn't... hiding it from you. I normally keep the fact that I'm a magical girl secret... Ah, but how did you know who I was? I am a magical girl, but I don't use XTube, XStar, Xcebook, or anything like that, you know? Even if you recognized my appearance, hardly anyone would know my name. Are you a fan of mine?!"
"I heard about you somewhere. On the internet."
"So people do talk about me? Ah, it's not that I deliberately try to hide it... It's just that a senior I deeply respect never does any of that. So I imitated her, hoping to become even a little more like her... Strangely, people still recognize me from time to time. Um... Do you need an autograph? I can give you one."
...It's okay."
"But are you really not a fan of mine?"
"I'm not."
"Well... Anyway, it ended without anyone getting hurt. The store... did take some damage, though... Ugh... When am I supposed to clean all this up...?"
...Strictly speaking, it might actually have been easier if she hadn't been beside me, since I could have transformed into Alice and dealt with it... But putting those complicated circumstances aside, the fact remained that she had helped me.
...I'll help you."
"What?! I'd certainly appreciate that if you did... Ah, no. It's okay. Mr. Sejin, go home and rest. You don't look well to begin with, and after going through something like this... You should get plenty of sleep..."
<Grrrrr!! Grrk!! Grrrr!!!>
"Wh-what is that sound...?"
At that moment, the screams of an Abyss One came from the mouth of the alley.
Three beast-type Abyss Ones of the same type as the one Mia had just dealt with... No, they were one rank higher.
Considering what Mia had just taken down, it was more likely that these were the main force of the Abyss Ones that had appeared this time.
But the Abyss Ones that revealed themselves were already battered beyond recognition.
As they fled toward us as though being pursued, their lives finally gave out, and they vanished into black forms. Alongside that sight, what came into view was...
"Confirmed the annihilation of three C-rank beast-type Abyss Ones and the presence of one civilian and one magical girl. I ask: Are you injured anywhere?"
The undisputed greatest magical girl of the present era, proudly ranked first among the S-ranks, was...
"A-A-Aia?!"
"Yes, I am Aia. You are... According to the database, B-rank number two, Mia. It is a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for supporting Abyss One suppression today as well."
A magical girl named Aia.
"N-no... It was only natural."
Although magical girls' outward appearances could change depending on the mascot they contracted with, their species did not. Needless to say, a human could not turn into a machine. Yet Aia had an ordinary human appearance like a normal magical girl, adorned herself with mechanical decorations, and even spoke in a mechanical manner, so many people thought she was some kind of robot or cyborg magical girl.
...In other words, this magical girl named Aia was.
"Citizen. Are you injured? If any part of you was hurt by an Abyss One, I will provide one bottle of Aia's special Red-Potion. Its effects will expire if it is not used within five days, so I do not recommend storing or selling it."
Among the magical girls with their own concepts, she was considered utterly obsessed with hers. Alongside Alice, she was known as an S-rank concept freak.