Magical Girls Victorious, But... (1)
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The cleanup inside the Facility is complete.
The guards, thrown into chaos by Dane's counterattack, confirm that all the anti-Magical Girl devices scattered throughout the Facility have malfunctioned entirely. They fall into complete panic.
To make matters worse, the passages leading outside are blocked by the ice walls erected by Blue Sapphire, making escape impossible.
They had deliberately minimized the passages out of fear that the imprisoned Magical Girls might escape, but now, at this critical moment, it turns out to be a noose tightening around the necks of the rulers themselves.
In the end, not a single guard manages to slip away. They are all subdued.
With Black Twilight and Blue Sapphire joining forces, plus the Magical Girls from the Liberation Front disguised as guards here, even their combat-modified bodies prove helpless.
Thanks to that, securing them completely doesn't take long.
The ones killed are only the dangerous elements who kept resisting to the end. Most are kept alive for now and crammed into a single prison cell.
It's on Dane's orders: spare their lives if possible.
As long as they're alive, Dane can surely find ways to use them here and there.
This place is almost completely isolated from the outside, with communication minimized.
That's by design from Benei Guard Chief's intentions. He created it this way from the start, planning to use the Facility for all sorts of schemes without leaks.
No matter what happens here, nothing gets out.
Since the Facility is an isolation site for troublesome Magical Girls to begin with, it wasn't hard for the Guard Chief to push this style of operation.
And now, that shady setup he created works against him like poison.
Thanks to the isolation—like some remote mountain peak—news of the incident hasn't leaked outside.
At minimum, Dane confirms it'll stay that way for a week, until the periodic inspector arrives.
If needed, they can cook the inspector somehow and extend that grace period further.
Now, the question is how to use this breathing room they've gained—and what to do next.
Those are things to think through step by step from here.
By the time Black Twilight and Blue Sapphire finish their tasks and return to Dane...
Dane is grunting as she drags the Guard Chief's massive body outside.
The Guard Chief stares blankly into space, out of it, his arms and legs bound with restraints.
Even bound and dazed, he's not dead yet.
"Ah, there you are. Help me out? Get him into a cell."
"You're not killing him?"
"I could, but there might be info we haven't extracted yet, and I still have questions. If things had gone more leisurely, maybe, but this time we rushed to save you two."
"Dane... ma'am. Thank you so much for this."
Black Twilight bows her head deeply, letting out a weary sigh tinged with exhaustion.
Without Dane's help, they really would've been in danger. No—they were in danger.
Black Twilight retains all memories from when she was under control.
Thanks to "Helper-san's" aid, those memories surface all too vividly: envying or hating her comrade Blue Sapphire, becoming obsessed with the Guard Chief to the point she couldn't live without him. Recalling that version of herself and those feelings sends chills down her spine.
Fortunately, Dane took some kind of authority from the Guard Chief and released Black Twilight and Blue Sapphire from mental domination, freeing them from those emotions.
On top of that, "Helper-san" provides its own protections, so even recalling the brainwashing doesn't affect her current self much.
But for Blue Sapphire, without a "Helper-san," the aftereffects might linger awhile.
That's because the Guard Chief's domination isn't just hypnosis programs like at the Hypnosis Factory.
It's why the Factory doesn't favor his methods.
With pure hypnosis programs, you can tweak slaves however you want.
Seal away memories of hypnosis entirely, let them live normally day-to-day.
Or swap A hypnosis for B, overwriting completely.
Machine-like hypnosis via programs allows that. But old-school brainwashing like the Guard Chief's—or hybrids with programs—leaves tricky aftereffects, locks directions in place. It's problematic.
"......"
Perhaps because of that, even as Black Twilight greets her, Blue Sapphire purses her lips in a pout, looking displeased.
For the usually polite Blue Sapphire, skipping even formal thanks to Dane—no matter who she is—is unusual.
