Bellona took a small break to catch her breath as Annette played her control song again and commanded the rodents to withdraw. Her body was covered in light cuts and stabs, with the sheer numbers of the Rodent Regiment managing to overwhelm her defenses from time to time. She looked into the sky, watching a news helicopter following her every move.

  I wonder if Senpai can see me.

  Annette collapsed next to her, taking a breather. She pulled another green vial out of her pockets and injected the contents into her leg. Cuts and bruises vanished, and she regenerated her arm with this mixture hours ago as well. Apparently, it was simply a ‘health pack’, which restored health points in the game’s system, which then gave her hard light body back its strength and missing limbs.

  “How much longer until they stop?” Bellona asked. If there weren’t cameras in the sky she would undo her transformation, suffer the bruises in her normal form and regain a pristine fighting shape before the rodents came back, but like this she had to grin and bear it. Additionally, the two couldn’t talk too openly about being part of a game, or Annette would end up being banned, leaving Bellona to fend for herself.

  “Could be until 2 in the morning, or if they’re really committed to it, they’re doing an all-nighter. No real way to tell when they’re getting sick and tired of this.”

  Bellona nodded and peeked over the trench’s edge. Still no sign of the rodents coming back, so they had that going for them.

  She saw a trail of bright colors on the horizon and breathed a sigh of relief as three girls landed.

  “Well, hello there!” Annette waved over to the newcomers. They wore dresses shaped like upside-down tulips in violet, red and pink colors, clearly marking them as the Flower Brigade.

  “I was just thinking we could use some more hands!”

  The one in a purple dress stepped forward: Violet, the leader of the group in this generation, who was a girl wielding a fearsome rose thorned whip.

  “What’s taking you so long to contain this? Don’t you glowing types always jump in and kill everything fast?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at the destruction all around them. Holes in apartment buildings, holes in the street, parts of which didn’t even have asphalt left, leaving behind burned earth.

  “I would, but these little critters just keep coming and coming and coming…” Bellona said with a dry chuckle before she continued.

  “Is that why you’re late? You expected me to have this over and done with soon?”

  She quickly raised her hands in a calming gesture.

  “I am not accusing you, for the record.”

  The girls exchanged a few looks, then they sighed. The one in pink spoke up.

  “That, and there have been a few incidents all over the city. There’s been a sudden outbreak of Shadows. We took care of it, then the Kuma Group took over hunting them down.”

  Senpai’s arch nemesis.

  Bellona remembered. She and Minerva used to hunt Shadows together before Hitoishi lost her memories of them both teaming up. At least in the two years Bellona could still remember. Minerva was especially insistent on exterminating these creatures, and sometimes when they found traces of a Shadow having swallowed a magically talented girl and turning into a Shadow Queen, her Senpai would suffer a panic attack, reliving traumatic moments of being trapped inside those creatures herself.

  Her obsession with the Shadows kept her awake at night, and whenever her earring detected one of the creatures nearby she would abandon everything to hunt them down.

  “It’s good that you took care of as many of them as you could. Thank you.” Bellona said, even bowing her head to them. The girls seemed surprised, given their usual interactions with Minerva when she cut in and destroyed the marionettes they were supposed to battle.

  Bellona cleared her throat afterwards. There was something she needed to ask to keep her normal body inside her Magical Girl form functioning for the long night ahead, and the girls were her best bet.

  “This is awkward to ask, given Minerva’s usual attitude with you, but… I’ve been here for twelve hours… could one of you go and buy something to eat and drink? Please?” Bellona pulled Miori’s wallet out of her crystal and gave the girls an awkward smile.

  She could see the pink girl’s eyebrow twitch before she replied.

  “…I hate you so much.”

  ***

  Bellona gulped down some water and ate a sandwich brought to her by one of the girls while the rest kept watch for respawning rodents. She sat on a little step the rodents built into the trench walls so they could shoot over the edges.

  “Thank you… really, I mean it. My body doesn’t tire while I’m transformed, but the person inside still needs to eat, drink, and sleep. If I don’t give her that…”

  “Yes, yes, I understand!” the girl in pink shouted and sat down next to Bellona, casually handing her the change.

  “I-it’s not like I did this because I particularly care about you or anything!” she exclaimed as she looked away.

  Bellona smirked and patted the girl’s head, feeling the temperature of her head rise.

  Tsundere.

  “S-stop that!” the girl complained.

  “You’re acting abrasive. But you deeply care about others,” Bellona said with a smile.

