Chapter 36 The Villain who Walked Away Laughing

Shota left Mirai's room and walked down the hallway to another private room. Enji was in bed, glaring out the window. His torso was heavily bandaged; the healers had done incredible work on his injuries. His right shoulder, however, ended in a clean, tightly wrapped stump where his arm had been. 

"Oi! Ultra Extra!" Enji snapped without even looking, sensing his presence.

 "I don't need visitors! Get lost! I'm not in the mood right now! I'm super pissed! I lost my arm for nothing! So unless you want me to take it out on you, be my guest!"

"Hi, Enji-kun, I'm happy you're feeling alright. I heard from the doctor you woke up. He said you'll be fine."

 "You damn Ultra Extra, didn't you hear anything I just said? Do I look fine to you? Ah?! Whatever, man. Do what you want."

 He looked back out the window. The sacrifice had been for nothing. He was crippled, and the villain had walked away laughing.

Before the heavy silence could settle completely, a soft poof of pink smoke appeared on the bedside table.

The chibi Lycoris materialized, hands on her tiny hips, looking up at Enji.

"Hey, young man! Why so grumpy?! Lost an arm and now feeling a little sad?"

"What the—"

"No worries! Chibi Lycoris got you!"

Before Enji could process what was happening, she raised her tiny hands. A warm, radiant, pink-gold light engulfed the stump of his shoulder. 

 He watched as threads of light and energy began to weave together from his shoulder, forming the outline of bones, then muscle, then tendons, and finally, skin. In less than ten seconds, the light faded.

Where there had been a stump, there was now a perfect, fully restored arm. It looked exactly as it had before, down to the last fingernail.

Enji slowly, shakily, lifted his new arm. He flexed the fingers. He made a fist. It was real.

"All better! Now, no more being a grumpy patient! You should be thanking your friend for bringing me to check on you!"

 With a final, cheerful wink, she vanished in another puff of pink smoke.

"...Ultra Extra, what... what just happened? Best healers in the hospital told me they can't restore my arm. It was the cost of sacrifice magic, irreversible. How can this be?"

"I don't know the exact magic she used. I'm not sure anyone alive does. She never explained her spells. She just... did them. She was the Witch Queen after all. The only one who ever reached UR-tier. 

To everyone she was an invincible symbol, someone who helps. Fixing a bridge with a snap of her fingers. Healing a park after a battle. Purifying poisoned water. You name it, she could do everything.

She wasn't just about fighting. Her power was creation. Protection. Restoration. If there was a way to fix something broken, she would find it. She believed that was a wizard's real job. Not just to break the bad things, but to fix what was broken.

She was... amazing. She was always there when people needed help. Restoring a lost arm? For her, even now, even like this... I think it was probably easy. It's just what she does."

Enji let out a long, slow breath, the hot anger from before completely gone.

"Look, at first, I didn't really buy it. The whole 'Witch Queen's soul is trapped in you' thing. I thought maybe it was just... I don't know, some leftover power. A weird magic. Ghost stories. But this? She is the real deal. So... tell her thanks. From me. And you can tell her I won't be pulling that Sacrifice Magic crap again. It's not worth it. I gave that bastard everything. My fire, my arm, my pride... and he blocked it with the back of his damn hand. I got nothing to show for it but a lesson.

But I'm not giving up. She gave me my arm back. She woke me up. I'm back in the fight. And next time, I'm gonna be so much stronger he'll need both hands and a damn shield."

"I'm glad, Enji-kun, glad you're back to your usual self."

He turned toward the door.

 "I'm going back to Mirai-chan's room now. To check on her. See you soon, Enji-kun."

 "Yeah, see ya! And tell the crazy drill-girl I said to wake the hell up. We've got training to do."

As Shota left, Enji looked at his restored fist, a new fire—smarter, harder, and more determined than ever—already beginning to burn in his eyes. The game had changed. The villain had a name, Victor Creed, and they had a debt to pay.

