Sometime prior, a little before Sulfur and Leoparde’s escape…

  Formidable as Sister Gigant might be, the training Azul and Magenta uook paid off. her of them might be able to reach the newly discovered La Verità yet, sure, but they’ve been able to keep up with Enormita individually. Magenta is certain they’ll be able to beat them!

  As for Nero Alice, Magia Baiser has never fallen for her illusionary tricks – at least, not without sent. Your training of Alice might be formidable, but Baiser still fought her to a standstill through any illusion until Alice made a retreat. Possibly recalled by Enorme or Victricia, but either way it was a sou.

  The pn – or at least, the part of the pn Sulfur fided in to Baiser alone – required that they stay batil called. The mirls who came to fight Ehe less likely her power would finally drain. Being uimated would be an injury to Enorme’s pride that’d finally plete the process that started the moment Venalita left her behind.

  Such a dirty trick, Baiser thinks. Just because Venalita’s helping us now doesn’t mean I five her for this, whatever the point is.

  But it was already clear, just looking on social media. People were remembering that the Tres Magia were there to protect them, and that even if evil might seem impossible to defeat, the magical girls will always be there! Fighting evil by moonlight, however much it takes!

  (…Baiser tries not to think about how the small but growing pro-Enormita camp siders her a ‘traitor’. She’s not a magical girl, after all. She doesn’t belong in the limelight…)

  It’s something Magia Baiser firmly believes. The day will e, someday, when she’s defeated by the magical girls…but she won’t let her mother, or Lord Enorme, be the oo do it. She’s certain of it – the Tres Magia will prevail in the end. Especially after seeing Sulfur awaken…

  “Is that all you’ve got, ft-chest?” yelled Leoparde, as Sulfur y before her, Leoparde’s on training more than capable of taking her down at full throttle, holding two spent Davy Crocketts on each shoulder. "Just because you st for hours doesn’t mean you’ll wiually, your luck will run out, and what then? Aah, and once you’re defeated, Baiser and I will make out over your corpse~"

  And of course, to Magia Sulfur, being id down was ohing. But having to hear that fug dumpling head go off like that? That orse than dying, even as a theoretical!

  “Go to hell,” Sulfur muttered, slowly standing up as Leoparde tossed away her unchers and pulled another pair out of thin air. "You think I’m really going to let you have your way? You’re stupider than I thought. Besides…

  “There’s no way you’ll st any lohan me. Heh, I bet you’re as trigger-happy in bed as you are in front of little ol’ Sulfur.”

  And that insult, well, it was just the right thing to make Leo berserk.

  “…alright, that does it!” Leoparde tossed her unchers into mid air, and a dozen more appeared from portals, all ready to fire off. “Take a sed and pray, and maybe the gods might save you. Though, they ’t save your tits, they? One day, yonna lose to us. If you stay as you are, ft-chest, then you may as well start lig the old hag’s boots already! I won’t accept any quitters in this fug army!”

  “You don’t get it, do ya, hon? Spoken like a true vilin. You only see what’s right in front of you. I’m fighting for something bigger than all of us.”

  And as Leoparde fired off all her practiukes, Sulfur could see it, so very clearly. That good would always triumph over evil. She, as Tenkawa Kaoruko, was living proof of it – that someone could rise above their instincts, and bee a better person. That a true heroine…

  “La Verità!”

  ever lose, ever submit, and will never die!

  And in a single moment, Leoparde’s hopes were dashed, as tless mushroom clouds parted to reveal a single figure, flying right toward her, and pung her straight iomach.

  (She’d never admit it to anyone, not even Magia Baiser, but for just the briefest of moments before that fist met Leoparde’s gut, Magia Sulfur looked like an angel…)

  Getting to see that…that was so fug peak. If only Leoparde could have revealed her secret three-star form! Baiser has to miss that debut! It’s such a shame she has to do all this ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’ stuff when she could be gushing over her beloved Tres Magia and her beloved Leoparde!

  Azul still seems pretty troubled, but she’s sure she’ll e around. That’s what magical girls do – they might be troubled, they might have doubts, but they always e back strohan before.

