Chapter 28: The Fiend's Identity and How to Deal with It

With a sense of grim, funereal determination, Ren Akiyama led the perpetually scowling Magical Girl Black to the maximum-security Esper Prison.

“So this is the famous Esper Prison, huh?” Black remarked casually, her eyes scanning the cold, sterile, and oppressive facility. “It’s practically overflowing with an unsettling, almost miasmic aura of pure, concentrated despair.” She paused, a thoughtful frown on her face. “Speaking of which, what exactly was that Strawberry Sweetheart brat doing, bringing you to a cheerful place like this before?”

“Oh, her?” Ren said with a wry smile. “She was just here to thoroughly, and with a great deal of artistic flair, mock the Darkmoon Queen. If I had to describe it,” he added, a glint of amusement in his eye, “it was like one of those smug, bratty little characters from an anime, gleefully, and with extreme prejudice, taunting her defeated and now utterly powerless arch-rival. Even though that’s not really her established, fan-approved public persona at all.”

Black let out a sound of genuine surprise. “Tch, tch. Now that’s really unexpected. To think the great, noble Strawberry Sweetheart would actually do something so… petty. It’s a classic, textbook case of ‘the deeper the love, the deeper the hate,’ I suppose. You said before that the organization’s preliminary investigation suggested that they were probably best friends at one point, right?”

“Perhaps. The organization’s official files are far from complete, unfortunately,” Ren replied with a casual, almost practiced shrug. “That was just what I was able to find with my current security clearance. A lot of the data related to Strawberry Sweetheart’s past is, as you can imagine, highly classified. Unless you get her personal, written-in-triplicate permission, secretly and illegally digging into other people’s private, and probably very traumatic information isn’t a very polite or professionally advisable thing to do, you know.”

And so, the two of them, the magical girl and her Supporter, arrived before the heavily fortified, energy-shielded cell of the one and only Darkmoon Queen.

“Well, well, well! If it isn’t the great and powerful ‘adult,’ the mighty, the unparalleled, the fiend-punching Magical Girl Black!” Yume Ayase’s voice, though slightly hoarse, dripped with her usual, theatrical, and deeply ingrained sarcasm. “And look! You’ve brought your handsome little boy-toy, Ren-kun, with you as well! What’s this, then? Last time you were on a little prison date with the cloyingly sweet Strawberry Sweetheart, and this time you’ve decided to bring your own dear, sweet father-in-law for a romantic little rendezvous instead? My, my, you really aren’t picky at all, are you, my boy? As long as it’s a magical girl, anyone will do? Is that your type? In that case,” she purred, a dangerous, predatory glint in her eye, “I suppose I was a magical girl too, once upon a time. You wouldn’t, by any chance, be targeting my beautiful, if currently slightly imprisoned, body as well, would you, you naughty little boy?”

The Darkmoon Queen, it seemed, now that she was locked up with nothing to do all day, had gone a little stir-crazy, spouting all sorts of incomprehensible and frankly quite unhinged nonsense.

“A new fiend, a new threat, has appeared in S-City,” Ren said, cutting straight to the point, completely ignoring her taunts. “Do you have any leads? In the past, under your Darkmoon Coven, there must have been some other, lesser things lurking about, things belonging to the dark, slimy underbelly of this world. You were the top fiend organization in the region, weren’t you?”

Hearing that a new fiend had appeared, the Queen’s expression flickered for a fraction of a second, a hint of genuine interest in her eyes. But then, she immediately recovered her composure, crossing her legs elegantly, a bored expression on her face. “Listening to you two, it seems that you heroic, world-saving figures have come all the way down to this dreary, disgusting prison to… what? Interrogate little old me for information? And you actually, genuinely think that I’m going to answer you? Willingly?” She let out a short, sharp, almost barking laugh. “Anyone with even half a functioning brain, anyone at all, wouldn’t bother coming to ask me for help, would they? As if I, the magnificent Darkmoon Queen, would ever, ever tell you the answer, even if I knew it.”