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Shota returned to Mirai's room. The significant drain of Lycoris’s healing magic settled on him all at once with bone-aching fatigue.

He sat back down in the chair beside Mirai’s bed. He meant to just watch her a little longer, to guard her sleep, but his own eyelids grew heavy. His head nodded forward, then slowly slumped down onto the edge of the hospital bed, his forehead resting near her still hand. 

He fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Time passed. The afternoon light softened into the golden hues of evening, painting the room in long, warm shadows.

Shota stirred. He felt something. A gentle, repetitive motion on his hair. A soft brushing, stroking from his temple back over his head. It was comforting. Safe. It was a sensation he hadn't felt since he was a very small child, before the world turned to ash.

He lifted his head.

Mirai was awake.

Her eyes were open, clear, and focused on him. A small, genuine, peaceful smile touched her lips. Her hand was raised, her fingers gently carding through his messy hair.

For a moment, Shota just stared, caught in her gaze. The static was gone. There was only her smile, the warmth of her touch, and the golden evening light.

“Mirai-chan, you’re finally awake.” 

 “I had a wonderful dream. A beautiful, warm dream where everything was perfect and nothing hurt. But I like this reality more, because in my dream, you were just an image. But here…”

Her eyes traced the lines of his face, the worry in his eyes, the fact that he had fallen asleep at her bedside.

“Here, my Shota is real. And he’s here, next to me.”

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One Month Later - Principal's Office

The past month had been deceptively quiet. No attacks, no sightings of Victor Creed, no kaiju attacks. It was the calm after the storm.

"Arata. The time has come. The orders are final. The government and the Pro Wizard Association are demanding we hand over the barrier user to them. I have stalled, negotiated, and pleaded over this past month. There is nothing more I can do to buy time."

He removed his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

"The Academy either complies, or we face dissolution. Asset seizure. Criminal charges for obstructing a national security imperative. The consequences are... absolute. Their intelligence estimates Victor Creed will decipher the artifact's activation within a month, perhaps two at most. They cannot wait any longer. Their solution is to repair the main Tokyo Barrier, the Eternal Veil, to its full, original strength. At least as much as his life will repair it. A restored Veil could, in theory, withstand a direct blast from the World-Severance Array."

"Damn it, Kaito. I still can't believe it was Victor Creed behind it all. After all these years... how did he survive? All his known allies perished that day or were locked in the Archive."

"Yas, Arata. How he survived is a mystery to me too. I was there, seen him take the hit, saw him burn in that black flame of hers, yet still, here he is. But let's get back to the topic. The government see Shota not as a student, but as a strategic resource. A battery. And we are simply out of time. What do you think, Arata? You've been pushing him and the team to their limits this past month. What are their stats?"

"As for the team... they're monsters now. Enji has full control over his Pink Flame. No more sacrifice. Pure, explosive, fire magic. He's a solid S-tier. Mirai has mastered her tungsten-element. Her drills can pierce anything we've tested. She's also S-tier. Shota... he's shown the most growth. His barrier control is now instinctual. He can layer them, shape them, compress them into cutting edges. He's also S-tier. Probably the most versatile defensive asset on the planet.

It's such a goddamn shame. A waste. The fools at the Association want to use him as a one-time battery to jump-start the Veil. They'll drain him dry, burn out his mana until he dies. If we had just half a year more time... with his unique magic and growth rate, he could easily reach SS-tier. He could be the new pillar. But they're too scared to wait. They'd rather sacrifice our future to desperately prop up the past."

He looked the principal dead in the eye. 

"They're asking us to hand over one of the brightest lights this academy has ever seen to be snuffed out for a temporary fix. That's the stat, sir. We're being ordered to kill our best student."

"Yes, that is true, Arata. But we can't do anything now. The team will be here tomorrow to escort him to the barrier tower. Be ready to hand him over to the government agent when he arrives."