Magical Girl Tyrant Sylph

Chapter 87

Chapter 3 — Dry scrape, burn and perforate! • Episode 3–2 — Dependency ⑥

Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV

After hearing from Chisaki-san that we would be working with different teams for a while, I spent a week in depression. The good times pass in the blink of an eye, but the hard times seem strangely long, and the days when I couldn’t see Chisaki-san were heavy and depressing, as if I was walking through mud.

I tried not to worry about it as much as possible by working on research and training for the opposition, but when I went to defeat Diests, I had to face reality, even if I didn’t want to. I’m going fight to defeat the Diests together with Blade-san and Press-san. But Elephant-san, who is usually there, is not there.

Recently, I have been losing interest in training to escape reality, and Extend-san blasted me agitatedly for not being on top of the game and not being crispy at all. If I take the trouble to ask her to take time out of my day and she was unwilling to do so, I can’t blame her for saying so.

I once thought about sending a message to Chisaki-san, thinking it would be enough to contact her a little, she said her personal life would be busy, too, I felt bad if I interfered with her life, so I couldn’t make up my mind to do so and eventually I haven’t been able to contact her.

I was sure that Chisaki-san would probably contact me when things settled down, so I decided to hold off until then and get back on track to prepare for the competition.

Chisaki-san is working hard, but I can’t just keep on being feckless.

Besides, I knew from the beginning that Chisaki-san is not only kind to me, but she is a person who gives love equally to everyone. That’s why I believed in Chisaki-san too and wanted to be my friend.

I was so excited and misunderstood because she was my first friend, but to Chisaki-san, I was just one of her many friends. Then I can’t be the only one to be selfish. She’s trying to help Shadow-san this time, just like she helped me. There is no way Chisaki-san would allow me to get in the way of that.

As I was watching a video of other Witches fighting on my phone, telling myself to convince myself, I heard a light and jarring chime. How noisy.

I didn’t remember ordering anything from online shopping, and thinking it was some kind of sales pitch, I looked at the image on the intercom screen and saw my sister, Mizukami Futaba, who had visited me once the other day. Tch, I wish you never had to come back…

Since I had made a promise to Chisaki-san, I couldn’t stay away, so I took plenty of time before pressing the call button and returning the voice in a disgusted tone.

「Yes?」

『Ah, I’m glad. I thought you weren’t home… I’m Futaba Mizukami, I visited you the other day. Is your father here today?』

「He’s not.」

Chisaki-san told me to talk to her once, but since Ryōichi Mizukami was not there, there was nothing I could do. I replied coldly with a bite with the intention of telling her to go home quickly, but as expected Futaba didn’t give up because of that.

『Is that so, erm, Ryō-chan? Is it alright? I’d like to have a little chat with you if I could… and if you don’t want to stay in the house, maybe we could go somewhere nice to eat together?』

The last time she was here, I felt like I was wanted by adults all the time, but then she changed her attack. They say what a general is to a horse. I don’t know what kind of business she has with the real me, but first of all, she’s trying to win me over by setting me up as his daughter. That’s a very dirty way of doing things.

「I’ve been told not to follow strangers.」

『That’s what I’m trying to teach you… Wait, I mean, look, you don’t know your aunt, right? I’m your father’s sister～』

「…I didn’t say I didn’t want to. Please come up.」

It would be a hassle to go all the way out and change clothes for Futaba, and it would be best to bring her up inside the house since I want to talk to her properly and get the hell out of her way. If I hear a few words, I will have fulfilled my promise to Chisaki-san, and I will be patient for a little while.

Without waiting for Futaba’s reply, I disconnect the call and slowly walk like a turtle to open the front door.

「Hello, Ryō-chan.」

「…Hello.」

「I’m sorry about the other day, okay? I was supposed to hang out with your friend and I interrupted.」

「It’s nothing.」

Futaba laughed at my attitude, which made no attempt to hide her displeasure, and then followed behind me, scurrying around the house.

「…What is it?」

「No, I just thought this is my Onii-chan’s house.」

「I’m sorry it’s so small.」

「Eh!? N–No, I don’t think that.」

If she didn’t get a job right out of high school, Futaba must still be a college student and living at home. Futaba seemed to be disappointed with my harsh attitude, but how could she make such a face? It was even worse when Futaba was around the same age as I am now.

「So, what’s your agenda? As I said before, I don’t know when my father will be back, and I don’t know anything about my mother, so I can’t answer any questions you may have.」

I sit back down, too, and before they ask me a lot of questions, I take the initiative and tell them about the settings I’ve thought of in advance. A person of normal nerve would not be able to dig up the root of the matter by being told this by a child of this age.

「!, is that so… I came here today, not to talk about your father or anything, but to get to know you, Ryō-chan.」

「If you feel sorry for me, it’s none of your business. I have proper friends. Will you leave me alone?」

「It’s not like that. It’s just that Onee-chan doesn’t have many friends, so I wanted you to be my friend… See, I think it’s about time you got dressed up or something, Ryō-chan. I brought something nice for you to play with today.」

Saying so, Futaba takes out a gift-wrapped bag from her shoulder bag and unfolds its contents on the desk. It was a cosmetic with cute animal characters on a small container that looked like it was made for children.

