Chapter 16: Malice (1)

Why is the security at this hospital like this?

I sighed, wiping off my sticky hands.

The monster’s corpse—or rather, its byproduct?

A thick liquid, like a lump of black oil, fell onto my shadow.

‘Anyway, this is edible, too.

Cleaning up the dirty hospital room wasn’t that big of a deal.

The monster’s byproducts disappeared as if they were sucked up by a vacuum cleaner just by touching my shadow.

Hmm, cleaning up monster byproducts was the apocalypse.

Gulp.

I’m not full after all…

The monster was a lump of despair made up of despair itself, but eating it didn’t fill my stomach or anything.

It was really too bad.

If I had my stomach full of monsters, I could have run around hunting monsters right now.

But, well.

“Because Tamako is here…”

What should I do with that lucky girl?

Dealing with the monsters that came every night was quite a hassle, though.

But, if I thought about it as the feeling of swatting away mosquitoes that came after smelling blood, it didn’t seem that annoying.

“Akari, I’m here.”

“…Are you here?”

If I were to say annoying, this one was annoying.

Emerald, who came by at least once a day without fail.

I don’t remember being close to her, but the way she smiled at me whenever she saw me was really…

“Did you eat something wrong?

Or did your memory suddenly disappear?”

I wanted to ask her directly, but I had said that you shouldn’t talk to someone who is mentally ill.

How long will I be here today?

Just thinking about it made me sigh.

“Isn’t Midori a magical girl?

I heard that there have been a lot of monsters invading recently.”

“Even if it’s not me, there are a lot of magical girls to deal with.

I heard that there have been awakened magical girls recently, so they don’t come near me very often.”

“I see.”

Then what the hell are you doing?

Since Emerald seemed busy recently, I couldn’t help but wonder in my head.

The magical girl would pass the buck to her junior who is less experienced than her.

And then she would say things like, “I’m telling you this so that you can do well—”

“Are you okay these days?

You’re feeling sick or something.”

“…It’s okay.

The biggest problem is that the hospital food doesn’t taste good.”

They say the hospital food doesn’t taste good, but this time it wasn’t a joke; it really didn’t taste good.

To be exact, the texture was just like trash.

They brought me porridge considering my stomach condition, but the porridge that didn’t taste good at all gave me the feeling of eating a lump of mud.

“Please bear with it for a little while.

It’s all for Akari.”

Where the hell is it?

Even pretending to eat it while secretly spitting it out was hard work.

Why can’t my shadow absorb monster corpses and not porridge-like waste?

“Oh, now that I think about it, there’s something I’m curious about.”

What is it?

Feel free to ask!”

The gaze is burdensome.

When Emerald said she had something to ask, I pulled my head back slightly as she pressed closer to me.

Um, we’re not even that close, but this distance is quite burdensome.

The hope that shot out with her eyes shining brightly was also disgusting, and huh.

“Is it possible that the alarm doesn’t sound when a monster appears in the city?”

“Huh?

Why is that all of a sudden…”

“No, I was just curious, so I asked.”

Why didn’t the alarm sound when the monster kept invading the hospital room?

Could this be corruption or something?

It’s like there aren’t alarms in the entire city, but only on the outskirts.

No, even in that case, shouldn’t the alarm have sounded when you came in?

“…Excuse me.

I have somewhere to go, so I’ll have to leave.”

“Oh, yes.

Have a good day.”

Since she would stay in her seat for a long time if she kept her twitchy attitude, it was better to at least see her off like this.

Don’t laugh at what’s so great about it, you idiot.

I clicked my tongue internally and stared at the door through which Emerald had disappeared.

I’ve confirmed that she won’t invade the hospital room during the day.

Well, it’ll be okay.

Staying in the hospital room all the time was reaching its limit.

How dare they keep a free spirit like me in a room like this.

“I’ll be back soon, Tamako.”

We’ve never had a proper conversation, but my inner closeness with Tamako was at its peak.

How can I put it, it felt like our souls were connected?

Slurp.

“Ah, my mouth is watering.”

