Chapter 11: Remember The Ending (4)

“Before that.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s change those clothes first.”

Certainly, it would be strange to walk around like this.

The outfit was white from head to toe.

With the marks that looked like patchwork here and there, I thought that other people would think I looked like someone with a very strange head.

“But I don’t have any clothes.”

“…”

So, ‘give me’ clothes.

The light in Emerald’s eyes disappeared for a moment at the shameless words.

What, why, what.

Since she’s a successful magical girl, she can buy clothes, right?

This person is an abandoned child who has nothing because her mother abandoned her.

“Ha, follow me.”

Despite being told to follow, Emerald started searching for nearby clothing stores on the map app.

Anyway, she followed Emerald for a while.

“Welcome. What kind of clothes are you looking for?”

“I think something comfortable to wear right now would be fine.”

“Yes, then come this way.”

The place she arrived at was a women’s clothing store.

If you ask me if I felt a great sense of rejection, it wasn’t, but I couldn’t help feeling a sense of alienation.

Women’s clothing?

It felt like the tone didn’t suit me.

“Actually, it’s still comfortable.”

“I’m uncomfortable, so just wear it without complaining.”

I shook my head internally at Emerald who was throwing clothes at me.

I shouldn’t think like this as the recipient, but her attitude was too impure.

I didn’t like the clothes she gave me either.

‘Shouldn’t clothes that I can just walk around in be enough?’

When she told me to change my clothes, I was thinking of something ordinary like a t-shirt and jeans, but the clothes Emerald gave me were beyond ordinary; they were so authentic.

Just looking at the clothes in her hands gave me hives on my arms.

“I’m all dressed up.”

“…Aren’t you wearing them too sloppily?”

“I’ve never worn clothes like this before.”

Even from my perspective, they looked sloppy, but it was literally inevitable.

You have to have worn clothes like this before.

Although I couldn’t understand Emerald’s reaction of shock at seeing me like that.

“Haa, I’ll dress you up, so let’s go back into the changing room.”

“I’m not a kid, so why bother dressing me up—”

“Let’s. Go. In.”

Sure.

Since it felt like someone was going to shoot a slingshot at me, I didn’t argue for long and quickly moved into the changing room.

As I clicked my tongue and looked at myself in the mirror, Emerald started to adjust my clothes.

It felt like I was getting better.

No, it definitely looked better than when I wore them.

“It was a sudden thought.”

“Go ahead.”

“Aren’t the clothes too airy? I don’t think this kind of thing suits me.”

A frilly shirt and a pleated skirt that came down to my ankles.

It wasn’t like the outfit of a villainess from some medieval novel or anything…

I wasn’t physically uncomfortable or anything, but my mind was really uncomfortable.

“Here, put this on.”

“You’re not playing with me as a doll or anything, are you?”

“I just want you to dress like a human being at least?”

There was some substance to her words.

Oh, that’s right.

Up until just now, she had been dressed in an inhumane way, so yeah.

If you were to ask which side I was on, it was closer to a monster’s outfit.

I silently took the socks that were stretched out in front of me and sighed deeply.

‘I can’t tell if you’re trying to be nice or not…

My feeling was that if you’re going to treat people, it would be better to make your attitude clear.

Anyway.

Emerald seemed to be quite interested in what I was going to wear.

Why did you need to be in the changing room with me when I’m just putting on socks?

“Excuse me, are you going to keep watching me like that?”

“I don’t know what you might do in the changing room.”

Even so, I had let you in alone at first.

I ended up changing my socks in front of Emerald, muttering to myself.

“Why do you like white so much?”

The top was white, and the socks were white.

I don’t really like white because it stains easily.

I grumbled to myself and looked in the mirror, and a metaphorical pretty girl dressed in the style of a villainess was staring at me.

‘I think I know why Emerald wanted to make her wear more human-like clothes.

Although it wasn’t highlighted much in the original, the pretty girl aspect was there at least.

I didn’t know I would experience that pretty girl aspect in this way.

