After the counseling began, Raban arranged his expressions to suit the situation. He understood the tragedy Shune had suffered, and there were certainly parts of it he could empathize with in his own way.
But in the end, to Raban, Shune was a potential threat. If one judged by firepower alone, she would rank among the top handful of opponents he had ever faced.
When people saw a nuclear bomb crying, would more of them feel pity, or bewilderment?
That was why this counseling session had been built on deception from the very start. The attitude and emotions Raban displayed were artifices carved by calculation. One could call it the cool judgment befitting a dark mage, or the social tact of a cold-blooded man who had boiled his conscience into soup and eaten it.
Of course, given Raban’s character—one that had likely taken out n-fold conscience-backed loans from multiple creditors—using him as the average dark mage was essentially a tautology.
But this time, he felt no need to arrange his expression. The bewilderment that washed over him after hearing Shune’s words naturally showed on his face.
Shune, for her part, would probably understand Raban’s emotions as some mixture of guilt and compassion. As the regret shown by an adult who had once belonged to Naju Pharmaceuticals.
That was a good thing. Raban wasn’t especially confident in deception.
“Right. Is that everything that comes to mind for now?”
“Yes…”
There was a faint weight in her answer to the word everything. Raban shook his head. It was not a good sign for a client to feel indebted to the counselor.
“White… Ah, it feels awkward calling that like a name. Anyway, White.”
“Yes.”
“Just because you can’t remember something more, or even if you do remember it, because you can’t put it into concrete words out loud—that isn’t any reason to feel sorry toward me.”
“What?”
Raban explained calmly. A client experiencing some stagnation while speaking about their own story should not be allowed to feel burdened by it.
‘No idea whether that’s actually true or not!’
It was far from valuable advice grounded in credible knowledge. Since what Raban wanted was the magical girl’s “hesitation,”
‘If, by some one-in-a-million chance, she endures through sheer spite and grit, treats negative thoughts like nothing, and evolves into a giga-magical girl who chews up the Ochanja as a lunch side dish, my future plans get cloudy.’
Therefore, Raban guided the magical girl to keep hesitating and delay overcoming her wounds as much as possible.
“Of course, confronting trauma can be used as a method of treatment. Talking about your past to someone else, like now, is part of that. But it’s not desirable to force you to speak right away about pain beyond what you can tell me now.”
Raban’s words contained sincerity.
Naturally so. He intended to use counseling not as therapy for the magical girl, but as a mechanism to guide behavior. He was in a position where he had to prevent unnecessary variables from interfering as much as possible.
To be more honest, there was also the fact that he found talking at length bothersome. Raban launched into his speech with the fullest irresponsibility.
“If you’re going to use an extreme treatment method like that, it should be done in the presence of a proper counselor, not an unlicensed quack like me. Hypnotherapy, or visiting the place where your family disappeared…”
“Um, I have fought in the Black Forest a few times.”
“An investigative visit with a clear sense of purpose is different from the battlefield just happening to be the Black Forest.”
Once again, Raban revealed his deliberate disappointment toward the Mascot.
“As a bad adult who contributed to this city’s disastrous magic-public-security environment, let me say this. You girls are already doing more than enough. You may be magical girls, but it’s strange to leave work to kids who aren’t even adults yet. Take it easy. Easy.”
It was the same message she had already heard through Ihyeon. Not that she should quit the work, but that she should care for her own wounds and put herself first.
Shune moved her lips for a moment, then quietly whispered, “Thank you,” and stepped out of the inner room.
***
‘Huh.’
Raban was flustered.
He had said there was no need to say more, but that had not meant, “Yes, now go out and call Black in.”
It had been time to lighten the properly heavy mood and gather information through small talk—how did you meet Black, what kind of friend is she, and so on…!
The dignified figure of the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm flashed through Raban’s mind. Come to think of it, the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm had actual combat experience against magical girls.
At times, an intense battle revealed more truths than shallow conversation. Raban immediately contacted Inian through a thought wave.
[Your taste in ice cream is uncharacteristically refined. I shall enjoy it.]
[Hey!]
Raban, who had been about to snap that he hadn’t bought it for her to stuff her face with, calmed himself. Through the slightly open door of the inner room, he could hear White and Black lightly conversing.
He had about thirty seconds to spare.
[Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Put the spoon down for now. Tell me anything you know about Magi Black.]
‘Anything?’
Inian had no fondness for sweets—at least, that was what she herself believed—but she had been rummaging through the freezer to spite Raban for no reason.
However, from the question that was more urgent than usual, she realized that now was not the time to play around. Information urgently needed in relation to a magical girl.
Most likely, he had run that disastrously destructive mouth of his the wrong way during counseling. Was he being chased after entering close-quarters combat?
‘I hope he gets beaten to within an inch of his life and returns without getting tailed.’
[Be mindful of her striking techniques. Also, her attacks are closer than they appear, so that too is a point of caution. At least thirty centimeters beyond her reach falls within the influence range of a magical girl’s magic power, so you must set the safe distance conservatively.]
