“Thank you, please come again soon!”

  The woman behind the register beamed at one of her favorite regurs as she took her drink with a smile, a rge and intricate iced coffee pumped full of enough caramel and chocote to induce a sugar coma in anyone not thoroughly accustomed to the behemoth of a beverage.

  Gwyn Lapin took a long sip of the cold drink, letting the fvor of it stick to her mouth as she drank, finally pulling it away again with a satisfied exhation.

  “Aaahh… it feels like it’s been ages since I came all the way down here. The coffee pces near the Library really can’t compare, ehe.”

  She stepped out onto the street, drink in hand, the automatic door ringing happily as she stepped through, the street outside filled with the sounds of other people enjoying the peaceful afternoon in this quiet corner of town.

  All but skipping along, she found a table out front of the tiny coffee shop, scooting into a seat and facing the road, getting cozy as she prepared to enjoy her treat in peace.

  Her shoulders sagged back as she sat down, the exertions from her long hours practice earlier still weighing on her both physically and mentally, alongside her worrying over Alice after the incident with Lonnie’s Focus.

  She stared at a cloud floating zily past overhead, like a wad of cotton candy rolled up and set loose on the wind as it moved almost imperceptibly slowly.

  Letting her eyes fall shut, she took another long sip from her coffee, letting the overbearing sweetness melt through her tension, feeling herself sink into her chair as it tickled down her throat.

  There was too much to worry about tely, but for right now at least, she could lean back and rex, if only for a moment.

  …

  Her ears twitched, nose scrunching up, the moment of profound peace and quiet not sting nearly as long as she’d expected as the sound of raised voices slowly faded in from a few streets over, growing in volume quickly as the steady flow of foot traffic soon became a flood of people sprinting off past her.

  She stood curiously, getting up on her tip toes to try and find the origin of the commotion over the growing crowd in front of her, peeking as far ahead as her height would allow.

  Even as she struggled to get a good look at it all, it wasn’t hard to figure out what was happening as several escaping civilians cried out loudly to any who’d listen.

  “Run! I-It’s Heartbreak…!”

  “Heartbreak is attacking!”

  Gwyn instinctively took a step backwards, eyes widening, dropping the remainder of her sugary treat to the floor, the cup bursting open as the contents covered the cement below her.

  Heartbreak? Here? Now? They… they never attacked this often before, why would they… they couldn’t just…

  Her mind raced, fear and worry seeping into her features as her hand shakily went for the invisible communicator on her ear, knowing she should call in someone more capable to handle this.

  …

  Her hand stopped inches away from her ear, never reaching the button to call out to the rest of the Library.

  Alice wouldn’t have called for help.

  She could already see the other girl in her mind, leaping the fence in front of her, sprinting against the flow of bodies straight towards whatever was causing them all to flee. She could see her waving her on behind her, that smile she’d already grown to love on her face as she ran on ahead. She could see that back that she’d been chasing ahead of her.

  Gwyn shook her head, took a deep breath, and slipped out of the tiny, fenced-in sitting area, pushing her way past as she fought through the crowd and her own racing thoughts.

  It was like fighting the ocean itself, people barely even noticing her as she pushed ahead stubbornly, barely managing any headway as they all fled blindly away from the far end of the street, Gwyn hardly doing more than staying in pce as they all passed her by, the crowd eventually thinning out as she weathered the barrage.

  By the time she could open her eyes and regain her bearings, almost everyone had already gone, no one left around her as storefronts were shut and locked quickly, those inside barricading themselves in for fear of whatever was coming.

  All alone, she did her best to steel her trembling resolve, her Focus already in hand as she thrust it forwards.

  “Hearts beat free! Sugar Change!”

  Familiar light overtook her, enveloping her like a warm embrace, her uniform of pastels wrapping around her, her resolve as steeled as it could be as transformed.

  She took a deep breath, once more briefly considering calling in someone more capable to handle this… and shook her head, having already made her choice, pushing herself to run forwards before her doubts could trickle up her throat any further.

  The short street felt like it stretched on for miles, Gwyn pushing herself forwards as fast as she could until the site of the attack came into view.

  The street was peppered with countless tiny holes, like a gun had fired off wildly in every direction at once, buildings peeled through like wet paper, several bodies pushed to the street edges, people who’d been too slow to escape now severely injured… or worse.

  And in the middle of the scene of all this chaos, a lone woman stood alone, eyes closed as her hands danced through the air, conducting a performance from a multitude of tiny, dense cloud floating around her.

  Any time the clouds brushed against anything remotely solid, there was a sound like scraping nails, leaving countless holes gouged through whatever wasn’t simply shredded into nothingness to begin with.

  Gwyn’s heart skipped a beat as she finally id eyes upon the attack’s orchestrator, immediately recognizing her beyond a shadow of a doubt.

  One of the other woman’s eyes opened, sensing a new body having stepped into her territory, her attention slowly, nguidly turning towards the anxious magical girl.

