Chapter 96: Black Girl and Monster. (4)

News, internet, radio, etc…

It didn’t take long for the always cold house to transform into a place to gather information on magical girls.

Just as a fire starts to burn again from the cooled ashes, something inside Kuroko seemed to be burning.

“I don’t think there are any magical girls active around here.”

“That might be the case.”

Kuroko swallowed his breath as he looked at the documents densely pasted on the whiteboard.

He might actually be talented at gathering information.

If this was all information he had gathered in just a week, what kind of person would believe it?

Of course, it was more surprising that he didn’t know what kind of magical girl she was even after gathering this much information.

“…There are just too many useless magical girls.”

“Oh, that was a really monstrous thought just now. I’ll give you three monster points.”

“What are monster points anyway…”

Kuroko tilted his head as if to ask what was wrong with the incredulous look.

Monster points are just monster points, right?

I think I’ve accumulated about 16 monster points so far.

I don’t think I’ll get a prize for accumulating 100 points, but I’ve been feeling really happy watching the monster-like thoughts that have been popping up so often lately.

[Hypocrite. He doesn’t even intend to kill magical girls anyway.]

‘I think he’s better than someone who only intends to kill magical girls.’

I sighed at Apocalypse, who muttered in my head whenever he had the chance.

It’s been a bit precarious lately, you know.

It didn’t seem like it would come out directly, but I could feel his voice getting clearer.

‘If he’d stayed by Emerald’s side, he would’ve caused even more chaos.’

They say that even just having tinnitus makes you go crazy, but there’s a personality in your head that spews out negative comments all the time?

The magical girls should be grateful to me.

They’re not letting a guy like this, who is the embodiment of a disaster, out into the world.

…No, I’ll cancel that thought.

There’s nothing more horrible than receiving thanks from a magical girl, right?

“There’s nothing I can do. If I don’t know where the opponent is, I have no choice but to make the opponent come.”

Kuroko, who got up from his seat, slowly let out his breath.

At the same time, the despair that was being pulled up was truly… beautiful.

Was this how the doctor felt when he created me?

Well, I haven’t done any human experiments on this side, but.

“Akari, it’s true that the monsters are on our side, right?”

“If you think about it, you’re closer to a monster than a human.”

“… Really?”

A monster in human form.

If you ask how much, it’s like 51% monster and 49% human, but since it’s more than half, I guess it’s okay to just call it a monster.

Kuroko, who seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, soon raised the corners of his mouth.

I’ve seen that expression a lot.

“I got a good idea.”

‘Oh, I got a good idea.’

That’s the smile I often make.

It hasn’t been that long, but I’m already starting to resemble you.

Judging from the fact that his right eye was also glowing red, I thought he must have come up with a pretty monster-like idea.

Even so, I guess I’m just trying to lure them using monsters.

“Akari, can I do what you did last time?”

“Like what you did last time?”

“Treating monsters like dogs.”

“Hmm…”

Could I? No, maybe I could.

The guy who took my hair was good at handling monsters, after all.

They weren’t the type of guys who wouldn’t listen to the ones who received my power in the first place.

Since the monsters that stayed on the uninhabited island had spread all over the world, if you looked hard, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find a monster that would listen to you.

“…Will it be hard?”

“I think it’d be okay to try. But you’ll have to take responsibility for what happens after that.”

The one who said that he didn’t have to help was Kuroko.

In the first place, I thought that maybe I didn’t need to help with something like that.

If you ask me what it is, I was adopting a nurturing method that was close to being a leave-behind method.

I was in the position that I had to do it myself, so yeah.

“I’ll try.”

“Should I cheer you on?”

“Just watching is enough.”

She pouts at Kuroko, who says this and gets up from his seat.

Are you going to leave right away?

Weren’t you just going to rest a little more?

I was planning on just lying around on the sofa all day, so this is a bit awkward.

Well, even if it’s annoying, I’ll still go and watch.

***

Woof-woof-

“…I always feel this way, but is this okay?”

“It’s always been okay, so shouldn’t it be okay this time too?”

