Chapter 61: The Time for a Contract... Has Come.
"Kill them!"
"Kill them all!!"
"KILL THEM!!!"
These people didn't need the truth. They just needed a release. They just needed a target, someone on whom they could unload all their pain and misfortune.
We're all going to die sooner or later anyway… might as well make sure these "pests" die first!
They raised the rocks and clubs in their hands. Some even produced axes and knives they had scavenged from the ruins.
"Stop! What are you doing?!"
"They've been helping us this whole time…"
A few people who still had a conscience or had kept their cool tried to step in and stop it. But their voices were instantly drowned out by a more fanatical noise.
"Shut up, you traitors to the human race!"
"You're defending the witches? Then you can die too!"
The furious mob didn't hesitate to turn their weapons on these "dissenters." Rocks and clubs rained down, along with steel rebar pulled from the rubble. After a few short screams, those who had tried to stand up for what was right lay in pools of their own blood.
Then, something even more monstrous happened. Several mob members rushed toward Akemi's still-warm corpse, brandishing their knives.
"Dismember the witch's accomplice! Make the traitor pay the price!"
Blood splattered. The body that was once so gentle and beautiful was torn to pieces by their savagery.
The silent majority—the civilians who had been cowering in fear just moments before—watched the bloody scene, watched the fanaticism of those around them, and some restraint inside them finally snapped.
Everyone else is doing it… Why can't I…?
Fear was replaced by fervor. Reason was devoured by blood. More and more people joined the cruel "carnival."
"And those brats! They're with them too!" someone shouted, pointing at Ayumi and Genta, who were trembling uncontrollably.
"Kill them! Rip them out, root and stem!" the mob snarled, lunging forward.
"Run!" Dr. Agasa yelled desperately, shielding the children with his large body. But he was instantly swallowed by the crowd. The heavy sound of impacts was followed by the crack of breaking bones.
"Grandpa Agasa—!" Ayumi shrieked in terror.
Genta's legs gave out, and he fell to the ground. The mob swarmed over them…
"NO—!"
The children's cries were abruptly cut off. Blood soaked their clothes. As the mob dismembered their bodies, they cursed.
"Good riddance! This is all your fault!"
"Now you know what it feels like to lose your family!"
"You had powers but wouldn't even make water for us! And when you found some, you gave it to your own first! You selfish bastards!"
"I'll give you something to drink! How about now?! Still thirsty?!"
"All the witch's accomplices must die!"
The few civilians who were unwilling to participate were forced forward at weapon-point. Join in, or die with them. Anyone who tried to stop the slaughter was unhesitatingly cut down as a "traitor."
Conan, still clutching Ran's body, watched it all. His eyes were still empty. But deep within that emptiness, something was shattering.
Protection? These are the people we risked everything to protect?
Justice? This is the end result of the justice I've been chasing?
Why… why did it turn into this…?
He looked down at Ran's face in his arms. It was colorless, but still held that faint smile of release.
Was any of this… truly… worth it?
Suddenly, several mob members noticed him. Or rather, they noticed Ran.
"And that woman! That's her! I saw her transform! She's a witch too!"
"The kid as well! He's been holding the witch's corpse this whole time! He's one of them!"
They rushed over, roughly trying to tear Ran's body away, reveling in the act of taking what he cherished right in front of him. Conan instinctively held on tighter but was sent flying by a vicious kick. Fists and feet rained down on his small body. But they didn't kill him. They wanted him to watch. They wanted this witch's accomplice to feel their pain, to see what he held dear be desecrated.
How dare he guard a witch's corpse in front of us?! Unforgivable!!!
"Get lost, you little rat!"
"A witch's corpse is a curse! It has to be dismembered!"
They ripped Ran's body away from him… dragging it like a piece of trash.
Conan lay on the ground, his face smeared with dirt and blood. He watched as the body he had cherished more than anything was torn apart by the crowd…
His pupils contracted violently. Something inside him detonated. It was deeper than despair, more violent than rage.
