Chapter 13 : “Grandmother is Still Alive”

The cause of all the events in the original work boils down to ‘not knowing.’

They didn’t know that magical girls’ power could develop through their own dreams.

They didn’t know why magical girls existed.

So they coveted each other’s power through taking.

So they ruthlessly consumed girls in meaningless ways.

The social situation until the appearance of the first bloomed magical girl was quite a sight.

Just to gain starlight that could perform a few more basic magic spells, the alliance led by the Fujimoto Group sorted out girls who would become fertilizer and girls who would become their army.

After the blooming of the born 2-star [Protection] magical girl.

Girls like Ichika, who had talent even among born 2-stars, showed strong reactions to fate, so they achieved blooming in the process of fighting. But the atmosphere of society that already treated magical girls as a resource was already irreversible.

Magical girls conforming to the existing order.

They were worshipped as beautiful idols of broadcast programs.

As miracle girls who exerted healing abilities.

But behind the scenes, sacrifices of other magical girls were made for competition between companies to possess magical girls and for qualitative improvement.

It was truly a ‘war’.

* * *

“Oh, this is more comfortable than I thought?”

“It suits you, Ichika.”

Ichika’s bloomed magical girl outfit was a white sailor uniform so old-fashioned it reminded one of the Showa era.

A length that clearly revealed her sharply defined abs.

A large green ribbon at the neck.

The edges of the clothes were worn and tattered, giving a rough impression despite the feminine outfit.

Struggle

The two characters engraved on the green special attack uniform draped over Ichika’s shoulders seemed to flow with the spirit of fighting to win, like a tiger’s stripes.

Rustle

A ponytail roughly fluttering in the wind over the special attack uniform.

A confident smile and burning eyes.

Seeing that imposing figure, I could understand why the girls who had been test subjects followed Ichika as their leader. Of course, Ichika’s responsible personality must have played a part too.

“Wooow! The boss looks cool!”

“Invincible, I say!”

“We failed, but the boss succeeded right away.”

Unfortunately, except for Kyoko, the other 1-star magical girls couldn’t find clues to blooming even in the mental world. Even Kyoko woke up failing in the end, stuck in an ambiguous state of just about to grasp something.

“I-I took a really long time, but you succeeded so quickly!”

“Haha, thank you.”

In Haruko’s case, she was successful in blooming as she belonged to those who had forgotten the dream they already knew. Nevertheless, Ichika succeeded in finding clues to blooming faster than her.

Ichika, who was smiling confidently, rubbed her nose with a sniff.

“I didn’t expect a place I saw briefly when I was young to appear.”

In her 7th year of growing up in an orphanage.

On a field trip with everyone from the orphanage, she happened to see a punching machine.

Ichika said to the supervising care teacher,

-Teacher! Me! I want to try that!

-No. The other children are already on the bus, aren’t they?

That punching machine, gradually getting farther away outside the bus window as she looked back regretfully while holding the teacher’s hand.

It became the primal image of the concept of ‘freedom’ in Ichika’s unconscious. This time, she finally ran out of the bus and threw a punch at the punching machine.

As she threw her punch with all her might, green light burned from her fist and blooming occurred.

“Somehow, now that I’ve become like this, things that were vague seem to be becoming clearer?”

[Freedom] Magical Girl’s Unique Skill

Fighting Instinct

Woong-!

“Huh…?!”

“Ughk…”

“Eek?!”

As green energy enveloped Ichika’s entire body, the atmosphere of the apartment’s empty lot changed instantly.

Trees trembled and buildings vibrated, and every cell in the body began to warn that this was a battlefield. The energy that started to fluctuate expanded wider and wider, swallowing everything like a storm.

“Oops, just about this much.”

The range of the energy that seemed like it would expand endlessly hesitated for a moment, then shrank again, reducing to just enough to envelop me and Ichika.

Green glowing eyes.

“Shirogane, about what you said earlier.”

“Fujimoto? Or the stars?”

“No, the fighting part. I think I can show you if we spar once.”

Thud―

Ichika made a heavy sound as she brought her fists together and smiled.

A predatory smile with teeth bared.

A refreshing smile like a sunflower blooming on a summer day.

“Of course, don’t use other abilities, if you use that I’ll really die.”

“…I’ll go easy. But you should tell me if it looks like you’re going to get hurt, right?”

