Chapter 245: So, where to go next?

So as the former leader, she, along with Amber and Su Jingyan, would have to take charge of the situation in the real world, shielding these magical girls who had finally managed to survive under the greedy gazes of the various board members.

To put it bluntly.

How many years had they slaved away for L Corp, and how many years had they been Sacred Tree Spirits and magical girls? Their sense of self-identity had long since changed.

Protecting them was the most important thing.

With that thought, Hythesla suddenly froze.

...Wait.

Where was Amber?

The silver-haired girl looked around, but couldn't spot that familiar figure.

For some reason, her heart suddenly sank heavily.

It wasn't just that she couldn't find Amber. As her gaze swept over every person in the hall, a strange sense of emptiness unexpectedly rose from the depths of her heart.

Her physical condition was better than she could have ever imagined, every cell cheering and rejoicing, yet the moment that emptiness arrived, her mood turned incredibly foul.

Why...

She subconsciously turned her gaze back to the girls.

But what she saw were the same expressions on their faces.

Tang Keren was dazedly squeezing her own perfectly restored arm, yet her fair face held only an indescribable blankness, her brows tightly furrowed.

Zihan's hand pressing against her right eye trembled slightly, her heterochromatic eyes filled with agitation and helplessness.

And Airwen showed no joy at all, merely staring fixedly at the Soul Gem in her palm, her body trembling faintly.

The previous magical girls who had been granted new life and were embracing their families in Kazenari Town also wore lost and wistful expressions.

Everyone's face carried a look of confusion and bewilderment.

...Why?

In the end, Hythesla's gaze landed on Su Fang, who was standing with Su Jingyan and Mogong Ma.

She was looking down at something in her hands.

A photo album.

Hythesla knew that this was what Su Fang had wished for from the Sacred Tree when she returned to this world, containing all the beautiful memories from within.

And at this moment, she was flipping through the album without stopping.

Inside were group photos of everyone, proof of everything that had been recorded.

But as she flipped, her movements grew more and more frantic, as if she were searching for something she herself didn't know what it was.

Her parents had returned safely, all her obsessions had been fulfilled in this moment.

Yet for some reason, Su Fang felt as if something had been gouged out of her heart.

Something had disappeared, leaving behind only a massive void.

When a person's heart is suddenly torn open with a gaping hole, the pain doesn't register immediately. There's only a suffocating feeling and confusion.

But as she flipped through the album, watching the trivial moments of the past, that hollow feeling finally began to throb with recurring pain, pain so intense it made her want to cry.

"..."

She started taking deep breaths, over and over, but no matter what, the suffocation and stabbing pain only grew more intense.

Why did it turn out like this?

She had saved her parents, and she had people she could be friends with for a lifetime.

Two happy things overlapping. This should have been a time of blissful happiness, like a dream...

But why, why did it turn out like this...

Mogong Ma and Su Jingyan watched their daughter with worried expressions.

At this moment, it wasn't just them. The atmosphere around everyone suddenly turned wrong.

Whoosh—

Dozens of shimmering pages materialized out of thin air above the hall.

The moment they appeared, they transformed into gentle amber light, sinking into the brows of the magical girls and Su Fang's parents.

BOOM!

The modified memories were pried open by something, and the truth of the past came flooding back into their souls like a tidal wave, so vivid it made their very souls ache.

They remembered now.

That girl with long, straight hair, eyes so bright they seemed to outshine the sun.

She spoke strangely, sharply, almost abrasively. But in truth, she was incredibly gentle.

Sometimes she was perceptive beyond belief, and other times she was so dense it was hard to believe she was a delicate girl at all, as clueless as a boy, not even understanding the feelings they had finally gathered the courage to confess.

No.

Perhaps it wasn't that she didn't understand.

It was simply that she had already known the ending that awaited her, and so she chose not to respond at all.

The tiny Sacred Tree swayed within the sphere of light, everyone sleeping peacefully, yet her presence was nowhere to be found.

She had fulfilled every promise. She had saved everyone.

