Vriiiing――!!
Golden chainsaws left a countless number of black fragments in their wake. Amidst the roaring sounds, fake magical girls disappeared, swept away without even a scream in the golden trajectory.
Girls embraced by the cold darkness under a crimson sky.
Within the orchestra of the golden girl’s cacophony, there was no space for the wails of specters dressed in the shadows of a bygone world.
Thousands of surgical instruments
Hundreds of fake magical girls
And just one chainsaw.
Vriiiing――!!
Chururuk
Chururuk
As the nurse magical girl’s movements fluttered her white skirt, golden surgical tools spun in a whirlpool.
Sometimes gently
Sometimes fiercely
Sometimes warmly
Like falling leaves completely dyed under a ginkgo tree on an autumn day, a golden brilliance contained the will of the cheerleading team.
Even if they started with different intentions, the girls who had donned pure white uniforms to help someone had their will layered onto thousands of golden surgical tools, sweeping away the memories of the girls who had only used magical girl powers to harm others.
“…….”
A familiar face flickered in Himari’s eyes once more.
Wasn’t she the girl from Kyoto whose parents were traditional artisans? She never complained, even when dealing with an irritable patient on her first outing.
Vriiiing――!!
Once again, a familiar girl’s face slipped past amidst the swinging chainsaws.
She must be the girl who came from afar wanting to learn how to heal people with starlight, treating her hometown like a goddess but wishing to truly meet people from the lowest level.
‘Ah, how kind-hearted they were.’
Eyes filled with killing intent
A face drawn tight with rage
A mouth muttering hideous curses
‘In a world broken by the curses and trials of the goddesses…’
Thus, once more,
Once more it slips by.
‘…You have even been deprived of the opportunity to bloom your inner nobility.’
Caught in the gods’ curse within a ruined world, with not a single trace of the noble visage shown in the current world remaining—perhaps if there had been no [Start], that would have been the self she would have shown.
Himari, as the leader of the cheerleading team, had conversed and interacted with more magical girls than anyone else. She stood at the peak of all magical girls, even surpassing Hikari, the epitome of magical girls, and Sumire, the head of the council.
During moments when the world was changing, Himari always held back, just one step behind.
But that step back was toward the battlegrounds where magical girls faced people.
She could see the noble mindset and goodwill of the magical girls.
Not every magical girl held such a mindset, but at least she could see the sincerity of the many girls who had knocked directly on the doors of the cheerleading team.
-Thank you for coming to such a dangerous place…
-Thank you for treating my mom!
-I-I’m really getting better now?!
Having walked in places where ordinary people were connected to a changed world, she understood better than anyone how warm the tomorrow the girls wished for was.
-Thank you, Captain!
-Are you coming to the founding member party this time?
-Hehe, thank you, Captain Himari.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Such small words of gratitude.
Hope
Love
Such small appreciations were the seeds from which light could grow, allowing them to live on tomorrow.
Not everyone was bright, and not everyone was just.
But undoubtedly, there existed precious values that should never be compromised in the hearts of the girls.
Therefore, more resolutely and coldly than anyone present,
“I cannot allow this world to be taken away. I am the captain of the cheerleading team. I have seen more of the kind hearts of the magical girls who exist in this world than anyone else.”
Vriiiing――!!
“If their kind hearts go against fate, then I shall reject even the fate determined by the gods.”
The golden saw blade spun and once again cleaved through the memories of the past.
Receiving the opportunity to bloom her nobility in the changed world, the girl danced like an angel, possessing the will of thousands of golden surgical tools and those girls who wished to help others.
Having watched the goodwill of humanity more keenly than anyone else, the girl who believed in the goodwill of humanity fought against the curses, greed, and despair of the destroyed world with a heart harder than steel.
＊
[They took everything from the adults, everything…!!]
“Is that so.”
[Kyoko, Noah, Aoi, Mizuki, Momoka—all of them…!!]
“It must have been tough.”
[Don’t act superior!!!]
“Does it look that way?”
Ichika’s heart felt nothing but calm.
Even though the black starlight that endlessly absorbed her own was disruptive, the attacks of the girl before her were merely violent and posed no threat at all.
‘The proper growth of a magical girl is quite scary.’
So this is the level of difference.
Ichika merely listened, with a tranquil heart like a calm lake, to the grievances spat out by the girl in front of her. Even if the memories that girl possessed were real, she was not truly another version of herself from another world. In fact, even if another true self were to come, Ichika felt she wouldn’t be too shaken.
