Chapter 2: Secret Life is Supreme Ruler of Evil; Real Life is…?
Chapter 2: Secret Life is Supreme Ruler of Evil; Real Life is…?
IN Mia’s dreams, she always saw her father going through his daily activities. In some, she saw her father donning his black cape and explaining proper décor for a Supreme Ruler of Evil. In others, he taught Mia many day-to-day lessons on how to use magic, how to properly create images and apply magic to them, how to think as the Supreme Ruler of Evil, how important world domination was. These dreams replayed endlessly each night, serving as both time together with her now deceased father, and tutoring on her purpose in the world.
“Mia, the world is so vast that it seems to remain unchanging, yet it is not so. Slowly but surely, it is heading towards destruction.”
“Yes, Father.”
Every day, Mia had given the same answer. She had no objections or rebuttals for her father’s words. His words meant everything to her, because his values had truly passed on to her, not because she simply owed obedience to her parent. But you could also say their relationship had been one of codependency.
“Someone must put a stop to that destruction. World domination is a ‘necessary evil’. We must purposely don the title of evil and conquer the world in order to protect this blue planet, even if that means being resented by humanity as a whole. This is the duty we bear as sorcerers.”
“Yes, Father.”
Truth be told, Mia hadn’t understood the entirety of what he was always saying. All the same, as she’d been given the same speech every day throughout her lessons, she already knew the words by heart, even if she didn’t comprehend their full meaning. She just hadn’t been that sharp. Someday. Someday she should be able to truly understand. When she grew up, she would surely come to grasp the full extent of Father’s words. Mia kept on believing that, so she had listened to what her father had told her every day and committed it to memory.
“There is an organization that stands in our way. If we are evil, they, of course, are good. However, it is only due to their status as mankind’s champions that they are seen as ‘good’, just as we are ‘evil’ only because we are mankind’s enemies. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
The Champions of Justice. They will inevitably appear to thwart an evil organization’s ambitions. We are the blessed, the chosen ones of the world. This is why we always fight alone. Because the ‘Champions of Justice’ fear our powers, they band together and come in numbers. The reason they flock to each other is because they are weak. There is no other way for the powerless masses to resist in the face of great power.
We are the mightiest of all on this world. The strong have no need to join forces with anyone. That is why we are always alone. However, there’s no need for us to feel lonely. We must not feel loneliness. To harbor such sentiment would bring disgrace upon us as the mightiest of Earth. Therefore, this emotion is forbidden.
“That is why, Mia, you must not hesitate. You must not doubt. Even if the world domination we are plotting is bad for mankind, it is good for Gaea. Therefore, you must not give in, no matter how hard the Champions of Justice try to stop you. Until that fateful day, to protect the world, you shall have to use the great magical art of darkness, just like I taught you!”
“Yes, Father!”
The father had looked at his daughter earnestly, and the daughter had, in turn, looked up at the father with absolute trust shining in her eyes. Her father was her whole world… That is, until the day she had lost him. Now all she had were her dreams.
***
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Mia’s eyes snapped open upon hearing the brisk chirps of the electronic clock. Slowly waking up, she turned off the alarm clock near her mattress. With a stretch and a yawn, she got up, rolled up the bedding, put it in the closet, then changed into her uniform before opening the sliding screen into the next room.
When she opened the curtains in the living room and looked out the window, she noted that the weather was perfect without a cloud in sight and the sparrows were warbling happily.
“Hm, it seems like it’s going to be sunny. I’d better hang my laundry out to dry before leaving.”
Having decided upon a course of action, she set the washing machine on quick wash. While the washer was running, she made breakfast, which meant she smeared margarine on six pieces of nicely browned toast and poured some milk into a cup. Sitting at the table, she gobbled it all down. Then, in the time left before the laundry finished, she went through her morning routine.
The routine. That was Mia’s important duty as a sorceress.
She opened an antiquated small decorative wooden box, a coffret, and took out a piece of fabric resembling a wrapping cloth, like the ones usually used for wrapping up bento box lunches. She spread out the magic shroud on the living room floor and stood on it. The fabric the shroud was made of was black, with a symbol of sorts embroidered upon it in red thread. Standing atop it, she took a deep breath and visualized an image of her body cradled in light that softly illuminated everything around her. She had been doing this routine every day ever since she had been a child, so this particular image came to her as naturally as breathing.
When the image in her head took on a concrete shape, Mia chanted the spell. There were no fixed words. After all, words were nothing more than a medium through which spells manifested in this world.
“O shield of steel, cover my body!”
The moment those words left her lips, Mia’s form emitted a faint glow, which enveloped her from head to toe before disappearing, as if it’d been absorbed into her body. But Mia could sense there was now something invisible covering her. She gave a satisfied nod at its unmistakable feel. This was protective magic she had learned from her father. It was called a defensive barrier, and it offered exceptional protection against all sorts of harm.
With its help, the powerful shock she had received from Misaki’s stun gun yesterday would be reduced to a slight prickle of static electricity, and if someone were to stab her with a knife, or hit her with a car, not a single wound would appear. If she were to stumble and fall down on the pavement, her knees would remain without injury. According to her father, even if she were hit by a bomb, she would only have the wind knocked out of her.
All in all, it was a very important spell to Mia, who would be continually forced into battle. The effect dissipated overnight, so she had to cast it anew every morning. After all, there was no way of knowing when and where they would appear next to drag her into another fight. Though…
“A defensive barrier is all good and well, but can it not defend me against ear-kiss attacks and other sorts of…lip touching?!”
Mia’s knees weakened as she hunched dejectedly on the shroud. She had complete trust in the protective barrier’s defensive abilities. It could block any number of attacks meant to inflict physical pain, like Misaki’s stun gun. Touch, though, was not an attack. Remembering the way Ren’s kiss had felt, Mia quivered. She had to do something about that! If he did that to her again, she would really be helpless. Her mind would go blank, she wouldn’t be able to concentrate, and, worst of all, it would send shivers down her spine!
“I should make it my foremost priority to devise a way of dealing with his tendency to touch me…” She sighed and lifted the magic shroud off the floor. There was a light layer of dust covering its backside now, so she gave the fabric a few firm shakes to remove it.
“Mm, I should probably clean up a bit during the next holiday. World domination is no child’s play. Managing a household while simultaneously trying to achieve a long-standing ambition is hard work, that much is certain. However, I must not complain!” She nodded emphatically to herself. Not long after that, an electronic sound rang out, signaling that her laundry was done.
***
MIA Oonari was the Supreme Ruler of Evil and the Sorceress of Darkness, but that was her true face. The façade she hid behind was that of a high school student. Mia was a junior, and while she was once actually quite plain looking, just like all girls, as soon as she hit seventeen, she had blossomed into an attractive young lady.
The school she attended was a fifteen-minute walk away from her apartment. On the way there, she spotted some students wearing the same uniform walking in small groups.
