Clumsy Beginning
"Huff... huff... You think you'll get away with this...? Do you even know who the mayor of Talos City is...? The president of the Magical Girl Association... the strongest magical girl, Serafina herself... If you beg now..."
"Does she even realize what state she's in?"
A wild boar muttered to herself, bound in thread. Of course, my thread ability couldn't normally overpower a magical girl, but the story changes when the opponent is already battered beyond escape. The way she squirmed on the floor reminded me of a writhing insect cocoon.
Meanwhile, Pania sat at a distance, watching the scene. She didn't seem inclined to charge in like when we first met. Fine. Let her watch if she wants. My ability was a hard counter to hers anyway, so even if she suddenly attacked, I had nothing to fear. The threads wrapped around my side had already stopped the bleeding, and magical girls' physical resilience never failed to impress.
Alright, time to get to the point. I rolled up my sleeves.
— Smack!
I slapped Gem across the face without hesitation. It was both to give her a trial and to break Pania's spirit as she watched from behind. She might be quiet now, but she'd bare her fangs the moment she saw an opening. I hadn't wanted to fight in the first place. She came at me first, so I had no choice but to respond. Wasting stamina on someone like her was pointless. A revived corpse could never become an Ideal Magical Girl. That was just how magical girl stories worked. In simple terms, we were different species. A dog doesn't grow up to become a camel.
I shook my head to clear the stray thoughts and raised my hand again. Gem's condition worried me a little, but I couldn't stop. This was my specialty, after all. I knew exactly how much damage a magical girl's vitality could withstand. No one in this world understood it better than I did.
Obviously, I had no intention of killing Gem. My role wasn't that of a indiscriminate slaughterer of magical girls, but a noble hero of the shadows who granted them trials so they could grow.
"Urgh... ugh... ah..."
Gem gasped, spitting blood-tinged foam. She seemed too far gone to respond properly to external stimuli. She really was on the verge of passing out. She looked unstable... Should I wait until she recovered before continuing?
I hesitated for a moment, but the problem was that I didn't know the exact extent of magical girls' regeneration. According to the original story, moderate injuries healed in a single chapter, and near-fatal wounds recovered after about three. Magical girls' stamina was shown, but their recovery process was never detailed. If I misjudged even slightly, she might recover, snap the threads, and escape. I couldn't afford that risk. Running the numbers, I leaned toward continuing.
...I'll just be careful.
On second thought, even if she couldn't endure and died, it wouldn't be a big problem. It would simply mean she wasn't cut out to become an Ideal Magical Girl.
'Yeah. There are plenty of other magical girls besides Gem anyway.'
I grabbed Gem by the hair, wrapped it around my hand once, and tightened my grip. She hung limply, offering no resistance as I dragged her.
"Hey. Say something."
"Ugh... ahh..."
"Stop playing dead and speak up."
I shook her by the hair while facing her directly. Who did she think she was fooling? I knew full well that magical girls didn't die unless their windpipe was completely severed. Of course, if she were riddled with holes like Pania, she'd be finished, but a near-death state alone would never kill her. As long as no additional damage came in, her natural healing would let her recover.
As I kept shaking her by the hair, her blood-foamed lips slowly parted. I swallowed hard, waiting for her words.
"Spare me... I'm sorry... I, I was wrong... Please stop... Just spare me..."
......What?
This wasn't right... Why was she begging? I was the enemy, wasn't I? Logically, begging an enemy for your life wouldn't work. More importantly, what kind of magical girl begged an enemy for mercy? Wasn't "unbreakable even if it bends" the catchphrase of the mighty magical girl Gem, the one with an indomitable spirit?
Why was she acting like this?
Should I push her harder? But how? What more could I do in this situation? Was there any greater crisis than being on the brink of death? It felt like I'd hammered red-hot iron only to crack it.
A wave of dizziness hit me.
"Ah, shit! Seriously!"
Frustrated, I stomped my heel against the damp tiled floor several times. I didn't know what to do anymore. I'd just have to try something that wouldn't strain my body too much. Looking around, I spotted a puddle of water in the corner. It must have been the drinking source for the homeless who used to live here. About as deep as a forearm. That was it.
Still gripping Gem's hair, I shoved her face into the puddle.
"Glub, glub... mmph..."
She reacted. How's that? Humiliating? Painful? Degrading? Didn't it make a magical girl's will boil over?! Say it! Please!
