Chapter 261: Sawa Yamauchi and the White Queen
"This is the Spirit Crystal that can turn you into a Magical Girl of Fire. Since you don't believe me, try acquiring its power. If you succeed, you can fight alongside Kurumi in the future."
Sawa Yamauchi, who was still somewhat skeptical, hesitated. She carefully felt the very real heat radiating from the Spirit Crystal. After a moment of hesitation, she stared fixedly at Mio Takamiya.
"Is everything you just said true? I want to see Kurumi. Once I see her, I'll make my own judgment."
Mio Takamiya didn't reply. With a casual wave of her hand, the two of them instantly appeared on a rooftop.
Down on the street below, Kurumi was fighting a bizarre-looking monster. Seeing Kurumi gradually losing ground due to exhaustion, Sawa instinctively wanted to help, but stopped after taking just one step.
"I believe you. Bring out that crystal. I'm going to help Kurumi deal with that monster."
Hearing this, Mio once again presented the Spirit Crystal to Sawa. Faced with the scorching heat of the crystal, Sawa looked at Kurumi, who was completely suppressed on the street. Without any hesitation, she grabbed it directly.
In an instant, a searing wave of heat expanded in all directions. Sawa's skin was rapidly burned and scorched away as a miserable scream rang out.
Kurumi, who was in the middle of the battle below, was instantly distracted by the scream. Looking over, she saw that the source of the noise was Sawa, who was oozing fire. This momentary distraction resulted in her stomach being pierced straight through.
"Sawa..."
Sawa, who had been struggling to suppress the crystal's power, was instantly distracted when she saw Kurumi suffer a fatal blow. At that moment, the flames completely consumed her.
Seeing this, Mio didn't intervene. She simply vanished and left.
---
"Kurumi, how many times have I told you? Your clones are no match for evil Spirits. Now look what happened. Aside from the Spirit just now, another Spirit of Fire has appeared. This time, you need to use **Zafkiel** to deal with it properly."
Stretching lightly, a relaxed Kurumi Tokisaki sat up from her bed.
"It's just two Spirits. I can easily deal with them using the Seventh Bullet. What's there to panic about?"
As she spoke, Kurumi stood up and sank directly into her shadow. When she reappeared, she was already on the street with the Spirits. Seeing the two Spirits rampaging destructively, Kurumi instantly grew excited.
"Zafkiel!"
"Seventh Bullet!"
Relying on the Seventh Bullet's time-stopping ability, Kurumi successfully eliminated one of them. But when facing the Spirit of Fire, the hand Kurumi used to raise her musket paused. She carefully observed the Spirit before her, then burst out laughing.
"This Spirit of Fire looks so much like Sawa. I definitely have to tell her about this the next time we meet."
Then, Kurumi pulled the trigger. The Spirit of Fire instantly resumed its movement before collapsing directly to the ground.
Seeing that Kurumi was completely unharmed, Sawa, who still retained a sliver of consciousness, instantly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Kurumi... I'm so glad you're okay..."
Before she could even finish her sentence, Mio appeared beside the Spirit of Fire. She reached in and extracted the fully purified Spirit Crystal from its body.
At this moment, Kurumi was still in a daze. Looking at the Spirit of Fire dissipating into the world, recalling everything that had just happened, and combining it with her suspicions over the recent period, Kurumi looked at Mio beside her in disbelief.
"That Spirit of Fire just now was Sawa! You've been lying to me this whole time!"
Mio didn't deny it. She nodded in acknowledgment.
"That's right. The ones you've been eliminating all along are human girls who failed their spirit transformation. I originally wanted Sawa to help you out too, but unfortunately, her spirit transformation failed as well."
The casualness of her words made it sound as if she had just been slaughtering chickens this entire time. This instantly dragged Kurumi, who had been deeply immersed in her dream of being a magical girl saving the world, back to reality.
Looking at the dual guns in her hands, and looking at the Spirit of Fire that had just been eliminated, Kurumi felt despair welling up from the bottom of her heart. Hatred for the world consumed her completely. Feeling waves of dizziness hitting her, Kurumi acted extremely decisively.
"Zafkiel! Fourth Bullet!"
As the gunshot rang out, her hair color, which had been turning from black to white, reverted back to black.
---
At this moment, Franklin realized that his memories hadn't stopped at Kurumi. Instead, they followed Kurumi's inverted spiritual power into the Neighboring World.
The recently eliminated Sawa Yamauchi wasn't dead, nor were any of those girls who underwent spirit transformation. They were residing in different domains of the Neighboring World.
Eventually, Kurumi's inverted spiritual power found Sawa and slowly merged with her. Sawa's appearance changed as well. A Kurumi with long white hair and blue clock-face eyes was formed. With a military saber in her right hand and a short gun in her left, she exuded an overwhelming sense of majesty.
Slowly withdrawing from the newly acquired memories, Franklin let out a soft breath and looked at Kurumi in front of him.
"Mr. Franklin's questions are quite sharp. As for what happened last night, of course, I've thought it through. And today, I'm here to put it into practice. Mr. Franklin, from now on, I will use any means necessary to defeat you and devour you. Your job is to completely strip me of my ability to resist and make me realize my own insignificance. Otherwise, I don't know what I might do..."
Franklin didn't reply to that. Instead, he looked at Kurumi with a serious expression.
"Sawa Yamauchi is still alive."
The moment his words fell, Kurumi's face instantly darkened. "I don't know where you heard that name, but I'm asking you to take back what you just said right now."
Franklin snapped his fingers lightly, and a phantom of Sawa Yamauchi instantly materialized.
The moment she saw Sawa, Kurumi fired the musket in her hand directly at Franklin. Franklin ignored it. With another wave of his hand, the scene of Kurumi's partial inversion appeared.
"When you learned the whole truth, your inverted spiritual power didn't dissipate, and Sawa Yamauchi didn't entirely die. Your inverted spiritual power fused with Sawa Yamauchi inside a domain in the Neighboring World. She is currently alive and residing in that Neighboring World domain."
As he spoke, the **White Queen**—with her long white hair and blue clock-style eyes—was presented before Kurumi Tokisaki.
Seeing Franklin's serious expression, Kurumi didn't speak. She directly summoned Zafkiel.
"Tenth Bullet!"
After shooting herself in the head and acquiring the lost ten minutes of memories, the way Kurumi looked at Franklin completely changed.
"You are very strong, Mr. Franklin. Treat my earlier words as if they were never spoken. Right now, I just want to know: is what you just said about Sawa Yamauchi still being alive true or false?"
Seeing that the situation was smoothly resolved, Franklin let out a soft breath.
"I'm not lying to you. In the future, if possible, we can go to the domains of the Neighboring World to find her."