  “…oh…? I was wondering if anyone had pnned to join this evening’s dance… though I don’t believe myself familiar with you, little fly…”

  Her voice was soft and smooth, with the barest hint of menace peeking out from behind it, like a yer of fine silk being pulled slowly over a bed of old, rusty nails.

  “My… M-My name is Gw-- S-Sugar Free, and… and I’m here to put an end to… w-whatever it is you think y-you’re doing…!”

  “Oho…? Someone doesn’t sound too sure of herself… perhaps our little fly should run home…? We wouldn’t want a face as pretty as your getting picked clean, now would we…? After all, even you should know who I am, no…?”

  Gwyn gulped, voice hanging in her throat, afraid to come out in her presence.

  “Y-You’re… You’re Belle. One of the t-top officers of Heartbreak. R-Right?”

  The other woman clicked her tongue disapprovingly several times, letting her eyes close once more as she shook her head, never stopping her silent dance performance as she twirled nonchantly.

  “So, so close, little fly. But I’m afraid the media does me such disservice, still managing to share my title incorrectly to our lovely popuce… but the rest is true, I will admit. And knowing this, little fly, won’t you tuck your tail between your legs and scamper off again? Or are you really insisting on interrupting my performance, all by your lonesome…?”

  Her knees shook, her body trembled, every instinct she had screamed at her to run away from here as fast as she could… but….

  “…d-damn right I am…!”

  The girl who’d struggled to fight even a single Guardoll on her own shakily stepped forward, challenging one of the most threatening beings to ever step foot in her city, a threat that had only barely been repelled by the combined efforts of dozens of magical girls up till this point.

  Her dance twirled about, moving to face Gwyn, both hands stretched wide to her sides, open to the world as she bared her heart to her trembling challenger.

  “If you so insist, how could I refuse a dance…? Allow me a proper introduction then, little fly. I am indeed the head of Heartbreak, the outstretched hand of my magnanimous Mistress, her sword and shield entwined…”

  Her fingers separated, writhing outwards from her palm as she opened her eyes once more, inky bck orbs staring straight at her guest as the edges of her lips curled upwards.

  “…and my name is Beelze.”

  She snapped her arms forwards abruptly, the clouds that had zily flitted about her rushed along after the motion, bursting past from either side of her before joining into a single massive void directly ahead.

  Gwyn barely had time to react as her body remained weighed down by anxiety, snapping back to attention before diving out of the way at the st moment, the cloud swooping in through where she’d just been, instead now striking into the wall nearby.

  Scrambling back to her feet, she turned her attention back to the sudden attack, the void that had been sicced on her having torn straight through the solid wall as it soon ripped an exit through a different point further away, returning to the street once more to swirl about its master.

  The hum was almost deafening the closer she’d come to it, watching it like a hawk as it flowed like water through the air, the incessant noise from it sounding like…

  Gwyn squinted at the cloud, trying to focus, and was immediately proven correct in her assumption.

  They had flown so tightly packed together that she’d thought it must have been some manner of wind magic, gas being directly maniputed and weaponized.

  But on closer inspection, the unending hum coming from it was the sound of a million creatures buzzing in trained harmony, a cloud of flies packed in as tightly as was possible.

  Beelze wasted no time in allowing her to continue idly musing on her methods of attack, already directing her insects forwards once more, curving them in from the side now as Gwyn broke into a run to get out of their path.

  Once more she only narrowly dodged them, rolling as she struck the ground this time, nding halfway upright again as her own hands shot forwards.

  Stretch, clench, release, practiced motions running on autopilot, familiar sugar crystals growing from the air around her as she loaded her only spell, quickly firing off several of the stones one after another towards the cloud of insects as it tried to wind back around towards her again.

  The projectiles were slow, each of them flying off past her target as it wound onwards, every shot too slow to have any chance of hitting its mark.

  By the time she emptied her entire first set of crystals at the cloud, it was already almost back upon her, the buzzing growing louder and louder as she once more dove out of the way at the st moment, seeing a street sign behind her reduced to perforated scrap as it was eaten through in milliseconds.

  Beelze watched her scrambling with delight, conducting her swarming servants about with a dancer’s grace, eyes never leaving her guest as she barely managed to simply keep dodging the slow, coordinated attacks.

  “Mmm, what’s wrong, little fly…? I was excited with how boldly you challenged me, but all you’ve done is simply fil about since we started… I was expecting a dance, not a circus performance, ehe…~”

  “You… s-shut, it, I…!”

  “Come now, come now, put that fire in your heart instead of on your lips, we have an entire performance left between the two of us…~”

  Another nimble twirl, and her cloud swung back around her, descending from head on this time as it raged forwards.

  Gwyn braced her arms once more, summoning a second rack of ammunition, aiming straight ahead at the fast approaching mass of instant death.

  She tried to steady her ragged breathing, knees still shaking as she fought to even simply stay standing, every single cell in her body screaming in unison that she needed to run as fast and as far away from here as she could before she was killed.

  Alice’s face fshed in her thoughts once more, her resolve steeling itself as best as it could, firing off everything she had at full throttle.

