Vol 2 Chapter 83 Home
There is much inequality in this world.
Between humans, between Ravagers, and yes, even among fairies—inequality exists.
Fairies born in the Magic Kingdom enter life surrounded by blooming flowers, enjoying peace and beauty from the very beginning. They are beloved by Magical Girls, appointed by the Royal Court, and serve as vital figures across various domains of the kingdom.
But those born in the Interstice—many of them spend their entire lives trapped in this barren, desolate realm. The skies here are filthy. The earth is cracked. Life is withered. The moon is blue. For fairies who are drawn to nature and flowers, this world is nothing short of death. Their days in the Interstice are always filled with confusion and despair.
Semi was one of those Interstice fairies.
To Semi, the idea of “the meaning of life” was always a false proposition—because fairies like it were never meant to have a meaning. There were no plants or forests it adored, not a single trace.
Even so, the heavens showed no mercy. Frequent and terrifying natural disasters, and Ravagers scattered across the land—every Interstice fairy had to fight tooth and nail just to survive, only to look up at the blue moon at night and face another hopeless tomorrow.
Was there really any point in living this dull life?
Big Jack was the leader of the Interstice fairies—perhaps more accurately, their shared guardian. He was a massive, pureblood fairy, tens of meters tall and wide—so huge he seemed to blot out the sky to any ordinary fairy. He always insisted his name was “Jack,” but due to his sheer size, word eventually spread and he became known simply as Big Jack.
“Do you think being alive is boring, child?” Big Jack replied to Semi’s question with another question.
“It’s boring. I want to frolic in flower fields, rest in the shade of trees. But there’s nothing here. Every day I feel so depressed,” Semi answered.
“Sounds like it’s not ‘living’ you hate. You just hate this boring world.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Heh, there’s a big one.”
Big Jack thumped his belly, letting out a deep thump-thump. “Maybe one day, when you’re able to leave this land, you’ll find there are still many beautiful things out there. Then, maybe you’ll feel like life actually means something.”
“But we can’t leave. We’ll never be able to reach another world.”
Big Jack rumbled, “If I wanted to, child—if I really wanted to—I could take all the fairies and leave this world at any time.”
“Then why do we still live here?” Semi asked, puzzled.
“Because this is our home. It’s our fairy homeland.”
Big Jack chuckled. “No matter how broken this world is, we can’t abandon our roots. If we leave, we’re just a band of vagabonds, forever wandering. We’d never find another place we can truly call home.”
“I hate this ‘home,’” Semi said flatly.
“Doesn’t matter if you do,” Big Jack didn’t care.
“Go ahead—if you really can.”
In the end, Semi couldn’t convince Big Jack.
It could only remain in that loathsome world, day after day, year after year, repeating the same loathsome life.
Until one day, everything changed.
There was some conflict with the Magic Kingdom, and war broke out—an immense and prolonged conflict between Interstice fairies and the Kingdom.
The war was fiercer than anything before. Interstice fairies hurled themselves onto the battlefield like a flood, as if they were trying to burn away their frustration and despair, igniting their lives in combat.
But compared to the Magic Kingdom, the Interstice had nothing—no resources, no real power. And fairies, after all, weren’t built for war. Compared to Magical Girls, they were sorely lacking in combat prowess.
As the war dragged on, even Big Jack was gravely wounded and fell into a coma. The surviving fairies were trapped, unable to advance or retreat.
Then came a group of strange humans calling themselves the Apostles.
Fairies knew of them. They’d been lurking in the Interstice for a long time, mostly dealing with Ravagers. They rarely interacted with fairies.
These humans arrived just as defeat loomed, offering the remaining Interstice fairies an alternative:
"Harness the power of Ravagers."
At least, that’s what they claimed.
Since fairies weren’t good at fighting, why not use Ravager magic to even the odds? With that, they could compensate for their individual weakness.
In its eyes, defeat only meant crawling back to the Interstice like a rat in a sewer—another meaningless existence. Might as well burn everything and take the enemy down with it. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⁂𝘯𝘦𝘵
So, with human assistance, it learned to control Ravager powers—even transforming into a Ravager itself, unleashing far greater strength.
This group of desperate fairies, aided by the humans and their Ravagers, launched a surprise attack on the Kingdom’s core—the Royal Court.
At the time, Semi could never have imagined that this battle would become the final chapter of the war between the Kingdom and the Interstice.
Twenty years have passed, and the war has since been written into Kingdom history as the Garden Defense Battle.
The result: a pyrrhic victory for the Magic Kingdom and a devastating defeat for the Interstice “rebels”—Semi and its kin.
Semi no longer remembers when it lost consciousness during the battle.
It only remembers charging forward endlessly, stepping over fallen comrades, trying to break through the Garden, desperate to sink its claws into the figure seated on the throne. But somewhere in the relentless fight, its mind went dark.
