Misty Lake (3): Rain
A glance at the sky.
The barbecue was over, and she and I were washing the dishes in the lake.
Scrub, scrub, scrub.
"You've got to get all the grease off. It's a pain to clean later."
"Yeah."
Another glance upward.
"Do you like apples?" she asked, still peeking at the sky at regular intervals.
"I do."
"Sugar?"
"Love it."
"Then apple-sugar juice?"
"I think I'd like that."
For dessert, we drank the apple juice she'd made. Uncharacteristically, she hadn't gotten the sweetness right — there was a little too much sugar in it.
"Just one sip."
...Drink your own. What are you, a damn sip-stealer?
"Here."
"Thanks. Heheh."
Slurp.
"Mm-hmm. Sweet. So sweet. Extra sugar really is the best."
"..."
I took a sip of her juice without asking. It wasn't as sweet as mine.
"...From now on, just put more sugar in yours. You don't have to give me the better one."
"...What are you talking about? Am I a kid? I don't even like sugar that much."
...Yeah, right. You'll scrape the sugar off the bottom of the cup once you've finished drinking.
Sugar was scarce in this world, and scarcer still in the Demon King's Castle, cut off from everything outside. The Demon King, who loved the stuff, must have figured I would too — so she'd given me the sweeter cup.
"Let's swap."
"...I, I don't really like su—"
"Then I'll just drink it all."
"..................."
"...Want it?"
".....Yeah."
She held the apple juice in her mouth the way you savor something precious, and drank it very, very slowly.
A glance at the sky.
A glance. Then she started looking around, this way and that.
I watched her grow more and more restless until I couldn't take it anymore.
"...What are you looking for?"
"...Huh? Oh, nothing."
"Tell me."
"...Hey. So."
"Yeah."
"What if the stars don't come out tonight?"
"It's still early evening. We've got a while yet."
"...Yeah. That's true."
Another glance upward.
When she sews her dinosaur plushies, the Demon King often stares at the stars on the ceiling and jabs her finger with the needle. Of course, the needle just bends...
A glance at the sky.
We'd washed ourselves quickly in the lake. Now I was fanning her wet hair dry. Earlier, when we'd gotten soaked, the wind coming off the water had been a little cold, but now it was only pleasantly cool.
A glance.
"Shall we pitch the tent now?"
"You really don't have the basics down, do you."
The Demon King held up a pale index finger in front of my face and wagged it left and right. What else had just put a scratch on the soul of a hardcore camper.
"You're only supposed to pitch a tent once during a trip. From the second time on, it's just going through the motions. Reheating leftovers. A dried-out teabag, if you will."
She was probably reciting something from a travel guidebook word for word. That arrogant little smile, like she was talking to a complete novice, was annoying — but she had a point.
The joy of setting up a tent, the way it puffs into a dome, the memories made inside. All of that might go stale the second time around. And once had been more than enough.
"Then where do we sleep tonight?"
"Don't freak out, okay? No dying of a heart attack."
"I'll try."
Grinning with her snaggletooth showing, she sidled up and whispered her secret plan.
"Tonight, we're sleeping right here. On the grass."
Not a bad idea. This lake had no cricket-song — which meant no bugs, either.
"Like thiiis—!"
The Demon King flung herself down on a meadow of green grass as short as a lawn. She spread her arms and legs wide, flapping them, soaking in nature with her whole body.
"Eheheh! You lie down too."
"Okay."
The sun had set and the moon had risen.
A little while ago. No — a long while ago.
She and I were still lying side by side in the grass, searching the night sky for stars.
"..."
"..."
There were no stars.
Not a single one.
A low rumble of thunder.
The weather was turning sullen. The fog grew thicker by the minute, and there was a faintly damp feeling in the air besides.
Why?
Why again?
Was it about to pour?
Of course. She never had any luck.
Ha. Fuck.
Sorry for getting greedy, I guess.
To the Demon King who gets attacked by adventurers who don't even know who she is. To the Demon King who was content with the crooked stars she'd drawn on the ceiling. To the Demon King who read her five fairy-tale books until they wore out, never once getting tired of them. To the Demon King who'd been going on about stars the entire trip.
You won't even let her see a scrap of a star, will you.
You know what? I don't know who you are, but you're a petty-ass bastard.
"...Stars, you know."
I wanted to put a speed bump in front of the sadness coming her way. I wanted to cheapen the value of the things she couldn't hold in her hands.
She'd been lying face-up, staring at the sky. Now she turned her head toward me.
