On Becoming a Magical Girl

Nishizaki Yuki rummaged through her pocket, took out two plastic-sealed bags, and held them out before Efnir.

"I still have these to give you. I almost forgot..."

Inside the bags were two small items: a black communicator and a butterfly-shaped hair clip stained with blood.

Efnir froze for a moment before accepting the bags.

"This is Fifina's..."

This hair clip was Fifina's "Beacon." Of course Efnir recognized it.

A "Beacon" was, in essence, a "medium" through which an "Agent" resonated with Order Force. It was a special crystal born from research into White Holes and ruins, capable of spanning both the material and energy realms.

A "Beacon" was essential for an "Agent" to resonate with "Order." Without one, they could not resonate with Order, and thus could not enter Exile Form. Simply put, a Beacon was the most fundamental thing an Agent relied upon.

Because different Beacons possessed different degrees of compatibility with different wavelengths, every Agent had a unique Beacon.

Unlike Fifina's, Efnir's Beacon was a star-shaped earring worn on her left ear.

"This belongs to Fifina. I thought I should give it to you."

Nishizaki Yuki said, pulling another cigarette from her pocket.

Efnir said nothing. After standing there blankly for a long while, she took out the hair clip, carefully wiped away the blood with the hem of her clothes, and clenched it in her palm.

Cold.

Efnir pressed her lips together. After a pause, she picked up the black communicator from the plastic bag.

"This too?"

"Yeah."

Nishizaki Yuki took out a lighter.

It was her treasured kerosene lighter. Efnir had heard her go on at length about where it came from, but no matter how impressive or bizarre Nishizaki made its story sound, Efnir, who did not smoke, always forgot it the moment she turned away.

Nishizaki held the cigarette and flicked the lighter. Sparks jumped wildly, yet it stubbornly refused to light.

"Tch..."

Clicking her tongue in irritation, Nishizaki Yuki simply took the cigarette from her lips and pinched it between her fingers.

"Well, there are some recordings in here... I think you should listen to them."

As Always

Inside the temporary medical tent, Efnir sat silently beside Fifina's bed, rubbing the communicator in her hands.

A young girl's voice came through the earphones.

At first, it was combat exchanges and intermittent chatter, much like their usual battle communications. Beyond that, the fierce wind atop West Capital Tower could faintly be heard.

But at some point, the noisy sounds gradually faded away, and even the wind seemed to be drawn farther and farther into the distance.

The communicator must have been taken off by then.

"Um... Master... Shiyin actually still has something to say..."

Efnir's own voice disappeared, replaced entirely by Fifina's soft voice. It was barely audible, like a petal drifting before one's eyes, ready to be carried far away by the wind.

She quietly spoke her thoughts, as though whispering.

"Because it's something important... so I definitely... definitely can't leave anything out..."

From this point onward, the communication record became an audio recording.

"Where was I just now... Ah, I remember..."

"Gifts you dream of receiving, people you want to get closer to... Have you ever had those, Master...?"

"I really want to know... It would have been nice if I could understand you a little better..."

"But... Shiyin does have someone like that... Someone I dreamed of meeting, someone I admired..."

"Someone I like..."

"Someone who appeared before me and took my hand..."

Through the earphones, Fifina—or rather, Fengling Shiyin—murmured softly, seeming to speak to herself and yet also to be confiding in someone.

Efnir lowered her gaze and listened quietly.

"...I never once dared to hope for something that happy..."

"Master... Shiyin actually lied to you... Shiyin doesn't have parents... So what you said, that 'joy and happiness aren't anything special,' is probably something I can't understand..."

Fifina's voice was quiet, like a breeze brushing against the hair by one's ear.

"But what Master says can't be wrong... Because to Shiyin... Master is special... So I looked forward to it, thinking that if it were you..."

"I've always admired you... Ever since I first met you, I dreamed that one day, if I could stand by your side... Being able to meet you, Master, was the luckiest thing..."

"It doesn't feel real..."

"Shiyin is already satisfied... But now... I suddenly feel a little unwilling to accept it... If only... I had been a little braver..."

The voice suddenly paused for a moment.

"I don't know when I became so greedy... So... I guess I've used up about all my luck too..."

"Master... Shiyin still has so much she wants to tell you..."

"Master..."

The voice drifted ever farther away. The recording ended abruptly, and a piercing cutoff tone sounded through the earphones.

Efnir clenched the communicator in her palm and took a deep breath. She lifted her eyes and looked at the girl sleeping before her.

Fifina.

She should be called "Fengling Shiyin" now. She lay quietly on the hospital bed with her eyes tightly shut, her face deathly pale. Her right arm was gone, leaving only horrifying bloodstains and treated bandages.

"I'm sorry... for making you bear it alone for so long..."

Efnir bent down, closed her eyes, pressed her forehead against the girl's left hand, and prayed softly.

"Please recover soon..."

Without Order Force, Fengling Shiyin would undoubtedly have died from injuries and blood loss like these.

She had lost a hand in battle. With only one remaining hand, she could not properly administer emergency treatment, yet she still did everything she could to bandage the wound and hold out until the battle ended. Because of that, however, she had missed the window for treatment.

Of course Efnir knew that Shiyin had pushed herself that far because Efnir's strategy and decisions required her. No one else could replace her. If she had not done it, if she had retreated, Efnir would have been unable to command the entire situation. The Agents' defensive line would have collapsed, and the thousands waiting for evacuation and rescue would have been exposed to the threat of the Erosion Entities.