Later, it woke in the arms of a Magical Girl.
A girl who had also fought in the war—Semi knew this, because it vaguely recalled slashing her True Form before blacking out. She had sustained an injury even magical healing couldn’t fix—she lost an arm, permanently.
Yet this one-armed Magical Girl had hidden Semi, carried it away from the Garden.
She hid it in her home, evading the Royal Court’s search, and cared for it like a pet. She knew Semi’s name—but insisted on giving it a nickname: “Kitty.”
Semi didn’t understand.
It didn’t understand why she’d spare it. It was her enemy. It had cost her an arm. By all rights, they should be mortal enemies. And yet, she didn’t kill it—she protected it.
When asked why, her only answer was: “I don’t know.”
And so, a Magical Girl and a fairy who should’ve been enemies lived peacefully together in the Magic Kingdom.
Those days were, perhaps, the happiest of Semi’s life.
The one-armed Magical Girl looked aloof, but she was kind and delicate. She cared for Semi with great attention—beyond food and shelter, she took it to see all the beautiful sights the Kingdom had to offer.
They climbed every mountain within view, crossed every river they came across, and once they reached each destination, the girl would hold Semi in her only arm and quietly gaze at the sky with it.
At times like those, Semi would recall Big Jack’s words. And he had been right. Here, it discovered so many new, beautiful things. Life felt meaningful for the first time.
But happy days never last. Change came again—this time, for the girl.
Because of her untreatable injury, her combat ability had plummeted. Following an evaluation by the Court of Magic, she was scheduled for retirement—the end of her Magical Girl career, marked by the repossession of her Heartstone.
Still, she had been injured during the Garden Defense Battle, protecting the Court—so her retirement package was generous: endless wealth, a stable job in the rear lines, and even future priority eligibility for her children to become Magical Girls.
To most, that wouldn’t be a problem. After all, she was too injured to fight. Why not retire and enjoy life?
But the one-armed girl didn’t think so.
No one knew what she truly felt. But she rejected the Court’s offer, refused to retire.
The Kingdom, unwilling to accept her refusal, eventually took the harshest step: forced retirement.
Semi could only watch helplessly as she was taken from their home. She had warned it to stay hidden, no matter what.
It watched her being escorted away. Only when the footsteps vanished did it crawl to the window and gaze at the lingering trail of magic in the sky.
Semi sat by that window for three days, neither eating nor drinking—like a statue.
Three days felt long, but for Semi, they passed in a haze. Its mind was blank. Its body, hollow.
Then, on the third day, the door opened.
Semi darted forward to greet her, wondering how to comfort a girl stripped of her magic, wondering what the future would hold.
But what it saw was shocking.
She stood there, familiar as ever—but her once-empty sleeve was filled again.
The one-armed Magical Girl, or rather, the girl who had once been one-armed, now stood at the doorway. Her uniform, once simple and pure, was now covered in twisted patterns. Her sclera had turned black, with vertical pupils floating silently within.
And on her body—Semi sensed a scent both strange and deeply familiar.
The scent of a Ravager.
That day, the girl abandoned her old Magical Girl alias and took a new one: Black Cat.
For Semi, that was also the day its brief peace ended. It returned to the Interstice, resuming a life of wandering.
But this time, it wasn’t alone.
The girl joined an organization called Claw Mark. Its leader was once the wielder of the Jewel Scepter—a figure of great renown. The girl, thanks to her unmatched talent and strength, became the vice leader.
She still often held Semi, and they would sit in silence together—but now, instead of gazing at the Kingdom’s beautiful blue skies, their eyes only saw the yellow sands of the Interstice and the ever-floating blue moon.
Only during these moments would she softly share her dream with Semi—
She dreamed of building a truly beautiful and equal homeland. A place without war, without oppression, without status or rank. A land where everyone—except the Ravagers—could live in peace.
Semi would always listen quietly.
Despite everything she had suffered, she still held onto hope for a better world—a place she could shape into her dream.
It hated the Interstice—this desolate land it could never escape, this so-called home.
It hated the Kingdom—the throne that had hurt Big Jack, hurt the girl, and still stood above all.
Yet inside, another voice spoke:
It still loved the Interstice, for all the emotions fairies had poured into it.
It still yearned for the Kingdom’s dazzling beauty.
It still wondered about the strange human world beyond.
It wanted to make everything better—to turn this withered land into a place of dreams.
In time, her dream and its own became one and the same.
With that thought, Semi opened its single eye.
Yellow sand swirled beneath its feet. Night winds carried dark dust like ink smeared across a canvas—dirty and chaotic.
And the blue moon, symbol of their homeland, was now soaked into that canvas.
This was its Nest, its form as a Ravager—but even a Nest bore the deep brand of the Interstice.
Big Jack had been right.
The Interstice was their home. It was where they came from—and ultimately, where they would return.