After wandering around aimlessly, Haibara found herself back at that materials room before she knew it.
Normally, she was in the habit of drinking in the materials room or the infirmary, since she’d hardly run into anyone there.
But today, the moment she reached the materials room, she noticed the door had already been opened.
Clutching her bottle of liquor, she stepped inside and found a girl standing within.
The girl had her back to Haibara, her shoulders thin and frail, utterly alone, not yet aware that someone was now standing behind her.
“So she’s not here after all…”
That girl, Kirishima Ai, murmured to herself a little forlornly.
“Are you looking for me?”
Haibara said, watching her.
Kirishima Ai froze for a moment, then turned around and saw the woman with long silver-gray hair standing in the doorway.
Upon realizing this gray-haired lady had come, Kirishima Ai first couldn’t hide a flicker of joy, but a moment later she grew a little awkward.
“Today…
can I still talk with you?”
Kirishima Ai said, a little bashfully.
Haibara looked at the young girl and smiled.
Maybe it was because she was a bit drunk, but right now she found the girl rather cute.
“Did the teacher scold you again today?”
Haibara leaned in close to Kirishima Ai, pinched her cheek, and gave a little smile.
Kirishima Ai only gave a vague little “Mm.”
Without saying anything more, Haibara found a random spot and sat down, and Kirishima Ai settled in beside her.
After the two of them had sat there a while, Kirishima Ai spoke up first:
“Um, excuse me — what should I call you?”
Haibara pinched her chin and thought for a moment.
“You can call me Lily.”
It was a somewhat cute name, one that didn’t really suit her, but looking the way she did now, it hardly mattered if she went by it.
After hearing the gray-haired woman’s name, Kirishima Ai blinked, then lowered her head.
“Ms.
Lily, Ms.
Haibara…
what kind of person is she?”
“You mean your homeroom teacher?”
Kirishima Ai nodded.
“Hmm…”
Haibara hadn’t expected Kirishima Ai to ask this kind of question — after all, a gloomy, boring, nobody of a teacher like herself probably wasn’t someone anyone cared about.
Had she been a little harsh with the girl today, so now the girl wanted to hear some bad-mouthing about her?
She mulled it over for a bit:
“I don’t really know her that well.
I hear she’s a bit boring, not very likable, average in character and as a teacher.
You’ll meet plenty of people like that out in the world someday.”
Haibara didn’t particularly mind badmouthing herself.
It was the truth, anyway.
“…She’s not that bad, though.”
Kirishima Ai raised her head.
…Why had this girl suddenly changed her opinion of her?
“Maybe.”
Haibara answered offhandedly.
The tipsiness seemed to be fading a little, so she picked up the bottle again and gulped it down.
Wiping away the liquor that clung to the corner of her mouth, Haibara thought for a moment:
“Why do you want to be a magical girl?”
This question was somewhat similar to the earlier one, yet also not quite the same.
This time, she was simply curious about why Kirishima Ai wanted to be a magical girl.
Even though it wasn’t much of a question worth asking.
Haibara herself had wanted to be a magical girl as a child, except she was utterly ordinary — not some chosen girl.
Why did a magical girl become a magical girl?
Was it because they were luckier than everyone else?
Or was it that they had something she didn’t?
Kirishima Ai thought for a while.
“I have a younger sister.
She’s about middle school age now.”
This much Haibara knew.
Kirishima Ai’s parents were divorced.
Her guardian now was her father, but she currently lived alone, while her sister lived with their mother.
“But actually, she can’t attend middle school.”
Haibara watched her without speaking.
“When she was little, she had an accident.
Her legs stopped working, and for a long time she was confined to a hospital bed.”
The black-haired girl spoke slowly.
“So during that time, I watched magical girl shows with her — well, honestly, I wanted to watch them myself too…
Back then, she told me she wished a magical girl would come and save her.”
“So I thought, how wonderful it would be if I were a magical girl…”
If she were a magical girl, she could have saved her sister back then, and her sister could have lived and gone to school like a normal person.
Maybe then Mom and Dad wouldn’t have fought and divorced, either.
But back then, no miracle came.
When she truly became a magical girl, it all felt like a dream.
Maybe she really could become her sister’s hero.
And if she had the miraculous power of the magical girls in the anime, maybe she could even heal her sister’s legs.
She couldn’t do it yet, but someday…
“I finally became a magical girl, so I have to keep fighting no matter what.”