The feeling rising from my heart—what should I call it?

It’s like I can definitely feel that I’m alive.

The difference between when I transformed and when I didn’t was so great, it felt like I was addicted.

…Could this be what you were after?

To make me keep transforming?

“Haaaaaam…”

‘That can’t be happening.’

Based on what I’ve seen of this little monster over the past few days, this little monster has a pretty simple way of thinking.

If it’s fun, it does it, and if it’s not, it doesn’t.

The mysterious and creepy atmosphere I had when I first saw it still remained, but since I was just lying on the sofa and rolling around every day, that atmosphere couldn’t be extinguished.

Looking back now, I think what I felt back then wasn’t the unique feeling a person has when they see a monster.

“Where is the monster—”

“Ugh…”

“Akari, don’t fall asleep and help me find the monster?”

I gently shook Akari, who was dozing off in my arms.

It’s strange that I can fall asleep at this height.

“…Do I really have to find it for you? You can do it yourself.”

“Me?”

When I tilted my head at the incomprehensible words, Akari started looking at me with a pitiful look.

Her expression seemed to say that I still didn’t know.

…I was saying this because I really didn’t know, but that expression was a little hurtful.

‘Why don’t those guys who usually show up at times like this…’

The alarm sound that I heard every time a monster appeared had long since become a trauma.

But when I actually try to find it, I can’t see it.

Surely it’s not some trick or something?

Or that I told you to avoid me if you see me.

If Akari’s bandaged eyes look like she’s winking, is it just my imagination?

“Focus on despair. Human despair, magical girl despair, and monster despair feel slightly different.”

“Different feelings…”

“Human despair is damp, magical girl despair is sweet, and monster despair is cold.”

Cold…

Certainly, the monster in my arms right now was on the cold side.

It wasn’t despair, but a story about body temperature.

“Focus on something other than me. My despair won’t be very meaningful if you read it.”

“…Okay.”

I paused for a moment, closed my eyes, and slowly began to concentrate.

Cold despair, cold despair, cold despair…

Maybe because we came to the outskirts where people don’t go often, I couldn’t really feel the despair of the people.

If I could feel it, it would be different from what people had—

“I found it.”

It was a cool feeling rather than cold.

It was a similar feeling when I felt the chill of the air conditioner outside in the summer.

That’s why I said it was cold.

As I flew along the cold air, a familiar-looking monster was crying out towards me.

Grrrrr…

“…”

Grrrrr?

“Oh, hello…”

Is that the way to greet me?

I raised my hand and waved it from side to side, and the monster’s head also shook with my hand.

It looked like it would attack me if I let my guard down.

My body cringed at the teeth visible through its slightly open mouth.

‘Calm down, calm down. I said that when training a dog, you shouldn’t look weak.’

“You, I need you to help me.”

Really?

“You understand, right?”

“Anyone who saw it would have asked what I was talking about.”

…That’s what it was?

More than that, if you can understand monster language, you can at least interpret it.

Until recently, I was a normal human, so I can’t understand monster language.

It seems that the power Akari gave me didn’t include the automatic monster language interpretation function.

Grrrr, grrrrrrr—

“When making a deal, you have to offer something that the other person would want, right?”

“…If you’re talking about something that a monster would want, you mean something like despair?”

“You should figure that out yourself.”

Akari’s attitude was still indifferent.

She probably didn’t like the idea of trying to solve the problem by borrowing the power of another monster.

Oh, maybe she’s upset because I didn’t help her.

‘What? There’s no way Akari would be upset about something like that.’

There was no way a guy who’d been rolling around all day would want to help me.

The reason she was making that expression right now was because she found it annoying to have to translate what the monsters were saying.

Anyway.

‘Come to think of it, you said that the despair of a magical girl is sweet, right?’

I’ve never seen it myself, so I don’t know for sure, but since you said it was sweet, I thought that monsters might like it especially.

In that case—

“-I’ll let you eat the despair of a magical girl.”

Really…?

If what I’m trying to do works out, I can eat all the despair of a magical girl.

So help me.

Help me make magical girls despair.