Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 1 - Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

MAGICAL CANNON GIRL

A magical phone displayed the flaming highway.

“This is bad… We have to help!”

“I’ll follow you, Snow White.”

“R-right! Let’s go together!”

A magical phone displayed the flaming highway.

“Wh-wh-what do we do? We have to help!”

“Let the other magical girls handle this.”

“Huh? But…”

“We’ll attack anyone who tries to help. Tama, Minael, hurry and get ready.”

“Huh? Huh? Huh?”

A magical phone displayed the flaming highway.

“What’s this? Master, you’re not going, pon? You should be able to have lots of fun if you do, pon.”

“Perhaps.”

“You’re hard to understand, pon.”

“That’s enough of that. More importantly, is it true that Winterprison is dead? Who killed her?”

“You should probably consider your future and not some dead rival, pon.”

“I just want to know.”

The moment she spotted the figure aiming a gun at the highway, her brain exploded with rage. Springing off the broomstick, she dived. Top Speed shouted something, but she couldn’t hear it.

“Took you long enough, little girl.”

Discarding the rifle, Calamity Mary pulled the pistol from her hip holster and aimed at Ripple as she landed. Silhouetted against the flames of the highway, her eyes were unreadable in the shadows, but her mouth was another story. White teeth flashed in the darkness.

A bullet shot from the pistol. Holding her blade in typical ninja fashion, Ripple deflected it into the sky. Calamity Mary fired again, but she repelled that as well. Boiling rage had completely replaced her fear of the firearm.

Calamity Mary pulled out another pistol with her left hand. With dual weapons, she unleashed a barrage of bullets. They all zipped past Ripple—or maybe it was more accurate to say she dodged them. The slugs were heavy and fast, but she could read their trajectory. And in her hands, a sword was faster.

Tossing away her pistols, Calamity Mary stuck her hand into the bag hanging from her hip. Ripple dashed forward and slashed as she passed, aiming for the carotid artery.

Sparks flew. Her blade screeched against something steel. Ripple turned around and adjusted her stance. Underneath her armpit, Calamity Mary was holding an automatic rifle about a yard long with a foot-long bayonet.

That was what her blade had struck.

“I guess a Tokarev isn’t enough to take out a little girl of your caliber.”

Ripple leaped and slashed at her side, but the bayonet rebuffed her blade again. She’d been able to cut through road signs and masses of concrete with no problem, but Calamity Mary’s bayonet was a different story. Was she also reinforcing it with magic?

So what if she is?

Tensing her legs, Ripple swung at her torso with all the speed she could muster. Blocked. She shifted her weight and followed up with a stab. Blocked again. Jumping back, she threw three shuriken, but the bayonet denied them all. She feinted to the side and slipped in close to her opponent’s breast. The moment she tried to stab between her ribs, she felt intense heat on her face and sailed backward. The butt of the automatic rifle had connected with her face. She rolled to avoid the subsequent fire and, blood streaming from her nose, adjusted her stance again to close the gap quickly.

It was about thirty feet to her target. She traced an arc to the right. One, two, three steps—then a distinctive click came from below. Ripple froze. Upon close inspection, the concrete block under her foot was slightly sunken. As she realized exactly what she’d stepped on, a chill ran up her spine.

“Ha-ha-ha… Hya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Calamity Mary burst into laughter.

“Go ahead and move your foot, little girl! You’ll be in everyone’s way if you stand there forever! Die and take the land mine with you!”

The automatic rifle spit a burst of flame. Ripple couldn’t lift her right foot or the mine would explode. No normal antipersonnel weapon could hurt a magical girl, but this was a magical trap set by Calamity Mary.

Ripple could no longer move, but bullets rushed at her just the same. She drew the weapon hidden up her sleeve—a ninja blade half the size of her regular one, about the size of a short samurai sword but much better suited to blocking than a full-length blade. Using both swords, she deflected the hail of bullets. Eventually, the automatic rifle ran out of ammo before it could fatally wound her. Calamity Mary pulled the trigger, but only clicks came out.

She chucked the automatic rifle aside.

“Do not go against me.”

She shoved her hand into the bag again and pulled out eight items.

“Do not give me trouble.”

Attached to each dark green spheroid was a pin. Calamity Mary hooked her finger around it, pulled, and tossed the object at Ripple.

“Do not piss me off.”

