Null Magical Girl Climax: Which is the Path to the Inner Universe?

Translation credit to Project Mokyuu on Tumblr.

"Gathering, separating, spinning on.
Farewell, eternal story. - Quote on the cover image (translated).

Kosane Kiriha tells the reader that her story has now, finally, reached its climax. She then describes the contents of a climax: a rapid development, a shock, and a truth. She then promises the reader that a shocking truth does await you.' Kosane then asks if the reader remembers what she said at the start of the story. "This is the record of a crime." She also adds that she gave a spoiler, saying that she is the perpetrator.

Kosane then asks herself who she is. She answers that she is Kosane Kiriha, but she disagrees. She says that the Kosane that once existed and was once her identity is no more, instead giving way to her transformation caused by the train's explosion. She explains that she was fused with the Time Loop Railroad Express 107, pieces of the track, and the many Kyubeys that she was carrying. Becoming something above humanity, Kosane gained the power to transcend the three-dimensional world and gain both temporal wisdom and spatial intuition from the Railroad and the Kyubeys respectively.

Finishing her explanation, she explains what she is currently seeing: the Magi Wars. The struggle between the Homo sapiens and the Homo magica and the tragic events that Coeurl told her.

The Homo magica, upon their birth, rose up and began an uprising against the Incubators. Starting a war, the Homo magica destroying and exploiting the world that once destroyed and exploited them. Kosane decides to turn back time and observe the world's regression. Space stations deconstruct before her eyes, and the explosions of war give way to peace. This is a time, Kosane says, where girls could make a contract and then be forgotten by history.

Kosane then describes the change of technology. Wormholes give in to antimatter, antimatter to nuclear fusion, nuclear fusion to nuclear fission, and nuclear fission finally gives way to chemical reaction-powered rockets. The reach of humanity steadily retracts from the Orion Arm as the clock winds back before settling in the same solar system where they originated. Eventually, all types of interplanetary travel disappear and leave humanity alone on Earth. Looking down on the world, Kosane suddenly has a realization.

The world she is viewing now is the world that she once knew, and the world she used to live in. This, the world she is seeing, is the Earth of 2021. She begins wishing desperately to go back to 2021, to regain the time she lost and accept the world for what it is. She no longer reaches for the past, and instead clings to the present. Tearing through the wall that separates her and 2021, Kosane's consciousness converges into the center of the world, the starting point of the whole story. Kosane once again becomes Kosane Kiriha.

Opening her eyes, she is overwhelmed by nostalgia. The feeling of flesh and bones overwhelms her, the feeling of being bound to time and space overwhelming her even more.

Yes, she says, this is where her story truly began. This is her room in March 2021.

Suddenly, an object that was apparently in her hands crashes to the floor. A bag of coffee grounds spills everywhere, and Kosane stares at it without any tool to pick it up. A kettle boils in the kitchen, and a memory hits Kosane.

In the next moment, she will crack her head open and discover she has no skull. In the next moment, Kyubey will show up. In the next moment, she will enter the future.

Kosane decides to wait for the future to come, sitting down. She waits, and waits, and waits. The sun sets, but Kyubey has not arrived. Kosane questions herself. Is the future she experienced never going to come? If that's the case, then she considers herself to be free. She can live her life and approach the future bravely, each step a new experience.

Looking back, Kosane monologues, she realizes how foolish she was. Little does Kosane know, she says, the year of 2021 is a trap for her specifically, set by someone she knows very well.

But, the Kosane of the present believes she is free. She thinks of this as a new start for her, another chance to experience life. Suddenly, Kosane remembers the reason this entire journey began. She is nothing and will always be nothing. She will never accomplish anything, but she can at least try and move on. As she resolves to do her best, time moves on.

A second, then a minute, then an hour, then a day, and then a whole month pass. Despite the world seeming like a utopia, Kosane begins to realize the apparent problems in her perfect world.

The passage of time is dark and dismal. She describes it as though time itself is made of needles, and every second pierces the needles deeper into her body. She begins to notice incessant laughter echoing through spacetime. All around her, the voices of the Homo magica remind her that there is no world in which she can escape her torment.