‘I am me.’
What defines oneself is oneself alone.
[Uwaaaaaaa!!!!]
A furious scream
A green energy howling like a storm
Fwoosh―!
But a punch slashing through with a green streak was effortlessly blocked.
The desperate strike of the girl in a green sailor suit, who screamed and lunged, was not particularly threatening to Ichika at present. She simply blocked it nonchalantly with an open palm.
Fwoooosh――!!
The massive green palm indifferently stripped away the murderous intent contained in another Ichika’s attack, pushing back the girl filled with grievances toward the world.
[Ku-uh?!]
If another Ichika’s desperate punch was an unfurling dandelion, Ichika’s lazy, unhurried slap was a fully blooming sunflower on a hot summer day.
The understanding of ‘freedom’ contained was different, and the depth of experience was different.
A beast that had lived by blindly expressing its anger and resentment could not stand against the pure will that had returned after countless battles to protect others.
“…Rai-Shin.”
Ichika merely listened to the shadow of herself who almost walked the same fate, out of her last respects until she grew tired. If it seemed long, she would just finish quickly and go help the leader.
[Uwaaaaaa!! You think I’m lucky because I crawled out of the storage?! You mocking me?!]
Without any regard, she let slide the attacking form of herself, who twisted her face in arrogance and let dark energy swirl around.
‘Ah, I see. This is how it was.’
The storage of Fujimoto, which she hardly remembered now.
If it hadn’t been for Hikari, who brought Ichika out of there, she would have become like that.
Like a [Sword] magical girl, having no idea whom to resent, just throwing punches while bearing the grudges of others.
Just one year.
It had only been a year since meeting Hikari, yet she had changed so much.
Her life, a single flower, an old monk’s fist, an old temple, a cold orphanage, a piece of bread, a shabby apartment, crowded girls, a housewarming party, the night view of Tokyo, fights with punks, the ruined Beijing, a black sword, memories, grudges, resentments.
Everything flows and changes.
Impermanence.
Everything is fleeting and turns to dust, and the liberation of one’s world comes from one’s mindset alone.
I believe.
I believe I am free.
Because the existence of form leads to the existence of void.
Because there are restraints, there exists freedom.
What distinguishes within it is one’s own beliefs.
The first question.
“Hey, why are you fighting?”
[I’ll kill all the adults who took my freedom!!]
“Who exactly are those adults you’re talking about? You’ve messed this up.”
[The ones who trapped us!! The ones who obey them!! Simply all of this world!!]
“So you’re angry at anyone just because you don’t know.”
It wasn’t weakness that was the problem; it was wickedness.
That another, weaker self was certainly evil.
[I don’t care!! That doesn’t matter!! I’m just gonna kill!!]
“Then I guess I have to stop you.”
You’ve forgotten yourself, so you don’t know freedom.
If you don’t know form, you can’t grasp void.
‘Even if everything isn’t your fault, you’ve clearly chosen evil.’
A life worse than death, indeed.
In that case, let me put an end to it once more.
With righteous bad intentions of good, I will stop you.
“Rest easy. If you come crawling out again, I’ll hit you.”
Ichika struck down the being that only sowed chaos in this world like she did in Beijing long ago. As a senior who realized earlier than another self, she delivered a punch filled with the meaning of ‘freedom’ that her master wanted to reveal to them.
Green strikes
Blooming lotus flowers
“Hundred Steps Divine Fist. It’s what the Master was trying to teach ‘us.'”
[The Master…?]
“What if you forget the things you love most?”
[Love…it.]
The conversation between master and disciple exchanged in an old temple long ago.
-I’m just so happy to get stronger!
Because it means I can help more people.
Like a hero.
[It’s not about revenge…]
In a green-filled space, the pale girl cloaked in black starlight murmured.
[H-Hero…]
BOOM――!!
The magical girl of freedom, who had forgotten the meaning of freedom, vanished into thin air, leaving behind black fragments before the giant fist. The scattered black shards were absorbed into the embrace of Erebus, climbing the stairs far away.
“Find peace… you fool.”
May you meet the suspicious silver-haired fox-eyed girl in your next life.
May you live freely, helping people as you roam the streets in your next life.
May your life bloom just like a sunflower by the roadside.
May you live happily like I do.
“…Another me.”
Ichika prayed earnestly.
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