"..."
Alice Kuonji stared blankly at the sight before her.
Scalding blood flowed down her pale, slender arm.
What passed from Shirou's body to hers was not only his weight, but also the strength in his arms.
Even though he was bleeding so much, even though he had dropped the sword in his hand, he still held Alice's body tightly.
"...Why?"
Why didn't you swing it down?
Why didn't you kill me?
The witch trembled, questioning him again and again.
"In Aoko's words... I'm probably an idiot..."
Shirou's breath was faint, yet he still wore a strained smile as he murmured.
"You said it yourself just now... Alice."
"You're... a monster I created... So... the one who deserves to die isn't you. It's me."
Shirou thought to himself.
No matter what happened, he had never intended to hurt Alice in the first place.
In truth, he had known from the beginning. The so-called "evil Alice" was nothing more than an escapist personality the girl had created to avoid blame and responsibility.
As long as she pushed all the wrongdoing onto the "bad witch," she could continue existing as the "good witch."
She could even be comforted by the boy she liked after everything was over.
...Shirou had noticed that ugly little thought long ago.
But it was not such a big deal.
Because as long as someone was human, they all had a dark side.
Alice's dark side was just a little heavier and deeper than that of an ordinary human.
Alice had been trying her best all this time.
Even though it had nothing to do with her, she had upheld her duty as a witch and maintained the order of the magecraft world.
The parents who could have praised her were no longer there.
The Magi looked at her as if she were something alien.
Even the one person who could understand her, Shirou, had always pretended not to notice Alice's kindness.
Even though he had realized how Alice felt, Shirou had played dense and refused to respond.
So... even if Alice kills me, I pretty much deserve it, Shirou thought.
Why had he only realized it at the very end? He really was hopelessly stupid.
He wished he had noticed sooner.
Still, there was nothing he could do about that.
When it came to "trouble with women," it was the one curse Shirou could never overcome no matter how hard he tried, so he had no choice but to accept it.
"Alice."
Shirou held Alice tightly and spoke softly.
"I... like Aoko."
"......"
Alice said nothing. Only her slender body trembled faintly.
Shirou continued.
"In the 'future' you don't know about, I met her through you."
"I pestered you over and over, begging you to introduce me to Aoko."
"I wouldn't say it was love at first sight, but before I knew it, I had already been drawn to her."
"I was planning to start pursuing her once this time travel was over..."
"By then, she was already a Magician-sama far beyond my reach, but I still wasn't planning to give up... After all, stubbornness is my only good point. Haha."
Alice: "......"
"But."
Blood seemed to be rising into Shirou's windpipe and blocking his throat, making every word look painful.
"Even so, I still can't just leave Alice alone...
I want Alice to always stay by my side. I want to see Alice smiling all the time.
I want to see that cute jealous look you make when Aoko and I get too close...
I want to see you proudly tell other people how close you and I are...
On the way here, I finally realized it. I can't lose Alice, so..."
Shirou buried his face in the girl's soft chest, his expression peaceful, as if he were listening to her heartbeat.
Even with a hole torn through his chest, even with his organs burned away, he paid no mind to the witch's cruel act. He simply held her gently, as if she were something precious.
"If Alice doesn't like that, then I won't confess to Aoko."
"Huh...?"
Shirou's words made Alice's pitch-black eyes widen.
The boy spoke quietly.
"If that 'future' would make Alice stop being Alice, then I'll do everything I can to deny it.
More than 'liking Aoko,' what matters more to me is 'cherishing Alice.'"
"Amamiya... kun."
Shirou's warmth was fading quickly.
In the end, even at the very last moment, he had not fallen in love with Alice.
Even though he had met her earlier than Aoko, even though the two of them had lived together in perfect harmony for so long, Shirou still could not develop romantic feelings for Alice.
So the thing Shirou regretted most at this moment was not that his life was about to end.
It was that, even after facing his own feelings honestly, he still could not answer Alice's feelings.
"I'm sorry, Alice..."
The boy apologized with the last of his strength.
Then his warmth vanished.
The arms that had been tightly wrapped around Alice Kuonji's back fell limply.
"Even though I couldn't fall in love with you."
"I treasured the time I spent with you more than anything."
"........."
Alice stared blankly at the boy who had stopped breathing.
Time and space within the Fairy Domain could be reset.
But the one who could be reset was limited to Alice herself, the master of the domain.
A human who had died completely inside the thick fog clearly could not be reset.
So.
Shirou was dead.
Killed by my own hands.
Dead because of my selfishness.
Dead to atone in my place.
Even in the final moments before his death, he was still blaming himself for being unable to soothe Alice's wounded heart.
But...
That was wrong.
Shirou had misunderstood. From the very beginning.
Because Alice had actually received what she truly wanted from him long ago.
