Chapter 3: Shelter (2)

Hmm.

If we said the monster broke through the door, it looked just like the one on the screen.

It was just a lot smaller.

“Hey, sis…”

“Shh, stay still. It might attack if you bother it.”

Even though it looked like it would attack anyway, the monster was definitely a monster, not cute at all.

Maybe it would be different if it was a wild animal.

It would be tough for a regular person to fight such a crazy monster.

Tadadadadang-!!!

“Hey! Run away! Hurry! I’ll catch the monster!”

It was that guy from before.

He was running toward the monster and shooting his gun, but he seemed more worried about us than the monster.

‘Should I run away?’

Even though it was a monster, it didn’t seem like it would hurt me.

I wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t.

“What are you just standing there? Run away!”

“Let’s go. It’ll be dangerous if we stay here any longer.”

“Uh, huh… Huh?!”

His legs gave out, and he picked up the child leaning on me and started moving his legs fast.

He seemed like a good person, but would he be okay?

I wanted to help him, but if I used my strength in the shelter, it might really become my grave.

If they hear a monster is in the shelter, a magical girl will definitely come…

There are many monsters that look like humans, so if they saw me with my monster-like features, they would know I was a monster right away.

I don’t know what kind of magical girl Peridot is, but if she can sense despair energy, she would notice me the moment she saw me.

“Do you know where the safest part of the shelter is?”

“T-yeah! They said the 5th floor was the safest!”

“I mean the 5th floor…”

The elevator was broken, probably because the monster came in.

So, I had to take the stairs to get to the 5th floor—should I just go through the ceiling and climb up?

Climbing the stairs wasn’t hard, but it was annoying.

Still, I was going up to avoid the monster, so it was better than digging holes for it to get in easily.

I hurried my steps, thinking I was putting in too much effort for a child I just met today.

I wanted to let the people in the shelter know.

A monster has invaded the shelter.

I’ll say it again. A monster has invaded the shelter—crackle-crackle-crackle—]

“Oh no.”

The shelter got noisy as soon as the announcement played.

I frowned at the chaos of everyone running around.

People pushed, pulled, trampled, fell, and screamed, trying to escape the monster.

I understood their panic, but it was a terrible sight for a child to see.

“Oh, sis…”

“If you see that, it’s Jiji, Jiji.”

She covered the child’s eyes from the crowd that was trampling over fallen people without caring.

Seeing people crushed by monsters in cartoons is brutal, but this was just as horrifying.

Watching a person get crushed to death was really scary.

“The shelter is safe! But does that make sense?! Explain, explain!”

“C-Calm down! This place will be safe! The 5th floor can handle even a Gamma-level monster!”

“And if it breaks through again! Are you saying everyone here will die?! Huh?!”

When we got to the 5th floor, things weren’t much better than below.

But one difference was that many people felt relieved to be in the safest place in the shelter.

However, I could see the despair hidden behind that relief.

“Sister, I’m scared…”

“It’s okay. Everyone is just feeling anxious.”

People were fighting, shouting at each other.

Some even said they would rather be let out.

They would rather run outside than stay trapped here and become the monster’s food.

“If you open the door like that and a monster comes in, are you going to take responsibility?! Are you going to take responsibility?!”

“What will you do if a monster breaks through the door? It already broke through the shelter door! How can you guarantee it won’t break through here? How can you guarantee that?!”

Seeing people in such a desperate situation was not pleasant.

Why are you all fighting like this when there’s a child here?

I didn’t have the courage to say it out loud, but I thought it in my head.

“Easy, it’s okay. It’ll be safe if you stay here.”

“Is Mom okay?”

“If you’re worried, should I go look for her?”

Since everyone from downstairs had come up, there was a chance the child’s mother might be here.

She could be downstairs, but the most likely place to find her was here.

‘She’s probably here. Maybe.’

“Mom! Mom, are you here? Mom!!”

The child’s sad voice searching for her mother started to calm the chaos around her.

In this way, children are like magic.

… If only I could help her find her mother a little.

“Ouch!”

“Mom!!”

Luckily, the child’s mother was on the 5th floor.

I wondered why she hadn’t come with her child at first, but since it was a good thing, I felt a bit proud.

It was like a reunion of a family that had been separated.

The deep hug between the child and mother was so touching that even someone with dry eyes would feel moved.

“Thank you, student. Thank you so much.”

“No. I just did what I had to do.”

Even though I felt proud, the hope blooming before my eyes wasn’t very satisfying.

Well, it was a bit funny to talk about satisfaction in front of a mother who just got her child back.

They say the mind follows the body, and maybe that’s true.

Even if they look human, they are still monsters.

It might be unavoidable that human hope makes you sick and human despair makes you hungry.

If only I could fill my stomach with food.

Even the despair of ordinary humans doesn’t even reach my stomach.

If I were going to make it, wouldn’t it have been better to make it a little more efficient?

Well, if someone were thinking about that, they wouldn’t have put a light switch in their living room, where light is a weakness.

They say there’s only a small difference between a genius and an idiot, and the doctor’s case seemed to be just like that.

Boom-!!

Boom!!

Boom!!

“What, what? It’s not going to break through?!”

But it didn’t take long for that hope to turn into despair.

The monster that had already reached the fifth floor, having dealt with all the humans who didn’t make it downstairs, began to knock on the door to our floor.

“Everyone, don’t worry! The fifth floor is safe from gamma-level monsters!”

“Uh, can I trust you? More importantly, what were the magical girls doing while the monster broke through the shelter and still hasn’t arrived?!”

What kind of joke is it that the person telling them to relax has the most despairing energy?

Well, it was understandable that they would be anxious since they hadn’t even thought the shelter itself would be breached, and it had gone straight up to the 4th floor.

Thump…!

Thump…!

Thump……….!

“Ah, it looks like they can’t get through the door. Look, the knocking is getting less frequent, right?”

“T-That’s right. It seems like they can’t get through here.”

“By the way, what happened to all the people down there?”

“I don’t know. I just hope they’re safe.”

It didn’t take long for the monster to knock on the door to the 5th floor, so there was still hope.

No matter how fast a small monster is, it can’t wipe out all the humans that quickly.

That’s what the people here—big, I guess that’s what they think.

I was hoping for a hopeful situation, but unfortunately, the current situation was not hopeful at all.

If someone had read my thoughts, they might have asked how I knew that.

However, this body had a trait that was quite different from an ordinary person.

It could sense human despair.

The despair of the humans I felt downstairs was now completely gone.

If I had felt that I had escaped the monster, I would have felt a little hopeful, but downstairs, I felt neither hope nor despair.

That meant only one thing.

Those who hadn’t made it to the fifth floor from downstairs had already been defeated by the monster.

It was truly unfortunate.