Interlude: After Work That Day

“I’ll see everyone tomorrow then.”

“I’m headed this way as well.”

“Right…”

“How many times do I have to tell you it’s not what it looks like!”

Mamoru shook off Reiko’s judgmental smirk and ran to catch up with Miyuki.

“Really,” she said. “You don’t have to walk me home.”

“You got discharged from the hospital today. Someone should walk you.”

“You know, Mamoru,” she laughed. “I could either walk for twenty minutes with you, or I could sprint home by myself in less than a minute.”

“I’m walking in the same direction anyway,” Mamoru muttered.

“Okay.”

They walked in silence. Mamoru fished for something, anything, to say, but even Miyuki’s favorite subject seemed to draw very little from her that evening.

“What did you think about the Egregore?” Mamoru asked. “Now that you got to see them up close?”

“They were amazing, of course,” Miyuki smiled. “It was… humbling for Fang Fang to complement my magic.”

“I heard her talking about an injury?”

“I think she could tell I had been at the hospital.”

“Wait,” Mamoru said. “It didn’t sound like that was what she was talking about.”

“Really? Maybe I misheard her then.”

They were silent again.

The two crossed a city sprawl of disparate phone lines and reinforced concrete, where the only life around were the lights coming from nearby windows. They reached a row of deciduous hedges wrapped around the perimeter of Hokkaido University. Despite the weather, the hedges held resolutely to their leaves.

“I’m surprised you didn’t go here,” Mamoru said. “Their magic theory department is one of the best, maybe even better than Tokyo.”

“But Tokyo has the best department for study on glyphs and enchantments,” Miyuki replied. “What about you, Mamoru? Hokkaido might have suited you.”

“I had a stupid reason,” Mamoru shrugged. “I wanted to spend time alone, away from my family.”

“That’s not stupid, Mamoru...”

Miyuki lived in a modest apartment complex only a block and a half away from the university entrance. When they arrived, Miyuki waved Mamoru to follow her inside.

“You’ve come this far already,” she smiled. “Do you want to stay for dinner?”

“No,” Mamoru blushed. “I couldn’t–”

“Come on,” Miyuki grabbed his hand. “Stay for a while.”

They walked up three flights of stairs to the penultimate floor. Miyuki fetched her keys from a lanyard she had stuffed in a pocket beneath her frilly skirt. Inside, Mamoru heard loud chopping on a cutting board.

“Mom! Dad!” she called. “I’m home. I brought someone over.”

“Eh?” cried a woman’s voice. “Why didn’t you tell us? I don’t know if there’s enough food.”

Miyuki’s mom stepped out from the kitchen and gasped.

“Miyuki, is that…”

“We’re going to my room,” Miyuki said. “Let us know when dinner’s ready!”

She led Mamoru down the hall to a door decorated with red ribbons.

“Miyuki, I don’t know–” he started.

“What?” she laughed and pushed open the door. “You’ve never been to a girl’s room before? Didn’t you go to university?”

“Miyuki!” Mrs. Kobayashi shouted. “You haven’t been home since yesterday. You’re probably dirty. Go take a shower first!”

“I’ll be back,” Miyuki whispered. “Make yourself comfortable.”

She pushed Mamoru into her room and left after fetching new clothes.

Inside, Miyuki’s room was an intersection of three lives. To the left, Mamoru saw a dusty glass case filled with trophies and medals. A mosaic of photos, many of them of Miyuki dashing across a finish line, surrounded a motivational poster featuring a familiar line.

“The future is right there. Run towards it! Tell it that you’re here!”

To the right, an antique lamp cast an alabaster glow on open tomes and a journal scribbled with ink. Three overflowing bookshelves lay between a jumbled desk and a normal bed; the bed’s plainlessness was perhaps the strangest thing about her room.

More posters hung above the bed. The girls featured here were surely the inspirations for Miyuki’s outfits. Bright red and navy sailor uniforms, pink puffy skirts, lengthy pigtails, oversized rainbow ribbons.

“What do you think?” Miyuki asked when she returned, dressed for the first time in normal clothes, her wet hair covered by a towel.

“To be honest,” Mamoru replied. “I was expecting more… pink.”

“Is that all you think a girl thinks about?” Miyuki chuckles.

“I mean, given the way you dress…”

“It’s not about the dress,” Miyuki pouted. “When I put on my clothes, I’m making a promise, just like other magical girls, to uphold all that’s good in the world.”

“No offense, but you’re a little obsessed, Miyuki.”

“Of course I am,” she smiled wistfully. “I watched so many when I first learned about magic. Sakura Capture, Postcure, Udina, Moonlight Revue… I was so disappointed when I found out magical girls don’t really exist.”