From here, Kosane finally acknowledges her situation for what it truly is, and what we already know it to be: a trap. This year of 2021 is a locked room mystery filled with the voices of the Homo magica. As the voices grow louder and louder, Kosane's will begins to break. By July of 2021, she says that she can no longer leave her room. Instead, she locked herself in her closet and attempts desperately to block out the noise. Soon, October of 2021 begins, and Kosane remarks that her battle with 2021 has entered a new phase.

On an October morning, Kosane goes to the mirror and stares at herself. The problem is, she realizes, that she isn't the one staring back at her. This face wears a carefree, innocent, and wicked smile. It's an unnerving smile that shakes her to her core. It's the smile of Eruna Kiriha. At last, Kosane surmises, Eruna has appeared before her.

By instinct, she punches the mirror and breaks it into hundreds of pieces. Eruna fades away, but Kosane knows this isn't the end of her torment. As if to prove her point, her blood forms into words on the ground.

"Older sister. I'm almost ready to see you. At the epicenter of fate."

Kosane quickly smears away the letters, her entire body shaking with terror. She tells herself that Eruna is dead and can't harm her, but it doesn't calm her fears. Fear soon becomes a part of her mind, engraving itself into her very life. As a result of her despair, Kosane's health deteriorates rapidly. She can't sleep, yet she is endlessly tired. She stops eating. She stops drinking. The thought of consuming anything terrifies her, unable to eat any solid food. The moment she forces herself to drink anything, she instantly vomits or suffers from diarrhea.

Lamenting her fate of 2021, December soon arrives. Kosane looks in her room, and realizes something terrifying. On the other side of her room, she is hanging. In this locked room mystery, a death has occurred. Kosane begins to investigate, asking questions about the murder that has taken place. She tells us (as the witness) that she is the one who killed herself, and Kosane (as the spectator) agrees. The spectator says that she is the victim and the murderer.

Kosane then resolves that she will not sit idly by while she commits suicide. She will break 2021 and save herself from herself, using her power to repeat the horrid year as many times as it takes. And, the Kosane of the now reveals to us that she repeated 2021 as many as one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) times, and each time the victim is found dead by the investigator by the end of December 31st, 2021. No matter what she tries, she always ends up dead. Poisoning, starving, jumping off of a bridge, burning, drowning, electrocution, gaseous poison inhalation. No matter what, Kosane ends up dead. Each and every year, Kosane kills and is killed by herself. After so many repetitions, the causal order of 2021 begins to crumble.

She now realizes what Kyubey meant when he said that spacetime collapses around her. Like an ouroboros, she says, her own actions have determined her fate. By repeating 2021, she has doomed herself to die endlessly.

Kosane the applauds her own murder case, saying that the whole process is well thought-out. Each apparent conclusion leads to another introduction, and each introduction leads to a conclusion. In order to reach the final conclusion, the entire case must be observed. In order to solve the ultimate case, she must be the ultimate detective.

After all, the ultimate detective could solve this mystery and find the ultimate culprit. Kosane deduces that she is not the actual mastermind of this murder, and is simply the accomplice. No, the true killer is somewhere else. The true killer is the one who locked her in 2021, and the one who forced her on the track to suicide. Yes, if she follows this reasoning, the true and ultimate conclusion will reveal itself.

Before she can get there, though, she must answer three questions.

"Where did we come from?"

"What are we?"

"Where are we going?"

Kosane answers the third question easily. We, humanity, are the Homo sapiens that will one day become the Homo magica. Then, two questions remain. She decides to answer the first question before anything else. In order to understand her suicide, she reasons, she must find out her past. Although trapped in 2021, she can use the Time Railroad to create an illusion of living through the past.

Kosane views the moment that the Incubators touched down on earth 75,000 years ago.

Despite not being able to comprehend the thoughts of the Incubators, Kosane tries to describe it despite knowing that she is mistaken. Considering their situation, she says, it's sad. The Incubators are not afraid of the end of the universe and are simply trying to stave off the worst outcome. Without any concept of death, they attempt to protect their world despite knowing that its death is unavoidable. On their quest to break thermodynamics, the Incubators found the human race. In exchange for harvesting the emotional energy of human girls, humanity gained survival, civilization and evolution.

