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

However, given Lin Jiezi's socially awkward nature, it's understandable that she couldn't tell Yuuki Yukino immediately.

In any case, the problem will be resolved in the next few days. Even if Miyashita Mia doesn't take any action, Mizuno Yu and Tenrai Herika will most likely make their move before the graduation ceremony begins.

Before that day arrives, Yuuki Yuki should make all the necessary preparations.

Without having to worry about club affairs, Yuuki Eri had more time to reflect on the current situation.

In the game, Miyashita Mia leaves a very lewd stereotype with her impressive figure, revealing clothes, and suggestive abilities, making her seem like the perfect first character to challenge in a yuri-themed eroge.

The black magic pattern is Meiya's motive, and attacking other students is Meiya's hobby; everything makes perfect sense.

In the game, the magical girls' motivation to stop Mia is equally logical. Amid the crisis of corrupted magical girls, people are being harmed every day, and there is widespread anxiety before the graduation ceremony.

So on graduation day, the two sides engaged in a final battle and successfully stopped this mad enemy.

Therefore, it is only natural that Mia failed in the story; it is an ending that a villain deserves.

But in reality, Miyashita Mia's sudden silence and those abnormal behaviors don't seem like something that the crazy villain in the game would do.

Something must have changed her.

Thinking about it carefully, Miyashita Mia's transformation should have occurred after the day she and Baqi tried to test whether Hayashi Mustard was a magical girl.

Because so many things happened that day—nearly being defeated and judged by Helica, awakening her own wand, the appearance of a mysterious person carrying a coffin, and so on—Yuki Yuuki always overlooked one very unusual thing.

On that day, Miyashita Mia also appeared at the scene, and she looked exactly the same as before.

If we anchor the two ends of the timeline to the day she awakened her magic wand and the day she issued her peace declaration, something must have happened within the range defined by this anchor point that led to Miyashita's change.

Yuuki took a piece of paper out of her bag, drew a straight line on it, and marked two points on the line to cut out a segment.

The end of the line segment, that is, the time when Miyashita Mia changed, may have been earlier. The words she said and the awkwardness she showed when she broke into the activity room should have come about after some kind of change.

So Yuuki Yukino drew another dot, making the line segment even shorter.

But that's all she could think of. The person holding the script was actually troubled by the lack of information, and Miyashita Mia's character had also undergone a huge change, making her previous experience completely useless. It was truly both funny and sad.

If only Miyashita Mia could still cause chaos everywhere like before! Her current jumpy and easily startled appearance doesn't resemble a villain at all.

Actually, she wasn't always so easily startled. Like that chance encounter in the corridor, and the time she rushed into the infirmary while crying, all she showed was urgency.

She had met the somewhat eccentric Miya Miyashita four times in total. Yuuki Yukina thought to herself, and scribbled down the locations of those four meetings on a piece of paper.

Three times it was at school, and once it was in a park.

The first time was at the park. Everyone from Nijisanji, Mia, and Megumi were there, and Yuuki Yuki casually wrote down the names of the six people at the back.

The second time, during a chance encounter in the corridor, Yuuki Yuuki wrote down her name and Miyashita Miya's name.

The third time, it was still six names.

The fourth time, Baqi, herself, and Miyashita Miya.

In a strange, unseen way, Yuuki Yuuki felt as if she had inadvertently grasped some important clue.

Whenever Meia behaves abnormally, there are always two people present.

Lin Jiezi and Yuejian Li Hui, Yuki En picked up a pen and circled these two names on it.

Not far from the name, the line segment representing the timeline drawn by Yuuki En once again caught her attention.

If—and she meant if—Miyashita Mia had also been exposed to the mysterious man on the day she fought Helica, and then what had the mysterious man done to Miashita Mia…

If the mysterious person carrying the coffin could corrupt him, then it seems plausible that he turned Miyashita Mia into this state.

Could it be that the mysterious person is really one of these two?

When Yuuki Yukino looked at those two names again, her eyes changed.

Rie Tsukimi is the victim who was kidnapped by Mia, while Mustard Hayashi is an uncontrollable factor who has the script in her hands. By all accounts, Mustard Hayashi is more suspicious.

So when and how did Lin Jiezi influence Miyashita Mia, turning a corrupted magical girl into this?

Yuuki Yukino repeatedly underlined Tsukimi Rie's name, resting her head on her hand and lost in thought.

She suddenly realized that long ago, much longer than she thought, long before she even obtained the wand, the whole thing had already begun to unfold.

During her last meeting with Miya Miyashita, Miya Miyashita showed no surprise at her transformation, as if she had known about it all along.

According to Yuuki Yuki, the only people who know their true identities are the mysterious man and Inuyama Tomoe.

When she first met Miya Miyashita, Miya Miyashita was normal, just as she knew her. The villain in the game, who was as venomous as a snake, was still saying to her, "Aren't we comrades?"

But the person she was supposed to meet that day was actually Rie Tsukimi.

