"Se-jin! Good morning! I baked cookies for you! Please try some!"
".........?"
What happened in just one day?
All I did was chase her away as Alice and tell her to talk to someone else besides Alice, but in that short time her expression had brightened considerably.
"Um... yes... I'll... enjoy them..."
I was so surprised that I forgot I had pushed her away before and accepted them.
"Please enjoy them and let me know what you think! You're the first person outside my family I've ever given these to!"
"O...kay."
"Well, I have somewhere to go today, so I'll be off! Have a great day, Se-jin!"
...And just like that, she gave me cookies and disappeared.
"...I wonder who she met that made her so excited."
Despite her good personality, I know she doesn't have many friends, so seeing her overcome that gloominess means she must have met someone quite nice.
"...Wait a minute."
If she leaves like that, what about my treatment as Alice...
...She'll come back before then, right?
* * *
"Sapphire! I'm here!"
"Ah, you've arrived, Mia."
After listening to Mia's troubles yesterday, I agreed to spare some time today at her request.
She asked if I could help her plan a proper date course.
It was strange that she believed I could help when I've never been in a relationship myself, but... she insisted that since I'm older and have more social experience, I'd be much better than her planning alone, so I reluctantly agreed to help.
"By the way, Sapphire, why is your transformation outfit a business suit?"
"Because I do company work while transformed. It's more convenient this way."
My outfit was originally a plain business suit, so it's not particularly flashy, but Mia's magical girl outfit is quite elaborate, so we decided to convert it to civilian clothes.
While we couldn't avoid drawing attention as two magical girls walking down the street, at least having normal clothes would make it less conspicuous.
"Mia... that looks good on you. Didn't you say you used to work in fashion?"
"Well... not exactly work. My parents run a small shopping mall where I would model different clothes for sample photos."
Hearing that, I looked Mia up and down.
"If I may ask... wouldn't it be difficult to be a sample model with your body type?"
"I've been helping them since I was little. It definitely got harder after I grew up. It's not common to find someone my height with... this figure..."
While I wasn't particularly short, I could sympathize with her on the other aspect, so I nodded internally.
"Still, it's not like people with this body type don't exist at all. I guess the clothes sell well enough. From my parents' perspective, having their daughter as a model means they don't have to pay much, so there's no downside."
"I see..."
The mention of family reminded me of the conversation I had with my sister this morning.
[I'm heading to work first... Oh, you took the day off? What are you planning to do?]
[A junior colleague asked to meet up.]
[Is our Si-yeon going on a date?!]
[It's a woman. A magical girl.]
[Is she pretty? Cute? Do you have a photo? Show me. I want to see too.]
[What are you, some old man?!]
Anyway, she's always making excuses about being too busy for romance, yet she teases junior magical girls while showing excessive interest in my love life.
She even makes crazy statements about how she could understand if I wanted to be with a woman, joking or not.
I've heard that magical girls sometimes develop those kinds of relationships since they mostly interact with other magical girls, but that's definitely not for me.
I haven't had a reason or found someone to date yet, but I'm certain that if I do, it will be with a proper man.
...Though I haven't met anyone who particularly attracts me yet.
"By the way, is this Se-jin person you're dating your ideal type?"
"Um... I've never really thought about it... but I think so. I've always wanted to date someone who's either a dependable older person or someone cute."
"I'm not sure about the dependable part..."
"That's because you don't know him well, Sapphire. Actually, I haven't seen it directly either... but there's just something dependable about him, you know? Even though I'm a magical girl and much stronger, I get this strange feeling that he would save me if a real crisis happened."
"...I really don't understand. Well, I'll assume it's the mature vibe. At his age, he must have much more social experience than you."
...Come to think of it, I don't think I've heard what this person does for a living.
But at that age, he must have some kind of job, right?
"By the way, do you know what he does for work? You mentioned he seems to live alone."
"Um... I'm not sure. He mostly stays at home, but sometimes when I see him, he's returning from somewhere outside. But since I occasionally see him at the convenience store in the early morning, I don't think he's an office worker."
"...He might be unemployed."
That thought crossed my mind, but it would be rude to say that about someone else's partner, so I kept it to myself.
"Well, even if Se-jin is unemployed, I can support him just fine."
"A magical girl of your caliber would certainly receive plenty of appearance offers."
"Oh, but Sapphire, why do you work as a manager instead of appearing on programs yourself?"
"I do when necessary, but I found this suits me better."
I've been working as Alice's manager, but even before that, I was helping with my sister's company in various roles. I didn't have much time to appear on programs as a participant.
I'm also not one who enjoys speaking more than necessary... and I didn't want to become famous and have people find out I'm the company president's sister.
