Chills
My back hurt.
Maybe from staring at my phone until the crack of dawn.
I checked the clock. Eight in the morning. Looked like I'd gotten about six hours of sleep.
"..."
Strange. I'd figured Yuna would be up first, shaking me awake.
I tried closing my eyes again, but sleep showed no sign of returning. Early rising must have finally sunk into my bones.
I hauled my stiff body up and headed for the master bedroom.
—...
Yuna was off in dreamland.
Sleeping just fine.
I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower. Even after I came out, roughly toweling my hair, she still showed no sign of getting up.
"...Wow, she's really out."
She'd wake up on her own eventually. Back when I was a kid, how many times had I wanted just a little more sleep only for my parents to drag me out of bed? Knowing that craving well, I pulled the leftover pizza from the fridge and heated it in the microwave.
One of the two remaining slices. The other was Yuna's, after all.
"..."
Even after I'd leisurely finished my slice, Yuna still hadn't gotten up. Still, I had no intention of waking her. Wondering what kind of happy dream could keep her under that deep, I quietly slipped back into the master bedroom.
She was still asleep.
"Growing that much, are you?"
I muttered something like that as I looked down at her lying there—and then I noticed her face didn't look right at all.
"...?"
Her face was deathly pale, and when I listened closely, I could hear a soft, pained little groan. I pressed one hand to my own forehead and the other to hers.
Burning hot.
A fever. Had she caught a cold—body aches and all?
Why? Just a few hours ago she'd been happily stuffing her face with pizza.
"..."
Then I spotted the master bedroom window, thrown wide open. The cold air was pouring straight onto her. Sleeping in conditions like that, it was a wonder the fever had only just hit.
—Rattle.
I shut the window. At the sound, Yuna made a weak little noise of distress and forced her eyes open. Unfocused, glassy eyes looked up at me.
"..Daddy.."
"Yuna, does something hurt?"
"..I dunno. I'm cooold.."
Feverish and cold at the same time. Chills, then.
I pulled her blanket all the way up to her chin first, then started rummaging through the bedroom drawers. A single mom raising a kid alone was bound to keep medicine on hand.
"Hang on. Daddy'll find you some medicine."
Nail clippers, a bankbook, a sewing kit... A sewing kit. I hadn't seen one of those since I was little. Anyway.
—Clack.
In the second drawer I found a pink plastic first-aid box. Bandages, ointment, digestive medicine. And nestled among them—
Children's Fever Reducer
A pink box sitting quietly in place.
"Found it."
I opened the box. It was a liquid medicine that even came with a measuring cup. On the side of the box, something had been written in tiny pen strokes.
Weight 23 kg → 8 ml
Her mom's handwriting, I guessed. Written so she wouldn't mix up the dose the next time Yuna got sick. Thanks to that, I didn't have to fumble around at all.
"Daddy, I'm cooold.."
"Sit up for me. Let's take your medicine. Medicine, then a good long rest."
"Ung.."
I half-lifted her and supported her back, and she leaned limply against me. I should have been more careful. If I'd just kept the window shut properly, she wouldn't have gotten sick.
I carefully measured exactly 8 ml into the cup.
"Okay. Say ah."
"Ah.."
Yuna obediently opened her mouth and swallowed the medicine. Strawberry-flavored, apparently—she took it without a fuss. Were kids' medicines actually tasty these days? Curiosity got the better of me and I tried a drop or two. My face immediately scrunched up. It was a grotesque flavor.
"..Good girl. I'll get you some water. Drink that and lie down for a nice long rest."
"Uuu.."
I brought over a plastic bottle of water and got a few sips into her. Sensing that all the necessary steps were finally done, Yuna burrowed back under the covers and closed her eyes.
"..."
That shook me. I hadn't expected a kid's body to turn into a furnace out of nowhere. I wiped away the cold sweat that had sprung up on my forehead and stepped out into the living room, leaving the bedroom door half open.
Now what?
Medicine was done... Right. Food. When you're sick you're supposed to eat porridge, but there wasn't a porridge place nearby... I opened the fridge, but just like yesterday, all that remained were side dishes scraping the bottom of their containers.
"..."
I opened the freezer. Flat, frozen packs of soup sealed in zip bags. One label caught my eye.
Beef Radish Soup
Not porridge. But for a sick kid, this was perfect.
I pulled out one of the bags and tipped it into a pot.
—Bubble, bubble.
While the soup heated, I ducked into the bedroom again and again—pressing a hand to her forehead, checking that the blanket was tucked properly.
"..."
The fever was still the same. Were fever reducers always this slow to kick in? I looked it up on my phone. Apparently it took thirty minutes to an hour for the medicine to start working. Don't get impatient.
