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

“No problem.” Yuuki Yui still didn’t know what Yumehara Sumireko was up to, but she did have many questions to ask, and she didn’t mind answering Yumehara Sumireko:

"Long ago, there was a village, that village..."

Yuuki Yuuki briefly summarized the contents of the book that Urouge Mashiro had given her at Seiyuu Academy, but omitted most of the meaningless content.

Anyway, only a moment passed after she went out, and she had plenty of time.

"Oh." After listening to Yuuki Yukino's story, Yumehara Sumireko's eyes widened, as if she were hearing these somewhat interesting stories for the first time, but definitely not interesting to magical girls.

In fact, this was the first time she had ever heard these things.

“That’s very interesting.” In the end, Sumireko Yumehara came to this conclusion: “But that’s not what I’m asking.”

"Then what is it you want to say?" Yuuki asked in return.

After such a long period of time, Yuuki Yukino's vigilance has lessened somewhat, but she hasn't completely let her guard down.

It would be bad if Yumehara Sumireko suddenly turned on me the way I had dealt with her.

Therefore, there is still a distance between Yuuki Enishi and Yumehara Sumireko.

Sumireko Yumehara noticed Yuuki Yukino's wariness but said nothing.

"What I'm trying to say is that everything we magical girls do requires magic. So, what do you think magic is?"

Chapter 202 Miracles and Magic Exist

Have you ever wondered what magic is?

Sumireko Yumehara asked this question.

What is magic?

This problem is actually quite easy to explain.

Magic is a form of energy, not much different from gasoline that powers cars, electricity that lights lights, or the sugars and fats that people consume to move freely. It is specifically designed to power magical girls.

In some works, it is vaguely referred to as "the heart that believes is your magic" or "entropy," and in short, there are many different interpretations.

But Yuuki Yui knew that this wasn't what Yumehara Sumireko was asking. What Sumireko meant was, where does magic come from, what is its essence, and how is it absorbed and transformed?

Yuuki Yuuki really hadn't thought about it. Just like a fish living in the sea doesn't think about where the water came from, most people don't think about how air evolved from the primordial atmosphere. They just take it for granted.

But Yuuki Yui knows a little more.

"As for magic, it is an energy released by the original magical girl who existed in Moonsea City. It is a kind of energy that only magical girls can use within a certain range of her domain."

Yuuki Yuka spoke slowly, as if she were a student who had only a vague understanding of a question and had been called upon by the teacher to answer it.

“Well, never mind, it was my fault.” Sumireko Yumehara said abruptly, “My question was a bit too abrupt, let’s start from the beginning.”

"First of all, why did magical girls appear?" Sumireko Yumehara asked herself and answered, "I don't know the answer, but let's just say that they were born because of the appearance of a primordial magical girl."

"You know that the original magical girls really existed, and as a priestess, you should know more about the inside story than I do."

As Yumehara Sumireko spoke, her father blinked and said, "But you're also strange; there are many things you should know, yet you know nothing about them."

Yuuki Yukino kept her lips tightly closed, not responding to Yumehara Sumireko's words.

She wanted to hear how Sumireko Yumehara would explain it.

Yuki Yukino didn't respond, and Yumehara Sumireko didn't press the issue. She simply looked at her other self lying motionless on the hospital bed beside her and spoke again.

"Before a girl becomes a magical girl, she must have a wish that she wants to fulfill no matter what. The wish is the source of their power. Someone, or a god, will respond to their wishes and give them the power to fulfill them."

Yuuki Yukino nodded, indicating that she knew about these things and waited for Yumehara Sumireko to continue.

Sumireko Yumehara nodded in agreement and continued, "It's not that the bigger the wish, the better. For many people, the opportunity to become a magical girl is actually a trivial little wish. Everyone has wishes, but only a very few will have them fulfilled. That's what makes a magical girl eligible."

"Competency?" Yuuki found the term quite novel.

“Yes, the qualification to become a magical girl. Every girl has the potential to become a magical girl, but very few people actually possess the qualification, so I have taken the liberty of calling it competence,” Sumireko Yumehara replied.

