Transformation or Death

Chapter 59

Memory Recovery (5)

Virgo is an eccentric villain. Of course, all villains are eccentric, but Virgo is exceptionally so among them. 

Her eccentricity is most evident in the purpose she pursues.

The destruction of the world.

It is an answer far too violent to be one for realizing her own self.

Not that destruction is incidentally caused in the process of finding the answer, but that destruction is set as the purpose from the very beginning.

It could be a purpose of wanting to change the world in some way, but for the purpose to be simply destruction without any method or reason—how bizarre is that?

In that sense, that woman can be seen as the most dissociated villain from what a villain is, and yet also the villain that best fits the name.

It is unknown what kind of question Virgo originally had, a point not mentioned in the original work either.

“Don’t you feel embarrassed laughing like that?”

Along with a laugh that seemed to advertise ‘I’m a crazy girl’, violet lights were scattered about. Each lump emitted heat similar to fragments of lava.

Watcher advanced while dodging those lumps of light, sometimes sweeping away the unavoidable ones with his fists or feet.

“Huh? Why should I feel embarrassed? Only those who care about others’ opinions feel shame!”

Shyik! Virgo, who had been airborne, coated her hand in a violet light like a blade and descended. The force behind the slashing blade she swung carried considerable destructive power.

“I don’t look! I don’t listen! Then why should I feel ashamed?!” 

“You’ve given up on being human. Yes, that’s like you.”

Watcher didn’t bother defending. He simply slipped his body to the side, then stretched out his leg fiercely towards her as she landed on the ground. Virgo took to the sky again, avoiding that attack.

“Um, it’s inconvenient if you can’t fly like me, isn’t it? You should grow some wings too.”

“It’s not something you can grow just because you want to.”

For a moment, he recalled Megrez’s bike destroyed by Paradox, but quickly dismissed the thought from his mind. 

It could be repaired later. Not being able to fly was painful, but for now, he had to come up with a solution for the present.

Looking around, Watcher soon pulled out a signpost and threw it at Virgo.

It sliced through the darkening evening like an ebbing tide. It was enough to hinder her flight, but

“Too slow!”

Not enough to make her fail at flying. Virgo skilfully dodged it in the air and let out a guffaw.

Watcher paid it no mind. After all, that’s what he had thrown the attack for in the first place.

He struck the ground. Then a wall.

Then, the signpost he had just thrown.

“Even those who can’t fly can stay in the air for a little while.”

It was a feat only possible for Watcher, who was exceptionally skilled in leaping power even among monsters. Soon, he struck the signpost.

[SET. Gravity Inversion.]

A green light gathered in his fist. A light like the aurora borealis slicing through the polar night weighed heavily on the city’s evening.

Below was Virgo’s back. The path transmitted directly into his mind aimed for the enemy’s vital point without even a millimeter’s deviation this time as well.

His fist vertically cleaved the sky, and a sharp flash burst forth. 

The ethereal twilight was punctuated by the artistry of violence. The green and violet lights intersected, and Virgo fell like a crushed insect. As the starlight plummeted, the time the sun remained in the sky also came to an end.

Bang!

His fist cushioned Virgo’s fall. Even as a gash was carved into the asphalt once more, his hand remained on her back.

“Kughk… Kahak!”

[Gravity Inversion successfully manifested. Reenactment rate 100%.]

As Virgo writhed in pain, Watcher immediately retracted his fist and moved his buckle.

[PHECDA.]

Phecda. The faint voice of that star resonated.

The circle on his chest turned blue.

Two blue steel balls formed in Watcher’s hands, wrapping around them like gloves.

The name of those beads was Skyblast. 

Beads that govern the atmosphere.

A fierce storm wind blew. Virgo’s wings fluttered like leaves in a typhoon.

The air whirling around Skyblast robbed those who flew of their free will. In this vortex, any attempt to take flight again would only result in losing one’s sense of direction and staggering about.

“You won’t be able to fly again now.”

“Heheh…”

Virgo laughed. But that laughter held no sentiment of resignation.

“Yes! Good! I’m not a magical girl, you know! It was strange for me to be flying!”

However, she sounded more impassioned than her previous words.

She straightened her index finger. It was like the pose of firing a gun.

“Bang~ya!”

Raising her nasal tone in an affectation of cuteness, she flicked her index finger up slightly.

A beam of light flowed from its tip. A beam that extended straight ahead without wavering in the wind.

Kwaaang!!

A tremendous explosion followed. The beam that grazed his head caused a new gust of wind to kick up from where it hit.

It ruffled his muffler.

“Isn’t it embarrassing to voice sound effects out loud?”

“Huh? I told you!”

She quickly approached and aimed her index finger under his chin.

“I don’t know shame~!”

He used Skyblast to knock her index finger aside. Immediately, a violet beam burst from her fingertip. If he had been even a little slower, it would have been a lethal beam.

Though Virgo was right in front of him, he sensed a presence behind him. A doppelganger. Dual Magic was one of the traits of Gemini.

