Chapter 66: To Be Here

By the time the funeral procedures had concluded, Materia had cried until she collapsed in front of the space where Glacia Azure was now completely buried, with only the inscription on the tombstone remaining as a trace of her.

She lay face down on the dirt floor, her sobs growing louder.

Some of the attendees left as if fleeing.

Others watched quietly, their expressions full of concern for the children, or made motions to approach and offer comfort.

After the last shovelful of dirt had been tossed and the coffin was completely buried, the light returned to Rosa Alisa’s eyes, and she began to wail just as Materia had.

Blanc was among those who stayed, embracing Rosa and stroking her hair.

‘Is this what it is to die and leave children behind…?’

If she focused on pushing the wheelchair, on ensuring Yu Ji-hye wouldn’t be harmed, she could more forcefully suppress the re-emergence of her trauma from six years ago.

Having heard a rough account of the magical girl named Glacia Azure and the events of that night, she couldn’t dare to compare which was more miserable: herself, who had lost everyone she was meant to protect, or Glacia, who had died alone, leaving behind children she was supposed to protect.

That was why she had done nothing but stand still throughout the funeral, her gaze fixed on the back of Yu Ji-hye’s head.

Yu Ji-hye.

She was the reason Eclipse had flown all the way here.

When Yu Ji-hye had confidently explained her plan, boasting that she would capture Sanguine Obsidia, she had not denied Eclipse’s speculations about what would follow—speculations that were likely infinitely close to Yu Ji-hye’s true goal.

Faced with this, the choice Eclipse made was to leave her be.

It wasn’t that she hated the government and the Committee, but rather that she trusted her only remaining old friend.

She had believed that even if they failed to capture Sanguine Obsidia, or if the coup failed, with Bistour Blanc by her side, Yu Ji-hye herself would never be harmed.

Therefore, just as she had for the past six years, she had spent that day in a daze, trapped by the memorial monument.

A colossal memorial inscribed with the names of the hundreds of thousands of citizens who had vanished, burned away by light and heat without leaving even a corpse.

And the names of dozens of magical girls—Eclipse’s colleagues, her juniors, her precious people—who had likewise been incinerated in an instant.

Before this tombstone, where not a single fragment of bone, not even a speck of flesh was buried, she was bound by chains named guilt and trauma.

Even after the threat of the demons had vanished and the city had been rebuilt by the people who gathered, finally regaining some semblance of its former vitality, she remained trapped by the memorial.

She had become something closer to a captured ghost than a city landmark or a guardian deity.

She helped rebuild the Busan branch of the Magical Girl Association and spent her days defeating powerful demons when they appeared.

But this was less an act of her own will and more a response to the commands of the dead magical girls’ ghosts—that is, to her trauma—which had taken root deep within her mind.

When it became unbearable, she would drink.

When she sobered up, she would do anything to escape the guilt.

Her days were a continuous cycle of this.

“…up, sleeping like this again. Your face will get stuck like that. Wake up!”

And as that dawn passed and the sun rose, Eclipse, who had been sitting blankly before the memorial all night as usual and had fallen asleep, was awakened by someone’s voice shaking her.

It was a familiar face, a peculiar child who had volunteered to be the liaison between the Busan branch and Eclipse, constantly bothering her.

For her to come and wake her at this hour meant something had happened.

And so, she heard the story.

The news that they had lost Sanguine Obsidia, that the magical girls had fallen, that a magical girl named Glacia Azure had died, and that the Association Head, Yu Ji-hye, was unconscious.

She realized then that the only reason she had been able to wander through her trauma for the past six years, spending meaningless time trapped by the ghosts of the past, repeating futile suicide attempts that couldn’t even properly injure her body which had become no different from a spirit’s…

It was because she had a reliable spiritual pillar named Yu Ji-hye, someone who remembered her past, someone with whom she could share those memories.

The shock was more than she could bear.

She collapsed, unable to support her body as it staggered from the pain of loss.

***

As planned, the magical girls and police officers surrounded the park, focusing on the battle between Yu Ji-hye and Sanguine Obsidia.