  “H-how would you know?” the girl responded with a pout.

  “Because otherwise you would have never become a Magical Girl.”

  There was no response, but Bellona smiled as the girl desperately tried to hide her blush by looking the other way.

  “Ugh… here they come, Bellona!” Annette shouted from another trench.

  One after the other portals appeared and the rodent soldiers charged through, screaming in their squeaking language.

  Bellona immediately sprang into action, thrusting her halberd through the first soldier before he could reach the girl beside her. He exploded into cubes of rainbow light and left behind his death marker.

  The girl in pink’s eyes widened at the sight.

  “Don’t worry! No one’s getting hurt. They’re just remote controlled!”

  Bellona assured the girl, whose expression just became more confused in response.

  “For them, this is a game.” Bellona added as she rushed ahead, blocking shots with her magic barrier and cleaving more rats and mice in half. Hesitantly, the pink girl got up and summoned a rapier with a cherry blossom-shaped guard to her side.

  “This is crazy!” she complained.

  Bellona and the girl in pink fought side by side, and she always made sure that the younger girl remained unharmed no matter what came her way, be it a rodent coming in for a bayonet charge or taking aim at her. Sometimes she complained about being patronized but thanked Bellona under her breath.

  “What’s your name?” Bellona asked after a while. “I’m Bellona Azure.”

  “Cherry.”

  “I see a theme.” Bellona said, looking over to where Violet was, fighting back-to-back with the last of their trio, dressed in red.

  “Well duh!” the girl said with rolling eyes.

  Bellona let out a little chuckle. Then she readied her weapon as a dozen portals appeared, and the spawning rodents immediately trained their guns on the two. Apparently, they were willing to try some new tricks to overcome the Magical Girl’s defenses.

  They’re really treating me like a raid boss.

  Bellona didn’t hesitate to throw herself in front of Cherry, creating a barrier as the troopers pulled their triggers, but they never got to shoot. In that moment a large fireball detonated and reduced the squad to nothing.

  Minerva!

  Bellona turned around and was stumped to see another young girl approach.

  “Hey!” the blue-haired girl in oversized witch robes greeted her with a raised hand, stepping out of a glowing portal, almost like the ones the rodents used.

  “Uhm… hello.” Bellona was confused by the girl’s appearance, tilting her head to the side.

  “I’m here to take over. Go get some rest. Your girlfriend’s that way, too.”

  The young witch pointed towards her portal.

  “My girlf-” Bellona shook her head and laughed.

  “I wish… but thank you.” She gently ruffled the young witches’ hair as she walked past her, who complained loudly with a groan before she reached the portal, then she turned around to her and Cherry.

  “Don’t get hurt, alright?”

  “Ha! The mighty Witch Queen of the Infinite Library will get everyone out of this alive!” the blue-haired girl exclaimed and shooed Bellona through her portal, so Bellona obliged. She kept her eyes on the girl who let out a shout before she blasted another rat soldier to bits, taking position next to Cherry, who appeared just as confused by the witches’ appearance as Bellona.

  The portal closed, and Bellona found herself in a place she didn’t recognize.

  Moon of the Murdered Singer, 1067 AR

  ***

  Bellona looked around to orient herself. She stood in a tall field of wheat, stretching all the way to the right as she could see. To the left she saw a riverbank, and on the opposing shore she saw a large, old European style city, with a wall surrounding all its buildings, reaching from the mountain around which it was built to the shore. On top of said mountain was a castle, and as far as Bellona could tell it had only one entrance, with the rest being covered by walls. The mountain’s cliffs in fact served as a steep defense for the castle’s main section. The city was covered in rainbow lights from its lamps, which shifted colors steadily. It reminded Bellona of RGB lighting in her world. With only these few lights, the night sky was dazzling above her. An endless number of stars filled its expanse, and a large, white moon.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Right in front of her was a hovel, and Bellona approached. As she came close to the cramped space, she dismissed her halberd and entered, then she dismissed her transformation entirely as she saw Hitoishi sitting at a table.

  “Senpai! What… what happened to you?!”

  Her beloved senpai was bandaged in multiple places. Gauze was taped to her left eyebrow and her cheek, her right arm was in a sling, and her shirt’s right sleeve was torn off with her shoulder visibly bandaged as tight as possible. There was still some bleeding seeping through at the back, indicating how severe the injury must have been.

