The door was pushed open, followed by the crash of shattering glass.
Nadeshiko jumped in fright and took two steps back, bumping into the computer desk.
“You scared me to death… So it was you, Mawata.”
Mawata stared at Nadeshiko with a face full of despair.
She didn’t even glance at the drinking glass smashed into fragments across the floor and just kept muttering something under her breath.
Nadeshiko carefully picked her way around the shards and walked toward Mawata until she could finally make out the words.
“It’s over it’s over it’s over it’s over it’s over…”
Nadeshiko waved a hand in front of her face.
“Mawata? Are you okay? We should probably clean up those shards on the floor, right?”
Mawata’s gaze gradually focused on Nadeshiko’s face, and she slowly came back to herself.
“I’ve defiled the pure Nadeshiko… I have to kill myself to atone…”
Her face was ashen, and the hands hidden inside her wide sleeves wrung together restlessly.
Kill… kill herself?!
“It’s fine, okay? I won’t tell anyone that Mawata secretly draws lewd pictures… Wait, I mean I won’t tell anyone about this!”
Nadeshiko circled behind her and gently patted her back to soothe her.
“But, but…”
There had been nothing wrong until she started getting comforted.
The moment Nadeshiko treated her so gently, Mawata’s tears burst like a broken dam and would not stop.
She wiped her face haphazardly with her sleeve.
“Mawata, why don’t we sit down first?”
Nadeshiko couldn’t stand watching a girl cry.
She practically dragged Mawata over to the bed and sat her down, then picked up the broom standing in the room and swept the glass shards into the trash can.
“Mawata, don’t worry, okay? I won’t tell anyone about this.”
When she finished, she sat down beside Mawata and gently stroked her head through the hood.
Slowly, Mawata’s crying faded until only a few faint sniffles remained.
“Have you calmed down?” Nadeshiko asked.
“Mm…” Mawata answered, her voice thick with congestion.
Looks like we can actually talk now.
Nadeshiko let out a breath of relief and spoke slowly.
“Mawata, do you like Fox Mask?”
The hood on Mawata’s head jerked hard.
She pressed it down at once, but Nadeshiko still caught the motion.
What was that? Is Mawata a catgirl?
The guess flashed through Nadeshiko’s mind.
“I… like Fox Mask. Does Nadeshiko think I’m weird?”
Mawata spoke with extreme care, as if she were afraid of breaking something.
“Weird? Why would that be weird…?” Nadeshiko asked from the heart.
She was actually pretty satisfied with the villain role she was playing.
“I thought someone like Nadeshiko… would normally like a sparkling magical girl like Sakuraraku.”
“Pfft…”
Nadeshiko couldn’t hold the laugh in.
If that self-search maniac Rakuraku heard that evaluation she would jump for joy.
Nadeshiko had seen her search history with her own eyes: nothing but “Sakuraraku cool combat compilations” and “Sakuraraku pretty pictures.”
“So it really is… weird?”
The girl beside her heard that little laugh and shrank back uneasily.
“Not at all,” Nadeshiko said quickly.
“I like Fox Mask just as much as you do, Mawata. If anything, is there anyone who would dislike Fox Mask? She’s so strong, and so elegant when she fights.”
“But she’s a villain. She’s a cadre of [Night Theater]…” Mawata said weakly.
“Fox Mask hasn’t really hurt anyone, has she? The Seika Tower incident was solved by Fox Mask in the end, too. There has to be a reason she joined [Night Theater].”
Nadeshiko spoke with complete conviction, as if she ran the Fox Mask fan community herself.
Mawata lifted her head and stared at Nadeshiko.
Tears began to well again in those emerald eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Nadeshiko gently pinched Mawata’s hand.
“I’m sorry… Nadeshiko. At first I thought you might have some ulterior motive for getting close to me…”
She started crying all over again.
Nadeshiko gently patted her back and listened in silence.
“But I wanted a friend so badly. Even if you were only using me, I felt like that would be fine… Just now, when you saw that picture, I was terrified… I thought I was going to lose even this fake friendship…”
She couldn’t go on.
Nadeshiko wrapped Mawata in her small arms and let the girl’s tears soak her clothes.
After crying for a long, long time, Mawata lifted her flushed face from Nadeshiko’s embrace, unable to meet her eyes.
“I’m sorry… Nadeshiko. I’m a lot of trouble, aren’t I?”
At this point, the original reason I only wanted to come into your house and see what the magic source was can no longer be said out loud.
Nadeshiko answered her with a brilliant smile.
“Not at all. The fact that you could say all of this out loud is already amazing, Mawata. Making friends has always been hard. Even I, who think of myself as cheerful, didn’t dare talk to you for all kinds of reasons, right?”
Nadeshiko smiled as she spoke.
“You and I are already friends now! As long as you bravely take that first step, every difficulty will work itself out!”
Nadeshiko cupped Mawata’s face and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.
Under the warm light the angel lowered her head, as if she were about to kiss her lips.
“I…”
Mawata gently hugged her back, greedily savoring the softness of the girl in her arms.
She only held on for a little while before she let go and silently retreated to a safe distance.
She covered her face with her sleeve, but the faintly flushed ears peeking from the hood gave away her shyness.
Nadeshiko simply watched the girl in front of her and did not interrupt.
She knew Mawata needed a little time.
After a while Mawata lowered the hand covering her face.
She kept her head down and spoke in a muffled voice.
“Nadeshiko, are we friends now?”
“Of course!” Nadeshiko replied.
“Um… can you hug me again?”
When she said it her face went red once more, and her voice was as thin as a mosquito’s buzz.
Nadeshiko answered with action and gave her a solid, great big bear hug.
Mawata hugged her back as if she were holding something fragile.
Because Mawata was almost a full head taller, it was less an embrace than Nadeshiko melting into Mawata’s arms.
“I… feel uneasy whenever I deal with people my age, but with Nadeshiko… I don’t feel that way. Nadeshiko’s hug… feels so safe…”
Mawata stammered the words out, not even sure what she was saying.
“Mawata feels really nice to hug too, you know?”
Nadeshiko tightened her arms around the girl’s slender waist and buried her face against her chest.
Mawata reminded her of the giant sheep plushie she had owned before she transmigrated — soft, and once you hugged it you never wanted to let go.
“Nnh…”
Nadeshiko’s little movement made Mawata let out a quiet hum.
She patted Nadeshiko’s back.
“I-it’s okay now… Nadeshiko. You don’t have to hug so tightly…”
Nadeshiko pulled away reluctantly.
Then, as if she had just remembered something, she rummaged through the small bag she carried.
“Tadaa — Fox Mask’s mask! Mawata, take a look. How is it?”
She held the mask out proudly for Mawata to see.
“Amazing —” Mawata took the mask and gently traced the patterns with her fingers. “The design is so accurate. It’s exactly like the real thing!”
Because this is the real thing, you dummy.
“You like it, right? I can give it to you!” Nadeshiko patted her own chest and said it with pride.
“Is this really okay…? This has to be precious, right? Nadeshiko… you like Fox Mask a lot too, don’t you?”
There were still more than a hundred of these masks hanging on the wall at [Night Theater], plus cow masks, horse masks, sheep masks… but Nadeshiko did not say that out loud.
“Of course it’s okay! Let’s treat this as proof of our friendship!”
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