At school, the break between classes seemed to stretch longer each time, not because it actually was, but because every time I looked at how Hanna seemed to be slowly becoming more automatic in everything she did, and Alex's angry gaze at the black-haired girl, I felt like at any moment a bomb could explode between the two of them.

I couldn’t disagree with Alex; I also couldn’t accept that Hanna would just give up on making art. If I weren’t indirectly at the center of this mess, maybe I’d be as confused as she was, but… I was in the eye of that hurricane. Hanna’s heart had been broken because of me, because I was too weak to continue…

Between history and art classes, Alexandra approached my seat.  

“Rose, you understand, don’t you? You understand that Hanna is being stupid for giving up without even trying, right?” She spoke as if whispering, but in a volume that Hanna could hear perfectly well, as if Alex wasn’t even trying to hide it.  

“Alex… If you want to talk about something like that, talk to her directly. There’s no reason for you to be in this cold war.” I said, trying to distance myself from the confusion.  

“I don’t want to waste my breath on cowards who don’t care about others. You think so too, don’t you? After she saw what the pretentious artists of this city do, she decided that what we liked in her drawings isn’t worth it.”  

“Could you stop talking nonsense to my friend?” Hanna said, finally getting up from her chair. It seemed that this brave side of hers hadn’t died yet…  

“I’d stop if you hadn’t woken up stupid today! It’s the last day to submit for the contest and you want to give up?! We’ve worked on these illustrations for weeks! You were excited… Can’t you see how disappointed the people who care about you are?!”  

“...If you were really my friend, you’d respect that! Stop involving Rose in this nonsense; after all, she told me to give up when we were at the gallery!”  

What?  

What… was going on in her head, Hanna?!  

“Rose said what?!” Alexandra turned her face towards me, as if she wanted to shoot me with her eyes.  

“When I was alone at the chapel exhibition… You met me there, didn’t you, Rose? And you agreed, you saw me crying, and we both know my grades at school aren’t great, so it makes sense to stop doing something that’s not going to get you anywhere, right? It’s the most logical thing to do!” Hanna seemed crazy. None of that… None of that had happened! Was that what she saw when she turned into the Painter of Wreckage?!  

“Rose… That’s not true, is it?!” The red-haired girl's eyes looked disbelieving, almost like a pool of water, holding back her tears.  

“Of course not! Hanna, where did you get that from?! I never told you to stop drawing!”  

“Really, Rose? Then what were you doing after we met? Tell me, because I remember perfectly.”  

What was this… Was the blue heart creating false memories?! If her heart was destroyed, did she create some kind of illusion?!  

She’s just repeating her beliefs in her mind. That’s what happens when a heart is destroyed.  

Anima?! Help me get out of this, I don’t know what to say to her!  

I can’t do anything about this, Rose Ophelia. After all, I’m not part of your class; I’m here only to assist with your activities as a Destroyer.  

So what’s happening?! Why is she saying that I was the one who discouraged her?!  

Oh, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hanna Bovary’s last memory before her heart was crystallized with sadness was seeing you, wasn’t it? After the heart is broken, it will reaffirm all of the victim’s negative beliefs until their soul is completely consumed.  

That… is too cruel…  

“Anyway…” Hanna continued. “If you’re going to keep bothering my friends with your stupid questions about the dumb things I did, then I’ll just get rid of it.”  

She pulled out a folder from her bag… and from it she took out… 

Three colorful drawings on thick paper.

“Hanna, what are you thinking of doing with those?!”  

“Since this is causing the problem, I just need to get rid of it, right?!” That girl, with an expression that mixed anger and frustration, picked up the three drawings and threatened to tear them, slightly damaging the first sheet, with the drawing of a red-haired mermaid searching for light at the bottom of the sea.  

“NO!” Like a shadow, Alex grabbed the drawings from Hanna’s hands, her eyes unable to hold back tears any longer, her face already red… “I won’t let you do this! I was with you through all this too! I… I won’t let you destroy a part of you that I think is so beautiful!”  

The red-haired girl surprisingly didn’t damage any of the sheets when she took the drawings and held them in her arms. The art teacher, Chloe Suzuki, had finally arrived in the room, not understanding the confusion that was happening.  

“You’re coming with me! I don’t want to hear any excuses!” Alexandra pulled me by the wrist, running out of the classroom. “Sorry, Professor Suzuki! I’ll explain later, this is important.”

“Hey, Alex! You’re not allowed to leave like this!” The teacher said, but Alex was faster. She had never been particularly good at running or sports, but it seemed like her emotions really made her physical abilities improve for a while, enough that in no time we were already running down the street, without her letting go of my wrist or Hanna’s drawings.

“Alex, I know you want to get away from Hanna, but… Where are we going?”

“Where else?! To the gallery, to register that idiot’s drawings for the contest! You’re coming with me, no use saying no!”

The place wasn’t very far from school, just a few turns away, but… It was already late afternoon, and it’s not like we had permission or Hanna’s details to register her.

