Even If I Hate You, One More Time (3)
Something unexpected happened.
Not that Emerald had caught me or anything like that. No—if I had to put a name to it, it was a far more elevated kind of unexpected.
"Y-you...!!"
"...Hello?"
So her name was... Peridot, was it?
Honestly, I hadn't been great at remembering human names lately. Still, I remembered enough that she was the human who'd fed me such delicious despair. That much was enough to drag the name up somehow.
"Y-you're alive?"
"...Treating a living person like a corpse is a little sad, you know."
"No, I mean—h-how? I-I clearly saw a monster carry you off...!!"
I supposed I had to clear up that misunderstanding first...
I hadn't planned on getting involved with any magical girl other than Emerald, but when someone planted themselves right in front of me like this, there was nowhere to run even if I wanted to. Getting so absorbed in the Doctor that I'd wandered the streets completely unguarded had been my fatal mistake.
No, honestly—isn't four in the morning when people are supposed to be asleep?
Five, maybe. Four? Being awake at four was just wrong.
Internally grumbling at how ridiculously diligent Peridot was for a human, I started fishing through my head for some kind of excuse.
Uh, so... uh... ah. That one would work.
"Emerald saved me."
"E-Emerald?!"
"Yes. Emerald found me being carried off by a monster and threw everything she had into rescuing me."
She hadn't exactly come looking for me, but I had been saved either way, so I went with it.
Peridot's eyes went round. Not so much surprise as—yes, that was it. The expression of an idol's most devoted stalker-fan.
"Wow, really?! That's such a relief—being saved by Emerald of all people!"
"By the way... Emerald... of all people?"
Peridot was the first human I'd ever heard tack an honorific that reverent onto Emerald's name. She didn't strike me as all that impressive. Ah—well, she was one of the original protagonists, so maybe she was.
Anyway.
"I-I'm a huge fan of Emerald! I don't know how Emerald herself would feel about it, but—Emerald is Emerald!"
"Ah... right..."
Nope. This was a mistake. If I'd known it would go like this, I never should have brought Emerald up at all. Letting her chew through my time like this was not ideal.
It wouldn't take long for Emerald—after raiding Curse's lab, or rather what had once been the Doctor's Lab—to make it back to the city. And once she did, her next stop would obviously be the hospital. That much was written on the wall.
"I'm not feeling well, so... could we talk another time?"
"N-not feeling well...? Is it because of what happened back then? If it is, then I share the blame, so I'll take you to the hospital myself!"
"You really don't have to—"
"Please! If I don't do at least this much, I don't think I'll be able to live with myself!"
Peridot's face had gone half-tearful. I slowly twirled a lock of my hair. I could see it—the shimmer of despair flickering in her eyes. She was replaying our last encounter in her head. Whether that was the shelter or the cemetery, I couldn't say.
"So please... I'm begging you..."
"..."
I didn't dislike earnest humans, but clinging to me like this was another problem entirely. Had Peridot always been this kind of magical girl? I clicked my tongue inwardly at the thought that I'd snagged a strange one.
"All right. In that case, would you mind escorting me?"
"O-of course! M-more than that... just a second!"
The moment I gave permission, Peridot reacted like a puppy wagging its tail and bolted into the side alley. The second she vanished, the thought Should I run? did flicker through my mind—but before I could act on it, she was back in front of me.
And she'd undone her transformation.
"S-so, ahaha... my untransformed look is a secret, okay?"
"Yeah, sure..."
I hadn't cared in the first place. Still, the way she glued herself to my side carried a weirdly clingy energy.
...I was pretty sure I'd picked up a strange one. Surely not?
"You weren't hurt by the monster, or... forced into anything weird, were you?"
"No, not really..."
"You have no idea how worried I was. Seeing you healthy puts my mind at ease!"
"I'm on my way to the hospital right now."
"Ah... uh... right..."
I wasn't going to the hospital because of Peridot, but this type of human never shut up unless you poked their guilt. See? She was already shrinking into herself and going quiet.
I marveled at my own excellent judgment. Of course I was good at this.
"..."
"..."
"Um..."
"Yes?"
"Ah, never mind..."
