Side Story: Dredged Up

After Haruto walked me home, I collapsed onto my bed.

It wasn’t like before. Not because I didn’t want to be around my family.

...It was because my face was on fire, and I couldn’t calm down.

I said I’d show him how I could live as a girl. I meant it—but doing it was way more embarrassing than I thought.

He didn’t complain once. Just stayed by my side the whole time.

He handed me ice cream like the idea of an indirect kiss didn’t even cross his mind.

He said all those cheesy lines like it was nothing.

And the worst part? It all came naturally to him.

Was Haruto... actually a tough opponent?

Could I even win?

...Maybe I’d already lost.

I was so worn out, I fell asleep almost right away.

---

—Minami-chan was missing.

Her mother had called me about ten minutes ago.

She’d gone to pick Minami-chan up after her lessons, but no matter how long she waited, her daughter never showed.

Worried, she asked the instructor—only to find out Minami-chan had finished her lesson ages ago.

…A glance at the clock. 8 PM.

It was December. The sun set early. By now, it was completely dark.

No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t normal. This wasn’t a time for a middle school girl to be walking around alone.

Her mom’s voice shook as she told me she was calling all of Minami-chan’s close friends.

I was lucky she called me.

—Because I had a hunch.

A surge of magical energy was pulsing in the direction of the old abandoned factory. The same place where I once fought Amrutat.

The Sacred Beast inside me stirred in agreement.

Minami-chan’s disappearance. The Legion’s movements.

There was no way this was just a coincidence.

I transformed into the silver magical girl—Silver Witch—and raced into the night.

---

When I reached the abandoned factory in the inverted world, I was stunned.

Before me stretched a vast crater.

It had already been close to ruins before, but now even those were gone—only traces of destruction remained.

Well, since this was the inverted world, it wouldn’t affect reality.

At most, there might be some minor shockwaves.

Even so, the devastation left me speechless.

"...What in the world—?"

"Luna-san! Please help!"

A small girl came running toward me.

Minami-chan.

She must have sprinted here—she was out of breath as she called out to me.

…Though she looked utterly exhausted, she didn’t seem to have suffered any serious harm.

At worst, she had a few scratches on her cheeks.

—Thank goodness.

Relief washed over me.

"It’s okay, Minami-chan. I’ll make sure you get home safe."

"...How do you know my name?"

—Messed that up.

I’d been in the news enough that it made sense she’d know my name.

But for me to recognize a random girl as "Minami-chan"? That was suspicious.

"Uh… Oh! Right—a boy was looking for a missing girl. He described you."

"W-Wait, was it Youta-kun!?"

"P-Probably? I didn’t catch his name, though."

This sounded like some self-serving lie.

Guilt made me stumble over my words.

"You’re a little hurt. Your family might worry, so— Light Heal. "

Light spilled from my raised hand above her.

Her wounds closed, her smooth skin restored. The dried blood remained, but if she washed it off, her family would never know.

"Thank you… but that’s not what I meant when I said I needed help!"

"...? What do you mean?"

I didn’t understand.

Was there someone else who’d been taken?

But when I asked, Minami-chan shook her head.

"No! Someone helped me escape… and I think they’re still fighting right now!"

"Who was it?"

"A tall guy dressed in all black. He had his mouth covered, so I couldn’t see his face, but…"

—Only a select few could enter and exit the inverted space.

So that description clicked immediately.

"...Amrutat?"

"I-I don’t know… But he saved me! Please, you have to help him!"

She clung to me desperately.

Seeing her like that, my mind was made up.

Maybe it was a contradiction. Sooner or later, I’d have to fight him again.

But I couldn’t just abandon that boy—Amrutat.

Still, the situation didn’t make sense.

This battle should have been between Silver Witch and Legion.

So if Amrutat—a member of Legion—was fighting… who the hell was his opponent?

"—Ahh, my apologies. I’m afraid that won’t be possible. It seems we’re too late."

A voice suddenly rang out from above.

Minami-chan flinched violently, and a suffocating pressure bore down on me.

"—!?"

Looking up, I saw an old man hovering in the air, gripping Amrutat by the throat.

His arms dangled limply—clearly unconscious.

The old man paid no mind to our shock, carelessly tossing Amrutat aside like garbage.

Despite his build, the boy soared through the air effortlessly.

The next instant, a massive beam of light struck Amrutat midair.

It had to be at least five meters in diameter—nothing like the earlier probing attacks. This was an overwhelming, monstrous strike.