She wanted to become her sister’s hero.
After hearing all this, Haibara simply rested her chin lightly in one hand and said nothing.
So, was that how Kirishima Ai became a magical girl?
Haibara thought it over carefully.
She didn’t seem to have any particular reason for wanting to become a hero.
She had simply wanted to become special.
Because her life until then had been dull and mediocre, Haibara sometimes wished she were a more special sort of person, and so she’d wished to become a magical girl.
But perhaps a reason like that wasn’t enough to make someone a magical girl.
Before they knew it, the two of them had been talking for quite a while.
Kirishima Ai checked the time, and a look of regret crossed her face.
“Sorry, I got carried away and said too much.”
“It’s fine.”
Haibara smiled.
Kirishima Ai suddenly looked at Haibara, afraid she might vanish all of a sudden like last time:
“Next time, can I come find you again, Ms.
Lily?”
“Hm?” Haibara pinched her chin and thought for a moment.
Under normal circumstances, she showed up on this day of the week pretty much every time.
So it shouldn’t be a problem.
Seeing the gray-haired woman nod, Kirishima Ai looked a little happy, then hesitated for a moment, as if debating whether to speak.
After a while, she lowered her head and said, her face slightly flushed:
“Then, last time…
that comfort — could you do it again?”
Haibara paused.
Comfort?
After straining to recall for a moment, she remembered.
Then she looked at Kirishima Ai with mild surprise and couldn’t help but smile.
This girl really was quite cute.
She still preferred more mature, older women — the type like Ms.
Suzuki.
Soon, Kirishima Ai felt herself being gently drawn into the woman’s embrace once more — a slightly cold, yet somewhat warm feeling.
…
The school infirmary was usually empty, and supposedly no one had ever seen the infirmary teacher, though rumor had it there really was a teacher in charge.
It was said that students who occasionally slipped into the infirmary after school could catch a glimpse of the shadow of a tall, thin woman.
Some claimed they had actually seen the infirmary teacher — an uncanny beauty with gray hair — but such descriptions were quickly written off as just another one of the school’s strange rumors.
But indeed, students who occasionally entered the infirmary after school would sometimes run into someone.
It was already after school.
Outside the window, the setting sun had sunk low, and most of the students had left the school building.
But Sakaki Chika hadn’t gone — instead, she lingered alone in the infirmary.
It wasn’t that she felt unwell, either; she just didn’t want to go home too early.
Sakaki Chika opened her phone.
There were plenty of unread messages — some from her manager, some private messages from fans in the fan groups, and all sorts of commercial ads from who knew where.
After a while, she started to feel a little bored and wondered whether to take a short nap, but soon she heard footsteps.
Looking toward the infirmary door, Sakaki Chika saw a figure walk in.
Dressed in a teacher’s outfit — it seemed to be a teacher…
Sakaki Chika grew a little nervous and got ready to explain herself first:
“Sorry, I…..”
But once she saw the woman who had entered, her whole body went rigid, and she stared at her anxiously.
The one who had come in was a tall, thin woman wearing glasses, with a cold, gloomy air — without a doubt, it was her homeroom teacher, Ms.
Haibara.
Why was Ms.
Haibara still here so late…
Sakaki Chika felt awkward and tense.
“Ms.
Haibara…
I…
I didn’t mean to…”
For a moment she stammered, trying to explain, but she was too frightened to get anything out.
Expressionless, Haibara pushed up her glasses:
“It’s late.
Aren’t you going home?”
For a moment, Sakaki Chika didn’t know how to respond.
She really didn’t want to go home.
Even after dark, she would wait another hour before heading back, and sometimes she wanted to wait even longer.
If it weren’t for her family calling like crazy, she might have stayed out for two or three hours.
“…Mm.”
Sakaki Chika nodded.
“You don’t want to go home?”
Haibara asked coldly.
This time Sakaki Chika didn’t know how to answer — after all, she had no idea what she’d do if the teacher asked her why she didn’t want to go back.
“No need to be so tense.
I’m not going to force you to go back.”
“Eh?”
Sakaki Chika looked at Haibara in mild surprise.
“That said, your personality does worry me a bit — that much is true.
If you’re not going home, do you want to talk for a while?”
Ms.
Haibara looked her over.
Sakaki Chika’s mouth opened and closed, then she nodded blankly.