40: Dear Sensei

My feline eyes widened, looking at Momoka's solemn look with utter disbelief.

"Momoka, what do you mean?" I'm pretty sure she's just kidding around. Momoka was quite the underrated joker herself as far as I remembered during our younger days.

"It is what I mean." Momoka's voice remained firm while the smile on her face never once faltered, "I'm dying, sensei."

"Hahaha, stop kidding around, Momoka." I was in denial, hoping that this was merely one of her usual punchlines, "Oh you and your dark Nightingale jokes, you always were the funny one."

"How I wish that I'm joking." Momoka sighed and turned her smile upside down, indicating how serious she truly was, "I really am dying, sensei."

"No… no… no!!!" I rejected every word she said with the bottom of my heart, "This cannot be!! I refuse to believe this!!!"

"Refuse or not, the truth nevertheless can't be denied." Momoka's melancholy smile returned to her face.

"B-but how!? You don't look sick at all!!!"

"Nightingale may not be sick…" Bright light made its brief appearance around the Magical Girl, showering the entirety of her body. Once dissipated, all that was revealed was a completely new figure, "But Momoka is."

"M-Momoka…" I was almost at loss for words when I witnessed her human form, "You… you're old."

"Of course I'm old, silly. It has been 50 years since." The old lady Momoka giggled, stating the obvious, "Unlike you Nekos, Father Time does not exactly favor us, humans."

Indeed, what she said was true. Momoka is an old lady, quite the very far comparison from her Nightingale form who exhibited the air of power and youth.

Momoka wore a pink cardigan sweater around her blue polo shirt. She also was wearing white pants and a pair of brown sandals.

Ah, yes, how can I forget. The grief that I now felt blinded whatever logical reasoning that I had.

A Magical Girl aged until they reached the pinnacle of their prime, which was around their early 20's. After which, the form stopped aging and shall remain so until their end.

The same, however, cannot be said when they revert to their original forms. The cycle of aging in that form remained and never stopped and shall even continue even when they assumed their Magical Girl transformation.

Theoretically, a human may live forever, assuming that they can maintain their Magical Girl persona. But once they revert to their old aged human form, and if that form went way past their permitted time of living, then death is all that awaited them.

Although such theory never was a possibility in my world. As I have mentioned before, a Magical Girl normally can only maintain her powerful form at a maximum of three hours tops.

Basically, a Magical Girl never aged while the human aged, and the latter shall continue do so even when they were under the former's transformation.

And Momoka who was sitting beside me was the prime example of all of this.

"H-how?" I asked, wondering how someone who was the picture of health like her came to be sick.

"Old age, coupled with cancer in my lungs." Momoka breath was noticeably uneven.

"Then what in heavens are we doing here!!?" I panicked and stood up, "I have to get you to the hospital!!!"

Instead of complying with my order, Momoka shook her head and raised her hand as a gesture for stopping me.

As her action baffled me, I could not help but also gazed at the expression on her wrinkled face.

Momoka was strangely calm. It was as if she was at peace.

"Sensei." Her voice sounded firm with no room for argument, "I have long since accepted my fate and made peace with it. But when my family was murdered, that peace temporarily vanished, and a fire raged forth into my heart as it was my sole duty to avenge them. Now that the one who was responsible paid the price, my peace has returned, and I have no qualms no longer should I depart from this world."

"But… but…"

"Don't give me that look, sensei…" Momoka smiled gently and wiped the tears that were forming in my eyes, "It is inevitable that death will do its part and take us away. Such is the cycle of this conundrum we call life."

"Momoka…" I could not help myself and drown in helpless tears, hugging her tightly as I could bear the thought of losing another of my girls, "First Aegis, and now you…"

"If it's any consolation, sensei." Momoka patted my head, "Do know that at the very least, these last moments shall be shared with you, and I'm very happy for it. Never once in our years together I regret at you being my… our sensei."

"I… thank you, Momoka." My heart twist with sorrow, but nonetheless, I appreciated the touching gesture coming from her, "I too feel the same way, my dear Magical Girl."

"Heh, enough about this suffocating drama," Momoka turned awfully chirpy in an attempt to change the mood of the entire atmosphere. With a grin on her elderly face, she opened the bottle of sake and poured one at my cup, "Come now, sensei, turned that silly frown of yours upside down, and let us drink merrily to our heart's content."

Yup, that's Momoka alright. She was the type of girl who was not easily going to be demoralized, even when death itself came and knocked right in front of her doorstep.

I suppose it's right to respect Momoka's wishes. At the very least, the memories that I shared with her shall live forever with me, even if she no longer walks on this earth.

The silly brat who wet herself when I first met her…

From a clumsy and whimsical Defolta, she was quite the resolute young lady with a heart of gold. Being her sensei, I sense a strong character and determination in her. Even when others doubted her, I stood by her and never stopped believing her.

Never would anyone expect that a silly Defolta would turn into a powerful Nightingale who embodied both virtue and harshness.

But she was not just any Nightingale though…

Hanazono Momoka…

The Strongest and most feared Nightingale of all existence…

"Hmm, something is wrong…" I heard Momoka while I eyed at my cup of sake, "Are you going to drink looking like that, really?"

"Uh... whatever do you mean?" I titled my head with confusion.

"Sensei…" Momoka gave me a wide smile…

"Since I'm not going to live long, at the very least, come and drink with me…. With your true form."