Light (13)
[ Photo of Orly in a standoff with Lee Sarang ]
The vibe here is genuinely fucking doomed I am actually terrified;
All the seniors are locked and loaded ready to jump the second this bitch opens her mana I swear I'm about to piss myself holy shit
Halfway down a corridor blanketed in pure white, I stopped walking.
In the end, I guess I have to go back to that girl.
"Yeah."
I leaned against the white wall and twisted a lock of hair at my temple. The silver strands that slipped free drifted listlessly through the air.
Erika. Right — her name was Erika.
I didn't really know what she thought of me. It didn't particularly matter. When had I ever cared about anyone else's feelings?
But inside my own head…
The truth was, even I didn't know why I'd done it.
Sparing a kid who looked at me with murder in her eyes and swore she'd kill me. Why on earth had I done that?
"……"
What was I talking about.
I already knew.
I'd gotten interested. That was why. I'd fallen into it like I was under a spell. That was why.
Was I going to start denying even my own mind now?
What, did I think I wasn't allowed to take an interest in someone?
"Haa."
Yeah. That was it.
My head hurt.
I put a cigarette between my lips and lit it. Smoke curled up and stained the air.
Then, suddenly —
the words No Indoor Smoking caught my eye.
───Fsssssshhhhh.
What the hell.
My vision went white without warning. The hat pulled carefully down over the crown of my head grew heavy, and a fountain of water droplets slammed straight into my face.
For a second I couldn't breathe. Cold vapor stabbed my nose, and the sound of cascading water hammered my ears.
I staggered, then half-ran my way free.
Sodden footsteps slapped after me. My whole body shuddered with cold.
"Ugh."
Are you all right?
The sprinklers must have gone off because of the smoke.
"Haa."
I coughed lightly, pulled off the hat, and shook out my hair every which way.
Everything was damp.
My hair. My face. My clothes.
I dropped the cigarette butt — soft and ruined with moisture — on the floor and crushed it under my heel. My ragged breathing kept ringing in my ears, loud enough to drown out the alarm that had been shrieking nonstop since earlier.
Cold.
Let us go outside.
"I will."
I scattered blood into the air and kindled a small flame. Five burning sparks began to circle around me.
Warm. But cold. Cold enough to make my head throb. The flames were bright, but they didn't set my body alight.
They simply kept their place at my side. That was all. Just that much.
Yeah. Some days were like this. Whatever.
I didn't even feel sorry for myself.
I'd actually meant to go see Erika for a bit, if only to talk — but with things like this……
I glanced at the flame drifting through the empty air right beside my line of sight.
And I asked it.
What do you think I should do?
"……"
I reached the bottom of the stairs I'd been descending. When I lifted the head I'd been holding bowed and turned, the moisture in my hair slid down my cheek. It spilled free.
I opened my eyes and took in the number that filled my vision.
— 1F —
I put one foot in front of the other with heavy, dragging steps. My body felt weighted down; my feet might as well have had chains on them. The world swayed.
Even so, I walked. Forward.
Whatever lay ahead of me, whatever noise reached my ears — I couldn't really tell.
I somehow kept moving as a vast space opened up before me.
Rows of curtains, neatly lined, and the beds stationed beside them.
It didn't matter how many there were. I could check them one by one.
I yanked a curtain open.
"……"
Not her.
Next curtain.
No.
Next curtain.
Not this one either.
Plenty left. But I was running out of room to keep going.
I just felt like I had to do at least this much. Even with my body clammy and my mind sinking, I felt like I had to be doing something. Like I had to keep whatever I'd decided to do.
I was tired of quitting.
With a breath that burst out of me, I threw open the next curtain.
"……Ah."
"……Hey."
It wasn't that I could see clearly. But the shape that entered my eyes was still recognizable enough.
Looking at her — sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall, watching me with eyes that had been cleaned up —
suddenly,
the thought struck me: what exactly had I come all this way for?
I wasn't a friend on a hospital visit. I wasn't this girl's guardian. I wasn't even a doctor here to examine her.
A total stranger, bound to her by a filthy connection.
No — a villain like that. Trash like that. A crazy bitch like that.
I didn't care at all that the surroundings had grown noisy. The chain of my thoughts stopped, and my vision wavered.
That flustered face.
"Cute."
"……You."
"See you next time."
A mass of crimson light wrapped the ground, and a dazzling magic circle bloomed in midair.
After a brief chill, my vision went black.
The cold was always there.
This house was cold. The living room, the bathroom, the hallway too.
Still, I had to take my clothes off. That was what a shower was.
"Following me into the bathroom — that's just being a pervert."
……Orly.
So full of worry, either way.
Without answering, I turned on the faucet.
Hazy steam filled the space, and a stream of water heavy with warmth painted my body.
White. Fine and transparent. The vapor it spun off was clear and clean. When I breathed in, cold air tickled my nose.
The steady, regular sound of water rang out and soothed the agitation in my chest.
Clean. Truly. It felt as if the blood were being washed away.
For a moment I looked at the glass wall to the side.
The wavy hair I usually kept styled had come completely undone in the current, a total mess,
and those dark blue eyes that seemed to hold nothing but cold had grown so wet with droplets they were nearly turning white.
Even the fine, smooth skin that carried such a sharp scent was crushed and reddened under the cascade.
Even after becoming a woman, after my body changed and my existence vanished — even after crushing down a past of murder and wearing a human-shaped mask —
even if I changed my clothes, changed my smile, changed my walk and my breathing —
a single stream of water that eroded everything in its path washed it all away.
And in the end, what remained was me: a body steeped through and through in blood.
It was pointless.
For a moment I leaned against the wall, then opened my eyes again.
That girl — do you mean to go see her again?
"Erika."
Yes, that……
"She's so pretty, you know."
Her name was pretty. Her eyes were pretty. Her face was pretty.
"I wish I were that pretty too."
……You are beautiful as well. Orly.
I turned my head. Our eyes met. The crimson spirit blinked.
"Liar."
And why would that be a lie?
"Bad spirit."
……
I parted my lips a little. The water that had been battering my body swept into my mouth over my tongue. For a while I stayed perfectly still like that, filling my mouth with transparency.
Then, groaning at the pain that rose all the way to my throat, I coughed —
and retched, and spat out the stagnant, rotten water that had pooled inside.
Filthy.
"I believe the doctor has already explained most of it to you. Please get plenty of rest and recovery."
"Yes."
The medic left those words behind and went.
Even with the chaos of that girl who had stormed the Association's top floor only moments ago, even with the emergency room thrown into disorder after she'd come all the way down here and caused a scene — the sight of someone still quietly doing their job was impressive.
Erika spat out the bread she'd been chewing, closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
And she slapped both cheeks with her hands. Hard.
"Get it together."
In the end, she had lived.
It had been an injury that could have been truly dangerous even with her regeneration stat.
But she had lived.
When she opened her eyes, she had been in that girl's arms. When she opened them again, she was on an emergency room bed.
And before she could even adapt to how fast everything had moved, the girl who appeared in front of her once more —
left the words see you next time, and vanished as suddenly as she had come.
Should she go back over it?
Her name.
"……"
She didn't even know her name.
Well. It didn't matter.
What on earth had she been thinking, half-killing her and then saving her again — giving her clean first aid and moving her to a hospital.
There was so much she didn't know.
Then — a flash.
Watching the sword's seal branded into the back of her hand flare up, Erika's expression hardened.
Next time, it would be a fatal wound at minimum.
What she was aiming for was that girl's heart.
And that smile she couldn't understand.
That was all.
Nothing else entered her eyes.