Even if you're a corrupted magical girl, you still have to try to redeem yourself.

Nishio Reki closed his half-open mouth and silently bit his lower lip.

Yuuki Yukino turned her body to the side and lowered her head slightly.

"Nice to meet you, Nishio Reki."

Nishio Reki's mouth, which had just closed, opened slightly again, his pupils trembling. He gasped, puffed out his cheeks, and moved the muscles in his face.

Finally, Nishio Reki managed a complicated smile.

"Nice to meet you, a bond formed in the city."

"To make a long story short, I have temporarily regained control of the Black Magic Runes, but I cannot guarantee that it will remain stable indefinitely."

Yuuki Yukino spoke decisively, bombarding Nishio Reki with all her information in one go, like a machine gun.

"I can hold on for a while longer before the Star Sea completely collapses, but it certainly won't be for long. In short, I need to be mentally prepared."

"She won't know what really happened. She'll only remember the memories I slightly altered, like you knocked her unconscious with a headbutt. That's not important. It was just a malicious act."

"If possible, I hope I can explain it to her in the end. She won't believe such a bizarre story even if you tell it to her."

Yuuki blinked very slowly, then lowered her head and pursed her lips with a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth.

After a long sigh, Yuuki Yukino looked at Nishio Reki again.

"Also, you've been fighting all alone until now, thank you for your hard work."

Nishio Reki stood there for a moment, sniffed, blinked hard, and then closed his eyes tightly.

As if that wasn't enough, Nishio Reki covered his eyes with his arm and his sniffling grew louder.

As if to cover up the other sounds he made, Nishio Reki let out a heavy snort through his nose.

"Ok!"

Then, Nishio Reki pulled the blanket over his face completely with both hands and rubbed his face more vigorously with his hands that were outside the blanket.

"Ok!"

After that, no one spoke again.

All that could be heard was Nishio Reki trembling slightly under the covers, and her soft sobs that she couldn't suppress.

"Okay, you've already tried your best."

Yuuki Yui placed her hand on the blanket and stroked it through the thick fabric.

"I...I'm not tired, I just...I just..."

Even through the blanket, Nishio Reki's voice was muffled, yet it clearly reached Yuuki Yukino's ears.

"I'm just afraid that there might not be a solution at all, that this time will be the same, that..."

"I can't complain to anyone, and no one will understand me. I don't even dare to make the slightest mistake. Even so, I really want to stay by Xiaoyuan's side..."

"The only thing I don't want to do is hurt Xiaoyuan, the only thing I don't want Xiaoyuan to hate me, I..."

"Aren't you already by her side?" Yuuki Yukina pulled back the blanket covering Nishio Reki's head and answered lazily, propping her chin up with her hand.

"You're not still playing the role of some shadow hero, only able to meet at specific times. Now we can spend every day together on campus. Aren't you satisfied?"

"But... am I really okay doing this? Should I really enjoy all of this?" Nishio Reki bit his upper lip hard, his eyes red-rimmed, and he glanced furtively at Yuuki Yukina before quickly looking away. "I..."

“What’s wrong with that? Just like you believe in Yuuki Yuki, why not continue to believe in her?” Yuuki Yuki raised an eyebrow at Nishio Reki.

"but!"

"No buts. If you hadn't always believed that she hadn't used that thing, if she hadn't been subconsciously resisting, I wouldn't have been able to regain control of the Black Magic Runes so easily."

A moment of silence.

"So just keep doing what you think is right. Don't worry about responsibilities or things you have to do. Getting upset about those things will only make you regret it." Yuuki Yukina tossed her hair and patted Nishio Reki on the shoulder twice.

"Hmm..." Nishio Reki's voice was much softer this time. "What I think is right, um, can you... kiss me?"

"No." Yuuki Yui answered decisively, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Alright." Unable to hide his disappointment, Nishio Reki hesitated for a long time before finally asking, "I want to know, how exactly do you see me? Why, after everything we've been through, would you still say such things to me..."

"Does it matter?" Yuuki Yuuki rolled over, crossing her legs to face Nishio Reki. "How I see you, does it really matter?"

"Isn't it important?! I got to where I am today because of...." Nishio Reki stammered, his expression growing increasingly somber. "Isn't it... important?"

“Of course it doesn’t matter. Ryou, how I see you is not important at all.” Yuuki Yuen shook her finger: “What matters is how she sees you, and how you intend for her to see you.”

"The person who made you resolutely become a magical girl and shoulder responsibilities that you didn't have to bear was not me."

"Look ahead, this is your battlefield, and she is the one you want to save."

"However, I feel like it's not good to not tell you anything, but if I want to say something, I don't know what to say... Well, anyway..."

"Thank you for working so hard all this time. You've worked very hard." Yuuki Yui squinted her eyes. "And farewell."

This is what happened last night. It's why Nishio Reki locked himself in his room all night, and didn't open the door even though he heard noises coming from the living room.

This is why Nishio Reki didn't go to school all day, constantly thinking about what he should do next.

This is something that Nishio Reki absolutely cannot tell Yuuki Yukino.

just now.

"So, how exactly did you manage to restore me to normal from the corruption of the Black Magic Runes?"

Using the same posture as yesterday, where she sat cross-legged on Nishio Reki's bed, Yuuki Yukino, who was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, snatched Nishio Reki's ramen bowl.

Yuuki Yukino placed the bowl she had snatched on the coffee table and stared at Nishio Reki's face, repeating her question.

"You said I might lose control, but you didn't tell me how you brought me back to normal! Isn't that strange?"