We ran out of the school gate, with Alex not letting go of me for a moment; it was as if she believed… I could give her some kind of strength? I can’t say for sure, but…

She didn’t want to be alone at that moment. And a part of me didn’t want her to be…

♡

After a few minutes of running, we finally arrived at that extravagant place, and only when we got there did Alexandra finally let go of my hand, trying to catch her breath.
“Ah, the drawings didn’t get ruined by the sweat, did they?!” She checked, with a relieved expression when she saw they were all fine.
“Alex… Look over there…” I looked around… No… This couldn’t be happening…

On the nearest door were two signs, one saying “Local Artists Drawing Contest - Passion Fantasy,” the contest title, and the other…
“Registration… Closed…”

We hadn’t made it in time… Maybe it was just too late… Or maybe because they already had too many works…

We couldn’t do anything…

At that moment, it was as if I could hear the girl next to me’s heart breaking into a thousand pieces.
“This… Is a joke… Isn’t it?” Alex’s body seemed to tremble, her voice was shaky…
“Alex, I’m sorry… I…” I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. She let out a scream, a suffering scream… Full of pain.
At that moment, Alex… Carried an overwhelming pain in her chest.

“Rose, don’t touch her when she's like that!” Anima appeared, knowing what that meant, but…

I didn’t want that.

I didn’t want that girl, who was also the first to understand how I felt about Hazel… That girl who also understood at least a little of what I felt and tried to hide…

I didn’t want her to turn into a monster I couldn’t purify.

Alex’s tears began to grow larger and more frequent, and soon it seemed like the whole place was filling up with water…
As soon as I saw that strange way of acting, I transformed into Heartbreaker Magenta, watching Alex’s body transform while the room seemed to fill up even more with water, but at the same time… It was as if it wasn’t exactly water.
It was confusing; I could breathe normally, but it was as if I was floating, as if that flood was and wasn’t there at the same time. Alexandra’s body was also changing agonizingly; her teeth grew longer and sharper, gills appeared on her body and parts of her face, along with serrated spikes, and her legs transformed into a fish tail…
She had turned into a monster with a crystallized heart.
And something told me that this monster wasn’t under the control of the red hearts either

The whole room had become a place where the bizarre mermaid Alexandra had turned into could swim, even though I was standing, it was almost as if she was experiencing something I couldn’t even reach… While she swam in circles, crying and screaming in agony…

“Magenta… It looks like we have a problem.” Anima said, as if she hadn’t noticed already.

That space had become the bottom of the sea, but at the same time not; it was as if time and space had molded to the desires of Alex’s crystallized heart.

“Well, well, struggling, Amelia Anima?” That voice… There was no mistaking that sharp sound.

“Kenos! I knew you…” Anima said, with a look of anger on her small face.

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss the chance to see you fail again. It seems you didn’t instruct your Destroyer well enough, did you? Well, I’ll show you what real fighting looks like!”
Next to that small black cat was her… Always beautiful, and always distant… The girl he called Tormenta Violet.

“Void Wings.” She spoke with her beautifully drawn lips, and soon the upper part of her dress, which formed a skirt with tips similar to bat wings, transformed into black wings. She was flying, with part of her outfit turning into wings, trying to chase the mermaid Alex swimming on the ceiling.

“Stop it!” I shot into the air with my magical pistols. I didn’t necessarily want to hit her, but if I lost Alex at that moment, I would be destroying everything I had built up to that point, I would be…
Leaving the soul of the first girl who trusted me, like another girl who likes girls, to die.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I couldn’t let… That love she had die.

“Oh? It seems you really intend to fight this time, Heartbreaker Magenta.” For a moment, I thought Violet’s eyes looked surprised.

“Of course I do! I’m not going to let you do everything as you please!” I said, shooting near her hand, trying to make her drop her axe.
But I wasn’t successful.
On the contrary, she…
She cut the bullet I just shot.

“You should choose your enemies better. If you don’t want me to break the heart of the Melancholic Mermaid, I’ll have to break yours.” With those words, she flew towards me, trying to cut me with her axe, hitting the ground as I dodged.
“Hey Anima, she has wings! Why don’t I have wings?! Isn’t that a bit unfair?!”
“That…”
“Amelia Anima, you’re so irresponsible not to explain how the true powers of a Destroyer work?! They really should revoke your title!” Kenos said, smiling. He seemed to be enjoying mocking Anima more and more.
“It’s not that! It’s because… You’ll mix yourself too much with the power of the soul’s principles, Magenta…”

"I don’t want to hear it. If I’m already in this, I’ll do what I need to. Just tell me what I need to do!"

"Are you sure? Your powers are starting to take a bit of control over your body. If you keep going like this…"

"I DON’T CARE!" I shouted. "Just tell me how to get this too. Losing to her again is not an option!"

"Alright…" Anima said, sighing. "You just need to visualize the desire to fly and say…"

"Soul Wings!" I shouted. My heart was pounding fiercely. I could hear it beating and felt endless pangs, as if it were burning… Burning stronger and stronger, but…

The white designs that looked like bat wings on my pants transformed into wings similar to Violet’s, but white and slightly pink instead of black.

As soon as I realized I could fly, my body seemed to stabilize, so I flew as fast as I could towards Tormenta Violet, shooting near her in an attempt to cause some kind of damage, whatever it was.

But it was still useless.

If I was strong, she was three times stronger.

She blocked everything coming her way with that gigantic axe, leaving not even a scratch.

Tormenta Violet was invulnerable, almost like a fighting robot…