Malice. (6)
The timing's wrong.
Of all moments for a monster to show up — and a Delta Class one, no less?
I smothered the suspicion welling up from deep inside me and shot forward at full power.
"...Got it!"
Finding the monster was easy enough. It was snatching up fleeing people at random and killing them — hard to miss that.
Its face still had no eyes or nose, but unlike ordinary four-legged monsters, this one walked on two legs. That was the odd part, if anything counted as odd.
"S-save me! Aaaaaaagh—!!!"
Crunch—Chomp, chomp, chomp—
It scooped people up, stuffed them into its mouth like snacks, and chewed with wet, grinding relish. Watching it wipe the bloodstains off its own body — not out of fussiness, just casually cleaning itself — sent pure revulsion surging up my throat.
Why do monsters even...
Act this cruel? It was behavior I could neither understand nor wanted to. Every time I saw something like this, the nightmare of the past — Apocalypse's face — rose up again, and the hatred only deepened.
"Emerald Spla— kh...?!"
"P-please, save me...!"
Screeeech—
The instant I tried to fire a magic blast at the thing, it twitched the long mass trailing from the back of its head as if it had sensed Hope Energy. Then it lifted a person toward me.
Like a hostage. As if to say: attack me and the one in my hand dies.
"Looks like we've run into something out of the ordinary."
I'd never met a monster of this type before. Taking people as hostages so no one could strike it — pure malice, exploiting the fact that a magical girl has to save others.
Screee, screee, screeech—
"I'm after it!"
With a cry thick with mockery, the monster fled. I tore after it at once.
How? What was I supposed to do? When a person was being held hostage, how—
You cannot save everyone, Emerald.
But...
Your kindness is a precious thing, yet in this situation you must think only of destroying Apocalypse.
It was the same as back then. Those cold words fired straight at me. You cannot save everyone. The best you can do right now is stop Apocalypse from slaughtering people without mercy.
"...Drive, set."
You cannot save everyone. That was why, at the very end, I had only stood and watched while Apocalypse killed people — killed my comrades.
The me of the past and the me of now are different. I could never go back to that Emerald who knew nothing of the world, who was a fool, who people called kind.
But...
"I won't give up!"
I came back to the past, didn't I? Then maybe it was all right to hold that same heart again. And the me of now was far stronger than the me of then. There was no way I couldn't do what the old me had failed to do.
I just have to save the person in its hand before it can hurt them.
Vmmmm—
I amplified my Hope Energy. Inwardly only, so nothing showed on the outside. I kept the Hope Circuit spinning, packing compressed Hope Energy so densely that every nerve in my body stood on end.
This is the first time I've tried this, but I can do it.
Body reinforcement through Hope Energy — something Ruby, my old comrade from the Apocalypse subjugation, had used all the time. I wasn't a close-combat type, so I'd never needed it myself, but I'd picked up the rough method just by watching.
I believe in you, Emerald. You can do this.
I wasn't alone. I had always had comrades. Remembering the face that had said those words while clapping my shoulder, I released the Hope Energy the way you let go of a drawn bowstring.
BOOM—!!!
Screeeeech?!?!!
Speed that could have been called teleportation without shame. Hope Energy shredded the monster's arm in an instant and blasted outward with a thunderous roar.
The monster screamed in agony as its arm was severed, but that didn't matter right now.
"U-uaaaaaagh!!!!"
"I know!"
The person the monster had been holding was plummeting toward the ground. I had to catch them. For an ordinary human, a fall from that height was far too dangerous.
But—
"Kh..."
My body won't move properly...!
The recoil from using the technique for the first time had locked my limbs solid. No. At this rate I wouldn't make it in time.
Move. Move. Move!
What kind of magical girl freezes up over recoil this small?!
I forced the grinding Hope Circuit back into motion and restored my Hope Energy.
Vmm—
"Kh, hyaaaaaah!!!!"
I turned every Hope Circuit into pure thrust and launched myself at the falling civilian.
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this!
Watching the citizen draw closer little by little, I had just started to believe I could save them when—
Scree, scree, scree
"...!!"
The monster's mouth stretched into a grin that nearly split its face, and the car it had just hurled at me filled my vision. And inside that car was clearly—
I'll have to give up one of them.
I crushed my lip between my teeth as I looked at the unconscious child inside the vehicle. Who was I supposed to save? The person still falling? The child in the car?
If I kept hesitating, I would lose both.
Ssshhhk—
"This is...!"
I flinched as a mass of tentacles seized the civilian in the final instant before impact — and my eyes met a pair of glowing red ones.
A person— no, a monster?
A grotesque form: human from the waist up, monster from the waist down. Yet the humanity still living in those eyes proved the other was human.
"Got... you...!!"
Catching a flying car was no easy feat, but the relief of having somehow saved them washed over me. This wasn't over, though. As long as the monster lived, I could never relax.
Scree, scree, scree—
"You're not getting away! Emerald Splash—!!"
I fired a magic blast at the fleeing monster, but at reduced output the shot couldn't catch something that moved so fast.
At this rate other people would be in danger. Move. Move! If I can't bring it down, then at least hold it until another magical girl arrives!
Move right now, Emerald!
Vmm—
"You're not going anywhere...!!!!"
Screee?!?!
I overclocked the Hope Circuit again and poured everything into thrust. Then I charged straight in. Magic blasts wouldn't stop it, so I had no choice but to pin it down with a method this crude.
"I'm fi— ne!"
I slammed into the monster at full speed and we tumbled across the ground, but a magical girl's body only picked up a few scrapes. Without Hope Energy wrapping every inch of me, something would definitely have broken.
I forced my jolting body upright and fixed my eyes on where the monster had to be.
Scree, screee, scree
"You think I'm just going to let you go?"
To a monster, Hope Energy was pure poison. Even a stupid full-body tackle would deal damage if it connected. Close combat wasn't my specialty, but fine.
"Let's see which of us wins, monster."
Whether I die or you do.
Scree, scree, scree...!!
The monster started laughing as if my declaration amused it. A magical girl choosing close combat — it seemed to find that hilarious. Its shark-like maw stretched wide in a sickening grin, like a cat watching a cornered mouse.
"Haa..."
"...It's fine, May. I had a good teacher. She never taught me directly, but—"
Vmm—
A blade of Hope Energy rose from the tip of my staff. Faint enough that it looked ready to crumble at any second, yet still more than enough to hurt a monster.
I never thought I'd end up fighting like this.
Emerald, didn't you pick the wrong combat style?
The wrong style?
I copied the stance my old comrade had always taken and slowly steadied my breathing. Watching alone never taught you everything — but watching alone still taught you something. Things like how to fight.
Scree, scree—!!
"Gkhah...?!"
But close combat — especially against a monster — wasn't something you could learn by eye. I blocked the arm the monster swung so casually, and still went flying into the nearest wall.
That was what close combat was. A single small mistake turned fatal. That was why most magical girls chose ranged attacks in the first place.
"It's fine, May. I can do this."
Even through May's desperate cry, I did not run. No — there was no reason to run.
"...Hope Threshold."
A magical girl who can heal herself? That's practically invincible in close combat.
Magical Girl Emerald.
The hope she held in her hand was exactly this: the will to rise again no matter how many times she broke.