But this time, she was the one who didn't show up.

"..."

Su Fang finally realized what she had lost. The void in her heart finally found the shape it belonged to.

But inside it, there was nothing left.

In that instant, the girls threw aside all their discomfort and began frantically searching through the cryo-chambers like madwomen.

Through the observation windows, they could still see the bodies of the previous magical girls lying peacefully inside, as if in deep slumber.

However...

There was only one cryo-chamber that was completely empty, as if that girl had never existed at all.

Su Fang's breath caught: "Sen...ior..."

Tang Keren murmured: "Didn't you promise we would win?"

Zihan clutched her Soul Gem tightly: "Liar... you big liar..."

Tears the size of pearls silently crashed onto the floor.

Then turned into wailing sobs.

"Waaah..."

But.

Right at that moment, someone suddenly spoke up.

"...It's not over yet."

It was Airwen's voice, staggering to her feet in front of the cryo-chambers.

The silver Soul Gem she gripped with all her might had its metal edges embedded into her palm, stained with traces of blood.

"She wouldn't lie."

She stared fixedly at the empty cryo-chamber, her voice hoarse beyond belief, yet carrying a conviction so intense it bordered on obsession.

"As long as we can still remember her right now, that means she still has an Anchor Point in this reality."

"No matter what kind of battle she's still fighting right now, as long as we can remember her, she won't completely disappear. She hasn't been completely denied yet."

"She would never give up, so we can't give up either."

She rasped: "This is what she taught me."

"All you have to do is believe!"

"And then—"

"Find a way to bring her back!!"

The moment those words left her mouth, the girls trembled all over.

Tang Keren wiped the tears from her face, Zihan gritted her teeth so hard they creaked, and Su Fang lifted her head, still sobbing.

Airwen really was the type to go to such extremes.

But at this moment, her almost fanatical conviction seemed to give them a sliver of hope.

Even if logic told them that this hope was as insignificant as a speck of dust before the rules of reality, they were willing to believe.

Not just because they needed to grasp at this last lifeline.

They simply chose to believe.

To believe in that girl who had created miracle after miracle after miracle.

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

The lower city.

A remote district far from the main roads.

The towering upper city blazed with lights, like the dwelling place of gods, casting its cold glow down upon this area without ever illuminating the chaos and darkness within.

At the top of a certain abandoned building whose exterior paint had long since peeled away.

Rusty barrels, discarded cables, and rotten planks were piled up everywhere. Clearly a hidden corner that no one had set foot in for years.

Step, step.

Staggering footsteps sounded.

A figure emerged from the shadows, wearing a robe like a witch's.

It was Amber.

But her condition at this moment was absolutely terrible.

Her originally fair and elegant face was completely drained of color, and her entire body had taken on a translucent, illusory quality, as if her very existence was about to fade away.

Amber leaned weakly against a rusty barrel, frantically rummaging through a pile of dust-covered junk.

After a moment, her fingertips brushed against a black book wedged in a crevice.

"Cough... good thing it's still here..."

The style of that book was exactly the same as the magic tome that appeared in her hands when she transformed.

HUM—

The moment her palm pressed fully against the black cover, a wisp of purple magic power immediately flowed back into her body from the pages.

Amber's nearly transparent form was replenished, shifting back from ethereal to solid, and her complexion quickly returned to its usual rosy glow.

"Phew... that was close..."

She took a deep breath, smoothed her slightly disheveled long hair, and a lazy, beautiful smile like that of a cunning vixen returned to her face. "Over a thousand years' worth of memories nearly burned away completely."

"If that had happened, even if a new 'Amber' were born, she would probably lose a great deal of important memories."

"The power of the Pride Domain, even when used for such gentle modifications, requires me, the memory witch, to dig out everything I have in order to reverse it."

She gently stroked the antique cover of the book and let out a long breath. "...But thank goodness, at least I haven't forgotten who I am."

Amber straightened up gracefully, casually donned her wide-brimmed black witch's hat, and curved her full lips into a smile.

