Unmarked Epilogue

Epilogue

Two high school girls faced each other in the fastfood restaurant that was filled with students after school. One of them had a bored look on her face, which she rested on her hand, while the other worked her Magical Phone with practiced movements.
坐满放学后的学生而一片嘈杂的快餐店中，两名高中女生正相对而坐。一人用手托着脸颊一脸无聊，另一人以熟练的手法操作着智能手机。

“It’s tomorrow, right?”
“是明天对吧？”

“The day Koyuki’s coming back?”
“小雪回来的日子？”

“Yes, that day.”
“对，就是那个。”

“According to Koyuki’s message, it does seem to be tomorrow~”
“根据小雪发来的邮件的确是明天呢～”

“It’s been two weeks since she left a message and vanished without a trace. I didn’t think she was the sort of girl who would run away from home in middle school.”
“从之前只留下一张留言就一下子没了音讯开始，已经过去半个月了呢。实在想不到她是那种已经上了中学还会离家出走的孩子呢。”

“I agree, Yocchan. Going bad in high school… well, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. How shall I say this, it feels like she’s wandering.”
“这一点小夜我当真同感。高中出道开始学坏……倒也不像是那样呢。怎么说呢，感觉还真是自由奔放呢。”

“Her family members seem really worried about her… they seemed really grateful that she was coming back. Speaking of which, what are you doing?”
“家里人好像很担心她呢……真的能回来实在是谢天谢地的样子。话说回来，你在干什么呢？”

“Nothing much, just looking at the Magical Girl sightings aggregator site.”
“没什么，就是看看魔法少女的目击情报。”

“Sumi-chan~ are you still going on about Magical Girls?”
“小～澄～……你还在说什么魔法少女吗？”

“It’s not like that, although the sightings have decreased, they’re still showing up. Besides, doesn’t Koyuki like Magical Girls? I figured I ought to get all the information together before she comes back.”
“不是啦，虽然目击情报的确减少了，但是还是确实地有出现哦。而且小雪不是也很喜欢魔法少女吗？所以我就觉得应该在小雪回来之前帮她整理好情报呢。”

“What do you mean, you figured? What was that, the Magical Girl Raising Project? The one which stopped service because they apparently ran into a serious bug and nobody knows when it’ll start again? The news even said that the company’s share price took a heavy blow because of that. So enough of that, Magical Girls and whatnot are a thing of the past.”
“才不是什么你觉得呢！好象是什么‘魔法少女育成计划’是吧？那个听说遇到了非常严重的BUG，现在正处于不知道什么时候重新开放的无限期暂停服务中吧？新闻上还看到过那家公司的股价因此大幅下跌呢。所以说已经够了啦，魔法少女什么的已经过时了啦。”

“As if! I keep telling you, new sightings are still popping up! Look, right here. Says they were saved by a one armed, one-eyed Magical Girl in black.”
“才没过时呢！一直都在和你说有更新目击情报呢！你看，不是写在这里吗。说是被独臂单眼的黑色魔法少女救了。”

“That looks less like a Magical Girl than the Grim Reaper.”
“那种外表与其说是魔法少女，不如说是死神吧。”

“Also, wasn’t there that piece of news? From the Middle East?”
“另外不是还有那个消息吗？中东那边的。”

“Huh? You mean the one where Russia and China strongly opposed other countries from interfering, so the other countries couldn’t intervene in that domestic massacre situation and they didn’t know how to handle it?”
“啊嘞？记得是因为俄罗斯和中国强烈反对所以其他国家无法直接出手干涉的国内虐杀问题正好处于不知如何解决的状态才对吧？”

“The government masterminds were all arrested, starting with the president who ordered the massacre, and the revolution succeeded. They say that the person who captured all the important people in the government and delivered them to the revolutionaries was a single girl. A girl in white, who suddenly appeared like the wind. That must surely be a Magical Girl.”
“以指挥虐杀的总统为首，政府的魁首们一股脑被反政府一排拘捕，革命也顺利成功了呢。据说把政府要人抓起来集体押送到反政府一派手上的，只是区区一名少女哦。白色的少女就像一阵风一样突然现身呢，那绝对是魔法少女哦。”

“Nonono, it doesn’t matter if they’re Magical Girls, they’re just wild rumors or urban legends. What they’re doing is no different from terrorists.”
“不不不，不管是魔法少女也好，胡言乱语或者都市传说也罢。所作所为和一介恐怖分子没有任何区别吧。”

“In. Any. Case! Magical Girls aren’t gone yet. I’m sure of it! When Koyuki comes back, I’m sure she’ll say the same thing, I’m sure!”
“总·而·言·之！魔法少女还没有终结呢。绝对！小雪回来的话一定也会说出同样话来的，一定会！”

◇◇◇

The blue sky spread before her eyes. When she looked at the sun, it seemed as though it were shining from beside her, and the clouds flowed away into distance with tremendous force. Several thousand meters above sea level, there were only clouds, the sky, and the sun.
湛蓝的天空就在自己眼前。太阳看上去仿佛在身旁散发着光辉，云层以猛烈的势头向远方流去。海拔数千米的高空中，就只有云层、天空和太阳存在。

