Vermilion Star (3)
Anyway, that about covers a brief explanation of the suture treatment. If you have any questions, come find me anytime.
"Haa."
And how exactly was she supposed to go find her?
Erika let out a sigh and walked the streets.
The sun was sinking, and night was drawing near. For a few fleeting seconds, a rapture of vermilion light washed over the road.
Orly had seemed interested in the investigation into the criminal organizations, but ever since Erika had been reassigned down to the Gyeonggi branch, her workload had only grown heavier. She hadn't even assembled a preliminary team for the inquiry yet, so there was almost nothing she could pass along.
Once she'd laid out the current situation, Orly had seemed to think it over for a moment, then left nothing but a promise to come back tomorrow before vanishing as abruptly as she'd arrived.
That time, and the week before as well.
That girl who tangled herself up with Erika, tossed out an unreadable smile and a string of sly remarks, and then disappeared.
Trying not to think about her was impossible.
Of course, as a top-ranked hunter currently on the wanted list, Orly was someone Erika had every reason to watch and stay wary of. But what she felt toward Orly went beyond that — something of an entirely different texture.
It was only natural.
She had thrown herself into combat with the express purpose of eliminating the woman who was practically a proper noun for villainy — and yet Orly had traded blows as if she were enjoying herself, shattered Erika in an instant, and then, time after time, healed her back to life.
She couldn't understand it.
Why.
For what, exactly.
If Orly had wanted to, she could easily have killed Erika, or left her half-dead, and used her as a bargaining chip with the Association.
And in all the strangely persistent meetings that followed, no matter how much abuse and venom Erika poured out, Orly only ever answered with that small, quiet smile.
Maybe it was better to think about it from another angle.
Was that her type?
Then what was that smile?
Thinking back on it, the smile that came with those unreadable eyes fixed on her had, at times, looked almost drained of strength.
As if she believed she deserved to be treated that way.
"Haa."
What the hell was any of this.
She clutched her throbbing head and cut the thoughts short.
And so, one step.
When total darkness settled over the street and painted it in a chill atmosphere, when the streetlamps began to glow with their thin light along one side of the road and welcomed her in —
what started to drape itself over the street she walked was not only the lamps and the dark.
That was what Erika thought, in that instant.
A diffuse wash of vermilion color settled over silver-white hair and breathed out a dreamlike air. Abyssal eyes, a deep blue in which nothing could be guessed at, shone with a liquid grace.
Does blood even circulate in her? The thought crossed Erika's mind as she looked at that pale skin — and then her gaze snagged again on the smile waiting at the end of it, and she frowned.
"Hello."
A voice strangely, unreasonably lovely.
Still,
an unreadable girl.
I knew this was the right road.
With mana this dense in her body, tracking her is easy.
Really convenient.
"…Orly."
Ah. She's far too beautiful.
That gaze fixed only on me — those eyes like moonlight, thick with the scent of life, binding me tight.
They make it impossible not to speak.
I was going to get caught anyway.
"It's been a while."
More precisely — well, it's been a day.
"Do you have a minute?"
I'd asked with what I thought was decent manners, but she only gripped the crossbody bag hanging from one shoulder tighter and gave me a frosty look.
"No."
The answer matched the face.
"Honestly, you don't get a veto."
"…"
"Cute bag."
"…What exactly are you trying to say?"
"Want to go out with me?"
I glanced at the magic circle bound around her arm. It had clearly shrunk — the intermediate stage was setting in.
"I really want some coffee."
"…Why would I—"
"Refuse, and tonight you'll get a front-row seat to me deciding which blade to pick up."
"…You piece of trash."
Even the way she bit her lip and glared at me was genuinely beautiful.
"Shall we?"
"…"
"Or do you need the princess carry again?"
"Shut your mouth."
Even as she said it, she fell in behind me without a fight, and I felt a fresh surge of gratitude that our relationship was one of mortal enemies.
Always, until now, whenever I walked the night streets, I had mostly been alone. There had been plenty of human shapes around, but among them, I was the only one alive.
So the sound of another set of footsteps layered over mine on this road was more than enough to send a strange little thrill through me.
"How's the arm?"
"…It's fine."
"High regeneration stat, so not much residual damage, huh."
I didn't think I'd misread it — I caught the slight nod.
"…Where are we going."
"A café!"
A dazed look came back at me.
"What? It's coffee. Where else would we go but a café."
Going anywhere else would be hard for me anyway. Crowded, bustling places carried the risk of someone recognizing my face.
