The Admirable Amy
"You met Jin?"
Amy, having finished her urgent business, had finally returned. I immediately spilled everything that had happened in the park.
"Yes!" I nodded vigorously, then proceeded to expose his misdeeds one by one. "He stole and ate our sandwiches!"
"That crazy bastard..." Amy muttered, brushing her hand against her lips as she listened to me. She glanced at us, checking our reactions, before pulling out her phone. My eyes sparkled as I stared at the device. Whenever Amy pulled out her phone, almost any problem was as good as solved.
"Did anything else happen?"
"Anything else?"
"I mean, was there anything unusual? Anything out of the ordinary?"
Amy's question plunged me into deep thought. But really, our days had been perfectly ordinary. Aside from how much we missed Amy while she was gone, everything had been completely normal.
"Well... I don't think so."
"What about you, Shine?"
"Nothing for me either," Shine replied casually.
Fiddling with her phone, Amy turned back to look at us.
"You didn't actually talk to Jin, did you?"
"No, ma'am."
"Nope."
"Good girls. If you ever run into him again, don't say a word. Just run away immediately."
"Okay!"
Amy let out a soft chuckle and stroked our heads. Her fingers slid through our hair, gently parting the strands. The warmth of her touch brought a content smile to my face.
Amy immediately dialed a number. After a few moments, the person on the other end picked up.
"It's me."
"I believe I told you to stay away from the kids."
Amy stood up as she spoke, her voice growing fainter as she walked away. Since she wasn't right next to us, I couldn't hear the person on the other end of the line.
"An entrance test? Don't be ridiculous. How could children possibly do something like that?"
"And I heard you stole their sandwiches?"
"What? Sleeping pills in the sandwiches? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Why on earth are you asking me about your lost shoes?"
"What? You think the kids took them?"
Amy, still pacing in the distance, glanced back at us. I gave her a cheerful wave. An awkward smile flickered across her face.
"Stop talking nonsense and get back to work. And if I catch you approaching the kids again, I'm refusing all future missions."
Hanging up, Amy slipped her phone back into her pocket and walked back over to us.
On the table sat a box of round donuts Amy had brought home. I swallowed hard, staring at them. The donuts, glazed in a vibrant pink chocolate coating, looked absolutely mouthwatering.
Amy placed them on a large plate and handed them to Shine and me.
"Did you buy these outside?"
"Yep. Bought them just for you two."
I took a big bite of my donut while studying Amy's face. The last time she had returned from an outing, she looked exhausted, but today she seemed perfectly fine.
I glanced over at Shine. She was holding a large donut, turning it over in her hands to inspect it. A sweet aroma wafted from the dark chocolate glaze coating her treat.
Shine's eyes drifted to the donut in my hand. Staring at the bite mark I had left, she opened her mouth wide and took a massive bite of her own, just as I had.
As she chewed, her eyes widened. They began to sparkle with delight, and a tiny, satisfied smile played on her lips.
"So, what have you two been up to while I was gone?"
Muffling my words around a mouthful of donut, I meticulously detailed everything we had done in her absence. Naturally, I omitted the part about skipping brushing my teeth before bed.
"You've been brushing your teeth every day, right?" Amy asked, her gaze locking onto me. I quickly averted my eyes, swinging my short legs back and forth beneath the chair.
"And what time did you go to sleep?"
Once again, I was struck mute. While Amy was away, I had stayed up until the crack of dawn every night to watch late-night anime specials. If I told her the truth, I would definitely get scolded.
"We... we went to bed early."
I shot Shine a desperate, pleading look for help. But she either didn't notice or chose to ignore me, happily munching away on her donut.
"Really? I can trust you, right?"
"Yes!" I nodded vigorously.
Amy watched me with a playful smirk before reaching out to ruffle my hair.
Before long, the large donut box was completely empty.
Patting my stuffed, bloated tummy, I slumped limply onto the table. I was too full to move a single muscle.
Shine seemed to be in the exact same state, resting her cheek against the table in a perfect mirror image of me.
As I rubbed my cheek against the cool surface of the table, a sudden curiosity about what Amy had been doing outside washed over me.
"Amy."
"Hmm?"
"What were you doing out there?"
"Oh, this and that~" Amy replied with a playful grin, clearly having no intention of giving a straight answer. Her pink hair swayed gently before my eyes.
I let out a tiny sigh and turned my gaze toward Shine. She must have really liked the donuts, as she was still tracing the edges of the empty box.
"Are there a lot of people out there like Shine... I mean, like us?"
"Like you two?"
"People who were experimented on in laboratories."