“Aren’t the Egregore kind of magical... women?”

“No,” Miyuki frowned. “Admirable as they are, they aren’t magical girls. No matter how powerful, a magical girl’s not to be feared, Mamoru. She inspires only hope.”

“Miyuki!” yelled her mom. “Dinner’s ready!”

At the table, Mrs. Kobayashi set down a pot of cream stew. Mr. Kobayashi, a tall, timid man acknowledged Mamoru, but ate quietly on his own.

“If you had called me, I’d have prepared more,” Mrs. Kobayashi said.

“I’m not that hungry,” Miyuki laughed. “Besides, Mamoru’s just a friend.”

“Miyuki’s mentioned you a lot, Mr. Fujimoto. You’re in Public Security too?”

“Yes.”

“I warned Miyuki it was too dangerous,” Mrs. Kobayashi sighed. “Less than two weeks and she’s already hurt herself…”

“I can take care of myself, mom.”

“How am I supposed to think that when you stay in your room every day?” Mrs. Kobayashi scowled, then smiled at Mamoru. “It makes me happy that you’re here, Mr. Fujimoto. I hope you can be good friends with Miyuki. She hasn’t brought anyone home since her injury–”

“Mom!” Miyuki cried.

The rest of dinner continued uneventfully, but Mrs. Kobayashi’s words lingered in his head. After helping her clean the dishes, Mamoru gave thanks for the meal and prepared to leave.

“Come again!” Mrs. Kobayashi waved.

Miyuki escorted him to the first floor. They were greeted by a bitter cold night.

“It was nice having you over,” she said. “Let’s do this again–”

“You were lying about that injury.”

“...What?”

“Your mom mentioned you hadn’t brought anyone home since then. Fang Fang, that Egregore. That’s what she was talking about, right?”

“Well…”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Mamoru shrugged.

“No, no I should come clean,” Miyuki sighed. “Sorry. I know my behavior’s a little weird.”

“A little?”

Miyuki’s fingers worried the hem of her t-shirt.

“You might remember, but I mentioned I was in the track team.”

“Right,” Mamoru nodded. “It’s where your coach taught you that quote.”

“I was good,” Miyuki said. “Good enough to be the team’s ace.”

“Until you were injured?”

“I woke up in the hospital with ruptured Achilles tendons. My teammates’ faces were filled with pity. We all knew I would never run competitively again.”

“...I’m so sorry.”

Miyuki laughed.

“That’s what Coach said. ‘The future is right there. Run towards it! Tell it that you’re here!’ He believed that so much, he thought my future wasn’t over. When I recovered, he put me back on the team. I was so full of pride. I should’ve declined.”

“What happened?”

“We lost,” Miyuki shrugged. “It was ten years ago. It doesn’t matter now, but my teammates’ pity turned into resentment.”

“Resentment?”

“They called me useless. Dead weight,” she said. “Magical girls. Magic. It saved me. I can’t fully repair my tendons, but I can run because enchantments hold my feet together. And because I run, I still have hope.’”

“You’re not dead weight, Miyuki,” Mamoru pressed firmly. “You know more about magic than me, more than Kazama maybe. You’re a natural fighter too.”

Miyuki shook her head.

“I really have to apologize to you, Mamoru,” she lowered her gaze. “Ever since we were first recruited, I’ve been using you.”

“Using me?”

“I’ve been thinking to myself, ‘Here’s someone who seems a little hopeless, maybe more hopeless than me. If I can get him to rely on me, he’ll never think of me as dead weight!’”

“That’s…” Mamoru muttered. “That’s a little unexpected.”

“I know!” Miyuki cried into her hands. “I’m really sorry. I don’t know why I think this way. I mean I know why, but that doesn’t make it…”

“Look,” Mamoru scratched his neck, “truthfully, you’re not wrong. I was hopeless. Relying on me? Using me? Honestly, I can’t tell the difference. I won’t say it feels good for you to think of me this way, but I’m a better mage now than before I met you.”

Miyuki blinked.

“Wow,” she gasped. “If you ever met a real manipulative woman, you’d be in big trouble. Christmas is coming, Mamoru. You'd better find yourself a good woman.”

Despite himself, Mamoru laughed in lieu of a retort. Miyuki joined in between the occasional sob.

“Thank you,” she sniffed. “Because of you, because of the others, I think I can run even faster now.”

The cold nipped at their hands. They stood within a breath of each other. Miyuki encouraged things and leaned forward, but she knew Mamoru was the type to fumble. Much like she expected, he pulled away and cleared his throat.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”

After Work That Day - END