Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

When Sugiyama Rika passed through Strange City, she helped the child Tenran make a contract with a Jewel Beast, so that the beast would protect Strange City.

Unlike Mayumi Haga, who is aloof and never acts cute towards her, Tenran is a child who craves recognition and is very competitive.

Tianlan's magical aptitude isn't great, but she has enough perseverance and is able to put in effort that ordinary people can't.

The other party strives to be the best in every field. After learning that the magical girl in Miracle City is also a student of Sugiyama Rika, she wanted to come and spar with Crimson Iris.

To be honest, Sugiyama Rika has a bit of a headache with Tenran's personality.

She still hopes everyone can get along harmoniously...

Tianlan always strives to be number one in everything, but as a teacher, she prefers to treat everyone equally and not show favoritism to any one child.

To be honest, she's just lazy.

However, some time ago, Tianlan, who also became a teenage idol in her spare time, planned to hold a small concert in Miracle City. This was her first time doing so in her professional career, so she immediately invited her teacher.

I don't know how Tianlan, who is already so busy as a magical girl and also a high school girl, can still become a girl idol.

Unable to refuse, Sugiyama Rika agreed.

Now that I think about it, it seems to be the day after tomorrow.

I should take Mayumi to see him the day after tomorrow; maybe they can become friends. Mayumi's social circle is still too small.

Having learned from Hitomi Tono that Mayumi Haga has made new friends, but still feeling that the girl is too much of a homebody, Rika Sugiyama plans to take her out more often.

The premise is that Mayumi Haga does not object.

Meanwhile, Mayumi Haga, who had overheard the conversation between the guardian and the doctor, was still packing her bag late at night: "..."

Thank you, I've heard you.

I don't really want to go.

Main text: Chapter Sixty-Four: So-called Destiny (4k)

Six years ago, Sugiyama Rikka was twenty-two years old.

She finished her university studies in Miracle City, walked along the cherry blossom-lined campus path, and stood at the school gate in a daze for a long time.

Her former partner broke off her contract with the Gem Beast before her and decided to pursue further medical studies as an ordinary person, preparing for the medical licensing exam... She's busy with that now.

In other words, only Rika Sugiyama remains as a magical girl in this city.

Her partner, Ayasa Terasaki, withdrew so quickly that she was left all alone before she could even react. When she tried to find her, she discovered that Terasaki was studying for an exam, and disturbing her now would not be a good idea.

Sugiyama Rika was lost: what should she do in the future?

The magical girl's work has actually come to an end. After resolving the spiritual vein crisis, most of the monsters fled due to her power, and even the most troublesome Abyss Gentleman has disappeared without a trace... In short, everything is over.

After completing her studies, Rika Sugiyama realized that her magical girl career had actually ended several years ago. She was completely free; all she had to do was hand over the Jewel Beast to the next magical girl and then she could freely do whatever she liked.

My friends who fought alongside me have long since entered the workforce and are busy with their own lives. We don't usually have time to get together and have fun.

Even if I flew to their homes, my friends were mostly too busy or too tired to entertain me, let alone spend time with me like they used to.

The era of magical girls has passed. Stripped of their dazzling and cool exterior, they are just ordinary girls at heart.

Sugiyama Rika wasn't particularly bright, and she only took the university entrance exam because she wanted to continue having common topics with Terasaki Ayasa. During her university years, both monsters and monsters were in a period of low activity, and there weren't any particularly troublesome incidents to deal with.

After graduation, she had to think about an important question.

If she weren't a magical girl, what would she want to do?

Sugiyama Rika doesn't have many plans for her future. She feels that she has always just stayed in Miracle City, and she usually has to go to school and maintain order as a magical girl, so she doesn't have time to develop her own interests.

Aside from her exceptional talent in magic, Sugiyama Rika's aptitude in other areas can only be described as mediocre. She could learn them with effort, but she lacked interest and found it difficult to excel or make further progress.

But... do I really want to continue down the path of magic?

Sugiyama Rikka's identity is uncertain.

Everyone else has left the world of magic and gone on to their own futures, but I'm still stuck in the same place.

I wanted to find Cai Sha, but she was very busy...

The older child, Sugiyama Rika, looked distressed, feeling lost about the future and unsure of what to do.

After the anime concludes with a satisfying ending, the magical girls' faces, etched with both laughter and tears, will be frozen in time to cheerful or sentimental background music. Viewers know they defeated their enemies and achieved a happy ending, but what about the more distant future?

