Chapter 11: First Encounter Part 2

Morning.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating my face.

I headed to the washroom and washed my face with water.

Looking in the mirror, I saw the same me as always. Mentally, I felt a bit more stable than yesterday.

Even though I cried so much yesterday, there wasn’t a trace of tears left behind.

I put on my shorts, my shirt, my knee-high socks.

Opened the front door at the usual time...

And glanced over at the room next door.

...I wonder if Peter is still asleep.

Or maybe he’s already up and getting ready.

Maybe he went ahead without me.

Or maybe... he's not okay after what happened yesterday.

Maybe he won’t come to school today.

Thoughts kept spinning in my head, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of his door.

But I couldn’t ring the bell.

Because I—Michelle Jane, the girl who lives next door and goes to the same school—shouldn't know anything about what happened last night.

I turned on my heel and headed toward the route to school.

“Hey, Michelle, good mor—whoa, not looking too lively today, huh?”

Gwen said as she reached out and squished my face with her hands.

“...Really?”

“Yeah, you look worn out.”

She playfully tugged and pressed my soft, age-appropriate skin.

...Worn out?

I didn’t even notice in the mirror.

“I stayed up late reading a book last night. It was just too interesting.”

I threw out a half-hearted excuse to cover it up.

“Is that so? Well, it’s best not to stay up too late, you know. It’s terrible for your skin.”

Gwen said it with a bright smile, doing her best to stay cheerful.

...But somehow, she didn’t seem convinced.

She’s a sharp girl—very perceptive.

The sound of a door sliding open made Gwen turn around.

“Ah—Peter?”

When Gwen said his name, I felt like I might stop breathing.

With stiff movements, I turned to follow her gaze.

There stood Peter, his face patched up with gauze and other makeshift bandages.

To anyone looking, it was clearly painful to see.

“Hey, Peter? What happened to you?”

“Hm? Ah, morning, Gwen.”

“‘Morning’ isn’t what I meant...”

“This?”

Peter pointed at his own face. You could see a bit of bruising.

“Yeah, I got caught in an accident yesterday...”

That’s a lie.

I gave him those injuries.

“What? Are you okay?”

“Well, I’m fine. Just bumped into something, that’s all.”

Another lie.

He’s got a deep cut on his stomach too.

I couldn’t stay silent anymore—I was about to speak up—

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

Flash suddenly cut in between me and Peter with a loud voice.

“What do you want, Flash.”

“What happened to you, Peter? Or wait, are you a mummy now? Dressing up like that... Halloween’s not today, y’know?”

Flash smirked and mocked Peter.

Peter glanced over at me and Gwen.

I looked away.

“This doesn’t concern you.”

Peter’s voice carried a rare trace of anger.

“Huh? Trying to act cool now? ‘Cause the girls are watching?”

Flash jeered again.

Then he turned to face me—and our eyes met.

“Hey, Michelle-chan, why don’t you talk to me instead of this cosplay narcissist guy?”

"...I hate you."

The words slipped out before I could stop them.

“Huh?”

Flash turned to face me.

“I don’t want to talk to someone who mocks their friends. Let’s go, Peter. You too, Gwen.”

I took Peter and Gwen by the hand and ran out of the classroom.

Flash just stood there, staring at me in stunned silence.

Once we reached the hallway, I let go of Gwen’s hand.

Then—

“I’m taking Peter to the infirmary. You go on ahead.”

“Ah... okay. See you there?”

Gwen nodded, looking a little confused.

Just like that, I took Peter by the hand and led him toward the nurse’s office.

“W-Wait a second, Michelle?”

Peter seemed flustered, but I didn’t look back.

Because those injuries Peter got mocked for... I’m the one who gave them to him.

And now, just standing face to face with him feels like being forced to confront my own guilt. I couldn’t bear to look at him.

Once we arrived at the infirmary, I had Peter sit down on the bed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, there weren’t any teachers around.

I rummaged through the shelves without permission and pulled out alcohol disinfectant, gauze, tape—whatever I needed.

“M-Michelle?”

“...What is it, Peter?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’? What are you doing?”

I tilted my head slightly at his question.

“...Peter, did you patch yourself up?”

“Huh? Yeah, I did, but...”

“You did a poor job. I’m redoing it.”

I took some scissors, cut the gauze, and resized it to match the wound.

“Wait, Michelle?”

“It’s fine. I’m good at this kind of thing.”

I learned this in the organization.
Even as a killer, I had to practice emergency care.

Thanks to my healing factor, wounds close twice as fast as normal.
As long as I perform proper first aid, even serious injuries heal within a week.

Doctors are basically optional for me.

Back when I started working as Redcap, I was inexperienced and constantly getting hurt.

From cuts and bruises to gunshot wounds—I’ve treated them all myself.

It’s nothing to brag about, but I have the experience.
Honestly... I’m confident I can do as well as an average doctor.

“N-No, that’s not what I meant—”

“Peter, first, take off your—”

“Calm down, Michelle!”

He grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him directly.

His eyes stared straight into mine... like they were peering right through me.

It made me uncomfortable—I averted my gaze again.

“Something’s... off today. You’re acting strange, Michelle.”

“I’m not. What’s strange is that you’re covered in wounds... that’s what I think.”

“Maybe so... but then, Michelle, why won’t you look at me?”

...Ugh.

“That’s not true. I am looking at you.”

“You haven’t looked me in the eye once today... I get it, if you don’t want to see me like this.”

“...That’s not it.”

That’s not it.

I just can’t stand the guilt.

But if Peter’s feeling down because of something I did—
that’s even harder to bear.

“Then why—?”

“...Because I’m a bad person.”

I murmured it, barely loud enough to hear—maybe even inaudible.

