“Luri, are you okay?!”
“Ati! A-are you hurt?! Wh-who is this woman?! Oh, Alsuhariya is a demon, right?! Is it true that Ru-chan and the others are dead?! She was lying, right?!”
“…Dammit!”
Dressed in Egyptian garb, Ati gritted her teeth in frustration and pulled the trigger on her triple stick as it came spinning back into her hand.
A piece of debris at my feet took the form of a scarab—a dung beetle—and fluttered its wings as it pulled me up.
“Ati…”
Seeing hatred in Ati’s eyes, I finally realized why Ati had come here.
“Were you chasing Alsuhariya…? Is that why you came to this hospital…?”
Now revealing her true face, Ati nodded.
“This hospital is one of Alsuhariya’s playgrounds… I don’t know why her awakening happened earlier than expected, but…it would have eventually been attacked. Her accelerated awakening was actually a perfect opportunity…to get things back on track. If she’d taken her time, things would have been irreparable… I’m here…and I…I’m going to end it all now…!!!”
Ati put on a mask of a golden wolfdog—and her entire body became covered in swirls of pitch-black sand.
Then she cheerfully began singing a chant that echoed out into the world.
“My name is Atiifa, Izdihaar is my mother, Widad is my grandmother… I am immortal, a priest, the one who opens the way…and spells the book of the dead…”
The eyes behind the mask opened—a pale blue.
“Paradise will not accept you.”
A gust of wind blew, every piece of glass in the room shattered and flew in the air, and I shielded my face with my right arm—and the seal of debris was blown away.
Leisurely, Alsuhariya sat crossing her legs on an invisible midair throne and spread out her arms.
“Hey.”
The demon, repeatedly destroyed and regenerated as pure-black dust scraped it away, curved the corners of her mouth upward.
“I thought I’d sent Sylphiel and the others to handle things… Why are you here?”
“I killed them all.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You barely have a scar on you. I wish you wouldn’t do that. It takes a lot of time and sacrifices to regenerate that class of followers. I’m getting ready for a date with the one who interests me, and I’ll have to present myself with my powers severely diminished.”
“You’re dead. Stop chirping.”
Every grain of sand took the form of an ankh and pointed its tip at Alsuhariya.
“I will destroy you if it’s the last thing I do…!!!”
“Good grief. Why are my fans such a pain in the neck? Haven’t you heard of the Anti-Stalking Act? You should go and check out the Metropolitan Police Department’s website. I don’t know who or which generation you are, but I played with you and your clan of perverted cosplayers in Nubia. Why can’t you realize that the Egyptian magic you take such pride in and my power and authority are fatally incompatible? I don’t know about other evil spirits, but you can’t beat me, no matter how hard you try.”
“Ati…!!!”
The scarabs grabbed me with their legs and had me hanging, and I reached for Ati.
“Let’s run, Ati…! We could never beat that thing… She’s lying… Everyone’s alive…and smiling… See? On that wall…? So, Ati, stretch out your arm… Please…!!!”
I was crying as I reached out—and grabbed her stick.
It was a stick made of crooked fangs, the trump card where generations of heroes had instilled their magic power. It was the sleeping intents of heroes, dormant—in the coffin.
“It’s filled with my magic power, too…so use it in case of an emergency…though it may not have accumulated enough to defeat Alsuhariya yet… But it should at least buy you time… You know how to use it, don’t you…?”
With her hands behind her back, Ati gave me her very own lifeline—and turned to face me.
“Luri.”
Removing her mask only for a brief instant, Ati flashed her usual shy smile.
“I know you can become a hero… You’re just like Braun… You have the pride and the will…to help others… You’re a kind girl… A girl who can smile as you think of the future…and work hard for those you care about… Braun said…a hero isn’t special… A hero isn’t a hero because they’re powerful…special…or loved… It isn’t like that… A hero… A hero is—”
She looked straight ahead.
“A hero is someone who uses her pride and will—to stop others from crying.”
The wind blew.
The pictures of the smiling faces came off the wall. Freed from the confines of the classroom, they flew into the sky.
The smiling faces slipped through my outstretched hands and flew away, making a fluttering sound as if they were laughing.
