v1c5 (1/2)

Part 1

Renkoujizaka Koneko is in Group 1, whose allotted sleeping time is from midnight to 8 in the morning. Thus, it was decided that the operation to capture White Noisette would take place within that period.

At present it is 3:15 AM, 10 minutes before the operation begins.

While the cla.s.s were in the cla.s.sroom, Takeya was standing in the corridor, sorting out the final details of the plan with its most important actor.

That actor, of course, being the student council president, Onizaki Reki.

“Please get everyone ready.”

Takeya carefully placed 10 ma.s.sive stakes on the floor.

“Understood.”

Reki responded with his usual, unchanging, facial expression.

The operation isn’t that complicated. Takeya, Zan and Shuuhei would simultaneously plunge stakes into the head, heart, and abdomen of Renkoujizaka Koneko, the probable White Noisette, thus destroying those parts of her body.

A magical girl can regenerate from her injuries, even when her vital organs are pierced by humans, but it takes 25 seconds for the healing to kick in for such a severe injury. Or at least, such is the testimony of Reki, who had faced magical girls many times.

In those 25 seconds, Reki and five other student council members would drive more stakes deep into her body, pinning her to the floor. Once that is done, she should be unable to move, even if she regenerates, and the capture will be complete.

If they fail… Who knows what will happen.

Takeya held the b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword he always wore on his back. The hand holding the hilt was trembling, and not because the sword weighs 3 kilograms.

He started taking deep breaths. He needed to be calm.

“…President, I have something I want to ask.”

Takeya wanted to calm down, so he decided to ask Reki as question.

Reki, holding a 2 kilogram stake effortlessly like it was a pencil, turned his gaze to Takeya.

“What is it?”

“…That…”

What Takeya was about to ask was a stupid question. He was very much aware of this, but he wanted to hear anything that would soothe his mind even a little.

“Do you think my plan will succeed?”

He expected Reki to say yes. If he didn’t, there was no way he would have approved this operation in the first place. They’ve already sacrificed Sumire. Reki is actively partic.i.p.ating. If he didn’t think there was a chance of success, he would have never cooperated up to this point.

It was obvious that he was going to say yes, but Takeya still wanted to hear it from Reki’s own mouth.

“Heh.”

Reki opened his mouth, his expression remaining unchanged as always.

“Not for a second.”

“Whaa…”

A completely unexpected answer. He felt like someone who was dangling off the side of a cliff and about to fall off when their partner decided to cut themselves away and kick them off.

His lips trembling, he asked:

“T-Then… Why did you go along with this?!”

Reki responded to the words Takeya had somehow managed to eke out—with the same expression he always held.

“It feels like a G.o.dsend. That’s why.”

It made no sense. Takeya couldn’t understand what he was saying.

But if he was expecting failure, then…

“It can’t be that… You want humanity to be wiped out…?”

“No.”

It made no sense, but Takeya noticed something. The eyes of the normally expressionless Reki were clearly different from usual. The expression in those eyes…

“I just want to kick off the story.”

Seemed joyful.

Takeya started shaking his head and stopped thinking about Reki.

After all, Reki was weird, he already knew that. There would be no point in thinking about his motives at this point. It would be far too late. All he could do at this point was ignore it, regardless of how of bad a vibe it gave him.

All I can do now is do my best.

Kill Koneko. That is all he can do.

He entered the cla.s.sroom.

Hearing the door open, Zan and Shuuhei immediately looked towards at him.

They made eye contact with each other then started walking towards the location of Kokeno, who should be sleeping.

Zan had a shortsword in both hands, Shuuhei gripped a dagger in his right hand.

The cla.s.s looked at the three boys holding weapons with odd faces but said nothing. Really, it was nothing that out of the ordinary.

Renkoujizaka Koneko entered their eyesight.

At that moment, Takeya saw something.

“That…”

Two almost mesmerizing wings flapping around in front of him.

