Chapter 52
'Jeez, what kind of prices are these...'
"Uh... I-it's more expensive than I expected. Sh-should we go somewhere else?"
"It's f-fine... I usually impose on you, so I can at least treat you to something like this."
...It's a bit extravagant, but it's not beyond my means...
If I thought of it as not buying two or three somewhat expensive games, it wasn't impossible.
'Even real couples probably wouldn't come to a place like this except on a special occasion...'
Even if I don't know much about dating, I at least knew that people wouldn't normally go on dates in a place like this.
If that were the case, everyone would go broke, and most ordinary people couldn't even dream of dating.
After ordering roughly enough for two servings, I opened my mouth first when the atmosphere began to grow awkward as we waited for the food.
"I haven't watched a movie in a while. I had fun, thanks to you."
"...Huh? Really?"
"It's been quite a while since I watched one. And it feels awkward coming alone."
"Th-then that's a relief. Hehe..."
It was obviously just flattery, but in the end, wasn't it enough if the listener felt good?
I had a lot to ask her, so making her feel good beforehand would make it easier to coax information out of her.
"Um... This might be rude, but is something wrong? You suddenly asked me out on a date and all."
"Ah, th-that... Um... uhh... hmm..."
"Judging by how you asked me to do it as if I were saving someone's life, it doesn't seem like a small matter."
"...Th-that... um..."
Seeing how unable she was to say it easily, it really did seem to be a sensitive issue.
Even though her affection for me wasn't insignificant, she couldn't say it... What could it really be?
"I-I can't. Even if it's you, Sejin... Ah, no, because it's you, even more..."
"If you trust me, Ms. Shina, I don't think it would be bad to open up to me. I might be able to help, you know?"
"Uh... hmm... d-definitely... You are my senior in life, after all..."
In truth, I was merely a little older and hadn't even had a proper social life, so I wondered whether I had any experience at all, but it wasn't a bad pretext for coaxing her.
"I... um... I can tell you, but... you have to keep it a secret."
"Don't worry. I don't even have anyone around me to tell."
"A-and if possible... even after you hear it, I-I'd rather you didn't look at me strangely... or avoid me... or anything..."
"Uh... I'll try my best."
"Isn't this normally the part where you promise you absolutely won't do that?!"
"Nothing in this world is absolute."
"Ugh..."
If you were expecting something romantic here, like 'Don't worry. I'll never change,' then I'd like to say you picked the wrong person.
I was trying to humor her to get information out of her... but there was a limit. It would be troublesome if I approached her to extract information and somehow actually ended up dating her.
What we were doing right now... was, for the time being, a date between fake lovers.
I felt bad for Mia, but after today, I planned to keep my distance from her as Han Sejin.
"There's... one senior I really respect."
"Yes. You mentioned her sometimes."
"Aaaah... Is it okay for me to say this... Y-you really can't look at me strangely, okay? Please? Tell me you won't, even if you have to lie."
"It's a lie, but I won't."
"It would have been better if you'd left out the first part... Haaah. All right. Th-that senior is a woman. Well, she's a magical girl, so of course she'd be a woman... Anyway... something happened with her recently."
The conversation was proceeding smoothly.
Now, if I could just find out what had happened, I could resolve it as Alice...
"I... think I've fallen for that senior."
"..."
"..."
".............................."
"P-please say something! Don't just stand there frozen!"
"Ah, yes."
My brain had stopped for a moment.
The shock of what I'd heard had made my brain refuse to process it.
"Where were we? You said something happened with your senior?"
"You forgot?! I finally worked up the courage to tell you!"
"The way you're saying that tells me I must have heard you properly. Just a moment."
Hmm... So what I had heard really was correct.
Hmm...
Uuuumm............
"Could you say that again?"
"You said you heard me properly?!"
"No matter how I think about it, I must have heard you wrong."
"I... think I've fallen for my senior."
"Ah. As a junior?"
"...Something like romantic feelings."
".........You said your senior is a woman, right?"
"She's a magical girl."
"You're a woman too, Ms. Shina, right?"
"Do I look like I'm not?!"
".........That can happen. Yes. I'll respect that."
"Even your reaction up to now was already rude enough?! And now you're saying you'll respect me?!"
"People are confused in many ways at your age. I think it's something that can happen."
"I just worked up a tremendous amount of courage to tell you! Do you know how much courage it takes to tell something like this to the man you're... dating?!"
...Hmm. True.
For now, we were fake... but still dating, and on top of that, Mia had shown that she liked me, so from her perspective, she must have summoned tremendous courage to say this.
...But what was I supposed to do about it?
The man she liked, Han Sejin, was me, and the Alice she thought she'd fallen for was also me.
'...Should I praise her for having such unwavering tastes?'
I had no idea how I was supposed to react in a situation like this.
No, if I bent over backward a hundred times, I could understand her liking Alice. I'd heard that quite a few magical girls went down that path.
