My Failed Creation
The moment the evil spirit Fania’s eyes changed, I jerked my head aside to dodge the axe. Right after, the heavy bite of the blade grazed my neck. Then came the stinging heat. Cold sweat slid down my spine. Even while I wasn’t sure if this was a dream or reality, those sensations alone screamed that the situation was very, very real.
“Wait! What the hell is this! Let’s at least talk—!”
“Shut your mouth! Die already, die! Die, you magical girllll!”
Her half-crazed, glittering eyes shone vividly in the dark. The axe was already swinging again. Did I have time to think about anything else? Of course not. I was too busy desperately avoiding the blows aimed at my vital points. This time it was a vertical strike aimed straight at the top of my skull—an attack with zero room for compromise.
I threw myself to the floor and rolled. The hair I couldn’t fully dodge was sliced off and scattered everywhere.
—Bang!
Through the flying strands, her pink glowing eyes burned even more gruesomely.
Whether the Fania in front of me was real or fake didn’t matter right now.
If this keeps up, I’m actually going to die…!
What do I do? Fight back? Attack Fania? Knowing what kind of hell she went through because of me? And could I even beat an awakened magical girl in the first place? Her danger level was a full eight. Even if there were a hundred of me, I’d still lose, wouldn’t I?
The incomprehensible status window I’d seen earlier, the guilt of having to attack Fania—they all swirled together and made my already spinning head even more chaotic.
Even now, those bloodshot eyes kept glaring at me.
“Just! Die already! Die!!”
This time I couldn’t dodge. My attention had been fixed on the axe in her right hand, so I noticed the dagger in her left too late. The blade scraped across my waist.
“Kuh…!”
A burning heat flared at my side, and then the fabric of my dress grew wet and heavy. That one had landed clean.
Fania slowly approached me as I sat collapsed on the floor.
“Ah… I almost forgot… What’s your name, anyway?”
She spun the axe lazily in the air as she asked. She must have thought she had the complete upper hand; her attitude was noticeably more relaxed than before. Yet no matter how casual her posture became, the murderous intent in her eyes never dimmed.
I forced myself to sound calm and answered her question with another.
“Why ask for my name now?”
At least I’d gotten the conversation I wanted, even if the direction was completely wrong. In a way, it was progress. Unlike the blind charging from moments ago, there was now at least some room for dialogue.
But if I had to trade a slash across the ribs for a single conversation, the math felt pretty bad.
“I like to know what I killed, that’s all.”
Never mind. There had never been any room for conversation. She smiled sweetly and kept spitting out disgusting words. This… was Fania. My masterpiece that had failed by the narrowest margin—this was Fania?
It felt like my most treasured jewel had turned to garbage in an instant. The pressure that had been squeezing my skull grew burning hot.
Biting my trembling lips, I forced the word out.
“Porim.”
A keyword only the real Fania would react to. If she was fake, she would simply nod and keep trying to kill me. If she was real… the result would probably be the same. Back when Serafina was chasing us through the slums, Fania had tried to snap my neck at the very end.
Either way, the outcome wouldn’t change. Still, I gave her that name to see her reaction. More precisely, to erase even the last remaining scrap of guilt inside me.
“What…? Po…rim?”
For a single instant the killing intent vanished from Fania’s face, replaced by confusion. She lowered the axe and moved her mouth wordlessly. Then—
“Don’t give me that bullshit! You fucking bitch!”
She brought the axe straight down toward my skull. Her reaction was even more violent than before. Her face flushed a dark, ugly red. Her eyelids fluttered wildly. The blood vessels in her eyes looked like they were flickering. And that back-alley thug speech pattern on top of it all. It was practically a seizure.
There was no trace left of the Fania I had known. This wasn’t even something that could be called a magical girl anymore.
Good. Confirmation complete. This thing was just a zombie.
—Slash!
Once my mind was made up, my body moved instantly. I pulled out thread and wrapped it around the axe she was holding. Just as I expected, the thread sank straight into it. I had a foundation to stand on after all. I hadn’t provoked her without a plan.
Connect the thread and manipulate any object made of magical power at will. That was the ability I had figured out on the way here.
