The Crimson Knight's Return
La Pucelle
“Forest’s musician, Cranberry!!!!”
The knight’s roar shook the forest. Koyuki Himekawa plunged her heavy blade down toward Cranberry, every ounce of fury concentrated in that single strike.
It was no technique, no strategy—just a raw, simple blow. Yet even after Cranberry blocked it, she swayed like a reed in the wind.
“I swore I would protect her… I promised! I—I… I will never let you touch her as much as one hair!”
Cranberry was already at her limit. Every wound from their savage clash with Snow White refused to close, her strength gone.
A strike that would have been parried hundreds of times in the ordinary course of battle now felt impossibly heavy on her body.
As if the dying resolve of Snow White had turned into invisible hands gripping her ankles.
Counterattack.
The muscles screamed and refused to obey. In the same instant, La Pucelle’s swing had become so immense it threatened to sweep away the entire forest.
“……!”
Cranberry clenched her teeth and summoned her last reserves. The giant blade swung by her opponent’s hand would surely break her balance.
She didn’t miss the opening. Diving straight into Koyuki’s embrace, she drove her body forward in a tackle.
But the fury of La Pucelle had surpassed Cranberry’s calculations.
Even while her own balance faltered, the trajectory of the blade carved a deep gash across Cranberry’s shoulder. The sonic cutters that followed were evaded by her beast-like instincts.
In that brief moment, fueled by rage, she had become stronger than ever before.
“……Cranberry.”
“It seems your side is wearing thin too. To think you would rush in this many at once.”
Cranberry spat blood-tinged saliva and replied coldly.
Sazanami Kano
“Snap out of it, Snow White…… please…….”
Ripple held the cooling body of Koyuki close and sobbed.
“Open your eyes! Please…… don’t die…….”
No matter how hard she shook the delicate middle-school body, there was no answer. She had no magic like Shinomiya Gaku to save lives, no power like Haruna to control homunculi.
She could not become a vengeful rampage like La Pucelle. In this moment, despair itself was all she felt.
“……Shall I help you?”
The sobbing Ripple looked up, eyes blazing with murderous intent.
“……That’s impossible.”
She could not believe her eyes. The magical girl she had been told was dead stood before her.
Pink hair. Eyes dull as death. Black headset and rabbit ears. White school swimsuit. And small devil wings sprouting from her back.
“Swim Swim……?”
“Ah, this kid’s already dead. She can’t use any magic in the first place. I’m just another entity. Only my body is the same Swim Swim she knew.”
The being wearing Swim Swim’s appearance answered without emotion.
“Helping… what exactly does that mean?”
Ripple’s suspicion flared sharply.
“I’ll save Snow White. In exchange, kill Cranberry and hand me her corpse.”
“Hand over the corpse… what kind of nonsense is that?”
“I’m not a magical girl. I’m a mage. Well, a ghost that’s still lingering in this world. An ordinary body can’t last a day.”
“There is no magic to bring the dead back to life. Yet you claim you can?”
The question carried disbelief. The mage wearing Swim Swim’s face smiled with something unnatural.
“Nice question, regressor.”
She continued slowly.
“What I use is a technique passed down from the necromancer’s bloodline. Even in the Magical Kingdom it has vanished, but the art of stitching the dead into puppets. Of course, it’s invisible to the naked eye. I created an extended technique that binds souls by using it.”
The dead eyes curved slyly.
“During the time I was friends with Shinomiya Gaku, we researched similar techniques together. One of them was ‘reanimation.’”
“……There must be a price.”
“Of course. Every technique has its cost.”
The corners of Swim Swim’s mouth slowly spread.
“The target will be cursed. What form the curse takes, even I don’t know. But so far, no one has ever escaped it.”
The voice sounded as if a demon were whispering the contract.
She could not read the other person’s heart. She could not know their true intentions.
But Ripple tightened her grip on Koyuki’s cooling hand even more fiercely.
“……I’ll do it.”
Ripple’s voice trembled.
“As long as I can save Snow White…… I’ll do anything.”
At that moment, the ‘lucky rabbit’s foot’ hidden in Ripple’s pocket began to emit a strange light.
