She gave up her riding crop.

  She renounced her actions as Magia Baiser.

  And never once, did she even think of the magical girl looking her way.

  Azul, lying there battered and broken, clutches her transformation heart in disgust as she stares at the newly crowned Magia Lilás.

  She can’t simply…fall to evil, and yet…

  …

  “Magia Lilás?” You look up in disbelief at the girl before you. To think…to think, that not only would Utena betray her desires, but she’d go so far as to join the other side! “That white mascot had another transformation item left…?”

  That, as such, isn’t so surprising. You’d assumed there was a limited supply, or some rules their species had, because they certainly didn’t seem ready to mass produce magical girls to face the threat of Lord Enorme…but perhaps they’ve finally realized that the species they’re toying with might have cottoned on to their intentions.

  But you didn’t think Utena would step back on the battlefield so easily. You’d intended to let her come back to you, to realize the desire she’d held could be fulfilled, and yet…

  Well. It doesn’t matter. Even if the Tres Magia have gotten stronger, you aren’t scared of her one-on-one! Your power is more than sufficient to take down just one magical girl!

  “Victoria Raya!” you yell, your third eye opening and a beam slicing right up the building Utena – or rather, Lilás – is standing on. You watch it crumble to bits as it reaches her, and she doesn’t even attempt to dodge…

  before a flourish of her wand sends the beam bouncing off straight into the sky.

  “A war fan…?” A giant, reflective war fan is her weapon, conjured from her wand, spread wide, easily able to deflect your beam. She stands confidently on absolutely nothing, a control over her flight that surpassed even her abilities as Baiser!

  “You’ve grown compcent, haven’t you? That’s the one thing a vilin should never do.” Lilás shakes her head and shrugs. “Things have been going your way, but if you’re just going to sit there and expect us to bend over and take it, you’ve got another thing coming!”

  (“…heh. I guess she’s still the same Utena under it all,” Leoparde whispers to herself. “Hm. Wonder if I could get some ‘defeated vilin’ py ter.”)

  “Go! Magia Lilás!” Though battered, focusing on healing Leoparde and herself, and ignorant of Leo’s true desires, Magenta can’t help but feel her heart go aflutter witnessing her former rival’s new form. She’s so beautiful…this is what she was made for! “For the sake of justice and for everyone’s smile!”

  “Justice…” Lilás smiles to herself, easily swaying this way and that as you continue firing beams. She’s even fast enough to keep up with your cyborg brain! “I’m sorry, Magia Magenta, but I’m not so pure. I’m not like you. All I can feel is anger…”

  “…nobody’s perfect, Lilás.” Magenta nods to herself, as Leoparde clings to her. “As long as you do the right thing, it doesn’t matter what drives you. That’s what being a magical girl is about, not being a perfect human being.”

  Such…sophistry! It disgusts you! It absolutely disgusts you! How can they just…stand there and act like this?!

  (…just like I pnned, Utena thinks to herself. The stars on her face multiply like mine did when she’s manic, but the moment she can’t predict a situation, they start fading back down to two…)

  You raise your hand, the cws at the end of your fingertips firing out continuously as heat-seeking missiles. “More borrowed wings, my darling daughter? Let’s see how far you can fly on them! Victoria Missilia!”

  “I am…tired…of your fucking lines!” Even high above the buildings, her maneuvers are more than able to keep up. She dives through, missiles crashing into buildings and exploding! When they get too close, she tosses out a series of hand compacts – fucking compacts, like the pstic crap they sell kids! – and fires violet beams, bouncing them along to destroy them! And just when it seems like some will hit…

  Bwoom. A single flourish of her wand, and she’s got a beam sabre, that effortlessly cuts through the missiles!

  Goddess. Maybe you should be proud, actually. She’s been paying attention.

  (God, my Utena’s brilliant. She’s like a shooting star. Leoparde looks up, absolutely struck. But I guess she’s right. The one person she can’t dismiss is her own daughter. Even for the hag, that’s true.)

  “Who are you to speak to me that way? Who is it that bought all that merchandise for you? Even though it always made me sick!” Realizing that you’re not getting anywhere at a distance, you extend your cables out and bounce around using the buildings, seeking to reach out for Lilás. “You’re lucky I didn’t ban it right away when I noticed your grades slipping!”

