I searched for Ayane with all my might, but strangely I couldn't find her. On the way I had sent her, I found a crack in a building that seemed recent, as if something had been thrown there, but I couldn't find anything.
Hexael just followed me as I desperately jumped from building to building, looking for Ayane. Since I don't have a cell phone, I have no way of communicating, so I could only search alone, following small strange traces.
There were cracks and a little fresh blood, but I wasn't even sure of anything. I was guided through this and Hexael's malicious smiles. Unfortunately, it took me almost 4 hours to end up at an abandoned factory far away.
"..." And the scene I see as soon as I invade the place is maddening to me, but I don't scream, I don't despair, I just coldly aim my gun and shoot, a completely black bullet that drips corrosive black liquid.
The bullet pierces the monster's head, and it lets out a shrill and agonizing scream as it writhes on the floor, throwing itself on the metal beams and machines as if that would stop the corrosion it's suffering.
I shoot again and again, the normal bullets I fire are made by magic and their colors are usually blue, white or purple near lilac, the colors don't mean anything, it's just that these bullets are now completely black.
The monster screams and writhes, trying to escape, but unable to because the pain is unbearable as a black liquid leaks from its wounds.
"..." I just keep shooting it again and again, I guess that's the advantage of the pistol, it shoots fast, unlike the Sniper which has only one shot and I have to reload, which takes a few seconds, though it's quick.
The pistol doesn't have that reload, I just have to pull the trigger and it will shoot again and again as long as I have magic.
The monster suddenly stops moving and falls to the ground, the shape of the monster was strange, it was like a bunch of flesh vines that had come together into a single being that tried to pretend to be a humanoid.
But as soon as I started targeting it with these black shots, it couldn't even react anymore, not because a shot was strong enough to kill it, but because the shots are extremely painful.
This is notable when these shots that are bathed in my obsession hit a monster, their first reaction is to scream and writhe because the pain caused is infernal.
I look at the center of the monster, the sight that fills me with anger, Ayane naked covered in superficial cuts, they were made by the monster's vines, she is also covered in a white goo while tears stream down her face.
Her private parts also drip a lot of this white goo, which to me is quite obvious what happened, I believe the cracks and blood on the way here were Ayane trying to resist being taken by the monster.
She doesn't seem very conscious, moaning in pain, but as a reflex of the body, "calmly" I approach her, seeing her condition full of small cuts, it's similar to a child scratching themselves on a bush or tree branch.
But in this case there are many of these small cuts all over her body, aiming only to cause pain to Ayane, showing that her situation was much worse than the first time.
The first time she had only been violated, but her body was fine, now in addition to having been raped, she was injured, Hexael approaches jumping through the structures.
"It seems you failed, and you know what that means?" Hexael says with a small purposeful chuckle.
"Yes..." I say just a cold yes, if Ayane has already suffered in this way, the only answer is to kill myself and try again, but as soon as I kill myself and try again, everything will get even worse and I shouldn't get stuck in this spiral that only gets worse.
I need to be 100% certain to save Ayane this time, so I decide to wait here in this place, I will just look at Ayane and see the failure that I am to let her suffer like this.
I will go back in time only when the time is enough for me to go back to the exact moment when I told her to go to another market.
"Setsuna, what do you think of this? This is the first time you've seen her in this way that we could say is dirty, doesn't that excite you?" Hexael asks knowing the answer.
"No, it just makes me angry..." Before going back in time for the first time, I felt all the pain that Ayane felt all at once, it was agonizing, terrible and repulsive in various ways.
However, a large part of those bad feelings stuck in my mind, and now any "trigger" that serves as a trigger reactivates those feelings, so now in addition to my cold anger, there is the anger that Ayane felt.
I touch Ayane's body, wiping away her tears, her face is viscous because of this disgusting liquid.
"What else was that monster going to do to her besides that?" I question Hexael with doubt, there are some deep cuts on her arms and if he hurt Ayane in this way, then I don't think he would just use her as a toy unless it was just sadism.
"Good question Setsuna, he was going to steal some of Ayane's bones after having his fun, that monster you just killed steals parts of bodies from others to have a well-made form."
"But that one was strangely strong for the standard, I guess you know why, don't you?"
"Cause and effect..." I just murmur the answer, hugging Ayane. She has an unpleasant smell of blood and this goo, but I don't care, I just hug her to try to calm her mind.
She is not conscious, but seems to feel the gentle hug and stops trembling a little, the blood that flows from her wounds stains my magical girl uniform as I just wait, patiently wiping her tears.
"Hexael..."
"Tell me, do you need anything, Setsuna?" Hexael asks as I cover Ayane's body with my uniform jacket.
"Why do the monsters I've seen so far pretend to be human?" I question, noticing how they all pretend to be human, either mentally acting hidden in society, or even physically trying to look like humans, even if they are disgusting and repulsive.
"Hmmm, that's a great question and I'm afraid I won't give you that answer yet, maybe in the future I'll tell you," he says as I just sigh.
'Corrosion...' I think about my power as I hug Ayane tightly, trying to be a safe haven for her.
If I could use this corrosion ability purposefully, I would be much more powerful, but I don't know how to use it, it just manifests as a reflex in bad situations.
"Why doesn't Septarion ever protect the magical girls?" I mutter, irritated with that useless angel, I'm sure he's as strong as Hexael, but even so he does nothing and leaves everything to others.
Hexael is also strangely "restrained," he doesn't do anything even though he has so much power, unless it's through contracts, and this makes me think about what is restricting the freedom of these powerful beings.
"Hexael, why don't you non-human beings use your power as you wish?" I question him.
"I can give you that answer and it's actually quite simple, Setsuna. Think of a glass jar."
"You can't put something that has more volume in the glass jar than it has space, so obviously you'll only put inside the jar what fits in it..."
"You angels and demons would be those who choose what to put in the jar," I say before he continues.
"Smart girl, you're right, Setsuna, we're not the material put in the jar, we're the ones who put the material in the jar," he says with a little smile.
"..." With this answer, it's obvious what he wants to tell me, they don't use their powers not because they can't, but because they don't want to.
I don't know if this is true, but it really annoys me, because it means that Septarion could use his powers at will, but doesn't, just by choice.
Of course, there must still be a reason, and the most likely is to keep himself hidden, since neither Hexael nor Septarion normally encounter each other.
Hexael never appears when Septarion is near me, so angels and demons probably keep each other hidden.
This doesn't help me much, so I decide to just remain silent, comforting the sleeping Ayane until the time comes to go back in time, I will prevent this from happening with my full power.
"Setsuna, I can tell you how to balance cause and effect," Hexael says, jumping in front of me.
"..."
"Just have another person suffer Ayane's fate."
"...That means..." I say, looking at him.
"Exactly what you must be thinking, Ayane must be raped by a monster today, but fate doesn't care much about identities, only the cause and effect of the moment."
"To fix a problem, you don't need to use exactly the same thing, after all, if you don't have something to fix a machine, you'll have to replace it with something else."
"So if you have another magical girl raped in Ayane's place, not only will it be a cruelty that will help you get stronger, but it will also be something that will prevent Ayane from suffering," Hexael says, trying to convince me.
"...I won't do that," I deny doing that, not only because it would be difficult in this situation, but also because Hexael is being strangely convenient again.
And every time he does this, I end up getting hurt in some way, so even though this makes sense and may be true, it's not worth doing it now.
"Hmm, okay then, do what you want, meow," he says with a meow, licking his own fur as if he doesn't care that I'm not using his idea.