“Mia!” Someone called out to her from behind.
When Mia turned around, she saw a girl with shoulder-length hair, tied up into two neat buns, waving her hand as she scurried up to her.
“Morning!”
“Miss Kubo? Why, good morning to you too.”
As Mia bowed her head lightly in greeting, the girl whose surname was Kubo—beamed at her and started walking next to her.
“You’re always so polite and formal, Mia! The weather is so nice, isn’t it? I just love this time of the year! Not long from now, the rainy season will begin, and after that the heat will kick in… Don’t you just hate it?”
“Yeah, I’m not a big fan of hot weather either. Means chilled noodles for dinner every night.”
Kubo gave an amused laugh at Mia’s answer, and agreed that she’d get sick of that really quickly too.
It was no secret from her classmates that Mia’s father had died a few months ago. At first she’d received pitying looks but, partly due to her positive attitude, everyone now treated her as if nothing had changed.
It’s natural to feel sorrow when you lose your father. However, Mia had inherited her father’s will and possessed an ambition she had to fulfill no matter what. She had no time to grieve. It wouldn’t make Father happy if she did.
Mia was an ordinary high school student, but once she returned home, she had to work hard as the Supreme Ruler of Evil and the Sorceress of Darkness to take over the world.
“Hey, Mia, if you still have time after school, come to the kitchen! Our Home Ec. Club will be making meat and potato stew, but we always make too much, so I’ll let you have some!”
“Wha-? Really?! Thank you so much! I’ll be sure to go!” Mia swerved her head toward Kubo with wide, sparkling eyes. Pleasantly surprised, Kubo giggled and nodded affirmatively.
When I achieve world domination, I will give you a medal for the meritorious deed of sharing stew with me, Kubo! Mia mentally commended her classmate’s kindheartedness.
Now, Mia’s brain was ordinary in just about every way: she neither excelled nor drastically failed at anything. Extremely unremarkable with average grades. That was the impression she was aiming for too—or so went her story. To the outside world, she was a high school student; therefore, she had to maintain an unspectacular lifestyle so that she could blend into the crowd without standing out.
Mia kept telling herself that it wasn’t just an excuse for her persistent failure to obtain above-average grades, but, in the end, the answer to the question of whether she could get full marks if she tried was likely negative. Mia’s athletic skills were mediocre as well. Not that they were particularly bad, but they were nothing to write home about. Mia was thus entirely convinced that she had succeeded in fitting in with the ordinary people. It was just that no one else shared that belief.
***
“MIA, come quick!”
“What’s the matter?”
Lunch break. Mia had been munching on her onigiri set with side dishes, when a girl from her class had come running up to her. Panting to regain her breath, the girl spoke urgently, “Some freshmen are getting beaten up by seniors behind the school! I think they’re about to get shaken down for their money!”
“What did you say?!” Mia surged from her chair.
With a salmon onigiri, the last one from the set she had ordered, still clutched in her hand, she ran after the classmate who led her to where the incident was taking place.
Behind the school building. Why did this particular place attract the school delinquents like a magnet, serving as the background for all sorts of trouble? Was that a curse cast upon all the schools in Japan? Mia was going to build flowerbeds behind school buildings and turn it into a place where everyone could rest and relax once she had successfully conquered the world.
When Mia and the girl arrived, they saw five boys crowding three other male students against the wall, threatening them.
“…So, ya see? We got no dough! Ya know, school started, so we ain’t got no more time ta work. Ya got some cash though, yah? C’mon, gimme that pocket money!”
“B-But we don’t have a-any!”
“Cut the bull, ‘kay? We know yer family’s rich. If ya ain’t got any on ya, then go ‘ome and bring some!”
“Yeah, yeah, you just gotta take some outta yer parents’ fat wallets!”
The situation was getting out of hand. Mia’s face hardened. The three boys were quivering against the wall, scared out of their minds, about to burst into tears. One of them had probably already had his wallet taken away, since two of the five bullies were busy perusing the contents of a stylish billfold.
“Lookie ‘ere, a five-thousand-yen bill! Meh, where’s the good stuff at? This is, like, one visit to a karaoke bar!”
“I know, right? We wanna see some big bucks! Hey, nerd, bring some of ‘em tomorrow, ya hear?”
“Augh…” the boy moaned.
Mia couldn’t bear to watch anymore. She sprinted in their direction, and, utilizing the momentum, gave the delinquent terrorizing the three boys a swift kick in the back of the knees. His knees gave out and he stumbled. Using this opening, she tackled him from the back, toppling him forward. BAM! Then, planting a firm leg on his back, she cockily looked back at the four other bullies, folding her arms.
“Hmph,” she scoffed, glowering at them derisively. “What a rotten bunch! Do you even realize how trivial and petty this is? Grinning like idiots over a mere five-thousand-yen note, you mediocre gangster wannabe brats!”
“Oonari, you again?!”
Mia and the gang of delinquents had their fair share of run-ins, so they knew each other’s faces. She had warned them multiple times, but since they never listened, Mia had to come take them down every time. Probably no one at their school hated each other’s guts more than Mia and this group of punks did.
“And I was just eating lunch, too! Look! At! This!” Mia shoved the salmon onigiri she’d grabbed in a hurry in the faces of the seniors. Both the senior bullies and their freshman victims regarded the rice ball she held out for their observation with bewilderment.
“This is my absolute favorite! My top three onigiri are as follows: pickled plum is third, salted cod roe comes second. And the coveted first place belongs to salmon! However, just when I was about to enjoy my precious, I got called here! Can you imagine my indignation? Why is it that every time you try to steal money, it has to be during lunch break of all times? How many times do you have to get in the way of me enjoying my well-earned, delightful noon recess before you’re satisfied, huh?!”
At first overwhelmed by the outburst of her fiery tirade, the boys only scowled at Mia. But eventually they snapped back at her.
“HUUUH?! Why don’cha stop coming then? Every time we’re ‘bout to enjoy our well-earned, delightful noon extortion, ya gotta ruin it for us! Ya know what, this time, we’re gonna mess ya up! Yer gonna feel so sorry yer a girl!”
It looked like Mia wasn’t the only one with complaints against the other party. After their proclamation, one of the thugs decided to get down to business and aimed a fist at Mia. But he didn’t expect Mia would raise her hand to catch the blow. Just as the hit made no sound, Mia showed no sign of flinching. The bully’s fist touched Mia’s palm gently, like a palm of a baby reaching for its mother.
Normally, it should hurt—this was a big guy throwing a punch at full force. If an ordinary girl of Mia’s stature had borne its full brunt, she would have felt it reverberate all the way down to her bones, leaving her with a nasty bruise if not worse.
Mia, though, was wearing a defensive barrier. It was invisible to a normal human’s eye, but the magical protection it offered was absolute, and prevented her from suffering any damage without fail.
“Tch! What the heck are you?!”
