/
I was trying to catch my breath in front of the witch’s apartment.
I coulda just took it slowly and went here normally instead of pedaling my bike like a madman, but oh well.
Anyway…
I needed to talk with the witch.
I pressed the intercom in front of the apartment. But, only silence greeted me for quite a long time.
Just right before the security guard was about to kick me out, the witch finally answered.
{What do you want?}
“I need to talk.”
{I don’t want to talk with you.}
“I don’t care. Just come out and listen to me.”
My voice sounded more forceful than I thought. The witch was surprised to hear it.
{…That’s unusual. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard you sounding so forceful.}
“You won’t listen to me otherwise.”
As I said this, I heard her let out a sigh.
{Hero, you…}
“Stop calling me that. I’m not a hero anymore. You said it yourself, didn’t you?”
{…So you’ve come to admit that already?}
“Of course. It’s about time for me to grow up. I can’t be a chuunibyou forever.”
There was a short period of silence after I said that.
{…Whatever, come in.}
She granted me permission.
I went up to the floor where the witch was living in.
In the meantime, I managed to catch my breath.
Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to organize my thoughts, so I still didn’t know what I should say to her.
I knew what I wanted to talk about, though.
I should be able to work out something from there.
The door to her room was opened.
I went in and took off my shoes.
The room hasn’t changed since the last time I came here. The bookshelves were still occupying every corner of the room.
The smell of old paper tickled my nostrils.
“…Yo.”
The witch was sitting cross-legged on the sofa at the back of the room.
As she was sipping her tea, she turned her gaze to me.
“So, what are you— W-Wait, are you okay?!”
Her composed gaze turned into a gaze filled with anxiety after she saw me.
“What? Are you worried about me? How kind of you.”
“What happened? Why are you sweating so much? Your face looks pale too…”
“Haha, this is nothing…”
I wobbled a little mid-sentence.
“W-Wait, there’s no way you’re okay!”
“I’m okay. I just forced myself a little when I pedaled my bike to get here. Had to turn off my limiter and all that.”
“There’s no way you’d be okay after that then!”
“Don’t worry, if it comes to it, I’ll just vomit here. That’ll make me feel a whole lot better”
“Don’t you even dare to think about it!”
I calmed the fidgety witch down and sat down on the sofa.
“Ah… My head hurts…”
“Did you get a heat stroke? What is the temperature outside?”
Probably thirty eight or something.
Who knows, who cares. It was hard to think with this kind of headache.
“Why were you even?…”
The witch picked up the AC remote and turned down the room’s temperature.
“In any case, I’ll get you something to drink. Maybe I still have a sports drink or something in the fridge…”
I knew it, she was a kind girl.
She always pretended to be cold and detached, but whenever she panicked like this, her true personality came out.
“You know, witch…”
“What is it?”
“Now you can no longer escape! HAHAHAHAHA!”
“E-EH?!”
I laughed with all my heart. It seemed like she took my joke seriously as she took a step back from me.
I took a deep breath.
“My bad, that was the wrong character to play.”
“You’re creepy, you know that?”
“Now, that’s just mean.”
“Seriously, what is wrong with you?”
Said the witch as she handed me a bottle of sports drink.
“Thank you. I’m more of an Aquari guy than a Pucari guy though.” (T/N: Aquarius and Pocari, two big brands of sports drinks in Japan.)
“Shut it.”
She cut me off.
“Just drink it already, you’ll get dehydrated otherwise…”
I obeyed her words and gulped down the Pucari. Ahh, that hits the spot…
After a while, the headache finally went away.
I turned my gaze to the witch.
“So that’s how you normally dressed at home, huh?”
“…You got a problem with it?”
She was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Her style was rough, but it was a staple for summer.
If I could describe how she looked currently, it would be…
“You look cute. The gap between how you look right now and your normal self actually makes me excited.”
Whoops, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I guess my mind was still hazy as I normally would never say something like that. I could feel my face starting to heat up. Yikes.
“W-Wha?! What is it, all of a sudden?!”
Her face turned bright red as she shouted at me.
“N-Never mind that, it isn’t important. There’s something I want to tell you.”
“W-What?…”
Still flustered, the witch asked.
I looked at her closely. What should I tell her?
I started to scour through my memories with her. The days when we spent our lives together.
“Cerys… You’re a pain in the ass, do you know that?”
The first thing that came out of my mouth was an insult.
