Reiko held Tsuan with one arm around her waist and one under her knees, quickly walking toward that familiar, slightly aged apartnt building.
The evening street was silent, with only their footsteps echoing... perhaps because it was Friday, everyone was discussing with family how to spend the weekend.
The moon and streetlights lit up simultaneously, the warm yellow light stretching and shortening their shadows.
Weekend... how should it be spent?
Reiko entered the apartnt's sowhat narrow entrance hall. The motion sensor light turned on in response. She stood at the stairs holding Tsuan, thought about which floor she lived on, then climbed the steps one by one.
The silver-haired girl's gaze fell on the quiet sleeping face in her arms. Long eyelashes cast small shadows in the light, thin lips slightly parted, allowing Reiko to hear breathing slightly louder than a heartbeat.
Perhaps Reiko's rhythm of walking while holding her was too slow, making her feel sowhat impatient in her dreams. Or perhaps the thin school uniform really couldn't resist the night's cold, making her instinctively seek warmth...
The deeply sleeping girl in Reiko's arms moved without warning. Her small, delicate chin rested against Reiko's neck and rubbed lightly, like a small animal seeking shelter, making a vague sound with a hint of grievance.
Then, she seed to find a more comfortable position, her warm forehead dependently resting against the sensitive skin on Reiko's neck side, warm breath faintly brushing past.
"Tsuan-chan..."
A mixture of protectiveness and inexplicable sourness spread in Reiko's heart.
Why, why must you... be treated like this by this world?
No family, not even friends... even if there were... they'd forget in a few days...
Reiko lightly sniffled, forcibly suppressing her emotions to avoid disturbing Tsuan's rest.
She couldn't imagine what kind of life that was, but she was determined to help her no matter what.
Because they were friends.
Her shoe soles repeatedly stepped on the dusty steps, finally reaching the floor where Tsuan's ho was located.
Reiko carried Tsuan to that familiar door, then encountered a difficult problem—no key.
She didn't know... or rather, couldn't rember whether Tsuan had told her where the spare key was. Maybe under the doormat... but there was no doormat at Tsuan's door.
Helplessly, she gently brushed aside the hair by the girl's ear in her arms, leaning close to the round, white earlobe and gently blowing out a breath of hot air.
"Tsuan-chan, where's the key?"
The crimson eyes slightly opened a crack, 'looked' once... perhaps Tsuan recognized Reiko just by scent, so she pointed to her pocket, then adjusted to a more comfortable position in her friend's arms to continue resting.
Learning the key's location, the student council president carefully shifted Tsuan's body weight to one arm for support, her free hand sowhat unfamiliarly reaching into Tsuan's jacket pocket.
Her fingertips successfully touched cold tal and plastic—the key.
She fumbled to take out that key ring, which only had a single door key and a sowhat aged tomato charm hanging on it.
Click.
The door lock opened in response. Reiko used her shoulder to gently push open the door, holding Tsuan as she entered sideways.
The entryway was narrow and dark. Reiko groped for the switch based on mory, the lights ca on, illuminating the living room with a hint of life before her.
Just that the air was perated with a scent of long-unventilated... tomato fragrance?
She carried Tsuan straight to the old sofa in the living room. Gently placing the girl in her arms down, then taking off her own jacket, carefully covering Tsuan with it.
"Good night..."
The silver-haired girl straightened up, her gaze sweeping over this familiar yet strange space. Still the sa—a low table, a TV, a projector, several videotapes... then the dining table in the distance... further away were the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen.
This place seed more like a temporary lodging than a... 'ho.'
The kitchen was small, with only simple stovetop and sink. Reiko habitually wanted to open the refrigerator to see if there was milk or sothing to relieve fatigue, but when she pulled open the refrigerator door, she suddenly rembered.
In this girl's fridge, except for eggs and a bit of vegetables, everything was tomato cans and noodles.
The refrigerator's internal light ca on, illuminating the contents inside.
Sure enough, it was no different from what she had seen when making breakfast yesterday morning.
Four unopened tomato cans, twelve eggs, two unopened packages of noodles, and the quantity of vegetables was also...?