  A storm of gemstone rain poured forwards to meet the crashing river of devouring insects, tearing through the insects like a sword as the waters broke.

  What was left of the swarm barreled on regardless, pushing through the barrage as it hunted after its meal, regathering itself on the other side of the attack as it dove at where the trembling girl had stood waiting for it… only to find her entirely gone, an empty stretch of road engulfed by the cloud as it realized there was nothing there.

  Another pair of glistening stones fshed in the corners of Beelze’s eyes, the woman gracefully twisting herself out of the way at the st moment as they whizzed past, another handful close behind the first as she was forced to duck low, being moved from her makeshift stage as more and more of them fired out of the dust around her.

  Gwyn was panting as she already prepared yet another wave of her crystals, running on instinct, having slipped into the dust cloud the destructive mass of flies had left behind in their earlier attacks at the st moment, sprinting perpendicur to Beelze as she tried to wrench back the initiative.

  The newest barrage fired off almost immediately, Gwyn going for full saturation fire now as she’d watched her st missiles be woven between, leaving as little space between them all as she could manage on her hastily aimed shots.

  A wall of sharpened stones barreled towards Beelze, too little space left open for even her impossibly wiry figure to slip through the cracks in the formation.

  Gwyn allowed herself the tiniest of grins at having forced someone as strong as her onto her back foot watching as her attack left her no possible avenues of escape.

  But even that tiny glimmer of hope was dashed, her body spinning in pce as she brought her leg around, smashing through the unavoidable wall like a wrecking ball as she kicked through the stones, shattering fragile crystal almost effortlessly as she made enough of an opening in the attack to allow the rest to simply harmlessly pass her by.

  “Mmm, clever little fly… you nearly nicked my pretty face there, and Mistress would have been quite upset if I’d allowed that… but sadly, it would seem your diamonds are little more than pretty gss. How… disappointing. It’s been so long since I was allowed a good fight, and the best they can manage is throwing stones-- …hm…?”

  Her monologue was interrupted, a tiny cough echoing over the sounds of gss and stone and millions of fluttering insects, both combatants attentions being snapped towards the source of the noise.

  A bit down the road, the dust having cleared enough to allow them both a clear view, a lone survivor of the attack was attempting to lift one of the other injured people off the road, an older man whose cough had disturbed the silence they’d tried to conceal themselves with.

  “Oh…? That’s no fun then, I believe this was meant to be a solo performance, but I failed to empty the theater ahead of time… truly an unforgivable blunder, but one easily fixed.”

  “Wait, no, d-don’t you dare--

  One of her hands zily flicked forwards, directing her hovering swarm towards the pair of injured civilians, both of their eyes going wide as they realized neither of them could get out of the way nearly fast enough.

  Gwyn was already sprinting for them both, her legs moving faster than she thought herself capable of.

  She had no pn, no ideas, nothing in her head but the pure instinct to run towards them.

  The face of the child she’d struggled to save only days earlier appeared once more in her mind, the wide-eyed smile they’d shown her when they’d finally gotten to safety and reunited with their parents seared into her mind.

  Every thought that tried to wrench control away from her muscles screamed at her to stop, to turn and run, to scramble for safety and hide herself away.

  But… her legs kept moving regardless, pressing onwards, an impulse stronger than any second thought could ever be as her heart beat a drum.

  She… didn’t want to run anymore.

  She didn’t want to be left behind, as useless as she knew she was.

  She wanted to save someone, to protect someone.

  She wanted to be the hero she’d looked up to for so, so long.

  That was the sole impulse pouring out from her heart as she dove forwards, spreading her arms wide as she shielded the bodies of two innocents with her own, smiling as widely as she could manage down at them as she threw herself between them and the oncoming certain death.

  There was a single, final glimmer of light that fshed from within her, before darkness overtook them all, the cloud of flies striking against her back and engulfing them all, blocking out the sun itself.

  Beelze never let up her on her attack, her swarm bearing down against them unrelentingly, sighing deeply as her dance partner regretfully allowed herself to be killed.

  “…mmm, pity. Useless sentiment once more ending a promising performance…”

  Her fingers flicked upwards, her obedient swarm rising from the far end of the street and winding back towards her, leaving the clean-picked corpses to rot behind her.

  …only to realize, perhaps slightly te, that no corpses y where her swarm dispersed from.

  Instead, two civilians cowered on the warm pavement, eyes wide as they stared upwards, not a single scratch upon either of them as their gaze remained fixed on the woman in front of them.

  “Ma’am, I-I’m sorry, are you… are you okay…?!”

  Above them both, Gwyn Lapin stood tall and undefeated, her pristine uniform picked through and ripped apart along her back, revealing brilliant pink diamond below, a yer of gemstone skin still rapidly spreading over her unscathed body as the sunlight illuminated her like a beacon.

  Her blue eyes glistened like sapphires as her lips trembled, beaming at them as she fought back tears, her voice faltering just slightly as she reassured them.

  “…never better!~”