Chapter 27: The Fiends' Provocation

Fiends have their own bitter struggles. Magical girls have their own complicated lives. And Supporters, it seems, confide their deepest worries in each other—

On the surface, it seemed as if everyone was doing just fine. It seemed that with the spectacular, almost anticlimactic fall of the infamous Darkmoon Coven, under the overwhelming suppression of the one and only Magical Girl Black, S-City had truly, finally, and with much self-congratulatory fanfare from the local government, become the "Safest City in the Nation." A beautiful, shining beacon of peace. A place where every single ordinary, law-abiding citizen could live out their own happy, peaceful, and wonderfully mundane lives…

However, that was wrong. Completely, utterly, and with a dawning, creeping sense of dread wrong. Not to say that the peace was entirely false, nor to make any other profound, high-minded philosophical statements about the transient nature of tranquility.

It was just that S-City, in reality, had not, in fact, calmed down at all.

A murder had occurred. And then another. And another.

And it was very clearly a case of super-powered crime.

Almost on the exact same day, five consecutive, brutal incidents had occurred, all clearly the work of Espers, each with a different and increasingly gruesome modus operandi. Why were they so certain it was super-powered crime? Because with today’s advanced surveillance technology, if the culprit couldn't be immediately identified, then it had to be, without a single shadow of a doubt, the work of an Esper. Only an Esper, with their reality-bending, physics-defying abilities, could so easily, so contemptuously evade certain types of high-tech surveillance and then, with impunity, commit murder.

This was an extremely vicious series of events. Five incidents in a single day—it was incredibly difficult for anyone to believe that this was some kind of random, tragic coincidence. This was, by all professional accounts, a message. A declaration. A provocation.

In fact, the heinous cases had all occurred on the very same day that Magical Girl Black had… ahem… "night-raided" Ren Akiyama’s bedroom. The police, having just received the initial reports, hadn't immediately classified the incidents as Esper-related murders. It was only after a full, frustrating day or so of intense investigation, analysis, and bureaucratic reporting that they had finally confirmed the chilling similarities and disturbing differences between the five cases. They had ultimately, and with a great deal of urgency, reported their findings to the Hero Organization. And the organization, in turn, had immediately forwarded the entire, bloody case file directly to Ren Akiyama.

Ren, his face a mask of cold, righteous fury, immediately stormed into the Handler’s opulent, minimalist office, seeing the impeccably dressed and infuriatingly calm woman in black. 

“I need an explanation,” he demanded, his voice tight with a barely suppressed rage. “An explanation regarding these recent, brutal Esper-related crimes. If I remember my contract correctly, Magical Girl Black is only responsible for defeating fiends after they have been identified. Finding the fiends, investigating their movements, that is the organization’s job—so what in the seven circles of hell is this?! Are you going to have us moonlight as overworked, underpaid private detectives and solve your damn cases for you now?!”

As a Supporter, he knew, it was incredibly important not to let his assigned Esper bear an excessive, unnecessary burden. And especially as the Supporter of a magical girl, a being whose power was so intrinsically, so dangerously linked to her emotional state, this was even more critically important. He had originally planned to go house-hunting with Hana today. But then this… this had suddenly, and with a complete lack of professional courtesy, happened. He could not tolerate this level of incompetence.

The woman, the Handler, simply reached out a slender hand and, with a calm and almost gentle motion, pressed down in the empty air, a silent, condescending signal for Ren to calm his youthful, hot-blooded self down. “Ren, my dear boy, I know what you mean. I understand your frustration, truly. But this matter… it’s not that the organization’s people aren’t investigating. It’s that, at this point, only Magical Girl Black truly possesses the ability to effectively investigate.” She paused, a flicker of something almost like sadness in her eyes. “In fact, the organization has already dispatched two of our best Espers, two highly skilled agents who specialize in investigation and tracking. They’re both dead.”

Ren’s pupils contracted, his blood running cold.

He couldn't believe it. He knew that the Espers belonging to the organization, regardless of their raw combat power, were certain to be incredibly, uniquely powerful in their specialized, functional abilities. The Espers specializing in investigation, the ones dispatched by the organization for a case of this magnitude, they must have been the absolute best of the best, highly skilled, and possessing a wealth of practical, hard-won experience. And they were both… dead?

“Clearly,” the Handler continued, her voice a low, grim murmur, “the culprit, or culprits, are extremely powerful. And they are even, it seems, observing our organization with a cold, scrutinizing attitude. If we were to send more investigators now, I’m afraid we wouldn’t get a satisfactory answer. We would only be adding to the body count. After a lengthy and quite heated internal discussion, the organization has come to a rather… unsettling conclusion. These recent super-powered crimes, we believe, are not truly about individual Espers wanting to kill people… but rather, they are… competing.”

“Competing?” Ren echoed, a sense of dawning horror in his voice.

