1.1.5

It occurred to Subaru that the feeling of waking up was similar to having your face rise up from out of a body of water. When he opened his eyes, the sun's light was at an angle and shone into them, causing him to squint at the brightness and rub his eyes. He woke up in a rather pleasant way, and Subaru was the type of person to be fully awake once he opened his eyes.

"Oh, you awake?" said a voice from right above Subaru's head, with him still lying down.

As Subaru turned to look in the direction of the voice, he realized that he was still lying on the ground, but had his head on something soft that was being used as a pillow.

"You shouldn't move. You hit your head, so I can't say whether it's safe to just yet."

This concerned voice also sounded very kind, as Subaru remembered what happened just before he lost consciousness, he thought. Given the circumstances, he might just be in one of those blessed situations one hopes to be in as a boy.

To have one's head in a girl's lap… Responding to this divine revelation, Subaru pretended to turn to readjust so he could enjoy himself to the fullest. With a circular motion he rubbed his cheek against it and reached a feeling of absolute bliss, and far more than he expected he felt a fluffiness from the softness of the hair.

"Wow… Beautiful girls are a lot hairier than I imagin—Hey, wait a minute!" sputtered Subaru as he faced up, this time with his vision fully recovered, and took in what was happening.

Right in front of Subaru, in his upside-down vision, was the face of a giant cat. "I thought that at least until you woke up, I'd make you feel comfortable. You can thank me later."

"First of all, I'd like you to stop with that terrible falsetto voice. There's no way I'd mistake a cat for the heroine."

Subaru had certainly never been in a situation before where he got to use a human-size cat's lap for a pillow and, well, it wasn't like you get to experience this every day, so he decided to make the best of it.

"Wow, this is actually really comfortable. Like, this is amazing. Now I understand why people want to love their cats 'til they go bald."

"Well, if you're going to be this happy about it, I guess it was really worth super-sizing… Don't you think so, too?"

The cat scratched at his face as if it were embarrassed and winked as if seeking a confirmation. At the end of that glance was a silver-haired girl, standing at the entrance to the alley looking unfazed.

It was the same girl from before, if Subaru was to believe his memories, eyes, and heart, which were all deeply branded by her image right before he lost consciousness.

"Umm…I'm sorry about all of this. It looks like you ended up staying here with me until I woke up, and—"

"Don't get any ideas about this. The only reason I stayed is because I still have some questions to ask you. If it weren't for that, I would have left you behind. I mean it. So don't get any ideas."

Pressing the point, the girl put strong emphasis on her words. This was a level of girl power that Subaru, who had no resistance against such beautiful girls, simply could not stand against. It was so strong that Subaru could do nothing but nod, ignoring the content of whatever she was saying.

"The reason I healed your wounds, and the reason I had Puck serve as a pillow until you woke up—all of that was for me. So I'm going to have you make it up to me, okay?"

"I know you're trying to build this up and everything, but if you just have something to ask, go right ahead," said Subaru.

It looked like she was one of those people who took the saying "helping others isn't just for their sake" to heart.

The girl looked sternly at Subaru and shook her head.

"I'm not asking, I'm commanding. You know something about my stolen badge, don't you?" asked the girl, dropping the tone of her voice. However, as this wasn't any different from what she had asked before, Subaru had to tilt his head in confusion.

They had gone through this once already, right before Subaru had passed out.

She keeps calling the thing a "badge," Subaru thought. So is it something like what police and detectives keep on themselves to prove what they are? I haven't seen anything like that.

"You didn't hit your head real hard or anything while I was passed out, did you?" Subaru asked.

"You were only out for about ten minutes, and no, nothing like that happened. Answer the question."

"Well…if that's the case, I've got to say I really don't know. Ha-ha…"

You can't do anything about what you don't know. Subaru's answer was no different from before. However, the girl didn't look particularly crestfallen, but instead nodded.

"Well, if you don't know, you don't know. But, the fact that you know absolutely nothing itself is information you have provided to me, and enough for me to justify healing you," the girl replied, using twisted enough logic to baffle any swindler to describe her complete loss.

As Subaru looked on, dumbfounded, the girl clapped her hands together as if to finish things.

"Well, I'm in a hurry, so I'm going to get going now. Your wounds should all be healed, and I threatened those other guys so much I doubt they'll go near you again, but it's still dangerous to enter an alley like this all alone. Oh, and I'm not saying this because I'm worried about you; this is a warning: If I see you in a similar situation again, there won't be any merit to me saving you, so you can't expect me to do so again," said the girl with machine-gun rapidity. She took Subaru's silence as affirmation, nodded to herself, and turned around to leave.

The girl's long silver hair swayed as she moved, and sparkled fantastically in the dim light of the alley.

"I'm sorry about that. She's not really honest with herself. Don't think too strangely of her, okay?" said the cat with a laugh as, having returned to its original size, it jumped up onto the girl's shoulder.

The girl patted its back as if to affirm its touch, and the cat disappeared, slipping behind the curtain of her hair.

Without once looking back, the girl continued to walk on. As he watched her go, Subaru thought about what the cat had said, about her not being honest with herself, and her intentions.