Raban was at a loss for words.
[Who asked you for that kind of thing!?]
He did not need that sort of advice. He had accumulated plenty of data by getting beaten to hell and back through blood-vessel humans and hand familiars!
[You useless Demon Realm Baron!]
Inian, rendered speechless by the absurdity, let out a short sigh.
[Then what, dost thou require information such as how she had never tried mugwort rice cake before, but found it unexpectedly to her taste after eating it?]
That had been the chatter exchanged with Magi White before entering full-fledged combat. What use could he possibly have for such absurd personal trivia—
[Good! You’ve done a great deed, Grand Duke of the Demon Realm! I look forward to your continued service!]
“…?”
***
Na Ihyeon opened the door. Mister Raban, unlike usual, looked rather…
‘Is this what they call looking put together?’
He had a solemn expression. He was even wearing horn-rimmed glasses from who knew where.
“…What’s that?”
“A prop to create an image different from usual. It would be nice if changing my tone alone could alter the entire impression a student receives, but I’m not a skilled enough actor for that.”
The sight of Mister Raban calmly answering a student in polite speech truly felt far removed from his usual self. Na Ihyeon neatly adjusted her posture and sat down.
Since he was treating her differently than usual, it would probably be more effective for counseling if she also treated him differently than usual.
“Ah, you don’t have to tell me the things you notified Shune of in advance. Like that you find this counseling procedure unsatisfactory… sir.”
The sir tacked onto the end felt terribly awkward. Raban looked at Black with curiosity.
“Well, since I asked the counselor to use polite speech. I thought it’d be better for both of us if I matched it. Sir.”
‘As expected, she’s quite determined to put up a wall.’
Polite speech was an expression that elevated the other person, but conversely, it could also express that there was a definite distance between you and them. Just as casual speech did not always belittle the other person, but sometimes expressed intimacy.
Raban calculated that the other party’s psychological barrier was even greater than Shune’s. However, thanks to the testimony from the King-God-Emperor-Grand-Duke-of-the-Demon-Realm just now—he decided to ignore the gap between God and demon, as well as the contradiction between Grand Duke and Emperor—he had been able to narrow down the candidates for her identity considerably.
‘Someone who recently ate mugwort rice cake at Lux Tiera High School?’
Naturally, it would be a student who had visited the counseling room. He had originally had a different purpose in handing out food rich in magic power, but who would have thought it would work as such a delightful coincidence?
Words and actions were like fingerprints. If he used today’s conversation as a clue and slowly worked backward from the category of students who had visited the counseling room…
‘I’ll come to know Hikarious’s greatest secret in its entirety!’
Raban nodded while hiding his sinister inner thoughts.
“True enough. There is nothing more tedious than repeating a story one already knows. Then let us move into the procedure proper.”
“You mean what symptoms I have? …sir.”
Ihyeon frowned. Since she was always exchanging casual speech with him out of habit, it was not easy to pay attention to polite speech every single time. Her replies simply came out comfortably and unconsciously.
Raban was flustered by that deliberate blurring of her speech.
The timing with which she added sir was exquisite. Even if he narrowed it down only to students who used casual speech, or only to those who used polite speech, he could not get a handle on it at all.
‘Don’t tell me she even intended that?’
Probably not. Completely replacing the impression one gave through conversation required specialized knowledge and effort. It was likely close to coincidence.
But the intention in her heart was probably similar. A barrier saying she did not want to show her inner self in full. Raban felt his competitive spirit rise.
“That is correct. When you take in more dark magic power than usual, in what form do its effects manifest? Please speak comfortably.”
He added an explanation that if she did not wish to state something, naturally, she did not have to.
Ihyeon closed her eyes. She thought of the moment of battle. The voice she had heard then was different from the rise and fall of memories from the past.
Rather, it was…
“Auditory hallucinations.”
“If they are auditory hallucinations, could you tell me their contents?”
Na Ihyeon furrowed her brow. This was…
It was difficult to put into words. Because if Mister Raban heard it, he would be able to recognize her identity right away.
But that did not mean silence was the desirable choice either. First of all, speaking the experience she had gone through out loud would become the first step in alleviating negative thoughts.
Seeing Na Ihyeon hesitate, Raban’s eyes gleamed. This hesitation seemed quite usable.
“If it is difficult to say, you do not have to say it.”
“But then it won’t be proper counseling… sir.”
‘Ah, that really gets on my nerves.’
Contrary to his inner thoughts, Raban maintained a faint smile as he held out a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.
“At times, it can be difficult to concretize memories into language. That is only natural. What we are dealing with right now is the heart. What in the world is more complicated than the heart?”
“Uh…”
“So, let us draw it as a picture.”
Grin. Raban’s smile deepened. This time, it matched his inner thoughts as well.
Depending on what sort of picture he guided her to draw, he could draw out the unconscious in the direction he needed.
He could approach her identity very, very easily!