“It’s not my fault you can’t throw a decent punch. Now, how about I teach you a lesson? YAH!” Mia pushed the flat of her palm into her opponent’s chest. And then she murmured under her breath, “Softly float up!”
There was a gentle whooshing sound, and then, seemingly by Mia’s push, the boy’s body was sent flying and crashed into the school building’s wall.
“OW! Damn, that hurt!”
The delinquent slid down the wall, landing on his rear end; the freshman students stared at Mia, slack-jawed. How could such a thin, frail, harmless-looking girl hurl a hulking senior male student through the air like that, with just one hand, no less…!
Of course, Mia didn’t actually possess the physical prowess necessary to accomplish such a feat of strength. She was secretly using magic. As she needed her wand to channel spells properly, she could only use magic based on the simplest of images alone, but it was sufficient against such small fry. Just like Ren had conjectured, her spells had an area-wide effect, so they invariably affected her as well. However, thanks to the protective barrier, its effect had been nullified—and it helped that the spell she had used was so small-scale.
This meant that when Ren had pulled Mia into his arms, all she’d had to do was use a small spell like that to have gotten away from him. The fact that she wouldn’t even dare to imagine using such a weak spell against a foe as powerful as a Champion of Justice characterized what kind of a person she was perfectly.
“Oonari! Why you lil’—”
The three other hooligans pounced on Mia all at once. The girl turned her back on them as if to run and sprinted towards the nearest corner, disappearing behind it. Without thinking, the bullies chased after her. However, as they turned the corner, they met a powerful jet of water hitting them with great velocity.
“WAAH!”
“Wh-Whoa! What the heck is this?! W-Water?!”
Mia had grabbed the head of a hose used for watering the school lawns, put it on jet setting, and was now spraying her pursuers down. She had the foresight to ask the classmate who led her there to go and extend the hose as close as possible to where Mia was having a showdown with the gang.
“Time to wash down the trash!” Mia declared with a cherubic grin. Faced with an unexpected water attack, the delinquents were thrown completely off balance and lost their nerve.
Then, suddenly, a voice called out, “What is going on here?!”
Several teachers came running towards them. The seniors panicked, “Oh, damn!” and burst into a sprint, but with their sopping wet clothes getting in the way, they didn’t make it very far before the teachers apprehended them and led them away.
“Um, thank you so much for helping us!” The students, who had been on the verge of having their money stolen, bowed their heads to Mia in gratitude.
Mia crossed her arms and nodded simply.
“You don’t seem to have any serious injuries, but did they do anything to you?”
“Not really, I mean, they gave my wallet back… It hurts a bit where they hit me on the shoulder, but I think we’re fine otherwise!”
“I’m glad to hear that!” Mia smiled sweetly at the relieved students.
Smirking was reserved for the times when she went into her ‘Supreme Ruler of Evil’ mode. The three boys regarded her kind smile with reverence.
“Could you tell us your name, please?”
“Oh, I’m Mia Oonari, a sophomore. If they ever bother you again, be sure to tell me or a teacher! I do not like it when something gets in the way of my lunch, but I hate lowlifes like that even more.”
“A-All right, Miss Oonari!”
She had proud eyes and soft black hair with a slight hint of chocolate brown, with just one side drawn back into a loose ponytail. Her small form somehow exuded an inexplicably dependable presence full of poise and dignity. As the boys admired her with starry eyes, Mia’s classmates rushed up to her from behind, crushing her in a flurry of bear hugs.
“Eek!”
“Yay! Mia, you were amazing!”
“So, so, SO cool! You are incredible! Mia, you’re our hero!”
Mia barely protected her precious onigiri from being squashed flat as her neck and waist were clamped in a viselike grip by two girls. Mia Oonari might secretly be the ‘Supreme Ruler of Evil’, but by her peers, she was widely recognized as a ‘Champion of Justice’. She, however, remained blissfully ignorant of that fact.
Mia just disliked immoral types that engaged in unreasonable violence against weaker beings, so she beat them up. That was all there was to it. However, to those ‘weaker ones’, she was a true Champion of Justice. Mia Oonari was indeed an unexceptional student without remarkable achievements in either studies or sports, but in this one area she did stand out quite a bit. Those who she had saved and those who had seen her fight—all of them looked up to her, even idolized her. Mia strived to live an outwardly ordinary life, but unbeknown to her, she had failed miserably. She was so universally admired at her school that people referred to her as a ‘modern day superhero’.
***
A few days passed since the school incident, and the weekend finally rolled in. After tidying up her apartment, Mia went out. Today she would put her duties as the Supreme Ruler of Evil off for a bit, because there was something she needed to research first.
I have to look it up before they find me! Them as in the Champions of Justice, or the Crow Rangers, naturally.
Anticipating the worst, Mia had stashed her wand and cape in her trusty backpack. With those on hand, she would have no trouble fighting them should they indeed materialize before her.
Walking down the road to school, she reached a library situated in its vicinity and entered.
“The thing I want to know is fairly vague; I hope I can find something.”
Locating the library catalog terminal, Mia walked over and typed in the keywords on an LCD screen: tactics, strategy, rivalry.
Most of the books that came up in the results were about management, but there were several treatises on the art of war among them as well. She didn’t know which would contain the answers she was seeking, so she decided to start at the book closest to her and go from there.
Some time passed. After a while, Mia discovered how she could oppose the Crow Rangers. This is it! She didn’t dare raise her voice inside a library, so she just pumped an imaginary fist to avoid drawing attention to herself.
The book she had stumbled upon was Sun Tzu’s collection of aphorisms. The girl was wowed by how much useful advice it offered.
Mia, who lived by the motto ‘no sooner thought than done’, put the book away and dashed for the restroom, where she took out the items she had the foresight to bring from her backpack. She hastily donned the cape, took the wand in her hand, and, just like that, headed back out towards the library doors. The woman at the front desk raised her eyebrows at the emergence of a strange girl wearing cute, girly clothes that clashed with the long black cape trailing on the ground behind her from the restroom. Mia, however, paid it no mind and walked boldly across the floor, glided out of the doors, gracefully turned the corner, then jogged to the back of the building.
“Fly the skies!” As she wove together the words of the spell, her body softly lifted in the air.
Mia continued ascending until the library began to look small like a toy house. Then, after confirming which way to go, she took off flying at great speed.
She was headed for the police station located on the main street. Landing in a back alley, Mia made sure to check that there was no one behind her before formulating her plan.
If anyone in the station discovered she was the Supreme Ruler of the evil organization Gealach, she would surely be in for a world of trouble. She needed a disguise! Mia stuffed the cape she had just put on and her wand back into her backpack, and tied her hair up in a high ponytail. Then, procuring it from the backpack’s side pocket, she put on black-rimmed fake glasses. To finish the look, she further added a black cap, tugging it as far down over her head as it would go.
She checked out her appearance in a hand mirror and nodded, satisfied with her efforts. “This is perfect! I look exactly like an ordinary citizen!”
