Chapter 89: Those With Memories (7)

“Huk, huk, huk…”

“…Haa, huk.”

It didn’t matter if I charged at her violently.

The only way to stop me was to kill me.

At first, Topaz was swinging her fists excitedly, but once she started to charge at me, even spitting out blood, she seemed completely fed up.

“Anyone can see that, huk… This is my limit. How about I stop now?”

“…There are no limits to me.”

She wanted to let out a harsh breath at any moment, but she tried her best to act as if nothing had happened.

She held her breath and exhaled slowly.

She straightened her back and took a step forward, and the other person took a step back.

“Jade, have you heard from me yet? If we keep going like this, we’ll get through?”

“…Wait—”

Woof, woof, woof—

She let out a sigh as her phone rang loudly.

The fact that she got a call meant that her life was not in danger.

So did that mean Akari had been attacked?

…No, that couldn’t be.

There was no magical girl in this world who could defeat Akari.

“…Okay. I understand.”

“What happened?”

“Failed.”

I knew it.

I sighed in relief and glared at the magical girls blocking my way.

“If you’re done, wouldn’t you please step aside?”

“…Jade.”

“I’m going back. I didn’t think it would work in the first place.”

Tsk, the magical girl Jade clicked her tongue and opened the door to her room.

She made a gesture that she would be leaving for today.

She glared at all three of them until they disappeared from her sight, and only when they were completely gone could she finally relax.

“Whew…”

[You overdid it, Emerald.]

“…That’s right.”

If Akari wasn’t worried, then I was the one who worried too much.

I imagined things in my head that would never happen, and I felt unnecessarily anxious.

Maybe it was because I had experienced the absurd thing of going back to the past, but all sorts of thoughts were popping into my head.

Right, there’s no way Akari would get into trouble.

“Let’s go back, Mei.”

[I’m sure she’d just lie down on the living room sofa and wiggle her hands? It’s a waste of time worrying about someone like that.]

“Ahaha… But, well…”

Akari had a precarious feeling, so yeah.

She didn’t care deeply about anything, and she seemed like she would disappear at any moment—no, she didn’t care if she did.

Maybe she thought she deserved to disappear.

Akari’s attitude was so transparent that it made me worry.

To be exact, it would be more accurate to say that it was vague or dim.

“I hope you don’t get hurt.”

[…’I hope you don’t get hurt’? Not ‘I hope you don’t get hurt too much’?]

“…If it’s Akari, it might be right to worry about her.”

In the first place, Akari had faced Sapphire and Ruby at the same time without a single wound—no, she had been wounded but had recovered completely.

It was hard to imagine Akari being attacked by another magical girl.

That’s probably why Mei reacted as if she couldn’t understand me.

My worries were like worrying about a tiger being attacked by cats.

“Haa…”

I left the association and walked for a while.

I sighed as I looked at the closed entrance as if nothing had happened.

Is Akari there?

When I opened the door, I thought Akari would be lying on the sofa, waving her hands.

“Akari, I’m here…”

“I’m here?”

Akari’s face popped up from the back of the sofa.

It was as if a mole’s head had popped out of a game of whack-a-mole.

“Are you hurt anywhere? No, where did you hurt her?”

“Not really.”

With that answer, Akari’s head disappeared under the back of the sofa with a thud.

When I saw that, I guess the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Akari is Akari after all.’

Judging by the atmosphere, it was exactly the same as usual.

Yes, just judging by the atmosphere.

[The house…]

“…It’s okay, at least this much.”

I guess it’s fortunate that the shape of the house still remained.

The windows were broken, and it was forcibly remodeled from a two-room to a one-room, but that’s okay.

As long as Akari is safe, that’s all that matters. I can always get a house.

“Akari.”

“…Why again?”

“Thank you, for not hurting anyone.”

“…”

She smiled faintly at the voice that couldn’t be heard from the other side of the sofa.

Was she embarrassed?

