After leaving David, Guy wandered the halls, dragging his feet. He’d consulted a mentor—but that had not opened any concrete paths.
Guy felt that David had pointedly stopped himself from doing so. Words from a teacher had influence; he could have easily talked an inexperienced fourth-year into sticking with his field. If he’d just said it’d be best for him, Guy could not have dismissed that. But that was not what David wanted. Even after Lombardi’s demise, he preferred to let his students choose their own paths. Despite knowing that the results could well repeat themselves.
Guy truly had found himself an excellent teacher. He would love to keep learning under him—that impulse was rising within. He was well aware that was the natural choice. Not turning against his character, not worrying his friends.
“…Ngh…”
And yet—that meant abandoning the strength he’d obtained. Retreating from the line he’d finally reached, from being able to fight alongside his friends. He knew no one would hold that against him. He knew they wanted nothing more than Guy Greenwood as he had always been.
But he also knew that if he stopped himself, his friends would go on ahead.
Each would follow their spell. Choose their ends. Head out to depths he could not reach.
While he was left behind, in the light—
“Hello.”
A voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked around and found a younger girl—a third-year student, Rita Appleton. A diligent, hardworking, somewhat reticent girl, they’d met during her orientation and grown fairly close. If Katie was a handful of a little sister, this girl was one who didn’t need his help and thus worried him just as much.
But after what happened in the lava tree mold, meeting her took on a different meaning. He did his best not to let that show, trying to act like his old self.
“’Sup, Rita. You here to chat with the teach? I just paid him a visit.”
“I’ve been waiting for you. I knew you’d come by.”
She almost talked over him. Regardless of whatever baggage Guy had, she was clearly not her usual self.
Rita seemed to have made her choice. She stood before him with a clear desire to share that choice with him.
“I heard from Instructor Zelma. You’ll be away from your group for a while, until the curse is handled.”
“Uh—yeah, basically. If I’m around them, they’ll…have to watch themselves.”
He went along with this, somewhat flustered. Rita was not normally the one to lead a conversation, which made it that much harder for him to act as he usually did. The thoughts he was dragging from his conversation with David made that worse. His nerves made his tongue falter, but he forced it to waggle.
“Well, you know. Shit happens. It’s messing me up, though—can’t even touch my friends.”
And the result—what he really thought slipped out. Rita smiled, stepped forward, reached out both her hands—and took Guy’s. Despite his condition.
“Huh?”
“Go ahead.”
She pulled his hand to her chest. He felt the soft mounds, her warmth, her heartbeat—and his brain locked up, awash in sensation. He couldn’t think straight. Unable to process the feedback from his senses, he couldn’t move a finger.
“You— Why? Huh? What?”
“You long for human warmth, yes? Take your fill. Though, I’m sure this is no substitute.”
“L-let go!”
His mind finally caught up. He tore his arm away from her, and she released him, his fingers adrift in space. He quickly looked inside, feeling out the curse energy. Relieved to find it had not transmitted, he sighed and, without recovering at all, fixed her with a glare.
“What are you even thinking? You know what state I’m in! One glance at me, and you know how contagious I am! Every part of my life’s gotta change, even how I treat people! I can’t get you mixed up in this!”
“I know. But I want to be part of that change. There was never an opening for me to wedge myself into. But now there is.”
If he’d yelled at Rita like this any other day, she’d have teared up—but today, she took it with a smile. That stunned him, and she let a trace of guilt show.
“I’m sorry for phrasing it like that,” Rita told him. “Just to be clear, I don’t want you to become a curse wrangler. I love how you smile as you dig; I love how you always smell like sunshine. I just want to share that light with you.”
Affection she’d long held close to her chest. Putting it out there, Rita reached for the buttons on her shirt. The breast he’d just palmed and the undergarment containing it came into view, and Guy flinched, turning away.
“……! What the—?! Put your clothes back on!”
“Don’t worry, I’m not getting ahead of myself. I don’t have the kind of figure suited for that approach. But I want to show you something—unsightly as it is.”
Her voice sounded eerily calm, and that baffled him enough to risk a look—and his eyes caught sight of what lay between the sides of her opened shirt. At what she really wanted him to see.
“…You’re, uh…”
“Yes. I’m got one, too. Something nesting inside me.”
Her voice held a hint of self-derision, and Rita began doing up her buttons again. This revelation left Guy’s brain boiling over, but she just kept talking.
“This is why I’ve been visiting Instructor David regularly. Honestly, I can’t say it’s fully under my control. Regular inspections were a condition of my admittance. The magical world is very harsh on these things. I’m sure you’re aware.”
Guy very much was. Given Katie’s recent direction, he was no longer in a position to remain indifferent. But not in a million years had he imagined he’d see something like this close at hand. Especially roosting in a friend’s body.
“Would you like to research it?”
“Huh?”
Rita’s offer made his eyes go wide. She didn’t give him time to recover. Her head was down, a rueful smile on her lips.
“Not a sample you can find anywhere else. It’s inside me, under a degree of control—far easier to handle than anything in the world. And that would work for me as well. There’s a limit to what I can investigate on my own person. I can’t even properly anesthetize myself for observations,” she told Guy. “So I’ve been searching. Ever since I got here, I’ve been looking for someone I could trust with my body.”
With that, Rita lifted her head. The look in her eyes spoke to the strength of her desire—and Guy could not move a muscle. This was not a topic he could take on anytime soon. Yet, he felt she would crumble to dust if he fled from the decision. Such was the desperation behind her act—Guy could not afford a careless move.
“With you, I’d give you everything. If you’ll take it, my heart, too. As pushy as that may sound.”
She offered a fragile smile. Words far too forlorn for a reveal of a love long hidden—Guy clutched his brow, hanging his head, squeezing words out from his confusion.