  Lilás grins. Baring her teeth and her fangs, her eyes glowing gold.

  “So transparent,” she says, and that just makes you roar in anger. “Abdicating your responsibility as a parent just makes you a failure as a mother!”

  (She was a fan of ours, too? Magenta thinks. No wonder she was so interested in us! I wanna get to know her better after this…)

  “Victoria Rocheta Ancora!” you cry, flipping around and letting your golden heels split off into wire-guided spikes! You lead her into the tight alleyways around the area, and –

  and there’s an audience.

  That isn’t that strange. Even if you chose an area rgely devoid of people to battle in, there’s no way they’d just let the property damage go without watching. The police hold the crowd behind the lines, but they’re all looking up, they’re all…

  cheering for her.

  You growl, you scream, your rockets cut away by Lilás’ sword, before you go in flying and get your bat back out for close combat. All this work, all this effort getting public retions under control…and the moment your daughter finally switches costumes, they decide to cheer for her?!

  “All those…tch…fancy aerial maneuvers won’t save you!” The two of you close in and csh, sword and bat against one another, beams reflected by cables, a battle faster than the eye can see. The golden glow in her eyes, that manic grin as she unleashes her full self upon you…

  Hiiragi Utena was already powerful. That was why Venalita targeted her in the first pce, after all. Her passion for the Tres Magia, combined with the hidden sadism…it was perfect for whatever pn Venalita had. And because you held simir feelings, with simir power, with many added years of desire and need built up to fuel you far past these innocent teenagers, it was only natural she’d try to use you instead once she had the opportunity. Utena could never match your sexual experience.

  But it seems you underestimated your daughter, from the start. Or, perhaps…

  the power that fuels her, that righteous rage, has pumped her into heights that can match even you! What a disastrous miscalcution of yours…!

  “Is that enough? Show…me…more!” Lilás cries, and you can almost imagine the way the stars on her face would multiply endlessly if she were still in her old costume. “Or is this all a vilin has to offer?! You disappoint me, Victricia Baiser!”

  “I told the Tres Magia, didn’t I?” Your leg crackles, as Lilás finally gives an opening, and you kick her right back into the IK*A! (Those poor Bl*hajes…) Lilás isn’t nearly so fazed as Magenta was, but she still needs a moment to steady herself. “Don’t underestimate adults!”

  “If you’re what ‘adults’ are, Victricia, then your entire generation is cooked!” Lilás licks her lips, spitting out some blood. “How can you justify yourself?”

  “How? Look at this world, Magia Lilás.” You spread out your arms, gesturing all around. "Built upon the backs of untold suffering. War, poverty, disease, all threaten to ravage us. We might think ourselves safe in this high and mighty nation of ours, but all that means is we’re more than happy to let this whole Earth drown in the poison we call carbon.

  "Across the world, forces conspire to control every moment of our lives with machines. Our jobs, our lives, the air we breathe, our very souls are at risk. Human extinction is a breath away. Every moment, we risk passing a tipping point that wipes out our species. And here we sit, waiting to die. It’s the responsibility of those who hold power to use it to make the world a better pce!

  “And what do you magical girls do? Fight off random monsters? Sign autographs? Interviews, sponsor spots, countless pieces of pstic merchandise that wind up in the oceans, choking the life out of the seas that birthed us? Your ‘hope’ is a hollow mockery! Agents of stasis, nothing more! You could lead a revolution, and this is all you do?! Even as a vilin, you couldn’t think of anything more than molesting magical girls! I’m ashamed I raised you so hollowly!”

  Leoparde just rolls her eyes at this speech, making a jerk-off motion with her hand, but some of the audience outside the cordon seem to be mulling it over…

  as is Magia Magenta.

  “…it’s true. We’ve been fighting demons all this time, fighting Magia Baiser, but we could do more with this magic, right?” She looks down at herself, at the wounds she healed with her own two hands. She could use that in so many different ways, couldn’t she? “Maybe…”

  “Don’t listen to her, Magenta!” Magia Lis flourishes her fan. “It’s true, the world is a rotten pce. But if you think the reason it’s a rotten pce is because of magical girls, mother…” Lilás grins madly, her golden eyes glowing. "You’re either lying to yourself, or you’re much stupider than I thought!