Reiko disbelievingly pulled open the freezer door.
But there was only a thin layer of ice covering the inner walls, no trace of any food, not even the most common frozen foods or ice cream boxes.
The refrigerator's food storage was exactly the sa as yesterday morning—not a problem at all... like hell!
Had this girl eaten nothing from yesterday morning until now?!
No, she had eaten—she ate so popcorn...
Reiko's heart felt like it was being viciously squeezed by an icy hand, even her breathing stopped for a mont. Her fingers gripping the refrigerator door trembled slightly from the force.
She closed the refrigerator door, that dull collision sound particularly harsh in the quiet kitchen. Reiko leaned back against the cold refrigerator door, slowly sliding down to sit on the floor, tightly hugging her knees.
Tsuan-chan didn't even have the mood to eat... ?
The problem seed to have gotten a bit more serious. But...
It didn't matter anymore.
Tsuan's even, weak breathing was particularly piercing in the quiet environnt. Reiko took a deep breath, stood up from the floor, wanting to make sothing... for Tsuan to eat.
What to make? After not eating for a long ti... it would be better to give Tsuan-chan so porridge.
The student council president, barely regaining confidence, lit the stove, added water to the pot, then... realized
Tsuan's house didn't even have rice~
Tsuan-chan couldn't even afford rice~
The Dark Moon Society executive miss was almost completely broken by this fact.
She closed the kitchen door tightly to avoid waking Tsuan, then called and gave orders to the monster on the other end in a low voice.
"Buy lots of food, anything... preferably vegetables, at, and such... and milk... anyway, anything works!"
After estimating her savings, Reiko added:
"I'll reimburse you, deliver directly to this address."
Less than a minute after hanging up, Reiko heard soone tapping on the window. Just as she turned to look...
"Splurt..."
A soft sound with a slippery, sticky quality ca from the window.
A small puddle of pure white cream emanating faint sweet fragrance was 'flowing' in from under the door crack like it was alive. That puddle of cream quickly condensed and took shape, becoming a mini cream monster only knee-high with a giant head in a few seconds!
It still had no facial features and couldn't speak, only waving at Reiko as a greeting.
"Cr... Cream Monster?"
Reiko lowered her voice, surprised and puzzled.
"Didn't I tell you to knock on the door?"
She instinctively glanced toward the living room, afraid of waking Tsuan.
After all, letting Tsuan-chan see her alone with a monster would probably frighten her...
The mini Cream Monster couldn't answer this question, but it imdiately produced several bulging shopping bags from its flowing body like magic.
The bags fell on the kitchen floor with dull sounds. It pointed at the bags with its round cream finger, then at Reiko, then proudly put its hands on its hips and puffed out its chest...
Although it had no obvious waist, Reiko still understood what it wanted to say.
"I did sothing good!"
Reiko frowned, with doubt and a hint of wariness, carefully opening one of the bags to look inside.
Several boxes of freshly made vegetable porridge and seafood porridge still steaming hot ca into view... but this was far from what she had asked the Cream Monster to buy.
"Whatever, you wouldn't know how to shop anyway... well done."
Reiko took out several thousand yen from her wallet as pocket money reward, then began unpacking.
Her worry about Tsuan made her ignore the fact of how the Cream Monster had arrived here and bought things within one minute.
The 'Cream Monster' with other things to do took the money, waved goodbye to Reiko, then returned the sa way, squeezing back out through the window crack to rge with the 'cream' it had left outside.
"This ability really isn't bad."
It turned into a puddle of cream and began sliding across the ground at ultra-high speed. Although it forced several cars to stop, it didn't care.
After all, no matter what, the magical girls in this place must be better than that woman.
The 'Cream Monster,' or rather the Movie Monster, returned to the new ho it had just found in a few breaths—a fairly bustling movie theater.
Then it drilled into the screen, returning to its cold, simple, sowhat shabby space.
"Hey, I finished your job for you. Here's your pay."
She threw the yen bills Reiko had given her in front of the real Cream Monster... a glass bottle filled with cream.
A few seconds later, the Cream Monster erged from the glass bottle, took the 'pay' and proudly flexed its arms, then was kicked out by the Movie Monster.
