Chapter 93: Final Act – Toward a Happy Ending (2)
by Afuhfuihgs“…Is this the right way?”
“Of course, Janwol! Have I ever been wrong? Hold my hand tight and follow me. Everyone’s waiting just for you, you know?”
“Hmm, if you say so……”
Janwol, the magical girl, scratched her forehead with a dubious expression.
Today, too, was a day no different from any other.
She had spent the whole day observing other magical girls at the Bureau, and as soon as the alarm for an unidentified entity’s appearance sounded, she had rushed to the scene and perfectly resolved the situation.
Though, for some reason, the other magical girls seemed quite frightened of her, covered in the blue blood of the unidentified entity.
‘They need to get used to this much.’
Ianna thought so and composed herself.
Being covered in blood was nothing.
Ianna had experienced things far worse than that tens, hundreds of times.
To become a ‘magical girl’ who protects people, she couldn’t be afraid of just this much.
‘……Back in my day, this much was nothing.’
Ianna secretly lamented about ‘magical girls these days.
‘ Thinking, ‘Back in my day, most magical girls, far from fearing blood, would even chew on the raw flesh of unidentified entities.’
Of course, none of those magical girls remain now.
Because they all died.
Berserk due to madness, or killed in action by unidentified entities.
Or if not that…… by the Bureau’s purge.
Not long ago, Ianna’s partner magical girl also died that way.
They seemed to have been quite close, but she couldn’t recall her face.
“Haa…….”
As Ianna sighed and stood still, the magical girl who had been walking ahead rushed back and grabbed Ianna’s hand.
“You’re being slow, Janwol!”
“What on earth is the matter……?”
“Go and see for yourself!”
Ianna was, half-genuinely, unable to hide her astonishment.
These days… what was it called, MZ generation?
Even if magical girls didn’t distinguish between superiors and inferiors…… to just grab a superior’s hand like this.
‘Do they even know what it means to hold hands?’
Ianna lamented the somewhat frivolous, and even promiscuous, state of magical girls these days.
A sigh escaped her involuntarily, but she didn’t show it outwardly.
‘…Yes. These children haven’t had proper home education. I have no choice but to understand and move on…….’
Most magical girls are orphans.
However, Ianna, forgetting that she herself was an orphan, tutted and considered the necessity of ‘re-education.’
Just then.
“Wh-What!”
“Wait here, Janwol…!”
The tomboyish magical girl blindfolded Ianna and then hurriedly disappeared somewhere.
As darkness suddenly fell, the astonished Ianna thrashed about, trying to throw off the blindfold.
“Am I being kidnapped…!?”
The first thought that came to Ianna’s mind was ‘kidnapping.’
Kidnappings of magical girls were quite frequent, usually perpetrated by other magical girl management organizations to harass rival organizations.
However, Ianna herself didn’t think she would lose to kidnappers.
It was embarrassing to say it herself… but the strongest among currently existing magical girls was probably her.
She could prove it by having survived for ten years already.
It was a rational deduction based on facts.
“Hmm…….”
‘It’s probably not a kidnapping.’
Ianna, having stopped struggling, thought intently.
On a scorching summer day when the sound of cicadas split the asphalt, what on earth were the other magical girls planning to do by dragging her to an alleyway on the outskirts of the city like this?
Frankly… it was a little bothersome.
Most things could be resolved within the Bureau.
Did they really have to drag a great senior like herself to an alley like this?
Well, since it was a request from a cute junior magical girl, she would wait for now….
Ianna, her heart pounding with curiosity, stood still and waited for a considerably long time.
Ianna’s glossy, long black hair sparkled in the sunlight.
Ianna, who was usually told she was quite beautiful, exuded a mysterious allure different from her usual self, drenched in sweat.
“Hoo, hoohu…….”
Ianna was inwardly delighted.
Because the junior magical girls had always found her difficult, she hadn’t expected them to approach her first like this.
Putting aside her pounding heart, Ianna gasped for breath and wondered what her juniors had prepared.
‘M-Maybe… a present…?’
The concept of ‘receiving’ something, including presents, was quite unfamiliar to Ianna.
Other than the old watch given to her by her partner magical girl who died recently, the one who had awakened emotions in her that she had never felt in her entire life… Ianna had almost no memory of receiving anything.
Love was the same.
She had never received it since birth.