After taking a moment to psych herself up, she entered the police station.
Once inside, she saw two female police officers at the reception desk looking through some paperwork.
Mia approached them and uttered a tentative, “Um…” to draw their attention.
“Yes, how can I help you?” One of the officers raised her head with a winning smile.
“I-I would like to inquire about an officer who works here.”
“I’m sorry, but may I ask your name first, please? Did you have trouble with one of our officers? Could you please tell me the reason you’re looking for them?”
Mia balked. Now that she thought about it, there was no way a police station receptionist would willingly give out information about their coworker just like that.
“U-Um, er, my name is Mia Oonari, and… NOOO! I said it again!”
Since her real name had slipped her tongue, there was no meaning to her disguise anymore. The female police officer observed Mia, who was clutching her head, with suspicion.
“U-Uh, R-Ren. There is an officer by the name of Ren working here! A-And, well, I, he…”
“Ren? What about him?” A voice questioned, coming from not behind the desk but right beside Mia.
When she turned her head to its source, she saw a middle-aged man studying her. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, just a white shirt, a crooked necktie, and slacks held up by suspenders, making for a sloppy overall appearance.
Mia felt panic rising in her chest, and started sputtering.
“R-Ren, he… Uh… K-Kissed me, and… H-hugged me, and… Ki-Kissed me o-on the ear, and… S-So, er—”
“Oh… A twenty-six-year-old man did all that to a young girl such as yourself? We cannot very well ignore that. That is indecent assault, not to mention that it is in direct violation of the Juvenile Protection Ordinance. If you decide to press charges, it will cause quite the uproar. After all, we’re talking about an officer of the law harassing a minor.” He touched his hand to his chin, nodding, and then moved his hand to Mia’s shoulder, pointing in the direction of a room in the back.
“E-Excuse me?!”
“Well, young lady, why don’t we talk somewhere more private. All right?” He turned to the receptionist. “Oh, and you, bring us some tea, will you?”
“Y-Yes, sir.” The receptionist stopped gaping and nodded respectfully to the man before rushing off to the office kitchenette.
The man steered Mia into the room he had pointed to. “By the way, Ren’s on leave due to the public holiday. He’ll come if I call him in though. Would you like me to do that?”
“N-No! His absence is actually beneficial to my sche—Ah, er, I mean, f-fine with me!” As Mia was waving both hands at the man, the officer she had talked to first walked in with steaming mugs of tea.
Mia took one and downed it quickly in a few small gulps, the gentle aroma of green tea helping her calm down.
“So,” the man prompted Mia, having emptied his mug as well, “did you come here to file a sexual harassment complaint against Ren?”
“Eh?! N-No, I-I actually wanted to inquire about Ren’s, or the others’ personal details…”
“Oh?” The man, faintly amused, raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. “’The others’, you say? I hope you don’t mean to say that we’re talking group molestation here! That would be a very grave matter indeed.”
“M-Molestation?! No, that is not it at all! But I have to find out more about them, no matter what. I’ll be happy with whatever you can offer me, so, please!” Mia bowed her head to the man.
Bowing her head to a police officer, her enemy, was very humiliating, but as things stood, he was the only one who would hear Mia out and the only one she could turn to for help with her inquiry.
As Sun Tzu had said, “If you know your enemy and know yourself, you will never be defeated.” Mia had taken inspiration from this saying that, in other words, meant ‘know thy enemy’. If you have a firm grasp of your own as well as your enemies’ strengths and weaknesses, you would naturally know how to counteract their every move. Provided your understanding was deep enough, you could battle them a hundred times and yet always come out on top. Such wise words to live by!
Knowing oneself wasn’t really a problem as she knew herself better than anyone else. What was crucial here was knowing the enemy, and that was precisely the reason why she had decided to infiltrate enemy territory—the police station, to be precise.
“Hmm… ‘No matter what’, huh? May I smoke?” When Mia nodded, indicating permission to go ahead, he apologized for the smell and lit up a cigarette. After enjoying its taste for a while, the man gingerly rested the cigarette on the ashtray and stared at Mia, scrutinizing her.
“U-Um?”
“Huh? Oh, er, right. Well, first of all, how about you tell me who those ‘others’ are?”
Mia honestly told him the names—Misaki, Ren, Subaru, Shou, and Aya. The man earnestly nodded along, an appreciative smile growing on his lips, and hummed, “I see. You meant those five. Haha, you are a very straightforward girl, no beating around the bush with you, huh, Mia?”
“M-Mia?! How do you—”
“Eh? Well, you did introduce yourself, remember? At the reception desk?”
“Eek! Did you overhear me?” Mia clutched her head in her hands again.
The man chortled, his shoulders shaking from laughter, and took another drag of his cigarette. Then he tapped on it lightly with his finger, and, changing his expression to a rather sinister one, uttered, “Okay.”
Mia, incredulous at this unexpected answer, raised her head and quizzically cocked it to the side.
“I will tell you about them, Mia. Nothing very detailed, though.”
“R-Really? My deepest gratitude, sir!”
The man snickered at Mia’s instantly brightened face. “I’d get into trouble if I gave you their files, so we’ll have to do this verbally. That’s not a problem, I hope?”
“Not at all! I have my notebook and pen with me!”
Mia zealously rummaged through her backpack to retrieve said items, and the man happily proceeded to regale her with basic information on the five people in question.
“Uh-huh, uh-huh… I see. Right! I did not expect you to divulge this much! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, sir!”
“If you’re okay with this much, no thanks needed at all! So, decided where you want to strike first?” The man asked Mia, having accompanied her to the exit to see her off. She had excused herself immediately after getting what she had been looking for, and had been bowing her head to him politely, about to part ways, when she heard the question. Without a second thought, Mia diligently flipped through her records.
“…I was thinking of starting with the most mysterious among them, Subaru.”
“Subaru, huh? A fine choice! Aya’s also a nice one. Shou and Ren are, well… They’re not bad people, but they do like to have fun at other people’s expense, so they’re quite tiring to be around when you’re not used to them. And then there’s Misaki…”
Mia solemnly nodded along to the man’s words and confirmed the section on Misaki in her notebook.
The man flashed her a conspiratorial smile. “He’s a little hardheaded, but he can be reasoned with. He’s a very decent guy. Anyway, good luck with everything!”
“Thank you!” Mia openly showed her appreciation, looking up at the man with stars in her eyes.
What a wonderful person! Even though she had come in disguise, he gave her intelligence on her enemies without further prying. Foe or not, he has my eternal gratitude, thought Mia as she tightly clutched the notebook to her chest.
“Well then, I will be going.”
“Okay. …Oh, just one more thing. Mia, are you feeling all right?”
“Huh?!” Perplexed by the sudden question, Mia turned around to quizzically gaze at the man.
