Chapter 79 : The Call of the Goddess Religion

Knock knock

“Yuki, I’ll leave dinner at the door… Please eat it when you remember.”

“…”

Shikishima Ryota quietly placed some rice balls and a teapot of tea in front of his daughter’s door, who had been shut in for 4 days.

Just before the Moscow incident occurred, when ominous rumors erupted from Russia.

Ryota nearly fainted when he received the letter Yuki left.

[I’ll be going to Russia for a while. Don’t worry. —Yuki]

To think that his daughter, who had just started living like before again, was going to such a dangerous place.

‘I thought she’d been going out with friends since last December, but she said she’d been active as a magical girl.’

Although his daughter’s trip to Russia lasted only a day, that day was like hell for Ryota.

Nuclear war crisis. Extinction.

When he heard the news that couldn’t be more ominous at the pottery workshop, along with officials and police shouting to come to the shelter quickly, he really thought he was going crazy.

Around the time Ryota was anxiously waiting at home for his daughter to return, Yuki came back. He was about to scold his daughter with worry for sticking her head into such a dangerous place.

“I’m home.”

“Yu-Yuki…?”

Completely empty eyes.

A dress burning fiercely.

Heat that seemed to dominate the space.

Ryota was surprised to see his daughter as a magical girl for the first time. The appearance of her quietly emitting a hot energy like embers and wrapped in red that flickered like flames was unfamiliar. And he couldn’t say anything, overwhelmed by Yuki’s spirit calling out endlessly for someone.

“…”

His daughter staggered into her room just like that, covered herself with a blanket, and stayed shut in for 4 days.

“Yuki, are you okay?”

Ryota was overcome with a desire for her to open up to him a little about what happened, and self-reproach that the awkwardness with his daughter still hadn’t disappeared.

Ding dong

“Huh? Yes, I’m coming.”

At the sudden doorbell sound, he thought perhaps someone had come urgently looking for him from the pottery workshop where he had taken leave.

‘At this time of evening? Did a large order suddenly come in from the department store? If so, the boss would have called.’

Amidst all this talk of war crisis and whatnot, he had told the pottery workshop boss about his daughter going to Russia as a magical girl and said he’d take a short break.

-Sure. You should see your children often when they’re in your arms.

Thinking it didn’t make sense for the boss, who clearly knew the situation, to suddenly visit his home, Ryota hesitated for a moment in front of the door.

“…”

Who could it be?

Already the police and magical girls were busy with various incidents these days. And he’d heard there were many thieves and hooligans going around doing bad things, taking advantage of the ominous atmosphere. Ryota stood in front of the door and quietly raised his phone to try to make a report.

“W-wait a moment?!”

A woman?

He got goosebumps at the frail voice that cut in just as he had decided to make an accurate report. But with his wariness lowered from before, Ryota carefully opened the front door with the door chain still on.

“Ah… hello?”

“Um… who are you…?”

“Yuki’s friend.”

“…”

Western features and flowing silver hair.

A tall stature that didn’t match her youthful face.

A mature figure beyond adults and slender eyes.

“…”

A girl with an extraordinary appearance that anyone could see was claiming to be his ordinary daughter’s friend.

Ryota was suspicious that this girl with elegant Western features who clearly belonged to high society was calling herself his plain daughter’s friend and had come at dinner time.

‘Should I report this?’

His suspicion grew even more because he had heard there were many suspicious groups approaching magical girls as if they were friends or seniors.

“P-please don’t. I really am her friend.”

For some reason, it even felt like this girl was reading Ryota’s mind.

“No! That’s not it! I really am her friend! Mr. Shikishima! Please listen to me!”

The girl urgently recited Yuki’s favorite way of eating udon and the places she goes for walks on weekends, trying to prove she was Yuki’s friend.

“How… do you know all that…?”

It was a bit overwhelming to see her reciting in detail even parts that he, as her father, didn’t know well.

“Yuki told me! Please believe me!”

Ryota couldn’t believe that his daughter, who always went around alone and was timid and quiet, had told all her trivial daily life to this girl in just a month.

‘…Come to think of it, Yuki was glued to her smartphone all month.’

Ryota finally let go of his suspicion and opened the door chain to welcome the girl.

“Well, I see. I’m Shikishima Ryota, Yuki’s father. I’m sorry. I was too rude to my daughter’s friend.”

“No, it’s understandable. Things are really ominous these days.”

* * *

I awkwardly waited in the living room with the tea Ryota had prepared in front of me, waiting for Yuki to come out of her room.

