The Spirit Realm's True Face
After accepting the deal, Flame slightly raised her head and looked at Eight.
“—So? What do I have to do?”
“It's simple. Just lend me your spirit.”
“A spirit?”
As if it were no big deal, Flame immediately fetched the spirit that had been hiding somewhere nearby.
—Myong, myong-!? Flame, are you... selling out your comrade, myong!
“But normal people can't see spirits. That...”
“Ah, it's fine. I can see them.”
And touch them, too—. Eight said as he took the spirit from Flame. The spirit caught in his grasp thrashed wildly and screamed.
—What, what are you trying to do, myong!
“Just a light experiment.”
—A light experiment, myong...?
“Don't worry. Even if you die, I'll bring you back.”
—That doesn't comfort me at all, myong....
The spirit had no idea that the person before it was the very one who had driven out the Fairy Queen and sealed the spirit realm, but it was certain its future would be anything but pleasant.
After all, the guy had introduced himself as an evil scientist. No one who called themselves that could possibly be normal. Especially when he was acting so gentlemanly and reasonable.
If someone like that claimed to be an evil scientist, it meant he was just as villainous in other ways. Realizing this, the spirit trembled in fear.
And not long after, the spirit realized its suspicions had been correct.
We returned to E City with Flame—that is, to the Evils Enterprise building where my lab was located.
Flame, who had hesitated upon seeing the crowded building, let out a hollow laugh in disbelief when she heard it was the headquarters of a villain organization.
“No way. What kind of villain organization operates this openly...”
I could relate. What kind of villain organization builds a skyscraper right in the middle of the city...? But since I had no good answer, I just laughed and led her into the lab.
Whether it was because she felt out of place among so many people or because she was afraid someone might spot a magical girl entering a villain organization's building, she looked far more withdrawn than she had back at her place.
Fortunately, that timid demeanor vanished the moment we reached the lab, away from prying eyes.
“Flame? Now then...”
“Halia. That's my name.”
“Pardon?”
“Don't use my magical girl name here. What if someone overhears?”
“Ah, I see. Halia.”
After learning Flame's real name, I kept a casual expression, but Aile beside me looked displeased and alternated her gaze between me and Halia.
Then she suddenly tugged on my sleeve and shouted.
“I-I'm Sanguni!”
“......?”
“Ah, I mean—Halia is Ha-ria, so I'm Sang-uni... No, that's not it...”
I brushed past Aile's incomprehensible joke and immediately activated the gate I'd used for experiments with Arima.
A portal writhing with indescribable energy formed. Seeing it, the spirit let out another scream and tried to escape from Halia's arms.
—Myongmyong-! Flame! It'll kill me! I'll die if I go in there!
“You rice-bug bastard. She said she'd bring you back even if you die.”
—You actually believe that nonsense, myong!? You're insane, myong!
“Yeah, you're right. I'm not sane. That's why I became a magical girl.”
—Save me, myong-!
Annoyed by the spirit's thrashing, Halia held it out to me. I attached various mechanical devices to the spirit's body and tossed it straight into the portal.
Immediately afterward, a flood of data streamed in from the devices attached to the spirit.
“Aa— Can you hear me?”
—Myo, myong? What is this...
“Sounds like you can hear me just fine. How's it over there?”
The monitor began displaying the spirit swimming through the spirit realm. Having returned to its homeland after so long, the spirit swam about freely before suddenly tilting its head, sensing something off.
—Is this... really the spirit realm, myong?
“It is. The spirit realm.”
—No, something feels wrong, myong....
The spirit took a deep breath while looking around. From my research on spirits, I knew this was how they ate.
And what spirits consumed was emotional data—more precisely, the emotions absorbed by the World's Enemies and magical girls, refined by the Fairy Queen.
Since the Fairy Queen had vanished after her true identity was exposed, there shouldn't be any edible data left in the spirit realm.
—It's like... like the world has stopped... It feels really unpleasant, myong.
“Your senses are sharper than I expected. For a spirit, you've got quite the intuition...”
—Are you mocking me, myong!? Even so, this body ranked fourth at the Spirit Academy—!
I ignored the spirit's joke and focused on the observation data appearing on the monitor. Whether the spirit lacked the organs to perceive the data or had been affected by the Fairy Queen's perception alteration, it seemed unable to notice anything strange through its own senses.
But data never lies.
‘It's been days since the Fairy Queen left... There's no way that place is still intact.’
The world was always changing. Just as an abandoned countryside mansion gradually turned into a ruin, a secondary dimension without artificial maintenance would revert to its original state.
Into a chaotic landscape with nothing around.
The fact that the spirit couldn't perceive such a scene meant the Fairy Queen's perception-altering ability was still active, making the dimension appear as the spirit realm—or that something invisible was maintaining it.
‘—Even I can't see it.’
The perception-altering ability was something even I couldn't avoid. After all, I wouldn't even be able to tell which parts of the data the spirit sent were altered.
If perception alteration was in effect, the information would likely be filtered unconsciously even if I looked at it. In other words, even I was powerless against perception alteration.
But humans had always been a species that used tools to accomplish what they couldn't do themselves. If I couldn't see it, I just needed a tool that could.
Beep-!
‘There we go.’
The AI analyzed and organized the discrepancies between the data the spirit observed and the data collected by the instruments. It seemed perception alteration couldn't affect secondary processed information, because soon enough, several anomalies became visible even to me.
When I input that data into the computer, grotesque things invisible to the spirit began appearing on the monitor.
In other words, the hidden side of the spirit realm—the part the Fairy Queen had wanted to conceal even while absent—was being revealed.
“......Th-this is.”
“Aile. Close your eyes.”
“Y-yes? Ah, okay...”
Halia grabbed the monitor with trembling hands. Then she leaned in closer, unable to believe what she was seeing.
I told her it wasn't necessary and simply enlarged the parts she wanted to see. Halia immediately recoiled and started vomiting on the floor.
“Ugh, urgh, uweeegh-!”
As the floor became covered in bright red vomit, Aile, startled by the sound, opened her eyes.
Upon seeing the monitor filled with World's Enemies, Aile flinched in surprise. Unlike Halia, however, she didn't react as violently.
Probably because, unlike Halia, Aile had no prior acquaintance with the things inside.
“Uh, um... Scientist? Those are...”
—Myong? What's going on, myong? I'm curious too, myong.
Listening to their responses, I operated the computer again. Soon, the same information we were seeing was transmitted to the spirit's optic nerves as well.
And the moment the spirit saw the horrific, melted forms—things that could no longer be called human—mixed with the World's Enemies, it groaned upon recognizing their faces.
—A-Aqua? Leaf? Wh-what the hell is this...
“What's going on is that the reason the Fairy Queen recklessly handed out such immense power to magical girls is right there.”
I frowned slightly as I looked at the screaming magical girls. More precisely, at the hosts that were half magical girl and half World's Enemy—things I didn't even know what to call.
—Sa-save me＆@$@!#@
—I want to die....
The secret the Fairy Queen had desperately wanted to hide. The final fate awaiting dead magical girls. The reason the World's Enemies never disappeared no matter how many magical girls defeated them was here.