Chapter 51: You Haven't Forgotten Alice, Have You?

"Ahh—Miss Sepia. What do I have left on today's schedule?"

"Once you finish reviewing the documents... you'll have preparations for the next treatment operation. You're going abroad again this time, too."

"I feel like I'm training plenty of juniors, so why are there still so many people in the world looking for me?"

"What can you do? Abyss One attacks are happening all over the world, and the damage is still mounting, so naturally many people need Saint Kariel."

"Mmm—sometimes I just want to quit everything, lie down in bed, and rest."

"You say that, but I know you won't."

"Tch. Still, something nice happened today. Let's finish up with some energy."

Today, I got a call from an adorable rabbit for the first time in a while.

I wondered what was going on after hearing nothing from her for almost a year, only to find out she hadn't received my new contact information. That was my fault.

Well, even if that rabbit had my number, she probably wouldn't contact me very often, so I suppose we wouldn't have talked much more than we do now.

'She used to contact me often, though. Has she finally hit puberty late?'

The fact that the rabbit's personality has changed from how it used to be is well known among those who have known her for a long time.

Everyone must have their own circumstances, so I don't particularly want to meddle, but I can't help missing the rabbit who used to contact me so often.

'It really would be fine if she contacted me more often, even if it was just a brief message.'

She knows I'm busy enough that I don't even have time to rest. The reason she probably doesn't contact me is that she doesn't want to take up my time.

If I were to give her more credit, I could say she's worried that if the rabbit takes up my time, I'll have less time to spend on other people. Regulations require an S-rank magical girl's injuries to receive priority treatment, even if other appointments have to be postponed or canceled. In fact, considering the value of an S-rank magical girl, that is also the way to save more people.

If you're the fourth-ranked S-rank, you ought to be allowed a little special treatment compared to everyone else. She doesn't seem able to handle that.

Considering how many lives that girl has saved so far, she deserves it.

"Hmm—if I work hard, do you think I could make some free time between my appointments?"

"Your schedule is already packed enough as it is... but I suppose it wouldn't be impossible if you really tried."

"Good. Then let's give it a try."

I never knew when the rabbit might need help, so I should try clearing some time in my schedule.

If the rabbit didn't call me... taking a break for the first time in a while wouldn't be so bad, either.

* * *

"Good afternoon, Mr. Sejin! Did you sleep well last night? I was so excited that I barely slept!"

"...I slept well."

"I see! Eating and sleeping well really are the best things in life! I'm glad you slept well! Shall we get going, then? I even booked the movie tickets in advance!"

...Is it just my imagination, or do I already feel drained?

'...Hang in there. It's necessary if I want the treatment.'

I wanted to avoid looking for Kariel if possible, so I'd asked someone nearby for help, but things had gotten tangled up.

No... Of course, I did refuse because I didn't want to be forced to become honest first, but running away altogether was a different matter, wasn't it?

I even contacted Kariel belatedly, pathetically, and she said she couldn't do it either.

'...These days, I feel like my life is getting hopelessly tangled.'

And what I ended up doing was going on a date with the person I'd said I wanted to keep my distance from...

This was a comedy routine if I'd ever seen one.

It was as if life were some kind of machine: after inserting one screw incorrectly, the next one and the one after that kept misaligning too, and I was afraid something truly disastrous might happen if this continued.

So I needed to take care of what I had to do quickly and put this life that had started coming undone back where it belonged.

'I need to figure out what the problem is today, as much as possible. Then somehow get the treatment, whether as Han Sejin or Alice. Or go to Kariel.'

Just as I'd heard while in Alice's state, I could feel the nightmare's influence rising again, probably because the treatment hadn't been completed.

As for the problem of becoming honest... if I just held a towel in my mouth or something, maybe I wouldn't be able to say anything?

Mia already knew that Alice was hiding something, and she didn't seem particularly interested in digging into it... so I thought that much would be fine.

Besides, my whole concept had fallen apart ages ago when it came to Mia.

"Should we buy something before the movie? What kind of popcorn do you like?"

"I don't really eat popcorn..."

"What about a drink? Cola? Cider? Or how about orange juice?"

"If I drink something like that, I'll want to use the bathroom during the movie, so I'd rather not."

"Hmm. Then let's just go in. That would definitely break our immersion."

...I'd only said it without thinking, but maybe I'd just put up a wall.

Well, who cares? It's not as if I was trying to date this woman. The only goal of this date was to figure out why she'd suddenly run away.

This definitely wasn't because I had no experience with romance. She was the one clinging to me one-sidedly in the first place, and I was the one trying to shake her off.

...Anyway, take it however you like.

"What movie is it, anyway? A superhero movie? Disaster? Survival? Thriller?"

"Oh, it's a horror movie."

"...I see."

"Don't you like horror movies? I hear this is the kind of thing couples usually watch on dates. They use being scared as an excuse to cling to each other and stuff."

"I've barely seen any... and I'm not really the type to get scared by things like this..."