But she liked Han Sejin and Alice too? And with romantic feelings?
'...How am I supposed to resolve this?'
A problem had arisen in an area I knew little about myself, of all things.
'...No, seriously, how am I supposed to react?'
There was no way out.
If I, as Han Sejin, stopped her from having those feelings for Alice, that would only make her feelings for Han Sejin stronger. From Mia's perspective, she'd be choosing Han Sejin over Alice.
But if I encouraged her feelings for Alice? Then Alice would be in trouble again. Her boundless goodwill toward Alice was already burdensome enough; and now it was developing into romantic feelings?
'...Either way, it's a problem.'
Either her relationship with Han Sejin would grow deeper, or her relationship with Alice would. I was in a situation where I had to choose one.
I didn't want to choose either... but if I had to choose just one from my perspective...
"...Hmm. Still, between two women..."
It was then.
-Ruuuumble!!
-Shudder!
The sound of space splitting. I had heard it so many times that it was familiar, but it traveled through space rather than air—the sound I would prefer never to hear if possible.
-Beep!! Beep!! Beep!!
-Waaaah-oooh!!
-This is an emergency. An Abyss One has currently manifested in the vicinity. Customers currently using this building, please evacuate as quickly as possible...
[Mia! Deploy... no, evacuate first! Run!]
"What? Where the hell..."
"Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-Boom!
"Ugh!"
"Kyaaah?!"
-Whoosh!
Along with the Abyss One's characteristic roar, an earthquake—no, the building began to shake.
Mia and I staggered and managed to regain our balance without falling to the floor, but the others did not.
"Kyaaah!!"
"D-dangerous!"
"Aaaah!!! It's hot!!"
-Clink! Crash! Clang!
"...Damn it."
The building we were in was quite tall. It was about the size of a department store, and the restaurant and theater were on one of its higher floors, so the moment it collapsed, we'd fall with it and become a concrete sandwich.
The only consolation was that it was lunchtime on a weekday, so there weren't that many people... but it wasn't empty, either.
And the biggest problem.
"Huh, i-isn't that a magical girl?"
"I-I think so?"
"Huh, huh?"
For now, people's gazes began gathering on Mia, who had transformed reflexively.
When an Abyss One appears, ordinary people have no choice but to wait for a magical girl and entrust their lives to her.
"H-help us! The building is..."
"E-everyone!! Evacuate the building first! We have to get out before the Abyss Ones bring it down!!"
"We're on the eighth floor of a department store! How are we supposed to get down in time without an elevator?!"
"J-just run down the stairs for now! I can't save people from a collapsing building, either!! Only a few magical girls have flight abilities!"
"Aaaaargh!! Run!!!"
"Kyaaaah!!!"
-Rumble-rumble!!
"E-everyone? Please keep order..."
"..."
I lowered my body to avoid people's gazes for the moment and watched Mia deal with the situation.
[Sejin... Alice got a deployment request too... Are you going to be okay...?]
'...Tell them it'll take a while because I'm far away.'
Right now... transforming was impossible.
Normally, I would have run into a bathroom, transformed, and escaped with Stellar Shift, but Mia's presence was a problem.
She knew me. She was kind and meddlesome, and on top of that, she was a magical girl.
If I disappeared without a word here, she would search for me for a long time.
"...I'll evacuate too. Ms. Mia... are you going to go rescue people?"
"Th-that's what I should do. I... I'm a magical girl. I have to save people. There must still be many people who haven't managed to evacuate. Especially the theater upstairs..."
Yes. That was what a magical girl should do. Someone who saved people from the threat of Abyss Ones.
...That was a magical girl's role, but...
"Are you sure you'll be okay, Ms. Shina? You don't have teleportation magic, either. No matter how sturdy a magical girl's body is, you'd die if you jumped from a building this tall or got trapped beneath it without escaping."
"...Oh. Did I ever say I couldn't use teleportation magic?"
"You did. Anyway... shouldn't you evacuate too, Ms. Shina? We don't know when this building might collapse."
-Ruuuumble!
The vibrations coming from the floor were ominous. I didn't know what rank of Abyss One had appeared, but... if we were unlucky, there was nothing to say the building wouldn't collapse five minutes from now. That was the kind of disaster Abyss Ones were.
"...No. Still, I can't ignore the people here. If it were Senior Alice, she'd go rescue people even in a situation like this."
"Alice has lots of mobility skills in the first pl—!"
I barely swallowed the words that had nearly burst out in irritation.
Did this woman even understand what was going on right now?
Alice would save people even in this situation? Yes. I could do that.
Alice had flight capabilities even with her basic movement skill, and beyond that magic, she had the cheat-like ability Stellar Shift.
She was a magical girl capable of protecting at least her own body in any situation.
But what about Mia? If she'd reached B-rank as a support-type magical girl, she surely wasn't powerless, but B-rank was still B-rank.