It was so early that even the usual background noise of city life was gone, leaving the streets unnervingly still. Peridot seemed to hate the silence and kept trying to talk to me, but my entire posture screamed I really don't want to chat, so she wilted again almost immediately.
Right. Once we reach the hospital, we part ways then and there.
The less I tangled with magical girls, the better—no matter how easily they looked like they might tip into despair.
And the reason for that? Well.
Because something annoying was already happening.
"Hey, Hazuki. What are you doing out this early?"
"Ah—senpai!"
For a second the flash of red hair made me think Ruby, and I nearly bolted—but the voice didn't belong to her, thankfully.
...I'd almost had a heart attack.
More importantly: yet another new face. And a magical girl, no less. The way she pretended not to care while keeping her guard up around me made it obvious she was one of them.
This reminds me of the first time I met Emerald.
Though that first meeting with Emerald had been far worse than this. That murderous expression, those eyes... ugh. Just imagining it gave me chills.
"Who's that? A new friend of yours, Hazuki?"
"Ahaha... y-yes, a friend! A friend! Right?"
"..."
Peridot discreetly jabbed me in the ribs. I flicked a glance her way. Of course. Magical girls couldn't let ordinary people learn their identities. Honestly, undoing the transformation barely changed their faces at all, so I had to wonder what the point was—but humans on this side all seemed to suffer from some kind of prosopagnosia. Once the transformation came off, nobody recognized them.
Lucky for me, this one was a complete stranger. If we'd met even once before, I would have recognized her untransformed face on pure reflex and earned myself a lot more suspicion.
"That's right, Hazuki. We're friends."
"...Suspicious."
"We only just became friends, that's all! We're super close! Look—we're even linking arms!"
I wanted to shake her off immediately. Who was this magical girl in front of us that Peridot was this tense? From the "senpai," she was clearly Peridot's senior among the magical girls.
"So what's her name?"
"Uh..."
"You don't even know her name and you're calling her a friend? Tch. You're not being threatened or something, are you? You've always been like this, Hazuki. Too naive—getting taken in here, taken in there."
"I-I am not getting taken in, okay?!"
She was getting taken in in real time, actually. If I told them I hadn't been kidnapped but simply transported in a monster's grip, would they believe me?
Peridot tried her best to defend us, but the fact that she didn't even know my name had already killed the "we're friends" strategy dead. No—worse than dead. I had a bad feeling this was about to get much more annoying.
See? Look at those eyes.
The kind of look that said the second I so much as twitched, she'd transform and put a blade through me. Exactly the way a magical girl looked at a monster.
...She didn't know about Apocalypse, did she?
Maybe, like Emerald, she'd come back from the future. If not, there was no reason for her to be this wary of me.
"...A-actually, I was taking her to the hospital."
"Then why the friend story?"
"Weeell... because I wanted to get closer to her! Ehehe..."
Peridot gave the senior a foolish little smile and snuck a glance at me. She was probably hoping I'd chime in with something like, I wanted to get closer to you too, Hazuki—but unfortunately, I had no intention of saying anything of the sort. I had no intention of getting close to her at all.
That expression says she'd start a knife fight if I actually got friendly with Peridot. Tch...
No matter how I looked at it, I'd snagged someone seriously troublesome. And if she already knew my identity, that said everything. For now it was only a hunch—but still.
"Haa... Just take her to the hospital and come back, Hazuki."
"Ah—s-senpai, do you want to come too?"
"To a hospital? Pass. Best to keep your feet out of places like that whenever you can."
"Weeell... then I'll be right back..."
I can get there on my own, so would you mind peeling off already?
I heaved an internal sigh at the way her senior glared at me like she wanted me dead the moment Peridot's back was turned.
Still—at least she's not coming with us. Small mercies.
Things were already awkward enough. If that arrogant human had tagged along, someone would have choked to death on the silence.
"Let's go. Ugh, I really didn't expect senpai to catch us out here... I'm definitely going to get an earful later..."
"Your senpai seems pretty... particular."
"She's not usually like that—mm, though she does seem especially on edge today..."
No, the particularity I meant wasn't that kind.
I shook my head at the presence I could feel trailing us from behind.
She was tailing us in real time, that senpai of yours.
Was a magical girl of justice really allowed to stalk an innocent monster? I was genuinely asking.