You Trusted Me
Absolute Regeneration
Ako Hatoda opened the locker in her uncle’s house and pulled out the letter she had kept hidden deep inside.
The reason for writing it was simple.
She had always believed that simply being alive was a nuisance to the people around her.
After her father was exposed for killing her mother, her daily life turned into hell.
When she met her father in the visiting room, he looked gaunt and asked,
“Long time no see, Ako. Are your uncle and aunt treating you well?”
Ako nodded silently.
“School… are you going to school properly?”
She nodded again, even to that question.
She was going to school, but the moment she stepped foot inside it became a battlefield of piercing, thorn-like stares.
“Hey, isn’t that the daughter of the guy who was in the news? Creepy as hell.”
“Hatoda’s girl is back at school today, huh.”
“For real? She must be carrying it around like she’s in pain…”
“Her mom got murdered by her dad. What a shitty life.”
Ako screamed inside.
Uncle, aunt… and Dad. I’m so sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you.
On the blackboard, someone had scrawled viciously: “Careful with the killer’s daughter.”
The boy sitting across from her hesitated as if he wanted to speak, then sat down with an uncomfortable expression.
Ako apologized inside again.
Everyone in school was trying to make me their problem, and I’m sorry for making you all uncomfortable.
The last words her father left in the visiting room shattered Ako’s entire world.
“Ako, please don’t come here anymore.”
At that moment she was certain: she was no longer needed by anyone. She was just a burden.
Before meeting Snow White, Ako had prepared for death with all her heart.
She collected sleeping pills from the ones her uncle took, gathering them until they reached a lethal dose.
But one day, when she lost her house key, a miracle arrived.
A magical girl appeared, offering to help find the key without a single shred of prejudice.
Watching her brilliant back, Ako had her first new dream.
I want to be someone needed by others.
So she played the rumored social game Magical Girl Raising Project, and became a real magical girl.
Even after transforming, everything was still clumsy.
She once tried to lift a car that had fallen into a ditch, only to accidentally burst her own head and scatter it across the road; the driver screamed and fled.
When speaking to someone who looked troubled, her inability to express herself properly created an eerie atmosphere and drove people away.
But things were different now.
Ako Hatoda tore the letter she held in her hands to pieces.
People had appeared who didn’t blame her.
She had saved someone for the first time.
She had companions who needed her.
Like Snow White, she wanted to be someone who could protect others.
A mail arrived on the Magical Phone.
It was from Snow White, the one she had been waiting for.
Ako frantically searched her room for the white rabbit plush she always carried, but for some reason it was nowhere to be found.
No matter how she looked, it was gone.
Her precious white rabbit plush, which she carried like a clone every time she met Snow White, had vanished without a trace.
Along the river near Nabukashi City.
Through the fog on the riverbank, Snow White walked slowly.
“Sorry for suddenly calling you here.”
The magical girl in the knight costume who had always stood by her side, La Pucelle, was nowhere to be seen.
“I’ll come anytime.”
“What happened to the plush you always carried?”
“I couldn’t find it…”
“I see…”
Hardgore Alice (Hatoda Ako)
Snow White’s memories flashed through her mind like a flashback.
In the original timeline, at the end of this conversation she had wounded Alice with an unhealable scar.
“Thank you for always helping.”
“I’m just happy to be with you.”
She remembered exactly what she said next, that wretched voice.
“I need… someone to be with.”
“You need… me?”
“I’m so weak… I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
“Thank you. I think I can die without regret now.”
Snow White stared blankly at Alice.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’m sorry.”
“…No, I should be the one saying thank you.”
Immediately afterward, the worst elimination announcement dropped.
Elimination Announcement
“This week’s elimination announcement! More than usual. Ves Winterprison, Yunael, Sister Nana, Calamity Mary, Top Speed.”
Five of them? Even Sister Nana?
System Update
“You have my apologies, but the remaining eight slots have been reduced to four!”
Eight? Now four? It was a cruel notification that only four could survive.
Game Rule Change
“Changes in game specifications happen all the time.”
Snow White could not hold back and slammed the Magical Phone to the ground.
A roar of fury echoed across the riverbank.
“Cool it! There’s a limit to this injustice!”
Fav replied without a care, floating a 3D image.
“Anyway, please gather as many candies as you can for me.”
Snow White’s shoulders trembled with rage.
“I don’t want to do anything anymore… I suppose I can just do nothing, right?”
Hardgore Alice immediately denied it.
“No.”
“There’s nothing I can do.”
“No.”
“There’s nothing I want to do.”
“No.”
“You!”
“No.”
“I don’t want to do anything! I thought magical girls existed to save people! I was wrong! The strange one is me!”
“No.”
“There are no magical girls in this town!”
“No, there are still magical girls in this town.”
“There aren’t! All the magical girls have disappeared!”
“No, there are.”
Snow White shook her head frantically.
“No, there aren’t.”
“There are.”
Snow White, unable to contain her exploding emotions, shoved Alice to the ground.
“La Pucelle, Sister Nana, Winterprison—they’re all gone! There are no more magical girls in this town!”
She hurled the Lucky Rabbit Foot at Hardgore Alice and stormed up the stairs without looking back.
“Don’t you dare follow me!”
Alice on the ground lifted her head to chase after her, but a scream-like rejection blocked her.
“Don’t come!”
Snow White still regretted that day to her very bones.
She regretted it deeply, yet when she was right beside her, the words she wanted to say stuck in her throat.
A quiet silence filled the riverbank.
Snow White finally gathered her courage and spoke first.
“I’m sorry. You gave me the Lucky Rabbit Foot… I gave it to another friend. It was a precious thing I bought with two years of my life, and I thought it was better to tell you.”
“It’s okay. It’s yours now.”
Alice’s answer was always the same.
Snow White changed the subject and took out the feeling she had hidden in her heart.
“I’m sorry for only talking about myself. Could you… tell me about your story? The blue-haired magical girl. You said she was your friend, but I never really got introduced.”
That magical girl did not exist in the original timeline.
The being tied to Gaku’s secret identity had always been on her mind, but she had missed the timing to ask because of Gaku’s accident.
“Actually, that magical girl… is a boy. He’s a classmate of mine. His name is Kurei Fuwa.”
Hardgore Alice continued with great effort, choosing her words carefully.
“He’s a really emotional friend… I’m always worried about him.”
“Heh, I see. Someone needed you after all, huh…”
Snow White knew more than anyone that a peaceful happy ending was not waiting for her.
She knew exactly how and to whom Hardgore Alice would die, even if she didn’t know the details.
She knew that death was her fate.
If she knew in advance, could she have saved her?
But Nemuring’s case weighed on her heart.
Resisting fate was never easy.
“Alice, I used to think I wasn’t a magical girl.”
“No.”
“Of course I wasn’t… Back then I fought with a friend here and shouted that there were no magical girls in this town and told her not to follow me. Wasn’t that pathetic?”
“No.”
Even Snow White wasn’t sure what she was trying to say.
“So I gave up on being a magical girl. I might still think that way now.”
“No…”
“That friend died. Right before she died, she left me this message: ‘If you are here, magical girls will not disappear from this city.’ She wanted to say that.”
Snow White’s voice trembled.
“I kept being a magical girl just so I wouldn’t disappoint that girl. Then I died and came back. And… the magical girl who said that to me was you, Alice. I know it’s hard to believe.”
Alice blinked her large eyes and looked at Snow White.
“No, I believe you.”
“You believe me? This is such an unbelievable story!”
“But my magic doesn’t die, so I’ve always wondered. And… most of all, I know you never lie.”