Shingetsu-chan?
Toying with people's hearts is so much fun.
Wake my sister up!
Lift her curse!
Please...
If you'll remove her curse...
I'm willing to lose to you!
Really?
Magical power comes and goes in time with the user's heart.
It changes so easily from one color to the next.
Red, blue, yellow, silver metallic...
What color is your magic?
What? Is this...
Kuon-chan!
Welcome...
hikaru tsuki yoru ni ukande
The shining moon, floating in the night
kuroi kage ni kakurete kieta
disappeared behind a looming shadow
me wo fuseta toki ni mieru sekai wa
The world I saw when I closed my eyes
nisemono no yume de afureru
Was overflowing with false dreams
futari de issho ni aruita
If the road we walked on together
itsu made mo tsuzuku
was supposed to continue forever
hazu datta michi ga
moshimo kowaretara
starts to crumble
kizuite yo
Notice it
taisetsu na kimi e todoketai ai
The love that I want to convey to you
kimi no uso mo maboroshi mo uketometai
I want to accept your lies and illusions
kakete shimatta mono datte sugu ni
Even if they're fragmented,
mata atsumerareru sa
I can gather them up right away
mou mayonaka wa tsuki wo oikakenai
I won't chase after the moon anymore at midnight
hitori seoikomanakutemo iin da yo
You don't have to shoulder it all alone anymore
kuuhaku datta kono kokoro datte
Even this once empty heart
omoide de afureta
is overflowing with memories
kitto kore ga kotae da yo
This must be the answer
Where am I?
Huh?
Onee-chan...
Kuon-chan?
Wait! Wait, wait!
Kuon-chan! Kuon-chan!
You're...
What did you do?
Nothing!
Whoa! Wait! Give me half! Give me half!
No!
Why did we come back to your place, Shingetsu-chan?
You didn't "come back" here.
If you're not envisioning where you want to return to when the battle ends,
you're sent back to the place you entered it from.
Oh...
And you're returned naked.
When you want to go back, you need to envision
where you're going back to and what you were wearing.
Tell us that sooner!
What is it?
How did the battle end? What happened to Anna-san?
I told you that I wouldn't lose to her.
The core of her ARMANOX was completely destroyed,
which means she's been removed from GRANBELM.
I'm sure she'll understand someday.
Oh, it's Nene-chan.
What'd she say?
The pig
"The pig"?
Bring it to me
And... there.
Oh, wow!
DROSELA NOCTURNE.
Judging from its calm movements here,
it's clearly not fighting at full strength.
What family is its mage from?
I think her name was... Suishou?
Suishou? Never heard of her.
And there's no record of this mech being used in past GRANBELM battles.
She lived at Anna-san's house, right?
Apparently.
Based on their relationship,
she doesn't seem to be from a very large mage family.
I see.
What about this "Anna" girl, then?
What mage family is she from?
Her family? You know who she is.
The one who piloted ACONITE GRIS.
What ARMANOX is that?
It's red, and it was handed down in the Fugo family.
You fought it, remember?
The Fugo family?
That bloodline was defeated before I was, wasn't it?
She lost her memories?
It definitely seems that way.
She's lost all her memories of Anna's existence.
Why?
Some kind of magic that was too powerful for a mage's life force to endure
wiped them out.
You mean...
Any idea how it happened?
You know, don't you?
I'm not completely sure, but...
In the end, I saw light spreading within my mind,
then it vanished.
It was Anna's light.
But how could people forget her just like that?
Magic...
All memories and records involving Anna have been erased.
After we all fought,
powerful magic intervened in this world
to make it as though her death never happened.
Magic?
Onee-sama!
Onee-sama, hurry up!
C'mon, what are you doing? Let's go!
Calm down.
I'll be right there.
Come on! We're going to be late!
You're not forgetting anything, are you?
Shingetsu-chan...
I'm all set! Hurry up or we'll leave you behind!
Anna...
Shingetsu-chan!
Nothing you say will change the truth.
White...
No... No! No!
Is something wrong?
No.
Magical signatures? But there aren't any.
There must be something,
if what those girls said is true.
Is there any chance that they saw some kind of illusion in that space?
It's possible, of course. But...
What?
You can go to bed.
Half the reason I'm doing this is because I enjoy it.
Knock it off.
You should get some sleep.
You're still too little.
So... who do you think is going to win?
In GRANBELM.
Onee-chan...
Your smell...
Your sound...
Shingetsu-chan...
Nice to meet you.
I'm Hakamada Suishou.
Hiya!
Suishou's there?
Well, just try to keep your distance.
Getting mixed up with her would be dangerous.
Okay. But why is she...
I don't know.
But it's clear she's after something.
How did her battle with Kuon end?
The battle...
Uh, well...
Anyway, are you doing okay?
I know I shouldn't say this lightly, but...
Don't blame yourself, okay?
Thanks.
You're not allowed to use smartphones at school.
Stuck the landing!
Wh-What do you want?
Were you that scared when you talked to that "Kuon" girl, too?
You three fought together, didn't you?
Which means I'll be all by myself in the next battle.
That's so unfair.
Why don't you team up with me next time?
If you'll make me a mage, I'll use magic to grant any wish you want.
I don't have any wishes,
and I don't even want to be a mage.
Then why are you fighting?
For Shingetsu-chan!
Why?
Because I like her!
And I want to help make her wish come true!
I don't care if it's unfair. You can call it underhanded if you want.
Because that's...
my only wish!
Is that really true?
What do you mean?
