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

"That makes some sense," Yuuki Yui replied, stroking her chin. "And then what? Does that prove anything?"

“The stronger the desire to fulfill one’s wish, the more it resonates with others, and the more likely one is to become a magical girl,” Sumireko Yumehara replied.

"Hmm, and then?" Yumehara Sumireko was willing to tell her, and Yuki Yuki didn't need to think. It was perfect to just listen to Yumehara Sumireko talk.

"Then, then we come to the topic we started with: what is the essence of magic? In my opinion, the essence of magic, and even the essence of magical girls, is the collection of wishes."

Upon hearing Sumireko Yumehara's words, Yuuki Yukina frowned, remaining noncommittal about the conclusion that she didn't know how it had come to be.

Yuki En wanted to hear more from Yumehara Sumireko, but Yumehara Sumireko suddenly shut her mouth, stopped walking, and pointed to the sky, which had changed its scenery.

"Oh, we've arrived. Let's continue watching first, and then I'll explain further to you."

In the sky, tiny Sumireko Yumehara was flying swiftly, constantly waving her magic wand, and tiny shooting stars fell with each wave of her wand.

“This was a year ago. Since I’ve hardly ever undoed my transformation, my body doesn’t seem to have changed much. Anyway, I think you might need to know about this,” Sumireko Yumehara interjected.

"Hmm." Yuuki Yuuki hummed, still staring intently at the sky, searching for who Yumehara Sumireko was fighting.

But apart from Sumireko Koyukihara, there was no other magical girl in that sky.

However, Sumireko Komugi's expression was unusually fearful, as if something unseen was relentlessly pursuing her.

"This is..." Yuuki Yuen was about to ask a question when she saw a sudden change on the side of Komugihara Sumireko.

Suddenly, rainbow-colored spheres filled the sky, as if arriving in reality through invisible doors, completely surrounding Sumireko Komugihara.

The blue-haired girl, who had narrowly escaped from the rainbow-colored orb, quietly placed her hand, which was holding a paintbrush, on the shoulder of the terrified Sumireko Yumehara.

Chapter 203 Magical Girls Must Be Idealistic

"Not to mention me back then, even now, I theoretically have no chance of winning against any of the pillars. Although I don't know why, you seem to be an exception."

Sumireko Yumehara looked up and watched another version of herself fall from the sky, followed closely by a girl with long, light blue hair.

"But it doesn't matter. The result is what you see. I lost. She put me on trial. What I finally regained was ruthlessly taken away again, and this time it was even more thorough."

As Sumireko Yumehara narrated, the entire city before Yuuki Yuuki's eyes went black, transforming into the boundless darkness that Yuuki Yuuki experienced while traversing the dream world.

The darkness itself wasn't a big deal; what truly surprised Yuuki Yuuki was the abrupt end of the dream, causing her to gasp in surprise.

"This is impossible!"

Yuuki Yukino didn't witness Yumehara Sumireko's fall from grace, nor did she see the older sister figure Yumehara Sumireko is now displaying. It's absolutely impossible for the stage to suddenly close halfway through the performance.

When Yuuki Yukino looked at Yumehara Sumireko standing beside her again, she was filled with vigilance. The wariness that Yumehara had just lowered was raised again:

"You're lying to me. Things are not as they seem, and they're completely different from what I've experienced."

"No, I'm not lying to you. My memories as a magical girl end here, but my story is not yet finished."

Sumireko Yumehara sighed, raised her hand, and wiped it across the darkness as if wiping glass. The darkness touched by her hand was completely wiped away, and a new scene appeared in the darkness.

The peaceful city, the sparse and dense crowds, the gradually setting sun—everything in the scene is exactly the same as what Yuuki Eri saw at the beginning.

“Alright, let’s talk about what we were talking about before.” Sumireko Yumehara stepped into the frame and sat down on the stone steps by the street before Yuuki Yuki could follow her in. She patted the empty seat next to her.

Yuuki hesitated for a moment, then stepped closer and into the unfolding scene.

After a slight sense of unreality, Yuuki Yuki found herself standing in the same spot as before.

