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

"Your real enemy shouldn't be me, but rather her, who arbitrarily judges disharmony as evil."

As he spoke, Genji Mashiro looked at Yuuki Yuuki with the calmest gaze, as if he were extending a gesture of goodwill to this enemy with whom he had just been at war.

Yuuki Yui knew that Genki Mashiro's words were directed at her.

And the real enemy that Genki Mashiro was referring to was undoubtedly Hayashi Mustard.

Even though she didn't fully understand Mashiro's purpose, Mashiro was the kind of person who would consider every detail and take precautions for it.

After being dragged into a strange space by Mashiro Urokin, the so-called discussion about original sin that Mashiro Urokin mentioned sounded somewhat inexplicable at first, but now, thinking back on it, I can understand the reasoning behind it.

Those words were part of Mashiro Gorgen's preparations to pull Yuuki Yukino towards the opposite side of the original magical girl.

By telling Yuuki that the composition of this magical girl is unreasonable, and by letting Yuuki see with her own eyes that the original magical girl did not allow them to exist, Mashiro Urokin tries to win Yuuki over and force him to join her side.

After seeing Hayashi Mustard, Genki Mashiro had already done something and must have failed. So what Yuuki Enishi is seeing now is Genki Mashiro's preparations after her failure.

If Lin Jiezi attacks Yuki En, Gen Urobuchi can use the opportunity to escape; if Lin Jiezi's target is himself, he can also let Yuki En see Lin Jiezi's power.

The fact that both of them have survived that crisis unscathed makes Yuuki Yuen feel even more threatened by Hayashi Keiko.

Even if we take a step back and assume that Mashiro Urokin didn't survive and witnessed his fate, Yuuki Yuki might try to take over Mashiro's unfinished business and get rid of Hayashi Mustard to prevent herself from repeating the same mistake.

Genki Mashiro wanted Yuuki to think that way, and Yuuki did indeed think that way. She also knew that these were the things Genki Mashiro wanted her to see.

However, Yuuki Yukino's mind is still too cluttered with information. If she doesn't take the time to sort it out from the beginning and distinguish which are lies and which are Genken Mashiro's true intentions, she will definitely get deeper and deeper into this vicious cycle.

Although Yuuki Yukino had gradually pieced together these clues within a month of the school trip ending.

But it's impossible to tell Sakura Hanako everything.

……

"Senior Yuuki, even putting aside the matter of Senior Lin, you really are..." Sakura Hanako pondered for a long time, but in the end, she seemed to give up thinking about it and stopped worrying about what kind of power Lin Jiezi possessed. Instead, she asked Yuuki En.

Sakura Hanako didn't finish her sentence, but Yuuki Yuuki understood perfectly what she meant without her having to finish.

Yuuki Yui didn't say anything, but simply hooked the edge of her school uniform skirt with one hand, pulling down the inner layer of fabric slightly, and with the other hand lifted the hem of her school uniform, exposing her flat stomach to Sakura Hanako.

Making such an ambiguous and suggestive gesture on the street is indeed inappropriate, but this is the best answer from Yuuki Yuki.

Not long ago, Yuuki Yuuki was desperately trying to hide the unclean marks left on her body, but after only a month, she was able to so calmly show them to her junior, who was a magical girl.

Is it a complete letting go, or a form of self-abandonment?

Seeing the mark on Yuuki Yukino's body that explained everything, Sakura Hanako took a deep breath and didn't exhale for a long time.

Finally, the breath that had been pressing on Sakura Hanako's chest turned into a sigh.

"Senior Yuuki, are you my enemy?"

Secondly, put some pressure on yourself; you'll make up for the missed chapters this month before the end of the month.

I promise you, I'll update 30,000 words a day tomorrow (?).

Chapter Fourteen: What She Hoped For

"Senior Yuuki, are you our enemy?"

Sakura Hanako's question seemed quite abrupt and somewhat inexplicable at first glance.

It is an undeniable truth that corrupted magical girls are the natural enemies of ordinary magical girls, and there is absolutely no room for rebuttal.

It is precisely because of this that Helica feels so conflicted, constantly torn between her love and her responsibilities as a magical girl.

