Chapter 100: Complete – The Sky of the Crescent Moon (3)
by AfuhfuihgsSeen from afar, it’s a comedy; observed up close, a nightmare.
Madness that twists all things in the universe.
Finally, the last moment arrived.
Ianna, her eyes open.
There was no one around her.
Only an endlessly stretching green meadow and a sky so high its limits couldn’t be gauged.
And.
“…Why, the tears?”
Clear, transparent tears streamed down Ianna’s cheeks.
Ianna couldn’t understand the reason.
But for some reason.
Her heart felt full.
“Where, am I?”
An incomprehensible place.
No end in sight.
No matter how far she went, only meadows stretched out.
And.
“…You are?”
Familiar faces began to appear one by one.
“Janwol, what are you doing here?”
“…Just.”
“There’s something you have to do.”
“Something I have to do?”
The woman with fluttering golden hair said so and then disappeared.
Ianna hesitated and then chased after her, but soon, there was no one.
A truly bizarre thing.
Ianna thought so and continued walking forward.
“…Ianna.”
“Who…?”
“Let’s do what we have to do.”
What she had to do, she said.
Ianna doesn’t know such things.
Because she’s just a girl.
An ordinary girl found anywhere.
And.
Someone appeared before Ianna’s eyes.
A slender woman with fluttering black hair.
“M-Mom…?”
Ianna stood there with an expression of disbelief.
And blankly, she looked at her mother.
Ianna’s mother, wearing a sad expression, slowly approached.
And extended both arms to Ianna.
Ianna, half in fear and half in longing, squeezed her eyes shut and accepted her mother’s touch.
Something her mother always, always did.
Ianna took a breath, then shivered.
However.
“…Mom?”
It was strange.
Because Ianna’s mother’s hand went to Ianna’s forehead, not her neck.
Ianna, who had braced herself to be strangled, was left looking foolish.
“…….”
Ianna’s mother said nothing.
She only gently stroked Ianna’s forehead.
And.
Ianna, without realizing it, tried to hug her mother.
“Mom… Mom……?”
Ianna’s mother disappeared in an instant.
“Wh-Where did you go… Mom……?”
Ianna was extremely bewildered.
She had finally achieved the dream she had longed for.
To think it would turn to dust right before her very eyes.
It was too futile, too sad.
Ianna, collapsing to the ground, waited for a long time.
Hoping, perhaps, her mother would return.
But such a thing did not happen.
Ianna began to wander precariously.
Hoping, perhaps, she could find her mother.
But even as the sun began to set, there was no trace of her mother.
Ianna, her body battered and bruised, collapsed to the ground once more.
A raging wave.
Ianna’s insides churned like a raging wave.
And it was complicated.
Why was she here?
Why had her mother abandoned her?
Two thoughts swirled in Ianna’s mind.
And Ianna ended up lying down in the middle of the meadow.
A sky filled with countless stars.
‘Huh…?’
For some reason, the sky that remained in Ianna’s memory.
The sea of stars and the high-risen full moon.
Made Ianna think of something.
‘……Why?’
It was a little strange.
Surely, it should have been a scene she was seeing for the first time.
Why… was it so familiar.
“Anna.”
At that moment, a somewhat familiar voice reached her.
She didn’t know the reason, but it was a voice incredibly longed for, familiar, and heart-stirring.
Ianna slowly turned her head and looked in the direction the voice came from.
And.
Her eyes met with a girl with long black hair, wearing simple undergarments.
‘…Alluring.’
To Ianna, the girl’s face felt incredibly alluring.
The girl, seeing Ianna’s reaction, smiled with an amused look in her eyes, then plopped down beside Ianna.
“There are so many stars.”
“…Yes.”
Ianna listened to the girl’s words and nodded.
Because it was a sky where the countless stars adorning it were incredibly impressive.
“…But, who are you?”
“You don’t remember me? I’m hurt.”
“Mmm…….”
Why was she acting like she knew her like this?
It was a mystery to Ianna, but she couldn’t find the reason.
For some reason.
Really.
She couldn’t understand why.
“Hey, you know, do you remember what you said?”
“What I… said?”
“You asked for a favor, didn’t you? I couldn’t achieve it magnificently, but still… I achieved it in a different way…… Will you praise me?”
“Huh?”
An incomprehensible story.
