Is This How You Use a Self-Destruct Switch?!-Chapter 8 : Amber Appears!

"Are you sure this stuff tastes good?"
Tsuan continued standing on her tiptoes to reach for cans from the top shelf without looking back.
"It's very delicious! Sweet and sour, and it has the fragrance of tomatoes! Regular canned food doesn't have this kind of taste, you know?"
Reiko had nothing to say about this, since everyone's taste was unique... it's just that this stuff was really too... mm...
If Reiko absolutely had to find a way to describe it...
She recalled that afternoon when her father had opened the can with expectant eyes and fed her a taste.
"Maybe this stuff dad made will come in handy in future nuclear wars?"
"Is it because it's delicious and cheap and easy to store?!"
Her father had happily prepared to invite employees to a party together, only to be sunk by one sentence from Reiko.
"Probably because it tastes so bad that no one would steal it, and even if it spoiled, it would probably only get more delicious, so it's 'easy to store,' right?"
The sound of rummaging through the freezer interrupted Reiko's process of thinking about how exactly Tsuan would cook this stuff.
An arm reached over Tsuan's head to help her take down a tomato can.
"Do you need me to continue helping you get more?"
A wave of warm breath rushed into her ear canal, making Tsuan's earlobe hidden under her hair slightly flush. But three cans... weren't enough, she should get two more.
And... the feeling of being helped by others was very novel!
"Thank you... I need two more!"
A few strands of flaxen hair brushed past Tsuan's cheek, bringing her some fragrance mixed with a tingling sensation.
The tall figure, half a head taller than Tsuan, easily took down the cans placed on high shelves and handed them to Tsuan.
"What about besides this? Is there anything else you need me to help you get?"
Her warm voice carried a trace of anticipation, her orange-yellow eyes full of the exact same happiness as Tsuan's. Obviously, she had also encountered something like Tsuan's that made her very happy.
Although the two very happy people didn't know each other, they could still coincidentally sense each other's joy. Rounding it off, it could also be considered sharing their happiness with each other.
A palm touched Tsuan's shoulder as Reiko pulled her behind herself, separating her from that girl who obviously had no sense of social distance.
"Thank you, but I'm her friend."
Reiko looked at the other person's crystal-clear eyes and reached out to poke Tsuan's neck.
"If there's nothing else, we'll be going first?"
Because I'm really hungry, so I want to pull this guy home early to cook for me.
"See you next time then!"
Amber waved at them, then returned to the side of the girl searching for ice cream by the freezer.
"Megumi! Did you find it?"
Luna—who should now be called Nagayasu Megumi—who had just finished an interview and went to find Amber, shook her head.
"That strawberry-flavored ice cream from last time seems to be sold out... there's only grape and blueberry flavored left... which one does Amber want to eat?"
Hinata Amber, also known as Magical Girl Amber, scratched her head.
This question was really somewhat difficult, comparable to a trolley problem.
Choosing either one would ultimately leave the other unselected food behind in the freezer, which wasn't fair to them!
The girl who directly used her own name as her magical girl codename closed her eyes.
Then she reached out to choose back and forth between the two packages, ultimately having one of them forcibly stuffed into her hands by Megumi under the excuse that it was about to melt.
"What a pity... mm... this one is also delicious!"
Megumi knew how easy her partner was to coax, so she very confidently paid the bill and pulled Amber, who was eating the popsicle, toward the shop door.
"Alright, alright, if this one is also delicious, I'll treat Amber to other flavors next time, okay?"
The hard sensation of the ground under her feet was suddenly replaced by something soft during one step. Megumi quickly lifted her foot and discovered she had accidentally stepped on a girl's foot.
"I'm very sorry! Um, I've caused you trouble...!"
Reiko forcibly endured the pain of being accidentally stepped on and weakly shook her head, then glanced at Amber beside Megumi, who was wholeheartedly savoring her popsicle.
There really are so many fools in this world.
Megumi also unconsciously looked at the black-haired girl beside Reiko who was thinking about what other ingredients to buy to entertain her friend. Honestly, she really felt this cute girl looked very familiar, but just couldn't remember where she had seen her...
The two pairs of good friends separated like this at the convenience store, one pair walking toward school, one pair walking toward the residential area.
"Megumi really loves studying!"
Amber bit down on a mouthful of cream and made unclear sounds while chewing, seemingly praising her companion.
"Ahaha, um... it's all the Cream Monster's fault! Otherwise I would have finished my homework long ago!"
Megumi worried about her homework problem while also praising her partner who had rescued her.
"Thanks to Amber! Specially rushing to save me, otherwise I probably would have just been released now..."
After Amber finished the last bite of her popsicle, she licked the popsicle stick while looking for a trash can, incidentally nodding to acknowledge her contribution.
"Then I'll go up first! Amber just wait for me here, don't go with other people, okay?"
Amber threw away the popsicle stick and leaned against the school wall to begin waiting.
At the same time, seeing no pedestrians passing by... Amber's familiar poked a small fox head out of her backpack.
"Stupid Amber!"
One sentence made her unhappy.
"Why are you calling me stupid? You're the stupid fox!"
Her familiar, Yoko, wanted nothing more than to bite her master's neck.
"Then let me ask you, what were you doing this afternoon!"
Amber answered without thinking.
"Of course I was sleeping!"
Yoko moved close to her master's ear and asked her master word by word.
"Then since you were sleeping, how did you go save Luna? Speak!"
Orange eyes with some grievance blinked and belatedly nodded.
"Right... how did I save Luna if I was sleeping the whole time?"
Yoko thought she had successfully convinced her master and had just returned to the backpack when she heard her master's earth-shattering counter-question.
Then... if I didn't go save Luna, why would Luna lie to me?
Could it be because... Luna just wanted to treat me to ice cream?
After thinking for a while, Amber discovered she simply couldn't think of an answer, so she directly threw the question to her external brain Yoko to solve.
"Are you suspecting Luna of lying? Yoko! You really disappoint me!"
Yoko bared her teeth at her master's ear, but gave up the idea of using force to persuade her because she was afraid she couldn't win.
"Then if you were sleeping at the time, who went and saved Luna!"
Amber tilted her head.
"Luna said Amber saved her! So it was Magical Girl Amber who saved Luna!"
Yoko was so angry her vision went a bit dark.
"Then who are you?! If the person who saved Luna was Magical Girl Amber, then who are you?!"
Amber somewhat strangely patted the fox's head.
"I'm Magical Girl Amber! Is Yoko too tired? Do you want to rest a bit?"