Teacher, I'm Actually a Villainous Magical Girl

"Doctor, are you married?"

At the mention of this topic, Doctor froze for a moment. She stopped examining the crystal and looked at Kirishima Ai instead.

"I saw you wearing a ring... so..."

Doctor blinked, then smiled and gently stroked the ring.

"Yes, I'm married."

For some reason, she seemed very happy when she said that.

It was Kirishima Ai's first time seeing such a feminine side of Doctor.

Was marriage really such a happy thing?

"Your husband... what kind of person is he?"

Inevitably, Kirishima Ai was curious.

But Doctor shook her head.

"Not my husband. My wife."

"Huh?"

This time, Kirishima Ai froze.

Had she heard that right?

She had heard that highly intelligent people tended to be flexible about their sexuality, but this was the first time she had encountered something like this so close to home.

There was a lesbian right beside her?

"She's a beautiful and gentle woman. She's perfect in every way and better than me at everything. She took care of me when I was little, and before I knew it, I'd fallen in love with her."

"Later, when she said she was willing to marry me, I was startled too."

"She's even been learning to cook lately. I'm really looking forward to it..."

The beautiful Doctor looked at her wedding ring with a faintly nostalgic expression. Her usually languid eyes were much brighter than usual.

Kirishima Ai nodded at that.

She sounded like an incredibly outstanding woman, and Doctor really seemed to love her...

Once the subject came up, Doctor became unusually talkative and began telling stories about her beloved.

"She and I were childhood friends. She gave me this ring when we were children, and even then, she said she would become my wife someday..."

Doctor smiled as if she had sunk into some blissful fantasy.

"Achoo—"

At home, Haihara suddenly sneezed.

She was sitting in her bedroom. Several picture frames sat on the table, including one photograph of her and a childhood friend.

In the photo, she was a black-haired little girl with short hair and a somewhat aloof expression. The other person was a small, timid-looking girl with long hair that even covered her eyes.

They had gotten along fairly well back then. Since that person had been even more withdrawn and gloomy than Haihara as a child, Haihara often took care of her.

But that childhood friend had later been recommended directly to Eastern University. She had reportedly achieved all kinds of breakthroughs in scientific research and become a remarkably gifted research genius. Before Haihara knew it, a sad wall had risen between them.

Now, she was merely an ordinary high school teacher.

They belonged to entirely different worlds and had nothing in common to talk about.

Rather than keep reminiscing about someone like that, Ms. Suzuki, who taught music, was much more realistic.

She rubbed the tip of her nose. Once she recovered, she touched her forehead in puzzlement.

"Did I catch a cold...?"

She muttered to herself.

Her temperature was normal. She probably did not have a cold.

Then why had she suddenly sneezed?

Could it be...

Ms. Suzuki was thinking about her?

They said that when someone missed you, you were likely to sneeze.

If there was anyone likely to be thinking about her, it had to be the kind and beautiful Ms. Suzuki.

Perfect. Haihara had recently learned to cook for Ms. Suzuki. After all her hard practice, she would definitely win Ms. Suzuki over.

At that thought, Haihara nodded in satisfaction. Then she took out her phone and began considering her next move.

"In a few days, I'll ask Ms. Suzuki to see a romance movie with me..."

Someday, she would marry Ms. Suzuki.

Chapter 13: Haihara's Day

Haihara was not someone who dreamed much. She had heard that imaginative and emotional people were more prone to dreams, but she probably was not one of them. Ever since childhood, whenever she fell asleep, she would sink into darkness—silent and cold—until the next morning lit up her dreams.

But after inheriting the memories of that gray-haired Magical Girl, she had gradually begun dreaming. Sometimes she dreamed of that woman's childhood, and sometimes of an incredible magical kingdom.

In those dreams, the Magical Girl lived a life entirely different from Haihara's. Compared to hers, Haihara's life could only be called ordinary and dull.

The gray-haired girl could hear the voices of nature: the breath of wind and moon, the songs of flowers and birds. When she felt down, rain would fall from the sky as though it were weeping. When she was happy, rainbow arcs would streak across the blue sky.

But that Magical Girl had not been happy because of it.

For some reason, Haihara felt that person was probably just like her—disappointed with such a life.

She had received all the love in the world, but she could not love everyone in return.

Flowers had their time to wither, and birds had their day to die. The wind would blow far away, and sooner or later, the moon would fall, replaced by sunlight.

Her life was far too long, while everything else seemed so fragile and fleeting.

If only eternity existed in this world.

Like a snake shedding its skin...

It was a slightly chilly morning when Haihara woke from her dreams. She always woke naturally and never needed an alarm.

