Chapter 53
"Stellar Shift... Urgh... I guess I can't exactly spam it."
After transforming into Alice, I swallowed some medicine and smoked to hurriedly recharge my mental strength, but I was in terrible condition right now.
-Throb-throb
'...Damn Nightmare.'
The fact that I'd been trapped inside that hallucination just now was probably also due to the lingering echo in my head.
A magical girl's spells required two things: magic power and mental strength. With the latter's remaining reserves anything but abundant, Stellar Shift, an ultimate move no matter how cost-effective it was, couldn't be spammed.
Of course, even in my current situation, escaping alone wouldn't be difficult. I could simply smash through the wall, jump out, summon stars beneath my feet, and fly away.
But the people I had to save now... At the very least, there was Mia, along with whoever she'd brought with her...
'...I wonder if I can.'
Alice was a powerful magical girl, but she wasn't particularly good at rescuing dozens of civilians caught in a crisis.
Save as many as I can.
Anything beyond that... can't be helped.
[Ms. Mia! This is Alice! You're at XX Department Store, right? What floor are you on?!]
[Senior?! It's dangerous here—how did you get here?! No, how did you even know I was here...?]
[The mascot told me! There's no time! Hurry! Where are you now?]
[Th-the rooftop! I was sending people to the neighboring buildings that haven't collapsed yet through the roof... but the rooftop floor is collapsing too...!]
The rooftop. This was simpler.
[Comet Smash (Comet Smash)]
-Boom!
I blasted through the wall with a controlled Comet Smash rather than using my full power, then kicked off toward the blue world outside visible beyond it.
"...Huh?! What's that over there?"
"There! On that wall over there!"
I ignored the voices of the civilians outside, which seemed to be saying something like that, created starlight beneath my feet, and moved straight to the rooftop.
-Whoosh...
"Ms. Mia! Are you all right?"
"Senior?! How did you get here so quickly?!"
"I heard your rescue request as soon as I was dispatched, so I came straight here."
"Oh my..."
Mia's face flushed red.
Knowing what Mia currently felt toward Alice, I found it incredibly chilling, but this wasn't a situation where we could afford to take it easy.
"Are these the people who didn't manage to evacuate?"
"Y-yes... They were crossing to that building over there, but..."
There was no time. There were eight civilians left. The building was only moments away from collapsing so completely that it could barely maintain its balance. That meant there was no time for leisurely explanations.
-Grab.
"Huh? Wh-what is this...?"
"I'm sorry I can't be gentler! Just focus on staying alive for now!"
"What the hell do you meeeaaaan!!!!"
-Whoosh!
I grabbed the civilian and lightly threw them toward the neighboring building, which hadn't collapsed yet.
"Senior?! If you just throw people like that..."
"Aaaah!! Huh? I-I'm alive!"
"...As expected of you, Senior!"
"There's no time! Hurry! If you trust Alice, come this way!"
-Rumble!
Even now, the amount of space available to stand on the rooftop was shrinking. Terror filled the civilians' eyes, but they still approached me with their eyes squeezed shut, perhaps deciding that this was better than dying without trying anything.
If I'd had the time, I would have moved them one by one with my movement skill... but Alice's movement skill could carry only one person per arm, no matter how many people I tried to take. Two was the limit. With every second precious, this was the best method.
I threw the people one after another, moving all of them to the neighboring building with precise angles and control over my strength. They might get hurt if they landed badly, but it was better than dying.
Now there was only one civilian left.
"M-Miss... You can throw me properly, right?"
"Trust Alice!"
She was a girl who looked to be in her early teens. No matter how safely she'd watched Alice throw the other seven, how could she not feel anxious about being thrown herself?
I was sorry if she hadn't mentally prepared herself yet, but there was no time left. There really was hardly any time remaining.
Just as I grabbed the girl with both hands, something happened on Mia's side.
-Crack
-Slip
"Huh?"
