Consciousness was hazy. My head hurt so much. Where was I?
Gradually, fragmented sounds rose faintly from the surroundings by her ears.
They sounded like conversations mixed with background noise, all tangled together. When she tried to distinguish them, they quietly vanished.
Su Bai slowly opened her heavy eyelids. What entered her vision was a long table. At this moment she was standing right in front of it.
Everyone seated around the long table was conversing with one another. This scene felt extremely familiar to Su Bai, yet every face seemed covered in mosaic, blurry and indistinct.
Was this the Association’s resolution hall?
“Congratulations to Iris for becoming the Association’s third Super S-rank magical girl. Hahaha.”
“Our Association has gained another fierce general.”
“Congratulations, congratulations…”
The people above all looked at Su Bai with cold eyes and kept repeating the congratulatory gestures.
Su Bai lowered her head and extended both hands. A pair of pure white lace gloves, and she was wearing an exquisite dress adorned with iris patterns.
“I… can transform again… I…”
Just as Su Bai was about to raise her head and ask clearly, a wave of dizziness struck. The scene changed, and everything from before vanished.
In its place stood three girls in magical girl outfits, their faces completely unrecognizable, standing right in front of her.
The girl in the purple dress said, “White Iris, we’ll be counting on you for the next operation.”
The girl in the green dress said, “Let’s work hard together, White Iris.”
The girl in the golden dress said, “Hehe, White Iris, I like you.”
“Today our team is officially formed,” the three said in unison.
This was… the time when I first formed the team…
Is this my memory?
The surrounding space fluctuated violently, like ocean waves instantly swallowing everything.
Here it comes again… How much longer…
After a sensation of falling, she was pulled to another place.
“Miss White Iris, this operation has concluded successfully. Many members of the public have sent you thank-you letters. Do you have anything to say?”
Su Bai wanted to open her eyes, but the countless cold flashes from the cameras below stabbed at her vision.
It seemed to be a press conference after one of her missions.
“I…” Su Bai was about to say something, yet the stabbing pain in her brain prevented her from opening her mouth.
The reporter, whose voice carried no emotional fluctuation whatsoever, ignored Su Bai’s reaction at that moment and simply held the microphone toward her mechanically.
“Do you have anything you wish to say?”
“Do you… have… something… to say?”
“…Say… something… say…”
The reporter repeated this sentence over and over. The cameras below pressed even closer to her face.
“Say… say… say… say…”
By the end of the repetition, no actual words could be made out—only meaningless syllables and murmurs.
“Stop talking… please.”
Driven to distraction by the noise, Su Bai covered her ears, squeezed her eyes shut, and curled up in a crouch.
“What’s wrong, my dear? White Iris.”
A familiar voice appeared by her ear, like a spring breeze brushing past, yet carrying a subtle allure.
Su Bai froze.
Then she looked up and saw Golden Lantern smiling as she helped her to her feet.
“Is something uncomfortable? You’ve been on too many missions lately and must be exhausted.”
“Where is this?” Su Bai shook her head and asked.
“Hehe, this is home. Did you sleep too deeply, my dear?”
Home?
Su Bai immediately looked around. The surroundings were a spacious, brightly lit bedroom, and she was currently sitting on the bed.
“No… wasn’t I… escaping for my life?” Su Bai murmured to herself, beginning to doubt her own memories.
“You must have been too tired last night. Look around—where’s any life-or-death escape? You had a nightmare.”
Golden Lantern, wearing a nightgown, spoke softly in front of the bed.
“Hahaha, you must have been half-asleep. My dear~ hus~band?”
???
“What did you just call me?” The nerves that had just begun to relax in Su Bai tensed up again.
As she questioned, her body suddenly rose and she stood up.
“No, this is wrong. This is fake. I’ve never had any experience like this. Who the hell are you?”
“Hehe, relax. I’m Golden Lantern, the one you love most. Have you forgotten? Hahahaha.”
The blonde girl behind her actually leaned her head next to Su Bai’s ear and spoke in a seductive voice.
It gave Su Bai a full-body case of goosebumps.
“Impossible. How could that be? What nonsense are you spouting?”
Wasn’t this supposed to be my own memory? How could something like this appear—things I’ve never experienced at all?
“Why impossible? Just because it never happened before doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.
Take a good look. Isn’t this exactly the outcome you wanted most?”
The person behind her pointed to the side. Su Bai followed the direction of her finger.
At some point, two figures had appeared, pressed extremely intimately against each other.
Su Bai stared at those two people and covered her mouth with both hands.
“That’s… that’s…”
The faces of the two gradually became clear. They were actually her own face and Golden Lantern’s.
“Impossible, absolutely impossible. I’ve never done anything like that, and I never will in the future!!
This place is fake, fake…”
Su Bai refused to believe it, muttering frantically, then went half-mad trying to escape this ghostly place.
She shoved open the bedroom door and was about to charge out.
“Su Bai, where do you think you’re going?” The golden-haired girl still stood there, a trace of mockery now on her face.
Su Bai stood in the doorway. The magical girl battle skirt was already gone from her body; she was now wearing the ordinary dress she usually wore.
She pushed the door open, yet it was still the same bedroom from before—only the scene had become more decayed. A nauseating smell even drifted through the air now.
She was back again.
“No… no…”
In panic, Su Bai immediately turned to push the door again, but the moment she pushed through she found herself in the exact same scene, only slightly more terrifying.
How was this possible? Su Bai frantically pushed doors trying to escape this place.
Yet this seemed to be an endless “ghost wall” she could never leave.
The more she pushed the doors, the filthier and more disgusting the scenes she saw became.
Those two figures were no longer just Golden Lantern. Green Vine, Violet, Yellow Begonia, and more and more faces of magical girls from her memories appeared on them.
The other self’s body and face had actually turned into a male’s, flirting with magical girls of every appearance.
“You have to take responsibility for us, you little scumbag?” A coquettish, heavily made-up voice appeared once more.
“No… that’s not me… everyone… I’m… sorry.”
A strange odor filled the air. Su Bai could no longer endure it. She squatted down and vomited outright, tears flowing uncontrollably.
“Su Bai, stop resisting. This is the real you. Your true nature is just a filthy, ugly, neither-man-nor-woman monster.”
Golden Lantern leaned down and whispered to Su Bai, her face now like a torn, twisted blotch of colorful ink.
“No. It’s not like that…”
Su Bai shouted loudly, shoved Golden Lantern away, and charged straight out the door, covering her ears and closing her eyes as she ran forward without regard for anything.
She did not dare look back, nor open her eyes. She only wanted to escape this place.
The space was boundless. Su Bai felt she had been running for a very, very long time. All sound around her had vanished, as if everything had fallen silent.
Su Bai slowly opened her eyes. Everything around was pitch black, with only a single point of light at the far end.
She slowed her steps and gradually approached the light. Someone seemed to be standing there.
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