Who knows?
Well, that's fine... for now, anyway.
Why did you do what you did?
You cursed Kuon-chan's sister, too, didn't you?
But... when you were fighting her, you... teased her like that...
Want to try it, too?
Don't make such a scary face.
It's because I like both of them.
You like them?
Yep.
Both Shisui and Kuon.
Let me give you just one piece of advice, Kohinata Mangetsu.
What?
You shouldn't involve yourself in GRANBELM anymore.
You're not cut out for it.
You have nothing, after all.
Nothing.
I'm impressed you stopped.
But it makes sense that you did. I know you love me.
What did you do?
What did you do to me?!
Not a thing.
I just ate a little bit...
of your sister Shisui's soul.
That's why you sense so much
of your sister's scent, her voice, and her magic in this body.
See? You want me to hug you, don't you?
You want me to hold you close, don't you?
You want me to look at you, don't you?
Come, Kuon...
Give it back!
Give my sister's soul back!
I'm ba—Oh.
You'll get even smaller if you keep pulling all-nighters.
There has to be something! There has to be!
Magic interference? But the numbers are super low.
If either we or the other girls were having our memories altered by magic,
these numbers wouldn't be possible.
Doesn't that just confirm none of you are being manipulated, then?
There are still records of inconsistencies in the memories of participants.
Apparently the cause was never found...
And you want to find it.
Obviously!
You actually like those girls quite a bit, huh?
Yeah, I do.
They all have their own reasons for taking part in this battle.
Well, then...
I need to put this stuff in the fridge.
Noise canceling...
Huh?
To counter powerful magic,
you'd generate the inverse of that magic to cancel it out.
You can do that?
It's normally impossible, of course.
But for someone capable of using really powerful magic...
For example, a being that's like a mass of magical power,
made of all the sealed magic in the world...
What is this?
Magic factors...
These numbers wouldn't have been possible even a thousand years before mages lived!
But all the magic in the world is sealed, right?
In Magiaconatus?
That's the accepted theory.
But something that could cause this many magic interferences
could create whatever kind of "history" it wanted.
This signal's stronger than all the others!
You have nothing.
Don't think about it! Don't think about it!
That's exactly what she wants.
Picture Journal
Memories
Grade 5 Class 4 Kohinata Mangetsu
Huh?
Huh? Huh? Huh?!
Shingetsu-chan
Are you awake?
I said you didn't have to do this...
It's okay. I wanted to go out for a walk, anyway.
Did everything go all right with Suishou?
Yeah.
She said a lot of things, but I'm fine.
What things?
Oh... Well, nothing that important.
You're lying.
I can tell by looking at you.
Well, if you get to say that... you're lying, too.
Me?
Yeah.
Tear tracks.
You loved Anna-san, didn't you?
I don't have the right to cry.
I'm sure she still hates me.
Even so...
I'll still keep supporting you.
No matter how much you blame yourself,
I don't think it was your fault.
Mangetsu...
Yes?
Please drop out of GRANBELM.
Huh?
I don't want to involve you any further.
There's no reason, nor any need, for you to fight.
Because I have nothing, right?
Mangetsu...
Suishou told me that, too.
She told me to drop out because I have nothing.
That I'm not cut out for it.
No! What I'm saying is...
I know.
I know that wasn't what you were trying to say.
It hurts... watching you fight.
The rest of us have been hurt, lost something,
grown obsessed, or carried some burden that kept us fighting.
We had no choice but to fight.
Fighting and becoming mages was all we had.
But you...
You're wrong. Having nothing is my burden.
It's white and invisible. It's literally nothing, but it's so heavy.
That's the burden I carry.
Just like the rest of you,
I want to do something with it.
That's why I've kept fighting.
Tear tracks.
That may be how you feel,
but I don't think that's true, no matter what happens.
So we're the same.
I guess we are.
Then... I still want to fight with you!
I can, right?
I let you spoil me too much.
Well, the same goes for me.
Onee-chan...
You and I are the strongest.
The strongest?
Yes. Your lightness and my heaviness...
By putting them together, we can control everything.
Onee-chan...
Onee-chan?
Wait... please...
Suishou...
Suishou?
Please...
Morning!
Morning.
Always nice to see you.
Are you two planning to gang up on me?
That's not fair.
I would settle for one-on-one.
But I don't see anything wrong with ganging up on someone
who toys with people's hearts for fun.
My, you've grown so defiant.
Is that a problem?
Nope.
That just makes things more interesting.
It'll be more fun to break you.
That girl...
Even for someone who enters Magiaconatus and fights,
the numbers on these magic interferences are too extreme.
Plus...
Here, too...
Oh, Nene-chan!
To Be Continued
In this monochrome world,
it wasn't easy walking alone.
I followed a vague outline,
and the thread I gathered from it did not connect.
If I had walked around it better,
what exactly would've changed?
The more I think about it, the more tangled I get.
As the creaking world was swallowing us,
many important things were scattered around.
Even then, we yearned for
the blissful life we saw somewhere.
But if that life brings us pain,
then I don't want it, don't want it, don't want it.
I don't want it.
Next Time
All Kuon wants is a peaceful life with her older sister, Shisui.
A crystalline laugh echoes tauntingly over these two sisters,
who have been toyed with all their lives for being born into a mage family.
Kuon's fight to get her sister back is about to begin.
Next time on GRANBELM,
"NOCTURNE Changes Colors."
NOCTURNE Changes Colors
"I wished for that curse..."
Look forward to the next episode!