When Despair Closes In (3)
"Ten."
A sickening thud rang out as Illusion's fist drove straight into Ian-na's lower abdomen. She vomited a tremendous volume of blood, and the floor of the room soaked crimson beneath her.
Her airway sealed, she choked and gagged until consciousness slipped away — then came back again almost at once.
Her mind grew sharper by the second. Pain began to register in earnest, and her body shuddered against her will.
Terror had her so thoroughly that foam flecked her lips. Every time Illusion's fist drew near, Ian-na clenched her teeth and wet herself.
"Eleven."
This time the blow landed not on her lower belly but higher — between the ribs.
Ian-na's ribs shattered. Jagged bone shards punched into her internal organs. The pain began to bloom, a sensation like needles being driven deep into her body from the inside.
She could not endure it. She blacked out on the spot.
"Stay with us. We aren't finished yet."
She woke again.
Even then, Ian-na refused to let go of her faith in the two of them. Though her body, broken by violence, shook violently, she still clung to the delusion that this had to be some kind of misunderstanding.
This could not be real. It must never be real. Being strangled by a junior she cherished, having her stomach brutalized — none of it was supposed to happen.
That was what Ian-na told herself. Had she made a mistake somehow? Had they taken her outstretched hand as a threat?
She was fully prepared to apologize. Fully prepared to forgive. Her goal had never been to make enemies of these two.
She had only wanted to be close to them. To grow nearer, and to look toward a future together.
Yes. Surely.
Surely… this is a misunderstanding…
Ian-na looked up at Illusion with trembling eyes. She could feel the loathing in the gaze fixed on her, and still she told herself it was only a misunderstanding. If they could just clear it up — if they could just talk properly — there was still time to set things right.
For Ian-na, the situation was simply impossible to accept. Libra and Illusion had no reason to treat her this way. Oksana's death had been a heavy blow, yes — but the other magical girls had survived.
Something like this simply could not happen.
It's a misunderstanding. Please, just talk to me. I'm begging you.
She wanted to say it. Nothing came out.
"Keh… kuhh…"
Illusion kept crushing her throat with everything he had while he studied her abdomen, gauging where the next strike would inflict the greatest pain.
Tears welled in Ian-na's eyes. Worse than the physical agony was the sheer shock of being treated like this by the two of them.
She could not accept it. She could not.
Above all, the blow from Illusion was unbearable.
Of all people, Illusion — Illusion alone — was never supposed to betray her. He had fought at her side since the day she first rose to the Twelfth Seat. She had saved his life more than dozens of times.
No matter what happened, she had trusted him. With him, of all people, she had opened her heart.
"Fourteen."
"Ah… uhh… nngh…"
Her body curled in on itself by pure instinct. Terror of Illusion ruled every inch of her. Ian-na's mind was still desperately denying reality, but her body had already accepted it.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Thud!!!
The place Illusion's fist struck —
— was her uterus.
The organ, unable to withstand the impact, collapsed in an instant. Part of it was forced out through the vaginal opening.
Ian-na could not endure the agony. She passed out thrashing, saliva spraying from her mouth. Survival instinct began to thrash wildly inside her. Her body had recognized that her life was hanging by a thread.
"Pfft — make sure you get a shot of this."
"Got it."
Click!
The bright, cheerful sound of a camera shutter, and the image of Ian-na lying unconscious was captured cleanly on Libra's phone.
And then —
"W-what in God's name do you think you're doing…!!!"
The Adjutant burst into Ian-na's room.
"This is revenge. Revenge for the magical girls who died."
"What… this is insane…!!!"
The Adjutant stared at Ian-na — limp and unconscious in Libra's arms — and cried out in absolute horror.
His brown hair stood on end with the force of his shock.
"G-get away from her this instant…!!!"
He drew the sidearm from his belt and leveled it at the two of them.
They smirked as they looked at Ian-na's adjutant.
"And if we refuse?"
"If you do not comply, I will open fire! Step away from Her Excellency at once…!"
"Go ahead and shoot. The second you pull that trigger, I'll put you in the same condition as Ian-na."
A magical girl's body could not so much as be scratched by a handgun.