They watched as Yu Ji-hye firmly grabbed Sanguine Obsidia’s head, slammed it into the ground, and then bound her entire body with chains.

Some hoped Sanguine Obsidia would be arrested, to receive the confinement and execution known as the judgment of the law.

Others hoped she would die right there, so the threat would vanish forever.

But what everyone truly wanted was one thing.

Revenge.

Revenge for their colleagues, for the victims who had died at Sanguine Obsidia’s hands.

And as the executioner of that revenge, Yu Ji-hye trampled on Sanguine Obsidia and aimed the violet blade of her mana.

Stab.

The instant the blade pierced Sanguine Obsidia’s chest, the two figures vanished, swallowed by a pitch-black fog.

The fog began to spread, gradually engulfing those who had surrounded the park.

The magical girls and the heavily armed police officers were flustered by the unexpected turn of events.

In the moment they sensed the ominous pressure and fear from the mana emanating from the black fog that was already blanketing the small park…

“Ugh…!”

A magical girl clutched her chest.

A chorus of groans, screams, and falling bodies echoed through the air.

Another magical girl had already lost consciousness and was plummeting from the sky.

The one who caught her collapsed right on top of her, a heap of two bodies.

“What is this, all of a sudden…?”

She couldn’t breathe.

Breathing desperately, Bistour Blanc looked around.

Her vision was clouded as if darkness itself had seeped into her eyes, but she could still witness the police officers lying unconscious and even the magical girls collapsing one by one.

Even Vera Bellastra, who had been gritting her teeth and enduring, fell.

“Hah… Ugh…”

Infusing her body with healing magic, the pain in her chest and the shortness of breath eased slightly.

Through her own vision, she could see a mana darker than the night, an ominous black mana of terrifying density, filling the space.

It suffocated people as if they were plunged into the deep sea, crushing them with its sheer presence.

She saw the fallen magical girls groaning in pain.

Blanc approached the nearest fallen magical girl and checked her pulse and breathing.

Fortunately, she was alive and well, and her mana circulation was, for now at least, stable.

But whatever Sanguine Obsidia had done, it was clear this was not good.

And Jihye, who must be at the center of it all…

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

A ringing filled her ears, of an unbearably painful intensity, as if the entire world was screaming.

Yu Ji-hye realized it was the roar of a pitch-black beast with its massive maw wide open.

Her ears and brain, unable to withstand the horrific sound, had fallen into confusion, choosing to hear a piercing ring instead of the monster’s incomprehensible cry.

‘I’m going to die.’

The fear of death, which had crept so close as to squeeze her heart, dispelled the bewilderment of being suddenly dragged into the darkness.

A magical girl’s cool-headed brain scrambled for a solution.

The monster’s closing jaws, the approaching fangs, seemed to move in slow motion.

It was already too late, but she detonated all her mana, launching her body backward.

“…!”

She gritted her teeth against the excruciating pain.

She formed a mana barrier around the stump of her thigh where it had been torn from the monster’s closing maw, stopping the gush of blood.

The head of the black monster, which had been shaped like a giant wolf, melted away, dissolving into thousands, tens of thousands of small lumps—a swarm of pitch-black fog, like a cloud of flies, that descended upon Yu Ji-hye.

Enduring the agony of losing both legs, Yu Ji-hye desperately gathered her mana.

Something with properties similar to the spells Sanguine Obsidia used, but far more terrifying, was rushing toward her.

A barrier of violet flames fought back the attacking swarm of insects, burning them, until it was finally eroded and consumed.

She was thrown backward, landing hard on her back, completely defenseless.

The moment a single black, insect-like shape touched her…

“Ah… Aaaargh…”

Yu Ji-hye’s arms and neck trembled and convulsed violently.

She couldn’t use her mana.

An unpleasant, painful sensation, as if an electric current was running through every single cell in her skin and body, ravaged her from within.

A groan escaped from her convulsing throat.

‘The mana… the mana organ’s… rampage.’

It had all happened in an instant.

The rampaging mana, unable to escape, surged through Yu Ji-hye’s entire body, raging like a storm.

And the moment she barely grasped what had happened, her consciousness was severed.

“Jihye!”

