Chapter 43: I-I-I'm Fine, Right? I'll Be Fine, Right?

"It was fun, unnie. I feel like it's been ages since I had this much fun watching a movie."

"I had fun too. It's been a while for me as well."

After becoming a magical girl, movies had been a difficult hobby to enjoy, but watching one with an acquaintance made it quite enjoyable.

Before I started living such a busy life, I sometimes used to go out and visit various places with my older sister... That thought crossed my mind, too.

"Huh, a missed call... Alice-senpai?!"

"...You mean Miss Alice called?"

"W-what should I do? She must have contacted me while we were watching the movie. I'm supposed to meet her once a day and use Mental Cure on her... I wonder if she has time now?"

Seeing that Miss Alice had contacted me separately, even though she normally didn't contact me when she had no business with me, made it clear that support-type magical girls really were valuable personnel.

If it was Miss Alice, she could have a private meeting even with Miss Cariel, ranked second among the S-ranks... But now that I knew she disliked attracting attention, I understood why she would avoid such things as much as possible unless she suffered an injury that only Miss Cariel could heal.

'...Come to think of it, that was her persona.'

From what I'd heard from my sister and from the scene I'd actually witnessed recently, there was a very high chance that Miss Alice's personality as commonly shown on TV wasn't her real personality.

She always acted as if she were bright and cheerful, but was, unexpectedly, a human being with her own pain and sore spots...

If that wasn't her real personality, I wondered why she continued maintaining such an uncomfortable persona, but I couldn't ask her about it.

Miss Alice didn't like talking about what she was like when her persona cracked.

"At least she's answering her phone... Hmm... What should I do...? It takes a while to get to her house..."

"...Are you meeting Miss Alice at her home?"

"Ah, it's because Alice-senpai doesn't like going outside. Other people's eyes, too... I don't think she wants anyone else to know that 'Alice is unwell and receiving treatment.'"

"I... see."

This was a little... No, a very surprising thing.

Miss Alice, who was subtly mindful of her distance from other people, willingly going all the way into someone else's house, even if it was for treatment... Either it was truly unavoidable, or she trusted Miss Mia that much.

It was probably both, but even so, there was no denying it was an impressive achievement.

Even my sister, who had known Miss Alice for years as a first-generation magical girl, had never been allowed so much as the most ordinary physical contact. Miss Alice going so far as to visit her home... If my sister found out, wouldn't she writhe in jealousy?

"If going home is inconvenient, we're near the company anyway. Why don't you rent one of the lounges? Miss Alice comes here often, so she should be able to come without feeling too uncomfortable."

"W-would that be okay?"

"The company's policy is to support magical girls' convenience as much as possible. We have plenty of lounges, so it's fine if you take one over for a while. Besides, you're ranked fourth among the S-ranks and the star of the program currently being filmed, so we can certainly offer you that much."

"O-okay. Then I'll tell Alice-senpai that."

I had made the suggestion because I doubted Miss Alice would enjoy going to someone else's home, no matter how well she knew them, but fortunately, it seemed to have worked out.

After getting confirmation from Miss Alice that we'd meet at her company, I went there, completed the lounge rental procedure, and sent her the location. It wasn't long before the door opened and Miss Alice arrived.

"It's nice to see you. Miss Mia, Miss Sapphire. You two are shining brightly today as well."

"I-I'm sorry! I had my phone turned off because I was watching a movie, so I didn't see your messages..."

"It's all right. Alice hadn't even scheduled a specific time to meet today. Miss Mia has a life of her own, so you don't have to put it on hold just to accommodate Alice."

"Ahh... Senpai..."

When Miss Mia looked at Miss Alice again with those distinctive sparkling eyes, Miss Alice slowly approached us.

"Seeing Miss Sapphire here, were you with Miss Mia?"

"Yes. Miss Mia said she needed help."

"I leave her in your care, Miss Sapphire. Miss Mia is so innocent and hasn't met many people, so she'll probably need a lot of help. Unfortunately, although Alice is perfect, she can't help others in that regard."

"...Leave it to me."

Considering Miss Alice was also a first-generation magical girl, she was probably in her late twenties.

That meant she was old enough that both Miss Mia and even I would look like younger sisters to her.

...Once I realized it, this fact briefly caused some cognitive dissonance, but it was already common knowledge that judging a magical girl's age by her appearance was largely meaningless.

"Hmm... Then, the treatment... Uh... Should we do it here?"

"I've told the other magical girls not to come in. Please use the room however you like... Ah, I'll go outside too. I'll keep watch, so don't worry."

I told her to proceed however she liked, but then realized that even my presence made her uncomfortable, so I opened the door and went outside, leaning my back against the wall beside it.

The room was in the most secluded corner of all the lounges, so other magical girls were unlikely to come by, but there was always a 'what if' in this world.

Miss Alice was extremely concerned with how others saw her. Even though I was her manager, we'd known each other for less than a month, and just last time the fact that she was receiving treatment had been revealed unintentionally while she was secretly being treated in a spare room at the filming location. Considering all that, it was right for me to give her some privacy too.

'...But how exactly does the treatment work?'

