Kirishima Ai tilted her head, unsure how to respond for a moment. In the end, she lowered her head.
"Yeah... Little Vermilion is sick. Maybe... it doesn't have much time left."
She had lied to her sister.
Raindrops fell one by one from the girl's hair, wetting the floor.
Hina fell silent as well.
That bird... what was Little Vermilion like now?
Sick, with little time left to live.
Just like herself...
And its final days would also be spent in that tiny cage, like a hospital room counting down to death.
If only they had let Little Vermilion go sooner.
Hina buried her head in her knees—
"I'm not like you, Sis... I'm weak, and selfish."
She had hated Magical Girl Silver Feather before.
On that rainy day, she had hidden alone in this shrine, trembling in fear, able only to wait for someone else to save her.
Even after being possessed by the Demon King, she had selfishly thought only of herself—of how her sister had deceived her, of how Little Vermilion was just like her.
"That day, I hid in the shrine, so scared I couldn't say a word... I only thought about getting someone to come save me quickly."
"..."
That was why someone like her could never become a magical girl.
Becoming the Demon King's vessel seemed only natural.
A real magical girl was someone like her sister—someone who could muster the courage to save others.
Someone like her only needed to be defeated by a magical girl...
Black mist gradually spread through the surroundings, and Kirishima Ai felt as though she had fallen once more onto the rain-soaked ground.
Her hands were stained with rainwater and mud. They were scraped raw, blood seeping from them.
Her consciousness slowly returned to reality.
What had