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

"Xiaoyuan, we're now..."

"Let's go back."

Before Baqi could finish speaking, Yuuki Yukino, as if she had anticipated what she was going to say, answered Baqi's question first.

"it is good."

Inside the shrine, Nishio Reki stood atop the Great Wall with his back to the enormous black demonic rune, looking down at Urouge Mashiro, whose magical power surged as the black demonic rune rose.

"Are you crazy?"

"Ha, who knows? I originally planned to use it to get rid of that guy, but it was too weak, so I decided to use her to capture... Yuuki Yukino, is that her name?"

"But I've discovered that its best use is for you!"

“I know it won’t hold you for long, but it’s enough, enough time.”

"When you come back, everything will be over."

Genken Mashiro wielded her paintbrush as if erasing the enormous creature created by Yuuki Eri.

But this time, it was Nishio Reki himself who disappeared.

"Good night."

Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Hunters

An hour later, the enormous black magic rune that spanned several city blocks suddenly appeared in the sky above Rainbow Leaf City.

"Lin, you rest here for now. We'll go out and find Tianlei and Mizuno. Please don't wander off, okay?"

After settling Lin Jiezi in her room, Yuuki Yuen didn't forget to give her some careful instructions.

To communicate with Lin Jiezi, Yuki En had to treat her like a child, giving her countless instructions and warnings; otherwise, she didn't know what strange things Lin Jiezi might do.

Having settled Lin Jiezi, the next thing that needed to be done was to settle things down.

Yuki Yuki checked her phone several times along the way, but didn't receive any messages from anyone, and she didn't want to send messages to other people directly.

However, Yuuki Yuki could sense the magical aura of Nishio Reki and Urobuchi Mashiro disappearing from the direction of the shrine.

Just before curfew, Yuuki Yuki pulled Baqi out of the hotel and walked towards the city center.

"Xiaoyuan, what should we do next?"

Once outside the hotel, after looking around to make sure no one was around, Baqi immediately got to the point.

"Take care of Genki Mashiro." Yuuki Yui spoke without any beating around the bush, directly telling Baqi the ultimate goal of this trip.

“Helica is really doubting me this time. I don’t know if I can fool her. This happened after she shielded me from Mashiro. The worst thing is that she heard my name from Mashiro.”

As Yuuki quickened her pace, she explained the reasons for her actions to Baqi.

"In any case, if we can hide our identity from Helica Tenrai in the future, we will continue to hide it. If we really can't hide it anymore, we will make other plans. But if Mashiro Urokin continues to cause trouble, even if we can hide it, it will be exposed."

As Yuuki Yukino spoke, she continued walking down the mountain.

The girls lining the mountain road were mostly students from Yuehai Middle School who had finished a day of sightseeing and were heading back to their hot spring inn for dinner.

The girls mostly talked about how much fun they had that day, and only a few mentioned the black magic runes that stretched across Rainbow Leaf City.

As expected of a native of Moonsea City, they remain so calm even when they see a magical girl.

Is it fair to say that St. Yūgaku Academy and even the church behind it cleaned up the mess of magical girls well enough?

The topic of Yuuki Yukino immediately shifted to Seishin:

“I’ve been avoiding her for a while. One reason is what Seishion said: Gen Ken Mashiro might be looking for something that would benefit her from me, so it could be detrimental to me. We’ve also examined her considerable strength, but that’s only one reason, not the whole story.”

"What I was more worried about before was whether we would reveal our weakness as a corrupted magical girl in front of Hayashi and Tenrai Herika after we came into contact with Genki Mashiro."

"That's why I've been trying to avoid contact with her, but Mashiro has already appeared in front of us and successfully made Helica Tenrai suspicious of me, so this rule doesn't apply anymore."

"Moreover, this madwoman, Genki Mashiro, is acting so blatantly. Even if I don't know what the purpose of that black magic mark in the sky is, it's not surprising that she would openly draw it on the street. No matter what terrible things she does next."

As Yuuki Yuen spoke, she looked up at the black demonic runes above her head. Compared to when they first appeared, they seemed to have dimmed considerably, as if they had been covered by a misty filter, merely existing there.

But its mere existence was enough to make Yuuki Yuki panic.

It's like a Damocles' sword hanging over people's heads, ready to fall at any moment.

The fall of the Sword of Damocles will only harm the ruler on the throne, but the Black Magic Mark will affect not just one or two people, but potentially all the residents of Rainbow Leaf City.

Having witnessed the destruction caused by Kuroba Rebirth, visited the orphanage and seen the children who had lost their parents, and heard about the past of Urobuchi Mashiro, Yuuki Yuuki was even more determined not to let innocent ordinary people be dragged into the conflict between magical girls.

Want to stir up trouble? No problem, just come at me.

Yuuki Yukino won't be able to sleep well because she hurt innocent ordinary people by hiding.

Life is precious, regardless of whether one is a saint or not, regardless of whether it is the responsibility of a fallen magical girl like herself; it is simply Yuuki Yukino's reverence for life.

“This kind of guy who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals must not be allowed to live.”

Yuuki Yukino paused for a moment before giving her final reason, which was also the one that would most move Baqi.

"The main reason is that she has her eye on me."

There's a saying in Yuuki Eri's hometown: "It's not the theft itself that's scary, it's the thief's eye on you."

The words may be crude, but the principle is sound. Yuuki Yukino felt that secretly creating such an enemy for herself would definitely make her restless and unable to eat or sleep.

In order to be able to rest peacefully after returning to Moonsea City, Gen Ken Mashiro is also a target that Yuuki Yuki must hunt down.

"I just don't want to cause trouble, but I've never been afraid of trouble."