She curled up for a while before reluctantly crawling out from under the covers.

After getting out of bed, she rubbed her eyes, only to tangle the loose bangs that had fallen over her forehead together, making them itch. She could only use her hands to roughly comb through her sleep-mussed hair.

With a yawn, Haihara began recalling what she had to do in the morning. She needed to wash up, then make breakfast and lunch. Most of the time, though, she did not feel like making breakfast and went to her morning class on an empty stomach.

She went to the bathroom and simply brushed her teeth and washed her face. Other female teachers might do skincare and put on makeup afterward, but her skin was decent enough, and no students were looking at her anyway. There was no need.

Actually, Haihara was not nearsighted. Her glasses were thick, but they had no prescription at all.

After removing them, she started washing her face. But after splashing cold water onto it, the person in the mirror was no longer herself.

In the mirror, a gray-haired woman with hair falling to her shoulders was washing her face with an indifferent expression. Her features were so exquisite that she needed no grooming whatsoever, but that had nothing to do with Haihara.

That gorgeous gray-haired woman was making exactly the same movements as her, giving Haihara a strange sense of dissonance.

Yet nothing seemed wrong, either.

It was as though the person in the mirror was the real her.

Haihara hated that feeling, so after quickly finishing washing her face, she dried herself with a towel and put her glasses back on.

Her own appearance returned to the mirror. She could not tell whether she felt disappointed or relieved.

After washing up, she left the bathroom. Rather than rushing to cook, she went to check the glass tank in her living room, where her pet Little White lived.

Little White was an albino Texas rat snake, commonly known as a White Lady. It looked like a flawless, adorable little white snake, less than a meter long. Haihara had kept it for several years.

This kind of snake was beautiful and could live for around a decade, but it also had a correspondingly bad temper and liked biting people.

But Little White had never bitten her.

She opened the tank and extended a finger to tease the little white snake. The snake affectionately rubbed against her finger.

At times like this, Haihara felt a little happier.

She liked snakes. They were pretty, quiet, and not very smart.

Snakes had stupid little brains, not enough to develop any feelings toward people. At most, they could remember that someone was feeding them and would not bite that person very often.

If she could, Haihara wanted to keep a bigger snake too, but those kinds of snakes were too expensive.

Little snakes always looked like they might accidentally get killed.

After closing the tank again, she went to the kitchen to cook. By then, her morning time was almost used up.

Haihara's home was not far from the school. It took just over ten minutes to walk there, and riding a bicycle would be even faster. But she was not very good at cycling, so she usually walked.

Students occasionally greeted her on the way, and she responded blandly.

She was not particularly passionate about this job. It was simply stable, with regular vacations and no overtime. Aside from having to deal with a group of Problem Children, it was a job she found satisfactory.

Yes, it would be even better without those Problem Children.

As usual, Haihara entered the classroom. The students grew much quieter, though some knew she would not interfere and kept talking.

There was one troublesome matter for her to deal with today: that super Problem Child would be returning to her class, probably that afternoon.

Even now, Haihara could not understand why the principal had stuffed someone that troublesome into her class.

But it had nothing to do with her. All she needed to do was make sure the Problem Child came to class every day.

While sitting in the classroom, Haihara was looking at her phone.

She actually preferred sitting near the classroom door.

Because it was noisier there.

It made her feel as though she was alive.

Since the seats had recently been rearranged, Kirishima Ai was now in the first row beside Haihara. This child had also waited until arriving at school to eat breakfast today.

She seemed to be eating a croquette.

Without paying further attention to Kirishima Ai beside her, Haihara scrolled through her phone and suddenly received a new message.

Iyaha [The new snake Monster has evolved into its mature stage. Should we release it for battle today?]

It was from Sha Qina.

Her profile picture was a "Usagi."

After that, the two of them had exchanged contact information.

As for the previous attack on the school by the Kite Monster, it had nothing to do with them. It had probably been the work of another Black Death Cult executive.

Haihara was about to reply when Kirishima Ai poked her shoulder from beside her.

After pausing for a moment, Haihara turned to look at Kirishima Ai, not knowing what the little girl wanted.

Then Haihara saw the little girl awkwardly offer her a croquette and look at her cautiously.

"Teacher... would you like one?"

Haihara was unusually puzzled.

Why was she suddenly giving her a croquette? Did she really look that much like someone who had skipped breakfast?

She looked again at Kirishima Ai, who was gazing up at her...

Then she remembered what had happened before. It seemed she had given her bento to this child.

So she was sharing a croquette with her now?

Haihara thought this little girl was rather interesting.

Though her expression remained blank, she calmly said:

"Thank you."

She had not eaten breakfast anyway.