Friend
The crispy, deep-fried chicken was doing breakdances across my tongue.
This is fucking delicious.
Across the table, Arin-ssi was tearing into her own piece with the same gleam in her eyes, making zero effort to hide the So good! radiating off her. She really is just like a cat. The aloof, ice-queen image she'd worn on the way in had melted away somewhere between bites, leaving her soft and gooey as warmed taffy.
Ordinarily I'd have wanted to strike up a conversation right away, but... she seemed absolutely starving, so I figured a few minutes of patience wouldn't kill me. A smile crept onto my face before I knew it, and I quietly spectated her one-woman chicken mukbang.
About three minutes in, maybe? Arin-ssi's eyes met mine for an instant — and then she jolted, springing back like a cat caught red-handed.
"S-sorry. Whenever I eat something delicious, my eyes just kind of roll back into my head..."
"Oh no, don't apologize — it was a pleasure watching you enjoy yourself. So then... shall we, uh, have a little conversation? The two of us?"
"...Yes."
She was someone I'd see for one day and never again, I figured — but even so, getting to spend Christmas with a beauty like her was more than worth it on its own.
"Do you come here often? Or are you a regular? I always just get delivery from this place, so this is only my second time actually eating in."
"It's my first time. I live with a friend of mine, and she had somewhere to be around here, so I came along with her."
"Aha? So on your very first day out this way, you get caught up in something like that... That guy was a real piece of shit."
"But you took care of him, Siwoo-ssi, so it's all fine."
For all her frosty, untouchable looks, Arin-ssi answered each of my questions patiently and kindly, one by one — and thanks to her, the conversation flowed along without a hitch.
"Um... i-if it's not too much trouble..."
"Hm? Go ahead."
"Could I... order some beer? I've never tried it before..."
"Pfft. Beer's nothing — order away. You're the one footing the bill in the first place; it'd be pretty rich of me to object."
"!! Thank you! And if you're not busy, Siwoo-ssi, why don't you join me?"
"Beer, huh... Well, I was planning on chicken and beer alone tonight anyway, so sure. I'm in."
"Right away, then."
With that, Arin-ssi waved the lady at the counter over and ordered two draft beers, and before long a pair of glasses landed in front of us, glazed with frost and practically radiating cold.
"Shall we toast?"
"Ah — yes...!"
We raised our glasses, clinked them together, and tipped them back in one long pull.
"...Ahhh. Nothing beats chicken and beer."
"...It really is nice."
In perfect unison, the two of us set down our glasses, each already half empty.
"Come to think of it — what do you do for a living, Arin-ssi? You don't exactly strike me as ordinary."
"My job... I'm a freelancer."
"Oh, I see."
She gave off a pretty clear please stop asking vibe. I'd leave it there.
"It is freelance work, but I'm forever getting called out to handle unforeseen situations, and that's how I've ended up like this — with no friends to speak of."
"Hm?"
Called out at a moment's notice, so you can't keep friends?
Yeah... I can actually see how that happens.
In my current situation, anyone I befriended would inevitably chew me out sooner or later too — what's with you always vanishing off the face of the earth?
"Haha, I'm in a similar boat myself, so I can relate."
"...You do?"
"Mm. I get called out for unexpected situations too, you see. Honestly, even right now, part of me is on pins and needles wondering whether something might come up?"
Ever since witnessing the knife rampage earlier, I'd been keeping up a bare minimum of vigilance. Even if it wasn't a monster, people were perfectly capable of stirring up trouble too.
"!! Me too, actually..."
"Really?"
"Yes. That's exactly why I'm trying to savor this moment while it lasts."
"Haha. Comrades, then — comrades."
That spark of kinship between two people in the same boat closed the distance between us, and we talked on and on after that. And somewhere in the middle of all that talk, a thought drifted into my head as naturally as breathing.
With this person, maybe...
...we could actually become good friends.
Thinking that, I ventured a careful question.
"Arin-ssi."
"Yes?"
"If, um... if it's okay with you, would you like to exchange numbers?"
"!!!"
Ah. Was that too fast?
One look at her face said startled, loud and clear, so I waved my hands and backpedaled with an awkward smile.
"No, no — that was too forward, wasn't it? It's just, sitting across from someone this lovely, I got a little carried away—"
"I'd like that."
"Hm...?"
"I was about to say the same thing, actually."
Arin-ssi was gazing at me, eyes shining.
"Really...?"
"Yes. Somewhere along the way, talking with you, Siwoo-ssi, became genuinely fun. I'd love it if we could meet up again from time to time."