  What kind of La Verità will they have? Maybe Azul be some kind of icy samurai maiden! enta could bee a goddess-like healer with a powerful bow! And Leoparde’s will be amazing too, she’s sure of it! Maybe she’ll take on a real ‘dictator’ vibe! Or maybe she’ll lean into that cat form? Baiser absolutely wants to see that…

  “Baiser? Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding!”

  “Y-yeah. The air’s just a bit thin up here, haha…”

  ht. Magenta is also here. Maybe save the gushing for ter.

  Azul had priagements, and retty badly scuffed during the fight with Sister, so it’s just Baiser and Magenta sitting on a rooftop together, keeping an eye on the remaining operation just in case. If their hunch about Enorme was wrong or other members showed up to the fight, it’d o be all hands on deck, after all.

  But it was a gamble they had to take. Taking E of the picture meant they’d have a real fighting ce against Victricia’s Enormita. And if Vatz and Venalita were right, then a thh defeat should make her reemergence as a tranformed heroine all but impossible.

  It’s…such a shame, in a way. Hopefully, someday, Enorme five her. But at the same time, Baiser’s not the one who killed all those magical girls, is she?

  Enorme deserves far worse than she’s getting.

  “Um…did everything go okay with Nero Alice?” Magenta asks, after a few moments of awkward silence.

  “Y-yeah. It was no trouble, really.” It was harder than it’d seem – it’s hard enough having to hold ba front of everyone, but Baiser really ’t go all out on Alice. She’s already seen things girls her age should never have to! And with…with what her mother is doing…

  (Baiser tries not to think about how she gushed over Korisu’s transformatiohey met. She’s not her mother. She’s not. She’d ouch Korisu like that…)

  “…why is she fighting alongside Victricia?” Magenta asks. “You said you and Leoparde were her best friends, didn’t you?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, I only guess. With what Leoparde told me, Mom really your perspective on things. I mean, you’ve seen it in Lord Enorme, haven’t you? It’d be hard not to.”

  “You don’t think…mm. I know it seems like she has that kind of power, but.” Magenta cps her hands together. “Personally, I think Enorme just has a crush on your mom! No brain-ing needed!”

  “W-what?! There’s no way…”

  “Mhm! Your mom is pretty charming, you know? It’s that same charm that Leoparde loves. She might be doing horrible things, but now I know where you got it from!”

  J-jeez. Even as Baiser, she ’t help but blush and look aside. How she just…say that? Does she realize the implications?!

  But that’s just how Magenta is, right? Everything she says is so kind. She’s so pletely ho. Baiser’s certain that whatever sort of person Magenta is when she’s not transformed, she’s exactly the same – and that even if she wasn’t a magical girl, she’d do her best to help people. She’s not the stro, the smartest, the fastest, or anything like that…but without Magenta, the Tres Magia would never shine shtly. They’d never be so kind. Her heart is what keeps them together, and that’s what Baiser fell for, evehe Tres Magia were…well, just Una Magia, really.

  “It might be weird to say this about a vilin, but I don’t think Alice is a bad person,” says Magenta. “I once fought her, and…she really just wao py, you know? She wanted a friend. I have three little sisters, you know, and I like to py with the kids at the park…aah, but don’t tell anyone! I probably shouldn’t have mentio, huh?”

  “I don’t think anyone would believe me anyway,” says Baiser, chug. “Alice was the stro of us, and maybe even the smartest…but she is just a little kid at heart.”

  “I know! I, um. Might’ve fought her solo, that time.” Magenta averts her gaze – it robably pretty embarrassing. All of Alice’s fey moods are, right? “She’s a bit more like you than you’d think, but. Not in a bad way? No offense.”

  “N-aken.” It’s hard for Baiser to really deny that she’s a bad girl, after all. “She’s i, but in a twisted way…maybe we were like that at her age, too?”

  And maybe her mother was, too. Back when magical girls were just characters on TV, what did Hiiragi Naoko dream of when seeing them? What made her hate them so badly? How could she not see how important they were?!

  “It’s a fusing time for us. We all want to be sure we’re doing our part. But it’s even more fusing for someone like Alice, who’s only now just starting to feel something like ‘love’…” Magenta tips her head to the side, looking toward Baiser. “How did you and Leet together, anyway?”

