"You're here."
Touko arrived at the backyard of the estate.
Aoko stood in the open space, looking up at the cloudy night sky.
"What's so interesting about such an awful sky?"
"It really isn't interesting."
Aoko nodded slightly, pursing her lips on her own.
"The night sky from before was much better. But unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to see that sky again now."
"A bit difficult?"
Touko couldn't help but laugh.
"With the power of a Magician, changing the weather shouldn't be hard at all."
Though her words were phrased as a question, her tone was firm.
Aoko had been a Magician for twenty years now.
Even if she had been naive and inexperienced before, she had long since shed that immaturity. Just how powerful she had become now was something Touko didn't even want to think about.
Thinking about it would only discourage her, making the idea of effort vanish from her mind, leaving her unmotivated to do anything.
"That's true!"
Aoko nodded straightforwardly.
"Blasting away the clouds above is easy. But bringing back the world as it was before—that's not up to me."
"Was the world before really that good?"
"At least better than now, right? You're in business—don't you think so?"
"Hah, that's also true!"
Touko let out a loud laugh.
Before the world became like this, she could still make money doing business.
Now, it was much harder.
Though the Sealing Designation had been lifted ten years ago, she had no interest in working for the Mage's Association, leaving her in a rather lonely state.
At least she could occasionally steal Roy's savings.
"But the fact that you can't change the world back—is that because of your own limitations?"
Touko casually brought the topic back.
"Who could possibly have that kind of power?"
Aoko waved her hand dismissively, as if to say, "Don't be ridiculous."
Touko also nodded in agreement. Reversing time for the entire world was far too fantastical.
She took out a Taiji-brand cigarette from her pocket, hesitated for a moment, then lit it anyway.
"Then let me rephrase—is it that you don't want to, or that you're not allowed to?"
Her tone suddenly sharpened.
It was as if the conversation had instantly shifted from a casual chat between sisters to a discussion of magecraft between magi. All personal sentiment vanished from her words, making it seem as though they weren't sisters at all.
"Hmph..."
Aoko let out a nonchalant hum.
"For a magus, there's no difference anyway."
"True enough. Magi are beings who accept reality, not ones who reshape it. Even if they learned the truth, nothing would change."
Touko sighed with a hint of melancholy.
"If they really confirmed that the Counter Force doesn't exist in this world, they'd probably be thrilled—no, they'd definitely go mad with joy."
Magi gradually lose their humanity as they delve deeper into magecraft. It's common for them to obsess over experiments that the Counter Force would never allow. If they learned that the Counter Force—the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads—was gone, they'd surely celebrate by conducting some random experiment that threatened the world.
Touko took a drag from her cigarette, exhaling a ring of smoke that obscured her face, making her expression unreadable.
"Aoko, has this world been abandoned?"
"Huh? What, you're only caring about the answer to that now?"
Aoko couldn't help but laugh, her face breaking into a teasing smile.
"I didn't care much before, but now I do a little."
Touko's expression darkened slightly as she stared at the sky with complicated emotions.
"Ten years ago, when the corrupted Servants emerged from the black mud and turned their blades on the world, you must have known what was happening. Yet you didn't appear to stop them."
"Over these past ten years, I've travelled to many places and reached the same conclusion—and the same doubt. Back then, aside from each country's military forces, the only ones who stood against the black mud were local magi. The immortals of China, the ancient True Ancestors and spirits, the remaining Phantasmal Species on earth—and you, a Magician—none of you appeared. All these higher beings simply watched as disaster unfolded on earth."
"Zelretch showed up once, but bafflingly, he only set up a weak anti-spirit barrier in Fuyuki before disappearing without doing anything else."
"On top of that, the Counter Force shouldn't have allowed such a disaster to happen. Yet the world still ended up like this... I started to think our world had been abandoned, turned into a Lostbelt. But I couldn't understand the reason for it being pruned."
Touko spoke at length, voicing the questions that had weighed on her mind for years. As she wandered the world, the same doubts had lingered in her heart, never finding an answer.
"Are you saying all this because you want me to give you the answer?"
Aoko let out a light scoff, her expression turning sharp.
"Why do you care about the truth now, of all times? Since when were you the type to worry about this, Touko? Or—is it that you're asking for someone else's sake?"
"...You could say that."
Touko fell silent for a long moment before reluctantly nodding.
"Let me guess—that someone is Roy."
Touko didn't answer, only shrugging her shoulders.
It was as good as admitting it.
"Ha!"
Aoko let out a long sigh, as though expelling all the frustration pent up in her chest.
"If you said it was for yourself, I wouldn't tell you no matter what. But since it's for Roy—fine, I'll tell you. Let's cut straight to the conclusion. You think this world was abandoned, right? That's the wrong answer."
"Then what's the right one?"
"The right answer is—this world was chosen."
Aoko took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.
"The exact opposite of what you thought."
"No, not entirely opposite. Sometimes I wondered if it might be the reverse, but it seemed too absurd, so I dismissed the idea."
Having gotten her answer, Touko's troubled expression eased, replaced by a smile.
"So everything happening in this world now is part of the Counter Force's plan? The reason higher beings like you didn't intervene is because the Counter Force forbade it?"
"The Counter Force?"
Aoko gave her a look, then rubbed her temples as if she had a headache.
"If only it were that simple..."
"What do you mean by that?"
Touko blinked, clearly taken aback.
"Wait—are you saying the Counter Force isn't the one behind all this?"
"Of course not."
Aoko answered without hesitation.
This conclusion completely defied Touko's expectations.
Over the past ten years, she had considered countless possibilities, but all of them had revolved around the Counter Force.
If it wasn't the Counter Force, then who—or what—could have orchestrated all of this?
"Isn't it obvious? The one that governs all causes, manipulates all effects."
Aoko shrugged, her gesture mirroring Touko's earlier one.
But her movements were filled with bitterness.
"It's the Root."
***
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