About Becoming a Magical Girl: Chapter 19

Besides, she looked somewhat familiar.

"Excuse me, are you...?"

Before Yukina could react, the girl held out her hand to her.

"You're Shiomi Yukina, right? Judging by your reaction, I got the right person. I'll skip the pleasantries, so I'll get straight to the point—I can take you out of here. Do you want to come? If you do..."

The hooded girl lightly pressed a fingertip against her lips, revealing half of her rosy mouth.

"Then follow me without drawing attention."

As though afraid of losing her, Yukina stayed close on the hooded girl's heels.

The hooded girl seemed very familiar with this place. They weaved through the crowd and soon arrived at a partitioned area.

"Here."

The girl stopped, her gaze shifting around as though she were looking for something.

Yukina looked around.

This was clearly an obvious partitioned area, yet strangely, no one was here. Was there really no one, or was it...

"Um... what should I call you?"

"What should you call me? Ah... that? You don't need to know."

The girl did not look back.

"Can we really get out from here?"

"We can."

"Why... are you helping me...?"

"Well, let's say it's because I admire you."

"Huh...?"

"Please stay quiet. If you attract troublesome people, we won't be able to leave."

The girl glanced back, and Yukina immediately shut her mouth.

At that moment, the hooded girl walked straight toward the wall. There was a port embedded in it, so inconspicuous that it would be impossible to notice without looking closely.

The hooded girl took out a control panel and connected a cable to the port. After rapidly tapping the panel a few times, the floor beneath them trembled, and the wall suddenly slid apart, revealing a pitch-black space.

It was a dark passageway, lit only by faint, dim lights.

A cold breeze washed over her, and Yukina shivered.

"When shelters are built, aside from the entrances and exits, an emergency passage leading to the surface is also left behind. Of course, this passage isn't easy to find, and ordinary people can't open it."

The hooded girl explained without prompting.

"Keep going through here and you'll reach the surface. Let me see... this passage should connect directly to the central sports arena. What do you think? In an emergency, the sports arena isn't a bad place, is it?"

"The sports arena..."

A light flickered in Yukina's eyes as she looked at the girl again.

The girl suddenly smiled.

"I'll stay behind and close this door. If you're leaving, hurry. Oh, and take this."

It was a card.

"You can use this to open the door on the other side."

"Th-thank you... I still don't know your name, but if there's ever a chance, please let me repay you properly..."

Yukina bowed in thanks.

The other girl showed no reaction, merely watching her quietly.

"If fate allows, we'll meet again."

"Then, thank you again!"

Yukina pressed her lips together, bowed to her once more, and stepped into the dark passage.

Coldness swept over her.

"Oh, right."

Mechanical grinding sounded behind her, along with the girl's voice.

"That butterfly hairpin... please... use it well. Try trusting your instincts... If it's you, then..."

"Huh?"

Yukina turned around, but the massive iron door had already shut completely, taking the light with it.

What had she said at the end?

The butterfly hairpin?

Butterfly... Yukina instinctively touched her pocket. She only had one butterfly hairpin on her...

Just touching the hairpin stirred a burning impulse deep within her. That was why, as if possessed, Yukina had not thrown it away. It was as though it possessed some kind of magic that made her want to keep it.

The butterfly hairpin that person mentioned... could she mean... this one?

This hairpin engraved with "Fifina"... had it been deliberately placed in her pocket? Then who exactly was that girl...?

Under normal circumstances, Yukina would have had countless doubts, but now she could only push everything aside.

Yukina pursed her lips and took a deep breath to steel herself. After hesitating for a moment, she took the hairpin in hand, turned on her phone's flashlight, hugged her arms, and headed into the darkness and cold.

The chill in the air faded slightly. The faint light behind her grew more distant as Yukina continued down the passage, guided by her phone's flashlight.

She arrived before a huge iron door more than twice her height. A protruding control slot sat in the wall beside it, apparently an authentication terminal. Yukina took out the card the girl had given her and lightly swiped it over the reader. The iron door suddenly emitted a piercing screech, then slowly opened.

A flight of stairs lay ahead. When she climbed them, her view suddenly opened up.

This was... the interior of the sports arena, near the outer side of the central hall. At the same time, it was also the very center of the Erosion disaster.

Yukina's heart nearly leaped into her throat. A massive shadow descended from above, and a shrill howl swept over her head, carrying blistering heat. The violent gust knocked Yukina to the ground.

Fortunately, the Erosion Entity had not been targeting Yukina. She lay on the ground, her shoulders trembling, watching the huge black shadow fly away. Enduring the pain from her scrapes, Yukina picked up the butterfly hairpin that had fallen from her hand and rose to her feet.

For some reason, holding this hairpin made her feel as though she had courage.