"Take the money and get out quickly. Also... don't tell anyone about today."
Little Movie—the new na she gave herself—was already full of resentnt from being forced to move and work for free, now warning the Cream Monster to be smart and not cause trouble for her.
"If you don't want to be locked up forever, keep your mouth... uh, keep your... your... keep your cream under control!"
The Cream Monster saluted her, indicating compliance, then quietly found a crack to slip away through.
"Really, just looking at it makes angry!"
Little Movie stomped her feet hard twice, venting that anger with nowhere to go.
She could only imprison one person at most at a ti, and could only use that person's body to move around outside during that period.
But even so, she was a powerful monster that had existed for over ten years! She had fought countless magical girls, sotis even teaching novice magical girls how to use their specialized magic...
Since then, no magical girl had ever treated her with that woman's attitude!
She still used the fairy tale princess's body, aggrievedly hiding in the castle's big bed in that movie, whimpering.
She had clearly washed her hands of it long, long ago. Her hobby was just watching movies and helping other third-rate directors revise scripts... this hobby had even beco work that could earn her money!
This kind of happy life... was completely shattered by that inexplicable woman!
Little Movie thought of that cold blade roughly tearing open her front door, then charging in for a wild rampage, and then threatening her with her life...
"What gives her the right?!"
Even the most good-tempered person couldn't endure this level of bullying.
Moreover, she was a powerful monster who had once given several magical girls headaches. How could she just sit and wait for death?!
"I'm so angry so angry so angry!"
She had nowhere to vent her fury, only taking it out on the flowers by the window, petals being viciously plucked off one by one, then... having to be cleaned up by her later.
Little Movie really couldn't stand this kind of frustration. She imdiately made a decision.
"If that magical girl dares appear before again, I'll..."
She shuddered.
"I must get revenge on her..."
"I'm going to steal away everything around her that she cares about!"
She wasn't clear what price this would cost her in the future, but at least...
This anger must be vented!
○
Reiko was wiping away rice grains remaining at the corner of Tsuan's mouth. Soon she would also be responsible for giving Tsuan a bath, then holding Tsuan together...
She swallowed.
"Tsuan-chan, are you sleepy?"
Only Tsuan's even breathing answered her.
So Reiko had to help her wash up in advance, change into pajamas... then carry her to bed and tuck her in... then like that day, also get into bed and tightly hold Tsuan's soft, slender waist.
Everything before her overlapped perfectly with that day... every detail strictly recreating the past.
This exact similarity brought no comfort, instead making Reiko feel bone-deep panic—she clearly knew... if things continued exactly the sa, then the next step would be...
Waking up to find Tsuan completely evaporated from her world.
Even with that slender figure close at hand, Reiko couldn't touch that familiar warmth even a little.
She wanted to prevent this, but she had no way.
She wasn't a monster, nor a magical girl... she was just an ordinary person.
A sowhat excellent ordinary person, so... she knew nothing about magic.
Those monsters willing to help her lacked sufficient power. Those with sufficient power were too busy to help her.
Several strands of smooth silver hair quietly slipped down with her movent, inadvertently brushing across Tsuan's black hair scattered on the pillow.
Two different colored hair strands lightly collided and intertwined, bringing a subtle yet clear tickling sensation, like feathers scratching Reiko's heart.
She carefully picked up a strand of her own falling silver hair, then extrely gently separated a thin strand from Tsuan's thick black hair.
With barely perceptible trembling in her fingertips, she tried to wind the two hair strands together. The two colored threads intertwined in her fingers, then... beca a knot tightly wound around each other.
She extended her fingertip, extrely carefully touching that small knot, feeling the real sensation of both hair strands existing together under her fingertip.
"This way... it's good."
"Even if... even if I wake up tomorrow and my mory is blurred again... even if I can't rember who you are for a mont..."
She gently tugged, feeling that slight but undeniable stinging sensation across her head.
As long as I feel this, I'll definitely rember... I'll definitely be able to find you...
The girl, knowing this was like trying to stop a chariot with mantis arms before magic, gently held her friend tight.
This was the only mark she could make.
Reviews
All reviews (0)