Upon impact, blinding white light swallowed my vision.

I instinctively recoiled.

Somehow, I knew—this was an absurdly compressed mass of magical energy, far beyond what it appeared.

This was what had created the crater.

A spell so devastating it would reduce everything to ashes upon impact.

When the light faded, Amrutat was nowhere to be seen.

"KYAAAAAH!"

What snapped me back to reality was Minami-chan’s scream—like silk being torn apart.

---

Minami-chan collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

Her eyes were unfocused. Her lips trembled as she cowered before the sight of the boy’s death.

It was only natural.

What had just unfolded before her eyes was enough to shatter anyone’s sanity.

Even I was on the verge of trembling in terror.

But even so, I stepped forward to shield her, glaring at the man who had descended from the sky.

A bald old man.

Yet his gaze was unnervingly sharp.

Dressed in a tuxedo, he held a skull-headed cane in his right hand and a silk top hat in his left—at a glance, he looked like an elderly gentleman.

But the sinister glint lurking in the depths of his eyes was impossible to hide.

"—Well, hello there. You must be Luna. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

He gave a mockingly polite bow before placing the top hat on his head.

His movements were theatrical, almost performative.

"Amrutat seems to have caused you some trouble. Rest assured, I’ve taken care of him. …Ah, or in your words, I suppose I should say I killed him?"

I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stay calm.

Amrutat… dead?

Just like that? After all the battles I’d fought against him—without ever winning even once?

The more I tried to process it, the more despair threatened to swallow me whole.

—Don’t falter. If I don’t fight, Minami-chan is in danger.

"Who the hell are you?!"

I snarled, hostility laid bare.

Logically, his name didn’t matter. We were past the point of avoiding a fight.

But I had to shout.

If I didn’t, the fear would break me.

"My name is Savaros. As you may have guessed, I am the leader of Legion. Though, I suppose that organization no longer exists."

He narrowed his eyes.

The look of a kindly old man—but laced with contempt.

"You misunderstand. That thing was never my comrade. He was always my property. Just like all my other subordinates. And yet, he grew cowardly and betrayed me… But perhaps it was for the best. A disobedient dog is nothing but a nuisance to its master, no?"

"You bastard—!"

"—Now, now, no need to rush. Have you forgotten why you came here in the first place?"

His tone was so inhuman that I nearly lunged at him—but his words snapped me back to reality.

Right. Minami-chan.

I couldn’t fight here. Not with her in the crossfire.

If Savaros was the one who had taken her, then hurting her likely wasn’t his goal.

"Why did you take Minami-chan…?"

"Our—no, my goal is emotional energy. Surely you know that much?"

"...Yeah."

I kept my guard up as I replied.

Ready to raise a barrier at the slightest suspicious move.

—Not that I’m sure it’d even work against him.

"After much research, I’ve determined that I only need one polarity of emotion. Positive and negative… I require the latter."

Savaros stood in stark contrast to my tense posture.

Like a child eager to show off his knowledge, he spoke without restraint.

"Envy, hatred, terror… Have you ever felt that your existence was inefficient? The desire to protect someone only arises when there’s an external threat. But the impulse to attack and eliminate others… That emerges the moment two sentient beings exist. For weaponization, the latter is far superior."

"...Are you serious?"

"Absolutely."

I couldn’t believe it.

Logically, he might be right—but all that awaited down that path was ruin through endless conflict.

As if reading my thoughts, Savaros nodded magnanimously.

"But, surprisingly, the collection rate is rather poor… It seems there’s a limit to how much negative emotion a human can feel at once. I ran some experiments, and those already prone to negativity produced disappointingly small amounts. Perhaps the amplitude was too narrow?"

—Like temperature.

Where positivity had no upper limit, negativity seemed to have an absolute zero.

If emotional fluctuation generated energy, then starting from a negative baseline would indeed be inefficient.

"Conversely, the more optimistic and pure-hearted a person is, the more negative energy they produce when plunged into despair. In other words, the deeper the fall from hope, the more ideal the subject becomes."

"...No way."

"Ah, you’ve finally caught on. By sheer coincidence, the Sacred Beast and I reached the same conclusion. —You should feel honored. You, too, were once a candidate. But alas, that dream will remain unfulfilled."

Savaros grinned.

Madness twisted into rapture.

"The other candidate for the Silver Witch—Akashi Minami. By drowning her heart in despair, my research will finally be complete…!"