“Listen here, you clown,” Magical Girl Black snarled, stepping forward, her patience already worn thin, “don’t you dare think for one single, solitary second that just because you’re locked up in this high-tech Esper Prison, I can’t still do anything to you. The only reason the organization didn’t summarily execute you after your little stunt was out of some misguided respect for Strawberry Sweetheart’s delicate feelings. But if I were to kill you, right here, right now, no one, absolutely no one, could say a single, damn thing about it. Strawberry Sweetheart has already officially retired. She can’t stop me anymore.” A sphere of ominous, pitch-black, and deeply unstable energy began to coalesce in her outstretched hand. Judging by her terrifying, gleeful expression, it was crystal clear that the magical girl named Black would absolutely, positively not hesitate for a single moment when it was time to act. If she was going to make a move, she would really, and with great enthusiasm, make a move.

Alright, Yume Ayase had to admit, with a reluctant, internal sigh, that she was, in fact, quite scared. “Why don’t you,” she said, her voice now a little more subdued, a little less arrogant, “tell me the specific situation in more detail first. Otherwise, it’s incredibly difficult for me to make an accurate, informed judgment. Just because a murder has occurred, just because it was a super-powered crime, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it was the work of organized fiends, you know.”

And so, Ren, with a cold, professional efficiency, shared the sanitized, for-fiend-eyes-only data on the five recent murder victims and their respective crime scenes with her.

She frowned, a genuine, thoughtful frown this time. “If you’re talking about an Esper I might possibly know, then only the third victim rings a faint bell. This one,” she said, pointing a delicate finger at a holographic image, “the one whose head and body were twisted completely around, with the official forensic report stating that he somehow, impossibly managed to twist his own damn neck off… I might, perhaps, have a small lead on that particular artist.”

“You mean, who?” Ren pressed.

“You know, the classic, almost cliché villain archetype from all those cheesy anime, the one who uses strings or threads to control people. The fiend’s official and frankly rather uninspired name is ‘The Puppeteer.’ He’s not a native fiend from S-City, but I have, on occasion, encountered him before. In terms of our respective attributes, my Dark Moon Domain was a slight but decisive counter to his particular abilities, so he couldn’t really do much of anything to me. If you’re looking for a breakthrough in your little investigation, it would probably be best to start with this person. But,” she added, a strange, cautionary look in her eye, “I would strongly, strongly advise that Magical Girl Black go and act alone on this one. After all… that particular fiend’s ability is absolutely fatal to the weak. He probably couldn’t do much of anything to the likes of Magical Girl Black, but you, my dear, handsome little Ren-kun… you would be in a great, great deal of mortal danger.”

The black light in Magical Girl Black’s hand vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. “If you’ve set some kind of elaborate, deadly trap in all of this,” she growled, her voice a low, menacing promise, “then you’d better pray to whatever dark, pathetic gods you worship that I actually,l, and with great finality, die. Otherwise, I promise you, you will.”

“…I’d rather not take that particular bet with a terrifying monster like you, my dear,” Yume sighed, watching the backs of Ren and Magical Girl Black as they turned and left her cell. She lamented to the empty air, “Fiends really have no human rights at all these days, do we!”

“My Queen,” Darkstar Count’s melancholic voice echoed from the cell next door, “has our glorious era truly, finally passed?”

“I told you not to call me Queen anymore, you fool… And when you finally get out of this place, you’d better not try to be a fiend again. After all,” she added, a bitter smile on her lips, “you’ll definitely be abandoned by the new, unforgiving era.”

Darkstar then asked, his voice a hopeful whisper, “So, did you, by any chance, set a little trap for them in there? Just a small one?”

“No,” Yume replied simply.

“You’re… you’re really helping them, then?”

