Two Souls
Shinomiya Gaku closed the book he was holding.
And quietly gazed down at Nabukashi’s night sky.
“...Regression.”
The book in his hand was the record of Snow White.
The person who would solve this situation.
And the one who would eventually join the Audit Division.
The possibility was clear enough.
But La Pucelle had been saved—
Nemuring could not be saved.
Gaku’s gaze stopped at the final sentence of the book.
‘If it were the original world,
Shinomiya Gaku and Fuwa Kurei would not exist.’
That sentence gnawed at him.
Snow White did not think this world was the “true original world” that should exist.
Then what was this place now?
Some being who should not exist had intervened,
allowing La Pucelle to escape her deathly fate.
Among the forbidden texts of the Magic Kingdom, there was one record regarding regression.
Returning to the past and changing history was no simple magic.
It was a forbidden rite bordering on the ultimate taboo, backed by one’s very life.
The conditions for regression were excessively strict.
First, two souls must exist within a human body.
Second, the body must not be a complete human.
Third, the price would be an immense lifespan.
Fourth, the mage or magical girl must be killed by someone.
And most importantly.
To change the past, one must meet someone who did not exist in the original world and use that being as a “key.”
With two souls, there would be two keys—Fuwa Kurei and
Shinomiya Gaku.
“...In other words.”
Gaku’s eyes narrowed.
“Snow White... has fulfilled every one of those conditions.”
And the result
was saving La Pucelle.
“Amazing...”
He smiled faintly.
“Whether it was chance or not, that girl is truly something. The magical girl called Snow White.”
There was a brief silence.
“...But then,”
he turned another page and murmured.
“If Snow White is a being with two souls...”
“Then who is the other one?”
A trace of the name had been written, but it had been deliberately erased.
Gaku’s gaze deepened.
“...I want to know more.”
He still did not know the details of what was happening among the magical girls right now.
But one thing was certain.
The killing game had begun.
Fav’s intentions were probably obvious.
To let the test drag on pointlessly,
and then eliminate them himself.
Fav did not want to intervene.
He had turned his back on the night sky,
and a boy walked slowly forward.
It was Fuwa Kurei.
“...So?”
“When do we get to enter?”
Without raising his head, Gaku answered.
“The protagonists of this story are not us.”
Kurei’s brows furrowed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Did you think I’d been waiting to hear this story?”
“The signal will come soon.”
Gaku spoke briefly.
“...Kurei...”
“The signal?”
Yes. The center of this board was
not Shinomiya Gaku, nor Fuwa Kurei.
It was Snow White.
And something else inside her soul—another “something.”
“That’s obvious.”
Kurei clicked his tongue.
“When ordinary citizens die, that’s when we can intervene.... It means someone has to die for us to move, doesn’t it? The Magic Kingdom is really too much. If we just got approval from the Audit Division and arrested them right away, it’d be over.”
Gaku shook his head silently.
“The current situation isn’t that simple. There’s a faction secretly backing the criminals. If we intervene without grounds...”
He paused, then continued.
“Fav will cover it up as an ‘accident during the test.’ If we hide the evidence, we’ll actually lose.”
Kurei scowled.
“...I hate these rigid talks.”
One of the events that would happen in the future
was Calamity Mary’s indiscriminate attack.
That was the only key to flipping the board.
A person had to die for it to move.
That was the system.
A truly revolting structure.
Even the magical girl candidates were, in the end,
just ordinary citizens.
But that was handled as an “exception.”
As always.
Hardcore Alice was alternately gazing at La Pucelle and Snow White.
“...You two... seem to be getting along...”
La Pucelle scratched her cheek, her face turning red.
“We’re childhood friends...”
Snow White lowered her gaze for a moment.
Asking Alice to point her out felt far too difficult.
Fav’s voice echoed.
“Fifteen minutes left, pong. If you don’t decide soon,
the pointed target will be randomly announced, pong.”
“Alice, there’s a favor I’d like to ask.”
“...If it’s your favor... then please...”
Alice nodded without hesitation.
Seeing this, La Pucelle hurriedly interjected.
“Wait! Snow White
Don’t tell me you’re trying to point her out again!”
“I promised. I’ll go to hell together with you!”
“Don’t worry.”
Snow White said quietly.
“I won’t be the one pointing anyone out.”
“Then—?”
Snow White looked at Alice.
“Alice... can you point out Calamity Mary?”
Alice did not hesitate for even a second.
She slowly nodded.
“Then I will handle it as Alice having pointed out Calamity Mary, pong. Alice is too frustrating, so I’ll say it for her, pong.”
Fav spoke in a blatantly cutting tone toward Alice.
But Alice showed no reaction.
Calamity Mary turned on her magical phone.
Fav immediately appeared.
“Yes, yes. What is it, pong?”
“Magicaloid isn’t responding.”
“Where are they now?”
“Well... it might not be a location problem, pong.”
Calamity Mary’s eyes narrowed.
She slowly stood from the sofa.
“Then tell me who killed them.”
“Killing the one who received my orders means you’re looking down on me, so if I leave that kind of person alone, my face won’t hold.”
“Hmm... still, I can’t tell you, pong.
That’s a rule violation, pong. I can’t give special treatment to just one, pong.”
Calamity Mary poured champagne and poured it over the hologram of Fav on her magical phone.
“You talk well.”
“Do you think I don’t know what you want?”
“It’s a deal.”
“If you tell me, I’ll make it the way you want.”
“And I’ve already saved one person before, haven’t I?”
“I’ll do as you say.”
There was a brief silence.
“...Ah, by the way.”
Fav spoke up.
“The next pointed target has been decided, pong.”
It was Calamity Mary, pong.”
“...Oh?”
Mary’s lips curved upward.
“And the deal has been struck, so I will tell you which magical girl killed the magicaloid. Hardcore Alice, pong.”
“A magical girl in the design of Alice from Another Country, with a twisted black design, pong.”
Calamity Mary laughed briefly.
“Yeah... that’s the way it has to be.”
Her eyes slowly grew cold.
“She even pointed me out? I’ll kill her.”