‘But anyway, something feels lacking.

When I wear these clothes, the apocalypse feeling from the original doesn’t come across at all.

She wasn’t wearing a uniform, but a villainess outfit, and she didn’t have a hat, and most importantly, she didn’t have twintails.

Somehow, when I look in the mirror, I don’t get the feeling that ‘This is the real apocalypse!’

“Emerald, do you have a hair tie or something?”

“I have some extra ones… but you know how to tie your hair, right?”

“More or less.”

I’m not looking at anyone as an old man who can’t move.

Of course, I couldn’t be sure because I’ve never tied my own hair myself.

Anyway, I received a hair tie from Emerald and went back into the locker room.

I heard someone ask me if I had to go all the way to the locker room to tie my hair—

“If you’re that upset, just come in yourself.”

I thought about tying my hair into twintails with Emerald’s hands, but I thought it would be better to tie it here and show Emerald.

It would be even better if she despaired.

“Ugh…”

However, it wasn’t long before my grand plan ran into a snag.

The reason for this was that tying my hair was harder than I thought.

Of course, it wasn’t that hard to just tie my hair into two pigtails.

The problem was that it didn’t look the way I remembered it.

‘The hair was sticking out in all sorts of ways…

It seemed that I had no talent for women.

The talent that I was unaware of was probably only my talent for monsters.

Still, is this enough?

Right now, the only thing on my mind was teasing Emerald.

To be honest, I was curious, right?

I might get hit by a mappo if I did something wrong, but this time, it was worth it.

“What on earth are you doing, tying your hair up yet?”

Emerald coming into the changing room wasn’t in the plan.

I averted my gaze as Emerald swept me over with unfocused eyes.

She was much quieter than I thought.

Her gaze made me feel like she was going to commit murder.

“Huh…”

“…Are you okay?”

You definitely won’t be okay.

Judging by the way she was sweating and holding her head, it seemed like the trauma from the apocalypse had come back to her.

Woof.

“It’s gourmet, it’s gourmet.”

And above all, this sense of despair.

It was a despair so rich that it was on a different level from the one I had tasted at the shelter.

Thanks to that, my despair circuit was revived.

Emerald quickly came to her senses and it was not enough to fill her stomach, but it was enough to feel like she had eaten some food.

For example, it felt like she had gone to the food sampling corner at the supermarket and eaten a piece.

“That hair doesn’t suit you, so stop it right now.”

“I think it suits you more than you think.”

Ouch, oh my god?!

Before I could finish speaking, Emerald started forcibly untying her hair that was tied up.

More than that, it was quite painful for even a monster to have their hair pulled forcibly.

As I stroked my cold hair, I felt a little satisfaction from the unexpected realization.

“Don’t ever think about tying your hair like that again, okay?”

“…”

I couldn’t overcome the force of Emerald’s angry words and ended up nodding.

It was shameful.

A monster who was intimidated by a magical girl and eventually surrendered.

It was a scene that would have caused a huge uproar if the doctor had seen it.

“But, it was the hairstyle that my mother often did.”

“Ah,” an expression that looked like she’d been hit.

It wasn’t exactly wrong.

After all, the hairstyle that the doctor often did was right.

No, it wasn’t just that she did it often, but from the first moment to the last moment, she was always in twintails.

“It’s a little sad when I think about it like that.”

It’s almost like she’d lost the identity of Apocalypse as a character.

Is it really right to call Apocalypse, who isn’t in a uniform with long hair and who can talk, Apocalypse?

Now, the only thing Apocalypse and I had in common was that we were both monsters.

That’s why Emerald seemed even more confused.

“I’m sorry. I have a trauma from the hairstyle I had a while ago…”

But there was one thing.

Emerald’s sincere apology was valuable enough for me.

A magical girl apologizing to a monster that destroyed the world.

“Ugh, it’s thrilling just to imagine it…”

I couldn’t feel a sense of fullness or despair, but I was able to fill myself with enough mental satisfaction.