"Lava Lantern is also a corrupted magical girl, but she has never caused any particularly exaggerated destruction, at least not in my memory. Moreover, she has a good relationship with Mizuno-senpai, even though she is also a corrupted magical girl."

As if Sakura Hanako had noticed Yuuki Yukino's confusion about the question, she then explained it to her.

“I don’t think I should be your enemy, but I’m not the one who made this decision.” Yuuki Yuen shook her head slightly. “The key is, what do you think?”

Yuuki Yukino's thoughts have hardly changed. From the first day she discovered her fall from grace, all she wanted was an ordinary life.

Being able to live peacefully with others, not being affected by the dark magic markings, and not being regarded as an enemy by other magical girls—that kind of life is enough.

In summary, it all boils down to that word that was mentioned a long time ago: "whitewashing".

Just like the example Sakura Hanako gave, someone with the strength of Rokuyama Tama could live the same life, but that was based on absolute power and a sense of invincibility, not on whitewashing.

Mizuno Yu and Lava Mountain Lantern have a good relationship because they somehow connected on a brainwave, and because no one can beat Lava Mountain Lantern. The main reason is that Mizuno Yu and other magical girls have more or less "accepted" Lava Mountain Lantern.

Yuuki Yukino didn't want a life like that of the magma lantern; what she hoped for was for everyone to live a peaceful and happy ordinary life together.

But the decision-maker isn't her; it's how the other magical girls will perceive her.

"What I'm thinking," Sakura Hanako thought for a moment, "I don't know."

What kind of answer is that?

"Just now, when I learned Yuki-senpai's true identity, I really wanted to attack him, even though I knew I couldn't possibly be his match."

"But in terms of both strength and combat experience, I can't compare to Senior Yuuki. If Senior Yuuki really wanted to solve this problem for me, there was no need for him to stand here and talk to me about these things, let alone make me follow Senior Yuuki this far."

Sakura Hanako said in a very serious tone.

Judging from the fact that she still calls herself Yuuki-senpai, Yuuki En should be able to tell which side Sakura Hanako's stance leans towards.

The fact that Sakura Hanako didn't transform immediately, but instead intended to continue talking to herself, speaks even more clearly.

This is the same reason why Hanako said she didn't attack her, but only showed the Black Demon Mark.

Because Yuuki Yukino never intended to be an enemy of Sakura Hanako.

Yuuki Yukino has indeed done many excessive things to Sakura Hanako, and what's more, Sakura Hanako is saying things that are completely contrary to her, so Yuuki Yukino wouldn't feel anything if Sakura Hanako called her by her full name.

Of course, it's also possible that Sakura Hanako simply didn't change her mind. Yuki Yuki didn't intend to overanalyze it, so she just nodded, signaling Sakura Hanako to continue.

"A sense of responsibility, I think that's how to describe this feeling. My sense of responsibility tells me that I must eliminate all the corrupted magical girls, including Yuuki-senpai."

Sakura Hanako clenched her fist, looked at her empty palm, and then looked up and shifted her gaze back to Yuuki Yukino.

"But……"

Sure enough, there was such a turning point.

What Yuuki Yukino most wanted to know was how her former comrades would view her.

To be honest, Yuuki Yuuki doesn't know if the things she did in the past were wrong, but at least some of them were definitely wrong.

She deliberately approached Tenrai Herika and Mizuno Yu to build good relationships with them, intending to use these relationships as bargaining chips on the day her identity was exposed.

But when the relationship was actually exposed, Yuuki Yuki hesitated, unsure if the relationship they had built was enough to support a bridge of mutual understanding, and whether it would allow them to continue to accept her.

Yuuki Yukino did try, but what did she get in return when she tried to have a heart-to-heart talk with Herika?

Herlica's self-destructive displays of affection, and her determination to fight against herself despite her feelings for her.

This caused Yuuki Yuki to lose confidence in her previous ideas.

Perhaps when Yuuki Yuuki actively concealed her identity, she had already begun to accumulate a sense of deception in the minds of others.

If you equate all the good things of the past with deception, it's no wonder that others don't trust you...

If I had been more honest, would the outcome have been different?

"But, Yuuki-senpai is very strange." Sakura Hanako finally said after hesitating for a long time.

"Me? Is that strange?"

This answer was not what Yuuki Yuki had expected.

But it also fits Sakura Hanako's extremely serious personality.

