The Knight Who Failed in Her Duty

Central Hospital, seventh floor of the inpatient department.

Knight had been standing outside Room 707 for a long time.

She raised her hand, adjusted the collar of her uniform, then pressed the corners of her eyes with her fingers. Only after confirming they were completely dry did she push open the door.

"Mom."

The woman on the hospital bed turned her head at the sound.

She was so thin she had nearly wasted away. Her cheekbones jutted out, her wrists were as thin as withered branches, and the backs of her hands were covered in countless needle marks.

Yet the moment she saw her daughter, a bright smile still blossomed across her pale face.

"Oh, my Knight is home."

"Don't call me that." Knight sat down beside the bed, expertly picking up an apple and a fruit knife. "How are you feeling today?"

"Very well." Her mother beamed. "I even got out of bed and walked two laps this morning. The nurses all praised my recovery."

"Besides, why can't I call you that?"

"I wonder who it was that said, when she was little, that she wanted to become a handsome knight and protect Mom forever..." Her mother smiled. "Isn't your Magical Girl title Knight, too?"

Knight's hand paused for half a second as she peeled the apple.

She had only spoken with the attending physician yesterday.

The doctor had said that all her indicators were still declining and that the new treatment plan had limited effectiveness. The family should "spend more time with her."

Spend more time with her.

Knight understood the second half of the sentence the doctor had left unsaid.

Watching her mother put on a brave face and pretend that everything was fine, she said nothing. She merely let out a soft hum.

She cut the peeled apple into small pieces, stuck toothpicks into them, and held them out to her mother. "You still need to know your limits. Here, eat."

"What about you? Is work going well?" Her mother picked up a piece of apple but didn't eat it. She only looked at her daughter. "I saw the news. The Fallen Beast in the park—you were the one who drove it off, weren't you? That sword strike was magnificent."

"Mm." Knight lowered her eyes. "I got lucky."

"What do you mean, lucky? That was skill." Her mother snorted proudly, then leaned closer and lowered her voice. "I also heard that your Association is going to hold another concert?"

Knight jerked her head up. "How did you know? It was only just approved!"

"The young nurses at the station have been talking about it." Her mother blinked. "What, is my daughter going onstage?"

How had the Association moved so quickly? She had only just left the Association, and they had already started publicizing it?

No... It was also possible that Old Wei had told Mom. After all, Old Wei knew about Mom's condition.

"...It's not even close to being settled."

"That won't do. Mom has to go." Her mother spoke earnestly. "The front row. No one is allowed to stop me."

Knight opened and closed her mouth.

She wanted to say, Mom, with your health, you can't even leave this building.

She wanted to say, The doctor said you need to rest.

But as she looked into her mother's bright, sparkling eyes, she couldn't get a single word out. In the end, she only managed to squeeze out one sentence:

"...All right. I'll save you a seat in the front row."

Her mother smiled in satisfaction and leaned back against the pillow.

The hospital room fell quiet. Outside the window, the setting sun slowly drifted westward, dyeing the white sheets a warm orange. The equipment by the bed ticked and beeped, steady and faint.

Knight sat there, holding her mother's hand.

That hand was so light.

Light as a feather, as if it would shatter at a touch.

She suddenly felt her throat tighten.

She was a Magical Girl who had cleaved apart the core of a Second-Tier Fallen Beast with a single strike.

Her sword was so fast that only afterimages remained, and her lightning could illuminate half the plaza.

The safety of several million people across the city rested on her shoulders.

But it was useless.

Fallen Beasts had cores. Shatter the core, and they died. The rules were clear, the enemy distinct. As long as she was strong enough and fast enough, there was nothing she couldn't protect.

But illness had no core.

It hid in her mother's bones and blood, gnawing away day after day. No matter how fast her sword was, it couldn't cut it even slightly.

She had gained the power of a knight.

Yet she couldn't defeat her mother's enemy the way a knight should.

"Mom." She heard her own voice, hoarse beyond recognition. "I'm sorry."

"Hm? Why are you apologizing all of a sudden?"

"I can't do anything." Knight lowered her head, tears falling one after another onto their clasped hands. "I've trained with the sword for so long. I train every day, and I've desperately tried to become stronger... But you're lying here, and I can't help you at all."

"I'm such a useless knight..."

Her mother silently looked at her.

She watched her for a very, very long time.

Then she smiled. She raised her withered hand and gently placed it on her daughter's head, just as she had done whenever her daughter cried as a child, slowly, slowly stroking her hair.

"Silly girl."

"Do you know? Actually..."

"Mom is the one who failed in her duty as a knight... I was supposed to be the one protecting you as you grew up, but in the end, all I can do is lie alone in a hospital bed, unable to help you at all..."

"Mom... is the one who fell first."

"Mom--!"

Knight could hold herself together no longer.

She bent over and buried her face in her mother's frail shoulder, sobbing like a child.

All the strength she had shown over the years, all her heroic spirit, all her "knightly bearing" collapsed in that moment.

Of course... How could she possibly not know her own body? She had long since realized that she didn't have much time left.

Maybe this was for the best... At least she wouldn't keep burdening her daughter...

Her mother held her and patted her back again and again.

"Don't cry, don't cry."

"Mom hasn't accomplished much in her life. The only thing I'm proud of is having a daughter like you."

Outside the window, the setting sun sank into its final moment.

At the boundary between heaven and earth, the last streak of golden-red light struggled and lingered, unwilling to go out--

Then the light did not go out.

It turned.

The last rays of sunset seemed to have been gently held back by something. They flowed over the windowsill and across the white sheets, spreading through the hospital room.

Then came a second ray, and a third--countless flecks of light drifted in from outside the window, like Firefly returning to its nest against the night, like golden snow that refused to fall.

Mother and daughter stared blankly upward.

Outside the seventh-floor window, suspended in midair with nothing beneath her, stood a figure.

Her pink-and-white dress swayed gently in the night breeze, the purple patterns along its hem flowing with faint light.

Her long pink hair spilled over her shoulders, its ends adorned with countless flecks of light.

Her heels lightly touched the staircase formed from the points of light. Step by step, she walked slowly and softly--as if afraid of crushing something precious beyond words within the room.

She stopped before the window.

Through the glass, her pink, star-shaped pupils brimmed with something so gentle it was almost sorrowful.

"I heard it."

The girl spoke softly. Her voice was not loud, yet it seemed to fall directly into their hearts.

"When this city was about to fall asleep, there was a kind of love so radiant that even the night had to make way for it."

"It was a mother's love for her daughter."

"It was the words a knight who failed in her duty had been unable to finish saying throughout her entire life--"

"I love you."

"How dazzling, how intoxicating, how stirring!"

She placed one hand over her chest and stepped into the hospital room.

"Nice to meet you."

The girl lifted her skirt and gave a slight curtsy, starlight falling from the ends of her hair.

"I am the Magical Girl--Love."

"I am the Pure Love Warrior who protects love and beauty."

"May I come in?"