episode_0053

“Vine, vine? Vine~”

“Ugh, uhm… umnyaaa… ”

“Vine? Get up~”

“Ellie… There’s no meeting today… The boss will take care of it too… ”

“Vine? Get up! What kind of boss are you!”

“Ugh… The boss said that if there are no meetings, it’s okay to sleep in… I want to sleep more… ”

“What are you talking about? Bine! Get up!”

“Uh, uh… huh… huh?”

“Really… Boss or something. When are we talking about enemies?”

“I don’t remember my sister ever waking up this late… She always woke up before me and was in the kitchen… ”

“Even in Eden, it was rare to sleep this late. Well, I’ve seen Blanc sleep after a big fight, exhausted and covered in soot… But this is the first time I’ve not woken up until past midnight.”

“Is that so? Hmm… Sister? Are you awake?”

“… Arin… ?”

“Yes. This is your precious little sister Arin. Do you know where this is?”

“Yes… In the association… Room. Blanc made it for me.”

“You came to your senses. It’s… 1: 47 now. You slept really deeply today. You must have had a hard time.”

“I slept for that long…? Really?”

“Yes. You slept for at least 12 hours. I was so worried because you didn’t move at all during that time… I was so worried that you wouldn’t come back to consciousness.”

“Ahh… I’m not the type to sleep talk like that… ”

“But, I’ve been wondering since yesterday, why didn’t you talk to me when you didn’t talk to Ellis? I could have said, “Arin~” too.”

iced coffee…?

Wait a minute, I didn’t know Arin would suddenly say something like that…?

“Yes… ?”

“You don’t talk to me, but you only talk to Ellis… I feel like you don’t have any affection for me.”

“That’s… That, that… ”

“So, can you please let me talk too?”

“Ah, uh… That’s, that, ah. Because I respect you, Arin. As a magical girl, and as my precious little sister.”

“I think it would be better if you just talked to me… ”

Ugh…

To be honest, it’s a story I hadn’t thought about.

No, what is that…

Honestly, even if I were to suddenly tell you to stop talking…

Why did you use formal language in the first place?

Ah, that’s how it was originally.

What is that?

Honestly, aside from Ellie, the people I talked to were…

Right now, there are only people who are in the marina or missing.

I’m talking about the executives of Eden.

Why did I keep talking to those people?

Oh, right.

Before I regained my memories, they were really kind people.

No, before I regained my memories, my personality was…

I think it was a little strange.

A little bit, that… was that Messagaki I saw a long time ago.

I used to be that kind of person.

The executives who said that he had regained his memories and that he had changed in how he treated people, that he had really changed, were dead… No, I kindly ‘re-educated’ those executives that it was not like that.

“Ugh… Are you really saying that you want me to let go of my words…?”

“Yes! If I keep hearing formal speech, it… Honestly, it sounds too stiff… A little… ”

Even if I suddenly tell Arin to stop talking.

Well, that’s what a habit is…

Ugh… Well, for now, you can’t fix that habit right away.

I’ll have to change it slowly later.

Under that pretext.

Ugh…

Arin…

ah.

Arin has to train.

This fight must have made you reluctant to spar with me.

Well then, as a reward for winning the duel with me.

If you let go of the horse.

“And, besides talking nonsense. Why do you call other sisters by nicknames? I asked Ellis, but she said she doesn’t know either. Is there a reason for giving nicknames? Uh, crybaby or unemployed… ”

“Ah, I can answer that right now. The reason I’m calling you by your nickname is because I don’t want to be called by my magical girl stage name. That’s a ridiculous reason, right?”

“Then, why does Yunseul unnie call you Blanc? Oh, I think Hyein unnie calls you Citrus too. What’s the reason for that?”

An excited Arin came closer to me and asked.

The faces are too close…

Ellis, for some reason, doesn’t seem to stop Arin from approaching her.

Rather, as Arin started asking questions, he secretly left the seat and sat next to the redhead, playing with his smartphone.

suddenly…?

Since yesterday, whenever I see Arin trying to cling to me, she immediately comes over and claims me as her own.

And then, you came closer than anyone else and stuck next to me…

But now, he’s just glancing at me, and I can’t see any signs of restraint or anger. He doesn’t even show a pouty expression.

