I ended up living together with the school's number one beauty who rejected me even though I hadn't confessed to her, but why are her beautiful sisters aiming to steal my virginity?

Chapter 23 : Still…

Hiiiragi Akane was dreaming.

Dreams are something people experience, whether they be nightmares that appear in the ‘night’ or not. The nightmares that these magical girls destroy are also filled with someone’s suffering and sorrow.

So, whose dream is this enormous spider nightmare that colors this ‘night’? How much suffering and pain must there be to create such a nightmare?

Engulfed by the nightmare of a spider, Akane’s existence slowly melted away. Sensations in her body disappeared, and the faint remaining consciousness faded. She no longer knew who she was.

In the midst of it all, she was simply dreaming.

◇◇◇◇◇◇

There was a certain boy.

He was a boy who laughed a lot. At home, at school, he always laughed. No matter how unpleasant or difficult things were, he laughed them off and moved forward.

Living with a proud heart like that was the only promise between the boy and his mother.

The boy’s mother was an ailing person. Every winter, she would catch a cold and often end up hospitalized. However, she always smiled. No matter what happened, she was always smiling. She was a very strong willed woman.

…But then that mother fell seriously ill. The illness had no established treatment, and the doctor said she might never wake up again.

Nevertheless, the boy and his father visited her every day.

They forced smiles, talked about enjoyable things that happened that day. If they talked happily, the mother would surely wake up. The boy genuinely believed that.

And one day…

Suddenly, as if by magic, the mother woke up. Her condition rapidly improved, and she was soon able to leave the hospital.

The father and the boy were overjoyed and decided to throw a party. They decorated the room together, talking about places they wanted to visit in the future. It was a genuinely enjoyable time, and the two of them smiled genuinely for the first time in a long while.

However, on the way home after the mother was discharged, they had an accident.

A very common accident, something that happens every day somewhere. In that accident, the mother died.

The boy and the father no longer laughed.

And from that moment, the father gradually lost his sanity. He quit his job, drank during the day, and sometimes left the house for days. When he returned, he brought unnecessary things in large quantities.

And every time he looked at the boy, every time he saw a glimpse of the mother’s face in the boy, he became violent. He would hit and kick, always shouting the same angry words.

“What are you smiling at?! You a-shole!”

Despite the father’s violence, despite the sadness of the mother’s death, the boy desperately continued to smile. If he kept smiling, eventually, his father, the kind father from before, would return. The boy genuinely believed that. He believed so much that he couldn’t stop his tears if he stopped believing.

But as time passed, the father’s violence became more severe, and the boy eventually lost the ability to smile. Moreover, the father’s words deeply pierced the boy’s heart.

“Draw a picture.”

The boy’s father was an artist, a renowned painter with exceptional talent.

The boy respected his father and loved his father’s paintings. So, from a young age, the boy studied art and even won some awards.

Yet, the father said, “Draw more.”

At that moment, something broke inside the boy. The tiny bit of affection he had for his father deep in his heart disappeared completely.

But the boy drew.

The father claimed it as his own painting and sold it. Draw, get yelled at, draw, get beaten, draw…

That kind of life continued, and the boy forgot how to laugh and cry. He couldn’t remember the face of his beloved mother, and he couldn’t feel anything no matter what he did.

Instead, the father began to laugh. He plastered a vulgar grin on his face, drank from morning to night with the money earned from selling the boy’s paintings.

The boy stopped thinking of him as a father.

And then one day, the boy packed his treasures into a large backpack. A chance encounter with a certain girl. For the promise with that girl, he was preparing to escape to a distant place.

Hero action figures he loved, comic books he enjoyed. He stuffed his backpack with precious things as if to regain his lost heart.

At that moment, he was very happy.

Only when he was with that girl, the boy could smile again like in the past. Only when he was with that girl, he could feel warmth. So, the boy secretly prepared to run away from his father.

…But on the day of the promise with the girl, the hidden backpack was torn to shreds.

His father said he wouldn’t let him escape. With a calm face, the father approached the boy, promising punishment for attempting to run away, and took out a knife.

The father had completely lost his sanity. Yet, the boy, without fear, without screaming, continued to gaze at the tattered backpack with faded eyes.

And in a voice completely different from the boy until then, he said.

“You’re a worthless human being.”

The father screamed. But the boy, still smiling, spoke of happy memories with his beloved mother. The boy knew. This man, who always acted tough, only cried looking at a picture of the mother when he sobered up.

So the boy talked about memories with his mother. Because he knew this man would suffer. It was impossible to defeat him with strength, but for the boy now, breaking this man’s heart was an easy thing.

The father screamed incomprehensible words, raised the knife. Still, the boy, just laughing, threw out a curse.

“Suffer alone for the rest of your life, you weakling.”

The father then, without hesitation, slashed the boy’s throat. And next, he cut his own throat.

The boy and his father died right there.

…But the nightmare was not over yet.

A foolish girl, unaware of everything, revived the boy with a certain contract. The boy’s death was nullified, and the father was said to have died in an accident.

So, from then on, the boy continued to suffer.

Almost every day, he dreamt of nightmares where his father killed him. He dreamed of his mother dying. Just looking at a canvas and brush made him return them.

With eyes like a dead person, wherever he went, people avoided him, showering him with heartless insults.

And at this very moment, he was still suffering.

Akane laughed at Nuzuna’s misfortune. She did not understand how heavy and cold that misfortune was. Despite that, she casually said that Nuzuna should become happy through her own convenience.

And now, helplessly, the boy, Nuzuna, was swallowed by the nightmare and would disappear from this world in a few minutes.

“…….”

It was pathetic. Regrettable. The magic she had wished for, sacrificing everything, only deepened the pain of helplessness. Prioritizing her own wish, she had expelled Nazuna from home, and he continued to suffer because of it.

“I don’t want this,” Akane thought.

“If swallowed by a nightmare, there is no way to escape,” said Mashiro, her mother. In fact, Akane couldn’t move a single fingertip.

But still, she didn’t want this.

She had sacrificed everything to revive Nazuna. Yet, he continued to suffer. Nazuna, unchangingly, continued to shape this nightmare. A magical girl was not a being meant to help others.

She understood that much. With magic, you couldn’t save people. Even if she could break this nightmare, Nazuna’s suffering wouldn’t end. No matter how many nightmares she shattered, his reality wouldn’t change.

“But, I don’t want this.”

The throat that shouldn’t exist anymore trembled.

“Even if I’m hated, I don’t care.”

The hand that shouldn’t exist anymore clenched.

“But, he… has to smile.”

The heart that shouldn’t exist anymore pounded.

“Because I became a magical girl for that!”

A flame, as if dyeing the ‘night,’ illuminated the dark night sky. Seeing that scene, the girls who had been fighting for so long wore expressions of astonishment.

“You’re amazing, Akane-chan.”

“Hehe~. I knew Akane-chan would be okay, after all.”

“But weren’t you both crying? I saw it with my own eyes, you know?”

“I—I wasn’t crying! I was just… worried!”

“Hehe. Welcome back, Akane. Well done… but unfortunately, that spider seems to have plenty of energy left.”

As the words of Aoi suggested, the spider, emerging from the blazing flames, screamed as if seeking help.

“—!”

Seeing the spider like that, Akane spoke.

“Sorry, everyone. I have somewhere I need to go now. Can I leave this to you?”

With those sudden words from Akane, the sisters didn’t hesitate to respond.

“…Leave it to us!”

“Thanks, everyone. I love you all!”