Remember the End (8)
"Her heart rate is all over the place! She's still coughing up blood... Her temperature keeps spiking and then crashing!"
"Damn it, I can't even inject anything when I have no idea what her condition actually is..."
"We're moving her to the operating room for now!"
Ugh. So noisy.
Part of me wanted to sit bolt upright and declare that it was nothing, but simply gathering the despair flooding into my body was already more than I could handle.
The problem was that I scarfed down despair the second Emerald left the room...
I should have watched how things developed a little longer before eating. Instead I got excited the moment she vanished from sight and gulped it down like an idiot. That was my mistake.
Who could have guessed Emerald would be waiting right outside the hospital room door?
...She did that on purpose. No matter how I look at it, she absolutely did that on purpose.
If she hadn't, there was no way she would have blasted out that much hope energy the exact instant I finished drinking Tamako's despair.
Of all times to flood the place with hope energy—right when I had my despair circuit thrown wide open.
Was she that desperate to kill a monster or what?
"Kh—kehck, hhk..."
Still, all of this was one step back for two steps forward.
See? The moment I coughed blood and pretended to be in pain, despair energy came pouring out in thick streams.
Watching Emerald despair over me coughing blood was a little unexpected, though.
If I cough blood once a day like this, maybe I'll never have to worry about despair again...
I had thought sleeping Tamako was my only despair fountain. Looks like I needed to add "Emerald seeing me cough blood" to the list.
Maybe she was just afraid of blood.
Seeing Apocalypse—her enemy of enemies—cough blood and immediately fall into despair... yeah, fear of blood made more sense.
In the original story there wasn't any particular description of her being scared of blood, but...
Maybe it developed later.
If you spent all day watching humans get torn apart and magical girls get dismembered, anyone would pick up a phobia of blood.
"...Vital signs returning to normal."
"...Are we even allowed to call this normal?"
"These were the numbers from her initial physical exam, so I guess we have to treat this as her baseline..."
Ahh, what a shame. It had felt like a despair fever time, and it was amazing while it lasted.
Thinking it was about time I opened my eyes, I carefully lifted my eyelids. The doctors were all wearing grave faces, muttering among themselves.
"...Excuse me."
"Eek!? Y-you startled me..."
"...Weren't you unconscious?"
They reacted like they had just watched a corpse sit up.
Their hearts were hammering so loudly and clearly that I couldn't help laughing on the inside.
People on the verge of death can suddenly wake up, you know. What's with the overreaction?
.
.
.
"P-please, take care on your way back!"
"...Are you sure we don't need to escort her to her room?"
"I don't know. She walked fine on her own, so just let her go. I-it's scary. What if she bites someone and we get infected?"
Hey. I can hear everything back there.
Treating a person like a zombie is just rude.
I'm not a zombie—I'm a monster. A monster!
That said, I look like a complete mess.
Coughing up blood had left my clothes in absolute tatters.
I didn't even have a spare set left. At this rate I was going to be stuck in a hospital gown.
More importantly, people are staring way too hard.
A blood-soaked little girl walking out of the emergency room... yeah, anyone would be horrified.
No helping it, I guess.
I wanted nothing more than to go back to my room and sleep, but if I wandered around like this the whole hospital would be buzzing with rumors.
I planned to hole up here for a while. I couldn't let weird stories start circulating. No way.
"Are you really okay going back alone?"
"I'm fine. I only coughed up a little blood."
"...That did not look like a little."
I went back into the emergency room and, while the doctors recoiled in fresh horror at my reappearance, borrowed a hospital gown.
I could have asked a nurse outside, but... well. I just wanted to see them freak out one more time.
Reason? ...Because it was fun.
Akari! Akari! Are you okay!? Akari!
"...Making such a fuss over a little blood."
Sleeves drooping past my hands, slippers scuffing the floor, I headed back to my room. Emerald's face rose unbidden in my mind.
From her expression alone, you would have thought a close friend was dying.
In reality it was the exact opposite.
Ahh, is there any fresh despair around...
I had just filled up, only for Emerald's hope to make me vomit every last drop. I was starving—painfully so.
This world was far too harsh on a newborn like me.
How was my mother a doctor, of all things?
What kind of parent doesn't feed their baby and then turns around and issues murder orders?
Growl—
It's so despairing. So utterly despairing...
Was this how abandoned children felt, left out on the streets by their parents?
I was so depressed I wanted to bawl my eyes out.
And on top of everything, this world was crawling with vicious magical girls.