In the middle of this hell on earth, a figure came stumbling out of the shadows of a ruined building.
It was Eri Kisaki.
Her business suit was in tatters, covered in dust and filth. Her hair was a mess, her face etched with exhaustion and anxiety. It was clear she had endured unimaginable hardships, following what few clues she could, relying on sheer luck to find her way here. She had been calling out, her voice hoarse and choked with tears.
The moment she stepped out of the shadows and saw the scene before her, she froze, as if pinned in place by an invisible force.
What did she see? A twisted mob. Waving weapons. Splattering blood. The familiar figure of Dr. Agasa on the ground. The children?! Her eyes frantically scanned the crowd, her heart seizing with terror.
Then her gaze found the small figure of Conan, being kicked and beaten on the ground.
And… and the body being dragged and dismembered by the mob… that familiar blue jacket… that long black hair she knew so well…
No… It can't be…
Eri's pupils shrank to pinpricks. Her mind went blank. The blood in her veins turned to ice.
Is that Ran?! My daughter… Ran?!
These… these animals… what are they about to do to my daughter with those knives?!
A storm of rage and despair exploded in her chest, an emotion more powerful than anything she had ever felt, enough to incinerate her very soul. In that instant, all exhaustion, all fear vanished, replaced by the most primal, most violent protective instinct of a mother. She may not have even fully registered the state of Dr. Agasa or the children. Her entire world was consumed by the sight of the axe being raised over her daughter's body.
The atrocity was happening now.
"STOOOOOP—!!!"
Eri let out a shriek so piercing it barely sounded human. She threw herself at the crowd with all her might, her normally intelligent and calm eyes now bloodshot, burning with a mad fury. She didn't even spare a glance for Conan's condition. She had only one goal—stop these beasts.
"YOU BASTARDS!!!"
"LOOK AT WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"
"YOU CALL YOURSELVES HUMAN?!"
"YOU'RE WORSE THAN ANIMALS!!"
Her appearance and her roar made the frenzied mob pause for a second. But then, an even greater wave of malice crashed back at her.
"Who are you?!"
"Some crazy bitch!"
"She's defending the witches too! She must be one of them!"
"Kill her! Shut her up!"
Haibara was still in a stupor. But no one approached her. They all knew she was a real Magical Girl. That she would really turn into a Witch. Since their end was death anyway, how could they die before the witch's accomplices did?
In her daze, Haibara saw everything. She saw her sister's body, warm just a short while ago, now broken again. She saw Dr. Agasa's wide, dead eyes. She saw the dismembered limbs of the children. She saw Ran's head, held up like a trophy before being discarded, her eyes now empty sockets. She saw Conan on the ground, his body still rising and falling faintly…
Everything in her vision lost its color, its meaning. All that was left was a searing crimson and a suffocating grey-black. Her mind was a void. The ability to think was gone.
Then, a chill crawled up from the depths of her soul. It was so cold it froze her to the bone. This wasn't fear. It wasn't even anger. It was a confirmation. A fateful confirmation of her deepest, darkest fear. A confirmation of her original sin as "Shiho Miyano"—that she herself was a disaster.
"Heh…"
A soft puff of air escaped her lips. They were pale, completely bloodless. It wasn't a laugh. It was more like the final, faint echo of something shattering in the deepest part of her soul.
Tears fell silently, tracing paths down her expressionless cheeks. They were cold as crystal. But her eyes, after a moment of emptiness, were slowly filled with a terrifying stillness. They had lost their last shred of human warmth.
"Sister…"
"Doctor…"
"Genta…"
"Ayumi… Mitsuhiko…"
"Ran…"
She whispered the names of the recently deceased, her tone like a dream. It was flat, without inflection. Each name was a rusty file, scraping slowly across her already shredded heart, leaving another indelible scar.
"So it's true…"
"I really… only bring misfortune to everyone around me…"
"From the very beginning…"
She lifted her head slightly. Her ice-blue eyes were now a desolate, frozen plain. She looked blankly at the mob, still laughing, cursing, and feasting on despair. At this hell, soaked in blood and betrayal.