Alice had never dreamed of making Shirou her possession.
She was possessive.
As a witch, Alice possessed a stronger desire to monopolize and a fiercer jealousy than anyone.
But for Shirou, she would have been willing to cast aside those vulgar things. The thing she wanted so desperately, even at that cost, was something far more precious than romantic love between a man and a woman. The thing a witch longed for... a "place to belong."
And yet, just now, Alice had destroyed it all with her own hands.
Because of her ugly desire, she had killed the one person in this world who understood her, the one who cherished her more than anyone else.
Shirou had been thinking of her until the very end, but she had killed him with her own hands.
"————————Ah."
The instant Shirou breathed his last, something "revived" inside Alice's mind.
It was... memory.
Memories that did not belong to her.
Memories from the future.
The treasure, those memories, that had been so precious to Shirou was the week he had spent living with someone in the mansion.
The selfish witch had killed the boy, and had taken every last one of those memories for herself.
"Ah, ah... Aaaah... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
In the end, Alice Kuonji broke down while holding Shirou in her arms.
Deep within the forest of no return that she herself had created, she wailed at the top of her lungs.
"No... no... no, no, no, no...! Amamiya-kun, ngh!"
Tears poured out endlessly, falling onto the boy's face.
"I was wrong... I'm sorry... ngh, I shouldn't have been so selfish... I shouldn't have tried to get your attention this way...!"
As the witch sobbed, she forced a pleading smile at the boy whose eyes remained shut.
"Let's go back, Amamiya-kun... I'll make you black tea. We can have snacks together..."
The boy did not react at all, and the girl grew even more frantic.
"Why did this happen... No..."
She dug her slender fingers into the boy's back as she spoke.
"Don't sleep... Amamiya-kun... This isn't a place to sleep... ngh, Amamiya-kun..."
No matter how she cried, no matter how she begged, Alice Kuonji received no response. At last, she realized the truth.
Shirou would never pay attention to her again.
This time, it was real. No matter how much she sulked, Shirou would never pay attention to her again.
She would never again spend quiet afternoons with him.
She would never again look forward to the dinners he prepared.
She would never again speak with Shirou, never again act spoiled around him.
That ordinary daily life, which had once seemed so insignificant, would never come back.
"Guh...!"
Alice Kuonji learned what it meant to have her heart torn apart in the truest sense.
Her chest hurt. It really hurt.
As if the finger that had pierced Shirou's heart just now had actually pierced her own.
Shirou must have been in even more pain than me before he died...
He had offered his heart sincerely, only for it to be trampled over and over by an insensitive witch.
Again and again. Again and again.
Hehe... At that thought, the girl smiled.
"Hehehe, hahaha, ahahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
She threw her head back and laughed like a madwoman, cackling, roaring, mocking herself.
After laughing for who knew how long, Alice laid the boy's body back on the ground.
"Amamiya-kun... I'm sorry! Amamiya-kun... I'm sorry! Amamiya-kun... I'm sorry!"
Alice collapsed over Shirou and began crying again.
She cried as she apologized, and apologized as she pleaded.
"I was wrong... I really was wrong... I'm sorry... Please, Amamiya-kun... Didn't you say you wanted to stay by my side forever...? So don't leave me. Don't die... Please..."
The witch's sakura-colored lips kept spilling out incoherent words.
She pressed herself as close to Shirou as she could, only to feel an even more terrifying truth.
Shirou's body had already gone cold.
Because he had lost so much blood, his corpse had become cold and stiff after only a short while.
That fact terrified Alice.
"How... how can you be this cold... No, you'll catch a cold like this... Amamiya-kun!"
The witch took off the thick black coat she was wearing.
She draped the fur-lined coat over Shirou, then hugged him even tighter.
"Is that better, Amamiya-kun? Are you warmer now?"
It was late December, and snow had already begun to fall. Alice was now wearing only a thin black knit sweater.
The freezing air on the mountain reddened the girl's skin, but she paid it no mind.
"Do you remember? When I fell asleep in the entrance hall before, you secretly fixed the heater for me...
I felt so warm then... In my dream, it was a warmth I had never felt before..."
"......But."
Alice's tears kept falling onto Shirou's face.
"After I woke up, I went to the living room and scolded you... I said you'd done something unnecessary...
I said you only did it to win my favor... that it was obvious and disgusting...
Ngh... I'm sorry... I didn't mean it... I'm sorry..."
Starting from the repaired heater, Alice began speaking of the regrets she had buried deep inside her heart.
Again and again, she had hurt Shirou with her words.
When she saw Shirou lower his head in dejection, she had even felt a faint pleasure.
She truly was a hopeless, hateful woman.
Of course a woman like that could never be loved by Shirou.
In the end, she had never been worthy of his kindness.