“I think you’ll slowly understand what the problem is.”

Pop!

Ichika, who had been muttering, disappeared from sight the moment she closed and opened her eyes.

‘Where?’

My body stiffened in surprise.

And killing intent.

I felt a chilling sensation like an icicle stabbing into the right side of my face and instinctively raised my arm to block.

Thwack!

A heavy fist landed with a sound like hitting a wall.

The power contained in that fist enveloped in green energy was bearable, but I was surprised by the suddenly started fight and used all my nerves to block it.

“Ugh?!”

“Wow, it’s really solid.”

Ichika, having confirmed that my nerves were focused, flexibly twisted her body and did a roundhouse kick.

Whoosh―

A rotation drawing a huge circle with the tip of her foot. The massive force approaching using centrifugal force like a shot put was relatively slow for the power contained.

This time, reacting appropriately, I spread a curtain to block its approaching path.

Thud!

The roundhouse kick dug in from a blind spot was blocked, but Ichika used the rotational force to twist her body once more and threw a punch in mid-air.

Whoosh

Thud!

Endless rotation and strikes accompanied by the sound of wind.

Her movements, alternating kicks and punches with her whole body, were like a single storm. The more I blocked the attacks that extended with heavy sounds while scattering green energy, the more it felt like entering into the storm.

Whoosh

Thud!

After several exchanges, this time, an attack came into view.

I grasped the path of the extending fist as if in slow motion and pulled my body back to avoid it.

Shik!

A sharp wind sound.

Because I avoided it through evasion rather than defense, Ichika’s balance was shaken.

Ichika failed to continue her consecutive attacks for the first time and faltered.

‘An opening!’

If I hit there, Ichika would be seriously hurt.

Flinch!

For a moment, I was caught by that thought and couldn’t aim for it.

“Heh.”

Ichika smiled as if she had expected this.

Her fist wrapped in green energy, which until just now had seemed to have no openings, cut through the wind and grew increasingly fierce.

A barrage like a storm that came again.

For a moment, I was seized by fear of completely losing the initiative in the flow and was busy spreading curtains to defend.

Only defense.

“Opening found!”

Ichika, who had jumped up to 2 meters high by kicking off my curtain that I was using to block in front of me like a Roman soldier, somersaulted in the air and brought her heel down on me.

Rumble!

Along with the sound of thunder, the kick filled with green energy came down like a spear shot with explosive momentum.

Clang!

I barely managed to raise the curtain into the air, but Ichika, who had come down with a leap, dug in low from below and extended her fist.

A fist.

The fist came right up to my eyes.

I prepared while watching the fist slowly approaching my face.

‘Too late!’

But the defense that came too late was useless, and I braced for the pain that would follow.

“Up to here… you.”

Ichika spoke quietly while relaxing the strength in her fist.

“You’ve never fought before, right? You don’t want to hurt your opponent but don’t know how hard to hit without hurting them. I can feel that you don’t know how much you can take without getting hurt yourself.”

“…”

It was spot on.

Ichika continued speaking with a ‘heh’ laugh.

“There’s something I can see since I bloomed; I can roughly feel how strong someone is and how to fight them?”

“I see.”

“From what I can see, you’re like a tiger fighting ants with just its tail, keeping its claws retracted for fear of hurting them.”

That was exactly right.

If it was a case of using only large-scale illusion magic, I had confidence thanks to two years of practice, but I had no opportunity to train for minor skirmishes suitable for the recent escape.

‘I don’t want to hurt anyone.’

This mindset became a brake, preventing me from fully utilizing my specs.

At the same time, I had the reassurance that I was a 3-star magical girl who wouldn’t get hurt easily under normal circumstances.

These created large shackles in a corner of my mind, blocking the direction to actively extend offensives while only taking hits.

‘It’s really contradictory to prepare for an apocalypse of killing and being killed while disliking hurting others.’

Ichika said with a confident smile.

“I’ll teach you. How to hit without hurting and how to get hit without pain.”

“…Thank you, Ichika.”

“It’s nothing. It’s natural to do this as a leader.”

“…I’m not the leader.”

Perhaps this weakness of mine, which might have turned into a fatal mistake if left alone, can be seen as fortunate that I was able to complement it by rescuing Ichika.

“Thank you.”

“The debt of gratitude to the leader who saved us can’t be repaid even with this much.”

