About Becoming a Magical Girl Chapter 26

Tears slid down uncontrollably, and even her teeth chattered with pain.

The agony in her abdomen, as though her organs had been twisted into a knot and violently smashed apart, had nearly robbed her of all ability to move, leaving her on the verge of fainting.

Her back was already drenched in cold sweat.

She hung her head weakly, silently counting the gray tears that fell and spread across the ground.

She had never expected to lose to Efnir, much less so quickly.

She had never underestimated Efnir. Anyone who had witnessed Efnir fight firsthand would never think her title was undeserved. But still... judging Efnir's true combat strength solely from data recorded during battles against Erosion Entities had been rather far-fetched.

In short, she had lost decisively. Even as she was now, she had still lost.

Frustration spread through her heart.

Click—

Something brushed aside the rubble before the girl's eyes, and the dim light turned murky amid the rising dust.

The dust slowly dispersed, and Efnir's slender figure entered her field of vision.

"Efnir..."

The girl forced her head up, gasping as she struggled to meet Efnir's gaze.

"Not dead yet? Are you a cockroach?"

"You... don't disgust me by comparing me to something like that..."

Her chest rose and fell as she stubbornly glared at Efnir.

The tear tracks at the corners of her eyes caught the faint light.

Efnir stared at the girl expressionlessly. After a moment of silence, she pressed her lips together.

"You don't get to speak here. You lost."

The spear in her hand suddenly thrust forward, pressing against the girl's throat.

"I'll ask you the previous question one more time. Who are you? What is your purpose?"

"Ha..."

The girl gritted her teeth and looked up at Efnir, her face stiff.

"You finally won, yet you're still hung up on such boring questions...? You're no different from those people after all... Well, no surprise there. Someone as short as you can only see things on this level... Agh!?"

Before she could finish, the girl suddenly cried out in pain, her eyes widening.

A searing pain shot through her right shoulder.

The silver spear pierced through her shoulder, pinning her firmly against the collapsed wall.

"Damn it... This hurts like hell!!"

The girl curled up, breathing heavily as tears and trembling sobs spilled uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.

Efnir looked down at her coldly and crouched.

She reached out and seized the girl's throat with one hand.

Her fingers tightened slightly, and the girl let out a pained whimper.

"If I wanted to kill you, you would have no power to resist. I advise you to understand your situation and honestly answer my questions before my patience runs out. First question: who are you?"

"You... let go of me... I can't... talk like this..."

Efnir released her.

As if granted a reprieve, the girl collapsed backward and gasped for breath.

Efnir spoke.

"First question. Who are you?"

Declaration of War

"I told you, I'm an 'Apostle'..."

The girl's voice was hoarse as she clutched her abdomen and glared viciously at Efnir.

"What is an 'Apostle'? Your organization? Or a codename?"

"You are Agents, and I am an Apostle. It's that simple... Understand?"

"Then what is your purpose?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. Those people... never laid all their cards on the table for me. Me? I'm a Discarded Pawn. If I knew anything, I wouldn't have come here alone. You know what that means, don't you...? Well, even though I'm something they'll throw away once they've used me, I didn't expect to fall into your hands so easily..."

Efnir frowned slightly.

The girl glanced at her and continued in an unreadable tone.

"Efnir, I have to admit that you're stronger than anyone I've ever seen... But even for you, isn't it already too late to save anything now...? To those people, if they can trade a defective product like me for something else, then no matter what they get, it'll probably be an incredibly profitable deal, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I... am discarded junk... So then... Efnir, what are you, the one who fought me...?"

The girl breathed heavily. The foul stench of blood filled her nostrils and spread through her throat. She stubbornly raised her head and looked at Efnir.

"You're a lot like me, Efnir..."

Efnir looked at the girl and frowned faintly.

"Don't compare me to scum like you. And stop saying irrelevant things. Or are you trying to stall for time?"

Efnir suddenly grabbed the girl's wrist and forcibly twisted it above her head, holding it there tightly. The immense force nearly made the girl lose all feeling in her hand.

The girl bit down and cried out in pain. She met Efnir's gaze and tried to struggle, but it was useless.

"At this point, you don't seriously think I'll let you go, do you?"

Expressionless, Efnir clamped down on the girl's wrist and tightened her grip inch by inch. The enormous force drained the color from the girl's face and made her let out a shrill cry, but Efnir remained unmoved, merely staring at her coldly.

Fengling Shiyin, Fulan, Qinglan, and the countless people who had died in the disaster.

