Chapter 78: Sin and Curse. (3)

“Huh-?!”

It was overwhelming.

I had long since forgotten the thought of facing the opponent’s attack.

An attack faster and more powerful than any monster.

If I hadn’t used my hope threshold, I would have definitely turned into a handful of blood clots.

‘Still, I’m starting to see more and more gaps…!’

Akari blocked the attack for a moment.

I was able to find a subtle gap between the attacks that I thought I couldn’t avoid.

I felt like I could somehow do something if I stabbed at that gap.

The blade in my hand caused great pain to the monster, so if I just touched it, I would be able to inflict considerable damage.

Woof-woof-

“I owe you eight lives for this.”

“…You were counting all of them?”

The monster girl’s attack bounced off with a smirk.

I thought I could definitely reach it, but as soon as I thought that, the gap widened.

It felt like I was stuck in a swamp.

I roughly shook my head as despair slowly engulfed my legs.

“Why, should I stop?”

“No, thank you!”

If I told her to stop here, she would really stop, so I hurriedly thanked her.

It’s all thanks to Akari that I’m alive today. Thank you, Akari!

As I looked at Akari with a lot of gratitude, my death count increased.

This time, I have nine lives.

‘Thanks to you, I’ve saved my life many times…’

I guess I have no choice but to try harder.

I don’t know why, but Akari seemed to want me to win.

No one would say anything if a monster cheers for another monster.

But she didn’t seem to have any particular intention of becoming close to the magical girl.

“Congratulations. You’ve earned the title of magical girl who has been saved by a monster ten times.”

“…Tch.”

“Let’s make it a hundred times today. Garnet is an amazing magical girl, so you can definitely do it.”

…She really has a bad personality.

But thinking about something else in front of that might not be polite to Akari.

Just because you’re guaranteed to live doesn’t mean you can think about something else during battle.

‘Focus, Garnet. Right now, I’m only focusing on the enemy in front of me.’

I don’t know what Akari was expecting from me, but I didn’t want to let her down.

Of course, it wasn’t a favor repayment or anything.

It was just pride. Maybe it was a sense of triumph that I didn’t want to show my ugly side to someone who looked down on me.

I couldn’t say I couldn’t do it anymore, since I owed her my life ten times over.

“Haaaaaap!!!!”

I can see the trajectory of the attack.

I can feel the flow of despair.

I reduce the sensation that stretched out beyond one step to the thickness of a sheet of paper.

That was because the evasion movement was too big.

Make sure that you can touch but don’t.

I dodge with as little movement as possible, and use the time I gained to attack.

‘Stabbing is much faster than cutting. I was better at that in the first place.’

I step on the wall and jump up, changing my trajectory in the air.

A brief gap.

I quickly stretch out my arm toward the hole that was revealed momentarily.

Reach, reach, reach!

The energy blade that had no proper shape became longer, thinner, and sharper.

And then—

phew—

“It’s reached!”

“…?!”

-In the end, I ended up sticking the blade into my opponent’s shoulder.

***

“Oh.”

Cockroach-like movements—excuse me.

He let out a short exclamation of admiration at Garnet, who had avoided the attack with an acrobatic movement and eventually stuck the blade in.

You’re more talented than I thought, Garnet.

Wouldn’t that be around 0.3 Ruby?

While estimating this and that in his head, his eyes did not stop looking at the two.

“Ah…”

“Huh?”

“Ah, AAAAAHHHH…!!!!!”

Was she screaming because she got stabbed once? It seemed that as Garnet’s hope grew stronger, her ability to inflict pain on monsters also grew stronger. Otherwise, it was probably just Aya joking around too much. Of course, being a child can’t help but be weak to pain.

“Whoa?!”

“That makes twelve lives.”

“…Why did you suddenly get two more lives?”

“If I had been attacked just now, I would have died twice.”

She stretched her shadow slightly in despair.

No matter how strong Garnet had become in an instant, that attack just now was a bit dangerous. If she had been hit, Garnet would have instantly become Garnet. However, the person involved didn’t seem to know how dangerous that attack just before was.

“It hurts, it hurts, AAAAAHHH!!!!”

“…Did you just say it hurts?”

“That’s right. You should have stabbed me gently.”

“Just because you stabbed me gently doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.”

That’s true.

I nodded to Garnet’s words and turned my gaze.

It really looks like it’s in pain. Seeing it lose its sense of reason and run wild like that.

