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

"Yes, it's related to fate."

Herlica suddenly stood up from the ground, and the coat that Yuuki had draped over her fell back to the ground with a thud.

In Yuuki Yuki's eyes, the blonde girl walked down the steps, turned around and faced him, her face, backlit by the moonlight, made it impossible to see any expression.

My heart is pounding so fast, both for myself and for Yuuki Yukino, who is sitting on the steps looking up in astonishment.

It was so clear, so powerful.

That's the only thing we can do.

The girl moved a little closer.

Then, they got a little closer.

Her long, pink hair was so close it was right in front of me.

So close that her long, delicate eyelashes brushed against her face.

The face, so close yet so close, was truly held carefully in the palm of his hand.

They were so close that they could taste the flavor of the girl's slightly parted lips, which were trembling with surprise.

The girl's fingers entwined a strand of long hair, and with each rapid breath, the colors of gold and pink intertwined on her fingers, eventually forming a two-tone bridge.

She had no idea whether this was something she had always dreamed of, or what the consequences of doing so would be.

She just wanted to do it, and that's what she was doing.

She simply touched it, gently feeling the other's movement with her teeth, and tasting its flavor with her lips and tongue.

She couldn't remember whether she initiated the separation or was forcefully pushed away by the other party.

She seemed to hear the other person calling her name, and she seemed to feel the other person pounding her back.

But it doesn't matter.

All she did was offer up everything she had, forcefully plundering everything that belonged to the other party.

The stinging sensation on her tongue brought her back to reality.

A slightly salty, fishy taste began to spread from the tip of the girl's tongue, and the taste of blood filled her entire mouth.

Herlica saw a pink-haired girl slumped on the steps, her pupils trembling violently, gritting her teeth and looking at her with an incredulous expression.

"H...Herika, what are you doing?"

Helica swallowed hard, swallowing the rusty taste and the stinging sensation on her tongue.

"Yuki Yuen".

Helica took a step forward, her back to the boundless night sky she loved.

Following her movement, Yuuki Yukino also took a step back, bracing herself against the ground with her hands.

Helica has already done so.

Helica had no other choice.

Overflowing with affection, on a night in a foreign land, all schemes and calculations were torn apart, and the feelings were conveyed to the girl he admired in their most authentic form.

"like."

Chapter Seventy Heartbreak

What does it feel like to like someone?

Is it the gentle gaze that you always unconsciously cast at each other during class?

It's the kind of genuine comfort you feel when you're with someone, without having to consciously consider their feelings.

Is it about making unrealistic plans together, indulging in endless fantasies of being together forever in the future?

Or is it undisguised jealousy? Is it an extreme possessiveness? Is it an endless, passionate affair? Is it a mystery that no one can touch or violate?

Yuuki Yukino couldn't give a precise definition to the complex feelings of liking someone.

She has seen intelligent young women driven to near madness by their emotions, and she has also seen fools who, despite being ordinary themselves, strive to protect the other person.

These are all manifestations of feelings of liking.

Even though Yuuki Yukino didn't understand what "liking" specifically meant, she knew that she had definitely trampled on a young girl's feelings.

When Helica suddenly touched her lips, she was still wondering if Helica needed to replenish her mana, if it was a bold new test by Helica, or if Helica needed an absolute victory to determine everything.

But no, completely wrong. Yuuki Yuuki's idea was wrong from the very beginning.

Yuuki Enishi is ill; she has contracted a disease called Dark Corruption.

It is beyond cure; the disease has reached its terminal stage.

Yuuki Yui always felt that the Darkness had not had any real impact on her. Apart from the berserk state after the attack, she was still herself and was not controlled by the Dark Magic Mark.

But she was wrong, terribly wrong. Her identity as a corrupted magical girl made her constantly cautious, suspicious, and unable to properly perceive the girl's feelings for her.

She should have noticed it sooner: the subtle disharmony between Herlica and herself, like pebbles on the sole of a shoe, was all Herlica's overflowing affection.

She should have thought of this the first time Helica asked her to replenish her mana.

Why was she the one replenishing her mana?

