Chapter 74: Young Desire

She lowered the blinds so far they touched the floorboards.

The only light in the unlit room was the faint sunlight seeping through the cracks.

The room grew as dark as dusk, just enough to barely make out the letters on the paper, yet her mind felt at ease.

“Haaah…”

With a sigh laden with a multitude of meanings and emotions, the girl sank into an office chair scarred with patches of peeling faux leather.

Both the chair and the desk were sized for the previous occupant, making them a little too large for her, but she didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable.

“How many days has it been.”

Silence settled in the office of the Magical Girl Association’s head.

She had lowered the blinds to shut out the source of the visual noise seeping in from outside.

Outside, dozens of people were still chanting a chorus of resentment and blame, but their voices, their faces, and the slogans they held no longer reached the girl.

She had heard that a double-layered soundproofing design was added when the half-demolished Magical Girl Association building was being restored.

It seemed that no matter how angry the protestors were, their voices couldn’t penetrate the magically reinforced soundproofing.

Sweeping back her long, disheveled black hair that covered her face, Eclipse sat up and pulled the chair closer.

On the desk lay a newspaper.

The headline on the first page was about a recent, shocking series of murders.

But she didn’t want to read the words.

It wasn’t just because the room was dark.

[Magical Girl Association, explain yourselves!]

[Explain the serial murders!]

The protestors’ shouts from outside the window were unlikely to penetrate the thick walls of the 5th-floor head’s office, but annoying voices seemed to echo in her ears.

“Another fallen magical girl, another murderer born amidst the surge in monster damage.”

It was a provocative yet concise headline, befitting a historic newspaper that had survived even the era of crumbling civilization.

Objectively, the quality was poor, but the photo on the front page of the newspaper, printed on the best quality rough paper available in this day and age, showed the floor of a murder scene, a bloody mess.

A clear photo of the chalk outline of a human body, cut in half at the torso.

It all started when an incredibly clever reporter from a small media outlet wrote an article about the dozens of recent murders, claiming based on their similarities that it was the work of one person, and that it must be the work of a recently fallen magical girl.

The fact that the same pattern of magical traces was found on the mutilated bodies, indiscriminately targeting people living in the ruins and the city center, was confirmed by the reporter himself with a scanner he had somehow acquired.

It was only a matter of time before the article spread as fact.

And Eclipse, who had been busy fighting with a few sabotaging Ministry of Magic officials and the committee, and dealing with the recent surge in monster appearances, including a disaster-class one, couldn’t spare any attention for this matter.

This was the result.

“I thought the reputation and the miserable state of the Magical Girl Association couldn’t get any lower.
Turns out there was a deeper pit beneath it.”

She spoke with annoyance, but Eclipse didn’t care about the protests, the media, or the government pressure.

But Rosa Alisa was out of the Association’s and the magical girls’ hands, and the clues to find Sanguine Obsidia, to catch her, kill her, and exact revenge, were back to square one.

When she came to her senses, the poor girl named Rosa Alisa had become such a serious criminal that nothing could be done.

Eclipse opened her left hand.

A combat-grade prosthetic arm, exquisitely replicating the form of a girl’s left arm and conducting magic.

In her eyes, it seemed as if the sands of time, barely held by that metal hand, were slipping through her fingers and disappearing.

A confusion she could never get used to, and a misery that had sunk deep into her heart and stuck there, made her heart ache as if it were being squeezed, and her cold, artificial eye spun dizzily.

Unable to bear it, she removed her left arm, placed it on the newspaper, and began to maintain it.

She unnecessarily brushed the dust-free joints and meaninglessly applied new oil over the lubricant she had applied yesterday.

‘…Just when I thought I had managed to lift my slumped spirit and take the first step, my feet became stuck before I could take the second.’

‘One foot was sunk, stuck with frozen memories and emotions, and the other was crushed by the weight of a miserable reality.’

She unfocused her eyes, drained the magic from her artificial eye, and drifted in a sea of thoughts, barely holding onto the thread of reason while sinking into a daze of meaningless brushing.

It was a method she had recently learned to suppress the pain of the past from surfacing and bursting into reality.

She thought of her violet friend, and of the weight of the Magical Girl Association and civilization clinging to her shoulders.

After continuing the meaningless brushing for what felt like a long time, Eclipse finally spoke to the figure huddled in a darker corner of the dark room.

“So, how long are you going to be like that?”

The girl just lowered her head, flinching and trembling blankly.

Disheveled gray hair, eyes more lifeless and miserable than the darkest green algae, like the remnants of burnt-out ashes, a gaunt and haggard face.

“…Bistour Blanc.”

A surge of irritation rose.

Knowing it was anger and hatred for herself, Eclipse bit her lip without a word, roughly grabbing her prosthetic with her right hand and reattaching it to her left shoulder.

The sharp pain of the pseudo-nerve circuit connecting felt particularly keen.

“What… should I have done…?”

A hollow voice echoed.

Eclipse couldn’t think of anything to say in response.

There had been quite a few magical girls who had taken a break from activities or had fallen ill after the last incident.

Some had died miserably, and the head of the association had even become a vegetable, yet they had still failed, and in the end, they had all fallen to Sanguine Obsidia’s mysterious attack.

But all of them, in one way or another, could be contacted.

But, there was one magical girl who couldn’t be contacted at all.

Rosa Alisa.

The child who had wailed that night, clutching the severed head of Glacia Azure, whom she had followed like a real sister.

Although she wasn’t arrested and there was no clear evidence, both Blanc and Eclipse were certain that she was the culprit pointed out in the newspaper.

And Blanc had entered the room with today’s morning paper, having understood that fact perfectly, and had sunk into her own gloom, holing up in a dark corner of the room.