“Different fiends, different factions, in this rather gruesome and highly public manner, are competing to see who will be the new, undisputed top boss of S-City’s underworld. At the same time,” she added, her gaze now fixed on Ren, “they are using this method, this spectacle of violence, to provoke the organization… Their meaning is clear: even if they can’t launch a direct, large-scale terrorist attack like the now-defunct Darkmoon Coven, they can still, with ease, shroud the so-called ‘Safest City’ in a pitch-black, suffocating shadow of fear. Because they are super-powered criminals. And they will be more secretive, more cruel, and far, far more clever than the theatrical Darkmoon Queen of the past ever was.” The woman’s piercing gaze fell on Ren. “The fact that we must all, however reluctantly, now admit, my dear boy, is that Strawberry Sweetheart’s era has well and truly passed. The Dessert Generation of magical girls has officially ended, and the fiend organizations of that bygone generation are also, one by one, beginning to see their own end. Now is Magical Girl Black’s era. It is the Color Generation. And we must, accordingly, fight a new, more dangerous breed of fiends. Fiends who, just like Black herself, were born and bred in this new, chaotic Color Generation. They exist in a more secretive, more insidious manner than before. Perhaps their raw, destructive power is smaller than that of the fiend organizations of the past, but… perhaps, in terms of the pure, unadulterated fear they can bring to the hearts of ordinary people, this new generation of evil is even worse.”

“So, you see, Ren,” she concluded, her voice now a quiet, sympathetic whisper, “this is something that Magical Girl Black must face. It is something that you, as her dedicated Supporter, must face together with her.” The woman, having said all this, gave a bitter, self-deprecating smile. “You might think that I’m just saying all this because it’s easy for me, that I’m just a heartless bureaucrat spouting empty words… But, Ren, the organization is not nearly as powerful as you imagine. And the fiend organizations, they are not nearly as weak as you might think. At the end of the day, heroes and fiends—they are, fundamentally, the same kind of thing, are they not? Just standing on different, opposing sides. Fiends will never, ever truly disappear from this world. And neither, I suppose, will heroes. This constant, grinding, eternal struggle… this is the very essence, the very soul of both heroes and fiends.”

Ren felt a strong, overwhelming urge to punch this calm, cynical, and probably correct woman directly in her smug, philosophical face. But he knew, with a certainty that was like a stone in his gut, that it would be utterly useless. After all, Magical Girl Black, his charge, his father-in-law, she would never, ever ignore such a thing happening in her city. The magnificent, all-powerful Magical Girl Black, who had so recently, so reluctantly taken over the heavy, crushing responsibility of protecting this entire city from the delicate, now-retired hands of Strawberry Sweetheart… she would not, she could not, ignore a situation like this. It wasn't in her nature.

“Do you understand now, Ren Akiyama?”

“No,” Ren said, his voice now cold, his earlier anger replaced by a grim resolve. “I don’t understand at all. I just know what I have to do.”

And with that, Ren Akiyama hurriedly, and with a new sense of purpose, left the Handler's office.

He quickly found Magical Girl Black. Clearly, she, too, had already received the grim news.

“To put it simply,” Ren began, his voice now all business as he analyzed the current, dire situation, “we know absolutely nothing about this new, emerging fiend organization, or organizations. We don’t even know if these fiends are locals, or if they’ve come here from other, more chaotic cities. Therefore, our available intelligence is in a very, very bad, almost non-existent state. And, considering that our most experienced investigators died without managing to send back even a single, solitary scrap of information, I suspect with a high degree of probability, that our opponent possesses some kind of insidious ‘First-Encounter Kill’ ability.”

A First-Encounter Kill ability? Black’s gaze also became solemn, serious. Although she didn’t think a simple First-Encounter Kill ability could possibly kill her, with her monstrous stats, since Ren, the expert, felt there was a significant risk, it was a risk that should be avoided. “In that case,” she said, her voice a low growl, “what are you suggesting, kid?”

“My meaning is,” Ren said, his own eyes now blazing with a strange, almost reckless light, “that I will go and investigate, alone. And you, Black, you will watch from the shadows, from a safe distance. If the opponent does indeed possess some kind of tricky, one-shot-kill ability, then you, by observing my unfortunate demise, can obtain the relevant, crucial intelligence. And then, we can plan our next move from there. A calculated sacrifice.”

“Do you seriously think that saying such a completely, utterly foolish thing will make me agree to it? How could I possibly, ever let you go and investigate alone?” Black immediately rejected the insane idea. “That is an unbelievably, suicidally stupid course of action, Ren! And I forbid it!”

Ren, however, just shook his head, a strange, sad smile on his face. “No, Black, it’s not. Have you already forgotten? In Hana’s dimensional space, when you so generously, if unintentionally, absorbed the corrupted power of Magical Girl Crystal, you only absorbed about twenty or thirty percent of it, right? The rest of that immense, chaotic power… wasn’t it, by a strange twist of fate, transferred directly into my body, through your very own lips?”

“What? So you finally awakened an Esper ability and can become a magical girl now, too?” Black asked, a flicker of genuine, if slightly horrified surprise in her eyes.