Spotting her collapsed and convulsing, Blanc rushed forward.

She thought Yu Ji-hye had emerged from the black fog, but then she suddenly convulsed and went limp.

Tears threatened to fall, but seeing the mangled stump of her leg, which had started gushing blood as if torn apart by a beast, she realized she had no time to be flustered.

Green mana glowed, and flesh began to regenerate on the severed thigh, healing the wound.

But no matter where she looked, Yu Ji-hye’s legs were nowhere to be found.

Sanguine Obsidia, who should have been lying there defeated, was also gone.

But compared to Jihye, Blanc couldn’t care less what happened to Sanguine Obsidia.

“Wake up, please…”

No matter how much healing magic she poured into her, Yu Ji-hye did not open her eyes.

The minor cuts all over her body healed, as did the wound on her severed leg.

Her body temperature was normal, her pulse and breathing regular.

But…

“The mana organ…”

Blanc unbuttoned her shirt and placed a hand on the center of her chest.

The skin was flawless, without a single scar, but beneath it, the mana organ that should have been behind a magical girl’s sternum—the bead-shaped core—was shattered.

It was now only erratically scattering the dregs of mana left after it had already destroyed Yu Ji-hye’s body and mind.

“Ah.”

And so, Blanc despaired.

A sigh of frustration escaped her lips.

The unique magic of the renowned Bistour Blanc, capable of saving anyone as long as they were not dead, could not regenerate a completely severed limb, revive a completely destroyed mana organ, or restore a brain damaged by a mana rampage.

She had prided herself on having healed and saved so many people, but now she saw that her power was nothing more than a fleeting, powerless child’s game, unable to save the one person most precious to her.

***

The sliding door shattered with a deafening crash, and the sound of its splintered remains hitting the floor echoed through the quiet hospital room, but no one reacted.

The magical girl with violet hair lying on the bed remained unresponsive to the sound, or to anything else.
The gray-haired magical girl clinging to her side had eyes only for her.

Radiating an anger so intense that no one dared to stop her, Eclipse stormed into the hospital room with the same force she had used to destroy the door.

With one step, the rage subsided.

With another, her legs began to tremble.

With yet another, a teardrop fell from her glistening eyes.

Arriving before the bed, she fell to her knees before Blanc and began to plead.

To please, please heal her precious friend.

Eclipse knew, to some extent, what Yu Ji-hye had been thinking.

That she was trying to overthrow the current system, that she might even harbor ambitions of becoming a dictator, and that she even planned to manipulate Eclipse herself.

But to her, Yu Ji-hye was still her childhood friend, a precious person, the only reliable bond she had left when everyone else was dead.

At least, unlike the government or those bastards from the old Committee, she hadn’t locked her up and subjected her to years of experiments that amounted to torture.

She had thought that occasionally prodding her trauma, or inducing her actions with words and gifts to gain an advantage, wasn’t even worth calling manipulation.

But now, even that twisted relationship had become meaningless.

“Ah…”

This thing lying on the bed, occasionally letting out a dry sound, this human-shaped form that had lost both legs, lost consciousness, reason, and even intellect—it was unmistakably Yu Ji-hye.

Upon hearing the news and regaining her senses, she had flown straight to Seoul, cursing her own foolishness, her own complacency.

She berated herself, thinking that if only she had come to help Yu Ji-hye from the start, dealt with the demons, and cooperated in Sanguine Obsidia’s capture, they could have easily defeated her, even if she had been hiding power on par with a disaster-level demon.

Then, Yu Ji-hye would never have ended up like this.

And so, she was furious with the part of herself that tried to make excuses, that whispered she would have made the same choice to stay in Busan even if she could go back in time.

When she heard that Bistour Blanc’s treatment had healed her body and she had opened her eyes, but her consciousness had not returned, that fury turned towards Blanc.

Before entering the hospital room, she had been determined to grab Blanc by the collar, to unleash her rage, to voice the unreasonable complaint of why she couldn’t heal Jihye.

But the sight of Yu Ji-hye, lying like a corpse with her half-open, unfocused eyes staring at the ceiling, transformed her anger into tears.

