Her voice was layered and complex, as if many voices were speaking at once.
"Yes. It seems you've completely taken control of this mortal body."
Qingchuan smiled.
"This body really suits me. It's full of Bird-type magic... Her older sister is the same."
"Hina" raised her head. Somehow, the withered daffodil had been replaced by a fresh one.
The owner of this body must have replaced it before she left.
"Is that ordinary person named Kirishima Ai? Would you like me to capture her as a backup body for you?"
"No. I can't stand the stench of magical girls."
The entity possessing Hina spoke.
Magical girls were her sworn enemies.
Qingchuan looked a little surprised, as if she hadn't expected Kirishima Ai to be a magical girl.
But none of that mattered.
The great one before her had awakened from her slumber.
Yes. At this very moment, the one possessing Hina was the leader of the Black Death Cult, the King of Monsters, and the most terrifying enemy of magical girls—
the Black Devil Kings.
And there was no doubt that the one who had been resurrected was the most brutal and merciless of the four Demon Kings: the Bird-Type Devil King.
Before long, the Demon King possessing Hina twisted her expression.
"And... I don't know if it's my imagination, but I caught a scent I hate most of all on that magical girl."
The nausea had been strongest when she was near that little girl named Kirishima Ai.
That scent of magical tools and Magic Crystals...
It felt terribly familiar.
In a voice cold as ice, she spoke the name of the magical girl from her memories—
"Overlord... That damned woman. Why is her power in that little girl?"
In any case, the moment she sensed the other girl, she could no longer hold back her rage and hatred.
If she found even the slightest trace of that woman, she would destroy whoever or whatever was connected to her, no matter what.
"Hmph... Whether you're dead or alive..."
"I'll make you taste the agony of wishing you were dead. It's payback for the hatred I've harbored ever since you enslaved and used me..."
That was the greatest humiliation of her life as a Demon King.
To think she'd been defeated by some upstart magical girl...
At some point, a sparrow flew in through the window.
The Demon King looked at it and held out her hand.
The sparrow soon fluttered onto the back of her hand and affectionately rubbed against her finger.
A transparent crystal appeared, then quickly melted into the sparrow's body.
The sound of a sparrow rang out in the dim hospital room. On the wall, the shadow of the little bird began to grow stranger and larger.
"Next, I'll spread my minions to every corner of this city, until there are enough to kill that reckless woman and all those magical girls."
The Cuckoo Takes Over the Magpie's Nest
The streets were crowded during the daytime rush, with people coming and going. Then, amid the bustling street, a child's sobs suddenly rang out.
A little girl stood alone on the busy street, crying. People kept passing by, and a few glanced at her as they went.
It looked like she'd gotten separated from her parents.
"Mom..."
The little girl cried as she looked around, searching for her mother.
Just as she was at a loss for what to do, a gentle hand patted her lightly.
"What's wrong? Did you get separated from your mom?"
The little girl looked up and saw a pretty young woman with black hair.
The woman wore a loose short-sleeved shirt that showed off her slender, fair arms. A W logo was visible on her chest.
It looked like a shirt themed after the magical girl Phantom Wind.
"Mm... I can't find my mom."
The young woman—Kazama Kiriori—patted the little girl's head and said gently,
"Then I'll stay here with you while we wait for her."
The little girl sniffled and looked at the picture on the woman's shirt.
"Do you like the magical girl Phantom Wind too, big sister?"
Kazama Kiriori smiled.
"I do."
"So don't cry. This city is my backyard, after all. I can't have anyone crying in it."
As she spoke, she reached out and wiped away the tears at the corner of the little girl's eyes, comforting her. After spending some time with Kazama Kiriori, the little girl stopped crying.
The little girl blinked.
The big sister had just said something that sounded like a line the magical girl Phantom Wind had once said.
For some reason, the little girl blushed when she looked at the kind and pretty young woman.
"If you get separated from your mom again, don't wander off. I got separated from my mom when I was little, too, but I stayed right where I was and waited for her."
Kazama Kiriori kept the little girl company as they waited for her mother to find them. The little girl looked up and asked curiously,
"Did your mom find you afterward?"