With the same inscrutable smile he’d had on before, the man tapped the cigarette box he produced from his breast pocket with his finger and asked casually, as if they were talking about the weather, “Aren’t you tired after suddenly using so much magic? There’s a limit to how much you can spend in one day, right? Don’t be reckless!”
Mia froze, gaping at him, unable to process what he had just said. The man guffawed at her dumbstruck form, finished smoking a new cigarette, and retreated back into the station, throwing a “See you around” to the petrified girl.
***
FLOATING in midair, Mia tilted her head to the side in contemplation, her arms folded over her chest. She was in her normal outfit again, which meant the cape and the wand made their usual appearance.
“What was that person talking about? Is the amount of magic I can spend in one day really limited? Father never told me anything like that. When I used a lot of magic during the last holiday, I did feel drained though. Hmm…” Mia pondered this question for a while, but nothing came to mind.
Her father had been teaching her how to use magic every day, and while there were some dos and don’ts, he had never mentioned anything about a restriction on the amount of magical power per a day. To Mia, Father’s words were absolute. If he didn’t deem it worth touching upon, then it likely wasn’t applicable to Mia.
“He was probably just looking out for me. How nice of him to show me this much kindness, even though we are supposed to be adversaries!” Mia nodded vigorously, feeling moved.
Maybe not everyone at the police station was her enemy.
“Well, enough about that, now is the time for action! I cannot let the precious holiday go to waste, for it is the perfect opportunity to come one step closer to world domination!”
She took the notebook out of her pocket and looked up Subaru’s address. Apparently, he lived alone in an apartment complex that, by some strange twist of fate, was situated right next to Mia’s.
“So we’ve been practically neighbors all along! We are apt to overlook important things that lie near at hand,” mused Mia sagely, happy to put the saying she had found while researching at the library to use.
When your foe was that close, it would be easy to spy on them. Thus she should keep tabs on Subaru’s daily activities and discover his weak points!
“It would be great if his weaknesses are easy to notice and take advantage of, like being afraid of dogs or hating brussels sprouts.”
If he were afraid of dogs, she could gather all the dogs in the neighborhood with her dog-calling magic and make them chase him; if he hated brussels sprouts, she could sneak a pot before his door, plant their seeds there, and use growth-enhancing magic on them to make him taste Brussels Sprouts Hell. As these colorful visions danced in her head, she felt a manic grin take over her face.
“Ha! Ha! Ha! Weakness! How sweet the sound of this word! Well now, let’s go and find yours, Subaru!” Mia headed towards the Crow Ranger’s apartment, laughing uncontrollably to herself.
The housing complex he lived in consisted of a series of one-room apartments meant for single people. Subaru’s was supposed to be located on the second floor, in the southern corner.
Still hovering in midair, she ventured a peek through his window, but the curtains were tightly drawn.
“Darn, I can’t even see whether he is still sleeping or out.”
According to the nice man from the police station, Subaru was supposed to be off-duty, resting from the previous day spent at work. Mia decided to alight at the rear of his building and walk up to his door on foot.
“…Well, let’s find out!”
Mia climbed up the stairs, her cape almost catching on the steps, and walked straight towards the room Subaru lived in. She barely pressed the bell to the side of the door before bolting back toward the stairs, peeking her head out cautiously to see what would happen—a ding-dong ditch in all but name. The intercom, stayed silent, and no one opened the door either.
“I take it he is out, then,” Mia sighed.
She checked her notes again, and it turned out that the rest of the group also lived relatively nearby. Mia entertained the thought of investigating other members for a brief moment, but she hated the idea of being discovered first while wandering around the neighborhood in search of them. Not like she minded fighting, but she really wanted to uncover the weak point of at least one Crow Ranger first.
“Well, I suppose I have no choice but to lie in wait for him here.”
She reasoned that he would return home once the sun began to set, so she moved to an alleyway running across from the apartment complex and started waiting for Subaru. Ten, thirty, then fifty minutes passed…
Ow, my legs, Mia stood up, rubbing her legs that were about to cramp.
She did get rid of the numbness that spread across her calves by standing up, but the overall leg strain remained. She had no idea that staying crouched for a prolonged period of time would hurt so much. Standing upright, she soon discovered, wasn’t much better—her legs started literally aching for a rest. She had seen police officers on a stakeout so many times before on TV, but now that she knew what it was really like, she felt a newfound respect for law-enforcement agents—this was really tough.
Mia heaved a weary sigh and plopped down on the asphalt. It was hard and cold, and she would end up with a sore backside eventually, but at least it helped alleviate her leg pain.
Why isn’t he back yet? Where did he disappear to anyway? She had yet to see anyone come and go to or from the housing complex. It was a holiday, so it made sense for the residents to be out and about.
She briefly toyed with the idea of returning to her own apartment for a while, but she couldn’t afford to be idle and waste the precious little free time the holiday afforded her. She had to find out as many weak points as she could, as fast as she could—because there was an ambition she needed to realize. World domination. She couldn’t rest until she saw it through to completion.
Fighting alone sure is hard, Mia thought, feeling a tiny spark of loneliness prick in her chest. The moment she became aware of it, she shook her head vehemently. She ought not to feel lonely. She ought not to feel forlorn. She was not allowed to experience those emotions, for she was a ‘mighty one’. It was a disgrace to her as the Supreme Ruler of Evil.
She rested her forehead on her knees and peered at the apartment building. …There was no sign of movement. Eventually, her eyelids started to feel leaden, her eyes fluttering closed. She mustn’t sleep, she had no time for this! However, Mia couldn’t fight the drowsiness overtaking her anymore, and within minutes she was fast asleep, lightly snoring.
***
“MIA, Mia!”
Someone was tapping her cheeks lightly.
“M-Mm—”
“Mia, wake up. You’ll catch a cold if you sleep here.”
“A cold? Never had one in my li—Huh?” Mia slowly opened her eyes, roused from her slumber by the gentle touch of a large hand.
She stared vacantly at the man before her, who wore a concerned expression. Well-built, tall, with a homely, kind face—
“WAAAH!” Mia jumped to her feet with a start.
The well-built man, Subaru, stood up as well, and looked down at the panicking girl with worry still plain on his face. “What happened? A girl shouldn’t be sleeping in a place like this.”
“It’s not like I chose to do that, you know! Er, when did you come back? How did I not noti—”
Now that Subaru was here, she couldn’t let him see her squirm; she was supposed to observe him and identify his weak points, after all.
Mia tried to put some distance between herself and Subaru, but, before she could, he reached out and touched her lips, swiping across them with a finger.
“E-Eep!”
“…There was some drool.”
“Gyah! Don’t wipe it with your finger!” Mia rubbed her mouth with her sleeve, and made to bolt.
However, Subaru wasn’t about to let her go—he planted his foot firmly on the cape trailing after her. The cape stretched taut and Mia lost her balance, tripping and falling face-first on the pavement.
“Wha-! What do you think you are doing?!”
“I’ve heard the stories, but… I’m impressed, there really isn’t a single scratch on you.”
