Malice (8)
[Static— Alpha Squad, is something wrong? Crackle— Alpha Squad, respond!]
A low, resonant hum rolled through the air.
I might have gone a little overboard.
I drew a slow breath, tasting the despair that pressed in from every direction. At this rate I was basically pure Apocalypse.
“Ugh… uhhhh…”
“Aaaugh… uhhh…”
That’s what you get for picking a fight with a monster who just wanted a quiet underground tour. Tsk.
I’d only broken their arms and legs, but clearly the problem ran deeper than a few snapped limbs.
These ones are useless now.
I pulled a helmet off, just curious enough to see a face, and found nothing but a vacant shell staring back at me. Eyes without focus. Drool stringing from a slack mouth. Actually, maybe this was better. Saved me the trouble of any more conversation.
“Waaaaah…”
“Yes, we’re heading back now, so don’t worry. I made things a little too scary, didn’t I?”
The child’s sobs told me it was time to leave. A shame. I’d wanted to see just how far the underground labyrinth stretched.
Be honest—who wouldn’t be curious? A research facility buried beneath the city, completely unknown to the people living above. Inside it, half-human half-monster abominations, and an entire military garrison stationed there just to keep the secret buried. Come on.
“All right, all right. Let’s go home. Home.”
I patted the child’s back and started retracing our steps at a leisurely pace. Still, it felt wasteful to leave empty-handed, so I made a point of memorizing the route. My memory was pretty decent; next time I could treat this spot like a save point and pick up right where I left off.
Next time I’ll come alone.
If I stayed any longer Emerald would start fretting about where I’d wandered off to. And I couldn’t exactly keep hauling this kid around forever.
“See? Nothing left to be scared of. Look around—really.”
“U-uh-huh…”
I gently peeled the child’s face out of my chest and turned her toward the ruined lab. Broken test tubes weren’t the prettiest sightseeing, but if you thought of it as a cautionary field trip—“this is what happens when you sneak into places like this”—it was educational enough.
“Ta-da~ What do you think this is?”
“Dunno…”
“It’s a DNA model. You’ll probably learn about it once you start school.”
The little plaque underneath went on about human DNA this, monster DNA that, but the whole thing was pure gibberish to me, so I tore the note off and tossed it. I was a liberal-arts girl, not a science major.
Ah. Was that why the Doctor abandoned me? Something like, “A liberal-arts baby in my bloodline? The shame of the family!”
Then again, harvesting despair feels pretty liberal-arts to me.
You know—tugging at human emotions, wringing out every last drop of despair with maximum efficiency. In that sense, sucking the despair out of these half-monster hybrid life-forms made me an outstanding liberal-arts honor student.
“Here. A little souvenir from our trip.”
“Thanks, unnie.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank the scientists who built this place.”
At least she’d stopped crying. That counted as a win. The child took the DNA model, beamed up at me, and I found myself smiling back. My sensibilities might have gone full monster, but a kid’s smile still looked good on the eyes.
By the way…
While she played with her new toy, something in the corner of the lab caught my attention. I reached out and picked it up—a keycard. A familiar face stared up at me from the photo.
This person… no way.
“Unnie? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing at all.”
I slipped the card into my pocket. I’d thought the face looked familiar, but I never expected a coincidence this ridiculous. Something interesting was definitely about to happen.
“It’s so bright…”
“It’s all right. You’ll get used to it in a second.”
I set the child down carefully, still shielding her eyes with one hand, then took her free hand in mine. Now then… where to go from here?
The supermarket was already half-wrecked. Staying put would only invite more trouble.
Did they finish off the monsters, I wonder?
Well, Emerald had probably handled it. I didn’t love the whole “magical girl who scatters hope” thing, but her skill was the real deal. Even if the only times I’d seen that skill were in old anime episodes.
“The city’s turned into a complete mess.”
“…Do you think Mom’s okay?”
“She’ll be fine.”
If she weren’t, things would get boring. Whatever came next, if events kept rolling this way, I was in for something entertaining. Just imagining it made my heart race.
