Chika finished reading the fifth and final story in the demon catalog and closed it. At the sound of the book snapping shut, Nozome and Nieno stopped their conversation and looked in her direction.
“Oh, you’re finished? If you’re done, I’ll take it back now,” Nozome said, as casually as if she’d just lent a friend a volume of manga or something equally mundane.
Chika didn’t give up the book right away. Instead, she slowly looked over her shoulder. Her gaze traveled down the mountains toward her school.
“First of all, let me say thank you. For giving me the ticket and for using your butterfly to save me before,” she began. “I’m genuinely grateful for that. Thanks.”
Then she turned to look the silver-haired girl in the eye.
“Thanks to you, I was able to get my anger back. And just like you said, I can see this school for what it is now.”
Every time Chika closed her mouth, she bit her lip. Her voice was strained, as if she was in pain.
“This school, and the Zero status I was clinging to so desperately… They just make you accept whatever happens to you without any complaints, no matter how horrible it really is. It raises kids to be easy to push around… It’s barely a school at all. It’s more like a cattle factory, pumping out nice, docile sacrifices to the status quo.”
She saw Nieno’s hands begin to tremble. His face didn’t change, of course. It was still the same impassive ball of shadow, but that subtle hand movement betrayed his emotion. The word sacrifice seemed to touch some kind of nerve for him. That was how it looked.
Chika turned her attention back to Nozome. “It’s just like you said… The world I’ve been born into doesn’t want me to be happy.”
“I told you, right? So why don’t—?”
“But even if that’s true…!” Chika glared at the demon girl, cutting her off. “Even then… That doesn’t mean I want to stop being human. And it definitely doesn’t mean I want to play with other people’s desires and ruin their lives just for fun. Do you seriously think I’d want to hang out with anyone who did that?!”
And with a scream of rage, Chika threw the catalog at Nozome.
The butterfly fluttered off Chika’s shoulder right away. Nozome herself was so taken aback that she failed to catch the book, and it bounced off her, falling to the ground.
“Urk… Nrrrgh…”
With a little whimper of fear, Nozome retreated, taking a little half step away from Chika.
Nieno, meanwhile, put his hat and scarf back on in a businesslike manner.
“Well then, Miss Chika. About the flowers still remaining in the Flower Thief’s garden…,” he began. “Now that the thief is gone, they will also be set free. I’m confident the stolen emotions will find their way back to their original owners someday. Of course, it’s entirely up to the people in question whether they accept them like you did.”
“…!”
“It seems that information pleases you… You really aren’t cut out to be a demon after all.”
When Nieno finished speaking, Chika heaved a sigh of relief. Nozome, meanwhile, clicked her tongue in irritation. She picked up her catalog from the ground with a sulky look on her face.
“Hmph. Well, so much for that,” she said. “Just don’t come crying to me if you change your mind later!”
“Please, Nozome, let’s get going,” Nieno urged. “Spouting cliché lines like that only makes you sound like a sore loser.”
The two Inhumans turned away from Chika and began walking off.
After a few steps, Nozome came to a stop. She didn’t turn around, but she did say one last thing.
“You never answered my question, Chika. ‘Good girls go to heaven.’ What comes next?”
“How am I supposed to know? ‘Bad girls go to hell’?”
“…Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Nozome’s laughter rang out for quite some time. Then she spun around with a wicked grin.