The rooftop had already narrowed as much as it could, leaving us huddled close together. I necessarily needed space to throw people, which meant Mia had no choice but to stand a little distance away from me.
And, as luck would have it, the floor where Mia was standing collapsed at precisely that moment.
"Kyaaaah!!!"
Mia vanished from sight in an instant. My hands were occupied holding the girl, and I was devoting every nerve to controlling my strength, so I had no room to help Mia.
I quickly threw the girl toward the neighboring building. I still controlled my strength and angle properly. I couldn't confirm it with my own eyes, but she would land safely on the building's rooftop.
I gathered the little mental strength I had left and accelerated my thoughts. This wasn't skydiving. At a collapsing building, it took only a few seconds for someone to fall and reach the ground.
Mia was already far from the rooftop. Even if I followed after her, by the time I reached her, she would already have finished falling and reached the ground.
[Stellar Shift]
-Flash!
The only way I could catch up with Mia was by crossing space. I reached her and hurriedly embraced her, then attempted a two-person Stellar Shift again, but...
-Rumble-rumble!!
-Thud! Thud!
-KABOOM!
...Too late.
* * *
"Ow, ow, ow..."
"Ugh..."
-Throb-throb
...I guess that was too much.
Two consecutive Stellar Shifts while accelerating my thoughts, one of them carrying two people—the amount of calculation required was more than my current mental strength could handle.
Whether it was because of the aftereffects or because I'd actually hit my head while falling, I opened my eyes while clutching my throbbing head with one hand, and...
"St-still, I'm glad the shield wasn't too late. Hehe..."
In the meantime, Mia had enveloped us in a barrier, having spent all her magic power to deploy it.
The only downside was that we were now surrounded by what appeared to be the building's rubble.
"...So we got buried alive."
"Y-yeah..."
The shield Mia had deployed was extremely small. In practice, we were pressed against each other, enclosed by a round shield with only the slightest gap around us.
"...I'm sorry, Senior. Because of me, even you..."
"It was Alice's choice. You don't need to be sorry, Ms. Mia."
"If you were alone, Senior, could you escape from here?"
...It would be difficult right now. To get out, I needed either to blast a path all the way to the ground with one powerful attack or use Stellar Shift, but I didn't have enough energy to do either at the moment.
"If you could just hold out a little longer, both of us could get out. Once Alice recovers, the two of us can escape with Stellar Shift."
"You can use that magic even in a situation like this... As expected of you, Senior..."
"So if you could maintain this shield as much as possible..."
-Tick
"..."
"The debris... must be very heavy. It doesn't look like it can hold out much longer."
"Haah... Give me your hand."
As I said, Mia and I were practically pressed together. The shield was extremely small too. Changing positions in this situation was almost impossible, but we could at least hold hands.
"Wow... I'm holding hands with Senior Alice..."
"...It can't be helped. Could you take off Alice's glove? I can't reach my hand over to that side."
"Ah... You're going to give me magic power?"
Whether I liked it or not, I needed to transfer my magic power to Mia to keep the shield up. That would increase our chances of surviving.
At that final moment, I left only enough magic power to escape with Stellar Shift and transferred all the rest to Mia.
...I deactivated Stella Escape, which normally applied to Alice, including the magic that prevented her from being filmed.
'...It doesn't mean anything in this situation...'
It was a magic that prevented Alice from appearing on camera and included the minor effect of ensuring that, no matter how violently Alice fought, the inside of her skirt couldn't be seen by any human, including cameras. But what meaning could that have in our current situation?
Stella Escape was a useful spell, but the only thing it affected was light. In other words, it could only interfere with sight.
Now that we were pressed so tightly together, with her field of vision positioned near my face, it was meaningless.
-Hummm...
"...Wow. What incredible purity."
"I'll give you everything except the minimum amount of magic Alice needs. Use it all to strengthen the shield."
"Wow... You're amazing, Senior."
