Chapter 91

“Is that her?”

“Yeah, I heard her family all died, and she’s the only one left…”

“If even the Magical Girls won’t help her, maybe she’s a monster.”

“She does look pretty gloomy.”

Voices reached me.

Voices mocking me.

Voices pitying me.

Voices looking down on me.

Voices seeing me as beneath them.

‘…How stupid.’

I wanted to get up and lunge at them right then and there, but all I could do was think of them as pathetic.

Untouchable.

The lowest of the low in the school hierarchy.

It was better to stay still than to embarrass myself by acting out.

Attention fades over time, after all.

Ding~ Dong~ Dang~ Dong~

“…Sigh.”

I let out a sigh at the sound of the bell ringing in my ears.

Somehow, I made it through another day.

As the laughter around me felt like it was mocking me, I finally picked up my bag and stood up.

Let’s go home.

To the quiet, lonely space of an empty house.

“…”

I watched the noisy crowd heading home and briefly recalled the past.

There was a time when I had friends—no, maybe even two.

Those were happy times.

I exhaled slowly, reminiscing about memories I could never return to.

“Honestly, I wish they had all died.”

If everyone shared the pain of loss, maybe they wouldn’t tear each other apart over it.

Honestly, it felt unfair.

Why did I have to lose everything?

I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms, but in the end, I realized this was my fate and resigned myself to it.

“Catch me if you can~”

“Hey, stop right there!”

How peaceful.

Unlike me, living in a hell disguised as peace.

Maybe because it was close to winter, the sun was already setting even though it was dismissal time.

If every day were night, maybe I wouldn’t feel this loneliness.

Today, the bag on my back felt unbearably heavy.

“Mom, mom! Buy this for me!”

“Oh, you… Fine, just this once, okay?”

There was a time when I was like them.

Holding my parents’ hands, singing about daily life, and speaking of happiness.

But what about me now?

‘Just breathing is painful.’

‘Why did you survive?’

‘If only you had died, it wouldn’t hurt this much.’

‘You should have died instead of them.’

Voices echoed in my head.

Voices scolding me, cursing me.

The owner of those voices was none other than me.

A being with no attachment to this life.

Even though the sun was still up, it felt like shadows had already fallen.

No, more accurately—

“…Ah.”

—the shadow was right in front of me.

“…”

On the side of the road where people walked.

In one corner, there was a space filled only with black.

Following the faintly visible shadow, I turned my head and instantly felt my breath catch.

“…”

A pull.

Is this what they call the pull of fate?

Even though I should be heading home, I started walking into the dark alley.

Deeper, deeper, even deeper—

“Delicious despair.”

“You are…”

In the alley, there was a shadow.

No, a girl.

A girl much smaller than me—maybe just starting elementary school.

Normally, I would have ignored her and walked away, but I felt an inexplicable pull toward her.

“What brings you to this alley?”

“…”

Why am I here?

The girl, lying on a neatly maintained sofa, smiled at me with a sly grin.

If it looked like the smile of a devil tempting an innocent—no, a wounded lamb, maybe it was just my imagination.

Reflexively, I stepped forward and stood in front of her. The girl slowly sat up.

“Do you want something too?”

“Who are you?”

A sense of unease.

A foreboding that even an ordinary person would feel.

This being in front of me wasn’t human.

I shouldn’t get close to this being.

Despite the instinctive warnings blaring in my head, my body moved toward her reflexively.

As if it were fate.

“You know who I am better than anyone, don’t you?”

“…What do you—”

“‘Everyone should just die.'”

“…”

“‘This world should just rot.'”

The girl’s voice pierced my heart.

The darkness I always carried in my heart.

Her voice, which seemed to embrace—no, provoke that darkness, made me bite my lip reflexively.

If I let my guard down even for a moment, I felt like I’d spill all the thoughts I’d kept hidden.

That’s why, in the end, I kept my mouth shut even in the face of such absurd words.

“Would you like to make a contract with me?”

“A contract, you say?”

“Give me your despair, and in return, you can spread that despair across the world as you please.”

“…What’s in it for me?”

The girl’s smile deepened at my aggressive question.

She seemed to like my sharp reaction—no, precisely because of it.

Don’t get close to that being. That’s something you shouldn’t approach.

The basic instinct of any human screamed at me.

Don’t get close. That’s a being you shouldn’t be near.

“You can share your despair.”

“…”

“Just as you wish.”

What will you do?

Will you go back to the light and live as someone mocked by others?

Or will you become a being who makes them tremble in fear and despair?

A non-human whispered to me.

There was only one answer to such a whisper.

“I’ll take that contract.”

If I can crush those who mocked and ignored me—if I can paint despair on their faces, I’ll do anything.

Even if it means making a contract with a devil.

Even if it means crossing a river I can never return from…!!

“Good.”

The girl reached out and lightly pushed my forehead with her fingertip.

It felt like I was dreaming.

As I floated in a sensation of weightlessness, I opened my eyes to see a world made only of black.

‘Ah, I see…’

This was the color of the world I had been seeing.

Dark, gloomy, cold, and yet burning at the same time.

“For you, and for me, spread despair across this world.”

The girl’s black eyes began to glow red.

In a world painted in black and white, the only color I saw was hers. Reflexively, I reached out for it.

It’s beautiful. I want it.

In this godforsaken monochrome world, who knew something so pretty could exist?

“Since we’ve made a contract, I’ll grant you one wish. Not everything, but I’ll do what I can within reason.”

The girl spoke.

Her lips twitched as if she already knew what I would ask, and a sadistic urge rose within me.

I want to see that face twist in pain.

I want to see tears—no, blood tears—flow from those eyes.

And I want that red color.

“Give me your eyes.”

“Ahaha.”

A ringing, bell-like voice filled the alley.

The girl’s laughter made her short hair dance near her pale shoulders.

She seemed amused, as if she had heard a funny story.

But I had a strange certainty that her answer wouldn’t be a refusal.

“Alright.”

The girl nodded and gently closed her left eye.

Her right eye still glowed red.

As I stared at her mischievous gaze, her hand grabbed my wrist.

Then she moved her hand to her right eye, urging me to take it—

Squelch— Crunch, splat.

“Did you get what you wanted?”

“…”

I looked at my blood-stained hand and stayed silent.

The girl showed no sign of pain even after losing her eye.

The bloodstains on my palm lost their color the moment they left her body.

Not red, but black.

The same boring color I’d always seen.

“…I like it.”

But the moment I saw the eye in my hand glow red like it had when I first saw it, I could only nod like a broken toy.

The red color in a world of black and white was mesmerizing just to look at.

As if it wouldn’t allow any judgment.

“Now that you have what you wanted, it’s my turn to take what I want.”

“…Fine. I’ll do anything.”

“Become a Magical Girl for me—ah, Magical Girls spread hope, so that name doesn’t really fit…”

Then.

After a brief pause, the girl clapped her hands.

“Become a Despair Girl for me.”

A small whisper pierced my eardrums and seeped into my mind.

As if telling me never to forget the conversation we just had.