About Becoming a Magical Girl Chapter 50

"But obviously, that wasn't the case, was it?"

Nishizaki Yuki smiled.

"Later, I also noticed a contradiction that couldn't be ignored."

"What?"

"—If I'm not mistaken, before you became 'Efnir,' Yukina was the only candidate, wasn't she?"

"You could say that."

Efnir did not deny it.

One of the main reasons she had become "Efnir" was to take Yukina's place. That was a fact.

"Then do you remember the test records in Yukina's file? Which Beacon had she shown the highest compatibility with back then?"

"'Efnir.'"

Efnir answered quickly.

Yukina had been selected as an Agent candidate precisely because she had been judged to possess extremely high compatibility with "Efnir." Efnir remembered it clearly.

"But my test results this time showed the highest compatibility with 'Fifina.' My compatibility with 'Efnir' was around seventeen percent lower."

"Hm?"

Seeing the disbelief on Efnir's face, Nishizaki Yuki continued.

"You know that compatibility is a trait that follows a person throughout their life. It absolutely does not change easily."

Rather, compatibility was something innate, like genes. From the moment someone was born, it determined whether she possessed the potential to become an Agent.

Efnir hesitated to speak.

Of course, according to everything humanity currently knew, "compatibility does not change" was indeed true. But without a doubt, there was one exception—Efnir herself.

Although the gender on her identification was male, the only people who had truly confirmed that she had been born male were the nurse who delivered her and her biological parents. She could always find excuses to fool everyone else.

Saori

"That's why I started wondering why the organization had passed over 'Fifina,' the Beacon with the highest compatibility, and chosen 'Efnir' instead. Don't you find that strange? Of course, there could have been some error involved. I haven't had the chance to access that file, and now that the only copy has been stolen, it's even more impossible. Are we supposed to wait until that 'Apostle' you mentioned exposes it online?"

Nishizaki Yuki held a cigarette between her lips and smiled helplessly before her expression turned serious.

"But logically speaking, there's nothing wrong with Yukina's body right now. And that is the key point I wanted to make—Efnir, what we believe, what we detect, what we can see and touch, is not everything that 'exists here.' In this broken era, the mysteries humanity can uncover are merely the tip of the iceberg beneath an immense fog. Yukina's condition astonished me. She possesses unimaginable power. She may hold some unknown potential within her. Our enemies have targeted her, and she became 'Fifina.' I don't think you believe that was a coincidence either."

Ding-dong—

The crisp sound echoed through the hall as Yukina appeared around the corner.

"Big sis, the elevator is here..."

Efnir and Nishizaki Yuki both turned to look at Yukina.

"I'll be right there."

"O-Okay..."

For some reason, Yukina avoided Efnir's gaze and immediately retreated.

"Well, that's everything I wanted to say. Efnir, if you don't mind, please bring Yukina in for a follow-up examination every day. And as for that file, if you can obtain any relevant information, I'd like to use it as a reference too."

"I understand. I'll have to rely on you regarding Yukina. Sorry for the trouble, and thank you."

"No need to be polite. I wasn't much help this time, but I'll do everything I can."

"Oh, right. There's something else I need to tell you next time."

"What?"

"I'll tell you next time."

Efnir smiled, leaving her in suspense before turning and leaving.

After Efnir left, Nishizaki Yuki returned to her office alone.

Remembering Efnir's parting words, the tension in her brow eased.

"What could it be... Why so mysterious...?"

In Nishizaki Yuki's impression, Efnir was the straightforward, even somewhat rigid sort of person. She rarely kept people guessing and rarely wore that kind of smile.

It was the first time she had seen Efnir like that. It felt rather novel.

Was it because of Yukina?

Nishizaki Yuki shook her head with a smile, stubbed out the cigarette in her hand, and tossed it into the ashtray.

There was probably no one else in all of Xijing City United Hospital who kept an ashtray on her office desk besides Nishizaki Yuki.

She casually collapsed onto the sofa and took a deep breath.

The office was quiet. After letting her thoughts wander, Nishizaki Yuki returned her attention to Yukina's examination report. The report was now with Efnir, but Nishizaki Yuki had an excellent memory and still recalled much of its data.

As she recalled the report, Nishizaki Yuki considered it for a moment, took out her phone, and began drafting a message to Efnir.

But after typing a few words, she deleted it again.

She sighed.

It was not as though she had no guesses about Yukina's condition.

But they were only guesses in the end. She could not provide conclusive evidence yet, so it was not appropriate to jump to conclusions.

She needed more data, more complete equipment, and more thorough experimental designs to support them.

Yukina's situation was undoubtedly unusual. At this stage, there were simply too many unknowns. Though she wanted to help Efnir, honestly, even she did not know where to begin.

The abnormal phenomena humanity could currently explain clearly amounted to less than one ten-thousandth of the reality humanity faced. Researching Yukina's condition based solely on the established theories of their predecessors had unsurprisingly hit a bottleneck. Simply put, it was absolutely difficult to determine Yukina's uniqueness and provide a targeted answer using only existing instruments.

This was a question involving humanity's current research into the essence of Order Force and White Hole Erosion. Unless they brought in equipment millions of times more extensive and complete than what they had here, conducted detailed observations, and built their research upon them, every phenomenon they claimed to observe now could very well be incorrect.

Just as Nishizaki Yuki had said, humanity at its current stage could only be described as "knowing nothing" about White Hole Erosion and Order Force.