“Ha! With my defensive barrier, a tiny fall like that is nothing!”
Subaru was still standing with one foot on her cape. She desperately tried to pull it free, but it wouldn’t give.
“Move your foot!”
“I’ll move it if you answer my question. What were you doing here?”
“Er, well, I…” Mia unconsciously looked away from Subaru.
She couldn’t very well say, I was waiting for you to come back so that I could discover your weakness, you big oaf! However, since Subaru showed no intention of lifting his foot before she would deign to respond, she decided she had no other choice, and whirled her wand.
“If you won’t move, I will move you! Dance, o wi—MMPH!”
Before the girl could complete the incantation, Subaru’s big hand covered her lips.
“M-M-Mmh! Mm-mmph! M-Mm!” She struggled with all her might, but he didn’t budge from pinning her arms behind her back.
Eventually, he whispered in her ear, “If you promise not to try to hit me with your magic at the first opportunity, I will let go of you. I just want to talk to you. You promise not to use your magic on me?”
Mia nodded frantically, and, in turn, Subaru released his hold on her and moved away the hand covering her mouth.
While she tried to calm her ragged breathing by taking deep breaths, Subaru demanded again, “So, what were you doing here?”
“Uh… I was waiting for you.”
For me? Asked Subaru wordlessly by raising his eyebrows, to which Mia grudgingly nodded. “Why?”
“Er, well, to secretly observe you in order to uncover your weak points.”
“Huh, I see. Surveying your enemy is the basic of basics.” Subaru stroked his chin, seemingly content with her explanation.
Mia looked up at him in frustration, then let out a heavy sigh and turned away from him. Subaru cocked his head in puzzlement.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Well, my observation plan failed, so I have to start from scratch again.”
“So you’re going to just give up and run?”
Mia felt anger bubbling up in her chest at Subaru’s matter-of-fact tone and forcefully whipped around to snarl back. “It’s not running! It’s a strategic retreat! It is not like I could just ask you about your weakness and get a straight answer, so—”
“Why are you so sure of that? Maybe I will answer you.”
Mia stared blankly in disbelief at the man before her who had uttered something simply preposterous. Would he really dare to reveal his weak points to her, even though they were clearly on opposing sides here? With Subaru’s poker face, it was difficult to tell what he was really thinking.
“You would truly tell me your weaknesses?”
“I don’t mind, actually. I’d just have to tell you the things I’m afraid of or dislike, right?”
“Well, that is correct, but why in God’s name would you do that?! I am your adversary, you know! Don’t you have any pride as a Champion of Justice and member of the Crow Rangers?!”
At Mia’s indignation, Subaru hummed and sank deep in thought, stroking his chin. “…Well, let’s do it the traditional way then.”
“Wh-What do you mean by ‘the traditional way’?”
“Let’s make a contest of it. If you win, I have to reveal my weak points to you. In return, if I win, you have to do what I say.”
“Wh-What do you have in mind?” Mia cautiously inquired, to which Subaru wordlessly lifted a plastic bag from the supermarket he had left lying on the pavement. Apparently, he had gone shopping. Confirming the contents of the bag, Subaru looked pointedly at Mia.
“You will have to eat dinner with me.”
“Eeeh? D-D-Dinner?!” Mia cried out hysterically, discombobulated by this sudden turn of events.
Subaru, though, only nodded with a straight face. “By the way, what did you have for lunch today, Mia?”
“Wha—Ah, er, I’ve forgotten to eat, actually. I had a cup of green tea, maybe?”
As soon as she confessed that, the air around him changed dramatically. Mia reflexively jumped back, trying to get away from him. Subaru took a heavy step in her direction and stared at her with inscrutable eyes.
“You’ve forgotten to eat? I must work on changing your eating habits, even if it means I have to go all out…”
“Eating habits?!”
“You have your ‘defensive barrier’ or whatever it is, so you’ll be fine even if I go a little overboard. Here I come!”
The moment he said that, Subaru kicked off from the asphalt, propelling himself forward in a run. He was terribly fast for his build and height.
Mia hurriedly waved her wand and chanted, “O ice, become my projectiles!”
As she uttered the words, ice spheres the size of Ping-Pong balls formed out of thin air around her and shot off towards Subaru. He swiftly shrugged off his jacket, and, waving it around like a flag, plucked the projectiles from the air. As the spheres hit his jacket, they fell and shattered on the pavement. Without breaking his pace, Subaru continued running straight for Mia. She twirled her wand again.
“Fly the skies!” Mia soared up.
With the skies on her side, she wouldn’t have to worry about Subaru’s speed and the quickly shrinking distance between them. She began ascending, planning to hit her opponent with wind magic from the safety of the sky. However—
“Gyah!”
Mia’s leg was tugged backwards with great force, and with all the momentum she had gained when trying to fly upwards, she slammed into the pavement. Subaru had grabbed her leg and sent her crashing.
She had her protective barrier on so it didn’t hurt at all, but she was lying prostrate on the ground. Before she could rally her strength and continue the fight, Subaru’s knee came digging into her back.
“OWWW!”
Mia flailed her limbs, but the knee stayed right where it was between her shoulder blades. She raised her wand, ready to fire off a spell, but a weird sensation erupted from her waist and prevented her by stealing her ability to think.
“Eep! Hee-hee! Ha-ha-ha! Hya-ha-ha!”
Subaru had sat on Mia’s back and started to mercilessly tickle her waist. Unfortunately, tickling was among the things Mia’s defensive barrier couldn’t protect her from. She tried twisting her body every which way in hopes of breaking free, but Subaru’s weight on her back was unshakeable, pressing her into the ground with no chance of escape.
“Sto—Ha-ha-ha! Hee-hee-hee, stop…!”
He, however, showed her no mercy. Expressionless and detached, with an unreadable face, he continued silently digging his fingers into her waist.
“If you admit defeat, I will stop,” he stated without even a hint of a smile, gazing at Mia fixedly from on top of her back.
Admit defeat? There is no way I would ever do that! Mia tried to rouse her fighting spirit, clenching her teeth in an attempt to endure the torturous assault. However, Subaru’s tickling skill was truly extraordinary and promptly crushed her barely made resolve.
“Hee-hee! Sto—I admi—I admit it! So, please—”
“Are you being honest? Because if you are lying, I can tickle your sides, too!”
“N-No—I’m begging you, stop! Please, I lost, all right!”
In response to Mia’s desperate pleas, Subaru finally let up his tickling attack and vacated where he had been sitting.
Mia shakily rose, taking heavy, ragged breaths, and slumped her shoulders dejectedly. She had laughed so much that her face was glistening with tears.
Subaru picked up the plastic bag he had put aside and proffered a hand to Mia.
“Wh-Wha-What...?” Mia questioned, still panting, and looked up at him.
Subaru slightly tilted his head to the side. “To eat, we must go home first. There’s still dinner to make. Let’s go.”
