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

"Little Li, do you want to become a magical girl?"

The pink-haired girl standing on the scorched earth pursed her lips slightly, and in the wind that tousled her long hair, she turned her dust-covered face and gave Nishio Reki a gentle smile.

Yuuki Yuuki's question seemed to be a hypothetical scenario about the future that suddenly came to mind during a casual heart-to-heart talk, completely out of place in the wasteland beneath her feet.

"What are you saying, Xiaoyuan? Is this the time to say such things?"

Nishio Reki glanced at the blurry figure on the distant ruins, then at Yuuki Yuuki, and urged her anxiously.

"Want to?" Yuuki Yukino tilted her head slightly. "Or not?"

"Of course I want to gain power! Of course I want to be able to help Xiaoyuan, so that Xiaoyuan won't have to fight alone!"

Nishio Reki clenched his fist, and the determination he shouted out without thinking cracked in his voice.

"Okay, sure." Yuuki Yuu turned around, dragging her heavy steps, and limped step by step from the broken walls to Nishio Reki.

Yuuki gently embraced Nishio Reki, placing her hand on the girl's back and gently stroking her dusty long hair with her rough hands, which were no longer as delicate as before.

She divided the girl's black hair into three sections, crossed them from left to right, crossed them from right to left, and tied them up again.

The braid stuck up and gradually turned into the outdated sheep tail braid it is now.

Yuuki Yui lowered her eyes, and dark magic flowed from her palm and along the whip she tied to the girl's head, like a gentle stream, permeating the girl's body.

A thin red thread was tied to the end of her hair. Yuuki Yukina reopened her eyes, and the inscriptions as black as ink in her clear eyes seemed to have dimmed even more.

After doing all that, Yuuki Enishi looked even more haggard.

"Now, Koyomi is a magical girl."

"Xiaoyuan! What are you doing! Didn't you say..."

Nishio Reki felt the extra thing inside her body, something she was in constant contact with but had never personally experienced before.

That was the magic of a magical girl, something she believed she could never possess in her lifetime.

"Oh right, I did say that, so I'm counting on you."

"Please...what?"

Yuuki Yukino was still smiling, still as beautiful as ever, like a small pink flower about to wither, the edges of her petals already turning yellowish-brown, no matter how much she was held back, her ultimate fate could not be changed.

The pure white coffin rose slowly with a rumbling sound, and with a gentle push from Yuuki Yuki, the black-haired girl fell into the darkness.

"Please, Xiao Li, whom I have always protected, come and protect me just this once, carrying the last hope in Pandora's box."

With a heavy thud, the coffin lid slowly began to close.

"Wait! Yuri! Wait a minute!" Nishio Reki pounded on the lid, desperately grabbing the edge of it with his hands, trying to pry it back into place.

But she couldn't do it. The coffin seemed to be made of cast steel. No matter how hard she hit it or kicked it with all her might, the lid remained sealed and didn't budge.

Yuuki Yukino's relaxed voice drifted through the coffin lid, delivering a final joke to Nishio Reki.

"By the way, Kore, if I ask and you don't want to tell me your real identity, just say your name is Okuzawa Misaki, no, just say your name is Michelle. Kore, don't you know? I like Michelle the most."

"At a time like this, stop making such pointless jokes!"

There was no response from outside the coffin.

……

Nishio Reki suddenly opened his eyes.

Why am I having another nightmare? The girl thought to herself, rubbing her temples to relax her suddenly awake and somewhat aching brain.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't a nightmare, but a memory that remained in her mind.

This memory made her very uncomfortable.

Since returning from Rainbow Leaf City, it seems everyone enjoys having nightmares.

Yuki Yui had mentioned it to herself once before; she dreamed that Tsukishima City was blown up into the sky. Although Yuki Yui couldn't explain why she knew it was Tsukishima City, she just knew it.

At the time, I was comforting Yuuki Yukino, telling her that dreams are not to be trusted, and Yuuki Yukino didn't dwell on the matter anymore.

But I've been having nightmares one after another for the past month, which is very strange.

Moreover, he always dreams about things that Nishio Reki finds very annoying.

Nishio Reki turned over and kicked the blanket off him.

After lying down for a while, Nishio Reki turned over again, hugging the pillow under his head to his chest, curling up like a little mouse holding food.

After rolling around on the bed a couple more times, Nishio Reki took out his phone and scanned the screen to see if anyone had sent him any messages.

The answer is no, which is the obvious result.

Nishio Reki turned on some music, intending to drift off to sleep to the sound of it.

She couldn't fall asleep again until dawn.

Carrying the unease of a nightmare, the grumpiness of not sleeping well all night, and the resentment of having to get up early for school, Nishio Reki arrived at school early with his schoolbag slung over his shoulder.

It's Friday already. Hang in there, and I can sleep all day tomorrow.

Nishio Reki comforted himself in this way, trying to dispel his resentment at not being able to sleep all night.

Just as she reached the classroom door, a short figure came into her line of sight.

The figure was clinging to the classroom doorway, peeking furtively into the classroom.