Being able to lean on the tail of a Boeing 747 and enjoy a leisurely, surreal journey through the air was all thanks to an application on the Administrator Phone. She would not be blown away by air pressure, nor would she freeze from the low temperatures, and neither would the roaring of the engines bother her.
能够像这样倚靠在波音747尾翼上，享受悠闲前往目的地这种充满幻想味道的空中之旅都是多亏了管理者终端中的应用程序。不会被风压吹跑，也不会因低温冻僵，更不会为轰鸣烦恼。

A free ride… no, not a free ride, a free trip, she amended in her mind. For Snow White, who could not fly in the sky, this was how she always went overseas.
无票乘车……不对，不是乘车而是乘机呢，在头脑中这样订正道。对于无法在空中翱翔的白雪来说，一直都是用这种手段前往海外的。

Originally, Magical Girls were beings who were supposed to help others in an area of a small town, and they would not expand their activity radius too much. The Land of Magic would probably not look kindly upon interfering with the internal politics of another nation for the sake of one’s calues.
原本魔法少女就只是在一个小镇的范围内帮助他人的存在，基本不会过度扩张自己的活动范围。基于自己的价值观干涉他国内政这种行为，大概在“魔法之国”中也绝不会得到好脸色吧。

After learning that Fav and Clamberry had gone out of control during the selection exam, the Land of Magic had hurriedly sent agents to this world. They knelt before Snow White and Ripple and apologized, and recognized the two of them as official Magical Girls, according them the status of residents of the Land of Magic.
知道了在选拔考试中法布和库兰贝莉发生暴走的魔法之国急急忙忙地派遣特使来到这个世界。他们跪在地上向白雪和道歉，并且承认二人为正式的魔法少女，授予她们“魔法之国”名誉居民的资格。

Snow White was not too sure how grateful she ought to be about all this. However, the Land of Magic was probably starting to feel bothered by the Magical Girl who saw the news and ran off on her own to another country in a rage.
白雪也不是很清楚，自己对于这一结果到底有没有多少产生一丝感谢。只不过，看到新闻就怒不可遏地跑去外国这种恣意妄为的魔法少女，“魔法之国”也开始感觉到棘手了吧。

She powered up her Administrator Phone and opened her mailbox. Inside it was an email from the Land of Magic’s investigators.
开启管理者终端的电源，打开收件箱，里面收到了来自“魔法之国”监督官的邮件。

Magical Girls can become assassins or terrorists. As a result, members of the various Magical Girl Departments are expected to have sufficient self-restraint. Therefore you ought to be able to rein in your own actions in the spirit of adhering to your ethical code, can you not? Ultimately--
魔法少女既可以成为暗杀者也能成为恐怖分子。因此魔法少女部门的人员被要求必须拥有足够强大的自制力。所以你应该可以在遵守伦理道德的坚强心灵之下控制自己的行为不是吗？说到底——

After reading up to that point, Snow White moved the email into the trash.
读到这，白雪就把邮件移入了垃圾箱。

Snow White was very clear on this. Feeble kindness could not change anything. Just watching from the sides would not change a situation. You could not solve problems by handing them to someone else. She understood all that perfectly. Therefore, she felt that she had to start changing from here; she wanted to start changing from here.
白雪很清楚。微不足道的亲切无法改变任何事情。光是袖手旁观不能让事态发生变化。交给其他人是无法解决的。自己已经切身理解了这些道理。因此，自己才认为必须从这里开始改变，想要从这里改变。

The Magical Girls which Snow White knew well would surely do the same thing. Right until they lost their lives… even after losing their lives, they carried out their goals to the bitter end.
如果是白雪所熟知的魔法少女们，一定会这样做的。她们直到失去生命……甚至已经失去生命也依然贯彻自我。

There was another mail.
邮件还有另外一封。

There were signs of records tampering at examination areas B7098 and B7243. There were apparently people who had died of accidents on both sides. Also, the examiner for both of them was the same. Said examiner was scheduled to conduct an exam at examination area B7511--
B七〇九八考场和B七二四三考场存在记录篡改痕迹。无论哪边似乎都有因事故产生死者的样子。另外考官也为同一人。该当考官近日又在B七五一一考场举行考试的预定——

After replying to the provider of the information--Ripple--with an email asking about herself, Snow White turned off the Administrator Phone.
向情报提供者——波纹发回问候的邮件之后，白雪关闭了管理者终端。

Unlike Snow White, who acted on her own, Ripple had friends in various Departments. However, they were less friends than fans of Ripple. While Snow White did not know what exactly had led to that development, they had probably decided to help Ripple out because she was cute and cool.
和独行侠的白雪不同，波纹在各个部门都结识了熟人。不过比起朋友来说，大家更像是波纹的粉丝。虽然白雪不清楚到底其中有什么经纬才发展成现在这种情形，但大概是因为波纹既可爱又帅气所以大家想为她出一份力吧。

“Next time… I won’t have regrets because I didn’t make a choice. I’ll make my choice before I regret.”
“下一次……不能再为没有做出选择而后悔。而是在后悔之前自己做出抉择。”

Those words were not meant for anyone, but spoken to Snow White herself.
不是对着任何人，白雪轻声自言自语道。