The Fate That Turned
The floor was scattered with debris.
It was a bit far to pick it all up.
In front of her stood Cranberry, the Musician of the Forest.
She approached La Pucelle slowly, as if intending to kill her.
“I simply want to kill the strongest one… with these very hands.”
Cranberry hurled La Pucelle’s body roughly aside.
The girl rolled along the ground, tumbling in a dizzy spin, before being slammed straight into the wall by a flying kick.
The wall had cracked halfway, and La Pucelle collapsed beneath it.
A thick stream of blood poured from her head.
She raised her hand to wipe her face.
Her palm was already drenched crimson.
Completely drenched.
She barely opened her eyes at the approaching footsteps.
She turned her head, and there stood Cranberry once more.
“Oh my, oh my. Giving up so soon?”
Fear slowly began to invade her body.
But La Pucelle gritted her teeth and shook her head.
“Who… who gives up in a fight to the death!”
Her spirit was high, but her body refused to move.
She could not overcome the fear.
Even her resolve and determination crumbled before it.
“Are you afraid of dying?”
Cranberry smiled coldly.
“We’re fighting beings who transcend human understanding.
Of course, survival is at stake, isn’t it?”
The red eyes gazed down at La Pucelle.
“I have no more use for you.
Die.”
At that moment, a side kick flew in.
La Pucelle gritted her teeth and twisted her body.
She endured the shock and leaped high into the air, then jumped toward the giant sword lying on the ground.
She had always loved magical girls.
She seized the hilt.
I never imagined I would become a magical girl myself… but La Pucelle charged toward Cranberry with a battle cry.
And… I never imagined I would die either.
She hurled the giant sword into the sky.
Seizing the moment Cranberry was stunned, she slammed into her with her body.
She leaped again.
She caught the falling giant sword mid-air and slashed straight through Cranberry’s abdomen.
Direct hit.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
If only… if only I had been able to become the magical girl I admired so much.
But not now.
Now, all I wanted was to chase Snow White, who had already slipped away.
“Cranberry!”
La Pucelle shouted, pointing her bloodied sword.
“I won’t acknowledge you as a magical girl!”
Cranberry stared blankly at her own wound.
And then
she smiled, curling her lips upward.
She looked happy that she had been wounded.
At last, she had found a strong enough opponent to fight with magic.
Sirens began to wail from somewhere nearby.
Perhaps her identity had been exposed.
People would soon rush here.
The thought struck her all at once, and La Pucelle looked around in panic.
“Danger… what…?”
At that instant
Cranberry gripped her neck again.
“Cough…!”
Was this some form of magic using sound or chaos?
She had sensed something was wrong too late.
It was hard to breathe.
She thought she could win, but such will meant nothing.
Cranberry spoke quietly.
“In the end, there’s always a pattern to the king’s games.”
The red eyes looked down at La Pucelle.
“At the close of battle, the strong one understands the strong one, and they accept each other.”
A smile spread across her lips.
“You weren’t accepted. How unfortunate.”
She shouldn’t have let such a trash like me run wild.
But
…La Pucelle had apparently been unable to stay with Snow White in the end.
A car came racing down the road.
Timing it perfectly, Cranberry flung La Pucelle away.
Her body floated into the air.
And the transformation lifted.
As she returned to the form of Kishibe Souta amid the cold night air, the last thought that flashed through his mind was this:
Fate can be changed…
I wanted to tell Snow White that.
I’m sorry for acting out on my own, Snow White.
I…
I ruined your plan.
Really sorry…
Was it really just the illusion that the magical girl’s transformation had ended?
Or was it the desperate struggle of Snow White that had turned the fate in another direction?
Cranberry, the Musician of the Forest, was not dead.
Just before the body fell to the ground, the sky-blue-haired magical girl appeared, holding a giant scythe on her back, her costume covered in iron chains and lock decorations.
She caught La Pucelle’s body.
The fate had been bent in a different direction.
And now she was announcing the start of Round 2.
That magical girl took out her phone and contacted someone.
The other party might be Snow White.
But Cranberry was certain.
If that magical girl was connected to the Audit Division, she had to be killed here.
Well, even if she was close to La Pucelle, she was probably just another ordinary magical girl like Snow White.
The sky-blue magical girl spoke hurriedly into the phone.
“...I found the Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, and the magical girl La Pucelle.
The location is... where was it again?
It’s a road... Come quickly.
She’s still breathing.”
