Episode 13: Excision
Voices shook her brain.
“It’s worse than mincemeat.”
“Hurry up and get it out. It’ll rot inside her.”
“Her level of consciousness is…”
“Confirmed rise in M-chlorian levels. Particle infiltration is accelerating!”
Her eyelids were heavy.
“This is bad. Rectum, small intestine, kidneys, and uterus… There are hardly any parts left unscathed. Her spinal cord is a complete mess, too. Are we seriously replacing her organs with artificial ones? Wouldn’t it be better to just let her die…?”
Her stomach hurt.
“Hey! Her level of consciousness is starting to return!”
“Then why the hell didn’t you say so sooner?! Increase the anaesthetic! Give her three times the human dose, if you have to! Take every possible precaution against M-particle luminescence!”
“Shit! This is why I hate operating on those monstrous magical girls!”
“Shut up and hurry! Before the Magus Engine activates!”
With a pssshhh, her sense of self began to dissolve.
The sensation of something foreign flowed from the nape of her neck into her brain.
Unravelling.
Down into the depths of sleep.
Peach-coloured light.
＊
[Strawberry Pink] realised that she was [Strawberry Pink].
The twin tails swaying at the edge of her vision were pink, and she was wearing a dress.
She had to be [Strawberry Pink]. Who else would wear such a glittering outfit?
She wasn’t [Momotsuki Haruka].
She wore beautiful clothes.
She was free.
She could laugh.
That was what made her [Strawberry Pink].
Of that much, she was certain.
And yet…
She didn’t understand.
Strawberry Pink had no idea where she was.
*
A warm home.
*
The fire in the hearth flickered, casting its light around the room.
It was a house she didn’t know.
And yet, somehow, it felt familiar.
The snow falling outside the window. The softness of the carpet beneath her feet. The smell of firewood. The lingering scent of stew wafting from the kitchen.
Everything felt familiar.
A scene she knew.
A scene she didn’t know.
Strawberry Pink stood still, unable to understand.
Creak. Creak.
The sound of wood groaning.
It was a chair.
A chair that tilted as someone slowly shifted their weight upon it. Someone was sitting there. Before she knew it, Strawberry Pink had spoken to the figure’s back.
“…Sere.”
She looked very much like her.
But she was different.
Her flowing hair was blue, translucent as a sea of stars.
Her slender arms, resting on the armrests of the chair, were white and seemed gentle.
When she turned, her cheeks were beautiful, and her eyes, looking directly at Strawberry Pink, were the colour of an ice castle.
“I’m sorry. I’m not the girl you like.”
“… [Sapphire Blue]?”
“Mm-hm.”
Somehow, the words had come to her.
It was the name of a woman she didn’t know.
“I’m sorry, junior.”
She apologised. Strawberry Pink thought.
Strawberry Pink understood.
“I’ll end up dragging you into this.”
Black light. Blue hair.
Big Sis.
Revenge.
[Witch of Pisces].
“Yeah.”
“Am I talking to the Witch I killed?”
“Mm-hm. The light that flowed into you back then… That’s me now.”
Faint phosphorescence. Black magical light.
The Witch’s memories, flowing backwards through the M-particles.
Strawberry Pink’s brain began to think clearly.
M-particles transmitted human thought.
And thought contaminated people.
Just as someone with sufficiently strong convictions could sway and incite others.
M-particles at high concentrations transmitted thoughts too strongly. They made it seem as though you had held those thoughts yourself from the very beginning.
It was a common phenomenon.
The Witch you killed appeared in your dreams.
That was why magical girls were forbidden to dream.
“What’s happening to me right now?”
“I forced your body to heal, and now the doctors don’t know what to do with you.”
“That’s awful. You could’ve just let me die.”
“Then I would’ve died, too.”
Besides…
[Sapphire Blue], the [Witch’s Dream], smiled gently.
*
“Isn’t death… a terribly sad thing?”
*
“…So this is your fault, [Witch of Pisces].”
“Mm-hm.”
“I’m crying because of you.”
The Witch’s remnant smiled.
Her eyes lowered, just a little, with a hint of sadness.
“You taught me what sadness was. What a needless thing to do… Hey, I cried when I saw Sere. Why did I feel sad?”
“You don’t know that yet.”
“Yeah. I don’t know.”
“So I can’t teach you.”
“How inconvenient.”
“I know.”
She gave a little chuckle.
The smile of the Witch’s remnant really did resemble Sere’s.
“You’re going to experience so much sadness from now on. Your heart might feel as though it’s breaking apart. You’ll be in pain, you’ll suffer, you’ll ache with longing. You’ll be filled with feelings you can’t do anything about, and your thoughts will become consumed by them…”
“Seriously. What a needless thing to do.”
“…Don’t forget. You might never dream of me again.”
The firewood in the hearth crackled and snapped.
“It’s all right to cry.
You’re an ordinary girl, after all.”
The flickering flames washed her vision white.
＊
“Complete removal and replacement confirmed. Procedure complete.”
“…Hey, how much of this girl’s body is still flesh and blood?”
“About thirty percent.”