"…Nothing has changed at all…"
In the depths of those frozen eyes, the last flicker of light called "humanity" was extinguished. In its place, a bone-chilling killing intent. It wasn't for revenge. That was meaningless now. It wasn't for anger. That was too cheap.
It was simply because… everything was over.
She, Shiho Miyano, the bringer of disaster, and these humans, revealing their ugliest nature as they devoured each other at the end of the world… perhaps they were no different. Just meaningless dust in the cosmos.
And all of it… should just… disappear.
She raised her hand, her face still a perfect blank. A beam of silver magic shot out, precisely executing the civilians who were dismembering, laughing, and cursing.
"You. Die."
Thwip.
"You. Die."
Thwip.
"You. Die."
Thwip.
Screams rang out. But Haibara's face remained a mask of deathly stillness. She was an executioner without emotion. Faced with their own imminent demise, the mob finally sobered up.
"A witch! She really is a witch!"
"Run!"
"Kill her! Kill her!"
Some fled in terror. Others continued their rampage, spewing the most venomous curses they could think of. They felt their world was ending anyway, and they wanted to vent as much as possible in their final moments.
Haibara heard none of it. She just killed.
And killed.
And killed.
Until… the Soul Gem on her chest… that last sliver of silver light, finally went out. It was completely swallowed by black.
And then—
It shattered.
CRACK—!
A sharp cracking sound. From within the gem, countless bolts of black lightning erupted. The violent energy tore the air, as if trying to rip space itself to shreds. A Grief Seed formed instantly, then rapidly expanded, the energy within it accumulating and running wild at an incredible rate.
BOOM—!!!
A massive shockwave blasted out from the Grief Seed, sending the civilians who hadn't fled far enough flying. The sky was instantly blotted out. Countless black lightning bolts rained down. The energy in the Grief Seed could no longer be contained. It detonated.
A colossal energy storm, powerful enough to sweep everything away, expanded madly in all directions. The surrounding space began to twist and warp violently.
Ai Haibara's body, devoid of its last spark of life, crumpled to the ground. Her corpse was then violently thrown into the distance by the blast wave from the Grief Seed's explosion, lost to sight.
"A witch… she really was a witch!"
"Good thing we killed her accomplices!" the lucky few survivors who hadn't died yet thought, their faces showing a mixture of relief and an even more twisted resentment. They scrambled to escape, but it was too late.
A massive, distorted Labyrinth, with the energy storm at its core, expanded rapidly, swallowing all the fleeing figures, and this entire ruin of blood and betrayal, whole.
…
Conan was slammed to the ground by the shockwave. His whole body screamed in pain, as if his bones had been turned to dust. He struggled to lift his head. His vision was blurry, but he saw the world-destroying spectacle, saw the environment around him twisting into something grotesque.
Then, his eyes fell upon… Ran's severed head.
The eyes that were once as gentle as water were now staring blankly at the grey sky.
In an instant, all sound vanished. All pain vanished. All that remained was a boundless, cold, empty void.
What… in the end… was I protecting?
What was I fighting for?
If we had just ignored the Witches… if we hadn't fought… if we hadn't protected these people… we could have just focused on surviving, and we could have lived for a long, long time…
It was because of us that they survived this long…
Why… why did they do this to us…?
Why did things turn out like this…?
Why…
WHY…?
Anger? Sorrow? No… there was nothing left… only a blank slate…
Destroy it all… Let everything be destroyed…
A world like this… "humans" like this… should just… disappear…
His small body was curled on the ground, his shoulders shaking slightly. Tears streamed uncontrollably from his eyes, blurring his vision so much he could barely see.
Until… a flash of white appeared in his blurry field of view.
No, it wasn't a light.
It was a small, pure white creature. Its red eyes stared quietly at the soul that had fallen into the deepest abyss of despair.
The time for a contract… has come…