No matter how you looked at it, it was the wrong thing to say.

Right now, I’m Michelle Jane—just an ordinary girl attending good old Midtown High.

Not the brutal, villainous Redcap.

“Michelle, a bad person?”

“That’s right. Worse than you think, Peter. That’s why I don’t really deserve to be friends with you guys.”

Earlier, I said to Flash, “Don’t mock my friend.”

As if Peter and Gwen were actually my friends.

That’s probably the right thing to say if I’m Michelle Jane.

But to call someone a “friend” after beating them up, cutting them, hurting them like I did yesterday... That’s shameless beyond words.

“I don’t really get what you’re saying, Michelle, but I don’t think that’s true.”

“...It is true.”

“No, I mean... even if you were a bad person, Michelle, I—we—would still be your friends.”

I was still averting my eyes.

“I don’t think you need some kind of qualification to be friends with people. Or do you not want to be friends with me, or Gwen, or Ned?”

At that, I couldn’t help but look at Peter.

Our eyes met.

“...Of course I do.”

“Then I think that’s all that matters. I’d really like... to be friends with you too, Michelle.”

Peter smiled as he said that, then winced and touched his cheek.
“Ow.”

Oh, right. Smiling probably hurts with all those wounds.

But still, I felt a bit better.

…Someday, if they ever find out that I’m Redcap, they’ll probably hate me.
But for as long as I’m Michelle, I want to keep facing them honestly.

“…Thank you, Peter.”

“You’re welcome. …Wait, Michelle, you’re still holding those scissors.”

Oh—right.

I was in the middle of cutting gauze.

“I’m redoing the bandages. I’m taking off the gauze on your face now.”

“Huh? Ah—”

Rrrrip.

“Ow!?”

“It hurts because you stuck it directly to the wound. First, disinfecting.”

Splat splat.

“Ow! W-Wait, Michelle!?”

“Press the cotton on your skin, then after that... What? Peter?”

“Can we just take a second!? This hurts, and I’m still kinda overwhelmed here!”

“If it hurts, it’s because your bandaging was sloppy. Just accept it.”

“Wait, what?”

Ignoring Peter’s confusion, I calmly continued replacing his bandages.

“Ow!!”

He kept squirming in pain, but all I could think about was how improper treatment might slow down his recovery—and that wouldn’t do.

Then...

“……”

I looked at Peter’s abdomen through his shirt.

It was slightly bulging more than usual.

Probably from bandages or something underneath.

“Peter, your stomach’s injured too. Let me see.”

“N-No, that part’s fine!”

“It’s not. Show me.”

“No, I’m telling you, it’s not fine!”

When I forcefully lifted his shirt...

“Ah.”

I caught sight of the bandages, tinged with red.

The wound itself was hidden beneath them, but—

It looked painful.

Any normal girl would probably faint at the sight.

I reached out my hand...

“Peter? Michelle? What are you two doing?”

I looked toward the voice—
and there stood Gwen.

And in her line of sight—

Was me, pinning Peter to the bed, trying to forcibly remove his clothes.

“...Gwen?”

“Um, what exactly is going on here?”

“...M-Michelle, please... move…”

Peter looked at me desperately, panic on his face.

I’d been too focused on treating his injuries to notice the situation we were in—

But right now, it looked exactly like I was pinning him down and trying to strip him.

“Gwen, this isn’t what it looks like—”

“Wait, Michelle? I don’t even get how it got to this point.”

“...M-Michelle, just—just get off me, please…”

Peter’s fingers brushed against my thigh.

The ticklish sensation made me let out a small noise.

“Ugh.”

…Oh, right. I’m wearing shorts today.

His fingers had touched the skin just above my knee-high socks.

I quickly got off Peter and turned to face Gwen.

Gwen was looking down at Peter with an exasperated expression.

“You perv.”

“No, that wasn’t on purpose! I swear!”

“P-Peter’s not the one at fault. I was the one who…”

“Michelle, you don’t have to defend this beast.”

Saying that, Gwen pulled me into a hug, cradling my head.

A faint scent of perfume reached my nose, and my head began to spin.

It wasn’t a bad smell.

But it was intoxicating—so alluring and stimulating that it flooded my senses, like getting struck by a hammer.

“G-Gwen…”

While my face was buried in her chest, I lightly patted her arm a few times.

“Hmm? Ah, sorry! Couldn’t breathe?”

I pulled away a bit, creating some distance from both Gwen and Peter.

I glared at them with a clearly annoyed face!
My expression tends to be flat, so a little overreaction helps get the message across.

...But for some reason, the two of them were looking at me with this warm, amused gaze.

“You know, Michelle... you’re kind of like a cat.”

“...Ah—yeah, I kind of see that too.”

What are they even saying? I don’t get it.

“…Anyway, Gwen, why’d you come back here?”

Peter asked as if he’d just remembered.

Gwen glanced at me, then turned and glared at Peter.

“I couldn’t just leave Michelle behind, could I? I came to make sure Peter wasn’t doing anything weird.”

“Gwen, that’s a misunderstanding... I was treating Peter’s injuries…”

“Men turn into wolves the moment you let your guard down, you know? You should be a bit more careful, Michelle.”

“I think Peter’s okay.”

“Y-Yeah, really! I’d never do anything like that!”

When Peter backed me up, Gwen shot him a look of utter exasperation.

“…Peter, come here for a second.”

“Huh? Uh, okay?”

They both stood up and moved away, leaving me behind.

...I perked up my ears to catch their whispered conversation.

“...Not even seen as a man... pathetic…”

I could hear Gwen’s scolding tone, and Peter hung his head in shame.

I couldn’t make out everything, but... what were they talking about?

I tilted my head in confusion.