Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

When she was human, she couldn't use the items in the surrogate, nor could she access the information inside. In fact, the surrogate would disappear from her neck and she couldn't touch it.

She cannot use it when she is a human, but the time she can transform into a cat each day is also limited and extremely agonizing to both her body and mind, which greatly reduces Mayumi Haga's learning efficiency.

Even so, Mayumi Haga diligently studied the basic knowledge contained inside and gained some understanding of the monster's weaknesses.

In the magical girl's common knowledge handbook, the core of the monster is described as follows:

[The monster's true form is usually located inside its body. After its magic power is exhausted, it turns into a dusty, glassy bead. At this time, it becomes very fragile, so please be careful not to step on it!]

Haga Mayumi: Understood. Dig it out and crush it.

The guardian, whose style is the complete opposite of that of a magical girl, was about to eliminate the threat completely when she realized something.

Because Urzana's core hadn't been activated these past few days, and because her homeroom teacher, Kirino, noticed her wearing the necklace at school, she put the core in her inner pocket.

...Why wasn't the senior's blessing triggered during the battle just now?

strangeness.

Even when Lania tried to take off her clothes, the core of the senior would react, so why did the core not react when encountering a real enemy?

Mayumi Haga paused, alarm bells rang in her mind, and she subconsciously took a half step back.

At the same time, the little bear also sensed a strong sense of crisis.

"Makyumi!"

Just as the Desperate Monster suddenly opened his eyes, and the fleshy thing came to life and pounced on Yuga Mayumi's hand, the little bear couldn't help but scream.

Her mind went blank, and the unease surging within her was greater than she had in her entire life. It felt as if something deep inside her had broken, and dark emotions welled up from within.

She instinctively reached out her hand to Mayumi Haga.

Mayumi Haga reacted even faster than Kuma; the moment the Desperate Monster attacked, she realized the enemy's general idea.

After consuming Mayumi Haga's despair, the enemy before him could actually be considered to be of the same origin as Mayumi Haga.

At the beginning, the Despair Monster did not actively attack her in order to absorb Mayumi Haga's emotions, so it was not considered an attack and Urzana's blessing was not triggered.

The part of the ability that later affected Mayumi Haga's self-healing ability was not considered an attack.

...How can simply returning Mayumi Haga's belongings to her be considered an attack?

In other words, it was Mayumi Haga's own "despair" that was forcibly separated by spiritual protection.

Mayumi Haga sensed something was wrong, and the Despair Monster was currently untargetable and could not be frozen. Just as the mass of things was about to pounce on her, she was about to press the self-destruct ejection button to escape.

Suddenly, everything went black.

The splattered liquid was less than a centimeter away from Mayumi Haga's fingers, but it was entangled by a deeper darkness, and she could not move despite her violent struggles.

Looking in the direction of the dark light, I saw a hand reaching out, and I don't know why it was able to control the bear of the Despair Monster.

After realizing what was happening, the little bear forgot her confusion. The despair that had been entangled with her was suppressed and pulled toward her, which she immediately pressed down and sealed... Only then did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Huh...? Why can I control this...?" The little bear belatedly realized the question and, unable to figure it out for the moment, hurriedly went to Mayumi Haga with teary eyes to check on her. "Mayumi, are you alright?"

Mayumi Haga still seemed a little dazed. She raised her hand, spread her fingers, and felt as if she were being touched by water droplets, as if it were a hallucination. The guardian, who had just forcibly canceled her head self-destruction, was a beat slow to respond, perhaps waiting for her brain to recover: "...I think so."

It seems like a drop just splashed on me.

She frowned, sensing something was wrong.

I must change my current body after I go back.

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

Mayumi Haga went straight to the bathroom as soon as she got home, leaving the front door open. This puzzled Megaran, who was struggling to turn her head on the sofa: "Hey? Mayumi, the door's open?"

What's wrong with me? Why am I so out of control today?

Did the cat fall into a litter box that wasn't cleaned properly?

Do I have to close the door myself?

But I'm not this guy's pet that helps open and close doors, and it's really difficult for me to do that with my current size... It's really too much.

Despite his grumbling, after using his hair as a hand to eat another potato chip, Megrana still decided to get up and see if he could close the door by pressing his forehead against it.