The initial discussion went fairly well, so Yuuki Yukino was willing to share her guesses with Yumehara Sumireko.

But now Yuuki Yukino feels that the topic of Yumehara Sumireko is getting further and further off track.

She grasped it in her hand to directly destroy the bubble of Yumehara Sumireko's memories. Yumehara Sumireko must have cooked something to allow her to directly enter her memories.

Could this be a delaying tactic? Yuuki Yuki wondered, but she had no evidence.

If it were just a matter of stalling for time, Sumireko Yumehara could have simply hidden away and let herself wander around aimlessly.

"Are you listening?" Sumireko Yumehara waved her hand in front of Yuuki Yuuki's eyes.

“I’m listening, but I don’t understand,” Yuuki Yui answered truthfully.

"Did I make it too complicated?"

"No, it's that I don't understand why you insist on telling me all this."

After a moment of contemplation, Sumireko Yumehara gave Enishi Yuuki a rather capricious answer: "Because I want to talk to someone, right?"

As she spoke, her gaze fell upon herself on the hospital bed, a complex expression on her face:

“I’ve been lying in the hospital bed for too long, sleeping and waking up, waking up and sleeping again. I can’t tell when I’m in pain, I can’t touch when I’m itchy, and no one knows when I feel full or hungry.”

"Even if none of these things matter, I will feel lonely, I will feel scared, and I will want to run like before. Even if I can't run, walking slowly, moving my fingers, or making a sound would be fine."

"But none of that is possible. I can't even do the simplest things. Gradually, I got used to it, but I still want to talk to someone."

Yuuki Yui remained silent. She sympathized with Yumehara Sumireko's plight and did not believe that Yumehara Sumireko's experience was fake. Even without looking at this memory, Yumehara Sumireko's unruly and ill-mannered behavior, which lacked proper upbringing, was still a huge piece of evidence.

But there's always a reason why someone is pitiful. Is Sumireko Yumehara a fallen magical girl, or the culprit who caused the magical girls of Tsukimi City to fall into a deep sleep? Based on this alone, she cannot be innocent.

"Speaking of which, I just mentioned suitability, right?" Sumireko Yumehara seemed to feel she had said enough, or perhaps seeing that Yuuki Yuki had no reaction, so she sighed.

"Okay," Yuuki Yui replied.

"I think it's a kind of luck. My wish, the simple yet almost impossible wish to move freely like everyone else, was granted, and I became a magical girl."

Sumireko Yumehara pulled up a chair and looked at herself lying on the hospital bed with gentle eyes.

"Of course, this is many, many years from now, but in our memories, we don't need to spend that much time."

Yuuki Yukino couldn't sense the magic in the dream, but she recognized its radiance.

Lying on the hospital bed, surrounded by various medical instruments, Sumire Yumehara was enveloped in a soft glow, like clusters of fireflies swirling around her.

The tiny clusters of light enveloped Sumireko Yumehara, lifting her slightly into the air and hovering above the hospital bed. The light points that entered Sumireko's body gradually began to change her.

The unchanging white hospital gown began to melt under the light, revealing Sumireko Yumehara's thin body, which had hardly grown in the past few years, and her withered limbs, which had atrophied to the point of being almost skin and bones due to lack of exercise.

A long dress, as if straight out of a fairy tale, draped over the floating Sumireko Yumehara, making her pale skin appear more rosy and her thin limbs look more proportionate.

It has to be said that at this moment, Sumireko Omegahara looks like a doll that has stepped out of a story.

Little Sumireko Yumehara landed on the ground, firmly standing on her own two feet.

She took a step, but years of living in a hospital bed seemed to have made her forget how to walk. Her leg suddenly went weak, causing Sumireko Yumehara to fall to the ground.

Komugihara Sumireko blinked, then sat on the ground, turning her head to admire her own hands.

Turning them over and over, as if she couldn't get enough of looking at them, those were just ordinary hands, but little Sumireko Yumehara stared at them for a very long time.