The young woman, the fallen queen, leaned wearily against the cold, unyielding bars of her prison cell. A strange, almost beautiful and unreadable smile graced her lips. “Magical Girl Black is an anomaly. A bug in the system. She will not, I think, ever become a true fiend. But I have a premonition… a strong, almost certain feeling… that the very era of magical girls, this grand, tragic cycle, will finally, inevitably end at Black’s own two hands. This person… this strange, middle-aged man in a magical girl body… she will bring an end to the age of magical girls… the so-called Color Generation… and so,” she concluded, her voice a soft, almost reverent whisper, “I will help her. Haha~ Hahaha~ Hahahahaha~~~~” She let out the classic, mandatory three-stage villain laugh, a sound that was both mad and strangely, beautifully sad. The other, lesser fiends in the surrounding cells quickly, and with a shared sense of dread, covered their ears. The Darkmoon Queen… she was still a famous and deeply unstable fiend, after all. They didn’t dare to tell her to shut up.

And at that moment, the deep, sonorous, bell-like sound once again echoed from the deepest, darkest depths of the prison, a sound of absolute, final authority, that completely drowned out the Queen’s mad, cackling laughter. And the prison, once again, returned to its usual, oppressive, and profoundly boring silence.

After returning to the organization’s headquarters, Ren immediately, and with a feverish intensity, began to investigate all the available, classified information on the fiend known as "The Puppeteer."

The intelligence provided by the Darkmoon Queen wasn’t necessarily, and in fact was probably not at all accurate. It could very well be a deliberate, cunning misdirection. But even if it was a deliberate misdirection, there should still, logically, be some similar, truthful elements within it. Something that could, if they weren’t careful, cause him and Black to make a crucial and possibly fatal misjudgment.

“The Puppeteer is a strange, highly anomalous fiend. According to his psychological profile, he’s a ‘behavioralist-type’ fiend. In other words,” Ren explained to Black, his expression incredibly grave, “he’s like an artist, a creator, constantly in pursuit of his own, twisted masterpieces. These types of fiends are often the most difficult, most dangerous to deal with, because common, everyday sense and morality have absolutely no meaning for them. They possess their own unique, self-contained worldview, one that is twisted, broken, and chillingly alien to the bone. They are the type of creature that will do anything, pay any price, commit any atrocity, for the sake of their so-called ‘art’.”

Reading the rest of the file on The Puppeteer, Ren’s expression became even more grim. “This… this is a very, very dangerous Esper. He has already committed nearly ten horrific cases in the neighboring X-City, yet he has never, not once, been found or identified. His signature threads, it seems, can control everything. Even inanimate objects, like surveillance cameras, can be manipulated by him, so it’s very, very difficult for him to ever appear in anyone’s field of vision. The few, grainy existing video files we have of him were all, apparently, shot by tiny, almost invisible pinhole cameras that he simply failed to notice. We can’t, as of yet, truly lock down his presence. And just as the Darkmoon Queen said, anything, anyone, weaker than him is instantly, almost contemptuously controlled, and then… killed… He’s extremely dangerous, and the organization can’t determine what the absolute upper limit of his strings’ power is. After all,” Ren concluded, a shiver running down his spine, “he only ever seems to target one person at a time, turning them, one by one, into one of his grotesque works of art.”

Hearing this chilling intelligence report, Black also frowned, a deep, worried furrow appearing on her brow. “So what you’re trying to say is, if he were to truly, seriously go all out, we have absolutely no earthly idea how much damage he could actually cause?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. If you were to engage him in a direct battle, he might, in a single, terrifying instant, manipulate hundreds of innocent people, or even more, and then, with a single thought, cause them all to die. No one, absolutely no one, knows the true limit of his power. I’m afraid that only a true domain-type power, like the Darkmoon Queen’s own, could effectively counter him. By swallowing him whole into her domain, he wouldn't be able to harm the surrounding area, the innocent civilians.” At this, Ren’s gaze, sharp and burning, looked directly at Magical Girl Black. “So, Black. Tell me. Do you have a domain-type skill? If I remember correctly, every single magical girl, without exception, should have a similar, signature skill—even Strawberry Sweetheart’s famous Sparkling Form is also, in essence, a so-called ‘Holy Light Domain.’ And within that domain, all evil, all negative emotions, are completely purged. For beings with dark, corrupted hearts, it is the most painful, most agonizing light imaginable. It can even, in some cases, directly, completely eliminate evil existences, like the Darkmoon Queen herself.”