Ren shook his head again. “No, not at all. In fact, to this very day, I still haven’t felt anything even remotely resembling an Esper ability within myself. It feels as if that immense, world-altering power just… vanished into thin air, without a trace. But if,” he insisted, his voice now filled with a desperate hope, “if that power still exists somewhere within my body, dormant, waiting… then perhaps, just perhaps, encountering a true, life-or-death crisis is the one and only condition that can finally trigger that power.”

“That is also reckless, almost laughably so, Ren! And what if it can’t be triggered? What then? You could really die, you big idiot!” Black couldn’t quite understand why Ren, her usually so calm, so rational Supporter, would propose such an insane, almost suicidal idea. She frowned, her expression a mixture of anger and a deep, unfamiliar concern. She moved closer to Ren, then, almost unconsciously, she stood on her tiptoes and, with a surprisingly gentle motion, she raised a hand and touched his forehead. “You don’t have a fever. So why are you suddenly starting to talk such utter, complete nonsense? You seem… you seem very agitated, Ren. This is not the calm, professional attitude you should be having. What is it? What has made you so agitated?”

Magical Girl Black’s image, her established persona, should have been the agitated, reckless one. After all, no matter what the fiends said, no matter how they pleaded or reasoned, Black would always, without fail, just say, “What kind of nonsense are you spouting now?” or “How utterly, completely meaningless,” a posture of not even bothering to listen, before she proceeded to beat them into a bloody pulp.

But at this very moment, Magical Girl Black, for the first time, was acting like a proper, reliable, and surprisingly gentle adult. She looked at Ren, her eyes filled with a strange, tender warmth. “You and I, Ren, we’re partners. We’re a team. You should tell me why you are like this. I… I will listen to you properly. I promise.”

Was this… was this some kind of bizarre, psychological revenge? For the past few days, Black had been subjected to all sorts of intense, unsolicited "talk therapy" from Ren, which had, among other things, led to her fleeing in utter disarray from Ren’s poor, unsuspecting parents. That really, really shouldn’t have happened. But then again, she hadn’t had the face to meet those two kind people anyway, so it was, in a way, an unavoidable situation. And now, she was deliberately, mischievously adopting this same, gentle, therapeutic posture. She was trying to get back at Ren for what he had done to her.

“And if you need it,” she added, her voice a soft, almost seductive purr, “this warm, comforting embrace of mine… you can borrow it too, you know~” The small, petite girl opened her arms wide in a gesture of magnanimous, motherly invitation. This was complete and surprisingly well-executed revenge. The other day, she had thrown herself into his arms and had been, much to her eternal humiliation, rejected. And now, if Ren were to actively, willingly throw himself into her embrace… it would be a perfect, beautiful, and deeply satisfying cycle of karma!

Looking at the strange, beatific smile on the girl’s face, Ren was silent for a long, long moment. And then, he asked, his voice a low whisper, “This mission… this new, endless fight… does it not trouble you at all, Black? Don’t you feel that having it all suddenly, unfairly thrust upon your shoulders is a very, very unreasonable thing? Can you… can you truly, easily accept such a burden?”

Black’s face was filled with a genuine, unfeigned surprise. She hadn’t expected Ren’s sudden, uncharacteristic agitation to be… to be because of her. But—perhaps, when she really thought about it, that was only natural. “You already know what I’m going to say, don’t you, kid? And yet you still ask me anyway. The one who truly can’t accept this, the one who’s truly struggling with this… it’s you, isn’t it?”

“To finally, mercifully bring one terrible generation to an end, only to have to immediately, and with no time to rest, welcome the next, even more terrible one. This… this is just like the never-ending, Sisyphean story of Mario having to save the princess. No matter how many times you save her, she will always, inevitably, be snatched away again. And then, Mario, that poor, mustachioed bastard, has to set off on a new, even more difficult journey.” Ren’s voice was filled with a profound, tragic sorrow. “This… this is just like Crystal’s endless, unforgivable resentment. An eternal, repeating cycle of suffering.”

“So you see, kid,” Black said, a strange, new gentleness in her voice, “I shouldered that terrible resentment. I resisted that soul-crushing despair. I chose, with my own free will, to fight against that endless, hopeless cycle. And you, you foolish, kind-hearted little brat…” Black sighed, a sound that was unbelievably soft. She then, with a natural, instinctual motion, took the initiative and hugged Ren, wrapping her small, slender arms around his tense, trembling form. The girl’s petite, almost fragile body, at this moment, was somehow enough to bring Ren a huge sense of security and peace. “You already know everything, don’t you? You can think everything through to its logical, often painful conclusion… but in the end, you are still just a young man. Knowing about pain, and truly, deeply facing that pain yourself, are two very, very different things. There are still so many, many things you have to experience in your own life. You’ve just… you’ve just never experienced such a moment of utter, complete powerlessness before, have you? After all,” she added, a fond, proud smile in her voice, “you always, always have your own brilliant, clever methods to solve every problem.”

Her tone, her voice, it was so impossibly, so unbelievably gentle.

“But,” she concluded, her voice a soft, comforting whisper against his ear, “when it’s time to rely on an adult, when you truly need to… then you should rely on an adult.”