"Stars are just clumps of cosmic dust that got packed together and started glowing."
"...Yeah."
"You can't even breathe on a star. No donkeys, no paper cranes, no mayonnaise."
"...And no you?"
"Yeah."
"....Hehe. Lame. I don't need to see stars anymore."
"Yeah. I hate stars too."
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"...Heheh. I'm not that much of an idiot."
"..."
"Wanna play a game?"
"...Sure."
"You don't even need to ask what?"
"Doesn't matter. Anything."
"...Okay. Truth Game."
We've only played it once. Back when we were drinking.
"I'm down, but can I ask one thing?"
"No. Ask that as part of the game."
"Got it. Rules? Rock-paper-scissors?"
"No! That's a game that favors you."
"Fair. Then how?"
"We take turns asking each other."
"Okay."
"I go first. Was the barbecue good earlier?"
"...Yeah. Super good."
"I'm glad... Your face didn't look great, so I was worried... Heheh. Your turn."
"Why'd you suddenly want to play Truth Game?"
"Hmm... A satisfaction survey for this trip? I want you to have had as much fun as I did."
"I did. Not just the barbecue... the treasure hunt, Red Light Green Light, camping, skipping stones, fishing. All of it."
She answered with a face of pure happiness.
"Thank you. For coming with me."
"What, it's a friendship trip. Of course."
The Truth Game continued after that. I asked her, one by one, about everything she'd enjoyed on this trip, and she kept repeating a single question to me.
"You like me, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you like me?"
"Yeah."
"I'm the Demon King. Do you really like me?"
"I do. Because you're the Demon King."
"Last one. Do you like me?"
"I like you. I like you."
"Sorry. I'll stake my Paper Crane on this being the last time. Do you like me?"
"You can keep asking. Yeah. I like you."
No matter how many times she heard it, she never seemed to get tired of it. The Demon King wore the same expression she'd had when she was rolling apple juice around in her mouth.
"Ohohohoh. Like, like... Your turn."
"...Hmm."
I'd gotten plenty of confirmation from a girl who was terrible at lying. This trip had been incredibly fun for her. This game was another huge success.
Suddenly I wanted to ask something I'd been curious about since before we left.
"...Hey."
"Yeah. Ask."
"Before... when you said you were getting ready for the trip, you said we couldn't leave right away, that it'd take a while. Why was that?"
"....."
In that instant, the Demon King clamped her mouth shut. It was her habit whenever she got a question that was hard to answer. I reacted as fast as if I'd touched a pan still hot from the fire.
"You don't have to say if you don't want to. I'll ask something el—"
"No."
She reached out to me. A hand so white and soft it looked like it might shatter like a frost flower — and yet the strongest hand in the world — took hold of mine. She guided it behind her neck, slipping it under her clothes.
...?
Huh?
"...What's this?"
"...An old wound."
"Who? Who did this."
"..."
"Tell me."
"...Leviathan."
?
"What?"
There was a scar, jarringly rough against the smooth, even flesh of her skin.
"...Heheh. He told me I could only come down from the 100th floor once a year. For two days! After two days I have to go back up to the 100th floor. That's why I was rushing the whole trip."
"...Why?"
"........"
Whether she didn't know the reason, or knew and didn't want to say it — this time she really did close her mouth. Then she opened it again.
"...Anyway. Don't hate Leviathan too much, okay? He's actually a good guy. I was the one who broke my promise with the kids and tried to stay for days. So he clawed me to drive me out."
"...Yeah. So you didn't leave because it hadn't been a year yet."
"Yeah..."
Why, though. Why had Leviathan tried to keep her locked on the 100th floor.
"...Then it's my turn."
"...Ask."
".....Haaaah."
Her face looked briefly pained. And yet, like a child rolling up a sleeve to take a shot, she forced her lips open.
"Do you want to leave here?"
She'd asked this before. On a night we'd been drinking.
Unlike then, I had an answer ready this time.
"No."
".....This is Truth Game, you know?"
"I know. I'm not leaving."
"...Why?"
"...Because you're here."
"...You wanted to leave before."
So she knew.
"...Yeah. But not anymore."
"Can I ask? The reason."
"...Even if you added up everything outside the Tower... I like you more."
"...Hyaaaa..."
She covered her face with both palms. Her hands were small, but her face was smaller, so they covered it completely. Her trembling voice leaked out through the gaps between her fingers.
"Haa... Every day is happy when I'm with you."
"..."