She extended a slender finger and plucked a faintly glowing quill from thin air. As she made her way toward the stairwell through the night, she propped the book on her arm and began writing earnestly upon it.

Her movements were gentle, her handwriting elegant and refined.

As if she were recording something, and also writing a letter:

[As the ancient prophecy foretold.]

[The Prideful Witch King, after passing through three thousand three hundred and thirty-three cycles, finally reclaimed all of her Domain.]

[But a miracle never recorded in any prophecy also occurred at the end of this cycle.]

[She was stripped of all her Domain by a girl even more arrogant than herself, a girl who descended from nothingness.]

[And so the Prideful Witch King never truly manifested in this world. The catastrophe was successfully strangled in its cradle.]

[All magical girls and their families, along with the artifact storing the souls of all Kazenari Town residents and the power of the Sacred Tree, should now be properly settled by L Corp under the arrangements of Phoenix and Su Jingyan.]

[Additionally, L Corp board member, B-Rank superhuman "Kalma," codename "Pale Knight," committed suicide in his safe house two nights ago, a blissful smile on his face, his soul completely dispersed, True Transformation Element missing.]

[After verification, it has been confirmed that he was subjected to manipulation by the spell of "WH201." All core connection records and underlying data have been destroyed, and I was unable to reach the true body.]

[L Corp will not let this rest. "WH201" should go into hiding for a while. This is an opportunity.]

[But from traces gathered through other channels, it's not hard to see that the covert arrangements "WH201" made under the identity of "Kalma" are far from limited to this one. The disguises she possesses are likely even more numerous than the intelligence we currently hold.]

[Next, I will continue to pursue the schemes "WH201" left behind under the identity of "Kalma."]

[As for the other clues and unresolved prophecies, I can only leave them to all of you.]

[In short, the prophecy of the Pride Witch has been broken. This means the direction we've been holding to all along is not wrong.]

[Hope truly exists.]

Amber's quill suddenly paused mid-stroke.

The night wind lifted her black hair, her amber eyes flickering slightly as she gazed at the sky above, dyed bright as day by the holographic neon of the upper city. Her smile faded.

Then, she set the quill down again:

[However...]

[Actually, speaking from my own personal selfish desires, I now sincerely hope that the prophecy of the witch's revival truly comes to pass.]

[Of course, I absolutely do not mean I want that witch who brings nothing but destruction to descend.]

[I simply hope that the girl named Mengmengxiang can return to this world.]

[I don't know exactly how she did it, but I can faintly sense that she is truly fighting. Her existence has not been completely extinguished in that interstice.]

[Otherwise, no matter how many times I encrypted and reorganized my memories, I would never have been able to remember her, and they wouldn't have been left with that feeling of having forgotten something.]

[She created a miracle once again.]

[That is why I was able to restore those girls' memories, to let them remember her existence in the real world once more, to serve as her Anchor Point.]

[As for why I nearly burned myself out for this reason... perhaps it's simply because the posture she once showed us was truly too dazzling.]

[So dazzling that even a pessimist like me couldn't help but want to believe in miracles once more because of her.]

[She has never let me down.]

[So, for the sake of that miracle that might come to pass, and for the reunion that might happen someday in the future, I want to put in a little more effort as well.]

After writing this passage.

Amber's expression was calm as she gently tore the freshly written page from the magic book, then casually tossed it into the night wind beside her.

The page transformed into a stream of pure magical data, silently merging into the all-pervading network, speeding off toward an unknown destination.

Having done all this, the memory witch of the Witches' Guild curled her lips into a mysterious smile, snapped the heavy notebook shut with a crisp clap, and stepped into the night.

So, where should she go next?

...

[Volume One - The Caged Bird of Silver, End.]

...

[Taking tomorrow off to rest.]

[Below is the end-of-volume author's note.]

...

First, the summary.

Mengmengxiang was obviously saved, of course. And under the protagonist's burning sacrifice, everyone remembered her too, so this is a Happy End, not a Heartbroken End (confirmed).