Calamity Mary flipped over the railing. A fall from the roof of a building was no problem for a magical girl. But for Ripple, there was no escape. If she moved her foot the mine would go off, but if she waited the grenades would explode.

The air boomed.

Something slammed into her, and suddenly she was being pulled through the air. The impact to her side was enough to break her hip, or so it felt. Flames licked at her hair, singeing the ends. Ripple soared through the sky, leaving behind eight grenades and one land mine.

“Enough with the crazy stunts!”

Ripple twisted herself to see the person holding her up, and there was Top Speed, angrier than a hornet’s nest.

She’d flown fast as she could, nabbing Ripple from the side just before the grenades exploded. This simultaneously removed Ripple’s foot from the mine and set it off, but Rapid Swallow was faster than the explosion. In the end, Ripple had escaped with only a few scorched hairs.

Ripple grabbed Top Speed’s shoulder, flipped onto the broomstick, and plopped into the rear seat. That moment, she spotted the brilliant crescent moon in the night sky. Her mind flashed back to Calamity Mary’s smile, glinting white, and she ground her teeth in frustration.

“We have to get rid of her.”

“Don’t talk like a gangster, yo. We should withdraw.”

“Do you know why she was terrorizing the highway? Because she wanted to make me mad. Because she knows I care for this town. She’ll continue to hunt here until I die or something stops her. I—”

She took a breath. Why did Ripple want to fight? Because she was angry. Pissed. When Ripple had been Kano Sazanami, most of her motivation had come from anger. Why was she angry now? Was it because of Calamity Mary?

Ripple had always thought the laid-back nature of Nakayado clashed with her own personality. But just thinking about what had happened to her town made her insides boil.

“I don’t want to save the world, and I don’t even think I can. But… I wouldn’t be a magical girl if I turned tail and ran from the people of Nakayado. Even passing strangers.”

Ripple squeezed her arm around Top Speed’s waist. The heroines she’d idealized long ago surfaced in her mind.

“I am a magical girl.”

Top Speed seemed to be at a loss for words. After a while, she let out a breath. This wasn’t a sigh or a simple exhalation, though.

“Oh yeah?”

She dipped her chin and pulled down the edge of her triangle hat.

“Well, aren’t you proud of yourself.”

The broomstick slowed, until finally it stopped.

“I’ve never seen ya talk so much before,” she said, grinning wryly. “But you missed something.”

She spun 180 degrees in the air. Ripple held tightly to Top Speed’s waist to keep from falling off, but Top Speed didn’t sway in the slightest.

“I’m a magical girl, too, ya know.”

Boosters extended from either side of the broomstick. Flames ignited within, and they took off like a rocket. The loud flapping of Top Speed’s coat in the wind and their own screeching through the air threatened to destroy Ripple’s ears. Not even the sound of the streamlined windshield cutting through the air could catch up. Atop the broom, the girls lay as low as possible to hide behind the barrier.

Thanks to her magically enhanced eyes, Ripple spotted the Hotel Priestess. The roof was gone without a trace, exposing the top floor. Smoke rose from fires here and there. Steel beams jutted out at every angle, and debris covered the floor. She prayed no one had been staying there.

But the sight of her enemy erased all noble prayers from her mind and sent her rage into overdrive. There she stood against one of the ruined hotel walls, watching them. Calamity Mary. Dual-wielding automatic rifles, she opened fire in their direction.

Ripple’s magically enhanced eyes could pinpoint each bullet as it traveled through the air, but most of them ended up ricocheting off the windshield. The few that didn’t missed by a wide margin and disappeared behind them. Rapid Swallow’s windshield possessed formidable strength, able to withstand even supersonic speeds. Calamity Mary seemed to shout something, but the wind carried her voice away, so Ripple had no idea what it was.

The broom made a beeline for Calamity Mary.

It broke through walls and ripped up the floor. The shock wave behind them crossed the entire floor, picking up flames, smoke, carpets, beds, and heavy chunks of rubble in its wake. Six miles away from the hotel, they turned. Then the sound caught up with them, and the mountain of rubble collected by the shock wave dropped out of the sky. A great I-shaped scar was now carved across the entire top floor of the hotel.

Ripple saw everything. Calamity Mary had escaped. She had shot at them until the very last second, but when her bullets couldn’t harm Rapid Swallow’s armor, she’d turned to the side and dived into the pile of rubble.