Efnir still remembered the looks in those people's eyes when they gazed at her.

"You call yourselves 'Apostles'... That entire town was your doing, wasn't it? The Erosion Disaster five days ago, and today's anomaly—they were both your handiwork, weren't they?"

"If you already know, why ask me...? But let me make this clear first: I didn't kill anyone, and it had nothing to do with me."

"Nothing to do with you?"

Efnir tightened her grip again. The girl clenched her teeth, but a dreadful scream still escaped her.

"The appearance of 'Fifina' was also your doing, wasn't it?"

"If you're talking about your little sister, then yes, it was..."

"So you admit it."

Efnir flung away the girl's hand and rose to her feet. With one hand, she gripped the spear that had pierced the girl's right shoulder and pulled it free with a crack.

The girl screamed and let her shoulder droop in agony.

"Why did you target my little sister?"

Efnir held the spear in one hand, its sharp silver tip pressed against the girl's throat.

"Efnir! Please calm down!"

Shinomiyami Nami's voice came through the earpiece.

"Spare her life... We may be able to learn a great deal of vital information needed for our investigation from her. At this stage, she's an extremely valuable source of intelligence, so..."

Efnir did not answer. She only stared coldly at the girl.

Clutching her shoulder, the girl weakly raised her head.

"If I tell you, can you let me go?"

"I don't know whether you can leave, but if you don't tell me, I'll kill you right now."

"Looks like I have no choice. Then I'll tell you, but... is that really okay?"

The girl used all her strength to prop herself up, leaning against the slanted collapsed wall behind her. Meaningfully, she shifted her gaze and glanced at Efnir's earpiece.

Efnir frowned slightly, switched the spear to her left hand, raised her right, and cut off the communication link.

"Now you can speak."

"How decisive... Won't the organization suspect you? Well, whatever. It has nothing to do with me. In any case, I'll get straight to the point. Your little sister was targeted because she has the aptitude to become a 'Perfect Experimental Subject.'"

"An 'experiment'?"

"That's right, an 'experiment.' That's what those people called it. As for what it specifically involves, I don't have the authority to know much. I only know that if it's those people, their goal must be to create 'those things.'"

"What are 'those things'?"

"I don't know."

Efnir stared coldly at the girl. The girl appeared to answer every question, but in truth, she always withheld the key information Efnir needed.

"That's just what those people said."

"Who are these 'people' you keep talking about?"

"I don't know. I've never seen them in person either. We all call ourselves 'Apostles.'"

"Where is your base?"

"The Beyond the Boundary region, roughly seventy-two kilometers north by thirteen degrees east from here. Of course, as far as I know, that was only a temporary base. After I left to carry out my mission, it was probably abandoned already... But... speaking of which, your little sister, that little girl named Shiomi Yukina, can adapt to any Beacon. That's what an 'Absolute Compatible Candidate' means, right?"

Efnir frowned slightly.

"How much do you actually know?"

"If you're asking about me... everything. All the information on 'Shiomi Yukina' and the 'Absolute Compatible Candidate' is stored in my head."

"Where did you get that information?"

"From the information stored in your Orderkeepers' database, of course."

"There is no such information in our database."

"Did you check the paper archives too?"

"Of course. I looked through everything and destroyed it."

"Then what is this?"

At some point, a metal capsule the size of a bullet had appeared in the girl's hand.

She laboriously raised her hand, unscrewed the capsule, and pulled out half of something shaped like a toothpick.

She handed it to Efnir.

Efnir watched the girl warily before reaching out to take it.

It was a clipped piece of paper, only two fingers wide and the length of a palm. Efnir spread it open.

There were only a few short lines of text. The keywords "Absolute Compatible Candidate" and "Shiomi Yukina" stabbed into Efnir's eyes. Besides them, there was also half of a classified document seal, in a style Efnir had seen before in confidential files.

Efnir stared at the sheet of paper in her palm, her expression stiffening.

The girl, however, let out a derisive snort.

"Efnir... You're clearly an indispensable backbone of the organization, yet you aren't trusted at all... This is 'evidence' I specifically cut out. Efnir, you understand it perfectly, don't you? Of course, it might be something I forged, and you can choose not to believe me. But you wouldn't do something as self-deceiving as that, would you?"

"..."

Efnir gripped the scrap of paper in her hand and fell silent for a long while.

Only after some time did she speak again.

"The attack five days ago... that was when, wasn't it?"