  “A lot.” She answered with a little smile as she grabbed the back of Miori’s head and gently rested her forehead against hers.

  “It’s good to see you, Miori.”

  Tears welled up in Miori’s eyes as she clung to Hitoishi, embracing her and indulging in her warmth for a few moments. Given the lack of pushback or other responses from Hitoishi, she likely did the same.

  “We have roughly half an hour.” Hitoishi suddenly said.

  “What do you mean?” Miori separated from her senpai and looked at her with a confused expression.

  Hitoishi placed her phone on the table, with the timer app counting down from 32 minutes.

  “It’s how long Lethe is going to be limb- and powerless. How long I have until she comes for me to finish me off.”

  Miori’s eyes widened.

  “Senpai… what did you do?”

  “I bought myself some time to explain my plan to you. Without Lethe butting in.”

  Hitoishi put her good hand on Miori’s cheek and looked her in the eyes.

  “Listen closely to me…”

  ***

  “That’s cruel, Senpai…!”

  Miori was crying, clinging to her senpai as the woman ran her fingers through her hair. Every time the two were on dates or interacted otherwise it was Miori who was the one offering comfort to the tired Hitoishi and took charge, but now, even with the older woman’s injuries, it was Miori who turned back into her dependent seventeen-year-old self, unable to make hard decisions on her own. The timer was sitting at 14 minutes, counting down.

  “I’m sorry. There’s no other way.” Hitoishi let out a long sigh, looking at the ceiling.

  “If I spill Madame Bille’s potion and grow a fruit out of my chest all of a sudden on my own, Lethe will never take the bait,” her senpai said with a bitter smile.

  “I don’t want you to forget me!” Miori complained in a whiny voice, almost regressing into a petulant child.

  “It still hurts too much from when it happened last year…”

  Hitoishi sighed and grabbed Miori’s right shoulder, pushing her some distance away and looking her deep in the eyes.

  “Miori. I don’t know what will happen once Lethe finally dies. She might take all the memories she’s taken with her, or they will return, or her field of lilies will remain, and we’ll have to find each and every individual she’s ever stolen from. I don’t know. If the memories she devoured are truly lost, then Ayame, Miyu and all the others will forever be dependent on ventilators to breathe… and Miyu might even be considered… brain dead…”

  She stopped a short moment to swallow heavily and collect herself, while tears welled up in her eyes, then she shook her head and continued.

  “…but what matters is that we’ll finally have a chance. You’re worried that I’ll forget about you, but… remember that it took you only a few months after meeting me for the first time to have me fall for you. You can do it again.”

  Hitoishi’s eyes took on a stern expression.

  “And way more important than all of that… she’ll never be able to do it to anyone else ever again. And ensuring that is our duty. As Magical Girls.”

  Miori turned her head away in embarrassment. Until recently she only ever used her abilities to her own benefit. Assisting Hitoishi not out of a sense of responsibility, but because it got the two closer together.

  She pursued Lethe not for the purpose of stopping her, but to get revenge for the lover she stole right out of her arms. The thought to fight threats, be they men or monsters, for the sake of others, primarily for the sake of young girls, only occurred to her last month after preventing Akane’s suicide.

  “Alright, Senpai… but brace yourself!”

  Miori got up, her lips and eyes quivering as she made her declaration.

  “If you dare to forget me, I’ll love bomb you so hard that I’ll make your head spin! You’ll be completely clueless why you have a beautiful blonde lolita fawning over you like that!”

  She pointed her finger at Hitoishi, who chuckled, then let out a laugh.

  “That’s the spirit! And now I almost want to forget, because that sounds like heaven for an otaku like me. Love bomb me like that even if I don’t forget you, promise?”

  Miori blinked and turned red.

  “…sure!”

  “Well, with that said…”

  Her senpai got out of her chair and looked at her phone, which now sat at seven minutes before she stowed it again.

  “Miori. I have something to confess to you”

  Hitoishi smiled at her, and all the tiredness she carried on her shoulders for the last several years appeared to have left her, with only the eye rings left. Her body was ravaged, but she looked to be in higher spirits than ever.

  “I love you and have done so for nine years. I loved you ever since our hug.”

  She kept smiling at Miori, even as their surroundings vanished, as Lethe’s curse on Hitoishi dragged them into her domain.

  ***

  Miori was back in that vast field of lilies under the blue spring sky. An uneasy feeling spread throughout her. A reaction to both what she remembered and didn’t about the things that happened in this place.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, steeling her mind for what had to be done. As she looked down at her hand, she saw the small vial with the potion her senpai entrusted her with earlier.