“Um… e-excuse me…”
“There you are.”
“I—yes… thank you again for looking after my child…”
They say the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. The girl’s mother had fled in a panic earlier, yet somehow she looked perfectly put-together now. I gave her a warm-eyed smile and handed the child over.
I really was curious how this would play out. A small personal goal, maybe, but I suddenly wanted a taste of the despair waiting inside this woman right in front of me.
Creeeak—
No one around…?
Following the mother’s directions, I somehow made it back to the hospital. Thankfully the monsters hadn’t rampaged this far. I eased the door open a crack, confirmed that only Tamako was inside, and started to slip in.
Or rather—I was about to, when a voice spoke right behind me.
“Akari.”
“E-Emerald?”
“Not Emerald. Midori. Midori.”
“Yes, Midori… more importantly, are you hurt?”
I spun around at the unexpected voice and found Emerald standing there—bandaged in several places, like she’d just walked out of a beating.
Where did she get herself this banged up?
She could heal herself. For her to look this rough… whatever monster she’d fought, it clearly hadn’t been ordinary.
“Magical girls get hurt all the time. Were you worried about me?”
“Of course I was.”
She was one of my future despair dispensers, after all. And among those dispensers, Emerald was a particular favorite. Having tasted her despair once already, fretting over her well-being was only natural.
“So please don’t get hurt, Midori.”
“…Okay.”
Yes! Worry about Emerald, lock in the touching atmosphere, and quietly bury the fact that I’d snuck out—
“…Then let’s talk about what comes next.”
“Huh?”
“Akari. You didn’t by any chance go outside without telling me, did you?”
“Ahaha…”
That expression said she already knew everything. Denying it would only invite a full interrogation, so I nodded.
Fine. I went out. What are you going to do about it? I’m Apocalypse. I can end the world in the blink of an eye!
“…I’m sorry.”
“I’m glad you understand why you should be. Leaving the hospital during a monster alert… anyone watching would think you were trying to get yourself killed.”
“…Ugh.”
“And what’s this? These marks—did you get hurt? You do understand the state your body is in, right?”
I’m perfectly fine, thank you. A few bullets from the underground soldiers, sure, but they felt like mosquito bites. My clothes, on the other hand, weren’t as durable as my body, so they had a few new holes…
Seriously, when she bought me clothes, couldn’t she have picked something with a little bullet resistance?
I was already blaming Emerald for no reason.
“I…!”
“…?”
“Do you have any idea how worried I was…? I thought something had happened to you…”
W-wait, why was she suddenly like this? One second she was scolding me, the next she was burying her face in my chest and crying. I tilted my head, nonplussed.
R-right. She’d been through a lot lately. Should I comfort her?
The idea of a monster consoling a magical girl was pretty funny, but I was a monster with excellent social radar, so I decided a little comfort wouldn’t kill me.
“It’s okay, Midori. I’m really fine. Look—if anything, you’re the one in worse shape right now.”
“…Ugh.”
“Besides, I’m not that easy to kill. I survived that laboratory, remember?”
“…”
I looked down at Midori as she lifted her head and spoke as gently as I could. Change of plans. Originally I’d meant to tease her now and then and siphon a little despair, but if she was going to fall apart this easily, there was no fun in it.
“Come on inside. I’ll rewrap those bandages for you.”
“Ah—I can do it myself—”
“Look how messy this already is. These things always turn out better when someone else does them, you know?”
I pulled Emerald into the room and pointed at a spot still stained with dried blood. A girl with healing powers coming back this torn up… tsk tsk.
Don’t tell me she did this on purpose so I’d worry about her?
In fanworks she sometimes got drawn as a masochist who liked getting hurt, but—
Nah. Fanworks were just fanworks.
…Or were they? If you thought about it, Apocalypse standing here playing nurse already felt like fanfiction.
F-focus. Just concentrate on changing the bandages.
I forcibly shoved the swirling thoughts down. For now, the only thing that mattered was the work right in front of me.