Magical Girl with Demonic Time Magic-Chapter 118: Strange Feelings

I’m on my way home... I’m a little worried about Setsuna. It’s been 9 days since classes started, and Setsuna still hasn’t shown up. She isn’t answering my calls, and the school said she already notified them of her reason for being absent, but they won’t tell me why.

It’s strange. Setsuna never used to miss school without a good reason. I talked to Septarion, and he told me to just wait and that it probably wasn’t a big deal, but she hasn’t even been to the magical girls’ base.

’If I go to her house, will I seem like a clingy girlfriend?’ I wonder, until I freeze right there on the street, seeing Setsuna standing in front of my door.

"Oh, Ayane. You’re here, that’s great. I just arrived myself," she says, looking at me as she hears my footsteps on the street. I see severe dark circles under her eyes, yet she’s dressed elegantly, which somehow makes even the dark circles look good on her.

But as attractive as they might seem, the bags under her eyes are deep, indicating a clear problem—as if she hasn’t slept for weeks, even though she was completely fine at Christmas.

I wonder what she’s been through to get such terrible dark circles in less than two weeks.

"O-Oh, yes... I just got back from school..." I say, confused about why she’s here, but I’m happy to see her because I was already really worried.

"May I come in?" she asks with a smile while I nod, opening the door and letting her in. Strangely, now that she’s close, I feel a weird sensation.

Besides, earlier today, for absolutely no reason, my angelic power activated out of nowhere. I also feel like my wings have started growing at a strange rate. Septarion said it should take longer, but it’s accelerated for some reason.

"Ayane, I wanted to talk with you a bit today. I’m really sorry if you called and I didn’t answer; my phone broke, and my house is also... broken. Something about a gas explosion that leveled a few buildings on my street," she explains quickly.

"Ah, I see. So that’s why you didn’t come to school or answer my calls. That makes sense," I say, taking off my shoes at the entrance while she does the same, following me.

"You didn’t get hurt, right?" My voice comes out more worried than I intended to let on. I want to say I’ll help, but I’ve learned that people don’t always want help even when they need it, and trying to help can just be inconvenient for them.

"What did you want to talk about?" I ask, sitting on the sofa as she does the same.

"I just wanted to talk a little... I think I did something terrible, but I’m not sure... I’ve been having a lot of nightmares these past few days, and I also lost my home... I’m under a lot of stress," she confesses with a sigh.

"Do you want to stay here?" I ask sympathetically. I wonder what horrible thing she thinks she did. I don’t really get that part, the ’I think.’ I mean, if you did something wrong or not, you should know, right?

"May I, really?" she asks while I nod. Even with her magical girl money, she could buy a house, but I still think it’s better for her to stay with me.

"Yes, you may... Did you want to talk about what... wait, haven’t we had a conversation like this before?" I ask, confused. It feels like something like this has happened before, even though I don’t remember it.

"Hmmm... perhaps? I’m not sure, Ayane," she says with a strange smile, while I get this odd feeling that something similar, yet different, has occurred.

"Ayane, I’m really grateful you trust me enough to let me stay here, but I don’t want to be a bother... How can I help?" she asks while I shake my head.

"You don’t need to; I’ll take care of everything... You have really bad dark circles. How about you go to sleep... o-ow." When I offer that, she squeezes my hand tightly. Her gaze turns strange as she stares into my eyes in a chilling way. She immediately lets go upon realizing what she did.

"I-I don’t want to sleep... I’m sorry for that reaction... May I just go take a bath in your bathroom?" she asks politely while I look at my hand, seeing the mark.

"Of course, you may..." As soon as I give permission, she gets up and leaves without letting me finish speaking. I touch my hand, seeing that she hurt me a little, and it still hurts.

’Since when... is she so strong?’ I wonder, confused. We’re both magical girls; our strength shouldn’t be so disproportionate.

But I decide to ignore the weirdness of this situation. I deduce it’s just the stress. If there’s one thing I learned from watching Setsuna fight monsters and save me, it’s that we must stay calm and think clearly about what’s happening.

"Setsuna, I’m going to make dinner. Do you want anything specific?" I ask her, thinking of using this dinner to talk to her about what happened. Even though I try, it’s hard to hide my concern for her.

"I’ll... have whatever you make..." she says, shouting from the bathroom. Her tone is drawn-out and tired, which is clearer since she’s talking loudly, and it increases my worry for her.

"Later, do you want to go get your things to bring to my house?" I ask, ready to offer help with the move.

"No, I have nothing... Everything was destroyed in that house. I only have the clothes on my back and the bank card that survived the wreckage... We can go out another day to buy new things."

"Okay, Setsuna! I’ll start cooking now. If you need any help, call me." I start heading to the kitchen, thinking about what to make and how to approach this situation.

’...’ But I can’t get this unpleasant and uncomfortable feeling out of my mind. It’s like an instinctual scream that I’m in some silent danger, and I’ve learned to trust my magical girl instincts.

Yet, at the same time, I can’t associate Setsuna with anything dangerous, so I deduce this feeling must be because Setsuna is in danger!

’I need to protect her! I urgently need to train my angelic power...’ I need to gain more strength to protect those I love.

’Maybe Septarion knows some way to increase my power quickly... There must be something besides doing good deeds.’ It’s hard to do many good deeds per day, and besides, doing a good deed just to get stronger makes me feel weird because it would be helping others out of self-interest, and I don’t like that.

So there must be some other way to increase my power quickly without relying exclusively on helping people or hunting monsters! A fast, but safe and fair, way to achieve it.

’I’ll think about that later! I need to cook for Setsuna and talk to her... I need to stay focused!’