She stopped for a moment, then gripped the scythe tighter.
“Can you come quickly?
I’ll fight that girl first.”
Cranberry unfolded her admin terminal.
Fav appeared from inside her jacket.
“...That magical girl? Fav.”
A three-dimensional image of Fav appeared and began speaking politely.
“A magical girl who was observed only a few times on the briefing site, Fav.
A magical girl not registered in the data, Fav.
Be careful, Fav.”
Cranberry smiled in interest.
“...Oh, so you’re a magical girl unrelated to this game, then?”
Her red eyes turned toward the sky-blue magical girl.
“I wanted to meet you.”
“I have a question.
Do you know about Fuwa Akane, the magical girl?”
As a magical girl selection examiner, Cranberry had gathered countless people and handled their training.
Those who shine are remembered; those who don’t are forgotten.
She narrowed her eyes as if in thought.
“...You’re the friend of a magical girl whose mind has already broken, aren’t you?”
The sky-blue-haired magical girl’s brows furrowed.
Obvious anger filled her expression.
Cranberry continued without a care.
“I thought that if we turned family members into magical girls and made them kill each other, a stronger magical girl would be born... but...”
She shrugged.
“She became strong, but all that remains is the memory of failure.”
The red eyes smiled faintly.
“Still, Akane was strong.
I tried to erase her memories and make her pass the test again... but it failed too.
In the end, I had her transferred to the psychiatric hospital.”
And she added casually, as if telling an interesting story.
“After that, when I entered her home through the window... I almost died.”
There was a brief silence.
The sky-blue magical girl spoke in a low voice.
“...It’s over now.”
The hand holding the scythe tightened.
“I’m looking for the revenge of my family.”
Cranberry smiled at those words.
“Still, one family member remains, I see.”
On the asphalt road, the magical girl standing in front of Cranberry was already ready to fight.
She would definitely get revenge.
Cranberry was also bleeding.
But continuing to fight with an uninjured magical girl was disadvantageous.
Not to mention the opponent in front of her was filled with killing intent to surely kill her.
There was no hesitation in the trajectory of the scythe swung by the sky-blue magical girl.
Cranberry blocked the attack with only kicks and punches.
It was an unfavorable choice to continue fighting like this.
Yet the more unfavorable the situation, the more she wanted to kill the opponent.
“...You’re also a strong enemy.”
“Shut up, you trash!”
She unleashed attack after attack, giving herself over to anger.
But each of those fierce blows carried deep killing intent.
Cranberry leaped onto a utility pole.
And from there she kicked toward the sky-blue magical girl.
A sudden attack.
She barely blocked it with the scythe.
“Because of you... my sisters... my little sister... my mom died!”
Her breathing trembled violently.
“I won’t forgive someone like you!”
“You’ve become quite emotional.”
The emotion that angers people carries a stronger power than killing intent.
But it narrows the field of vision.
Cranberry distanced herself briefly and observed her opponent.
Fuwa Akane’s magic could cut anything seen in front of her.
Even a single allowance was dangerous.
Her family members must also be watched if they became magical girls.
Especially her little sister, Fuwa Ai.
Her magic was the ability to fire powerful beams.
The sky-blue magical girl gritted her teeth and shouted.
Her hand holding the scythe trembled.
Whether from anger or sorrow, she could not tell.
“There is no place for me left...!”
She watched even that magical girl’s cry of desperation with interest.
“Humans don’t come back to life after death!!”
Toward the magical girl shouting the cry, Cranberry closed the distance in an instant.
Even injured, she moved that way.
She looked like a beast starved for a strong opponent.
Her hand reached out.
With skill and precision, she grabbed the opponent’s neck.
“Cough...!”
The sky-blue magical girl was suffocating.
A crushing pressure transmitted through her neck bones as if they would shatter.
She couldn’t die here.
That was what she thought.
Right at that moment.
A flash of light appeared from one side of Cranberry’s vision.
A single light blade shot toward Cranberry’s head.
“...!”
Cranberry immediately threw the sky-blue magical girl aside and twisted her body to avoid the blade.
The blade passed through and stuck deep into the ground.
For the first time, Cranberry opened her eyes wide.
That blade was familiar.
The weapon used by one of the magical girls she had killed.
And the one who threw it was even more surprising.
The magical girl she had thought was just weak, no threat at all, was standing there in a pristine white sailor-uniform costume.
With cold eyes fixed on her, the name of that girl was
Snow White.