The Blue Daybreak
"Ah—ahh...!"
She'd been so close. She'd run with everything she had, arm stretched out, praying she wouldn't be too late. And still, she hadn't reached him.
Her legs gave out. She crumpled to her knees. The spear stood planted in the rubble like a gravestone, its tip catching the sunlight with indifferent brilliance.
"Si...woo..."
Something in her chest caved in, and she felt the blood drain from her entire body. Despair crashed over her all at once. She was sinking in deep water, unable to draw even a single breath.
"In the end, you couldn't even protect your friend. How truly unsightly, Original."
Dark Blue's emotionless voice drifted from behind her. Every word flew like a dagger and buried itself in her heart.
"...Shut up."
Her voice was hoarser than it had ever been.
Slow, measured footsteps approached from behind. The tip of a sword dragged along the ground, a scraping metallic rasp that punched through the ringing in her ears and drove itself into her eardrums. An attack could come at any second, and still she couldn't move. There was no strength in her arms or legs. Her muscles refused to obey. Tension crawled along her nerves all the way to her fingertips, making them ache.
But what was sadder—more despairing—than any of that was the simple fact that she hadn't lived up to his trust.
"...Siwoo, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
She should have protected him. She should have kept him safe. Even after hearing her secret, he had comforted her and given her strength. He had listened to her worries without prying, quietly taking in every word. When they were hanging out and she had suddenly, selfishly dragged them off somewhere on a whim, he hadn't complained once. When she had told him about a hobby she herself thought was too childish for her age, he hadn't so much as teased her.
He had kept calling her Kim Min-ah at first, a name with a certain distance built into it—and yet, as they spent more time together, he had grown close enough to drop the surname now and then. He had shared the things she couldn't tell Yoo Seoyeon, the magical girl, and kept those stories secret. He had become a friend to her true self, and even after learning her other face, he had kept believing in her.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."
If only she could have used magic properly. If only she hadn't been so weak. If only she had been able to pull her weight as a magical girl—she could have saved Siwoo.
Her heart lurched again, a heavy sinking in her chest, and a deep helplessness washed over her once more. The footsteps behind her had stopped at her side. She flicked her gaze toward the girl she resented.
"...If only you..."
If only you hadn't existed. She didn't dare let that resentment leave her mouth. Because she believed all of this had started with her own mistake. If her mana hadn't been used to create the clones. If she hadn't, in the nightmare, carelessly spoken aloud the self she never wanted to be. If she, if she, if she—
If she.
"That is correct. It is all your fault."
At Dark Blue's words, Kim Min-ah turned her head with difficulty and looked up at her.
"Had you simply pulled your own weight. No—had you never grown close to him in the first place, none of this would have happened. A truly regrettable tragedy, is it not?"
Beyond the visor, where a thin red line glowed, Dark Blue's gaze pressed down on her. The eyes themselves were hidden, and still the look felt steeped in contempt.
"..."
The tears, unmoved, refused to fall. Everything that should have spilled outward flowed inward instead, adding its weight to the despair.
"You appear to have despaired."
Dark Blue murmured it, then rose and adjusted her grip on the sword.
"Allow me to end this."
The red blade flashed as it caught the sunlight. Purifier Blue gave no answer. She made no move at all.
It's all my fault. None of this would have happened if I'd been strong. If I hadn't been so weak—if I could have done even one person's share. If I hadn't gotten into tokusatsu in the first place, and had been a proper magical girl instead.
The deep despair and self-loathing curdled into rage and hatred. That rage and hatred turned back on her own heart, amplifying the despair and the revulsion further still. Caught in that endless loop, she felt her heart beat once more.
"Farewell, Original."
Dark Blue brought the sword down.
And then—
A sharp clang rang out.
"...!"
She had thrown out her hand and caught the blade with her bare palm. Blood ran from it and soaked her wrist, but she showed not the slightest sign of pain. If anything, it was as if it still wasn't enough. She clenched down harder, pouring more strength into her grip on the steel.
