My Normal Life Now Has My First Confession

If Tama fell into a nightmare she couldn’t wake from, then she might as well have dragged Sarine into it. The faerie, running on pure instinct dove towards the injured magical girl and threw her arms out as the Nacht lunged for another bite.

But it stopped.

It stopped and stared, the damage it’d done clear as day. Sarine glared before she went to work, applying numbing magic to Yuriko’s wounds as the power left her body, returning Yearning Yuriko back to the form of Chiho. With both arms ripped off Sarine could do nothing to fix the damage. But she could take the pain away, at least.

If she could do that much—she would. The monster kept staring. Sarine, hands buried in a river of blood, spat: “This is…your fucking fault. Stop looking at us like that.

“Just…stop. Go away—Go away!”

The ground shook. The clatter of rubble a cacophony. When Sarine looked up again, the Nacht raised its head against the roof of a house, and slammed into it. Even when the building crumbled down to the foundation the creature continued to assault itself, until something flashed, and it dissipated. The necklace stayed, shrinking until it too disappeared.

…Sarine hoped Tama was okay. She worried about the strange woman who seemed affiliated with the Nachts, but all those worries were taken away when Chiho groaned. Sarine dragged the half-dead girl towards a piece of concrete, helping her sit up.

“Hey—stay with me!” Sarine gripped Chiho’s face. “Just focus on my voice, the lights, whatever it takes to keep you with us. The pain shouldn’t bother you anymore, but you’re still really, really screwed if we don’t get you help. A conventional hospital’s not gonna cut it…Okay, let’s go get Lavi and take you to Society—”

“Th…they can’t…help me.”

“What the—of course they can! They have better magic than anything I’m capable of!”

“They can’t…save me, Sarine. I’m sorry. Some…” Chiho looked down, then squeezed her eyes shut, “Some wounds are too deep. For magic—I…Tama, where’s Tama? Please, please, I need to see her, I can’t…”

“Nh...no, you’re lying…” Sarine grit her teeth. She pressed her hands over Chiho’s eyelids. “Okay. I’ll get her. I promise, just keep your eyes closed and focus on anything, literally anything—”

“Fuck!”

Anything, like a voice.

Sarine froze, stiff, like some toy as footsteps grew closer, yet the pounding of feet against pavement paled in comparison to the panicked shouts. Curses flew from Tama’s lips as she rounded a corner and collapsed in front of Chiho, grabbing one of her gored stumps. Thin trickles of blood escaped a fresh wound incurred on Tama’s head; Sarine flew close—before Tama swatted her away.

“What the fuck are you doing!?” Tama gestured to Chiho, tears drowning out all else. “Heal her! I’m fine, so don’t bother, just heal her already!”

“I can’t heal this!”

“Then who can!?”

“I don’t know, okay!?”

“Figure it out! She can’t die, she can’t—can’t you like…have me do it!? Transfer my—”

Sarine punched Tama, sending her to the ground. “I can’t, and don’t you suggest that ever again! I’m not trading anyone’s lives—don’t put me in that position!”

Tama raised a fist, though she froze at the sound of a stifled sob. Chiho leaned over and collapsed against Tama, face buried in her chest.

“Please…please, stop. I don’t want you two to fight like this. I don’t…want that to be my last memory of you both.

“And. Not of you, Tama.”

Tama held onto Chiho’s shoulders. Sarine stilled, unable to do more than float, helplessly. “…I—I numbed the pain,” she said, “she should pass peacefully.”

A hiccup—Tama crouched down, instead pressing her own head into Chiho’s chest. Chiho’s weakening heartbeat punctuated each of her words, as Tama tried everything she could to ingrain each sensory detail into her memory. From this day onward, she’d lose Chiho’s voice. She’d lose her scent, she’d lose her face, the light in her eyes, the way she tottered as she ran, the way she seemed so graceful as she took to the skies, baton in hand.

“I—I was so happy, having a friend,” Chiho said. “All my life, I’ve never been like anyone else. So…I had to live away from the world. I felt like—an alien stranded on a planet far away from where I was meant to be. And it was…so, so scary, thinking I’d spend the rest of my life like that.

“Playing by myself, studying, learning about the shrine, and the Gods…it was painful. Important, but painful. I fought for people I never knew, and I didn’t mind, but…meeting you changed everything. I finally had someone in my life who could understand, and be around me, and…fight with me. But I—I never wanted you to get hurt. I’d—rather it be me. I wanted…it to be me.

“I suppose…despite everything, I’m glad. Because you can still live. You gave me a chance to feel a part of this world, so I—I want you to take all those happy memories, and let them stay happy. Don’t let this—take that away from you. Please, I don’t want to hurt you…because…”

Chiho’s stumpy arms flailed, and she lifted her head up, resting her cheek against Tama’s own. “I love you—I think I really, really love you.”

And so she gave up.

She slipped from Tama’s grasp and hit the ground, eyes half-lidded and gaze pointed far away. She looked towards the moon, dipping over the horizon as it framed the shadowy form of the mystery guest now before them. Tama and Sarine stared, lifeless, Sarine snapping to attention as she spotted a familiar speck of light at the ominous girl’s side.

Her dress fluttered in the wind—Lavi perched herself upon the stranger’s shoulder as she shuttered her umbrella, silent. “Since you have nothing else going on,” she continued, as if Chiho’s life disappeared into thin air, meaningless. “Then you’ll work with me, right? To understand the question that’s been plaguing you for far too long—all because of Society Prime.

“You know, if they hadn’t started this, I wouldn’t have needed to kill her.”