"Of course."
Kazama Kiriori smiled.
A little while later, a frantic-looking woman appeared among the crowd, searching for something. When the little girl spotted her, she happily called out to her mom.
The woman froze, then looked over and ran toward them.
Mother and daughter were soon reunited. The mother hugged her daughter in relief, murmuring something to her.
After a while, the woman thanked Kazama Kiriori, and the little girl said,
"Thank you, big sister."
Kazama Kiriori waved and smiled.
"You're welcome. Don't get separated from your mom again, okay?"
As she watched the mother and daughter leave, the woman stroked the little girl's head and comforted her.
"How about I buy you some ice cream..."
After standing there for a while, Kazama Kiriori realized that she seemed to have lost her own mom, too.
"..."
She paused and looked around, but couldn't see her mother anywhere.
Today was the day she'd gone out on a date with her mom.
Finally, as she watched the crowd come and go, she decided to do what the little girl had done and wait there for a while.
Suddenly, someone patted her on the head.
Kazama Kiriori turned around and saw her mother, Haihara.
Haihara's expression was as calm as ever. She glanced at her casually.
"Mom will buy you ice cream, too."
Kazama Kiriori blushed, but quickly wrapped her arms around Haihara's and rubbed her cheek against her mother's, not minding the heat.
Haihara found the nuzzling a little annoying, but in the end, she didn't push the little puppy away.
On a bench by the roadside, the mother and daughter each held a sundae and slowly dug in. Haihara had a strawberry sundae, while Kazama had melon.
At some point, a little sparrow flew onto Haihara's shoulder and began chirping.
The noise was annoying, and the top of her head felt itchy, so Haihara reached out to shoo the sparrow away. But it promptly flew back onto her shoulder.
Haihara frowned at the sparrow, which clearly didn't understand personal space.
Suddenly, an idea came to her.
She took a transparent crystal from her pocket and waved it in front of the little sparrow.
The bird seemed drawn to it and quickly grabbed it in its beak.
Of course, the crystal was about as big as the sparrow.
But it soon melted into the bird's body. For now, nothing changed.
Recently, Haihara had grown interested in monsters.
Although the memories she'd gained belonged to a magical girl, some of them were specifically about monsters.
Before, she'd tried to avoid contact with Monster Crystals because touching one risked giving her even more magical-girl memories.
But she didn't have to worry about that with Colorless Raw Stones.
Under those circumstances, Haihara had found monsters rather interesting. It was a little like collecting and raising Pokémon.
As a witch who wielded Snake-type magic, Haihara could also apply what she knew to create monsters of other types, though her success rate wasn't high.
But just now, she'd had a feeling.
It seemed she'd have a better chance of success if she made a bird monster now.
As the sparrow flew slowly away, Haihara left it alone. Kazama Kiriori, still eating her sundae beside her, looked up, completely unaware of what Haihara had just done.
"Mom, by the way, the school's organizing a trip with Kaedehara Middle School in a little while. Will you come too?"
Kaedehara Middle School was the local junior high, and quite a few students at Kaedehara High School had transferred from there.
Most of the students taking part in this event would be junior-high and first-year high-school students.
But as student council president, Kazama Kiriori could go along, too.
"...Can I stay home?"
She was a homeroom teacher, so she was generally expected to go. But the thought of camping in the mountains, with nowhere to bathe and mosquitoes biting her, made her want to call in sick.
"I want to go with you."
"I understand..."
It wasn't as if she could get out of it anyway.
In the hospital room, the Demon King possessing Hina controlled the sparrow monsters she'd created. She surveyed the city from above, watching every corner for traces of magical girls.
As the Bird-Type Devil King, she could easily command all Bird-type Monsters and share their sight and other senses.
The Bird-type Monsters she created were also much stronger than ordinary monsters.
One could say that these were the true monsters—
minions created by a Demon King herself.
The only ones who could match her in creating monsters were the other three Demon Kings and... that damned woman.
The woman who'd usurped their authority as Demon Kings and, for a time, become one of their kind.
Before you continue