It was time for the smiling faces drawn on pure-white paper to leave happy memories behind, flap their wings, and take off.
But one of them—just one smiling face—remained.
It was the picture that eight of us, including Nagisa, drew together of that shy girl.
It wasn’t good, but it was a smile we drew in this classroom without a sense of unity.
In it, Atiifa Izdihaar Widad—who we loved—smiled, flapping in the blowing wind.
“See? I told you… This is a classroom where everyone can smile… So that’s…how I was smiling, huh…? Oh, what—”
A big smile appeared on her face.
“What a wonderful smile…”
A gust of wind blew—and the picture of Ati set out to fly out, following the other images—when Ati grabbed it with her right hand, squeezing it as if pouring her will into it.
“Atiifa Izdihaar Widad…”
With her clenched hand still outstretched, Ati put her mask back on with her left hand—as the golden wolfdog bared its fangs and grinned.
“This is where you’ll be.”
The scarab that pulled me up took off into the sky, and I kept reaching out as Ati moved farther and farther away from me.
“The will of heroes will be passed on… A hero will eventually descend on this land… Even if I die here, Luri…or someone who won’t allow others to cry…will definitely…definitely hunt you down and turn despair into hope… Everyone’s smiling face…will fill this world… That wall, decorated with a wonderful future, will remain forever… And for that… That’s why we’ll keep forging ahead… Isn’t that right…?”
Her voice faded into the sky.
“Braun…”
The entire upper floor of the hospital blew up. An intense bluish-white magical light exploded. Crushing sounds and the sounds of the building collapsing rang out. It was a sight that made me want to cover my eyes. The ear-splitting noise moved farther away, and I was sent down to a branch office of the Magical Society.
Perhaps Ati had contacted them in advance.
Magic handlers were rushing about and took me in, and my grandmother hurried to the scene and held me tightly in her arms.
And a week later—
I was transferred to another hospital, where I bumped into someone in the hallway, and—
“…Huh?”
I looked down at the hospital gown, where my left breast was damp with blood.
“Good grief.”
Alsuhariya laughed, clutching a small heart in her hand as I fell to the floor.
“The timing has worsened greatly. I suppose your chart wasn’t good.”
My vision narrowed, and my limbs were getting colder.
With trembling hands, I tried to pull out the coffin, but I was losing consciousness—and then I awakened.
“Luri!”
“You’re alive again! Thank God!”
I woke up in a strange room. Ru-chan and Rii-chan hugged me…and I was stunned to see Ru-chan with her hair again and shocked that Rii-chan had a glowing complexion.
“Congratulations on your resurrection. How does it feel to be reborn?”
It was the evil spirit, Alsuhariya.
Catching a glimpse of her face, I set out to punch her—and was stopped by Ru-chan and Rii-chan.
“Wh-why are you stopping me?! She’s evil!!! She killed Ati and the others!!!”
“Calm down. We owe our lives to Alsuhariya. She’s the one who brought us back to life. You should be grateful to her, but to punch her?”
“Y-yeah… Hee-hee-hee… I can run all I want now…and no one scolds me if I eat too much…”
“I heard Ati’s been brought back to life, too! We heard Alsuhariya’s accepting the people who died as members of her clan!”
“…Huh?”
Resting her legs carelessly on the sofa’s armrest, Alsuhariya murmured, “Relax. I don’t tell stupid lies. I don’t lie.”
Alsuhariya smirked.
“I-is that so…? W-well, then, I guess…yeah…I guess it’s…okay…”
Feeling dazed, I accepted the strange scene before me and quickly thanked Alsuhariya.
“Don’t worry about it. That Atiifa was more persistent than I thought, and I was barely alive myself. It will take me years to recover, and I need your help with some things.”
Alsuhariya puffed on her cigarette and leered.
“Why was I resurrected sooner than expected? I’m curious about that. Something inside me remembers. An interesting human will be coming. If my resurrection was hastened to prepare for that…we’ll have fun preparing for our date.”
To pledge my allegiance to Alsuhariya, I was about to hand over the coffin that could be a threat to her—and remembered Ati’s voice—Luri—and slipped it deep inside my jacket.