Tomorrow

(Bai Ziye)

Xiao Yi has finished writing her diary.

If she doesn't know how to write a certain character, she'll ask me for help.

After all, she was a "veteran" who had been fighting on the front lines since elementary school, so she never had the chance to go to school properly.

In response, she explained, "I haven't had much Vega, and SpiCa also taught me some other subjects... um..."

Perhaps due to afternoon drowsiness and boredom inside the bubble, Xiao Yi was still dozing off in my arms, her heavy little head drooping down.

Cute yet pitiful.

"If you feel sleepy, why don't you take a nap?"

Her hair smelled wonderful, and it brushed against my nose, making me feel a little itchy... and my heart felt itchy too.

"I'm not sleepy, Sister Miluno."

She stubbornly shook her head.

"I don't want to waste my precious time sleeping."

"Shall we tell a story? But compared to my story, your story as a magical girl must be even more exciting... In our time, you and Sirius are known as 'legends,' and it was your efforts that saved the world."

My voice isn't suited to speaking gently, so I can only try to slow down my speech.

"If we don't do it, the world will be doomed!"

"If we need a child as young as you to be a hero, this world might as well be finished... But things are different now. There are so many magical girls, even if there's another full-scale invasion, we're confident we can drive 'the Other Side' back."

Don't say that.

Xiao Yi blinked and smiled, "Sister Miluno is very confident."

"I rarely feel like I'll lose, but I did suffer a bit of a setback recently."

One after another, the most challenging battles she'd ever faced since entering the profession began. Is Ceruno perhaps a jinx?

Xiao Yi smiled, squinted her eyes, and closed the diary in her hand.

"Although I can no longer transform, I've fought for many years in my seventeen-year-old form, so you don't need to treat me like a child... Besides, you're only a year or two older than me, right?"

"Um, sorry, should I call you 'sister'?"

"No need, Sister Miluno looks more mature, which makes people curious about what you originally looked like."

I have no intention of revealing my identity here, especially with Ceruno watching from outside the bubble.

He then said, "This is a secret for magical girls."

"Back then, we were just as secretive as you are, but in the end we all knew each other inside and out... except for Aldebaran, who remained a mystery until the very last moment."

Aldebaran?

"Her title was 'Golden Consort,' and her magic was even more magnificent than Sirius's. Past... seven years ago, she went to 'the Other Side' with others and never returned."

She spoke with a hint of melancholy.

For Xiao Yi, the world is still very dangerous. She doesn't know that we have maintained zero casualties for a long time, doesn't know that the Second Counterattack Operation is already being prepared, and doesn't know that... those comrades who went to 'the Other Side' may still be alive, and some may have even returned in another form.

In short, I want to take her out to see the world.

"Go to sleep."

But the responsibilities of a magical girl no longer need to be borne by her.

"Um."

This is the fourth bubble.

Judging by the time, Xiao Yi's day is almost Past...

After rushing through "today," can we carry her into "tomorrow"?

"It's coming."

Xiao Yi, who was thought to be asleep, suddenly opened her eyes.

Then, the "Rewind" that couldn't be stopped started ahead of schedule.

"Why?! Isn't 'Rewind' triggered by a change of date?"

Xiao Yi couldn't answer me; her time was rapidly rewinding, but without this accelerating bubble, it would rewind even faster.

She is magically "Rewind" once a day, and the "Rewind" lasts for 24 hours.

They thought that by accelerating her through this time limit, they could prevent the "Rewind" from happening at midnight.

But unexpectedly, the basis for "Rewind" was her own time, just as my magic was to accelerate myself.

If I were to accelerate the entire world, I might have to become some kind of Stand user.

Thanks to my rationality as Miluno, I quickly calmed down, cleared my mind, and tried to stop the "Rewind" spell.

"Rewind" is not done instantly; there is also a process of going backwards.

This was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune; although it collapsed quickly, it wasn't entirely hopeless.

I can't directly accelerate her body's timeline, as that could not only harm her but also speed up the Rewind process.

At this point, we should...

Slow down.

Decelerate to the maximum extent possible.

Having made up my mind, I almost completely froze her time, and her Rewind state.

Because we are still inside the accelerated Ceruno bubble, our time, in a broader sense, is still moving forward.

She was like a child running backwards on a train; though I left her in my seat, the train kept moving forward...

In that case, if I take Xiao Yi and continue accelerating for another 24 hours, will that be able to offset the 24 hours of "Rewind"?

Wrong.

No.

The basis for "Rewind" isn't real time, but her own time. If those twenty-four hours aren't rewound completely, it's meaningless. So I have to slowly let her time flow, and then accelerate Ceruno's bubbles...

I want the train's forward speed to offset the child's backward running speed.

Common sense dictates that children can't outrun a train, but the "Rewind" magic turns children into the Flash of time.

Fortunately, I have a strong grasp of magic, and I successfully found a balance between "acceleration" and "Rewind."

Her time truly stopped; the forward and backward speeds canceled each other out.

But simultaneously maintaining her deceleration and the bubble's acceleration kept me on edge, and my magic was rapidly evaporating. At this rate, I wouldn't be able to hold out until the Rewind ended.

I need to make the bubbles go faster to slow down Xiao Yi's deceleration.

The acceleration cannot be stopped.

I picked up my pen and wrote in Xiao Yi's diary.

[Rewind has started]

I want stronger bubbles

[Withstands acceleration that can outrun Rewind]

Then, I stuck this paper onto the Bubble Membrane.

I don't know how long it took Ceruno to react, but she acted quickly.

She raised her staff and began wrapping new Bubble Membrane over the Bubble Membrane —something she'd never done before, and she didn't know how much it would enhance the effect, but I tried to make the new bubble wrap accelerate as well...

The outermost layer of bubbles has a flow rate thirty times that of time.

Encased by another layer of bubbles with a time flow rate thirty times faster.

The inside of the bubble is an independent space undisturbed by external forces, so each layer of bubble only needs to withstand thirty times its own acceleration, which is within the bubble's tolerance range. Therefore, these nested bubble dolls actually managed to withstand it.

When we reached the innermost layer of bubbles, we were already many times faster than the actual flow of time. Even if I completely released the deceleration of the Rewind, Xiao Yi remained still.

This is much faster than Rewind, and by maintaining multiple bubbles simultaneously, the magic evaporates much more quickly.

However, it doesn't matter anymore.

Click--

The sound, like shattering glass, came from Xiao Yi's body.

I know what that is.

The attempt to Rewind was crushed by the relentless flow of time.