Humanity's research into Order Force and White Hole Erosion had never stopped, yet it had never produced a reliable conclusion convincing enough to win broad acceptance. In fact, humanity had been completely defeated by Corruption from the very beginning. Human civilization had crumbled apart, countless scientific detection methods had been rendered useless before the power of White Hole Erosion, and the mighty cannons and rockets humanity had once taken pride in could inflict only negligible damage upon Erosion Entities. In the end, humanity's last lifeline had been the mysterious Ruins, not humanity itself.

Had it not been for the extended application of Ruins technology and the discovery of Order Force based upon it, humanity would have been completely devoured long ago. Even every instrument currently in this hospital was, in essence, merely some application of Ruins technology.

But the judgments they could make through things learned by imitation were truly limited. Borrowed knowledge could never be thoroughly understood.

Knock, knock—

At that moment, a sudden knock on the door interrupted Nishizaki Yuki's thoughts.

"Come in."

Nishizaki Yuki sat up from the sofa, and then the door was pushed open.

The figure standing outside was Uzuki Saori (Lily). Recently, she had often come to the hospital to visit Shiina Rin (Furan).

Efnir came to the hospital almost every day to visit Shiyin and Rin, but as far as Nishizaki Yuki knew, Efnir and Saori seemed to have developed a rift due to their disagreement over Rin.

Saori wanted Efnir to help revoke Shiina Rin's qualifications as an Agent.

But Efnir was unwilling to do that unilaterally in her personal capacity. Put simply, Shiina Rin herself did not agree.

Since then, Saori had deliberately avoided contact with Efnir. Even the times she visited Shiina Rin had been staggered.

Of course, that incident had only been the trigger for everything. In the end, as long as Shiina Rin did not stop fighting, danger would one day come again. For Saori, who regarded Rin as more important than her own life, that was something exceedingly difficult to accept.

Efnir had merely happened to stand at the outlet for Saori's accumulated negative emotions.

In Nishizaki Yuki's view, Saori's mental state had become somewhat unstable. That was why she had suggested to the organization that Saori be removed from combat assignments for the time being.

As Shiina Rin's attending physician, Nishizaki Yuki had gained more time to spend with Saori and could take this opportunity to soothe her emotions.

Unlike Efnir, Saori was only a middle school girl. Just as Efnir had said, these children, at the most beautiful age of their lives, should not have had to bear such burdens.

But humanity had no other choice.

Agents were the only light, and that faint light was built upon the sacrifices of countless young girls. All Nishizaki Yuki could do was protect those girls as best she could, even if her help was insignificant.

That desire came from guilt.

"Saori?... It's you. What do you need?"

Nishizaki Yuki stood, welcomed Saori into the office, and smiled.

"Have a seat."

Uzuki Saori shook her head instead of sitting down, then took out a sheet of paper.

"I want Rin discharged. I need your help, Doctor. Please sign here."

"Discharged?"

Nishizaki Yuki looked surprised. She glanced over the paper in Saori's hand. It was a discharge consent form; signing it would mean approving Saori's application to discharge Rin.

"You know Rin's body hasn't recovered yet. She isn't fit to leave the hospital..."

Seeing Saori's dark expression, Nishizaki Yuki carefully asked.

"Did she ask to be discharged?"

Shiina Rin had exhausted herself in battle and deactivated Exile Form. She had been infected while surrounded, causing the Corruption rate in her body to once exceed sixty percent.

After several days of rest, treatment, and assistance, Rin's Corruption rate had fallen to a slightly safer level, but it was still far from reassuring. That was why Rin remained in an isolation ward even now, watched over by specially assigned soldiers and nurses.

"No. I did."

"May I ask why?"

Nishizaki Yuki asked softly, but the moment her words fell, something hard pressed against her waist.

It was a black handgun.

Nishizaki Yuki froze for a moment, her gaze meeting the girl's cold eyes.

Saori spoke flatly.

"I don't want to answer. I only want you to sign."

Surprise

No one yet knew what had happened in Nishizaki Yuki's office.

Elsewhere, Efnir, Yukina, and Kanade Kotone had already arrived outside the hospital lobby...

"Wait here for a moment. I'll get the car and come back. Yukina, take care of Kanade, okay?"

Efnir said.

"Okay, big sis. Kanade and I will wait here."

"Mm, then I'll be right back."

Efnir was currently playing Yukina's older sister rather than older brother. It would be troublesome if their parents called while Kanade Kotone was present. To keep her sisterly relationship with Yukina from being exposed before Kanade Kotone, Efnir had deliberately asked Yukina and Kanade Kotone to wait outside the lobby while she went to retrieve the car from the underground parking lot.

She slowly started the car, took out her phone, and called her parents.

She needed to take the initiative with her parents first.

"Mom, are you and Dad still at the airport?"

Efnir lowered her voice. Her soft, gentle tone vanished, replaced by a distinctly more androgynous voice.

"Your father and I just got off the plane. What is it?" Her mother changed the subject. "Eager to see us already?"

"Can't I be?" Efnir turned the steering wheel and glanced at the time. "I just picked Yukina up from school. I was thinking that Yukina and I could come pick you up and take you home later. No one lives at our old place anymore. We've moved to the West District now, and I'm worried you won't be able to find the way."

"Your father and I aren't so old that we can't use a map," her mother said, though her tone became openly delighted. "By the way, is Yukina doing well? You haven't been bullying her while we were away, have you?"