She raised her head.

At the edge of the sky stood a gigantic floating island that blotted out the heavens. Countless eagle-like black shadows filled the air. It was a suffocating sight like the depths of the sea. In the middle of her vision were three people resisting that overwhelming power—the Agents.

At once, Yukina spotted the beautiful, petite figure among the three, darting and running through the air as though dancing.

Magical Girl Efnir.

Efnir seemed not to have noticed Yukina. All her attention was focused on the Erosion Entities. She leaped and bounded like a dazzling shooting star, and wherever she went, everything was pierced by her starlight and scattered into starry fragments. In the distance, two others wielded their own weapons, stubbornly fending off the attacks of those black shadows.

They were protecting the people at the far end of the arena who had yet to evacuate, fighting against the Erosion filling the sky.

So this was an Agent's job...

Since it was a battle that put their lives on the line, it was impossible not to be afraid. Yukina asked herself whether she could do it, and she probably could not...

"Miss Efnir..."

Yukina recalled what Shinomiyami Nami had said.

If it was "for something important," then she was the same. Up to now, if there was anything that could give her courage... her brother had to be indispensable.

Although the distance between her and her brother had grown vast since then, to Yukina, he was her one and only. He was family she could never let go of.

Now it was her turn to reach out a hand to him.

A massive black shadow flew overhead. Yukina clenched her teeth and held her breath. After getting her bearings, she carefully moved forward along the wall.

From here, she could reach the east hall, which connected to the staff passage. The upper floors there were where staff rested and worked. She did not know why her brother had entered the staff passage, and it worried her, but it also gave Yukina a possible location for him.

She went upstairs, searching room by room while calling her brother's phone.

A faintly familiar ringtone sounded somewhere.

"Brother!?"

Yukina clutched her chest nervously and rushed up to the third floor. The faint ringtone suddenly became clear.

She sprinted toward the sound. Soon, following it, she reached a room with a sign that read "Performance Preparation Room."

Without thinking, she pushed the door.

It was unlocked and opened at once. Yet what met her eyes was not the figure she had longed to see, but rather—a pitch-black monster that nearly filled the entire room, as though it had crawled out of a swamp.

An "Erosion Entity."

Yukina froze.

Yukina's face turned deathly pale. Her mouth hung open as she desperately compressed her chest, yet she could not breathe.

An Erosion Entity—

That terrifying term flashed through her mind. Countless dreadful memories filled her chest in an instant, and Yukina stood before the room, her entire body frozen rigid.

The phone's ringtone echoed through the air, more piercing than ever. It also stirred the black monster wandering through the room. It stepped toward the ringing, then turned its head stiffly, like rotten wood being twisted apart. Those lifeless, horrifying eyes mechanically shifted toward Yukina.

The instinctive terror in her heart nearly stopped Yukina's breathing, but before running away, the first person she thought of was her brother.

Her brother's phone was here, in this room where an Erosion Entity was...

Her brother had been here more than ten minutes ago, but now...

Yukina pressed hard against her chest, wanting to turn and flee. Yet the moment she barely moved her stiff feet, she fell backward and collapsed onto the floor.

Tears streamed down her face despite herself.

The swamp-like monster slowly turned around. Yukina forced herself to breathe as she repeatedly called out the dependable figure who had once brought her warmth.

"Brother..."

She called to him through her tears, crying out at the top of her lungs.

"Bro..."

How long had it been since she had cried like that...? The last time had been on Efnir's shoulder.

The swamp monster dragged filthy trails behind it.

Brother...

Yukina gasped for breath, her face flushed red.

Before she realized it, the hairpin in her hand had become scorching hot, almost as though it would burn through her palm.

It felt as though all the blood in her body had been drained away, and as though it had all been burned away.

So hot.

An inexplicable impulse gradually filled her. The blazing heat from her palm evaporated her tears, while violent, surging pain and a swelling impact nearly burst her heart apart.

At that moment, her consciousness drifted away.

Without realizing it, Yukina slowly raised her gaze, her pupils turning blood-red.

Blazing light ignited in her palm, instantly wrapping around her entire body. Dazzling silver radiance filled her vision in an instant, and a furious tearing roar descended in that very moment.

"Aaaaaaah—!!"

That brilliant pillar of silver light descended without warning in an instant.

Outside the arena, everyone saw the dazzling silver pillar of light that nearly pierced through the entire sky. It almost ran through the heavens, tearing through the clouds like a river of stars spilling down from above—brilliant and dazzling.

"Awakening Synchronization?"

Efnir pulled back her spear and pierced Crow's head in a single strike. Amid the scattering stardust, Efnir flipped aside to evade the oncoming attack and retreated onto the steel framework.