He extended Skyblast behind him and fired a powerful gust. The doppelganger that had been there just a moment ago took flight and manifested a beam in a random direction.

“I don’t know! I’ve forgotten everything!”

She continued firing beams madly.

While Virgo’s stamina might be lower compared to other villains, her explosive power was far superior.

A barrage of beams fiercer than the storm itself within the storm. Virgo’s victory or defeat would be decided by whether he could endure it or not.

Of course, just because you can endure doesn’t mean you can definitely win.

At least in the case of a magical girl, no matter how much she endures, she cannot win.

“What do you think is crazy about me?”

“What?”

In the midst of avoiding, deflecting, and blowing away Virgo’s rays with the wind, she asked.

“What is the madness you think of?”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“The madness I think of is forgetfulness!”

Not listening to others’ words at all, she continued her own words.

“Doing it even though I forgot! So I’m a crazy woman. You may find it embarrassing for a crazy woman to call herself crazy by your standards, but anyway, I’m crazy! I’ve forgotten things like a sense of shame! I’ve forgotten everything!”

The frequency and intensity of the rays gradually decreased.

“When, where, who, why, how, what. The major premise of the six principles. I’ve lost most of them!”

Virgo began firing rays even more as if squeezing out her last strength.

“I don’t even remember when I made up my mind like this! I don’t know where or what kind of mind I made! I don’t know who made me angry! I don’t know why! I don’t know how! But I do know what I want to do! World destruction!”

The laughter and rays intermingled, scattering light over the world caught in the last moments of the evening.

“What could be crazier than forgetting the reason but still carrying it out?!”

Watcher approached Virgo, sometimes avoiding and sometimes taking those rays. In the end, he succeeded in standing right in front of her.

“I just forgot why I tried to make you a villain! It’s no use asking me anything even if you knock me down!”

The rays that had been raining down stopped.

[SET. Leakage of Secrets.]

It meant that the turn to attack had shifted. All the wind he had blown so far gathered into the blue marble in his hand.

He extended the wind gathered like that toward Virgo. The air compressed like a snowball burst out upon encountering an obstacle.

[Reenactment successful. Reenactment rate 100%.]

Poofpoof!

A tremendous roar resounded so loudly that it shook the earth’s axis.

“Hahahahaha!!! Kuk… keuhek… I’ve forgotten… I’ve forgotten everything….”

Even while rolling on the ground, Virgo did not stop laughing. She did not stop even as she spat blood from her mouth.

Watcher undid his Fekda and took on a new stance.

To prepare the seven star step bogak.

Virgo is a considerably dangerous villain. If he wishes to continue claiming to be the protector of magical girls, it would be appropriate to kill her here.

“Our Jae-jung! Why are you so restless? Are you the same as me? Have you forgotten everything too? It’s okay! Get used to it! Get used to it~”

There is no context to the conversation. Just listening to the one-sided conversation that made one’s mind spin made Watcher not hide his displeasure.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Haha, are you angry? Upset? Ah, what’s so important about names and memories?”

Virgo struggled to stand up.

“You forgot the times you spent with me too, didn’t you?”

Suddenly, his movement stopped.

“Ah, a gap!”

Virgo quickly fired a ray.

Kwang!

It hit him squarely in the solar plexus. Pieces of his armor scattered. Afterwards, they melted from the high heat.

“Kuk….”

“Oh, a hero shouldn’t listen to a villain’s words! Or… aha! You wanted to eat the same side as me! Is that it? Is that what it is?”

“As I thought… you… my past….”

“Hm? Why is that.”

Virgo wiped away her laughter. After swimming in the void with her pupils as if reminiscing about something, she smiled sheepishly again.

“What did I say before?”

Watcher stood up, coughing up blood. It was a fatal wound no matter what. It was not a fatal attack, so he would be able to fight more.

“So whether that’s a crazy act or genuinely crazy… It seems you know me anyway. Including the times I’ve forgotten.”

He had wondered from before. Why did Virgo try to attack Han Jae-jung and turn him into a villain? What did she want that she tried to turn him into a villain?

According to Jason, she tried to turn people into villains because she wanted a comrade who had lost her purpose.

Moreover, the answer to the question she had asked me to become before.

She wanted a villain who started from the same human, wanted me to give up being human, and wanted me to become the answer.

“Do you want me to be your ally?”

As he muttered that, Virgo, who had been preparing to fire another ray, stopped moving.

“Um… uhm? Uuuum… um!”

She started pondering hard with her arms crossed.

“Ah, was it that? Was that it…? Ally is… it doesn’t seem like that….”

After agonizing so fiercely that she even felt a headache, she finally answered.

“How can I answer when I’ve forgotten!”

She gathered light in both hands and fired it at him. Watcher dodged those rays by rolling on the ground.

Spewing rays in quick bursts like a machine gun, she continued speaking.

“Madness is forgetfulness! Madness is forgetfulness!”

Anger gradually mixed into those barrage of shots.