Pulling at her skirt and touching her cheek, Sumireko Yumehara was like a curious child who had never been exposed to this world before, clumsily and excitedly exploring her own possibilities.

No, it was the joy of finding something again after losing it that was far purer and more delightful for this little girl than the curiosity she felt when she first came into this world.

Komugihara Sumireko finally got up and tried to take another step, but this time she stood steadily, though her body swayed a little.

Step by step, Sumireko Yumehara went from cautiously probing to happily jumping around in the room.

"Isn't it strange? A girl who can't even move an inch received a response from heaven, her wish fulfilled in this way." Yumehara Sumireko smiled, but her eyes were filled with bitterness.

"Isn't it amazing? After becoming a magical girl, my impossible wish suddenly came true. That's the miracle of a magical girl."

Yuuki Yukino didn't know what to say for a moment.

Should we be happy for her?

The girl, who had been unable to get out of bed for many years, finally got her wish. Her happy running around was infectious, even to those who didn't know her.

However, Yuuki Yuuki already knows the ending of the story. This innocent child, in the known past and in the future of her memories, will inevitably become a corrupted magical girl.

"Alice," Sumireko Yumehara suddenly blurted out.

"The wand I used to have was nothing special, it had similar abilities to what you see now, allowing my soul to enter other people's dreams, which suited my wand perfectly, right?"

"After that, I almost always maintained the pose I had when I transformed into a magical girl. Although it was quite troublesome, only in this way could I truly feel alive."

Yumehara Sumireko watched as her memory of herself flew out of the window, soaring into a vaster, more distant sky. She lowered her head, a knowing smile appearing on her face, before rising from the chair she had been sitting in.

"Let's go, it's time to move on to the next place."

Yuuki Yukino silently followed Yumehara Sumireko once again, walking through the low-ceilinged hospital corridor filled with the smell of disinfectant, listening to Yumehara Sumireko continue the topic she hadn't finished talking about earlier as they walked.

"What exactly is suitability? No one can figure it out, but I guess it's not an innate index, or it may not be entirely a talent. It's determined based on a girl's personality."

"Personality? Magical girls have all sorts of personalities. Do they have to be a little withdrawn or neurotic to become a magical girl?" Yuuki Yui's words sounded somewhat like a joke, and of course, there was also a hint of arguing.

Yumehara Sumireko's words sounded very strange to her; the so-called aptitude was described by her as if she were a cyber psychiatrist.

As it turned out, Sumireko Yumehara actually admitted to Yuki Eri's statement.

"Yes, what you said is very close. In my opinion, most of the girls who can become magical girls are emotional, or you could say sensitive."

“Sensitive?” Yuuki Yuen repeated.

“Yes, you can try to think back and see if that’s really the case,” Sumireko Yumehara said confidently.

To be sensitive...

Let's not even mention those few complete cyberpsychotics; after they fell into darkness, no one could tell whether it was the reason for their fall or whether they were just naturally sensitive.

Based solely on what Yuuki Yuen knows, Tenrai Herika is an extremely proud and reserved person who cares a great deal about what others think. She often uses a forceful approach to cover up her inner insecurity, making her quite sensitive.

Mizuno Yu appeared calm and collected, but through experiencing her dream, Yuuki Yuki also learned what was hidden beneath her cold exterior.

Sakura Hanako is easily concerned about other people's opinions, such as being overly respectful to her seniors and being somewhat particular about rules, which is not necessarily wrong.

Baqi, who wants to break the status quo; Hongmo, who is obedient to Hyakki Chiyuu but also somewhat insecure and strong-willed; and Miyashita Mia, who cares a lot about what others think and wants to make friends with many people...

Sumireko Yumehara's summary is surprisingly reasonable.

Of course, aside from her carefree personality, she is more spontaneous than sentimental.

Noticing that Yuuki Yukino's thoughtful gaze was gradually fading, Yumehara Sumireko interjected, "How is it?"