"I feel like I could die like this."
"That'd be a problem."
"Why?"
"What about me?"
"Ohohohoh! Eheheh!"
She threw her arms around me.
"I can't hold it in. I like you too much."
"..."
"Thank you for coming to me."
"What?"
Time seemed to freeze at those words. It felt like being jolted awake from a good dream because an antimatter bomb had just gone off on the balcony.
"What the hell does that mean? 'Last'?"
"...Huh? Did I say that?"
"You did. What do you mean, last. Say it properly."
"...I must've misspoken."
My breathing had gone ragged without me realizing it. When I collected myself, I found rough breaths moving in and out of my lungs. For some reason her cheeks were flushed deep red, and her lips were twitching.
"...Sorry. You're not about to fire Chain Lightning, are you?"
"...Heheh, no. It actually felt kinda nice."
We looked at each other's faces, then turned our heads back to the foggy night sky. Just in case there might be stars, we rolled our eyes across it again.
We stayed like that for a long time, lying in the grass. A gentle breeze, the grass and trees stirring in time with it — a quiet atmosphere settled over us.
I turned to look at her. Those red eyes, looking somehow drained, were still rummaging through the night sky.
She turned to look at me too. She reached out and stroked my cheek — the one with no buffs on it.
"...You can sleep first... Heheh... I'll look a little longer and then sleep. Just in case."
Of course. She still had lingering attachment to the stars. Makes sense — she'd waited a whole year.
...Sleep first?
Suddenly there was something I wanted to ask her. Something I'd wanted to ask for a long time.
"...My turn, right?"
"Huh?"
"Truth Game."
"...Oh. We're still going? Yeah, yeah. Your turn."
Something I'd been curious about for a long time... but I'd buried it, because I had a feeling that knowing the truth would only make things harder.
I wanted to open the lid now.
"Do you... not sleep?"
"......"
"...You just don't need sleep?"
"......No."
The Demon King spun her gaze around.
"...If you don't want to sa—"
"No."
Her face looked as relieved as if she'd just set down a heavy boulder.
"It's true. I don't sleep."
She'd hesitated, then answered.
"Haaaah! That feels so good! This is the first time I've told anyone?"
"...Why didn't you say so all this time?"
"Ohohoh. If I told you, would you stay up every night with me?"
"..."
"Heheheh... Just kidding! It's not all bad, you know? Waiting for you is fun, and in the meantime I make games, I cook... I get to live each day twice!"
"Can you tell me why you don't sleep?"
"..."
"Please."
"...Okay. This is a secret, though."
She narrowed her eyes and leaned in close to my ear. Then she whispered.
"All my buffs drop while I'm asleep."
"...All of them?"
"Yeah. The alarm buffs, the ones on my body, the ones on the furniture. All of them. Hehe... Pretty shoddy buffs, huh?"
Humans who raid the 100th floor at all hours.
The Demon King wasn't sleepless. She couldn't sleep because she was afraid.
Not sleeping wasn't what she wanted. It was just a defense against the threat.
How long. How long had she lived trembling with anxiety.
"...Are you okay? Living like that, don't you get sleepy?"
"Yeah... I'm fine. I'm used to it now."
Her nights must have been long.
There must have been many days she crouched in front of my closed door, waiting.
Maybe even more than I knew.
I can't spend every night wide-eyed with the Demon King. I'm a fragile human.
The misfortunes laid on her aren't something powerless me can lift. It'd be like trying to bail out this lake with the cup that held the apple juice.
As always.
A powerless backdrop, I shut my mouth and stared back at the empty sky. The sky painted over with fog... had nothing. Nothing at all.
"..."
I heard grass rustling beside me. She turned her head to the sky as well.
We spent more time like that.
"..."
"..."
She took my hand, naturally. Squeezed it tight. I hoped the warmth of my hand — less cold than hers — would conduct into her ice-cold palm.
That was when.
"Huh?"
"Ah!?"
A shooting star cut across the sky. It was hidden by the fog, but there was no mistaking it. She'd reacted too.
"W-wow, did you see that?"
She whipped around to look at me, her red eyes suddenly flooded with light.
"I saw it. A shooting star."
"A shooting star?"
"...Ah, we missed it. If you make a wish on one, it comes true."
"Whaaat?! That's a total cheat item!"
"Don't use that word."
"O-okay, let's watch again. Another one might fall."
...Yeah, right.
Even seeing one was lucky, I thought — and yet I was staring just as hard as she was at the empty night sky.