Even if she spread a barrier, she couldn't erase the damage from falling dozens of meters, nor could she ignore the damage of being crushed beneath a building.
"...It's all right, Mr. Sejin. Truthfully, I want to take you and escape, but my feet won't move. Someone like you, whom I know, should be able to escape on your own. You may look fragile and cute, but you're actually a dependable oppa."
"..."
-Crack.
It was a form of address I disliked, but this wasn't the time to complain about it.
"Don't die. It's good to save people, but don't save them by sacrificing your own life. I'm telling you to escape before it's too late. Do you understand?"
"Oh. That's something I really like hearing. Don't worry, Mr. Sejin. I'll come out of the apartment next door again tomorrow morning and ring your doorbell."
"Do whatever you want."
-Pat-pat!
I could try to persuade her, but even as we stood there, the odds of the building collapsing kept rising.
It would be better to disappear from her sight, send Mia off to do what she had to do, then find somewhere with no people and transform.
That way, Mia would have a better chance of hurrying to rescue people and escaping the building.
-Crack.
Why were magical girls so desperate to sacrifice their lives?
Even if the mascots had formed contracts by gathering gullible people who loved saving others, shouldn't people be selfish by nature?
Risking one's own life to save someone else?
And then grieving, blaming themselves, if they failed to save that person?
Why? What was a magical girl, anyway?
[Oppa. Alice likes saving people. Alice loves everyone in the world. Maybe that's why everyone loves Alice too.]
[Of course, Alice loves you most of all, Oppa. Alice loves everyone in the world, but even if you combined all the love Alice has for everyone except you, it wouldn't come close to her love for you.]
[But, Oppa.]
[Why don't you love Alice?]
-Whoosh.
My field of vision changed. No, it was being eroded. The stairs burning down between the shaking buildings turned red.
The world was dyed red. The walls, floor, and ceiling—there wasn't a single place that wasn't red.
My hands were red, and my clothes were red too.
And on the floor before my eyes, a white-haired girl lay crumpled, stained red.
-Dizzy.
[Han&$#&jin! W$&@ke&%$up$%@]
Beside the girl, countless Abyss Ones' corpses and a blood-red axe lay abandoned on the floor.
"Hah... huff..."
My body collapsed.
My balance vanished.
Sensation disappeared from one leg, and my body was forced down onto the floor.
The blood-red walls and ceiling shook and began to crumble.
-KABOOM!
A stone slab about the size of my head fell right beside me, but I couldn't move.
I...
I......
[Wake up!!!! Han Sejin!!!!]
...Ah. Right.
That's how it had been.
[Aaaah!! Wh-what do I do?! Am I going to disappear now? My, my partner! Alice is!]
[...Hey!! You rabbit!!]
[Huh, huh? Y-you! You! You! You just now...]
[Make a contract with me! I'll pretend to be Alice!]
[What?! There's no way that could work!! The mascots' contract system...]
[Just do it!! I don't know what kind of system it is, but that guy and I...]
When I opened my eyes again, my hands were no longer red.
My clothes weren't red either; they were pure white instead.
Pure-white hair, long enough to brush my back, tickled me, and bright sunlight I hadn't seen in years poured down upon it, stabbing at my eyes.
[Han Sejin? Han Sejin!! You're awake!!]
"...I can't die yet."
There was still a lot left for me to do before I could die.
Of all times, in a situation like this, damn it...
-Thud!
-Grab!
I caught the stone slab falling from above with one hand and hurled it to the floor.
Apparently, the situation had worsened while I was trapped in the nightmare.
"...Tokkaengi. How long has it been since I ended up like that?"
[About ten minutes.]
"Haah, how am I still alive? I really am hard to kill."
To have wasted ten minutes panicking in that situation and still not be dead? That was impressive.
Maybe Tokkaengi had desperately blocked things from falling on me. Even a mascot could exert a minimum amount of physical force. If she had learned anything from watching me, perhaps knocking away falling rocks was within her abilities.
[You... you're okay, right...?]
"I'm fine. Of course I'm fine."
-Crunch.
I took medicine from inside my clothes, crushed it into powder, and forced it into my mouth, then pulled out a cigarette and quickly took a drag.
Only now did my mind feel clear. I felt alive.
"Try contacting Mia. She's not dead yet, right?"
[Uh... the mascot is still alive. Looks like she's alive. Are you going to go to Mia? Alice is getting an overwhelming number of deployment requests right now...]
"Tell her I haven't arrived yet."
Under normal circumstances, I might have gone along with it obediently, but this time I just couldn't.
I was in such a foul mood. How many people had I saved normally? Shouldn't they understand if I dragged my feet a little sometimes?
Besides, I didn't think I could keep my expression under control if I went out in front of people right now.
So, for now...
"...I guess I have to go pick up that damn junior."
I had to deal with the junior who was irritating me first.
After all, this building looked like it had only about six minutes left before it could no longer hold.