Chapter Ninety-Four: A True Name Softly Called Amidst the Crowd

Who is your best friend?

If this question were presented to Miyashita Mia, she would undoubtedly say Tsukimi Rie's name without hesitation.

Even now, Miyashita Mia still doesn't understand why she became friends with Tsukimi Rie; they are two completely different people.

Meiya is like a gust of wind, freely roaming every corner of the world, while Hui is more like a handful of soil, quietly guarding her own corner.

The wind brought the seeds, and the soil made them sprout.

Fate is so magical; it can bind two completely unrelated people together.

Even though countless days and months have passed since that day, Miya Miyashita still remembers the day she met Rie Tsukimi in kindergarten.

In the large classroom, whose layout Meiya could no longer recall, the female teacher, with a warm smile—whose face was now a blur in her memory—waved her hands:

"Starting today, our children will be moving up to preschool."

The teacher walked past each kindergarten student, waving her hands in front of them.

"Children, would you like to be your own little masters and make decisions for your own future?"

"think--"

In my memory, the children cheered and jumped for joy, responding to their young teacher, their faces obscured by short, twisting black lines.

"So, everyone, have you decided whether you want to go to Class 1 or Class 2 after you move up to preschool?"

Looking back, each child had formed their own social circle in their original class, with teachers they relied on and close friends. These are things that are hard for a child to easily give up and move on to a completely new life.

"I want to go to Class One! I used to be a student in Class One!"

"I want to stay in Class 2 with my best friend!"

The carefree birds gradually left their cages and flew towards the direction they had chosen—a brand new cage.

In the huge classroom, only two people remained: her and the girl who had been in the next class but whom she had never met, yet whose face she could still clearly remember.

That was the first encounter between Miya Miya and Rie Tsukimi.

"Let me see, your name is Miyashita Mia, right? Don't you want to be brave and be your own little master?"

The female teacher, whose face was covered in mosaic, knelt down in front of Miyashita Mia and asked in a gentle tone.

"I want to be friends with everyone! So I want to go to both classes! I want to be a student in both Class One and Class Two!"

The still innocent and naive Meiya blinked her clear, big eyes.

The teacher I remember gave a wry smile: "Oh dear, but each person can only go to one class."

"Can't I go to Class 1 in the morning and Class 2 in the afternoon?" Meiya tilted her head.

"The teacher thinks Little Meiya's idea is great, but it won't work. Little Meiya can't study in two classes, so she has to choose one."

"Alright then." Meiya lowered her eyes, fidgeting with her fingers.

"Little Meiya, think it over slowly. Once you've made up your mind, tell your teacher your choice."

As the teacher spoke, she stood up and walked to Tsukimi Rie, squatting down as before and asking her the same questions in the same gentle tone.

At that moment, Mia was only thinking about how to make a better choice and didn't pay any attention to what Ms. Hui was saying.

Until she overheard Megumi say those words, and from that day on, she could never take her eyes off Megumi.

“If we go to a higher grade, we’ll have to change classes. If we go to other classes, our mothers won’t be able to find us. Our mothers will be worried if they can’t find their daughters. I don’t want that to happen. Teacher, can we not go to a higher grade?”

"Is Xiaohui worried that her mother won't be able to find her? I assure you..."

“She’s everyone’s mom!” Hui clenched her pink little fists stubbornly. “I want everyone’s mom to be able to find everyone.”

"I assure you, I will resolve the issues that Hui is worried about."

"really?"

"real."

On that very day, Miya Miyashita made a move that would affect her life to this day.

She stretched out her tiny hand, pointed at Tsukimi Rie, and said in a childish voice:

"Teacher, I want to be in the same class as her."

If you were to ask Miya Miyashita who her best friend is, she would undoubtedly choose Rie Tsukimi.

This answer has remained unchanged to this day, and will not change until the imminent end.

But why am I suddenly thinking about these things now?

Is it nervousness? Or relief?

Miya Miyashita smiled bitterly in the mirror, her eyes crinkling. Her smile was so forced. The smile that three years had brought her—no, the thirteen years since she met Tsukimi Rie—could actually be erased in just three weeks.

She continued to straighten her uniform in front of the mirror, gently and slowly smoothing out the wrinkles layer by layer, just as her smile was smoothed out.

She tied the neckline tie again and again, and pulled up her stockings again and again, but she was still not quite satisfied. But whatever.

She raised her hand, untied the long hair tied behind her head, and tucked the stray hairs that had fallen across her forehead behind her ear, revealing her forehead.

The person in the mirror looked exactly the same as when they first entered school, but they had long lost their former vitality.

But is this okay?

Is this the ending I've chosen?

Miya Miyashita's eyes in the mirror held a newfound determination. She turned around, pushed open the door to the changing room, and joined the flow of people leaving school.

"Tormented by love, and consumed by love."

The girl clutched her chest, her eyes fixed firmly ahead, as she softly recited a poem.

"Blooming because of love, withering because of love."