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

Hong Moli also knew that she couldn't let Bai Gui Qian You transform here.

The woman's erratic behavior on the day of the festival left a deep shadow on Koumori. Even though she knew that defeating her here was what a magical girl should do, Koumori couldn't bring herself to risk fighting such a person.

This was a feeling she had never experienced before. In the past, whenever she sensed the aura of a corrupted magical girl, Koumori would want to rush over to help, although most of the time she didn't have the opportunity.

But this time, Hong Moli couldn't muster any fighting spirit.

She knew the enemy before her was dangerous without even needing to transform.

Fortunately, Hyakki Chiyu also realized what Koumori meant. Even though she was somewhat unwilling, she still chose to obey Koumori's judgment.

Hong Moli, holding that hand, bypassed the girl blocking her way and planned to leave directly.

But Mashiro, who was still in the position of being bumped on the shoulder, moved again, taking a step to block Koumori's path once more.

"What are you doing? This is a rare reunion between us, are you just going to leave without even saying goodbye? Waaah, I'm so sad, so very sad, how could you treat me like this?"

Gen Kenma put on a serious face, pretending to wipe away tears with a fake crying expression, but not a single tear fell. Through the gaps between rubbing his eyes, one could see that his eyes not only did not show sadness, but were full of amusement.

"I'm the one who made you a magical girl, I'm the one who gave you amazing powers, it's all my fault, shouldn't you thank me? Shouldn't you be grateful and tell me you're happy? How can you be so indifferent?"

As Genki Mashiro spoke, he exaggeratedly hugged his shoulders and twisted his body as he squatted down, acting so erratically that one might wonder if he had some kind of mental problem.

The intense tone suddenly plummeted to freezing point before reaching its peak, and Genki Mashiro's unnatural emotions and movements seemed to be paused, her entire activity coming to a standstill.

Hong Moli could only watch; there was nothing she could do. The other party's farcical performance didn't need her permission at all; they were still performing simply because she was watching.

If you don't want to watch, you might be subjected to treatment that is even more unacceptable than being forced to watch someone else's performance.

"what--"

Genken Mashiro paused, removed her hands from her face, and looked as calm as if nothing had happened.

However, this time she was talking to Hyakki Senyou.

"You can see it too, right?"

……

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Who? Gen Ken Mashiro? Why is she acting like a crazy old woman? I thought her mysterious, calculating way of doing everything was already scary enough, but how can she have such an outrageous side?"

Baqi's lips twitched involuntarily a few times. The Genken Mashiro she heard from Hong Moli was completely different from the one she had met in Nijiba City.

The person she remembered, with short, bluish-green hair and an expressionless demeanor, had this side to her? It was simply unimaginable.

"Uh, that's why I said that what my older sister said about Urouge Mashiro is completely different from what I know. When I heard Yuuki Yui talk about your experiences, I even doubted whether we were talking about the same person."

Hong Moli didn't know how to answer Ba Qi's question, so she just talked nonsense, repeating and affirming what Ba Qi had said.

There's a saying in Yuki Eri's hometown: "A scholar should be looked at with new eyes after three days of separation."

It's normal and understandable for a person's personality to change; such a significant change must mean something has happened.

It's roughly like this: "My heart has been taken away by her; I will never experience joy or sorrow again in this life."

Of course, this can also be considered a form of growth.

The reason for changing Mashiro's identity may lie in Koumori's later narration.

“There couldn’t possibly be anyone else but her, right?” Yuuki Yui countered, urging Mari to continue, “And then? What happened next?”

"Yes, it can't be anyone else. Her abilities and the shape of her wand match what my sister said."

Hong Mako first definitively confirmed that the person was Gorgen Mashiro, then her face showed the same resistant expression she had when Baqi invited her to the Halloween parade. Clearly, it was that memory that followed that became her psychological trauma.

"After that, that woman started spouting strange nonsense. If she hadn't said herself that she had taken care of all those magical girls, I wouldn't have known about it so early. Then, she planned to take care of us all at once."

"So you were killed? No, what Mashiro Urouge wanted to do was get rid of all the magical girls, right? So what are you doing here now?"

Baqi first asked a question no less foolish than asking a worker repairing an air conditioner, "What do you do for a living, sir?" before quickly correcting herself.

"It can probably be attributed to luck, right? Didn't I just say that? Mashiro Gorgen is a bit crazy, and it's impossible to figure out what she's thinking." Koumori let out a long breath and composed herself.

"Black Feather Reincarnation, that bastard became like that because he was corrupted by the Black Demon Mark. At first, Black Feather Reincarnation was like a normal person, but he gradually became irrational as time went by and his power increased."

"But on the contrary, Mashiro Gorakuen was unreasonable from the beginning, but after a year she suddenly became very normal... and became even more terrifying."

"We've gone off on a tangent. What I was trying to say was that Mashiro Gorogen was like that back then. She seemed a bit mentally unstable, and maybe she was too confident in herself, which is why she played cat and mouse with us."

"She could have easily killed both of us at any time, but she toyed with us slowly and deliberately, and... we had no choice but to seize any opportunity to escape and passively cooperate with her game."

"Although, although I later learned that the chase was the same as her guiding me to become a magical girl, both of them were her conducting experiments that had not yet reached a conclusion."

……

"Phew... Hah... Is everything alright now?"

Having transformed back into an ordinary person from her magical girl form, Koumori tightly gripped Hyakki Chiyu's hand as they traversed the dense forest.