After hearing that, the witch furrowed her brows and almost immediately, sent out a complaint to me.
“Have you ever tried to look in the mirror?!”
“I know that I’m the same, though I hate to admit it. Still, you’re way worse than me, do you know that? I know you’re THE witch and all, but you’re still too much.”
“No?! What are you even talking about?! You’re even worse than me! You’ve never listened to anything that anyone said! Always neglecting yourself and running toward a problem recklessly like a headless chicken! You’re way worse than me! Worse!”
“Look in the mirror! So were you! I’m the only one who knows of your true nature! Self neglect is literally your middle name! Also, why are you so afraid of other people? No one in this world knows that you’re the witch. No one will hate you unconditionally. So, stop struggling in the dark by yourself! Ask for help, seek for help! Everyone will help you if you were to ask them! Just lean on someone when you’re in trouble, it isn’t that hard!”
“So what?! I’m still THE witch, my sin won’t go away even if no one knows who I am! In fact, just by existing, I’m already putting the world in danger! You already know that, don’t you?! I shouldn’t be alive in the first place! How could someone like me have the right to depend on other people? I’m a monster who should be hated! I deserve to be burned in hell! I don’t deserve to be saved! So, stop worrying about me and worry more about yourself instead!”
“Don’t f**k with me! There’s no way that’s true! Someone as kind as you don’t deserve to be hated, let alone be burned in hell! I’ll make sure of that! I’ll save you!”
“Hah?!”
The witch held her breath for a moment before showing me an exhausted smile.
“You’re still trapped by the curse, aren’t you? That’s why you’re acting like this. You lied to me earlier when you admitted that you aren’t a hero anymore, right? Well, I expected it, there’s no way that problem of yours could be solved so easily. Haah… I was a fool to believe you.”
“No, the curse doesn’t affect me anymore. Hina had told me enough that I’m just a normal high school boy.”
“Then, why?!…”
Her face was distorted.
“Then why are you trying to save me?! You are not a hero anymore! You have no reason to save me! We’re enemies! I was the reason why you lived like that back in the previous world! I was the reason why you were killed! Hate me! Hold a grudge against me! That’s the feelings you should have about me!”
“You’re seriously a major pain in the ass…”
I stood up and stared at her face.
“What? Am I wrong? I am THE witch! I’m the most troublesome, evil, disgusting, the worst person you can ever meet in this world! That’s a given!”
“If you’re really like that, Hina and the others would never go out of their way to help you. They cared about you because they noticed your kindness. You’re a kind girl, nothing you said would ever change that!”
“Shut up! Shut up! You won’t fool me with lousy lies like that!”
The witch tried to catch her breath after that outburst. There were tears in her eyes.
“…Surely you didn’t come here to talk about this kind of thing? Just hurry up and cut the case already.”
“Fine.”
I stepped forward and closed my distance to the witch.
“W-Wha?! D-Don’t come any closer!”
She summoned her staff and held it against my throat.
“I refuse.”
But I ignored her and took another step forward instead. She panicked and moved her staff away.
“What are you doing?!”
She took a few steps backwards as I continued forward.
Eventually, her back hit the wall. I immediately slammed my hand against that wall and leaned closer to her.
I showed her a daring smile.
“See what I meant? Even right now, you’re showing me your kindness.”
“Seriously, what do you want?!”
“Cerys… No, I should stop calling you that. Shiina Mai.”
I changed my way of addressing her.
Shiina looked surprised as her staff shook a little.
If the curse from her previous life was still bounding her, then I would be the person who would free her from it. I found the whole situation funny. She said all those things about me being cursed when it was her who was suffering from a curse.
I didn’t mean it literally, of course. Yes, her soul was bound by that heinous curse, but that wasn’t what I was meant to say.
Shiina was afraid.
Afraid of being approached by people, afraid of being touched by people. She was like this back then too and she hadn’t gotten any better since then. Even when we were linking our arms together for her treatment, her fear showed clearly in her manners.
When it came to communicating with others, she tended to take a step back before even doing anything. It was because she was afraid of getting hurt.
The reason for that was because she always thought that she deserved to be hated.
After all, for all her life, she had been living in a hell filled with nothing but people who were hostile to her.
That was why.
To save this idiot who was holding her tears back.
I said this without any hesitation,
“Be my friend.”
My face felt hot.
Maybe it started to redden as we were speaking. Did she notice that?
“Huh?…”
Shiina looked at me with her mouth slightly opened.
