Cinderella: Book 4 Chapter 4

## Verse 1

"Dammit! That goddamn **amateur**! Thinks she's some kind of tragic heroine...!"

Despite appearances, the **self-pitying office worker** wasn't half bad in a fight.

Even more galling, she was actually able to **hurt me**.

"I can't believe I'd lose to a civvie like her...!"

...No. That's not right.

She has the same powers as I do.

Then... does that mean there are others?

"...Like hell. I'm not gonna allow it..."

This power is mine.

I was caught in a spell, and the **magic** is mine alone.

So,

"Next time I see her... she's dead!"

 Get out here, you monsters! Come and fight me!

 I really need to blow off some steam!

## Verse 2

A large scale explosion near Tokyo Station

has resulted in the station's complete closure.

Officials still have no numbers on the

people killed or missing due to the blast.

## Verse 3

Ash from the explosion coats my hair.

Soot from the black smoke smudges my cheeks.

The heels of my discared shoes are shattered.

...I look pathetic.

## Verse 4

"Women at the site of the explosion?"

"That's right. Two of them. According to

witnesses, they were brawling, right bef—"

"So was a suicide bomb? If that's what this is, then..."

## Verse 5

...No.

I'm not pathetic.

I'm not something to be damaged and discarded.

Never again. Never. NEVER!!

## Verse 6

"Where the hell is that warrant?!"

"I haven't been able to get one, yet."

"So we just let them run wild?! Don't come

crying to me about what happens next!!"

## Verse 7

She laid into the monsters, slaying them at random.

The more she did it,

the more the power welled up inside of her.

## Verse 8

If you encounter any of the dark creatures

and groups that have been seen across the city

immediately leave the area

and contact the police.

## Verse 9

"So that woman's going around killing these creatures?"

"Right. According to our info,

it's that wanted yakuza, and — "

"N-Nevermind! Just get to the scene!"

## Verse 10

*Before*

If someone wants to give me power, I don't care if they're a **monster**.

And whatever the monster's true face, "As far as I'm concerned, it's **magic**."

I laugh when I realize I've been muttering to myself, and remember a **storybook** I read as a child.

The story of a young girl made miserable by her stepfamily, who was granted magic enough to go to a grand ball.

There, in the castle, at the ball, her **Prince** found her.

The perfect happy ending.

...Oh, that's right. In truth,

"I was once such an innocent **girl**."

...The kind who could fall in love with a story like that.

 But, that's fine with me. Life's just not like that.

 The world is an ugly place. People are corrupt.

 I know that better than just about anyone, so...

 I just want power, power for myself!!

*After*

The monsters, the police, the civvies...

All of them equal, all of them crumbling before a single woman.

Just like that, it was as if she had an audience with her Prince.

The yakuza woman tilted her head back and laughed, feeling the power within her surge higher than before.

"Now I know I can win against that woman! There's no one left, more powerful than me!"

She kept laughing, the sound echoing around her, until a voice cut through the din like a blade of ice.

"Heh. Interesting."

The voice was familiar, and she grinned, turning to aim her gun at the newcomer.

"Hah! Never thought I'd meet some kind of **imposter** version of myself...!"

## Discordant Poem

The fight had wounded her pride, deeply.

She'd thought the magic was hers alone.

That wasn't true.

...There'd been more than one protagonist, after all.

She'd thought her Prince would come for her one day.

He never did.

She fell through the cracks, to the worst parts of society,

part of her still waiting on the Prince she'd given up on finding.

The person who appeared before her

wasn't the Prince she'd had her heart set on meeting...

...It was she herself, staring back.