  “Who is it, mother, that killed all the magical girls of Japan before they managed to establish themselves? It’s not us! You call us ‘agents of stasis’, but we’ve hardly had the chance to change the world! And whose fault is that? Who is it who thinks the world is so irredeemable it cannot be saved? ‘Don’t underestimate adults’? Don’t make me ugh! You’re just a fucking pervert who thinks the mild pain of a mediocre office job means she deserves to rule the world! If anyone’s pathetic here, it’s you!”

  Goddess. Your precious daughter’s enjoying this far too much.

  …in a way, that’s not a bad thing, but it is rather inconvenient for you right now, isn’t it?

  “Defend your decisions all you want. Enormita will bring order to chaos,” you say, the two of you readying your energies for one final csh. “And if you persist on being an obstacle to the pn, Lilás, then I’ll be gd to show you my power!”

  “Kill me if you can, mother~”

  You aren’t willing to wait. You push the entirety of the magic you have into your leg. Magia Lilás raises her wand, and her compacts fly out and form a mirrored ring, the wand at the centre. With the intensity of your battle, it’s clear this will be the final blow – one way or another.

  It’s you who strikes first.

  Leaping upward, you flip in the air and your leg crackles with all your might, with your pain and your sorrow, with your lust and your desire, and glows with purple lighting…flying right toward Lilás, intending to cut right through anything she can bring to bear!

  “Supra Fulmina Calcitra!”

  The charge for Lilás’ attack lets the ring of her mirror glow, and the wand in the middle fires a pilot ser, as Lilás pushes all of her rage into one single beam!

  “Laurenta Estre Raio!”

  Your heel slices right through the beam, further and further and further, but you can feel the strain. Your cables and their electric pulses shield you enough, but this is going to be close…

  Closer…

  Closer…

  Right through the beam, right against Lilás’ wand, your power overwhelming hers, until –

  “Dedo Brilhante!” At the absolute st second, Lilás’ beam dissipates, and she shifts to the right, just enough to charge her hand with energy and punch you right in the gut, with enough force to send you into back the IK*A! (That thing’s going to be condemned after this at this rate!)

  You cough up blood, seeing Magenta and Leoparde finally rush over to protect the nearby Azul, who’s been ying there watching this the whole time. Lilás leaps forward, standing over you, holding out her violet beam sabre, ready to make the final blow.

  “…turnabout is fair py, isn’t it? Victricia Baiser. You’re not the only one who can steal attacks, and for someone who’s obsessed with how magical girls act, you’re far too predictable when it comes to your own genre of choice.”

  You pushed too much energy into that attack…! You underestimated your daughter, and now you’re going to pay the price. Your magic flickers. If you just had a moment, you could summon a portal back to Nacht Base…

  “I’m not going to kill you, Victricia,” says Lilás. “I’m a magical girl, after all. But that…” Her sabre points at the transformation star, lined with raven wings, sat right over your mound of Venus. “That’s going to have to go, mother. I’m sorry.”

  So, that’s it, huh? Doomed to obscurity forever. What you deserve, for not taking this more seriously –

  “Eh?”“What?!”“Huh? Azul, what are you –”“Oh no, Blue…”

  until that st remaining magical girl, until the one you had at your mercy, Magia Azul, lets herself stand in the way of your defeat.

  “Magia…Azul…?”

  Lilás stands in disbelief as Azul spreads her arms out. It’s clear that if Lilás wants to defeat you, she’s going to have to go through her – one of her beloved Tres Magia.

  “So, it’s just as we thought. No eyes for me. Not even once. I was just a disposable fling to you.” Azul looks up into Lilás’ eyes, and smiles weakly. “You came here, and you didn’t even look at me. You gave up everything I loved about you, all for that…that kitten bitch…!”

  “Azul? I don’t – that’s our enemy, Azul! Why are you protecting her?!” Lilás trembles, trying to understand such a situation. Did your daughter truly never see it? All this time? She’s even more ignorant than you thought…

  “Did you even realize?” Azul’s eyes well up, as your magic flickers in your hand. “…I loved you, Magia Baiser. I wanted to be yours. I wanted to give up everything for you, just to feel your embrace. But you couldn’t see it.”

  “You…loved me…?”

  Lilás’ bde recedes from her wand, as she stares in disbelief. She didn’t know. Not even once.