“Ah, Arin…? Cho, isn’t it a little close…? A little bit back… ”

“Ah, oh. Anyway, what? Yunseul unnie and Hyein unnie call me by my stage name. The other unnies call me by my nickname. I don’t know, but everyone else knows! When I ask the other unnies, they just laugh and move on. I’m curious too!”

“Haha… That’s… Let’s talk a little further away first. It’s too much, it’s burdensome.”

“Ugh… You want it to be even lower than this? Yeah… ”

With those words, Arin pushed the face in front of me away and went to the seat next to me.

He leaned his head on my shoulder and prepared to listen to the story.

“Haa… Well, yes. That’s about it. Okay… The reason I call you by your nickname is because I’m used to it, but it’s a little different.”

“Because I give nicknames to people I recognize as magical girls. Well, I don’t recognize them as my enemies. But still. Those magical girls who can go around talking as “magical girls”. As for magical girls who don’t have nicknames, well. I just call them magical girls out of courtesy… When calling combatants, you call them combatants, so there’s no reason to call them anything else, right? That’s how it is. ”

So, whenever a new magical girl was brought in front of me, she always knew my name, but I had no interest at all.

Who would be interested in a fighter who isn’t even strong?

“Well, when those magical girls who weren’t interested in me grow up and fight like magical girls, I ask them their names. And I give them nicknames on the spot. If they stand out that much, that means they’ve accumulated a lot of data. They do have some characteristics in their heads.”

As I said that, I looked at Arin.

“Most of the time, we give them characteristics in battle. Oh, in the case of the slacker, they are really slow, so at first we were going to call them a slacker, but since it’s easier to call them a slacker, we ended up calling them a slacker.”

There was a look on Arin’s face as if she was thinking about something.

Are you just focusing on what I’m saying?

“If those weak magical girls who call me by those nicknames become strong enough to compete with me. At least, if they become strong enough to beat me in a personal battle. I acknowledge them as my enemies and call them by their stage names.”

“Citrus. Hyein, I originally gave her the nickname Crybaby. She would always cry whenever she saw me, saying how pitiful she was. She would cry when she got hit by me and say it hurt. Isn’t that really how you look like a crybaby? That’s why I called her Crybaby.”

“One day. I had a personal battle with him. It was a really ordinary park in the neighborhood. A place like that.”

“Well, I came with Blanc back then too. She just suddenly appeared in front of me. She was a weaker magical girl than Blanc, so I thought it would be easy for me to deal with her.”

“But, what the heck. In the end, I lost. It was so bad, and the magical girl I had ignored came back after growing up and defeated me, right?”

“I was really arrogant back then, but I didn’t realize it. In the battles that continued with her, I was pushed back more than once or twice.”

“Sometimes, she becomes my equal. Isn’t she really amazing? She’s a magical girl who gets beaten up by me all the time, but she’s grown.”

“That day, I acknowledged her as my enemy and started calling her by her stage name.”

As I finish the story, I want to see Arin, really.

I couldn’t read Arin’s expression.

Are you remembering what I called you?

Or maybe there is something to think about in a common story.

I was looking at it like that.

Arin spoke first and started talking.

“Sister, then… I’m a magical girl who’s worse than a combatant to you… ?”

“If you only look at the combat power, then yes. Don’t worry. I will take responsibility for that and take care of it.”

“You just call me ‘magical girl’… ”

“Hey… Arin. Why are you like that.”

Before Arin could shed tears, I hugged her first and comforted her.

“Isn’t Arin still young? Yes? She doesn’t have much experience. She hasn’t even been a magical girl for very long.”

“That, but still… ”

“I said I’ll take responsibility and do it. Okay? So, you too, Arin, should try hard enough to be acknowledged by Eden’s Binney, right?”

“Ugh… How… ”

“Let’s try. I’ll help you. If your sister, Vine, not Eden’s Vine, can help you, what can’t you do? Come on. Cheer up. If you keep acting like that, I’ll have to put back in that redhead’s dark history collection that I was going to give you?”

“… A collection of dark histories… ?”

“There are many. I can tell you all the things that redheads are intentionally trying to hide.”

“I really wasn’t upset! I wasn’t sad either, and I’ll really try my best to follow in my sister’s footsteps!”

Oh, it’s solved.

It worked.