The worst possibility had come true.
That was Larkspur's first reaction upon hearing Emerald's words.
If Tulip had already defected, then Ink Lotus—who had traveled with her and repeatedly mentioned joining some "team"—needed no further explanation.
The team Ink Lotus had spoken of, the one she had already joined, was Claw Mark.
Larkspur had not been entirely unprepared for this answer. In fact, she should have known long ago; she simply had not wanted to believe it.
She could not believe that Ink Lotus and Tulip would become part of Claw Mark, joining an organization no different from terrorists.
Having fought together in the Interrealm War and even stood on the front lines of the Garden Defense War, Ink Lotus and Tulip were more than merely fellow Magical Girls to Larkspur.
For many Magical Girls who had taken part in the Garden Defense War, it had been a war that changed their lives. Most Magical Girls who survived it carried some shared trait etched deep into their hearts.
So, to some extent, both Ink Lotus and Tulip were people who could empathize with Larkspur, people who understood the same sorrow and pain.
Because they understood the same pain, they naturally held similar attitudes toward life, even similar feelings. And precisely because they shared those feelings, Larkspur found it especially hard to believe that their actions could betray them.
Larkspur and Tulip had not worked together all that often, so it was understandable that they were not particularly close. But Ink Lotus—or rather, Nina—the Magical Girl who had once been on the same team as Larkspur, remained vividly alive in Larkspur's memories. Whether it was the Nina from her memories or the Ink Lotus who seemed so changed now, Larkspur could not reconcile her with the image of Claw Mark.
"What's