Chapter 164
Once she understood this, the Magical Girl Dark Feather's eyes dimmed considerably.
She loosened her grip on the feathered sword, and the feathers fell limply to the ground.
At some point, the noisy, fierce wind in the sports field subsided, and one by one, the stones hanging in mid-air on the ruins fell steadily to the ground.
It was as if it were announcing the end of this battle.
Magical Girl Dark Feather also gave up struggling, standing there blankly, with only the Magic Wand Fallen Heaven, which had always been with her in battle, in her hand.
"Give me that Magic Wand and tell me everything, otherwise I'll have to force you to stop transforming."
Phantom Wind gazed at Dark Feather from afar and spoke words that showed no mercy.
Upon hearing her words, Dark Feather instinctively tightened his grip on his Magic Wand.
So... she still has no chance to realize that ridiculous idea, and will be left with nothing again, just like before.
Although it was something I had expected.
But at that moment, she still felt an indescribable bittersweet feeling.
What would she think of at a time like this?
Friends from the past?
Nightmares from the past?
Or is it my mother, whom I haven't seen in so long?
But what she remembered at that moment was that inexplicable Witch, and that perverted adult who had spanked her.
But this time... Miss Lily won't come to save her either, because she's probably already disappointed her.
She lowered her head:
"I understand, I admit defeat..."
Dark Feather had just opened her mouth when her words abruptly stopped. Her eyes widened instantly, and she froze there as if unable to move.
The other Magic girls also noticed her unusual behavior and looked at her in confusion.
Just as Phantom Wind vaguely sensed something, another voice appeared on Dark Feather's body—
"No, Yu Ke, we haven't lost yet! We still have our last trump card, hehehe..."
That was a familiar, playful laugh.
When this sound appeared, everyone realized what was going on.
Then, behind Dark Feather, a slender, snake-like figure made of black mist appeared. It was like a small Chameleon stretched into a tiny snake, with bright and bizarre colors.
It coiled around Dark Feather, rendering Dark Feather unable to move.
--This is its true form, which has been attached to the Magical Girl Dark Feather all along, without even Dark Feather herself realizing it.
"The trump card?"
All the Magic girls sensed something ominous.
The meaning of this word is known only to the Magical Girl Dark Feather herself.
After realizing she was bound, she struggled incessantly, but no matter how hard she struggled, she could not break free from the Chameleon's control.
She couldn't even control her body; her hands, trembling uncontrollably, reached for her hair ornament and removed a Crystal from it.
It was a blood-red, eye-shaped Crystal that exuded an extremely ominous aura.
Just their mere presence instilled a suffocating sense of oppression in the Magic girls.
They froze for a moment when they saw it.
What is that...?
The light itself may not be as powerful as the former Devil King Crystal, but the Magic Power it now contains is almost tangible, spreading an aura of despair and nightmares.
Seemingly sensing Dark Feather's struggle, the Chameleon chuckled strangely:
"Why struggle? Didn't we agree beforehand that we'd use its power in times of crisis?"
"Let's use it to send these Magic girls to an eternal slumber in their nightmares... hehehe."
The Chameleon's eyes rolled around again.
"However, it might also trap you in a nightmare forever, subjecting you to terrible torment~"
Magical Girl Dark Feather shook her head frantically, her eyes filled with a flickering, desperate light. She already understood what the Chameleon was about to do.
"No... no... someone save me..."
Tears welled in Dark Feather's eyes as she spoke in a voice that sounded almost desperate.
The Magic girls, of course, wouldn't sit idly by. In that brief moment, they each unleashed their fastest attacks, heading together towards the Chameleon Monster who wanted to manipulate Dark Feather to do dangerous things.
However, the Chameleon Monster seemed to have anticipated everything.
Dark purple Feather Wing were forcibly pulled from Dark Feather's back, stretching and growing larger despite Dark Feather's almost depleted Magic Power, forming a barrier around Dark Feather.
"--boom!"
With a loud bang, Dark Feather's wings shattered.
However, Dark Feather's trembling hand had already forcibly embedded the Magic Crystal into the main slot of his Magic Wand.
It's all too late.
The nightmarish, chilling voice of the Witch resounded—
"--- Nightmare Dragon!"
When that cold, low voice appeared, everything seemed to fall silent instantly.
The movements of all the Magic girls present became extremely slow under the influence of that Magic Power glow.
Crimson mist surged out of Dark Feather's body like a waterfall, instantly engulfing her and dragging her into an abyss of despair.