Just looking at her made my mouth water.

If I were a normal monster, I might have devoured her in one bite.

It was such an attractive despair.

You have to sleep soundly until I come back, okay?

After giving her a final nod, I slowly began to change my clothes.

There was no need to draw attention by wearing a hospital gown when going out.

Knock knock.

“Hello, do you have a moment?”

“Ah.”

I got caught.

I froze for a moment with my skirt hanging over my thighs as the nurse opened the door and came in.

Oh, the original plan was to sneak out and sneak back in.

“Oh, just a moment.”

“Oh, no! You can, you can take your time!”

The nurse turned her head quickly when she saw me, so I pulled up my skirt and finished putting it on.

I don’t know why the one who saw me was more embarrassed than the one who was being seen.

“I’ll just go out for a moment.”

“Okay, take care— No, no no! Where are you going?!”

“Go out for a moment…”

“Absolutely not!”

Isn’t it enough for a person to just walk around normally?

I sighed inwardly at the nurse who desperately tried to stop me.

This is why normal people are like that.

I shook my head and pushed the nurse off my arm.

“Now, look. Do I look like I’m sick?”

“Yes.”

Is that a quick answer?

By the way, where the hell are you?

You don’t have much else to do besides your pale face, like you’re about to collapse at any moment?

Oh, and your lips are also pale.

Other than that, don’t you look completely fine?

“Even like this?”

“Whoa…”

For someone who doubts like this, showing it through action is the most effective way.

The best action to show off your health.

That is to show off your own strength.

“Uh, uh…”

“Do I look like a patient to you like this?”

“Oh, no…”

I lifted the nurse up and held her in my arms.

The so-called princess-like hugging posture.

Even though she looked like she was holding chopsticks, her body itself was no match for a normal human’s.

See, you can’t come to your senses right away because I’m showing you strength.

“Then I’ll be off.”

“Yes… Yes?! Oh, no! Wait a minute!”

Crunch—

“Ah, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you.”

The last thing I heard was a ‘yes’ reply, so it’s okay if I go out, okay.

The sky looked like it was going to rain at any moment.

Peridot, who had been blankly staring up at the sky covered with black clouds, lowered her gaze to the white chrysanthemum in her hand.

Of the people in the shelter, only those on the 5th floor survived.

The atmosphere around them, as well as her own heart, was extremely gloomy due to the first disaster.

“I’m sorry, everyone.”

She muttered words that she could no longer hear and placed the chrysanthemum on the platform next to the incense.

A gruesome scene where not a single healthy body could be found.

The deaths of family, friends, and acquaintances brought great shock and sadness to this small town.

It was literally impossible.

“If only I had been a little faster…”

There was no way she could shake it off.

Even the death of one person wasn’t something she could easily accept, let alone the death of so many people.

The weight of life and death weighed heavily on Peridot’s small shoulders.

“Senior, I don’t think I can do it.”

The media criticizing magical girls, the bereaved families crying for the dead to be brought back to life, even her own damaged photos.

She could do that.

And that’s why she had no choice but to take it with her.

There were so many things that she said were her fault, so the girl—Peridot—had to accept them all.

That was the only atonement she could make.

‘It would have been better if she had died.

It didn’t matter that her memories had been distorted.

All that mattered was that she had said it with that intention.

She pursed her lips as she recalled the last girl she had seen.

It didn’t matter that at least one person had survived.

What mattered was that she hadn’t been able to save everyone.

Thump, thump, thump—

“Ah.”

It started to rain.

As she sighed at the coldness she felt on her cheeks, the black floor gradually became stained with raindrops.

“Isn’t it okay to cry now?”

It was the moment when she slowly exhaled, wiping away the raindrops that were falling on her eyebrows.

A dark emotion began to bloom in a corner of her throbbing chest.

She tried to calm herself down by holding her trembling hands, but she couldn’t.

“Ah, ahh… ahh…”

“I wish I had just died.”

The girl was reflected in Peridot’s eyes.

The black girl smiling brightly at her, just as she had last seen her.

There, she was.