Each One's End
One week later.
The phone in my hand gave a short, sharp buzz. I'd been sitting there since morning, wide awake, watching the day crawl past with my eyes open.
It wasn't a time of day the class president or Mina would be messaging me, and nothing in particular was supposed to happen. I'd already told the class president yesterday that I'd be back at school starting tomorrow, and Mina had said she'd probably be discharged around the same time I returned to class.
As for Harin… I'd just seen her on my way into the room, dozing against the living room sofa.
Beyond those three, there was no one else who would be contacting me — and the week we'd agreed on had already come and gone. If I was right, this was probably…
A single text from a restricted number. And whatever magic had been woven into it, the screen and the speech bubble were drowning in dark-purple static. None of my other messages looked like that, so my guess was almost certainly right.
Still, just in case, I sent a reply.
The moment I saw the laugh written out in text, Nightmare's voice coiled through my ears like a hallucination.
I let out a long, slow breath, steeled myself, and typed a reply with fingers that wouldn't quite stop shaking.
Wasn't that just her announcing she was going to kidnap me?
I tilted my head and sent a short reply.
I shoved the phone deep into the pocket of the coat I'd already been wearing and stepped out of my room.
Beyond the wide living-room window, the sky was just beginning to flush red.
"Lee Harin, I'm heading out for a bit."
"…Bring me a Choco Pie when you come back."
"Got it."
If I made it back in one piece, sure.
I shoved my feet into my shoes, pulled the front door open, and went outside. A cool breeze swept in to meet me, but it felt like a wind of blades — sharp enough to split skin.
Down the hall as always, into the elevator, through the lobby, and out of the apartment building.
I exhaled, long and slow. With every step that brought me closer to the café, my heart hammered harder, and my feet grew heavier. After a few minutes of walking, the place came into view.
Whether it was the late hour or the streets being especially cold today, there wasn't a single person in sight. The silence was complete. And that, more than anything, made it ominous — a windblown city, thick with the feeling that something was about to break.
I took a few more steps and stopped in front of the café. The lights were already out. The door was already locked.
"Oh my."
A voice reached me from a street that had been empty of anyone but myself. Or rather — from directly behind me.
"You arrived sooner than I expected."
I turned. Nightmare stood there, wearing a gentle little smile. She wasn't in her Demon King's Army form; this was the civilian disguise I'd seen before. Black hair, black eyes, a tailored suit, simple glasses. No matter how you looked at her, she was an ordinary office worker — but the knowledge that an Executive lurked behind that face still made my legs go weak.
"If it were up to me, I'd love to sit down over a cup of coffee and talk… but today is the day I hear your important answer, is it not?"
Nightmare asked it with a light smile, closing the distance at an unhurried pace, and gave my shoulder a leisurely squeeze.
"Shall we?"
"…Just where are you—"
The instant I opened my mouth to ask, shadows surged across the ground and swallowed everything around my feet — and the sensation of earth beneath my shoes simply vanished.
Then I was in free fall.
"Wh-whaaaaa!?"
I screamed on instinct, arms and legs flailing at an accident that had taken less than a blink. A few seconds later, a floor materialized out of the black void. I threw my legs out on instinct, trying to land.
But—
A heavy thud.
"Nnngh…"
The drop had been so sudden I never found my balance, and unlike with Harin, there was no one beside me to catch me. My ankle folded under me. I went down hard on my face.
"Oh my. Are you all right?"
"No…!"
My ankle was screaming. This wasn't a simple twist.
"God, that really fucking hurts…"
At least the other one was still intact — if that even counted as luck. I managed to get my weight onto the good leg, balancing like a man with a limp, and stretched the left one out to test the ground. The pain hit the moment it touched. I yanked it back at once.
"Where is this?"
"A secret place, where no one will find us. Fufu."
I looked around. All I could see were the rooftops of other buildings, scattered here and there, and a range of small mountains spread out in the far distance. How high had she brought me? I hopped to the railing on one leg and looked down.
The road below was a faint ribbon, easily hundreds of meters away. That was when I finally understood how badly this had gone.