Although all the students at Yuehai Middle School were wearing the same uniforms, the person secretly watching was just too recognizable.

With a height like that of a middle school student and dazzling blonde hair, besides Tenrai Herika, Nishio Reki didn't know of anyone else at Tsukimi Middle School who could meet these two criteria.

"Helica the Thunder? What are you doing at our classroom door?"

Nishio Reki walked confidently to the classroom door and asked Helica, who was intently peering through the door and completely unaware of his presence.

"Whoaaaaah!" Herlica's shoulders trembled suddenly, and she let out a loud, terrifying scream. She bounced up as if she had been stepped on, quickly took a few steps back, and clutched her chest, panting heavily.

After a while, Herika finally recovered from her shock and her breathing gradually calmed down. She then looked up at Mizuno Yu, who was standing with her arms crossed, and let out a long breath.

"What? It's you! Honestly, you scared me to death! What do you want?!"

When Helica came to her senses, she spoke with a tone of complaint. Because of Yuuki Yukino, Nishio Reki knew Helica well, and she was trying to cover up her guilty conscience by acting this way.

Normally, Nishio Reki's attitude would be better, but today is different.

Herlica is facing Nishio Reki, who had a nightmare, didn't sleep all night, and was seething with anger.

Even though Nishio Reki was unhappy, he was still much more polite than Helica in his outward demeanor, though his tone was somewhat cold.

“This is my classroom, and you are blocking the doorway to my classroom.”

"Yes, yes."

Faced with absolute truth, Helica couldn't bring herself to be fierce.

"What are you doing here? What are you peeking at?" Nishio Reki glanced into the classroom through the glass in the door. The classroom was empty at the moment, so there shouldn't be anything worth Helica peeking at.

But without even thinking, Nishio Reki could guess the answer: "You're looking at Koyuki's seat?"

"Who, who, who...who looked at her seat?! What, what good would it do to look at that guy's seat?"

Herlica's reaction was even stronger than when she was frightened by Nishio Reki; she stammered as if she had been possessed by Hayashi Mustard.

It took Herica quite a while to finally utter the sentence. Even she knew that her reaction was no different from directly revealing the answer. She glared fiercely at Nishio Reki and nodded silently.

"Yeah! I was looking at Yuuki Yuuki's seat! So what!"

"Nothing much." Nishio Reki grabbed the doorknob, turned the doorknob, and went inside.

"Wait! Wait a minute! I have something to ask you!"

"If you want to ask about anything related to magical girls, I have nothing to say." Nishio Reki paused for a moment, then continued walking towards his seat.

Nishio Reki doesn't usually talk about magical girls openly, but she was suffering from sleep deprivation and couldn't care less about that now.

Anyway, she was the only one in the classroom, and the only other person was Helica standing at the door, so it didn't matter.

"No! I wanted to ask about Yuuki Yukino..." Helica hesitated for a moment, then clenched her fist: "Please, please do me a favor!"

A few minutes later, in the Nijisanji activity room.

"Oh, this is your club's activity room."

Nishio Reki looked around, pulled over a chair, and sat down at the table that everyone always used for lunch, which was pushed together.

After Nishio Reki sat down, Helica moved to the other side of the table and pulled out a chair to sit opposite him.

"Didn't you come here before?"

"I don't remember much." Nishio Reki leaned back in his chair and let his hands hang down.

"Fine." Helica's eyelids twitched; Nishio Reki's uncooperative attitude was making her a little annoyed.

But since he was the one who invited her, and Helica needed his help, he could only suppress his displeasure, clench his hands together, twist his fingers into a fine net, and puff out his cheeks in preparation to speak.

Nishio Reki glanced at the hesitant Helica, then looked away and simply closed his eyes to rest, openly recovering his energy in this inappropriate setting.

One minute he has a nightmare about Yuuki Yuki, the next he arrives at school grumpy, and Herica keeps trying to talk about Yuuki Yuki. It would be strange if Nishio Reki felt better.

Nishio Reki had a premonition that whatever Helica said after struggling with her thoughts, it wouldn't be something he wanted to hear.

“Yes, that’s how it is.” After a long silence, Helica finally spoke: “You, you replenished Yuuki Yukino’s mana, right?”

It was definitely not something I wanted to hear.

"What does this have to do with what you're talking about?" Nishio Reki crossed his arms, a hint of impatience flashing through his slightly open eyes.

"Hmm!" Helica let out a muffled gasp of surprise; Nishio Reki's reaction was unexpected. "N-nothing, right?"

Herica's frightened expression made Nishio Reki realize that he had been acting a bit too forcefully, so he softened his tone slightly.

"So what are you trying to say?"

"So, do you know what Yuuki Yukino is going to do on Halloween?" Herica said "so" many times today, and such a flustered performance was quite unusual for Herica.

Nishio Reki shook his head, not to show his ignorance, but to refuse to answer Helica's question.

"Didn't we agree not to talk about anything related to magical girls?"

Herika blinked hard a few times, biting her lower lip as she pondered something.

"That night, I went to find Yuuki Yukino."