Although Sakura Hanako's personality changed somewhat from her serious self in the game due to her association with Nijisanji, since the core of the game is Nishio Reki, while in reality, it is Helica who leads everyone, which makes Sakura Hanako seem a bit silly.

But it was this silliness that Helica had infected her with that allowed Sakura Hanako to still seriously think about Yuuki Yuki's question from the beginning.

“Yes, it’s very strange, extremely strange.” Sakura Hanako nodded, confirming Yuuki Yuuki’s thoughts: “I’ve thought about what happened after I met Yuuki-senpai, and I just can’t figure out what Yuuki-senpai really wants.”

"Putting aside the rumors about Yuuki-senpai, the first real meeting between me and Yuuki-senpai was at the hospital where my mother worked, right?"

“Yes.” Yuuki Yu gave an affirmative answer: “I was planning to leave at the time, but Mizuno Yu insisted on stopping me and not letting me go, and then you arrived.”

Yuuki Yukino and Inuyama Tomoe decided to investigate information about Kuroba Rebirth, so they went to find Zayu-chan, who was hospitalized. The magical aura they emitted when they went out attracted Sakura Hanako, who had not been a magical girl for long.

Sakura Hanako's trust in Mizuno Yu began that day, the reason being that Yuuki Yui's side was making advances towards Sakura Hanako, and Mizuno Yui saved her with an arrow.

"Thinking about it carefully that time, there were many suspicious points. Although the pink devil, no, Yuuki-senpai, behaved inappropriately towards me... cough, towards me, he didn't actually go too far. I originally thought that Yuuki-senpai was too confident in his strength and wanted to humiliate me."

Sakura Hanako guessed correctly; Yuuki Yukino was indeed very confident in her strength and intended to give Sakura Hanako a hard time.

But the current atmosphere doesn't seem suitable for saying these things.

"This is a guess I came up with later, because at most Yuuki-senpai only humiliated us and didn't have any ill intentions towards us. He went easy on us time and time again, which made us suspect that he was just doing it for fun."

That doesn't seem to be wrong. The fight after being approached by magical girls is for self-defense, while bullying Helica and Sakura Hanako is just pure entertainment.

There is no room for rebuttal regarding this matter.

"So I had an idea that Yuuki-senpai's goal was to be content with the status quo. But I also have another guess: Yuuki-senpai is brewing some much bigger conspiracy."

It's understandable that Sakura Hanako would have this thought. From an outsider's perspective, everything she had done before was no different from what Gorgen Mashiro did in Nijiha City before releasing that huge black magic mark. Her true purpose was incomprehensible.

"After that, there are two more important things. One of them is that Senior Yuuki has widely announced what will happen on the day of the festival."

That's right. Since she had already learned from Nishio Reki, who was unaware of Kuroba Kiyomi's true identity at the time, that Kuroba Kiyomi would take the blame on the day of the festival, Yuuki Yukino could only warn the ordinary citizens by taking half the blame for Kuroba Kiyomi.

Although its effect was negligible in the end, it did achieve its goal of conveying information to other magical girls.

Ah, speaking of which, we still haven't given them an explanation about the festival.

"It did cause a huge commotion at the time, but Yuki-senpai was the indirect cause. I'm not saying that Yuki-senpai was without fault, but considering the second incident, Yuki-senpai was just giving everyone a heads-up."

"The second thing is that on the day of the festival, Yuki-senpai risked his life to protect the safety of the festival participants. Not only that, Yuki-senpai even stayed behind to cover our retreat. It was through that incident that I began to think about Yuki-senpai's purpose."

"What reason would a corrupted magical girl who only thinks about destruction have to sacrifice herself to protect civilians, or even a magical girl who is her enemy?"

"But looking at the results alone, it is indeed a great victory for Yuuki-senpai. I can reasonably suspect that all of this was Yuuki-senpai's plan, which makes the whole thing even more suspicious."

"But no matter how you look at it, Yuuki-senpai's target back then was that corrupted magical girl who caused the destruction, not us, right?"

"That's why I can't understand what Yuuki-senpai really wants."

"call……"

Yuuki sighed, and then, as if squeezing all the air out of her lungs, she let out a long, stale breath.

"What I want is for everyone to live happily together every day."