Helica should have realized this when she cornered herself on the stairs.

Why does she care so much about her own affairs?

She should have thought of this when Herika suggested going on the school trip together.

Why would Helica do something so unusual at this time?

Those minor discordant notes were strung together by a thread called romance, finally giving everything a reasonable explanation.

But before that, Yuuki Yukino was completely unaware of those complicated feelings and the true feelings of those girls.

She used her overly sensitive nerves, aroused by her fall from grace, to misinterpret the girl's feelings time and time again, and to trample on them repeatedly.

They interpret the other person's affection as a test, and their straightforward expression of feelings as suspicious calculations.

She had been reminded of Helica's feelings for her; Nishio Reki had explicitly reminded her of those feelings.

However, Yuuki Yukino chose to turn a blind eye, ignoring all superfluous emotions in the face of what she wanted to do.

It was this unusual kiss that jolted Yuuki Yukino awake from a long dream.

thump.

Startled by the overly passionate kiss, Yuuki Yukino tripped and fell on the steps.

The faint scent of shampoo on the young girl no longer filled her nostrils; instead, it smelled of flying dust.

As Yuuki's teeth pierced Helica's lips in a state of extreme tension, Yuuki realized that her illness seemed to have worsened.

"like."

Yuuki Yukina heard Tenrai Herika say this.

Yuki Yui heard it all clearly.

"I love it so much!"

Herlica moved closer, the sound of her plastic shoes scraping against the gravel on the ground, the light, airy footsteps, amplified in Yuuki Yukino's ears with every step and every sound.

"I love it the most!"

Just as Helica chose to confess because of her uncontrollable impulse and chaotic mind, Yuuki Yuuki didn't know what she was afraid of or what she was running away from.

She moved backward until she reached the wall where she had nowhere left to retreat, watching helplessly as Herika's face grew larger and larger in her field of vision.

"I like you."

Herlica bent down, bringing her upper body even closer, almost pressing her face, which was backlit by the moonlight and made it impossible to discern any emotion, against Yuuki Yukino's face once again.

"I want to be with Yuan."

As Helica spoke, her eyes glistened with tears, overflowing with genuine emotion, and her moving lips uttered a heartfelt confession.

"May I?"

Chaos has broken out, everything is in chaos.

This feeling was too heavy for Yuuki Yuuki.

To be honest, Yuuki Yuuki's understanding of this world is still too naive.

This is not a dating sim where you can flirt with every girl without restraint, develop feelings for each girl, and then choose someone's route by making a choice. It's not a game world full of defeat cutscenes that everyone can laugh off.

There are no save/load saves here, no scrolling production team logos on the screen after achieving an ending, and no lingering feeling of being able to start over after finishing a game's storyline.

Since it's not a game world, there's no abrupt ending when the game ends.

No matter what she did, her life had to go on.

Focusing solely on how to clear one's name, they neglected the most basic emotions, taking all the goodwill from those around them for granted. Despite not being in a relationship, they acted in ways that only couples would do.

Even these things, Yuuki Yukino should have realized much earlier.

When Miya Miyashita was trying to suppress Rie Tsukimi's corruption with her magic, she was carefully replenishing her magic without ever crossing the line.

When he needed to copy the wands of Mori and Chiyu, he noticed Mori's somewhat displeased look and her very useful method.

She should have anticipated the reactions of others when she tried to gain their magic and engage in ambiguous interactions with them, even though she wasn't actually corrupted.

Yuuki Yukino is truly ill, dragged into a deep quagmire by corruption, where even the most basic emotions are ignored.

He was completely unable to reciprocate Herika's feelings.

Responding to this feeling without permission would be irresponsible to Helica, to oneself, and to everyone else.

Faced with Helica's outstretched hand, Yuuki closed her eyes and curled up in the corner.

Yuuki Yukino said nothing, yet it was as if she had said everything.

Herlica's outstretched hand ultimately failed to touch Yuuki Yuuki's body.

The distance was so close, just like the distance between her and the starry sky behind her, so near yet so far.

Helica suddenly regained consciousness.

She had never felt so clear-headed before.