It was true that I'd studied all sorts of information about magical girls for my work, but I didn't know everything about support-type magical girls.

...Maybe she had to take off all her clothes during the treatment. If it was some extreme method like that, then of course she would want to drive everyone out as far as possible, whether she was Miss Alice or anyone else.

"Hngh... Mmph... Sob..."

And then, from inside, what sounded like Miss Alice's moans began to seep out.

...The lounges were soundproofed by design. It was just that I happened to be leaning against the wall, and a magical girl's senses were exceptionally sharp, so I had detected the faint sound without meaning to. It shouldn't have carried anywhere else, including the room next door.

It was something I hadn't accounted for, but now that I'd heard it, I should move away from the wall for Miss Alice's privacy.

...That was what I should do, but...

'...Why won't my feet move?'

Rationally, I knew it was polite not to listen to those sounds, but for some reason, my feet wouldn't move.

On the contrary, I seemed to be unconsciously trying to put my ear against the door, as if I were more curious about the sounds that would follow.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't prepare a towel in advance... Here, use this handkerchief, at least."

"Hf..."

'...What on earth is this treatment?'

I understood Mental Cure to be a simple type of mental recovery magic, but I had no idea what was happening inside for Miss Alice's one-sided moans to be reaching me like that.

Suddenly, a scene flashed through my mind: Miss Alice and Miss Mia hurriedly emerging from a room the other day, Miss Alice's face flushed while Miss Mia looked exhausted.

...Of course, rationally speaking, I couldn't imagine anything strange having happened. But humans were such devious creatures that once suspicion took root, the imagination kept branching out until it became impossible to control.

As various scenes continued to play through my mind in real time.

-Boom!

"?!"

[Sapphire! An Abyssal's atta...]

Though I couldn't see anything, I heard the sound of dimensions tearing that accompanied the appearance of an Abyssal somewhere nearby.

At the same time, the mascot's voice rang through my mind.

-Krrrrrum...!

What came into view was a gigantic fist made of rock, bursting through the wall.

All of this had happened in about three seconds. At that moment, my field of vision was filled with the enormous fist advancing toward me.

'There's no time to chant...!'

Even with my thoughts accelerated by the crisis, it was uncertain whether I could cast a barrier before that fist slammed into me.

Even so, I couldn't just stand there and die, so just as I began circulating my magic as much as possible—

-Crack!

-Vwoooong!

In the slowed-down world, Miss Alice moved like an ordinary person. During the fraction of a second that would have passed in the blink of an eye in reality, the wall shattered, and she appeared from within it, her face tightly drawn, holding Miss Mia in one arm.

Miss Mia looked bewildered, as if she hadn't managed to catch up with the world's time, but Miss Alice met my eyes in that state and began running toward me.

Because I understood why Miss Alice was coming this way, I shaped the magic I had been casting into a small arrow and sent it flying at the Abyssal. The arrow's launch and Miss Alice, holding Miss Mia in one arm, reaching me happened almost simultaneously.

-Flash!

-Crash!

"Eek?!"

"Ngh."

As the impact struck the ground, my view changed, and I realized we'd been transported to a spot on the floor much closer to the exit than the lounge in the corner.

-KABOOM!!!

"E-everyone, get outside! It's an Abyssal attack!"

"Everyone, stay calm! Hurry... well, yes, hurry, but panicking will only cloud your judgment! Keep your heads straight and run!!"

"Aaaah!!!"

The delayed sound of the Abyssal destroying the building reached us; people evacuated with relative calm befitting those in the magical-girl industry; and the magical girls transformed and headed toward where the Abyssal had appeared. Everyone began doing what they needed to do.

And as for the three of us, who had been moved together...

"Ugh... Uuugh... Eek..."

"A-Alice-senpai? Are you all right?"

"The calculation load of Stellar Shift increases quadratically with the number of people moved, and three people is... Urk..."

Perhaps as a consequence of moving both Miss Mia and me to safety in that split second, Miss Alice was wearing a truly rare, utterly wrecked expression.

"Hmm... F-first, we should... get up. I'm sorry, Miss Alice, but excuse me. Given the situation..."

"W-wait, I'm getting u..."

Since we'd been moved so hastily, the three of us were completely tangled together. In any other situation I might have hesitated, but an Abyssal had just attacked and Miss Alice clearly wasn't well, so I set aside my embarrassment and began untangling us, grabbing Miss Alice's legs and loosening our bodies as if untying a tangled rope.

At first, I thought Miss Alice might refuse, but the moment I grabbed her legs, she went still as if she'd frozen, and, though I felt a little sorry about it, that made it easier to untangle us.

Miss Alice was the first to be separated. Untangling the remaining two of us wasn't difficult, so Miss Mia and I quickly regained our posture and stood up, but...

"Miss Alice...? Are you all right?"

-Tremble tremble tremble tremble

"I-I'm f-fine. A-Alice c-couldn't possibly be u-unwell, r-right?"

...It was an extraordinarily rare sight: Miss Alice was flustered... No, her reaction went beyond that, as if a thug had just held a knife to her throat.

Sitting collapsed on the floor, pressing down her skirt with her hands and keeping her legs drawn together, she looked as pitiful as a princess from a fairy tale.