Chapter 319
The sound was strange and kept repeating, making her feel confused and ashamed. But soon, she had no time to think about it anymore. What followed was a series of images.
What happened didn't seem like a transformation into Magic girl at all.
She was engulfed in nightmares about the past.
I also saw the Monster who were made up of all of this.
My vision returned to the darkness of consciousness once more.
After witnessing all the memories and the past, Kirishima Ai found her final room.
Yes, that's the room where Silver Feather is.
At this moment, Kirishima Ai was still wondering, what exactly is Silver Feather?
She used to occasionally mistake Silver Feather for the Magical Girl Silver Feather who was always fighting, but she also clearly had memories of transforming into Silver Feather to fight, so she felt that it probably wasn't entirely like that.
In this world, in this world of consciousness, it seems that most of what we have are memories of our past.
Silver Feather has always lived in her past memories.
At that moment, Kirishima Ai remembered something the female ghost had said.
According to the female ghost, Silver Feather is the embodiment of Crystal.
It is a fragment of regret from someone who has already died in the past.
Is that really the case?
So why did Silver Feather choose her? And everything in this world belongs to her past, to her memories.
She wandered through the darkness, lost in thought.
She didn't know when, but the female ghost's voice echoed in her mind again. It seemed she hadn't completely disappeared; her voice still lingered, speaking to her:
Still struggling?
Darkness entangled her steps.
Belial retained a portion of his power, witnessing all of this.
[Your becoming the Magical Girl Silver Feather is not a gift of fate, nor is it anyone's favor, or simply your good fortune, as you might imagine.]
[You've simply received a curse called Magical Girl Silver Feather.]
[The moment you received her from someone, you sealed your fate with all the unhappiness you now possess.]
In other words.
Perhaps Kirishima Ai hasn't realized it yet, but it's all just an illusion.
My consciousness began to feel heavy again.
Kirishima Ai raised her hand and saw her body begin to dissipate again.
This time, it's not becoming an illusion.
Instead, it dissipates and vanishes like sand.
This time, she seemed to really be unable to hold on any longer. The room was clearly very close to her, but she began to feel like she couldn't move an inch, and she wanted to just give up altogether.
"You don't understand anything..."
She said in a low voice.
The girl's steps did not stop.
She continued walking, toward the door, her body continuing to dissipate into sand and dust, billowing backward.
What was she thinking at that moment?
[You know nothing?]
Belial clearly couldn't understand the girl's thoughts.
She simply watched as Kirishima Ai staggered along.
At that moment, for some reason, Kirishima Ai remembered that essay.
If everything is over today and they get home safely, how should she do her homework?
What is important to you in your life?
The person who is important to you, the person who saved you when you were depressed and lost, the person who reached out to you.
What has driven us to where we are today, and what motivates us to strive for the future?
If we figure these things out, will the future... become clearer?
Kirishima Ai continued walking, struggling, struggling through the darkness.
Without hesitation, she walked in that direction, and at the same time, gave her answer to Belial.
"If I hadn't met her."
"If I hadn't accepted the opportunity to become Magic girl that day..."
"Then my time will remain frozen on that day."
If you were to ask her what changed her, what helped her emerge from a bleak, mundane, and stagnant life and encounter all the good fortune she has today, her answer would be simple:
She has met many important people who have influenced and helped her, adding special color to her life.
"So, for me..."
Most importantly.
Finally, she arrived at the last door in the darkness.
[...]
Belial remained silent.
When the girl pushed open the door again, a silvery light shone in from outside.
Which one should I choose?
A familiar voice echoed in my ears.
It sounded as if a young girl was calling from afar.
If she hadn't made that choice, none of this would have started.
Therefore, she will make the same choice again this time.
The door slowly opened.
As she stepped inside, a dazzling silver light illuminated a little girl standing there, her face showing a mixture of anticipation and uncertainty, as if she harbored some unease and worry about the future.
She gazed at Kirishima Ai with her bright, dark eyes.
Are we living a happy life now?