“I’m sorry…” Nishio Reki looked away: “This… I can’t say.”

"Never mind, I knew you'd say something like that again." Yuuki sighed as if she had known Nishio Reki would answer like that. "But I didn't just come to see if you were alright. There are some other things too."

"Other things?" Nishio Reki was taken aback.

"This is it!" Yuuki Yuen pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and stuffed it into Nishio Reki's hand.

"Next month, our graduating third-year students will be going on a fall school trip!"

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Resumed Whitewashing Plan

"Hey Xiaoyuan! I understand that he didn't go to school today, so I can understand him going to visit him by himself. It's not really convenient for me to go with you."

On the other side of the phone screen, Baqi, soaking in the bathtub, was kicking the water with her feet, splashing and rolling around in the tub like a child vying for attention.

"But why did Xiaoyuan invite that guy to join the school trip?! That guy is so annoying! So annoying! Even though her feelings for Xiaoyuan are genuine, doesn't that make her even more annoying?!"

After returning from Nishio Reki's place, Yuuki Yukino, who had already washed up and changed into her pajamas, lay on the bed with her head propped up by a pillow, holding a game console in her hands and propping her phone up on the pillow, facing herself.

While staring at the image of Baqi, whose neck and below were submerged in water, on the screen in her hand, Yuuki Yuuki would occasionally glance at the image of the game console automatically hatching a Pokémon egg.

"There's no other way. The teacher said that we have to work in groups of four to six. If we don't form our own groups, we'll have to join other people's groups."

"Even joining someone else's group would be better than being with that girl! What's so special about her that she's worth inviting!"

Baqi stretched out her little fist from the water and waved it a few times in the air, expressing her dissatisfaction and protest. A few drops of water splashed onto the screen, blurring the picture.

"But it's not very convenient. Luckily, we're all in the same class, otherwise we would definitely have been forced into a team by Helica the Thunder."

Yuuki Yui fiddled with the buttons on the handheld console a few times and obtained a new Pokémon with the "Bomba Bomba" notification sound.

“Even a short, blond guy is better than that guy! That short, blond guy won’t steal Xiaoyuan from me!” Baqi stuck out her tongue and snorted.

"Not necessarily."

That's not necessarily true. Yuuki Yuen's thoughts and words were exactly the same. She remembered every dangerous thing Helica had ever said.

But Yuuki Enishi's reason for refuting Tomoe was definitely not this.

"If I'm in the same group as Helica the Thunder, we'll definitely be sleeping in the same room. If we're in the same room, we'll inevitably have to change clothes, right? What about the Black Magic Mark?"

“That makes sense. The blond dwarf is definitely worse.” Baqi understood.

“If different classes were allowed to be together, Helica would definitely drag me in.” Yuuki Yukino added a few more sentences to emphasize this point:

"If we could be with Nishio Reki, we would all be magical girls and get along very well."

“That’s true.” Baqi stuck out her tongue again.

On the phone screen, the black magic pattern did not appear on Baqi's tongue.

Although the Black Magic Marks are visually presented, they are ultimately formed by magic that only magical girls can perceive. Just as a cell phone can only transmit sound and color, but not information such as temperature and smell, the Black Magic Marks cannot be seen by people through a cell phone.

Yuuki En already knew about this. During his chuunibyou phase, Nishio Reki left behind a video recording of Tsukimi Rie, which led Yuuki En to the Moon Sea Tower. In the video, the black magic pattern was no longer visible under the collar that Tsukimi Rie removed.

"Indeed, I still feel very upset about the things she did that led me astray. I even want to tear her apart. But when I think about her relationship with Xiaoyuan, I don't know if I should be angry or if I should be so willful."

Baqi was still angry, but her tone had softened considerably.

"Well, how should I put it? Because of Xiaoyuan, I won't do anything to her. But if cooperation is necessary, it's not out of the question."

As Baqi spoke, she became fierce again.

"But even so, Xiao Yuan invited her so warmly, and she still refused! That's too much!"

“Nishio Reki didn’t reject me outright, she just said she would consider it.” Yuuki Yui clicked the trigger: “The school trip doesn’t officially start until October, it’s still September now, and the destination hasn’t even been decided yet, so it’s hard to say what will happen.”

"So, Yui, she just doesn't want to go to school? There's no other reason?" Baqi skipped the topic of the school trip and brought the conversation back to Nishio Reki.

"Yeah, what other reason could she have? When I walked in, she was watching TV and eating a huge bowl of ramen, making me worry for nothing."

Yuuki lowered her head further, using her handheld console to block her view.

She hadn't told Ba Qi about what happened last night.

There is a strange kind of magic, or you could say a barrier, near Nishio Reki's house.

The effect is simple: it isolates them from outside detection, which is why no other magical girls approached them even when they were fighting like that yesterday.

In other words, Baqi didn't know about Yuuki Yuki's rampage, nor did she know about the monster that looked like Hayashi Mustard. She only knew that she had been invited to Nishio Reki's house last night.

It wasn't that Yuuki Yui was deliberately trying to keep it from Baqi, but rather that she hadn't figured out how to tell Baqi about it yet.

Because he was kissed by that fake Lin Jiezi, his black magic runes suddenly went out of control, and the power to cleanse impurities disappeared.

Because he was hit in the head with Nishio Reki's hammer, he has temporarily returned to normal, but there is a possibility that he may lose control again.

It's not an old-fashioned TV; how could it possibly get better just by tapping or knocking it a few times?