Chapter 37: Y-You Mean It Has to Be That Way?

'...So, Tokkaengi. Let's sort this out. I... I mean, "Han Se-jin" claimed he wasn't feeling well as an excuse, and Mia, who normally can't get enough of Alice, believed him completely and is staying by his side without budging even when Alice calls her... but Alice and Han Se-jin are the same person, right?'

[Exactly.]

'What is this? Why don't I understand even after laying it all out? Is my mind still messed up because of the Queen's aftereffects?'

That must be it. Otherwise, how could things get tangled over such a ridiculous reason?

However, that brief attempt to deny reality came to an end. In the end, I had no choice but to accept it.

'...All right, let's come up with a plan.'

First, giving up on meeting her as Alice had to be the last resort.

To deal with my current mental state alone without a magical girl's help, I'd have to assume I wouldn't sleep for at least two days.

If my condition got wrecked that badly, it would cause problems with acting as Alice too, and that wasn't desirable.

There were things I had to do as Alice, after all.

But go out on a mission while my condition was destroyed from trying to handle it alone?

Then dark circles would definitely show even in Alice form.

It would be better to refuse the mission than go out looking like that.

'Should I text her again as Alice? Say that if it isn't now, it won't happen?'

[She seemed pretty firm. Wouldn't that just come across as threatening for no reason?]

'Threatening her is out. Hmm... what should I do...'

Even if the other person was hopelessly infatuated with Alice, threatening her with that wasn't a very good option.

It might work, but it could instead shatter her rose-colored glasses and create negative feelings.

'What excuse could I use to go like this and ask her to cast Mental Cure?'

[Say you had a nightmare?]

'Would having a little nightmare really contaminate my mind to the level of being attacked by a Nightmare?'

[...Say you've had an illness since long ago?]

'That is true, but I'd rather not reveal it.'

[The fact that an ordinary person even knows about the existence of a spell called Mental Cure is strange in itself. Wouldn't it be better to somehow meet her as Alice?]

'That's what I'm asking! How am I supposed to do that? I can't just show up at her house...'

[Oh.]

'Oh.'

It seemed Tokkaengi had managed to find some way or another.

* * *

[You're really coming?! Okay! Alice is making time to come all the way to my house, so how could I refuse even this...! It's okay! Absolutely okay! Come whenever it's convenient for you!]

'...There we go.'

[So it really was because of you, wasn't it?]

I had been half-convinced even while persuading her, but with the result speaking for itself, there was nothing I could do.

This woman really seemed intent on staying home without going out, ready to rush over immediately if something happened to me, just as she'd said earlier.

So I thought maybe she wouldn't object if I offered to come all the way to her house as Alice... but that unlikely thing actually happened.

[From Mia's perspective, this must be a momentous day. The senior she admires is coming all the way to her house in person.]

It was a first even for Alice.

Alice, famous for not even being generous with meals or coffee with other magical girls, let alone something as simple as a handshake, was actually coming to her house herself?

If she told this story anywhere, people would call her a liar unless she toned the exaggeration down to a believable level.

At least, I had created an alibi so she wouldn't grow suspicious.

I came outside in my real form and headed toward the busier part of town, found a deserted spot, used Stellar Shift to change my location about three times, then transformed into Alice and came into the city. Since it was the house directly next door, if I didn't leave but simply came in from outside, she might find it strange.

Before heading downtown after transforming, I didn't forget to inspect my Alice form from every angle, checking whether there was anything that might arouse suspicion.

Fortunately, perhaps I wasn't in such bad shape that it showed even in Alice form, and I looked close to my usual Alice self.

-Murmur

In an age when magical girls had become part of everyday life, it wasn't particularly strange to see one walking down the street, but that didn't mean people were numb to magical girls.

Regardless of their profession, they were stunningly beautiful girls by appearance alone, and their outfits were flashy, so it was only natural for people's gazes to be drawn to them.

Honestly, magical girls' outfits were impossible not to stare at, so that much couldn't be helped... but magical girls could wear civilian clothes too.

A magical girl's transformation changed her outfit however she wanted, so it was perfectly possible to set it to everyday clothes rather than a flashy magical-girl outfit and transform. Many magical girls actually lived their daily lives that way.

But Alice didn't. Even when handling personal errands like this, she always wore the exact outfit she used while transformed.

Why?

One cross-dressed outfit was enough. I didn't want to go out of my way to increase the variations.

-Click-clack

"Hmm-hmm~ Mm-hmm~"

The reason I didn't often walk around downtown in Alice form was, of course, that I hated people.

Especially because as Alice, I had to act the part while walking around too.

Even now, my head was screaming, yet I was forcing myself to hum so I could behave like Alice.

