I Picked Up a Witch from a Novel

There was a little girl.

Ash-colored hair.

Ash-colored eyes.

Just for that reason, there was a girl abandoned in an alley, waiting for the day she would die.

She was a small child.

Having committed no sins yet, she was abandoned.

Sitting still in the corner of the alley, she waited for death, breathing in the musty and foul smell.

She was a child who scratched the wounds made by stones thrown by other kids, letting yellow pus drip down.

The little girl, who didn’t even have a name, always longed for affection.

Though her emotions were faint and she didn’t crave it every moment, she at least hoped that just one person would see her as normal.

At that time, the girl curled up in the corner of the alley was only four years old.

She was a young child who could still slightly miss her mother’s milk.

Even though she had never tasted it, that was certainly the case.

Even while bleeding from being hit by rocks, the girl thought so.

Summer was hot enough to make it hard to breathe.

Winter was so cold that no amount of curling up could withstand it.

Thus, the girl began to ponder what the meaning of surviving like this was.

One year passed, and again another year passed.

The poor girl, still unable to escape the alley, looked at her festering wounds.

With nothing to her name, the girl thought that perhaps dying from being hit by stones wouldn’t be so bad.

However, no child threw stones hard enough to kill.

“Hey, if you hit too hard, she’ll die! They say if the ash one dies, the curse will spread!”

They only threw stones hard enough to cause pain and itching, and then left.

So, she sometimes hoped that an adult would come and end her life.

But adults looked at her with disdain, as if they didn’t even want to get close, and moved away.

Even when the girl turned six, that life continued to repeat.

Time didn’t stop just because she hated it, and it flowed calmly even as the girl began to shiver.

Her body, covered with rags, was emaciated, and her exposed arms and legs were covered in scars.

Without food, she rummaged through trash cans at night.

The foul smell rising from the garbage didn’t bother her.

The alley she lived in also always reeked, and she found comfort in that familiar scent.

Whenever she opened the lid, a few rats always jumped out from inside.

They were her fellow diners, eating before her.

The only fortunate thing was that they, unlike humans, were considerate enough to leave behind some scraps of rotten food.

So, the girl picked it up and opened her mouth wide, gulping it down.

It tasted disgusting, strangely mushy, salty, and a bit sour.

But the girl chewed mindlessly and swallowed, holding back the nausea.

She wanted to die.

But she wanted to live just as much.

Her emotions faint and desiring nothing, still, there was a small piece left that wished for something.

The girl longed for human warmth.

Instinctively, she sought that warmth.

She missed the mother whose face she couldn’t even remember a little.

She wished that someone, anyone, would see her.

Thinking that, she looked up at the sky.

She saw the light waves etched onto the dark and vast curtain above.

If she made a wish upon that, it felt like someone would hear her, and she murmured her small desperation while gazing vacantly.

God existed.

Even in a world full of unhappiness, there was surely a God.

The girl curled up in the alley thought so after reaching some encounter when she turned nine.

“…?”

“….”

There was another small girl, just as tiny as herself.

Black hair.

White skin.

She might have been even smaller than the girl herself, but unlike her, she lived among the ordinary.

“Are you okay?”

“….”

And that girl asked.

Looking at her with pure and clear eyes, she asked.

“Your wounds… they look painful.”

“….”

However, she didn’t know what answer to give to the warmth of a person she was meeting for the first time.

To be precise, all she had heard were curses and blame, so she couldn’t come up with a proper response.

So, she could only look at her blankly.

Step by step.

The nameless girl approached little by little since the ash-colored girl didn’t respond, eventually kneeling down close.

“Ah… your wounds are severe.”

“….”

She examined her body and scratched her head, looking troubled.

It was what she had longed for, but she couldn’t understand that girl.

Why.

Why on earth.

Was she not throwing stones at her?

Why was she not looking at her with disdain and leaving?

“Hmm… what medicine do we have at home…?”

“….”

But she couldn’t bring herself to voice those doubts.

Just.

Just that she hoped this little girl, who was once again rising to her feet, would come back once and speak to her again.

That’s what she thought.

Time passed.

The ash-colored girl was still in the alley, and the nameless girl still came occasionally to visit her.

“Hello? Is that wound from last time okay?”

“…, ah.”

She smiled.

She smiled.

With an innocent, pure smile.

Taking out ointment she secretly brought without her mom knowing, she applied it to the wounds.

“I’m sorry. I could only bring a little today.”

“Ah…. It’s, okay….”

Having saved a slightly spoiled sandwich she found in the trash can that night to eat until the next day’s lunch, she was brought food with a look of horror.

For the first time then, she understood what it was like to taste something delicious.

Delicious didn’t mean something that was disgusting and strangely mushy.

Delicious was something different from the taste that she had thought was salty and sour.

So, as she rushed to put the food handed to her into her mouth and chew, she saw her smile again.

“Eat slowly. I’ll bring you more next time.”

“….”

Looking at herself, who was just blankly chewing, she revealed pure joy.

One day.

No, it was not just one day’s story.

“You witch! Monster!”

Whack—

“Ugh, disgusting!”

It was certainly a day like any other.

Except for one person, everyone disliked her, so it was familiar.

Whack—

She kept getting hit by the stones thrown.

Now, she had no particular questions.

People had disliked, despised, and hated her since she was younger, so she thought it was a natural part of life.

She still couldn’t understand, but she thought there must be some reason.

Getting hit on the head with a stone and bleeding.

“Wow! I hit her on the head!”

Seeing the red drops of blood fall to the ground, the children cheered.

“Throw more, throw more!”

Scratching at her wounds that hurt and itched, curling up from another stone that hit her.

Though she felt pain all over, she thought that soon today’s events would come to an end.

However.

“You, what are you all doing…!”

That day something was a bit different.

The girl with black hair, who must have been seeing this scene for the first time, stepped into the scenery and shouted at the children.

She was a pure and delicate child, a child who didn’t know how to harm others.

“This is… this is bad! You shouldn’t do this!”

The untarnished little girl yelled for them to stop.

It would have been better if she had been a bad child too and had raised her fists.

It would have been good if she had charged at the mean children who attacked the girl and struck back.

“…Ugh.”

“Are you… okay…?”

That day was quite unlucky, leaving both of them with wounds all over.

Still, she didn’t forget to smile.

“Yeah… I’m okay. Are you okay? It hurts a lot. I brought ointment, so… we should apply it together today, haha…”

The girl smiled.

After that event, she moved to a new place with her help.

Though it was just moving to the adjacent alley or beyond from the end of the alley that smelled foul.

Having some moldy planks and miscellaneous things to take to a new alley wasn’t so bad.

At least if she moved, she wouldn’t have to get hit by stones for a few months.

What she had thought was an inevitable part of daily life, in reality, didn’t have to be faced with her whole body.

“What are you going to do if people keep bothering you? It’s better to run away. Don’t just take it quietly.”

“…, yeah.”

She still didn’t quite understand why it had to be that way, but she nodded her head.

She believed that she, who hadn’t touched the edges of ordinary life, was likely to believe that the ordinary girl was saying the right thing.

Some more time passed.

“I’m sorry… I don’t think I can bring food or medicine anymore…”

She had thought that until she saw her in a terrible state before her.

God existed.

However, there was a God who only fervently wished for her to be unhappy.

The girl curled up in the alley thought so when she turned fourteen after seeing the one who had been helping her in a miserable state.

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