Having experienced such a magnificent and magical world, appreciated the beauty of the sky, and endured brutal battles... although I can still have a campus life no different from ordinary people, something is still different from before.

Not to mention Sugiyama Rika, a magical girl whose body has been transformed into a magical elemental body, making her quite different from humans now.

The trauma she sustained in battle was quite distressing for her.

Four years ago, she went to the ley line to stop the Abyss Gentleman from detonating it. Afterwards, she told a friend that she had successfully prevented the explosion before it could occur, so the ley line was unharmed.

But the truth is, the spiritual veins were indeed damaged, but she repaired them.

The moment the spiritual vein was destroyed, she was pulled into a realm inaccessible to humans.

Beneath the "sea surface" that broke through the ice, she saw the sleeping face of the [god].

I can no longer clearly remember the appearance of the deity; perhaps my brain is unable to remember such a face.

But Sugiyama Rika still remembers her immobile body immersed in warm, liquefied magic. Beneath the clear water, those enormous, gleaming golden eyes slowly opened.

Compared to those gentle eyes that filled her entire field of vision and stretched to the horizon, she was like a speck of dust, floating and sinking in the blue waves of those eyes.

As Sugiyama Rika reminisced about the battle that changed her life, she unknowingly arrived at the observation deck on the mountain.

Night fell, and streetlights along the way turned on one by one, casting a warm glow. She rested her elbows on the railing, leaned slightly out, and looked towards the city.

By focusing her attention, she could see the magic flowing, and the world presented itself to her in a way that was completely different from what she had seen before. A vast amount of information rushed into her brain, but she ignored that information and saw the scene below.

The city lights up at night, creating a dazzling ocean of light, while vehicles with their headlights on form a steel torrent on the roads.

This is the city she protects, just like always.

When Sugiyama Rika was alone, she would always remain silent, gazing at the dark purple night sky, and withdraw her outstretched body.

It's still a bit chilly at night, I'd better head back first...

...? !

The soon-to-retire magical girl, who had been quite relaxed, suddenly sharpened her gaze. The prismatic gem hanging on her chest flashed with a bright, crimson light as she looked in the direction from which the strange feeling was coming—

—All that could be seen was the sky being torn apart, and a blazing, dark flame lit up behind that void.

Something has come into this world.

Because the barrier between worlds was torn open, things outside also became agitated, and even the spiritual veins began to boil.

Countless monsters emerged from underground, baring their fangs and claws as they launched an attack on pedestrians!

When Sugiyama Rika finished her transformation and went to the rescue, the streets were already in chaos.

Looking back now, the monsters that night weren't particularly difficult to deal with, but the impact was widespread, and the need to dedicate time to repairing the world's barrier caused the delay.

That was Sugiyama Rika's last battle.

During that battle, she found an extremely thin child wrapped in oversized clothing.

It looked to be only a little over ten years old. It appeared by the wall at some point and sat quietly against it.

He watched Sugiyama Rika's battle in a hollow and quiet manner.

With its eyes lowered obediently, pale and delicate, it looked like a doll wearing ill-fitting clothes, as if it might close its eyes at any moment.

She showed no confusion, nor any longing for the battles of the magicians, nor anything that Sugiyama Rika could see in the eyes of children her age.

It was lifeless, its chest rising and falling weakly, like an object.

Like weeds that can be seen everywhere by the roadside, it has no presence whatsoever.

But Sugiyama Rika noticed the child who had suddenly appeared.

After dealing with the chaos, before the next wave of monsters arrived, Sugiyama Rika quickly flew over, wanting to take the child to a safe area.

"Please hold my hand, I'll take you to a safe place!" she pleaded, but the child did not respond as expected.

The child seemed to have no strength left, unable to move, just staring blankly as I approached, as if still reeling from the devastating blow I had suffered.

Sugiyama Rikka had no choice but to pick up the child and fly away.

When she held the child, she felt that the small body in her arms was so cold and even trembling.

The other person's breathing was barely perceptible, so weak that it seemed as if they would be gone in the next instant.

After being picked up, she stiffened for a moment, then quietly grabbed the hem of her clothes.

Sugiyama Rika felt her clothes getting wet; perhaps it was from the child's tears.

After that, Sugiyama Rika's life underwent another change no less significant than becoming a magical girl.

.................................................. .................................................. .