  “Azul, no! We can talk this out, like friends! No one’s trying to hurt or ignore you!” Magenta cries out. “We can all be happy…are you really going to protect Victricia rather than just talk it out?”

  “I agree. This has got to be the least emotionally healthy way of dealing with jealousy I’ve ever seen,” Leoparde quips, earning herself only a spit in the face from Azul. “Hey! Gross!”

  “You have no room to talk, Leoparde. Absolutely none. Standing there. Taunting me. You wanted me to cry, didn’t you? You’re despicable! Horrible! An awful human being!”

  “I didn’t know!” Leoparde looks like she’s on the verge of tears. “I swear, Goddess, I didn’t know you had feelings for her! You think I’d have acted like that if I did? You think I’m so cruel that I’d not understand your feelings? If we’d known, I’m sure Lilás –”

  “Baiser! Her name is Magia Baiser!” Azul, with the st of her strength, brings her bde back. “You took her from me! You neutered her! You let her give up everything I loved about her!”

  Lilás reaches out for her. “Azul, please, we can talk about this!”

  “No more. No more. All I wanted was to be consumed by your darkness, and if I can’t have that, then…then your mother will give it to me, gdly. And I won’t let you or anyone else get in the way of that.”

  Heh.

  Haha.

  Ahahahahahaha!

  It’s all you can do to keep from ughing. But you know that you can’t fight any longer. You need to regroup, so you can cim Azul as yours.

  “…come to me, Magia Azul, and I’ll make you mine,” you whisper, watching as the magical girl shudders under the promise. Watching as she gets wet from the possibility. As the three before her shake in terror, you realize the truth: this is the fate of magical girls. To fall to evil.

  “…I will. I will. To defeat you – you most of all, Leoparde, who stole the pce that was rightfully mine – I’ll become a minion of darkness!”

  “Alright, that’s it. I’m getting you out of the way, Blue!” Leoparde pounces, but Azul unleashes a smoke bomb – several, in fact, of Vatz and Venalita’s inventions, forcing even transformed heroines to start coughing and obscuring you both. You watch, as Azul runs away, the smoke and stealth devices rendering her invisible to your magical senses long enough that she can run right through the cordon with everyone distracted, no doubt returning to human form and disappearing into the night.

  More than long enough for you to slip away, with the st of your strength.

  Once the smoke clears, the three transformed heroines are left there, with a whole crowd and audience having seen the whole thing, shaking in disbelief.

  “…okay, I knew that she was crazy,” says Leoparde. “But I didn’t think that she was nuts.”

  “I should have told you,” says Magenta. “I’m sorry. This is my fault –”

  "It’s her fault. Not yours. Being jealous is human. Hell, being a shit about it is human – that’s the only reason I joined Enormita, because I was being a shit about you gals getting more attention than me on social media. Stupid, I know, but still human.

  “But deciding to defect to someone like her, who’s done worse than anything Lilás did, let alone me? That’s on Azul. No one else. Managing to be a pettier bitch than me is a feat, but…” Leoparde sighs. “She never loosened up. Lilás – Baiser – was the first person to give her that kind of experience. Even I’d at least masturbated before I met her, but I’m not sure Azul even knew the word before that. It’s not that surprising, but…”

  Magia Lilás just…stares at the floor.

  “…if I’d known…what would I have done?”

  But she knows the answer.

  She could never have given Magia Azul what she wants.

  The Azul she admired would have never fallen to evil. If she’d begged to be her minion, if she’d begged to fall, then she knows what she’d say: ‘show some dignity’. The role of Magia Baiser wasn’t to defeat the magical girls, it was to let them shine more brightly than they ever could alone.

  And maybe that steadfast, eternal heroine was a shallow view of Magia Azul…but it’s no more shallow than Azul’s view of ‘Magia Baiser’, is it?

  “Victricia Baiser…I swear…I won’t rest, until you’re defeated. No matter who and what I have to cut through along the way.”

  And with that oath, and the comforting touches of Magenta and Leoparde under the moonlight, captured by countless cameras behind the cordon, Magia Lilás decres you as her greatest enemy.

  She’ll either save you…or she’ll kill you. Even if you are her own mother.

  For the sins she has committed as Magia Baiser – to Azul most of all – there can be no other way.