Is that the beautiful blue b.u.t.terfly I saw the other day?

Huge amounts of what should be an exceptionally rare b.u.t.terfly began flowing into the cla.s.sroom through a huge, gla.s.sless window.

“Aaa…”

Reki was peeking in from the side of the corridor.

The expression on his face, eyes wider than never before, could be described only with one word.

Madness.

“Finally, it begins.”

One of the b.u.t.terflies touched a student’s head, Okonogi Hishou.

And at that moment, his head exploded with a thunderous boom. His brain was scattered across the room, his eyes splattered against the floor.

A liquid of indeterminate composition, perhaps blood, perhaps brain fluid, gushed all over his lover, Himezaki Yuzuki. She delivered Cla.s.s 18’s first scream.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

b.u.t.terflies began buzzing around the room.

“R-RUN!”

Zan screamed with a suitably shocked expression.

Takeya finally understood what was happening in this unprecedented chaos.

This is a magical girl’s attack.

“Don’t touch the blue b.u.t.terflies under any circ.u.mstances! Run! Get out of the cla.s.sroom! RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!”

Zan, in a complete departure from his usual calm self, started screaming without any concern for how he looked. The cla.s.s started moving.

“W-wai-“

Himezaki, who had just lost her lover, was already surrounded by b.u.t.terflies. She was given no time to grieve as the b.u.t.terflies landed on her arms and legs and flew into her mouth.

She stuck out her tongue and looked down to confirm they were indeed in her mouth.

“Aaa! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

With a huge explosion Himezaki was blown into tiny pieces, which scattered all over the room. Some of those small chunks of flesh smacked Takeya square in the cheeks

.

Takeya ran out of the cla.s.sroom. Suddenly he felt warmth behind him. When he looked back, one of the twins’, Narukami Hikari’s, right leg flew off. She lost her balance and fell over. She tried to get up, but the rest of the cla.s.s trampled her, not noticing her as they frantically tried to escape.

“H-hel-”

b.u.t.terflies started gathering around her head, then surrounded her entire body.

“No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

As the b.u.t.terflies flew off in several directions, so too was Hikari torn apart in different directions in a flurry of explosions. All that was left was her lower body. The rest of the body was completely disfigured and destroyed, but her skirt retained some of its original shape, fluttering through the air.

The h.e.l.l is this…

There was another explosion behind Takeya. He didn’t have time to look back. Another person was dead.

Another person he had spent a year with, another person that was like family. Dead. Those close to him were dropping like flies.

“THE h.e.l.l IS THIS?!”

When he got out of the cla.s.sroom and into the corridor he was greeted by more dead bodies, male students from another cla.s.s.

Not just one body, but two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Takeya stopped counting.

Ah… That’s good enough. Well, it’s not good at all, but good…

There’s something wrong here.

The bodies haven’t been blown to pieces, they’ve been cut to pieces.

Magical girls can only use one type of magic, and the method used to kill these people clearly differs from the magic of the blue b.u.t.terflies.

In other words, the magical girl that came through the window is not acting alone. There were at least two nigh-undefeatable magical girls here, and they were undeniably on the attack.

That means…

“It’s over”

“It’s finished”

“We’re done”

“We’re dead”

He could hear his cla.s.smates screaming those words.

Part 2

This is the end.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Takeya heard a sharp, high pitched scream. He looked behind and saw Dosanryuu Tadayos.h.i.+, who had been trailing him. Takeya noticed a gaping hole in Tadayos.h.i.+’s torso, large enough that he could see right through it.

Then he met Tadayos.h.i.+’s tearful gaze. Entranced, he stopped moving for a split second, at which point Tadayos.h.i.+’s head exploded. The shockwave caught Takeya, throwing him against the wall.

“Agh… Ugh…”

His left arm took the brunt of the bone-crunching impact as his body collided with the wall. He writhed on the ground in pain, convinced that his shoulder was dislocated by virtue of his inability to move it.