The axe Fania had created with her materialization ability had to be made of magic power too. Which meant the story was simple. No—it was more than simple. We were natural enemies!
“Y-you—!”
Fania bit her lip and yanked on the axe. But my ability seemed to hold priority over a magical girl’s raw physical strength. I snapped my hand back as if cracking a whip, and the axe flew into my grip.
“Looks like the situation’s reversed now, doesn’t it?”
“You bitch…!”
I stared at her twisted face and slowly stood up. The wound at my side throbbed harder. It was still okay. Serious, but not fatal. I could move. It was a magical girl’s body, after all. It would heal in a day.
I tightened my grip on the axe and raised it. My plan was to bring it down on her shoulder and completely neutralize her. Whatever method had brought her back to life, and whether she really was the Fania I remembered—those questions could wait until after I subdued her and interrogated her. She might even make good reference material for the next magical girl I created.
“You think that cheap trick will work?!”
But as Fania shouted, the axe gradually grew blurry and vanished from my hand. She had canceled the ability. It didn’t matter. I was still half a head taller than her. When neither side had any real combat technique, size decided everything. Of course, if her danger level really was eight like the status window said, this fight had been hopeless from the start. Yet even though she clearly wanted to kill me, she hadn’t shown that kind of power.
Which meant she wasn’t choosing not to use her strength—she couldn’t.
“Then I’ll win!”
“Wha—ugh!”
I drove my fist into her dark-red face. She collapsed onto the floor, twitching and flailing. But this wasn’t enough to call her fully neutralized. I had to lock the victory down.
“You little speck!”
I immediately climbed on top of her and grabbed a handful of her hair. A soft, warm texture filled my palm. It was exactly the same feeling I’d had back in the slum tent when she hugged me tight and fell asleep with her head against me.
My hand trembled for a moment, but—
“Fake!”
I deliberately shouted and slapped her across the cheek. Now that I knew it was fake, there was no reason to hold back. The evidence of my failure. The report card that had received a failing grade. The greater black history I had created to bury the original black history. So this was fake. It had to be. It must be!
I didn’t know who was behind whatever trick this was, but it was nothing more than an evil spirit that had stolen Fania’s body!
I punched the struggling face beneath me again. I yanked her hair and slapped her once more. My vision flashed red. My side burned worse than ever. The flow of time grew faint. And within my blurring consciousness, I looked down at Fania’s screaming, ranting face.
“…!! !!”
But I couldn’t hear any sound. In an eerily perfect silence, I simply kept throwing punches on pure reflex. Even so, Fania’s ferocity never weakened. The gaze looking up at me contained nothing but pure venom and malice.
That was when the pain hit—like my entire side was being ripped away.
“Ah… ugh…!!”
The wound on my side tore wider, soaking the dress with even more blood. My posture collapsed. I fell onto the cold tile floor clutching my ribs. Thick, sticky blood kept pouring between my fingers.
“Ptui!”
Fania spat the blood that had filled her mouth onto the floor. Sound started returning. Before I could even register that she had bitten my side, a hand shot out of the darkness and seized my hair.
“Let go! You fake piece of shit!”
I screamed at the feeling of my scalp tearing and thrashed, but the grip only dug deeper into my hair.
“The real fake is the magical girl! You frauds!”
—Slap!
A slap flew in before I could regain my senses. I tasted blood in my mouth. My blurry vision slowly sharpened.
“Every magical girl has to die!!”
“Then you die first!”
My hair was still caught. My body wasn’t in any condition to escape. In that case, the best option was to charge in and turn this into a complete mudfight.
I rammed straight into her. Both of us tumbled across the floor at the same time.
“You bastard!”
“Trash whore!”
Sprawled on the ground, I scrambled to get up first. Whoever stood up first would hold the advantage. She seemed to realize the same thing; she was desperately scraping at the tiles, trying to rise.
Then, at that exact moment—
The sound of footsteps echoed from the darkness. Both Fania and I froze. Our eyes turned toward the shadows at the same time. And then—
“What the hell is this mess now…? And that bitch over there—I definitely drowned her, didn’t I…?”
The ferocious magical girl Gem. An uninvited guest who should never have appeared in this situation stepped into view.