Magical Girl with Demonic Time Magic-Chapter 65: Balance

Chapter 65: Balance
It’s been almost a month since Ayane and I saved Hinata. After that day, Ayane showed a huge improvement in her strength, and we’ve been actively operating as magical girls, hunting monsters.
As for me, to get stronger, I decided to follow a simple strategy. I cornered Hinata and made a threat and proposal to her in exchange for her bullying people I chose, her secrets would be kept safe.
Hinata doesn’t remember being attacked, and of course, she didn’t like my proposal until she found out that I would give her inside information on the weaknesses of the targets. As a typical popular bully, she started to enjoy hearing the secrets of some of the students.
With her bullying for me, my power started to passively increase. I also use Hinata’s phone in our free time when we’re just the two of us to talk and do horrible things on the internet.
That way, all the blame goes to Hinata while I stay safe. Hinata doesn’t even know that I created accounts on various social media using her photo and information anonymously.
For the internet, it’s her talking and posting those atrocities, and Hinata’s reputation is slowly sinking. When it all completely collapses, I’ll just abandon this sinking ship and let her drown alone.
She’s loving the power she has over some students, so let her enjoy the help I’m giving her to the fullest.
As for Ayane and me, we’ve made excellent progress. She passed the routine test without any problem and even received praise from the teacher for the improvement, which made her happy.
But of course, not everything is perfect. More precisely, tomorrow, February 10th, is the day of an attack. I know this thanks to Ayane’s diary that I read the first time.
It didn’t have a date, but a monster attack happens at the school, and thanks to a single thing she mentions, I know it’s February 10th, because that’s a specific event that happens on that day.
According to Ayane’s diary, the attack is relatively problematic. A single monster will attack the school, take control of the minds of about 80% of the students, and gather them all in one location.
The monster’s focus was to kidnap as many students as possible, but it happens that this school has a considerable number of magical girls. Although some will fall under mind control, others will remain free.
And they are the ones who take care of it. Of course, it won’t be that simple. Ayane lost that fight and was abused for about 10 minutes until help arrived, and even then, it was difficult to kill the monster.
But there’s something that really helps, and that’s the fact that the monster started to control the minds in the administration office. In fact, it spent most of the time in that large room, and it was also the location where Ayane found it.
That’s why I’m going to try to kill this monster on my own. I know it will be in the administration office on February 10th during the afternoon, using the loudspeakers to tell everyone to go to the school gymnasium.
And it’s only after that it will start its activities. It can’t control everyone’s minds quickly, as the whole attack was relatively slow and imperceptible until it affected a large part of the school.
’It’s tomorrow, the best would be to kill it with a single sniper shot...but I don’t think it’ll be that easy.’ I need to be smart, and the best option would be an ambush.
However, I shouldn’t forget something simple that Hexael has already told me cause and effect act to make an action immutable. Ayane was raped for 10 minutes, 80% of the school was mind-controlled, and other magical girls were injured.
It means that "destiny" will try to force these major events to happen, and I’ll try to prevent them. The first time travel I did, coming back several years, must have already activated the cause and effect, so things may be different.
’If things are different, what other room could it use to hide, but also control the school...’ There are few options the principal’s office, the administration, and probably the room that controls the school’s cameras, where there’s a connection to a large part of the school.
’10 minutes...’ I remember what Hexael said someone may replace Ayane because destiny doesn’t care who is going through the event, as long as the event happens as it should.
In the end, that magical girl was raped in Ayane’s place, just as Hexael warned me would have to be done. If everything else fails, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use some random girl to replace Ayane.
However, I doubt Hexael has told me everything. Considering logic, the universe works like a scale that always tries to balance what happens.
In other words, trying to have Ayane replaced may not work if the event is too big, or the person in question doesn’t have the same degree of value as Ayane.
’In that case, using a common person wouldn’t work it would have to be another magical girl who is equivalent to Ayane...’ Things just got even more complicated.
"Setsuna, is something wrong?" Ayane speaks to me, calling my attention.