The Adjutant knew that perfectly well. Cold sweat ran down his spine. Seeing the Director of the Bureau herself reduced to this state made one thing clear: these two were utterly serious.
Even if he pulled the trigger, it would pose them no threat at all.
The Adjutant hesitated for a moment — and Illusion activated his power once more, dragging Ian-na back to consciousness.
In that single instant, the newly awakened Ian-na and the Adjutant locked eyes.
"R-run…"
Ian-na wrung every last scrap of strength from her body and forced the cry toward him.
It was her nature.
Ian-na had always possessed a steadfast, decent heart. Bearing the crushing duty of a magical girl on her back, she had spent decades protecting the weak so that no innocent would be sacrificed.
Even if it meant her own death, she could not drag an innocent person into this. That was who she was.
Protecting the lives of the blameless no matter what — letting ordinary people laugh and live toward a better future — that was Ian-na's only dream, her only goal.
For that, her own life had always been weightless.
The habit was written into every fiber of her being.
Even on the brink of death, she could not bring herself to commit the cowardice of pulling someone else down with her.
And so she screamed with everything she had left.
Run.
These two were surely laboring under some misunderstanding. That was all it could be.
She did not want them to kill an innocent civilian and cross a river from which there was no return.
And the Adjutant, seeing her like that, moved.
He cursed the brief hesitation that had held him back. For Ian-na, whose life he would give his own without regret — to repay a kindness received in a distant past —
Bang!
The first shot flew true, straight for Illusion's brow.
"You ignored the warning."
Of course the bullet never punched into Illusion's skull. An ether barrier disassembled it in an instant.
Illusion smiled faintly and released the hand that had been crushing Ian-na's throat.
Then he turned his palm toward the Adjutant and extended his arm.
"Goodbye."
Puff.
With a thin curl of smoke, the Adjutant vanished in a heartbeat.
The pistol he had been holding clattered to the floor.
Ian-na watched it happen with an expression of pure disbelief.
Her pupils shrank to pinpricks in eyes gone wide. Her entire body shook with a violence that reached her. From the soles of her feet, despair began to climb.
She could not believe it.
The two of them — magical girls, who existed to protect the weak and destroy the Unknown — magical girls who were never to lay a hand on ordinary people — magical girls who were always to keep their composure and never abuse their power — magical girls, magical girls —
— had let emotion rule them.
And murdered an utterly innocent civilian.
The violence they had inflicted on her was nothing beside the shock of watching them break a magical girl's creed.
The blow was so total that for a moment she could not form a single word.
"Get a shot of that face."
"Okay."
Click!
Libra, who had been holding Ian-na up, let the strength go out of her arms.
Ian-na crumpled bonelessly to the floor.
She could not even cry.
If only… if it had just been me…
If they had simply killed her, she could have forgiven them.
But this —
Hatred and betrayal began to boil up from the bottom of Ian-na's heart.
"How does it feel?"
"…Why."
"What was that?"
"Why… did you kill him… The Adjutant… he was a good man… He was… a civilian…"
If — if only —
If even a scrap of the Waning Moon's power had remained in her, she would not have been able to contain her rage. It was fury enough to kill both of them on the spot.
Ian-na stared blankly up at Illusion's face and waited for an answer.
If the two of them had truly crossed a river from which there was no return —
— then she, too, intended to fight with everything she had left.
Even if this body no longer allowed her to live or die by her own will.
A magical girl's duty had not vanished.
She was still alive.
Illusion gave her no answer at all. He only looked at Libra and the phone, and smiled.
At the face of a terrified Ian-na. At the expression of a woman in despair. At the woman who had wet herself and foamed at the mouth. At every scrap of degradation captured on that phone — he was laughing.
"Why… why…"
Ian-na glared at the two of them and asked again.
Thud!
Libra's kick smashed into Ian-na's head.
The force of it sent her tumbling into the corner of the room.
Even so, she crawled back toward them.
Blood ran from a broken nose, and she paid it no mind at all.
She asked them once more.
"Why… did you kill him…?"
Both pairs of eyes fixed on Ian-na.
And the answer that came was one she had never imagined.