32: A dilemma about the dark

As I said before during one night on our travels, I came from a world that's an alternate version of yours, where Magical Girls existed for the purpose of fighting the ever growing evil.

The mysterious evil race of Diabli roam around our earth, always on the move as they enact their nefarious plots to enslave humankind and rule all over the world.

As far as I knew, they first came about when they just arrived one fateful day during from a dark portal, bringing their hordes of demonic monsters and other otherworldly entities as they slaughtered every human in their vicinity without discrimination. Such was a grave mark on our history, with the city of Tokushima the first to fall.

Surprisingly, not every Diablus share the same view of violence as their wicked brethren. Some of them wish to coexist with humans and simply wanted a place to live in peace.

One such race was us, the Nekos. My descendants specialized in a variety of magic, and we shared such knowledge with the humans, to give them an even ground against the evil Diabli and their tremendous power.

Even in the realm of unnatural magic, ours was considered bizarre by such standards. After all, who would consider transforming into a Magical Girl as "normal" magic anyway? When you think of magic, the first thing that most come in mind is a typical Mage or Wizard from the fantasy medias that some humans dazzle themselves in.

I'm not sure what came in mind to the first Neko who created such magic, but hey, who are we to argue if they produce powerful results?

Thus, the Magical Girls officially came out to the light, and ever since, combatted the Diabli and thwarted every of their dreadful plans.

It was effective and many Diabli were slain or driven out as they were forced to leak their wounds in shame.

Eventually, peace was brokered between the humans and the Diabli, and the skirmishes would ultimately come to a halt. With such peace came several negotiations as laws were proposed and enacted as a gesture of good faith between the two parties.

One such law ensured that human rights were also applied to the Diabli races who are capable of intelligent and emotional thoughts and speech. Most of the Diabli monsters that the Magical Girls fought were essentially like wild animals, and many of the Diabli found no issue in their deaths.

This is also why it's preferrable for Diabli criminals, to now be taken alive, to be tried fairly in court, as dictated by law. Such was one of the reasons of the fiasco that occurred between Aegis and Azareth which led to the former's death. Subsequently, this also led to Luminosa questioning the law that she had been following in her whole life, causing her descent to darkness, and eventually transforming to Magical Girl: Umbrina. 

Although, there were still some Diabli who disagreed with the peace and basically turn into terrorists as they pursue their own brand of guerilla warfare, both to the humans and their fellow kind.

During my exile, Umbrina relentlessly pursue in her hunt for me as I was constantly hounded by her. There were times when she would bring her Diabli allies to the mix, sharing her vision of carnage.

While my disappearing act of Neko Invisibility proved to be invaluable in evading her, I certainly can't keep that up forever, and one day could even be my downfall. One time, Umbrina even caught me off guard when she caught wind of my location and ambushed me while I was resting in an apartment at a rural province in Japan.

And to make matters worse, Umbrina fallen so low that she even resorted to slaughter any innocent bystanders that were nearby, all for the sake of raising my ire up. The darkness took a tight grip in her psyche and made her mad. Even the Nightingales, who initially recruited her, cast her away because of her wickedness. Obviously, the Nightingales' attempts of subduing Umbrina failed since she was still here out in the open, trying her hardest in murdering me when she was granted the chance.

As a result, Umbrina now worked independently, sharing hate to the justice that the Magical Girls uphold and the Diabli who were responsible for murdering her dear friend Aegis.

Basically, Umbrina operated ruthlessly like the Magical Girls of old, long before the era of this fragile peace that we were in.

Nightingales may be ruthless and conniving, but they still uphold the principles of a Magical Girl, to protect the innocent and rid of every evil in their way.

As always, I was able to evade certain death, but at the cost of a broken arm courtesy of one of her rather violent Diabli allies.

As such, I learned my lesson from this. If I wanted to thwart Umbrina's assaults and stop her evil, then I need allies by my side for protection as well. I share the responsibility of her downfall and it's only right that I rectify this mistake, no matter how regrettable it was.

Just then, I remembered an old friend of mine, a Magical Girl who I met and partnered with way back during my early career as a guide.

She was one of the best girls I ever had the pleasure of mentoring, and throughout the years, a bond of unbreakable friendship was formed between us, and such bond never broke, even after we parted ways mutually in good faith.

The girl found the love of her life and decided that she wanted to retire after many years of service. With the council's permission, and my support, she bid farewell and left with her partner, going to the U.S. to live together in loving peace.

And now I heard that she was back here in Japan!! The nerve of her, she did not even think of at least saying hi to me in person after all these years!

Anyways, after gathering the necessary information and listening the rumors that were circulating around, I manage to learn of my friend's whereabouts.

A group of Diabli rebels were currently occupying Hiraizumi, and rumors mentioned of a katana wielding lady wreaking havoc to them all by herself.

I decided to see such things in person, to see if she was indeed right there.

When I arrived at the area, all I see were the corpses of the fallen Diabli that were spread all over the ground. The entire place reeks of demonic stench and it took quite a portion of my willpower to tolerate such a foul odor.

Moments later, I heard the sound of blades clashing, and I immediately rush at the scene of the ongoing battle.

Well, the ongoing was cut short when I finally arrived and saw who I was looking for.

The next words coming from my mouth, I quietly muttered while witnessing the woman letting go of the Diablus who she recently stabbed in the chest with her signature black katana.

"I found you at last, Magical Girl: Nightingale."