A few seconds of silence stretched on. The gaze of Nagisa fixated on me, eerily calm, piercing through me like a still lake without a single ripple.

In that overwhelming pressure, I felt ready to surrender and kneel down immediately.

“It would be wise for you to stay right where you are. Today.”

“Why…?”

“Because today, I’m going to make you kneel and reflect, or stuff that adorable little mouth of yours with a roll cake—something more painful than what you might think. Or rather, I’m just going to utilize what’s been handed to me.”

“…Umm, Nagichan? Hearing that makes me really anxious. Could you cut me some slack just this once? Or better yet, stuff that roll cake in.”

No, really. If Nagisa’s saying this, it might actually be dangerous, and that frightens me.

Fufu. “You should say something that makes sense if you want me to pretend to be listening.”

Hmm. I’ve made my decision. Let’s hurt myself before I get hurt by her.

I raised my fist. If it’s a real Mika punch, it could send me to safety.

Of course, I never got to taste my own punch. Forcing my arm to move was impossible with the four girls surrounding me acting as my cage.

“Can you see Wakamo beside you?”

“Umm…? Nagichan, since when did you start calling her Wakamo?”

“Starting today… No, what’s important is not that. If you look around you, you’ll see that everyone has fought with all their might to save you and ended up with injuries, both big and small. Among them, Wakamo has been at the forefront from start to finish.”

“…”

“She’s so tough and strong that she was able to endure it all, but her condition is worse than it looks. I’ve heard she’s been advised to take about three days off… You wouldn’t be unaware of how serious that is, right?”

“…You don’t need to say more. Yeah, that’s enough.”

“No, you need to hear more. Only then will you start to get your head straight.”

“Yeah, sis needs to be scolded.”

This is hell…

A hell prepared for the sinner…

“Everyone here, and even those not present, have gone through a lot just to find you, who vanished that night… But I understand, perhaps the situation unfolded a bit differently than you thought. I get that, but it makes me even angrier.”

“Ugh, that hurts…”

“Stop the dramatics… And you deserve a bit of pain!”

“Ugh, oww!”

Nagisa pressed her fingers hard against my palm and let out a deep sigh.

“Haah… If there was even a possibility of this happening, you should have given a heads-up beforehand. Why did you trust those suspicious folks? Saying you’d take care of something when it wasn’t the time for that? If only I had gone with you…!”

“…That’s what I wanted to avoid, Nagichan. I didn’t want you getting entangled with Gematria in any way. As you said, there’s nothing trustworthy about those suspicious guys. So… yeah. I also tried extra hard to keep it a secret.”

“I don’t need you to coddle me so much.”

“Nagichan, you… wait—”

“No, wait! This isn’t about that… Haah. Who doesn’t know I’m weak? Just today, while everyone fought with all their strength for you, I felt utterly helpless. I felt so worthless that I wanted to hate myself.”

With narrowed eyes, Nagisa gripped my hand tightly. It’s true that someone like her, being a non-combatant, would find herself nearly useless on the battlefield. The teacher was in charge, and trying to call for artillery fire at the High Cathedral would be madness.

So, I tightened my grip on her hand. Maybe just that gave her strength, causing her shoulders to relax.

…She must have been on the verge of breaking too. The sense of powerlessness Nagisa must have felt yesterday was an emotion I never wanted to experience.

And what I don’t want, others surely don’t either.

I think I get why Nagisa declared that today there wouldn’t be roll cakes or time for kneeling and reflecting. Facing this harsh reality is a hundred times more painful than that silly stuff.

“Even if my body is weak, I can charge through thorny paths and steep hills for your sake. Don’t forget I’m the Student Council President of T-party. I’m someone who can extend a helping hand when needed, far more than the Ruby in your gem-filled box. Please understand that I want to be that kind of person, Mika.”

“Wow—Oh… I get your feelings for sure, but… okay, I’ll be an open book from now on.”

“…Don’t forget I heard a similar declaration last year. In that context, if you have more to say, please spill now.”

“…Hmm… okay, uh, while I was unconscious, something happened. I saw real Mika’s memories. It’s an unbelievable story, but please hear me out. Mika probably met a terrible end and, for some reason, returned to the past.”

