Magical Girl Detective Tachibana Masako!

Chapter 3: I know what you did

Masako opens her eyes again, only to be greeted by an ocean of trees.

A thick, almost mythical forest in all directions.
Thick Fir leaves only let through a sliver of blue moonlight of the full moon.
The ground on the lightly glows in a red hue.

She is standing right on top of a gravel road, leading down a long path between the trees.
And on the road, she can sense despair, from several sources.
She passes through the road of this mystical forest, following the footsteps she is able to detect on the ground.
On her way, she finds an empty basket dropped on the road.

No fingerprints on them.

It seemingly has no use, so she does not even bother touching it.
Though, she still looks over it, but without paying attention to her surroundings.
Because she knows what is hiding.

Out of the sudden, familiars of the witch jump out of bushes and from behind trees.
These are wolves wearing many different kinds of clothing, ranging from dresses, school uniforms, suits and more that would be worn by any normal person.

Masako had perfectly predicted this, quickly jumping back to avoid all of the lunging familiars.

She then pulls her soul gem from the magical ring on her left ring finger to transform herself.
The transformation is as quick as it possibly can, transforming her in one piece - into an magical girl.

After a quick flash, the transformation is complete.
She is now wearing a black and white colored outfit.
It has a long grey cape, a steel chest plate, with a grey leather suit underneath with high boots.
Her eyes are covered by an blindfold, through which the glow of her yellow eyes are still visible.
This blindfold does not impede her sight at all, and she can see through it as if she doesn't have it on at all.

In her left hand, a grey Zweihänder appears: A very long sword that is held in both hands on both of its hilts. It requires a lot of strength to wield.

As the wolves notice her again, they soon attack her again.
She swings her sword at the wolves with high precision, taking down several with one swing.

After the pack has been eliminated, Masako continues down the gravel road.
She soon is met with even more packs, which she cleaves away at with unwavering precision.
More and more pack attack, but they all fall to her swings.
After a long trek, the road ends in a clearing of the forest.
A little cozy home lies there.
The despair is close. The witch is close.
Inside the home, the witch should be.

She carefully sneaks to the home.
And she carefully opens the door.
It's a cozy house, with one big bed.
Inside it, a girl, not much older than her, lies.
The girl however, is only a silhouette.
Despite her age, her stomach is unnaturally bloated, as if she was carrying a child.

But inside that girl, she can both sense the witch and the despair.

"...Hello?", the girl asks.
Masako was caught off guard by this.
"You really did come all the way. Thank you. ...Come closer. I know you won't ha-"

Trying not to listen, Masako instead opted to directly thrust the Zweihänder into the supposed skull of the girl.
The girl gives a despairing screech, grabbing her head.
Masako along with her weapon are knocked against the house wall.
"I know what you did! YOU KILLED THEM!"

The girl slowly warps into a pile of black goo, screaming hysterically

The house around them fades away, and the black goo forms itself into what seems to be a big canine animal.
A big, bad wolf.
It howls, and then runs at the magical girl, still on the ground.

She quickly gets up.
Her magically enhanced senses allows her to perfectly predict the movements of the wolf and lets her evade the giant beast.
After it crashes into a tree, she uses the opportunity to slash at the wolf with her weapon.
She focuses on specific weak points she is able to detect that would be the most effective to attack: It's limbs, chest and the head.