The Witch Trial Begins with the OO Buckethead Zombie

The sound of the gun firing reverberated in my mind.

The lighting in the warehouse was poor, so Leia and Naya might not be able to see clearly.

However, the footage taken using the power of magic is very clear.

The wound was deep, the hole looked like it had been blown open, and blood was dripping out in a frightening way.

So, Emma Sakura couldn't help but start questioning.

She had never expressed any dissatisfaction with any of the girls on screen before, but only at this moment.

She was very dissatisfied.

"?!" Nikaido Hiro couldn't help but turn around: "Huh?"

"Is this woman crazy?"

She remembered, it was Kurobe Nanoka.

This guy is the one who expressed strong hostility towards Hoshino on the very first day they met.

He was also carrying a gun.

She had fired a shot at Hoshino back then, but it was just a threatening warning and didn't hit her, so she didn't take it seriously.

But now, even though Hoshino did nothing during the kidnapping, they still inexplicably, just as a warning, cut a hole in Hoshino's thigh.

"You ordered this?!" Almost immediately, Nikaido Hiro turned around and questioned Tsukishiro Yuki.

Combining my thoughts from earlier with what she just said.

Nanoha Kurobe, who was able to walk around this prison with a gun.

Is it possible that Kurobe Nanoha is one of the witches? Like the witch Hyogami Meruru who made Hoshino fall in love with her, Kurobe Nanoha is also one of the witches.

After all, she has personally entered the venue countless times, so it's only reasonable for her to arrange for a few people to go in, right?

"Huh?" Tsukishiro Yuki was stunned for a moment. She looked at the screen, at the gun, at Utsunomiya Hoshino's wound, and at his expression.

Instead of looking at Hiro, she fixed her gaze on Kurobe Nanoka.

“Oh, Nanoha Kaori.” She finally showed a look of realization: “If she really sees Hoshino as the mastermind... it’s not surprising that she would do this.”

Nikaido Hiro gritted his teeth: "What nonsense are you spouting?!"

“What I mean is…” Tsukishiro Yuki shrugged and uttered Nanoha Kaoru’s name: “Kurobe Nanoha Kaoru.”

"Magic, visions, the ability to see random images of the past or future related to people you touch or objects to which you have feelings."

"She has an older sister."

Magic? Illusion? Sister?

What is she saying?

Nikaido Hiro was puzzled.

"Stop the bleeding, you have to stop the bleeding!" Emma Sakura's voice quickly turned from accusation to worry: "It hurts, it hurts so much."

She started moving quickly, but her outstretched hand couldn't reach the screen in mid-air, so she had no choice but to circle around to get closer to it.

However, her height, the height of the screen, and the size of the projected image.

Yet it made her movements seem so...

The hand that jumps up can't reach it, and the hand that wants to touch the wound can only touch the wall.

They were so close they couldn't even see his injuries clearly.

As Emma Sakura went around to touch the screen, Yuki Tsukishiro was still talking.

"As a participant in previous witch trials, Kurobe Nanoha's older sister, after her death, gloriously became a guard who can serve this prison indefinitely."

"So, she came for revenge."

“She’s a year or two older than everyone else, she’s definitely the big sister.” Glancing at the gun muzzle on the screen, Yuki Tsukishiro felt a twisted feeling welling up inside her.

The flowing blood, Hoshino's muffled groan, and a moment of intense pain gripped her cheek.

Phantom pain.

"Having known about the mastermind's existence through vision long ago, and having already found the weapon in hand, he recklessly chose to shoot Hoshino, whom he firmly believed was the mastermind, all for the sake of what he believed to be right."

"So, this is revenge."

Emma Sakura's cries were deafening, and Hiro Nikaido's breathing grew heavier.

One of them wanted to run down to the other side of the screen, to touch it, to soothe it, to block the wound that it could never reach with its hands. It jumped up and raised its hands high.

It's utterly ridiculous.

The other, having abandoned his still-bleeding and threatened lover, walked up towards her in a fit of rage.

Extremely ruthless.