One ankle sprained. I hadn't told a soul where I was going. And on top of all that, I'd been abducted to a rooftop so high that if I fell, I'd be dead of a heart attack before I ever hit the ground.
My ankle kept throbbing. Even standing properly was becoming a struggle.
"Fufu."
Nightmare seemed to find the sight of me delightful. A light laugh slipped from her lips, and she drifted toward me, holding out her hand.
"Take it. I'll support you."
"…If I take that, you're not going to say 'the contract is sealed' and force me into the Demon King's Army, are you—"
"Fufu. I don't stoop to such cheap tricks, you know."
She smiled sweetly and closed the distance further, as if to hurry me into taking her hand. I didn't want to lean against the railing, and hopping all the way to the wall on one foot was out of the question. I had no choice. Still bristling with suspicion, I reached out and set my hand lightly on top of hers.
The moment even a little of my weight was shared with someone else, I felt like I could stand for a long time without swaying.
"Well then. Shall we get to the point?"
I nodded.
"My proposal that you join the Demon King's Army — what have you decided?"
"I'm turning you down."
"…Oh my."
The hand that had been holding mine so lightly tightened, just a fraction. Instinct screamed at me to yank free, but doing that would only send me sprawling, so I crushed the impulse down.
"I wonder why. I didn't think it was a proposal you'd refuse."
"Of course I would."
Because they were the Demon King's Army. Because they had invaded Earth, hurt people, and set about tearing the world apart. And more than any of that — because they had harmed my friends, made them suffer, and even subjected Harin to brainwashing. Unforgivable. Monstrous.
"Because you're the enemy."
"…Fufu."
Nightmare smiled again, sweet as before. The extra pressure in her hand had almost faded. I couldn't tell whether she was angry or whether she'd expected this and simply felt nothing at all — her expression sat in some uneasy place between the two.
And then—
Her grip closed like a vise.
"Ghk…!?"
"Fufu. The enemy. Yes, I suppose — to all of you."
The back of my hand caved in under her thumb. The tips of Nightmare's fingers had gone white.
"I did warn you I would deliver nightmares. And still you refuse?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm. Might I ask why? What on earth makes you believe you can endure my nightmares…"
"Because I have friends."
That was all. There was no grander reason, and it wasn't reckless bravado. I simply believed, with certainty, that my friends would protect me. I trusted our friendship. That was it.
"Fu, fufu…!"
My answer seemed to strike her as hilarious. She tipped at the waist, covering her mouth with her free hand, and an unmistakable sneer slipped through her fingers and into my ears.
"Y-you rejected my proposal… for a reason as paltry as that? Are you serious?"
She was laughing so hard now that she clutched her stomach with one hand, cackling outright — and for a moment, my thoughts simply stopped. I opened my mouth in front of her anyway, ready to say it plainly: that no matter what happened, I would never join the Demon King's Army.
That was as far as I got.
"Haa… You, too, seem to be rather thoroughly tormented by nightmares."
"…What are you talking about?"
A sudden dread rose in me. I tried to pull the hand I'd left in hers away — but no strength would come to my arm. I tried to throw myself backward, and my muscles simply refused to obey. It was exactly like that time at the café, when I'd tried to push my chair back and it wouldn't move.
"I don't know the reason, but those nightmares of yours — I'll take the liberty of resolving them for you."
"I-I don't need it! Let go of me!"
"Fufu. I'm afraid…"
Nightmare let out a faint laugh and snapped her fingers. Shadows stretched in from the edges of the rooftop, pooling beneath my feet, and began to carve out a void that opened onto something like an abyss.
"You fu—…!"
The same falling sensation as when we'd arrived on the rooftop took me, and my feet tipped over the edge of that dense void.
But—
A sharp whoosh. Then a crashing, tumbling thud.
Something snatched me out of the air in an instant. I rolled across the floor and slammed into the rooftop railing with a heavy bang. There wasn't even time to feel the pain. I twitched, then lifted my head and looked at what was in front of me.
And the person standing there was neither Nightmare, nor any other magical girl.
"…Fuck."
It was my childhood friend.