Then, the fog spread rapidly...
The Magic girls didn't even have time to react before they were touched and engulfed by the mist erupting from the Crystal.
In the blink of an eye, the entire school was engulfed by this surge of Magic Power, as if a blood-red light had enveloped everything.
The scene was like a vivid nightmare.
Sounds, outlines, light, color—all these things vanished, leaving only the deepest silence, and from the deepest depths of that silence, the nightmare was born...
Perhaps a long time has passed.
When I came to my senses, there was no cold temperature of the battlefield, no pain from my wounds, and no noisy wind.
Only the ticking of the clock.
It was as peaceful as being in a classroom.
In the classroom... is class starting?
When Kirishima Ai opened her eyes again, her mind was a complete mess, hazy and confused. She couldn't remember or think clearly about anything, but she felt terrible, as if shrouded in a gloomy haze.
She was very familiar with her current movements.
It looked like she was dozing off on her desk. Although she usually didn't do this during class, she would often rest like this during breaks.
When she opened her sleepy eyes and dazedly lifted her head from the table, she felt that the world in front of her was somewhat strange.
Everything was shrouded in a somewhat gloomy atmosphere.
It's as if those vibrant colors have disappeared, replaced by a grayish-white hue reminiscent of an old movie.
The desks were also gray.
My skin turned pale.
Kirishima Ai blinked in utter confusion, thinking she was still dreaming.
But when she looked up again and saw everything around her, she realized that she was not dreaming; she was in the classroom.
Although the classroom looked somewhat familiar, a closer look revealed that the layout was slightly different, giving the impression that it belonged to another class.
"..."
Kirishima Ai felt a sense of confusion.
If she's not mentally unstable, she must have been in a fight just now, right?
She fights as the Magic girl Fate Kite against the Chameleon Monster and the dark Magical Girl Dark Feather.
As the battle drew to a close, just when everyone thought it was all over, something strange happened.
The Chameleon Monster manipulated Dark Feather, using a dangerous Crystal they had never seen before...
"... What's wrong with me?"
With this in mind, Kirishima Ai re-examined her current situation.
The world turned gray.
I found myself in an unfamiliar classroom.
She quickly thought of a possibility—
Could this be an illusion caused by the power of that mysterious Crystal?
Kirishima Ai looked around again. It was indeed a class, but all the faces were unfamiliar and didn't belong to her classmates.
Because of her good eyesight, she quickly noticed a small detail while observing her surroundings.
That was the calendar posted on the classroom wall.
"This is... two years ago?"
Kirishima Ai stood there, stunned.
Before she could continue thinking, a familiar, cold voice appeared in her ear:
"Hey, you girl over there, even if you're not paying attention in class, don't talk to yourself like that."
It was two years ago, yet she heard a voice she recognized.
Upon hearing that cold voice, Kirishima Ai instinctively shut her mouth and became extremely quiet in an instant; this action was almost ingrained in her instincts.
The calendar does indeed show two years ago.
But after carefully looking around, Kirishima Ai realized that there were people she recognized.
In this classroom, there were two faces she recognized.
One is the Student Council, Kazama Kiriori, and the other is the student vice president, Qingchuan Lan.
However, compared to her memory, the two people now seem much more immature, like girls who have just entered high school.
At this very moment, the person most familiar to her stood on the podium, very similar to the figure in Kirishima Ai's memory, yet slightly different.
She was a woman with thick-rimmed black glasses, a gloomy and rigid demeanor, and a slender and tall figure.
The woman gives off an impression of being aloof and unremarkable.
In this gray world, unlike two years later, she now sports a neat and capable short hairstyle, almost reaching her ears, exuding a cool and neutral vibe.
"Next, who would like to read this ancient poem to me?"
The woman's pale hands gripped the book as she scanned the classroom with a gloomy gaze. Soon after, another seemingly enthusiastic girl raised her hand high.
Upon seeing the girl with her hand raised, the woman looked somewhat helpless for some reason.
After a brief silence, the woman looked down at her book again and said calmly:
"Then you can do it, Kurosaki- kun."
Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Black Rabbit
Sakaki Chika had a terrible dream.
In her dream, she returned to her middle school days, where her mother left her, leaving her with her gambling father, and what followed was seemingly endless despair and pain.
The dimly lit room was filled with empty bottles and smelled of stale alcohol. IOUs were plastered all over the windows and doors, and the sound of banging on the door would suddenly wake you up in the middle of the night.