Crystal Flowers, a Garden, and a Beautiful Girl
Crack-crack-crack—!
Delicate crystal flowers bloomed in a spreading rush, filling the corridor in an instant.
One man tore down the hallway in a mad sprint, desperate to escape the crystal blossoms.
“Hah! Hah! Hah!”
One girl walked with demure composure through a garden of crystal.
“Damn it! Stop chasing me!”
With the man’s wretched cry, flames erupted from his hands.
Whoooosh!
The blast carried enough force to reduce an ordinary person to ash without effort. Unfortunately for him, the girl before him was no ordinary girl.
Shhhk!
Vines sprouted from the crystal flowers packing the walls and smothered the flames. But the vines were not content to stop there—they stretched out toward the man who had spat fire.
“Aaaagh! Fuck! Let go of me! What the hell is this bitch’s problem with us?!”
Crude, almost vulgar curses burst from the mouth of the man caught in the vines. Hearing that kind of abuse would have been enough to make anyone angry—yet the girl only looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment.
Drip. Drip.
Blood ran from the girl’s wrist and fell onto the crystal flowers at her feet, producing a sound that was at once eerie and beautiful. As the blood soaked into the blue crystal blossoms, their color shifted to red, and they grew larger and sharper. Because of that, the path she had walked was carpeted entirely in crimson flowers.
Standing before the thrashing man, the girl made a pouting face and said something rather abrupt. She held out her own bleeding wrist and complained,
“It hurts….”
But from that out-of-place remark, the man felt a deep, cold dread. If the other party were someone who operated by ordinary common sense, there might still be a chance of talking his way out alive. If the other party were a lunatic beyond reason, though, his death was as good as decided.
That didn’t mean he could simply give up on living. Once, the older brother he respected had told him: if you ever meet a madman, play along as much as you can. That was how you raised your odds of survival.
“Y-yeah! Looks like it hurts!”
When the man offered his sympathy, the girl who had been wearing that tearful expression broke into a small smile.
“Right? Mister, you understand….”
“Of course! I-I’ve gotten hurt a lot myself, so I know!”
It’s working! The man thought so, and threw himself into agreeing with her in a trembling voice.
“Every time I said I was hurt, people only cursed at me. Do you know how sad that made me…….”
“Th-those bastards were the worst!”
“Right? Because of those people I really……. Do you know what the person I met last time was like?”
The girl finally put on a sulky face and set water droplets spinning wildly above the man’s head as she launched into a long, rambling account of everything that had happened so far—from the person who had swung a knife while swearing at her, all the way to the three burly men who had come right up to her front door.
After chattering away for quite some time, the girl suddenly pulled out her phone, checked the time, and said,
“Ah, I’m late. I should go now.”
“……!”
She turned a faint smile on the man.
“Thank you for listening to my story, mister.”
“Y-yeah.”
The girl spun lightly on her heel and began walking back the way she had come. In her wake, every crystal flower dissolved into tiny droplets of water.
Am I going to live?
The man watched her receding back and dared to hope—just for a moment.
“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”
She turned back around to face him.
Crack.
It was the same sound that had accompanied every crystal flower blooming above his head. A dull impact settled onto his skull, and the last thing the man saw was the older brother who had once taught him how to handle a lunatic—now transformed into a statue of crystal.
Thud.
Thick blood splattered.
“Haa~. I’m exhausted!”
I stretched my arms out wide and worked the stiffness from my shoulders. Stepping out of the building after finishing the job, the cool night air soaked into my body. On the way out I had already messaged the Association that the request was complete and that I would leave the cleanup to them.
I hadn’t captured the villain alive—I had killed him—so the reward would only come in at half. Even so, that half would still be a tidy sum.
“Well then… maybe I’ll treat myself to a hamburger for once?”
After tasting the Academy’s high-class lunches, cup ramen had started to feel painfully cheap. I had finished a job that needed doing and earned some money on the side; on a day like this, you were supposed to indulge in something a little luxurious.
“What kind of burger should I get today?”
I was walking along, lost in happy thoughts of hamburgers, when—
Is that Siyun?
I spotted the back of someone sitting by the river and stopped.