The moment I got nice and full on despair, they would probably show up in packs and start blasting magic cloths at me.
Does this monster even know what it means to be full?
Honestly, that line could air as a public service announcement on a monster education channel.
Ahh, if I'd known it would be like this, I should have gone into the sciences.
Then I could have built a despair extractor that used magical girls as raw materials, just like the Doctor.
No—what am I even thinking?
Hunger was making me lose my mind.
"...Akari?"
"Hello, Midori."
"A-are you okay?"
"Probably."
I thought she would be gone by now.
Emerald, who had been sitting on the chair outside my room, spotted me and hurried over with quick little steps.
"More importantly, you're a little too close."
"Ah—s-sorry."
"...I'm tired. Would it be all right if I went in and slept now?"
The second she saw me back, it was the same old story.
Hope energy needled every single nerve, and my stomach churned on its own.
I was lucky I had the despair circuit closed right now. If it had been open like earlier, I probably would have coughed blood all over again.
I had just changed clothes. Getting them filthy again was absolutely not happening.
"Akari."
"Yes? Go ahead."
"I'm sorry for being so cold to you. I... um, you look a lot like someone I hate, so I think I did it without meaning to."
"..."
An apology, out of nowhere? What kind of change of heart was this?
Question marks popped over my head as I tilted it to the side.
Did Emerald even have anything to apologize to me for?
I was Apocalypse, after all.
I should be grateful she hadn't lunged straight for my throat.
"It's fine. I figured it was only natural."
"...Ah."
"See you tomorrow, Midori."
I answered with a bright smile, and her expression became something to behold.
Rattle—
"Haa..."
Surely she wouldn't follow me in again.
Would it kill her to leave me alone for once?
For the time being I fully intended to lick up Tamako's despair at my leisure and enjoy the lazy life of a fire-monster.
Seeing her look that sorry, I also figured she probably wouldn't torment me for a while.
Mmm, maybe I'll just close my eyes for a bit.
I didn't know if monsters were even supposed to sleep—and the moment that thought crossed my mind, the second I lay down on the bed, sleep came pouring over me.
Oh. So I can sleep after all.
I let my slowly closing eyes do as they pleased and exhaled a long, quiet breath.
Come to think of it, this is the first time I've slept since I was born...
That was the last thought I had before I blacked out as if someone had flipped a switch.
The day's events must have left a strong impression, because I dreamed of piling a magical girl's despair into a mountain and devouring it to my heart's content.
A dark room no one seemed likely to enter.
A fragrant scent drifted from far away, and it began to move.
A delicious aroma on a completely different level from the ordinary despair scattered around it.
The despair of a magical girl—something ordinary monsters would never get to taste.
Grrrk, grrrlk—
A black, formless mass stuck to the floor writhed and slowly began to bulk up its body.
I have to eat it. That is mine.
From the back of something with a canine torso, a single black tentacle stretched out and latched onto the outer wall of the building.
Grrrrlk—
Creeeeak... squelch—
It moved in absolute silence so no one would notice, and at last it reached the source of the despair.
Like winter wind threading a needle's eye, it slipped its body effortlessly through the gap in the window.
Haaah, haaah—
"N-no... please, save me... hhk..."
This was it.
The thing scattering delicious despair in every direction.
My prey. I will devour all of it.
Grrrrrrlk...
A mouth that had been only human-sized split open and began to swell until it could swallow a person whole.
Large enough to gulp down the magical girl before it in a single bite.
Inside that gaping maw—grown so vast it looked ready to swallow every last scrap of light—were teeth like blades ground from obsidian, packed tight together.
Grrrlk—
How full would I be after eating this?
Just imagining it made black liquid drip from its jaws in thick drops as its appetite surged.
Swallow. Just swallow it.
This defenseless, sleeping prey, just like that—
"Hey."
Grrk?
—it failed to swallow.
It looked behind it.
There stood a human.
A human from whom neither hope nor despair could be felt.
No. That was no human.
That was unmistakably...
"Don't you dare outbid me on despair I already put a claim on."
Its vision flooded red.
Above the head of the monster wearing a human shape, a dark-crimson ring spun with violent speed.
Dangerous.
I have to run.
An overwhelming presence that made even a magical girl's despair feel like nothing.
Grrrlk...
Sensing a threat to its life, it hurriedly tried to move its body.
Or rather, the instant it tried.
Crunch—
A dull sound, and its body collapsed in on itself.
It was the end of a worthless creature that fed on despair.