Mia kept marveling as she used all the magic power she'd received from me to strengthen the shield.
After giving her this much... it should hold until I recovered.
"...Um, Senior. If you don't mind, there's something I'd like to ask you."
"...What is it?"
"Um... Senior, do you smoke?"
-Startled.
'.........Ah.'
The cigarette I'd smoked to restore my mental strength. I'd smoked it while in Alice's form.
After that, things had been so urgent that I hadn't used any method to cover the smell, gum or otherwise... and since Mia and I were practically pressed together, there was no way she couldn't smell it.
"Th-that can't be. Alice would never use such a vulgar thing..."
"Hmm... I suppose you're right. The ash must have gotten on Alice while we were falling."
...Mia seemed more likely to believe that Alice had been covered in ash after falling through somewhere like a smoking room during that urgent situation than that Alice smoked. In reality, both Mia and I were covered in dirt, so it wouldn't have been strange if some ash had gotten mixed in somewhere.
In times like this, the illusion surrounding Alice was helpful.
In our current position, Mia's head was around my collarbone, with our bodies overlapping below it.
Even in this situation, I was desperately trying to erase from my mind the irritating sensation of flesh rubbing against my chest.
...I really couldn't react right now.
"...Senior. We're going to survive, right?"
"If Ms. Mia can buy us some time, definitely."
"Hmm... Actually, if I died in this state, I think I'd be happy even in death... but of course I don't want to die. There are so many things I want to do. I want to eat delicious food and date, too."
"You can do all that once we get out. I'll be rooting for you."
"...If we can't escape and the two of us die here, there's something I absolutely want to tell you, Senior."
"..."
I wanted to flick her forehead, but our position made it impossible, so I gave up.
"Don't worry. Alice isn't putting on a brave front right now; there really is a good chance we can escape."
"...Honestly, I thought someone like you might lie about that, Senior, so I wouldn't despair."
...I didn't want to imagine it, but even if someone really were going to die here, my personality wouldn't let me say, "Yes. You're going to die," to their face. I wondered how she knew Alice so well.
It was then.
"...Eek!"
"Wh-what is it?!"
"I-I feel something crawling around my leg... I think it's a b-bug. How can I get it off...?"
-Flap-flap
Had it been inside the shield from the start? Mia began wriggling in the narrow space, saying that a bug had attached itself to her leg.
"S-stay still! Alice is ticklish too!!"
"How can I stay still?! It's... eek!"
"Don't come up! Don't come up, I said! Stay down there! No, please, just stay still...!"
To repeat, Mia and I were pressed tightly together. And our surroundings were effectively enclosed by the shield. To put it another way, it was like two people trapped inside a narrow tube.
If Mia moved her body in this situation... especially if she moved her legs upward from below toward me to escape the bug...
-Tap
"Huh?"
"..."
Silence descended for a while.
Given our positions, it was probably her knee. Or her thigh. Whatever it was, it had ended up between my legs.
"..."
"..."
Mia's expression, clearly saying that something was strange and wrong, was laid bare before me.
Judging by that expression, she seemed to understand what the sensation she was feeling meant.
It wasn't as if she'd mistaken it for something else, like Sapphire.
-Tap
"...Se-Senior Alice...? There's something here..."
"...Fuck."
Her flustered expression and voice seemed to demand an explanation from me.
I could feel Mia's eyes fly wide at the profanity that slipped out before I could stop it.
Her gaze naturally shifted toward my face.
She looked as if she herself couldn't accept reality yet.
After scanning my face from top to bottom for a long while, she moved her leg again to confirm the strange something, then sniffed at me. An expression combining realization and horror appeared on her face.
"...Could it be... Mr. Sejin?"
..................Why was this woman only so perceptive about things like this?
It was the moment when the secret I'd risked my life to protect for eight years was exposed.
It was only a question in form; she had already figured it out, so this was merely the process of confirming what she'd realized.