Chapter 543
Why would that mad Witch, the Witch favored by everyone, the Witch who could hear everyone's cries and laments, do something so outrageous?
What was the purpose? What outcome did they want to achieve? What kind of desire led them to commit such a crime?
Unforgivable, incomprehensible.
Most of the Magic girls participated in the battle to kill the Overlord with such doubts and heartache.
A few Magic girls, however, knew that Lilith did all this for a wish that could be described as absurd and insane.
Even knowing that wish, one cannot agree with it.
The night is still long.
She listened as Dean Roland recounted the story in detail.
Finally, a rough outline of the truth was constructed.
During this process, Takanashi Shiori's thoughts often changed, sometimes leaning more towards R'lyeh, and sometimes towards Lilith.
But in the end, when she made up her mind, she decided to put everything aside and think only from the perspective of her own feelings as Magic girl.
She is not responsible for judging right or wrong.
After weighing all her values and hopes, Takanashi Shiori didn't know what was right, nor did she feel mature enough to make a decision.
But it reflects a very simple and honest feeling.
She hoped she could create a happy ending.
No one will be hurt.
We must prevent the tragedy of centuries ago from repeating itself.
However, the truth is that neither the Magic girls nor Teacher Haihara herself have changed at all; they are repeating the mistakes of hundreds of years ago.
She didn't understand, and didn't know what the hidden story was, but whatever the truth was, it wouldn't affect her plans.
"I've figured out what to do. Thank you so much for telling me this."
Takanashi Shiori obediently bowed to Roland.
Roland didn't ask Takanashi what he planned to do; after all, witnessing the answer firsthand would be more interesting.
But after hearing the whole truth and beginning to reflect on it, Takanashi Shiori discovered that there seemed to be something she was curious about that Dean Roland hadn't mentioned.
She only discovered this after entering the tower.
"By the way, Dean Roland, is all of this... related to Kirishima? Or, why are there portraits of people here who look a lot like Kirishima?"
Takanashi Shiori felt that Roland must have seen that person before.
When you see Kirishima Ai, it's unlikely you won't have the thought that she looks very similar.
To everyone's surprise, Roland responded with an ambiguous attitude, smiling slightly and saying something that was neither true nor false.
"Hmm... I'm not entirely sure if there's a connection."
"Sometimes, I'm also curious about the relationship between Kirishima and the children who used to live here."
"However, I also have something I want to say to her, so I'll go find her later and confirm the truth for myself."
She has been gazing at the snowscape and reminiscing about the past here for quite some time now.
It's time to go see that child.
Meanwhile, Takanashi Shiori contacted Kirishima Ai and Cangyue Yuri, telling them that she had another matter to attend to and would likely be unreachable for a while.
Soon after, the two figures disappeared from the top of the tower.
Takanashi Shiori transformed into Thousand Sins once more, becoming a deep red shooting star that flew towards the Royal Capital.
Volume Four Does This Count as a Magical Girl??: Chapter 61 The Girl's Memories
I had a hazy dream, so vague it was like there was a light rain yesterday afternoon, which is why I couldn't go out.
I dreamt of strange, unremembered scenes, and I wouldn't utter such hallucinatory sleep-talking even when I'm drunk.
Because she doesn't recognize that version of herself, she hates the person she is in her dreams. Kirishima Ai feels that perhaps it's just someone with a similar face to her, pretending to be an empty memory to fill the pale void in her dreams.
Everything above was just wishful thinking.
When she saw the photo, Kirishima Ai had a strange feeling. Maybe she had been here before, maybe she was familiar with many places here. The feeling was both nostalgic and sad, like being in the rain without an umbrella.
She touched many slightly dusty places, but she couldn't say for sure if she really knew this place; perhaps it was just an illusion.
However, she seemed to remember that there might be something like this here, and something like that there.
Then everything was correct.
"... ah."
She opened her mouth as if in a daze, but no sound came out.
The scene before her eyes, the things she was doing, seemed to have happened before—it was like a dream.
What an absurd reality.
After checking one item after another, Kirishima Ai didn't find any joy in discovering clues. Instead, she felt uneasy. Suddenly, she had an idea: she wanted to go and see a certain place.
Stepping out of the snow-covered old house, she came to the backyard, where she saw tombstones, trees, and a swing.
After wading through the Snowfield, she finally stood before the tombstone.
"..."
The snow and wind made her hair flutter and fly, and the winter colors highlighted her slightly melancholy and aloof face, like a scene from some world-weary coming-of-age movie. Her clear eyes reflected the portrait of memories and remembrance placed next to the stone tablet.
A portrait meant to commemorate the deceased is being gazed upon by a living person with the same face.
Yes, Kirishima Ai saw that the girl in the portrait had a face very similar to her own, and she felt an indescribable sadness when she saw it.
She squatted down.
Hugging her knees, she gazed at the portrait for a long time.
"That's strange."
She showed no expression, and simply spoke softly.
Without realizing it, I found myself lost in thought in the cold wind, and the sound of the wind seemed to carry some broken echoes.
What might be in the sound of the wind? It's like the voice of Fairies, but what are Fairies? Who were they originally, and He Fang did they come from? Some distant, unknown land?
The girl suddenly felt that the sound of the wind was a memory, a fragment, a record of the past that had drifted and wandered through time, an indelible mark.