What if someone asked for an autograph for no reason? It would only get more annoying.

So, after showing my face for just long enough...

[Stellar Shift (Stellar Shift)]

"Huh?! She disappeared!"

"What?!"

Since I began working as Alice, I had created and improved many new spells, but I could say without a doubt that the greatest among them was Stellar Shift.

Its original, Stellar Escape, had also helped greatly in concealing Alice's identity, and Stellar Shift itself was both Alice's symbol and bread and butter.

Attack, evasion, movement—it could be used practically anywhere. How could I not love a spell I'd made with this level of efficiency for so many different purposes?

This was one spell I could proudly show off even if the real Alice were standing right in front of me. Among my original spells, it was the greatest masterpiece.

'If Alice appears as soon as Han Se-jin leaves, the timing would look suspicious, right? When should I go?'

[Would about thirty minutes be enough?]

'Should I have stopped by a café before moving?'

Regretting that I hadn't brought anything to kill time, I passed the time somehow or other by simply gazing at the blue sky, then moved near Mia's house once enough time had passed.

In times like this, the location of my house was useful.

A one-story villa whose upper floor had been completely blown away by an Abyss One. There weren't many other buildings around it, so there weren't many people either.

With only a little care, I could get inside without encountering a single person.

"Phew, I'm here."

It was a bothersome thing to do, but I hoped people would understand that it was precisely because I'd lived this obsessively that I'd managed to keep this secret for eight years without getting caught.

Since I had already arrived, there was no reason to put it off any longer.

Even now, it felt as if thick storm clouds in my head were hurling down thunder and lightning. I didn't want to delay any more.

-Ding-dong

-Crash!

-Whoosh!

"S-Senpai?! You're already here?!"

"Alice can't take up too much of Miss Mia's precious time. You said you had other things to do, didn't you?"

"Th-that's true, but... you came all the way here to visit me... P-please, come in for now."

Mia was transformed even though she was indoors, perhaps because she was meeting Alice.

"Then... excuse me."

"No! What do you mean, excuse you? If anything, I'd like to beg you to please come in!"

"I was the one who said I would come to Miss Mia first. Please don't put yourself down so much. No matter how much of an Alice fan you are, there's no need to humble yourself that much."

"Ahh... As expected of you, Senpai..."

...I've really seen everything now.

I had come to visit the magical girl who lived right next door while transformed. Lately, I felt like the frequency of strange experiences in my life had been increasing.

"Please sit here. So... you said there was something you wanted to discuss privately with me, right? What is it? Are you perhaps here to ask me to form a team with you, Senpai?"

-Sparkle sparkle

...Mia's eyes were shining to the point of being burdensome.

Should I be grateful or not that she liked Alice this much and had waited around for my sake...

"Actually... Alice's condition hasn't been good since she went out to exterminate Nightmares last night and was hit by the Queen's attack. I'd like Miss Mia's help."

"What?! The Queen?! Where? Where does it hurt? Your arm? Your leg? Is your heart all right? Or is it just a headache?"

...Didn't the Queen lack the ability to exert physical force?

Could the body itself hurt too?

"You probably know this, Senpai, but although the Nightmare Queen's attack doesn't cause physical damage to the attacked area, it makes you feel psychogenic pain. They're more notorious and harder to treat than ordinary wounds, whose pain goes away once the physical injury is treated. So, where does it hurt, and how? The painful area and type of pain. And please tell me exactly how bad it is, too. That improves treatment accuracy."

...Is that how it works?

I had thought treatment from a support-type magical girl just meant receiving a Heal, but the conditions were more detailed than expected. It felt as if I had really come to a hospital.

"Hmm... I don't feel pain in any particular part of my body... My head hurts. As for the type... unpleasant thoughts keep crawling around inside my head, and whenever I try to do anything, everything is hazy as if covered by storm clouds, with pain striking at intervals like lightning..."

For this sort of thing, even if I was Alice, I couldn't know it better than the support-type magical girl herself, so I honestly described my current condition.

"Those are symptoms you can experience from the Nightmare Queen's Nightmare Echo. They usually appear when the Echo hits a magical girl's trauma directly and embeds itself deep inside. If other Nightmares were also providing support nearby, the odds go up even further."

...Accurate.

Even though the Nightmare Queen was an A-rank Abyss One, the fact that Mia, a B-rank magical girl, knew this meant I had no choice but to acknowledge that she was genuinely competent as a magical girl.

"In that case... the best treatment would be to receive Mental Cure continuously from a support-type magical girl and get about three hours of sleep."

"...Pardon?"

"To put it more clearly and simply, Senpai, you lie down on my lap, I stroke your head, and you sleep soundly."

...Seriously.

A difficult answer had come back to me.