What the Magical Girl Wishes For (2)

Three days is a short time if it's short, and a long time if it's long.

How one perceives it depends on how the person in question spends each day.

If you spend the day immersed in something, three days will pass in an instant.

If you merely let the time pass while staring blankly, three days will feel like a lifetime.

In that sense, wouldn't Yoo Seo-ah's three days, spent focusing on me, pass much faster than mine?

…It would have been nice if that time could pass faster in a physical sense, too.

You know that thing. That thing.

The one where they say you only need fourteen words, but rhinoceros beetles show up four times.

Like that priest who floats around stuck in a window frame, then awakens with glowing eyes.

Ah, that's too fast. It's not like I want to see the world an instant later.

I've gone on a bit long with the digression.

Returning to the main point, the very first thing Yoo Seo-ah asked for after I said I'd do anything was…

"Sniiiiff…."

It was hugging my wings tightly and sniffing their scent.

…Sounds like a joke, right? I thought it was a joke too.

"Hhht…. M-Miss Seo-ah, maybe it's about time to stop…. Hngh…!"

"Just a little longer, just a little…."

I shuddered at the feel of her breath against my back, along with the entranced voice coming from behind me.

You ask what's so wrong with it just being breath?

Well…. People can breathe heavily from time to time, so a little huff of breath is nothing to worry about.

Even just running hard makes your breathing heavy.

It's just that….

The problem is that she's pressed close enough for me to feel every breath so clearly….

Once or twice, sure, that can happen. I understand that much too.

But doing this every time she breathes is a little much, even for me.

It's not that I dislike it. I don't.

It's just…. This feeling of being burdened is separate from wanting to shower her with love.

"Sniiiiff…. Haa…. An angel's wings smell nice…."

"Eeeh…. M-Miss Seo-ah…! It tickles…!"

While hugging me from behind, she was smoking a cigarette….

No, she was breathing so deeply through her nose that it almost seemed like she was snorting drugs.

Is comparing a magical girl to drugs a bit much?

Then let's call it an oxygen mask. She's going sniff-sniff every time she breathes.

"Maybe it's because you've flown so much, but you smell warm…. Like a blanket dried in the sun…."

"D-Do you like it that much?"

"Yeah…. If I had my way, I'd sniff this scent all day…."

It's a little burdensome, but if she liked it, what could I do?

Besides, I was the one who'd said with my own mouth that I'd do anything for her, so it would be awkward to back out now.

"Mmm…."

And thinking of the dependable Yoo Seo-ah clinging to me like a baby was cute, too.

"Are you comfortable?"

"Your wings are thick, so they're nice and fluffy…."

"I'm glad. Hehe."

It felt like taking care of a large baby.

Once I thought of it that way, the feeling of being burdened had disappeared before I knew it.

Wondering whether there was anything more I could do for her, I suddenly remembered something.

'Didn't a seraph have three pairs of wings?'

She was this happy with one pair; wouldn't she be three times as happy with three?

"Hey, Miss Seo-ah, could you stand up for a moment?"

"Weren't you supposed to do whatever I wanted for three days? I'm not satisfied yet."

Her cute little growl, as she warily guarded against having her beloved stuffed animal taken away, made me chuckle and shake my head.

"I'm not taking them away. I'm trying to make you feel even better, so please stand up for just a moment."

"…Okay."

Yoo Seo-ah rose with a sullen expression, as if to see what great thing I was going to do.

After getting off the bed, I twisted my body this way and that.

'Now that I think about it, I don't know how to bring out my wings.'

Hmm…. Could I do it the same way I did when I made the clone earlier?

Or was there some special trick?

I didn't know, since I'd never consciously tried it before.

Things always happened whenever I wanted them to.

'Let's try it.'

New wings sprout. No—more like the feeling of drawing out the wings that were already there….

It felt a little different from when I made gold or a living meat doll.

If those felt like simply creating something that hadn't existed,

this felt more like drawing something out from inside me.

Should I say it was the difference between picking something up beside me and fishing something out of the water?

Yes, the difference was pretty substantial.

"Hngh…."

After a little while, two pairs of wings appeared from my shoulder blades and around my waist, accompanied by a strange sensation and a flap!

I worried that my body weight might increase along with the wings, but fortunately that didn't happen.

So I suppose the weight had already included the wings.

"There! Now you're even fluffier!"

"Wow…."

I said with a bright smile, and Yoo Seo-ah approached as if entranced and hugged me tightly from behind.

It was a little suffocating, but it didn't hurt or anything, so I just let her hold me.