"Ah...no, it’s nothing, I’m just thinking a bit about the future..." I tell her, and she seems to ponder for a moment.
"Don’t worry so much, the future is still the future, we don’t know what will happen, just wait," Ayane says innocently with a smile.
"Yes...wait..." I know what’s going to happen, waiting is not an option for me.
"Ayane, how about we skip school tomorrow?" I ask.
"...What?!" Ayane questions, alarmed. She’s finally doing well in school, skipping could be bad for her.
"It’s just...I need help, but I don’t have anyone else to help me," I make up a lie. If I remove Ayane from school on the dangerous day, wouldn’t that fix part of the problem?
I don’t know, that’s why I need to test it. Having her skip school could be the solution, but I need to skip with her to ensure she doesn’t come to school due to an "unexpected" call or request for help.
"W-Well..." Ayane seems to think for a moment.
"I’m going to the doctor," I say to help her decide. I know I’m using her feelings, but if she knows I need to go to the doctor, the chances of her agreeing increase.
"Okay, I’ll go with you, Setsuna," She says without hesitation, which calms me down.
"Thank you...Ayane, I need to step out for a moment," I say, getting up from the bench where we’re talking during the school break.
"Sure, I’ll be messing with my phone," She says, picking up her phone, while I start heading to a corner where I’ve seen Hexael.
"What do you want," I speak coldly, seeing him hiding in a corner as if waiting for me. This corner is away from the cameras’ view, and Ayane can’t see it unless she comes after me.
"I’m busy, can’t you see?" I’m thinking about how to keep Ayane safe there are many options, setbacks, and uncertainties.
"You’re playing a dangerous game, Setsuna. Be careful that the weight doesn’t fall on the wrong person, meow," Hexael speaks seriously with a meow.
"...What do you mean?"
"What do you think I mean?"
"...I’m leaving. Good luck, Setsuna, hihihihi," Hexael says with a laugh, disappearing.
’That was...unusually suspicious...’ Him showing up out of nowhere, talking about danger, and then disappearing is unusual.
I slowly return to Ayane with uncertainty.
’The weight on the wrong person...the wrong person to begin with?’ I have no idea.
’What does he mean by the weight falling on the wrong person...’ I try to think about what that means. He himself encouraged me to make others suffer Ayane’s problems.
And now he’s talking about this, leaving me uncertain. If I consider that Hexael wants me to be evil, but doesn’t want me to die, then I have a more solid line to hold on to.
’The only thing Hexael sees any value in at the moment is me, so the wrong person would naturally also be me? Is that what he’s trying to say?’ I think as I sit back down on the bench near Ayane.
"You’re back already? Why do you look even more pensive, Setsuna?" Ayane asks, briefly looking up from her phone.
"Ayane, what do you think would be equivalent to putting the weight on the wrong person compared to destiny?"
"Well, it would obviously be karma. Good and bad actions generate what we call karma basically, the universe makes sure that good actions are rewarded, and bad actions are punished."
"Like when people say ’God will pay you back double’ when you donate money, even though it’s obvious that karma is just a superstition, since monsters exist and nothing happens to them," Ayane says with a silly smile.
"Ayane, that was brilliant!" I say, finally having the missing piece. How did I not notice something so obvious? If destiny tries to force everything to happen in a logical chain of events, nothing prevents it from punishing someone who tries to disrupt that logical chain.
In other words, in this case, that would be me. I’m the one interfering with the balance, so nothing prevents this balance from throwing all the weight on me to fix the mistakes.
’If Hexael told me this when I talked about taking Ayane with me, it means that this action will generate a bad reaction for me...damn, what do I do now?’ I may just be overthinking.
However, it seems logical that I would be punished for interfering too much. Taking Ayane out of school means breaking the logical chain of events, after all, Ayane needs to be at school tomorrow.
’For now, I’ll keep the plan. If everything goes wrong, I’ll go back in time and maintain the standard sequence of events.’ For now, it seems like a good plan.
"Ayane, thank you for the answer, it was great," I thank her with a smile. Ayane seems confused, but just gives a gentle smile.