"But even so... you still wouldn't hate me. You still wouldn't abandon me... ngh..."
Alice nestled against Shirou, her sobs gradually growing faint.
Suddenly, there was a commotion not far away.
".........Ah."
The blond Werewolf boy appeared. When he saw the tragedy before him, his face filled with shock.
"Shirou...? Huh! Why are you dead!?"
He shouted in a panic as he rushed over.
"Big sister! What did you do?! Shirou, I'll give you artificial respir..."
Alice quietly raised her upper body and held out one hand.
".........Don't get in the way."
A black pit suddenly opened beneath Beowulf's feet.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The next second, he fell into the abyss.
The forest fell silent.
Alice Kuonji looked back at the boy in her arms and interlaced her fingers with his.
That unexpected interruption had cleared her head a little.
Grief, regret, and despair still tormented the girl's heart.
But amid that endless agony, a certain will was born inside Alice.
"I won't let you die."
Alice Kuonji lifted Shirou's already stiff arm and gently placed it against her cheek.
"I absolutely won't let you die."
"Even if I have to give up my soul, I'll make you live."
An absolute will shone in the girl's pitch-black eyes.
'Resurrection."
It was a miracle that surpassed the Five True Magics.
Since life first appeared on this planet, there had never once been a precedent for the dead returning to life.
No, actually, there had been.
A single example.
The saint, Savior, and Son of God, revered by nearly three billion believers in the world's largest religion, had once performed the miracle of "resurrection" before the eyes of the people.
To resurrect the dead meant turning oneself into a supernatural existence nearly equal to that.
A Magician.
The First Magician.
The first, the oldest Magician.
The Magician who "changed everything."
The witch named "Yumina."
If she wanted to resurrect Shirou, Alice Kuonji had to become that kind of existence.
As the last "Meinster," she did in fact possess the qualification.
Alice Kuonji, known as the "Fragment of the First," had lacked only resolve.
But that was already in the past.
Right now, the one thing she lacked least was resolve. The resolve to say farewell completely to herself as a human.
"Amamiya-kun."
The witch touched her cheek with the boy's cold hand.
If it would bring warmth back to his hand, Alice would do anything.
Alice Kuonji opened her slender palm, and an elegant little bottle containing a suspicious green liquid appeared in it.
It was one of the Ploy Kickshaw she had inherited from her mother.
Alongside the "Thames Troll" and "Wandersnatch," it was counted among the three greatest, strongest, and most precious miracles Alice possessed, the Great Three.
"Flat Snark: Oil of the Moon."
The raw material used to create it was said to be oil squeezed from the belly fat of a nomadic god from the Age of Myths.
When it manifests, it appears as an oil film over the night, hidden among clouds and mist.
Its effect is to unfold a powerful Barrier, continuously spew out Mana, and revive forgotten and abandoned things as PLOYs to bring them under control. Simply put, it recreates the world of fairy tales upon the surface.
In the world of Magecraft, "Flat Snark" was also called by Magi "the world's greatest fiction, separated from the First."
"......"
Alice Kuonji opened the bottle of "Oil of the Moon" and drank half of its contents without hesitation.
"Ugh...!"
A nauseating taste spread through the girl's mouth, but she forced it down without a care.
"Flat Snark" was the most foul-tempered familiar.
Even for its own master, it would never willingly offer itself as a sacrifice.
But how could the resistance of a mere monster from the Age of Myths compare to a girl's longing to see the one she loved again?
At this point, nothing could shake Alice Kuonji's resolve.
There was no need for farewells.
The girl who had immersed herself in fairy tales until now wanted only one thing. To grow up quickly, even if only for a single moment.
"..."
After fully overcoming and absorbing the "Flat Snark" inside her body, Alice Kuonji drank the remaining half of the oil in the small bottle.
She did not swallow it. She held it in her mouth.
Alice Kuonji lifted Shirou's body.
Shirou's body had grown so stiff it could barely move.
Alice carefully, even more carefully than she would handle her own body, embraced the cold boy.
The witch gently lifted Shirou's head.
"I love you, Amamiya-kun...
Even if you hate me, even if you reject me, I don't care. I don't care at all...
So... let's do something lewd♡~"
With that, the girl's lovely pink lips pressed against the boy's cracked, pale lips.
Alice moved her bewitching tongue again and again, smoothly guiding the "Oil of the Moon" into Shirou's mouth.
Heavy snow fell. Thick fog spread.
Magic that surpassed Mystery.
And so, the gate of a miracle beyond the acceptance of human wisdom descended upon the forest.
With the snowy ground where the two leaned against each other as its center, a dazzling sea of white flowers began spreading toward the end of the horizon.
And so, the "First Magician," Alice Kuonji, was born into the world on this night.