Chapter 281

"Thank you... for the gift, I really like it."

As far as she could remember, her mother hadn't given her a gift in a long time. Since they separated, this might be the first gift her mother had ever given her.

Shiratori Aoi paused for a moment.

Her worried expression softened a little, and she unconsciously curled the corners of her mouth into a smile. After that, the conversation between mother and daughter was as if it had never happened, and they resumed their usual farewell.

At this moment, Kirishima Ai thought to herself, "Their mother-daughter relationship is really strange."

After saying goodbye, her mother was going back to another home.

Kirishima Ai patted the closed door, glancing at the bracelet on her wrist. In the dark, mirror-like light, the girl's slightly distorted silhouette was reflected.

Kirishima Ai always seemed at a loss when facing her mother.

She rarely interacted with this woman, and the woman seldom interfered in her affairs. Even as a relative, Kirishima Ai would miss her from time to time, but upon reflection, she realized she actually knew very little about her mother.

Therefore, it was only now that the other party was suddenly showing such concern that Kirishima Ai found it strange.

As far as she could remember, her mother was never there for her whenever she couldn't handle things on her own.

Whether it's a cold or a fever, or a parent-teacher meeting.

No matter what I do, I never think that I actually have a mother.

The other person was either working or taking care of a baby.

Even without these things, you can live a good life. Why is that?

She sometimes feels lost.

Afterwards, Kirishima Ai patted her face, composing herself in about half a minute. To be honest, she was still hungry; because her mother had suddenly come to visit, neither she nor Silver Feather had eaten dinner yet...

Oh, right, Silver Feather.

Kirishima Ai realized that Silver Feather was still outside the window, exposed to the cold wind; she needed to call Silver Feather back quickly.

So she opened the window and looked outside. A gust of cold wind immediately rushed in, passing right through her clothes and into her neck and shoulders, making Kirishima Ai shiver.

"Silver Feather?"

She peeked out, rubbing her cold arms, and looked around in confusion, but couldn't see Silver Feather anywhere.

For some reason, she had a bad feeling.

Kirishima Ai called out several more times, but received no response.

She only saw a few footprints belonging to Silver Feather on the snow-covered eaves.

It's completely deserted now.

I don't know exactly when I left.

Kirishima Ai gave Silver Feather an old model of her own cell phone, which contained a phone card with a relatively small monthly call allowance.

She picked up her phone and tried to make a call.

"---Drip... drip..."

The phone rang for a long time.

It's the theme song of the TV series that Silver Feather is currently watching.

But no answer came for a long time.

The cheerful, never-ending ringtone made Kirishima Ai feel restless and uneasy. She dialed several more times, but received no response.

What exactly happened...?

Just as she was thinking this, she shivered again from the cold wind outside and even sneezed. If she didn't close the window soon, she could already foresee that she would catch a cold.

Closing the windows always feels like locking your pet outside, making you worry that they might not know how to get back.

My anxiety is growing.

Infected by this sentiment, Kirishima Ai was a little worried that something else bad might happen next.

Kirishima Ai was struggling with her decision, she suddenly realized she had grasped at nothing.

It's a very strange feeling.

Just now, at that distance, she clearly grabbed the window, but it felt like she grasped nothing. Was it just her imagination?

"... What happened?"

She first muttered something to herself in confusion.

However, she soon realized that it was not an illusion or a mistake.

Then, she looked at her arm and found that it had begun to become illusory, leaving only a faint outline, while the inside had become empty like a phantom.

When she tried to touch the window, her hand passed right through it, as if it didn't exist.

This is...

This had happened before, but she always thought it was a hallucination. But now, after trying it several times, she realized she wasn't mistaken.

Why are all these terrible things happening at once?

This situation is, of course, very frightening.

She felt flustered and instinctively waved her hands repeatedly, trying to regain her composure, but unsurprisingly, nothing happened.

It seems that some kind of strange change has begun to occur in Kirishima Ai.

She covered her forehead with her other hand, which was still fine, for a while, then lowered it and picked up her phone.

"No... calm down first, let's call Takanashi and see."

Kirishima Ai has always had a calm and clear mind.

In this situation, shouting won't help. If it's clearly a paranormal event, you should consult Magic girl...

She started trying to make phone calls to the Takanashi with one hand.

Just then---

Asking others for help won't help; in your situation, no one can assist you.

A cold, arrogant voice she had never heard before.