She had something stolen from her, and even though she was in a hurry to get it back, she saved Subaru. Then, after Subaru had passed out, she healed him, and when he woke up, she used terrible reasoning to try to show him that she wasn't worse off for doing so. "She's not really honest with herself" was not going far enough. Her efforts were coming up negative in everything, and it was hard to watch.

The girl had every right to blame Subaru for getting in her way, but she hadn't complained even once, and she didn't even look for an apology.

That's because to her, the only reason she saved Subaru was for her own ends.

"If you live like that, you're just going to keep losing until there's nothing left," said Subaru as he got up, patted his dust-and dirt-covered tracksuit and started running.

Sure, his beloved tracksuit was in pretty bad shape, but on the inside, almost all of his pain was gone. That's after being kicked and punched as much as he was. Again Subaru was reminded of the otherworldliness of magic, as well as the generosity of that girl who, despite going on and on about having Subaru pay her back, took nothing from him in return.

"Hey, wait!" Subaru called out to the girl just as she had reached the entrance to the alley and was in front of the main road, looking unsure of where to go next.

The girl touched her silver hair and looked a bit troubled as she turned around. "What is it? I'm going to tell you right now, I only have a bit more time to spend dealing with you."

"So a little's fine, then?! Anyway, what you lost is really important, right? Let me help you look for it."

The girl blinked a few times, surprised. "But you said you don't know anything…"

"It's true that I don't know the name of the girl who stole that badge from you, or where she's from, but at least I know what she looks like! She's got blond hair, is sort of like a kitten, and has this canine tooth that sticks out that's hard to miss. She's shorter than you and her chest is pretty flat so she's maybe two or three years younger than you! How about that?!"

When he got flustered, Subaru had a bad habit of speaking fast and not really even knowing what he was saying.

Right now that bad habit was running at full blast, and even Subaru wanted to distance himself from his own words.

The ensuing silence was painful. A cold sweat drenched Subaru's back, not to mention his hands and armpits, which was followed by heart palpitations, shortness of breath, as well as dizziness, and in addition to feeling faint, his nose stuffed up in an allergic reaction accompanied by a migraine, such that there were problems on every front. However…

"…You're strange," the girl said with a hand up to her mouth, tilting her head to the side as if she were looking at some rare animal.

With a finger still at her lips she stared at Subaru, sizing him up.

"I should say up front that I can't offer you anything in return for your help. I might not look it, but I don't have a copper piece on me."

"Don't worry, that makes two of us," replied Subaru.

"Three of us, if you count me… Pretty terrible for us as a group," added a voice jokingly from the girl's silver hair, but Subaru ignored it and pounded his chest.

"I don't need anything in thanks. I'm the one who should thank you. That's why I want to help."

"I haven't done anything deserving of your thanks. I've already gotten something in return from healing you."

She just won't give it up, will she? Subaru looked at the girl and her stubborn attitude with a weak smile.

"If that's the case, then I'll help you for my own sake. The reason is…yeah, that's it. I'll use you for my 'one good deed a day' project!" said Subaru.

"One good deed a day?"

"That's right. Once a day you do one good thing. If you do that, after you die you've got a one-way ticket to heaven! If I can do it, then a wonderful life of just eating and sleeping is waiting for me—so I hear! So that's why I'm going to help you for my own sake."

Subaru felt like turning to himself and asking what the hell he was going on about, but at least he'd managed to make his point.

The girl stood in thought, considering Subaru's words, when her cat poked at her cheek with its paws.

"I don't sense any evil intentions from him, and I don't really think it's a bad idea, you know? With how large the capital is, it's way better than going on no clues at all."

"But if I get him involved…"

"You're cute when you're stubborn, but it's foolish to let your stubbornness get the best of you and make you lose sight of your goals. I'd really rather not think of my own master as a fool."

The cat added its support in favor of Subaru, but the girl was still hesitant. In response, the cat dropped its expression and continued in a serious voice.

"Plus, the sun is starting to set. If night falls, I won't be able to help you. I'm not worried about you handling a thug or two, but…it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Well, it sounds like you're the one to call if there's danger! But, wait—according to what you said, you can't come out at night? Is that one of the deals of your contract or something?" Subaru asked, taking a step closer.

The cat flicked its whiskers with its front paw and said, "It's more like, I may look cute, but I'm a spirit, you know? I use a lot of mana just by materializing. When night falls, I return to the crystal that is my vessel and prepare for when the sun is out again. I suppose you could say it's the perfect nine-to-five job."

"Nine to five? That sounds like a government job… The conditions to hire a spirit sound more severe than I expected…!"

Subaru was able to talk naturally about spirits, but that was only because of the analytical power he had as a modern otaku, poisoned by anime and games. Even traits looked down on by the public come in handy sometimes.

While Subaru and the cat continued their conversation, the girl continued to anguish over her decision. However, that last point seemed to have tipped the scales, so after much moaning with a number of buts and stills and ifs she finally conceded.

"I'm telling you, I really can't give you anything in return, okay?"