No, maybe not.

Akari absolutely hated being thanked by magical girls.

“Akari!”

“Ugh…”

I put my hand under Akari’s armpits, who was lying on the sofa, and lifted her up.

It was more fun than I thought to see someone who didn’t usually react react like this.

It was time to get used to it, but since her reaction was the same every time I did it, I wanted to do it more often.

Anyway.

“…Akari.”

“Why, again? You’re suddenly grabbing my weight.”

Akari tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand.

…Do you know? The reason I become so serious is always because of you.

“Shall we run away to a place where no one is?”

Would it have been better if you had acted like the original Apocalypse?

The image of you spitting out blood because of hope was still vivid in my mind.

I couldn’t imagine Akari losing, but the problem was that I could easily imagine Akari getting hurt.

Wounds pile up and eventually get worse.

“What, are you talking about running away from love? And a monster and a magical girl at that. Ha, that’s not even funny. It’s not like Romeo and Juliet.”

“Romeo and Juliet, that’s good. It’s romantic, isn’t it?”

“Those two, you know they’re both going to die in the end, right?”

Akari, who escaped from my grasp with those words, hunched over as if she didn’t like it.

To be honest, it wasn’t running away from love.

It would be more accurate to say it was running away from responsibility rather than running away from love.

‘I don’t want to stop people from fighting, and I don’t want to fight against another magical girl…’

I bit my lip as I recalled Ruby and Sapphire’s faces.

I wanted to fight the magical girls last, if possible.

Today, that resolution was broken, but if Akari nodded, it would be possible to make today the last day.

“You’ve become weak, Emerald.”

“…”

“You can’t take everything with you, and you can’t cut off either side, so you’re going to choose to run away in the end?”

The lips that came near my ear began to whisper about my weakness.

They stimulated the hidden anxiety in my heart, breaking the thick shell called hope and taking out the despair contained within.

However, even though Akari relieved my despair, the despair inside me remained the same size as when it first started.

“…Running away isn’t a bad thing.”

“But you’re Emerald. A magical girl who can never be broken.”

Akari’s black eyes held no doubt.

Emerald would be like that. Because she’s Emerald, she wouldn’t be broken in this situation.

Akari had that kind of faith that I didn’t have myself.

“I’m a person too, Akari. A person who can be weak at times.”

I didn’t want to experience my loved ones being in danger or losing them anymore.

It might have been different in the previous world, but the current world was a world without the apocalypse—no, it was a world that had disappeared.

If something like that were to happen in a world without the apocalypse, wouldn’t there be no reason to go back in time?

“Since there is no apocalypse in this world, Magical Girl Emerald wouldn’t be that necessary.”

“…”

Akari told me that I was an unbreakable magical girl, but in reality, it was different.

To be exact, it would be more correct to say that I was a magical girl who would get back up even if I was broken.

And getting back up even if I was broken meant that if there was no reason to get back up, I would just stay broken.

“My role ends here.”

The goal of creating a world without the apocalypse had already been achieved a long time ago.

Would I need Emerald in such a world?

The answer was ‘no’.

“Do you really think so?”

“…”

“Even if you shout that you are not Emerald, who in this world would think that you are not Emerald?”

“If you don’t transform—”

“You know that’s not what I’m saying.”

Akari whispered softly.

Her voice seemed to be saying that you couldn’t give up the name Emerald even if you wanted to.

“Are you sure that you wouldn’t mind if I killed a human—a magical girl?”

“That’s…”

“Look. In the end, you can only be an Emerald. If I were to hurt someone, you would eventually exist in front of me as an Emerald.”

Akari’s words contained the conviction that she would one day hurt a human, or a magical girl.

And the conviction that it would soon be my job, or Emerald’s job to stop that.

“But, that. If that happens—”

—it’ll be the same as the previous world.

Akari raised one corner of her mouth at the words that were blurted out without strength.

It was as if she was saying, “Are you only realizing it now?”