At this, Black looked a little… awkward. Terribly, painfully awkward. “Haha, well, you see, kid, about that… funny story… I… I don’t actually have a domain skill. Not yet, anyway.”

So, if we want to investigate this case, we’ll probably have to… train first. In the end, it still, inevitably, comes back to training, doesn’t it? That word, I feel like its frequency of appearance in my life has been very, very high recently… Ren made his logical and slightly depressing judgment. “In that case… it’s actually good timing, I suppose. Shall we go and find the retired Magical Girl Lapis Lazuli, then? See if she can teach you some new tricks?”

“Huh? Why her? Can’t we just ask Strawberry Sweetheart for help?” Black grumbled.

“I heard that Strawberry Sweetheart, our dear Akari-san, has gone on a little trip. It seems she went to some amazing, very famous mountain somewhere. I heard there was a very powerful, very ancient temple there, and that all the wishes made at that temple are guaranteed to come true. Hana and I were actually planning to go on a little trip there ourselves sometime soon.”

“Is the retired life really that good? That relaxing?” Black grumbled, a note of genuine envy in her voice. “Isn’t she a first-year student at your high school? Shouldn’t a student’s primary duty be to, you know, study? How dare she just go off on a trip like that? Isn’t she supposed to be studying for her exams?”

Ren just looked at Magical Girl Black, the middle-aged-dad-in-disguise, completely speechless.

Black laughed awkwardly. “Well, then… shall we go and find Lapis Lazuli, then? I guess?”

“Yes. We shall.”

This was an extremely critical, time-sensitive moment, so they had the organization contact her directly. The more time they could save, the better. After all, they didn’t know when the fiends, when The Puppeteer, would decide to strike again—it was even entirely possible that, at this very moment, another fiend was in the middle of committing another gruesome, artistic crime.

Although Black felt a little impatient, a little antsy, she forced herself to calm down. After all, Ren’s choice, his logic, was correct. If they were to recklessly go on a subjugation mission without a proper plan, and if the fiend The Puppeteer truly possessed such terrifying, widespread destructive power, then the potential losses would truly, catastrophically outweigh the gains. To subjugate a fiend in order to protect the public, only to have numerous, innocent citizens die in the process as a direct result of your actions… wouldn’t that be putting the cart before the horse? Such a thing would be extremely, unforgivably foolish.

With the organization’s high-speed assistance, Black directly, and with a surprising gentleness, picked up Ren, and then, with a surge of dark power, flew through the sky, arriving in short order at Lapis Lazuli’s secluded home.

Surprisingly, Lapis Lazuli—Moeka—didn’t live in the city, but in a quiet, almost forgotten rural area just outside of it. To say it was a "village," however, wasn’t quite right; this entire, sprawling area seemed to have only a single, solitary, and surprisingly modern house. The rest was just… endless, neatly tended vegetable fields. It felt like a paradise, a hidden sanctuary completely isolated from the rest of the world.

“There’s still a place like this, so peaceful, just outside of S-City?” Black murmured, a note of genuine surprise in her voice.

“Well, there aren’t even any proper, paved roads out here. It really does feel like a place that’s been completely cut off from the rest of the world. Just like the so-called ‘Peach Blossom Spring’ from the old stories.”

As they were discussing this, they landed softly in front of the quiet, unassuming house and, with a certain amount of nervous trepidation, knocked on the front door.