I need to get up, fast! The b.u.t.terflies!

He rose shakily to his feet.

A b.u.t.terfly touched down on his now dangling arm.

“Kuh!”

The b.u.t.terfly flew away—at that instant, there was another explosion.

Once again he was shoved against the wall, though this time he was at least able to brace himself with his feet to bear it.

“Uuuu…”

That said, his left arm was no more.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…”

He was too deep in shock to feel the pain, but he could feel the energy draining from his body, and he had trouble getting his legs to move.

He couldn’t walk straight forward.

I need to escape! But where to? Escaping from the cla.s.sroom and running from the threat in front of me doesn’t mean I’m heading anywhere in particular. Where can I escape or find help? There is no such place. We won’t be saved.

With a quick whoosh, any and all weight disappeared from his body. There was not an ounce of strength left in his body. Suddenly the inside of his head clouded over in mist and his mind stopped working.

Takeya was disoriented from the current situation, but he still knew exactly what was happening.

Ah… That feeling… It’s been a while…

The feeling of having experienced a horrible world many times. The feeling of being ruled over by a sense of utter hopelessness.

Hopeless.

Hopeless.

Hopeless.

That word echoed in his head, making his steps feel heavier and heavier each time, like he was being weighed down with lead.

He finally became aware of the pain emanating his shoulder as the blood dripped onto the floor. Immediately, it grew to an intense pain and he let out a scream. His footsteps became even heavier.

Takeya’s legs finally stopped moving. His cla.s.smates were leaving him behind, but he took no offense to that. He understood that his time was at an end.

He looked out the window and was stunned at what he saw.

“That… what?”

The colour of the sky had changed. The absurdly milky sky he was used to seeing every day was gone.

However, by no means had the sky returned to its original state. It was an absolute mess, like someone had taken paints of various colours and splattered them all over a canvas at random.

“I don’t care anymore.”

He murmured once more.

“It’s… over…”

A blue b.u.t.terfly was flying between Takeya’s eyes. A lump of magic that could blow someone to smithereens in a heartbeat. When and how did it get so close?

He tried to escape, but his legs still wouldn’t move. Not even the imminent threat to his life was enough to get them moving.

He felt like the despair was eating away at his body, like his blood itself was turning black. He already knew how this would end.

Takeya is a dead man.

His head would explode and his brain would be scattered across the halls. He would become a decapitated corpse.

Or at least, that’s how it should have been.

Somehow, the blue b.u.t.terfly split into two right in front of his eyes. The two halves gracefully floated to the ground like petals. They then shrunk and disappeared, driving in the fact it was never a real living being in the first place.

Takeya found himself staring at Reki’s face. He was now aware that the feat was a product of Reki’s extraordinary swordsmans.h.i.+p.

“President…”

The pokerface Reki usually wore was… absent. His face was crooked, as if he was enjoying himself, or thought something was hilarious. Of course, it’s quite unlikely that he was overjoyed that he managed to save Takeya.

Reki pointed to the cla.s.smates escaping in front of Takeya. All the while, another b.u.t.terfly’s body continued to twitch as Reki chopped it up finely, like he was dicing up vegetables on a chopping board.

“Cla.s.s 18, please make your way to the student council room. Vice President Leila will be waiting for you in front of the door, please take refuge there with her help. Being directly under White Noisette’s management, the student council room will be the safest room in the school.”

Takeya immediately disagreed.

“Why would White Noisette let us in there? Isn’t this her doing?!”

“I don’t have time to explain. We can’t let any more of Cla.s.s 18 get killed lest we risk exposing White Noisette’s ident.i.ty.”

What Reki was saying made no sense whatsoever, but it’s impossible to conclude that Reki didn’t expect this disaster to happen. At any rate, Takeya didn’t have time to give Reki a full cross-examination. He didn’t want to think about it.

Thus, Takeya switched his mind off and headed towards the student council room.

Takeya could see his cla.s.smates in front of him, but he was falling behind them due to his inability to run and the extreme pain he was in.

