Magical Girl with Demonic Time Magic-Chapter 90: Returns

Chapter 90: Returns
"You’re being real cold, Setsuna!" I say, walking beside her as Setsuna takes out monsters like she knows every spot, every point, and every move they’ll make, eliminating them quickly.
The ground is covered in blood and monster bodies that don’t stand a chance against this disgusted Setsuna who already knows every move they’ll make.
"Hexael, why did you show up?" She asks coldly, not bothering to look at me, and not noticing how much she’s changing. She’s already gone back in time 8 times in a single fight.
Setsuna lost to Rena 3 times until she figured out how truly strong she was, learning the hard way by getting injured by some really problematic ice attacks.
Through questions, taunts, and different ways of speaking, she figured out how to get Rena to spill things she shouldn’t, and with calculated precision, she started formulating a perfect plan for victory.
But with each time loop, Setsuna became more and more jaded, because Rena kept trying to share her pleasure with Setsuna, but Setsuna is so obsessed with Ayane that it’s just disgusting to her.
Setsuna has experienced sexual sensations in various indirect ways and forms, but she didn’t feel any pleasure from it, and her body didn’t recognize it as a good thing at all.
And since Rena never actually touched Setsuna’s body, Setsuna only feels the indirect disgust of what she was forced to experience, and now Setsuna is taking out that anger by brutally killing Rena every time she goes back, but each time it’s in a more cruel way.
That girl who once hesitated to kill an innocent is now brutally torturing someone she considers evil, showing exactly what I said before Setsuna never cared and never will care about the lives of others.
She doesn’t mind killing, torturing, or making people suffer, what she really cares about is how it would affect the way Ayane sees her. Rena, who is considered evil, is outside of that filter Setsuna has created.
So far, Setsuna has managed to reach the monster leading all this, but she’s having trouble defeating him. She’s faced him twice, and will probably lose a few more times before she really knows how to win perfectly.
And that’s fun. The more Setsuna repeats these same actions, the more her brain adjusts to a set of simple rules go back in time, repeat the actions, analyze what works and what fails, store the knowledge, and do it all over again.
Setsuna did everything to avoid abusing the power of time travel, but now that she knows the cause and effect don’t change much since it’s an event that shouldn’t have happened, she’s become less restrained.
Mainly because she noticed that the power gained continues basically, if killing Rena gives her 1 power when she goes back in time, she kept that gained power, but now has a new Rena to kill that will give her another 1 power, adding to the power instead of losing the previous one.
Setsuna realized this, which reduced her hesitation to go back in time. It’s like a video game where when you move to the next room, the NPCs come back to life and you can just go back there to kill them again and get XP and money.
Setsuna is now repeating everything not just for revenge, but also as a way to gain even more power. Because of Setsuna, that girl Hinata is now facing problems.
And Setsuna coldly abandoned her, showing how "unique" and fun her view of the world and the lives of others is.
"You’re doing great," I praise as Setsuna finishes killing 70% of all the monsters in the area. She did this because on the seventh attempt, monsters came to help their leader, interfering with her.
Except that 30% of the monsters are not in fighting condition because they’ve been drinking and doing drugs, so Setsuna decided to reduce the wasted effort by only killing the ones that can interfere with the fight.
She’s really good at this. She observes, analyzes, and quickly learns the patterns she needs to follow to achieve the best result, and with minimal change in cause and effect, she doesn’t have to worry as much about bad variables.
Soon, Setsuna reaches the leader of the monsters, the Pharmacist who is mixing two drugs. The first thing Setsuna does is shoot a specific spot on the wall, disabling a poisonous gas trap.
Quickly, she shoots at other trap locations while throwing her hunting knife at the monster, who defends and advances towards her for a close-quarters fight.
Setsuna, who has already learned that she can’t win head-on, just starts running to get him out of this room that will interfere with her. The monster follows, but he’s slower, while I continue watching everything with an amused smile.
Due to the repetitions, Setsuna knows the locations relatively well, so she guides the pursuing monster to the room with the drug barrels, where she stops on the fragile platform.
If they fight there, the Pharmacist will have to be careful not to knock down the platform and fall. He follows confidently, but cautiously onto the platform where he plans to confront her directly.
He underestimates her. I see Setsuna analyzing the barrels as if checking which one is the most deadly to fall into, concluding that the barrel with the extremely corrosive acid on the right is the most dangerous.
’I wonder what Setsuna’s plan is.’ Just knocking him down will be difficult. He’s a colossal-class monster who knows magic involving chemicals.
Even if the Pharmacist doesn’t attack, they’re in a dangerous standoff at the moment, both eyeing each other with tension without taking the first strike, but without retreating.
The difference is that one is waiting for an opening, while the other is just analyzing and learning, aiming to use it in the future.
"You were slow, Setsuna," I murmur as the monster uses magic, controlling the products from the barrels below and throwing strong acid at Setsuna’s body, barely missing as half of her torso is affected, causing her painful screams as her flesh melts.
However, this gave Setsuna the answers she wanted first, the monster’s magic type, and second, the strength of the acid. With this strength, Setsuna knows it’s not enough to kill the monster, she’ll need something stronger if she really wants to kill it without sustaining damage or aftereffects, so she aims her gun at its head and shoots, allowing her to go back in time.
Setsuna always wakes up in that same room, chained to the wall, because she lost consciousness for two days due to what Rena did to capture her, so her 24-hour checkpoint is when she’s unconscious and imprisoned.
Ayane is worried about her, while the magical girls’ base is already searching for her, having issued a small fake medical notice to the school.
"Setsuna learns very quickly, and is gradually but visibly losing herself. I think she’ll defeat this monster on attempt number 11," I murmur as I’m also sent back to the past with her.
"Haa... Setsuna, you silly girl," I whisper maliciously. Setsuna doesn’t realize that she’s slowly becoming dependent on her own power. Now it’s been 9 consecutive uses for a single problem.
She, who was once so reluctant to go back in time, now does it of her own volition, simply because she thinks she needs to. The question is, does she really need to? Or is she just satisfied knowing that every time she goes back, she has total control over the lives of her enemies?
She’s trying to do this with a perfectionism that I consider unnecessary. She could have already finished this, but with some errors, failures, and possible injuries. No, she decided to continue.
But this is for just a colossal-class monster. Imagine when she faces a cataclysm-class monster? The thousands of patterns she’ll have to memorize to be able to win.
I’d say that depending on the enemy, Setsuna may need to kill herself 100 to 10,000 times before she can win, of course, considering just the standard Setsuna.
But with my plans going perfectly, the standard Setsuna won’t exist, and I’ll see the true Setsuna.
"How wonderful, everything is going exactly as planned, and with Setsuna distancing herself from Ayane to protect her, things couldn’t be better," I say in a malicious tone.
’But it might be a problem if it takes too long... I need to accelerate some of my steps before the others arrive with significant influence on this land.’
I decide to set that aside for now. Setsuna has already won this fight anyway, there’s not much more to see here. Everything I needed to see has been seen. It’s difficult to face an enemy like Setsuna who will always know your next steps if you don’t stop her completely the first time.
Now that Setsuna has repeated this several times, she’ll know exactly what to do, how to do it, and the time she has. It’s just a matter of time until she finds the perfect strategy.
"This fight should be the trigger for Setsuna’s first true ’awakening,’ I wonder how much she’ll change." Setsuna is abusing her power too much, something she previously avoided.
In the end, this careless use will help her unlock more of her abilities, so I wonder how much things will improve for her afterward. I’m eager to see.