"Have we become great people, just like we promised Mom?"
As a child, I innocently asked her those questions.
At first, Kirishima Ai hesitated slightly.
After a while, she took a few more steps forward and bent down.
She gently touched her childhood self's head.
Just like her former mother, and later, Teacher Haihara.
"I'm sorry, I haven't kept that promise yet."
Kirishima Ai apologized to the little girl.
The little girl looked slightly disappointed.
"However, a lot of lucky things have happened to us, so... I will continue to work hard."
She firmly believed this.
After all, they have a long future ahead of them.
The little girl gazed at her for a moment, then suddenly reached out her hand. That delicate hand, which needed to be handled with utmost care, felt heavy precisely because it was so light.
Kirishima Ai also reached out her hand, paused in mid-air for a moment, and finally gently took the little girl's hand in her own.
The little girl simply smiled in the end.
As the shimmering silver feathers slowly drifted down, the little girl before me began to slowly change.
At that moment, Kirishima Ai saw many things.
Many of hers.
As a child, in her hospital bed, in middle school, when she was lonely, sick, crying, or graduating, she was sometimes silent, sometimes had nowhere to vent, and sometimes questioned herself.
All those regrets, all those past weaknesses, made her who she was.
She can't overcome her past, she can't accept the reality, she's afraid to face herself.
Finally, everything transformed into a familiar figure.
It was a smiling Magic girl in a silver dress, with a single, radiant wing on her back, like an angel.
"So you are..."
Kirishima Ai was in a daze for a moment.
At that moment, she finally realized who the Silver Feather in front of her was.
And gradually, light began to shine in the entire dark world, the closed world that imprisoned them.
Those were incredibly beautiful, fiery red feathers, yet they shimmered with iridescent colors.
It was as if someone was waiting for them...
The heavy rain spoke of an unending gloom.
The battle between the Queen of Black Magic and Heavenly Blazing Kite is gradually coming to an end.
At this very moment, the earth was being torn apart by a series of rumbling sounds. At first, only small pieces of rubble floated up from the ground, but later, the ruins of countless tall buildings were pulled up from the ground and continued to gather upwards.
The powerful gravity gathered these shattered ruins together, even uprooting the earth.
Belial stood suspended in mid-air, manipulating and swinging these heavy objects beyond human reach with his Magic Wand. In an instant, the entire sky was filled with floating, broken skyscrapers.
All of this actually happened in the blink of an eye.
Once the skyscrapers had coalesced to a sufficient size, Belial once again manipulated gravity, hurling these thousands of tons of rubble towards the Heavenly Blazing Kite.
She only threw out a small portion.
Then, she herself flew towards the Heavenly Blazing Kite, and at both ends of the Battle Instrument, Magic Power extended into two blades of light.
As the sea of fire surged towards them, the blazing flames of the Heavenly Blazing Kite instantly vaporized the incoming rocks into gas.
Emerging from this sea of fire was a Magic girl with three pairs of blazing wings spread across her back.
She embedded a Crystal into her Magic Wand.
" --Shadow Feather!"
When she raised her Magic Wand once more, the eerie light of her dark Magic, like that of Belial, stretched endlessly, forming Feather Wing- shaped Magic Power giant blade.
The next moment, the two deadly black Magic collided.
The two Witch were forcibly separated by the collision of their powers, and at that moment, the Battle Instrument flashed once more. Behind Belial, numerous stones that had been prepared were pulled by gravity and flew towards the Heavenly Blazing Kite like missiles.
Heavenly Blazing Kite's response to this was also very simple.
At that moment, the Crystal of the Shadow Feather suddenly emitted a burst of rainbow light.
The shadows faded.
"--Radiant Feathers - Holy Rainbow!"
The original Dark Kite Crystal instantly transformed into its reversed form— Rainbow Feather Crystal.
Correspondingly, six rainbow-colored spears, like sharp swords, instantly burst forth from the three pairs of fiery wings behind Heavenly Blazing Kite.