Making Hope
*Kwak! Kwak! Kwak!*
“Guhuuuuu…”
When the battle with the homeroom teacher was about to get even more intense.
Harin instantly teleported right in front of me, then immediately pulled me into her arms in a perfect rugby-style tackle and hurled her body toward the void.
I felt like my entire insides were about to spill out.
On top of that, the sudden portal jump without any preparation made the dizziness three times worse.
“Uup…”
Thankfully, the stir-fried pork I’d eaten at dinner earlier had already been fully digested, so nothing came up.
Perhaps it was fortunate in misfortune, or maybe the fact that I was already tangled up with the homeroom teacher had been bad luck from the start.
“Uuu… Harin… are you okay…?”
“Guhuuuuu…”
“Oi!”
But Harin’s state was weird.
She’d collapsed onto the ground, limbs shaking violently, both hands clutching her head.
The surrounding flickering aura of mana openly revealed that her condition was dangerous.
“Haa, kip… heup…!”
Up close, Harin’s eyes were flashing purple, almost glowing as if they were about to explode.
Her teeth were gritted so hard, and her pupils had shrunk to the point that even a normal person would suspect something was wrong.
“Hey, why are you like this!”
“Th-the brainwashing…!”
“S-suddenly… why…!”
She’d seemed to be doing a little better lately.
Maybe it was just my imagination.
Harin’s face was twisted in pain several times worse than when we’d reunited.
What should I do to help her…
“Hey…!”
The girl on the ground finally managed to turn her head, using her trembling arms to push herself up.
“I… I need… help…”
“Uh… yeah… what should I…”
“First… the sofa…”
Harin started to say something, then immediately grabbed her head again.
The sentence wasn’t finished, but I understood what she was trying to ask.
Carefully, I pulled her arm and helped her stand up, supporting her like a shoulder.
Even that caused her to sway, but if I let her fall here, not only would I get hurt, but Harin would too.
Somehow, I managed to support her and gently sat her down in the corner of the sofa.
“Haa… haa…”
“Are you okay…?”
“No, kuk…”
She buried her upper body against the backrest, still breathing with visible pain.
Since it was brainwashing pain, ordinary painkillers wouldn’t work.
I couldn’t use magic, and I had no idea what to do…
“…Hey.”
While I was agonizing over what to do, Harin finally managed to speak in a hoarse half-sleepy voice.
“Can… can you hug me tightly…?”
“…”
“Please… I’m… really struggling right now…”
A single tear rolled down Harin’s cheek.
Without a word, I approached, knelt down, and carefully pulled her into my arms.
If I hugged her too hard, would Harin push me away like last time?
Or would I be swallowed by fear again because of those words that always filled my mind at school?
But I had no choice. She was in pain.
“Gu… guh…”
From beside her ear, I could hear Harin’s pained groans trying to hold them back.
I hugged her even tighter.
Every time, her arms trembled more.
It felt like dying.
It was far worse and scarier than when she had awkwardly hugged me because she’d asked for it.
I clenched my teeth and swallowed my own groans so they wouldn’t come out.
Harin was suffering more than I was.
My pain was nothing compared to hers.
I forced myself to hold back my moans.
A while later.
“Huu… haa…”
Harin’s trembling body gradually began to calm.
The rough breaths and groans between her lips grew quieter, and she regained some stability.
Soon it would be like last time.
The image of Harin roughly pushing me away because she hated being hugged flashed through my mind.
But…
*Crack…*
“…Hey, Harin…?”
“…What.”
Harin actually lifted her arms and pulled me in so tightly it felt like my air was being cut off.
“I… I can’t… breathe…”
“…Just stay like this.”
“…I’m going crazy.”
In the end, I ended up hugging Harin while squeezing my own eyes shut.
*****
That morning.
“Harin, you’re not going to school today?”
“Annoying.”
I’d been hugging her for about an hour, then carried her to bed with my exhausted mind and almost passed out.
Luckily, she slept for several more hours, and the exhaustion remained gone.
“Why?”
“I ran into that pink-headed idiot at dawn. Don’t want to meet her again.”
“…Then just stay quiet? Got it?”
“Fuck, am I a kid?”
Harin grumbled at my warning while curling up in one corner of the sofa, shooting me a glance.
“…Buy chocolate pie on the way back.”
“Yeah.”
We left the house, went down the stairs, and walked the usual route to school.