Yuuki Yukino walked a little further and finally sat down at the farthest point on the stone steps: "What's the topic?"

"What is the magic of a magical girl?" Sumireko Yumehara asked.

"Didn't you say it was the wishes of magical girls? You even said magical girls are the embodiment of wishes." Yuuki Yuuki looked back at him like he was an idiot.

Whether it's Sumireko Yumehara or not, they both love to talk nonsense.

"Yes, it's a wish, but what carries a wish?" Sumireko Yumehara asked a question she had never asked before, nor had Yuuki Eri thought about it.

Yuuki Yukino shook her head.

"It is longing, it is memory, it is the heart of magical girls, it is the soul of magical girls themselves." Sumireko Yumehara said a long string of words that Yuuki Yukina couldn't understand, and then pointed out a fact that they already knew.

“The power of a magical girl is not bound to our bodies, but is imprinted on our souls. From the moment a person becomes a magical girl, a seed is planted in her soul.”

Seeing that Yuki Yuki's expression was still completely bewildered, Yumehara Sumireko raised her hand and drew a few strokes on the dust on the stone steps.

"Imagine, if this were an ordinary girl, and her wish were granted, she would become a magical girl."

A simple stick figure drawing appeared under Sumireko Yumehara's finger, and then she drew three lines around the stick figure.

"There are three possible endings for her. The first is that she gains the power to fulfill her wishes and uses that power to achieve them. Slowly, slowly, time passes by day by day, and she lives a very peaceful life."

"But one day, she suddenly forgot the wish she had made at the beginning, and the power she gained to fulfill the wish gradually weakened and eventually disappeared."

“She is no longer a girl, nor does she possess magic. She has transformed from a special person with dreams into an ordinary person that we can all see—I call it ‘growing up’.”

"Everyone grows up and gets worn down over time. When the wishes they made as girls are forgotten, they will move on to the next stage of their lives."

Sumireko Yumehara gently grabbed a handful of dust from the stick figure, tucked it into her palm, and casually tossed it into the air.

"Therefore, the power that had grown within them and the memory of that power were no longer needed; they were returned to the god who had given them that power."

"This is the most original and perfect form of magical girls."

Yuuki Yukino remained silent, watching as Yumehara Sumireko moved her finger to the second line.

"But not everything will remain perfect. There are not only magical girls in this world, but also the calamity of corrupted magical girls. And the second kind is even more cruel because of the existence of the calamity."

"Our protagonist becomes a magical girl and fights a desperate battle against evil, corrupted magical girls, but unfortunately, she is defeated and executed by the corrupted magical girls themselves."

"So, here's the question: what is execution? The answer is simple: it's similar to what I, in my ignorance, did to your companions. That despicable method was merely a means, not the end."

"When you are in despair, when your dream collapses, when you are violated, as long as you can create that moment, the magical girl's power will be recovered. Of course, it is not as simple as I said to do it."

"As I just mentioned, a magical girl's power and soul are one. What would happen if a magical girl who hasn't gradually lost her desires had her power taken away?"

Sumireko Yumehara handed the question over to Enishi Yuuki.

Encouraged by Sumireko Yumehara's gaze, Yuuki Yukina came up with a somewhat terrifying answer.

"Will...their souls be harvested along with them?"

Sumireko Yumehara nodded in agreement.

“That’s right, to take back the seeds that died before they could grow, along with the seeds in the soil. I mean, to take back those unfulfilled wishes, the power bestowed upon them, and the souls of the magical girls. I don’t think I need to explain anything more, right?”

Yuuki Yui shook her head: "No need."

Yes, the memories lost by a magical girl whose power naturally disappears are the mud that comes out when the radish is pulled out when the power is recovered, while a direct defeat means that the radish is pulled out along with the entire piece of land.

After a moment, Yuuki Yukino, having pieced together the clues, spoke up: "What about the third one?"

"The third type is nothing special. It's essentially the same as the first two. Under the influence of some kind of power, she is no longer a magical girl."

Sumireko Yumehara added two more strokes, drawing two sharp horns on the stick figure's head and adding a fierce expression to its face.