Ianna scratched her head.
“Fufu… you don’t remember. I see.”
“What… are you talking about?”
“I didn’t know this would work. I couldn’t even imagine it…… But still, I did it. I think I did it… Tell me… I did it.”
“U-Uh…….”
For some reason, the girl showed a sad smile.
Ianna truly, truly couldn’t understand.
“…Are you crying?”
Ianna, having confirmed tears welling in the girl’s eyes.
Slowly reached out her hand and wiped the girl’s tears.
“Crying… doesn’t look good… Uh, I’m not saying your face is like that… just…….”
“…Yes.”
The girl nodded.
“Hey, Anna, do you have a dream?”
“A dream?”
“Yes. A dream.”
Ianna thought seriously.
A dream, she says.
Something like that, not really…….
“Living with Mom.”
“…Not something like that.”
What did it mean?
Ianna tilted her head and asked again.
“Something you want to become.”
“Something I… want to become?”
“Yes. Something Anna wants to become. A goal.”
‘Something I want to become, she says…….’
Ianna didn’t particularly have anything she wanted to become.
She wanted to live ordinarily, normally, extremely normally, an everyday life.
A peaceful face.
While looking at people’s peaceful faces.
“Uh…?”
Suddenly.
Something began to come to mind.
Though very subtle, and very fragmented, for some reason, she thought it was incredibly important to her.
“I…….”
Ianna closed her eyes and thought, but she couldn’t reach a conclusion with just fragmented memories.
The girl looked at Ianna like that and smiled bitterly.
“The thing you wanted to do.”
“The thing I… wanted to do?”
“What did you want to do?”
“Th-That is…….”
Something she wanted to do, she says.
Just, normally… looking at smiling faces.
‘Whose smiling face?’
People.
Why did I think of this?
Ianna still couldn’t understand.
“I…….”
Smiling faces, and everyday life with people.
Ianna.
“I.”
These things.
“I wanted to protect them.”
At that moment.
“Yes.”
The girl smiled broadly, and her body began to gradually disappear.
“You, you are….”
“It’s been long, Ianna.”
“Wait, just a moment!!!”
“I’ll return it. For everything until now… thank you.”
“Thank you for what… Hey, you, wait… just wait a moment……!”
Ianna, having remembered everything, urgently embraced the girl’s body.
And.
“Ugh, eughp?”
She pressed her lips against hers.
“A kiss… that’s not… how you do it…….”
“No, it is. You fool….”
Many words weren’t needed between the two.
For the time they had spent together was very long.
“Now, Ianna.”
“…You.”
“Do what you want to do. It’s not about duty or responsibility. Do what you want.”
What Ianna wants.
“Everyone…….”
To protect.
Ianna silently stood up from her spot.
Then, she clenched her fists tightly.
“…Hey.”
“Yes.”
“Will there be a next time?”
Next time.
Ianna knew exactly what the word ‘next time’ meant.
Death.
And thereafter.
“…I.”
“No, don’t say it. I think it would be more fun not to know.”
No.
It wasn’t fun at all.
Though Ianna couldn’t know, the girl was forcing herself to act cheerful so that Ianna wouldn’t worry.
She already knew that her own life was on the line.
Perhaps, it might have already ended.
The girl was just.
Doing what she had to do last.
To keep a promise.
“I definitely kept it, I did.”
“…Yes.”
“Then.”
A starlit sky, faintly spread across the night.
And.
Now.
The single brightest star revealed itself.
Ianna sobbed silently.
But soon, she composed herself.
And then.
“……What I have to do.”
She became the ‘Janwol’ Magical Girl.
***
Time does not stop.
Instead, it cannot be turned back, but it can be defied.
Ianna’s madness, condensed over decades.
Defied time.
“W-We won, Janwol!”
“Janwol… finally…….”
Magical girls flocked to Ianna’s side, cheering.
“…Hmph, what have you all been doing to cling to Lady Janwol like that?”
“It feels bad.”
Heosang, the magical girl, and Byeolmu-ri, the magical girl, wiped their sweat and greeted Ianna.
Ianna silently looked up at the sky.
Then, she meticulously checked the countless shining stars one by one.
“…Janwol, are you crying?”
Tears, reflecting the starlight, fell towards the ground.
And the waning moon of dawn, Janwol, shone brighter than anything.
END
0 Comments