The back hill of Moonsea Park is completely dark, like a brand new territory that is out of place in the city connected to it, providing a safe haven for those who have fled here.

It was like an entrance to an abyss, its mouth agape, swallowing all the girls who had entered the forbidden area whole.

"I don't know," Hyakki Chiyu replied listlessly, her unnatural breathing revealing that she was not in good condition.

Both of them were already covered in wounds. If it weren't for the woman's constant, half-hearted attacks, like a cat toying with a mouse, they would never have had a chance to escape here.

Even so, the colorful bubbles splashed from the paintbrush were not something that Hong Moli and Bai Gui Qianyou could stop. They only had to withstand a few blows before their magic was almost depleted.

Those few rounds of confrontation convinced them that their opponent was absolutely unbeatable.

Both were at the level of True Name Release, yet the other party displayed overwhelming power. Judging from her calm and collected demeanor, Hong Moli had no doubt that the other party possessed the possibility of God Release.

The claim that one person took care of the vast majority of magical girls has become more believable, even though it was previously considered an exaggeration.

If the other party hadn't shown mercy, they wouldn't have even had a chance to escape.

"So what do we do now?" Hong Moli asked uncertainly at first, then answered her own question.

No matter how scared I am in front of Qianyou, I must not panic.

"Let's hide here for now and slowly find a place to rest. We'll go out after that person leaves."

"But what if she doesn't leave? How long are we supposed to hide?" Hyakki Chiyu asked in a low voice.

Qianyou's tone sounded relatively calm, but for the usually excellent and reliable Baigui Qianyou to ask such a question, Hong Moli knew that Qianyou was starting to panic.

"I don't know, but if she stays like this, she'll definitely attract other magical girls. Then, with the support of other magical girls, we'll have a chance."

Night and dense forest are both synonymous with danger. If you were to find a place that best suits the atmosphere of tonight, this jungle would probably be the perfect place.

Such a fitting place is off-limits at night, which shows how much people fear it.

Only ordinary people would be wary of this forest; a magical girl could easily break through its encirclement with superhuman strength.

Even with the power of magical girls, neither of them can use it right now.

It's not that we can't, but that we dare not.

As soon as they transform, they will reveal the aura of magic, and that aura of magic will inevitably be sensed. Their actions to escape danger will instead become a guide for the pursuer.

In conclusion, using the power of magical girls now would be tantamount to suicide.

But Mashiro Gorgen doesn't care about using the powers of magical girls.

That's right, the reason why Koumori said there would be magical girl support was because Mashiro Urouge didn't even intend to undo her transformation. Koumori could still clearly sense that magical power moving at a very slow speed, clearly proclaiming its presence.

This madman, fearless, utterly insane.

And for some reason, the madman's aura seemed to know where he was, getting closer and closer to him.

But why should my future be ended by this madman?

Hong Moli would definitely be unwilling to accept this.

"It's okay, she won't be able to find us."

Hong Moli continued to utter those self-deceiving words, trying to appease Bai Gui Qian You.

Hyakki Chiyu glanced at Koumori in the darkness but said nothing.

Meanwhile, Koumari was completely absorbed in perceiving Genki Mashiro and formulating her plan, utterly unaware of the gaze that Chiyuu cast at her.

"Don't worry, trust me. I'm good enough to be someone you can date. I'm the top student at St. Yuu Academy. There's nothing I can't do."

While comforting Qianyou, Hongmoli also used the words she spoke to encourage herself.

Only at this moment would Hong Moli feel that the sense of inferiority weighing on her had completely disappeared.

"It'll be fine, Qianyou. Let's go a little deeper. Once we've gone further, she won't be able to find us, and that person can't stay here forever."

As she spoke, she tugged at Qianyou's hand, which she was holding tightly.

This time she didn't bump into anything, but Qianyou still stopped in the same spot.

"Qian You?"

Mari called out that name in confusion, and took two steps closer in the dark towards the hand she was holding.

The branches that couldn't hold back the withered leaves couldn't block much moonlight either, but Qianyou's face was still blurry in her vision.

All she knew was that Qianyou was in that direction, and that she could reach him if she got closer.

All she knew was that Qianyou, who had stopped, moved on the fallen leaves. With a few crisp sounds of leaves being crushed into powder and embedded in the soil, the girl wearing a ghostly cloak landed in her arms like a pale dove.

All she could feel was that the girl to whom she had given her whole heart had done something extremely inappropriate and incomprehensible.

All she could feel was the pigeon swiftly pecking at her hesitant, trembling lips.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Pink Demon on Halloween Night

Ding-dong.

The coffee spoon, still covered with a few drops of brown liquid, was gently pulled from the swirling coffee. A clean white napkin wiped away the remaining water stains, and the metal handle made a crisp sound as it struck the edge of the cup.

Helica heard it very clearly; to her, both the period and the previous clattering and stirring sounds were just pure noise.

At this moment, her face was paler than the ghosts wandering outside on Halloween night, and her canine teeth embedded in her lower lip seemed to want to pierce it, causing her lips to deform slightly.

She watched with piercing eyes as the pink-haired girl dressed in a gender-neutral, devilish outfit pushed a whole cup of coffee in front of her from behind the bar.

Helica didn't help, her hands remained under the table, her muscles tense like a stone.

"Tch, why are you so nervous?"

The pink-haired girl curled the corners of her mouth into a beautiful smile, and then couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Apart from that soft laugh, all that could be heard in the store was the sound of guitar strings being plucked and a cappella singing accompanying the music.