That meant that not only had Blanc lost her precious younger sister-like junior and her most precious person forever, but she had also lost her youngest and weakest sister.

Unlike Eclipse, who was barely maintaining her composure under the weight of thick documents pressing down on her depression and trauma, Blanc’s mind had lost its footing and was drifting, scattered by the wind.

No, “drifting” was just Eclipse’s impression; in reality, it might have been even more serious.

At least, the unconscious habits ingrained over a long time allowed her to perform her role as the Magical Girl Association’s healer, but the sight of her gently embracing her junior magical girls and smiling was no longer to be found.

‘If I had comforted her well then, if I had stopped Yu Ji-hye from causing trouble in the first place… this is the result of me being swayed by Ji-hye’s desires and neglecting the children.

It’s no different from me killing them, it’s no different from me messing with a despairing child’s heart.

If I hadn’t passively agreed, Yu Ji-hye wouldn’t have become a vegetable, and I wouldn’t have had to exhaust all means to save her, and I wouldn’t have failed even then, ending up flailing and sinking on the border of despair and resignation.’

Only such idling thoughts swirled in Blanc’s subconscious.

“…What do you want to do?”

‘What do I want to do?’

Eclipse answered a question with a question.

It was a question to herself as well.

Bistour Blanc.

A friend’s acquaintance, a friend’s friend, a friend’s lover, a friend’s family.

Either way, Bistour Blanc was not a distant figure to Eclipse, and they had had some interaction, but they were by no means close.

At most, they had exchanged a few words from time to time.

Therefore, there was nothing she could say.

She could only hope that her thought that Blanc was a person who would eventually get back up despite all the pain was correct.

“Alisa… we have to stop that child.

Before it’s too late, at least her.”

‘We both know it’s already too late.

Your kindness has expired and been discarded.’

Swallowing the dagger-like words dancing on the tip of her tongue, Eclipse just slowly nodded her head.

Meaning that regardless of reformation or remorse, Rosa Alisa, who was currently committing numerous murders, unlike Sanguine Obsidia who had been quiet for over a month, was a criminal who must be caught.

“Ji-hye…”

And then, about to say something, Blanc closed her mouth and lowered her head.

She was still pouring all her effort and time into reviving her, but there was no point in calling the name of someone who would never return.

***

“I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
Of course, you already know the bad news, so there’s no need to hear it.”

A long time passed, and just after Bistour Blanc left like a ghost, saying she had to go see a child who was hospitalized, another magical girl entered, speaking in a cold voice.

A magical girl with a pink ponytail and a lab-coat-like outfit, Vera Velastra.

A friend’s colleague and enemy, and from the other’s perspective, a colleague and enemy’s friend.

An exquisitely subtle relationship, but she was one of the few magical girls who at least pretended to respect Eclipse, who held the title of head of the association.

“Bistour Blanc is probably in a hospital room by now.”

Eclipse, knowing what the good news was anyway, deliberately spoke provocatively.

It must be news that they had found a clue to catch Rosa Alisa.

Or that they had a proper plan.

That’s why she had waited for Blanc to leave before coming in.

The right thing to say to this magical girl, who was so carefully watching Blanc’s mood, was therefore something about Blanc.

“…That’s not what I’m talking about right now.”

At the mention of Blanc’s name, the pink eyes showed blatant hostility.

‘The magical girl named Vera Velastra is more emotional than I thought, and has a more twisted mind than I could have imagined,’ Eclipse slightly adjusted her assessment.

“I said it because it’s not irrelevant.”

“Ha.”

Forgetting even her usual “kihiit” laugh, she let out a hollow, bitter laugh, her pink eyes filled with empty hatred.

“Fine.

Use me as you please.

I’ll cooperate until we catch that fcking white-haired btch and kill her.

But…”

Pink magic shimmered on Vera’s hand, and sharp thorns rippled, making a sound like the air being torn.

“Vera Velastra.”

As if declaring that it was no threat at all, Eclipse met Vera’s eyes without flinching.

“I know the emotion you have is different from revenge.

It would be more accurate to say it’s dissatisfaction at having your enemy, or perhaps your goal, taken away.

Am I wrong?”

This was the first time the two of them, who had dealt with the chaos of the Magical Girl Association together and had watched Blanc crumble from the sidelines like many other magical girls, had had a conversation of more than three sentences.

Eclipse’s words about the other’s and her own inner self were half-impulsive.

“But your and my rational thoughts share the same conclusion.

You may not like it, but catching Rosa Alisa is necessary for Blanc’s sake, even before it’s the Association’s duty.

In a situation where we have to deal with Sanguine Obsidia and the Apostle Society, who are hard to even trace, we can’t waste resources and time on one fallen magical girl.

That one poor child.

I’ll turn a blind eye to some collateral damage, so finish it quickly.

You need my help too, isn’t that why you came to see me now?”

“…You’re more reasonable than I thought.

If I’d known, I would have tried ‘talking’ to you sooner, our great ‘new’ head, Kihiit.

Yes, you are the fastest in terms of speed and power.”

Spitting out a sentence laced with scathing insults, and laughing her usual terrible laugh, Vera confidently explained the trap to lure and capture Rosa Alisa.

“Oh, and about that good news I mentioned earlier…”

With a sneer twice as scathing, Vera said finally.

“It’s much better news than you think.

I’ve narrowed down Sanguine Obsidia’s disguised identity and her suspected collaborators to a few people.

It was quite difficult.

Kihiit, catching Rosa Alisa and comparing it with the kill list she probably has will help confirm it.”

Without listening to any questions, as if she would only tell the interesting story later, she turned her back and left the head’s office.