Should I say hello? If I was going to get close to Yi Siyun anyway, it would be better to introduce myself sooner rather than later.
Why? …Just because?
Did you really need to drag things out when you were becoming friends with a pretty girl?
With that thought, I strode toward her where she sat by the water.
How should I open? You’re pretty cute? Or… you’re really cute?
No—she might hate being called cute.
Then how about You’re really pretty!
Ah! I couldn’t think of a proper greeting. My head itched as if bugs were crawling around inside my brain.
Fine. Just… just keep it ordinary.
Officially, this was our first meeting, so…….
“Hi? You’re really pretty!”
Ah, that wasn’t it.
Yi Siyun was sitting by the river, watching the water flow past as she waited for her childhood friend Carmen. It was later than usual, but they had always trained their stamina together at this hour in this spot. Today, though, Carmen had messaged that she would be a little delayed, so Siyun was simply sitting by the river waiting for her.
Then she felt someone striding down from above. At first she assumed it was Carmen and started to speak without even turning around—
“……!”
An unfamiliar scent washed over her so strongly that her body went rigid. A peach fragrance thick enough to make her head spin, and beneath it, a faint trace of blood.
Clench.
Yi Siyun balled her fists tight and whipped her head around, braced for whatever came—
Ah.
Her eyes met those of a woman so beautiful it stopped her breath.
Hair so pure white that, under the moonlight, you could almost believe the moon itself was flowing through it. Pale red eyes, and lips curved in a sly little lift. Even the atmosphere around her somehow made you want to burrow into her arms and act spoiled.
The woman shoved her face uncomfortably close and said something completely out of the blue.
“Hi? You’re really pretty!”
What on earth was—!
Thud.
Startled, Yi Siyun stepped backward; her foot caught on a small stone.
“Whoa—!”
As she teetered toward the river, the woman snatched her hand. Then, to keep her from falling, she wrapped her other arm around Siyun’s waist—
“Ah!”
Splash!
The woman’s strength had been far weaker than expected, and they both went into the water together.
“Mph…!”
Kicking to keep from sinking, Siyun opened her eyes and saw the woman who had fallen in with her a short distance away. Looking thoroughly bewildered, the woman glanced around underwater until her gaze met Siyun’s—then swam toward her in a dog-paddle, as if she had learned to swim at some point.
Panicked, Yi Siyun thrust both hands out in a clear signal to stay back—
“……?!”
Instead, the woman laced their fingers together and gently took her hands. Then she drew her in smoothly until their faces were close, and her eyes curved into a dazzling smile.
Ah…….
Mesmerized by that smile, Yi Siyun let the air she had been holding slip from her mouth without meaning to. The woman’s eyes went round.
I can’t breathe….
As Siyun’s face twisted with the pain of lost air, the woman slowly pulled her into an embrace and swam upward.
Fortunately, the hand-holding seemed to have held no particular malice.
“Pwah!”
Breaking the surface, Yi Siyun spat out water and gulped air in a rush.
“Are you all right?”
The woman was looking at her with wide, worried eyes. But Siyun could only gasp for breath without managing a proper answer, so the woman held her close and began swimming toward the bank.
Through two cold, soaked dress shirts in the frigid water, the warmth of another body reached her—and Yi Siyun felt a strange sensation.
In the end, the woman succeeded in hauling her out of the water.
“Haa…….”
As Siyun let out a deep breath, the woman apologized with an awkward expression.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d be that startled…….”
“…No. It’s fine. More than that….”
She had been about to ask Who are you? when she looked at the woman’s face again and froze. Today, during the new student representative speech, she had seen this person of interest—the one who could leave even the infamous Tania and Adel flustered.
“Hey, you’re the one who gave the new student representative speech today, right?”
But the tone was so pure and innocent it was hard to think of her as a villain.
“…Yes. That’s right.”
On edge, Yi Siyun answered more sharply than she meant to and swallowed hard.
What if that just offended her and she decides to attack?
But her worry proved groundless; the woman seemed completely unbothered.
“I was just passing by and saw someone I recognized, so I said hello because I was happy to see you… Was that rude of me?”