"Vision is a very special kind of magic, perhaps rare. Even without relying on witch transformation to enhance the witch factor, it can still read the magic that has been erased by death rewind."

"In a sense, this can indeed be considered a vision of the future."

"Quietly," Tsukishiro Yuki continued speaking.

"Maybe she thought that Hoshino, who participated in more than one witch trial, was the mastermind because she hallucinated a future where he was intimate with the two of you who don't exist."

No one knows what exactly Kurobe Nanoha saw unless she tells them herself.

But the current performance is already quite clear.

What kind of treatment will Hoshino receive? How will Hoshino be treated? What if Hoshino is locked up, tied up, and then...?

【"Bang!"】

The second shot was fired.

The scene dimmed slightly for a moment, then a gun barrel suddenly fired, and blood splattered in the air.

"—Smack!"

Nikaido Hiro, who had stood in front of her, stopped and looked back at the cut on Utsunomiya Hoshino's neck and the injuries to her legs.

She bit her lower lip until it bled, and amidst the salty-sweet taste of blood, she resolutely turned around and raised her hand.

She slapped Yukishiro.

The witch neither dodged nor blocked.

He just watched the unexpected happen on the screen, without even glancing at Hiro, who had slapped him.

"Huh?"

Buzzing.

A sharp explosion, Rie Hasumi's scream, Hoshino Utsunomiya's movements, and Nanoha Kurobe's stunned silence.

Everything was being broadcast live on the screen continuously.

The red mark from Nikaido Hiro's slap on Yuki Tsukishiro's cheek was still visible.

“Visions and stuff, Nanoha Kurobe and stuff, revenge and stuff, mastermind and stuff—” Nikaido Hiro took a deep breath, her gaze filled with intense hatred, perhaps the same look she had given to Utsunomiya Hoshino long ago.

Staring at Tsukishiro Yuki.

"--It doesn't matter at all!"

She didn't stand in front of Yukishiro; she could have stood in front of Yukishiro, blocking the view so that Yukishiro could only see herself and face her own questioning voice.

But she didn't.

She wanted this witch to watch, to witness Hoshino's death.

She just wanted to see if the witch's heart would feel even a little pain.

Emma's pain is understandable; it's excessive to make her see such a scene, and it's even more painful to watch her helplessly and unable to reach out to help Hoshino.

She must have felt just as bad, her chest tight and her heart twisted. It was just a moment, an unexpected event, but the emotions that had been building up inside her would suddenly explode.

But she won't cry.

Nikaido Hiro wouldn't cry or kneel down begging the witch to stop torturing Hoshino.

It doesn't matter if it's Kurobe Nanoka or someone else.

Even though she fired those two shots, it didn't matter.

"The important thing is whether your heart will hurt, and whether you have a heart that looks, or even just looks, like a human heart."

The magic was triggered automatically.

The witch's magic, used to hear the turbulent thoughts in his heart, made Nikaido Hiro's words echo in the movie theater.

"Hoshino was shot to that extent, and his blood is still flowing!"

Angry, angry, angry—

"Why are you still pretending not to see anything and explaining Kurobe Nanoha Kaori's situation?!"

"I don't care at all why she fired that shot! What I care about is how you didn't even think of stopping her!"

Emma Sakura is a silly dog; her first thought is always to help.

But Nikaido Hiro knew that he was the one who could make these decisions and take action.

Only witches.

"Heh, that's true. After all, you've strangled him with your own hands before." Nikaido Hiro's voice, which had been rising in pitch, turned somewhat cold the next moment:

"It's just dying again, it doesn't matter to you how you die, right?"

After all, we've rewound so many times already.

“Come on, come on.” Nikaido Hiro spread his hands toward Tsukishiro Yuki: “Anyway, Hoshino is going to die, so you should kill me too and start the rewind.”

Seeing that Tsukishiro Yuki didn't seem to make a move, Nikaido Hiro raised an eyebrow.

"What? You're still not satisfied? Do you have to see Hoshino die and torture him a little longer before you're satisfied?"

"You're really a pervert, a psychopath."

When Sawatari Coco called Utsunomiya Hoshino a pervert, that was indeed a bit of a cross line.