  “It’s, uh…it’s a long story. And it’d probably break the anti-reition magic.” Baiser shakes her head, trying to avoid talking about it. How could she possibly tell Magenta how it started, anyway?! She’s pretty sure it’s not ‘normal’, but…

  maybe that’s okay.

  As long as there’s love, maybe it’s okay how it starts?

  “Oh, sorry. I don’t ry into that. It’s just…” Magenta sighs, and stares up toward the moon. “Sometimes, I feel a bit jealous of you two, you know? I wonder what it’s like to be in love.”

  “…I’m sure there’s someo there who could love you,” Baiser says. And she looks aside. Even just a little while ago, she’d probably have just tossed herself at Magenta, but she’s learned something important training and fighting along the Tres Magia.

  Baiser might love the magical girls, but…

  it’s not that kind of love. It’s not the kind of love she has for Leoparde. Maybe it could be, but she could never betray Leo. (T-toying with them doesn’t t!) Sure, maybe she might’ve, if she’d ever met the Tres Magia before all of this started, probably made a ‘fession’ to them…but, is that really love? Isn’t that just obsession?

  Even Baiser is able to distinguish between love and lust.

  Even Baiser is unwilling to make promises she ever keep.

  And her mother…

  (Maybe she’s just an animal, some part of her says. she even uand what she’s saying?)

  Baiser won’t lose to a wild beast like her! She’ll save her, no matter what it takes!

  “It’d be o find out. Ah, um…not that I’m pursuing anyone in particur!” Magenta waves her hands cutely. God, all this was worth it for Baiser just to see her Tres Magia in vulnerable states like this, to see more and more of their pretty little faces! “Just, maybe, it’d be nieday?”

  Someday, huh…

  Maybe soohahinks.

  Kiwi told Utena, when they left the shri, that she’s pretty sure Sulfur has a crush on Magenta, one she’s trying her damo deny. It’s hard to imagine – Sulfur has always avoided or dehe topi interviews in ways Magenta and Azul never have, and while Baiser’s not naive enough to think an interview has any refle on what they’re really like, getting to know Sulfur in person has dohing to dispel that illusion. Besides, with how Leo and Sulfur fight all the time, maybe she’d just say it to get a rise out of her.

  But, if it were true – and it’d hardly be the first time Kiwi knew something she didn’t – then she’s sure that if Sulfur just told Magenta her true feelings, then Magenta would accept them wholeheartedly. Not even simply because of the promise, but because Magenta wants to be loved.

  There are many kinds of love. Magenta wants all of them. Most people would never achieve romantic love with her, but someone like Sulfur, someone who truly believes in justice? Baiser is certain Magenta would open her heart to them.

  “Magenta…” Baiser smiles at her. “If you have an attitude like that, love will e to you. I promise.”

  “You’re a lot han you seem, Baiser. It’s a shame that Sulfur and Azul didn’t wanna listen to you at first, you know?”

  “It’s not that bad. The Tres Magia need a vilin to fight, right? I think it was a mistake to give up on that so easily. Especially with how it’s all turned out…”

  “I think Sulfur is right, Baiser. I think we’ll win. If your mother see the error of her ways, thehing will be alright. It’s n to hope, you know?”

  Baiser nods to herself, and looks down at her hand, f a fist. Thinking of not just Magenta’s words, but Sayo’s earlier that day.

  She was a coward. She was a coward for hiding from her desires, she was a coward for hiding from the responsibility of being Magia Baiser, she was a coward for letting her mother take that responsibility on, and she was a coward for hiding from Kiwi’s feelings.

  No more.

  Magia Baiser – no, Hiiragi Utena – resolves to herself, that she’ll front her mother. Not as Victricia Baiser, but as Hiiragi Naoko. Tonight. Maybe, just maybe, she get through to her. Save her from herself, before she’s ed by the a magic that threatens to destroy the woman who cared for her all her life.

  It has to be. Even if she loses, then at least Utena will have her pride.

  As her mother oold her: if you move forward, you gain two!

  (…)

  (…wait, didn’t she see a ercial about some dumb robot ah that line –)