Episode 5: Reversal
The staff of a magic cyberdeck pierced the heart, the Magus Engine.
Black and pink phosphorescence, magic power, flowed in reverse.
The operating noise, like the scream of a girl, pierced Strawberry Pink’s ears.
The turrets, like a shoal of fish, took aim at Strawberry Pink, but their movements lacked their usual vigour. Naturally enough.
Now that she was at point-blank range, aiming at Strawberry Pink was tantamount to aiming at their own hearts.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!”
“Shut up…!”
She deployed her magic cyberdeck.
The heart-shaped ornament glowed.
Pink light flowed into the Witch’s black Magus Engine.
It was hacking.
The Magus Engine was, quite literally, a magical girl’s heart.
It generated M-particles, enhanced their affinity with the magical girl, and enabled her to manipulate them at will. It was a form of magic cyberwear, the culmination of advanced technology. And precisely because of that, it had vulnerabilities.
No matter how well M-particles protected the skin.
No matter how effectively M-particles shielded against fatal wounds.
If the heart was hacked, the M-particles would cease to function.
The Witch could be killed.
“I knew it…! You…! Don’t get cocky just because you’re an old model!
I’m… [Strawberry Pink]! The magical girl [Strawberry Pink]!
I may have come last in the class at hacking, but I’m not about to lose to some decrepit security system from twenty years ago!”
And so it proved.
The pink light began to eat away at the Witch’s black Magus Engine.
Ultra-high-speed calculations tore through Strawberry Pink’s brain. Hacking with M-particles at such speeds was equivalent to a battle to the death waged through thought, placing an enormous burden on the brain.
A nosebleed trickled down Strawberry Pink’s pale cheek.
The star-flecked pink of her eyes grew cloudy and white.
She had won.
The instant she was certain of it,
the black light flowed back.
*
“…?!”
M-particles transmitted thought.
To control weapons at will, one had to transmit one’s intentions to them.
The function that allowed a device to be controlled freely by thought alone was, in essence, identical to transmitting thought directly to the device.
The Witch’s M-particles surged forth, overflowing.
“Shit…! I’m going to be swallowed!”
They were the thoughts of the Witch of Pisces.
A warm home.
“…Ah.”
The fire burned in the hearth.
“Escape sequence… error. Forced awakening… error. Requesting reinforcements… error. Error. Error.”
I sat in a chair before the hearth.
My favourite chair.
When I leaned forwards, it creaked and tilted. It did the same when I leaned backwards. I loved watching the room sway before my eyes like a swing, and I had spent the whole season sitting there, playing.
“Stop…”
Papa had told me that it happened because the legs were crooked.
Papa was a furniture maker, and he often made toys like this for me.
“No.”
At Christmas, Papa became terribly busy.
He was a furniture maker, but he was also good at making wooden toys, so he had lots of work of that kind.
I had asked Papa to make one for me, too.
He must have been ever so busy.
“You…”
That night had been the same.
The Christmas tree stood before the hearth. The ornaments glittered in the firelight.
“You! You’re not my papa!”
Papa died.
The chair burned.
Our home was gone.
My city, Moscow, vanished into the flames.
*
“Ah… Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!”
*
The sensation of flames burning her body dragged Strawberry Pink’s thoughts back.
The circulation of M-particles had stopped.
The blazing wreckage of the unmanned turret emplacements was burning Strawberry Pink’s skin, and the Witch pinned beneath her.
As soon as her thoughts returned, M-particles began circulating again by reflex.
Her young, tender skin was protected from the flames.
But…
“Don’t forget, my sweet, sweet junior.”
The Witch’s Magus Engine had stopped.
The jet-black mask cracked. The black dress vanished into the flames.
The fate of a magical girl whose Magus Engine had stopped, a Witch, was already decided. Her heart had stopped. It was only natural that this should happen.
Blood ran from the corner of her mouth.
The Magus Engine flickered against her chest, discharging sparks of electricity.
The Witch’s shattered mask fell apart. The Witch of Pisces smiled at Strawberry Pink with eyes that had lost their light.
“[Reminiscing] is forbidden.”
Silver hair.
Skin as white as ice.
Blue-green eyes, clear as a castle made of ice.
“…Isn’t that terribly sad?”
The Witch of Pisces was dead.
Viola Purple’s body was recovered.
Another ordinary night, Another Day. Another ordinary job, Another Run. It all came to an end in an atmosphere no different from any other.