Heavy, sticky bloodlust blacker than night coiled around the hotel. It was so thick, they could almost see it. The pile of rubble collapsed, and a silhouette rose from the debris.

“She’s alive.”

“Looks like…”

“All right, I’m going in for another pass, damn it! Hold on tight!”

Top Speed reignited the boosters, and the armored broomstick rocketed toward Calamity Mary on the hotel. Calamity Mary reached into her bag and pulled out a gun. This was no pistol, nor an automatic rifle—was it a sniper rifle? The barrel was long, about three feet by itself… maybe a little over four feet in total. She still has more?

Calamity Mary aimed at them, and her lips twisted. She was smiling. A shiver ran up Ripple’s spine, just like when she’d stepped on the land mine.

“Dodge!”

She shouted and lunged forward, grabbing Top Speed’s triangle hat and shoving her down with all her might. Rapid Swallow’s trajectory jerked to the lower right. The boosters reversed, pumping flame in the opposite direction, but it was too late. They smashed through the hotel wall and floor, and the sudden change in momentum sent them weaving back and forth like a squirming snake until they landed on an office building a few miles away.

The office building was around the same height as Hotel Priestess. And they hadn’t so much landed as crashed straight through the roof and destroyed it. Shattered concrete flew everywhere, and clouds of fine glass hung in the air.

“What the hell was that for?”

Top Speed’s anger was natural, but Ripple pointed at the top of the windshield.

“Look…”

“Huh?”

The upper section of the windshield was twisted and ripped away. Thousands of bullets and pieces of concrete traveling at supersonic speeds hadn’t even scratched it, but now it was beyond repair.

“What happened?”

“That last bullet grazed it…”

Top Speed hadn’t seen it because Ripple had shoved her head down. The bullet from Calamity Mary’s sniper rifle should have hit the windshield dead-on, but since they had dodged out of the way, it only grazed the top. Yet that was all it took to rip their protection from the broomstick. A direct hit would have ripped through both of the girls.

“How? Her little peashooter wasn’t even scratching it earlier!”

“She changed guns…”

That last bullet was clearly faster than the rest. If they hadn’t changed direction before she pulled the trigger, they would never have been able to dodge it. It would have scored a bull’s-eye, blowing them to smithereens.

Top Speed used Rapid Swallow to stand. Dusting herself off, she placed her triangle hat back on her head and glared angrily toward Hotel Priestess.

“Damn it! Let’s go in for another run!”

“If we do the same thing… she’ll just shoot us down and kill us.”

“So what do we do? I can’t do anything except attack head-on!”

“That’s all I can do, too…”

“Then what?”

Ripple’s direct assault on Calamity Mary had nearly gotten her blown up.

Top Speed’s direct assault had nearly gotten them shot out of the sky.

One-on-one, they stood no chance against her. Luck was the only reason they were alive. If they repeated their approach, they’d certainly die this time.

“Next time…”

“Next time?”

“We should take her head-on anyway…”

Calamity Mary’s magic was the ability to imbue weapons with power, so she could not create weapons from nothing. She required premade weapons to work her magic. The Dragunov, the Tokarev, the AK, and this KSVK anti-materiel sniper rifle—all of Russian or Soviet Russian make—created an odd contrast with her Wild West gunslinger motif, however.

She would have liked to use only American models, but the South American drug cartels sold mainly black market models. She hadn’t exactly been overjoyed when she’d first received them, but now she loved each and every one. Calamity Mary slid her tongue along the muzzle brake. It tasted of iron.

The shot from the KSVK had only grazed the enemy. A narrow miss, but they must have sustained some damage regardless. Even through her rage, she knew her baby’s firepower.

Ripple and Top Speed must have learned by now that challenging her head-on without a plan would only lead to their deaths, so what would they do next? People who couldn’t win one-on-one usually relied on the advantage of numbers. Most likely, Top Speed would come from the front. But after witnessing the power of the KSVK, she would charge without much speed or power. That would just be the distraction. Ripple would strike from the left, the right, or behind—some angle different from Top Speed’s. That would be the real attack. If she could predict that, she could deal with them.

The wide roof was no longer flat. Her battlefield was now covered in rubble. Setting traps was a simple matter. She had had plenty of time earlier, after Top Speed’s rescue.

