Your Gentle Despair (7)
"Akari, are you okay? Akari...!"
"Ugh—cough, cough, cough!!"
Despair washed over me. The warm, living despair of a magical girl.
At Emerald's cry I spat out the blood still clogging my throat, and she brushed my cheek with a face gone pure white.
Her hand was hot.
Maybe it was just my low body temperature, but the characteristic warmth of a magical girl's touch felt almost scalding.
"Looks like there aren't any serious wounds. Though she might have internal injuries..."
"I'm so sorry. I was sure that place would be safe from monsters..."
Judging by her expression, she looked ready to die of guilt any second.
Emerald's face buried in remorse was actually quite a pleasant sight, but if this kept up she might do something truly extreme, and that made me a little uneasy.
No. Not my despair generator!
I squeezed.
"You... came to save me..."
"...Ah."
I clutched the sleeve of Emerald's outfit and gave it a weak tug, finishing the words in a broken, faltering voice.
The light in her eyes went out for a moment as she looked at me.
Uh. Did I mess something up?
In the dark, Emerald with the highlights gone from her pupils was not a sight for the faint of heart.
Then came a soft, rattling sound.
"A-Akari... thank you, thank you... hhk... hwaah..."
Contrary to my fears, the light returned to her eyes almost at once.
And then the tears came pouring out of those wide-open eyes like a waterfall.
What the hell is wrong with this girl?
When she went from hating me to suddenly wanting to be friends, I'd honestly wondered if she was just messing with me.
But watching her bawl her eyes out like this left me... well, flustered.
At least it doesn't look like she noticed anything. Small mercies...
If I'd kept the despair circuit running without realizing she was coming—
Ugh. Just imagining it made my skin crawl.
The thought that the magic cannon Curse had taken full-force might have been turned on me instead sent fine tremors through my whole body.
Anyway, that was the end of the underground exploration. Shame—it had been fun.
"Let's head back for now, Emerald. This is beyond what we can handle alone."
"...Okay, May."
Emerald carefully lifted me into her arms.
Being handled like this was a first, and it felt strange.
Getting treated like a patient when I didn't have a single real injury was pretty funny, too.
"We're going home, Akari."
Emerald smiled down at me, soft and gentle.
Yeah, let's go back. Going back was fine—but could she maybe turn down the hope a little?
The hope pricking my skin made me cough dryly, and Emerald's arms came away stained red.
"...! J-just hang on a little longer, Akari! We're going straight to the hospital!"
"...Kelok."
Hospital, huh. Hospitals were good. Curse wasn't around anymore, after all.
So for a while I'd just check in, suck down some human despair, and—
More than that, I felt like I was forgetting something important—
"Eme...rald."
"Don't talk, Akari. Pushing yourself could make things worse."
"It's... over there..."
Playing injured was exhausting, but I managed it somehow for the sake of locking in Emerald's trust completely.
Arms trembling, I pointed a single index finger at the laboratory door Curse had come out of.
"There are... kids inside..."
The humans who had chased after us to tease us, only to get snatched by Curse.
If they were dead I would have left them, but when I focused I could still feel faint despair coming from inside.
Corpses don't produce despair, so they had to be alive. Yeah.
There. Did a good deed... case closed for today!
Technically I was closer to the one who caused the incident than the one who solved it, but if I hadn't come down here Curse would have stabbed everyone in the back far more spectacularly. Every human in this city basically owed me one.
If Emerald ever found that out, maybe she'd go a little easy on me even after my identity got exposed someday.
Anyway, I just wanted to go home and rest.
Pretending to get beaten up by Curse wore me out to de—
KWAANG—!!!
"Emerald."
As if mocking my thoughts, the wall shattered with a crash and another voice rang out right behind Emerald's back.
Who? No—more importantly, that voice sounded awfully familiar—
Still cradled in Emerald's arms, I started to crane my neck for a look, only for the owner's identity to slam into me the moment I tried.
No way. Ruby?
The second those two syllables surfaced, I instinctively pulled my head back down.
If she saw me I was dead. Or if not dead, at least carved into ribbons.
Emerald seemed to know it too; she didn't turn around while she was still holding me.
She clearly understood exactly what would happen the instant the girl in her arms became visible to Ruby.
"Ruby, there are kids trapped in the lab next door."
"Yeah? More importantly—did you get your friend out okay?"