The b.u.t.terflies were less dense than in the cla.s.sroom, but that doesn’t mean the situation is any less hopeless than before. He was a losing a lot of blood. Even if he somehow escaped from this magical attack and made it to the student council room, he may very well end up dying anyway.

I… don’t care…anymore…

As Takeya raised his head with a self-loathing smile he noticed something astounding.

A figure running towards him, blonde hair swinging in the wake.

“Takeya!”

Lilly.

She stopped right in front of Takeya, breathing erratically.

Lilly looked shocked when she seen Takeya’s missing arm up close but quickly put on a smile.

“Let’s get to the student council room, okay, Takeya?”

“Don’t mind me, Lilly.”

“Eh?”

“Take care of yourself first. It doesn’t matter what happens to me anymore.”

*slap*

She slapped him as soon as he said that.

Takeya was taken aback by the slap and Lilly’s lack of hesitation. His eyes widened as he held his face with his right arm.

Again without hesitation, Lilly curled her mouth into a big grin and said…

“Let’s live.”

It was just a single phrase. One tiny little phrase.

Ah…

But it was enough to drive out the despair that had taken over Takeya.

That one little phrase drove him to think…

I want to keep living, to live together with Lilly.

“Ah, let’s go.”

Lilly happily turned around and started running towards the student council room. Takeya started running after her.

There were fewer b.u.t.terflies flying around, but there were still plenty between them and safety. That said, they move like real b.u.t.terflies, so they’re not the fastest things in the world.

Takeya moved forward, taking great care to avoid the b.u.t.terflies, and avoiding any thoughts regarding the bodies he ran past.

He made it to the stairs. The student council room would be close at hand once he went down them.

“Agh…!”

Suddenly, a truly repugnant smell almost caused him to choke. It was coming from the stairs.

It smelled like dried up blood.

The first floor probably played host to an even more terrible tragedy than the hall outside the cla.s.sroom.

“Takeya, don’t stop.”

“Ah… Ah…”

Lilly gently descended the stairs and Takeya soon followed.

Leila came into view immediately.

“This way, quickly.”

There were only a few people at the door. It seems like most of Cla.s.s 18 had already entered the cla.s.sroom.

Shuuhei, who had been part of the rearguard, appeared and entered the door. His expression lit up slightly as he noticed Takeya and made eye contact.

“Shall we go as well?”

“Yeah.”

The smell of blood was indeed thicker than it had been on the second floor. Clumps of red meat were scattered all over the hall. There were still screams coming from places unknown.

Are we going to live through this?

He had no idea, but for now his only option was to believe Reki and seek refuge in the student council room. There was no other option for survival.

But how can I live? When I’m the person that caused all this? When I have to live bearing this guilt?

But, he wanted to live anyway.

He looked at Lilly, he saw her wonderful eyes.

Ah, I see.

He didn’t realize it until now, but Lilly had saved him.

Meeting someone amazing like Lilly, a person he could respect from the bottom of his heart, made being kept as magical girl’s bearable. It was fun.

He was glad to have regained the feelings he had lost. He wanted to keep them forever.

So…

I want to live. I don’t care whatever h.e.l.l I go through, I want to live as long as you’re there.

He held his left shoulder where his arm used to be and looked forward.

Part 3

And then…

Their eyes met.

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Takeya’s conviction was shattered. The will to live he summoned from within himself mere moments ago vanished into thin air.

“What are you doing, Takeya? Let’s go!”

Lilly shouted back at him from the door, but Takeya stood motionless, unable to speak.

“Takeya? Takeya! What’s wrong?!”

“How inconvenient. A magical girl is coming.”

Leila started shouting.

“We cannot allow a magical girl to enter. Close the doors!”

“N-no! What about Takeya?!”

“He’s just standing there. There’s nothing we can do for him.”

Leila said that then shoved Lilly through the door.

