Hope born of solitus

*

"I'll spare you the details. I'm sure you can guess enough what magic is and what all of these meant!" (Sariel)

When was she ever this boisterous? It must come with the package... Perhaps she had been quiet so as to hold all of it in. Must it be kept a secret? Well, it likely has to be, or people would be living in fear.

"... Well yeah. It looks to be a magical girl set up, and... It looks like we can't tell anyone about this?" (Lastia)

General knowledge, I reserved a portion of my diary for it. It came in handy, now we can cut quite a bit on the explanations. I smiled at Sariel with confidence.

"... That's right. We can't. That's why... We have to fight.

We call these monsters 'Traces', because in the end they leave nothing behind. The only proof of their existence is through us. " (Sariel)

A tinge of sorrow flashed past her complexion, it was impossible not to catch. My memory is exceptionally good, almost as if all her emotions are frozen in time and ready to be picked apart by my mind. But there was a directive that I made... Ah right, directive might be too odd to describe it.

A virtue. I make sure not to expose how other people feel if they don't want it exposed, I at least have that much decency. So I will ignore it. I do hope whatever is plaguing her could be solved. Even with all these magical girl bull crap, I am first and foremost her friend.

"How about us? If a magical girl dies from a Trace, then will we come back as if nothing happened after the Trace dies?" (Lastia)

My throat dries a little and my voice becomes slightly coarse. I didn't know exactly how to inquire this without making things awkward, I spoke in one breath and ran my throat dry with anxiety. It felt like my heart was jittery, floating into clouds with discomfort.

"Hmm... Let's just avoid dying for now. When the time comes, I'll tell you.

Anyway, we should head back! Arin might get suspicious if we stay here for too long. " (Sariel)

She stared at the ground for a short while before answering. A simple deduction, there was something she was hiding. Foot steps approached, the rest room would be occupied by more people soon, we can't stay here or discuss any longer than we have.

"We should cover it up with a gift... We could explain it away as buying some bread, and a long queue appeared." (Lastia)

I raised a finger, pointing at the bread I have in hand. Giving this to Arin would be a small price. Well, things will work out one way or another. From Sariel's expression, it seems that it's not the fact that we shouldn't tell people about magical monsters in order not to endanger them. Rather, reality is not allowing this mystic information from being divulged to ordinary people. In other words, reality will only allow magical girls to know about magic and monsters.

Fear was engraved into Sariel's face just now, perhaps she wanted to reach out to a trusted adult or anyone else who could help her, but they wouldn't save her no matter what. The world wouldn't allow it. There was a system in place, an enigma of inner workings we cannot fathom with how little information we have.

"Ah? Why do you just have bread in your pocket? Nevermind, let's go..." (Sariel)

She looked away with exasperation and began to walk off. I trailed behind her with pondering steps. My strides might have been a little affected, too much thinking and my sense of distance and balance got affected... I think I'm just not athletic...

"Ahh!!" (Lastia)

"HUP!!" (Sariel)

Elegantly, Sariel caught me after tripping on nothing... My gait was too awkward and I ended up losing balance from simply walking too fast. It wasn't a normal way to fall at all, which made it all the more shameful.

How embarrassing...! It felt like my face raised a few degrees in temperature. Often times there is a feeling of 'being flushed' in the face when we are bashful, as if our whole cheeks go tomato red. This was misinformation by the media! I realised, perhaps I just have a harder time getting flushed, but my cheeks do not redden at all in my past experience.

Just that thought was enough to sooth my nerves that felt like they were floating into heaven from the shame. After all, if no one could tell I was embarrassed, no point drawing attention to the incident itself! I will instead draw upon all of my power to change the conversation topic. Behold, this was one of the life tips that were so important I put them in my diary. Long live my past self!

"Uhm.... You could let go of me now. Let's hurry back!" (Lastia)

"Ah. Ah! Right! We left Arin all alone there, even if she isn't suspicious we'll still need to spoil her a little to get her to forgive us." (Sariel)

The stale corridor air brushes past my face, my body felt slightly lighter than before. I wasn't someone who exercised much at all, but it was likely because my body got warmed up from dodging that monster attack. The Trace tendril that struck as fast as a speeding car raised my adrenaline. Almost gave me a heart attack too. What was stranger... Was the voice that warned me before the attack happened. For some reason, I felt like I couldn't tell Sariel about the voice.

Even without the magical girl business, she would probably think I went insane if I told her about it. Sliding the classroom door, we walked back to where we sat for lunch. We spent roughly half our break away talking about what had occurred, there was little time left. Arin was usually the cheerful and boisterous one, yeah... I still hooked over Sariel being energetic...

We spent the rest of break time mollifying Arin until she couldn't hold the frown anymore and perked up. She chuckled at our desparate attempts before we went back to our seats and spent the rest of our day uneventfully.

When I brought out the key to my house, there was an impending sense of dread. It started when class was dismissed, and I took my first step out of the school gate. Why does my heart feel so heavy? Why do my limbs feel cold and clammy? Hesitating in front of the door lock for a minute, I could no longer handle the silence as I unlocked the door.

When I saw that the lights were off, my chest sank.