"Um, excuse me..." came a strange girl's voice from the doorway.

—Did this guy bring other girls home?

Megaran was not so surprised by Mayumi Haga's interpersonal relationships. After all, even in a world where information did not flow easily, Megaran had heard some subtle rumors about this guardian.

However, she never expected that Mayumi Haga would bring someone home.

After all, she was still in the house, and Mayumi Haga wouldn't bring someone here to frighten them for no reason.

Those who were able to return with Mayumi Haga must have been trusted by her.

At least, the existence of Megarane can be accepted.

So who exactly was poisoned by Mayumi Haga...?

Megrana peered toward the doorway.

Unexpectedly, the next second, what came into view was a white polar bear doll that was half the height of a person.

The doll's voice was exactly that of a timid young girl. She cautiously poked her head in: "Mayumi family... huh?"

The doll and the blue crystal head on the sofa stared at each other.

The former blankly raised his hand and greeted Megranie in a daze: "Hello..."

Megrana: ?

"What are you?" The water demon was very confused. "A bear spirit?"

Wait a minute, this doesn't look like a real bear.

Having not attacked humans for a long time, the bear hadn't been on television much, causing the little bear, who watched TV at home every day, to not recognize the strange creature and to droop its ears in frustration.

...Wait, who is this?

Little Bear suddenly remembered that he had never seen Miss Head when he last visited Mayumi's house.

The teddy bear opened its mouth, revealing a shocked and hurt expression.

"...Why won't Mayumi let me stay at her house, but let other weirdos move in instead..." The little bear became more and more aggrieved as he spoke. After politely closing the door, he looked at Megaran, who was sitting (or rather, sitting) on ​​the sofa with the air of a master, and tears streamed down his face.

She hasn't come back since her last visit, as she didn't receive Mayumi's permission.

Megrana stared blankly at the little bear in front of him who suddenly started crying, his mind still reeling:

Why is this little toy crying? Does Mayumi like this kind of thing?

Just as their conversation reached a stalemate, a loud "bang" suddenly came from the bathroom, and the windows shook twice.

The little bear was startled: "A real bow?! What happened?"

Megrané could only explain, "...It's nothing, Makoto is just removing the dead skin inside."

It's probably dead skin about 30 centimeters thick.

What did this person go out to do again? He came back and cleaned himself up completely.

In the bathroom, Mayumi Haga stood up, supporting herself on the sink.

At her feet, warm orange liquid quickly flowed into the drain, and soon she was left with only a set of clothes.

She looked at herself in the mirror and looked no different than usual, but her expression was unusually solemn.

The sensation of being dripped by the Desperate Monster was not an illusion.

Because it shares the same origin as Yuga Mayumi, that trace of despair can rapidly merge into her body, invading her core the moment it touches her. Even self-destruction cannot clear the foreign object from her core.

Mayumi Haga knew very well what this meant.

Her ability to maintain such rapid regeneration, to survive to this day, and to prevent the rapid regeneration from getting out of control and turning her into a monster... is all thanks to this spiritual protection.

If the spiritual protection is not destroyed, then the core of the Haga Mayumi will never shatter.

In other words, if the spiritual protection fails, her core will eventually become like her predecessor's back then, or perhaps even more fragile.

Her sense of self will be gradually eroded, and eventually, not only will she be unable to maintain her normal form as a human being... no, as a living being, let alone as [Haga Mayumi].

When that time comes, what will become of me, who possesses such a large number of blessings?

Mayumi Haga didn't know.

In a daze, a subtle sense of relief, as if the dust had settled, welled up in her heart.

In theory, if Mayumi Haga can maintain her spiritual protection indefinitely, she will become an eternal guardian, existing alongside the world. Even if she arrives in a new world, she will possess infinite time.

Guardians can also disappear, but only if their core cannot withstand the mental torment of prolonged years. At that point, the irrational guardian will choose to perish.

But Mayumi Haga, who possesses spiritual protection, will not.

If nothing unexpected happens, Mayumi Haga will indeed fall into an inescapable curse of immortality in her world, becoming the last and only guardian; it's only a matter of time.

Once they arrived here, the spiritual protection encountered problems.