A surge of exhilaration rushed through me. I pressed down harder, shaking her head frantically.
"...Heh."
What? Why was I laughing? There was something oddly thrilling about it. Was this that damn Xena Mind again? I thought it had been quiet for once, but it always popped out when I least expected it.
Even as my mind wandered, a sticky, ticklish sensation crawled up my spine. My face flushed, my heart pounded wildly. The corners of my mouth, twitching upward, had long since escaped my control. All my nerves focused on the tremors from Gem's head and the ripples spreading across the puddle's surface.
I tightened my grip further and forced her head deeper into the water.
"Haa...."
My head felt languid. A heated sigh escaped my lips. The darkness of the underpass gradually took on pastel tones. My vision seemed a little clearer.
While I was half-lost in that haze—
"Crazy bitch."
The sharp voice from behind cleared the fog. I yanked Gem out in a panic and turned to see Pania clicking her tongue at me. Her eyes and mouth curved as if smiling, but her gaze was ice-cold. Under that look, half contempt and half mockery, a wave of embarrassment washed over me.
I cleared my throat loudly and forced a calm demeanor, changing the subject.
"Ahem, ahem! She seems ready to talk now. Why did you suddenly attack? Have we met before?"
Pania didn't even look at me. She rubbed the stone floor with her finger as she answered.
"No. Magical girls have to die. That's why I attacked."
"Why do they have to die?"
I knew it wasn't wise to keep talking with someone whose intentions were unclear, but I was dying to know how she'd come back to life. From her reactions so far, it seemed certain that whoever was possessing Pania's body had her original memories. Was this some human scheme? Had they secretly recovered Pania's corpse and experimented on it with some underground technology? Or maybe it was Serafina's doing. Given her position and personality, it wouldn't be strange if she'd used a magical girl's corpse for unethical biological experiments. The Great Mother might even be involved. That old hag reeked of suspicion from head to toe.
But Pania's answer was none of those.
"Because I want to kill them."
"What are you trying to say?"
The reason magical girls had to die. Because she wanted to kill magical girls. It was such a trash answer. We were speaking the same language, yet it felt like I was talking to myself. Fine, whatever. Who cared about the purpose of some evil spirit that had taken over a corpse?
Just as I was about to turn away, she spoke first.
"...Isn't that your goal too? You tortured that girl called Gem, didn't you?"
What kind of horrifying nonsense was that? Comparing my noble will to such barbaric acts. I suppressed the anger rising in my chest. Stay calm. Since I didn't know her true identity, I had to choose my words carefully. How much should I reveal? First, I absolutely had to hide that I was Porim. My final moments with Pania had ended in tragedy, after all. More precisely, a tragedy I had created. The memory of gentle, kind Pania—who wouldn't even kill an ant—cursing me for turning her into a magical girl and trying to snap my neck was the deepest scar etched into my heart. Far deeper than the current reality where every magical girl had been branded a villain.
Pania had probably died resenting me until her last breath. If even I, the perpetrator, felt this way, how much worse must it have been for her, the victim? That shock would remain vivid in her memories too. No need to poke a hornet's nest for no reason. So then...
"I have no intention of killing her. Or torturing her. I just want to create an Ideal Magical Girl."
This was the appropriate line. It wasn't even a lie. How would the memories left in Pania's body interpret this answer?
"Pfft...! Puha... kuh..."
I'd been honest, only to receive an unbearably rude response. As if that weren't enough, she clutched her stomach and burst into laughter. Tears even welled up in her gradually blurring eyes. A single tear traced down her reddened eyelids and soaked the floor. Even then, the corners of her eyes refused to bend. Even mockery was desperate for her.
"Ahahaha! Kkuk... kkeuh... ugh..."
At this point, it was starting to get embarrassing. Couldn't she just stop laughing and say what she thought? After cackling for what felt like the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Pania wiped her tears. A moment later, she asked an unexpected question.
"Do you know what my dream was when I was little?"
"What was it."
I answered curtly, still annoyed by her earlier reaction, but my ears perked up. A magical girl's backstory? Pania's childhood dream had never been mentioned in the original work. What could it be?
"To become the president."
I blinked for a moment before belatedly realizing that this trash girl had just played me. I let out a silent sigh and looked down at the fallen Gem. Simply inflicting pain didn't seem effective. Beating her wasn't even ambiguous as a trial, was it? Something more dramatic was needed....