“That sounds like it needs a bit more explaining. Oh, and Nagisa might not know, but everyone here knows your secret now, Mika. So there’s really no point in holding back.”

“…Hina?”

“Nagisa. If you look around, you’ll naturally realize that I wasn’t the only one to wake up. While you passionately spilled your feelings, did you really think no one else would wake up?”

Hina’s words rang true, though I didn’t notice when she had awakened. Hanako, Noa, and Haruna were all awake too. The only one who didn’t wake up was our dear Wakamo. Given her injuries, it’s no surprise.

“I was really impressed by the metaphor of referring to yourself as the Ruby in a gem box. That’s some serious confidence you’ve got♪”

“Well, it might be a perfectly normal thing for someone who receives Mika’s love wholeheartedly. Living together for months does build up confidence, doesn’t it?”

“Uhuhuh. I’m envious in many ways. To be bathed in Mika-senpai’s love… By the way, the saying ‘a docile cat climbs onto the stove first’ is an undeniable truth.”

“That’s not it! No, um…”

Nagisa seemed to struggle for words, lowering her head and sealing her lips.

“Seriously, are you guys teasing Nagichan too much? She’s prettier than any Ruby. So that previous metaphor was just humility—”

“Mika, you’re the worst…!”

Unable to bear the teasing any longer, Nagisa finally exploded. Did I just land the final blow? No way!

“Anyway… if I were to summarize based on the memories I saw. The real Mika ended up killing the third president of the T-party, Yurizono Seiya, in the process of bringing Arius back into Trinity.”

“Are you talking about Seiya?”

“Just know it wasn’t intended. Anyway, after that, Mika seemed so shocked by the fact that she had killed her friend that she completely lost her grip on reality… and ended up transforming Trinity into her dictatorship using Arius’s power. She confined Nagisa and suppressed the Sisterhood by force. At that point, the Justice Realization Department was… left with no choice but to follow Mika’s orders completely.”

“…So, why did the original Mika do such a thing?”

“To declare war. To declare war on Gehenna.”

…In hindsight, it’s clear when the original Mika’s consciousness first made its presence known. Her declaration of not wanting to reclaim her body was all tied to Hina.

The memory of accepting Hina as a lover meant that I had seen illusions, and when I stayed at Hina’s place, the stories of being corrupted made sense.

Ah, I even had competition with Hina—there was that with Makoto too.

It’s significant that there was never any rivalry with Haruna.

Crucially, when I attacked Arius to take down Beatrice, I felt that what I had thought was Michael’s Shinpi actually filled me with power.

But if Beatrice was the one who drove the original Mika’s beloved teacher to death… then the story could be interpreted in a different light.

If the influence I had was not a vague concept but actually the original Mika’s consciousness itself…

It would make sense to harbor animosity toward Sorasaki Hina, who fought countless battles against Gehenna, and Hanuma Makoto, their leader. And toward Beatrice, who brought death to her beloved.

While I shared Mika’s story with the kids in the hospital, I mentally pulled out the attitudes and actions she had shown me.

“In other words, the original Mika returned to the past for some reason. Along that process, something went wrong, and the soul from outside Kivotos, which is me, got stuck in this body. I can’t be sure about the process, but it seems control of the body has been handed over to me… that’s the story.”

“…Honestly, I can only think it’s fortunate that things turned out this way. No matter how much of an enemy Gehenna and Trinity are to each other, declaring war genuinely… that’s on a level beyond even Chairperson Makoto.”

Hmm… that doesn’t quite seem right. After all, Makoto in the original story intended to betray Trinity right from the Eden Treaty. With a slight turn of events, war wouldn’t have been a surprise.

“Mika-senpai, this is a little… uh, I’m saying this out of caution, but is it really right to try and return the original Misono Mika to the world after such a tragic end? From what I’ve heard, that doesn’t sound sane at all.”

“…That’s why we need to bring her back even more. Because I wish for everyone who deserves to be happy to find happiness. There are no exceptions.”

I’ll choose to consciously overlook the question of whether Mika, who succeeded in overthrowing Trinity, deserves to be happy.

Because wanting my favorite character to be happy needs no rational reason at all.