The calamity created a hole in Mayumi Haga's spiritual protection, and her soul, which was theoretically indestructible, finally began to show marks.

Having understood the problems she was facing, Mayumi Haga felt an unprecedented sense of calm.

Even knowing that she might actually die, and might collapse into a mass of flesh and blood that would only multiply after a battle someday, she didn't waver much.

There was even a sense of relief I had never felt before.

She never thought death would come, and before that, she didn't think the inability to die was a painful thing; now she just feels dazed.

She murmured, "I see."

I will die someday... This fact is common sense to others, but I never thought it would feel so foreign to me when I realized it.

However, it felt pretty good.

Main Text: Chapter 122 The Magic of Embrace

Ayasa Terasaki shivered.

An ominous premonition enveloped her, and she frowned, pausing the pen she was using to fill out the assessment forms for the magical girls.

Although the magician in charge of Miracle City should theoretically be Sugiyama Rika, she has been absent, even as the return visit date approaches, she remains in an unreachable magical realm. Terasaki Ayasa has no choice but to handle the related work for her.

It's already early May, and there are only about twenty days left until the follow-up visit on May 27th.

Before the return visit day arrives, she needs to register the names of the magical girls in her assigned area on a form... It's called a form, but it's actually a process of transcribing their names, code names, and gem beast names and transmitting them to the Star Tower, which is responsible for managing the magical girls.

Although the magical girls appear to be loosely organized, they actually have a fairly large-scale management organization called the Star Tower.

Although this management organization is extremely laid-back, you only see them a few times a year, completely trusting the magical girls' autonomy and independence, they only check the number of magical girls on occasions like return visit days—that is, a census of magical girls—and then they don't care about anything else.

For ordinary magical girls, it might be a mysterious organization that they would never encounter throughout their entire magical girl career, with such a low profile that it would be almost negligible.

The magicians of the Star Tower rarely make an appearance unless there is a major event related to the spiritual veins, but even then, their efficiency is very low.

The spiritual veins of Miracle City were almost destroyed back then, but it was thanks to the local magical girls like Sugiyama Rika that the situation was saved. By the time the magicians sent by the Star Tower arrived, it was already the fifth day after everything had been dealt with.

...That's efficient.

Even Terasaki Ayasa, who is usually lazy, was astonished by this.

The criteria for selecting members of the Star Tower are very unclear. The magician who came to Miracle City back then wanted to invite Sugiyama Rika to join, but she refused and never came to Miracle City again after that. Terasaki Ayasa has never met any other magicians whose costumes are decorated with golden stars.

What a strange and disorganized organization.

"So does that Star Tower really exist? There's been no movement for so long..." Terasaki Ayasa lit the paper in her hand with magical flames. The paper quickly turned to ashes in the glittering flames, but it had little warmth.

She rested her chin on her hand and complained, "How come he's even less capable than that guy, Rival?"

Few magical girls are aware of the existence of the Star Tower; she only learned about it because of the Spirit Vein incident years ago.

Later, she realized that the reason she didn't need to contact the Star Tower when she was a magical girl was because her seniors had filled out the forms for her when she first started out, and then left Miracle City without looking back.

Now that she's in charge, she also needs to figure out how to report this information.

Ms. Kirino, who was quietly reading and drinking tea nearby, chuckled kindly: "Terasaki, you've got it all wrong."

"Teacher Kirino, do you know anything about the Star Tower?" Terasaki Ayasa flipped through the documents in her hand but didn't find any more detailed information. The older person seemed to know more about what she wanted to know, so she asked curiously, "Why do you say that?"

“The magicians of the Tower of Stars are not exactly normal people. I met one of them when I was young, and when I saw her again thirty years later, I found that she had not changed at all.” Ms. Kirino recalled the events of that year with great emotion, “She really looks exactly the same as when I met her thirty years ago.”

Terasaki Ayasa was slightly surprised: "Nothing has changed in thirty years? That means..."

“That’s right. Star Mages are no longer ordinary humans. Compared to humans, they are closer to magical spirits,” Ms. Kirino explained. “It is said that the most recent Star Mage was born at the beginning of the last century, and their lifestyle and concept of time are very different from ours.”