“Y-You really meant it, then?”
“Of course I did. Or would you rather I tickled you again?”
Mia shook her head vehemently.
“Come on.” Subaru urged her to take his hand again, so, having no other option, she gripped the extended hand and pulled herself upright.
With her tiny palm clutched in his large one, he led her to his apartment. Why is this happening? Mia frowned, burning holes in Subaru’s back with her eyes.
***
FRIED mackerel, a heaping bowl of shredded cabbage, pork soup with root vegetables, and fluffy, steaming, pearly white rice—an assortment of freshly made dishes covered the surface of the low, round dining table. Subaru entered from the kitchen, bringing homemade tartar sauce with him, and located a free bit of space to set it down.
“Hmm, I have one more side dish, should I bring it out too?”
“N-No, I don’t really eat that much…”
Mia kneeled at the table and took in the sumptuous feast before her eyes. It had been a while since she had last gotten to eat like this. Actually, maybe tonight would be her first time having a meal this substantial.
Father and I used to eat this at a local diner, Mia reminisced, gazing wistfully at the fried mackerel, when Subaru reappeared with chopsticks.
“Let’s dig in.”
“Bon appétit!” Mia exclaimed enthusiastically, grabbing a pair of chopsticks, and going for the pork soup.
Mmm! So good! Way better than the fifty-yen miso soup I always order at the school cafeteria! There’s way more to it than just water, too!
Plenty of sliced pork back ribs, carrots, burdock root, taro, spring onions—the flavors melded together perfectly, lending the soup an exquisite richness. Unaware of the happy grin overtaking her face, Mia broke off a piece of fried mackerel, the main dish, with her chopsticks and put some tartar sauce Subaru passed her on it before eagerly stuffing it in her mouth.
First thing she noticed was the appetizing crunchy texture. Even the tiniest of bones had been pulled out with care, so it was very easy to eat. The tangy kick from the homemade tartar sauce made the dish entirely irresistible, but above all, it was so lovely with the rice! Mia’s chopsticks moved busily back and forth between the rice, the mackerel, the root vegetables in the pork soup, and her mouth, greedily devouring the piping hot, delicious food.
“I prefer mayo with my cabbage, but I have a different dressing too. Pick whichever you prefer,” Subaru offered, as he put mayonnaise on his portion of the salad and proceeded to eat.
Mia sprinkled her cabbage with the dressing from the other bottle and began chewing. “Oh! Chinese-style vinaigrette! I like it!”
“Huh. You know, Ren likes to put sauce on his cabbage.”
They went on with the dinner, exchanging bits of small talk here and there. For some reason, Mia felt restless. Not in the sense of being too excited to enjoy the meal properly—rather, she felt so uncomfortable she could hardly bear it. The thing was, Mia had actually never eaten meals in this manner before.
Father had always been so busy with plotting and executing his world conquest schemes that he hardly had time to spare to sit down for a meal with Mia. Their time together had been mostly spent with him teaching her magic, educating her on what a Supreme Ruler of Evil should be, or explaining the need for world conquest.
She would sometimes have a chat with her classmates while eating at the school cafeteria, but that was something entirely different from what was happening now. Somehow, she felt her heart grow warmer.
What in the world is this? Mia wrestled with the sudden gloom seeping out from within while making short work of the food in front of her.
Eventually, the dinner ended. While she was having a cup of tea to wash it all down, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Mia stared at Subaru in alarm. He reassuringly nodded to her, and, after confirming the identity of the mystery visitor through the peephole, he opened the front door.
“What is it?”
“Ah, uhm, sorry, but can you take some mandarins off my hands? My family sent me this huge crate of ‘em again, and… Huh?! You?!”
“Wait, this voice… It’s Red, is it not?!” Mia sprung up from her seat, gripping her wand tightly, ready to draw blood.
However, it only earned her a gentle reprimand from Subaru. “Sit down, Mia. You still have to do as I say.”
“But dinner is finished already!”
“You barely touched your tea, and you haven’t had dessert. Misaki just brought us some mandarins, so let’s have those.”
“Dessert?!”
Ignoring Mia gaping at him wide-eyed, Subaru put the box full of Misaki’s mandarins to the side of the door, in his hallway.
“W-Wait a minute. What the heck, Subaru? What’s Mia doing here?” the red Crow Ranger asked with a baffled expression, clearly unable to come to terms with the situation.
“I’ll explain everything in a minute, so come on in, Misaki. Also, you’ll have to help me finish the mandarins. I know you hate sour fruit, but even I can’t eat this much.”
“Uh, er, sure.” Misaki, still confused out of his mind, took off his shoes and joined Mia and Subaru at the table.
Noticing that she was still brandishing her wand as if trying to scare Misaki off, Subaru intoned, “Return to your seat, Mia.”
“Hmph!” With no other option but to obey, Mia plopped down right where she stood.
Subaru briefly disappeared into the kitchen to get a knife and a plate, then came back to his seat and started to nimbly peel the mandarins with his knife. Next, passing around the plates with the ready-to-eat fruit neatly arranged, he began his ‘explanation’.
“Around the time it was getting dark, I challenged Mia to a duel. I won, so I made her eat dinner.”
“…Sorry, but I still don’t really get it. Dueling is fine and all, but why dinner of all things?!”
“She’s still in her growing phase, but she forgot to eat lunch! She’s so frail. Look at her wrists and neck, thin as sticks! I’m worried about her,” Subaru answered plainly, to which Misaki shot an exasperated, “Seriously, dude?” in return. Then he sighed, peeled the last bits of rind from his mandarin, and put a piece in his mouth. Apparently Misaki really disliked sourness in all its forms, because his face promptly scrunched up at its taste.
Mia also sighed in resignation and reluctantly bit into her own piece of fruit. …Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t as sour as she had expected. If anything, it was sweet, the slight citrusy tang lending the overall taste a refreshing quality. Misaki, though, was eating his mandarin with a grimace.
It seems he doesn’t like sour food. Heh! So that’s his weakness! That I should find out about it under such circumstances though, hehehe… Next time we fight, if I can just manage to get some lemon juice or a sour pickled plum in his mouth…!
Mia beamed widely, entertaining herself by thinking up evil schemes while she munched on the mandarins.
Subaru suddenly asked her, “Mia, what did you think of the food?”
“Hehe… Huh? Oh, it was wonderful. The fried mackerel was good, but that pork soup was something else entirely!”
“That so? By the way, what do you usually eat?” Subaru continued casually.
Mia reflected on her daily meals. “Well, we weren’t a particularly wealthy family after the last few wars, so, you know…”
Be it taking over the world or plain old paying the bills, money was necessary for both. Father did have a job at the time, but it had come second to his main occupation of Supreme Ruler of Evil, so he hadn’t progressed far in his career. That in turn meant that they’d only rarely had the opportunity to eat out.
