Contract in the Void
"So where exactly are we going right now?"
Instead of answering, Kirin simply curled the corner of her mouth into a grin.
Then she lifted a finger into the empty air.
Sssrrk.
Along the path of her fingertips as they glided through the void, green trails began to etch themselves into space.
They formed intricate geometric patterns.
And those patterns began to turn, meshing together like the cogs of a clockwork mechanism.
"You asked where we're going?"
Her green eyes glittered with interest.
"To outer space, of course."
"…What?"
With that brief reply, the ground beneath my feet simply dropped away.
When I came to, the first sensation that crashed over me was absence.
I couldn't so much as twitch a finger. I couldn't even tell whether I still had fingers attached to my body at all.
Control over my flesh, and every sense that came with it, had been cut off.
No gravity. No current of air. Not even the beat of my own heart—nothing but a hollow void.
And yet, of all things, my sight alone remained open.
"…!"
I swallowed hard at the spectacle unfolding before my eyes.
Across a canvas of overwhelming darkness, clusters of stars blazed so brilliantly they stung to look at.
Vast nebulae rippled like auroras, and stars that must have been tens of thousands of light-years away glittered as if someone had scattered jewel dust across the dark.
It really was outer space.
Faced with a scale and an unreal beauty no human mind was built to hold, I nearly forgot the situation I was in.
Sssk.
Then it came. Against my numb back, a warmth pressed close.
More precisely—someone's touch.
"Well?"
A voice from right behind me.
"How does it feel, coming to space for the first time?"
Kirin. She was whispering against my ear.
I looked at the nebula swaying in front of me and answered honestly.
"It's beautiful…."
And then there was the thing I had to say.
"But if this is space, shouldn't it be impossible for us to be talking like this?"
Kirin clicked her tongue.
"Sometimes you've got to soak in the mood a little. What are you, a little old man…."
She grumbled in a flat, unimpressed tone.
"You're right. This isn't real space. It's just a recreation of the environment where the 'mascots' live, dressed up to look like the cosmos. Think of it as a kind of hallucinatory space and it'll be easier."
Hearing her explanation, I finally understood why every physical sense had been shut down.
What existed here wasn't my body—it was my consciousness itself.
"Then what am I supposed to do here?"
At my question, Kirin let out a small laugh.
"Nothing much. Just wait quietly. That's all. Until one of the mascots drifting through this place catches the scent of you—the 'vessel'—comes looking, and chooses you."
Her fingers slid slowly down the line of my spine.
"But these little things have pretty picky tastes. Depending on how delicious a scent you give off, it might take a while."
Thick mischief colored her voice.
"For reference, it took me about a week to get chosen by a mascot in here."
"…A week?"
"Yep. A week. You'll have to float around in the dark just like this the whole time and hold out. Without going crazy, that is."
I didn't need to see her face. I knew she was grinning.
"So hang in there, kid. If you want to be my disciple, this much patience is the bare minimum. Can't take it? I'll leave you here and go."
Fwaat—!
With those words, the warmth at my back vanished in an instant.
In the middle of that vast, boundless cosmos, I was left entirely alone.
I hung blankly in the air, turning over what Kirin had left me with.
So… I had to wait like this until a mascot chose me.
She said it had taken her a week.
It would probably take me even longer….
A chill seemed to crawl up my arms.
I steeled myself and tried to steady my breathing—and that was the moment.
By my sense of time, barely a minute had passed since Kirin disappeared.
Woooooom….
Space itself seemed to vibrate.
At the same time, at the far edge of my vision, something came bobbing toward me.
The instant I made out its shape, I nearly sucked in a useless gasp of air.
It was… an eyeball.
A single enormous eye, grotesquely swollen, shot through with blood vessels.
It looked like someone had dragged the boss monster from a certain famous indie game—the Eye of Cthulhu—straight into reality.
Behind the eye, tentacles like nerve bundles writhed as they swam through the void, and the pupil set in the center of its iris was locked on me.
A creature so unreal that even the word grotesque fell short.
Maybe that was why. I didn't feel fear. It was more like dreaming.
Strange.
Kirin had boasted that being chosen by a mascot had taken her a week.