Black Twilight glances cautiously at her, but Blue Sapphire just glares at Dane with that sulky expression.
Dane ignores it, pointing at the Guard Chief she'd been dragging and dumped on the floor.
"Anyway, you two—help move this guy. I saved you from that dire crisis, so you wouldn't refuse even that much, right?"
"Ah, yes. I'll help. Blue, too..."
"—So, what now, Dane unnie?"
From beside Black Twilight—who's fumbling awkwardly like the natural loner she is, about to accept Dane's request—
Blue Sapphire, arms crossed and silent till now, asks in a cold voice.
Dane eyes her narrowed gaze.
"What now? What about?"
"Are you going to help us or not? I want that answer now."
Uwawah, Black Twilight fidgets as the mood chills suddenly.
She wanted to ask that too, but figured now wasn't the time and was waiting for an opening.
Per Dane's promise, the two stayed in the Facility for two weeks, sharing the imprisoned Magical Girls' experiences.
They endured the same training and modifications, ate the same slop, even got toyed with at night by fellow prisoners.
All to empathize with the inmates and gain their aid, as Dane wished.
The Guard Chief was an unexpected wrinkle midway, but they'd long passed the promised "two weeks."
Memories under his control are hazy, but it's clear over a month has passed since arrival.
So now...
We've kept our end—your turn? Blue Sapphire demands boldly.
And Dane's response:
"I can't help you."
A rejection sharp as a knife.
Blue Sapphire bristles, stepping forward.
But before she speaks, Dane preempts her.
"Because you just got my help this time. Indirect aid's one thing, but without me, you'd have been done for. And now you brazenly claim 'mission accomplished'? No convincing power there."
"What do you...!"
"Cold, rational judgment. Think: I told you to endure two weeks here to empathize with the other prisoners and persuade them, right?"
If the two had survived Dane's trial—the Facility life—sane and kept pushing their plans...
The imprisoned Magical Girls here would've lent some strength, at least some of them.
These girls might pull it off, they'd think, hopeful.
But look at reality.
Without Dane, they'd be the damn Guard Chief's puppets forever—his playthings.
Toyed with endlessly till he tired, then discarded broken. Trash treatment.
That's reality.
"Who'd lend strength seeing that? To your careless, foolish, pie-in-the-sky plans? Who'd stake everything on unknowns from strangers like you?
If there's a girl like that here, kick her out now. She's either an idiot or a con artist. Or both."
Dane speaks point by point, face and voice stripped of humor—a rarity.
Her clear, pretty voice enunciates crisply. No room to argue.
Forget natural-loner Black Twilight; even bold, tenacious Blue Sapphire shuts her mouth, frustrated.
Dane's entirely right.
Objectively, strangers like them wouldn't get aid from unknowns.
Still, Blue Sapphire strains to retort.
"This time, an unexpected irregular... bad luck! Out of all those people, we got targeted...!"
"Blue, if you truly believe that, I see no value in talking further."
"Unexpected"? Why not anticipate it?
Info lacking? Didn't think that far? Excuses like that—who'd back such plans?
"Bad luck" is the same.
No plan survives without luck. Life fails on misfortune.
What if a freak disaster tanks the op?
Absurd example, but commanders need "luck" too.
So if Blue Sapphire blames luck...
Even perfect plans? No thanks.
Blue Sapphire's impulsive but no fool.
Without wits, she couldn't have hidden from Mech拉克 this long unscathed.
"Blue..."
Black Twilight calls to comfort her, reaching for her shoulder—but pulls back.
The ultimate loner has zero comforting experience, no clue how in this mess.
To the pair,
"...First, help move this quick. We have breathing room, but mountains of work in the meantime. Gotta hustle."
Dane commands firmly—not a request like before.
This time, not just Black Twilight—Blue Sapphire obeys too, hoisting the Guard Chief as ordered.
Thus, the Guard Chief ends up in a stricter central cell, apart from the other guards...