  Someone stepped up and stopped by her side - she felt Hitoishi’s hand on her right shoulder. She turned her head and looked her in the eyes. Both of them didn’t say a word. They didn’t need to.

  They simply embraced and shared a kiss. Their lips touched and ever so slightly opened – it was a clumsy kiss, bereft of any experience. A kiss they saved for each other for nine long years.

  And even though it was such an amateurish kiss, with their tongues bumping into each other without any real purpose, it was all Miori ever wanted.

  Lethe felt the magic containing her weakening. She screamed and tried to move her body, to rip those cursed arrows off her stumps, but they held strong for the past two hours. She struggled and groaned and cursed.

  All kinds of thoughts were racing through her mind. All sorts of ways she could enact her revenge.

  I will impale her from bottom to top! I’ll make her scream! I’ll make her watch as I disembowel everyone she cares about while she slowly withers away! I’ll violate her in ways she would have never imagined possible!

  She blinked as she felt something familiar; her seed of despair activated, transporting Seika to her domain. Lethe’s visage contorted into a sadistic expression, and she let out a loud laugh like a harpy.

  “You stupid woman! Did you think you could escape my curse by trapping me here? Oh, you have no way to leave now! I will take my time with you… oh, I will!”

  Right then, she could feel the spell binding her to this place fading. Whatever trinket Seika used to imprison her here lost its touch, and while the essence-draining arrows prevented her from summoning vines to kill herself, they could not prevent her from returning to her own domain.

  With nothing more than a thought, she vanished, and her torso reappeared in her beloved field of lilies. She stared up into the vast, blue sky of her domain, letting its beauty sink in for a moment before she looked at the lilies around her. Her beautiful collection, showing memories of loved ones, memories of hatred, memories of despair, all of it was soothing balm for her soul, even after such an upsetting defeat. She let those feelings wash over her for just a moment before she focused on getting her revenge.

  Now that she had her magic back, she didn’t hesitate in the slightest. A vine appeared out of the ground and snapped her neck.

  ***

  Bellona was already prepared for Lethe’s appearance. The moment she gained her newest body and emerged next to the couple, the blue armored woman sprang into action. She could see the surprise on Lethe’s face at her determination as the green woman hissed and dodged the first strike meant to cleave her from the shoulder to the hip by jumping out of the halberd’s range. She immediately retaliated with vines, but Bellona already summoned blades to spin around herself. None of the vines shooting out of the ground were getting close to her. She stepped closer to Lethe and pressed the attack, with the plant-like woman cursing as she dodged, before she suddenly stopped and grinned confidently as Bellona’s attack closed in, only to give her an offended look as she ended up being run through by her halberd anyway.

  Lethe’s face contorted into a grimace of hatred as she turned her head to the side and stared at Hitoishi, who stood in the field of lilies, with her good hand raised and pointing a magic ring at her nemesis.

  “What’s the matter, Lethe? Can’t teleport?” she taunted the curse in human form, which promptly retaliated by summoning her vines from the ground, which crashed against shields surrounding Hitoishi’s body.

  “You’re going to have to work harder than that, Lethe!” the wounded woman taunted her hated enemy, who let out an angered shriek, just before Bellona decapitated her with a summoned sword.

  “Don’t get distracted, now! I’m your enemy!” she shouted.

  “She’s bound to see red and be reduced to her instincts if we keep at it.”

  Bellona grinned at the words of her partner, turning around and swiping at another Lethe who appeared right behind her.

  I’m glad that I’m doing this with you, partner.

  Lethe let out a scream and lunged at Bellona, but was impaled on a braced spear. Soon after her head went flying after a swing from the Magical Girl’s halberd.

  “May we go to Orcus together if we fail.”

  Maybe try to be a little bit less pessimistic about this.

  Lethe appeared in Bellona’s blind spot and almost managed to cut her face with her nails – but a precise shot from one of Hitoishi’s rings nailed the cursed woman’s arm with a magic arrow. She held her wrist and barely managed to give Hitoishi an offended look as she was cleaved in half by one of Bellona’s swings.

  “Is that all you can do, Lethe?!” Hitoishi shouted, attracting the plant woman’s attention yet again. She couldn’t do much from behind her shields, and she had to keep putting on ring after ring as Lethe appeared again and furiously slammed vine after vine against her defenses.

