The Name of the Nightmare
Beep-beep-beep. Ding-dong.
"I'm home..."
I came back far later than usual, coated head to toe in dust. The instant I opened the front door, my bedroom door was flung wide so hard it nearly came off its hinges.
"Why are you so la—!"
Harin's eyes raked over every inch of me in a flash. Then she closed the distance in a single stride and looked up at me from right under my nose. Those crimson irises held a tangle of fury at me for coming home late without a word, and worry at the wretched state I'd walked in in.
"What happened. What on earth happened this time to leave you looking like—"
"I-I'm fine. I didn't get hurt."
"You are not fine!"
Lee Harin seized both sides of my collar and yanked me toward her. Those blazing red eyes filled my vision.
"...Haa."
She stared me down, then let out a long, deep sigh and loosened her grip. She stood there at a slant, tilting her head, and muttered a warning in that low voice of hers, the way she always did.
"Forget it. I figured it'd turn out like this the moment we got mixed up in all this. ...Just don't get hurt. Got it?"
"I said I got it."
Harin kept stealing glances at me, then plopped down in the corner of the sofa like always.
I dragged my grimy, dust-caked body into the bathroom and stripped. The body in the mirror, thankfully, didn't have a single scratch on it.
Warm water spilled from the showerhead, soaking my face and body.
"Hooo..."
I let out a long breath and started replaying everything that had happened on the way home from school. Kim Min-ah's spear had driven into the ground in front of me, and the force of it had gone out of my arms and legs, dropping me to my knees. And then, right after the debris came crashing down over my head—
"..."
Something I still couldn't believe.
"H-haah...!"
I gasped, sucking in ragged breaths as I pushed myself up. I was sure I'd been buried under the rubble. But somehow I was lying in a dark back alley with my back against the wall. In that cramped little passage where not a sliver of sunlight reached, something reeked like a rotting sewer.
"Hah, hah...!"
"Oh my. You're awake."
From deeper in the alley, from a place even darker still, a refined, old-fashioned voice drifted out. Click. Click. The orderly tap of dress shoes drew closer, and from beyond a shadow as dense as a void, a figure emerged.
"Heheheh. A pleasure to meet you."
The footsteps stopped, and the figure that had been hidden came fully into view.
"How do you do."
A suit that looked as though it had stepped out of the future, and a black visor covering the sides of her head and her eyes. In her right hand she held a long scabbard, and here and there the outfit was sheathed in something like sheer stockings, the skin beneath showing faintly through.
That suit... it looked far too much like Lee Harin's transformed appearance.
Don't tell me...
She lightly pinched the unseen hems of her skirt between her fingers and dipped into a slight curtsy, the kind of greeting a noblewoman might offer. A faint smile sat on her lips, and her voice was so gentle and so impeccably polite that it was almost impossible to think of her as an enemy.
"..."
But the killing intent and the sheer otherness radiating from her crawled along my nerves, raising goosebumps over my entire body.
"Oh my. Please, don't worry."
The woman who had introduced herself as Nightmare covered her mouth with one hand and laughed, then took a light step forward, closing the distance even further.
"I have not the slightest intention of harming you. At present, that is. Do rest at ease. Heheh."
She currently had no desire to kill me. I wasn't sure whether that was something I should be grateful for. It was a different kind of instinctive warning from the one I'd felt when Harin had been hunting me. I carefully swallowed, then asked in a trembling voice.
"Why... are you here...?"
"Oh my. I don't recall ever saying you were permitted to ask questions."
"..."
At that, I froze with my mouth still half-open. I clearly couldn't run anyway, and even if I tried, I'd only be poking the hornet's nest.
"Heheh. I was only teasing."
She smiled lightly again, folding the arm that held the scabbard across her body as if crossing her arms.
"Well... even a meeting such as this must be fate, I suppose. I'll make a special exception and permit your questions."
"Then why the hell..."
"Why did I appear, you ask? Hmm. How curious."
Nightmare kept her gaze on me, that lingering smile still on her face, and continued.
"I was quite certain you'd ask a different question first. Aren't you curious why you're still alive, when you should have been crushed under all that debris?"
"Obviously because you did something."
Unless I was already dead and this was a hallucination, there was no reason I should still be breathing. I'd never even grabbed the hand Kim Min-ah had reached out to me. No — I hadn't even been able to stretch out my arm to take it. And I remembered the debris coming down right over my head, clear as day. If I was still alive and moving now, then obviously...
"Correct. You're rather cleverer than I expected."
So that was it. Before I could be pulped under the rubble, she'd used some method to move me here. I still didn't know why I'd been unconscious until just now, but...
Wait. How much time had passed?
I hurriedly looked around. Where was Kim Min-ah? How far had I been taken? Those thoughts flashed through my mind.
