Haruka Momotsuki, in the car, was ruminating on the lingering taste on her tongue.
Potato crisps and cola.
The snacks she’d eaten with Sere.

The two cheapest items at the convenience store, due to money constraints.
Food she’d consumed for the first time in her life —though perhaps not the very first time. But the memory of that first time had worn away, nowhere to be found.
　Unlike the individually wrapped biscuits occasionally given at the facility, these were junk food, unregulated in fat and salt content. And the liquid that washed it all down —fizzing, bubbling, pleasantly soothing once you got used to it.

Having completed the task of visiting Fuyumi Shizuki’s grave, that was all that remained in her mind.
　The silver-haired girl who drank the fizzy drink as if it were the most natural thing, smiling sweetly.
The girl with eyes as beautiful as an ice castle, reminiscent of the Pisces Witch.
Sere.
I’ve forgotten her full name.
But she had granted permission to [Momotsuki Haruka] to call her casually by the name [Sere].

She was cute.
She was beautiful.
She was kind.

“—Strawberry Pink. Recollections are forbidden.”
“Yes. Sorry.”

I’d been lost in thought.
My behaviour, impermissible for a magical girl, had been spotted by the driver too.

“Thoughts too. HQ instructed that upon returning, you must submit a report detailing all events that occurred without any intervening thoughts. Everything consumed outside, everything seen.”
“Yes.”
“…Sleep is permitted. That is to say…”

The driver in black, whose name she didn’t know.

“You must be tired… Rest now. Work will resume once we return.”

Even the voice of such a person made her almost start to think. The strawberry milk the driver brought drove such thoughts from her mind.

　――’It was a good day’.

Even the morning when she’d wet her pillow felt like a distant memory.
The communication device containing Sere’s contact details felt faintly warm.
She felt it.
Merely feeling it wasn’t thinking.
Haruka Momozuki made that rather un-magical-girl-like excuse to herself, quietly closing her eyes――

　A moving car window.
She noticed the silver shadow crossing too late.

A metallic clang.
Severed.
Had her head not been resting against the window, she would have died / overhead / the black-painted car sliced clean through / red splattering her vision / the driver in black / her head jerking sideways / falling / the steering wheel.

　The screech of brakes.

The collision.
On the bridge, crashing into the guardrail and coming to a halt.
Haruka Momotsuki snapped her drowsy eyes open.
Her trained dynamic vision recognised the shadow far behind —the one that had severed the vehicle as it passed.

　A girl clad in a silver dress.
A silver mask.
Dancing silver hair.
Chrome steel gauntlets.
The silver phosphorescence of the Magus Engine flickering upon her chest.
A magic cyberdeck staff shaped like wings / Directly connected, a Japanese sword.

　A silver shadow, likely one or two years older than Momotsuki Haruka, sheathed the Japanese sword within its scabbard. With a drive sound resembling a girl’s scream, the scabbard at the silver shadow’s waist accepted it. A mechanical scabbard. Something was rigged.

Upon seeing that rigging.
A human would likely die.

HQ to Strawberry Pink. Life signs from the pick-up driver have ceased. Report status.
“Enemy attack. Witch.”
Authorisation granted for [Magic] use. Reinforcements ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 」
“Jamming, eh?”

　Haruka Momotsuki placed a hand over her chest.
The inactivated Magus Engine felt cold, like steel.
Somehow, it reminded her of the coldness in that girl’s hand…

“Ah, it’s no good after all. I— ‘For peace. For tranquillity.’”

The incantation.
Floating M-particles —the glow of magical power.
　The Magus Engine embedded in Momotsuki Haruka’s heart activated, staining the skyscraper sky with a peach-coloured light. Shadows fell, and within them, the girl’s form began to change.

“‘For the sake of order, I forge this and grant it the power to wield.’”

The black twin tails dyed pink.
The rumpled pink hoodie covered her body like an adorned dress.

“‘Therefore’.”

Her wide-open eyes shone pink, sparkling like scattered stars.
Her lips, weaving the incantation, were coloured as if reflecting the girl’s flushed cheeks.
Chrome steel gloves adorned her slender fingers.

A rod protruded from her liberated chest.
White fingers drew it out.

“‘Thou art without sin.’”

Haruka Momotsuki—【Strawberry Pink】—bit back the words.
“I can’t be a normal girl.”
Such an obvious statement.

“—【Strawberry Pink】, summoned and here I come!”

She transformed those words into a declaration of war.