After that, I impatiently soaked a towel in lukewarm water and laid it across Yuna's forehead.
"Ung.."
She shifted a little with a soft sound of discomfort.
"D-Daddy.."
"Yeah. Daddy's right here."
"I gotta go to school.."
"...?"
A voice thick with fever.
"There's an open class today.."
Today is Sunday.
"You've still got two whole days. Don't worry."
"...Uuung."
Yuna slipped under again. I adjusted the towel on her forehead once more and quietly left the room.
Should I be the one going to parents' observation day? Her mom left this past Tuesday, so she'd be back exactly next Tuesday. That meant she could make the open class herself. But if it were that simple, why had Yuna told me about it in the first place...?
—Bloop.
The radish soup called me out of my spiraling thoughts.
"Ow—hot, damn it."
I hurriedly turned down the heat. One taste-test spoonful told me it was a little bland for my palate. Perfect for Yuna, though.
About twenty minutes after that, I could see the medicine starting to work. A little color was creeping back into the face that had gone pure white.
"..Daddyyy."
"Yeah. How's your body feeling? Better?"
"Ung. But I'm hungry.."
Of course she wasn't fully better yet. The fever reducer had just given her a temporary break. I mixed a little rice into the warmed radish soup and carried it into the bedroom.
"Here. Careful, it's hot.."
Half-propped up against the headboard, Yuna took each spoonful of the soup-and-rice I blew cool for her. Every time I went hoo, hoo, she grinned like it was the best thing in the world.
"It's so yummy."
"Daddy made it."
I lied, just because it felt good. Yuna, who seemed to let the words sail right past her, simply opened her mouth wide for more. I blew on another spoonful and fed it to her.
After emptying the whole bowl, Yuna grew drowsy again almost at once.
"Get some good sleep now. You'll feel a lot better when you wake up."
"..Ung."
I was just about to stand with the empty bowl when—
"..."
—my sleeve went taut. Looking down, I saw Yuna had poked a hand out from under the covers and was clutching my clothes tight.
"..Do you need something?"
"No, it's just.."
Ah. So that was it. I wasn't so dense that I couldn't figure it out. I set the empty bowl back on the nightstand, sat down on the edge of the bed, and said quietly,
"Daddy'll stay right here. Sleep tight."
Only then did she seem satisfied. The grip on my sleeve went slack—and then those same fingers shifted over and wrapped around two of mine.
"..."
They were hot. Damp with sweat, too.
—Soft, even breathing.
Yuna fell asleep almost right away. I nearly got up to go buy some porridge outside, but the thought of what she might feel if she woke up sick and alone stopped me cold. I couldn't even begin to guess how that would hit her.
"..."
So I decided to just sit for a while and look at her face. Bangs a little damp with sweat, mouth half open, color slowly returning to her cheeks. Not a bad view at all.
I don't know how long I sat like that. Only when the hand around my fingers finally went completely limp did I stand up.
Come to think of it—this might have been the first time I'd ever really watched her sleep.
"Blackberry unnie, did you hear?"
"What, another monster show up somewhere?"
"No, not that.."
In an apartment hallway spattered with the grotesque, spider-shaped remains of a monster and its purple blood, two magical girls who had crossed paths by chance had finished wiping out every last one of them and were stealing a brief, sweet rest.
"They say Glory Cowslip sunbae retired.."
"..Her? Why?"
"Well, she said she needs to start focusing on her studies and all.."
Pink Rose trailed off, leaning her stomach against the hallway railing. The purple blood smeared across her pink dress made for a strangely beautiful sight.
"Haa. Retiring at a time like this.."
Tsk. Blackberry clicked her tongue and swallowed the rest.
A crisp, sharp early-winter wind brushed through both their hair. Blackberry glanced at the monster's corpse, slowly crumbling into dust. Monsters usually appeared in deserted places and did their dirty work quietly. The fact that they were now brazenly showing up in crowded spots—schools, apartment buildings—meant...
"I really don't know where this is headed."
"..."
Pink Rose snuck a look at Blackberry as she let out a rough sigh. Should she tell Blackberry unnie about that strange magical girl she'd seen before? For a second the words rushed impulsively to the tip of her tongue—
"If you quit too, we're really screwed."
"Heh—don't worry about me."
—but Blackberry's hand settling on her shoulder, and those words that might have been a desperate plea for help, made her swallow them back down.
"..No matter what happens, I'm never quitting being a magical girl!"
Pink Rose beamed, shot a V-sign, and thrust her hand out. Blackberry snorted a short laugh.
Yeah. It'd probably be fine. The stronger the monsters got, the more magical girls would show up. It wasn't entirely wrong—in the near future, the number of magical girls would swell dramatically.