Soon after, her face turned bright red.
“Y-You?! W-Why suddenly?!—”
She let out those words while panicking.
Well, that was a natural response, I guess.
If she were to say the same thing to me, I would react the same way as her.
In any case, I should explain myself clearly to her.
“I… Want to help you. I want to see you smile… You’re right, this isn’t how I should feel toward the enemy from my previous life, but…”
Her face was red up to her ears as she heard more of my words.
Why couldn’t she have a more serious reaction? It was hard trying to come up with those words, you know? In any case, I continued,
“Being enemies and such… Let’s bury that relationship in the past already. Be my friend. If we became friends, then, I don’t need to think of a reason to help you. Because that’s what friends are for, right? To help each other when needed.”
Maybe, I was mistaken about something.
Normal friends wouldn’t have a tighter bond than we currently have.
The feelings I had about her were way heavier than the feelings I had towards any of my friends.
Nevertheless, nothing would change if I didn’t change the nature of our relationship. It was indeed a troublesome one, I admit that.
“Becoming friends? …To help me?…”
Shiina gripped the hem of her clothes. There was a sense of longing in her eyes.
“In the end, you haven’t changed at all, huh?…”
“How many times should I tell you so you can understand?”
In order to remove the curse that had been eating this girl’s heart for years, I had no choice but to repeat those embarrassing words over and over again.
Well, in a way, to remove that curse was a part of my duty. Not as a hero, but as an exorcist.
“I’m not helping you because I’m a hero or anything like that. I have no obligation to do so because I’m not a hero to begin with. You were correct. For the longest time, I had been tied by my past as a hero. Only when I decided to let it go did I realize that there are a lot of things I wanted to do in this world. And the first thing I want to do is to help you.”
I finally realized that.
I finally realized that feeling of mine.
“That shows you how much I like you! I love you! I love your clumsiness! I love your foolishness! I love everything about you! Everything! You are important to me! To me, you’re the one I cared about the most! I would do anything for you! That’s why, be my friend!”
In my desperation…
I uttered those ridiculous lines before turning my face away.
I didn’t have the courage to look at her face now.
“…So, what do you think? Do you believe me now? I’m not trying to help you because of my duty or anything like that.”
Silence enveloped the room after I said that.
Before long, Shiina opened her mouth to speak,
“Lies. There’s no way that anyone in this world could like me.”
“Then, even if everyone in the world hates you…”
The words flowed out naturally out of my mouth. It was how I truly felt about her.
“I’ll still be by your side. I’ll be the only one who loves you in this world. That’s why, I’ll remove both curses out of your heart and soul.”
“I-I’m the witch, you know? Even if you could save me, I shouldn’t be saved in the first place! I don’t deserve it! A witch like me has no right to be happy!”
She was just speaking in circles now and her eyes looked more clouded than before. It started to irritate me. So, I shouted at her to shut her up.
“Shut the hell up! What witch? Who has no right to be happy? That’s all in the past, you dumbass!”
She flinched when she heard me shouting. Thanks to that, her eyes began to regain their clarity.
“B-But…”
“In any case, you are not allowed to be unhappy. I won’t let you be unhappy.”
“H-Huh?!”
“Be happy instead. I’ll make you happy, I promise you.”
I pulled her closer to me and embraced her small, frail looking body in my arms.
“Listen, you’re not a sinner anymore. You’re a new person, you didn’t carry your sin from your previous life over. Everyone who knows you in this life likes you. Hell, even I, who knows you from your previous life, like you. You’re liked by everyone. You are not alone anymore. Even the people in our previous world would like you if they knew the truth about you. You’re a victim, not a villain. So, stop trying to take all the blame. Who do you think you are? You’re just a normal girl!”
“!”
I pressed her face against my chest so she wouldn’t be able to say anything to reject my words.
A soft, sweet scent tickled my nostrils, reminding me of the fact that the girl in front of me was a girl.
But that didn’t matter in the current situation.
“I’ll save you! I’ll make you happy! So, be my friend and let yourself be saved by me! I’m the hero who has saved the other world, you know? I’m more than reliable enough to save you. So, rely on me. Don’t keep everything to yourself. Talk to me if you need help. That’s what friends are for, at least that’s what Hina told me.”
I had to tell her everything that I wanted to say.
No matter how embarrassing it sounded.
“Also, if you were to be my friend… I can be your exclusive hero.”