I am a Magical Girl.
I am the Incarnation of Love and Justice.
I will purify all evil and filth.
But I killed everyone…
I bear, and must bear, an unforgivable sin.
Boom——!
A ghastly white bolt of lightning tore through the pitch-black night sky, and the thunder that followed seemed as if it would shatter the earth itself.
The pouring rain was as though the firmament had been pierced, icy and relentless as it flooded down, mercilessly scouring the streets and ruins—also drenching the blue-haired girl stumbling madly through the downpour—Cornflower.
Her Magical Girl dress was already soaked through, clinging tightly to her body, outlining the silhouette wracked with violent tremors from fear and despair.
Rain mixed with tears streamed recklessly down her cheeks, blurring her vision, and the hellish scene she had just witnessed.
Just five minutes ago.
The moonlight, that last gentle witness, had long since been devoured by roiling clouds thick with malice.
As they had only just finished a grueling battle against a Disaster-Class Broodmother, exhausted in both body and mind, even joking lightly about having a barbecue in the wake of their victory…suddenly, calamity struck.
Their trusted Captain, “Crystal Orchid,” that Abyssal-Class Magical Girl as cold and powerful as the moonlight itself, acted without warning.
“Pfft!”
The dull, horrifying sound of a blade plunging into flesh rang out between cracks in the thunder, chillingly clear.
The Starlight Blade, once the weapon that felled countless monsters, now gleamed with icy despair as it stabbed precisely into the unguarded abdomen of a teammate.
The Magical Girl’s face, still marked with traces of laughter from just moments before, was instantly overwritten by unimaginable pain and terror.
Her mouth opened, but no words emerged.
Her body collapsed bonelessly, and warm blood spread out upon the drenched ground, quickly diluted and washed away by the violent rain.
“Run…run…Cornflower…”
She used the last of her strength, her fading gaze turning with difficulty to the youngest child in the team.
Blood frothed in her throat.
“Captain…she’s…been…Polluted…”
Crystal Orchid’s face was utterly expressionless, as if she wore an icy mask.
Indifferently, she withdrew the Starlight Blade, flicking a trail of glaring blood droplets.
The body, robbed of all support, crashed heavily into the muddy water, splashing up a cloud of filth before falling still.
That pure white dress, once a symbol of innocence, was now saturated with sticky, eye-searing crimson, blooming like a flower of death in a field of snow.
Another teammate, unable to react in time, had already fallen on Crystal Orchid’s other side, her life extinguished.
“C…Captain?”
Cornflower stood frozen, as if pinned in place by an invisible ice spike.
Fear clamped her heart so tightly, she could barely breathe.
Tears flowed uncontrollably, sliding down her cheeks mixed with icy rain.
She stared at her Captain—the senior she admired, trusted, and would entrust her back to—who now moved like a machine carrying out its programming, bending over to close the unseeing eyes of the comrade she had just slain.
Boom! Another clap of thunder roared, as if the sky itself was wailing at this betrayal and massacre.
The rain beat frantically against her pale face, washing away tears, but unable to erase the terror etched deep in her eyes.
Cornflower kept running, desperate to escape this hell.
Suddenly, a rain-soaked, muddy hand clamped tightly over her mouth just as she was about to scream.
“It’s me! Marigold!”
The voice was low, urgent, and severe.
At the familiar voice, Cornflower’s taut body finally collapsed like a snapped string, falling limply into Marigold’s arms, left with only harsh, wracking sobs.
“Crystal Orchid…she…she killed them…”
Cornflower’s voice was shattered, every word bleeding with grief.
Marigold’s gaze was as sharp as a blade, swiftly scanning the rain-shrouded street.
If Cornflower’s words were true, facing Crystal Orchid, already terrifyingly powerful and now corrupted by Pollution, fighting was no different than suicide!
Her heart sank to the depths as she made a snap decision: “Cornflower, run! We have to leave right now and report this to the Association!”
Her voice was urgent and allowed no argument.
“B-but Captain…”
Cornflower clung to Marigold’s arm like it was her last hope, a glimmer of feeble hope still lingering in her eyes.
“Maybe…maybe she’ll come to her senses…Cosmos and Sunny Rose…maybe they’re still…”
“There’s no maybe!”
Marigold gripped Cornflower’s shoulders and shook her hard, trying to snap her out of her desperate delusion.
Rain flicked from her golden hair.
“Face reality! They’re already…we have to go! Now!”
Her voice was hoarse, filled with pain and determination.
“You should listen to her, little Blue.”
A voice cold as an abyssal current, emotionless and unyielding, sliced through the roaring rain, sounding behind the two.
Cornflower and Marigold froze, then whirled around in horror.
In the rain, Crystal Orchid stood silently. Her silver-white hair clung wetly to her cheeks and neck, and her once sunlit golden eyes had become two stagnant pools of blood, glinting with a demonic red beneath the lightning.
In her hand she gripped the Starlight Blade, the cold edge stained with blood that, washed by the rain, ran in thin pink rivulets, pooling silently at her feet.