The scenery I always saw had somehow changed a little, but not dramatically.
Thinking about how nice life would be if it were like this, I walked.
“Siwoo.”
“Yeah?”
Just as the school entrance came into view in the distance.
The homeroom teacher appeared at the corner of the building and blocked my path.
“Can we walk and talk for a bit?”
“Ah, yeah…”
Clearly she’d fought Harin at dawn yesterday, yet she didn’t look tired at all.
I felt again how amazing magic was.
“Silence.”
*Uuuuung…*
A thin veil spread around us, and the distant voices of people became muffled.
From now on, our conversation outside wouldn’t leak.
“Siwoo. Do you remember the executive who raided our apartment the other time?”
“Ah… that weird tentacle thing?”
“Yeah.”
“At dawn yesterday, I ran into that executive again.”
…What?
Why was she telling me this information?
It was so confusing.
I wasn’t a magical girl, and I wasn’t even involved.
A bad feeling crept up.
“Turns out that executive was slaughtering the Demon King’s Army.”
“A, an executive slaughtering the Demon King’s Army?”
Wow, that was too shocking.
It felt like hearing a story for the first time, with zero prior knowledge, so the reaction was pure shock.
…Please keep feeling that way.
“Somehow, lately even when we mobilized, the Demon King’s Army was already dealt with…”
“R, really…? T, thank goodness… no need to fight…”
“No! Siwoo!”
The homeroom teacher shouted sharply.
“No matter how much the executive is slaughtering the Demon King’s Army, she’s still an executive! Who knows when she’ll flip the palm of her hand and change targets!”
“Ah, haha… I see…”
“…Anyway. At dawn yesterday, I fought that executive.”
The homeroom teacher paused, seemingly deep in thought.
It crossed her face whether she could tell me this or not.
“…To say it again, Siwoo. Everything I say is a secret, right?”
“I got it.”
If it had to be secret, I could just keep the closeness of someone who’d learned my secret.
Even though the distance was getting closer and I couldn’t stop it…
“…That executive didn’t want to fight. Me. At first I thought it was a lie, but even though I could inflict fatal damage, she just ran away.”
“Yeah, uh… um…”
It was a story I already knew, but while I was trying to figure out how to answer…
“And I reported it to the Association.”
“…!”
“Even if it means using any method, they ordered me to kill her on the spot. She was a threat just by acting.”
Killing.
The meaning of the word wasn’t hard to understand.
It was heavy in its own way.
“…But I have something I need to ask the executive.”
“Ask…?”
“…Yeah. I can’t tell you right now, but someday I will. Anyway…”
The homeroom teacher sighed deeply again and continued.
“I never thought this kind of situation would happen. Magical girls have to follow the Association’s orders. It’s the safest way to protect humanity.”
“…”
“What should I do…?”
In short, I needed to ask the executive something.
But the Association saw Harin as a threat and demanded immediate killing the moment they found her.
As a magical girl, she couldn’t disobey the Association’s orders, and yet she was asking what to do.
Well… it was a tough question.
She had her own duties, but the higher-ups told her to do it another way.
“Um… doing both would work, right?”
“W-what?”
I was currently helping both the homeroom teacher and Harin, like a tightrope walker on the edge who would fall into the abyss the moment I slipped or got caught.
I didn’t think it was a bad thing.
Precisely, I was only passing information to one side to help Harin…
But anyway.
“You said there’s something to ask. It must be a really important question for that executive, right?”
“U, yeah…”
“Then ask honestly. Before or during the fight.”
“R, really…?”
“Yeah. Or… deliberately lower the attack power and prolong the fight. And while fighting, ask questions. Ask whatever you want.”
“…”
“Then if we meet faces a lot, ask honestly. That I have something to ask. Until now I attacked because of the Association’s orders, but I had no choice. Like… that?”
The conclusion was simple.
Keep meeting at an appropriate distance, don’t actually fight to kill, but fight while asking questions.
Then the Association wouldn’t find out, and I could still get the information I needed.
If I answered like that, Harin wouldn’t have to fight with all her power either.
Whether the homeroom teacher would accept it was another matter.
“Well, I’ll figure it out on my own.”
“Thank you, Siwoo!”
*Thud.*
The homeroom teacher suddenly grabbed my hands with both of hers.
The unexpected situation caused dizziness and an unsettled stomach.
Still, I couldn’t show it.
“…No, whatever.”
Since she was a magical girl.