There was no way for Ripple to come straight at Calamity Mary, regardless of the direction she chose. She’d laid down piano wire around the roof and even set up a trap with wire and stun grenades in the room below. If the worst happened and she decided to attack from below, it’d be no problem at all.

Ripple’s only opening was from above, but she couldn’t fly. Without Top Speed’s help it would be impossible, and if Top Speed helped her they couldn’t try the pincer attack. She’d easily vaporize them with her KSVK.

Seventy degrees to her right, a window broke in the five-story building—a department store, if memory served—and something large crept out. Calamity Mary had of course noticed, her senses heightened and attention focused, but she was also confused. Thing was the only word she could use to describe whatever had climbed out. Seeing it, she couldn’t tell what it was. By the time she realized the black, fifteen-square-foot wall was a fire door, she’d pulled the trigger. The fire door blew away, and the flying broomstick lurking behind it zoomed off into the building’s shadow.

What was that?

The fire door, most likely from inside the department store, had been mounted on the front of the broomstick. They seemed to be using it as a shield or screen of some kind, but would it do any good? Another fire door popped up in a different window and headed straight for her.

Calamity Mary licked her lips, though they weren’t dry. In fact, they glistened with moisture. The moment her tongue poked out of her mouth, saliva dripped from the corner of her lips. She did nothing to stop it.

The fire door was heading straight for her. Last time, she’d been confused and had shot without thinking, but this time was different. She’d fire once she had a clear view of the target.

Come on, little girl.

Come from whatever direction you want.

Then…

Die.

The bullet hit the instant she pulled the trigger. The speed of the bullet far surpassed any magical girl’s reflexes. She couldn’t have dodged.

The fire door shattered and fell to the ground below. Glee spread across Calamity Mary’s face. Then her expression twisted. Not with joy—with bewilderment. The door had exploded, but there was no corpse, not even the remains of the broomstick. There was nothing but the fire door.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She could sense a piercing intent to kill. Tossing aside the KSVK, she pulled the Tokarev from its holster.

She’d already calculated every possible route of attack in case of a diversion—left, right, behind, and below. Even if she was caught unawares, her quick shooting would handle the rest.

She pointed the Tokarev toward the murderous aura she’d sensed—above her. The crescent moon. The starry sky. Wait, were there that many stars before? Not in the middle of town, at least. Flying toward her were thousands of… shuriken? No, too many. The projectiles glittering under the moonlight were not shuriken—but shards of glass. These buildings were full of it.

High above, Top Speed and Ripple gazed down at her from atop the broomstick.

Damn them!

She squeezed three shots off but couldn’t manage a fourth. She swiped at the shards with her pistol, and that was it. Glass pierced her shoulder and lower neck, and spinning shuriken ripped through her flesh. A knife sank deep into her forehead and threw her head back, bending her whole body backward.

Don’t look down on me! Calamity Mary thought just before she died.

Calamity Mary toppled back, her body riddled with shuriken, knives, and shards of glass. Her ten-gallon hat floated through the air, landing on its owner’s breast.

Ripple let out the breath she’d been holding. Pain spread like fire throughout her body. She hadn’t had the time to feel it before, but now it hit her full force. She could feel her consciousness fading.

The fire doors had been Ripple’s work. By throwing them with her magic, she knew they were sure to fly in a straight line toward Calamity Mary. From the front, the second had looked the same as the first. The point was to make Calamity Mary think Ripple was still using the door as a shield. The moment the violent gunslinger shot at the door, it created an opening for Top Speed and Ripple to attack from Rapid Swallow above.

Once she saw out of the corner of her eye that Calamity Mary had detransformed, Ripple collapsed. It felt like she might stop breathing altogether.

“Nice job, partner.”

She raised her head. There was Top Speed, extending her right hand to Ripple as she gasped on the ground. She grabbed it.

“You look like someone used you for target practice. Everything okay?”

“Somehow…”

She pulled the other girl’s hand, but for some reason Top Speed collapsed onto her, and Ripple ended up supporting her instead. Before she could ask what was wrong, she noticed the silhouette behind Top Speed.