Alright, now for the end-of-volume author's note.

Most of the time, people write all sorts of summaries, reflections, self-analysis, emotional journeys, and stuff like that in their end-of-volume notes.

But that's tiring, and it kind of feels like venting. So I'm going to skip all the roundabout nonsense and give you the most direct, most truthful, most objective, most correct, most straight-talking, most heart-piercing, most hardcore, most concise, most no-nonsense, most gut-punching, most unforgiving, most on-the-nose, most upfront, most unpretentious, most blunt, most unemotional, most no-filler, most straightforward, most meandering-free, most performative-free, most carried-away-free, most rambling-free, most dragging-free, most euphemism-free, most unvarnished, most unreserved, most honest-to-God, most raw feeling.

I want to become a magical girl.

Because I want to believe that there is love, hope, and incomprehensible miracles in this world.

Alright, that's the first half of this end-of-volume note.

As for more thoughts, if you've managed to read all the way here, then you probably don't need me to add superfluous explanations or justifications. Doing so might actually ruin your own interpretations.

The words that have already been written won't become better or worse because of my explanations.

So for the second half, I'll just say whatever comes to mind.

1. When I first conceived of this story and wrote the initial draft, the Pretty Cure detective manga hadn't started serializing yet, and Luluka hadn't appeared either.

But Luluka was too attractive (and too hot), so predictably, what I wrote afterward got influenced. Even the fight scenes unknowingly started drifting closer to Pretty Cure style.

2. Why do I sometimes write "Su Jingyan" and sometimes "Su Fang's father in the alternate order"? You all probably noticed this already. The name is a reference to Kayaba Akihiko from SAO, but I often write at two or three in the morning when my brain is mush, so I end up mixing up the order. After all, the order of Chinese characters doesn't alwya smatter for rading (I'm just being stubborn).
3. Zihan's normal hair color was originally supposed to be black, but I forgot and kept writing it as purple. Let's all just pretend it was always purple.
4. "Happiness Peace Committee" sometimes gets written as "Happiness and Stability Committee," along with many other mysterious typos. That's because half the time I'm typing on my phone. When you're typing fast on a nine-key keyboard with a small screen, mistakes are easy to make.
5. I always use words like "at this very moment," "in that instant," "the next moment" way too much. I end up spending a lot of time fixing them, but it's hard to break the habit. It's quite troubling.
6. Sometimes I have to balance between taking medication to relieve anxiety and mood swings versus not taking it to maintain creative passion. It's often a wild rollercoaster, which is why my typing speed is so slow.

Luckily, my situation is still better than many of my fellow author friends, so I suppose things are moving in a positive direction.

But.

Do NOT imitate me! Do NOT imitate me! Do NOT imitate me!

If any readers have similar conditions, please don't arbitrarily stop taking your medication on your own. Always follow your doctor's advice!

7. Teacher Gojo, if I could go back to that summer, I'd still bet on you winning!
8. Jujutsu Kaisen: The Movie - Resurrection still hasn't been released yet, and I really can't take it anymore.

And now for the most important part.

Twelve years ago, an author I deeply loved and admired said something in the closing note of his first completed work, and I've kept it in my heart ever since.

[One person's passion might burn out in a few weeks or a few months. But the passion of a group of people is enough to burn for a very, very long time. It's you who poured your passion into me, allowing me to keep burning until now.]

That quote is the truest reflection of how I feel.

As for what he's writing now... it's called "No Money to Cultivate Immortality."

Anyway, I want to express my most sincere gratitude to all the readers who are willing to read this novel, tip me, urge me to update, and leave comments.

I hope everyone can become adorable magical girls!

I love you all! I love Dawn! I love Kamen Rider Ichigou! I love Kakashi! I love Mengmengxiang! I love inside jokes! I love stealing ideas from everywhere! I love dumpling vinegar!

Alright, before we open the lighthearted and leisurely interlude (at least for the protagonist), I'm taking a day off first! (runs away)