When the Incubators first arrived, humanity was in grave danger. A volcanic disaster had claimed the world, wiping out the Homo erectus and nearly ending humanity as a whole due to the deep freeze that followed. However, a single girl's contract saved humanity and, in the following years, more and more wishes and Magical Girls allowed human expansion across the globe. Eventually, the expanding groups met with their closest relatives, the Homo neanderthalensis. In a one sided massacre, humanity wiped out the Neanderthals using Magical Girls. To the advantage of humanity, the Neanderthals could not perceive magic in any way. By being able to perceive what is beyond reason, humanity could dominate and kill the Neanderthals without any struggle. Kosane then describes the cognitive shift that occurred in humanity to allow their domination, mentioning the theory coined by Yuval Noah Harari that describes the "Cognitive Revolution". While Yuval was unable to find an answer as to why the revolution occurred, Kosane says she was able to find the answer.

Simply, she says that the Cognitive Revolution is actually the Magical Girl Revolution. Why can we imagine, perceive and thrive? It's because of Magical Girls. The creation of Magical Girls pressured humanity into evolution, pushing Magical Girls to become more powerful and provide more energy needed by the Incubators. And, at the same time, a third being was created that dictated the evolution of humanity.

Stories. Fiction. Fantasy. What started as a record of the past turned into a record of the present and of the imagination. Relationships born in stories affect the real world, strengthening the energy released by Magical Girls. By documenting relationships, the feelings can transcend generations.

Kosane says that stories exist to simulate relationships, creating a template for all relationships to come. The emotional bonds in the real world were an accidental side effect. With the creation of stories comes another question:

"Why do stories never tire of depicting human relationships?"

After all the relationships and fictional lives documented in stories, why are documents still being created? Kosane says that the question may seem peculiar and unanswerable, but counters that the answer is actually quite simple.

Humanity only exists because we serve as cattle to the Incubators. Our story is that of tools, endlessly used to stave off the inevitable. Chattel bred by the narrative create stronger relationships and create more emotional energy, and the Homo magica, despite their best efforts not to be cattle, are the perfect example. They are slaves to the narrative, endlessly creating better and better relationships in an attempt to break the chain of their slavery.

With this, Kosane finds an answer to her locked-room murder.

"Under reproduction guided by narrative, the unit of evolution has become human relationships. In other words, an individual's suicide does not necessarily put them at an evolutionary disadvantage. If it strengthens relationships, it will become more prevalent. Is this the structure behind the 'I will kill me and be killed by myself' incident?"

Kosane realizes what she must do as both the ultimate detective and the null Magical Girl. This endeavor she is about to pursue is called "Project Null-A World". Our worldview, she explains, has been dominated and domesticated by stories of relationships, and can be thought of as Aristotle's world. In his world, everything was made of earth, air, fire and water, with each element corresponding to a specific purpose. In his theory, the entire world is born of the relationships between these elements. Similar to his theory of the world, the cognitive world that Homo sapiens thrive in is built off the relationships between people. In contrast, the cognitive world of the Neanderthals was more "Null-A" (non-Aristotelian). At the root of their cognition is physics. As a result, fiction and fantasy has no place in the world of the Neanderthals.

Therefore, Kosane theorizes, her mission is to create a Null-A cognitive world for humanity. This, she says, is her ultimate purpose as both the ultimate master detective and the null Magical Girl. And, in order to establish a Null-A world, the propagation of stories must be prevented. And so, launching her boat onto the river of time, Kosane sets out to kill stories.

Arriving at year 1440 in the Holy Roman Empire, specifically Strasbourg, Kosane moors her boat at a pier. The center of the medieval world, Strasbourg is the exact place Kosane needs to be to enact her plan. To rewrite history, a drastic change must be created. She checks her pocket watch and watches for her target. On cue, a man runs around frantically with a metal plate in his hands. Kosane approaches him and uses a scrap wooden plank to bash his skull in. He collapses and Kosane tells us that the man is Johannes Gutenberg, the creator of the letterpress printer.