  “You bitch!” the creature shrieked.

  “I will violate you! I’ll make Miori watch as I gouge out your eyes and push my thorns inside you until they come out of your mouth! For ruining my harvest! For humiliating me! I know that sooner or later either of you will grow tired and make a mistake! You always do!”

  Lethe’s screams stopped as she was bisected by Bellona’s halberd once more. She now entirely lost her focus whenever she attacked one of them, suffering from tunnel vision. Her rage appeared to affect her domain as well, as their surroundings were plunged into darkness under a blackened sky.

  Bellona and Hitoishi exchanged a few quick glances and a smile. All this felt way too easy.

  Wait, whenever I get that kind of feeling…

  The shields surrounding Hitoishi fizzled out and the bracer she was wearing on her arm turned to ash. She looked a little dejected before she smiled at Miori.

  “Well, I guess that’s it for me. Give her hell!”

  “I’ll do more than that, Senpai!” Bellona shouted, jumping towards Hitoishi and hacking away at vines coming to attack the now unprotected office worker. Summoned swords and axes all worked overtime as she protected Hitoishi from the onslaught – and she even brought the cheirosiphōn back out to burn the plants around them.

  Some vines were close to hitting Hitoishi, and she let out a loud curse as one of the vines’ thorns cut through the belt fastening her chest of treasures to her hip. It fell into the grass below and Hitoishi was forced to step away from it as a knot of tendrils swallowed it whole, dragging it into the ground.

  With Bellona’s attention solely being on defending Hitoishi it came as it had to: a vine which wasn’t aimed at Hitoishi but at Bellona herself approached from her blind spot – and even as Hitoishi shouted a warning it was simply too late. The vine slammed into Bellona’s side and sent her flying. Only as she got back up did she realize that she was bleeding, and her blood already hit the ground.

  Lethe’s maniacal cackling filled the entire area as every lily in her garden turned a red color, and a golden fruit burst from Hitoishi’s chest, causing her to let out a stifled scream. Lethe appeared right behind Hitoishi, and as Bellona wanted to rush to her beloved’s side, the demon put her sharp nails on her hostage’s throat.

  “Not a single step closer, Miori dear…”

  Lethe held Seika close, her eyes feverishly on Bellona. She died so many times today that her mind wasn’t entirely here. Add all the provocations to that and she was barely more than a slavering beast, beholden to her base instincts. Gone were the thoughts of inflicting death and torture. She wanted to eat! She wanted to taste sweet memories! Once she got them, dealing with Bellona would be easy.

  As she saw the armored Magical Girl freezing in place she wasted no moment to wrap her in her thorned vines and make her watch what was about to happen.

  She was almost drooling, her eyes unfocused as she looked at the golden fruit that burst out of Seika’s chest, accompanied by the woman’s stifled screams. Remarkably, the injured woman didn’t pass out like so many of her victims.

  It was such a beautiful fruit. Containing all the memories of Bellona and Miori, all the way back to when the two lovers first met. With this she would finally separate the bonds these two shared, making their two fruits the last time she would feast on them.

  She thought she heard the quiet pop of a cork, but she was unable to force her gaze off the fruit. She slowly reached for it, her face contorting into a wild grin as she looked back at Bellona.

  “Thank you for the meal.”

  Bellona looked at her with an expressionless stare. Something was off. She expected more pleading, begging, crying – anything! And yet she couldn’t stop herself. She brought the fruit to her lips and her teeth pierced its surface.

  “I pity you.”

  Those strange words came from Seika – who, by all rights, should be unconscious right now. Lethe saw the pain in her eyes as she fought to stay conscious while her memories were literally eaten right out of her mind. And after she delivered her words, she slumped over.

  Lethe let go of Seika, who simply fell to the ground and remained motionless in the tall grass. She robotically finished devouring the fruit until nothing was left, with her body’s instinct simply taking charge of the action. Only then did she see a strange, empty vial in Bellona’s hand and a triumphant expression on her face, even with streaming tears marring it.

  “What did you…?”

  Lethe didn’t get to finish her question, interrupted as pain wracked her entire being and images flashed in front of her eyes. She saw the silver-haired grave keeper in front of her mind’s eye, and now she finally remembered her full name.

  Nicola. Nicola Bille. I love her. Or do I...?

  Lethe clutched her head as everything around her turned white and she let out a pained groan. She heard an otherworldly voice speak to her very being.

  “Awaken, soul of an artist!”