There stood a girl about high school age, sporting a white school swimsuit and wielding a giant pole arm–hatchet hybrid. The ridiculous outfit and obviously aggressive stance made her intentions clear. Ripple rolled, still holding Top Speed. The massive weapon cut through the floor like a hot knife through butter and scooped up after her. However, Ripple had already sprung into a crouch and whipped out her sword. She parried, and the weapon skipped away to the side. She followed with an immediate slash back at its wielder’s left thigh and right wrist.

She should have seriously wounded her, but the girl hardly reacted and continued to swing her weapon as if she didn’t notice. Ripple retreated a step. Not a drop of blood appeared where she’d struck.

Magic…?

Dodging a swipe along the ground, Ripple drew her short sword and hurled it. The sword nailed the girl’s foot to the hotel floor, but then slipped right out. Still no blood. In fact, she didn’t seem to be a wounded at all.

She attacked like a bladed whirlwind, striking with pinpoint accuracy at her enemy’s vitals. The girl wasn’t even trying to dodge. Direct hits had no impact. Everything felt like whiffs. Her opponent’s attacks were heavy and simple. Ripple had no trouble dodging them, but none of her own attacks were finding purchase.

The swimsuit-clad girl retreated, as if realizing they were at a stalemate, and the giant weapon vanished. Then she sank into the hotel floor—first her ankles, then her calves, thighs, and hips, until even her head had vanished.

Ripple clicked her tongue. Her attacks hadn’t missed—they’d passed through her. The girl was definitely using some kind of magic. And as long as she couldn’t get around that, Ripple could never win with her abilities.

As the futility of the situation sank in, exhaustion settled heavily on her shoulders. There was nothing to gain from fighting anymore. They’d simply lose. If the girl had retreated, that was fine, but that was an optimistic assumption. It was smarter to assume she was hiding, waiting to strike again, and she had to act accordingly.

Ripple spun around to grab Top Speed and beat a hasty retreat. Suddenly, she stopped.

The one lying facedown on the floor was supposed to be Top Speed. There she was, with her coat declaring “No Gratuitous Opinions” draped across her like a blanket. But the girl wasn’t Top Speed. The coat was there, but the triangle hat and witch clothes were gone.

Staggering, Ripple made her way over and kneeled next to the human lying there. She appeared to be in her late teens with braided chestnut hair. A deep wound crossed from her shoulder to her breast, the worst of the bleeding already past. Her eyes were closed, and her expression was so peaceful she might have been sleeping.

Ripple took the girl’s hand in her shaking one. It was cold.

The girl was wearing a maternity dress. Her belly was quite large.

Top Speed had always said she needed six more months to live. Ripple bit her lip. Hard. The taste of iron filled her mouth, and blood dripped out, but she didn’t release the pressure.

Her words echoed endlessly, deep in Ripple’s heart.

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

That night, Ripple lost her one and only friend.

The moment the angel descended, Snow White breathed a sigh of relief. Even in these extraordinary circumstances that forced them to fight one another, magical girls rushed to help when disaster struck, regardless of faction. That was how magical girls should be. That was what this was all about.

The Peaky Angels had attacked her and La Pucelle on the steel tower in Kubegahama, and she still remembered them with fear. But if this one wanted to help save lives, then she had to forget the past and assist her. She had to be careful to keep her smile natural, so as not to put her on guard.

As she welcomed the newcomer with the warmest smile she could muster, Hardgore Alice tackled her and sent her rolling across the pavement. Surprised and confused, she stood up and frantically tried to piece together what had happened, only to find Hardgore Alice already in heated battle with the angel.

The angel’s expression was not normal. Her lips formed a thin line, her face was pale, her brows were knit, and she was moaning. Hardgore Alice hurled her plush animal onto the road, unceremoniously yanked a traffic sign out of the ground, raised it above her head, and swung. The angel maintained her distance.

What’s going on? Snow White wondered. A giant pileup had occurred on the highway, and the casualties were sure to be great. There was so much for the magical girls to do. Yet the angel had attacked her without a thought to the flaming vehicles, the toppled truck, and the countless injured.

Snow White quivered with anger, not fear. She was indignant that this girl could be so selfish and think nothing of others’ lives. Her magic let her read the minds of people in trouble to figure out what was wrong, and she could hear countless voices. She knew exactly where each one was, too. It was unbelievable that someone with their powers could just ignore them to fight. Maybe she was the only one who could hear, but it was obvious that people needed help. Could they not see, or did they not care?

