MIA might’ve returned back to life, but she still wouldn’t open her eyes. She lay in the bed of the police station medical office, her chest rising and falling, seemingly sound asleep. Sleep, however, was all she did. She didn’t move a finger, nor twitch an eyelid. She just continued breathing.
“I wonder if there’s anything we can do…” Shou scratched his head in vexation.
Ren was gazing at Mia, almost boring holes in her with the intensity of his stare. She was breathing. That, however, didn’t mean much on its own. Unless she woke up, opened her eyes, started moving and talking, she might as well be dead.
Ren was shocked at his own selfishness. That time in the flower field, he had thought nothing would make him happier than hearing her heart beat again, and yet now that his wish had been granted, he just wanted her to make another step towards recovery.
The chief, sitting in the back, slowly exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke. “Okay, I now understand the situation, more or less, but to be honest, this is a first for me too. When Mia’s father used up all his magic powers and collapsed… He just ended up dying then and there.”
“Hmm, magic powers. Magic powers…” Aya muttered with her arms crossed, mulling it over in her head.
Subaru frowned in contemplation too.
Misaki, who had been silently ruminating all this time, lifted his head and asked, “Speaking of which… Why did Mia come back to life? I’m absolutely certain her heart had stopped beating, and she wasn’t breathing. There must’ve been something that triggered her miraculous resurrection, right?”
“Ren, didn’t you kiss Mia back there?” Aya asked.
After Shou nodded in agreement, everyone turned to look at Ren.
“Well…yeah, I did… But that couldn’t have…” Ren felt embarrassed at being reminded of what had transpired. He scratched his head awkwardly at Aya’s question.
“If it worked once, it might work again! How about you try it one more time?”
“Look here, that’s not—No, wait… All right, I’ll do it…”
If a kiss was all it would take for the girl to open her eyes, he’d kiss her senseless. It felt incredibly embarrassing to kiss her here though, with everyone’s eyes on him. His discomfort was, however, a small price to pay for the prospect of Mia moving again. Looking uncomfortable, he touched Mia, who was lying on the bed, and mutely pressed his lips to hers.
…But the miracle that had occurred before did not repeat itself. Mia’s eyes did not open, her fingers did not move. She just continued lying there, breathing quietly.
Slowly but surely, anxiety swelled in their hearts. The despair that had enveloped Ren before, struck once more, this time besetting all of them. An awkward tension filled the room.
Then, Subaru uttered under his breath, “Pour intent into the words, and speak them.”
Everyone looked at Subaru. Even Ren turned around to stare at him. Subaru uncrossed his arms, stared soundlessly at Mia, and said it once more, “Pour intent into the words, and speak them. That’s how Mia’s magic works.”
“Sure, we know that, but…”
“I don’t know why, but for some reason Ren’s kiss acted as a trigger. Some kind of force must’ve worked to activate the magic. So, the important thing must be to pour intent into your words, speak them, and be in physical contact with Mia… Right?”
Everyone’s eyes flew open in astonishment at Subaru’s hypothesis. If what they thought had been a miracle had actually been magic, then indeed, just like Subaru said, imitating the way Mia used her powers was the best course of action. It was unclear why such a phenomenon had occurred, but even though they didn’t know the reason behind the miracle, the important thing was to spare no effort in trying to get Mia to wake up. Misaki whirled around to look at Ren and pointed a finger at him.
“All right, go on, pour that intent and say the words! And then smooch away.”
“Wh-What?! Pouring intent and speaking the words… What are you expecting me to say?! Besides, I don’t have to kiss her, right? If touching her is all I need to do, we can just hold hands or something…”
“Now is not the time for this nonsense! What are you suddenly getting embarrassed about, you’re twenty-six years old for crying out loud, get a grip! So before, when it didn’t matter, it was an all-you-can hug, all-you-can-kiss sexual harassment buffet for you, and now you’re shy all of a sudden?!” Aya snarled at him, almost pouncing on him. “Don’t think I wasn’t paying attention all those times you forced yourself on her! If not for our situation and carte blanche given for our actions, I would have dragged you in and tossed you into a cell myself! Now get kissing!”
However, for Ren, this felt different somehow. It was different from his previous touchy-feely attitude bordering on sexual harassment. It felt like he was doing something extremely, terribly shameful.
“If you’re talking about molesting her, surely, I don’t have to be the one…”
“Ugh, just shut up and do it! Think and say the same things you did back then, and you’ll be all right! It’s how the miracle happened before. So, quit your whining and just do whatever you did last time!”
Ren was taken aback by the angry tirade directed at him. So, he had to think, say, and do the same things he had done when Mia had first collapsed? Did that mean he had to say those things again? How…? Those words he had uttered in the spur of the moment—he’d have to say them in this quiet medical room, with everyone’s attention centered on his person.
“Ugh, do you guys all get off on embarrassing me or what?” he grunted spitefully, clutching at his bangs. Everyone just kept looking at him, as if wordlessly ordering him to get on with it. …Well, it seemed that there was no getting out of this. Ren resigned himself to his fate and sealed away his sense of shame.
Once again, he turned towards Mia, bent his back slightly and brought his face close to hers. He could hear the whoosh of her breath, in and out, in and out. Ah, she’s alive all right, he thought, and it made a warm wave of happiness rise in his chest. But he couldn’t settle for just that.
I’m sorry for being so egotistic, so selfish. But the way you are now, I’ll never get to see you walking next to me ever again. Mia… I want to see those defiant eyes of yours. Want to hear your cute voice. I want to see your face light up with a myriad of different expressions. I want you by my side, forever.
“…Mia, I love you.”
Putting all those feelings into it, he pressed a kiss to her lips. Just like before, he didn’t break off immediately, closely watching her instead. He held his breath so that he wouldn’t miss even the slightest change in her condition. He stayed like that for a while, and eventually, Mia’s eyelids started fluttering. Ren stared at her, eyes wild and round like saucers.
Aya, who was watching them with hawk eyes, shrieked in surprise, “Ah! Mia!”
Ren called her name too, parting from her lips. “Mia!”
She blinked a few times, letting out a small groan, and opened her eyes a tiny crack. Then she wiggled her fingers slowly, and languidly turned her head towards Ren. “Ren? Everyone, why the long faces?”
“Waah! Oh, Mia! My dear little Mia!” Pushing Ren aside, Aya gripped Mia in a bear-hug. Ren pinwheeled, a look of panic on his face as he fell onto the floor with a loud bang.
“Wh-What’s happening?” Mia asked, flustered, but Aya, crying tears of joy, just rubbed their cheeks together.
Shou let out a long sigh of relief, and Misaki put his hand on his forehead, muttering, “You really made us worry there, you silly runt!”
Subaru held out a hand to help up Ren, who lay flat on the ground moaning after Aya had shoved him quite forcefully out of the way.
“Worked out great, huh, Ren?”
“Yeah, you can say that again. It worked out amazing. …But, really, how?” Ren tilted his head in puzzlement, the entire situation nothing but a mystery to him.
Of course, he was immensely glad it worked—he was over the moon about it. He was almost literally jumping for joy. He felt so ecstatic he barely suppressed the urge to let out a cry of triumph. But at the same time, a question plagued his mind, “Why did Mia open her eyes?” Because he knew for a fact that he couldn’t use magic. Did this mean that the reason for this miracle lay with Mia, after all?
“C-Can someone please explain what’s going on?”
Ren’s grumbling was lost in the joyous clamor around him.