"That's right! She actually dared to target Xiaoyuan! She's dead meat!" Baqi rubbed her hands together, her knuckles cracking. "For Xiaoyuan's sake, no matter where that person is hiding, I'll find her and kill her!"

"But, is it feasible?" After making such a bold statement, Baqi immediately began to consider the feasibility. Her initial enthusiasm had waned considerably, but she showed no sign of backing down.

In Inuyama Tomoe's view, she had fought against Yuuki Yuki and Urouge Mashiro before, but neither side had been able to fully grasp the other's strength before being interrupted by Seishine. Now, suddenly saying that she wants to take Urouge Mashiro as her target is a bit too big a leap.

Unlike Yuuki Enishi, Inuyama Tomoe is a pure, corrupted magical girl.

She has no pity for ordinary people, nor does she care how many people will sacrifice themselves for her own purposes. She doesn't hurt others because she doesn't have anything to gain by hurting others, and secondly, Yuuki Yuki won't allow it.

Aside from Yuuki Eri, Inuyama Tomoe doesn't care about anything else.

Therefore, Yuuki Enishi hesitated when she was about to take such a risk to do it.

"It can be done."

Yuuki Yukino couldn't possibly be completely confident in defeating Urouge Mashiro, but if she didn't even believe in her own strength, there was no way she could predict the outcome of a real fight against Urouge Mashiro.

Yuki Yukina said this not only to give Baqi confidence, but also to encourage herself.

Of course, she wasn't making baseless accusations.

Before she decided to do it, she considered the feasibility and the pros and cons.

"Compared to Kuroba Rebirth, who is stronger now?" Yuuki Yuuki cut to the heart of the matter with a single sentence.

Baqi thought for a moment and answered truthfully: "If everyone were in perfect condition, Black Feather Reincarnation would probably be stronger. If Black Feather Reincarnation hadn't been attacked first, even if we had mastered the God Liberation at that time, we probably wouldn't have won so easily."

Yuuki herself knew the answer. When Kuroba was besieged, he consumed a lot of magic power. On the contrary, he had to replenish his magic power before returning to the second battle. Even so, the victory was by no means easy.

The same logic applies to deciding to take action against Mashiro Gakuen now.

“That huge black magic rune must have consumed a lot of magic power. Moreover, the battle between Genki Mashiro and Nishio Reki must have depleted a lot of her magic power. If she doesn’t replenish her magic power now, she probably won’t be able to fully recover. So this is the only opportunity to make a move against Genki Mashiro.”

As soon as she said those words, Inuyama Tomoe's confidence immediately increased, and the light in her eyes shone even brighter.

"Also, Nishio Reki's magic has disappeared, and Helica's whereabouts are unknown. Even though we are on different sides, I don't want them to be harmed by Urobuchi Mashiro because of me."

Although it wouldn't matter if Yuuki didn't say it, she still hoped that Tomoe knew her thoughts.

“I understand.” Ba Qi nodded. “If it’s Xiao Yuan’s wish, then I will definitely help Xiao Yuan make it come true.”

Then, Bachi asked a fatal question.

"But where should we go to find Mashiro Urouge?"

“I don’t know,” Yuuki Yuuki replied.

"Don't know? Then..." Baqi felt a headache coming on.

“But I know someone who will definitely find her,” Yuuki Yuki continued. “If what that person says is true, she and her nuns will definitely not stand idly by and do nothing about this black magic mark.”

A little earlier, on a bench on the street.

"You...you're serious? You really have a way to wake my sister up?"

Saint Shion covered her incredulous expression with her hand, puffed out her cheeks to quickly recover from the surprise on her face, and then looked at the black magic rune hovering in mid-air, shaking her head vigorously:

"No, you're lying to me. You've done things like this, and there have been other things before. You've done so many terrible things... How can I believe you?"

“I didn’t say there was a way to wake Qi up, I just said it’s possible, it’s possible.”

Gen Kenjiro frowned, her hands, wrapped in bandages, trembling as she lifted her flamboyant dress and slowly and clumsily rolled the bandages around her slender waist.

　Soon, the bandages that had just been wrapped around her body were stained red with seeping blood, spreading to every corner of her body.

This is definitely the worst work by Mashiro Gorky.

"After seeing the magic wand of the magical girl who injured me like this, I became even more certain of my thoughts."

"Hiss..." The intense pain made Xu Yan Zhenbai gasp, his brows furrowing even more. It took him a while for the pain to subside before he could continue speaking.

"Think about it, when have I ever joked about Qi's affairs?"

Saint Shion's shifting gaze betrayed her inner turmoil, but she still gritted her teeth and shook her head forcefully: "It's still no good! If we fail, not only me, but the entire magical girl system might be doomed..."

"Even without Yuuki Yuuki, what I'm going to do won't change. Otherwise, who do you think this huge stage was originally prepared for?"

Genjiro Mashiro's tone was calm, but every word she uttered was like a storm, destined to make Seishion unable to remain calm after listening to her story.

What prompted Mashiro Urouge to go to such lengths to set up was indeed the Black Magic Mark, but unlike the other mark, it wasn't branded onto a magical girl, but rather onto the entire city...

Or perhaps its original purpose was to corrupt the entire rule of magical girls with this black magic rune.

Mashiro's goal is likely to plunge the original magical girl, who no longer exists in this world or exists in another form, into darkness.

"You wouldn't be..." Sheng Shiyin seemed to realize something.

"Darkness cannot bypass magical girls. More than a year ago, at a festival, I conducted an experiment. No matter how much stimulation an ordinary girl was given, she would only become a magical girl and could not directly fall into darkness."

"But what happens when the desire to erase a magical girl's will falls into darkness?" Mashiro Urouge held up a finger to her lips.

"The answer is simple: the will that can only give people the power of corruption can no longer give birth to new magical girls, and the existence of magical girls will disappear completely."