「Uwah…」

「It’s a nail polish that’s safe to put on little kids’ nails. Isn’t this pink one or something cute? What do you think, Ryō-chan? Will you take it?」

Not even noticing my obvious “don’t-at-all” attitude, Futaba talks to me happily with a cheerful expression on her face.

If I were really just a 10-year-old girl, she might’ve been able to win me over with this, but I have no interest in being fashionable. On the contrary, my impression of Futaba, who is proudly executing a strategy like fishing with such a thing, has worsened. Trying to get the attention of little kids with toys is no better than being a pervert…

Giving such gifts to actual nieces and nephews, well, maybe, but even that is usually done through talking to the parents. Just because you can’t reach me, the father in the setting, doesn’t mean that you can’t embrace the daughter with objects and extract information about her parents from her….

「I don’t want it. My father told me not to take things without permission.」

「But, Ryō-chan, you must have something you want, too, right? Does your father give you birthday presents?」

「I get a lot of money, so if I want something, I buy it myself.」

「R–Really? B–But you know what, is there somewhere you want to go? There are some amusement parks, vacations, and other places that kids just can’t go by themselves.」

「I don’t want to go anywhere with you.」

I don’t have to ask Futaba to take me there, I’ll just ask Chisaki-san and she will go with me. She’s too busy right now to keep in touch, but I’m sure Chisaki-san will convince Shadow-san to come back soon.

「Can you get to the point quickly? You have something for my father, don’t you? I’ll let him know when he gets back.」

「…It’s true that Ryo-chan’s father has business with me as my Onii-chan. But right now, I’m more worried about you, Ryō-chan. Ryō-chan seems to be very solid, but I’m still worried about you living on your own. I know how you feel about waiting for your father, so I won’t ask you to go with me. But can’t I take that place until your father comes home? Can’t I take his place?」

「…Why, it’s not like that. We’re not family.」

「We’re family, you know?」

We’re not family.

「Regardless of what you think of me, Ryō-chan, I consider you family.」

「If so, why didn’t my father make you family?」

「!」

At the same time Futaba lowered her gaze at me as I asked in a hushed voice, a notification of the Diest occurrence blasted out from the Magiphone as if to break the stifling silence.

Even so, Futaba did not look up.

「Blow all of heaven and earth to smithereens.」

.

「Ryō-chan…?」

My father went crazy because of you.

I’m all alone because of you.

You think you can atone for your sins by doing this now? 

She didn’t know if Ryō had such intentions, but because she herself felt that way, Futaba felt as if Ryō’s words were blaming her.

She couldn’t help but look into Ryō’s eyes, Futaba looked away to escape the guilt, but, she soon reconsidered that this was not the right thing to do, and raised her head, before she knew it, Ryō’s figure had completely disappeared.

Ryō, who should have been in front of me just a few seconds ago, was nowhere to be found.

「Ryō-chan—? Where did you go—?」

She looked around the bathroom and toilet and couldn’t see Ryō.

There are few places to hide in a small house for a single person. She looked for Ryō in every nook and cranny, in closets and under beds, as if she were playing hide-and-seek, but in the end she could not find her.

From Futaba’s point of view, Ryō is a very independent child who doesn’t match her age. It’s predictable that this is due to the absence of her parents, but she is a well-behaved child nonetheless. From her prior research to befriend a child of about 10 years old, Futaba had imagined something more like an unreasoning rebellion, but even though Ryō clearly has an attitude that doesn’t impress Futaba in a positive way, she is not incapable of talking to her.

It was hard to believe that Ryō would do something so insane as to go out without permission and without saying anything to a visitor. But in fact, Ryō couldn’t be found in the house. It should have been inexplicable, but at the same time Futaba felt a mysterious sense of satisfaction that such a thing could happen.

Futaba had a memory of this feeling somewhere, but she couldn’t remember what it was. She felt what is called déjà vu, and she dug frantically through my memory that it wasn’t her imagination and that she knew this, and when she finally seemed to be able to remember something, a haze came over her thoughts. At that moment, Futaba’s thoughts were almost filled with the optimistic expectation that, well, she would find out sooner or later, and she immediately dismissed the thought of Ryō. She understood that if she questioned the matter any further, she would be forced to leave the whole matter unresolved.

（Is this recognition inhibition…!?）

For the next dozen or so minutes, Futaba tried her best not to think about anything at all that had nothing to do with Ryō, and waited for the right moment.

Then she heard the sound of running water from the toilet she had just looked for, and Ryō came back into the room as if to say that she had just finished washing her hands and returned.

「Welcome back, Ryō-chan.」

「No, I’m sorry I got out of my seat in the middle of our conversation.」

「No, that’s totally fine. Sorry, I have some plans after this, so I’m leaving today, but I’ll be back.」

「Is that so. You don’t have to come back.」

She had just arrived and had plans to leave, which is a strange excuse no matter how you look at it, however, Futaba, smiling at Ryō’s saltiness as always, who didn’t seem to care about such a thing, hurriedly finished getting ready and left Ryō’s house.

（Yae…! I have to tell Doppelganger……! Ryō-chan is a——）

Before she could forget everything, before she could care less, Futaba held her head down and contacted her best friend and most reliable partner, the Octopus Witch Doppelganger.