"Please, don't concern yourself. Your friend is perfectly alive, and nearby. However..."
An explosion roared from somewhere in the distance.
"She is currently in combat with a clone of my making. Heheh."
"Why would you even..."
"Why, you ask. Isn't it obvious?"
She answered with a smile even brighter and more certain than before — a smile that was utterly chilling.
"The destruction of this world is, after all, the purpose of the Demon King's Army."
"That's..."
"What's more, magical girls are the enemies of the Demon King's Army. There is simply no reason not to fight them."
I had no answer. Partly because of the killing intent, but also because she was, from the start, an enemy of the magical girls. Unlike Harin, she had been an Executive from the beginning.
But the question still circling in my head was why she'd left me alive. More than that — why she'd gone out of her way to save me.
"...Why did you save me?"
"Oh my. How brave. To ask that so plainly, right to my face."
"...You said you'd answer."
"But of course. You are rather impatient, aren't you. Heheh."
She offered another alluring smile, then her face returned to its original blankness. The killing intent that her laughter had somewhat subdued rose back to the surface.
"Simply... how should I put it. Hmm... yes."
Nightmare pondered for a moment, then flicked her fingers lightly, as if she'd found the right analogy.
"...What?"
"Exactly as I said."
She answered with a smile.
"One must despair, then reclaim hope, and then fall into despair once more. Only through that cycle can a nightmare of truly fine quality be absorbed."
"..."
"Oh my. You didn't actually think I saved you out of the goodness of my heart, did you?"
"That's not what I—"
"Heheh."
Whether something in my answer had pleased her or simply amused her, Nightmare smiled again — a smile that even looked content — then took one more step closer.
"That aside..."
She came up beside me as I sat frozen and looked me over.
"There is a familiar scent about you."
"...What?"
"Hmm. It isn't an ordinary scent. You wouldn't happen to be..."
Nightmare slowly examined me from head to toe, then flicked her fingers again, as if she'd figured it out.
"Ah. I see."
Then she smiled again, so brightly it sent a chill down my spine, stopped in front of me, and stared straight into my eyes. I couldn't see hers behind the visor, but I could feel it.
"You've been hiding Destroy."
"Who is that...!"
I started to speak, then swallowed the words as terror surged through my entire body. There was only one person I was hiding.
"The brainwashed magical girl, that is. Starlight Purple."
"Kh..."
Nightmare spoke a magical girl name I'd never heard before. That was probably Harin's magical girl name. But this wasn't the time to be glad I'd learned it.
"Ah, please don't worry. Simply knowing you've been hiding her isn't enough to give me any desire to harm you."
That's what she said. What she was actually thinking underneath... I had no way of guessing.
"Incidentally. What is your name?"
"...Why do you want to know?"
"Oh my. A lady has already given her name. It would be most improper for a gentleman not to offer his in return, wouldn't you agree?"
"..."
My information leaking all the way to the Demon King's Army. From the day I'd learned the class president's true identity, this was the one thing I'd prayed would never happen. And now it was happening.
"Heheh. Don't worry. I shall be the only one who knows. So, if you would?"
I couldn't trust that, but here...
"...Jung Siwoo."
A vibration like the earth itself rumbling came from somewhere in the distance.
"Ah, Siwoo. I see. Very well. I shall be sure to remember it."
"I'd rather you didn't."
"Heheh. You do have quite the sense of humor."
Nightmare laughed again.
"Hmm. I'd love nothing more than to continue our little chat, but unfortunately, it seems the matter has been settled."
"What do you mean...!"
"Your friend will be in sight the moment you step out of this alley."
Behind Nightmare, a sphere of void took shape — similar to the portals Harin used to create.
"Well then. When fate next brings us together, I look forward to seeing you again soon."
"..."
She vanished beyond the void.
I immediately forced strength into legs that nearly gave out, barely staying on my feet, then spun around and sprinted out of the alley. And what I saw before my eyes was...
"If I... if I'd just been stronger..."
"Mina, calm down! You're—"
"Do I look like I can calm down right now?"
Two magical girls — two of my friends — stood on the verge of coming to blows. I had no idea what had happened, but it looked serious. Kim Min-ah's clothes and hair had even been dyed orange, like a dawn sky.
I ran straight at her, that ominous air still swirling around her, and threw my arms around her.
"Mina! I'm fine, so calm down!"
A beat of silence.
"Siwoo...?"
"Yeah. It's me. I'm fine, so just..."
"...Ah."
Plip. Plip.
"Hic, hh-hhk... waaaaah!"
The color gradually returned to her. Tears spilled onto my shoulder.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Siwoo...! I should've... I should've protected you... hic...!"
I said nothing. I just moved my hand and patted Kim Min-ah on the back.