It was already awkward enough when we occasionally ran into each other at the company and I had to address her formally as "Chairwoman."
"Hmm... what movie should we watch? I want to save romance movies to watch with Se-jin."
"Action movies haven't been appealing since becoming a magical girl. Since I can fight better than what's shown on screen, it's hard to get immersed."
"Ah, that's why I find survival or disaster movies difficult to watch. I keep thinking, 'Why aren't magical girls showing up in this situation?' or 'Why are they so weak if they do appear?'"
Compared to Alice, whom I'm always with, Mia might seem lower-ranked, but a B-rank magical girl was still considered upper tier among magical girls.
Most magical girls were ranked E, D, or C, and Mia was even a rare support-type magical girl.
"...Horror movie?"
"...Less scary than Abyss Ones."
"Hmm... it really is difficult for magical girls to enjoy movies. Romance is probably the most watchable, but even as practice, two women watching together is a bit..."
"...Ah, what about sci-fi?"
"Aha!"
After searching through posters and much deliberation, we finally found a movie worth watching.
"Great. If I bring this perfect date plan to Se-jin, he won't be able to refuse, if only out of appreciation for my effort!"
"What will you do if he rejects you even then?"
"...Then I'll have to use my last resort."
Mia's expression turned serious.
...A magical girl's physical abilities far exceed those of ordinary people.
Surely not...
"I'll cry, cling to him, and ask what's so lacking about me that he keeps rejecting me."
"...Good luck."
Ever since I heard she had admired Alice for a very long time, I sensed she was the type who fixates completely on one thing once she becomes interested.
Admiration for Alice, love for that man.
* * *
[The phone is turned off. After the beep...]
-Beep
"...Did she go out somewhere? She did look happy earlier."
[I heard humans sometimes travel to change their mood. Maybe that's it?]
"Who goes on a trip after just one day..."
It was well into the afternoon, but Mia hadn't returned home, so I even tried calling Alice's number, but there was no answer.
We hadn't set a specific time for treatment with Alice—we just met whenever both of us had free time—so it didn't really matter, but I couldn't help being curious.
Just yesterday she had been crying and clinging to Alice, and now she was cheerful again.
"...What should I do? I don't have anything particular to do today."
[If you have nothing to do, you should rest. You might be okay now thanks to Mia, but you're not completely healed yet.]
"I should review the magic theory again. Tomorrow's the broadcast."
[It's good to work, but don't overdo it!]
Rabbity was as noisy as ever today.
Who's making me overdo things when he's always telling me not to? If I hadn't pushed myself, both of us would have been dead long ago.
"Rabbity, turn on the TV. That channel with magical girl news."
[Why? Curious about something?]
"Magic review is one thing, but I need something to listen to while I work so I'm not bored. Might as well get some information about the world while we're at it."
...I was also worried that Aia woman might be up to something.
Anyway, Rabbity quietly operated the remote and turned on the TV.
Even mascots could exert this much physical force.
[Yes... this is news about a newly discovered Abyss One overseas. Unlike other Abyss Ones, it reportedly shows no interest in buildings but primarily targets people or animals. Peculiarly, all the corpses were... found with their heads severed. Regarding this, we have Abyss One expert Dr. Choi XX with us...]
"That's an unusual Abyss One. Are there Abyss Ones that only target necks?"
[The varieties of Abyss Ones are endless. It's not strange to have one fixated on creatures' necks. There have been several documented cases of Headless Knight or Dullahan-type Abyss Ones who, out of jealousy for creatures with necks, behead them. It's in the mascots' information records.]
"They'll be talking about this for a while. Enough, just turn it off. This kind of thing isn't helpful anyway."
-Flip
I irritably scratched my head and went back to reading my organized magic theory notes.
Most of it was already in my head, but when you need to verbalize what's in your mind, organization is necessary.
Even if Aia was the S-rank #1, both for Alice's concept and my personal pride, I didn't want the camera to portray Alice as inferior to Aia.
-Flip
While I've never once enjoyed being active as a magical girl, I could say that exploring magic was somewhat fun.
I've always liked stories about stars and the universe.
That person who loved fairy tales found it boring, but still didn't completely ignore what I liked.
And no matter how hard I worked, it was never as good as what that person casually prepared.
It had always been that way since long ago, so I wasn't particularly shocked.
It was natural for that person to be exceptional.
So it was also natural that I was reduced to merely imitating "Alice."
That...
-Throb
"...Damn her."
As if proving that my treatment wasn't complete, the dark cloud in my mind revived and tried to replay those memories, so I habitually poured medicine into my mouth.
Tomorrow was the filming, and I needed to meet Mia today for treatment.
This was not a good time to be trapped in nightmares.