The voices in her head were increasing and intensifying. Suddenly, Snow White noticed something. A strange voice was mixed among the cries for help.

Oh no… What do I do?

The source was thirty feet behind her. She looked, but there was no one there.

Swim said to attack them.

But shouldn’t I be helping with the accident?

Still, Swim did say…

Maybe I should just take her out, then go help…

“Is someone there?”

Huh? Can she see me? That’s not good… How can she see me?

“Are you a magical girl, too?”

The voice stopped.

“Sorry! She found me!”

A dog-eared girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

“What are you doing? The plan was for me to act as a distraction while you took her out! You let her find you! Idiot! Stupid dog! Useless!”

The angel lashed out, frantically dodging the road sign.

“If you’re not going to use it, then give it to me!” she spat. She spiraled through the air, snatched a transparent cloak from the other girl, tossed it over herself, and disappeared. The dog-eared girl watched her go with tears in her eyes. Snow White and Hardgore Alice, still brandishing the road sign, turned to face her, and she let out a noise that was part shout, part scream, and part cry. She swiped at the ground below her, and a hole a few feet wide opened up below. She dropped into it and disappeared.

Hardgore Alice had served as both her reinforcements and her savior that night. The angel was gone, and the dog-eared girl had turned tail. Snow White limply dropped her raised fist.

“… Let’s go help some people, even if it’s just us.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Hardgore Alice set off in search of her rabbit plush, found it in the shadow of some rubble, and picked it up. With her rabbit in her right hand and the street sign slung across her shoulder, she followed after Snow White.

She shut off the TV. The accident on National Route X showed how gruesome things had truly become, but she felt no urge to rush over. If she went, she could do many things to help. But there was nothing she wanted to do.

Sister Nana… Nana Habutae hadn’t moved from her bed since she had fled Ouketsuji.

Shizuku Ashu. Weiss Winterprison.

Still on her belly, Nana moved only her face to the side. In front of her was the corkboard displaying the smiling photos of Sister Nana and Winterprison—of Nana Habutae and Shizuku Ashu. Shizuku had always been so kind. Cleaning, laundry, she did it all. She’d helped Nana with a report for university, and even called her cute.

Nana knew her outward appearance was only temporary. People had always called her cute to make fun of her, or to express some sense of superiority, but never had anyone truly meant it. But Winterprison wasn’t like them. Whatever it was she’d liked about Nana, her claims that it was “love” didn’t seem fake, at least. Maybe she just had bad taste.

Sister Nana had the ability to draw out the power of other magical girls. With her magic, Winterprison became stronger.

She’d cared about Nana quite a bit, but how did Nana feel? No, Nana didn’t return the feeling. She loved Winterprison. She’d loved her, but not really cared about her. After all, she’d led her to her death. She was a siren, leading her into danger.

Winterprison…

No matter how many times she thought about it, she arrived at the same conclusion. She was tired of thinking. Had it been hours, or had it been days? Her sense of time was long gone, and she couldn’t tell. Nana got up from the bed. Her joints groaned.

Nana was neither kind nor pure. She was conniving when it came to getting what she wanted, and only ever acted with her own best interests in mind. She was neither kind nor pure, but wanted to be seen as such by others. By Winterprison. By her dream prince.

The long scarf hanging from the chair must have been Shizuku’s. She doubted it was part of Winterprison’s magical-girl outfit. Nana picked up the scarf and chair.

If she’d told Winterprison that she wanted to die as a kind, pure heroine while protecting her prince, what would she have thought? Examining herself now, she could only conclude that was what she had wished for. A sense of loss overtook her sadness.

Placing the chair under the curtain rail, she stood on top of it. She tied the scarf to the rail, then formed a loop.

She had failed to become the heroine who died to save her prince.

She could have become a heroine that avenged her prince. If she’d teamed up with Snow White and Hardgore Alice, she could have magnified their power to assist the suffering people in that giant pileup. But she didn’t care.

She slipped the looped scarf around her neck.

She’d failed to save her prince and die, and she didn’t want to fight to avenge her prince. The only option left was to follow her prince in death.

Had Winterprison realized Sister Nana’s feelings? She’d probably foreseen that Sister Nana would abandon her to escape. Yet still she’d fought and died to protect her.

Sister Nana could never do the same.

And with that impassable rift between them weighing on her mind, Nana kicked the chair out from under her.