“Don’t ask me about my intentions! Because I’ve forgotten!”

The context of the conversation quickly disappeared. The emotional ups and downs were too intense to keep up with.

“If I’ve forgotten, if I don’t know, I don’t need things like responsibility!”

Her starlight filled the world even more distantly, and her voice gradually grew louder. 

“If I was forced to choose! If I was assigned a role! Do I have to necessarily accept that role? Does responsibility follow even a forced choice?! If I made a choice in ignorance, does the responsibility still lie with me alone?!”

Virgo furiously poured out beams of light. She splashed them brilliantly across the sky like a fireworks display. Now there was no direction. She randomly unleashed destruction all around, as if everything in this world was her enemy.

Wherever the light touched, it melted away with a reddish-purple flash.

“Even if it’s a power I didn’t want, do I have to take responsibility for it?! Why do I alone have to realize it! Why is it forced upon me!”

It was an obvious rampage. Light layered and exploded like a dream. In this festival of starlight, it was even difficult to keep one’s eyes open.

The flashing lights burst endlessly, so it might as well be called an eternal light rather than flashes.  

“Jae-jung. You know? If you’re someone who was forcibly injected with starlight…”

Plop. Her rampage stopped without the slightest pause, as if a faucet had been shut off.

“…what did I just say?”

It was the blessing of oblivion.

Watching the frozen Virgo within that blessing, Han Jae-jung asked, “Is that… your question?”  

Virgo snickered.

“Ah right… For frenzy, oblivion alone is not enough. Sometimes there is a need to recall and then forget again. And when this is repeated, only emotion remains without memory. Um… what did I say? Oh yeah, for frenzy, oblivion alone is not enough. Ah, I said it.”

Having noticed her own oblivion, Virgo smiled broadly. 

“Anyway, I like being a crazy bitch. If I don’t know, there’s no responsibility. Since there’s no reason for my actions, no justification for violence, the fact that I’m insane alone resolves it all.”

She muttered with a sinister curl of her lip.

“For ignorance, oblivion is needed. You know that? Frenzy is oblivion. I said that, right? Ah, I think I did say it.”  

Han Jae-jung forgot what he was going to say. She was literally a crazy bitch. A lucid sanity that chose a hazy frenzy. Every word she spoke sounded like a twisted melody.

He felt sorry for her life of having to bear responsibility for an unwanted power.

But, all those circumstances do not justify her actions.  

She has already taken, and will continue to take, countless lives.

‘Just what was I doing getting involved with a bitch like that?’

Han Jae-jung wondered about his past self. Did he really go to the Dark Matter or something? With what confidence?  

Ignorance is fear. If one does not know, one imagines, and imagination is grander than reality.

What if that woman was his benefactor? Or if he himself was one of the reasons for her frenzy?

Han Jae-jung knew he should not hesitate, but his movement stiffened from the unknown responsibility.

“World destruction! World destruction! What a joyful phrase!”

A bird landed on the hand of the woman who was shouting fervently. Her words and movements stopped. 

Han Jae-jung did too. Forgetting to speak, he looked at it.

“Hongik-o…?”

Hongik-o. The power of Pink Deneb. Now Virgo has become the new master of one of those Hongik-o birds.

She flew in from far away. Stopping above Watcher, she shouted swiftly, “Hey there, villain! Hurry and crush that thing! They’re always fighting! Hurry! I’ve been evacuating people around here in the meantime…”

“Hahaha.”

Following her urgency, Han Jae-jung raised his voice.

“I bet there aren’t any other magical girls coming, right?!”  

“Of course not! I’m not bringing anyone else to deal with that crazy bitch…”

“Hyahahaha!”

The laughter of Virgo, who had been looking at the bird, gradually spread wider.

“Thanks for the gift, junior~”  

All of the Hongik-o birds that had formed wings behind Deneb began gathering behind her. Newly formed wings of birds took shape behind her crimson wings.

The birds originally belonging to Deneb had all moved to her side.

Virgo’s power was solely the ability to deal with magical girls. 

The power to become their archenemy.

Four Seasons.

A power that seemed to dye the entire diversity of the four seasons a reddish-purple hue.  

It could steal and invade any color, making it its own.

Stealing it and using it as its own power.

Theft of magical power.

Magical girls manifest magic by purifying starlight into a form suitable for human use.

She could steal their magical power and use their magic herself.

The Hongik-o birds stolen from Pink Deneb bloomed deceptively behind Virgo.

“So is this the second round now?”  

This is why Virgo is such a formidable opponent for magical girls.  

Not only does she have her own innate power, but by stealing their magical power, Virgo is empowered while simultaneously weakening them.

Therefore, the magical girl who has come to this place bears one humiliating title.

One whose ability is so ill-suited for combat that having one’s power stolen by the opponent is not an issue.  

The weakest in battle.

Pink Deneb gritted her teeth.

For Every 3$,Ill upload a Bonus chapter within the week.

Anyways… Happy Reading!!!