Which meant that even Kirin—an S-rank magical girl—had only barely caught a mascot's eye after enduring a full week in this place.
And me?
By my count, I had been here for barely a minute.
A voice stabbed straight into my head like telepathy.
I flinched.
Because it was a cute voice—one that had absolutely nothing to do with that exterior.
The eyeball drifted right up to me and spun in little circles, as if trying to act adorable.
I almost said yes on the spot.
But.
If this one had found me in a single minute, wouldn't other mascots come looking too?
As if to prove the thought—
Shuuuuuu….
Pop! Pop!
Sssrrr….
Other mascots began closing in on me.
Their shapes differed from the eyeball's, but the atmosphere around them was all much the same.
And then—
The voice was still cute. The behavior was not.
Thuk—! Crunch! Krrk-chik!
Despite having no mouth, the center of its iris split wide open, and a maw lined with gear-like teeth revealed itself.
It started tearing the other mascots apart and eating them on the spot.
Thud. Thud-thud.
Against a backdrop of multicolored nebulae, dark-red blood and pulverized remains scattered in every direction through zero gravity.
Overwhelming power. Overwhelming violence. Overwhelming… capability of that sort.
The eyeball reduced its rivals to chunks of meat in moments and swallowed them down.
When the frenzied feast was over, the creature—drenched head to toe in blood—drifted back up to my face.
Half-chewed scraps still dripped from what passed for its mouth. (Should I even call it a mouth? Or an eye?)
I stared straight at that blood-soaked eyeball—then smiled.
"All right. Let's make a contract."
The perfect partner!
"So what should I call you?"
At my question, the eyeball tilted left and right as it answered.
"A name, huh…."
I looked over its grotesque form one more time.
"Cti. How's that?"
It must have liked it—its tentacles whirled and flailed.
Looking at it long enough… was it kind of cute? Maybe? Sort of?
The moment the words left it—
Kuuung—!
I felt a pulse.
From deep inside my body, an invisible thread linking me to Cti drew taut and connected.
Soul touching soul, two existences fusing into one—a mysterious resonance of the spirit, you could call it.
This was a magical girl's contract. The moment I finally obtained the transcendent power I had longed for so desperately.
But the rapture did not last.
What is that?
Through the warm current seeping into me, something sticky and foreign slipped in.
It felt like a kind of virus.
I couldn't put it into proper words.
If I had to try—it felt like something trying to… seize my body.
Not a chance.
I don't know how I did it.
I only know that I clamped down hard on that sticky presence.
Cti's startled voice rang out.
In the end, I forced that presence out of my body entirely.
"What was that just now?"
I said it with a light smile, and Cti's pupil wavered in panic.
"Sure. Sure. Right. Of course it is."
"Let's not stab each other in the back and fight. From now on. Got it?"
Cti drooped its tentacles in a signal of agreement.
And so the contract between Cti and me was sealed.
Fwaat—!
Then space split open, and a familiar green trail appeared once more.
"Well, well~."
Kirin arrived with that distinctive laugh of hers.
She looked at me floating in the air and grinned from ear to ear.
"Miss your master a whole lot, kid?"
The moment I heard her greeting, something felt off.
A whole lot?
From the time she left my side to the moment Cti appeared and we formed the contract, the time I had felt pass was three minutes at the absolute most.
And yet she was talking like that….
Ah.
From Kirin's point of view, I must have been stranded here for quite a long while.
I took a quick breath, forced the corners of my mouth up, and put on a show of bravado.
Acting like I was acting, maybe.
"No? It didn't take that long. A couple of yawns and it was over."
Kirin snorted a laugh that sounded like air escaping a balloon.
"Look at you bluffing. Then what's with the shaking? Aww, our little kid really did miss Master, huh?"
Success.
"Looks like… it took about a month."
Kirin patted my shoulder as she spoke.
"Don't worry, kid. A month is still high-tier talent among magical girls. Not on my level, of course."
"Shall we head back?"
Kirin began tracing the green patterns again.
I glanced at her. She seemed to be concentrating fairly hard.
So it wasn't an easy task. I called to Cti at once.
Can you do to Kirin what you just tried on me?