"Yes, very many."
I pursed my lips. The phrase "very many" felt too abstract to fully grasp.
"And your job is to rescue them, right?"
"That's right. I save good children like Shine and Jeff from bad people."
"Are they bad people?"
"They're bad."
The answer didn't come from Amy. It came from Shine, who was sitting right next to me, still fiddling with the donut box.
"They're bad?"
"Yes. They hurt me."
Shine's gaze grew distant, as if she were drifting back into the memories of those days. Her eyes looked exactly as they had back in the laboratory. When we had faced each other through that thick glass wall, she had possessed those very same eyes.
"So, they are bad people."
I nodded blankly.
"It hurt for you too, didn't it, Jeff?"
"Me...?"
My expression faltered. I tried to search my memories of that day. Did it hurt? No, was it supposed to hurt? My gaze tangled with Shine's in a dizzying blur.
Shine reached out and took my hand. A soft, gentle warmth flowed from her palm into mine.
I fell into deep thought. The warmth radiating from Shine's hand dragged up memories of that day. The freezing floor of the research facility. I had been sitting on it. Sharp needles. Foul-tasting liquids. Head-splitting noises. Memories of things I had never personally experienced began to flood my mind. My body shuddered. Startled, I yanked my hand out of Shine's grasp.
"Jeff?"
"Ah..."
Shine's eyes trembled with anxiety as she looked at me. I could feel the raw emotion packed within her gaze. Slowly, I turned my head to look at Amy. She... she really is doing something incredible. I nodded in a daze.
"You're right... It did hurt."
I spoke while recalling the fragments of that day. The cold laboratory floor. The thick glass wall. The freezing stares piercing from every direction. What was I doing back then? The gaze watching the test subject from beyond the glass. The gaze staring back at the researchers from inside the glass. I had been standing in both places. Inside the glass, and beyond it. It felt as though my left and right eyes were looking from two completely different directions.
My vision began to tilt to one side. The left eye, which looked inside the glass wall, slowly began to close. The world outside the glass faded into darkness. I was left trapped inside. A tiny girl, collapsed on the freezing floor, reached her hand out. But there was no one there. Without a single soul to take her hand, a long, agonizing stretch of time flowed by.
"Jeff."
I shook my head. Shine had stood up and approached me. Her hands were cupping my cheeks, forcing my eyes to meet hers. I opened my mouth to answer.
"Yeah."
"They are very bad people."
"You're right. They are very bad people."
The faint reflection cast upon the glass wall was undoubtedly my own. My white hair fluttered limply. I nodded.
"Amy really is doing a good thing," I murmured blankly. Shivering, I trembled at the horrific memories that had resurfaced.
"Well? Do I look cool?" Amy asked with a smug grin.
I nodded. Rescuing people who were suffering in places like that... suddenly, Amy looked incredibly cool. With sparkling eyes, I looked up at her.
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"Not for me, it isn't."
"Really?"
"Of course."
"You're so cool, Amy."
It felt like Amy was radiating a brilliant, sparkling light, just like the little witch Lucy. For the first time, I was able to view this world through an entirely different lens. It felt as though a fog had cleared from my vision. Hopping down from my chair, I spoke to Amy.
"I want to be just like you, Amy."
"Like me?"
"Yes!"
At my enthusiastic declaration, an awkward smile touched Amy's lips. She stroked my hair and said,
"You're still too young, so it'll be tough."
"I'm not young!"
"Right, right. Jeff is a grown-up, aren't you?"
"Yes!"
"Then can you make me a promise?"
"Yes!"
"If you grow as tall as me, and you still haven't changed your mind by then, I'll give you my permission."
I craned my neck to look up at Amy. She was tall. In fact, she was incredibly tall. Pouting, I stood on my tiptoes, but I still fell ridiculously short. I couldn't even begin to guess how many years it would take to reach her height.
"If we grow as tall as you, can we do what you do too?" Shine chimed in, seemingly interested in Amy's work as well. She hopped down from her chair and stood right next to me. Our heights were exactly the same.
"If you can grow as tall as me, that is."
Shine and I exchanged glances. Nodding in unison, we immediately dashed toward the refrigerator. Pulling out a carton of milk, we began to chug it down.
But we couldn't drink very much. Our stomachs were already bloated to their limits with donuts. The milk pouring in on top of them made our bellies churn, as if warning us that any further movement would not be tolerated.
It felt like if I took even a single step, I would throw up every last bite of the donuts I had just eaten. Shine and I collapsed limply onto the floor. We were simply too full to move.
But we now had a single, clear goal. We had to grow tall!