A-Yao's Past

(Bai Ziye)

He walked up the steps and stood at the same height as her.

Ceruno blinked and asked, "Why are you suddenly bringing this up?"

"You should understand after direct contact like this. I am not the idealized Magical Girl you imagine. Before I was Miluno, I was just an ordinary person who happened to have a Star Crystal better suited for it than other Magical Girls."

He was no lofty hero.

"Mm, I know. SpiCa said something similar, too."

Ceruno simply nodded, a bitter and helpless smile hanging on her face, devoid of the regret of shattered dreams.

"Everyone was an ordinary person before becoming a Magical Girl, and there are even people like me who are especially useless among ordinary people... I'm not some irrational groupie. I understood that before I became a Magical Girl myself."

Even though she knew, there was always an idealized Magical Girl in her heart.

"Even so, you still like them... like Magical Girls?"

He had wanted to say "like Miluno," but in the end he changed his words right on the tip of his tongue.

She chuckled silly.

"Hehe~ After all, a Magical Girl once saved my life, even though I don't know who that Magical Girl was."

He knew the reason why A-Yao was so obsessed with Magical Girls.

It was still that matter...

And the root cause of A-Yao's family falling apart.

Ten years ago, in an era before the Magical Girl Association was established and before wormhole detection and alarm systems were widespread, every monster invasion caused casualties, unlike today when it was almost zero casualties every time.

Ceruno continued, "In the past, I lived in the capital of Esperia because of my father's work. I was only five or six years old back then, and I encountered a monster invasion with my family, but I got separated from my mother during the evacuation."

"Everyone was fleeing, so nobody could look after you, right?"

Her lowered brows indicated that her emotions had also dropped to a low point.

"Mm, my mother was caught in a monster's attack while looking for me... She is still lying in a hospital bed to this day, with no intention of waking up at all... It's already been ten years."

Although her life was saved, a vegetative person in a coma for ten years basically had no possibility of recovery.

Come to think of it, he had never seen A-Yao go visit her; perhaps he didn't even know which hospital his mother was in right now.

He asked, "Then what about you?"

"Just like I said earlier, I was saved by a Magical Girl."

"With my mother in a coma and myself being saved, a knot formed in my heart due to that disparity."

"Mm, if I hadn't gotten separated from my mother back then, what happened later wouldn't have occurred. This is all my fault."

"Do you know which senior saved you?"

Ceruno shook her head.

"I don't know. The Magical Girls back then all operated in squads, there was no combat footage, and my memories from five or six years old are very blurry, so I don't know who she was. I only remember that her figure was very tall, and when she stood in front of me, there was an indescribable sense of relief."

To five- or six-year-old A-Yao, anyone was very tall.

"Didn't you go investigate the other person's identity?"

"No, my father sent me back home after the accident."

Speaking of this, she smiled again.

"And then, amid muddled days, I met the greatest best friend of my life."

This dummy...

She didn't even recognize him when he was standing right in front of her, and she still talked about some best friend.

Actually, the identity of that Magical Girl wasn't hard to investigate. When A-Yao was five or six years old, which was ten years ago, the number of Magical Girls was still very scarce. By simply checking the Eastern Europe Magical Girl squads, one could basically narrow the target down to a considerable range.

"Even the Magical Girl who saved you probably had her own selfish desires. No one is perfect, and it's even less possible to have a flawless idol."

"Of course I know, but even so, she is still the hero in my heart..."

There was a wooden arch bridge crossing a stream on the mid-mountain trail. Standing on the bridge, one could feel the coolness brought by the clear stream water. He and Ceruno stood on the bridge and couldn't quite tear themselves away.

He leaned against the waist-high bridge railing, turning his back to Ceruno as he looked down at the flowing stream beneath his feet.

"So, you've projected the image of the hero in your heart onto me, but I'm not the way you imagine either."

* * *

"Miss Miluno is being modest. Through our conversation today, I am even more certain that I haven't misjudged you."

"I don't like being flattered."

"But these are my true feelings!"

She also copied him and leaned over the bridge railing.

But because she was relatively short, this posture highlighted certain parts.

To make matters worse, in order to catch his attention, she even stood on tiptoe and pressed her body against the bridge railing.

"Miss Miluno, you are undoubtedly the most outstanding Magical Girl. Not only your strength, but your philosophy of life and code of conduct are close to my ideals."

"You saying that will only make me more embarrassed."

She changed her tune again. "However, Miss Miluno also has aspects different from my impression."

"What are they?"

"Hehe, you're easier to get along with than I imagined, quite different from the 'iceberg beauty' everyone talks about."

Compared to when they first met today, Ceruno had relaxed a lot, and her smile was more natural... and more girlish.

"I've never thought of myself as having that kind of impression."

"Who told Miss Miluno not to like smiling usually, with no emotional changes from start to finish in every battle? There are even rumors that you are actually an artificial Magical Girl researched by the Association, a combat bionic robot."

What kind of outrageous guesses were those, just because his facial expressions didn't change much?

"Let's go, let's go take a look at the summit."

"Mm... Is Miss Miluno's wound alright?"

"It's already healed, I took off the bandages when I went back yesterday."

He walked while lifting the hem of his shirt in the back, letting Ceruno behind him confirm the completely scarred wound on his lower back.

The medicinal potion given by Yin Wei took effect quickly. At this rate of recovery, the scar would probably fade and recover completely before going to sleep tonight. Although it was just a flesh wound, being able to heal in two days was still astonishing.

She even reached out and touched the scar, and an itchy sensation came from his lower back.

"It looks a bit scary, but it's recovering well, unlike Miss Heat Haze who has to lie down for a month..."

"She really is injured more heavily than me, with internal injuries and fractures all over her body. She got smashed all to pieces by 'Magma', and there is indeed a physical gap between Magical Girls. Magical Girls like me who need close-quarters grappling generally have sturdier bodies."

As for Magical Girls who relied on powerful magic to fight, like Heat Haze and Ceruno, their physical fitness was somewhat inferior.

To borrow a metaphor from the gaming style Ceruno liked, although they were both called Magical Girls, his class was a melee warrior, while the two of them were mages... Oh, Ceruno was a shield-applying healer, but she also belonged to the magic-casting class.

"I'm sorry, Miss Miluno had never lost before she met me..."

Ceruno's gaze poked at him with an itchy feeling. He lowered his hem and turned back to look at her.

"Saving you was my own judgment, don't feel guilty over such a thing. Besides, I'm not heavily injured either."

Turning back like this, however, he met a pair of resolute little eyes.

"Miss Miluno, in the next battle... I will rely on my own strength to win."

He remembered this look.

Whenever A-Yao made up her mind, she would show this kind of look... though previously she only showed it when playing video games.

However, with her saying this, perhaps she had made some new discoveries in the application of magic?

[Wormhole Alert, an upcoming Phase Wormhole has been detected in the E2 District. Expected within five minutes. Tourists in the affected area are requested to evacuate in an orderly fashion as soon as possible. I repeat...]

Holographic markers indicating the location of the wormhole appeared above their heads.

This was really going to hell.