The soul inhabiting Swim Swim’s body had read the curse that would be engraved on Snow White and let out a small, chilling laugh.
There was something deeply unsettling in that laugh.
“This… this is going to be fun. It’ll probably happen in about five years.”
『Snow White will die at the hands of Fuwa Kurei.』
That was the content of the curse.
But Ripple did not know.
“Contract established.”
Black liquid flowed from the tip of Swim Swim’s finger.
“Reanimation takes time. Until then, kill Cranberry.”
The black liquid writhed like living flesh and began to seep into Ripple.
It was an alien substance both Ripple and Snow White knew too well.
A homunculus.
“Ah, you said transformation would be difficult, didn’t you? This is a gift. The very ‘devil’ you searched so hard for to bind Snow White’s soul to your own. Haruna did the same thing. I can do it too. Of course, the method is completely different, but since it’s a one-time use, it’ll be quite helpful.”
The black liquid slowly infiltrated Ripple’s body.
“Reborn as the magical girl ‘Snow Blood.’ She seems to like both of you quite a lot.”
“……Who exactly are you?! How do you know so much about us?!”
Ripple shouted as if in pain.
The mage looked beyond the rain-drenched forest and answered.
“I? A ghost…… no, I’m not saying that now.”
Her silhouette gradually faded.
“An old friend of Shinomiya Gaku.”
And then she laughed lowly.
“And this reanimation magic won’t activate unless I’m lucky. So go ahead and try painting over it. The world wiped clean by regression…… your way.”
“And someday, I hope you’ll stop my evil deeds.”
The black shadow completely vanished.
“Why? Because I’m the villain. The worst villain who made a contract with Cranberry’s teacher.”
“Haah… haah……!”
La Pucelle’s massive blade split the ground.
But the weight was double-edged.
Cranberry, a wreck of her former self, was actually using that overwhelming mass to her advantage. Instead of hearing sounds, she read the micro air currents created when the blade sliced through the air and slipped into La Pucelle’s blind spot.
“Fury is a powerful motivator, but it simplifies movement.”
Cranberry released a high-frequency shockwave from her chest toward La Pucelle.
Kwaaang!!
“Cough!”
The vibration shook La Pucelle’s insides.
La Pucelle staggered, lost her balance, and Cranberry’s hand blade came crashing down at the perfect moment.
Unavoidable timing.
La Pucelle closed her eyes in self-recrimination for not being able to protect Snow White.
Shiiiick— chaaang!!
In that instant, a cold metallic sound tore through the forest’s stillness.
“……?”
A black shadow had pierced the back of Cranberry’s hand.
A pitch-black piercing knife that had exactly gone between the bones.
Cranberry flinched in pain and withdrew her hand. Another piercing knife flew toward her forehead.
Cranberry instinctively twisted her body and barely blocked it, but the sharp tip slashed long across her cheek.
“Who are you?”
Cranberry turned her head.
A figure slowly emerged from the rain-soaked forest.
The presence was so overwhelming that even Cranberry could not breathe.
It was as if the original Snow White had been twisted in red and remade.
The dazzling white sailor uniform was nowhere to be seen.
In its place stood a deep, intense blood-red sailor uniform.
The form and decorations were clearly the same as Snow White’s, but the color alone had been completely inverted.
The unreal sight crushed the instincts of anyone who saw it.
“……Snow White?”
La Pucelle murmured in a daze.
No answer came.
The figure in the red sailor uniform, waving the fabric, stared coldly at Cranberry, then gripped the piercing knife again.
And between the red-dyed sailor uniform, an all-too-familiar voice flowed out.
The clear, transparent voice of Koyuki Himekawa.
La Pucelle’s pupils trembled.
Her heart began to race wildly in the face of the unbelievable miracle.
“Koyuki…… it’s you?”
Snow Blood slowly nodded.
Even within the red mana, her eyes still held the trust she reserved for Ripple and La Pucelle.
“Let’s go, Ripple…… to end everything.”
Snow Blood raised the blade high.
At the tip of the razor-sharp blade, the end of Cranberry’s life was reflected.
“……!”