After that, things were more or less the same.

She sniffed my wings, hugged me tightly like a teddy bear, or slept alongside me—something like that.

Isn't sleeping together a little dangerous?

If she were hugging me from the front, I'd have thought it a little dangerous, but since she was hugging me from behind, it was fine!

It was barely safe!

Anyway, that was what happened on the first day.

At this rate, maybe the other days could pass uneventfully too?

That well-founded confidence filled me,

and then, the next day, when Yoo Seo-ah went out on patrol and returned covered in blood and dust—

Let's take a bath together.

"Huh?"

My confidence came crashing down.

No, I mean, we'd just been doing a sort of teddy-bear routine, and suddenly she wanted to take a bath together….

"Y-You mean you'd like me to help you wash up…?"

"I mean let's wash together, and get in the bathtub together too."

"Um…. I-I might make the bathtub feel cramped because of my wings."

"It's fine. Our bathtub is spacious. And, angel. You haven't washed even once since you came to our house. It's about time you did."

I felt a lump in my throat at the way she was trying so hard to persuade me.

"Angels don't need to use the bathroom or wash themselves!?"

"It's a matter of how it feels."

"Th-That…! I-I suppose it can't be helped…."

I'd been distracted by other things and hadn't thought of it, but there was no getting around the matter of feeling clean.

Wanting to maintain cleanliness was a natural desire, after all.

But was it really okay for me to wash with Yoo Seo-ah?

Even though I was sexless now, was it permissible for someone who had once been a man to enter a bathroom with a girl?

If Yoo Seo-ah wanted it, was fulfilling her wish more important?

"Do you… not want to wash with me?"

…How could I refuse when she made that face after coming back covered in blood and dust?

"…Okay. Sure, let's wash together."

"Yeah!"

Yoo Seo-ah smiled brightly, like a black Labrador that had just been told it was time to get in the water, then hoisted me over her shoulder and carried me into the bathroom.

As though there was no time for me to mentally prepare, her hands seized me and dragged me into the bathroom.

Naturally, Yoo Seo-ah, who thought of me as another girl, took off her clothes without a shred of hesitation.

Watching her do that….

I felt absolutely nothing, to a truly astonishing degree.

'Is this what it means to be sexless?'

It wasn't that erotic love had been completely severed; rather, it had become incredibly faint.

I could still feel pleasure, but I wasn't particularly interested in seeking it out?

'Then there shouldn't be a problem.'

Smiling in satisfaction, I slowly took off my clothes after Yoo Seo-ah.

Though it was only one old-fashioned garment, something like a long-sleeved dress.

"Can you take it off by yourself? Isn't it hard because of your wings?"

"It's fine. I can take it off myself!"

I'm not a child; can't I take off a single piece of clothing by myself?

Just fold my wings and take it off like a T-shirt….

No, am I supposed to take it off like this?

"Huh, what's going on?"

"Want me to help?"

"…Please help me."

With Yoo Seo-ah's help, I took off my clothes and saw my naked body for the first time.

I had imagined that, being sexless, I'd have a smooth body with no organs at all like a doll, or perhaps both male and female organs….

'I'm just a woman.'

It was a woman's body with everything a woman should have.

Except that all sexual desire had been stripped away.

After looking over my body for a moment, I took off the halo above my head and entered the bathroom.

"Is that detachable…?"

"Huh? What is?"

"No, that thing above your head…."

At that, I looked in the mirror and saw that the halo above my head really was gone.

Oh, right—I had just taken it off and set it with my clothes.

"Why does this come off?"

"How should I know…?"

A chill ran over me, and I shuddered as I put the halo back on my head.

Fortunately, once set back atop my head, it naturally found its way back into place.

'It really is detachable….'

If so, couldn't I put away my wings too?

With that thought, I focused for a moment, and my wings slowly seeped into my body and vanished.

"Oh…."

Feeling much lighter, I looked myself over, then checked my back in the mirror.

For a moment I thought maybe something would be engraved there like a tattoo, but my back was simply smooth and ordinary.

"I'm all ready to wash!"

"You can put your wings away?"

"Huh? Oh, yes. But if I put them away, I can't fly."

I wondered why my body felt oddly heavy, but then I realized I couldn't float in the sky.

Though I'd only just realized it myself, I answered calmly as though I'd known all along.

"Well then, shall we go in and wash now?"

"Yes!"

Smiling brightly, I followed Yoo Seo-ah into the bathroom.

"I'll wash you nice and clean."

And with those words—

Click.

The bathroom door closed.