“Takeya! Takeya! What are you doing?! Hurry up and come here! Agh! We’re supposed to go together! Live together! Hey! Heeey! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!”

“Please give up.”

“TAKEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-“

Lilly’s voice was cut off.

The door to the student council room disappeared.

Takeya could no longer escape into the student council room, but that no longer mattered to him.

He slowly walked through the corpse-ridden hall. He took no notice of the h.e.l.lish scene surrounding him, focusing instead on only one point.

*squelch, squelch*

He could hear the sound of his feet treading through puddles of blood. He continued walking.

His head was completely clear of any thoughts about the girl he had adored until just a moment ago.

Takeya had only one thing in his eyes, a body up ahead, left dangling in the air.

It was among an a.s.sortment of torsos, stuck together like a bunch of grapes. They were intricately stuck to the ceiling with ice, almost like a work of art, a stalact.i.te of horror.

That said, this ‘piece’ probably wasn’t made with the intention to send any kind of message, or to make an example of the victims. Magical girls do this kind of thing for fun. That’s just the type of creatures they are.

“A-“

Takeya touched the stalact.i.te. It felt like it could freeze his hand in seconds, but he didn’t mind that much.

“A-Ahh…”

They eyes met. No, more accurately, their eyes hadn’t strayed since the moment they made eye contact before the door closed.

Takeya’s eyes and the lifeless eyes of Reika-san.

His until then unbreakable gaze was finally averted as he looked down.

Reika… Reika-san’s body was gone from the chest down. Her heart stuck out from her exposed body, and her entrails hung down. Her tongue stuck out from inside her mouth and her eyes were cut open.

She was, without a doubt, dead.

The woman special to him was dead. Just another body in the pile. She had received no special treatment. No warning. No drama. No attempt at preserving her beauty. No last words.

She had died without Takeya being able to do anything, without him not even knowing.

Dead.

Dead.

“I…”

Everything was for Reika. This h.e.l.lscene was created to save her.

How horrible.

Takeya had never imagined Reika herself would become embroiled in that h.e.l.l. He knew it was a possibility, but he had never pictured it in his head. He was just happy that he had prevented her being sacrificed for the time being.

What a stupid idea.

“WHY???”

Reika was Takeya’s everything. Reika was what made Takeya who he was. He thought that every drop of blood he spilled was hers, every single cell of his body loyal to her.

He loved her, without a doubt.

It was the day before Takeya was taken to Sorakara Farm.

Usakoro had told Takeya and the rest of the students they would be given one more day before they were taken.

Takeya held a wonderful white flower in his hand. Before the Human Yield, they would have been abundant, but now they are a precious luxury. In addition, his pocket contained a silver ring that he made himself.

He entered Reika’s room, a room that seemed home to a very secluded woman. There, he greeted her as she sat on a chair in front of a make-up drawer. He was even more nervous than the time he had faced a magical girl.

His heart felt like it was about to explode.

Reika was wearing a white one-piece dress that day as well. She looked at the white flower Takeya held in his hand, stopped combing her hair and stared at him.

He was determined. He spoke the words he had rehea.r.s.ed a thousand times in his head.

“D-do you wanna get married?”

Her eyes were wide open. Her pupils were almost transparent, like gla.s.s. Takeya saw his own reflection in her eyes, helping him clam down to his usual state.

“Haha…”

Reika put her hand up to her mouth and let out a dignified laugh.

“How odd of you to say that. We’re already family, even if we don’t get married.”

Reika continued, gently and lovingly stroking the flower Takeya had given her.

“You’re already the most important person to me.”

Reika stood up and started walking towards Takeya.

She started slowly undoing the b.u.t.tons on his s.h.i.+rt.

“Takeya, we don’t need to get married.”

She put her fingers under his s.h.i.+rt, on his chest. Her fingers were cold to the point of eeriness.

She gently touched Takeya’s chest. He was unsure whether she would touch the burn mark over his heart. The mark he received when he first came to this mansion, the mark of The Family. The mark resembled an abstract representation of light.