Some of them seemed familiar to her, but she had never actually heard of or seen them before.
She understood those sounds, and it was as if she herself was constructing those faded, bloated images rendered by time.
Those hazy images, like falling snowflakes that could melt at any moment, sometimes landed on me, then melted away as lightly as if they didn't exist, vanishing in an instant.
These are the fragmented and desolate memories of a certain unfamiliar young girl.
Witch may be ageless, but over hundreds of years, the oil paintings that capture their beauty will fade and crack, and the delicate, beautiful white skin in the paintings will show signs of aging, telling us that time is still merciless and tarnished.
That happened a long time ago, long enough for trees to die and rivers to dry up, but not so long ago that things have changed beyond recognition.
In a certain kingdom in the past, lived an ageless Witch from fairy tales.
To ordinary people, they are distant, mysterious, and sometimes completely incomprehensible.
Witch are gentle, but they don't like to approach mortals for many reasons, though there are exceptions.
The frail girl, thin as a sick branch, lay in a room that felt like a cradle in her memory, a room filled with bright sunlight, listening to voices that she had grown unfamiliar with over time.
It felt like the afterlife, a lucid, golden, splendid dream.
"This child doesn't have the aptitude to become a Magic girl, and she was very ill in the past, so she's extremely weak. If you were to raise this child, she wouldn't live long, Lilith."
It's like saying you're talking about a sickly little dog that won't live long, so it's best not to adopt it.
One Witch was trying to persuade another Witch with long silver-gray hair.
They were discussing whether or not they should adopt the girl.
It seems they are saying that they have some kind of serious, incurable illness and that they don't have much time left to live.
I don't quite understand.
Not long ago, it was that gray-haired Witch who rescued her from a village full of Monster and provided her with food and clothing. Therefore, the girl cared a lot about that gray-haired Witch. However, she didn't quite understand the adoption, not knowing what was good or bad about it.
Ah, but that's not really that important.
The gray-haired Witch didn't actually care much about such things.
The woman's Lilith. Although she only remembered her cold expression, the girl didn't think it was a bad thing, because if you pay too much attention to other things, you will inevitably be swayed by them.
"Hmm, it's nothing, you probably don't mind either?"
The gray-haired Witch answered casually, then turned her head and asked the still unfamiliar girl.
The girl didn't understand at all, but nodded blankly.
So, the gray-haired Witch Lilith, with a calm heart, adopted the mortal girl, just like raising a puppy that had been seriously ill. Even knowing that the girl's lifespan would be shorter than that of other puppies, it didn't matter to her.
For Magic girls, their own death is not a terrible thing. Many Witch with excessively long lifespans find it boring and choose a suitable age and season to end their lives naturally, burying themselves in their favorite autumn or midsummer.
But sometimes other people's lives are different.
I've heard of Witch, after coming into contact with mortals, regard them as their own kind. When those mortals easily perish within a short time, the witches become tormented and driven mad.
Lilith, however, is alright.
She has witnessed countless births, aging, sickness, and death, and has experienced many such things. She is not so hysterical as to break taboos for this.
Young girls don't understand good and bad, so they can't talk about joy and sorrow.
But it seems she has a new home, a tranquil flower field, with clear lake water and a swing woven from flower wreaths, and dawns and dusks that seem close yet close, like a painting, on the vast and distant horizon, where the night sky unveils a brilliant Milky Way.
There's also the house where she and the Witch lived.
She became the Witch's adopted daughter and servant. All she had to do, besides taking care of the Witch, was live a fairly free life, studying, reading, growing flowers, and playing with Asuka.
The remaining time is not long; if the girl is not clever enough, it will pass quickly, ending in obscurity and silence.
But the story must continue until it comes to an end.
Volume Four Does This Count as a Magical Girl??: Chapter 62 Memories of Birds
Later, the girl received her own name, Silver Feather, because the village where she was born was, for some reason, covered in beautiful silver-white bird feathers on the day she met the Witch.
She learned that she had a disease called "Monster Disease".
It is said that most patients with this disease will one day become Monster, and that's how most of the people in her village died.
Moreover, these are rare diseases affecting mortals that Witch find difficult to cure.
She seems to be one of the few who didn't become Monster, but she still suffered a serious illness and didn't live long.
But what counts as long?
How short does it have to be for someone to feel rushed?
Those things weren't important for the time being. The girl was more concerned about the present, about the gray-haired Witch who had brought her here and whom she didn't know very well, because the witch seemed a bit difficult to understand and didn't seem interested in most things.
Perhaps it was just a misperception stemming from a lack of understanding, but the girl occasionally mistakenly thought that the two of them were thinking the same things.
It's as if the rain today puts me in a good mood.
Like last winter night, for some reason, I felt a little melancholy and lonely.
But apart from that, most of the time and in many ways, she is different from Witch.
For example, Witch hate sweets, while young girls do the opposite.
For example, Witch aren't very interested in puppies, but young girls quite like these little creatures.
Oh, and also, the girl thinks it's nice to plant a tree in the flower field, but the Witch thinks the tree will encroach on the space where she grows flowers.
In the end, the only change Silver Feather brought to this family was planting a small sapling in the backyard where no flowers were grown; it would turn golden-red in the autumn, like fallen maple leaves.