An unfamiliar black-haired girl in a teal floral dress fidgeted nervously behind Achernar. With nowhere to put her hands, she could only clutch the hem of her skirt, looking terribly shy around strangers.
"Miss Achernar, who... who is that behind you?"
On closer inspection, her face bore a seventy or eighty percent resemblance to Achernar's...
I had an inkling, but still found it hard to believe.
"She's A-Liu... or rather... Chuanlang Bojiang."
Just as I thought...
I asked, "Did you feed her your hair?"
Achernar nodded quietly.
"Yes."
Holding Azura's hand, I stepped into the dorm room and closed the door behind us.
"But why would you do that? Even if A-Liu can perfectly reproduce Chuanlang Bojiang's appearance, the magical girl you absorbed won't come back. You aren't her, and she isn't you."
At my words, Achernar shook her head with a wry smile.
"After all this time, do you think I'd still be dwelling on that? I just wanted to use this as a way to commemorate the magical girl who gave me life."
She raised the DSLR camera in her hand. A tripod stood in the room, and various discarded outfits lay on the bed.
"By commemorate, you mean... taking pictures?"
"I wanted to put together a photo album for Eridanus's family, but I don't look exactly like her. A-Liu's ability can reproduce her appearance perfectly, though. She can even replicate her build."
Achernar had mentioned before that she had gained Chuanlang Bojiang's family's forgiveness and kept in regular contact with them.
That was no easy feat.
To Chuanlang Bojiang's family, Achernar was the murderer who had killed their daughter. Although this was simply how witches were born, rather than something Achernar had chosen to do, the end result was... she had indeed absorbed the former magical girl.