Maybe because it’s the same monster, I felt a little sorry for it.

‘You still tell me to fight a magical girl as soon as you make it, right?’ I let out a deep sigh at the look in his eyes that seemed to ask what he was going to do.

What, what, what.

It was getting worse and worse to tell Garnet to fight until the end.

If we fought something like that, it would definitely end with both of us dying.

‘By the way…’

“Does it look comfortable?”

“Huh…?!”

The way I was holding Garnet was what you would call a princess hug.

I was holding her like this to tease her, but who would have thought she’d keep her mouth shut until the end?

Does this guy have no shame?

Well, judging from the way his face turned red at my words, it didn’t seem like that was the case.

“T, this! It’s because you’re holding her too comfortably, right?!”

“Oh my, that’s an impressive excuse.”

“…Huh.”

When I let go of her hand, she flipped over and landed like a cat falling from a high place.

Oh, great.

If it weren’t for Aya who was going wild, I would have applauded.

“I’ll be back.”

“Be careful, Akari.”

“You, be careful.”

I clicked my tongue as I watched Garnet quietly take a step back.

Yeah, you should’ve just stayed back like that. Don’t step forward and end up losing a limb.

“Ah, ah, ahhhhh…”

“Heung, heung, heungheung~♪”

The despair emanating from Aya was quite delicious. It was an exquisite taste that was similar to the despair of a monster, but also mixed with the scent of the despair of a human child.

I felt like I could eat this much whenever it tasted this good.

‘If I had to give it a score, I’d give it a 0.8 Tamako.’

How great would it be if all of a monster’s despair tasted like this?

I licked my lips in needless regret.

“Aya, can you hear me?”

“….Ugh, ugh.”

The closer I got to Aya, the richer the scent of despair became.

It wasn’t just the scent of one human child, but rather the scent of several people mixed together.

It seemed as if various despairs had been put into Aya’s body.

Then which spirit had the upper hand right now?

Aya? Or one of the countless despairs?

“This, strange older sister…”

“She’s wearing normal clothes right now.”

It was Aya.

The corners of her lips slightly raised as the storm of despair subsided for a moment when she made eye contact with me.

I didn’t think of her in a bad way to begin with, but the feeling of internal intimacy was quite high when she became a monster.

It was to the point where I thought the doctor had turned Aya into a monster girl for this very reason.

“Ugh, ugh… It hurts…”

“Shh… Calm down, calm down.”

“…Ugh, yeah.”

It seemed like she was worried that her despair would harm me, but Aya’s despair did not harm me at all.

Rather, the moment it touched my body, it was sucked inward in an instant, and it felt like I was taking away Aya’s despair.

“Now, now, you were scared because that bad-tempered magical girl was bullying you, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“Hey, who said I had a bad personality? If you say I have a bad personality, it’s worse than me—”

“Be quiet, villain.”

Originally, the one who made the child cry was the bad guy, right?

And from the monster’s perspective, it was obvious that the magical girl was the villain.

This was even worse because she stabbed a newborn monster.

“Heuheu…”

“Shh, I won’t hurt you. Now, your sister’s hands are healing hands~”

“Uh, your sister’s hands are healing hands…”

She began to slowly stroke Aya’s head and slowly take out the hope that was trapped in Aya’s body.

Of course, since I couldn’t move hope unless I was a magical girl, I used the method of wrapping it up in despair and pulling it out.

‘By the way, how much hope did you put in with one attack?’

I glared at the hope that was pulled out in a bunch and threw it away.

It’s a kid, so be a little gentle.

It was a little ironic that I was the one who helped the guy who wasn’t gentle with the kid.

But, isn’t it not fun when one side loses unilaterally?

“You’ve become quiet.”

“Don’t come near me, Garnet. The kid is scared.”

The closer Garnet got, the more Aya began to tremble.

It seemed like she had some kind of trauma from the pain caused by the hope energy blade.

“Ha, I’m scarier than that kid, huh?”

However, if you listen to monsters, you’re not a magical girl.

Garnet, who lightly ignored my words and approached me, looked at Aya who was in her arms.

It was a similar expression to when Tamako looked at Garnet.

Her complex expression was filled with a variety of emotions.

“I’m sorry I’m late.”

“…”

A deep sense of guilt rose up from Garnet.

It seemed that she was thinking of the human children who had been sacrificed as a result of the experiments.