“Please, I’m begging you…”

And now, Eclipse was on her knees, pleading with Blanc over and over.

Bistour Blanc and Eclipse were not close.

Yu Ji-hye was Eclipse’s childhood friend, and Blanc was the girl who had saved Yu Ji-hye’s life, but there was no connection between Blanc and Eclipse.

Their interactions were limited to the few words they exchanged when Blanc would occasionally join Yu Ji-hye and Eclipse’s video calls.

Blanc, who knew a little about Eclipse’s circumstances from Yu Ji-hye, pitied her.

As the old friend of someone precious to her, she considered Eclipse precious as well.

Therefore, the sight of Eclipse—who had abandoned even the chains that bound her to the memorial, who had cast aside her pride, even her reason, and was now sobbing her heart out—was enough to pull Blanc back to reality from her daze, where she had been hovering on the edge of despair and affection for Yu Ji-hye.

But even so, she had no words she could offer Eclipse.

While the headquarters standby team, having finally grasped the situation, transported the fallen magical girls and police officers to the hospital, and while the awakened magical girls and the government officials dealt with the aftermath, Blanc could think of nothing but Yu Ji-hye.

She stayed by her side for 24 hours a day, constantly using healing magic, pouring all her mana into trying to restore the shattered mana organ and circuits.

She contacted almost every university hospital professor she could reach, including her own mentor, desperately pleading as she secretly ran every possible test.

The result: the efforts to restore the mana organ yielded not even the slightest success.

The diagnosis was that her entire nervous system and brain were severely damaged, leaving her in a vegetative state.

The old professor who examined her even said that if not for Blanc’s dedicated healing and the sturdy body of a magical girl, she would have already been dead.

Blanc could say nothing.

There was no magic that could revive a broken mind and brain.

Her body was still that of a perfect magical girl, able to live as long as mana was supplied.

But whether it was because she was deemed no longer able to function as a magical girl, or because she had been caught in Sanguine Obsidia’s black fog, even the form of her mascot, Gazer Lambda, had long since vanished.

“There are signs of the mana organ recovering.”

It wasn’t a lie.

But it was an unprecedentedly difficult task, a meaningless effort since she had found no way to revive the already damaged brain.

“It might take years, but I think it might be possible to slowly restore the broken circuits and the mana organ.”

There was not a shred of conviction in Blanc’s voice as she spoke with her gaze averted, and Eclipse, listening, also realized this was a futile hope.

But it was enough to make her stand.

Even if nothing remained at the end of the path she now walked, she was already accustomed to loss.

A case like Yu Ji-hye’s, where she was at least still alive, was a very fortunate one.

“…Therefore, I will assume the position of interim head of the Korean Magical Girl Association. I will not accept any opposing opinions.”

The next day, before all the committee members gathered in the grand hall and the reporters she had summoned by crushing the committee’s opposition, Eclipse made her declaration.

Officially, it was an outrage committed by a civilian who had severed all ties with the Association.

But after one official who voiced opposition to Eclipse’s tyranny found a knife embedded in his stomach and felt its blood-stained blade at his neck, the committee members had no choice but to cooperate with the press conference.

For the Committee, thrown into chaos by the Association’s failure, the Head’s critical condition, and the unprecedented incident of nearly all participating magical girls and police officers losing consciousness or being injured—and more so by the fear that Sanguine Obsidia’s threat could turn on them and the political fallout of this incident—it was a declaration from hell.

“Especially you, you, and you.”

Her words were even more so for the people Eclipse had just pointed out—those indirectly involved in the biological experiment incident who still held their positions thanks to the excellent method of destroying evidence.

“You will have to cooperate with me fully. I promise here, in this place. In place of the fallen Head, Yu Ji-hye, I will capture Sanguine Obsidia and put her on the executioner’s block.

I will strike down every demon, every force that threatens the Magical Girl Association, and I will protect the safety of the people.”

Stepping on that futile hope, she now began to move, filling the space once occupied by guilt and trauma with cold hatred and anger.

To the point where if she couldn’t capture Sanguine Obsidia, she was willing to burn down her entire suspected area of residence.