“I’m telling you, I never said I was the leader.”

We devoted ourselves to training for several hours, exchanging blows without realizing how time passed.

“Ouch!”

Finally tired, Ichika plopped down cross-legged on the floor of the apartment’s empty lot and made a weak sound.

She had spared no advice on techniques while exchanging blows for hours.

“You’re so good after just a little teaching, why were you so timid before?”

“There was no one to tell me where to hit to make someone faint and how to subdue them.”

The area around the empty lot where Ichika and I had been making noise for hours was full of small craters created by attacks that failed in power control or went astray.

The marvelous physical specs of a 3-star magical girl.

Using those, I learned techniques at a rapid pace according to the demonstrations Ichika showed through words and actions, as if using a skill book in a game.

‘How many people’s heads would have burst if this had been real combat.’

Nevertheless, unable to control the power bursting from these formidable physical abilities, they created craters with sounds like balloons popping, like bullets that failed in zeroing.

Fortunately, because Ichika is the toughest fighting type among the born 2-star magical girls mentioned in the original work, she was able to receive such attacks with ease and engage in training.

‘It’s fortunate I didn’t let any stray onto the walls or apartment.’

A paper wolf handed Ichika a cup of instant noodles with the sunset at its back.

“Oh, thank you.”

“It’s already dinner time, huh.”

By the time Ichika and I had fought for a long while, the sun was about to set.

For the 11 girls excluding me and Ichika, it was difficult to eat in the cramped room, so they were sitting in a circle in the corner of the apartment’s empty lot, having their meal.

The wolf, which had somehow brought hot water, handed me a cup of instant noodles too.

“Thank you.”

I accepted the cup noodles and glanced at Haruko.

Haruko was in the middle of a long conversation with someone who liked manga among the magical girls.

While talking, she was writing with a feather pen in her right hand, giving small errands to the paper wolf and having the paper sheep and pig patrol the surroundings.

Thanks to such distributed actions, Ichika and I were able to fight without worrying about sound leaking outside the illusion curtain surrounding the apartment.

“…”

I had lived thinking that I could survive the apocalypse sufficiently on my own.

But when I actually thought about it, it seemed like I had always been living relying on and receiving help from someone since two years ago until now.

“Munch munch, but Shirogane.”

“Don’t talk while eating, Ichika.”

“Munch munch, when are we going to do that Odaiba broadcasting station thing?”

“Hmm, I think it would be good to aim for a live broadcast with as much attention as possible.”

“I-I heard that th-they’re going to gather magical girls for a t-talk show soon!”

I looked at Haruko in surprise at that sudden remark.

“A talk show?”

“Yes… a f-famous idol planning company s-specially formed a magical girl group, they say.”

“…”

Well, a magical girl without blooming is just an ordinary person who can use strange abilities.

It’s understandable to treat them as just somewhat unusual girls.

But every time I saw such modest treatment of magical girls in a world from a work where magical girls act as a huge force moving a perishing society, I couldn’t get used to it.

‘This too is probably happening because they don’t know what the power of magical girls means.’

Therefore, to change the perception of this world heading towards the apocalypse due to ignorance, the only way is to forcibly make magical girls bloom by connecting the fates of the stars and show them.

Gravity of fate.

If one were to point out the difference between born 1-star and 2-star, it would be the presence or absence of the gravity of fate.

If girls themselves are already aware of dreams close to fate, they have the qualities of a 2-star magical girl.

Even born 1-star girls can gain great power if they bloom after effort, but it’s incomparable to the big star of fate that born 2-star girls possess.

Fate.

Dreams that walk together with some concept connected to the world exert a strong force that attracts each other, changes, and evolves.

‘The power given to 100 girls who live as if embodying their own epithets.’

Thanks to the blooming of the born 2-star [Protection] and the full-scale participation of 2-star magical girls in the war, the direction of fate moved towards the apocalypse.

If we use the power of 3-star, which is said to contain the power to move the world, to apply a different direction of gravity to 2-star girls.

If we see the appearance of girls’ blooming born before the war, even ordinary people’s perceptions will change.

We need to give clues to awaken dreams to as many 2-star girls as possible, attracting their attention.

And the name of this operation is.

“We’re going to execute Operation Odaiba Magic Show.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Everyone who had been continuing their harmonious meal while I was thinking fell silent.

“Wow, that’s lame.”