Furthermore, neither her father nor Mia had been any good at cooking, so the meals they’d made at home were always simple: rice balls, toast, or something cheaper they had picked up from a store’s deli section. If they had time to waste on cooking, they might as well have spent it learning a new spell.
As Mia was telling her story, a deep wrinkle formed between Subaru’s brows.
“…I see, so both sides lost a great deal. And you’re still living like this, even now?”
“Yes. Father took out life insurance, so I have enough money to cover my living expenses and school fees, but I can’t indulge in any luxuries, and I still have to work towards taking over the world, too.”
“Eh? Supreme Ruler of Evil with life insurance, are you kidding me?” whispered Misaki, cringing.
But Subaru only crossed his arms over his chest, his face darkening.
Mia, completely oblivious to Subaru’s change in mood, decided it was now her turn to ask questions and addressed him, “You are an amazing cook, Subaru! Do you always make food by yourself? You are living alone though, right?”
“Yes, but until a year back I was living together with my younger sister. Our parents passed away, so...”
Just when Mia wondered how they’d both fit in this single room, it turned out that when they had lived together they rented a two-bedroom unit in an apartment building. If so, where is your sister now? Driven by curiosity, that was the next question Mia’s brain supplied.
“So your sister is now living apart from you?”
“……”
For some reason, Subaru’s only answer to the question was a troubled face and folded arms. Eventually, he cast his eyes down, his brows knit in a pained expression. Mia immediately felt a pang of dread shoot through her.
“Ah, er, have I asked something I shouldn’t have?”
“Not at all. It’s just that she…has gone, to a place far, far away…”
Mia felt as if she had been hit over the head with something heavy. So that was what was happening: he saw his dead sister in Mia, so he constantly fretted over her. That was why he was worried about her health and dietary habits, and the reason he had fed her dinner.
“F-Forgive me! What a thoughtless question on my part! Please accept my apologies, even though I am your enemy!”
“It’s all right. But, when you were eating the meal I made, I remembered…my little sister, eating with the same relish. She used to love this pork soup, just like you…”
“W-Well, of course she did, because your pork soup is a true masterpiece! So, cheer up!” Mia desperately implored, trying to comfort him.
“Of course, you’re right,” he whispered, his eyes still harboring that faraway look.
After a while, his gaze refocused on Mia, now overflowing with kindness and affection. “If it’s okay with you, could you maybe come and eat with me from now on? Luckily, we happen to live close to each other too.”
“Oh, uh, er, b-but…”
How did Subaru know Mia lived in a neighboring apartment building? Even without realizing she should be worried about it, Mia was troubled. To her, the problem lay in the fact they were sworn enemies. They weren’t in any position to be having meals together; rather, their circumstances and the history of their factions suggested they shouldn’t. Yet, Subaru let out an uncharacteristic laugh and patted Mia’s head.
“Mia, we might indeed be adversaries, but we don’t have to be that twenty-four hours a day. What is ‘world conquest’ for you, if not a ‘job’? Similarly, all of the ranger work is just a ‘job’ to us, too. And, like all ‘jobs’, ours end after we spend a certain amount of time in a day doing it. After all, if you don’t rest regularly, you can’t go on to fight another day. Don’t you think so?”
Mia pondered Subaru’s words. He was completely right that working towards world domination around the clock was impossible. First of all, if she didn’t stop to at least eat, she’d die in no time, and if she skipped sleep even for one night, the next day turned into a living hell. She also preferred to shower at least once a day. But did this mean it was okay to eat together with Subaru?
“There’s an expression in classical Chinese literature: ‘bitter enemies placed by fate in the same boat’. It describes a situation where, when their interests align, even enemies will cooperate and help each other out. You’re so busy with trying to take over the world that you don’t have time to waste on cooking, and your diet suffers for it, but if you will come eat with me that will be solved.
“For my part, if I can share food with you, I’ll be able to remember the happy times I had with my sister, and it will ease the pain in my heart a little bit. Of course, on our ‘job’ time we will be enemies just like before. I have no intention of going easy on you then, so you should fight us with all you got. …How does that sound?”
Mia remembered the taste of Subaru’s cooking. Delicious, steaming rice. Pork soup that filled her with warmth and satisfaction, crunchy fried mackerel. If she could eat such scrumptious meals every day, how wonderful would that be!
Besides, being able to help Subaru with the loneliness he had felt ever since losing his sister was also a good thing. When her father had passed away, Mia had to deal with the same pain of loss. She had experienced the sorrow of losing a family member firsthand.
“I’ll have to ask you to split the cost of groceries with me, but it will still be cheaper than buying a ready-made bento from a convenience store or a supermarket.”
“Really?! O-Okay… B-But it’s only for when we eat…!”
“It’s settled, then.” Subaru gave her a gentle smile.
They promised each other that when Mia acted as the Supreme Ruler of Evil and Subaru as a Crow Ranger, they would see each other as foes; but during mealtime, and mealtime only, they would agree to eat together in peace.
After Mia finished her mandarins, she left Subaru’s apartment.
“I know summer’s just around the corner now, but no kicking off your blankets during sleep, you need to stay warm, okay?”
With that final parting lecture from Subaru still ringing in her ears, Mia returned to her own unit in the nearby apartment complex.
***
MISAKI, who had silently watched the whole thing unfold from Subaru’s side, inquired in a whisper, “…Say, didn’t your sister get married one year ago?”
“Yeah. It was an international marriage. She’s in Argentina now.”
Misaki erupted in cackles. “…gone, to a place far, far away…” The meaning of those words weren’t how Mia took it!
“Well, Argentina really is far away, I’ll give you that, but Mia’s definitely taken it the wrong way, y’know!”
“I didn’t lie to her. However she decides to take my words is up to her.”
“Y-Yeah, that’s true, but… You so did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
Subaru simply smirked in lieu of an answer as he looked straight at Misaki. Misaki took that to mean yes.
Subaru called out to Misaki from the kitchen where he was cleaning the dishes. “There are still too many mandarins left. Aya also lives close by, why don’t you give some to her?”
“Uh, sure. Hey, Subaru? Don’t tell me you’re also thinking of making a move on Mia?”
Subaru turned around to stare at Misaki as he put some mandarins from the box into the plastic bag from the supermarket. “Me? No, I couldn’t possibly desire a girl younger than my sister. I’m just worried about Mia’s haphazard dietary habits. It’s really bad for a girl her age to eat only ready-made bentos every day. Did you know that lifestyle-related diseases are on the rise among teenagers recently? …Besides, that ‘role’ is filled already.”
“You mean Ren? Well, yeah, I guess… But hey, Subaru, ya know…” Misaki scratched his head, accepting the bag now overflowing with fruit, and then finished in a murmur, “…You’re way more underhanded than I thought.”
At this, Subaru flashed an indomitable grin before shooing Misaki out the door. Flicking the door closed he headed back into the kitchen humming a tune, his mind awhirl with recipes and meals for his new long-term food guest.