‘It’s my first time seeing Yuki’s father’s face.’

Shikishima Ryota’s face looked like an older brother only a few years older than me in my previous life. So I couldn’t bring myself to call him ‘mister’. My conscience was too troubled to call someone ‘mister’ whom I would have called ‘hyung’ if I had met him at work.

‘Well, if you get married and have a child in your early 20s and about 15 years pass, I guess you’d be about that age.’

I was envious of Ryota, who had a cute and lovely daughter like Yuki, because I had lived a life far from dating while working part-time jobs until my late 20s, let alone getting married.

‘If it were me, if I had a kind and pretty daughter like Yuki, I’d carry her around on my back every day.’

As I was inwardly envying Mr. Shikishima, the faces of the Sato couple also came to mind.

‘Actually, the Sato couple weren’t that many years apart from me in my previous life either…’

Because I knew the ups and downs that Mr. Shikishima and the Sato couple had gone through, blindly envying them seemed like ignoring the sadness they had experienced. But I couldn’t help feeling envious of them for having built happy families with their lovely daughters.

While I was thinking about that, Ryota came out to the living room with a restless expression.

“I’m sorry. It seems Yuki has fallen asleep… She’s been shut in her room lately and won’t come out.”

“Ah… I see.”

The Moscow incident must have been a big shock to Yuki, probably making her recall the nightmare of destruction again.

‘What should I do? I wanted to consult with Yuki about [Revelation] quickly.’

I pondered for a moment, then tried to get up, thinking it would be troublesome for Mr. Shikishima to just keep waiting like this.

“Would you like to at least see her face before you go?”

“What? Her f-face?”

“Actually, it’s the first time I’ve seen my daughter so happy to have made a friend. I thought seeing her friend’s face might cheer her up…”

Yuki’s room.

That room she always longed for and wanted to return to in the original work.

I wanted to see it at least once.

‘Now that we’re both girls, she probably won’t be embarrassed, right?’

In the end, I couldn’t overcome my curiosity.

“Well then, shall I take a look before I go?”

I followed Ryota’s guidance to the front of Yuki’s room.

“She didn’t eat dinner… in the end.”

The rice balls and teapot that Ryota had prepared were sitting coldly in front of the hallway. Ryota cleaned them up with a sad expression and knocked on Yuki’s door.

Knock knock

“Yuki. Your friend is here. Do you want to say hello?”

“…”

“Yuki?”

Ryota carefully turned the doorknob and saw Yuki lying in bed in the dark room, wrapped up in blankets to her head like a cocoon.

I carefully entered her room.

The room where she had grown up since she was young smelled warm like sunshine.

Picture frames.

Photos recording the moments of Yuki growing up were hung in frames on her room’s walls.

The frames with photos of her taken with her father stopped being added after age 9.

Her painful memories of always struggling with loneliness from age 9.

“…”

Seeing that made my heart ache, so I sat down next to the bed and gently stroked Yuki’s head as she lay there.

“Yuki.”

“…Hm?”

Yuki looked at me with a drowsy face from under the blanket.

“Hika…ri.”

“I’m here.”

Yuki stared at me blankly for a moment, then spoke in a very cracked voice.

“…Don’t go.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t… leave without saying anything.”

“…”

“Don’t… suddenly… disappear.”

“…”

Among those who worried when I briefly went missing, Yuki was probably the one who truly felt anxious thinking about death. For her, the death of a comrade must have been a sickeningly familiar and painful thing.

“I’m sorry.”

“You were bad…”

Yuki pushed my chest lightly with her head poking out of the rolled-up blanket.

That attack didn’t hurt at all, but for some reason my heart ached terribly.

A slight feeling of resentment.

“Ba…d.”

“…”

“If it’s not you… I’ll be alone again.”

“I’m sorry.”

Thump.

“You were bad.”

“I won’t do it again from now on.”

Thump.

“You were bad…”

I gently hugged Yuki as she kept lightly hitting me with her head.

Although I can’t stay by her side forever because I have to leave someday, I hope this friend with many wounds will become strong.

Praying that she will make many friends who can share her heart by her side.

I just hugged her like that for a while.

Yuki stayed still in my arms, shedding a single tear.

“…”

“…”

Yuki, who had been silent, suddenly raised her face and spoke in a flustered voice.

“…This isn’t a dream, is it?”

“…No.”

“Yuki, should I… should Dad step out for a moment?”

“…No.”

We shared an awkward silence for a moment.

Yuki hid back under the blanket just like that.

“Yuki, do you want to eat dinner?”

“Yes… Dad.”