"...Haha! Wonderful! Then shall we consider ourselves friends as of this very moment?"
"Yes...!"
And so, for the first time since coming to this world, I made a friend.
"Ughaaah... that was sooo fun..."
Magical Comet — Ari — returned to her room and flopped bonelessly onto her bed. Through the whole of Christmas day, mercifully, only two weak monsters had shown up; she'd dispatched both in short order and made it to her plans with her friends without being a minute late.
I wonder if Asté's having fun.
While she was out with her own friends, Ari had told her mascot to go enjoy Christmas in her own way, suggesting they spend the day apart. A mascot could return to its magical girl's side whenever it pleased, after all — she'd made the suggestion purely out of a wish for Asté to have some time to herself, just for today.
She can turn into a human, too, after all.
Her mascot Asté could take human form — and in that form, she was every bit as beautiful as Ari herself. Where Ari still hadn't quite shed her girlish air, Asté carried herself like a mature, older woman. Ari had trusted her to go out, have fun, and come back without a hitch.
Time trickled by, and just before the clock hit eleven—
"I'm hoooome, nyaaa..."
Her mascot slid the window open and slipped into the room, looking pleasantly languid — she'd clearly played her heart out. The corners of Ari's mouth curled upward as she asked,
"Asté! Did you have fun?"
"Mmhm... I may have had a bit too much to drink, but it was fun, nya..."
"Too much to drink? You had alcohol?"
"I did, nya."
"Hey! What kind of magical girl's mascot goes around drinking booze!"
"Unlike a certain minor I could mention, I completed my coming-of-age ceremony years ago, nya. Nothing wrong with that, nya?"
"Ugh! Can't even argue with that!"
"Fufu. You're still no match for me, nya."
Eyes half-lidded, Asté burrowed into Ari's arms. Ari gathered her up gently, closed her own eyes, and asked,
"So? What did you get up to?"
"The second I left you, Ari, I headed straight for a chicken place nearby, nya."
"I see."
"And then I got taken hostage there, nya."
"I see, a hostage— WHAT?!"
Ari bolted upright, startled out of her skin. Asté patted her and calmed her down, insisting she was fine.
"It wasn't a monster or anything — just an ordinary human with a knife — so there was never any real danger, nya."
"Still..."
"In my human form I'm stronger than the average grown man, so your worry is wasted on me, nya."
"...Haaah. Fine."
As if to say there was no reining her in, Ari sighed once, closed her eyes again, and resigned herself to listening. Listened to or not, Asté carried on with her tale.
"Anyway, so... a human man appeared out of nowhere and saved me, nya."
"The police?"
"Nope, just an ordinary civilian — a rather handsome one, nya. He subdued the knife guy with lightning-quick moves and rescued me, nya."
"Wow... impressive..."
"Afterward we went to the police station together, and when I said I wanted to thank him properly, he asked me to come share a meal with him, nya!"
She rattled on with a smile blooming across her face, clearly delighted beyond words.
"So there we were, eating chicken and chatting, and I told him I'd been dying to try beer, nya. And he said yes, nya! So then we're drinking beer and talking, and..."
Somewhere between sips, the two of them had discovered how well they clicked — and exchanged numbers, no less.
"...Hold on. You don't have a phone."
"Right, nya. So I gave him yours, nya."
"What?"
"From now on, whenever Siwoo-ssi gets in touch, I'll just borrow it for a teensy little while, nya."
"Siwoo-ssi...? Hey, don't you go helping yourself to my—"
Ari had just been winding up to unleash a full-scale scolding barrage on the little menace — when her phone began to ring.
♪~♬~
"Ah! Wh-what now?"
She checked the screen — a call from a number she'd never seen before.
"Don't tell me this is..."
"Ah! It's Siwoo-ssi, nya!"
In a blink, Asté sprang into the air, twisted through a somersault — and transformed. The indigo-furred cat was gone without a trace; all that remained in her place was a long-haired beauty with deep blue locks and distinctly feline features.
...She's taller than me.
Mature beyond Ari in every sense of the word — and this Asté, happiness already glowing on her face, snatched Ari's phone right out of her hand. Then, without missing a beat, she answered the call.
"Ah, Siwoo-ssi? Yes, yes, it's me, Arin. Mm-hm, I got home safe."
Ari stood beside her, staring fixedly as she chattered away. The call stretched on for a good long while — until at last Asté hung up, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
"...Asté."
"What is it, nya?"
"Do you... like that guy?"
"Pfffh—mmph!"
And just like that, without so much as a blink, Ari had dropped a remark with the destructive yield of a nuclear warhead.