She heard this unfamiliar voice in her room, which deepened her suspicions. Looking around, she realized that the voice... seemed to originate from within her mind.

This stopped Kirishima Ai from dialing a number on the screen.

What noise just happened?

If she wasn't mistaken, then someone was talking inside her head.

Kirishima Ai lowered her head and blinked:

"Who are you?"

That voice, oblivious to how unusual this situation was for Kirishima Ai, continued in that haughty tone:

Who I am is unimportant; what matters is that, soon, Silver Feather will take everything from you.

Judging from the voice, it should be a woman; it sounds a bit like the female president I heard at the museum the other day.

And just hearing his name makes him sound like a dangerous person.

As a Magic girl, Kirishima Ai considers herself to have seen her share of storms. No matter how bizarre the situation, her first priority is always to figure out how to resolve it safely.

It seems there's one more problem to solve by making this call.

"It's like this, Takanashi, I encountered a Monster..."

[... Hello.]

In the past two days, Cangyue Yuri felt her Magic Power gradually recovering.

Logically, this should be a good thing.

But instead of being happy to feel the revival of Magic Power within her, her anxiety grew stronger. Her intuition told her that this was not a good sign.

Because her power was inherited from that woman.

The fact that the Magic Power within him was constantly increasing and recovering meant that the other person was also gradually recovering, even affecting him, who was now a puppy here.

Cangyue Yuri had no choice but to remain on guard while gathering information to prepare for the next operation.

She was investigating the "R'lyeh Monster Setting Collection" and the "R'lyeh Tale Collection".

It was Takanashi secretly slipped into her doghouse a couple of days ago.

As for why they suddenly looked at this, it was because of the strangeness they had noticed about Kirishima Ai these past few days. As Magic girl, her intuition told her that she could investigate in this direction.

It just so happens that Miss Haihara went out drinking with that Miss Suzuki again tonight.

The puppy turned the pages one by one with its paws.

"Kirishima Ai, the user of the Magical Girl Silver Feather transformation, received the Magic Armament Broken Wing, which belonged to Takanashi, and Silver Feather Crystal from an unknown source a few months ago due to some unknown experience."

"I felt like the name Silver Feather sounded familiar before, but where had I heard it before...?"

Cangyue Yuri was born on Earth.

She wasn't taken back to R'lyeh by her Magic Academy teachers until she reached school age.

Therefore, she wasn't exactly familiar with these stories.

But she vaguely remembered that the name was mentioned in a few lines in a fairy tale about the Overlord, though he was clearly not a character worth paying attention to.

And also...

With a serious expression, Luna the puppy turned to a page in the complete collection of R'lyeh's fairy tales. On it was a depiction of a bird with silver feathers, which looked very beautiful, but combined with the style of the painting, the bird also had an indescribable feeling of horror and grotesqueness.

The title reads like this.

Be careful of your child; don't let Silver Feather steal her away.

If you were a resident of Maple Plain City, you would definitely find this title very strange.

But to the R'lyeh people, "Silver Feather" is a name that would frighten children.

However, this wasn't too scary for Cangyue Yuri.

Silver Feather is a strange bird that lives deep in the Black Forest.

[When they were young, their bodies were covered with burnt-brown feathers, just like the chicks of other birds in the forest. The clumsy mother birds often mistook them for their own babies.]

[Silver Feather will kill or abandon the mother birds' real chicks, then live in the nest itself, pretending to be their offspring, and be raised and fed in this way.]

Eventually, the camouflage feathers on their bodies will gradually fade away, and beautiful silvery-white Feather Wing will grow back.

It sounds a bit like a cuckoo.

However, among these Monsters, there is one Monster known as Silver Feather.

They will choose mothers who can care for them, then disguise themselves as their children and replace them without the children's knowledge.

The real children are hidden away in a place where no one can find them, until they are forgotten by their mothers.

And once they are forgotten, they will gradually disappear and be replaced.

He was a very terrifying Monster.

Therefore, when she was little, this story didn't scare Cangyue Yuri at all.

--She has no parents at all.

Of course, this is just a fairy tale with a dark tone, and it's definitely not the same as the Magical Girl Silver Feather.

After flipping through two thick books for a while, Cangyue Yuri sighed with a "woof".

She glanced at the doorway; it remained deserted.

The house gets incredibly boring whenever Haihara- san isn't home.

Without realizing it, she started wagging her tail.

When will Haihara be back tonight...?

After leaving, Silver Feather became very hungry.