Battler recognizes the girl, but not the witch.

There was a tense silence. Battler clenched his teeth. He seemed to understand there were important questions, but nothing he had the right answers to. "Gh... Gah! It's... useless. It's all useless! I don't know how you can be a witch. I don't know how to unravel all of your damn mysteries, and I don't have a damn clue who you are!"

Beatrice gave him a sad smile in response... She didn't look surprised. "No, I suppose not. Now's not the time I want to hear your catchphrase, idiot... So long as you understand your own ignorance, I will now-"

"No! Let me finish!" Battler shouted and rose from beneath her, so that he was propping himself up on the headboard and staring into her blue eyes. "I may not understand all these mysteries... And I get how crazy you are, pretending to be a witch and threatening to kill me... And I know what my family would say, with me lying in this bed with what can only be a totally mental gold-digger who has me in her trap! I don't get it, any of it, not at all! But, Beatrice, let me say this: you're definitely my type! The way you mess around, then go on and on about magic like it's real... but carry yourself like a real woman... drives me crazy! And whether I can understand you or not... no, so that one day I can, I'll make you my woman and keep you by my side! I'll save my family from you, and I'll save you from my family! That's the certain truth of a human, Beatriiice!!"

The witch looked stunned, finally seeming to have lost the upper hand in their game of one-upping surprises. She stared at him with wide blue eyes... After a moment of remaining frozen like that, her eyes watered up, and her lips curled into a helpless smile. "Battler... You moron... That's not what I want to hear, either! N-now... You pose new riddles. Rokkenjima is my home, but also, my prison. Nobody is leaving here, magically or otherwise, until this storm passes over. How do you plan to escape with me?"

"That's... no big deal, is it?" Battler muttered, annoyed that he was having more questions thrown at him. "I'll kidnap you! I'll do it... the next time I'm here. And, you know, after I get some things ready..."

Beatrice's smile slowly fell into a sad one... and then into something that was no longer a smile at all, but a twisted yell. "And how long will that be, Ushiromiya Battler?!"

"J-just until next time! It might be a year, but I'll definitely get things ready for you! I'll come back as a cool enough guy to make George jealous... You just have to wait-"

"You still don't understand anything! Treating me like some... lovesick girl...! You... and your careless promises... W-w-will I be **** to wait another thousand years for your return?!"

"O-obviously not! Like I'd live for a thousand years!" The young man waved his hands at the insanity of it, not understanding why she was rising and backing away from him. "Wait, Beatrice! Is it... I'm not enough? Sorry, I said something stupid! I moved too fast!"

"You did not move fast enough, Battler..."

I finally noticed Beatrice had backed up towards the open window. The storm no longer seemed to respect the ruler of Rokkenjima, as heavy rain blew through and drenched her long, free hair and lightning occasionally added a white trim to her silhouette. A small, unhappy grin formed on her face.

"I can't wait any longer. You've been late... since long before tonight, fool."

"Wait, what... Beatrice! Wait, Beatrice!!"

Battler was still sitting far away, so there was no way he could rise fast enough to catch the Golden Witch as she took flight into the night. I supposed that made it the job of her familiar.

I sprinted, vaulted, and caught the witch in my arms. For a moment, I held her in the dark sky, seeing her sky-lit face drenched with a mixture of the storm and her tears. I didn't have any delusion that this was a romantic scene. There was no way I could understand her, either. However, there was something I had to let her know.

"Hip... I... I can't accept this ending...!" I heard her voice come between indistinguishable laughs or sobs.

No. Of course not. And as the Endless Witch, you don't have to.

As a demon of love, of course, I don't either. We'll return...

In a flash of gold in the night sky, our silhouettes became particles against a white backdrop. She became golden butterflies, while I became black powder.