Anyway.
Ianna, stained with joy and nervousness, fidgeted with her legs and twitched the corners of her mouth.
“Where’s Janwol?”
“She’s not moving yet.”
“Let’s steal it now…!”
Of course, unfortunately, Ianna’s prediction was wrong again this time.
While Ianna was getting excited in the alley, the junior magical girls secretly approached and swiped Ianna’s wallet.
“H-Hey… girls, are you still not done?”
It was Ianna’s fault for momentarily overlooking the fact that most magical girls were ‘orphans.’
Ianna stood blankly in the alley for a while like that.
***
“Janwol, I’m sorry! Just a moment to talk……!!!”
“I won’t do it again…!”
Naturally, this absurd theft was quickly discovered.
The fact that Ianna had survived for ten years meant, in other words, that she had lived with ‘orphans’ for ten years (including herself, of course).
She had already figured out the behavioral patterns and personalities of the other magical girls.
She just didn’t show it, but Ianna was interested in other magical girls to the point of near obsession.
She just hesitated to approach them first, afraid they would be scared.
Her cold eyes, white skin, and jet-black hair made Ianna reminiscent of a ‘witch.’
The magical girls, unknowingly thinking Ianna was strict, simply didn’t approach her.
Anyway.
Ianna personally retrieved her wallet and then confined the two rookie magical girls to a solitary cell.
She planned to starve them for a while too.
It was a heart-wrenching decision considering her ‘family-like’ juniors… but what could she do?
She was firmly resolved to fix their rotten mentality this time.
“Janwol, isn’t that a bit too harsh? A magical girl who needs to eat three times a meal, fasting……”
“Ha?”
“…No, it seems like an appropriate punishment.”
As Ianna glared with a truly murderous expression, the ‘Cold Magical Girl,’ naturally intimidated, took a few steps back.
‘……Scary person.’
Cold raised her fear of Ianna by another level and then excused herself.
Ianna personally threw the two magical girls into solitary confinement, then slammed the door shut and came out to the Bureau lounge.
‘I was looking forward to it a little.’
She wasn’t at the point of never forgiving the two magical girls who had carved out her heart, but anyway, Ianna felt quite lonely.
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
Ianna understood and accepted.
Because she knew why the magical girls found her uncomfortable.
“Back in my day…….”
Ianna, her chronic habit kicking in, tutted and sat down at a lounge table, opening a book.
Because it felt like she wouldn’t be able to calm her head otherwise.
At that moment.
Someone snatched the book away and then hugged Ianna from behind.
A sense of unease.
No one present felt any unease.
The atmosphere grew heavy.
It felt like the air was sinking, but Ianna didn’t notice anything strange.
“Anna. What are you doing?”
“Huh?”
Ianna couldn’t hide her bewilderment.
Really… these days, MZ? generation magical girls, is education the problem?
What on earth did they take her for, to suddenly commit such rudeness…….
Poke
A white, slender, long, and beautiful hand firmly pinched Ianna’s nose.
Ianna, her nose pinched, couldn’t help but be a little dumbfounded.
Because lustrous platinum blonde hair, and white eyes that looked like a vortex, as if something was being sucked in, came into view.
‘……Was there a child like this?’
She was a tall magical girl with a platinum blonde bob that suited her very well.
Through the overflowing Aether energy, Ianna could roughly guess that the other person was a magical girl.
“Haha.”
The woman smiled faintly, very slowly took Ianna’s hand, and helped her up.
“Hey, you are…….”
For a moment, Ianna too felt a very slight sense of unease, but…….
“Sarha.”
“Sarha?”
“Yes.”
“Anna’s most ‘precious’ magical girl.”
In the end, she accepted it.
***
“…This place.”
Did the season change?
The last time, the very last time she regained consciousness, it seemed to be late autumn.
Midsummer, a daytime cityscape vibrating with tremendous heat and the sound of cicadas.
‘……Wait.’
The pain, as if her head was being drilled by a vibrating drill, disappeared.
Not only that, but her arms and legs… all seemed to be intact.
Had she returned to reality?
No, that didn’t seem to be the case.
The body reflected in the glass window… belonged to a rather frail-looking woman.
Her height was similar to Ianna’s, but her hair color was black.
Her resigned eyes and shallow eyebrows were an impressive feature.
It looked quite familiar…….
“What happened?”
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