At the time, communications had completely collapsed. Headquarters was packed with Erosion Entities, combat personnel were severely lacking, and there were no reinforcements. Efnir alone had to make up for the desperate gap in fighting strength. Yet even she, dragging along her injured body, had reached her physical limit at one point. For Fengling Shiyin at the time, with only one hand, timely and thorough treatment and bandaging were no longer possible. So Shiyin made the choice she believed was right.

If only I had noticed sooner...

Efnir thought.

But even if she had known earlier... what could she have done?

Between Shiyin and the thousands awaiting rescue, how was Efnir supposed to choose? Abandon Shiyin? Or abandon everyone else?

If only I had been the one to lose my right hand... If there was no choice, then I wish I could have borne it in Shiyin's place. But this world had no miracle that could be granted by a simple wish.

Efnir lowered her head and leaned against the bedside.

Having lost her right hand, Fengling Shiyin would never be able to play her beloved violin again, would she? Likewise, she could no longer draw her bowstring. She could not continue chasing her dreams, nor could she fight. Perhaps she should simply retire from being an Agent altogether...

That would be better than anything. At least she could stay alive.

Efnir raised her head and held the butterfly hair clip before her eyes.

Fengling Shiyin.

The first time Efnir met her had been at one of her fan meet-and-greets. The second had been at Orderkeepers headquarters.

"Since she's your fan, there's no problem leaving her to you, right?"

Back then, the commander had brought the timid girl before Efnir and teased her like that.

In Efnir's memories, she had been strong and outstanding: an obedient top student at school, a lovable good girl at home, at an age when she should have been blooming brightly and passionately.

A girl like that should not have withered away on the battlefield.

But... could it be done?

Making sure no one had to fight or die... wasn't that just laughably empty talk?

Shiyin had left, and this butterfly hair clip would welcome its next owner.

In the end, who had been saved?

Efnir smiled bitterly. She suddenly remembered many things. Since the distant past, she had in fact always walked alone through blood.

The death rate among Agents was high, and there were no shortage of those left disabled by injuries. This was common knowledge and only natural. In this operation, every Agent had been injured to some degree. Aside from Efnir, Fifina, and the missing Qinglan, Lily and Furan had suffered the most serious injuries. One had nearly lost an arm, while the other's body had suffered severe "infection," placing her at risk of turning into "residue" at any moment.

Besides them, countless civilians and combat personnel had died in the "Erosion" disaster.

Efnir had tasted pain and parting more times than she could count.

Yet she could never treat it as something ordinary.

If only no one had to be hurt or die. But Efnir had more or less realized that no matter how desperately she tried, it was something she could never accomplish.

Ever since becoming an Agent, Efnir had continuously honed herself, carrying someone else's share as well.

If she became stronger, she could save more people. Girls like Shiyin would no longer need to suffer such pain; they could simply bloom peacefully and quietly. Her younger sister could also grow up serene and beautiful, without a care in the world. That was what she thought.

But over the course of a year, no matter how many Erosion Entities Efnir eliminated, they kept crawling out like cockroaches from a filthy gutter, endlessly.

Instead, the people around her—the seniors who had saved her, the dependable commander, the stubborn and forthright medic—left her one by one.

Within the organization, old faces departed and new ones filled their places. In the end, Qinglan was the only familiar person left.

But today, Qinglan had gone missing too.

Without realizing it, Efnir had become a "remnant," barely surviving from a year ago until now.

[Some people say this is forced angst or something. Well, I think this doesn't even count as angst, and there's no question of whether it's forced—only something with buildup counts as angst. This plot without buildup is really just explaining the setting. (quietly)]

The Curtain Falls, and Morning Comes

—Five days later.

Efnir was awakened by her alarm clock.

Feeling around beside her pillow, she turned off the alarm and picked up her phone.

The morning light beyond the window was dim. Squinting, she found the screen's glow somewhat blinding.

She glanced at the time.

It was 6:40 in the morning.

She had received many messages, but none was an emergency contact from headquarters.

She pursed her lips, set down her phone, yawned, and sat up.

After the "Erosion" disaster five days ago, Xijing City had suddenly become much more peaceful. Disasters still occurred from time to time, but they were relatively small in scale and could be easily suppressed by the active efforts of several junior Agents.

This brief peace had given her ample time to rest and recover.

Although it was concerning why Xijing City, where Erosion disasters occurred so frequently, had suddenly become abnormally quiet after one massive, oversized catastrophe, all in all, the absence of large-scale Erosion disasters meant no further sacrifices. That was something worth being happy about.

It was just that... the price paid for this peace had been a little too high.

Fifina was still unconscious.

Lily and Furan were injured. Lily's arm had been severely damaged, but after several days of recuperation, she had largely regained mobility. Furan, however, had lost Synchronization after exhausting herself in battle. After being attacked by an Erosion Entity, her body showed signs of severe infection, and she was currently undergoing observation and treatment alongside Fengling Shiyin at United Hospital.

Aside from that, among the five first-time Agents led by Qinglan, the bodies of three had already been found. They were discovered beneath the ruins and had already lost all signs of life when found. They were registered as "killed in action."

The other two, codename Qinglan and codename Flying Swallow, were still missing. They were registered as "missing in action."