"..."
She knew. That regretting it now was too late. That Siwoo wouldn't have wanted this despair. But she also knew what remained before a magical girl who had given herself over to grief.
Only one thing.
In a voice already worn raw and cracked, instead of the word she was supposed to call—Transformation—she cried out the words she must never speak. She surrendered her body to despair.
"...Purifier."
"...Blue."
⟨ Daybreak ⟩
The explosion that erupted from Purifier Blue's body hurled Dark Blue into the wall.
"Kh...!"
She staggered up and swept the scene in an instant, searching for what had happened. Through the smoke, she found Purifier Blue standing there, barely keeping her feet.
"Hah... hah..."
She couldn't even hold herself upright. She was using her own spear as a cane, just barely remaining on the ground. But something else had entered Dark Blue's vision—a color that did not belong.
Hair that had been the blue of the open sky had faded to orange. The black stockings that had sheathed her arms were not merely torn; they had vanished completely. Her jacket and dress, too, were dyed a solid, unbroken orange.
"...You."
At Dark Blue's voice, Kim Min-ah turned her eyes. Pupils that had gone blue, shrunken with hatred, locked onto her.
"Have you undergone Corruption?"
"..."
"Well. It is of no consequence. A single additional variable has merely been added to an execution."
Fragments of the wall pattered down as Dark Blue pushed herself off it and found her feet again.
"A Corrupted Magical Girl, after all, does nothing but destroy without a shred of reason. She becomes nothing more than a monster—of no use whatsoever in combat."
"..."
Kim Min-ah still stood where she was, leaning on the spear, and said nothing at all. She only kept staring at Dark Blue with those blue eyes. And then—
One corner of Purifier Blue's mouth lifted, as if she were laughing at her.
"Shut your mouth..."
"...!"
"Because of you, nothing ever goes right..."
The voice was wrecked and hoarse, but there was will in it. Dark Blue flinched, her grip on the sword tightening on instinct.
"You have clearly undergone Corruption—"
"You think I care? Corruption or whatever..."
"But the aura I sense from you is unmistakably...!"
Kim Min-ah started to answer, then staggered again. In the end she had to seize the spear with both hands just to stay standing. If she moved even a little too hard, it felt as though her entire body would tear apart—as if something that would not fit had been forced into a vessel that was never made for it. Every joint creaked. Every muscle screamed.
Even so, for the sake of revenge, this much pain was nothing.
"Ghh...!"
She swallowed the groan in her throat and, barely, straightened her swaying body. Dark Blue, facing her, leveled the sword once more and settled into a fighting stance.
"...I see. A variable has indeed arisen. But it is of no consequence. You can barely even stand, can you? You cannot properly take aim in that state."
Dark Blue's mouth curled into a sneer. And she wasn't wrong. Min-ah was in such wretched shape that she needed the spear simply to remain on her feet. Worse, she could tell this state would not last. By a rough estimate, if it went past a minute she would simply collapse where she stood. If she fought at full power, she would have maybe ten seconds of movement—around there. Push any harder than that, and instinct warned her that body and mind would come apart beyond any hope of holding them together.
But in a condition like this, hitting exactly ten seconds was next to impossible. She had no allies, and keeping an accurate count in her head in the middle of a fight was nearly as impossible.
"...Ha."
A brutally simple method flickered through her mind, and Kim Min-ah let out a hollow laugh. Right. There was that, wasn't there. If there was no one to count for her, and she couldn't count while she fought—then she could borrow the power of a tool. And luckily enough, on her wrist—
"...Ten seconds."
—sat a wristwatch of mixed red and black that could count exactly ten seconds. It had no other functions at all. Only a ten-second countdown.
She raised her right hand past the left that gripped the spear, and set her index finger on the red button.
"In that time, I'll take you down."
She steeled herself to pour everything she had into those seconds before the countdown ran out—and pressed the button.
START UP.