"Huh!?"
"Kyaa!"
Another one fell. This time we didn't miss it. Before the shooting star's magic faded, we hurriedly made our wishes.
"Did you wish? Did you?"
"Yeah. You?"
"I wished!"
The wish I made was for her to see stars — stars hanging in the sky, right now.
She'd probably wished the same.
Please.
A year from now.
I wanted to put a down payment in her hands against the future sadness I'd dumped on her.
But time passed, and still no stars appeared.
"...Heheh. Still, we saw two. Pretty ones!"
She smiled bitterly. I could tell because it was her. It was a smile that wasn't full.
Couldn't something happen.
This is a fantasy world. For us, who are always unrealistically unlucky — couldn't some magic with no narrative justification happen, just once.
For her, who'd been drawing stars on a sealed-off ceiling with a white crayon — couldn't she see the real thing, just once.
Her nights, which had always been dark — couldn't they be bright, for just one day.
I looked at the Demon King. Contrary to any implication that she was satisfied, her red eyes were still wide open, searching for stars.
"..."
"..."
Well. Of course.
The Demon King, who would be insulted to place anywhere but first in a contest of bad luck, and her friend who was a close second — holding hands and making a wish.
As if it would come true.
"Whaa?!"
At her startled reaction, I whipped my head toward the sky.
"...Another one fell?"
"...Yeah, yeah! T-two of them."
Then...
"Huh?"
"Wha?"
A vast, spreading hush.
It wasn't my imagination.
Clearly.
The fog was clearly lifting.
"What, what? What's this?"
"...!"
The fog slowly receded, and the clouds that had even been covering the moonlight tore apart.
"Huh!? Stars over there!"
"Oh my, and there — wait? I can see them there too!"
Stars. Stars embroidering the sky.
They started appearing in droves.
And that wasn't all.
"W-wooooow!"
"Wow!"
It rained.
A rain of countless stars.
"Wowowowaaah... A-are those all sh-shooting stars?"
She asked, her mouth hanging open.
"Yeah. Wow! That's sick... I mean, that's insane... I mean, they're beautiful!"
I take back calling you petty. God. I won't mouth off anymore.
In the now-clear night sky, stars poured down like rain, drawing beautiful strokes across the dark.
"..."
"..."
I stared blankly at the meteor shower, then shifted my gaze to her. Her mouth was agape, her mind completely stolen by the star-rain, and in her eyes I could see a ruby-colored Milky Way.
"..."
"..."
Whether it was magic with no narrative justification, or the Tower's capricious weather — none of that mattered.
Because she was as happy as if she owned the whole world.
She and I, who never had any luck.
Tonight, a miracle happened.
The meteor shower ended, but the fog and clouds had cleared, so the stars she'd wanted to see were studded everywhere.
We lay back down in the grass. Holding hands. Filling our eyes with stars.
"That was so beautiful."
"Yeah."
"Ah! Photos! I forgot!"
That's— fuck! Just leave it. Please.
"...M-more importantly, you! What did you wish for?"
I quickly changed the subject before she could go to her bag for the camera.
"...Hmm... You first?"
That my friend wouldn't suffer too much over what happens a year from now.
That humanity's hatred of demonkind would vanish, and they'd leave my friend alone.
That my friend wouldn't be lonely — that she'd have friends besides me.
That my friend wouldn't cry anymore.
That my friend, having seen Leviathan's body, would take it calmly.
That the nights my friend would spend alone from now on wouldn't be too long.
And if it was possible — that I'd find a way to go back to Earth without killing my friend.
And, getting a little greedier — that I'd go back to Earth together with my friend.
"Just... that you'd be happy."
"..."
The Demon King, lying beside me, turned her body toward me.
I turned my head from the stars to her face. Seeing her eyes, already overflowing with starlight, I didn't think I needed to leave any lingering attachment to the sky.
I turned toward her as well.
"...What did you wish for?"
At my question, the Demon King's soft cheeks flushed red.
"Same as the first one I made. If you wish the same wish multiple times, it might listen better, right?"
...The first one? When one fell, before the meteor shower?
The wish to see stars?
That doesn't add up. By the time the meteor shower poured down, there were already tons of stars visible.
"What was the first wish?"
"..."
"..."
Maybe the starlight was just too bright.
That night, we didn't sleep.
We just looked at each other's faces, silently, all night long. We didn't get tired of it. Not even a little.
It was an unusually short night.
I think I understood why she'd waited all night in front of my door.