Episode 31: The Heart
“Kh-hk!”
She breathed.
She spat out the blood pooled in her throat.
Dried, congealed black blood fell with a wet splat onto the rain-soaked ground.
They were alike.
Yuu-kun.
And that night, Papa and Mama.
“… [Reminiscing]… is forbidden…”
She clung to consciousness through sheer duty. A childish, slurred voice escaped her lips. She had just spoken. She had braced her arms against the ground and stood up… [Chihuahua Yellow] understood these things.
[Chihuahua Yellow] stood up.
In a landscape that looked like the end of the world.
*
Chiba City, shredded to pieces.
The scattered ruins of its illegal buildings.
Severed fragments of enormous steel wings, the remains of the [Witch of Gemini].
The sunset illuminated the wreckage. A world sliced to pieces by a sharp blade, with the delicate precision of thread. A world flattened, everything levelled.
The towering mass of illegal buildings had been reduced to bare ground.
Rain and rubble mingled into a murky torrent the colour of industrial waste, flowing around her feet.
Depending on the angle, the torrent changed colour like a rainbow.
[Chihuahua Yellow] lowered her gaze.
Her own golden-haired reflection stared back at her.
A huge hole in her chest.
Her heart, the yellow-glimmering Magus Engine, exposed to the open air.
“…Kh-hk.”
『From HQ to [Chihuahua Yellow]. Communications appear to have been restored. Report the situation.』
“Why…”
『From HQ to [Chihuahua Yellow]. Report the situation. Don’t panic.』
“Why… why am I still… alive…?”
The forbidden [Reminiscing] lifted its lid.
Silver hair dancing.
A Japanese sword flashing.
Her heart, gouged out.
Phosphorescence gushing forth like blood.
The sensation of her very existence being torn away, gnawing at her brain even with her sense of pain severed: the fear of death.
A mechanical sound, like a young girl sobbing, swirled inside [Chihuahua Yellow]’s chest… Her heart, the Magus Engine, was running. She was alive.
Even though it had been torn out.
Even though it had been pierced!
『Report the situation, [Chihuahua Yellow].』
“…I… I was supposed to… be dead.”
『All biological signs had been completely lost. What caused this?』
“My heart… [the Silver Witch]… she got me… and then, and then…”
She closed her eyes.
『…This is bad. [Reminiscing]…!』
The torrent brushed something against her feet.
She opened her eyes a fraction.
Looked.
She thought… remembered.
The [Witch of Gemini], her heart lost and her body severed.
[Chihuahua Yellow] had been the [Witch of Gemini].
Until a mere few dozen minutes ago.
“My heart… was the Witch’s heart…!”
[Thought] flickered.
It wasn’t [Chihuahua Yellow]’s own thought.
And yet, [Chihuahua Yellow] couldn’t explain where it stopped being her own.
*
Her darling little sister, always by her side.
She was praised when she made lightning fall.
She was praised when she brought the rain.
So many companions.
[Red]. [Blue]. [Brown]. [Orange]. [Purple]. [Yellow]… [Pink]. [Strawberry Pink].
“No.”
She had given her a stuffed animal.
“Senior is my senior.”
[Chihuahua Yellow] wrested back control of her [Thought].
She looked again at the blackness that had nearly swallowed her whole.
The [Witch of Gemini] had implanted [Chihuahua Yellow]’s heart inside herself.
Then she had tried to kill [Strawberry Pink].
Then she had lost.
And her heart, the Magus Engine, had been taken from her…
“…Inside me.”
Thump, thump.
A frail, childish heartbeat spread warmth through [Chihuahua Yellow]’s entire body.
Alive.
Saved by Senior…
『…From HQ to [Chihuahua Yellow]. Return to base. Upon your return, you will undergo a complete overhaul and maintenance.』
“Senior…”
『That is an order to return.』
“What happened to Senior?”
A brief silence.
*
『From this point forward, [Strawberry Pink] will be designated the [Monofilament Witch].』
*
A little understanding.