"Oh, thinking about Mayumi back then, I always feel she was so fragile and cute." In the crowded amusement park, Sugiyama Rika held popcorn in her left hand and two vanilla ice cream cones she had just bought in her right hand, and said with a grin, "And she was so clingy to me, I really miss it."

Even though she was out having fun with her guardian, the other person seemed to be having more fun than she was, so all she could do was respond with a cold expression: "...Hmm."

Stimulated by the other party's flashbang-like magic, tears welled up in her eyes, and she wept uncontrollably in their arms... It's better not to recall that kind of thing again.

However, to be honest, when I first arrived in this world and realized that I couldn't go back to my original world, I really didn't care about anything else.

At that time, I couldn't tell the warm liquid flowing from my eyes, and I thought my tear ducts had long been damaged... but it turned out to be tears.

Mayumi Haga accepted her weakness, but accepting it and being willing to accept it were two different things, as Sugiyama Rika kept it in mind. At least for now, she was very annoyed by Sugiyama Rika's carefree and joking attitude.

However, before Mayumi Haga's expression could completely darken, Rika Sugiyama changed the subject again: "But..."

Haga Mayumi: "?"

"Looking back now, it was really great to have brought Mayumi home back then." Sugiyama Rika truly felt this way.

She had no experience raising children and never imagined that she would become the guardian of a ten-year-old child after graduating from university—the laws in this world were also very lax—she was not prepared at all, she just felt that Mayumi Haga couldn't live without her, so she brought her back.

As it turned out, this was the right decision.

Mayumi Haga's arrival brought a completely new life to Rika Sugiyama.

“At first, it was Mayumi who took care of me the whole time,” Sugiyama Rika remarked, not feeling ashamed at all about being taken care of by a child younger than herself.

The reason is simple: Mayumi Haga gives off a completely different vibe than a ten-year-old child.

After she recovered, she was able to take good care of the good-for-nothing Sugiyama Rikka.

Incidentally, Mayumi Haga simply doesn't spend extra energy taking care of herself, but if Rika Sugiyama is home, she will still cook.

Despite many gaps in her common sense, Mayumi Haga was an adult in her original world who was able to travel alone for hundreds of years. Although she stopped talking to people much later on and it is unknown how long she spent alone, her communication skills declined considerably, but she was still better than Rika Sugiyama, who was an older child.

Sugiyama Rika confided almost all her confusion about the future to Haga Mayumi.

"I don't know where to go... but if I just stay here, I guess I can see the end of my life in the blink of an eye."

Mayumi Haga would listen attentively and then offer her advice.

"Didn't you want to go on a trip?"

"...Huh?" Sugiyama Rika looked puzzled. "How did you figure that out?"

"Your book collection, and your bookmarks." While learning about this world, Mayumi Haga discovered many travel guides and introductions in Rika Sugiyama's house. She spoke a little haltingly, gradually adapting to the language of this world. "You really want to leave this place."

“Oh, that’s... But traveling there would be so troublesome, with language and cultural differences, and so on.” Sugiyama Rika said somewhat dejectedly, “After all, my foreign language skills aren’t very good, and if I go alone…”

That's absolutely not going to work.

She wanted to go with Ayasa Terasaki, but she wouldn't have time for at least the next ten years.

The black-haired child sat quietly opposite her, and upon hearing this, simply blinked silently, puzzled.

For Mayumi Haga, traveling is an everyday activity.

She is the soul of a traveler wandering the continent of Alamo. For her, fate is to constantly transport her soul to more suitable places, in an endless cycle.

In her childhood, she lived with her mother in the Far East. After her mother left, she traveled with her senior, Urzana. Once she was able to become independent, she left Urzana and rode her horse, following the guidance of fate, constantly encountering and parting with unfamiliar faces.

Mayumi Haga actually loves to travel. For her, travel is not about wandering, but rather a wonderful cradle prepared for her by fate.

As the sun rises and sets, the old flesh and blood are constantly peeled away, and a brand new Haga Mayumi is forged in new encounters.

Because of the long river of life, she was able to meet people who had already passed away.

The old woman she parted ways with at the previous crossroads might be the newborn child in the next village, for whom she would offer a newborn gift. She had once seen the mother of a child who had become a complete stranger during her travels, but only watched from afar, not daring to approach. She had also once offered flowers as a stranger at that child's funeral.

People will leave one day and reappear before her in a new guise, perhaps still as people, or perhaps as birds, trees, or wildflowers blooming at her feet.