Her blood-soaked white dress, under the stark electric light, looked like the bridal gown of someone returned from hell.
“C-Captain…”
Marigold’s voice was parched, her throat raw as if scraped with sandpaper.
“Captain!”
Cornflower, however, saw the last ray of hope, crying out with a sob, “You still called me little Blue! You…you beat it, right? You’re back, aren’t you?”
“Little Blue,” Crystal Orchid’s voice was utterly flat, like pronouncing a frozen sentence, “I taught you this…the Witch of Corruption…there’s no cure…”
She slowly raised her arm, the Starlight Blade tracing a cold arc in the rain, the tip aimed at them as she advanced.
“Run!”
Marigold screamed, shoving Cornflower with all her strength into the darkness of a nearby alley.
At the same time, she spun around, arms crossed before her chest, palms flaring with blinding gold!
“Sun Impact!”
A golden beam, searing and fierce as an arrow of dawn, tore through the rain and roared toward the advancing Crystal Orchid!
Crystal Orchid’s eyes were glacial. With a flick of her wrist, the Starlight Blade slashed upward!
“Clang——!”
The screech of metal and the roar of colliding energy shook the air!
The blade struck the golden beam dead-on, unleashing a flash bright enough to illuminate the entire block for a split second!
Shards of energy scattered in all directions, vaporizing the rain into a cloud of white mist!
As the light faded, Crystal Orchid’s silhouette darted through the steam like a wraith, the Starlight Blade howling with death as it came down toward Marigold!
Marigold gritted her teeth, conjuring a golden Magic Staff to block the blow!
“Clang——!”
The tremendous force numbed her hands, nearly knocking the staff from her grasp, and she staggered back, splashing in the mud.
In that deadlock, disaster struck again!
From the corner of her eye, Marigold caught sight of the dense shadow at Crystal Orchid’s feet—it writhed like something alive!
A chill, malice as cold as ice, locked onto her! Pfft! The nauseating sound of flesh being pierced filled the air.
A black, slick Shadow Tentacle, as insidious as a venomous snake, shot silently from the gloom and punched straight through Marigold’s waist!
“Urgh—!”
Marigold’s body arched, the pain sending darkness over her eyes.
A sweet, rusty fluid surged up her throat, spilling from her lips and washed away by rain.
All her strength vanished in an instant.
The Magic Staff slipped from her grasp, splashing into the water.
She collapsed, heavy and limp, into the freezing puddle, her vision blurring as she watched Crystal Orchid, blade dripping, step toward the alley’s mouth where Cornflower stood paralyzed.
Cornflower was scared out of her wits, her legs as heavy as lead, unable even to retreat.
She could only watch as Crystal Orchid stopped before her, those blood-red pupils utterly devoid of emotion.
Then, another slick black Shadow Tentacle, as if a demonic claw from the abyss, silently slid from the shadow at Crystal Orchid’s feet.
With merciless precision, it drove through Cornflower’s petite body!
“C…Captain…”
Cornflower’s eyes widened, her words and terror frozen in her throat.
She glanced down at the hideous, black-slime-dripping spike protruding from her abdomen, then pitched forward, falling heavily into the mud, silent forevermore.
Only the endless sound of rain remained.
Crystal Orchid stood quietly in the downpour, the rain washing over her silver hair, blood-stained dress, and the icy Starlight Blade.
Slowly, she crouched down, extending rain-and-blood-soaked hands with a gentleness so eerie it chilled the bone, closing the wide, lifeless eyes of Marigold and Cornflower.
Her cold fingertips brushed over their cold eyelids.
“Sorry…”
Her voice was hoarse, almost drowned out by the rain.
“…It still had to be done.”
Rain washed the blade and dress, cleansing away the glaring crimson, but it could never rinse away the blood-stench soaked into her bones, nor the crushing guilt imprinted on her soul.
A weariness and cold seeped into her limbs that words could not describe.
“Next…”
Crystal Orchid rose, both hands tightening on the hilt of the Starlight Blade, the cold tip now aimed at her own soft belly.
Her eyes were hollow, filled only with a desperate yearning for release. “…is me.”
Just as the blade’s tip was about to pierce her flesh—
A pale but inhumanly strong hand clamped her wrist like an iron shackle!
Crystal Orchid’s whole body shuddered! Horrified, she looked up along that hand.
What she saw was a face almost identical to her own!
Long black hair, wet as night, clung to her face. Ruby-like eyes flickered with a strange and mocking light in the rainy darkness, lips curled in a cold, playful smile.
The black-haired “self” leaned in, her breath warm, sweet, and strangely fragrant as it brushed past Crystal Orchid’s frozen ear, the words like a lover’s whisper yet filled with a biting chill:
“Don’t even think about dying~”
Before the words faded, the black-haired girl’s figure blurred and vanished like a specter, melting into the endless rain-soaked darkness as if she had never existed.
Only Crystal Orchid remained, standing numb in the torrential downpour, the cold touch still on her wrist, and a fear deeper than death—and utter confusion—boiling in her heart.
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