“I’m already giving you everything I can.”

Reika licked the mark with her blood-red tongue. She giggled as he instinctively gasped.

Takeya’s face went red as he took a silver ring out of his pocket. Reika gave an exaggerated face of surprise and laughed.

“Thank you.”

Takeya went down on one knee and put the ring on Reika’s left ring finger, thin and white. Even during this, Reika was letting out little laughs.

Her eyes closed slightly as if she was happy and she stared at the ring. She stared as if she would never get tired of it.

df

Takeya had no idea how this would turn out, whether she would accept his proposal or reject him.

She says she’s his family, but does that mean she’s his wife? Has their relations.h.i.+p changed? Or is there no need for it to change?

Either way, Takeya was already certain of his future. He was already dedicated, but he decided to renew his dedication.

He had dedicated his life to Ijuuin Reika.

Part 4

Takeya recalled events from even further before, from when they first met.

It was seven years ago.

Ten year old Takeya fled his home for Sorakara City with his mother and father, as the area they had lived in was home to particularly evil magical girls. His sisters, one older and one younger, had already died before they moved.

His parents had chosen Sorakara City because distant relatives of theirs lived there, and they had heard rumours that the city’s magical girls were quite nice, relatively speaking.

However, they were unable to locate their relatives, and the rumours about the nice magical girls were just that, rumours. In truth, magical girls are horrible and cruel no matter where they are.

Takeya was crying in front of his collapsed parents, who were covered in wounds. A group of magical girls had appeared and attacked them.

It was an attack devoid of any real meaning, as if the magical girls were just kicking around a can of juice that had been left on the street. They trampled over his parents like it had simply been a game to them.

Takeya did nothing. His reason for doing so was laughable. One of them wasn’t attacking him, saying things like “poor little thing”. Have they no imagination?

At any rate, experiencing something like this, and living life in this c.r.a.psack world without his parents was bound to be dreadful.

The magical girls finished playing with his parents and wandered off with the same kind of casual demeanour one would expect from a group of young girls that were off to see a movie.

His father was dead, his legs gone and his ribs sticking out through his chest.

“Ah… Agh…”

However, his mother was still alive.

All her bones were broken, and she looked like a marionette held by a skill-less puppeteer. Her face was smooth and flat, the skin having been shaved off like slices of salami. Most of her hair had been ripped out. Yet, she was still alive, emitting a scream filled with contempt for this world.

There are no longer any doctors in this world. She was beyond saving. As good as dead.

Losing her mind, she clung to Takeya and started to beg to him.

“Kill me.”

She pleaded with her last bits of energy.

“Kill me! I’m suffering! Kill meeeeeeee! Please! Pleeeeeease.”

“No! NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Takeya refused with all his might. Even at that young age, little Takeya was fully aware that his mother was unsaveable but that doesn’t mean he could finish her off himself.

There’s no way he could kill the mother who had up just a few moments ago been holding his hand. There was no way he could bear that cross.

Also, he still desperately wanted her to survive somehow. If she died, he would be all alone in this world. He couldn’t bear that either. It would be equivalent to suicide. She was effectively asking him to kill himself.

“Stop messing around! Kill me! Do it fast! Please! Wring my neck! Stab me! Suffocate me! Help me ! Kill me! Please!”

*bang*

A gunshot.

A hole appeared in her head.

She died immediately, just as she had wished.

Takeya raised his head. To his surprise, he saw a young girl not much older than him pointing a gun at his dead mother.

She was wearing a snow-white dress, completely out of place for this world. He remembers thinking she looked like a ghost.

It was Reika. The first time he ever saw her was when she killed his mother.

Takeya was happy he didn’t have to choose whether to kill his mother or not anymore, but he still couldn’t help but condemn Reika. He started screaming and crying, unable to handle the life of utter loneliness he now faced, shouting at Reika for killing his mother.