Faced with Mika, I tried to explain myself.
"It's not like that…"
"Oh? Then what is it like?"
The moment I began speaking, Mika interrupted me again. There was no emotion in her voice.
"You've already been turned away so many times, yet you still keep coming back. If it's not because of Seia-chan's request, then is there some other reason? Let me guess. Could it be that you think I'm still hiding even more information about Arius?"
"I said, it's not like that." I looked straight at the girl's flawless face. "If it really were like you said, we wouldn't only be meeting this late."
Even if she refused to see me, it would still be the same.
Mika fell silent for a moment.
"…Well, who knows."
Her gaze left her wings, yet she still did not look at me.
"Then why is it?"
"Do I need some special reason just to come see you?"
Only then did she finally raise her eyes and look at me.
And so, while meeting Mika's gaze directly, I told her what I truly thought.
"Seia's request was only incidental. I came to see S…" Remembering what she had just said, I corrected myself. "I came to see you, Mika. Just to see you, that's all."
Mika stared at me for a long while. Then the corners of her lips curled upward, and she suddenly laughed.
"Ahaha~ Sensei, why are you suddenly being so serious? Ah, that really startled me~ That kind of feeling!"
I neither agreed nor denied it, only took a sip of tea. Still, inwardly, I thought that if I hadn't answered seriously, this girl probably would not be smiling while talking to me right now.
And after the silver bell-like laughter of the girl gradually faded away, silence settled over the prison cell for a while.
"…Hey, say."
Mika suddenly asked:
"Is it because of that kiss?"
The abrupt question caught me completely off guard.
"What?"
"To stop you from misunderstanding anything, I should explain it again properly… Of course, you know I'm not as smart as Nagisa-chan or Seia-chan. But in order to make myself clear enough for you, I'll still try my best, so please try your best to follow along too."
If I remembered correctly, Mika had said something similar back then by the poolside at the Trinity annex.
Only, times had changed. Hearing those words again now left me with strangely complicated feelings.
After I gave a quiet acknowledgment, Mika revealed a somewhat embarrassed smile.
"At the time, I was really angry. But, sorry, I probably wasn't angry at you. It's just that when I saw Nagisa-chan and Azusa-chan looking all smug, for some reason I got really irritated."
"So that's how it was."
I had already suspected as much, yet hearing Mika admit it herself still stirred something in me.
Mika really had been jealous.
They had all committed mistakes, yet Nagisa and Azusa were forgiven by me, cared for by me, protected by me.
Though it may have played a part, the focus of this matter was never "me." It was "Nagisa" and "Azusa."
One was her closest childhood friend, someone whose obsession with uncovering Trinity's so-called traitor had already become pathological. The other, to the Mika of the past, was the murderer who had killed Seia and caused everything to become irreversible.
How similar were the circumstances between the three of them?
Even if she knew perfectly well that she herself was the true culprit, the one who personally set this whole story into motion, if one ignored the facts for a moment, were the others truly without fault? Why was she the only one who had to walk alone toward ruin?
But from another perspective, wasn't the one who rejected my goodwill none other than herself?
…Precisely because she understood that, she was even angrier, even more sorrowful, even more lost.
At everything she herself had done.
What an arrogant and selfish princess she truly was.
"So," Mika said with a smile, "you were just a tool for me to vent with, no, to take revenge on them with. From the very beginning, I never liked you at all. Actually, it's the complete opposite. If you misunderstood anything, that would really trouble me."
"I know." I looked away. "I never misunderstood anything to begin with."
Mika smiled faintly.
"Heh. Your past behavior didn't exactly say the same thing. Anyway, now that you know, do you still want to come see me?"
"Yeah."
"…Sigh."
Hearing my firm answer, Mika let out a helpless sigh.
"You really are a strange adult. I clearly did terrible things, and I've kept taking out my anger about Seia-chan on you, believing that you betrayed Seia-chan's trust and failed to protect her, which is why things became like this… Aren't you angry at all?"
I laughed and shook my head.
"How could I not be? Even if I'm an adult, I'm not some emotionless saint. Honestly speaking, more than once I've thought about why, when your attitude toward me was always so awful, I still had to keep accommodating you and treat you like an important student."
Mika tilted her head.
"So in the end, you were just saying pretty things?"
I explained:
"You saved me once. Back then against Binah, against that mechanical snake, remember? A debt of gratitude has to be repaid eventually."
"What the heck, so in the end it's still about repaying a favor."
She smiled.
"There's no need anymore, okay? Any debts were repaid long ago, weren't they? You successfully protected Azusa-chan, and also Nagisa-chan and Seia-chan. You've already done more than enough."
"No, not yet."
Under the girl's puzzled gaze, I spoke seriously.
"I promised you. Not just Azusa, Nagisa, everyone… Mika, I'll protect you too."
Mika froze for a moment.
"I never agreed to that, though?"
My answer to that was:
"I never agreed to you disagreeing."
After a brief stunned silence, as if she had finally realized just how ridiculous what she heard was, the pink-haired girl burst into laughter while clutching her stomach. Meanwhile, I leisurely sipped my tea.
A moment later, she wiped at the tears in her eyes and muttered with emotion:
"I really do hate adults like you the most."
…That phrasing sounded awfully familiar.
So what, was I supposed to go up and forcibly kiss her next so she could awaken some Authority for me?
At that moment, Mika thought for a bit, then smiled again.
"But you know, if you come visit me again next time, and if I happen to be in a good mood that day, I might still meet with you again. Mm, of course, the premise is that it has to be 'you personally' coming to visit me."
My heart skipped a beat, though my expression remained calm.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing much. It's just that I'm really stupid, so I truly don't want to think about things that are too complicated."
Mika stared at me. Her eyes flickered as she spoke, almost word by word.
"So, if someone is telling lies just to make me happy…
"Then please, keep lying to me properly until the very end."