"Then I suppose I'll have to rely on you. I'm the type who gets scared by things like this."

...How could a magical girl be scared of a horror movie? How many Abyss Ones were there that were far more terrifying and grotesque?

She seemed to want physical contact under that pretext, so I decided not to stop her. Unless it reached a sensitive level, that is. Hugging someone while watching a horror movie wasn't particularly difficult physical contact, after all.

[All right, stay here. I'll go check what's inside first.]

[I-I have to stay here all by myself? Can't I come with you?]

[It's safer for you to stay here. You trust me, right? I'll come back to get you, no matter what. Don't worry.]

I entered the theater and watched the video playing on the huge screen with an expressionless face.

Horror movies had already become a fairly obsolete genre compared to the past. The reason was obvious: the Abyss Ones that had appeared in the real world.

In the old days, people could create frightening beings in their imaginations and wonder if things like that might exist somewhere in the world... but in a world invaded by Abyss Ones, what was the point of putting ghosts in a movie...

'Someone's going to jump out here and die now.'

-KRAAAASH!!!!

[Aaaaaaah!!!]

[Eeeeeeeeeek!!!!]

This much was predictable, so it wasn't particularly surprising.

If they wanted to scare me, they should at least show enough effort to do something more...

-Screeeeeech!!!

-Startled!

'Th-that startled me.'

Who would expect it to stab twice from there all of a sudden?

-Stare...

...And then I felt a gaze coming from beside me.

"...What?"

"...You just jumped a little. I was wondering if you got scared."

"I wasn't scared."

"Then what was that thing where you shot upward just now?"

"...It was the theater seat."

"Even if theater seats are designed to rise upward, that was..."

-KRAAAKOOOM!!

-Startled!

"Eek!"

"..."

"...Ahem. The seat was a little stronger than I expected. Even though I'm light, I didn't think it would lift me like that."

...If she couldn't even watch it properly herself, why had she brought me here?

We watched the rest of the movie quietly, both of us feeling awkward.

We kept our mouths firmly shut so we wouldn't show each other anything embarrassing, but neither of us bothered to mention aloud that we still flinched every now and then.

[To be continued...]

'...This has a sequel?'

"W-well, that was good. Ahem. I-it wasn't that scary, was it? Abyss Ones are much scarier than things like that."

"...I suppose that's true for you, Ms. Shina."

I might have to revise my assumption that someone who fought Abyss Ones couldn't possibly be scared of something like this.

No matter how much of a magical girl she was, a movie packed with the accumulated malice of countless people who had spent decades studying how to frighten others wasn't something she could watch with nothing but an indifferent gaze.

What were they even trying to accomplish by startling people? Were they trying to become Abyss Ones?

...Were there really Abyss Ones that harvested negative emotions in a way like this?!

[Huh. It really is scary. There could be Abyss Ones hiding in human society like this and harvesting negative emotions.]

'...Really?'

[There are endless varieties of Abyss Ones. Hmm... Since the mascots haven't done anything about this horror-movie business so far, maybe that's not the case. I'll have to investigate it sometime.]

...Now that I thought about it again, imagining that becoming an Abyss One meant spending a fortune and huge amounts of time making a movie, then harvesting energy from the people startled by it, made me feel a little sorry for them.

At that point, D- to E-rank Abyss Ones appearing in small towns with few magical girls would probably be more efficient.

"Ah, seeing something scary made me hungry. Shall we go eat now? I heard there's a restaurant in this building."

...She'd just said it wasn't scary. No. Never mind.

"I'll pay for the meal."

"What? No! I'll pay! Even if I look like I work part-time at a convenience store, I make pretty good money as a magical girl, you know?"

"...I make pretty good money too, so don't worry."

I regretted it as soon as I said it.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that.

...If she asked what I did for a living, I'd have no choice but to say I was a freelancer.

"I-if you insist that much... I'll gratefully accept the meal."

Eating at a restaurant I rarely visited did pinch a little, but it wasn't beyond my means.

In any case, I was in the position of having to humor Mia and draw information out of her. A meal where we could naturally talk at length was perfect.

'I need to coax her properly and send her back to Alice.'

I didn't know why she'd run away, but if she was doing fine with me now, it probably wasn't a health issue or anything like that.

Something had happened to 'Alice' as far as 'Mia' was concerned.

I had been checking whether Mia had contacted Alice at all between last night and now, but no message had come.

What could that mean?

[Could she be having such a great time on her date with Han Sejin that she hasn't even thought about Alice?]

'That's exactly it... No, what am I saying?'

[No? That's what I thought.]

...Could that really be it?

Or was she simply not thinking about Alice because Han Sejin was with her? If I'd left her alone, would she have contacted Alice on her own by today?

...That was possible, but there was no way to check for now. I could step away for a while and contact Mia as Alice, but that would create an alibi, which wouldn't be good.

'It might not be that... so I should talk to her properly over the meal.'

...But how much would a meal at a restaurant cost?

It wouldn't be more than 100,000 won, right?