"It's more ordinary than I expected."
"What were you expecting?"
"Some secluded alley, something like that…"
Fair enough. That sort of place suited someone like me better.
We kept walking, and the entrance to the usual downtown strip came into view.
I really don't want to put a hat on.
"Hold on a second."
I caught Erika before she could walk straight out, and pulled the broad scrap of cloth fastened at the back of my neck up over my head.
My hair was pressed flat and hidden. The oversized coat covered my mouth and nose.
At this point the coat had basically become part of my life.
"What is it."
"Hm?"
Even my answer came out muffled and stuffy past the collar.
"I can't go out looking like this."
A blank expression came back at me, along with a look that seemed to be turning over a lot of thoughts. You're going this far? Or is this her idea of being considerate of the people around us?
Something like that, probably.
But for me it was obvious. I hated noise, and I had no interest in inviting chaos. With Erika right beside me, that went double.
Besides, an ordinary everyday life was something I had wanted for a long time too. What was the point if I couldn't even drink a proper cup of coffee?
"Come on. Hurry up."
I all but dragged her forward, led the way past the corner, and we reached the café.
Looking at the coffee with ice floating in it, I blinked for a moment.
Americano.
Honestly, I wasn't sure why it was an Americano again. Maybe I'd just ordered the familiar thing without thinking.
What sat beside it was a café… café mocha, I think. Something like that.
As far as I knew, it was the sweet kind.
So she likes sweet things.
"Mind if I take a look at your arm?"
I waved a hand through the air toward Erika, seated right beside me. A small blue ring of mana formed, expanding and contracting in a steady pulse.
She must have taken it as part of the treatment, because she offered her arm without a word.
I set my hand near the sutured section. The soft skin under my fingers almost made me do something mischievous without thinking.
The current of mana flowed in, and countless blue rings soaked, layer by layer, into the magic circle that by now seemed fully fused to her arm.
"…Nnh."
"What, you can feel it?"
"…Please stop saying ridiculous things."
The occasional flinch of her body came with flushed, reddened cheeks as a bonus.
Well, I could understand how she felt.
This was, quite literally, a severance suture technique. A formula for rejoining a body part that had been cut clean through.
It would feel like a foreign object that wasn't hers being forced back into place — the stimulation had to be intense.
I shifted my gaze to the suture site. About half left, it looked like.
I struck up a conversation, partly to keep her mind clear.
"How does the investigation work?"
"…Based on the reported intel, the investigation team finishes the preliminary work. For each unit of a criminal organization, they send hunters whose search stats are matched to the target."
Whether she'd realized I would get what I wanted one way or another, or because of the promise that we'd work the investigation together, Erika didn't give me the refusal I'd half expected. She scowled and kept explaining a few more points.
"That way they confirm the group's actual existence, whether they've relocated, the number of awakened stationed there… detailed information like that. Then they send in the field team. We only just started the preliminary stage today."
"Plenty of manpower?"
"…The number we can put on any one team isn't that high. In a bad case, it could end up being just you and me."
"Oh. That works too."
Thinking about it carefully, there was no real need to go that far just because the numbers were low.
"Rather than put you on my team… going as a pair would be better. I can clear out a whole group on my own anyway."
In short, it came down to this.
The moment an irregular like me joined a team, the field unit's safety would drop and their anxiety would spike.
But sending me alone was a problem too. That would mean freely handing over intel on wanted awakened operating in organized groups — to me.
Who knew what I'd do with it.
So a duo operation with Erika, who ran the department, was a judgment that made plenty of sense.
"…"
I knew my own position far too well. And knowing that meant I naturally understood the Association's position too.
"Ah. Done."
The violet magic circle thinned in color and gave off a soft glow.
Erika blinked and ran a hand over her arm. The circle's shape had long since grown faint — it was clearly starting to melt into her skin.
"Even if you hate this, there's no helping it. We have to do it again tomorrow."
"…I really hate it."
And our eyes met.
It wasn't exhaustion. It wasn't anger, either.
It was a look that went far past mere fervor — the look of someone who intended to catch me the moment this wound finished healing.
Good. Perfect. She'll keep looking at me like that from here on out.
There are no exceptions in the plan. And the many things tailored only for Erika, all of them meant to serve that plan, are being prepared step by step inside my head.
So that she will hate me without end — and so that, at the end of that hatred, she can crush me completely underfoot.
So all it has to do is keep flowing like this.
Just like this.
I smiled, just a little.