The Warmth of Friendship and a Fragment of the Past
Mei stayed in my arms for a long while, until her tears finally subsided. As the flames that had been flickering across my body slowly died down, she seemed to calm herself as well. Blushing a deep shade of red, she pulled away from me, looking thoroughly embarrassed.
"Wh... what was that flame just now? It didn't feel hot at all—it just felt... warm."
"Sometimes it flares up like that depending on my emotions," I replied, answering her sudden question about the fire to distract her from the fact that she had been crying. "That just happened because I was happy."
She looked at me, clearly not quite grasping the idea that I would burst into flames just because I was happy. Well... it was a bit embarrassing to say out loud, but I wanted her to know how I felt. I reached out with my right hand and took hers.
"Mei, I'm really happy that we're friends."
"...Me too. I'm happy to be friends with you, Scarlet."
Her voice was barely a whisper, and her face was bathed in the glow of the sunset filtering through the window. Watching her, I realized something. We might not have a bond as deep as family or lovers, but a friend with whom you can share your joys and sorrows is something essential to human life. In a world where I had no roots, the existence of a friend I’d made here was incredibly precious to me. Just like the friends I had back in my school days, she had become a pillar of support. Just looking at her was enough to make me forget my troubles for a while.
Lost in thought, I noticed the sun dipping below the buildings, and the room began to grow dim. I couldn't keep her here too late, so I decided to ask about the things that had been weighing on my mind.
"Could you tell me what happened after I passed out?"
At my question, she flinched, still sitting there with a flushed face, and answered. "Oh? Uh... after you fainted, Leon defeated the monster and brought you to the hospital. When he came back, he told us not to mention what we saw today to anyone else. Apparently, there’s an order to keep the details of what happened hidden so the citizens don't panic. After the alarm was lifted, the citizens were sent home, and we were told to head back as well."
She looked at my arm and offered a bitter smile. "So, the citizens only know that a monster appeared, but they have no idea what actually went down. Even if it is to prevent panic... it feels wrong. You should be getting praised for this."
I shook my head, smiling as if it didn't matter, and she chuckled softly. "Still, it seems they couldn't keep it entirely from the teachers and the other students, so word got out under the condition of silence. You should have heard how loud the kids were screaming about visiting you today. If the teachers hadn't stopped them by saying you needed rest, the hospital room would have been packed. Since I'm the class representative, I came as the delegate today, but more will come tomorrow. You should be prepared for Jessie, too. She’s definitely going to cry a lot."
Just hearing that made the scene play out in my head, and we both laughed together. "Are the others who went for support safe?"
"Yeah, no one was seriously hurt. They said they were split into two groups, and it sounds like one side had a really rough time. I couldn't ask for details because they looked so exhausted, but they said they took down nearly a hundred monsters with less than ten people. I'm not sure if that's an exaggeration or not, though."
As I kept laughing and talking, she seemed to relax, and the atmosphere grew lighter. As for the support team, it seemed things had played out just like the original story. Yoon Siwoo must have been an absolute one-man army. In the original, he had performed so well that even the active-duty hero leading them was left speechless.
As dinner time approached, Mei stood up. "When do you think you'll be discharged?"
Honestly, aside from my arm being uncomfortable, I felt like I could be discharged right now. I told her it would probably be soon, and she left the room with a promise to see me at school next time.
. . .
Did she leave?
After waiting a moment, I reached my right hand into the empty left sleeve of my hospital gown. I’d been bothered by a strange sensation there for a while now. I poked around, but it felt completely empty. Since the arm that should have been there was gone, it was only natural that there was nothing in the sleeve. I was about to dismiss it as my imagination when my right hand caught on something.
It felt small, rough, and hard. I gripped it and pulled it out. When I opened my hand, I saw a small, pitch-black fragment. Its surface was cracked and jagged; if I had to describe it, it looked like a piece of charcoal. And I definitely remembered seeing something like it before.
With a strange sense of tension, I swallowed hard and focused my mind, chasing the odd sensation I’d felt ever since the flames had leaked from my body earlier. I flipped the "switches" in my head, chest, and abdomen—the places where I felt the fire flowing. I adjusted the sources of the flames in my legs and right hand so that no fire would leak out. Under normal circumstances, even if I stoked my anger, no flames should have appeared.
They shouldn't have. But they were.
Flames were dancing on the pitch-black fragment in my right hand. As I stared at the flickering fire, my suspicion turned into certainty. This burning fragment was my left arm—the one that should have been completely incinerated in the monster's stomach.
My head began to spin. I had assumed I could emit flames because the arm had been severed just before it entered the monster's belly. But for some reason, this black fragment was still burning, reacting to my emotions even though it had been separated from my body for quite some time. I had always thought my ability was simply a matter of manifesting fire from my body based on my emotions, so this bizarre situation was naturally unsettling. What was even more chilling was that I had no memory of picking this up before I passed out. There was no way anyone would have picked that up and given it to me, and since I’d been changed into a hospital gown, there was no reason for it to be here.
This was a world with strange monsters that were immune to conventional attacks, and where magic and superpowers were commonplace, but I still wasn't used to such inexplicable events. My mind was racing, but then—
"Patient, your dinner is here."
"Ah, thank you."
As I was deep in thought, the door opened, and a nurse brought in my dinner. I hurriedly shoved the fragment into my hospital gown pocket and unfolded the tray attached to the bed. Dinner was porridge.
I didn't know if it was out of consideration or if all patients were served like this, but the porridge served in a single bowl looked easy enough to eat with one hand, provided I had a spoon. It was a porridge filled with colorful ingredients. Were those vegetables? Abalone? Meat? Maybe it was all three. Honestly, it looked too luxurious for hospital food. Perhaps because it was a private room, the porridge was on another level. I’d never eaten anything other than plain white rice porridge before.
Of course, white rice porridge with soy sauce is delicious, but... I took a large spoonful of the porridge, matching the anticipation rising in my chest. It was steaming, as if it had just been cooked. Honestly, for someone who could be set on fire and remain unscathed, the temperature didn't really matter, but since the experience was all about the mood, I blew on it to cool it down before carefully putting it in my mouth.
The porridge melted on my tongue without needing to be chewed, spreading through my mouth. Still, I chewed it, savoring the flavor. As I swallowed, a warm sensation spread through my body, and I let out a soft "whew" as the residual heat escaped my lips.
It was just a spoonful of porridge in a bowl. Yet, the layers of flavor melted into it were beyond counting. With so many different ingredients, you’d think it would be unbalanced, but it was surprisingly harmonious. It felt like a new horizon of porridge had opened up within me. It was a shock greater than the time a coworker bought me a Caramel Frappuccino from a coffee shop—the one where they recited a magical incantation of "drizzles" and "chips"—back when I’d only ever drunk instant coffee. White rice porridge or instant coffee, neither is bad, but expensive things are expensive for a reason...
Every spoonful felt like it was filling my body with energy; it truly felt like "patient food." Before I knew it, I had wiped the bowl clean and was savoring the lingering taste of the porridge. The nurse who came to collect the empty bowl smiled.
Eating delicious food seemed to calm my complicated thoughts. Right. There was no point in agonizing over things I didn't understand. It was better for me to eat something good and get a good night's sleep. After washing up and brushing my teeth with one arm in the room's bathroom, I drifted off to sleep, remembering the conversations I’d had with Mei and the taste of the dinner I’d just eaten—all while ignoring the strange sensation connecting me to the object in my pocket.