"Then, either you are defeated, or... there is no other possibility. At least I have never seen a corrupted magical girl who has not been defeated, so it's just an extra detour."

Finally, Sumireko Yumehara wiped the entire painting off with her fingers.

"In the end, no matter which way it happens, those extracted memories will return to the embrace of that original magical girl. So I ask again, what carries wishes?"

"Is it... a soul?" Yuuki Yui asked, half-understanding.

"Yes, it is the soul, but the soul is just a vessel for memories. Those wishes, whether fulfilled or not, will return along with the memories. The returning memories will be compressed and mixed to become the new sustenance for the magical girls. I can also use a word that everyone is more familiar with to describe it—magic."

"Wishes are magic, and magic is wishes. Magical girls, who carry the wishes of countless people, can also gain stronger power from the hopes of others and from their own desires."

The original magical girls were given magic. The magical girls used the magic and eventually returned their magic and memories. The colorful memories and magic they returned were then restored into new magic, which in turn gave birth to new magical girls.

This is a complete cycle belonging to the magical girl ecosystem.

Moreover, it is a very simple loop.

It was exactly the same thing that Genki Mashiro did in Nijiba City, except that Genki Mashiro didn't continue to develop it, but instead took all the power at once.

The fact that Mashiro Gyoken could do something like this shows that she understands how the entire magical girl system works.

This also explains the question that Yuuki Yuuki had long pondered: where did the immense magical power possessed by the original magical girls come from?

After a moment, once Yuuki Yukino's bewildered expression had mostly subsided, Yumehara Sumireko continued, "What I'm saying may be a bit abstract, but it's actually very simple to sum up in just one word."

“The heart,” Sumireko Yumehara said, “Because we have a heart, we are jealous; because we have a heart, we are tolerant; because we have a heart, we are selfish; because we have a heart, we are loving.”

"The desires that rise in one's heart, the memories buried in one's heart, the malice that arises in one's heart, and the magic that connects people through the fusion of water and magic, the plunder that destroys the hearts of others... and so on, all of these, every power of a magical girl, ultimately comes from within."

That's a really magical girl-style answer.

Yuuki Yukina sighed as she thought about it.

"So, magical girls are essentially like this." Sumireko Yumehara shrugged. "Originally, it was unnecessary and didn't matter to everyone that they didn't need to know these things."

Sumireko Yumehara is right. She can use a cell phone, but she doesn't need to understand how it's made. Once she masters how to use it, she can use both the cell phone and the magical girl's power with ease.

Sumireko Yumehara said so much, I want to list it all.

Even though Sumireko Yumehara said so much, it was essentially like she said nothing at all, yet it was inextricably linked to everything Yuuki Yuki had experienced.

"Then... the Dream Realm, your companions who were captured, those memory bubbles that should have existed in the cycle, the corrupted magical girls who shouldn't exist, what about them?"

“Don’t rush, I will answer you one by one,” Sumireko Yumehara replied. “But before that, my story is not over yet.”

Chapter 204 So what exactly is God?

"As I just explained, when a magical girl is defeated, her power and the soul that carries her memories will become part of this huge cycle again, and of course, I am no exception."

Sumireko Yumehara pointed into the distance. This memory that belonged to her had come to an end once again, and little Sumireko Yumehara was once again struck down from the sky.

"Wait a minute." Yuuki Yukino suddenly interrupted Yumehara Sumireko.

She suddenly remembered a sentence that Sumireko Yumehara had said when she first showed her these scenes from her first defeat, and the key words in that sentence.

Three pillars.

Yuuki Yukino was wondering at the time, what exactly does this refer to?

Does this refer to the Three Pillar Gods?

That is, the Sky of Osiris... no, that should be the Three Egyptian Gods.

It's from the previous installment of the Pokémon game I played... but that doesn't seem right either.

However, Yuuki Yukino was so shocked when she noticed that Urobuchi Mashiro appeared in Yumehara Sumireko's memory that she overlooked some issues that she should have noticed.

Yuuki Yukino noticed it too, but there were too many things she wanted to ask and wanted to know, so she could only ask one. The conversation that followed was a bit too far-fetched, and she didn't have a chance to ask it.