"...Yes. For now."
Emerald's eyes trembled as she looked down at me.
The rough way she was breathing and the cold sweat running down her forehead made it painfully clear how tense she was.
"Th-then I'll head out first."
"Hold it."
The moment Emerald tried to hurry away, Ruby called her back.
Emerald bit her lip hard.
Like a child caught red-handed, she pressed her mouth shut and swallowed dryly.
"The one who was here—that was Curse, right?"
"...Yes."
"Damn it. Should've grabbed him while we had the chance... Anyway. Good work."
"You too, Ruby. Thank you for your hard work."
Thankfully it didn't look like we'd been found out.
As Emerald's stiff, creaking steps carried us away, I finally let out the breath I'd been holding, and she exhaled right along with me.
As if nearly getting spotted by Ruby had been more nerve-wracking than Curse himself.
Growl—
Ah, I'm starving for despair.
I wanted to hurry home and bury my face in Tamako's chest.
Eating Emerald's despair had filled me up some, but—how to put it—it was like living on delivery food and then suddenly getting a home-cooked meal. That kind of feeling.
"Pfft, ahaha...!"
"...What?"
"No, nothing. Just... it really hit me again. Akari is still Akari."
What the hell did "still Akari" even mean?
Someone who completely failed to read the room and let her stomach growl about being hungry?
If that was it, it definitely wasn't a compliment.
"When we get back, let's eat together. Something really delicious."
Hope energy poured off Emerald and stabbed into my skin without mercy.
Yes, ma'am. Whatever you want.
"...No matter how I look at it, something's off."
"Huh? What is? I think the weirdest part is that Ruby came back in one piece!"
"Hey."
Ruby sighed at Chromi's completely misplaced objection.
Well, from Chromi's point of view that really might be the strangest thing.
But right now the important question wasn't whether she herself was in one piece or not.
They were holed up this deep underground the whole time and nobody noticed?
In the previous world she had first encountered Curse underground, sure—but never under a living city full of people.
Yet that monster had built a laboratory rivaling the entire city beneath their feet, and not a single person had caught on.
That part just didn't make sense.
"Don't tell me he used to be human..."
"Whoa, used to be human...? What are you talking about?"
"It's nothing. It's not solid yet. I'll tell you once I figure it out."
Ruby ruffled the top of Chromi's head as the mascot clung to her side and started whining, then stretched her stiff legs out and worked the knots from her body.
She should have taken him out back then.
Maybe because this was earlier than their first meeting in the previous world, the despair she'd felt from Curse had been weaker than she remembered.
"U-Unnie...!"
"What, did someone start fighting again?"
Ruby turned toward the voice coming from beside her.
The kids who had been locked in the laboratory Emerald mentioned.
They were still a little sickly from the despair staining them, but a careful dose of hope energy had them bouncing back in no time.
The problem was that they bounced back too well and started squabbling with each other.
"Th-there's still one more person we need to save!"
"...One more person who needs saving?"
There had definitely been four kids inside that lab.
She'd even double-checked just in case, so Ruby could only tilt her head on reflex.
"There was a magical girl unnie who saved us!"
"...Was it someone with green hair and green eyes?"
Emerald had told her about the kids, so it could have been Emerald.
But Emerald had gone home just fine. No need to rescue her.
"I-it was dark so I couldn't see clearly, but... she had black hair and black eyes."
"Black hair and black eyes—wait, what?"
Trauma.
Anything black made Ruby's skin crawl, and her voice rose on pure reflex.
Great. She'd just made a complete fool of herself in front of a kid.
She took a slow breath and tried to erase the image that had formed in her head.
Or rather—she was about to.
"Ah, the first time I saw her, her eyes might have been red—hyaak?!"
"..."
At the child's words, Ruby shot to her feet.
Black hair and black eyes. Eyes that could also turn red.
It wasn't certain, but only one—no, only one thing—came to mind.
Apocalypse...?
The thought flashed through her for an instant.
But that made no sense.
If it really had been Apocalypse, Emerald—far more sensitive to despair than Ruby herself—would have noticed immediately.
And more than that, Apocalypse would never save humans.
Yeah. No way. Apocalypse can't be here.
If she had been, this city would already be a ruin.
Ruby murmured it under her breath and patted the child's head.
All the while forcing down the nameless unease clawing at her chest.